Mark Deliduka

Well, I went out shopping today for some more paint that i needed to get things done. In the process, I picked up a few more things. First of all, I figured it was time to pick up some models I had being held for me at the LHS. These are all in 1/72 scale: UM Models British Achilles: Next are two trucks: the Aoshima JGSDF 1.5 ton cargo truck: And finally the RPM Mack AC Bulldog: Driving home, I realized that I also needed some new hoses, connectors and other accessories for my airbrushes. So, a quick stop to Coast Airbrush to pick up these: And finally, my compressor is starting to crap out on me so I went to Lowe's to get this: Daddy's gonna have fun this week!

Okay, here it is a few months down the line and I finally have some progress done and a camera to document it! Gee, where do I start? I guess I'll start with my aircraft and work my way to the ground. In aircraft, I started a new F-86. (my third one I found out!) This one is the Hobby Boss easy build model and it wasn't so easy to build! I had a devil of a time getting the nose to fit on, and when I finally did, I went ahead and sanded everything smooth. Later, I shot a coat of Tamiya Gloss Black on it to prepare it for Alclad. It was filled with imperfections and blemishes. So, I sanded all the imperfections out and then buffed it with a 4000-grit sanding pad. Here is the result: I may just shoot the Alclad right on it now instead of adding another coat of black... After that hassle, I figured it was time to do an easy job: I shot some Tamiya Navy Blue from a spraycan on my F-8 Bearcat that I'm doing for another Monogram Group Build elsewhere. This came out far smoother and even than the black did. Gee, I wonder why.... Moving along I had shot another coat of grey primer on the underside of my F-4 Phantom II I'm doing for another Group Build elsewhere. Afterwards, when it was dry; I masked off the bottom to prepare this for the top coat: Once I get the top coat on, I'll mask this with some more Silly Putty and add the camouflage pattern to it. Maybe then this will turn out better than my usual screwed up planes. Earlier in the week, I worked on my little F4-B4 biplane at Hobby Day. I got some paint on this and then added a few more detail parts. I had painted the tail surfaces and upper wing white to help the yellow go on better. Then I brushed on the yellow paint on the tail and it turned out great: The top wing didn't work out though, so I wiped it off as much as I could to shoot some yellow on it later through the airbrush: Later I'll apply the decals to this since it is easier to do when the upper wing is not on it. On to my armor... I started out adding Silly Putty to my Russian T-90, one of my StuGs, and my ancient Airfix Panzer IV. Then I shot paint for the second color of a three-color pattern. Then I masked the StuG and the T-90 with more Silly Putty and shot the third color. I also shot a third color on the Panzer IV without masking more; why I don't know. Just lazy I guess. Anyway, here are the results: The PzIV still with the Silly Putty on it: Here it is with the Silly Putty removed: The StuH42 with all the Silly Putty removed: I need to add the dots for the ambush scheme on this, and then I'll be able to move on. This is the T-90 with the Silly Putty removed. Now I can add a few more detail pieces; touch this up a bit and it'll be ready for decals: Speaking of decals, my Indian T-90 is finished and ready for a clearcoat and decals now: Next, I tried to do a freehand airbrush pattern of stripes on my StuG. My airbrush tip wasn't fine enough, nor was my paint and air ratio correct, so I screwed the pooch on this one: Should be fairly easy to clear up. Speaking of screwing the pooch, I did it again on my Dicker Max. Somehow, the paint messed up again. You can see how shiny it is in this picture; it was still sticky to the touch when I shot that pic two days after I painted it. You may even be able to see my thumbprint on the side: That's what I get for trying to make this one look good. I should have just thrown it together. Then maybe I'd have been done with it and it might even have looked acceptable. No, that just isn't allowed for me.... However, I think I did a bit better freehanding the camo pattern on my Morser 17 artillery piece: I think I can clearcoat, wash and weather this and call it done soon. Finally, I wanted to get some actual building done so I pulled out my T-35 and finished off the assembly. I did leave the track assemblies, upper and lower hulls separate for ease of painting, so this is now ready for paint: And now, for something different, I also started an ancient Airfix RAF Rescue Boat in 1/72 scale. It was a Distressed Kit I got from my IPMS Distressed Kit Auction so it had been 'slightly started'. I did take it a bit further; assembling the rear cabin, the driver's cabin, and the two glassed-in turrets. I assembled the 20mm cannon for the rear deck as well: Moving forward in the directions, I get the feeling that I should have waited to add the rear cabin to the deck instead of following the directions so closely. Here's why: That is going to take some creative gluing, especially since the sides of the lower hull are also narrower that the deck, which means I'm going to have to press pretty hard to spread the hull sides out to glue where they are supposed to go. Hmm, I just found and ancient Airfix Vosper Torpedo Boat in the stash as well... and a PT-109..... Anyway, that's all I have to show for now. It sure felt good to get back to the workbench again. Hopefully I'll be able to make more progress tomorrow. Meanwhile, thanks for looking in, comments are always welcome.

I don't know to be honest. I guess that would depend on the aircraft you're doing. I guess in the long run it doesn't really matter but maybe some one with more experience and knowledge will be able to answer that question.

Using the hairspray technique for chipping is fairly simple. First, put down a basecoat of the color you want to show through i.e. silver on an aircraft. Then shoot some inexpensive hairspray over the area to be 'chipped'. One thin coat is all that is needed. Once that dries, apply the overcoat color, such as olive drab or deep blue. After the paint has dried, take a wet paintbrush and go over the area with hairspray on the spots where you want the chipping to occur. Rub it until the silver starts to show through. The water will dissolve the hairspray and allow it to flake off, taking the overcoat with it and leaving the base coat revealed.

Excellent! I'll be looking forward to seeing them in Columbus. I'd love to see pics of their work as they are doing it too if you can. Thanks!

Richard, I agree that starting from Square One would help. Again, you don't need to do too much in the way of basics, but enough so I can get an idea of how to do it. I'd also include a section on sizing in a Paint Shop Pro/Corel Draw/ or other software system since I have no way of knowing whether something I want to print up will come out to the scale I want.

I would love to see this done. I have several 1/72 scale armor projects I want to do but I need the decals for them. Naturally nobody makes them so I have to find a way to do it myself. I've been waiting for a comprehensive and understandable "how-to" for a long time.

Thanks Dave and Robert. No Dave, I can't go to Va. because it is far too expensive for me to afford. I'm sorry but she won't be in the Journal in December. Dora will be at the Columbus Nationals in 2015 though. I doubt she'll make the Journal again that year, but I'd sure feel better about losing to the competition if she is left in OOB instead of going up against all the other super-detailed models like Colorado did to me. Robert, maybe you'll have yours there as well. It would be interesting seeing her next to another Dora and see how mine compares to a more masterful modeler.

Oh yes! Superthieves indeed! With all of that humanity running around, it's too easy to walk off with someone else's stuff.... and it always seems to be mine! I have no insurance that would pay for the camera. Mine and St Crispin's insurance has too high a deductible. This will come out of my pocket. Well... my wife's pocket. I'm going to go get one later today.

Thanks Dave! I know the feeling. I will probably have these for awhile. Not sure when I'll be able to take these to another show to sell. I also have some other pics to post of some more acquisitions but I can't post them. My camera was stolen at Comicon and so I have to wait until I get a new one and take new pics.

I wish I could, but putting this on the far side of the country put this way out of range for me. I always seem to have the misfortune of being too broke and too far away to take advantage of significant "anniversary" events of groups or organizations I belong to. Story of my life. Thank God my brother lives in Columbus or I'd miss that one too!

Outstanding model! Excellent color modulation; that really makes this model come to life. I also love the staining too; I'll have to try that one day. May I suggest checking for the one gun? It appears one broke off some time before the last pics were taken. Thanks for posting this.

Cool! At least you are getting something done. I have too much other stuff happening to even get into my Hobby Room! Good luck on those shells, I'm looking forward to seeing more done.

Thanks Mark! I have a ton of things going on, so I don't expect to get to the workbench for awhile. I can't wait until I can though!

Looking good Mark! I may not have been commenting much, but I am watching this with interest. Keep plugging along!

Another spectacular build Chris! What an amazing maritime modeler you are! I bow in the presence of greatness. :smiley32:

Welcome Allen! Looking forward to seeing your work!

Thanks Robert! I apologize for not seeing this earlier. I've been real busy and unable to post and surf like I want to. Here's my "words of wisdom" on building Dora: First off, when building Dora, take your time. The first thing I did was to go through the instruction book and make notes on what I wanted to do or not do on each step. Also, keep everything as sub-assemblies until almost the very end; even leaving off the connecting structures between the main superstructure pieces. This will make painting far easier. There are four parts that straddle the wheeled trucks and support the main superstructure; they are the ones with full P/E screens over the tops. You will need to reinforce the posts underneath that attach these to the wheel trucks. I used thick sheet styrene cut into triangular shapes and cemented to four sides of these posts. You should definitely airbrush this; and stock up on paint; especially flat black if you want to prime it with that as I did. It took nine Model Master Flat Black bottles to cover this beast! Also, stock up on Mr. Surfacer 500 or your favorite seam-filling agent since there are a ton of seams to fill along the way. Save the railings and ladders until the ultimate last step to keep them from being broken. Work your way up from bottom to top so as to keep from breaking those installed. Just before doing the railings, cement all the sub-assemblies together. For more information, check out my "Maddog Manufacturing" 2012 and 2013 Threads. Mixed in with them is my almost complete build log for this model. I tried doing a search on this Forums for Dora and came up with nothing. Here is where my Dora Build starts on the 2012 Models in Progress thread: http://forum.ipmsusa3.org/index.php?/topic/8100-the-dukes-2012-workbench-updated-9912/page-2 After that, you'll have to scroll through a number of other models in progress that I was building alongside Dora, but there are a ton of pics to show how she went together and what to expect from her. I hope this helps and doesn't bore you too much! Thanks again for the great comment!

Thanks Bob! I am planning on taking Dora back to the Nationals in 2015. I have her in a very large wooden box that a friend of mine jokingly calls a "baby coffin". She is well packed and rarely ever gets damaged. I've even dropped her from 3 feet up once and had horrible visions of a pile of irreparable pieces, but she came out smelling like roses with only about two parts broken off...easily repaired. hat being said; I never want to experience that ever again! I plan on building a few more boxes to help transport some of my other 2015 entries. I won't be bringing my usual 100+ entries to Columbus due to the distance, but I do plan on having quite a few.

I agree Ed. We had several thunderstorms while I was there, but I could barely enjoy them for all the work I was doing. Still, I'm happy for all the excellent temperatures we had while I was there.

I think I just picked one of those up. Pretty cool.

I love it! Fantastic job!

Thanks Bob! I apologize for responding so late to this; I've been in Ohio for two weeks with barely any internet access. I've been practicing my weathering quite a bit; still not quite satisfied with it, but it is coming along.

Thanks guys! I'm real happy with this win. Dave, San Diego was a tough competition so I am not too surprised. I had some hopes, but it's tough to make something so large with so many pieces look as good as many of the smaller models done by these masters here. Dora has had a good run so far.

Thanks Dave and welcome back! You've been missed! I went with a friend of mine to San Diego at the beginning of this month to enter Dora and nine other models in the San Diego Model Expo. Dora didn't place at all, but I did take a Second Place for my Hobby Boss 1/72 scale Br-86 Locomotive: That was quite the surprise award for me. I am very pleased.