Mark Deliduka

I like it! Well done! All my railroad subjects are military!

That ROCKS! Brilliant job on that yellow paint coat! Man, I love these old classics!

Thanks Guys! Bob, I love that Christie too, I'd been wanting one ever since I was a kid and finally got it in San Diego at their model contest! It scared the crap outta me when I first opened the box, but I dove right in. It's such an awesome kit! Gil, I do only build my ships OOB, so no fancy rigging or P/E, (although I did rig a couple) but I like how these turned out. I have one more IMEX ship to build, the Bahrain, and then I'll have finished the entire range of IMEX ships. I also picked up the Lindbergh kit of the Presidential liner that I want to start soon too. Thanks again for the great replies guys!

Brilliant technique! Thanks for posting that.

I have tried 1/700. LOL! I have over 320 ships in 1/700 scale completed. :D Of course, none sport any photo-etch or even rigging; I built most all of them in my ancient youth. My Japanese Navy alone has at least on of every Heavy Cruiser class and every Destroyer class used by the IJN in WWII. But yeah, I like having my cake and eating it too! :lol:

I'll start with my aircraft. I have completed the largest collection of small commercial aircraft in 1/72 scale over the last couple years. Here they are: Aurora Piper Cherokee 180: Aurora Piper Aztec: Eidai Beechcraft Bonanza V-35: Cessna Skymaster, manufacturer unknown: Airfix Cherokee Arrow: Eidai Areo Subaru: And here's a group shot of all of them together: Here's a couple of airships for you... The venerable Revell Goodyear Blimp with working lights: and the monster of them all, the 1/285th scale Haw3k Graf Zeppelin: I also have a number of ships for you.... Revell's Esso Glascow Tanker: Revell's Hawaiian Pilot Freighter: How about Jacque's Cousteau's Calypso: Another Revell ship, the Titanic: Next is Glencoe Models NS Savanna: Now for another freighter, the IMEX Trinidad: Another IMEX ship, the NedLloyd Rouen: From IMEX again, the MS Toyama, a container ship sans containers: And another IMEX ship, the MS Tampa a container ship WITH containers! This is a little Japanese freighter put out by Hasegawa, the Hikara Maru: Oh, here's a couple more passenger ships I've found... The Airfix Canberra: and the Queen Mary: And just for fun, here's a commercial vessel my mother-in-law used to take up the river to market every weekend: After all that, the only cars and trucks I have so far are these.... This is a Ford Model T I built for someone as a gift: I have two more in the stash to build. I'll have to get on those. And finally, my automotive Magnum Opus, a 1/12th scale of the 1911 Christie Fire Truck: Well, that's all my commercial vehicles I have so far. Now let's see all of yours!

And here is the parade of my latest completed models. I'll start with the little ACE 1/72 scale Iraqi M-3 APC that was done for a Group Build on the Missing Lynx Braille Scale Forums: Next up, another ACE model in 1/72 scale, the British Tilly: Oops, the little stop indicator fell off. Gotta get that fixed. Followed by an ancient model I started when I was ten and put aside because I'd lost the decals. Lo and behold, I found the original decals; applied a decal film to them and pulled this model out to apply them to it. I can now declare this thing done after forty years: I'll be looking for a .50 cal to add to that ring later. And finally, this last one is the Fujimi 1/72 scale Early Tiger I. I did this up in the markings of Whittmann's tank that he used at Kursk: And there they are, my most recent finished armor models. Now to get some more completed. Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

Another small update for this week. It ain't much but I'll have more to show after this Friday's Hobby Gathering. Okay, on to my latest progress... First of all, I managed to finish four models this week. You'll find them all in the Armor Forums In armor, I painted a basecoat on the OT-62: Once that was dry, I installed all the roadwheels: You can see the main gun on the turret is broken; this model seems to NOT want to be built! I've since fixed that, but then when it came time to add the drive sprockets, I found that one half of one of them was broken beyond repair and the other half of the other one was missing! I cannot catch a break with this stinkin' model! Onward to one I could build..... I painted the camouflage pattern on the Iraqi M-3 APC here: After that was dry, I added most of the detail parts to this; added the wheels; gave it a glosscoat and then decaled it. After all that, I gave it a dullcoat, followed by a dark wash to try and bring out the details: This little beastie is now finished; you can see it in the Armored Forum with the others that I finished. Now for my aircraft, I glosscoated my A-109K and added the decals to it: After this, I need to paint up the details, add the weaponry and install and paint the details on the rotors. A couple more days and this one will most likely be finished. The only other aircraft progress I made was to sand smooth the rough, badly-painted basecoat on my Vickers Valiant: After this, I painted it overall in a black primer to find out where it was still rough. Then I sanded again on the rough spots. I didn't get any pics of that. If you look at the above pic and imagine it painted black all over, you'll see why I didn't bother with another pic. Well, that's all the progress I have to show for this week so far. As I mentioned, I'll have more to show after tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it; I'll have the whole day for building models. Meanwhile, thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

Duke...1/48 scale...!!!!...??? I'm stunned. Yeah, well; it was for a 1/48 scale P-51 I'd gotten after one of our IPMS club's Distressed Kit Auction. It had been badly started by someone who really messed it up. It was so seriously bad that it went through four auctions without a bid. Finally, it was offered to me for free or it would have been thrown out. For some reason, I hate the idea of throwing out a model; even one as badly done as this so I took it. Later, as I was looking through the box; I felt confident I could 'resurrect' this model. Since the only things that were missing were the canopy and decals, that's what I had to order. It's not the first 1/48th scale aircraft I've built; at least three others were built and given as gifts or were paid projects for other people. This is the only 1/48th scale aircraft I kept for myself since I worked so hard to actually build this into something rather respectable. She won't win any contests, but it's one of the models I'm most proud of: Don't worry; so far every aircraft after that one (except two gifts for a friend), have been and will be 1/72! Now back to our regularly scheduled Thread....

LOL! That's funny Gil! Man, what we modelers do when confronted with a deal! The most I ever paid for a model was $165.00 for my Dora railgun; a steal when you consider it retails for between $280.00 and $320.00. I paid less than $120.00 for a $200.00+ kit of the Trumpeter Tu-160 Blackjack. And no aftermarket was purchased in the acquisition of these models. The most recent and most 'expensive' aftermarket I bought was a vac-formed canopy and some decals for a 1/48 scale P-51B Mustang I was "resurrecting", and that was over five years ago. That's another story for another Forum....

If that is the cost of all those aftermarket items then I'm running this hobby on the cheap. I don't buy aftermarket more than once every four to five years, I have maybe $200.00 worth of paints, and my amortization is probably more like $2.00/kit given how many I typically finish in a year. Overall, I'd say this is the cheapest and most enjoyable hobby I can think of, especially at my rate of "consumption".

As I recall from having the Revell kit; the main deck is molded as all one piece, as opposed to Tamiya which splits the main deck into two or three pieces. Therefore, with the Revell kit, you don't have to deal with deck seams.

Man that is brilliant! I've built two of those models and did seriously bad on them. I could never get the upper turrets to turn, not without carving out huge sections of fuselage around them. I could never understand why they never worked, even after I followed the instructions. Way to go!

Sweet! I may just have a few models I cam post here. I have to commend you on your choices of themes; you've been picking some excellent and inspiring subjects.

Sorry for the late reply, I just saw this. Thanks for that link; I would love getting that book too. I do have two other Squadron-type books on armored trains that were a big help with this model. At least picture-wise that is; one of them was written in Polish and I don't read or understand it. I have two more Russian armored trains to do; hopefully I can get them done soon.

Very nice! That is one huge beast! Looking forward to seeing more done.

Thanks Kevin! Fortunately this was all in two kits, yet the price darn near killed me! This beastie is over six feet long, so I can imagine what a 1/35th scale one would look like! I've also done a Russian Armored Train as well. I have two more in the lineup. Thanks again for the great reply.

Welcome Kevin! I can see you have already dove right in with all the posts you have already done. You will fit right in here. Congrats on thew awards you've won. I too have the same philosophy when it comes to contests. Place my work on the tables and let the chips fall where they may. Welcome once again and now I'll go check out the rest of your posts.

You're welcome Ron! Glad to help.

Excellent work! I like it!

Ron, welcome to my world! As I recall though, UM only makes models in 1/72 scale. I have two Shermans of theirs I have started, but one has the wrong parts inside the kit, making it impossible to build. Still considering options to get around that though. You did an outstanding job on this model. Way to go.

Two more brilliant masterpieces taking shape. This is gonna be fun to watch.

I think I can. It looks like a part I used in a model kit that I've built some time ago; the part definitely looks familiar. It'll take some time for my foggy memory to clear up though.

Thanks guys! Yeah, this box has really made my trips to Hobby Day far more fun and productive!

For about five or six years now, I've been taking model kits and tools down to St. Crispin's Irregulars Hobby Day that is held in a local Knights of Columbus Hall down in Anaheim. While there, I get to spend the day working on my models for as long as I want. At one time, we were opening up once a week which really helped my productivity tremendously. Dora's assembly was a lot faster because of those Hobby Days. I do still go to Hobby Days, but we only have them twice a month now. It's the only place I can work on Dora, given the size of this thing! One of the issues I kept having was that I couldn't find a toolbox that was able to carry everything I needed to do what I wanted to do. I'd tried different boxes from Hardware toolboxes from Home Depot; to arts & crafts toolboxes from Michael's or Aaron Brothers Art Marts. Nothing worked to my satisfaction. Finally, after stopping in to a Sports Chalet just before my birthday to pick up something for my physical therapy, I decided to check out the fishing dept. for tackle boxes. I found the perfect one for $59.95. A bit pricey, yes, but it works out perfectly! Here it is; in this pic the front is open showing the three drawers holding a number of my tools, including channel locks for opening up stubborn paint jars: The top has compartments holding all my most-used tools: Underneath the top is the compartments holding my paints and other supplies. Most importantly, the left side is a deep section that holds all the taller bottles that never could fit satisfactorily in all the other boxes that I tried out: Now I can fit everything I need and then some; and it all stays organized! Man, I love this! Going to Hobby Days are far more enjoyable now. That's all I got from myself. A number of models were given to me by some good friends at Hobby Day as well: Yeah, it was a good birthday!