Mark Deliduka

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.

Holy crap have I ever fallen behind on this thread!! That F-111 looks almost identical to the Su-24 Fencer. The resemblance is uncanny! Well done! Those first pics of the wings brought back memories! I remember having to do the same thing. Outstanding work on the bomb bay; I could never imagine doing something like that myself. Your work looks spectacular! So you just "tossed" that -229 together? Man, I gotta quit! Even when I work hard and carefully, I can't get that good! Way to go!

Love the stash. Still there ain't enough in it, time to add more; especially at the rate you build.

And now I'm out of money. LOL! Okay, I'll wait until I get paid again and try again....

I can't even log in to pay for my renewal It doesn't matter how many times I put in my username and password, it doesn't allow me in. So much for ease of use. I shouldn't have to request a new password every time I want to log in.

I talked to Zoukei-Mura at the Pasadena Valleycon this past Sunday and told them that even though the models would be in 1/72 scale (small for them) they would be larger than their Horton kit. I had suggested to them doing a 1/72 scale C-5A Galaxy, a 1/72 scale C-141 Starlifter, and a 1/72 scale 747, possibly with Air Force One markings along with other airliner markings. He was going to pass it along to his boss.

Brilliant work! The figures look very realistic. That was a great idea with the dog; it does improve the whole picture. Way to go!

Now that is awesome! Very nicely done and very believable. I like it. Well done on the Dornier as well. You make everything look so outstanding and so easy. I also have a B-2 in the stash. I do need to start mine and get it done to replace the one that had gotten stolen back in 2008. It's been far too long. I also got tagged as Maddog Manufacturing myself so I know what you mean. Ever since then I've had all my WIP Threads labeled that way.

Thanks guys, you are all way to kind. Gil, there's a few more pieces than just the wheel missing, but I'll be on the lookout for them. Thanks Mark and Bill. I'm just glad to finally get this one so close to the finish line. The next pics I post of this should be the "finished" model, sans any parts I couldn't find in time.

well... ill have you know that I went and got the Tu-22 at Blizzardcon!!!! so there.... consider the bomber set complete! Don't forget this: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/258113-landm-resin-kits-tu-22b-blinder nah i build all of my kits out of box. never upgrade. Same here. I would only use an upgrade set if I bought the kit from someone who included it inside the box. Even then, I'd have to consider how much more work it would be. Nice score on the new Tu-22.

You could tie a rope to it and let it "fly" behind the car. LOL!!

Well, here's another small update, only because I don't know when I'll be able to get back to the bench again. I'll start with the pics of the work I started on the 1/72 scale Space Shuttle with Boosters. Here is what I got done on that so far: This Space Shuttle will be almost three feet tall when it's done! Remember this RAF Rescue Launch that had the deck popped up on the bow? Well, I found a way to hold it down while I glued it in place.This also served to expand the sides of the hull to meet the edge of the deck so that this looks right when done: Next I decided to do a bit more on the C-46 since I'd been trying to get this all closed up for awhile now. I finally succeeded, after first adding the interior and cementing in the fuselage windows: Now the hull sides are together, but not before I had to do some selective sanding along the edge of the interior so this would close. I also only glued the top of the fuselage and the tail because I found that one of the fuselage sides was warped underneath: Here you can see the gap from the warpage. Once the rest of the fuselage dries adequately, this will be easier to close: After awhile, I decided to dry-fit the wings to the fuselage to see how big this monster is going to be: The wings themselves have a lot of sanding and filling to be done to fix the many gaps and ill fitting edges that need attention. I already added some gap filling CA glue to the areas in question. They will be taken care of later. Now on to the DC-6. This beastie took a lot of work. First off, here's a shot of all the broken parts of the landing gear. There's actually a few parts still missing; if I can't find them, I'll have to get replacements cast from a C-118 kit I recently got. Here are the two main landing gear bays where most of these parts go: Here are the two main landing gear bays after the parts I did have were re-installed: You can see the missing pieces I'm going to need to replace if I cannot find them. I didn't stop to look; that's what I get for letting this thing languish on my bench for so long. Moving on.... I added the landing gear doors to this model, sans the missing one... There always seems to be just one missing.... Next I added the nose gear and nose gear doors: Yes, the nose gear looks like hell. I had lost the original landing gear fork that is supposed to hold the nose wheel. What you see is my poor attempt to scratch build one just so I could move on with this instead of leaving it unfinished indefinitely. I had already given up on making this a 'contest worthy' model; too much went wrong from the beginning. I tried to do things that were beyond me for something of this magnitude, but hey, lessons learned.... Finally, here is a couple shots of this thing with all the parts on it. Yes, assembly is completed on this; all that is left is some touch-up painting and I'll be able to call this done: I have it sitting up on "jacks" so that the landing gear and the gear doors all glue in the proper position. I can only hope that they do and that the landing gear will hold this beastie when I finally place it on a table for the finishing pics. Okay, that is my small update for now. It might be awhile before I have anything else to show so I figured I should just post this now. This weekend I'll be going to the Pasadena Valleycon being held at the Ronald Reagan Library. I doubt I'll bring home any awards, but I will definitely have a blast, especially since it's happening on my birthday! Until next time, thanks everyone for looking in, comments are welcome.

That's one sweet bird! Way to go Gil! I bow in the presence of greatness!

Wow, it has been awhile since I've posted anything but now I've completed enough progress on my models to actually post something here. I'll start with some of the simple things I did that didn't take long. First of all I shot some more black on the Headless Horseman to see where any seams and other issues were found. Not too many, but I still have a few touchups to do before I go further. I was also getting some good advice for painting this from one of my IPMS club's resident figure experts. Another simple little model I did was this basic, snap-together model of an Italian heavy gun, with crew. It's made from soft plastic so it's gonna be a bit difficult to paint and such, but I'll try a few techniques on it. Here it is after assembly; I haven't started on the crew yet: This was a pallet-cleansing build to relax after the difficulty I had building this next little model: I had decided to buckle down and get the running gear done on the little FT-17 that is going in my Mack truck. That was an ordeal! Some pieces are missing and others aren't glued in right, and the drive sprocket on one side isn't the same since the original got lost; but it looks close enough that I'm moving on. I've had it with this stupid little tank. I had a devil of a time with the turret as well, but now this little beastie is ready for paint: At Hobby Day, I also tried to get some work done on my Saturn V. I was so busy with so many other things that I barely had the chance to get anything done! I did manage to work on the remainder of the main booster nacelles. It took some extra work drilling out some of the holes for two of the brace parts: Finally, I was able to complete all five of these engine boosters and test fit them into the bottom of this rocket: Now to get these all painted and I can move on... Speaking of moving on, I spent a lot of time on one of my projects that I had made a resolution to finish before I started another major project. I spent a day applying all the fuselage decals to my DC-6 Super Cloudmaster. Once that was done, I clearcoated them to seal them in: A day later, I went to work applying the decals to the wings. While not as extensive as the fuselage decals; they had their own issues. I finally got them all on the wings and then cleacoated them as well to seal them in: Now I'm finally able to move on with this plane. The first thing I did was to remove the window masking on the windows and the cockpit canopy: I knew I had to do this now. Since I completed that, I am now free to re-install the landing gear to this model. I also need to add the engine nacelles to this as well. There's supposed to be some orange decal striping to apply around the front of the engine cowls, but given the difficulty I had getting the orange decal to fit around the compound curve of the nose of this thing; I don't want to deal with that issue times four again, so they are staying off! I know I could paint them on, but I don't want to hassle with trying to match the paint and then mask etc. I just want this thing done; it's been sitting on my workbench since 2012! After that, I think I'll be finished with it and I'll be able to chalk another resolution build off the list! It won't be any kind of award-winning model, but at least it'll be done. Well, it's a small update but at least it's some progress. I do hope to have more to show later. Meanwhile, thanks for looking in and comments are welcome.

Excellent work Mark! I need to make copies of these pics so I can try one of these in 1/72 scale. If only I can find the decals for this. Way to go!