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Maddog Manufacturing Now Open for 2022


Mark Deliduka

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I know it's been awhile since the new year began, but I gave my workers an extended holiday to work off or sleep off the effects of the holiday celebrations! 

 

Now they are back and rarin' to go so all aboard the trams for the first tour of Maddog Manufacturing. Our first stop will be in the hanger....

 

 

This first one is a model that had been so close to finishing but didn't quite make it for last year's count. Here is what has been done since. The engines and propellers were painted:

 

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After that I applied the ancient decals. You can see what issues they presented. This side chipped a bit while being adjusted:

 

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The other side went on better... at least in regards to entirety:

 

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After poking holes and many judicious applications of Solvaset;  and later light applications of Tamiya Extra Thin; I got these looking fairly acceptable, at least for me considering the age of this kit. I later went back and painted white over the chipped areas to make the lettering complete again and painted blue over the areas that still looked too silvered:

 

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Once that was done, I added the wing to the fuselage:

 

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After that I installed the engines and the tail skid and let them dry:

 

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Now that the wheels have been added, this bird is done! Pics forthcoming....

 

 

Next I started on the Marine Corps Harrier AV-8B Plus by painting and decaling the cockpit:

 

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Later I closed it up. This bird needed a little convincing:

 

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It was convinced! The joint of that fuselage looks great. I then added the horizontal tail surfaces:

 

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Next I decided to save some time later by adding all the underwing pylons:

 

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This is just a test fit to see how well the wings fit:

 

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I love the fit; this is one well engineered model! 

 

 

Next I started with one of my Christmas presents, the Japanese U-125. I assembled and painted the cockpit and rear crew seats, painted the tires, and added the clear parts to the interior of the fuselage halves:

 

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Most of the smaller windows fell back inside the plane once I got it closed up, I'll have to use Testor's Window Maker to replace them once this bird is painted. 

 

Then I assembled the wing and engines:

 

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This was a dry-fit here to see what joint issues I was going to have. After all, this is a Sword kit:

 

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Later on I glued it into place, installed the main windscreen and added Tamiya putty to the seams where it needed it. Here you can see it after I started to sand it:

 

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That's gonna take a bit more work later but I'm pleased with the progress.

 

Finally I got some progress done on a project that had been languishing for far too long. For some reason every time I tried to make progress, I only did a tiny bit of work; if anything, and back to the box it went. No longer! I pulled out this little Japanese Observation helicopter and started by painting the assembled cockpit:

 

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When it was dry, I added the instrument panel decals:

 

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While they dried, I painted the rotor blades and the tires, and assembled the underwing stores:

 

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Once that was dry, I built the main rotor:

 

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And finally I got this bird all closed up! To help it stand properly I assembled and installed the landing gear as well as built and installed the engines:

 

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And that concludes our tour of the hanger, next stop is the motor pool....

 

 

 

There's not much activity here so this portion of the tour will be fairly quick. To start with, some of my crew were bored so they did a quick build of this little Russian M-30 Howitzer:

 

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Yeah, that is done. Now time to paint it...

 

Next I started the other Christmas present, the M-1134 Stryker. 

 

First was the hull which went fast since Dragon had already molded the suspension on the bottom:

 

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Then I built the Anti-tank Guided Weapon turret:

 

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This is where it is now, almost all assembled minus a few of the more breakable detail parts. This little thing is ready for paint already:

 

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Another one that I wanted to make progress on was my British FV-432 with the Rarden turret. First, I assembled the tracks, all but the bottom most run on the jig provided:

 

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While they were drying, I added the road wheels to the hull:

 

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Later on, I added the tracks; finishing off the bottom run, then added all the final detail parts that weren't breakable. Now this little vehicle is ready for paint:

 

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That concludes the motor pool portion of our tour, so on to the shipyards. This will be pretty short as well given that the Izumo already launched..

 

In the shipyards here the HMS Kelly is coming together nicely with all it's extremely rough detail...

 

I added all the extra little parts like gun directors, anti-aircraft guns, some boats, and searchlights among others:

 

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Later on that slipped right into the assembled hull where I glues it into place. Yes, the torpedo tubes and main guns are moveable:

 

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This little thing is ready for paint now.

 

After that, I got the Higgins boat all finished up. This one is ready for paint as well:

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's been a couple weeks and so I have a lot to show. I apologize, I got carried away this past couple weeks and so I have a lot to show.

 

So let's get this tour started! All aboard the trams; our first stop is the hanger...

 

I decided to start with some of the easier models first.

 

First up, the Japanese Ninja helicopter got all the windows masked off in preparation for paint:

 

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....which went on later; at least the base coat of green:

 

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That was all I had done on that before I moved on to something else. The next one was my little Vampire that had been masked off some time ago. This bird now has a grey belly. I can clear coat it for decals now:

 

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Another simple one, the F-117 was next. It was time to finally replace the stolen one from way back when. Cockpit was built first:

 

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This was then painted, and then I installed it inside the upper fuselage and closed it up under the canopy before I remembered to shoot a pic:

 

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After that it was a simple matter to add the wings and tail:

 

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Now all I need to do is mask the canopy and the shoot paint. Later I'll add the landing gear and internals.

 

Since I was already working on one jet from the Desert Storm set (F-117) I pulled out the other one from that set that was started. I painted the cockpit and pilots for the A-6 Intruder:

 

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The canopy was a different affair; it was split lengthwise instead of the traditional way. I thought one was to do this was to add one side first, then the other later when the first side was dry:

 

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After fitting the other side I wasn't much pleased with the placement. but it was closed up:

 

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Next up of course was to add the nose. Before doing that I glued some nose weights inside to keep this from being a tail sitter. You can see the weights that I had put inside the nose next to the plane since I forgot to shoot a pic of them inside the nose before I closed it up:

 

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I'm really not happy with the way the canopy looks here. I might just pop it off and try again for a better fit.

 

Finally, I got some paint on my Japanese U-124; or rather primer. I was out of grey primer so I shot black instead which showed some flaws that needed fixing. Here it is after the extra putty was applied:

 

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After some sanding and re-scribing, I shot it again and got a better result:

 

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When it was dry, I shot aircraft grey underneath it:

 

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I gave that time to dry and then masked off the bottom to prepare for the top coat:

 

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The top got a coat of Intermediate Blue afterward:

 

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And now this bird is finally painted. I have a few touch ups to do before I clear coat it for decals:

 

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That completes the tour of the hanger, now on to the shipyards...

 

 

In the shipyards here I've been mostly working on smaller craft, like this RAF Rescue Launch. This is a shelf queen that I've been tired of moving around. I had shot a coat of black on the sides which had gone all wonky so I had to sand it smooth and try again. Second time all these years later, it looks better:

 

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Now I can start moving forward on this. I went ahead and masked off the sides. Once I get a good enough inventory of paints  that I need for this I'll shoot paint on it later:

 

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You can see where I dry-fit the gun turrets just to be sure they were still around....

 

Moving on to the next project, I shot a grey overcoat on the top of the Higgins boat:

 

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It came out a bit blotchy looking, but I like it. Next I masked off the top for the bottom coat:

 

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...which went on later:

 

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This one is moving fast. She'll be sliding down the slipways fairly soon:

 

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Later, after a gloss clear was applied I added the decals:

 

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Some detail painting later and I'll have this done.

 

The next ship I worked on was the commission build I'm doing for a friend; On his SMS Emden he wanted the white and gold scheme so I went with Testor's Model Master Camouflage Grey. It was the closest thing I could find to white without actually being white, which I felt was more realistic. I shot this on the hull:

 

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Later I found a Vallejo color called Gold Brown. I felt it was perfect for the superstructure. I painted that with a brush to see how it looked. I will be needing multiple coats as this color is 'weak'. I also painted the black and dark brown upper decks:

 

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That's as far as I got in the shipyards. Now it's time to tour the Motor Pool.....

 

 

 

 

Okay, here in the Motor Pool, I decided to at least start a halftrack for a Halftrack Group Build on another Forums. This is the SdKfz 9 with a crane on the back. I have an early and a late. I simply picked the one I could see; the other one was hiding. I didn't get very far. I started with the basic engine which I may or may not display:

 

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I then added that to the chassis along with the transmission and some other parts:

 

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Then I looked at all the roadwheels and decided I'd had enough of this beastie. I picked up something else. That something else turned out to be one of my Christmas presents: the Russian 2S35 self propelled gun. I started buy assembling the lower hull:

 

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Next was the roadwheels. They didn't look as daunting as the German halftrack wheels, so I spent a while cementing one half of the roadwheels to the other half:

 

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I set them aside to dry and assembled the turret. This is a big honking beast! The turret is bigger than the 2S19 that I'd built earlier. But look at the size of that gun:

 

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That's a 152mm gun people. Talk about "reaching out and touching someone"...

 

Just for fun, I dry-fit the upper hull to the lower and added the turret to see how this horse was gonna look:

 

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Looks like it's gonna fall over on it's nose! 

 

Next up, I decided I'd had enough of roadwheels so I got started on two more of my Christmas presents. These are wheeled vehicles this time. The first one was my Australian Bushmaster. I built the lower hull first:

 

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Next I added the windows to the upper hull and added a few more parts to finish the basic assembly:

 

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Here it is all dry fit together. I still need to paint the interior:

 

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The British SAS Bushmaster was next. Starting with the lower hull, you can see it is already semi-subtly different:

 

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Next the upper hull. Note the top hatch and the spaced armor applied to the sides:

 

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Again a dry fit to see how it looks:

 

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Now that I had these started, I decided to get some paint shot. First was the Stryker. It got an overcoat of green:

 

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Next I assembled the wheels and added them to the hull. Dragon did a great job on these wheels; they are hard plastic and the went on the front hubs exceptionally well. They then had you glue the back of the hubs to the front hubs, trapping a post inside. What a bonus that was, as you'll see later. In this pic, I have the back hubs and posts pushed into the holes in the lower hull:

 

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Here's how they look installed on the vehicle:

 

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Next came the clear gloss and decals:

 

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....followed by a dullcoat:

 

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This beastie was ready for weathering. Here's where the bonus came in with the wheels: I was able to pull them off the vehicle (I didn't glue them in, only pressed them in) and this allowed me to weather the wheels, adding dirt inside the tire treads:

 

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I also dusted the hull and now all I have to do is re-install the wheels and add other final detail parts and this one will be done. 

 

Finally, I also shot paint over the other model that needed it: my British FV-432. It got the base coat of green:

 

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Since I was going to make this black and green, you know what's coming next: Silly Putty. I covered the green with it, letting it hold the turret into place:

 

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I shot the black over this, making sure I got inside all the nooks and crannies, caverns and canyons. I used the Aircraft Interior Black from Testor's:

 

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I removed the Silly Putty later and was very happy with the results:

 

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Next came the gloss clear and decals:

 

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After shooting a dull coat on this I was placing it on the shelf again and the turret flew off, causing this breakage:

 

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I pulled out my CA glue and put it back together as best I could:

 

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It still has a chip I need to repair so I'm hoping that I can get it done well enough. Once I do and add the final detail parts, I'll be able to call this one done as well.

 

And on that happy note, it's time to head back to the reception area to disembark from the trams. Thank you all for joining me on this latest tour. Comments are always welcome.

 

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Goodness, that's a busy bench, Mark!!

 

I remember seeing the real Southern Cross on display at the Brisbane Airport back in 1985. And a flying replica in '88. Very cool aircraft! Must dig out the photos....

Edited by PaulBradley
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Awesome Paul! Yeah, it's amazing that Southern Cross is still around. I'm, glad it is. Thanks for the great comments and compliments. I'm looking forward to seeing the pics of the flying replica!

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  • 1 month later...

Here is my latest update on my work at Maddog Manufacturing. First, I want to let everyone know why it took me so long to get any progress done and posted. Back in the second week of February, we had to move from one storage unit to a smaller one. In the process of moving, I dropped a 200 lb +/- block of wood on my right foot. Naturally it swelled up, but only as far as my shoe would allow. The bad thing was, I had to go back the next day and finish moving out since that was the last day to get out of the old one. Only by the grace of God and His strength did I succeed with this foot as it was. I then kept it iced and propped up all day the next day. We went to Urgent Care where X-rays were taken and again by the grace of God there were no breaks or fractures. Still, it took me almost a full month to get back to where I could walk and drive. Since there was no place to prop my foot up and keep it iced in the hobby room; I was unable to do anything on my workbench all that month of time. 

 

Now that I've recovered enough, it is time to re-start my tours of Maddog Manufacturing. The trams have all been tuned up and are ready to go. All aboard!

 

This past Monday night we had a Hobby Night at the St. Crispin's Hall. I brought quite a number of things down to the hall to work on and try to regain the momentum I'd lost.

 

Starting in the hanger, we have these projects...

 

The first thing I wanted to show was the Swedish Vampire. It finally got decals on it. Again, they look like total crap because they are the ancient kit decals which did not want to stay flat. I had to convince them with Tamiya Extra Thin cement. I could have passed on using them, but I had no spares that could work, nor did I know when I'd be able to afford to get replacements. So in order to call this one further done, I used what I had:

 

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After that, it was time to move on. This time I got something started. This is the Atlantis re-pop of the ancient Aurora(?) kit of the AH-56 Cheyenne attack helicopter. This is certainly one odd looking bird.

 

First thing it tells you to do is cement the fuselage together, trapping the forward mini gun and rotor in between them. Okaaaaay...

 

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After that I got started on the cockpit and pilots. This is a simple cockpit so it went together well:

 

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There's still some sink marks and other details to fix before painting this, but I like how it looks. After that was done, I set it aside and added the horizontal stabilizers to the back of the helicopter. I then assembled the landing gear sponsons and attached wings and cemented everything to the fuselage. The landing gear are actually designed to retract. Cool! 

 

Looking good so far. The cockpit seen next to this just pops right in, so this will be easy to do once I get it all painted:

 

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While that was all drying, I assembled the main rotors. These were a little tough, but I got them done. I do like how sturdy they are at the base of the blades. Later when they had dried enough I popped the cockpit in place in the fuselage and added the main rotor to see how this bird is looking:

 

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The cockpit and rotors come off so I'll be able to paint them separately. That's as far as I got now. Hopefully I'll have time and opportunity to get this painted..... along with the other 17 models that need paint!

 

 

 

Moving on to my shipyards, we laid the keel for this one....

 

This is another model  I'd been wanting to start. This is the Revell Swift Boat that I got for Christmas. Of course I'm slapping myself in the head for not entering this into the "Charlie Still Don't Surf" campaign here.

 

 Anyway, this went so fast I got this far before I remembered to take pics:

 

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I gotta get that interior painted before I go on. 

 

Now on to the motor pool and maintenance yard

 

Finally I got this little thing started. I got it over a decade and a half ago and left it sitting on the workbench because I didn't feel comfortable enough to do all that P/E as I was just starting out using it. Having done so many models with P/E since then that I felt it was time to get it off the bench. 

 

This is a 1/72 scale German field maintenance heavy crane used for lifting turrets and engines. I still did a pretty crappy job despite my experience; this was so difficult to keep in place without bending cross members:

 

 Here is the first half done. After that I moved on to something else to relieve the stress of working with this tiny model:

 

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Later I came back and finished this off:

 

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Now to figure out how to paint it. both colors and technique! Those chains re-defined the word "delicate" and I'm surprised I didn't break them even more than the one time I did! 

 

Okay, now that that was done, I decided to have some fun. 

 

I started my British Crusader AA tank and got this far before I remembered to shoot pics:

 

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Those gun barrels will go once I can source some new metal ones for this kit and raise the funds to buy them. Until then, this little beastie will keep those so I can move forward.

 

Now the last model I'm showing is this borderline shelf queen. This is my Modelcollect Russian Coastal Defense Missile System CLUB II. I had gotten it for my birthday last year from a friend and had started it some months back. I had stopped because I couldn't figure out how to make the launch tubes elevate. I finally figured it out awhile ago, so out it came. I had assembled the rear launch container about halfway already so the only thing I needed to do now was set up the tubes to elevate and then paint the interior. I chose a faded olive drab for the interior since the color call out specified a light green for the interior:

 

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It's hard to see the light green in there, it looks so much like the grey plastic outside in this light...

 

Here you can see how well the launch tubes elevate into firing position:

 

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Later on, I painted the interior of the driver's cab and glued it to the chassis:

 

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Here is a back view of the whole chassis and cab assembly:

 

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All that's left now is to mask the windows, mask the rear missile cabin; and then shoot paint on this. Wow, I do hope I can finally get this done!

 

 

Anyway, that is all I have for now. Hopefully this week I'll be able to find some time to shoot paint. Thanks all for joining this latest tour and comments are always welcome.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mark, I must say that many of your models look great, I especially like your British FV-432.  It has the camo scheme I like the most.  Also, I finally got to see silly putty in action.  Fantastic!  Thanks so much for those pics!  (I still need to purchase my silly putty, but plans for that are already in the works.)  And, I must say, I really like your SMS Emden the most...how the build  is in the second picture of it on this forum thread.  It looks beautiful!  I guess that sometimes when one is building for another, maybe modelers build it extra-special nice 🙂 I do not know, but that build really works for me out of 'em all.  Nice! 🙂  Also, I hope your foot is healing well and that you can log some serious time again at the bench.  

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Thank you Ed! I'm also quite pleased with the FV-432. You're welcome for the pics of the use of Silly Putty, I've used it to camouflage so many of my models over the past five years or so. The Emden is slowly coming along; I can't say I'm doing anything extra special with it. The client isn't picky, he just wants it on his mantle.

My foot is almost completely healed so I should be able to re-start painting production soon. Stay tuned.

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Now that my foot is finally healed enough to walk on without having to ice it all the time, I was able to get a few hours in the hobby room in between getting caught up with all the other things that were neglected. Here is what I was able to do, so all aboard the trams again for this new tour of Maddog Manufacturing!

 

First off, while I was re-organizing the room and re-packing many of my spare parts in a new container I got , I finally found the missing propeller to the Fokker Friendship! It was in that container marked "Propellers, Blades and Rotors":

 

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Naturally I had to paint it like the other one so I got started:

 

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I cleaned that up a bit and finished the painting of the whole thing:

 

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Now that I got that finished, I'll post my new pics of the finished plane in the Aircraft section...

 

After that, I decided to see how the pews looked so I punched one out and assembled it. Pretty cool:

 

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Each square on the mat is 1 inch in size if I recall. That will give you some idea of how small that is.

 

Moving on to our Hanger, here is the work I did on the Marine Harrier to prepare it for paint. First after masking the canopy, I added the extra part in front of the wing; dry fitting the whole assembly and gluing it together on the fuselage but not to the fuselage. That is why you see it removed here. I also was able to pull the front exhaust cans off thanks to poly caps inside. The rear ones wouldn't come out so I taped them with the rest of the things I needed to mask:

 

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I then dry-fit it together again to have it ready to shoot when I break out the airbrush:

 

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My next project was the F-117 that I'm building to replace the one that was stolen. I'd had it all assembled already so I flipped it over and shot white in the gear bays and bomb bay. I used a rattle can, that is why it is everywhere. I also had shot the landing gear parts, the inner gear doors and the inner bomb bay doors:

 

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After that dried overnight, I placed the gear doors and bomb bay doors in place without glue and shot the flat black all over the bottom of this plane:

 

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Yes, they are raised, but I'm building this with everything open so I'm not worried about it.

 

Once that was dry, I flipped it again and shot the top with the flat black:

 

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I love how the doors underneath stayed in place!

 

 

Next up is a detour to the shipyards again because I laid the keel on a new landing craft, this time an LCM from the Dragon 2in1 kit. I now have three landing craft under construction that I need to get done:

 

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While here, we can check out the Emden. I didn't do much to it, simply taping off the hull and painting the black boot stripe on it:

 

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Later I taped that boot stripe off, masking it for the lower hull paint. I searched around a bit and finally found what I believe to be a suitable enough hull red by Humbrol. Hopefully I'll be able to get it painted soon.

 

 

 

Now that we've seen that, it's on to the Motor Pool section to see the latest vehicles under construction. 

 

First off, I decided to start one more of my birthday presents, the Roden pakwagen. The instructions have you start with the gun:

 

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This was quite fiddly, but with a little careful sanding; I was able to slip that gun into the cradle without needing to glue it as you see here. I also added the rest of the details for the gun cradle:

 

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Finally the gun shield went on, but not without a fight. This was nearly impossible to keep properly positioned without five hands, but I managed to get it looking right.... so far:

 

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After that, I built the fenders. Simple assembly. I simply had to add all those doors to them:

 

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I then glued them onto the lower hull and added the interior details:

 

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After that, I got the side walls on the top hull:

 

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That's probably going to need some filler....

 

Moving on, I started a little Japanese mortar towing truck that I got for Christmas. It was a fast little thing to build! I left off the engine cover because there's a few more things that have to go on the front of this first:

 

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Here it is sitting next to the 120mm mortar it tows. I'll be keeping this one in the firing position. Since there's two models in this kit, I'll make the other one towed:

 

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That is all I have for this week. Not much in the way of vehicles, but I have a shipload of them to paint so next time might be quite an extensive tour. until then, thanks for joining and comments are welcome.

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Mark, you answered my question as to how you found your propeller that I posted in the Aircraft builds thread here in this thread.  That plane looks great now.  I really like the sleek-looking stealth fighter...good job on that.  Again, for me, I like the Emden...I think it is because of the different-hued paint scheme.  Also, I think it is a nice job on such a small model...I can see your bottle of Tamiya extra-thin cement in the picture of it here...that ship is not very large 🙂 Well done so far in my opinion!  The pakwagen looks neat, too.  I do not know how you do so many models all at once...it takes me two or three months per build for me.  When my father built P-51 Mustangs in the 80's he would build them a ton at a time.  He would line up all wheels and things matte black to be painted....aluminum finishes to be painted...zinc chromates to be painted etc etc so he would spray like ten sets of tires at a time, then five or so natural bare metal finishes on planes mostly glued together and ready for that paint...etc etc and on and on...kind of amazing in my opinion and kind of like how you do your manufacturing.  Unreal! 🙂 

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Thank you Ed! Yeah, I also reiterated that answer in the other thread too. The Emden is slowly coming along, and I'm happy to get more progress done. Part of the reason I'm able to build so many at once is because I use a variation on the same technique you father used. When I built my nine T-34's, seven Sd Kfz 251's and my six Bradleys I did it more like the way your father did his ponies. It works quite well!

Thank you Paul! I wish I was as busy on my bench as my bench is!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Welcome to another week of progress by the Duke.

 

This week I finally got to airbrush! Wow, it felt great to make significant progress for once! Maddog Manufacturing has been in full production mode. All aboard the trams for the latest tour!

 

We'll start in the Hangar again where a little bit has been happening. I did start a new helicopter, this is one I've been wanting for quite some time. 

 

This is the cockpit I started for the AH-1Z Cobra, all ready for paint:

 

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The next thing I did was to touch up the paint on the bottom of the Japanese U-125. First I masked off and sprayed the specific damage with my Sotar 20/20:

 

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Later the mask came off. This looks so much better now so I can move forward once again:

 

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Speaking of masking and spraying, I started by adding the Silly Putty to my Japanese OH-1 helicopter; now that the base coat is on:

 

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You'll notice that I broke off one of the horizontal stabilizers as I expected. Oh well, I still got it masked for spraying. I then shot the second color on this helicopter:

 

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Again, another part broken from handling. That thing is small; no place to really hold it when shooting paint.

 

Finally the masking came off. I can now clearcoat this and start the decals:

 

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Finally, the third helicopter I'm building; the AH-56 Cheyenne got some small progress done too. I painted the cockpit and pilots for the time I can add them to this model:

 

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I then went to shoot paint on the helicopter itself, but realized I had a lot of seam work to take care of first, so no more pics of this for now.

 

 

 

That's all that's happened in the Hangar, now on to see what's coming down the slipways in the Shipyards.

 

Now, you may be thinking that you've seen this before, but this is a new LCM-3 that came with the Dragon LCM and Sherman combo kit. 

 

I started with the basic construction:

 

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Here's the fiddly little control box used by the driver:

 

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The main difference between this one and the other LCM-3 I started some time back (besides the manufacturer), is this one does not have any propellers or rudder underneath. In fact, it has an even shallower hull. This is why Dragon included a clear base piece to place this on so it can be displayed deploying the Sherman in a mini dio:

 

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I plan on pulling out the other LCM to see if I can finish it in tandem with this one.  

 

After this, I pulled out an old Shelf Queen, the old RAF Rescue Launch from Airfix, circa 1970's. I almost feel like I started it back then too! This has actually been on the Shelf of Doom for five to seven years; it's time to get it finished. I'd shot the sides of the hull way back when, and then recently masked off the sides. I then shot the hull red on the bottom and after that dried, I shot the grey over the whole upper deck and superstructure:

 

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Later I pulled the masking off to see how this looks:

 

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Looks good on this side. When I turned it around to check on the other side I found that the tape had pulled a bit of the black off the sides. Looks like I also left a bit of tape on it. Easy fix with my Sotar 20/20 and tweezers for the tape.

 

In this pic, you can also barely see the red bottom hull:

 

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Sweet! Now to get the touch up done and the demarcation lines cleaned up and I can see what else I can do with this.

 

Moving on, I continued work on this SMS Emden commission build. First off, I removed the masking on the hull to see how well the boot stripe looks. Not bad on this side:

 

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Needed improvement on this side:

 

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I took some time to fix that hull stripe to make it look more consistent, then I painted all the upper grey parts grey as indicated on the paint scheme. I also did a bit more  touch-ups on the other colors too:

 

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You'll also notice that all the main gun turrets are back on this. Before, when I painted the deck, three of them got stuck and wouldn't rotate. When I tried to loosen them, they snapped right off. After painting the grey, I went to work fixing these turrets so they could be added back on and rotate like they did before. First I drilled some holes in the bottom of the turrets and cemented in a length of styrene rod right where the broken ones used to be:

 

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After drilling out the holes in the deck I just slipped these right in. After all that was done, I decided to paint the masts, boats, davits and searchlights and all other extra parts that need to go on:

 

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Now I should be able to get this finished fairly quickly. I'm hoping I can deliver this to him at the next Hobby Day. I gotta clear that slip for another naval project I want to get to. 

 

 

Now that we're done at the Shipyards, lets move on to the Motor Pool where quite a bit has been done...

 

The first thing we'll look at is the gantry crane. I shot some panzer dunklegelb over the whole thing, hopefully covering all that brass. Not sure if I did. I still need to find that tiny wheel that broke off and get it replaced:

 

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While I had the panzer dunklegelb out, I painted the interior of my Sd Kfz 234 Pakwagen and then did the details:

 

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I also painted the inside of the gun shield and the back part of the gun:

 

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I'm gonna do a bit more detailing there before I go on.  While I was shooting paint, I shot the Australian Bushmaster with a coat of Olive Drab:

 

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While that was drying, I shot British Gulf War Sand over the British Bushmaster. I thinned it a bit to much so this will need another coat:

 

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The final thing I did was to shoot the green basecoat on the Russian 2S35 Koalitzia so that I can clear coat it and add the decals:

 

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And that concludes our tour of Maddog Manufacturing for now. Thank you all for joining me on this trip; comments are always welcome.

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  • 2 weeks later...

With all the extra time I had at Hobby Day weekend this past weekend, there's a lot to show in this next tour! Come on in and board the trams to see the latest progress.

 

Starting again in the hanger, we did get the landing gear and gear doors on the Vampire. We also got the bombs painted up:

 

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The next pic of this will be in the Finished boards...

 

We also got the decals on the F-117 stealth fighter:

 

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Now I'm not sure if the decals have silvered or if that is that milky stuff that Monogram decals always seems to have. I'm going to wait till this dries and see what a dull coat will do before I deal with that. 

 

Finally, we also put decals the Japanese U-125. What an ordeal that was! These large decals were so thin and delicate they folded under if you looked at them wrong. Then they tore as you tried to fix them! We somehow managed to get 99% of this large decal on one side:

 

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We stopped right there and pulled out my liquid decal film to coat the rest of the decals. After sufficient drying time, we finally got them on the plane. Wow, what a great improvement on the ease of application! We still cut the large side decal into two pieces to make sure we got it on right:

 

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Yes, that wrinkling is from the Solvaset we applied to the engine nacelle decals since they did not conform at all to the curves of those nacelles. Later we added some more and they smoothed out much better. She is turning into quite the pretty plane!

 

 

That was the quick tour of the Hanger, now on to the Shipyards...

 

We got more work done on the Trumpeter LCM, adding the propellers and rudders underneath:

 

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Next we added all the detail parts left off before. The ramp in front is just dry fit; the hinge system Trumpeter uses is useless, unlike the Dragon system. We will decide how to position that once it gets rigged with the rope included in the kit:

 

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In the last slip here, we got the deck painted on HMS Kelly:

 

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She'll be ready for more detail work now. 

 

 

That completes the quick tour of the Shipyards; now on to the Motor Pool...

 

 

 

Here in the Motor Pool, we added the decals to the Russian 2S35. It was quite easy since it only had numbers on the sides of the turret:

 

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Later we might decide to dress that up a bit with more markings just to give it some more color. Artistic license and all....

 

Since we were on Russian subjects, I consulted the instruction sheets for the Russian CLUB anti-ship missile defense system. There's a cover that goes over the cab, with openings on the front for some lights on the top of the cab to shine through. So we got busy and added the lights and the photo-etch cages that protect these lights. Why they still have those protective cages with that cover on, I don't know but since the instructions said they are supposed to go on, we added them:

 

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Later we painted the cab top in the same Russian green as the exterior and then installed the cover on top:

 

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It does look pretty funky up there now, but once the launch bay is added to the back, this will look better. Time to mask these windows to prepare for paint.

 

Next I pulled out a shelf queen that I'd put aside some time ago because of the way the wheels had to be assembled. It is the armored HUMVEE and it was time to get this thing moving so we went to work. These are the parts to each tire. Note that the hubs were already glued together:

 

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Yes, those are six tread pieces that are supposed to go on the hubs. This is what the wheels look like fully assembled:

 

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I'm not sure what to do about all those seams and gaps. What a ridiculous way to build wheels, especially since the tread pieces had so much flash you didn't know where the flash ended and the tread started! I might just forget any attempt to fix them just so I can move on...

 

We finally got all four wheels done. I can send this to the paint booth now....

 

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Earlier we had started a WWII Swedish assault gun, building the lower hull first. I forgot to take pics of it before we added the wheels and sprockets to it. We then added the engine deck on top along with the front glacis plate:

 

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This kit came with a resin fighting compartment that houses the gun and all. Here it is dry fit on the hull to see how it fits. It is hollow and needed a slight bit of persuasion:

 

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I'm not sure whether we should install the fenders before gluing that down, or try to fit the fenders after. If I decide to add the fenders first, we'll need to add the tracks to the running gear first. I'll have to think on this....

 

 

After al that, I wanted something simple and fun to work on. I pulled out this Japanese Material Handler to do for my 12-hour build challenge that my So Cal AMPS club is doing. After three and a half hours we had this:

 

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This thing is so cool! It is a funky looking beastie but it even does all this:

 

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That was all we got done this weekend in the Motor Pool.

 

 

And that completes our tour of Maddog Manufacturing, I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for coming along, comments are welcome.

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Mark, I really like the stealth fighter build.  It looks nice and sleek.  I hope you can manage to fix the decal silvering on it.  The Emden is finished and I think she looks great!  I also like the camo scheme on your OH-1 chopper as well.  However, I have heard that Blu-Tac poster putty works better than silly putty for masking.  I am unsure, but that is what I heard from my local hobby shop model club peoples.  How does your cordless spray gun work anyway?  I am curious as I am in the market for one.  Good stuff! 🙂 And, thanks for posting your pictures!

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Thank you Ed! The decals on the Stealth Fighter weren't silvered fortunately, they were simply matt decals. Once I sprayed the dull coat on it, they blended right in.

 

Having seen and used both Blu-Tac and Silly Putty, I found that for me, Silly Putty is better. It is more flexible' does not pull the paint off like Blu-Tac has done; and I have never seen the residue that others say Silly Putty leaves behind. One friend who said he had residue from Silly Putty just used Goo Gone to wipe down the area and removed it easy peasy. I have also been using the same wad of Silly Putty for going on six years now. I have four or five other new eggs of Silly Putty as backups but so far have never needed to use them so far. I don't know how long a similar wad of Blu-Tac lasts personally. I guess it all boils down to a person's preference.

The 'cordless' spray gun is from a brand called "No Name" and I got it from spraygunners.com at the IPMS USA Nationals in Las Vegas. It has a tiny compressor in the bottom handle that also holds the rechargeable battery. The battery is recharged using a simple USB cable just like the one you'd use to charge your cell phone. The compressor, although tiny, does put out a consistent pressure. Mine retailed for $65.00. Pics attached.

 

Thanks again Ed!

Tools-Portable Airbrush I.jpg

Tools-Portable Airbrush II.jpg

Tools-Portable Airbrush III.jpg

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Once again, we kept busy and moved a lot of things forward this week. So much so that I scheduled another tour of the facilities earlier than expected!

 

All aboard the trams everyone and remember to keep your hands and feet inside at all times. This will be a good long tour.

 

As always, we'll start in the Hangar.

 

Here you can see that the F-117 got a dull coat on it:

 

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I was going to keep it glossy, but then I realized that a dull coat would absorb more radar waves than a glossy coat. After that, we installed the landing gear, gear doors and bomb bay doors, as well as one Maverick:

 

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Not a good angle for viewing all that so here's a better angle:

 

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Finally I was ready to get this thing finished. Then I ran into a big issue....

 

I HATE THIS MASKING AGENT!!

 

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When we tried to remove it from the canopy, it would not come off! It seemed to peel by layers, each of which seemed to be more sticky than the previous one. I took a wooden coffee stir and cut a chiseled end and used that to try and scrape all this stuff off. Even then, it stuck to the model! What a cluster! After I got all that off that I could, I took a cotton bud/Q-tip/whatever you want to call it; dipped it in alcohol and scrubbed the whole canopy, finally removing the last of the mask residue. I then brushed on some Pledge Future to clear the windows again and later re-painted a dull coat along the area around the canopy to bring it back into consistency with the rest of the plane. I can see in these pics we still have some touch up to do. Despite that, my USAF took delivery of this plane anyway.

 

Because of the tightness in the  facility, I made an effort to get some more space by trying to organize things a bit. That's when I really got tired of this C-17-wannabe horse and the box it rode in on, cluttering up my hangar space! So, we set things aside and started on this by first glueing the wings in place:

 

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This was a very poor fit. After nearly an hour of working it, this was the final result that I had to live with:

 

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There's gonna be a lot of sanding and filling and repainting to do there...

 

 When the wings were finally dry enough, we stepped back to find that every stinking wheel had broken off the landing gear struts:

 

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We are going to get the decals on and the window masks off and possibly even the dull coat shot on this thing before I get to work fixing those wheels. Enough of that, time to work on something easy...

 

I chose the AH-56 Cheyenne to work on since that seemed to be the easiest so far. It was. We had applied some filler in the gaps I'd found and sanded down the steps:

 

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After another coat of black primer, I saw it was looking great:

 

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Certainly far better than the A-400...

 

Off she went to the spray booth to get her coat of Olive Drab:

 

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Next we shot a dull coat on the Japanese U-125 since we had it out for the Stealth fighter already:

 

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This bird then got her landing gear on as well. Sword does not give you very great attachment points to fasten these struts securely and firmly:

 

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Here's a better shot of her stubby legs. They are holding her up quite nicely:

 

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But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. All this time some of the main cabin windows had opened up while we were trying to mask them way back before paint was first shot. We just left them alone all this time.....until now. That's when we pushed them all the way in and used Micro Scale Window glue to make new windows. Those are the white ovals on the sides of the fuselage:

 

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Finally we got the last of the landing gear bay doors and other detail parts on this bird, finishing all the assembly. After some touch up painting, she was delivered to my Japanese Air Force.

 

 

 

That completes the tour of the Hangar, now on to the Shipyards...

 

We've been keeping busy on the various naval projects going on here and are planning on laying the keel to a couple more projects soon. Meanwhile, this is what was done in the slipways this past week.

 

First of all, some of the paint on the side of the RAF Rescue Launch was pulled away earlier and so we masked it off and shot another coat of black on the side to fix it:

 

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Once that was dry, she was looking good. We can now move forward on her soon:

 

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Meanwhile in the next slipway, the final parts were installed on HMS Kelly, except for the ship's boats:

 

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After some touch up painting and the addition of her boats, we were able to launch her and send her out on her shakedown cruise before being delivered to my British Navy.

 

 

 

 

That was a short trip through the Shipyards, and so we move on to the Motor Pool...

 

Here in the Motor Pool, things went fairly smoothly as well. We had gotten quite far on the Swedish Assault Gun so I wanted to get it further along as close to the paint stage as possible. We got the tracks installed first since they needed to be on before the fenders and casemate:

 

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The individual track pieces on this model are only about a millimeter and a quarter long. Very tiny!

 

While they were drying, we got the main gun and rear stowage box installed on the casemate:

 

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The kit includes a photo-etch piece for the perforated muzzle break on the end.. I'll have that done later once the P/E is annealed. A test fitting of the casemate on the hull shows some gaps that will need to be dealt with:

 

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Time to let that set for a bit and show you our next projects. These next two got another coat of paint on them. First the British Bushmaster that needed a more solid coat of paint:

 

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Then this Canadian Cadillac Gage was giving me the stinkeye for forgetting it for so long and so we pulled that over to the spray booth and shot the remaining OD from the Cheyenne project:

 

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Finally, I got some more progress on my Russian models. First, I got the dull coat on the beastie:

 

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Later we tried some combinations of paint and Future/Pledge to make this main gun a little less loose so the gun would remain in any angle I wanted to pose it in. We had some success:

 

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Later on we finished weathering the beastie on the lower hull and tracks. I didn't want to over weather this as I figured they would be mostly traveling on roads or being covered up and carried by tank transporters. Once that was done, my Russian Army took delivery of this gun.

 

This last one was giving me a bit of trouble. We pulled out the CLUB M and started masking the windows to get the cab ready for paint. Unfortunately, the side windows decided to come unglued on one side and push in. Now the cab was fully sealed so fixing them was a real issue. Finally since we couldn't get the cab off and opened up, we cut some holes in the rear cab wall so I could stick something in and push them shut once glue was re-applied to the open sides:

 

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Since that was going to be hidden from view by the engine housing, I didn't care. We re-glued the windows and when they were dry, we finished masking them successfully this time. Then the top weather cover was added to the roof of the cab after I'd already had the inside top painted. It looks crooked in this pic but we got it straightened up:

 

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Paint was then shot and came out smooth:

 

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Since I had the launch cabin that houses the launch tubes already masked and I had the base paint out, we finished shooting paint on the outer launch cabin:

 

width="800px" height="645px"https://modelersalliance.org/galleries/wip-russian-club-m-xiv-jpg.128544/full[/IMG]

 

Finally, the last bit of work on this was the dry-fitting of the whole thing together:

 

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She's a big one!

 

I hope to start getting Silly Putty applied to this and the Australian Bushmaster so the camouflage colors can be shot. Hopefully this coming week. 

 

 

Thank you all for joining me on this latest tour! Comments are always welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thank you Gil! It has been awhile hasn't it?

 

Wow, the manufacturing plant has been humming along quite a bit! It feels great to have all this time to keep things going.

 

It's time for another tour, the trams are waiting! All aboard!

 

Starting in the Hangar again, you'll see that the Japanese OH-1 has finally got her markings on. This kit has been fighting me more than expected, but we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel:

 

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Not much more to do on that one. Since decals were being applied, the AH-56 Cheyenne got markings as well:

 

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Just for fun we added the main rotors to get a preview of what this one should look like when it's done:

 

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Next up it was time to paint the canopy so the whole thing was masked off with tape and a black base was painted on first since the paint is always so transparent on first pass:

 

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Here it is all painted up:

 

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I know the color looks dark here in this pic, but it is the same OD color.

 

Another dry fit to see how well this canopy fits:

 

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Amazingly perfect fit for such an old mold! I love it! There was an ejector pin mark on the front of this canopy so we needed to sand that away and then polish the clear part to bring it back to standard. I didn't shoot pics of that, but we did install the cockpit permanently, after painting the front  instrument panel. Here's a shot of the cockpit and instrument panel:

 

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Afterward we put on the two tail rotors:

 

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Finally the canopy was cemented into place. All that's left is a bit of touch up painting and this bird is done:

 

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Our next project is this AH-1Z that had the cockpit painted so it was finally enclosed inside the fuselage:

 

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We then started construction on the nose gun turret. Once the two halves were put together; we found that the bottom was open ended:

 

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You're looking at the bottom of that turret. We searched everywhere on the instruction sheet and sprues and found no trace of a part that is supposed to go there. So, out came the strip styrene. A bottom plate was fashioned and glued in place:

 

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I may put another larger plate on on top of that....

 

Once that was done, we assembled the gun... all four parts of it:

 

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Main rotors were than assembled:

 

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Engines, horizontal stabilizers, and stub wings were installed after that. I also added the small piece that holds the tail rotor on top of the tail. Here's the whole thing all ready for paint:

 

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That completes the Hangar portion of the tour. A brief detour through the shipyards shows that the RAF Rescue launch got some additional detail parts:

 

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Followed by the installation of her screws and rudders:

 

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Now on to the Motor Pool.

 

A few things got painted with a base coat first. One was the troublesome HUMVEE that finally got a coat of US Desert Sand:

 

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The Swedish Assault gun also got a base coat of green drab:

 

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...which was left over after basecoating this little gem:

 

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While those were drying we tried to assemble the wheels on the SdKfz 234 Pakwagen. After doing these two; I had enough. I'll do the other six later:

 

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After that, I decided to move forward on this Shelf Queen, which had been languishing for some time because first the decals went missing, then when they were found the instruction sheet went missing, then the decals disappeared again when the instruction sheet was found again. Finally after this happening four times, I was able to keep both and so we got the decals on this German Type SSYMS 80 flatcar:

 

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Some more detailing on that and it will be done.

 

Next we had gloss coated the Cadillac Gage to add decals, but found that these had no markings. So this got a wash, followed by the addition of the machine guns on top:

 

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Then the dull coat went on:

 

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I found it quite interesting that the Testor's Dullcote frosted the wheels on this. First time that ever happened to me. The little piece of sprue is holding that turret machine gun up while it dries. I may even dig through my decal stash to add some decals to this, even though it went without markings.

 

When the Cadillac Gage got the gloss coat, we also shot a gloss coat on the SAS Bushmaster, thinking that decals were provided for this as well. There were some but the instructions stated that this didn't really need them. We checked out where they would go and found that they go on rather difficult areas to apply them to so I decided to leave all off but one. More on that later. First, here's the Bushmaster after a brown wash over the gloss coat:

 

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I had not cemented the upper hull to the lower one on this because I still needed the interior painted. We pulled off the top and painted the interior; basic as it is. We had also installed the wheels and tires:

 

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Some of that interior might be seen through the rather large windows so I felt that was needed. Following that, We shot a dull coat on this; removed the masks and assembled the machine gun assembly on top. A few last detail parts were installed too. Here it is with the machine gun assembly dry fit to the top:

 

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Oh and that one decal I used, you'll see it in the finished post.

 

 

Now that concludes our latest tour of Maddog Manufacturing. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you all for stopping in, comments are always welcome.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's been a productive week with three Hobby Days happening, so I now have more to show in our next tour. Al aboard the trams for this next trip through Maddog Manufacturing.

 

Starting in the hanger, we have managed to re-start an aircraft we had started before, but lost a lot of the parts and decals and such due to a broken box. I got this second Grumman Duck and built up the cockpit and interior:

 

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Later on it got painted and mounted inside the fuselage:

 

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I tried to do a bit on the instrument panel, even though it most likely won't be seen:

 

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She closed up very nicely:

 

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While that was drying, we painted up the engine with some flat black and a drybrush of steel; followed by an intermediate blue for the center:

 

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Later we added the engine to the cowl, installing the exhaust pipes and propeller as well:

 

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That's where that one stands for now. The next one is another helicopter we started for the campaign. Naturally, the cockpit was done first. I immediately had the cockpit added to the one fuselage side:

 

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It got painted up later:

 

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While that was drying, we masked off the canopy to prepare for painting:

 

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The fuselage then got closed up, after adding some photo-etch screens inside:

 

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We then added the tail, horizontal stabilizers, wings and exhaust. The canopy is only dry-fitted:

 

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That beastie is practically ready for paint now. 

 

 

That was a short tour of the Hanger, and the Shipyards will be just as short for now. We did lay the keel for another ship: the USS Enterprise in 1/600 scale from Academy. Interestingly enough, the first thing we needed to do was to install the bow to the main hull. That left quite the seam between the two part, which got the first application of filler:

 

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Once that was sanded, We installed the hnager bay doors and started on installing some of the forward sponsons. That's when I noticed that the seam was still a shallow depression and needed more filler. So we got it slathered with more Tamiya white putty:

 

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While that was drying, We started the construction of the island, getting it mostly done. We kept off the more detailed and easily broken parts so far:

 

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That is a pretty good start so far; I'm looking forward to getting that further along. 

 

One other thing we did was to clearcoat the RAF Rescue Launch with a gloss for decals. I didn't shoot pics for that, but should be able to have them later once I get the decals on. Hopefully they survive and look good. 

 

 

Moving on to the Motor Pool, there is quite a bit going on there., 

 

The troublesome HUMVEE has finally gotten to the weathering stage and final detail painting stage. There were no decal indicators on the instruction sheet so none went on. The wheels were difficult to install because the axles and linkages were so delicate that any adjustment broke them. I had some judicious reinforcement done that can't be seen and so now all four wheels touch down. We also got the machine gun turret assembled and dry- fit in place:

 

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Now, thanks to a good friend who finished a T-72 scale Shelf Queen...magnificently I might add, I got motivated to start the lineup of all my Russian tanks that were stacked up on my shelf. 

 

We started with the T-72 Rogatka that I'd been wanting for quite some time. First thing we did was to assemble all the roadwheels and sprockets. We kept them on the sprues to keep them from getting lost:

 

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We started on the suspension. All these Modelcollect tanks so far have separate axle parts which sometimes makes it difficult to line up all the roadwheels:

 

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While the suspension was drying, we assembled the turret:

 

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The upper hull was assembled next. This is four pieces all together:

 

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Later when the lower hull and suspension was dry enough, we tried test fitting the upper hull to the lower hull. It sat too high up due to a couple lengths of siding that connected the fenders to the hull. These needed to be cut out so that the upper hull would sit properly

 

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Note: I had to do this with all my Russian tanks....so far.

 

So, later we added all the roadwheels and sprockets:

 

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The turret then needed some photo etch added to it. These represent heavy rubber panels that are used to detonate RPG rounds before they get to the turret. I had to bend them a bit and then glued them on with Gator Grip glue:

 

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Here is a shot of all the major subassemblies dry fit together:

 

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Gonna be able to paint that shortly. 

 

The next models were all T-64 tanks of different variants. The first one is a T-64 Mod 1981 tank that we added the suspension to after assembling all the roadwheels and sprockets:

 

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The next one is a T-64 AV that also got the roadwheels and sprockets built and the suspension installed. You can see here I labeled the bottom both inside and out so I don't forget which goes to what. I later did the same with the rest of them:

 

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The last one is the T-64BM-2. Same as before:

 

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That's as far as I got on that one.

 

The next thing we did was to assemble the turrets. The Mod 1981 one was quite simple:

 

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Followed by the T-64AV turret. This was a bit more involved:

 

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Something started nagging me a bit about this kit, but I moved on. We went back and assembled the upper hull for the Mod 1981, all except the exhaust so far:

 

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That turret fit on the hull quite nicely. The roadwheels and sprockets went on next:

 

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We also got the wheels installed on the T-64AV, finished most of the upper hull, and then dry-fit everything together:

 

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After looking further ahead in the instructions, it finally hit me why this was nagging at me. I'd built this version before! I recognized that when I saw how the side skirt ERA was supposed to be attached. So, this T-64AV will be pre-side-skirt ERA. That also helps to avoid that horrendous five-fold  exercise on ten tiny photo-etch pieces!

 

And now, this is where I'm at with these three tanks. I want to get the rest assembled to this point, then I can look into final detail parts before paint:

 

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With that, we conclude this latest tour of Maddog Manufacturing. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you all for taking the tour once again. Comments are always welcome.

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Keep ‘em coming Mark! I’m really liking all the subjects in your latest batch. 

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I've been trying to keep busy, so there's more to show in this latest tour. Thank you for coming in, all aboard the trams and we'll get started....

 

Once again, the Hangar is the first stop. We got a bit of progress done on a number of aircraft. First, the Grumman Duck got it's wings on:

 

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I had also added the canopy first since trying to get that on with the upper wing in place might have been quite difficult:

 

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Next up, we got the canopy masked and installed on the AH-1Z:

 

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While that was drying, we also worked on two more AH-1's, this time two -G models. The late one from AZModel was first since it seemed to be the easiest to do. We started with the cockpit of course, gluing it straight into the one side of the fuselage:

 

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This got painted later:

 

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While that was drying we masked off the canopy for painting:

 

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Then the fuselage went together after the P/E parts were installed inside:

 

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The canopy, wings, tail, and other detail parts were then installed:

 

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While waiting for that to dry, we started on the AH-1G Early from Special Hobby. Of course, we got the cockpit assembled:

 

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The decals for the instrument panels looked great so we added them to the instrument panels:

 

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Then all the other parts: wings, tail, tail feathers, engine inlet covers, exhaust and a myriad of other things went on this after the fuselage was closed up:

 

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The last one we got working on was the Russian Ka-29 which had been giving me fits! The previous time we closed the fuselage and added some of the other parts; the interior rotor mount broke away and we needed to tear the whole thing apart and repair it before moving forward. Hey, it's a Russian helicopter right? While that was drying, we masked off the canopy clear parts:

 

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After that, we were able to re-close this up and add all the parts that had to be removed before. Then to feel like I made some progress on it, we added the clear parts as well:

 

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Finally, another Forum friend sent me the extra airfield accessories he didn't want, so we got these built to help with future projects:

 

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Finally that completes the tour of the Hangar, now on to the Shipyards.

 

The first thing we tried was to get the decals on the RAF Rescue Launch. The main problem there was that the decals were so old, they curled right up once loose from the backing paper. Here's one of the roundels showing what they all did:

 

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That one even tore while I was trying to remove it from the tweezers. The rest remained intact fortunately. How do you fix something like that? Well, I 'painted' on some of the latest iteration of Future and then we placed the decal on the patch of Future. Using a soft brush, we slowly unrolled the decal, pressing it flat on the Future. The Future was just sticky enough to hold it, and as it dried, I continued to brush the edges so they would stay down. Here is the results:

 

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That shot shows the roundel from above. The only decals I had any issues with were the deck decals. The checkerboard ones didn't fit so I cut slits to work around the posts on deck. I also cut parts on the number decal that were settled over raised detail. I then pressed down on the raised detail to try and get it to conform as best I could. I'm happy enough with these. They look far better than I expected for such ancient decals!

 

Here's a shot of the stern number:

 

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And a shot of the other side, with a better look at the deck markings:

 

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Okay, enough of that. I wanted to start a more simple model and actually do some construction so we laid the keel for the USS Indianapolis. Once that was done, we started on the main superstructure holding the bridge since that part could be assembled without having to fasten it down to the hull:

 

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Later while that was drying, we built up the hull and main decks. The bridge sub-assembly was dry fit on it to see how it fits:

 

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That is all from the Shipyards, now on to the Motor Pool...

 

 

Not too much was done here, but it seemed like a lot since it took awhile. First, the Australian Bushmaster was masked off with the Silly Putty so the first color could be sprayed on once the paint booth is fired up:

 

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Next we started on the upper hull of the T-62 with ERA armor on it:

 

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Quite simple, but the Rolls Royce was calling so we got started on that one, chassis being the beginning:

 

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Then of course, the main hull:

 

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Followed by the cargo(?) area in back:

 

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And finally the turret which was surprisingly difficult to get lined up properly:

 

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And we'll close this tour with the mock up of this attractive little armored car:

 

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Thank you all for stopping in and taking the tour. Comments are always welcome.

 

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Okay, now we are ready for the next tour of the plant. The trams have been cleaned and maintained and are now ready for boarding. This will be a bit of a short tour this time as the crew in the Shipyards took some time off.

 

 

All aboard! 

 

 

Here in the Hangar we got the first color shot on the top of the Zulu Cobra:

 

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It is a bit hard to see, but I assure you it is there. After that dried, we masked off the top color to prepare for the next color:

 

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The Marine Harrier also got the first color shot on the top:

 

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This one will have three colors on it, so when it dried we also masked off the top for the second grey:

 

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That was all that got done in the Hangar; yeah, it has been a slim week time wise. Here in the Motor Pool, we were able to get even more done, mostly because we were able to fire up the spray booth.

 

First was the Australian Bushmaster which got the second color:

 

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Once that dried, we got that one covered for the third color:

 

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That should be done with painting fairly soon...

 

We also shot some paint on the Swedish Assault Gun. However, due to the fact that there was no paint schematic included in the instructions; we had to freehand this and guess where the colors went based on the few views seen on the box. First came the green basecoat:

 

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Followed by the second color, brown:

 

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... and then the third color, black. I used a lightened black for this one:

 

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Once all that was dry, we glossed it for the decals:

 

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Only to find that the decals (and photo-etch gun muzzle among others) have gone on walkabout. When I track them down, this little thing will be finished!

 

Next we also shot some color on the Rolls Royce. This one was done in a British desert tan because I like the big roundel on the top of the turret on this scheme:

 

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After that, the three Russian tanks got their green basecoat:

 

The T-64 Mod 1981:

 

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The T-64AV:

 

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...and the T-72 Rogatka:

 

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And now that completes this short tour of Maddog Manufacturing. Thank you all for coming in, comments are welcome.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Once again it is time for another tour of the plant. This will be a long one, but quick as there is not going to be too much narration here. So without further ado, lets board the trams!

 

Starting in the Hangar again, we managed to get some paint down on my three Cobras. Before painting, we managed to put together the five-part canopy on the AH-1G Early:

 

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That was then masked off like the -Late Cobra so we could shoot paint on both at the same time:

 

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Then it was shot with a base coat of OD Green: 

 

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Since I shot that one, and the -Late was already masked and ready to go, it also got a base coat of OD Green:

 

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We might just clear coat these and add the decals right away before adding all the breakable parts on these. Meanwhile, the masking came off the AH-1 Zulu and on close inspection, we realized on the left side, the upper color did not come down far enough on the engine nacelle to match the right side. So the left side was re-masked and sprayed again, setting this issue right:

 

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That completes the Hangar part of the tour, time to visit the Motor Pool...

 

This again, will be quite fast. So much of the work is repetitive on multiple models but since all are different; I'm showing all the work.

 

To start, the Australian Bushmaster was given a coat of gloss, and then the decals were applied:

 

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Later it was dullcoated for mask removal, weathering and final detail parts:

 

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The next time this will be seen is when my Australian Army takes delivery of the finished vehicle. 

 

Now on to the next bunch.....

 

I'll start with this first one that I had purchased for my birthday. It is the Trumpeter T-62 with ERA. The upper hull was worked on first, getting all the stowage boxes and other parts installed:

 

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Next was the lower hull. This was easy as the whole outside wheels and tracks were alll one piece:

 

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Upper and lower hulls assembled:

 

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After that was the turret:

 

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Finally the whole thing was painted up:

 

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Moving on from there, we worked on the T-64 Mod 1981. Tracks were installed, then painted with a base coat of flat black:

 

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Everything put together and clearcoated for decals:

 

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The next T-64 is the AV version. Again, tracks installed and painted black:

 

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Then before we could put the hulls together, we had to add some photo-etch skirts to the upper hull fenders. These were attached with Gator;s Grip Glue as is all the photo-etch that we added to the rest of the models. Some photo-etch was also added to the engine deck and the turret on this one:

 

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Additional photo-etch was needed on the front of the upper hull:

 

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Then this version calls for hanging skirts of ERA to the side of the tank.....using photo-etch hooks. I'd done this once before and swore "never again!". But here I am, doing it again:

 

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You can see in the upper right of the diagram how these little tiny bits needed to be folded. At least two broke from unavoidable excessive folding. After that ordeal, I wanted to see that this was all worth it so here is the glamour shot before those skirts go on:

 

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Moving on, we worked some more on the T-64 BM-2, starting again with the tracks:

 

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Upper hull was worked on as well with side skirts added and then fastened down to the lower hull:

 

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Turret was then started. Yes it is going to get the same type of flaps that are on the T-72:

 

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The glamour shot of this one as well:

 

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Speaking of the T-72, this one also got the tracks installed and painted:

 

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Basecoat painted, and then the flaps because I wanted to see them black. Fuel tanks also added to the back:

 

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Clearcoated for decals:

 

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Finally the last (so far) of these Russian tanks, the T-80BV. This tank was the load for my MAZ 534 tank transporter that I set aside to build 'someday'. Someday came and the turret; as with all Modelcollect Russian tank kits, was started first:

 

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This turret was a difficult build in that the instructions did not say how to install everything on the very back of this turret. I had to refer to pics for that, trying to match what I saw with the parts available.

 

Next the upper and lower hulls were fastened together and the suspension was installed:

 

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Dry fitting the turret showed an excellent fit with nothing snagging the hull:

 

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Final glamour shot after the fenders and several other detail parts were added:

 

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This was the total work I did on these tanks during Hobby Day:

 

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Once I got home, I was able to paint, clearcoat and decal these and one other. Here they all are after their decals went on:

 

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Front left to right: T-62, T-64 Mod 1981, T-64BM2, 

Back let to right: T-72 Rogatka, T-80BV

 

And that completes this latest tour of Maddog Manufacturing. Time to work on something different now, at least afor a couple days. Then I can come back and finish these Russian Tanks.

 

 

Thanks for taking the tour, comments are welcome.

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Well, here it is almost a week later and we have a lot to show in this latest tour. The trams are coming around now, so when they are ready, feel free to climb aboard for another Maddog Manufacturing tour.

We did get back to the Russian tanks as mentioned above, but more on that later. Our tour starts in the Hangar.

There's not much progress at all to show here. We had intended to apply decals to all the Cobras, but two of the decal sheets needed liquid decal film so they were coated and set aside to dry. Then we got ready to do the decals for the Zulu Cobra; but then I saw the photo etch fret inside with all the screens for this model. So, we added all the screens to this and set it aside to dry. It'll need paint again:

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Moving on to the Shipyards, we've got a good bit more to show. While some work was done on the Enterprise, not enough was done to show any measurable progress. On the next slip over, the Indianapolis got all her superstructure built up:

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Since we've been working on all these ships; I figured it was time to return to the USS Sacramento which had been languishing for months a couple slips over. After checking it out, we went to work adding on all these greeblies onto the upper deck of the superstructure. This was quite the challenge as the instructions were as clear as mud as to where they went. Hopefully, they are all in the proper places:

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That's only half of them too. We still have a good bit to go. Here is a shot of the superstructure dry fit to the hull:

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I'm still trying to figure out when to paint this before finishing all the rest of the detail parts. I think that's why she was left alone for so long.

Finally, we dropped the keep on another ship; this time one I'd never built before. This is the hull and decks of the Italian battleship Vittorio Venetto:

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I've always loved Italian battleships; the Italians sure built them pretty back in WWII. It's about time I added one to the navy. I also have the Roma somewhere that I need to find and build along with the Venetto.

 

Moving on now to the Motor Pool, there's considerably more to see as was mentioned at the beginning of this tour. I was so close to finishing so many models that we marathoned these to see how far we could get. First off, I found the decals and photo etch for the Swedish M-34 Assault gun so we went to work on that straight away. The most important part was the gun muzzle. We first annealed the photo etch before removing the muzzle part to roll. Here it is partially rolled on the instruction sheet showing what needs to be done:

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Yes, it's tiny; probably only 2mm long if that. I started with cementing the partially rolled muzzle brake onto the end of the gun:

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Later we finished rolling it and cemented the remainder of the part down:

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It may look like there's a gap at the bottom but that was a a part that folded under that I needed to unfold. You can also see in the pic that the decals had been applied.

Next, I had to fix one of the broken arms of the Australian Bushmaster since; like the SAS one, it broke off and disappeared. So, a bit of stretched sprue bent just so and Bob's your uncle:

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As that was drying, we took a shot at painting the spare tire cover with a representation of the hex-patterned camouflage. Why Dragon didn't include that I'll never know since they did include a dusty windshield decal for the SAS one. It ain't perfect, but close enough from three feet away:

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Moving on from there we have a lot to show of the progress made on all my Russian tanks and truck.

Let's start with the truck...

This is the CLUB M coastal defense missile system truck that I've had sitting for a bit. Here you can see the decals have been applied (very hard to see but they are there) and the wheels have been added:

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They were tough; the wheels would not stay lined up and the rubber part kept slipping off the hubs. What a pain!

Next up are all the tanks, starting with the most difficult one: the T-64AV. First we added all the photo-etch plate to the forward deck and the screens to the engine deck:

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Here's where we checked it to see that nothing interfered with the turret turning. It's good:

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Next was the part I'd said "never again", but here I am: adding the side skirts to this thing by attaching it to the P/E brackets, just like on my T-64 BV I'd built some years before. Yes, I checked it to be sure I wasn't building two of the same tank. I don't know what the differences are but the instructions say this is an -AV while the one I built before was a -BV. I'd compare the two, but the T-64 BV is still packed in the tub.

Anyway, enough idle chatter, the first thing that was needed was something to hold the skirt at the proper height.  After checking a bunch of clamps, clips, props and all I finally hit on the idea of using the Silly Putty. We pulled a good amount off, rolled it a bit and then added the skirt. We then placed the tank next to it, adjusted the brackets as best we could without breaking them (one did break but was fixed) and then we added the glue:

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Once it was dry, we repeated the process on the other side:

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This was shot after the first skirt was dry to see how successful we were. It shows that the process worked:

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I had enough of that so we moved on...

The next tough one was the T-80 which, because it was part of the tank transporter set, did not have the photo etch that it was supposed to have. Maybe I put it away after finishing the truck half of the kit; that seems to be the most logical result. Anyway, to save time, I pulled out some sheet styrene and cut the flat pieces out that would replace the missing photo etch:

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It's kind of hard to see in that pic, but I replaced the shelf holding the ammo can and the plate and bracket for the small light next to the machine gun. Here they are in place:

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And the glamour shot of the whole thing put together:

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The T-72 Rogatka had some photo etch and the fuel drums added:

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Later it was painted and cleared for decals:

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The T-64 Mod 1981 was cleared for decals:

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The decals were applied and the machine gun gun accessories were added:

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The T-64 BM-2 had decals added and the photo etch added to the turret as well as the hull:

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Well, that was a lot. We worked on these assembling them in an assembly line manner to try and bring them over the finish line at about the same time.


That concludes our tour of the latest work achieved at Maddog Manufacturing. Thank you all for taking the tour and always remember comment are welcome.

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