Mark Deliduka

Welcome John! Glad to have you join us here. Feel free to show us some of your work. We'd all love to hear about your local chapter as well. Thanks for the introduction, enjoy your stay here.

Now for Part II showing the work I got done on my armor. I'll start with the little A7V that my friend had sent me. I shot the grey basecoat on this first: Later on, I tried to freehand the OD splotches on the sides and top. The OD was too thin and ran too much though. First one side: ...and the other side: Next I started to apply the photo-etch to one of the Russian armored train engines and tender: Believe me, that is only one-third of the total photo-etch that is supposed to go on this part of the train! Oh, and for those that remembered that this train had the happy face drawn on the front; it is behind that P/E plate on the front of the engine. No paint bleed-through here.... After this, I needed a break so I painted the details inside the SCUD cabins that had it: Later on I shot some grey primer on the two missiles themselves to see how the seams worked out. They didn't...... I added some more Mr. Surfacer 500 to the seams and will try to carefully sand them smooth without removing too much of the excellent detail on those missiles. I also added the clear film to all the windows on the cabins of the two SCUDs and will soon be painting them. Moving on from there, I added the decals to the M-103: I went with the markings for the 24th Infantry Division according to the instruction sheet. This only needs dullcoat, weathering and the two antennas and machine gun on top to be done. Speaking of almost done, I also made excellent progress on my M1A2 Abrams SEP TUSK II. I assembled the tracks, painted them and weathered them: These looked great on the model: Then, while talking long distance to a friend in Miami, I added all the tiny clear parts to the TUSK kit and the periscopes on the hatches before I started to add everything to the turret. Here's the first of the TUSK kit to be installed along with several other detail pieces: After finishing the rest of the turret assembly, I added the side skirts to the main hull: Finally, I got the whole thing assembled! All that this needs now is a dullcoat and weathering: Now for those who are interested, the last two tanks have been completed and are going to be posted in the Armored Forums as my 678th and 679th completed small scale vehicles. Feel free to go check them out over there. That's all I have for now. I may get a little more done tomorrow before my IPMS meeting but I don't expect to be posting anything tomorrow. Maybe next week I'll have something to post, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

Wow Tracy, your good girl looks just like mine! I also have a black and white cat that sometimes wants to come in. He looks around a lot but doesn't try to get into anything when he's in there. I just can't have both cats in the Hobby Room at the same time since my cat Misty can't stand my black and white cat. She's always growling at him when he gets close. I'm fortunate in that both cats are respectful in my Hobby Room and don't climb on the bench or go after any of my models.

Okay, after a nice relaxing week filled with model building, I finally have something to show for it. I'll start with my aircraft and real space. At Hobby Day in November, I was given a box of approximately 30 1/72 scale plastic model WWI aircraft kits that came from the estate of a gentleman that had passed away the previous week. He had planned on building all of them and using them in a large game called Canvas Eagles. I approached my friend Harmon with these since I didn't want all of them, offering to donate them to our Hobby Club, the St. Crispin's Irregulars, of which Harmon is the founder. Note: the St. Crispin's Irregulars is different than IPMS; this is a more informal group that does both tabletop gaming and model building. Harmon and I decided to distribute these aircraft free to anyone who wanted to build one; with the stipulation that they use the aircraft they build in the game of Canvas Eagles that we will be hosting when almost everyone is done. Okay, here are two of my aircraft that I'm building for the Canvas Eagles game, a Revell Fokker E.III: ...and a Roden Nieuport 11: I did get a little further along on these but forgot to take pics. Moving on, I went to work on my Space Shuttle, adding the clear parts for the main windscreen: Later on when they were dry, I masked them using Hobbico Liquid Mask: Afterward, when the mask was dry, I shot a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1000 from a spray can over the areas where this is going to be white. I figured that would give me a better chance of having a complete and consistent white coat: You can't really tell in that pic, but there is a light grey Mr. Surfacer on that model. While I was at it, I shot a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1000 on the booster rocket parts that are supposed to be white as well. You can also see in this pic the Aurora Jet Commando aircraft that had been giving me all this trouble. Since I had a hard time getting a consistent white coat on this too, I shot it with the Shuttle boosters: The grey Mr. Surfacer is a little easier to see in this pic. Moving along, it was time to get the C-46 completed; or at least as close to completed as I can get it. I added the landing gear and the landing gear doors to the underside of this. Here she is standing on her wheels for the first time: You can see I also removed the masking on some of the windows. Good news: I found the fourth part I needed to make the three-bladed propellers for this plane, so I assembled them. Now this model can be a bit more accurate: Now it was time to paint the windscreen. The model had come with a set of Eduard masks for this aircraft when I bought it, so I decided to try these out. This is the first time I've used Eduard Masks for canopies/windscreens ever. The first side seemed to go on okay: The other side needed to be trimmed since it was all different sizes. I was following the diagram on the instruction sheet too, but these were poorly cut: Anyway, long story short to keep from boring you; I trimmed the masks, applied the rest of them, trimming where needed and then shot a coat of OD on the canopy/windscreen of this model. That's when I saw the seam lines where the clear parts had been glued to the fuselage halves. So, I started to sand these seams away to smooth this plane out. Here's a pic showing the start of the sanding after I completed the masking and shot the paint: I don't know why the plane looks so brown in this pic. The rest of them look more accurate. Finally, I got it all sanded smooth. Before I shot another coat of OD again, I painted the landing gear and the landing gear doors underneath this plane so I could minimize the handling again after I shot the final OD on the canopy frames: Now I shot a final OD green on the canopy frames. It is still wet in this pic: Now if this dries right, I'll be able to remove all the masking on the side windows and canopy and declare this thing done. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a completed C-46! Now see Part II for the latest progress on my armor....

Beautiful work Tracy! Well done!

Thanks Bob! The SCUDs are from a new company called Toxso Models, they only recently came on the scene with these. They are excellent models with some ingenious joins to eliminate seams and few ejector pin marks. The detail is phenomenal in this scale too. I actually got my SCUDs from Military Hobbies here in SoCal. I'm sure there's a number of online shops that have these. As for the shuttle, the doors do close and open right now so I'm still considering options. Part of me feels like adding the payloads inside and allowing the doors to be opened to see them packed inside waiting for launch. I'm also considering building the payloads and displaying them around the base to show what this carried. As for the base, right now I'm going to use the stand that came with this; no launch pad as of yet. I already have it finished so that I can stand this thing up when I need to to allow it to dry. It seems to be the easiest option at this point; but if someone ever comes out with a launch tower for this; it'll certainly go on that! Thanks again for the interest and comments.

Thanks Gil! Most of the time I keep track of everything as much as I can so that I can have a number of models that I want to paint the same color ready for paint at the same time. Then all I have to do is find a day to fire up the compressor and start shooting.

Continued from previous post... Now on to the Maddog Manufacturing Vehicle assembly line... To start out this part of the tour, we'll look at my M1A1 Abrams SEP TUSK that finally has a basecoat of sand color on it: It's actually the wrong kind of sand color. Instead of a US Army Desert Storm sand color, I ended up getting a British Desert Stone color that was in the wrong place! Oh well, I wasn't going to drive all the way back down there to change out one bottle of paint! With the right weathering and other effects, I think I'll be able to change this sufficiently. I started with a brown wash, followed by a black wash over the grills and grates on the engine deck. It is really hard to see the brown on the tank in this pic, except in certain places: I didn't do anything on the SCUDs yet as I was going to research more of their interior for painting purposes. I'll get to them hopefully at Hobby Day. Meanwhile, I started a one model and fixed up another one that someone else had sent me from another Forums. The fixer-upper was a German WWI A7V tank that was leaning to one side and the builder didn't want it anymore. So I traded him for it and when it arrived, I took it partially apart and re-sat the tracks so it would sit level now: This one already has a base coat of dark grey on it; I just didn't get pics of it yet. Finally, I started this new model I recently got and boy was this a quick one! This is the Dragon 1/72 scale M-103 heavy tank. I started assembling the Hull: Then I was going to add the fenders, but decided to wait. Still, here they are next to this tank: Next, I assembled the turret: Then I assembled the track runs; they came in two halves that I put together: All of this and the track assembly took all of ten minutes: After working on some other models for an hour or so, I came back to this and sanded the joins down to smooth everything out and then add all the fenders and fiddly bits: That was another fifteen minutes or so, mostly because of the weird way the headlight guard braces had to be assembled. An hour or so later, after doing more on other models and then firing up the airbrush; I came back and shot a basecoat of Olive Drab in this, which took all of three minutes: Later I shot a gloss clearcoat over this when the OD dried and then gave it a black wash over all the engine deck details and select other places; another five minutes worth of work: All in all, this model took about an hour of actual work time to get to this point! I love it! It is a funky looking tank. The turret appears to me as if someone had gone up to the gun muzzle of an M--48 and blew real hard to make the turret puff out like that! And that brings us all up to the present with what's happening at Maddog Manufacturing this week. Tomorrow is Hobby Day and I'm hoping to get more done this Hobby Day weekend on some of these projects while also starting a couple WWI planes for a Canvas Eagles game that we are planning in the future. Stay tuned for more and thanks for looking in. Comments are always welcome.

Thanks Ed! That means a lot to me hearing you say that. I do have about another seven or eight models that are not on this list; mostly because I cannot see myself actually finishing them in the foreseeable future. That may change as more of these get done. The ones I posted above are the ones I expect to mostly get finished this year, barring unforeseen circumstances. I do know how you feel about starting new kits that are on your bucket list. I did that this week myself. Check it out below... Now here is what I got done at Maddog Manufacturing over the last few days of rain that came through Southern California here. We'll start our tour at the Aircraft Hanger where my aircraft are being built... I applied the decals to my C-46 and then when they were dry, I shot another clearcoat over them to seal them in as they were threatening to crack and shatter. Once that was done, I masked and painted the de-icing boots on the wing: Next, it was time to assemble the propellers. And I mean, assemble the propellers! They gave two types of hubs and propeller blades that you had to assemble: You can see the three-bladed hub parts (with one part missing) on the upper left of the pic. The upper right of the pic shows the four-bladed propeller hub pieces. Now, my version was supposed to have three bladed props, but due to one vital part being absent as seen above; I had to opt for the four bladed propellers: So, as far as I'm concerned, this aircraft was retrofitted with the new propellers but never got re-painted due to being on some remote airfield somewhere in..... a remote area. Here are the two propellers fully assembled and sitting in the black-painted engines: Later on, I dry-brushed Steel on the engines and painted the hubs dark grey: Here's the engines and propellers all painted up and sitting together. Later, I added the engines to the cowl/nacelle assemblies: Finally, here's a shot of the aircraft with the propellers and engine nacelles dry-fit on the wings: All that's left for this is to remove the window masking, cement the engines into place, add the landing gear and gear doors and other fiddly bits. Then I can touch up the details and this bird will be done! Meanwhile, I finally closed that awesome interior up inside the two fuselage halves of the Be-6 Madge: Man that went together so well! So very few seam issues anywhere. Hopefully the same will hold when it's time to add the wings to this. Speaking of the wings; I finished them off and also finished the tail for this bird: I had already finished the outrigger floats for this as well. Just for fun, I decided to mock up this aircraft to see how it's going to look: Yeah, she's going to be a fun bird to finish! Once again, I also had pulled my Jet commando out to seal it after finally having a white coat I was happy with and the stupid thing just fell off the paint stand onto the floor and broke one of the tail surfaces off again. In the process of fixing it; I messed up the paint again.... Back to the drawing board..... No pics of that Epic Fail; one posted in two weeks is enough! Moving on, it's time to tour the Shipyards as they've been quite active this week. To start out with; the USS New York got a coat of grey paint on her.... not that you can really tell from looking at grey paint on a grey-plastic-molded model: Meanwhile, three other slips laid the keels to some additional ships for my US Navy that may just be available to escort the USS New York on her maiden voyage. In Slip Two, we have the USS Forrest Sherman; an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. I started out with the main superstructure and bridge tower: You can see the first of a ton of photo-etch that is included in this model. This will be a tremendous challenge to me to finish because of it: Here is the progress I got done on the Forrest Sherman so far: The other two ships will be a bit easier to complete. In Slip Three, is the USS Ingraham, a 'stretched' Perry-class frigate: And the last one is a Spruance-class destroyer christened the USS Arthur Radford sporting an experimental enclosed mast amidships: As I recall, the experiment was not deemed a success; the enclosed mast made the ship too top heavy and she tended to roll heavily in moderate seas. Still, it is an interesting looking vessel. I've had it in my stash for a very long time, I figured it was time to start it. This one and the Ingraham will be waterline models; the Forrest Sherman will most likely be full-hulled. Now to continue this in Part III since I have more pics than this Forums allows me to put in one post. Continued in next post....

Well, it's now 2016 and time to do a recap of last year's unfinished models as well as the new projects I got started on this year. Here are the models I still had on the bench at the end of last year that didn't get finished. I'll start out with the Ships and Boats I was working on all last year. First up is this Airfix Rescue Launch in 1/72 scale that I started and only just recently got something airbrushed on it: I had also started an old Lindbergh President's Liner that took a ton of tape to assemble correctly: And of course, I also started the USS New York: In Autos, I had two cars going: a Monkeemobile and a Volkswagen bus: Now on to my aircraft, I have a small Czech Plane still waiting for decals: I also have my Columbus Raffle Prize Airfix Mustang also still waiting for decals: Then there is this F/A-18 that refuses to go together: I'll have to close that campaign out without the ribbon; the tail piece broke off again and disappeared. I don't believe I'll find it in time or get it fixed and finished in time before the Deja-Vu Second Chance runs out. Next I started a review kit for another Forums, the Revell Stearman: Although it is not a plane per se, I did start this Space Shuttle with Boosters which is getting closer to the painting stage: And finally, here is the C-46 I've been slowly plugging along on: ...as well as my Columbus gift, the Be-6 Madge: In addition to all those, I'm still fighting this Aurora Jet Commando: It was finally all perfectly white and ready for a clearcoat to seal it in when it fell and broke the tail again! Now it is a dirty mess that needs to once again be painted! Finally, here is an F-35 I started some time back and have yet to get back to it: Time to remedy that situation and get this on the shelf. When it comes to my armor, I haven't too much left to do. First off there's this little IBG Chevy CWT truck I found again after I'd started it some months back then put it away: However, most of the work I still have to do is on these two Russian Armored Trains: Meanwhile, I also have this Abrams TUSK in progress that is approaching the finish line: And along with that, I am still working on these two SCUDS: That is the run down of what was left on my workbench at the end of 2015. Now to show you the progress I made on some of these kits; as well as show you some of the new models I started for this year.

Welcome Tracy from another Southern California modeler. I'm in IPMS Orange County. Hopefully I'll see you at the next Orangecon and AVG Desert Classic! I had to miss the last Desert Classic due to not having a ride. Hopefully that changes this year. See you around the Forums.

What a magnificent masterpiece that was well worth the wait! You truly started 2016 with the best! Way to go Joe!

Thanks Bob! This is more like a ten-footer, but yeah, eventually as I find or replace the parts, it'll get to four-footer status. I'm calling this one an ugly mission-kill, as I at least met the challenge. Thanks again for the support!

LOL! Thanks Comrade! LOL! With all these models of Soviet vehicles being worked on, I guess I do qualify for that title! Stay tuned for my new "Maddog Manufacturing 2016" Thread coming to a Forums near you in the next few days!

Thanks Gil. Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, this is done. I will be letting it sit on the shelf, mostly because I don't have the pieces to complete it! I have accepted the Challenge issued by someone in my club and it is NOT mine! LOL! Thanks again for the great reply. I'm very glad this is finally off the workbench. Now I'm off to work on more productive and enjoyable kits! :D

And another 'Gil-ful' Masterpiece hits the shelf! Brilliant way to begin the New Year Gil. You're off to a great start! Looking forward to seeing what the rest of the year brings!

Back in 2009 I was given a New Year's Challenge to build a 1/32 scale aircraft. I accepted and a gentleman and fellow modeler, Saul Garcia sent me an F-5E Tiger II to work on. Most of you have been following it along with everything else I've been working on with this when you checked into my Maddog Manufacturing Thread. Six years later, I finally have finished it as far as I can. This is an Epic Fail. Here are the pics of this model as I have it now. I am not counting this as a finished model so my finally count for 20154 still remains at 29 models. There are too many pieces missing and too much wrong with this to count it as something finished and worthy of including in my collection. Don't worry, I am not throwing this away. I will be keeping this as a reminder of 1) how far I still need to go in my skills and 2) why I stay with 1/72 scale. First off, overall shot of the top. Many decals are still wrinkled from the Solvaset; paint has chipped (???) before I added a clearcoat; clearcoat dripped on one side (not visible in the pics); paint work is very sloppy and a ton of pieces are missing: Here's a shot of the bottom where you can see more missing pieces and possibly some of the paint and clearcoat issues I mentioned: With visions of grandeur swimming through my head, I even tried to get fancy here: I should have made sure I had the skills to do it first! Anyway, what's done is done... or not done in this case.... Here's some shots of the instruction sheet showing the missing and/or broken parts circled for you to see just how epic this fail is: I'm sure most of these missing pieces may still be floating around in my Hobby Room; if I find them, I'll see about adding them in. Until then, I'm sticking a fork in this one. Well, that is that. I at least can say that I finally met my New Year's Challenge.... five years too late. No need for you to post compliments here; there's nothing to compliment on this model. At least now, when ever someone here suggests I "go big" I can show how poorly I do when I "go big". Thanks for looking in. I do hope that any of those who feel they aren't as well experienced and skillful as you think I am can now feel confident that you are indeed at my level or better. I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say there. I don't need an ego massage here; I know my small scale stuff is good, so thanks for not doing that either guys. If anything, this is finally closure for those who've been watching this build all along and were looking forward to seeing it done. Now it's done. Okay, now I have a lot more to look forward to in the New Year and I'm excited to get more done. I'm heading right back to the bench now! Thanks for looking in everyone. Happy New Year!

Well, as this is the last day of 2015; I'm closing out this Thread for the year and will be starting a 2016 Thread in a day or so from now with a summary of what didn't get finished this year. Then I'll show what I was able to get done in that time as well. I want to thank all those who looked in and posted; your comments keep me motivated to build more. I also want to thank those who looked in and were too overwhelmed to post. LOL! :smiley8: Your attention helped as well, allowing me to be a bit more productive and finish a few more models than I expected to this year. It has been a good year for me despite losing four months on the bench. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year and may you all have a productive one model-wise as well. I'll see you all on the flip side.

Ah! Okay! Thanks for the explanation. If he's got a warped sense of humor then I'm going to like this guy already. Must check this out. Thanks again for clearing that up.

Go for it Gil! You are so close to the finish line! That really looks fantastic!

Thanks Dennis! Yes, the Diamond T was a bit difficult. The toughest parts were getting the windows to glue right and getting the cab and bed to sit on the chassis correctly. I kept needing to press them down to make contact so the glue would hold and there's not many places where you can apply pressure without breaking something. I finally did get it together satisfactorily. That being said, I am hoping to pick up the IBG Diamond T wrecker soon.

Than ks Dannie! Yeah, I'm thinking that other door is coming off. I have heard from friends who served in the 'Nam that they occasionally did fire the rockets while the troops were on board. This mostly happened when follow-on choppers needed to suppress a 'hot' landing zone that wasn't expected to be 'hot'; especially when they had no escorting gunships. Yes, it did freak out the troops but with the back of the launchers behind the edge of the doors, there was little reason to believe the exhaust would enter the cabin. They also mounted twin M-60's on the ends that were also used for enemy suppression too. Thanks for that great pic! I love seeing things like this.

That was a brilliant idea and it surely looks the part of a radiator hose! The rest of the cab looks magnificent as well. Man this is looking so incredible! I can't wait to see the finished model!

Thanks Chris! I'm very please with how these turned out.

Stunning work! But I'm still trying to figure him out; is he a good guy or a bad guy? Maybe I'm confusing him with a bad guy on the TV show Arrow.