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Maddog Manufacturing Open in 2021


Mark Deliduka

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Hey everyone! Happy New Year and welcome to the new Grand Opening of Maddog Manufacturing for 2021. Most of which I'm going to show right off is work I did just before heading out on vacation back in December. Since it didn't get posted then, I'll be showing it here.

 

So, all aboard the tram and remember to keep hands and feet inside at all times. Enjoy the tour!

 

To start with, these are my most active projects currently going on right now:

 

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A lot of the work you see here has already been chronicled, but just before I left, I did some airbrushing of base coats. 

 

First I'll show you the work I did on the C-54. 

 

I worked on sanding and shaping the cockpit canopy to get it ready for paint:

 

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I think it's ready, but I'll have to prime it first to be sure.

 

Then I built all the engines and dry-fit them to the wing nacelles to see how they look:

 

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They look great in place, but I had a sneaky suspicion about something so I slipped a cowl on one of them to see how well it fit. It didn't:

 

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That is way too far from the nacelle so the engines are gonna take a little finagling before they get painted and closed in behind the cowls.

 

 

 

Moving on, here are the pics of that base coating work on my armor and the 1929 Coke Delivery Van...

 

First off, I had the Olive Drab out so I shot the OD basecoat on these models:

 

M-5 Stuart:

 

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M-551 Sheridan:

 

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M-113 APC with Turret:

 

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Next I pulled out the Dark Green and shot it over these:

 

Russian BTR-70 Early:

 

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Russian BTR-70 Late:

 

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...and my Russian 2S19 Artillery Vehicle that I'd assembled in 15 minutes some time before:

 

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Later I pulled out the Green Drab and base coated the M-51 Isherman:

 

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After that dried, I shot a coat of Israeli Armor Sand over this, trying hard to do it light enough for the Green Drab to show through in places:

 

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I then changed things up and loaded some red in the brush and shot my 1929 Coke Delivery Van. It was still wet in this pic:

 

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Personally I'm not that thrilled with that red, I feel it's too light. I want a darker red on this so I'll be looking for another color to shoot on this.

 

After that, I shot the dark tan over the D-9 Dozer: 

 

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I'll be doing a dark brown wash over that to make it pop and then after paint the interior, I'll add the windows to this. Then after I weather it, I think it will be done as I don't remember any markings for it.

 

The day before I left, I shot gloss coats over all the above vehicles to prepare them for decals when I came home.

 

Finally when I got home, I decided to tackle the BTR-3K that has the digital camouflage decals included. Alexey had a nice sheet of digital patterns but I feel there could have been more as I didn't have enough for the upper deck in back. Maybe it doesn't need it up there, but I added what I had left after applying them to the sides, front and rear. There was no diagram in the instructions showing where and how to apply them so I winged it. I think it looks pretty good, despite my poor application:

 

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And no, I won't paint the remainder on the top. I don't want to deal with masking with multiple strips of tape over multiple layers, even on that small area. It's just going to be dullcoated and weathered after adding any other markings that might go on this. I also decided that after dealing with these, I was going to wait for another day to decal the rest.

 

Okay. that's what I have to show for the start of 2021. Hopefully I can maintain this momentum throughout the year. 

 

Thank you for joining the Grand Opening Tour! I appreciate all comments.

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Well I got more to show from this past week. I was waiting for my airbrushes to be finished with their repairs, so while I did that, I managed to move forward on these models. Let's start with my aircraft.


After seeing how badly the cowls fit over the engines on my C-54, I sanded the edges of each one and tried again. Success! They fit now:


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Now to build the other two engines and see if I can do more on this plane.


Meanwhile, I had a lot of sanding to do on my An-124 around the cockpit area and the shoulders in front of the wings:


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While I was sanding them, I also sanded and adjusted the wings so that when I finally glue them, they will seal perfectly and be flush where they are supposed to be:


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Later, all these subassemblies went out and got shot with another three or four coats of primer and another clearcoat:


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Hopefully I can start moving forward on this monster now.

 

Okay, here is the work I did on my armor. Let's start with my 1/35th scale Patton. I decided to finish painting my tracks for this tank while waiting for my airbrushes:


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Now, once I get them back, I can finish detailing and modulating this big tank.


Okay, enough of the big stuff, here's my progress on my small scale armor.


We'll start with the smallest one. I shot a gloss coat over the little Stuart so I could add the decals. Naturally, the decals disappeared so I dug through my decal stash to find some that would fit. This is totally fictitious, but at least it has markings:


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Yes, the decals silvered, I took care of that. I also took care of the silvered decals on three other models as well.


After this dried and the Solvaset finished, I shot a dullcoat on this little tank. Then I decided to experiment with some weathering powders to see how well I could use them. I applied some on the hull and running gear:


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I wasn't thrilled with this. However, I did kind of go a bit heavy since the follow-on dullcoat tends to make a lot of it disappear as you can see here:


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Yeah, I'll be redoing this with paint when my airbrushes come back.


Moving along, I also did the gloss and decals on the turreted M-113. I liked the Snoopy decals so on they went:


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Later this got dullcoated and powdered like the Stuart:


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After the second dullcoat it looked better, but I'm still not thrilled:

 

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The final tank I tried this one was the M-551 Sheridan. I shot the gloss and then added the decals:


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Next came the powders:


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...and finally the last dullcoat:


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Well, that experiment on several vehicles was not a roaring success in my eyes, so maybe I'll shelve that idea until I can see what works better. Meanwhile, I continued on my three BTR's. First are the two BTR-70's that got a gloss and decals:


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Next I decided to try and weather the wheels a bit before installing them. I painted the treads with a dirt-colored paint first. You can see six of eight done that way now:


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Next I tried wiping the top color off, but the paint came completely off, despite whatever light touch I tried. So, I re-painted it and later semi-dry brushed a black color over the paint to get the effect I was looking for. It's kind of hard to see but I went ahead and added the wheels to these vehicles:


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One thing I liked about these kits: the wheels were so tight, all I did was snap them on!


Later they got a dullcoat in preparation for weathering:


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On the BTR-3K, however; after applying all the decals I had some repairs to make:


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Once that was done, I dullcoated this little vehicle:


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Then I added the wheels to this. All she needs now is weathering and it's done:


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Finally, I gloss coated the M-51 and then decaled it using the old Star decals that I'd gotten for IDF vehicles. I had forgotten they were printed on a solid decal film so I didn't trim close to the decal images until after they were on the model. That being said the chevrons still shattered so they didn't go on. These ones did:


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Later I dullcoated this and gave it a dark brown wash and afterward dry-brushed it with a light sand color:


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All it needs is tracks and weathering and that little beastie is done!


Wow, I got a bit more done than expected this week. I can only hope that next week is as productive. If so, you'll be seeing almost all these armor vehicles in the finished Forums!


Until then, thank you for looking in, comments are always welcome.

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Great progress report Mark! How much longer do you think that you have until the Anatov is finished? That thing looks huge!

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Thanks Carlos! I'm not real sure how much longer on the Antonov; I surely want it done soon. I still need to review the instructions to see what needs doing next. I know I need to paint the engines, but after that, I'm not sure. Hopefully all that's left after the engines is painting the upper fuselage white and then decaling this beast.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Okay, here's the latest I got done this past week; most of it done on the Hobby Day weekend. I'll start with the aircraft that got messed up.

 

Some time back, I realized I needed a lot more weight in the nose of the A-400. A LOT. So, since the rear end was still open, I decided to add it and then tilt the plane forward. Naturally when I maneuvered the fuselage for additional sanding or fitting of parts, the weights were not fastened down so they rattled around and sometimes fell out of the still open rear end. So, I took an empty paper towel; tube and slipped it down through the rear opening and then shot some spray 77 adhesive through the tube to coat the weights and then set it aside propped up on it's nose to let the stuff dry. 

 

Good news: It worked. The weights don't move anymore. 

 

The Bad news: some of the adhesive flowed down to the nose and apparently was 'hot' enough to do this before drying:

 

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So, until I figure out how to sculpt a nose for this, or find something to graft on; this bird is grounded on the Shelf of Doom for a while.

 

Meanwhile, I moved on and got some progress done on the 1/35th scale M48 Patton tank I'm doing for my local AMPS club Group Build for the Vegas Nationals. First, I painted the tracks that were dry and ready to paint:

 

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I then shot some additional modulation on this:

 

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...which I covered with another thin coat of OD green again. It doesn't show up well in these pics, but there is definite modulation here:

 

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Moving on, I started another new kit. This one is the ACE kit of the AT-1 Snapper Anti-tank vehicle. It was started for a "Goodbye 2020 Group Build" that was started on another Forums. Here is my early progress...

 

First I completed the suspension underneath:

 

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Then I did the top part:

 

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I have some brackets for the spare missiles to go in and then I'll have to paint that interior. Once I put the top on, that will be impossible to paint.

 

Later, I assembled all the Snapper missiles but didn't shoot pics of them.

Before I get into the next models; I have to show this. Do you remember me leaving off the round cylinder off the HEMMTT tank transporter tractor because it got lost? I was doing some cleaning and finally found it! Here it is installed on the model:


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Later I painted it to match the model; but I was so excited that I finally found this that I had to shoot it after it was glued on, just in case it fell off and disappeared again.


Moving on to my other in-progress models....


The first thing I did, since this model is so close to the finish line; was to clearcoat the Russian MSTA self propelled gun. Interestingly enough it was such a quick build that I didn't get shots of it under construction! Anyway, here it is in it's basecoat and clear coat:


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Later I added the decals to this:


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Now all that's left is final parts, detail painting, dullcoat and weathering.


Next up is the US Army M109A6 that got most of the fiddly parts that wouldn't break much during handling before I shoot paint. I added the hatches, headlights and other detail parts:


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Next, it was time to move forward on the Takom 2-n-1 kits of British vehicles. I started with the FV-432 APC, adding the hatches, headlights and other detail parts that weren't delicate:


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Afterward, I decided to try the tank track jig they included in the kit. It looks like this:


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The drive sprocket and idler wheels go on the end posts and the top run of track is glued on to connect them:


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On the other side were some huge ejector pin marks that were so close to those posts that one got cut while I was removing the EP. It had to be glued back into place and so I was only able to do one side.


Once the upper run of track was done, then I added the individual track links on the idler and drive sprockets, followed by the  end runs to the bottom run of track:


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Later that is to be removed from the jig and glued onto the model, then the bottom track run is glued on to complete the tracks. The Chieftains all have the same jig for their tracks. Overall a pretty good system; but I'm hoping the larger track links on the Chieftains are easier to do than these small, fiddly things!


Speaking of Chieftains, I moved ahead on them, finishing off the turrets and adding all the detail parts to the upper and lower hulls; starting with the Chieftain Mk.5:

 

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Later I added the baskets to this tank, but I still have some P/E mesh parts to insert inside them before I paint. You'll also notice that the smoke dischargers are missing from the front of the turret. That's because Takom only molded one in the Chieftain Mk.5 kit, the other one was never molded. I know because comparing the sprues to those of the Mk.10 and Mk.11, the sprues that are supposed to hold the second one were shorter and had no broken connection points, indicating that the plastic never quite got into that part of the mold. I'll need to source some extras from the spares box; M1 Abrams dischargers look closest to these used on the Chieftains.They may not be accurate, but they'll be on there!


Speaking of the Mk.10, I also finished the turret and added the detail parts to the turret and hull:


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Late I added the baskets to this too:


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On the Mk.11, it was the same; finished building the turret and then adding all the non breakable detail parts to the turret and hull:


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That one got baskets as well when I built them and added them with the other Chieftains:


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And yes, the reason I waited to do the baskets is that I had to assemble each one from four to five pieces...each! AND I still have to add P/E mesh to them all!


Anyway, here are the three Chieftains ready for track assembly and then paint:


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And that completes my latest update on my progress. Thanks all for looking in, comments are always welcome.

 

 

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Ouch! Damn that got hot!

If I may suggest...Get some Apoxy Sculp epoxy putty if you haven't got it already. Mix up enough to make the new nose (simply mix 50/50 parts together). Stick it on the nose and shape it with your hand like you would clay. Next, start dipping your fingers in alcohol and smoothing the putty nose to blend it into the model and to smooth it out. You should be able to get 95%+ of the "shape" you need to repair the nose doing this. After 24hrs it'll be dry enough to be sanded for final finish and blending. It'll add weight to the nose, repair it, and it does NOT heat up while curing, so it's safe! Hope this helps!

 

Gil :smiley16:

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Gil, thanks for the suggestion, it sounds just like what I was already considering. Great minds think alike. Yeah, I didn't expect that spray 77 glue to be so hot.

 

One other friend suggested I also add some small bits of sprue to the nose first as a frame to give additional 'grab' to the epoxy putty and help it maintain shape. I plan on doing that too.

 

Thanks again GiL! I appreciate your compliments, comments and recommendations. I'm always thrilled to see your replies.

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This has been one of those one-step-forward/two-steps-back kinda weeks. That is why I've only done this much.

 

I'll start with the 1/35th scale M-48 Patton I'm doing for the SoCal AMPS Group Build. This actually went pretty well; probably the only thing that went well this week. To start with, I added all the extra detail parts to the upper hull that I'd left off before. Things like headlight, lifting hooks and gas caps for instance:

 

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Of course, this didn't all go so pristine; when I went to add the vision blocks to the driver's hatch, I found that one was either missing or never molded. There's supposed to be three as seen on the instruction sheet to the left. You can see I only have two. I never handled this sprue before so I have no idea where the third one went:

 

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So now, I will only put on the center one and see what I can do about the other two. Until then, I'm moving forward on this. 

 

I did have all the clear parts for the turret, so I added them all along with the rest of the detail parts:

 

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I then started on the big searchlight:

 

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I'm gonna paint the interior before adding more and closing it up with the clear panel it comes with. 

 

That's as far as I got with that so far. Later, I started another little model for a Group Build on Missing Lynx Braille Scale Forums. This is my M-32 started. I did the lower hull first:

 

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After that, I didn't want to deal with the running gear so I skipped ahead and started the mine rolling assembly. What a battle this turned out to be! After an hour and a half of fighting this thing, I finally got the following result:

 

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Later I built the turret and some of the parts for the lower hull. This is a mock up of all I'd done on this so far:

 

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I'd had enough of that so I moved on, hoping to make some progress on some of my aircraft. The A-400 was bothering me so I started the sprue framework on the nose suggested by one other friend:

 

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Of course, that caused a front wheel to come off:

 

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So I tried to glue it back on. It wouldn't glue on straight! So, I drilled out the stem, destroying it in the process of course, Then I added a piece of wire to the broken wheel:

 

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The axles ain't straight, but the wheel is even with the unbroken one, so this is DONE!

 

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While doing that, I found a couple other areas where the spray 77 made the plastic soft and caused it to sink/ Mr. Surfacer 500 liberally applied filled those areas to be sanded after it dries sufficiently:

 

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Okay, that was enough of that since it was really torquing me off. I decided to try and do something on my An-124. First, I taped off the underside, nose and tail where it is supposed to remain grey:

 

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I then took it outside to shoot the white topside:

 

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Looks good doesn't it? Yeah, I thought so too until I looked closer before glossing it.

 

What you don't see in those pics are several smudges, patches of lint, extreme rough spots, and imperfections in the white paint, certainly not smooth or clean enough to shoot a gloss clear on it. That pic was shot three days ago. Since then, I've been sanding, washing, respraying, wiping, sanding re-spraying at least another nine times or more. Still ain't right. 

 

In between all that, I also taped off the tips of the wings and horizontal tail surfaces and painted them red:

 

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After that, it was time to paint the metallic parts of the engines. I masked off the front of both wings with the Tamiya flexible tape and on one of them, I brush painted an aluminum color on the edges and interior of the front of the engine:

 

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Kinda hard to see in that pic, but I did it. I then painted the tail cones a dark metallic color and drybrushed with a steel:

 

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Not too thrilled with that drybrush, so I'll be redoing those rear cones. I also saw a lot of issues with the grey paint on the wings again. Gonna have to re-mask and re-shoot these grey and gloss coat again. Meanwhile, I pulled down the other wing and started to paint it too:

 

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Naturally, as always, one engine had to break off again! I can never move ahead on this:

 

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Yes, that was JBWeld! It has since been glued back on. That is gonna have to be re-shot in grey again too. Enough of all these hassles! 

 

By this time I was thoroughly fed up! I looked through my stash for some thing simple, easy and not needing paint so I could lose myself in just building. I found a kit I'd started some time ago: my Space 1999 Mk.IX Hawk. I had done some simple sub assemblies so I thought it was time to start putting it all together. I started by adding the engine cones to the main engine:

 

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Later I assembled the rest of the model, losing myself in the build just like I wanted:

 

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Here it is mocked up with the main engine:

 

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I gotta paint that main engine housing orange before I can glue it to the rest of the model.

 

 

That seemed like a great place to end this disappointing week of model building. I hope you enjoyed this latest tour. 

 

Thanks all for riding along, comments are welcome.

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Well, here is a small update on some of the work I've done after recovering from that difficult week. Things seem to have gotten a bit better now. This is also all the work I got done yesterday and today.

 

To start with, I assembled all the wheels for my 1/35th scale Patton that I am doing for the SoCal AMPS Group Build:

 

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Next I painted all the bare pieces that I'd installed earlier:

 

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Moving on, I decided that that tracks for the FV-432 needed to be finished, so I did the other side on the track jig. I then test fit the first run I did on the one side:

 

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That was very fiddly and poorly done so I decided I better just do a complete track install. After some effort and adjustments, I got everything on:

 

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All that's left is to add all the photo-etch parts and then this can be painted.

 

Since I was doing tracks, I moved on and did the tracks for the Chieftains, starting with the Mk.V. I assembled the first run of tracks on the one side of the jig:

 

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These larger ones were much easier to do. I like these jigs too because you can do the track runs on both sides which helps insure the tracks are all going the proper direction:

 

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I hope to paint a basecoat at least on my Chieftains before I install these tracks.

 

I started the tracks on the other two jigs I had for the Mk.10 and Mk.11 Chieftains but didn't shoot any pics of them. After all they look like the above pics. However, because I was doing wheels and tracks, I pulled down my M-109A6 and added the roadwheels and tracks to that:

 

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Afterward I added a few more bits and bobs to the turret of this vehicle. Here it is sitting on the hull with all the new tracks on it:

 

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A few more bits and bobs, some baskets on the back of the turret and some photo-etch and this will be ready for paint as well...

 

After that, my two Roden WWI buses came in and so I eagerly got started on one of them. I chose to do the civilian bus first. Of course the first thing to do was the suspension and chassis... such as it is:

 

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I then assembled the main body/lower passenger cabin:

 

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That is when I found out why there was so little on the suspension because it all gets added to the bottom of the main body:

 

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Afterward I finished the drivers seat and hood of this bus:

 

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While that was set aside and drying, I assembled the upper passenger deck:

 

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Here it is all mocked up to see what it will look like:

 

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I like it! I'm leaving the upper deck off until I can get the interior of the lower part painted first. Then everything will be brought together. 

 

And that is my progress for the past day and a half. Thanks all for looking in! Comments are always welcome.

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Today I have a rather large update showing all the work I did from my birthday on Monday until now.


So, everyone climb aboard the tram and we'll get on our way. Just remember to keep hands and feet inside the tram at all times.


Let's start with my aircraft in the hangar. I'm still slowly working on my A-400; this time I have the nose all puttied up:


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While I was doing that, somehow one of my main landing gear wheels broke off..... again! This particular wheel had already come off three previous times and this time I was nowhere near it so I have no idea how or why it broke again! Instead of trying to cement it back in place like I did before, I tore out the mounting arm that it is supposed to stick to first. I then clamped it into place and filled the joint with CA glue and kicker:


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That thing is now back on the main strut it's supposed to sit on and should hopefully stay this time!


Okay, next is the work I did on my An-124. That's the An-124; everyone keeps calling it the -225 which I have NOT gotten yet!


First off, thanks to a friend and fellow AMPS member, I finally managed to get the fuselage of this monster painted clean and smooth enough. So, I took all the tape off the bottom of the plane, except for the tape still protecting the main landing gear bays:


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That was a lot of tape!


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Next, I taped off and painted the aluminum leading edge on the vertical stabilizer:


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After that, I painted the nose and tail with the "steel grey" (Humbrol) called for in the paint call out sheet. Here's the nose, the tail has the same color:


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After that, I removed the tape from the vertical stabilizer. Now this bird's fuselage is ready for another clearcoat to tie everything together and then I can decal it:


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Next I turned my attention to the wings. to start with, I tried an experiment on the exhaust cones of the engines. First came the dark metallic color, then I drybrushed a light aluminum color over that, followed by another drybrush of copper over it. This is the result:


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I like it.


Then I masked and painted the leading edges of the wings and tail and painted the aluminum on those:


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After awhile, I removed all the tape after finishing the other two exhaust cones on the other wing. Now these wings and tails are ready for decals after another clearcoat:


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That's as far as I got with this An-124.


Time for something different...


I shot a white coat on the Space 1999 Mk.IX Hawk. Next I'll have to mask off certain places to shoot the orange on it. It doesn't look like it since this was molded in white, but it is sprayed:


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Moving on to the vehicle assembly line, we have a lot going on here.


I shot a clear coat on the 1/35th scale Patton I'm doing. Decals will be next before I add the wheels and tracks:


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Moving on to my smaller stuff; I'm doing another Group Build on another forums so it was time to do more on that project. This is a Russian anti-tank vehicle that I basically had to add an interior to. This is what it looks like:


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Later I built the launching arm assembly for the three missiles in firing position. You can see that sitting behind the vehicle here:


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Gotta do some painting before I can move on this further.

 

 

This next one is my campaign model for the Micro Modeler Month campaign that I'm doing on the Alliance.


I started by assembling the lower hull as it was in three pieces:


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I then built the turret, only doing the basics while leaving off delicate parts until later:


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Next was adding the additional parts to the upper hull. There weren't too many:


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This is all three sub-assemblies dry-fit roughly together. Yes, the lower hull is under there:


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Finally, I assembled the running gear and tracks and added additional parts and sub-assemblies to the turret. This tank is now ready for paint. Here it is all mocked up:


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Moving on from here, I painted the interior of the D-9 dozer cab so I can close it up and move on. It is a bit crude in there, but once this cab is closed and the windows on it; you won't be able to tell:


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As for the windows, I had painted them a clear green before to represent the bulletproof glass on them. This time, I painted the frames the same tan color as the rest of the model:


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Next I started a second Type B bus; this time it was the one in military service known as "Ole Bill". All the assembly was basically the same; the one exception was that "Ole Bill" had boards covering the lower cabin windows for protection of the troops inside. So, I waited until I had it built to the same level as the previous bus before shooting pics:


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Here you can see the difference between the two in this shot of them sitting side by side:


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Afterward, I decided it was time to get all the photo etch out of the way on all these models that need it. I started with the baskets on the rear of the M-109A6 turret. All the side pieces needed photo etch before assembly:


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Later I built them and installed them on the turret but I didn't get pics of that. Next update I'll show them.


More photo etch fun happened with the British FV-432. This vehicle has a rather large basket that sits on top. Takom gave me a rather ingenious little jig in the kit that simplified assembly of it tremendously. It looks like a giant tub (at least giant from the perspective of 1/72 scale!) that you prop the pieces up on. Then you add glue where they touch on the ends:


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The glue was still wet when I took that pic. After it dried, I added the photo etch screen to the base grid piece that this sits on and then glued this assembly on top of it. And there you have a basket:


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Again, the glue was till wet in that pic. That was amazingly simple and fun!


Moving on, I added the remaining photo etch parts to the model itself; starting with the headlight screens and lift rings in front:


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On the back I added the photo etch mud flaps:


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Next it was time to add the photo etch to the Chieftains, starting with the Mk.5. I started on the hull, adding the engine deck screens and other parts:


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Those parts on the front fenders were very difficult to add. I then added all the photo etch to the baskets on the turret:


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I did the same thing with the Mk.10, first doing the hull followed by the turret baskets:


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Here it is all mocked up:


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...and then the Mk. 11 was completed the same way:


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Afterward while the photo etch was drying, I completed the track runs for all three tanks. Here they are still on the track jigs:


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Now all three of these are ready for paint now, then I can complete the track installations and go from there:


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Because of all this progress, I had a great birthday!


That completes the tour for this week. Please disembark in an orderly fashion. Extra birthday cake and ice cream will be served in the snack bar.


Thank you all for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

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Heck of a nice recovery on that nose cone! Forget to mention it and no one will ever know the difference! And so now you've decided that you need PE details along with the bazillion other things you're gluing together.....well, you didn't have much sanity left anyway, so what the hell! 😉

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LOL! Thanks Gil! The nose is still being sanded and shaped so that will be awhile. As for the P/E, since it came in the kit already I figured I might as well use it. I do agree that it makes the model look a bit better, but I'm not going to go out and purchase aftermarket P/E for these. My funds are too limited.

 

Sometimes though, I think I'm the only sane one in this crazy world! 🤪

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This has been a pretty great week, especially since I got to spend so much time building at Hobby Day. Almost all the model acquisitions I posted were also gotten at Hobby Day. This is all armor too this time. 

 

First up is my 1/35th scale Patton that I'm building for the SoCal AMPS Group Build. All I did was to apply the decals, starting with the front of the hull:

 

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After that I did the turret decals:

 

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Next were the decals on the side. This is where I nearly lost it. With the exception of the word "Army" every single letter and number was individually printed... even the stinkin' dots that go behind the 'U' and the 'S'!! WHAT?!!! Seriously, why was it so hard to print them as one big decal? Well, because of that, these are not that that straight and I don't care:

 

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Here is this big beastie all decaled up and ready for the dullcoat, weathering, wheels and tracks:

 

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I did this up as a tank from the 1st of the 69th Armor in honor of a friend of mine who served in that unit and fought at the battle of Ben Het.

 

Oh man, enough of that! After that I was ready for something simple. 

 

The next thing I did was to finally cement down the cab roof. After that I added a dark brown wash to the D-9 Dozer, and then a black wash to the grilles on it:

 

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It doesn't show well in that pic, but it is there. Yes, I have a bit of touch up painting to do. I'll do that after I dullcoat it. 

 

Next up, I figured if I was going to paint my M-109A6; then I might as well build my M-109A2 and paint it at the same time. I pulled it out and started on it by building the basic hull:

 

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Next I added all the detail parts and the wheels and sprockets:

 

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The turret was next. After I built it and added the gun I placed it on the hull:

 

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Once I get the tracks on that, I'll be able to paint it with my M-109A6. Speaking of the -A6, here they are together:

 

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Next I decided to move forward on my M-32. It was time to do the running gear. For a UM kit, this went better than I expected:

 

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Then I added a photo-etch strip of rivets to the front of the upper hull and dry-fit it to the lower hull to see what adjustments I would need to make. Naturally, it disappeared never to be found again:

 

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Oh well, I then checked the positioning of the mine roller attachment now that I had this up on wheels:

 

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Looking pretty good. Time to set that aside until I can anneal the P/E and add it to the running gear...

 

That completes what I had going on before Hobby Day, some of that work above was done there too. By that time my Birthday order was in and I took thirty minutes trying to decide what to start first.....

 

The Master Box Mk I Female tank looked the easiest and since I'd never built a Master Box kit before, I started on that. Despite a slight bit of warpage on the bottom hull floor; this went together very fast and very well. I stopped here before doing the sponsons:

 

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Yeah, that was about five minutes of work.... 

 

I love it!

 

The French APC looked the next simplest to at least start, so I built up the basic hull:

 

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After that, I set that aside to dry and moved on to start the Israeli Nagmashot APC:

 

I built up the basic hull and added the top pyramid to it to test the fit:

 

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Looked okay, but I needed to do some sanding to make it fit better. Once that was done, I fit that into place. Then I felt it looked too funny so I added the fenders to the sides:

 

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That looks better now. The final model I started was the Armory M-41 Walker Bulldog. Again, the basic hull was assembled first:

 

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Then I did the turret. That was more fiddly than I thought it would be:

 

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Gonna take a bit of cleanup on that turret. After that, I tried to add it to the hull and found that the turret ring was either too thick, or the bar along the bottom was not positioned well to allow the turret to turn because it wouldn't go on. After some careful shaving and finagling, I got it to go on like it's supposed to. 

 

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Wow, that turret looks big on that. It'll fall into proportion once I get everything else on. 

 

And that is where I finished for the week. Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, it's been another rather productive week so here's another update. This is all armor again as I'm trying to get more of these done and off the workbench. So, climb aboard the tram for the next tour of Maddog Manufacturing...

 

I'll start with all the stalled projects that have been waiting for paint. I had some time earlier this week to shoot some paint and such so I shot a base coat of green on my US Paladins first:

 

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You can see I also added the tracks to the one. 

 

Next was the British FV-432:

 

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Followed by the three Chieftains:

 

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These will all get the Silly Putty masking later on. 

 

I also shot a base coat on the Canadian Leopard that I needed to finish this month:

 

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Later I glossed this and added the decals to it. They were all on the turret:

 

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After that came a dull coat and then a coating of dust as I took it out on the range for a test drive:

 

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After that came the final bits of detail parts and she was finished!

 

Next I also put paint on three other small models that had been sitting for a bit. First was the Japanese Isuzu fuel truck:

 

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It's hard to tell but the canvas top is a different khaki color. Next was the little German Olympia staff car that I will be making a captured US staff car. I did the interior first, and then after painting the exterior; I added all the extra detail parts. Once I touch this up I'll be able to gloss this and add decals:

 

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 Next up was my Russian AT-1 Snapper which got a base coat of green:

 

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Afterward, since I was decaling the Leopard, I added the decals to this. I also exercised a little artistic license on this too. The instructions say to use either the red banner markings or the '479'; but since I saw there was room for both, I added both:

 

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Next I can add the wheels, cabin doors, and rocket launcher assembly with rockets and I'll be able to finish this up. 

 

The after all this, I shot a dullcoat over my Russian 2S19 self propelled gun and added the outer roadwheels:

 

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 After dusting this one up and adding the final parts, I called this one done.

 

After that, I decided it was time to move forward on the D-9 Dozer. I added the windows to the cab:

 

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Later on I touched up the paint; repaired some broken parts, did some more weathering, repaired some broken parts, dusted this up, repaired some broken parts, added the metallic dry brush to their respective places, repaired some broken parts... and finally called this one done. 

 

Once I did that, it was time to move forward on the two Omnibuses. Starting with Ole Bill, I masked off the interior to prepare this for painting. It's gonna be an all-over olive drab so not much needed masking:

 

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Then I figured I should add the fenders and other parts to this to make sure they got painted too:

 

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I broke at least five brackets in my attempt to put those fenders on, not bad when you consider there are eight brackets that hold all four fenders!

 

Later I even added all the driver's controls and steering wheel to the inside. Next was to bring the other Type B bus up to this level. It took a bit more masking as this little bus will be red:

 

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After that I added the fenders, driver's controls and steering wheel and went a bit farther by installing the wheels:

 

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There's a few other detail parts that go on, but because of the risk of breakage, I left them off. Hopefully paint will be shot soon.

 

 

And that's all I have for this latest tour. Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

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Nice batch of work there Mark! How many of these did you work on Saturday during the AMPS meeting? 

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Thanks Carlos! To be honest; I'm not sure but I think Leopard, the M109's, the buses and the Dozer were the ones that got the most attention during that meeting. in fact, I believe I brought the Leopard and Dozer over the finish line during that time.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Wow, I've been so busy I don't know how I got this work done, but here it is, my latest progress from the past couple weeks. All of this is armor again; as well as one car. I'm just trying to get a few things off the bench and on the shelf. I'm getting eager to get back to  my Antonov; but I need to clear a few things first.

 

Before I get to them though, here is something I found while I was cleaning the bench up. This was a raffle prize I got that had three Monroe Perdue bases inside for 1/72 scale models. Here they are after priming and painting the black border on them:

 

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I won't be displaying my M-1070 or eight-wheeled Russian trucks on any of those, but they will be nice photo bases for my more regular armor.

 

The first model I worked on was the WWI MkI female tank. I finally completed all construction sans tracks:

 

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Later, after stretching the tracks a bit, I installed them on this tank:

 

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That little thing is now ready for paint. Easy peasy.

 

After finding my clear sheets of plastic, I went ahead and added the windows to my Japanese Isuzu fuel truck:

 

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I had also added the windows to the Olympia staff car. I didn't get a pic of that one though. 

 

Next I added the inside wheels to my Nagmashot APC:

 

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Later I finished off the upper construction of the detail parts and add-on armor:

 

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There was a lot of detail on this model to add:

 

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I also decided to work on my M-41 Walker Bulldog. I assembled the .50 cal machine gun ammo box. There are five pieces in this tiny assembly:

 

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After that I completed the turret and then added the torsion bars and other suspension parts:

 

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There is a ton of photo-etch that has to go on this. That's gonna be interesting....

 

After this, I decided that since I was so close to finishing the AT-1 Snapper, it was time to put it over the finish line. First, I added the rubber tires to the wheel hubs:

 

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That meant I needed to add the hubs to the axles to mount these wheels:

 

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While they were drying, I added the Snapper missiles to the launch rails:

 

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You can see the wheels in the background waiting to be installed.

 

When the hubs were dry, I added the re-loads to the interior. I only put in two since I'd lost the last one (found later, three days after I'd finished the model!) Here you can also see some of the additional detail parts I added:

 

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Wheels on and touch up paint done:

 

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Then I added the launch rails:

 

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Finally a dullcoat, the roof doors and the start of some dusting:

 

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That puppy was finished after a little more work.

 

Finally after while, I had some time to get to my spray booth. Despite issues with my airbrushes again, I managed to get some paint shot. First was Ole' Bill, the Type B bus inducted into the Army. I gave it an olive drab coat:

 

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Since I was doing buses, I changed to red and shot the other civilian Type B bus:

 

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That is a Humbrol red on that bus. Later, this needed some additional paint work so I went on, painting the lower body and suspension:

 

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I need to re-paint the dark brown. It is a gloss color going over a gloss color. For now I set this aside to dry. Since I also still had the red available, I pulled out my too-orange Coke Delivery Van and shot it with the red:

 

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Definitely a rough job that will need to be smoothed out. Someday that will start behaving and I can finish it. Until then, I'll just have to keep on working on other models. as I do this. 

 

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

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I know how you do all this my friend... you don’t sleep. 😉
 

Five pieces in that 1/72 ammo can? Can you say over engineered? 
 

But seriously I do love how you keep churning out these builds. Keep it up!

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Thanks everyone for the fantastic responses!

 

Carlos, I actually do sleep. I have to get my eight hours a night or I start losing fingers to the power tools I use when I work. And yes, I can say "over engineered"; I did say that right after reading the instructions, looking at the parts and saying "You've got to be kidding me!" I'll do my best to keep these going.

Gil, thanks! I look at your vac-form models and think that is some serious magic  I will never master so your words mean a lot to me!

Jim, yeah! Five! I couldn't believe it either! And if you think that's something, wait till you see all the photo-etch that I have to put on that Bulldog. I'm thinking about a third of that won't be used as I don't feel like tackling the smallest P/E pieces.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well it's been awhile, and with so many demands on my time as well as other distractions; I'm surprised that I got this much done.

 

I'll start with my aircraft again.

 

One of the aircraft I wanted to work on was a quick and easy one that I haven't ever had added to my collection before. This is the Hasegawa Japanese Val dive bomber that I'd started a bit before. It is almost a shelf queen, so it was time to try and move this forward. 

 

I installed the bare cockpit inside the fuselage and closed it up. I then test fit the fuselage to the wings while keeping the back end clamped:

 

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No worries about painting the interior. The top cover for the cockpit comes off:

 

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Since I need to find out what color to paint that interior, I left this alone. Moving on, it was time to fix the A-400 Grizzly. Remember the big bumpy new nose I added with 2-part epoxy putty? 

 

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It was time to sand that down and try to shape it. After trying to manually sand that hard chunk of epoxy and getting nowhere, it was time to pull out the Dremel and add a sanding drum to it. Several minutes later, I had this:

 

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From different angles, I can see the shape is off in places so this is going to take some time. I also noticed a few additional pockmarks and indentations I need to re-fill and sand some more:

 

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Of course, in the process of doing this, some of the main landing gear wheels and the nose gear broke off. Fortunately, they should be fairly easy fixes:

 

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Moving forward on something else, I added my first decal to the Antonov to see how Modelsvit decals work. I was pleasantly surprised that they went on quite well and are pretty robust for handling:

 

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Don't worry about the wrinkles on the back. Solvaset took care of those and these decals handled the stuff well. Still, this was another one-step-forward-two-steps-backward situation: as I was adding the decals to the remaining engine nacelles, two of them decided to bake a break for it... literally:

 

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Thank you JB Weld....

 

 

Anyway, at least I know how these decals work out. Now to find the instruction sheet and get more decals applied. 

 

A friend then called and while we were chatting I did some "mindless" sanding on my Coke Delivery Van to knock down the roughness of the red paint. Some bare plastic started poking through, so this will get another possible coat of paint soon:

 

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Just for fun I also pulled out a 1/35th Tamiya motorcycle a friend sent me that I was planning to add to my 1/35th scale Patton tank base. It was a pretty fun, if fiddly little beastie to build:

 

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There is one piece missing from the engine area. It wasn't on the sprue so unless I find it, I'll be leaving it off. It is hardly noticeable. 

 

After this, I also worked on my civilian British Type B Omnibus. After I removed the window masking and glued on the top level;  I installed the rear stairwell leading to the upstairs level:

 

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After that I finally added a lot of the additional detail parts that I expected would fall off if I'd added them earlier. In this pic, one has tilted out of position but I fixed that already. However, when it came time to add the starting crank, it broke into three pieces just trying to remove it from the two attachment points on the sprue...with a brand new Exacto blade! I even tried to remove the one from the OIe' Bill kit and the same thing happened. So, I had to scratch build a crank from a 1/72 scale pickaxe that came in the kit:

 

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Later I found one crank that was in two pieces and glued them together to install on this bus in place of that poor scratchbuilt one. I do still have that scratchbuilt one just in case....

 

Speaking of Ole' Bill, I did manage to get his wheels on:

 

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Later I glued the top deck on this one after removing the masking inside and then added the staircase too. You can see that here in this pic of Ole' Bill sitting next to the civilian bus after the rear staircases had been added:

 

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Later Ole' Bill got the rest of the detail parts added along with another starting crank made from bent stretched sprue:

 

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I get those parts painted and it'll be decal time....

 

After all this, I also added the final detail parts to the Japanese fuel truck. After painting them, I could just weather this and call it done:

 

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Now it was time to move forward on some of these other vehicles that have been needing camouflage patterns painted.

 

The first one was the M109A2 Paladin, followed by the -A6 Paladin. I hand painted the pattern on this one and the -A6 one since I was too burnt out on using Silly Putty after adding it to all my British vehicles. I just wanted easy...

 

the -A2:

 

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the -A6:

 

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After that, I added the Silly Putty to the Chieftains and the FV-432. Then I shot the second color on each. Once dry, I peeled off the Silly Putty to get my final results:

 

Chieftain Mk.5:

 

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Chieftain Mk.10:

 

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Chieftain Mk.11:

 

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And since I didn't get a pic of this shot with the second color with Silly Putty still on, here it is with the Silly Putty already peeled off after painting the second color:

 

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Finally the British FV-432. First Silly Puttied, then painted, then peeled:

 

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While I was using Silly Putty and painting, I figured out a way to use the Silly Putty to hold the skirts in place on my Nagmashot so I could paint them at the same time as I paint my vehicle. I should have done this with the Chieftains too...

 

You can see it peeking out under the skirts:

 

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Then I shot the basecoat of Green Drab:

 

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Afterward I added the Israeli Sand Grey:

 

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I tried to go a bit light in places as I wanted to have some preshading come through a bit.

 

While that set aside to dry, I started another Israeli vehicle, the Centurion Shot Meteor. First, I noticed the heavy sink marks on the main gun and added the Mr. Surfacer 500 to fill them in:

 

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While that was drying, I assembled the lower and upper hull, adding the start of the suspension on this:

 

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Next I did a basic turret assembly:

 

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Well, it's trying to look like a tank:

 

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That does look like something that could be found rusting away in an abandoned tank factory. 

 

Okay, that is all I have for now. Hopefully the next update will have some completed models to show. 

 

Stay tuned, more to come.

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