[Vlad the Impaler]

On 5/26/2018 at 10:52 PM, sprueguy said:

My reply is not so witty, but just a compliment on a well executed bust.

I'll take it. 😉 Thanks!

[Planet Models' Horten HO VII]

Thanks guys,

Gil: Thanks. My adopted way is sort of a technique of two guys I subscribe to on You Tube. The first guy is Andys Hobby's HQ. He does his priming backwards. Instead of priming white or gray and then outlining the panels in black, he primes in NATO black, which is, IMO, really a dark gray and to me has a tiny bit of brown in it, and then fills in the panels with white for some modulation. At this point I use this other guys technique (I'll have to look up his name again) who adds the white on the panels in little speckles and squiggles to make the top coat look uneven and worn.

Bill: Thanks. Yep, definitely a weird landing gear set up. The front wheels are on one set up sitting side by side. Plus it seems weird to me in how high it makes the plane sit off the ground... 🙂

[Judging Question]

Thanks guys. All good replies, and you guys are right. Being that he left part of it unpainted - I think we all know what that looks like even if Bandai's plastic "looks great."  It's just that I'm sick and tired of these guys going to a Con, not winning and blaming "the elitist nature of the military focused IMPS". Personally I don't know what he's talking about. Most of the shows I attend, the space and sci-fi tables are always pretty full. I tried to explain what the judges look for, (I've seen that seminar a lot) but doubt it made a difference to his already formed opinion. So fair thee well...

Personally I'm with you Mark, I couldn't care less if I win or not. I take my models to the Nats and as I put them down on the table I look around, giggle to myself, and think "Nope, not this year." 🤣   But I put my models down. I don't collect them up and bring them back to the room.  Even if walking by my models and I overhear one guy say Hey not bad. Thats good enuff for me.

[Industria Mechanika's Red Star 47]

Thanks guys!

Ed: As a garage kit, there's definitely low distribution of these kits, basically word of mouth I guess.  Mike Fitchenmeyer had the brainstorm to make deals with these sci-fi/ fantasy artists to turn their 2D images into 3D models. He's got quite a few now, of all different categories. True, they are a bit expensive, but after building this one, I know why. It's  not a difficult kit to put together, but with all the  resin, wire, and PE parts, there's a lot to them.  If you want to take a look, his site is : https://industriamechanika.com/shop/   

Bryan: Thanks!  Mike doesn't really let on to how business is going, but as said above, I don't think any of thee garage kit guys makes enuff from sales to retire or make this full time business.  Plus how many people do more buying than building. LOL 😉  I know my kit was on the pile for quite a while. 😉

While the kit is involved, it's not an impossible, so I think your club friend is just taking his time. Also to be honest, the instructions are just two exploded diagrams and are a little vague in spots,. I also get to my hobby room almost everyday for a few hours during the week. So I most likely have a lot more filming time than him. 😉 so that will slow you down.

 

[Registration]

19 hours ago, Highlander said:

Just registered and found no place for guests ... as we have had in the past.  Will my wife have to pay to get in or will she be able to get a name tag and attend with me?

 

P.S.  Went back and fiddled around and discovered that one registration screen had the option to add my wife's name and another did not.  Although I did not enter my IPMS number, the software added it anyway.  So how can I modify my registration to add my wife?

Interested in finding out as well.

[Industria Mechanika's Red Star 47]

Based off an illustration by Christophe Deese comes this future retro flyer.

It comes with a lot of resin parts, a lot of TINY PE, and some clear resin, wire, and thread  While the thread if for cabling for the steering vanes, I think I will replace that with some stretch sprue (for durability). There's a lot of WIP pics, that I put on my site. Here's the finished flyer. Thanks for looking.

[Vic Torry's Saucer]

On 5/22/2018 at 10:29 AM, WildBill50 said:

Man, I wish I built stuff with 4 parts...HATER!

 

That is a cool looking saucer.  The color looks good on it too.

Bill

Thanks! That's the Vallejo metallics. Love that stuff.

Haha, thats Atlantis Models. I have a few of their other UFOs in their series. Hoping they're all 4 parters too. 😉

[Warhammer 40K Ork Battlewagon part 3]

Nice build blog. I found it odd that they would have you need 3 different drill bits to do all the guns. Just thought they'd do they all the same... 😉

[Vlad the Impaler]

On 5/22/2018 at 10:12 AM, WildBill50 said:

Nailed it (or should i say "impailed it')!

NICE.

Bill

Thanks! 😉 😄

[Planet Models' Horten HO VII]

Ok, I swear this is my last Left '46 kit for a while... 😉

The Horten bros (like Northrop) loved the idea of the flying wing. This plane was actually built and was in the testing phase when The war ended.

Diving right into it, I assembled the interior. One thing that caught me, and also caught me with the last Planet kit, is there are no specific spots for the seats etc... So gluing the parts in and then trying the cover on, I found I put the 2nd seat too far back. So I had to get the back seat, and stick out and reposition. Hopefully I remember for the next one... 😉

I think I took this pic *before* I had to move the seat. The other thing is that the back seat has it's own instrument console, but it goes on the top part. So you need to see where that fits in as well.

As mentioned there's not a lot of parts and while waiting for some sub assembly to dry I painted the bottom with RLM 65. The wheel wells and the interior will be painted RLM 2 - 

This was probably the smoothest going kit I've built in a long time. The decals were also a breeze, they came off the backing paper in a few seconds. On the top of the wing there were 2 white stripe decals. I didn't trust the white to be opaque enough over the dark color, so I opted to mask and paint the stripes on. But then when I put the Maltese Crosses on - yep the white was opaque enough.

The plane's landing gear had been painted, so it was just a matter of installing them in the wells, and then to tackle the canopy.

Usually adding vac form canopies are my nemesis and dread when that part of the build comes along. 
I start all canopies the same way by giving it it's Future dip, and then letting it dry. The dip happened a few days ago, so it was ready to start cutting. The cut went smoothly, and I decided to paint the framework freehand rather than masking. I must say between the paint and fit this is my best one yet.
Thanks for looking.

[Vindicator]

Applause Applause !  That looks awesome. 

Terrific job on the canopy - they have always been my nemesis. 😉

[Vlad the Impaler]

Got this little bust from Black Heart Models, known for their 1:1 scale horror busts. He's about 3 in. tall and the paint scheme was based on this pic, and hey the cap is similar -

WIPs can be seen on my page. Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

[US Marine 1776]

A+!  Terrific!

[1916 Arizona]

Love it! 

I can't believe that it's made from sprue. Thats terrific. Would like to see some WIP to see how go get to this point. I couldn't even do that with clay. LOL

[Glenco 1/48 J2F Duck]

Lookin' good so far. I like when the older kits take center stage rather than being at the back or the bottom of the stash pile.

Looking forward to the next WIP installment. 🙂

[Judging Question]

I was over at another  forum and in the sci-fi folder where a question was asked. Someone submitted one of the new Bandai Star Wars models for the competition. Now as a sidebar some think these models engineering etc., are miles above other models. Anyway he lost to some mini figure with all the "shadows and highlights painted on."  He did say that the armor of the stormtrooper looked so good that he didn't paint it.

My lowly opinion (I've only judged on the local level) was that he prolly got "points off" b/c it wasn't painted.  I was taught to always paint everything, even if you're covering, in this case, white paint over white plastic.

Thoughts from judges?

[Two Luft '46 planes]

2 hours ago, WildBill50 said:

I have to agree about the Lippisch.  It looks really cool looking. The Me 1092 has that Me 262 look to it (must be the wing platform).

What kind of landing gear is on the Lippisch or is it in flight mode?

Bill

Thanks Bill.

The model came with and is resting on it's  an "L" shaped landing skid. It's prolly 1/4 the length of the plane. The rear rests on those downward facing winglets.  The skid is in 2 pieces that need to be lined up and then you need to line it up again with the angle of the plane. UGH. Sounds simple, but a real bear while trying to do it and then hit it with CA.

The Fantastic Plastic guy has a good shot if it -

[Vic Torry's Saucer]

I have to admit that I am just young enuff that I missed this character and comic. But being into UFOs and the like, I could resist the Atlantis release of Vic Torry's Saucer.

It's super simple with the saucer being only 4 parts and another few for the stand. You also get a little self contained LED to make the inside light up and change color. But to turn it on, one needs to twist the ship open, turn it on, and then close it up again. I decided to leave that out.

One thing I noticed right away is in the copy of the front page of the comic and all the other builds I looked for online, that have that yellow gold color. Yet right there in the comic was the description that the saucer was silver!  Hmmm...

Anyway, with a number of windows I painted the inside of the ship black, so you wouldn't see that there's no flight deck -

Then it was a matter of just closing it up and gluing it closed. For the metallic color, I primed it gloss black -

I got back to it a few days later and sprayed on Vallejo's Duraluminum. It's a little darker than Silver, but I didn't want my entire saucer collection to be the same color. Once the paint was dry, and Vallejo Metallics are dry to the touch in a minute for so - I used Krystal Klear to make the windows.  Then it's called done. Thanks for looking.

[MaK 1/20 Super Jerry]

Oh yeah!  Thats looks VERY cool. Weathered just enuff IMHO. Some make them look like they're beat to sh!t. But I like to see the machine, not a bunch of rust and dents. This is great!

[Futuristic Moon Suit]

On 5/14/2018 at 2:53 PM, BryanKrueger said:

Cool suit. I think Walter is releasing some of his moon and diving suits in 1/35 soon.

Thanks.

The last time I looked at his site, it was about 50/50 for the kits in and out of stock. I'm not into deep sea diving, but the are "odd" enuff (sorta like myself) 🤣   that I find them interesting and may pick up one or two more.

[Two Luft '46 planes]

On 5/16/2018 at 1:56 PM, Mark Deliduka said:

They don't look half bad for 3-foot models. I do like the pattern on the Lippisch. That is very attractive.

Thanks. I have to give Anigrand the credit. Usually I freehand a shape with the a/b. So all my camo have that soft edge. This  time I noticed that the color call out drawing in the instructions were exactly the same size as the model. I merely cut out the shapes And put them down  on the plane. But first I sprayed the green freehand and oversized so all I had to worry about the lighter color.

[Two Luft '46 planes]

On 5/15/2018 at 5:42 PM, ghodges said:

Good looking builds! What scale are they?

 

GIL

Thanks!. They're both 1:72.

[One Ocean Method for your Ships]

Hey Gang,

I just saw this  on You Tube the other day and thought it pretty neat. I'm not a big ship builder, but I have one ship kit that might benefit from this approach.

 

["Steve Canyon" Returning to US TV!]

Not to be a spoiled sport, but be careful doing that. As a kid (in the 60s) I just loved Gigantor. I remember running home from school to watch this super cool robot. Fast forward about 30 years, and I'm in a little rinky dink Dept. store in upstate NY, and what do I see? Every episode of Gigantor on 2 VHS tapes for like $4.99  I quickly buy it. I get home and and started watching. I was SO DISAPPOINTED!  The cartoon was laughable trash.  I ruined my childhood memory. From then on, anything I remember from a kid as far as tv, games etc... I just leave it in the good memories part of the brain. 😉

[Two Luft '46 planes]

Hey gang,

 

I have 2 new builds completed or should I say given up on.  The Me. 1092 (the light blue one w/dots) was from Unicraft. Anyone who knows Unicraft kits knows it's almost like scratchbuilding the plane. The air intake in the front were simply holes in the fuselage. I had to create some sort of tubes to fill the spot and also double up as the front wheel well bottom.  Thin soda straws fit the bill.  Then the wheels were in such bad shape - it looked like the resin foamed during casting - that I simply threw them away and got a cheap-o Me.262 kit and stole the wheels and decals. The rear wheels were too big, but I used them anyway, and yeah these kits have no decals. Finally the panel lines were like little Grand Canyons, and I lost count of the times I filled and sanded.

I didn't want all my German planes to be the RLM 81 and 82 (how it seems to work out)  so I followed a paint job that was in one of the SAMI magazines. Then the dots seemed too dark. Finally I had the brain storm to mist a light coat of the base color and that toned down the dots.  I was going to just draw the panel lines on, but was given a pep talk from one of the guys in my modeling club to scratch them back in. BIG mistake. I ruined it in a few places, but I didn't want to fill and sand anymore and just gave up.  It's a decent 3 foot model (best seen from at least 3 ft. away).

The Lippisch 13.B came from Anigrand and was a bit easier to work with. My biggest problem was again not wanting to use the same camo colors I brightened the light color and darkened the dark color. (I forget the RLM #s right now). But then when I needed touch ups, and why I don't mix paint, I couldn't find the right recipe for the lighter color. I knew I used Flesh, but doing a lot of Figures, I have about 10 Fleshs.  (Insert pulling out hair emoji here). After painting the touch up paint about 5 times I found the right flesh, made the mix and just slopped it on.  My last step was to stretch some sprue tubing to make the little gun barrels  either side of the cockpit.

Thanks for looking, but don't look too close. 😉