Mark Deliduka

These four I just got done with two days ago; two helicopters and two gliders from WWII D-Day invasion. First is the USAAF Waco glider by Italeri: Next is the British Horsa Glider by Italeri: Next are the two helicopters, starting with this Italian Chinook by Revell: Finally the last one is the Israeli CH-53 by Italeri: And that's all for now. We;ll see what next month brings. Meanwhile, thanks for looking in, comments are welcome!

Finally after a long hard fight I managed to complete this Vespid Models Buffalo A2 MPCV which stands for "Mine Protected Clearance Vehicle". It is not complete as at least a third of the parts for the robot arm are missing due to breakage and just general flipping into Oblivion. I got to built with the remaining parts and it is done! I made this one a Marine Corps Vehicle: Now I can breathe again and work on something a bit less annoying and frustrating! Thank you all for looking in, comments are welcome.

Brilliant job! So smooth and clean!

That is very impressive and very clean! Way to go!

Despite the issues, you are doing a tremendous job on this MiniAaaargh kit! Nice work on the tracks and the engine almost looks good enough to drop some fuel in it and fire it up. Keep it going, it looks like you've got this now.

Another brilliant masterpiece from you Gil! I love for logging in here to see your latest models! They are always such amazing works of art!

Good advice. You got this man!

Excellent news. I do hope someone with more experience with MiniArt kits comes on to help you.

Charles while I haven't built this or any other Miniart kit, I understand your frustration. I've watched many a modeler on other Forums tackle Miniart kits and they are challenging. One guy even refers to the company as "MiniAaaargh" because of it. One peroson dealth with that issue by only adding the cleats to track links that could be seen. The ones under side skirts and running under the roadwheels he left off. I know it's not much but I hope this helps in some small way.

Thanks to a few days of productivity, I managed to get a few models done for my armor collection. Unfortunately, some of these pics didn't turn out the best: my new camera lost the auto-focus function so I have to make do the best I can in getting things into focus. First is the Vespid Models German KF-51 Panther, the newest tank in the German Army. And now one of my newest tanks as well: Next is the Italeri Italian Ab-40 Autoblinda modified for railroad use: Next up, my Meng M2A3 Bradley with the BUSK III upgrade: Next is an ICM Russian ZiL 131 truck with a DShK machine gun mounted in the bed: Again apologies for the bad pic. This was the best of the ten or so attempts I made, yet this shot is better for some reason: Another ten or so attempts later and this is the best one of the bunch: Finally there is the ICM trailer that was described as being used for a mobile office, ambulance trailer, portable workshop, command trailer etc: Yes it looks like the roof is loose. It is. This is why the roof is loose, so I could show off this. I chose to make this a portable workshop by adding some resin factory equipment inide: And now we can show the truck and trailer together, even though they weren't necessarily paired like this. Still, it looks good! ' That's all for now. Maybe I'll get some other armor done this month but we'll see. For now, my apologies again for the pic quality; comments are welcome! Thanks for looking in!

Today marks the culmination of another week of solid building, thus there's enough here for a new tour. So without further ado, anyone wishing to join this latest tour, feel free to board the trams and get ready for another exciting tour of the facilities. I must apologize for the quality of some of these pics; the auto-focus went out on my new camera and so I've been having to do things manually with not so successful results. I am using the best photos I was able to take. As always, we start in the Hangar. Work has picked up a bit in here. In the first bay here we have a new kit I recently acquired from Brookhurst Hobby's collections tables at the back of the store. This is a little Australian Navy helicopter they've dubbed the "Squirrel". It's from Mach 2 so it's a very crude and difficult model to do. After some fighting, we got to this stage: Naturally right after this, the tail rotor and one of the tail stabilizers went walkabout, making this impossible to finish unless and until these parts are found or suitable replacements installed Later, despite the missing parts and to try to make it look better, it got it's base coat of grey. : Moving on to the next bay we have the Iraqi Eurocopter finally assembled: Later it got a base coat of paint but that will be shown later. In the next bay is a kit I got from the Distressed Kit Auction that was mostly started. So, I assembled the main fuselage and painted it, later adding things like the canopy, engines and other detail parts. Then I built up the main rotor to get this: Later the rest of the helicopter was painted: In the next bay, the F-86 that had been languishing was finally painted in a camouflage pattern I chose because I hadn't ever built an Italian Sabre. Here it is all painted up: Later this got landing gear and I'm planning on giving this one sidewinders too. In the next bay, we have the C-46 that I'd gotten from a friend who'd purchased it painted and mostly unassembled from a thrift store. After some finagling and interior painting, this was finally assembled. Putty was then applied in places where gaps, steps and seams appeared. Given this is a Williams Brother's kit, there were a few... In the next bay, my British Horsa glider got it's full paint work done: Now to get decals and landing gear on this and some more detail painting done and it'll be finished, Speaking of gliders, we have the US Army Waco glider also sporting it's complete paint work. This one will also just need landing gear and decals for completion: That completes the tour of the Hangar, now on to the Shipyards.... In the Shipyards, only one model got attention, the USS Enterprise which had been languishing for three years while I searched for the assembled missing island to no avail. It had been sitting like this for all that time: Finally I got fed up with the fruitless search and purchased a new kit of the same model: Using that I was able to finally build and complete a full replacement for the island that is still missing: Finally I can move forward on this model. Detail parts and some touchup painting are all that's needed besides the air wing (all of which I'm also taking from the new model) and this beastie will finally be done: Moving on to the Motor Pool, things have been active here. In the first bay is the German KF-51 Panther that got the camouflage pattern on it: Yes I went with the standard Bundeswehr pattern, it fits my German army more perfectly, and I hate the look of that digital camouflage so this was my choice. All that's needed are decals and weathering and it'll be done. In the next bay, the US Army Buffalo got the full basecoat on it, although additional detail parts are needed on it: They went on later. In the next bay, the M2A3 Bradley got the interior finished: Later I'll add some Value Gear inside, once I find the container that has all of it. This then got all the basecoat on it, ready for final completion: Next I worked on a couple simple models I got from Brookhurst during our SoCal AMPS Build Night. The first one in this bay is the ICM Russian gun truck. It was so fast and easy, I got all the way to this point before I finally took some pics: The other fast and easy ICM kit was the cabin trailer that the instructions said could be an ambulance, repair shop or command post: I decided to go with a repair shop since I didn't have any of those, so I added some factory furniture I got a decade ago: Later that got painted. This also means I won't be cementing down the roof so this detail can be seen. And that concludes this tour of Maddog Manufacturing, thank you all who stopped in to tour and comment. Comments are always welcome.

Oh that's beautiful Gil! Way to go!

Thank you JeanMarc. LOL! I don't need to start a C-47; I have one hanging on my ceiling already waiting for them. Stay tuned, another tour coming soon.

After a few productive days, my Shipyards were able to launch ten new ships for my navies. The first four are from a box set of four ships in one kit from Airfix, all in 1/600 scale. These are crude by today's standards but I did the best I could with them. After all, the three British destroyers were the only ones of those type that were available back then. First up is the HMS Cossack, the largest of the three British destroyers. I had lost one of the anchors so I left them off until I can find some suitable replacements: The second ship is the HMS Hotspur, one I knew very little about until I looked it up, Yes, the B turret gun is broken here, I saw it too late, but fixed it afterward: The last British destroyer is the HMS Cambletown, one I had never expected to have in my Navy since no one had ever kitted one in either 1/700 or 1/600, but here it is. This is another 'Holy Grail" kit I've wanted for many years, even one as crude as this one: This last Airfix ship is the German Narvik-class destroyer. The instructions claim it is the Z-28, but based on the next four German destroyers I built; it is more of a hybrid with features from different makes of Z-class destroyers Here it is built anyway: Now for some actual versions of German Z-class destroyers, these are in 1/700 scale. Three are form Trumpeter, the fourth is Dragon. First is the German Z-7, one of the earlier makes of this ship: Next is the German Z-28; the actual Z-28: Followed by the German Z-31. This one is the Dragon kit: The last one is the German Z-43, one of the latest marks of this ship: Finally we get to the USS Springfield, a light missile cruiser by Revell in 1/500 scale: The final ship we launched is a Japanese assault carrier I got in a Distressed kit Auction. It had no box; everything was in ziplock bags so I decided to build it before major pieces got lost. This is the 1/700 scale JMSDF Assault carrier Shimokita: And that completes this news bulletin from the shipyards, thanks all for watching the parade of ships heading out to their shakedown cruises. Comments are always welcome. By the way, completing these ten ships allowed me to break another milestone: I now have reached the grand total number of 1905 completed models of all genres and categories. Not that anyone's counting that is.......

Oh that fits perfectly! Way to go Gil!