Mark Deliduka

I have a large number of acquisitions to show to finish out the year. A raffle winner, two purchases; one was an early Christmas present, and the rest were Distressed Kit Auction winnings thanks to a client who paid for a commission. Okay, let's get started.. My raffle winner from the November IPMS meeting: Now my purchases, this one was bought so I can finish my SCUD C truck with the correct launcher arms: And my early Christmas present: And now for all my Distressed Kit Auction winnings. We'll start with the models. Remember I got almost all these for one or two bucks each, mostly because nobody else was bidding on them: These were bundled because they were the same kit and there was some question as to whether one or both were complete: I got this for the canopy as well as other accessories so I can finish a nine-year-old shelf queen: I probably already have one built, but this is a cool looking plane: Finally, at least for the models, there are six 1/72 scale vehicles here: four wargame kits already assembled and two GAZ AAA tracks inside the white box that need to be built: And now, here is where I spent real money; mostly because I wanted the tools and paints. These are all from a guy who just decided he was done with the hobby and literally pulled everything off his desk and packed it into boxes to donate to our club president. Our president then sorted them into associated groups to sell as package deals. These are the packages I got: We'll start with something simple: It might not look like much, but this box is full of treasures: there's even a wire stripper inside for stripping the wires to use on the models. Next up: I got those tools for the organizer tray and to use. Still, a ton of useful tools; the non-toxic glue notwithstanding.... More tools and brushes: One of my favorite packages: And now for the paints and other supplies. These packages have mostly Vallejo paints, some Mig paints and a number of gloss and dull varnishes along with a number of other items: And the final paint set is this Vallejo set, which I also got for the stand: Well, that completes the haul for this month, and most probably the year. I don't see myself getting any more Christmas money to spend on myself, but at least I'm loaded for bear for the new year. Oh, and for those who are curious; I paid $63.00 total for everything I got in the Distressed Kit Auction listed in this post.

We'll see.....

Thank you Jean-Marc! I can always count on you to keep me motivated but your posts here and your incredible build logs!

Thank you Gil! I agree, this one is a bad to the bone looking bird! As for finishing more by the end of the year; it might be three done, if you aren't limiting the subject!

Thank you Jean-Marc! Yeah, why stop right? There should be at least one more tour before year end, possibly two; then we'll do the End of Year Pass in Review. Gil, thank you for the compliments and for the incredibly thorough instructions for the canopy! That is worth it's weight in gold for me. I will print that out and use it when I get to that point. Thank you again!

Thank you Stuart! That is the ancient 1/72 scale Airfix Avenger, originally released in the 70's I believe. That color scheme is from the USS Yorktown according to the instruction sheet schematic. The underside is white: Testor's Model Master Insignia White, the middle lighter blue is Intermediate Blue by Testor's Model Master, and the upper dark blue is Dark Sea Blue from Testor's Model Master.

Brilliant work Jean-Marc! I love the Canadian bird!

Fantastic start Nicholas! I agree about the photo etch, I won't use anything that cannot be seen either. Way to go man, keep it coming!

I never believed that I would ever get to post this and say that it is finished, but here it is, finally completed after a long hard fight. Here is my first armor/vehicle completed in December. This is the armory 1/72 scale Russian ZSU-23-4 Shilka anti-aircraft vehicle. My Russian Army has finally taken delivery two days ago: Thank you for looking in, comments are always welcome. Stay tuned, I have a few more easier vehicles are approaching the finish line so more may be done before the end of the year.

Once again, I managed to get one more aircraft done so far this month. This one is the 1/72 scale Spitfire Mk.XIV that came with the Mk.VIII I finished earlier. This time I was able to get three good pics: In addition to this, I finished another little model. Although it is not an aircraft, it is carried and dropped by them so I'm including it here. This is the Attack Squadron resin and photo etch model of the Mk.24 21" torpedo mine: You can see it on the box lower center in the pic above. Here it is posed with the Avenger that I completed earlier: That's all I have for now, how ever, I have a few more close to the finish line so I might have a couple more finished before year end. Stay tuned and comments are welcome. Thanks for looking in.

We've had three weeks of awesome productivity here, so it's time for another tour of Maddog Manufacturing. Once again this will be a bit of a long tour, so please remember all safety requirements and enjoy the tour! Our first stop as always is the Hangar. We have a couple of started models, and a few Shelf Queens that are receiving attention too. In the first bay here is the British Spitfire Mk. XIV. We got all the paint damage repaired from when the paint cracked under the gloss coat: Later the white stripe had to be painted on, so that was done. Yes, I decided to do it by hand: After that dried, we shot the whole thing with a gloss and added the decals: Other details were painted and most final parts were added. Later the rockets were added and this was declared done and sent to the Dispersal Field. In this next bay we returned to the Fleet Air Arm F-6F Hellcat. This one got a shot of light RAF grey on the bottom: Later, it was masked off and the upper green color was shot: After some Silly Putty application we'll be able to shoot the second color. Looking forward to that! In this next bay we have a shelf queen that was started some five or six years ago, packed up in the box again and promptly lost. While organizing and going through boxes, it was found again and so work commenced in this to get it done. This is an R-4D helicopter used in the Korean War and we had it built up to the basic fuselage stage. When we brought it out to work on it, the first thing we did was use this model to teach a couple kids how to airbrush. Later, we went back and painted the interior and then sanded smooth the seams that showed up in the paint: Next was the addition of photo-etch parts and the assembly of the tail rotor: Following that, we got the main rotor assembled, which was quite the ordeal given the weak attachment points on the blades. We got it done though: A little dry fit showed us what we were dealing with: Later we started on the main landing gear. We got the main support struts installed, but had lost the main gear legs so this is where we left off at the time: You can see the main rotor is still dry fit. Now a day later, we found the main gear legs and added them, then added the tail wheel and strut along with a couple more detail parts: Here you can see why this was packed away in the first place: Vac-Formed canopy. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, we got the frames painted first: Any suggestions for installing those would be awesome. Meanwhile, we masked off the cockpit with more Silly Putty and got it ready for paint: Which went on a short time later: That was later shot with a gloss coat for decals which will go on later. This is where we stopped on that. Moving on to the next bay, we have the start of an Egyptian Tu-16 Badger. I have a second one that will be done up in Iraqi Air Force markings too. For now, we got the cockpit assembled and dry-fit inside the cockpit module: We then assembled the wings since they were so easy to do: Further progress required paint that we did not have so we put this aside to start another fast and relatively easy kit; one I had never previously built before. This is the Heller F-94D in 1/72 scale and we started with the cockpit which was then cemented inside one half of the fuselage: Later that cockpit was painted but before that, we built the main wings: Later on, after adding the right amount of nose weight, this was all assembled together; puttied and sanded and readied for paint: Later the cockpit canopy was masked and installed and this got a coat of flat black paint as a primer so we could see what issues this was going to have: That's where we stand now with that. This completes the tour of the Hangar,now on to the Motor Pool. Here in the Motor Pool, we have a number of things happening, some of which are new, and some are borderline shelf queens. First up is this frustrating Armory ZSU-23-4 Shilka. Amazingly enough, we managed to get the torsion bars and wheels installed, followed by the individual link and length tracks. In fact one of the road wheels does not have a torsion bar because when I was trying to position it; the torsion bar sprang from the tweezers never to be seen again. So, I realized that the tracks touch this wheel top and bottom so it was cemented into place with the tracks themselves holding it into place. Later photo etch parts were added to this: Once they were all dry, we sent this to the spray booth where the base coat was shot. Honestly, I never thought I'd ever get this model to this stage, but here it is, shot with a darker green than it's supposed to have due to me being out of the proper green: In order to try and lighten it up, we took some Euro Dark Green and modulated the color over it. This is the first pass, later we did more and it improved a bit: Once that was dry, we shot a gloss coat on this, gave it a wash, decals and other attention: After this a dullcoat was applied and weathering done during it's shakedown run. Then it was sent to the Dispersal Yard. In the next bay is another shelf queen, started some six years ago, packed up again in it's box and promptly lost. It was found in the same box as the helicopter so I figued it was time to move on this one. This is the Trumpeter SdKfz-9 with a crane. The basic chassis had been already done, so we continued to finish up that part, mostly adding the roadwheels, drive sprockets and idlers: The main floor was then worked on, mostly assembling all the parts for the driver's and passenger's compartment. It's just dry fit on that chassis: The base of the crane was then built as seen here: That's as far as we got on that one. In the next bay we started another German truck, the Steyr 1500. The box was so messed up we just had to build it. Basic assembly was pretty good for a short run kit: The remaining parts and some photo etch was then added: Later this was shot with paint in the spray booth, but no pics of that. Moving to the next bay we have the start of another easy model; this time another german armored car (more modern this time) made by Revell of Germany. It was left behind at the hobby day hall, so I decided to build it. First was the chassis: Next the whole body and interior was assembled. Then we added Silly Putty to the interior and added the roof so we can shoot the base paint on it: That came later. Finally in this last bay we went back to work on the little ACE Ford Stakebed truck. Some dry fitting was done to the chassis after we had painted the stakebed slats and the leather seats in the cab: Later we finished the cab, except for the roof so we could get the windows in there later. The cab and stakebed were then glued to the chassis: That's as far as we got with that, along with some touch up to the paint here and there. Hopefully thi swill be done soon! That completes the tour of the Motor Pool, but the tour isn't over. We're going to detour into the Shipyards briefly so you can see the start of a new project that I'd been wanting to do fora very long awhile. This is the ancient Pyro kit of the Robert E. Lee Paddle wheeled Riverboat. We started with painting the waterliine on the hull and then adding the main deck to it. While that was drying, we started the paddle wheels. These required us to cement every paddle to each if the wheel sides as such: You can see where we started by adding a few paddles to certain quarters of the wheel to hold it together first. Then all the rest were cemented into place. That was the first one. The second one is here: Both wheels eventually got done: This final shot shows the paddle wheels and the boilers dry fit in place on the main hull: By the way, that model is a little over two feet long. It has been and interesting and fun build so far. And that completes this tour of Maddog Manufacturing for this second week of December. I hope you enjoyed it and remember comments are always welcome.

Stunning work Gil! What a Masterpiece!

Ah, I didn't know that. Thank you for clearing that up. Time to take some notes....

Man that is magnificent! I always wanted a Bren carrier in my collection. I believe I have one from some company (IBG?) that I should find and start.

Very Nice! I've been trying to find my 1/72 scale Connie to start! I have an EC-121 as well, but I want to do the Connie first.

Thank you Jean-Marc!

Thank you Gil! It does look pretty good for such an ancient kit. First ever Avenger I ever built too. Thank you Jean-Marc!

Very nicely done! There's something you don't see every day!

Wow, vacuformed? (in my best British accent) You're a braver man than I Gunga Din! Magnificently masterful work! Not only do you crank them out faster than me, you make mine look like toys! You are DA MAN!! 😍

One more tank got done, just after I'd posted the previous six vehicles, so here it is: my ACE Israeli Centurion Sho't Kal Dalet: I did this one up in 'Operation Peace for Gallilee' markings. I am now caught up with all the ACE Centurion models finished. Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

Here it is, just under the wire; one more aircraft finished in November. This is the ancient Airfix TBM Avenger, the first ever Avenger I ever built for my collection. This was gifted to me by two friends who won it in my club's Distressed Kit Auction. I also got a Mk.21 mine and an F-6F Hellcat from Matchbox with the Avenger. This thing gave me quite a fight at times. The turret somehow got frosted; I have no idea how. I polished it as much as possible for hours while waiting for other models to dry. This is the end result. I also had to replace the upper decal on the wing. A good friend from my IPMS club had a spare and gave it to me so I could finish this. Again, as with my Spitfire, all eye-level shots were far too blurry for posting and will have to be re-shot later. Here is the one shot that gives you some idea of how it looks in person: Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

Thank you Gil! Yes, I didn't like the fact that the wing was so low. I should have paid more attention though and lengthened the wing supports and outrigger pontoons. Like you said, I can revisit this later and improve it. For now, I'm thrilled to have it off my workbench.

Thank you for those links Jean Marc! I will go see them sometime this week.

Thank you Jean-Marc! It was quiet the lineup for sure. The fire truck is a favorite of most. More coming soon.....

Thank you Jean-Marc! I'm glad I got that Russian Be-4 completed; it is a truly unique and different subject for my collection. Stay tuned, more coming soon.