Mark Deliduka

After a couple more days, I finally have some decent progress to show, so here it is. I decided that since I have a bit of spare real estate on the bench, I'd go to my queue and pull out something that's been sitting awhile. I chose this monstrosity since the box was a mangled mess and pieces were threatening to get lost: That 'mummified' beast above is the old Lindbergh 1/350 scale President Liner that I got for about three bucks. I cemented the hull together and then had to add the decks to the top in order to be able to tape the badly warped hull together so it would glue along the keel. I finally succeeded. I had also added some Mr. Surfacer 500 to select areas and did some sanding to other areas, but it wasn't worth shooting pics. Moving along; I picked up another model that's been sitting for so long. I was looking for a simple model that I could relax a bit with. Enter the Huey Hog that I'd glued together some time ago. I filled and sanded this Huey down along the seam line: Later on when I pulled out the airbrush to paint the C-46 and the Diamond T truck with OD, I painted up this little guy as well: Speaking of my Diamond T Cargo Truck; this beastie was becoming quite a problem model. This time, several of the windows had come unglued so I had to pop open the cab again to repair them: After getting those windows glued again, I closed this up, masked off the windows and sanded smooth a few rough spots: While the masking was drying, I completed the chassis by painting the wheels. Now this part is finished and ready for weathering: Later on, when the airbrush was out and the window masks were dry, I shot another coat of OD on the cab: Let's hope those windows stay i9n place when it's time to pull the masks off. Now, some Fun with Dry Fitting: I'm finally getting somewhere with this model. I might even be able to finish it by next week. After all that, I wanted to do something different. My brother's Boss had given me a 1/25 scale VW Van from Revell back while I was visiting him during the Columbus Nationals. He recently sent me an E-mail saying his Boss wants to see the van done. What better excuse to pull it out now and get started on it: First things first, I started on the chassis of course, I did the front suspension parts first: Next I did the engine..... or whatever this representation is supposed to be: Here's the "engine" dry-fit onto the rear of the chassis just to see how it fits: It does fit surprisingly well. I went on to assemble the rear suspension parts here: Once again, engine only dry-fit in place. I'll probably glue it into place later. Next I started on the driver's cab. This brought back memories as we used to have a VW bus in my youth and I used to drive it around when my mom sent me out to drop off or pick up one of my brothers and/or sisters: Here it is all dry-fit together so far. It is now ready for some preliminary painting: Speaking of painting; I'm NOT going to be painting this in that sickly, ugly green that is on the box top. No way! I hate that color, and I hate it even more on these parts! The instructions call for a light blue interior with dark blue seats so I'll be painting the inside as called out in the instruction sheet. The outside will be a white roof over sapphire blue metallic sides. I'm not real certain I'll use the decals either, but we'll see how this goes first. Okay, with all that fun accomplished, I was ready for more fun! But it'll have to be continued on the next post because I do too much progress to fit it all in one post on these boards. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Just finished now? Man, thought this was done some time ago; it already looked fantastic! I didn't think you could make it look any better, but you still managed to improve this 1000%. Way to go!

I agree with Steve. Either way, he'll look great. If his helmet is off, I'd place it in his right hand.

I think you did a remarkable job turning that into a silk purse worthy of display, especially given the issues inherent in that kit. It not only looks like a Seasprite, it looks like an incredibly well built Seasprite! Way to go Gil!

Welcome Steve, from another Southern Californian. I don't know how much traveling you do or how many shows you go to, but you're welcome to attend our Orangecon if you haven't already. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your work.

Thanks Rob! On Friday I'll be taking this to Hobby Day with my Dora to shoot pics of the two of them side by side. That should be fun!

That is a fantastic build Ron! I love railroad subjects myself. I'm trying to build a most comprehensive 1/72 scale collection of railroad subjects myself. This is certainly a most attractive display. Way to go!

Joe, that is looking superb. Nice work on the license plate registration. I like the look of the fire extinguisher as well; I'm surprised at how well it turned out. Steve, glad to see you here too.

Sweet Ed! I hope that soon I can find a Box like that which does the same thing to me. Looking forward to seeing that one started.

Mark the first part of that is an E-mail address. Should we be E-mailing them for a list? There's no website and when I did a search for "Flagship Enterprises" nothing related to models come up. I'd be interested in seeing what they have.

I know! Right? Anyway, it's for someone else, so it's not like I'm going to keep it. LOL! Thanks for the compliment Bob! Stay tuned for more.

Thanks Gil! Just trying to make up for lost time...

That hood looks fantastic and I love the fire extinguisher. I can relate with the frustration of working on a kit for nine months. I like ot get mine done quick so I can move on. Maybe it's some of the residual ADD I have, but I always try to stick with it. Besides, with all the great updates, it doesn't feel like I've been following this for nine months. Believe me, your quality work is well worth the wait!

Ya know guys, when I mention that "comments are welcome" that means I'd love to read some replies from you guys. Then again, I've probably stunned and overwhelmed you all to speechlessness.... Just messing with you guys! I know there are some watching this so don't worry; that's why I have this latest update on my mostly small scale, out-of-the-box projects for you to peruse. I'll start with the Space Shuttle since there's only the one pic. Seems the bottom seam is atrocious, so I slathered a good amount of Mr. Surfacer 500 in preparation for cleaning this up: Hopefully tomorrow I can install the interior into this model and move on.... Next I went to work on my little Huey Hog helicopter that I've been neglecting for a while. I finished up painting the pilots and adding the main rotor stem: I also dry-brushed white on the instrument panel: I kept it simple since I didn't expect much would be seen through the windows anyway... Finally, I slapped it all together and set it up to dry: More to come on that later. I have a lot of touch-up to do on that. I'll also probably need to shoot another OD coat on it. Moving on, I also went back to another model I've been neglecting a bit. It was time to complete the cab for my Diamond T cargo truck. Before that though, I didn't like the gaps between the tanks on the running board and the forward fender. So, I took out the Mr. Surfacer 500 and added some to the gaps. Then I used Mr. Hobby Thinner to smooth it out so that I wouldn't need to try and get some kind of sanding implement in the corner: Next I added the windshield and door windows to this. Here's the windshields: Seems the Mr. Surfacer 500 got a little thin and opened up again. Gonna have to fix that... Windshields were kind of hard to see in that pic, here's another one: Then I added the windows to the doors: Don't know where all that dirt came from on those; I already got them cleaned off. I also noticed that they didn't include a window for the back of the cab. So, I used my Micro Crystal Clear to make one: While all that was sitting and drying, I went ahead and added the wheels to the chassis: Gonna be painting those wheels later on, possibly tomorrow. Finally, I got the cab finished: I didn't add the headlight guards on this because they are solid plastic and look terrible. I'm going to try and find some P/E mesh I might have somewhere to replace it on this model. Hopefully I have some. Finally, some more Fun With Dryfitting: Last but not least, a friend of mine on another Forums posted that he'd received a 1/48 scale Revell Stearman biplane and needed a builder to build it for him. I mentioned that if nobody else was willing to build it for him, I'd give it a shot. Long story short, he sent it to me. This is the box I got in the mail this week: Some nicely molded parts in this model. It looks pretty good in the box: After looking it over, I cleared my bench and got started. First off was the cockpits and interior: While that was drying, and while I was waiting to find out what scheme he wanted this done in, I painted black on all the black and metallic parts. The metallic parts will be dry-brushed with aluminum or steel, depending on what I'm painting: By the way, he left it up to me to choose the scheme so I'll do the one shown on the box top. Tomorrow I was supposed to help someone move, but the place he's supposed to move to isn't ready yet so I have the whole day free. The airbrush is coming out so I'll be painting the Stearman interior and several other models. Stay tuned for more! Meanwhile, comments are welcome; thanks for looking in.

He's gorgeous James! I have a Modeling Buddy, but she's a cat. She scratches at my Hobby Room door until I let her in; then she settles down and sleeps next to my feet as I model. The only time she doesn't like being in there with me is when I have the compressor running to airbrush.

That is a brilliant idea! Way to go!

I'm thinking the kit didn't fight him; he had to fight the distraction offered by the figure! LOL! Nice win Bob! Bike and figure both look magnificent!

Wow, what an incredible model! Your engine is spectacular!

Here's a short update from me. I haven't had the chance to get too much time on the bench so I focused on only a few builds. First off, I made some more progress on my USS New York. I got the whole superstructure assembled now. She's ready for fiddly bits: I left these open to see if there's anything I can put in them, but it doesn't look like the kit included anything. Unless I can see what should be here that I might be able to add; I'll be closing these openings with the P/E provided: Now lets do some dry-fitting to see how this ship is gonna look: This is going to be a great looking ship to add to my collection! Moving on, I decided it was time to focus on getting more done on my 1/72 scale Space Shuttle with Boosters. After all, it's been sitting on my workbench idly since February.... Back then, I'd only done the booster rockets themselves. The main tank had already been done by the previous owner who sold it to me. So, I pulled this out and sanded down the seams that the boosters had; filled a few gaps with Mr. Surfacer 500 and set them aside to dry. Next, I started on the cockpit of the shuttle itself: Not too much detail inside, but once it's painted up; it looked pretty good if I do say so myself: Next I completed the interior part of the cargo bay. I didn't worry too much about the appearance of this as the shuttle bay doors will be closed. I doubt they opened them once this beastie was attached to the boosters: I couldn't find my regular alligator clips; so I pulled these off the block they came with. After that, I figured I'd get a few more sub-assemblies done, like the wings: ...and the tail: Next I assembled the main fuselage of this beastie. She's a big one all right: The wings were only dry-fit to see how big this was going to be. After that, I set it all aside to dry, while I went back to finish the bottom of the booster rockets. I had two parts to add to the bottoms of these and one booster was somehow more oval than the other. It took a lot of help to get this to glue properly: Here you can see it next to the other completed booster tail: Finally, they both were completed once the glue had dried: Now back to the Shuttle itself. I installed the cockpit and some windows inside the fuselage. Looks pretty good in there. I hope once the glass goes in some of this can still be seen: For added stability, I installed the back engine plate to the end of this. I left off the nacelles so I could paint this black first before installing them: Now let's have a little more Fun with Dryfitting: Oh yeah, she's a big one all right.... After this, I had a little time left to start a model that a friend gave me after winning it at the IPMS Nationals in Columbus. This is my Trumpeter 1/2 scale Madge seaplane. I started out adding about thirty-five pieces to the forward part of the main flight deck; including the lower nose deck: Yeah, I had all that to add and I haven't even put in the pilot and crew seats yet! That's about when I ran out of time. So, thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

I know everyone has already commented, but I'm posting pics of Annie again, this time after the window masking is removed. Now, she is truly finished: Enjoy the new pics!

Bill, that is spectacular work! I can only dream of making something that smooth and shiny. Way to go, I bow to the Master. :smiley32:

Thanks Eric!

I like the idea of having optional filters for regions and geographical areas. That way anyone can focus on their own area.

Sweet! That is one incredible truck bed; I love the wood grain on it. Nice work on the license plate as well. Keep going man!

Now this...........I've gotta see! Okay, I guess I'd better get a start on this then.