Mark Deliduka

Getting picked up at 7:30 AM for the ride up to Colorado! Can't wait!

Thanks guys! Phil, I'm looking forward to meeting you this time. I can't wait to get there. Ed, thank you, you are too kind. I am glad I had the chance to shoot those pics when I could. I wanted to take more, but wasn't able. I'm sorry to hear of the issues you have had; you are going to be sorely missed. I was hoping very much to meet you again.

I'll be there too. I'll most likely be the guy wearing the "Why yes! I have done some modeling" T-shirt!

This is also my 638th completed 1/72 scale armor model. After one year and five months, I have finally completed my German 80 cm K (E) Schwere Kanone Dora railroad gun. I spent 99% of my time building her at St. Crispin's Hobby Day, where I spent many hours assembling, patching, sealing and sanding. I used Mr. Surfacer 500 exclusively on all seams for this model. At home, I spent three days painting her with Model Master enamels through my Iwata airbrush. I started out with a black basecoat over all. That took seven paint bottles of flat black. Next came five bottles of Panzer Schwartzgrau over all, followed by Gunship Grey over the larger areas to modularize the color. This was followed by further modulation using Neutral Grey. I then dry-brushed all the raised details and edges with Neutral Grey. Next I masked off the barrel and shot Tamiya Bare Metal Silver from the rattlecan on the bare metal parts of the barrel. I sprayed three coats on it. When it was dry, I took a very fine sandpaper sheet, wrapped it around the silver part of the barrel and turned it about four or five times. This gave the very convincing effect of turned metal on the barrel; at least in my opinion. It was certainly what I was trying for. Afterwards, I applied a gloss coat over the areas where the decals went and spent the next two days applying decals. Once they were dry, I hit them with a decal solvent and then dullcoatd them. She was now ready for final assembly. This past Friday and Saturday I took her back to Hobby Day and proceeded to paint the details. I did the wood parts with a weakened wood color; weak enough to see the underlying grey coat. I then applied a strong wash of Burnt Umber mixed with Mona Lisa thinner to bring out the wood grain detail. I was extremely pleased with how the wood came out. Once all this was dry, I proceeded to build and install all the detail parts, railings and other fittings. This was a long and tedious process, but I got them all done. Then I went on to paint all the unpainted areas where the parts were attached to the sprue; and finished off with some more dry brushing and touching up glue spots with some dullcoat. At the end of this two-day marathon building session, I finally declared my Dora completed. Now on to the pics: Here is a shot of the rear loading deck: Here's a shot of the front of the gun from above: This is a shot of Dora from eye level. See how she looms above the viewer: And this last shot was a fun little shot when someone placed a 28mm-sized (approx 1/48 scale) catapult next to Dora. It isn't quite the same scale, but it is quite the hilarious juxtaposition of these two: There she is. My Magnum Opus; even greater than the armored train I did. For anyone going to the IPMS Nationals in Colorado, you'll be able to see her in person. I had a friend of mine build me a box to carry her and I am so thrilled to be able to transport her so securely. Thanks to all who looked in and followed my work as I persevered in this massive undertaking. Your words of encouragement and support kept me going, allowing me to conquer my fear of this model and see this through to the end. Enjoy these finished pics and once again, thanks for looking in and as always, comments are welcome!

That's a brilliant idea of replacing rivets! What material did you use? Mr. Surfacer? Outstanding!

That is the plan Phil. I am working on the last few things to do on it now; hopefully she'll be done in time. I have a friend making a carrying box for her now. I'll be packing her for the trip on Saturday if all goes well.

Fantastic! You really did an excellent job on that canopy!

Me too Steve! Thanks for the compliments!

Looking awesome! Great artwork on all of those. I'd love to recreate some of those in my scale someday! Beautiful job Gil, this shows once again that you are the Master at Vac-formed model aircraft!

Yeah, that doesn't make sense to me. You'd think they'd want to actually fill those rooms.

Excellent! Maybe your next one could be some English signs for Great Britain. They would look great on a few walls on a pre-Normandy invasion dio. Thanks for posting these.

Thanks Mark! I wish you could go too. I'll miss you at Virginia Beach; it's way too far for me to afford. Here's hoping something places at the Nats! Thanks Gil! Yeah, I can just see that guy having a tough time shooting! Imagine how blurry those pics must have been. At least he had straps to keep his hands on it. I'd hate to be the guy who dropped it on a mission....

Thanks Bill! Yeah, I'll get it done. I have some more filler to add, and some more sanding to do; then I can shoot another silver coat. Then she'll be ready for decals and finally finishing. Thanks again for the compliment on the Dora. Yeah, she's a big 'un; I can't wait to get her off my workbench and on to my display!

Okay, I am finally finished with a couple small aircraft. I am so glad these are completed. This first one is a 1/72 scale Revell P-51B Mustang in the markings used by Col. "Tex" Hill. This is going to be part of the IPMS Orange County Group Entry at the IPMS Nationals in Colorado: Next is my ancient USAirfix 1/72 scale German Henschel Hs 126 scout aircraft: I love how they took pics before they learned how to mount the cameras inside the aircraft: That's it for my completed aircraft! Two more down, about nine more to go! Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome!

Wow, I finally was able to complete a couple models, while getting further progress done on others. The completed ones will be in the Aircraft Forums, feel free to check them out. I'll start with the aircraft I did make progress on. This first one is the German CH-53G that finally has a basecoat of dark green. I'll see whether it had a camo pattern on it; if not, I'll be clearcoating this and decaling it before I move on to the finishing touches: Next is the Yak 28. I shot a basecoat of Tamiya Bare Metal Silver from a rattle can to see where I still need to improve the finish. I see a couple places: Now on to my armor.... I was shooting grey on the Dora and decided to hit this little Opel Staff bus I was working on as well. I had to scrape the windows afterward because I forgot to mask them! Still, this is looking pretty good: Later I tried out the body on the chassis to see how it looked. I was quite amazed at how well I could see the interior: And finally, I completed the painting of Dora; she is now all dressed up in her grey Sunday Best! This first shot shows a closeup of the main superstructure: Next a closeup shot of the gun trunnions and part of the breech: And finally, the whole gun fully assembled after all that painting. This is the first time I ever built her up like this at home. She's sitting on a temporary table right here in my Hobby Room: Note the bus and Kubelwagen sitting next to her for a size reference. That bus is the previous one I'd built before, not the staff bus under construction now. All that's left now is to decal her (yes, she has some decals) and then complete the last detail painting and assembly. I just might have this finished in another four or five days if I am free to work on her. I'm reaching the end of this build and it's scaring the crap outta me!! Okay, that's all the progress I have to show for this week; feel free to check out my finished aircraft. Meanwhile, thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

Okay, here are some of my models that have some decent artwork on them. There ain't too many, but I hope you enjoy the ones I have here. In aircraft, I have these with some nose art. Some of the angles and distance may make it a bit difficult to make out the nose art; my apologies. Here they are in no particular order: This one is pretty colorful, so I'm adding it here: This one has a nose art of a very pregnant Lucy on the nose. Hard to make out, but it's there. I like Peanuts so I had to use this decal: This one has the usual "Spectre" nose art. My father flew combat in these aircraft in the 'Nam, so I've seen this all my life: Here is a closeup of the nose art I added to a B-1 Lancer I built for a client: Here's a Russian one with some nose art. Note the alligator on the side: Another US one with a bat face. That decal went on so much more smoothly than I expected: Here's a British Herc with some nose art: One of my favorite aircraft since it is from the 33rd TFW at Eglin AFB where I used to live. The nose art says "Gulf Spirit" with an image of Florida. A star is superimposed on the map where Eglin is located. Note also, if you can; the three Iraqi kill markings above the map: That is an old model I built over ten years ago. I really should try to do something to improve the decal appearance. Moving on, here's a colorful one from the German AF, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the new Luftwaffe, I believe: Another colorful one; this time from Britain during the interwar years: I'm not sure this is artistic enough, but it sure looks sharp; it's a Canadian Voodoo: Now, I'm not sure that shark mouths are included in this, but here are a few aircraft sporting such faces... US Thunderchief, another of my favorite aircraft: US A-10 Warthog: British Vampire: British Phantom: ...and a Russian LaGG 5: Speaking of shark mouths, I have this little guy. You can't see the shark mouth from this angle; but it's there under the cockpit: I also don't know if this qualifies as artwork under this category either, but I'm adding it since it is quite colorful. I intended to make this with a simpler paint scheme, but my wife liked the horse on the tail, so I built it this way. It was one of the toughest paint/decal jobs I ever had to do! Now on to my armor since these Forums don't allow me to post everything in one Thread. Feel free to check them out as well....

Okay, here are some of my armor models that have some decent artwork on them. There ain't too many, but I hope you enjoy the ones I have here. I'll start out with my Russians, although most of these show slogans painted on the sides of these vehicles. I'm not sure they qualify, but some of it is quite artistic looking: They even added them to their Lend Lease vehicles.... ...as well as their captured ones: The US army has a few names on theirs as well: They started getting a bit artistic here too: And finally, a real artistic one from the US Army in Korea: That's all my armor artwork in this Thread. I also have my aircraft artwork in another thread, feel free to check them out too. Enjoy!

Nice work! Looks like you beat it into submission quite well. I also like the way the tires turned out.

Thanks Will! It will certainly overwhelm them with size, that's for sure. Should be shooting a grey coat on her very soon.

Thanks Chris! It is interesting. I decided to build it after thinking it was a biplane, but then I took a closer look. I'm not sure this kit is still available; it is an ancient USAirfix kit from the 70's that I got from our Distressed Kit Auction. It still is a fun kit and I'm having a blast putting it together.

Sweet! I actually have a couple of these I can upload.

Can't seem to find that page. I come up with with a Search page every time. I am looking forward to seeing these. I only build 1/72 scale, but I could always re-size these.

Thanks Gil! it's tough keeping all the parts straight for that Dora. I've got a small but growing pile of small parts that keep falling off. I only hope I can keep them all long enough to put them all back on!

..bringing me to 637 completed armor models. First off is a model I finished a week or so ago and forgot to post. This is my RPM French Renault H-39 light tank: This little guy is about an inch-and-a-quarter long! Next up is my ACE Russian TOS-1 Buratino MLRS weathered up with weathering powders and spare decals from my spares box. It ain't accurate, but I felt it looked rather 'naked' without some kind of markings, especially on that big box! here it is, number 637: That's all my armor done for now. Feel free to check out my Manufacturing Threads to see my latest progress. Meanwhile, thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

Well, here's a small update for everyone. I spent a good two days working on these models. First off, not much got done on the Yak 28. I sealed the seams at the wing roots and then sanded them smooth. Next I'm going to mask the canopy and then shoot it in silver to check sanding: Next I got all the decals on the Henschel Hs 126. Now I can finally assemble this thing: While I was decaling; I also added decals to this P-51 Mustang for the IPMS Orange County Mustang Collection for the Nationals. Now to finish off this one: On to my armor, I got a little done on the Opel Staff Bus. The main body is painted; waiting for the window material and then assembly: I also painted then British Warrior APC I'm doing. This one is very close to being done: Finally, for two straight days, I airbrushed and airbrushed and airbrushed! It took all of two days of airbrushing, but now Dora is decked out in her little black teddy, waiting to be dressed up in her Sunday best: These are all the component subassemblies broken down for painting. It's getting close! That's all the update I have for now. Hopefully I'll have more to show soon. Meanwhile, thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.