Mark Deliduka

I never knew about SPAR so I don't know what happened. I'm also trying to help get SPAM off the ground too. Stikpusher (Carlos) is a member of both my AMPS and IPMS chapters and a very good friend. I want to help him out all I can. I'm not too much into Automotive, but I do love a great glassy finish and I have great respect for those who can do them. I'll have to stop into the Automotive section to see your work.

Looking great man! I almost feel like I can sit right down and start flippin' switches!

No, I wasn't on SPAR, but I'm on the current SPAM now. I got into that at the invitation of a friend after the SPAR went down. I hadn't ever heard of SPAR before then.

Thanks for the great comments guys! Joseph, if you are talking about the old MBI Forums, then yes, that was me. I've also shown Dora in progress here on the IPMS Forums, on the LEM, and on another site. Thanks Clare, I admit to being a bit crazy. yes, the Opel buses are quite the pain with the issues on their chassis. Fortunately, I have only two more to build in the Roden line, until the Vomag bus comes out. The DC-6, while not quite finished, is declared finished until I can find or replace the several parts that went missing. The rest of the buses are completed already as well. In fact, the Strassenzep bus was photographed at the Valleycon by an automotive model magazine for publication. Thanks again for the great compliments guys!

Sometimes that happens to me too, so when it does, I tend to walk away from the bench. Gives me a chance to reset. But doing all these keeps me going; when I can't go any further one one model, I pull out another! As promised, here's my latest progress. I'll start with something simple that I was working on at Hobby Day. I finalized the assembly of Annie so that now she's ready for paint: And then, since I had also brought Dora to repair and improve for a local contest coming up, I decided to shoot a comparison pic that someone requested once before. Here's Annie sitting next to her 'big sister' Dora: Quite the difference there... One fellow IPMS member who was at Hobby Day remarked, "I guess size doesn't matter when you've got a nuclear warhead!" Staying with Armor, I assembled the two rail cars for the Russian Armored Train I'm doing for the On RR Tracks Campaign on another Forums: I also attached the engine and tender to each other and then completed all the turrets (sans guns on the smaller ones to keep from breaking off the guns). Here's the whole train all together so far. I didn't have enough rail to pose this whole train so it is sitting on the table: Moving along, I decided to change things up a bit and start an F-18 for the Modern Aircraft Campaign on another Forums. Naturally, I started with the cockpit: It's pretty basic but there will be a lot of decals going in there once I paint it. Next is a shot of the cockpit on the forward fuselage assembly: After that, I assembled the main fuselage assembly: Finally, I completed the main wings; drilling out the holes for the ordinance and cementing the parts together. Now all the sub assemblies for this aircraft are done and I can complete the cockpit and start shooting paint on this: After all that, I needed a break from building so I pulled out my Sleepy Hollow model and did some additional painting. First off, I painted the pumpkins using Testor's Turn Signal Amber over a dark tan. It is still a bit glossy since turn signals tend to be shiny, but a good dullcoat will tone that down. I'm pretty pleased with these: Next I painted the large tree that goes on the base. It will get a dark wash later... maybe: Next I painted the severed head; completing the mouth, the hair and giving a grey dry-brush to the face to add a dead pallor to the complexion. I didn't want to overdo it since this is supposed to be a fresh kill. I do still have a few touchups and improvements to do: Next I did the little Sleepy Hollow sign. I like it so far: Finally, here's an overall shot of the whole model so you can see most of it all together: Finally, I was getting upset at Dragon for the poor directions on the Saturn V. They show parts being put on the main body of this rocket; parts that have locating pins. However, there are no corresponding holes for the parts on the body of the rocket. There are places inside the smooth parts of the rocket that can be opened for these things but none on the ribbed portion of the rocket. Furthermore, there are no indications for adding the parts to the other side of this rocket so one has to guess as to placement! So, I figured I would just "wing it"! One thing I did was to drill out the holes that I figured where the right ones. The other thing I did was to place most of the second side parts; particularly the ones that went on the ribbed sections, directly opposite the first parts I added. Okay, here is Stage One of the Saturn V all built up: This is Stage Two: And now the lower part of Stage Three: The upper part of Stage Three is where the LEM sits. And of course, the whole rocket assembled so far: Now this part of the rocket at least is ready for paint. I can't go much further on the rest of it yet until I get the LEM gold-leafed and assembled. Each stage will remain unglued for ease of transport, to be assembled on site of any contest I take it to. Okay, that completes my latest progress so far. Hopefully I can get even further later in the week. Meanwhile, thanks for looking in, comments are welcome!

Thanks Joseph! I like having this many going since it always seems to keep each one fresh when I get back to it.

Thanks Joseph! I have some nephews in Ohio that also got bit by the bug.

Thanks Robert! And sadly, I agree. I miss the old place already.

Nice work! Looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks for the info Dennis. That is a brilliant idea. Congrats also on the gold at AMPS, well deserved!

Okay, here is a small update from me for today. I'm also experimenting here with a Gallery on another site since the LEM went down again. I started out with the Type 10 tank with Dozer blade by doing some sanding on the turret and other places. I also masked off the wheels and tracks in preparation for paint. Here it is awaiting touch up of the basecoat before I mask with Silly Putty for the second camo color: Next I decided to start on the Russian Armored Train I'm doing for two Group Builds. I started out by doing the wheels and axles for the engine and tender. As you can see here, the axles that are provided in the kit are crap as they break when you look at them wrong! So, I got a piece of styrene rod about the same diameter and cut it to size to make my own axles: Next I had to enlarge the slots where the wheels stick out on the bottom of the engine and tender. You can see the ones I enlarged already compared to the original size: As I continued to build the wheels and axles for the rest of the tender, I happened to notice something. What's wrong with this picture? The bottom left wheel was molded without the rim! Oh well, it will barely be seen underneath this train once everything is assembled. You can see that in this next pic where I finally got the engine and tender mostly assembled with the basic assembly: Moving along, I finished the interior painting on the Atomic Annie tractor cabins: Next I built all the interior components of the gun carriage: While that was all drying, I assembled the gun. This was pretty tough despite the longest section being molded with slide molding technique so that it was all one piece. The lower section of the gun was two halves and the gun trunnion was two halves and second section of the gun needed to be glued to the first; leaving a big seam. After awhile, I think I had it filled, sanded and ready to go: Just to be sure, I put the whole thing together. It looks pretty good: Meanwhile, I went back to the main gun carriage and added the interior parts to one side of the gun carriage: After I did that, I realized what a boneheaded idiocy I'd done. Getting paint into certain parts of that will be well nigh impossible with my airbrush and any other paint applicator! Oh well.... I did figure that it would be cool to see this thing all together, so I dry-fit the other side to the above assembly: It's only snapped together so I'll be able to paint it up when I need to. Later, after I finished making sure the gun was fully completed sanding-wise as well as dry, I added it to the mock-up to see how this is gonna look: She's nowhere near the size of Dora but she's still quite impressive! I'm looking forward to getting more done on this soon. Until then, comments are welcome, thanks all for looking in!

Nice scores Rob! I built both of those and you're in for a treat.

Wow! Another Master joins us! Way to go, you're gonna fit right in!

That looks fantastic! I'm curious about the red and white logs on the side of this though. What were they used for? Your weathering looks just right; not too dirty yet not too clean. Perfect after a day or so of campaigning. Way to go Dennis!

Welcome Joseph! Glad to have you on board. Feel free to post some pics of your work; we all love looking at models here!

These are looking good. I would love to know how you can sand next to these canopies without crazing them. Looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks Gil! I'll have to rent or buy the DVD's as I haven't got cable. We can't afford it in our current circumstances.

Thanks Ed! I hope I can do him justice!

I just have a couple small things I picked up at the Brewer Brother's Show this past weekend: I'm not even sure what company made that Viking ship, but it looks like it's going to be a fun and exciting kit to build. That's all for now for me.

Okay, now for my latest update. I didn't get anything done on Annie so much; I was trying instead to get caught up on other models that I had started before I got her. Here is what I was able to do so far this week... I started out by filling some gaps and seams and adding the canopy to my little Czech plane: Then I moved on to my armor. I started by shooting a basecoat over the three trucks and the Type 10 tank: After they were dry, I painted the canvas roof on each one of the truck cabs: While they were drying, I painted the chassis of the three trucks. I started with a flat black. When they were dry, I followed that with a dry-brush of steel and then a wash of Oily Black to get this result: It's tough to see in this pic, but the result is quite impressive in person if I do say so myself. Now I have at least one truck ready for clearcoat and decals. The other two need to be masked for their camouflage patterns. Next I shot a basecoat on the Type 60 self-propelled gun carriage: Later on I pulled out my Silly Putty to do the masking in preparation for the second camo color. Now she's ready for the next coat of paint: Finally, I pulled out my Type 10 tank and completed the turret with almost all the detail parts. I left off the ones that would constantly break with handling: Here it is sitting on the painted hull: I also painted and dry-brushed the tracks for this so I could get them installed: By then, the turret was dry enough for a shot of basecoat so I shot that too: Once the tracks were dry, I added them to the main hull of the tank and then installed the outer roadwheels: Later on I added the sides of the tank to complete the main body of it. Here it is all assembled and ready for masking for the second camo color: Now all I have to do is mask off the tracks and wheels with some aluminum foil and apply the Silly Putty to this to paint the second color on it. In between all that, I fiddled around with my Sleepy Hollow figure, sanding and filling and sanding and shaping and sanding and filling and.... you get the idea. Finally I felt that I'd gotten all the gaps and seams properly taken care of so I did some more detail work on this model. First off I painted the base with a dark brown color; a Burnt Sienna if I recall. I also had to paint the pumpkins in a tan color or the orange I will use will not show up properly on the black primer color I shot earlier: I had also painted the large tree that goes on the base but I didn't take a pic of it. I also shot a red over the inside of the Horseman's cape as directed in the instructions. I tried to make sure some of the black undercoat could still be made out as shadow: I may try dry-brushing that with some lighter red later; as well as wash it with a dark brown color. Speaking of painting red, I shot red on the vest of the Horseman since I couldn't find any acceptable maroon color. Afterward, I washed this with a dark brown wash to see if it darkens down the red while bringing out the shadows. Since I also had the tan out for the pumpkins, I added it to the face of the head as a basecoat. I think it is slowly coming along, but I may still fiddle with the colors some more: Well, that is about all I did so far. This next week is going to be a long, busy one so I don't know when I'll get back to the bench. Until then, enjoy this tour and remember that comments are always welcome. Thanks all for looking in.

Sweet job Dennis! That is one impressive model!

Excellent. I've always wanted to do one of these in 1/72 scale but nobody makes that type of turret in my scale. I can't even get an AMX-13 model either. Looking forward to seeing this one done when the review kit is finished.

Sweet! you're moving right along! Way to go!

Thanks Bill! I'm hoping to get more done soon.

Phenomenal! It looks like it just came in from a fire mission.