Mark Deliduka

Man, what a bad case of insomnia, I couldn't sleep a wink last night! So, what the hey; I figured I'd put all that time to good use instead of tossing and turning for no reason. This is the result of my overnight battle with insomnia. I'll start with one of my aircraft I've been taking far too long on. This is my Sabrejet "MiG Mad Marine" that I finally shot a silver basecoat on to see all the wonderful flaws I left on it. There were a lot: Since I was already working on planes; our next IPMS meeting contest theme is "Civility" or anything used by, or modified for, civilian use. I figured that was the perfect excuse to finally start the two Pipers that need replacing from 2007. So, out came the kits. I assembled and painted the interiors and then after they were dry, I enclosed them in the fuselage halves. Here is where I am with these. The Piper Cherokee: The Piper Aztec: The wings are only dry fit here. I also did a little work on my R-100 airship, but it was mostly sanding seams and filling gaps so nothing worth shooting pics for. Amazingly enough, THAT boring work didn't even put me to sleep! Moving on to armor, I started five more while making some headway on three others already in progress. Here is my Gaskin. It is all painted and ready for me to mount the wheels: Notice there is only one. I went to work on the other one and bring it up to this level of completion, but when I reached next to the first one where the second was supposed to be; it was not there. It's as if it just drove off on it's own (which takes some doing as I never installed the wheels!) I searched everywhere and that model is no where to be found. So, I moved on.... The next model I got some progress on was the BRDM I. This one is finished with base painting and ready for the wheels to be installed: Finally, I got the base coat on the Dragon Halftrack and Pak 36. These are ready for more detailing now. Here's the halftrack: Here's the gun: Here they are together: These next two models are two more ACE 1/72 scale kits of French armored cars. I started these at Hobby Day and got a little work done here on them. This first one is the AML 90 armored car. I already built an AML 60, so this was needed for my collection too: This next one is the ERC 90 Sagaie. This kit has recently gone out of production. I'm glad I picked it up! These last three are Trumpeter 1/72 scale LAV variants. I picked these up at the Nationals and now I'm expanding my Marine Corps inventory. Here's the LAV AT: Here's LAV recovery vehicle: And here's the LAV Command vehicle: In addition to all this, I also touched up my Russian Radar truck a little, but not enough to warrant pics. Well, that's all for now. I guess I can go get some sleep now. Comments are welcome; thanks to all who stop in and comment.

I contacted Airfix on their online site and requested some missing clear parts for an old Catalina, but no response yet. It's been a couple weeks. Not even an acknowledgment of my E-mail.

That is a wonderful and incredible story! John, thanks for posting this; it always feels good to pick up one of your first model kits. I myself have always wanted the Borax Mule Team model but was never able to get it. Maybe someday I'll find it and pick it up. The work you're doing on that stage is spectacular. Keep it up and I am certainly looking forward to seeing more of this.

In some ways, that can be a good thing...

Keith, thanks. I'll try not to fudge anything more though. Gil,. thanks. Okay, no more apologies. And, yes, I am the Duke. If I had over 1000 small scale armor models, I think I'd be the King! Ed, you probably pass me in aircraft. Thanks for the great comment!

These are all awesome! Great to see so much. In addition to all I have been working on (as shown in my Maddog manufacturing Thread) and the two French armored cars I started, I had also started a third model: Trumpeter's LAV/AT vehicle for my Marine Corps.

SIR, YES SIR!! ON IT SIR! Thanks Chris. I needed help myself to count that high.

Way to go Ed! Best laugh I've had this week!

Haven't got pics yet, but I did start a couple projects at St. Crispin's Hobby Day: ACE 1/72 scale ERC 90 ACE 1/72 scale AML 90 Aurora 1/72 scale Piper Aztec Aurora 1/72 scale Piper Cherokee

My apologies people. All this time I've been saying that I've finished over 670 small scale armor models. Well, this past Friday, I and a fellow AMPS club member got together to get pictures for an article we're working on for the AMPS Boresight magazine. The article takes a second look at modeling small scale armor. Since I have so many models as well as kits, we did the photography at my place. After having taken the pics we needed, we proceeded (with the help of another friend) to bring my entire collection of finished small scale armor down to my carport and set it all up on a group of tables. There we proceeded to take several huge group pictures of my entire collection all together in one place for the first time ever. While all my tanks and vehicles were laid out, we counted them too. Therein lies the reason for my apology. The final count for all my small scale armor is only 545 models finished; including the latest four I posted recently, not the 670+ I'd been claiming before. Yes, I've been slacking and making myself sound more productive than I have been. I do hope you all can still accept me here despite my slacking off.... Oh, and one more thing: I can't post any of the pics yet until after the Boresight issue is published. Once that's happened, I'll flood these boards with links to some HUGE photos showing everything! Time to get back to the bench.....

I use Styrofoam cups or small plastic cups turned upside down and place my armor on them. For aircraft, I use something else. I'll have to post pics of them; they are hard to describe.

Thanks Chris. The article has to come out in the Boresight magazine first; then I'll be free to post any pics used by the mag. Otherwise, they may get upset. Give me a couple months.

Thanks Mark! Unfortunately, we don't have an Artillery Forum. I guess I'll have to start naming my Threads "Ground Equipment" or " Army Equipment" then. Besides, didn't they put boxes over those trucks and write "Tank" on them back in the day when doing maneuvers? Thanks Chris. Give it a bit of time, and you'll really get frightened. Tomorrow, (Friday) I have a friend from AMPS coming over for my assistance for a special SoCal Boresight issue. We are going to be taking a picture (or five!) of my entire completed armor collection in one spot! He's bringing over tables to put them all one and once they are laid out, I'll take a position behind the tables and we'll shoot the pics. Once the Boresight issue is published, I'll post those pics here for those not in AMPS. They will be huge sop free up some bandwidth! I also had read about 'Cuckoo' awhile back ago before the Boresight issue. I'd been working on it long before that article came out, but it still helped. I've been wanting to do that for awhile and finally I got it done. Thanks guys for the great comments and compliments. Stay tuned for more....

Thanks guys for the excellent compliments! I appreciate them very much. No, just different sites. These pics were loaded to my Photobucket page, so they should show here. Otherwise, they can be seen at my Duke Maddog Photobucket page. The ones on the Armor thread are loaded from my Webshots page. Chris, no IV bag, sorry....no room in my hobby room for such a thing! Just good ole' fashioned modeling mojo! Gil, yeah, the prop lost one of the blades. I figured I'd leave it off till the aircraft is almost done and then add it afterward when there's less of a chance to lose it again.

Hey all! Here is some more armor I managed to finish up recently. I'm finally getting a chance to post it. First off, my Russian Army is taking delivery of two more 76mm guns. These are the two ACE guns I was building in 1/72 scale. Here's the Russian F-22 76mm gun: Next is the Russian F22 USV 76mm gun: Next is my US Marine M-26 Pershing. I'm not too happy with the weathering on this yet; I may do a little more to improve it. For now though, it is finished: And finally, my British Army is taking delivery of 'Cuckoo' the captured German Panther: There you go, my latest parade of finished armor. Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

Another day, another ten models worked on...... First off, is my BRDM I that I painted as basecoat on and then added most of the detail parts to. I saw after painting some areas that needed more filler and sanding and so I'll get to those soon: Next I had a little issue with my launcher arm on one of the Gaskins. I had to repair it so that the pin on the turret would have a place to sit so the whole launcher assembly could pivot. I took a flat piece from a spare sprue and shaped and drilled it out before attaching it to the broken part: I had also painted the main hulls when I did the BRDM I and found some gaps that needed attention too. Here they are before all that got fixed: Here are the two Gaskins side by side with their turrets test fit in place. Notice I had to remove the missile boxes to add the pivot parts. They will be re-added later today. After all that, I was looking for something simple. So, I decided to throw together the little Pak 36 gun that came with the halftrack. Here is the little door-knocker sitting finished beside the halftrack: Oh, I had also put a basecoat ion the radar truck as well. Here it is in the basecoat and with almost all detail parts added to it: I didn't only work on armor this time. I did do a little bit on one of my aircraft as well. Here is the He-70 with the basecoat of paint on it ready for the camo pattern: That is about all for now. Feel free to check out the Armor Forum for my latest finished models. Thanks all for looking, comments are welcome.

Hey! I resemble that remark! I don't race either, but I sure enjoy kicking out a lot of models. Just finished four more. Gonna see about getting pics taken and posted soon. Mark, that Achilles is coming along great! Your detail work is pristine, I love it! Keep up the great work and don't take so long showing us more. This is too good to wait too long for.

Thanks for the awesome comments guys Gil, to answer your question, I keep the box nearby and pull the sprues from it as I need them. Once I remove the parts I need from the sprue, I replace the sprue in the box. When I'm ready to move on, I replace the instruction sheet and any sub-assemblies back in the box, close it up and put is aside. Then I pull down the next one. I have a separate table to the side where I have all 'in-progress' kits stacked. Mark, I don't know about Master. I still consider my Nationals win a miracle of Biblical proportions! Bob, I do or do not. There is no try. :D

Well, here it is a couple days later, and I managed to get a bit more done. I did manage to make some progress on the three aircraft I'm working on, but not enough to warrant pics of them. I did find the cockpit canopy for my second F-86 Sabre, but as luck would have it, there's a three-way crack smack in the middle of the canopy. Don't know yet what I'll do. If anyone has a spare F-86F Canopy from Fujimi, I'd be happy to take it off your hands. Okay, moving right along. I have managed to get several armor models to the painting stage; and I have pics of one more I had started that I forgot to shoot before. Hazards of starting so many! Here is one of my models ready for paint. This is the 1/72 scale BRDM I all assembled: Next are two Russian artillery pieces The F-22 and the F-22UFW ready for paint: My little GAZ Jeep from Fort is all painted, except for the wheels which just got installed. I have a few more detail parts to add and this one will be ready for decal and/or weathering: Next, I got the interior painted on my halftrack. Most of this is finished; I may do a bit of weathering/dirtying it up before I close it up and paint the whole thing: Next, I got my rather large Russian radar truck all assembled and ready for paint: I hope to shoot paint on all these tomorrow or the next day: Finally, here are my two SA-9 Gaskins almost assembled. I still have to finish building the missile boxes and launcher assemblies to add to the turrets you see there. These turrets are not fastened down to the hulls. After I get them assembled, I'll be able to shoot paint on these as well. That's where I stand so far. By next week, you should see about 5 or 6 of these finished. Meanwhile, thanks all for looking, comments are welcome.

That's cool. I'll have to try the same thing on mine. Thanks for the pics!

Beautiful. Excellent views. I apologize for my ignorance, but what is so special about a "Janet" Boeing 737? I've never heard of them, even though there are five. Thanks for posting.

LOL! NO, Ken, although sometimes it feels like it. Thanks for the compliment. Hey, when you book a hotel room, do it out here somewhere and I'll join you. Better yet, drive on in on the evening before the second Saturday of the month and join me at St. Crispin's Hobby Day. We have a table all set up for model building and that's where I get a ton of progress done. Looking forward to more of your work too.

Thanks Gil! Anytime!

Thanks Gil! I will most likely use up the two Tamiya rattle cans of silver/aluminum that I have laying around. I hope to get paint on them this weekend.

Well, I got 'MiG Mad Marine' almost ready for paint. Here she is: Enjoy...