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Maddog Manufacturing 2019 Production Line


Mark Deliduka

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Hello all and Happy New Year!

I got an early start on building this year so here is the latest work I got done. Before I do that, here's a couple pics of the projects I've got on my workbench at the start of the year:

Workbench_Jan2019_I.jpg

Workbench_Jan2019_II.jpg

Now at least one of those got done already, but here's the progress I made on everything first. I'll start with my aircraft...

On the C-118, I got the decal fixed that had been broken. This was then clearcoated with a gloss to protect it from being broken again. Here's what it looked like:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_XXXIXb~0.jpg

And here's the decal after the fix:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_XXXIXc.jpg

After that dried, I decided to remove all the window masking before moving on:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_XXXIXd.jpg

Once done there, I turned it over and installed the landing gear:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_XXXIXe.jpg

After that, I had to complete the propellers. I did that and added them to the model. It is now finished and can be seen in the Aircraft Forums...

 


Moving on to my armor, I decided to move on another of my armor shelf queens. This is the Russian BREM vehicle and I finished adding the tracks to the other side:

WIP_Russian_BREM_X.jpg

After they dried, I added the side skirts to this. They needed quiet a bit of filler between sections given how poorly this was molded:

WIP_Russian_BREM_XI.jpg

WIP_Russian_BREM_XII.jpg

Finally I added most of the remaining fiddly bits and the boom crane. This beastie is ready for paint now:

WIP_Russian_BREM_XIII.jpg

WIP_Russian_BREM_XIV.jpg


After all that, I was ready to start something newer and easier. I pulled out one of my Christmas presents and got started on it. This is the Russian T-28 tank that got started thus. They have a solid run of tracks molded with the wheels on. I just had to add the other side of the wheels:

WIP_Russian_T-28_Tank_I.jpg

After I got done with that, I snapped them onto the lower hull. What a great fit! This was so easy:

WIP_Russian_T-28_Tank_II.jpg

This tank comes with suspension covers so I snapped them on to see how they fit. This is gonna be a breeze to paint:

WIP_Russian_T-28_Tank_III.jpg

Next I started on the upper hull, adding most of the detail parts to it:

WIP_Russian_T-28_Tank_IV.jpg

As that was drying, I started on the main turret, getting almost all of it done:

WIP_Russian_T-28_Tank_V.jpg

I then got half of the secondary turrets done and a few other little details and then snapped this whole thing together to see how it's gonna look. This is all of eleven minutes of work:

WIP_Russian_T-28_Tank_VI.jpg

WIP_Russian_T-28_Tank_VII.jpg


Wow, that went fast so I pulled out another Christmas present; the Japanese Chi Nu medium tank. I started with the wheels and tracks since this one also had a full run of tracks molded onto half the road wheels:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_I.jpg

Then I added the suspension parts to the lower hull:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_II.jpg

Next was to add most of the detail parts to the upper hull. I didn't even take it off the sprue; that made for easier handling:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_III.jpg

After assembling the turret, I snapped this whole thing together to see how it's gonna look. Here's another six or seven minutes of work:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_IV.jpg

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_V.jpg

Finally, I started a model for the Cauldron of War Campaign here on the Alliance. This is a resin hull and turret conversion set that is enhanced by parts from the Dragon kit. I decided to skip the running gear and go straight to adding most of the parts to the upper hull. You can see one of the hatches got lost so I added one from the Dragon kit:

WIP_CauldronofWar_II.jpg

Next I added that big honking gun to the turret. What a nose:

WIP_CauldronofWar_III.jpg

Now there is the whole thing sitting together so far. I haven't got the engine deck glued down yet. I'm trying to find out if it is the right one:

WIP_CauldronofWar_IV.jpg

That's all I have so far. There's no instruction sheet with this conversion set for me to determine where some of the extra resin parts go so I'll have to start looking at more pics of this tank. This build might take awhile.

Well, that's all I got done on my first day of the New Year. I hope you enjoyed the Grand re-opening again. Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This past weekend was Hobby Day weekend so, combined with what I got done during the week, I managed to make quite a bit of progress. I didn't work on too many models so in that respect, this is a short update. It's gonna be long update because of all I did on each one I worked on. Okay, enough chit chat, on to the tour of the plant....


I'll start with a couple shelf queens I've had sitting for six months to five years. This first one is my Israeli F-16I Sufa. I finally painted the pilots, closed up the fuselage and added the wings and horizontal stabilizers:

WIP_Israeli_F-16I_Sufa_VI.jpg

After that, I added the vertical stabilizer with the spine and then went to close up the cockpit with the canopy so I could mask it and have it ready for paint. That's when I found this: numb nuts in the rear seat was sitting too high!

WIP_Israeli_F-16I_Sufa_VIa.jpg

Hasegawa is notorious for molding seats that are too tall for the cockpits they go in. So, I pulled out the pilot and seat and cut 1/8" off the bottom of the seat:

WIP_Israeli_F-16I_Sufa_VIb.jpg

Once I replaced the seat and pilot, I test fit the canopy again:

WIP_Israeli_F-16I_Sufa_VIc.jpg

Success!

Here is the plane with the wings, tail, conformal fuel tanks and canopy on:

WIP_Israeli_F-16I_Sufa_VII.jpg

I then turned it over and added the underwing pylons:

WIP_Israeli_F-16I_Sufa_VIII.jpg

Once I sand smooth that goubash on the intake, this bird will be ready for paint.


Moving on to the next Shelf Queen (and yes, it is capitalized because this beastie has been sitting on my bench for three years!) I finally did what I've been needing to do for awhile. The booster rockets needed to be masked so the stripes on them could be painted. I also needed to paint the tail, so that got masked too:

WIP_Space_Shuttle_XXIXa.jpg

I used up all my Tamiya 1/2" tape on that.

Using my trusty Sotar 20/20 airbrush, I painted all the black, red and yellow stripes and the yellow boxes at the top of the boosters:

WIP_Space_Shuttle_XXIXb.jpg

While that was drying, I decided to assemble all the possible payloads for the shuttle. I am hoping to put down a full display with labels showing everything the shuttle can carry in front of the model itself. Here they are all assembled. Gotta look them up to see how they should be painted:

WIP_Space_Shuttle_Payload_I.jpg

While that was drying, I also painted the grey on the leading edge of the shuttle wings and then removed all the masking on the shuttle itself and snapped the tail in place. You can also see a preview of the lower sections of the boosters with their masks removed:

WIP_Space_Shuttle_XXIXc.jpg

Here are the boosters all unmasked:

WIP_Space_Shuttle_XXIXd.jpg

But wait, I still needed to paint the vertical channels as well, so I masked off the channels for paint:

WIP_Space_Shuttle_XXIXe.jpg

...and then painted them, removing the masks when they were dry:

WIP_Space_Shuttle_XXIXf.jpg

Then I finished the boosters; assembling them fully. These things are tall!

WIP_Space_Shuttle_XXIXg.jpg

Finally I cemented both booster assemblies to the main fuel tank, completing that whole portion of the model:

WIP_Space_Shuttle_XXIXh.jpg

That box fan behind this assembly is a 24" box fan so you can get a general idea of how huge this beastie is. Now all I have to do is decal the shuttle and then it will be ready for mounting on the fuel tank.


Only one problem though: the forward bracket that holds the front part of the shuttle to the fuel tank broke off and went missing. It is a V-shaped part that I need to find. If however, anyone has a 1/72 scale Monogram Space Shuttle they don't intend to mount on the boosters and fuel tank, I'll be willing to buy that part from you. Please let me know.

 

Moving on, I managed to get some painting down on a couple of my armor models. I did this in between assemblies and painting on the Space Shuttle to give myself a break on it. First I painted the Russian BREM so that godawful white is now all covered up:

WIP_Russian_BREM_XV.jpg

WIP_Russian_BREM_XVI.jpg

Just gotta detail paint that and then add clearcoat so I can attach the decals to it. Meanwhile, since I had the green out, I also sprayed the T-28:

WIP_Russian_T-28_Tank_VIII.jpg

WIP_Russian_T-28_Tank_IX.jpg

Finally, I started adding the wheels and tracks to the SG-122 gun. I got one side done and even started the other side with the tracks added to the drive sprocket for the other side, but I decided to stop here:

WIP_Soviet_SG-122_VI.jpg

Yeah, those tracks were tough, I'd had enough that day. I might get the other side on later this week.

After all that struggle with those tracks, I wanted something easy to build. So, I pulled out one of my three Trumpeter SA-6 Gainfuls and got started on it. This is after five minutes of work:

WIP_German_SA-6_Gainful_I.jpg

WIP_German_SA-6_Gainful_II.jpg

I found out later that the elevated piece on the back should be flat. I found that out when I finished building the launching assembly and missiles and added the whole assembly to the hull:

WIP_German_SA-6_Gainful_III.jpg

Once I paint this, I'll be marking it in West German markings to signify  a vehicle that was added to the Bundeswehr after the unification. The other two I will make Russian and either Syrian or Egyptian.


The last update I have is out at the shipyards. I painted all the detail parts that I had added to the Izumo earlier:

JMSDF_Izumo_SPAM_Review_XVIIc.jpg

JMSDF_Izumo_SPAM_Review_XVIId.jpg

Here's a close up shot of the island details:

JMSDF_Izumo_SPAM_Review_XVIIe.jpg

After that, I clearcoated this for decals. You can't really see it too clearly in this pic, but it is shiny and ready for decals:

JMSDF_Izumo_SPAM_Review_XVIIf.jpg

Okay, that's all I got for now. I hope you enjoyed the tour. Stay tuned, there's more to come; especially since it's supposed to rain for the next three days! Yay!!!

Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, this is a very short update as I have had no time and/or energy to get anything done lately. During the few times I had the time and energy and motivation to work in my Hobby Room, I did get this much done.

Starting with my aircraft, I got the decals done on the F-6 Hellcat. The decals are wrinkled due to Solvaset, I haven't checked them lately to see if they smoothed out yet:

WIP_Bruce_Comission_XXXIIIg.jpg

Then I found the engine that had fallen down and disappeared briefly. During that time, all the exhaust pipes had broken off and disappeared:

WIP_Bruce_Comission_XXXIIIf.jpg

Man, if it ain't one thing it's another with this kit!


Okay, by this time I was fed up so I moved on to my armor. I pulled out a simple and easy kit to start with. This was also chosen because my AMPS club is having an artillery group build all scales, so I chose this one to start with:

WIP_Russian_SAM-2_Launcher_I.jpg

I started with the two base parts of the launcher, as well as the launching arm:

WIP_Russian_SAM-2_Launcher_II.jpg

On the bottom of the base parts were these two gaps. I added strip styrene in the gaps to seal them:

WIP_Russian_SAM-2_Launcher_III.jpg

Later I'll sand those smooth before painting. Then I started the missile itself:

WIP_Russian_SAM-2_Launcher_IV.jpg

That was enough of that for the day. The next model I pulled out was another Aerosan for the Treasure Train game I hope to be doing in September. I got this far before I got tired of it too:

WIP_Game_Sleds_XIa.jpg

I then decided to do something that was not short run. I pulled out the Takom 1/72 scale Russian tractors set and got started on them. First was the chassis, of course. This is the chassis for the one I'll call Tractor A until I figure out which is which:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_A_I.jpg

Next I did the chassis for the Tractor B. Here it is next to the Tractor A chassis:

WIP_Russian_Tractors_I.jpg

Tractor A chassis is at the top. Tractor B has a short bed on it so I snipped the parts for that and assembled the bed:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_I.jpg

Here the bed sits dry-fit to the chassis to see how it fits:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_I.jpg

After that I couldn't raise the mojo to work on anything else so I just snipped spare parts from excess scrap sprue and sorted the parts into my compartmented parts bins for the next couple hours.

So, that's all for today. We have rain coming for the next couple days and so I'll hopefully be able to get something done in my hobby room during that time, even it it means starting some of my latest acquisitions.

Stay tuned, hopefully more to come soon. Thanks for looking in. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Okay, here's my latest update, mostly on work I managed to get done at Hobby Day this past weekend.

I'll start by posting the pic that was wrong in the previous post. Here is what the truck bed and chassis look like dry-fit together:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_II.jpg

Anyway, moving on from there, I pulled out my Dark Green and started to shoot just about everything that needs it. After it dried, I neglected to shoot pics; instead I went straight to a lighter green and started to modulate the green on all the single color vehicles.


Before I get to that, I'll start with the aircraft I was working on. As I looked over the Israeli Sufa, I noticed a few more gaps and seams that needed filling. Out came the Vallejo acrylic putty and into the seams it went. You may not be able to see the newest seams I filled but now they are all done:

WIP_Israeli_F-16I_Sufa_VIIIa.jpg

WIP_Israeli_F-16I_Sufa_VIIIb.jpg

Now I think this is ready for paint. I'll have to mask off the canopy first and then shoot it with a primer to actually see what might still need to be filled.

Moving on, I started the AH-1 given to me by my friend on another Forum. First was the cockpit:

WIP_AH-1_SuperCobre_Nats_I.jpg

Later I did the engine and transmission cover since closing up the main fuselage requires weight in the nose to keep this bird on it's skids. I didn't have any at the time so I just went ahead with the engine and tranny cover:

WIP_AH-1_SuperCobre_Nats_II.jpg

 

Moving on to my armor; I decided to start a couple new projects. One was the IBG Hungarian Toldi II tank that has been sitting for awhile. I started by assembling the lower hull and the wheels. I didn't shoot a pic of the wheels, but here is the hull:

WIP_Hungarian_Toldi_II_A.jpg

Then because I didn't want to deal with the suspension, I went forward in the instructions and assembled the turret:

WIP_Hungarian_Toldi_II_B.jpg

My next started project was another IBG model; this time it is the Diamond T wrecker that I've waited so long to get. First was the chassis which was surprisingly easy to do given that there was so much assembly required:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_IV.jpg

Next was the lovely, well-detailed engine that will unfortunately be covered up. But it looks great before it gets hidden:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_III.jpg

Finally, I started the cab; but I only did the front part of it since I still need to detail paint inside the cab before I close it all up:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_I.jpg

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_II.jpg

 


Now I can show all the painting I did on all this armor. I'll start with the Wrecker cab since I just posted the previous assembly. Here it is painted and semi-poorly modulated:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_V.jpg

Next I modulated the Russian BREM vehicle. It didn't turn out anything like I was hoping. I seem to be finding it difficult to adjust my air pressure properly. Oh well, at least I had a lot of practice today, starting with this:

WIP_Russian_BREM_XVII.jpg

Subsequent washes and weathering will probably blend that in better. One can only hope.

I then shot the cab and front fender of the first Russian tractor:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_A_II.jpg

Followed by the cab, fender and tractor bed of the second tractor:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_III.jpg

I then basecoated and modulated the SA-6 Gainful:

WIP_German_SA-6_Gainful_V.jpg

Finally, I decided I needed to finish up another short run kit that I'd had sitting for awhile. The Soviet SG-122 got the second run of tracks on the other side, as well as the side armor protecting the gun. I also added some more filler to several seams that I found again:

WIP_Soviet_SG-122_VII.jpg

WIP_Soviet_SG-122_VIII.jpg

Man that model is crude!

Next I assembled the gun. The front plate broke as I was pressing it into place, so I tried to get it sanded as smooth as possible after fixing it again. There was a lot of other areas that needed sanding as well. I then drilled out the gun barrel too, although it is not easily seen in this pic:

WIP_Soviet_SG-122_IX.jpg

Here is the whole thing all assembled and ready for paint so far:

WIP_Soviet_SG-122_X.jpg

And finally, I basecoated this and modulated the green on this as well:

WIP_Soviet_SG-122_XI.jpg

I find it amusing that the best modulation was done on the crappiest kit! Oh well, story of my life....

Last but not least, I also shot a base coat of dark brown on the IBG Japanese Chi Nu tank. I'm probably going backwards putting the darkest color first, but I started with it. These are the Mr. Color paints specifically for Japanese armor by the way. It's kind of hard to tell in this pic, but this is painted I assure you:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_VI.jpg

 

And that covers everything I got done on Hobby Day weekend and the rest of this week. Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

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Okay, this is a small update, and an all armor one as well. I did get a lot done, so it's small in reference to the number of models I made progress on.

First off, I got my Russian SG-122 clearcoated and then washed with a brown wash. My picture taking still needs some work but with the limitations I have, I think you can see this well enough. Here's the vehicle all glossy and washed up:

WIP_Soviet_SG-122_XII.jpg

Now this didn't come with any markings so I decided to rummage around in my decal stash and found some that would fit. I applied these on both sides while it was still glossy:

WIP_Soviet_SG-122_XIII.jpg

You can see I also painted the tracks. Later, I dullcoated this:

WIP_Soviet_SG-122_XIV.jpg

Now all that is left is to weather this and then I can call it done.

While I was glossing and washing things, I also glossed and washed the Russian BREM:

WIP_Russian_BREM_XVIII.jpg

Interestingly enough, this one also did not come with markings so I just dullcoated it:

WIP_Russian_BREM_XVII~0.jpg

I'm just going to add the remaining detail bits and then weather this and call it done.

Moving along, I pulled out my Diamond T wrecker. I had started the painting on the cab as you see here:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_V~0.jpg

Afterward, I painted the interior, even though this probably won't be seen after I close it up:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_VI.jpg

Next I added the front windscreen:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_VIII.jpg

I might have to adjust those windows. While waiting for them to dry, I started the assembly of the back deck:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_VII.jpg

After that was done, I pulled out my Chi Nu and also painted the tracks along with the SG-122 and BREM:

You can't really tell that much in this pic. Anyway, if I was painting the tracks for this, it was time to move on the camouflage pattern. So, I pulled out my trusty Silly Putty and masked off where I wanted the brown to remain:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_VII.jpg

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_VIII.jpg

By this time it was too cold to airbrush so I need to wait for a warmer day. Hopefully soon.

Finally I got to the project that I made the most progress on. The two Russian tractors received some significant work. First off, I assembled all the axles for these tractors, after painting the wheel hubs. Here is one of the two identical sprues with the work I did:

WIP_Russian_Tractors_II.jpg

When these were dry, I added them to the two chassis. Here's the first Tractor:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_A_III.jpg

And the second tractor:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_V.jpg

Next I assembled all the parts on the cabs, excluding the delicate fiddly parts that would break with handling. This included the windscreens, dash boards and steering wheels. The dash boards and steering wheels can't be seen in these pics. This is the cab for the second tractor with the bed; it is identical to the first one except for the headlights:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_IV.jpg

Here are the two cabs side by side:

WIP_Russian_Tractors_III.jpg

Next I assembled the interiors....such as they were. I basically added the seats to the cab floor:

WIP_Russian_Tractors_IV.jpg

With the steering wheels and dash boards already added to the cab tops, you can see they "spared no expense" with these interiors! So I went and painted everything up inside; knowing it wouldn't be seen well, I didn't get fancy. Here it is while still wet:

WIP_Russian_Tractors_VI.jpg

Well after they were dry, the next thing to do was to cement the cabs to the floors and close everything up:

WIP_Russian_Tractors_V.jpg

Then I added these cabs to their respective chassis, making sure the right cab went with the right chassis. I then added the two other assemblies which hide the empty engine compartment:

WIP_Russian_Tractors_VII.jpg

Unfortunately for me, I didn't notice that you can see right through the grills on the side of the trucks till too late. I don't know if I can fix that now, given that everything is already glued in place. Anyway, here is the two tractors from the rear:

WIP_Russian_Tractors_VIII.jpg

Now with that bare plastic showing, I knew I had to mask the windows so I could re-shoot these models. Therefore, I tried a couple different masking agents. First, I found this liquid masking agent from Model Detailers... and liquid it sure is! It runs horribly, so you have to place the masked area horizontal to keep it from running off the area you want to mask. After that fiasco, I went with the Tamiya tape that I had other issues with. The Model Detailers stuff is the purple tint on the windows of the one cab:

WIP_Russian_Tractors_IX.jpg


That's as far as I got on all those so far. I have to wait for a warmer day to try and spray these later. I am happy with the progress so far though. Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome. Stay tuned, more to come.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Okay, everyone strap in tight for this tour of my manufacturing plant; this is going to be a long update; and it will be all armor and vehicles again. For some reason I have quite a mojo boost to finish a bunch of these; especially since I started a few simple and fast ones for a Light Vehicles Group Build on the Missing Lynx Braille Scale Forums.

Okay, I'll start with this first one. I'm building the Pershing II on a trailer with the MAN cab tractor, but the only thing I did on that model so far was the Pershing missile. I figured I'd get that out of the way first:

WIP_MAN_Pershing_I.jpg

That's all I did on that one so far. I'll get more done on the tractor and trailer later. First, I'll continue on and work on these other models. Like the other missile vehicle I have going...

On my German SAM-6 Gainful, I painted the missiles in a pale green:

WIP_German_SA-6_Gainful_VI.jpg

I then mounted them on the launcher to see how they look after the paint was dry. I like it so far:

WIP_German_SA-6_Gainful_VII.jpg

Later I masked and painted the white nosecones:

WIP_German_SA-6_Gainful_VIII.jpg

I then added the decals to the vehicle and later dullcoated it after these pics were taken. All that's left now is to weather it and then I can call it done:

WIP_German_SA-6_Gainful_IX.jpg

WIP_German_SA-6_Gainful_X.jpg

Moving on, I did some more assembly on the little Toldi II. I had held off since the torsion arms were so fiddly which would make the wheels almost impossible to line up. Still, I did my best:

WIP_Hungarian_Toldi_II_C.jpg

After this was sufficiently dry, but not too dry; I added the roadwheels to it and tried hard to line them up straight as best I could:

WIP_Hungarian_Toldi_II_D.jpg

It won't be any contest winner with those wonky wheels, but they are at least on there and I can then add the tracks later when everything dries.

While that was dying, I finished adding all the fiddly bits to the upper hull, except for the tools. Later on, when everything was dry(er) I posed the upper hull and turret on this little tank to see how it looks:

WIP_Hungarian_Toldi_II_E.jpg

WIP_Hungarian_Toldi_II_F.jpg

Pretty cool! It's certainly a tiny thing too. Now all it needs is tracks and then I can paint this.

Speaking of painting a tank; as you all know I had painted the basecoat on the Chi Nu and then I masked it with Silly Putty. I finally got a dry enough day to spray so I shot the second color on it. Here it is sporting the darker green color now:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_X.jpg

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_XI.jpg

Later I added more Silly Putty for the final color, a lighter green:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_XII.jpg

That will be sprayed when I get more time for the airbrush booth. Meanwhile, as that was drying; I brush painted the various colors on the roadwheels and also detailed out the tracks a bit:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_XIII.jpg

That's all I got done on that little beastie. Now for the work I did on some trucks and light vehicles.

As mentioned above, I started a Light Vehicles Group Build on the Missing Lynx Braille Scale Forums. I submitted four vehicles for it, three of which I started at Hobby Day. The first one of these was an ACE kit; the Italian Coloniale staff car. I did the chassis first; it only took abut three minutes which was so fast I also did the dash board with steering wheel:

WIP_Italian_508_Coloniale_I.jpg

Building it up from there was fairly simple and easy which is becoming more common now with the newer ACE kits. I commend Alexey for doing such a fantastic job improving his molds:

WIP_Italian_508_Coloniale_II.jpg

Later I decided to make this with the top up, so I assembled the canvas top and window frames:

WIP_Italian_508_Coloniale_IV.jpg

WIP_Italian_508_Coloniale_III.jpg

A simple dry fit later shows some issues but they will be easy to take care of. This is a nice looking little car:

WIP_Italian_508_Coloniale_V.jpg

That's all I did on that one so far.

Moving on, I also started another ACE kit, which is another Italian vehicle. This is the ACE Italian Autoblinda Tratorre, and I started with the chassis again. Because of the way the front axles are mounted, I also assembled and installed the front hood for stability:

WIP_Italian_Trattore_I.jpg

I then did the rear bed for this truck; also using it later to stabilize the rear wheel axles:

WIP_Italian_Trattore_II.jpg

Later I started the cab, leaving off the roof so I could add the windows later:

WIP_Italian_Trattore_III.jpg

Here's how it looks all together so far:

WIP_Italian_Trattore_IV.jpg

The last light vehicle I started for the Group Build was the new Airfix Airborne Vehicles set with the Jeep, trailer and 75mm pack howitzer. Again, I started with the chassis on the Jeep:

WIP_British_Airborne_Jeep_I.jpg

Two minutes later I assembled most of the upper body of this jeep:

WIP_British_Airborne_Jeep_II.jpg

I then added seats inside and dry fit the hood and body to the chassis. Looking good:

WIP_British_Airborne_Jeep_III.jpg

The instructions say this thing was air dropped from Halifax bombers so they had developed a sort of tray for this to help protect it when landing. This was included in the kit:

WIP_British_Airborne_Jeep_IV.jpg

This is how it looks sans wheels so far:

WIP_British_Airborne_Jeep_IVa.jpg

Next up was the trailer which took all of four minutes to build:

WIP_British_Airborne_Jeep_V.jpg

...and finally, I assembled the pack howitzer. That took another five or six minutes:

WIP_British_Airborne_Jeep_VI.jpg

It's a nice little gun, but I have to say the ACE pack howitzer is better detailed and a nicer looking model when finished. You'll also notice I left the wheels off all these so I could spray them separately and add them later after they are fully painted.

Here is the whole set assembled and ready for paint:

WIP_British_Airborne_Jeep_VII.jpg

Now when I had painted my Chi Nu, I had also finished painting green on the two Russian tractors. Here's the first tractor:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_A_IV.jpg

WIP_Russian_Tractor_A_V.jpg

And here is the second tractor:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_VI.jpg

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_VII.jpg

Later on I painted the chassis and undersides a flat black as indicated in the instructions, next is to clear coat these for decals.

I also moved ahead on my Diamond T wrecker, first shooting all the cab parts still on the sprues. I also shot the wheel hubs:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_IX.jpg

While that was drying, I started the assembly on the two booms of the wrecker. After ten minutes, I finally got the first boom done. This simple boom had seven parts on it, and lining up the slightly curved outer parts was difficult beyond measure:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_X.jpg

I took a short break from that and assembled the air compressor next:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_Xa.jpg

Then I assembled the second boom seen here:

Thank God that was done! Next I painted Oily Black on the lower chassis of the Diamond T:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XI.jpg

I then built this assembly, which holds the two booms:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XII.jpg

And that's as far as I got on that. I need to do some painting before I move on here.

At about this time, my ACE Centurion had arrived and so I pulled it out and dug right in. I started with the lower hull:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_I.jpg

The fit is great but there were some places it still acted like an ACE kit of the past! However, I was having a blast and continued on...

Next came the five pieces of the upper hull and the two fenders:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_II.jpg

I then built up the turret while the hull was drying, here's the basic turret so far:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_III.jpg

Naturally I had to test fit this all together to see how it looked:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_IV.jpg


It was at that time I discovered that the rear corners of the turret were rubbing on the raised engine deck. I carefully sanded these down a bit to make the turret's turning more fluid.


Okay, I hope you enjoyed your ride through Maddog Manufacturing today. I know it was a long trip but I hope it was fun nonetheless. Thank you all for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

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Well, after a very busy weekend, I finally have a small update to post. Here's my latest.

I started out working on some of my simpler kits but that was after I clearcoated these two tractors for decals:

WIP_Russian_Tractors_X.jpg

Then I got started on the SA2 SAM system again. I assembled the stand for the launcher body first:

WIP_Russian_SAM-2_Launcher_VI.jpg

After that, I sanded and refined the launcher body halves in preparation for assembling the whole thing:

WIP_Russian_SAM-2_Launcher_V.jpg

I then completed the blast shield for this:

WIP_Russian_SAM-2_Launcher_VII.jpg

Finally I installed the missile on the launcher arm:

WIP_Russian_SAM-2_Launcher_VIII.jpg

After some consideration, I think I might have screwed that up, since this will make it much harder to paint. Oh well, what's done is done and I'll just have to deal with it then.

Moving on, I decided to start another simpler kit. This is the ACE Syria Hell Cannons.

I assembled the shorter barrel first:

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_II.jpg

Then I did the longer barrel. Here it is next to the short one:

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_III.jpg

I then completed most of the 'carriage of the larger gun:

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_III.jpg

That's where I stopped on that.

I then started on the Nagmachon but only got the lower hull assembled:

WIP_Israeli_Nagmachon_I.jpg

I set that aside to dry before moving on. Besides, I was distracted by the Centauro. I'd wanted one for so long I just had to start it. Naturally, I started on the lower hull:

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_I.jpg

Afterward, I finished off the top of the hull:

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_III.jpg

I then got the basic turret assembled:

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_II.jpg

Finally, here is a shot of the hull and turret together:

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_IV.jpg

I'm loving this!

And that brings up to the close of this short update. I hope to have more posted soon. I'm really fired up about getting further progress on all these plus what I was working on before.

Stay tuned people, more to come. Thanks for looking in.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Today was an 'empty' day so I was able to marathon in my Hobby Room. I am thrilled with so much of the progress I made today. So brace yourselves everyone, this is gonna be a long one. Please keep your sea belts fastened and your hands and arms inside the trolley at all times. Thank you for joining us. Now on with the tour...

I'll start with my armor again; I was really busting my hump to move a lot of this forward.

Let's start with my two ACE Italian vehicles. The Trattore got a coat of paint that came out very grainy. Apparently my Italian Armor Sand from Testor's was not up to snuff:

WIP_Italian_Trattore_V.jpg

Everything is just dry-fit together on the chassis, that's why it looks so wonky.

Since I still had the Italian Armor Sand in my airbrush, I went ahead and shot the Coloniale as well:

WIP_Italian_508_Coloniale_VI.jpg

Later on I sanded them both smooth and re-shot them both with some Testor's Dark Tan which looked 'close enough'. After that dried, I added the camouflage pattern on the Coloniale and painted the roof:

WIP_Italian_508_Coloniale_VII.jpg

After that dried, I shot a gloss coat on it and then added the decals. There were only two; a front license plate and a rear license plate. Here it is showing the front one. I didn't turn this around for a second shot:

WIP_Italian_508_Coloniale_VIII.jpg

That was a tiny one. The Micro Sol hadn't taken effect yet.

Moving on, I shot paint on the British Airborne Group of vehicles. It is a flat paint, but I must have thinned it slightly too much since it came out almost gloss:

WIP_British_Airborne_Jeep_VIII.jpg

When that was dry, I painted the seats inside the jeep:

WIP_British_Airborne_Jeep_IX.jpg

Before that though, since I still had that olive drab color in my airbrush, I decided to shoot another model. This one was the Hungarian Toldi II that the instructions said was an Olive Drab color under a whitewash. So, I shot the same color on the Toldi:

WIP_Hungarian_Toldi_II_G.jpg

It might not be accurate, but It's an Olive Drab color. I doubt I'll run into any former Toldi crew members who'll tell me it's wrong. And no, I won't be winter white-washing this; I have no winter vehicles (save the Aerosans) and I don't plan on having this clash with the rest of my collection.

Moving on from there, I loaded a different Olive Drab into the brush and shot the remaining sub-assemblies on my Diamond T wrecker. This is when I found out that it was the wrong color. That's when I tried to modulate the color a bit on the cab to try and blend it. I ain't happy:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XIII.jpg

While that was drying, I decided it was time to finish the assembly on the cab. It gave me quite the fight:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XIV.jpg

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XV.jpg

There's still a bit of touch up to do on that.

Later when the sub--assemblies were dry, I added them to the rear of the chassis. Yeah, I hadn't re-painted them yet:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XVI.jpg

However, while gluing them down, I realized I hadn't glued down the cab! That came off and some tape went around the chassis so I could re-paint the rear of this truck in the matching colors.

Unless someone could tell me which color is the more correct one; I'll leave it on there and re-paint the cab. It needs touching up anyway. Please let me know...

Finally, I finished off the painting of the little Japanese Chi Nu since it had been masked for quite some time already:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_XIV.jpg

After that was dried, I removed all the Silly Putty from this model. I was real pleased with what I saw:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_XV.jpg

Yeah, there are some rough spots but not many. That was mostly due to operator error. Easy fixes though.

Just for fun I decided to add the already-weathered wheels and tracks to this to see how it was going to look. This is fast becoming one of my favorite Japanese tanks:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_XVI.jpg

Later on this got the track assemblies removed again and a gloss coat on it for decals:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_XVII.jpg

It's still wet on there and hadn't time to smooth out.

Now it was time to take a break on painting and do a bit of assembly on some other models while I waited for paint and clearcoats to dry...

First off, I added a few extra detail parts to the Russian BREM. Then I glued some grey thread onto the crane and added the hook to the end. I then painted the hook after everything was finishing drying:

WIP_Russian_BREM_XX.jpg

Yes, there appears to be a bit too much paint on the hook. I fixed that after taking this pic. Later I finished off this detail painting.

I then moved on to my SAM-2 missile launcher. I decided to remove the missile from the launching arm to make things easier to paint. I then glued all the base sub-assemblies together:

WIP_Russian_SAM-2_Launcher_IX.jpg

You can see that, due to the shortcomings of this short-run kit; the launching arm does not remain raised. So, I added a small slip of strip styrene to the inside to help it stand up, It works better now:

WIP_Russian_SAM-2_Launcher_X.jpg

This one will be heading to the spray booth soon, along with the Hell Cannons. Speaking of Hell Cannons....

I was afraid that the different sub-assemblies on my Hell Cannons were going to get lost and/or broken. So, it was time to finish them up. I built the bigger one first:

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_IV.jpg

Earlier someone remarked about how big these beasties are. Here I shot a pic with a soldier standing next to it. Both are 1/72 scale:

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_IVa.jpg

Oh yeah! That's big!

I then assembled the smaller cannon:

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_V.jpg

Here's a shot of the two of them side by side:

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_VI.jpg

A final shot of them with the soldier again. He must have wandered off for a snack break or something before:

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_VIa.jpg

Earlier in this Thread I showed you the Colonial with the decals on. That was when I had finished all the painting and assembly and everything was dry enough to start adding decals. After the Coloniale, I decaled the Jeep and Trailer in the British Airborne set:

WIP_British_Airborne_Jeep_X.jpg

Man, those things were tiny! What made it worse was that Airfix had printed everything so freakin' close together that it was almost impossible to cut them out without messing up others! I'm so thrilled that I didn't have any of them get cut in the process.

Moving on, I then decaled the Toldi II. This was easier to do since IBG had given a lot of space between decals:

WIP_Hungarian_Toldi_II_H.jpg

Next I moved on and added decals to the Japanese Chi Nu:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_XVIII.jpg

Then I moved on and added the decals to the two Russian tractors. Here's the first one. Everything was in front:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_A_VI.jpg

The second one had decals on front and back:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_VIII.jpg

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_IX.jpg

Well, I was on a roll so I decided to add the decals to something I have been needing to decal for awhile. I added the deck decals to the review kit of the Izumo that I had left languishing on my bench for too long. These look darn good:

JMSDF_Izumo_SPAM_Review_XVII.jpg

I still have to add the hull decals and additional decals on the island and then this beastie will be ready for me to add all the photo etch.

Since I was decaling long-term bench warmers, I also decided to do one more. I pulled down the Space Shuttle and added the decals to this one, making it the Columbia:

WIP_Space_Shuttle_XXX.jpg

WIP_Space_Shuttle_XXXI.jpg

Finally, after all that, it was time to call it a day. Thus ends this long update.

Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Okay, I had a few more days of building so; after building on a few models, I concentrated on those projects closest to the finish line. Here they are in some semblance of order....

I'll start with the aircraft I'm building on commission. The first thing I did was to add the metal barrels of the wing guns to the wings. This is the first time I ever did something like this:

WIP_Bruce_Comission_XXXIIIn.jpg

While those were drying, I started to assemble the landing gear. This was tough; there are 11 parts in each one! That's an awful lot for a 1/72 scale landing gear! Here is one of them, still missing the last couple parts. You can see how hard a time I had building this:

WIP_Bruce_Comission_XXXIIIi.jpg

Later on, I added the engine and the cowl to the front of this bird. You can see it here with both landing gear sitting next to it:

WIP_Bruce_Comission_XXXIIIk.jpg

After the landing gear dried sufficiently, I added them to this bird. She's now standing on her own feet:

WIP_Bruce_Comission_XXXIIIm.jpg

That needed to dry so I moved on. Here's the armor I worked on as I was waiting for that to dry.


I'll start with a couple ACE models I've been eager to build. First up is the Centurion, which got the suspension and most all the other fiddly bits on the main hull:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_V.jpg

After that, I finished the turret, adding almost all the detail parts to this:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_VI.jpg

...and then I posed it on the hull. This beastie is almost ready for paint already:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_VII.jpg

Since I was working on the Centurion, I also moved ahead on the Centurion-based Nagmachon. I started by building up the upper hull. You can see the ACE-type fit that this still has. There's gonna be some filler in my future:

WIP_Israeli_Nagmachon_II.jpg

WIP_Israeli_Nagmachon_III.jpg

After that, I assembled the 'doghouse'. This had two full-sized parts that you bent around to fit on the base. Pretty ingenious if you ask me! Here's the front:

WIP_Israeli_Nagmachon_IV.jpg

And here's the back:

WIP_Israeli_Nagmachon_V.jpg

The top is just dry-fit on; that way I can add the windows to this later.


I'm happy with how quickly this is moving along. I decided to pose everything dry-fit together to see how it's gonna look:

WIP_Israeli_Nagmachon_VI.jpg


After that, I decided it was time to take some of these models over the finish line. I'll start with the Italian Coloniale. This little car got it's wheels on. The upper roof is only dry-fit still:

WIP_Italian_508_Coloniale_IX.jpg

Later on I dullcoated this, added the windows, cemented the roof down and moved on...

...to the Trattore truck. I cemented the bed to the chassis of this truck along with the fenders; added the vinyl tires to the rims and assembled the tilt:

WIP_Italian_Trattore_VI.jpg

At that point I had lost the entire cab so this was set aside. Later on (two days later!) I found the cab so this will show on a future update again. I moved on to another model.

I then added the machine gun to the front of the Toldi's turret and painted it:
 
WIP_Hungarian_Toldi_II_I.jpg

Now all I have to do is add the tracks and the exhaust on the back, then cement down the top hull to the bottom hull and this little tank will be done.

Moving on from that, I decided to try and finish the Japanese Chi Nu tank. I re-painted the exhaust with a mixture of flat black and copper; painting the copper on while the flat black was still partially wet. This gives a burnt metal effect. Here it is still a bit wet:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_XIX.jpg

After that, I added the photo-etch screens to the tops of these pipes:

WIP_Japanese_Chi_Nu_XX.jpg

After a bit of touch up, rust application and the remaining detail parts, I finished this one up.

Now on to bigger game....

The two Russian tractors were so close, it was time to bring them home. I started by adding the vinyl tires to the rims and adding the wheels to the first truck:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_A_VII.jpg

WIP_Russian_Tractor_A_VIII.jpg

They fit so well and tight that I didn't need to glue them! And I could still remove them as necessary. Therefore, I added them to the second truck:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_X.jpg

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_XI.jpg

After that, I pulled the tires off the trucks and weathered them with some weathering powders. Then I weathered the trucks themselves with the airbrush and a dirty, dusty color as well as some judicious application of the powders used on the tires. Adding the wheels back to these trucks brought them that much closer to being finished:

WIP_Russian_Tractor_A_IX.jpg

WIP_Russian_Tractor_A_X.jpg

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_XII.jpg

WIP_Russian_Tractor_B_XIII.jpg

After that, it was just a matter of adding all the final detail bits and calling them done.

 

Okay, that completes this tour of the facility. I appreciate you all stopping in and taking the tour. If you make your way to the staging lot, you'll be able to see the nine models I completed this week.

Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's been a slow week for me so here's a small update on what I got done at Hobby Day.

I'll start with my armor.

The Italian Trattore had a missing cab which I finally found. I quickly got this glued into place on the chassis before I lost it again:

WIP_Italian_Trattore_VII.jpg

Later I'll be adding the windows and gloss coat for decals.

Moving on, I got the last resin parts added to the M-51 turret:

WIP_CauldronofWar_V.jpg

I then added all the resin stowage parts to the left side of the tank:

WIP_CauldronofWar_VI.jpg

Had to wait for that to dry before I could go do the other side....

Since I was doing an Israeli vehicle, the next project I worked on was the Nagmachon. I got all the suspension parts on as well as some other detail parts. I had also started to fill those crazy gaps:

WIP_Israeli_Nagmachon_VII.jpg

Gonna refine those fills later. Meanwhile, I pulled out my Centurion tank and added all the photo-etch on the hull:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_VIII.jpg

I also finished all the detail parts and the turret stowage basket on the Italian Centauro:

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_V.jpg

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_VI.jpg

Now this one is ready for all the photo etch parts.

After this, I started two more small vehicles; hoping to get a few more 'easy' projects done. This first one is the T-Models M-1114 armored HUMVEE. The suspension was finally done after several puzzling test fits on each of the 20+ parts just to figure out what the instructions were trying to tell me:

WIP_US_M-1114_Armored_Humvee_I.jpg

That was so difficult I stopped there; reminiscing on the simplicity of the Dragon suspension assembly!

The next project I started was another of the ACE Digital design kits: the V-100 armored car. They had me start with the tiny turret. I placed an Exacto blade next to it so you could see how tiny this is:

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_I.jpg

Next was the sparse interior which wasn't going to be seen anyway:

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_II.jpg

After that, I turned it over to add the suspension:

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_III.jpg

With all that done, there was nothing left to do but close up the hull:

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_IV.jpg

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_V.jpg

 

Finally the last thing I worked on was the Space Shuttle Shelf Queen. I started out with what I felt was the hardest part: scratchbuilding a forward bracket for the front of the Shuttle. I tried to make this in such a way that the Shuttle would be able to 'snap' into place so I could remove it from the fuel tank for transport. This is also why I made it a bit longer than the lower one:

WIP_Space_Shuttle_XXXII.jpg

Also, the vertical tail comes off for transport. Now it fits in one of my flat tubs.

With a little finagling, I was successful with that forward bracket; this beastie snaps into place well. After that, I finished painting and detailing the exhaust bells and then mounted them on the shuttle. They actually have more steel-colored metal showing which the pic does not reflect. The copper colored appearance was my attempt to make these look like they'd been weathered/burned in a previous launch:

WIP_Space_Shuttle_XXXIII.jpg

Finally, I unmasked the windscreen and upper windows and touched up the edges:

WIP_Space_Shuttle_XXXIV.jpg

I could finally call this Shelf Queen done! Eventually, I will finish the payloads that came with this model so I can lay them out as a display around the base of this shuttle.

Okay, that's completes this tour of the plant! Thanks all for coming in, comments are always welcome.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Okay, I have a very short update here but I'm gonna get it posted now. After all this, I hope to get back to the workbench later today to have more pics to show next week.

I'll start with my little Toldi II. I finally got the tracks on this tank:

WIP_Hungarian_Toldi_II_J.jpg

Later on I finished painting and weathering them and now this little tank is on my display shelf. It was the last model I finished in April.

Moving on....


Since I finished up my Space Shuttle with Boosters, I decided to continue my foray into Real Space. I had intended to start these right after finishing the Space Shuttle anyway and now I can. First is the Horizon Models 1/72 scale Mercury Redstone. I assembled the main body of this rocket, and then the launch stand so I could stand it up:

WIP_Mercury_Redstone_I.jpg

That went together surprisingly well, such a smooth and easy build at this point. I had also noted the similarity of the fins underneath the engines to the old V-2 rocket and found that interesting.

After that was set aside to dry more; I started the Horizon Models 1/72 scale Convair Atlas. This one had to have been done by the B Team at Horizon since the fit was nowhere near as smooth and easy to assemble as the Redstone!

WIP_Convair_Atlas_I.jpg

Even that tape wasn't effective; I had a lot more manipulation to do to get this rocket to fit well enough. Even then, there were a ton of seams to fill. That you'll see in subsequent pics. I got tired of fighting that so I moved on to something else.

This next model is one that has been fairly screaming at me to build for quite some time. I finally found it buried underneath a number of models I hadn't moved in a while. I pulled it out and got started right away. This is the Italeri 1/72 scale Church that went together exceptionally well and fast:

WIP_Church_Building_I.jpg

WIP_Church_Building_II.jpg

In the background you can see most all the models I have waiting for the spray booth now. After assembling the walls, I used them to glue the top roof pieces together in the proper position. The other roof pieces on the tower and side building are just dry fit for the pics:

WIP_Church_Building_III.jpg

WIP_Church_Building_IV.jpg

There's a tiny cross that goes on that small pedestal at the front; I'm going to replace it with something larger and grander.

Next up was a Japanese Float Plane Group Build that was started by some of my Orange County IPMS club members and is going on completely through E-mails. That reminds me, I need to send this to all those guys to show my progress so far. It ain't much; I just assembled the cockpit and also the halved sections on the floats and other split pieces. Here's the cockpit so far:

WIP_Japanese_Shinmeiwa_I.jpg

Finally, I had started a model that a friend of mine also started at roughly the same time. It was the Pershing II with the MAN tractor pulling it. He had finished it at the end of April while I had barely made any progress. He then passed away at the end of April after completing it. In his honor, I've brought mine back out to continue. As you might recall, I had finished the Pershing II missile itself some time back:

WIP_MAN_Pershing_I~0.jpg

Now I moved on and got the chassis and suspension completed so far:

WIP_MAN_Pershing_II.jpg

There's great detail on this beastie, I'm loving this already. I just hope mine turns out half as great as my friend's model did.

That's all my production completed so far. Life and illness kept me from doing more. Hopefully now that things seem to be improving I'll be able to make even more progress.

Stay tuned, more to come. Thanks for looking in.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks to Hobby Day, I was able to make a good amount of progress. I even felt like I got somewhere!

I'll start out with some simple stuff. Just before Hobby Day I was working on the church. I started to fill in some of the seams and small gaps. I'll need to re-scribe some of the lines afterward:

WIP_Church_Building_V.jpg

WIP_Church_Building_VI.jpg

 

Next up, I decided it was time to add the photo etch to these models so I could get them to the paint stage. I started with the Centurion, adding the photo etch to the top of the hull:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_IX.jpg

Next I added all the photo etch to the Centauro. Much of this was extremely difficult:

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_VII.jpg

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_VIII.jpg

Now that puppy is ready for paint.

More photo etch fun was done on the little V-100 which fortunately, did not have much:

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_VI.jpg

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_VII.jpg

That one is also ready for paint now.

Despite the instructions, I was able to make some progress on the Nagmachon; adding all the reactive armor and other detail parts to the hull:

WIP_Israeli_Nagmachon_VIII.jpg

Later I posed this with the doghouse to see how it's looking so far. I next have to finish up the doghouse and then get the photo etch added:

WIP_Israeli_Nagmachon_IX.jpg

After that, I got the windows inside the Trattore truck so I could close it up and get it closer to the finish line. I also added the wheels to it, after having to "adjust" the wheel wells:

WIP_Italian_Trattore_VIII.jpg

Here it is with the tilt dry-fit in place:

WIP_Italian_Trattore_IX.jpg

Finally, I made some more progress on the MAN Pershing tractor, adding some additional parts and finishing it up. Now all I need to do is add the cab and photo etch to this:

WIP_MAN_Pershing_III.jpg

After that, I started the trailer for the rocket:

WIP_MAN_Pershing_IV.jpg

While stuff was drying, I decided to pull out my Russian BMP-3 Early and get started on that. At least this is one BMP-3 that I have a chance to finish! It has me start with the turret, so I got that assembled:

WIP_Russian_BMP_3_Early_I.jpg

Next was the lower hull. This kit had been very slightly started as all I had to do was to add one or two parts to this assembled lower hull:

WIP_Russian_BMP_3_Early_II.jpg

Next I assembled the main parts of the upper hull:

WIP_Russian_BMP_3_Early_III.jpg

Just for fun here's all that all test fit together:

WIP_Russian_BMP_3_Early_IV.jpg

 

Now the painting fun could happen!

Let's see what I got painted so far.....

First was the little V-100. I shot a coat of Olive Drab over it:

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_VIII.jpg

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_IX.jpg

Next up I shot the Centurion. This got a coat of Bronze Green:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_X.jpg

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_XI.jpg

Later on I added the roadwheels and sprockets to this tank:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_XII.jpg

Next up I shot a new coat of olive on the Diamond T wrecker:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XVII.jpg

Afterward I completed the assembly on this truck, getting it almost completed:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XVIII.jpg

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XX.jpg

While I was shooting greens, the next thing I shot was the launcher for the SA-2 Guideline:

WIP_Russian_SAM-2_Launcher_XI.jpg

You can see it was still wet when I shot that.  I also painted the rocket white:

WIP_Russian_SAM-2_Launcher_XII.jpg

This will be painted the grey on white scheme, so the white went down first.


Finally, I shot the two Hell cannons; one was green in preparation for the tri-color camo pattern the other is black for the rusty version:

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_VII.jpg

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_VIII.jpg

Since I had some extra black left in the airbrush after painting that cannon, I decided to shoot a few other things. One was the exhaust pipe for the Israeli Sufa:

WIP_Israeli_F-16I_Sufa_IX.jpg

...and the other was the lower section of the Redstone rocket that gets black on it:

WIP_Mercury_Redstone_II.jpg

WIP_Mercury_Redstone_III.jpg

Finally, to wrap this all up, I'm leaving you with a teaser of one more project I started that I expect to make a long term project out of. I will have extensive workup to do with this one. Here's the teaser....

WIP_Teaser_I.jpg


That's all I have for now everyone! I hope you enjoyed the latest 'tour'.

Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I seem to have overwhelmed everyone again with my quantity since I've had no replies! LOL! That sounds better to me than nobody looking in because these are all just OOB....

 

Just joking guys! NO need to take me seriously, after all my wife doesn't so why should you right? LOL!

 

Anyway, here's a small update where I started two models and moved forward on several more.

I'll start with one of my two models I started. This is a 1/24 scale 1929 Coca Cola Delivery Van that I got some time back. On another Forums I jumped into a mini Group Build with two other guys building the same thing. It got me motivated to get started on this. Of course, I started with the little four-banger motor:

WIP_Coke_Delivery_Van_I.jpg

I then started on the chassis which needed to be assembled en toto and included eight pieces besides the engine itself. Here it is all assembled:

WIP_Coke_Delivery_Van_II.jpg

The wheel hubs are just tightly fastened onto the metal axles; I can remove them later for painting. I just put them on the model here to line up the chassis and make sure all four wheels touch the ground.

Moving on, I decided it was time to move forward on more models; especially those awaiting paint and/or clearcoat. Here they are in no particular order:

Clearcoat first:

The Diamond T Wrecker got cleared for decals:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XXI.jpg

The little V-100 got cleared for decals:

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_X.jpg

The Italian Trattore truck got cleared for decals:

WIP_Italian_Trattore_X.jpg

And the Centurion got cleared for decals:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_XIII.jpg

After all this, I shot a basecoat of Olive Drab ANA color on the Italian Centauro. This was the closest thing I could see that matched pics showing this vehicle in Italian Olive. Good enough for me as I haven't the time or inclination to try and mix that color:

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_IX_Jjpg.jpg

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_X.jpg

Since I was already painting, I pulled out the two Syrian Hell Cannons and finished up the painting on them. On the larger one I first dry-brushed a rust color over the gun and frame itself, then drybrushed some dull metallic color mixed with a bit of rust on the wheel hubs. On the smaller gun, I completed a rough three-tone camo pattern; then painted the tires and the wheel hubs afterward. The tires on the smaller on are still a bit wet in these pics:

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_IX.jpg

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_X.jpg

Technically, these two are done already. I still need to complete the rounds of ammo that came with them so I'm not calling them done yet.


Finally, after all that painting; it was time to build something again. The Austratt turret was calling my name, or rather screaming at me; so out it came. Someone wanted to see the size of this turret in 1/72 scale so here's a shot of the upper shell next to a ruler. This is six and a half inches long from front to back:

WIP_Austratt_Turret_I.jpg

The first thing I did was to build the base... all two parts of it. Man, was that ever tough! Yeah...no it wasn't:

WIP_Austratt_Turret_III.jpg

The guns then had to be assembled since they were molded in halves. They give you parts for four guns, even though this only has three in the turret:

WIP_Austratt_Turret_II.jpg

I made those as seamless as possible; I'll know how successful I was when I paint them. I also built all four in case I screwed one up or something.

After the base dried, I dry fit to see how well the turret base plate fit in the base:

WIP_Austratt_Turret_IV.jpg

Like a glove! Smooth operation of the traverse too! Of course I had to try it with the upper turret shell on too:

WIP_Austratt_Turret_V.jpg

WIP_Austratt_Turret_VI.jpg

Now, earlier a friend had mentioned that the holes in the trunnions needed to be reduced so that the guns will remain in whatever position I wanted to pose them in. Otherwise they would just remain fully depressed. He made one suggestion, but another friend and fellow IPMS club member mentioned another idea that I decided to try. I added some thin strips of styrene inside the loops so that the holes would tighten up:

WIP_Austratt_Turret_VII.jpg

It worked! The guns stay where I want them to!

Here is the whole turret fully assembled. Now it's ready for paint:

WIP_Austratt_Turret_IX.jpg

After that, I can start on the two 128mm twin AA guns that also come in this kit.


Well, that's all I have for this tour. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to comment and thanks all for stopping in!

 

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As for me, I'm always overwhelmed by the amount of projects you have going at once! I can barely keep one or two organized! That turret does look amazing.....I was going to suggest counter-weighting the back of the guns to offset the weight of the barrels, but it seems you elegantly solved the problem!

 

GIL :cool:

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Thanks Gil! I have so many going right now, I do need to finish some. I am hoping to do that very soon. I was fortunate that the guns on the Austratt turret didn't need counterweights. They just needed the holes in the trunnions tightened up.  Everything works perfectly now!

 

Stay tuned, more to come.

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Okay here's more progress on my way to getting some of these models finished. All this is armor so far, along with the turret, since these are all so close to the finish line.

First up is the Centurion. Here it is with the decals on:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_XIV.jpg

You can see that I also added the tracks to this. Alexey at ACE has you push three tiny stubs through holes and melt the protruding ends to hold the tracks together. The only problem with that technique is that the stubs are too small and flexible to be pushed through such tiny holes. They never make it through the holes, so I pulled out my black tire glue and glued these together using that. I then glued the tracks to the wheels using the same glue.

Next I dullcoated this and added the skirts to this model:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_XV.jpg

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_XVI.jpg

You can see the skirts were pre-weathered like the rest of the tank. After that, I went to add the machine gun to the top of the turret. However, the V-shaped part was far too delicate to remove it from the four large attachment points. The first cut with the newest, sharpest X-acto blade resulted in this:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_XVIII.jpg

That did not bode well for any attempt to separate the rest of this part and I did not relish assembling four parts of this particular piece to mount the gun. So, I scratch-built a replacement. This is a bit out of scale, but it is sturdy and complete:

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_XVII.jpg

Afterwards, the gun got mounted; touchup painting was done and tools were added. Looks done right?

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_XIX.jpg

WIP_British_Centurion_Mk3_XX.jpg

No it isn't. I had realized that I hadn't 'dusted' the roadwheels to match the rest of the weathering so I went ahead and did that. Now I could call this tank done. Pics of it will be seen in the finished armor forums.

Moving on, I also added the decals to the B-1 Centauro:

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_XI.jpg

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_XIa.jpg

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_XIb.jpg

Also, remember that huge shrink mark in the gun barrel? If not, check back a few posts; it's there. Well, it finally got fully fixed:

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_XII.jpg

After that this model got the final wash and then dullcoat:

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_XIII.jpg

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_XIV.jpg

After doing some 'pre-weathering' on the wheels, I installed them on this vehicle:

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_XV.jpg

WIP_ACE_Italian_Centauro_XVI.jpg

Some final 'dusting' later along with the Centurion, this beastie is done!

My next model I moved forward on was the little V-100 armored car. Here it is with the decals. I love that Budweiser logo!

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_XI.jpg

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_XIa.jpg

After that I 'pre-weathered' the tires with a reddish brown color to try and match the red clay of the 'Nam and mounted them up. I then dullcoated this and tried 'dusting' it. This was the closest I got to that red clay color:

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_XII.jpg

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_XIII.jpg

After that, I did some touchups on the details and then added the turret mounted .50 caliber Ma Deuce:

WIP_US_V-100_Armored_Car_XIV.jpg

Painting that Ma Deuce brought this over the finish line as well.

Moving on, I added the decals onto the Diamond T wrecker:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XXII.jpg

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XXIII.jpg

I know the markings on this truck are fictitious. I wanted to build it as US Army truck but; despite having decals for at least three US Army trucks, they only gave you the schematic/layout for a Canadian truck. I spent hours looking online; trying to find pics of a Diamond T Wrecker sporting the numbers, codes, and (hopefully!) that armor logo on the front fender that were offered on the decal sheet. Nothing popped up at all that even remotely had any of the decal sheet codes on it. So, I just winged it and chose what I wanted. Later I can get another one and make it Canadian.

Later on I dullcoated this and then added the wheels to it. The four twin wheels on the back were a real bear to do given how delicate the attachment points were for those wheels! What a pain! I finally got them all cemented on:

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XXIV.jpg

WIP_Diamond_T_Wrecker_XXV.jpg

I had forgotten to mask the windows before dullcoating this again so I'll have to fix that. Also, the cab is still not glued down, which will help greatly in fixing the glass as the back wheels are still so delicate. The less I handle that chassis the better. There's a few more things I still need to do with that truck, so it's not quite finished yet.

One truck that did get finished is my Italian Trattore truck. I glossed this and added the decals to it:

WIP_Italian_Trattore_XI.jpg

WIP_Italian_Trattore_XII.jpg

You can see I also started the wash on it. I also noticed one of the tires cracked. Oh well...

Later this was dullcoated. I remembered the windows this time:

WIP_Italian_Trattore_XIII.jpg

I completed the tilt on this and then called it done.

After all that, I needed to finish up the Hell Cannons. All that was needed was to assemble and paint the ammo rounds that came in the kit. Here you can see that I assembled the smaller cannon's rounds by fitting them to the barrel and gluing them together. I later removed then from the barrel for painting:

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_XI.jpg

In this pic, you can see two of the rounds for the larger cannon too:

WIP_Syrian_Hell_Cannon_XII.jpg

I later painted them all and was able to declare the Hell Cannons done.


Finally I worked on the Austratt turret. First I tried to eliminate the seam on the base. This was my first attempt:

WIP_Austratt_Turret_XIV.jpg

My second attempt was a bit better. Pics of that forthcoming in another update.

Next, it was time to paint the turret itself. I started by removing the upper shell and hitting the guns and gun shields first:

WIP_Austratt_Turret_X.jpg

Next I carefully replaced the top and shot it with the green again:

WIP_Austratt_Turret_XI.jpg

Two thirds of the way through this I ran out of paint in the airbrush and re-mixed some more. It was too thin and ran badly. I tried smoothing it out but this was the result:

WIP_Austratt_Turret_XII.jpg

Story of my life! Every time I think I might succeed, something stupid like this happens! So, I soaked a paper towel in Airbrush Thinner and wiped it clean:

WIP_Austratt_Turret_XIII.jpg

Fresh, properly mixed paint went on after that! It still looks lumpy from debris left behind by the wipe down, but I think I can possibly fix it further. Pics forthcoming on that too.

This looks like a great place to finish off this update. Thank for looking in, comments are welcome.

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Hi, Mark,

A wise old saying applies here: "The hurrier you go, the behinder you get."  It certainly applies to my own progress.

Ed

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Ed, I agree. There are times i know I need to slow down or walk away, but my drive to keep working on some models becomes overwhelming. That's when stuff like this happens and I finally do walk away in frustration. The next time I sit back at the bench; I'll be refreshed and will be able to take care of things.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, it's been awhile thanks to being back to work on several home repair projects. Despite that, I did manage to get some progress done because of some time on the bench and Hobby Day.

I'll start with some aircraft.

This first on is the Grumman Duck I had started. I got the interior painted and the windows installed in the sides of the fuselage so it was time to close this bird up:

WIP_Grumman_Duck_III~0.jpg

This next one is an ancient USAirfix kit of the Widgeon floatplane. I got it for free, and since I started it at Hobby Day now I know why: No clear parts. Oh well, I started it anyway; adding the pilot to the interior:

WIP_Widgeon_Floatpane_II.jpg

Adding the side windows won't be an issue; doing the canopy is going to be interesting...

I went ahead and assembled the wing:

WIP_Widgeon_Floatpane_I.jpg

Followed by the engines:

WIP_Widgeon_Floatpane_III.jpg

I let them dry for a bit and while that was happening, I assembled the outrigger floats:

WIP_Widgeon_Floatpane_IV.jpg

Later on I added the engines to the wing. There's gonna be a ton of sanding to do on that:

WIP_Widgeon_Floatpane_V.jpg

Moving on to my Big Bird, I painted the cockpit and pilots on the Shinmeiwa:

WIP_Japanese_Shinmeiwa_II.jpg

Then I decided to move in and assemble the propellers. I had thought that I just needed to add the cones to the centers of the propellers, but no! Hasegawa had to do this to me:

WIP_Japanese_Shinmeiwa_Ia.jpg

Here's the first one assembled:

WIP_Japanese_Shinmeiwa_Ib.jpg

Finally, I got them all done and they are all hopefully the same direction:

WIP_Japanese_Shinmeiwa_Ic.jpg

I then went through the kit and assembled everything that was molded in two halves, starting with the wheels which I also painted:

WIP_Japanese_Shinmeiwa_IVa.jpg

I them realized on the instruction sheet that there were two version options on this plane in the kit. Using Google Translate on my phone, which told me to "paint [certain part} the color of the woman"(?!) I managed to somehow decipher enough "code" to determine which step was for which version. I had to cross certain steps out and edit the sheet to insure I don't mess this up too badly:

WIP_Japanese_Shinmeiwa_III.jpg

Moving on, I then assembled some more parts:

WIP_Japanese_Shinmeiwa_IVb.jpg

WIP_Japanese_Shinmeiwa_IVc.jpg

That's as far as I got with that.

I then pulled out my Redstone rocket and masked off the base where it needs to stay black:

WIP_Mercury_Redstone_IVa.jpg

WIP_Mercury_Redstone_IVb.jpg

I spent some time trying to polish this as well. Speaking of trying to polish, I spent quite a bit of time sanding the Mr. Surfacer and smoothing out the seams on my Atlas rocket:

WIP_Convair_Atlas_IIa.jpg

I took some time to make sure the lines were still scribed out:

WIP_Convair_Atlas_IIb.jpg

This part was the toughest:

WIP_Convair_Atlas_IIc.jpg

I made some progress in smoothing this out quite a bit, but I still have a long way to go to make this smooth enough for a metal finish:

WIP_Convair_Atlas_IId.jpg

My last little aircraft is an unusual kit I found of a Russian Troop carrying glider. I never knew they had them! I started with the interior. The two upright squares were for holding the benches, but since the benches wouldn't be seen, I decided to leave them off:

WIP_Russian_Glider_I.jpg

I then added the small windows and side doors to the fuselage halves. Here's a shot of them and the rest of the sprues:

WIP_Russian_Glider_II.jpg

I then assembled the wings. This plastic is interesting; fusing almost instantly with Tamiya Extra Thin. I don't really know why they used two different types of plastic:

WIP_Russian_Glider_III.jpg

I finally painted the interior of the fuselage and then assembled the fuselage together and added the tail feathers:

WIP_Russian_Glider_IV.jpg

I found that the fuselage halves were molded differently and didn't match the line of the canopy so I sanded it to form:

WIP_Russian_Glider_V.jpg

 

That's all my aircraft progress, now to show my armor. But first, here's some buildings/structures I was working on first. The base of the turret was primed with a grey primer to see how well I covered that seam. I'm not that happy with it:

WIP_Austratt_Turret_XV.jpg

I then pulled out the church and started to seal up the seams along the walls and the base and all the corners with acrylic putty:

WIP_Church_Building_VIIb.jpg

WIP_Church_Building_VIIa.jpg

WIP_Church_Building_VI~0.jpg

After all of that, I shot a grey primer all over the church too:

WIP_Church_Building_VIII.jpg

WIP_Church_Building_IX.jpg

I did notice the roof of the belfry is propped up. That's the let the bats out.

I also ordered a brand new cross for this from my church's bookstore/gift shop. I expect to have it in sometime two weeks from now.

Finally, I decided to make some extensive progress on my George Creed commemorative build. I assembled the cab, adding the photo etch to it too:

WIP_MAN_Pershing_V.jpg

WIP_MAN_Pershing_Va.jpg

Next I added the photo etch to the chassis and finished with a few more final detail parts:

WIP_MAN_Pershing_VI.jpg

Here's a shot of the cabin dry-fit to the chassis:

WIP_MAN_Pershing_VIa.jpg

I moved on to assemble the crane for this and later on I added that and other parts to the chassis and cab, dryfitting everything together:

WIP_MAN_Pershing_VII.jpg

WIP_MAN_Pershing_VIIa.jpg

Finally I finished the assembly of most of the trailer; adding the side platforms and other detail parts:

WIP_MAN_Pershing_VIII.jpg

After that I decided to dry fit the Pershing to the trailer to see how it looks:

WIP_MAN_Pershing_VIIIb.jpg

That's all I had for this week. I don't know if I'll be able to get anything done the next few weeks with all the work I have and the very high temps coming our way.

Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

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Great progress on a myriad of projects Duke!

If I might suggest for the canopy glass on the Widgeon.....IF it is essentially a series of flat glass panels, then use clear packing tape. Tear off a piece and then carefully stick it in place over one side, being sure it's a part of the tape with no fingerprints or smudges. The, using a brand new blade, cut off the excess leaving a thin piece of "frame" where it's stuck to your fuselage. Then paint that thin strip of clear tape to match your fuselage. Repeat as needed to form the 3-4 panels for the canopy. NOTE: BE SURE to completely blow out and eliminate ALL dust and sanding residue from the interior before doing this! Anything left floating around inside will end up sticking to the inside of your tape glass! Hope this helps!

 

GIL :cool:

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Thanks Gil! I appreciate the comments and compliments.  I'll file that idea away for another build as this bird has a curved canopy with no frames on it.

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