Mark Deliduka

Well, here I have another update, possibly my last one for this year. Maybe I'll be able to squeeze another one in by tomorrow night. More excellent progress made, if I do say so myself, especially given the issues I had to deal with. I finally can see the light at the end of the tunnel for most of these and it is NOT a train! Let's start with the Mack truck. Here it is with the decals and a wash on it: Since that has been taken, I've dullcoated this, added the wheels and dirtied it up a bit. Still looking for some kind of small string to add to the tailgate; otherwise, this one is done. Next up, I painted the interior of the little Forlite staff car: Now to add the acetate to the windows so I can close this up. Shouldn't be too long now. Now for the tough stuff. {deep breath.... and exhale} I took off the masking on the -zepp. Despite my best efforts as scoring around the edge with a brand new Exacto blade, this turned out to be an unmitigated disaster: [deep breath....] I pulled out the paint and a small brush and attempted to touch this up. For the most part, it looks okay. The left side in front of the curve looks like crap, but it's gonna have to stay that way. I have no other idea how to fix it, other than masking again and shooting it, but that ain't gonna happen! That's what caused this problem in the first place. This has been clearcoated now: Later on, I added the two roof pieces and painted the center luggage section brown. The paint was still wet when I took this pic: The paint was a bit too diluted so the next coat should look right. Man, I really wanted to make this bus look GOOD! I really tried, using all the most advanced techniques I knew how and I'm still too cursed to complete something with out some glaring issue on it. Enough of this one, I pulled out the other bus and got to work on it. Here I added all the extra bits to the outer shell. I also repaired the luggage rack for the twelfth time! You can see here the new camouflage pattern I added to it: That being done, I went ahead and finished the chassis; adding the interior and the engine to the top: I finished off this part with all the underside detail parts: Now all I have to do is detail paint this and then clearcoat it and it'll be ready for decals. Adding the wheels and putting on the body shell will be the last thing I do to finish this off. [deep breath] Okay, this Topol finally got a wash after the clearcoat, and I also detail painted the rest of it: Next, I added the decals to this and just for fun, I snapped all the wheels in place. Here it is so far: ...and with the launch tube: This thing in the side kept coming off. After all, it was only attached with two small plastic rods; nothing to support it at all. I have no idea what it is, but here you can see the holes I drilled in the chassis and the part in preparation for attaching brass rod to this so that it will stay in place: Now you can see the part in place and it ain't goin' nowhere! This monstrosity is now finished. Since the above pics have been taken, I've dullcoated this and lightly 'dusted' it with a dirt brown for some light weathering. Pics will be forthcoming. Gil, you can see that I didn't camouflage it. I looked at all the little bits and bobs sticking out and decided I didn't want to deal with repairing them after they break while the masking gets put on and later removed. I modulated the color a bit and went on. So far today, I've finished at least six models. I have at least one more I think I can finish tomorrow so I can get all the pics done then and get them posted for the New Year. Meanwhile, thanks for looking in, comments are always welcome.

I love it! That ain't something you see every day and you really did outstanding!

Sounds good Gil! Thanks for that tip. I think at least three of the seven LHS around me carry that line. I still have a truckload of paints all over my hobby room I'm going to sift through; if I can't find anything in there, I'll head out and pick some of this color up.

Merry Christmas everyone! For your present, I have a nice long update for you. All of it is armor, except for one spacecraft. I think I'll start with that. I finally managed to get the decals down on the Finemolds Y-wing fighter. This is probably the only flaw in this whole kit: the decals are extremely fragile. Several did break and even slightly shatter on me. On a kit like this, it don't matter; that just makes it look more like chipped or worn paint. Still, I tried to minimize the breakage as much as possible. If I'd known these were that delicate, I would have added a coat of decal film. Anyway, here is Gold Leader finally with all his decals on: Next I'll be glosscoating this and then giving it another wash. After the wash, I'll dullcoat it and call it done. Now lets get back down to earth... Next up: the Topol... I finally got tired of all the crap with this kit and just bulled right through it to get it done. I started by completing all the suspension parts (I found out I'd left off two axles!) and all other underside details. Then I continued by building the driver's cab and adding the fenders to this: I then built the erector sled onto the back section of the main body. This was a particularly delicate join: I then glued the rear panel section to the back of this model and tested the positioning of the launch erector sled: Moving a long, I then built all the side boxes on each side of this monster: After that, the erector sled broke off. I have since just added it to the rocket tube instead and will install the whole thing when it's time. Later on, I added all the rest of the details and finished off the crew cabs: And finally, I completed all the details on the rocket tube itself: This beastie was now ready for paint.... or so I thought.... When I looked at this later before attempting to paint it; I noticed seams and gaps on the little tower mounts on the cabs and side boxes, as well as sinkholes in the side of the erector sled. So, I filled them with Mr. Surfacer 500, let it dry and then sanded them smooth. Here are all the sink marks on the erector sled that I had to fill in: Now this thing is ready for paint, so I shot a coat of Dark Green on it: Next I will try to camouflage this if I can find a decent tan to use. However, after all that, I was so tired of this I set it aside. I moved on to something a bit more simple. After getting the roof fixed on the Mack Truck, I shot another coat of Olive Drab on it. I saw I needed slightly more work so I went ahead and filled a little more and sanded it smooth. Meanwhile, I also dropped the tailgate so that the FT-17 would be able to fit inside when I get it done. When it was all dry and sanded smooth, I shot a final coat of paint on this little truck and followed it with a glosscoat when the paint was dry. I hope to put some little ropes on the side of that to hold the tailgate: I then applied the decals: I did notice that silvering decal after I took the pic so I've already hit it again with some Solvaset to get it to settle down. This little guy is almost done and ready to take on it's load. Meanwhile, since I had the airbrush out for this and the Topol, I figured, what else can I paint? Two buses! Here is the first bus with the first basecoat of Panzer Dunklegelb: Later on, I tried to apply a camo pattern on it: I'm not real pleased with this and may just re-shoot this over again. We'll see. The day before, I had applied some Liquid Mask to the sides and top of my Strassenzepp bus to cover the Chrome silver that I didn't want painted: After that was dried, I pulled out some Red Metal Flake paint and shot it over the Strassenzepp bus, including the fenders: It does look a little more burgundy in real life; the pics seem to be making it look real red. Tomorrow, I hope to shoot a final gloss coat over this to seal it; then remove the masking and move on with this bus. I sure hope it looks good enough to move on with! I would hate it if all that effort was wasted. Hmmm, after all that, I needed something simple to do. Ah! I pulled out my latest little purchase an ACE British Forlite Staff Car. This was a quick and easy build, although I couldn't understand why it was so lopsided. I had a devil of a time getting the two sides to line up properly. Finally, I just got it to where it looks good enough. Here is what it looked like after a few hours of fighting it into place. You can see where I still had to shim between the side window frames and the front windshield frame: After a while, I came back to this to add all the final details before painting this. Then I'll add the windows and close it up for final painting and finishing: Well, that's about all I have for today. Maybe sometime in the next few days I'll be able to call some of these done. Meanwhile, thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

Nice score! I guess I wasn't a good boy. I got nothin'!

Congrats! That's quite the eclectic score Jim. Looking forward to seeing these at the Nationals! LOL!

YES! Brilliant job Mark! That is fantastic!

Right on! That jeep set is looking good. I'm just gonna have to pick one up!

At the 1986 Nationals in Sacramento, there was a cartoonish carrier populated with a USN wing of egg planes. USS Eggselsior. That's hilarious! Did anyone get pictures?

That is a ship worthy of being in anyone's collection! I am very impressed; you did a remarkable job on this model. Way to go, you should be proud!

Well, thanks to the rain; I had some time to work on the bench some more this week. I didn't get as much done as I'd have liked, but here are some of the things I got done. I'll start with my aircraft... I found this model while cleaning the hobby room a little, so I shot another coat of black underneath since the last coat crinkled up. I had already cleaned it up so all it needed was paint: This is looking pretty good now. I think I can add the decals to this now: The rest of my time was spent on some of my armor models. My little Mack truck was finally dry from the additional Mr. Surfacer I put on to fill the last seam on the roof. So I sanded it smooth and was lightly buffing it with my 1200-grit buffing stick to polish it up, and this happened: Don't ask me how it happened! I was not even putting any pressure on this! The top got buffed though... I then fixed this up to make it straight again: Later I shot the rest of the Olive Drab on this: Moving along, I pulled out my two Russian guns I'd been building. Both of them got the final detail pieces on them: Later on, while I was painting the aircraft and the Mack Truck; I shot paint on these two as well: After this, I decided to work on my two buses. I added the windows to the one troop bus, and then added the fenders. Typical of a Roden bus, they didn't fit so I added some strip styrene and a lot of Tamiya Extra Thin to fuse it all together: Afterward, I added the photo etch luggage rack and rear ladder so that I could get some paint shot on this later: While that was drying, I painted the interior of the troop bus. I tried to make the seats look like wood: While all this was drying, I pulled down the Strass Zepp bus. I then noticed a big mess-up on the rear fender that I hadn't seen before. It looked like a major finger smudge. I sanded it down and then added some Mr. Surfacer to it to even things out: While that was drying, I also painted a dark leather brown on all the seats in the interior of this luxury bus. I also painted the steering wheel, parking brake lever and gear shift nob: Later on, when I'd sanded and buffed a lot more, I finally felt comfortable enough to shoot another coat of Chrome on the back fender: It's almost impossible to see that anything had gone wrong. I only hope I don't get any more blemishes on this again! That's all I have again. I wish I'd been able to get more done. I'm going to be very busy this weekend so I won't have much time to get much more done besides this for awhile. I did have a little fun making these for my church's Christmas Boutique and Bake Sale: Now that's a lattice top done RIGHT! That's all I have for now. Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

Nice catch! Looking good, keep going man.

Well done Ron! You are right, the extra P/E really makes a difference.

Thanks Chris! That really means a lot to me coming from you.

Thanks Gil! Yes, this was a new design that was floated for consideration in 1944 or so. They made about two or three of these and both did see combat. My recall of the details is fuzzy, but I believe one of these did extremely well knocking out a significant number of enemy tanks. I believe they never went into mass production because by that time Germany had scarce resources to submit for this program. You can hold off on the B-17's; I have very few if any German WWII subjects left to do. However, you may want to alert the fleet of B-52's for some of the Russian models that are coming down the pike...

Man, what a brilliant shine! I only wish it was just as easy for me. I finally got a decent coat on my F-86 in 1/72 scale and it took five attempts for a coat that isn't even shiny! Way to go! I bow in the presence of a Master!

This time it is the troublesome Dicker Max! After all that effort to try and make this look good, I finally got it finished. I had envisioned a more weathered, modulated look; but after the difficulty I had just getting a grey basecoat down, I decided to forget about that! Here it is, fresh from it's trial run in the dusty testing fields: My German Army can now take delivery of yet another vehicle. That makes number 661; I'm slowly getting them done! Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome!

Okay, yesterday and today I was able to find some time for the workbench so I got some more progress to show. On Monday I messed around a little, doing some simple work on some of my models. For starters, I shot another coat of Alclad on my F-86 Sabre jet. I can now claim victory over this thing after five attempts: Next, I added the Mr. Surfacer 500 to the roof of the Mack truck and set it aside to dry: While this was drying, I figured that now would be a good time to start on the little RPM FT-17 that is going to sit in the back of this truck. So, I pulled it out and started on the main hull. Here it is after a few minutes. There's 11 pieces on this little assembly and this is just the basic hull: After that, I had enough! That was put aside and I pulled down the Russian 85mm AA gun and started to assemble the main gun carriage. After that I added the main gun and set it up so that it would be in firing position. Here it is, sitting temporarily on the main base: Finally, I added the decals to the Dicker Max. I was going to wait, but I figured this had been sitting on the bench far too long so it was time to git 'r done! The next day, I had more time so I got down to business. First off, I wanted to try and experiment a bit on the Y-wing fighter. I added a black wash to it and later; when it was dry, I dry-brushed the raised details. I started in the cockpit dry-brushing in there, and then did the rest. Here's the cockpit: Most of that won't even be seen after the canopy goes on, but what the hey... Here's the rest of it. I washed and dry-brushed only the main fuselage on this Y-wing so see how it would turn out. I'll let you guys decide how well I did: Next I took down the Dicker Max and fixed the silvered decals; painted up the exhaust and the tools, and then weathered this beastie. It is now completed. You can see it on the Armor Forums after this. The next thing I did was to assemble the interiors of both of the buses. The troop bus was first: Then I did the fancy tour bus: Here's a shot of both interiors side by side, just for kicks: I had clearcoated the body of the fancy tour bus yesterday and let it dry overnight. Today, I took it down and shot a coat of Testor's Chrome Silver over this thing. I have to say, I think I did quite well for once: The instructions for this bus said that the interior was also silver, so while I still had some Chrome Silver in the airbrush, I went ahead and shot the interior of this bus: Now that is sitting and drying; I'll probably leave it that way for a couple weeks to make sure it sets right. Then I'll clear coat it again before masking it off to apply the red. Well, that is about all for now. I have at least four other models that are now ready for decals so I may take the next bench time to apply them and move four more projects closer to the finish. Until then, thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

Thanks Chris!

Thanks William! The Valiant practically fell together. I've had no issues with fit; although sanding out the seams inside the air intakes was quite the bear to do! I also like the looks of the other two V-bombers too, but I'm going to be thrilled to finally finish this one so I can have all three on my ceiling.

Thanks Jim! Oh yes, I plan on it!

Excellent! I'll be watching this with great interest...

Sweet job! Someday when I grow up I'll be able to make a metal finish like you can. Seriously Gil, you have some mean skills. Truly a great Master!

Well, after four months of moving this little beastie around while waiting for his missing track to be coughed up by the Carpet Monster; I finally looked down and saw it. Without further ado, I installed these on this StuG. Here is Number 660, my StuG IV Late: Now I have a little more room to start a couple more models. Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

Well I finally got a day to spend in the Hobby Room, so I went to work on some of the models that had been sitting around for far too long. I'll start with this little thing, which now has all the detail parts added to it now: I have built all three of RPM's Mack Trucks, and every one of them has had issues with the roof of the cab on every model! I can't understand this: Tomorrow; if I have time, I'll add some Mr. Surfacer to this and get it filled and sanded smooth. After that, I can add the wheels and then clearcoat, decal, dullcoat and weather this one. Next, I decided to fix the issues I had with the Valiant. I masked off the top and all the rest of the camouflaged areas: I then shot a clearcoat on the bottom. After it dried, I shot a new coat of white to the bottom. When it was dry, I removed all the masking to see how well it worked. It worked: But the top had more issues to deal with: I just hand painted on the patches to cover these issues and then clearcoated the model with Aqua Clear in preparation for decals. It is sitting now and drying, waiting for the decals later on. Next I masked off the 1/32 scale Tigershark with Silly Putty: Next, I shot on the second color, Neutral Grey over the model: The next color is going to be Intermediate Blue, but I have to go pick up some more Silly Putty since I'm out! Once I get the last color on, I'll be able to clearcoat and decal this monster after I finish repairing the wingtip missile rail....again. Aside from all the above, I also sanded and refined a couple artillery pieces and the bodies of the two buses. Nothing new to show so I didn't shoot pics of them. Oh, but remember this little guy? I would have finished him about four months ago, but I'd lost one of his tracks... Well, I finally found his missing track! Finally I could finish that one! Check it out in the Armor Forum; I have the finished pics posted there. That's all for now. Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.