Mark Deliduka

Amazing work, Mark! That is looking very realistic. You've captured the essence of an IDF vehicle. Well done!

Interesting idea Bob! I would try it but there's no 1/72 scale model of a Mk. VIII "International". I doubt my skills are even remotely capable of scratchbuilding one of those either. Cool pic; thanks for posting.

Thanks Kevin. I like how these go together so well.

Well, that Type 60 self propelled Recoilless Rifle vehicle got me started on a modern Japanese kick. I looked at all the other vehicles I had gotten with that model and decided to get started on all of them. Here's the three ton heavy truck chassis assembled already: Right side up: Upside down: With that done, I went to work on the chassis for the radar truck. Here it is after I got it done: Then I started the Missile truck's chassis since they are practically the same: And just so you don't think I'm showing the same pic a second time, here's the two truck chassis side-by-side: Next I started the other Japanese Type 10 tank. This one will have the Dozer blade on it. Here's the tracks that got done first: I won't be adding the track pads to this either.... Next I assembled the main hull and added the inside wheels to it: After that, I naturally moved to the turret and got it assembled: Here's most of the tank dry-fit together to see how it looks so far: After all that, I made more progress on the Type 60 SP gun. After I added all the extra pieces to the upper hull, I decided to dry-fit the upper hull to this to see how it looks: You can see the clear parts that added for the lenses and windows. Those will be interesting to mask. Next I assembled the recoilless rifles: One needs to be adjusted, I got that later on... Then I assembled the whole gun carriage and added that to the dry-fit upper and lower hull. This is how it will look with the guns elevated ready to fire: Just to satisfy some curiosity, I removed the extra pin to allow the gun carriage to sit down in the travel position. This is how it will look in that position, except that the barrel locks will be in place: Well, that's all I have for now. Don't know when I'll get to the bench again, but when I do, you'll see it all here! Meanwhile, thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

Thanks Gil! Somehow I figured you'd be the one to say it. LOL! :D :lol: And I'm so glad this "valiant" effort is done! Bill, you are right. With almost 60 aircraft hanging up there I do need a bigger ceiling. I also do need a bigger house too. This one's room is too small; I'm stacking finished models on top of each other for lack of room! And yeah, at least the nose gear looks rather weak, but I thought the main gear looked pretty strong myself.

Nice looking birds Warren! Way to go!

I use Silly Putty to mask off my armor and aircraft. I have had no issues with residue, lifting or anything else. A clear coat between coats wouldn't hurt though. I use enamels so I can't help you with drying time.

Here is the 'new' Airfix Vickers Valiant model in 1/72 scale. I started this back in 2009 for the Orangecon Theme of British subjects. I had imagined bringing all three of my V-bombers to the contest, but this one didn't get done......until now. I now have all three of Britain's V-bombers in my Royal Air Force. To start, here is the bottom of the aircraft, showing the respectable bomb load this thing carries: Here are two shots of it sitting on it's landing gear waiting for clearance to take off to patrol the ceiling: This is how it looks from the top. This pic also shows how big this monster is: Well, there it is. I am so glad that yet another Modeling New Years Resolution is completed. Now I can move on again. Thanks everyone for looking in, comments are welcome.

Thanks Wild Bill! I'm a bit of a jet guy as well. Have you seen the finished pics of the Phantom yet? I had it done a few days ago and posted it. Meanwhile, here's another small update to post. It may be small, but I sure did a lot of work to get this far! This is because I was spending a lot of time finishing off the Vickers Valiant since it was so close to being done. Just for fun, here's the bomb loadout I did: Meanwhile, as I waited for parts to dry on the Valiant, I went back to working on one of the two Japanese Type 60 Self Propelled Recoilless Gun vehicles. I had already added the wheels to one of the hull sides. I finished the other side and put the hull together. This thing is small! As I went on, this thing has an engine included: Here is the radiator installed afterward: There's even a crew interior: I'll get some of that painted later and see what is visible from the hatches and such. They also include clear parts for the vision blocks and such just like on 1/35th scale kits. This little guy is gonna be a blast to do! After all that, I went back and added the landing gear, gear doors, antenna and sundry parts to the Valiant to finish it off. You can see the finished Valiant model in the Aircraft Forum. Meanwhile, comments are welcome here, thanks for looking in.

Thanks Ed! Those are all excellent questions too. Macks were built tough; they had a large beam as the rear axle which could take a lot of weight. The chain was also very big and heavy duty. FT-17's were fairly lightly armored and with the most of the fuel and all the ammo removed probably brought this to the upper weight limit of one of these truck's carrying capacity. As for loading, they would have put up a ramp that the truck backed up to; they would have craned it into the truck if one was available, or they would have backed the truck up against a steep bank and driven the tank onto the bed. I'm fairly certain that this was mostly used to transport damaged or broken down tanks most of the time and it probably did cause many trucks to suffer damage from the effort. Unfortunately, I haven't found too many references that mention the use of these trucks in this capacity.

Thanks Mark! I'm still working on my bench whenever Life gives me time. Stay tuned for more.

Thanks Chris! I really like this little beastie sitting in the truck!

Well, I finally made it to 670 armor models finished, 30 more to go until that magic number of 700 is reached! Here it is, the RPM 1/72 scale Renault FT-17 tank in US Army markings. The weathering isn't as visible as I'd like in these pics, but I think it looks pretty good in person: This little beastie was built OOB and that was tough enough with 28 pieces per running gear assembly! Here it is sitting in the Mack Tank Transporter that I'd built earlier to hold this: That's all for now. Thanks all for looking in, comments are always welcome.

Here's a small update for today. I say small, but it took me a good four and a half hours to get this much done to this point. The FT-17 tank for the tank/truck combo is finished, you can check it out in the Armored Forums now. I think it looks great, although the pics don't show it as well as I'd like them to. This is my 1/72 scale Vicker's Valiant after all the decals have been applied and a dullcoat sprayed over it. I also removed the masking from the windows, engine intakes and the landing gear bays. Now I can complete this model. The next pics you see of this will be the completed pics... provided I can find a large enough place to shoot a decent couple of pics! Underneath: Above: There were almost as many stencils on this to apply to the Valiant as the Phantom, but it was harder since this was so much larger, making it harder to move around. I can't wait to get this one done; it will be number five or six on my Modeling New Years Resolution list. Thanks all for looking in, comments are always welcome.

Well, I received another package today that contained the rest of my Hobbylink Japan order. These are what I got: Aoshima JGSDF 3-ton truck: And an Aoshima JGSDF Recoilless Rifle vehicle: I was quite surprised that the recoilless rifle box came with two kits inside! Sweet! That's all for now. Given how little money I have left, this will most likely be it for awhile... at least until the Nationals in Columbus... Thanks for looking in everyone!

Thanks Gil! I have a few ground vehicles to get started on soon too.

I'm really enjoying this Thread. It is great seeing this ship come together. The extra detail really makes it pop too!

Well done! Looks like you're at the finish line. Way to go!

Ladies and gentlemen, I have managed to finish yet another of the New Years Resolution models that was on my list. This is the Hasegawa Iranian F-4E Phantom II that just got finished this past weekend. As always, it ain't no award-winning model but I'm very, very pleased with this one: As usual, this has no weaponry on it as Hasegawa has decided not to include any in the kit. I'm guessing they want you to buy more of their Aircraft weapons sets. Once I can find some Sidewinders I'll add then to this model. Until then, she is now done. Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

This week was good to me so now I have a not-so-small update. I'll start out with the model of the Italeri Italian Heavy artillery piece made from soft plastic. I found a Plastic Primer spray similar to one recommended by someone else. I couldn't find the Krylon brand. I shot a coat of this primer on so that I could move on and paint this thing: Here is a shot of the crew that I also primered: Another small thing I did: I filled a lot of the seams and other issues on the C-46 Commando and set it aside for sanding later: Moving on to other models, I figured that I should move on with that little FT-17 now that it is fully built. I shot a coat of Olive Drab over it first: Next I took the tracks and dry-brushed some Humbrol Gun Metal paint over them: It is a dark grey metallic that looked pretty good on this. It looked so good, I dry-brushed some on the flat-black exhausts on the F-4 Phantom: Getting back to the FT-17, I added the tracks to this little model. I was quite surprised at how well they looked; at least to me: Just for fun, I tucked it into the back of the Mack truck that will be holding it: Now all I have to do is decal that and weather it and it'll be done. Now back to the Phantom. I had shot a gloss coat over it in preparation for decals. On Friday last, I spent 3 and 1/2 hours applying all the stencils and other decals. Here it is after I shot a dullcoat and removed the masking from the canopy: I also dry-brushed a little copper paint on the exhaust to give it a bit more of a burnt metal effect. This Phantom is now done; you can see the finished pics in the Aircraft Forums. Moving along again, I decided to start one of my Russian armored trains for a couple railroad-themed Group Builds I joined. This model is gonna be a tough one. First of all, they have you assemble all the wheels to the axles. So, to make sure they lined up, I put them between two thick sanding sticks that were set parallel to each other: I competed the two sets of wheels and set them aside to dry. Meanwhile, I figured I'd build the turrets that go on this car. Trouble struck from the start. Trying to remove two parts from the sprues resulted in them, breaking. The gun barrel end snapped off and flew into oblivion, and the mantlet section snapped in half. You can see them indicated by the two arrows: This is going to be a long build..... I cut a section of plastic rod that was closest to the size of the third part of the gun barrel; cut the broken part off and replaced it with the styrene rod: Eventually I got the two turrets assembled that go on this car: Finally, a fun shot of the car as it will mostly look like with the turrets on. the top half is only snapped in place and the turrets are also just placed in place: I'd had enough of that so I called it a day by then. Hopefully soon I'll have more to show. Until then, comments are welcome, thanks for looking in.

Well, it's been a while but I finally found the time to post these. These first two acquisitions came as birthday presents from Saul Garcia (Sharkmouth) and Jeff (Ausfwerks) on another Forums. These gifts were totally unexpected! They sent me some decals, some of which are for vehicles I can't get models of! LOL: The second gift they sent me was these two models. An IBG 15CWT Truck and an IBG Universal Carrier: These next models I had ordered from Hobbylink Japan with some Christmas money but held them in my "private warehouse" until I could get them shipped. These recently came with a few more on the way: Fujimi JGSDF AA truck: Fujimi JGSDF Radar truck: Fujimi Type 10 tank with Dozer blade: Fujimi German tanker truck: and a Revell of Germany MAN 5-ton truck: These are the latest I got. With that German MAN truck, I now have the 5-ton, 7-ton and 10-ton trucks in my inventory. Some of these may be started soon, taking me closer to me goal of 700 finished armor models. That's all for now. Once the second package arrives, I'll post that too. I believe it's the Japanese Patriot set. Thanks all!

Thanks guys! I really appreciate the comments. Rick, if you like old AA planes, I'm trying to raise the $50.00 to buy a 1/72 scale American Airlines Boeing 727 from a fellow IPMS OC member. Maybe next month if all goes well. Clare, I love hearing stories like this. They make models I finish even more meaningful.

Thank you ever so much for the wonderful comments guys! I have to say that this looks better in photos than it does in person. Ed, thanks again for the decals. I probably would have tried the cowl markings if the nose decal had actually gone on more smoothly. All the cracking, flaking and wrinkling they did going over the complex curves of the nose discouraged me and convinced me that I didn't want to go through that hassle four more times. Thanks Gil. Some of that dissimilar paneling was actually a happy accident that I didn't fix. Thanks again guys for the wonderful comments.

Okay, here's another small update. It seems I can't ever find time to make any significant progress lately. I'll start with this 1/72 scale Airfix RAF Rescue Launch. I mostly just tried to refine the seams along the deck and deckhouse. I need a few more applications here I guess: Just for fun while it was drying, I dry-fit some of the extra parts on it, including the pilot house which is why it has such large seams: Moving on, I took this F-4 Phantom to Hobby Day to finally get the decals on it. Seeing all the tiny stencils made me realize why I waited so long! Well, I buckled down and three and a half hours later, here is the final result: Now all I have to do is apply another clearcoat, then a dullcoat and then I can add the landing gear and extra detail parts to this and call it done. This will then be another of the Modeling New Year's Resolution builds. After that ordeal though, I was ready for something simple, so I pulled out this old Eastern European kit of another Czech biplane whose name escapes me at this time. This is the biplane I recently got and I started it by painting the cockpit interior black. There is no cockpit, and the seat that I was going to put the pilot in was missing so I painted everything black so that there would be nothing visible through the canopy. I then built it up, adding the wings, landing gear and tail surfaces to it. I then started to sand the atrocious seams and steps; you can see some of the sanding residue still on this little beast: I'll be applying WWII German Luftwaffe markings on this since the decals are unrecoverable. It's the easiest thing to do since the Luftwaffe assimilated these into the Luftwaffe after the annexation of Czechoslovakia. After all that, it was time to step it up a notch. I got the last of the structure of my Saturn V done: the escape tower. This was a tough little assembly since everything was molded in clear plastic. I was quite surprised when I got everything more or less aligned. In this pic, I raised the dark contrast significantly so you could see it; otherwise this all but disappeared in the pic. No, it is not singed at the top: Here it is sitting on top of the fully (dry-fit) assembled rocket: Just to give this a size reference, I took this next pic with my friend Frank standing next to it. He's 6'2" and the rocket is sitting on a three-and-half to four-foot tall table: He didn't know I'd snapped that pic I told him later. Later on I assembled this rocket on the floor and stood next to it while someone else snapped a pic. Silly me, I didn't get the same pic with my own camera. The model comes up to my nose though. That's all I have for this week. As I said, small update, but at least I'm crawling along. Enjoy this trip through the Factory, and as always, comments are welcome. Thanks for looking in.

It's not done, but it's done. Until I can find or have cast the extra missing parts, I'm going to call this finished and move on. This was one of my Modeling New Years Resolutions to finish 1/72 scale Heller DC-6 done in American Airlines livery and painted with Alclad paints: That's all for now. I hope to have a few more finished soon, but it may be awhile before I can get them posted. Meanwhile, thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.