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Maddog Manufacturing 2020 Production Line


Mark Deliduka

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I'm exhausted just looking through the thread.  Keep them coming Duke.

I can build vicariously through you for now. 

Nice work, sir.

Bill

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Thank you Mark. Yeah, it's been a tough month. My armor and armor transport is all in 1/72 scale. I'm not sure if you were at the Chattanooga Nationals or the Phoenix Nationals before that but I'm the guy that brought in the huge display of small scale armor for the display tables at both shows.

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Greetings all, here's another small update due to life happening; or else I might have gotten more done.  This time I'll start with my armor since I barely got anything done on armor.

 

Basically all I did was to mask the windows for the three tank transporters. First the Japanese Type 87:

 

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Then the HEMMTT cab:

 

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...and finally the M-1070 cab:

 

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Later on I gloss coated the German Cabriolet car and painted the chrome on it, along with painting the roof:

 

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After all that, I went to work on my two rockets since they were so close to being done. Here they are all mocked up:

 

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The first thing I did was to apply the decals to the Atlas rocket; as you saw above. Here it is showing three sides when I had finished the decals:

 

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After that it was only a matter of adding a few more external plumbing parts to this and it was done. Meanwhile the Redstone had a bit more to be done. 

 

First off, there were some highly noticeable blemishes in the white coat of the main rocket body that were really annoying me. I tried to ignore them because I knew any fix was going to ruin the smooth finish I'd already achieved. I just couldn't let it go. So, I pulled out a post-it notepad and my Tamiya Tape and masked off the offending area. I then shot some more white; adding several coats to try and cover the blemishes. It was amazing how they kept popping out from under the white. Finally, I got it covered enough for my satisfaction:

 

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I was right, there was a noticeable square that I could not eliminate; especially that close to the decal. So I have to live with it:

 

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Oh well. At least I found the decals for the capsule and promptly added them to it:

 

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A few more detailed parts to add and that one was done.

 

Finally, it was time to work on my large aircraft again. The first one  I worked on was the Russian An-124. I finally got the fourth engine finished:

 

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After that, it was time to work on the landing gear. I started with the forward landing gear wheels. I needed to make four of them and they had to have the hubs added to the middle of the wheel halves, just like the main landing gear wheels. That made them impossible to close properly without some serious sanding and shaping and squeezing:

 

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I had four of those to do. Then I assembled the first forward landing strut, adding the wheels to it:

 

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I'm supposed to make two of those but of course, the second strut is missing......

 

So, I moved on and finished off one side of the main landing gear bay; completing all the main landing gear struts:

 

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After that I halfway finished the twenty wheels that go on those struts; adding all the hubs to the wheel halves. Next I need to put each wheel half together. Later....

 

Each main landing gear strut has eleven parts in it. I still have to do the other side. Once that is done and I paint these (along with finding and finishing the second forward landing gear); I'll be done with all the incidentals and can finally work on building the whole plane; adding the wings and tail to the fuselage. Man that is gonna be one difficult beastie to paint!

 

So, I put that aside and went to do something easier. Only it wasn't so easy. After two hours or so of fighting the fuselage halves to the A-400 Grizzly; I finally managed to get the whole fuselage to fit right:

 

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The clear part is only dry fit to see how well it fits. Wow, it fits like a glove! Beautiful! 

 

Next, since this was all glued together, I tried test fitting the wings and tail to see what fit issues I was going to have to deal with:

 

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Yeah, that big beast barely fits on my workbench! 

 

The third big aircraft I pulled out was my C-54. All I did with that was to add two extra windows to one fuselage half that I apparently forgot; then cemented the cockpit to the interior fuselage assembly and then added nose weights to the forward part of this whole assembly:

 

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The next step will be to close this up inside the fuselage and move on. 

 

Okay, that's it for this update. Thanks to all who stop in and comment, I appreciate everyone and everything. Stay tuned for more progress updates in the next couple weeks.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Despite it being a very difficult two weeks, I did manage to get some progress done., Miraculously, I even found a few missing parts! More on that later....

 

Right now, let's tour the Aircraft Hanger and see what's been happening there. 

 

First off, I finally managed to finish all the main landing gear struts for the An-124. Man was that an ordeal:

 

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And here is the first of the missing parts I found. It's been lost so long, I forgot it was missing! This is the last engine nacelle for the Japanese Shinmeiwa that had been missing for so long. Once I found it, I installed it right away; no need to give it a chance to escape again:

 

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It's the one on the right. I did have a tough time getting that to line up properly and fit right. Man, the parts on this Shinmeiwa are all just refusing to fit!

 

Moving on, I wanted to get caught up on the C-54 since it's been neglected for so long. The first thing I did was to get the interior installed on one side of the outer fuselage. Take a last look at that interior detail; you ain't ever gonna see that again:

 

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Next I closed it up. It took a lot of tape and some clamps to get it to line up. Even after that I did have a few tiny steps to sand smooth:

 

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Later I removed everything and was pretty happy with the way this closed up:

 

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After that I deepened a few of the panel lines and added some Mr. Surfacer 500 to the most egregious areas and let it dry. While that was drying, I decided to mask the canopy before installing it on the fuselage:

 

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I used my trusty Tamiya tape for that. Then after everything else was dry on the fuselage; I installed the canopy. It was tough as that thing did not want to stay in place for some reason:

 

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Time to let that dry and moved on to the wings. Wow, what an amazing amount of work is going into these! First, I installed all the engine firewalls in all four nacelles and side walls for the main landing gear bays. There's five or six parts in both of these:

 

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Here's a shot from the other side:

 

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Now, because I plan on posing this with the landing gear down, I had to cut these sections out so I can depict these particular flaps as lowered:

 

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Later I added the top wing to the whole assembly. I had to start by gluing it around the nacelles and the end closest to the fuselage since the top wing was so warped. More clamps in use:

 

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Later, when that is all dry I will close up the ends of the wings. They'll be easier to clean up on that end. As it is, I'll be doing a lot of sanding and cleaning up on the inner ends of these wings anyway. Here's a shot of both top wings in place:

 

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Darn thing almost looks like an X-wing!

 

Moving on....

 

Here is my latest progress on my armor and vehicles, starting with the finding of the missing piece that I needed for the Japanese tank transporter. While cleaning up and looking for something else, I found the tiny steering wheel for the truck and promptly installed it:

 

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Moving on, I also found a shelf queen that I'd almost forgotten about. This is the Ukrainian BTR-3K that I started some time ago (last year?) 

 

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It was time to move forward. After perusing the instruction sheet for some length of time, I finally figured out how to start the suspension and running gear. This got me halfway:

 

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Later I was able to finish up the rest of it:

 

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After lining those up, I set that aside to dry and started on the interesting turret. This whole thing is remote controlled:

 

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That was more difficult than I imagined it would be getting that together, then again; the instructions didn't help much. I decided to stop there on that and went back to the hull. I finished that off by adding all but the most delicate, breakable parts to it. Here you can see it with the base turret added:

 

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Again, while searching for something else, I found the turret to the Churchill Mk IV AVRE that had gone missing. Time to pull that out to get it caught up to the Mk III. I started with the lower hull and the running gear:

 

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Later I dry-fit the upper hull and turret to see how they look and fit: 

 

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Add the tracks and some more detail parts and this will be ready for paint. Both of these are now caught up to each other:

 

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I've also been working on two German touring cars. One was almost done so I needed to get the other one moving along, as you can see here:

 

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First I shot a basic black over it. This is the Wal-Mart 96-cent spraycan of flat black:

 

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Next I masked the outside to paint the interior:

 

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This then got a gloss coat:

 

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After that dried, I installed the windows:

 

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...Followed by the roof:

 

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Now all that is needed is some detail parts and detail painting before I can add the decals. So, now I needed to get the other car caught up! I pulled it out and added the windows as well: 

 

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I decided to make this a partial convertible. Here it is with the rear portion of the roof attached:

 

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Again, a few more detail parts (and the wheels!) and this will be done. Here you can see both cars almost finished. Shouldn't be too long:

 

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That's all I have for now. Thanks all for looking in, comments are always welcome.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well it's been a tough couple weeks, tougher than usual for me, but I've managed to get a good amount done in my hobby room. It has helped me a lot to keep my sanity and not blow my brains out! 

 

I'll start with the work I've been doing on my aircraft. It's mostly been sanding and filling, sanding and filling, sanding and filling... and more sanding and filling... ad nauseum. This is the A-400 which has so many issues with the canopy fit that I've had to really glop on the Mr. Surfacer 500:

 

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You can see where I had to also fill a lot of sink marks as well. I've been sanding that quite a bit lately and it's starting to look like  an aircraft now.

 

I've also been working on the C-54, but since I'm still sanding and filling and sanding that, there's not much to show.  

 

By the way, did I mention I was doing a lot of sanding and filling?

 

What I can show is the work I did on the An-124. First off, I wanted to test fit the landing gear bays in the openings of the fuselage but when I pulled them down from where I had them stored, I noticed that one side was missing some pieces off a couple of the landing gear. How they went missing is beyond me! See if you can find the two and a half missing pieces:

 

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Oh well, they won't be seen once I get the gear bay doors on and this thing is sitting on the landing gear. Speaking of which, the gear bays fit into the openings quite well once I got them sanded and shaped a bit:

 

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These fit so snug and tight that I won't even need to glue them in; they are staying in place very nicely:

 

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I did notice the step in the fuselage from the resin coating on the fiberglass that was also evident on the top. So, I taped both sides of the step and proceeded to sand it smooth. That went faster than expected:

 

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Even though you can't tell from that pic, I assure you that is now very smooth!

 

Later I hope to finish the gear doors and then figure out how to get the cockpit and the canopy attached. After that I'll be adding the wings and tail feathers to this bird and then it's paint time! Wow, that will be quite the thrill to get that far! I better stock up on paint.....

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, moving on to my armor, I've got a huge update there since I've been trying to focus on getting a lot of my vehicles finished. I'll start with the BTR-3K that I've been working on. 

 

It has the funky turret that is already tough to comprehend. However with the difficult instructions, it was even more tough!  I spent a couple hours just gluing in, and then tearing out and re-gluing these twelve parts four or five times before I figured out how each of them went together and fit in the turret up to this point:

 

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I left the tweezers there to give you an idea of the sizes of everything I've been working on. After that assembly, I jumped ahead and assembled the rocket pods and launching station. There are six pieces in each assembly. The one in front is upside down:

 

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Then I glued them to the main frame above:

 

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Next I needed to add the photo-etch before I could go any further. So, the first parts went on okay as you can see here:

 

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You can also see where I added the smoke dischargers to the base of the turret.

 

The second box was etched wrong so I folded it wrong. Naturally when I tried to reverse the folds, it all fell apart. This is my attempt to glue it back together:

 

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That didn't actually work but I eventually got that whole thing to glue in it's place after another few hours of fighting it. 

 

Then part 14 fell and disappeared as I was trying to test fit it. It's not a small piece but despite my best efforts and a couple flashlights; I could not find it anywhere. So, I resorted to sheet styrene. I pulled out some very thin stock and placed it under the photo-etch fret and cut out the shape of the part using it as a template:

 

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Later I added that to the back of the turret. Mehinks it is a spent shell capture basket:

 

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Okay, I'd had enough of that so it all got set aside to dry. I next did something simple. 

 

On my 1/35th scale Patton, I took the time to re-spray a light coat of OD over the overly bright modulation I did before. I think it looks far better now; even though this pic doesn't show it too well:

 

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I then airbrushed black over the tracks for this in preparation for adding them to the tank:

 

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Now to show you the models that are all painted. I'll start first with the Churchill Mk II AVRE. I just finished up all the detail parts and got it fully to the paint stage:


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Later I shot it with the closest equivalent to the greenish brown color these had... according to the instruction sheet:


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Once that dried, I shot the model with a clear gloss in preparation for the decals:


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I'm not sure what that hinky pattern is on the side of the turret; possibly a loit of sanding dust left behind. I'll see what I can do to fix that.


I also had done the same with the Mk IV AVRE, getting it fully to the paint stage first:


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When I shot the Mk III I also shot this one:


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Of course, I followed it with the gloss clearcoat when I do the previous tank:


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Looks a little grainy. I'll be shooting another coat on that one later,


Moving on, I finally also completed the Japanese tank transporter in preparation for paint:


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They made this model so you could also tip the cab to see the engine:


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Next was the paint. I shot it with a deep green used by the JGSDF:


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Later this got glossed as well:


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While still on tank transporters, I moved on to my other American ones.  I brought the HEMMTT Tractor all the way to the paint stage. The only thing missing are a couple detail parts that will go on last and the big honkin' cylinder thing that is supposed to go on the side. I know I built it; it's somewhere on the desk but I am not waiting to find it! I started the paint and whenever that thing shows up again, I'll add it to the model:


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These were going to be three-tone NATO patterns so I started with the black first, adding the spots to where they are supposed to go. Later I'll add the Silly Putty over that, paint the brown, then more Silly Putty and finally the green.


Here's the HEMMTT tractor trailer with the first shots of black:


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Later I did the same thing with the M-1070 tractor. Another friend who built this model suggested adding some wire or thread to the cable drums before closing them up, so I did, I used silver thread here and you can see the glue was still wet:


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Here they are both completed and closed up:


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Finally this tractor was completed enough to start shooting paint. Again, I'll have to wait till that axle assembly shows up and add it when it does, Until then, I'm not waiting; this truck is getting done:


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And here it is with the first coat of black squiggles:


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Okay, that's all for this big update. I'm hoping to get these all done by November... not that there's any shows happening to show them. Still, I have more models I want to start but want to clear these first.


Thanks again for looking in, comments are always welcome.

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As promised, here's more....

Here's a small update showing everything done in the past week. I'll start with my aircraft as usual.


On the C-54, I masked off all the windows on the fuselage using my new Vallejo liquid mask. Looks good so far, even though it's tough to see in these pics:


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Next I completed all the flaps for the wings and tail feathers. Not all are installed just yet:


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After that I decided to dry-fit the wings and tail on the fuselage. Tail looks good, but the wings have some space issues that I'll have to deal with:


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My next project was the A-400 Grizzly. I also masked off the fuselage windows on this as well with the Vallejo mask:


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I then started on the landing gear bays. I'll have to paint some interior and find some clear parts before I can go further here:


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I then built the propellers. Simple enough:


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I then snap-fit the wings and tail on this one to both test the weight I'll need for the nose; as well as see what fit issues I'll have on the wings:


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Moving on from there, I finally got all the parts on the landing gear bays for the AN-124 Condor. I then started assembling the main gear bay doors:


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Here are all the main landing gear bays and doors ready to install on the fuselage. I need to paint everything first before I add them in:


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After that I wanted to see what it was going to take to mount the cockpit inside this thing. First thing I needed to do was to cut out a section of the nose. Using the scriber and knife shown, I was able to do that:


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Later I test fit the cockpit inside the main fuselage as indicated by the instructions. I'm gonna have a bit more cutting to do; as well as filling later on when this all goes together:


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You can see why I didn't paint anything behind the pilot's seats...


After that I masked off the windows on the main cockpit canopy:


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That's all I got on my aircraft. Next is my armor; which got a little done. Most if it was tedious, like the masking on the HEMMTT tank transporter  and trailer with Silly Putty:


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I also masked off the M-1070 and trailer at the same time:


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You can see in that pic that I still have plenty of Silly Putty on hand....


Here's the trailer. It was a bit more difficult to mask than the HEMMTT trailer:


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After that I moved ahead on the BTR-3K, finally getting the turret completed:


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What an ordeal that was! I also finished most of the detail parts on the main hull in preparation for paint:


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Time to shoot some paint on this Bad Boy, and possibly see about adding the digi-camo decals later:


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That's all for this small update. Stay tuned for more later and thanks for looking in on this one. Comments are always welcome.

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Okay, here it is a week later and I actually have something to show for it. This is another small update for this week.

 

First, I painted the propellers for the A-400 in basic black:

 

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And that's all I did on that plane. I guess I was too interested in moving forward on the An-124 instead because I kept going back to it. To wit: While chatting on the phone with someone, I picked up the one wing and started dry fitting the wing fences and engine pods, mostly to see what kind of adjustments I was going to need to do to make them fit:

 

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Well, I took some time to make whatever adjustments were needed and the next day, I found myself pulling out my two-part epoxy and gluing them all down. I started with the wing fences first as two of them on each wing needed to be fit under the rear of the engine pods:

 

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You can see just how big those wings are. They are overhanging my workspace by half! 

 

The next day; after letting the wing fences dry overnight, I added the engine pods:

 

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They are still drying there, later I'll have to do some filling and other repair work due to some issues with fit and my not paying enough attention to what I was doing till too late. Meanwhile, I decided to finish the nose section as well. I needed to cut two sections out of the bottom for the nose landing gear. I did that and then proceeded to glue in the nose gear 'bay'... such as it is:

 

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This is all you can see of it from the other side. I guess there is no room for hanging gear doors, so this is what you get:

 

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Hey, at least I don't have to worry about detailing it! LOL! Now all I need to do is find the missing nose gear strut so I can finish building it....

 

Oh, I also have to remember to put the ten pounds of nose weight in there so this will sit properly.

 

Now that the wings are done I can actually paint these and the tail feathers a light grey as called for in my chosen paint scheme. After all that work on this monster Russian, I was finally done with planes for a bit. 

 

 

Back on Monday, it was actually cool enough to open my window to vent my airbrush. I jumped at the chance to finish the camouflage on the tank transporters. They were already masked with the Silly Putty so I loaded and shot the brown color onto the tractors and trailers. 

 

First the tractors....

 

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And then the trailers:

 

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Then I moved and/or added more Silly Putty to cover the brown spots:

 

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After that I shot the final green color on top:

 

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A day later I peeled it all off and was pretty pleased with the results:

 

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You can see I also lost the trailer hitch pad on the HEMMT tractor. Man, I cannot catch a break! Time to rob another kit for one!

 

There is still some additional painting and touch ups to be done, but these are getting very close to the clearcoat and decal steps. Finally! 

 

Also, I shot a base coat of green on the BTR, but didn't shoot any pics of it. I'll try to remember to post them in the next update.

 

 

And that is a full account of my last week at the workbench. It ain't much, but I'm happy. Hopefully there'll be more to see next week. 

 

Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

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  • 5 weeks later...
Despite recent issues in life, I managed to slowly get some progress worth showing. I'll start with the An-124.


Okay, first off: Hallelujah! I found the second forward landing gear strut and promptly added the wheels to it:


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After that, I started to tape off the contact areas on the ends of the wings and tail surfaces.


Horizontal stabilizers:


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Wings:


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And the fuselage:


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Now they are all ready for paint; at least in the masking department. Still, in order to paint the fuselage, I'll need to close up the nose. In order to do that, I have to glue the cockpit into place; then the canopy shroud, and then close up the nose. These are the preparations I made to do all that. First; the cockpit was glued in using the JB weld shown:


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That didn't work. So, I pulled the already loose cockpit out and decided to add a strip of styrene to the underside of the cockpit sub-assembly:


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Once that was dry I added some JB Weld to the 'wings' and then clamped them to the insides of the fuselage:


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That is still setting now. Afterward, I added some extra reinforcing strips to the sides of the nose to help hold it in place once glued:


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That should hold it better than the butt joint they call for in the instructions.


Oh, and in the middle of all that, I still had to re-glue another engine pod that fell off for the third time. I had glued it with JB Weld twice and I still found it on the ground two days after I'd glued it before. Hopefully the third time is the charm.
 
 
 
 
 
Now on to my armor...
 
So, first in the lineup is the Churchill Mk III AVRE. All I really did here was to apply the decals and add the tracks to this:


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And the same for the Churchill Mk IV:


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Both of those have since been shot with a dullcoat. Yep, after weathering these, they will be done!


After that, I decided to work on a Shelf Queen that has been languishing for a couple years while I tried to score another HVSS Sherman kit. Since I got one from the stash sale, it was time to pull it out and get my M-51 Isherman moving again!


As a reminder, this plate was missing; pinged off into the Netherworld years ago:


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I then installed the last one and then added the idlers and some other detail parts to the hull:


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Now I should be able to add the bogies and the drive sprockets to this and then get it painted.


Next up on the tour is the Japanese Type 73 tank transporter. I added the decals to this as well:


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I then installed all the wheels on this:


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So, I then looked at the instructions and noticed the deck of the trailer needed to be painted. So, I masked off and painted the black wooden planks first:


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When that was dry, I masked again and added the white guidelines to the sides:


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This really looks pretty cool this way!


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Next on the tour is my problem project. This HEMMTT tank transporter has been broken and rebuilt at least three times! The first thing to go wrong was the clearcoat wrinkled! So, I shaved off the raised wrinkles and re-painted this:


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After that I stole a trailer hitch plate from another kit and installed it in the back:


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Two days after that happened, I found the original in a spot on the floor that I had looked at at least seventeen times before while searching for this and other lost parts! Needless to say, that is now in my parts box!


This was decaled along with the rest of the models. You can see them just below the angry-looking headlights:


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Later I added the wheels to this whole model. The marble strip this is sitting on was used to insure all tires touched the ground:


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I've since had to repair two of those wheels.... twice each! 
 

This last one is the M-1070 tank transporter and trailer. While decaling everything else, I also decaled this:


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Yeah, that decal is crooked. Nothing I can do about it now. I never did expect this to be an award winning model; I just wanted to build it for my collection. Moving on...


I realized I still hadn't added the ramps to the back of the trailer. Fixed that and started to paint them in this pic:


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Next it was time for some fun! I assembled all the wheels for the trailer. You can see them all here with one of the trailer axles:


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I then painted the hubs:


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Here they are all installed under the trailer:


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Using an adjustable clamp, I then clamped this to the marble slab to insure all wheels touched:


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After that, installing the wheels on the tractor was easy:


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I then started to assemble the P/E rear view mirrors using Gator Grip Glue:


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While those are drying, I installed all the final detail parts to the tractor:


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Here she is all assembled wearing her new shoes:


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The two wheels on the trailer deck are the last two wheels I'll have to add once I find that lost axle assembly.



Well, that completes this latest tour of Maddog Manufacturing. I hope you enjoyed it. Comments are always welcome. Thanks for riding with us!
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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, now that I reached my latest milestone, I decided it was time to get caught up on a few shelf queens while also starting some easy assembly models and a couple others on my list to start. More on that later. Before that, I tried to move forward on more of my aircraft, but I only kept going back to the An-124 to the exclusion of all other aircraft. So, here is the progress I made on that monster.

 

To start with, I painted the main landing gear bays and the forward landing gear, following the directions as closely as possible:

 

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Later I added the folding landing doors on the main gear bays. Afterward I realized that I hadn't painted them so in this pic you can see the start of my masking them for paint. The larger doors lay flat on the other side of the main gear bays; I'll add them once I install these on the fuselage:

 

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Here they are fully masked...

 

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And painted...

 

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And here are the two main landing gear bays all completed, even with the wheels already installed:

 

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Previously I had added the nose weights to the inside of the nose cone. They had been drying for two days and so now it was time to finally cement that nose cone onto the fuselage:

 

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You can't see it here, but on the other side and the front of the cockpit clear part there are huge gaps. I proceeded to pull out my Tamiya white putty and fill them in:

 

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By the way, that fuselage is leaning against my desk since I have nowhere else to keep it.

 

Later on I'll be sanding that down and then I can rescribe missing panel lines. Then this part will be ready for paint! Finally! 

 

Speaking of paint; I was able to paint the wings and tail surfaces. They are grey on the version I'm doing, so I shot them with three coats of grey and then a shot of gloss. The gloss actually came out semi-gloss which I like better:

 

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Later I'll mask off and paint the metallic sections of those engines. And that completes the update on that massive plane. Now for some of those shelf queens I mentioned before. 

 

First up is my M-51 Isherman conversion. I finally moved ahead and got the main bogies on as well as the drive sprockets. I also glued together the DS tracks for this:

 

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Now all I have to do is add the headlights, taillights, and brush guards to this and I can paint it. 

 

Next up is a 1/24 scale 1929 Coke Delivery Van I started some months back. Maybe a year now.... Anyway, I was having trouble getting this painted because the red would not go down right. I decided I was going to assemble the main body of the van so I could paint it altogether:

 

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Here it is dry-fit on the lower body/floor:

 

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Now I'll shoot the red all over this and later I'll remove the upper body and paint all the interior details. Maybe then I'll be able to get this finished!

 

And now for a couple easy-build models from Trumpeter that I started to keep the mojo flowing. This is the lower hull of the Russian BTR-70 Early version. That took ten minutes to build:

 

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Fifteen minutes later and I finished the upper hull and turret with all the bits. Here they are cemented onto the lower hull:

 

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Now it's ready for paint. Since that was so easy, I also started the Trumpeter BTR-70 Late version. The lower hull assembly was the same so I didn't shoot pics of that. After twenty or twenty-five more minutes, here is the late version all assembled and ready for paint now:

 

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And now to show that these are indeed two separate BTR's here's the shot of them side by side, the early version is in the front:

 

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Finally, the most recent model I started was the D-9 Dozer that came with my M-1070 tank transporter. I didn't get too far with it so far, but it's already looking pretty good. First was the main body assembly:

 

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Then I built the tracks and running gear. Man, Takom did it right! Take a look at how great these look:

 

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If you look closely, I did have to sand away the mold seam down the middle of those assemblies. Easy peasy! 

 

Here are the track assemblies dry-fit to the main body:

 

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And that's as far as I got this week. Hopefully this trend continues; I want to get more of these done!

 

Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Continuing with the Shelf Queen theme, I pulled out another one of them to work on. This is the very old Sheridan tank I started in the far distant past. I had lost the driver's periscope piece and so this had been sitting on my shelf for years; maybe a decade by now. I then noticed I had a second unopened Sheridan in the pile so I opened it up and continued on with this, first adding that missing piece:

 

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Later I added the turret to this and any other additional parts it needed. This is now pretty much ready for paint:

 

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Next up were a couple 'quick builds' from S-Model, starting with the M-5 Stuart. There are two kits of this tank in the box so one will be a US Army one and the other will be a French tank. Basic assembly was quite fast: 

 

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Then I added all the extra bits and bobs to bring this up to the paint stage:

 

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Now I just have to do the second one. Should be fairly fast.

 

Another S-Model 'quick build' vehicle I started was this turreted M-113. Basic assembly once again was quite fast:

 

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That is a resin hatch included in this kit that this version uses. The turret was also a resin set that I had to build:

 

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A few more detail parts and this will be ready for paint as well:

 

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Moving on, I started the two Chieftain tanks in the Mk.10/Mk.11 box. I only assembled the lower hull tubs. I also cemented all the pairs of wheels and sprockets together so I can install them all at once, but I didn't shoot pics of them:

 

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Since I'd started the Chieftain Mk. 10 and Mk.11; it was only right that I do the Chieftain Mk. 5 too. So, I assembled the lower hull tub and all the wheels for this:

 

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Looks the same. That's because it is. 

 

So, to try and keep better track of which goes to what, I added the upper hull to the Chieftain Mk.5:

 

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Yes, I removed that sprue inside because I assembled the basic turret with the gun and dry-fit that onto this tank:

 

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Wow, these look so much better than the ancient Airfix 1/76 scale kit!

 

Now, the Chieftain Mk.5 also came with the FV-432 APC, so I had to start that as well. Again, lower hull tub first:

 

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I later added the three upper hull parts to this:

 

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Yeah, these are looking great! 

 

Finally, at least in my armor; I brought my D-9 Dozer forward a bit more. First I assembled the rear assembly and installed it on the main body of this:

 

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You can see the assembled dozer blade in front of this too. Next, I added the mounting arms and linkages for the blade and got it installed. I also started the interior with the driver and co-driver seat as well as some other detail parts:

 

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Here's a better shot of the rear assembly on this:

 

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Looks like a trench digger. I don't know though. 

 

And finally, getting back to Shelf Queens, I decided it was time to finish this one. For those who forgot that I also build ships, here is the 1/700 scale JMSDF Izumo carrier that I started some many many months ago. What stopped me for all this time was that I was at the P/E stage and didn't want to deal with it. Well, I took this to our mini-Hobby Day and buckled down to get this done. 

 

First I did the main mast and added the P/E rails to the island:

 

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That's gonna take some doing painting that mast. I also figure I'll have to semi-drybrush the rails to bring them closer to the grey of the rest of the ship. 

 

I then got started on the surrounding rail of the sponsons and deck edge. I only got one side mostly done before it was time to pack up and leave:

 

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Yeah, they are a bit hard to see in that pic. Trust me, they are there. You'll also notice that I have blue tape underneath the P/E sprue. That is because the attachment points for these parts are so delicate that some of them are falling off the sprue before I can get to them. So, I added the tape to one side and taped them back in place until I need them.

 

I do hope to do more on this ship soon. I want it done. Until then, take care and thanks for looking in. Comments are always welcome.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, despite numerous demands on my time, I still managed to get the following work done. Most of this happened at our recent limited Hobby Day; thank God we got to do that again! I had loads of time to move forward on a lot of my models. So, climb aboard the tram and lets get started! Remember to keep all hands and feet inside the tram at all times. Thank you. On with the tour....

 

Let's start with the aircraft line....

 

 

I pulled the A-400 down since I was tired of it sitting for so long. I added the landing gear inside the main landing gear sponsons and forward landing gear bay:

 

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Later I added the wheels to the landing gear and the lower covers to the sponsons. I only glued the outer edges first to make them secure, hence the gaps you see on the inside. I'll come back and close those up later:

 

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While that was drying, I also got more done on the An-124. The instructions don't tell you to, but I needed to cut out these shoulder sections to fit the indented covers that go there:

 

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Later I got the plastic parts glued into place:

 

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With that finally done, I was finally able to get this horse primed! Here it is after about four coats of primer and one of a gloss coat that ended up semi-gloss again:

 

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There's a few minor issues still to correct, but this is moving forward better than I hoped. I do hope that the momentum continues....

 

 

Now lets look at the armor line...

 

Most of this is models I advanced closer to the painting stage, but there are a few models I started too. I'll start with those first.

 

This first one is a German staff car I got from a friend. I'd gotten this far before I realized I hadn't shot pics of it yet! This is a car I'd built before so this one is being built with the top down:

 

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You can see where I added strip styrene on each side of the hood cover; the fit was just a bit too loose...

 

The next one I did was an S-Models M-5 Stuart. I don't have any of these in the collection so it was time to get it built. This kit has two models in it, so one will be US Army the other will be a French tank. This one is currently ready for paint:

 

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Another one I started was the Japanese fuel truck. I just felt like I wanted to do something simple and nostalgic. First was the chassis and interior:

 

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I then built the cab:

 

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 Then the tank behind it:

 

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Here it is all together so far. I just have to paint the interior before I glue everything together. Then I can glue it together, add the detail parts and get it painted:

 

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Now for the models I advanced further along. 

 

First are the three Chieftains I had started. This is the Mk.5 sporting his new wheels:

 

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The drive sprocket and idler wheels will be used to form the track in the jig. I'm looking forward to trying that out.

 

Next I assembled the basic turret and added the wheels to the Mk.10:

 

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Followed by the same assemblies on the Mk.11:

 

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Here's all three side by side:

 

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Next I added the wheels to the FV-432 since I had them on the Chieftains:

 

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Moving on, I realized that the turret on my M-51 was extremely loose. I didn't know whether I was supposed to file down the turret plug to the hole in the hull; or add a plug the same size as the hole. I opted for the easier solution:

 

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Now this sits perfectly on the hull without moving:

 

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I don't know if the turret sits too high or not, but it is staying like it is. Trying to remove all that resin from the sides of the plug is just a bit beyond my capabilities right now.

 

Next I finished off the cab for the D-9 Dozer, starting with the basic assembly:

 

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After adding some of the interior parts to this, I dry-fit that to the main hull:

 

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The top is just placed there for show; I left it off to better paint some of the interior details. Then I can get the exterior painted.

 

Earlier I'd found the second kit of the M-109A6 from Riich Models that I'd bought by mistake. It was a fortuitous mistake as I was able to finally assemble the main gun mantlet with the replacement part from the second kit:

 

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Now, I studied the instructions and realized with a little extra plastic, I could make this gun elevate. So, I added some strip styrene to either side of the inside of the turret front, leaving a gap for the sides of the gun mantlet to slide into:

 

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I then added a small stop to the bottom of the mantlet so it wouldn't slide out:

 

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After a bit of trimming, it fit right in:

 

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Here it is, up and down:

 

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Later I assembled the rest of the turret. In this pic, I had started to glue the front and gradually I glued down the rest to insure the fit was right and complete:

 

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I then added that big honkin' gun and checked it out. Down...:

 

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...then up:

 

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Now to do all the detail parts and possibly the tracks and then I can paint this beastie. 

 

 

 

Well that completes this tour of the latest progress at Maddog Manufacturing. Thanks all for looking in, comments are always welcome.

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Mark, you are gonna have so much new stuff to bring in the next time that OC IPMS finally has an in person meeting again that there won’t be room for anyone else’s stuff! Especially if that Anatov is done! 😉

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