Mark Deliduka

Neal, enjoy that Tu-16 Badger! I built one, but with the glass nose. It is a fun kit to build! Nothing big here; just some old ESCI kits for nostalgic reasons. I picked these up at my latest AMPS meeting: I have plans to start these early next year.

Here is a small update showing the things I got done at my Hobby Day weekend. After fixing that staff bus, I decided that I wanted to get the last two buses I had built, so I pulled them out to start at Hobby Day. One was a later version on the first troop bus that will be done in yellow and green camo, the other one is this one: I started by doing the bodies first. This was the easiest and it allowed me to make sure everything lined up properly. Here is the troop bus first: Here is the fancy tour bus next: I have since filled the seams with Mr. Surfacer 500 and sanded them smooth. Moving along, I changed my tack a bit by starting a new aircraft. This is a Williams Bros. 1/72 scale C-46 that I'd gotten for four bucks at a model show. I started, as usual; with the cockpit/interior (such as it is): The posts are where the seats are supposed to go, but this was a "distressed" kit when I bought it. That means the box was crushed and there were some holes in the bags so one seat disappeared. It may be somewhere in my Hobby Room at home, but I don't know. I have a friend who took the remainder and is casting me a replacement. Next I assembled the wings and horizontal stabilizers. Not bad, but there are some fit issues. Besides, the instructions weren't very clear about the landing gear bays so I had to take apart the main wings three times before I could finally close them up permanently: Next the instructions told me to add the two canopy halves to the front of the fuselage halves. What a pain that was! I had to tape the fuselage sides flat and glue the canopy pieces on as best I could. They still don't fit very well: What a mess! Moving on, I figured I'd better work some more on the Sleepy Hollow model. I went over it some more and re-scribed and shaped parts of it better to hide the seams more. Afterward, I assembled the tree that is supposed to go on the base. This needs some more work before I'm ready to add it to the main base: Next I assembled most of the base for this; I left off one Jack o' Lantern since I needed to paint the interior of it first: I also figured I'd add the head to the left hand of the Horseman. Here you can see him dry-fit to the almost completed base: Now to figure out how to paint the harness in front: Finally it was time to have a little fun... I pulled out some of the parts to the Saturn V and assembled the upper part of the LEM: I left off a lot of the small detail parts that would get broken during further assembly. Next I built the lower part of the LEM. It only consisted of two parts: Here is the two parts sitting dry-fit together: I won't go much further on this until I get it gold-leafed. But, I did get the command and service module finished up: That was a tougher build than I though it would be. I actually had to pull it apart once in order to glue a part on in the right position. The instructions weren't clear on how certain parts were supposed to fit together! Now for fun, I put all the main assemblies together to get an idea of how big this monster is gonna look when done. The Command and Service Module is not floating in mid-air; they are sitting on the clear parts that Dragon included so that the LEM could be seen inside the rocket when done: You can see the standard-sized cola can sitting next to this to give you some idea of the size of it. That is all I have for now. It ain't much, but I appreciate any and all comments. Thanks for looking in.

Sweet job! I love the maps that put everything into context.

Stunning work!

Nice scores guys! Rob, I'm looking forward to seeing the MBT-70. I just wish someone would release that in my scale!

Thank you Joe. I really appreciate hearing that I was able to help. I do not consider myself a real good modeler; I'm mediocre at best, especially compared to the Masters here on these boards. I will always post pics of issues like this in hopes of getting additional feedback from others who've mastered these techniques to the point that they never happen to them. If that helps you as well as me, then I will be sure to do this more often so you can benefit from my mistakes as well. It seems that I go through this more often than most, but still, I am glad that I'm able to help you in this way. Together we'll get these techniques down. Keep plugging Joe, before too long; your models will surpass mine! Thanks Mark! I do remember that. It seems that kind of thing always happens to me; that's why I haven't finished any large aircraft recently, or at all. I've barely finished small ones! Anyway, I'm going to keep plugging along. One of these years I might just get it right....

Sounds good. I appreciate that. I do have a couple friends in my IPMS club that have offered to help me gold leaf my LEM.

Thanks Joe! Yes, I keep them in their respective boxes and pull them out when I can't go any further on a previous project; or when I want to move ahead on one. Sometimes it gets tough with so many boxes around.... Okay, here's another small update. I managed to get a little more done yesterday and today. Here is my latest... I was told that the bus axle was in the wrong place, so I fixed that up: Later on I dusted it up and then re-attached the drive shaft and then added the body. I now have a bus again! I also added some weathering to my Dicker Max's tracks before adding them to the model. here it is waiting for clear coat and decals before I dull it down and dirty it up.... a little: While I had the steel out and was dry-brushing the tracks on the Dicker Max, I figured it was also time to dry-brush the steel on the chassis underneath my Mack truck: That truck is almost done. I should have it close to decal time in no time. Armor wasn't all I worked on. I also decided to try and get some more paint in the Tigershark. Here it is with the upper basecoat done: Next step is to mask it off and apply the camo pattern. Speaking of camo pattern, I masked off the rest of the Valiant with tape and Silly Putty. I didn't have enough silly putty to cover all the areas I wanted to cover, so I added tape and then placed the silly putty around the edges of the tape to round things off: Next came shooting the color: I didn't have my instruction sheet to show me just where the grey and green were supposed to be so I just 'winged' this..... so to speak.... While I had the airbrush out and ready to go, I decided to try out the Alclad on the gloss black on the F-86 just to see if I finally got it smooth enough. Well, it seems that once again I am foiled in trying to get a smooth bare metal finish! Apparently Alclad is very particular about what Gloss Black you apply to your model first: Time to strip this again.... for the seventh time! After that disaster, I set myself up for another one... I went back when all the paint was dry on the Valiant and removed all the masking tape and Silly Putty. Apparently I suck at masking because I had a load of bleed through and one mysterious brown swipe that wasn't there when I taped this bird up! So, can someone tell me why I seem to be the only one who follows everyone's advice to the letter and I STILL have this kind of crap happen? I see all these other fantastic modelers who show a taped-up/masked aircraft and when they show the next pic, it's a PERFECT PAINT JOB! Man it's enough to make one just want to give up... Tomorrow I hope to add the camo pattern to the Tigershark before going to a friend's house to help escort his kids while they trick-or-treat. We'll see if I am successful then. Meanwhile, thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

Actually, I think I did pretty well considering it is already built. I'm just trying to lay paint on it now. I sure hope I can get this camo pattern to look right!

Very nicely done! I hope you don't mind me using these as a reference for mine. I have a 1/72 scale one to build and place inside my Saturn V Rocket. Your pics will help.

Okay, this is a small update for now. I went through my workbench and continued to work on some more of the models that have been sitting for too long. Starting with this one: This is the Opel Blitz Staff bus that I broke some time ago. I managed to glue back the rear leaf springs and add the main axle to it. I also re-set one of the front wheels which had glued a little too high: Next, I decided to get some paint on this Dicker Max once and for all. I succeeded...finally: I thought of going back and trying to modulate the color, but I said to myself "fuggeddaboutit"! I've had enough trouble with this thing, time to just finish it! Next, I pulled out my 2009 New Year Challenge model: the 1/32 scale Tigershark that I failed to meet the challenge with. Well, I had to replace a few broken parts first, then I refined the sanding I had done earlier. Finally, I masked certain areas off and shot a light, duck-egg blue to the underside: Now all I have to do is flip it over and shoot the camouflage pattern on it. I hope to do that sometime this week. Since I had the airbrush all fired up, I decided to also paint the Y-wing I'm building for the Call to Arms campaign. First though, here's a shot of the cockpit after I gave it a wash before closing it up: Here it is after I shot the grey over it and painted the cockpit canopy intermediate blue: It took awhile getting inside all those nooks and crannies. Now I just have to paint some details and then I can add the decals to this. Now on to other projects. On another DG I saw some excellent artillery pieces so I felt it was time to start building the stack of guns I had lying around. I added a few minor ittle detail pieces to the British 2-lb gun but I didn't take any pics because you really can't tell what pieces I added so if you want to see that gun, it's on the previous post. This next one is a Russian 100mm anti-tank gun that I managed to get the main carriage built for: It's looking a bit tired, but it is only test-fit together. I'm waiting for it to dry before I move on. This next one is another Russian gun, this time an artillery piece for indirect fire. It uses the same gun on the SU-152, so I'm guessing this is where they got it for that monster AFV. I got the main carriage built and this gun mounted on it; all that's left is adding all the small detailed parts before I paint it: Finally, when it comes to the guns at least, I started this Russian 85mm anti-aircraft gun. I started with the barrel and added the only other two pieces that go on it: I also drilled out the barrel. Then I built the carriage. This is now ready for paint: Now I just need to build the gun mount on this and she's ready to go. The last project I worked on is this little Mack truck. I got the underside painted with Oily Black: ...before I flipped it over to paint the cab and the bed in Olive Green: Now I just have to detail that; dry-brush some silver underneath and then decal and weather it. I wanted to start the little FT-17 that a friend had given me for my birthday, but I couldn't find the little beastie. I'll keep looking though. Okay, that's all I have for now. Like I said, small update, but I hope to have more to show this weekend. Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

Happy Birthday Pete! I love the eggplanes too. I just haven't taken the time to build many of them, but I agree; they are quick and fun! I even won a quick building contest once building an eggplane Zero. I even got it to the decal stage in one hour! Enjoy your new Eggs!

Very sharp! I like it!

Thanks Rob! I completely forgot about those other kits for some reason! *slaps forehead* It looks like I have a few more Sherman kits to look for.

Wow, you make it look far easier than all that! Way to go!

I've always wanted to do one of those, the Panzer IV and the Jagdpanzer IV in Syrian service in 1/72 scale. Maybe someday.

That is incredible! I'll never understand how you are able to get all that painting done so clean! I have to constantly touch-up and re-touch up when I paint mine.

Dragon has the only M4A3E8 in my scale: 1/72. The Hasegawa kit actually scales out to about 1/64th scale; close, but no cigar. I know, as I've built one already and it dwarfs all my Dragon 1/72 scale Shermans. The Dragon kit also has far better details too.

That is one beautiful aircraft! Way to go! I have a William's Bros. kit of the C-46 to do. I think I'll be starting it soon, once I get a few other large models out of the way.

Welcome Stanley! Glad to see you come back to modeling. I'm looking forward to seeing your work.

Decals looking good! They went on very well. This has been very educational watching this bird come together.

Well done!

I've been reading this, but once I am finished, what did you have in mind?

Thanks for the compliments Gil! I appreciate them very much. I did the orange over silver on the pilot because his visor was supposed to be painted with transparent orange. Since I had none, I tried the idea of painting over wet silver to see if I could come close to that effect and it seemed to work out. I'm certainly pleased with the results. Now to get this and the rest of these painted up. I'm looking forward to getting that done.

That's brilliant Chris! I never thought of that! Thank you very much for that tip! Thanks also for the compliment on the horse's seams. I did my best on that and I'm well pleased with the outcome. I can't wait to get this model further along! Stay tuned for more; I hope to have more work done on these soon.