Maddog Manufacturing Open for 2024

[Mark Deliduka]

It's been awhile and real life has gotten in the way a bit, but now I have a chance to re-open Maddog Manufacturing to show our 2024 production. There's quiet a bit to show doe this tour, so it might have to be broken up into two posts. The trams have been maintained and updated and so they are ready for the next tour. All aboard whenever you're ready!

 

 

Our first stop as always is the Hangar. There's a lot of wonderful activity happening here. In this first bay, we still have the Russian Schtormovic waiting for the propeller replacement as well as a few other parts that need to be found:

 

 

In the next bay, we have the German Me-110 all painted with a base coat, waiting for more camouflage:

 

 

Next we have a Nigerian Mi-24 Hind that needs some modifications to fit the new canopy we got. Then additional parts can be added to finish this off:

 

 

Speaking of helicopters, we have this Russian Ka-26 Helix waiting for the rest of the camouflage before more work can be done on it:

 

 

Now we start getting into the bigger planes. In this bay we have the British Airways Concorde SST that needs more filling and sanding work before any further work can be done:

 

 

Next is a new project started this year. It;s a US Air Force B-66 Destroyer aircraft that got the cockpit assembled first:

 

 

Later the wings and engines were assembled. These went together far better than expected for such an old kit:

 

 

In this next bay we have the Russian Tu-142 Bear H bomber that has been built up to this point:

 

 

Bot sure what else needs doing before we assemble it, but we'll be revisiting this bay sometime soon. Further down we have one of two Tu-16 Badgers under construction. They have both been built to this stage, but I'm only showing the one for now since the pics are the same:

 

 

Finally in this last bay we have a simple model of the Russian As-15 Kent cruise missile. There are two in the box, one in flight and one on the transport trailer. They are both ready for paint:

 

 

That concludes the tour of the Hangar for now, lets head out to the Shipyards to see what's under construction there.

 

 

 

 

Here in the Shipyards there's a good bit of activity. First, let's head to the small slipways where a couple of my motor torpedo boats are under construction. 

 

First up is this Japanese PT-15 torpedo boat that has been halfway assembled. Painting will be easy as it's all one color once all the greeblies go on:

 

 

In the next slipway is the British Vospers Perkasa boat that is a little further along. We just have to start adding some of the detail parts:

 

 

 

Now we can move onto the bigger drydocks where some new carriers and a steamboat are under construction. This first drydock has the German Aircraft Carrier Peter Strasser which is mostly complete and ready for deck paint:

 

 

The next drydock has the USS Shangri-La which finally got the hull completed. The deck is just dry fit on this right now:

 

 

In the next drydock over is the USS Enterprise 1980's fit that needs the deck painted with the lines:

 

 

In this final drydock, the Robert E Lee is slowly taking shape. This first pic shows it mostly mocked up to this point to give an idea of what will be done next:

 

 

What is actually happening here is this.... the side pieces with the lettering were quite warped so part of them was glued into place with spacers to make sure they glued into the proper and correct position:

 

 

Then once they were dry in front, the back ends were glued and clamped into place:

 

 

Additional work will slowly commence. It;s like every part is warped out of true so they all have to be warmed and re-positioned not the proper shape, or slowly glued down on one end and slowly worked into place with glue and clamps.

 

 

That concludes the Shipyards part of this tour, next is our catch all workshop that currently has two cars under construction. 

 

This first one is the 1929 Coca Cola delivery van built up to this point. The red coat has been giving me a lot of difficulty laying down smooth:

 

 

This second car is the Packard roadster that has been fighting me for quite some time. Hopefully it gets finished this year:

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we are through all these sections of Maddog Manufacturing, we will continue the tour of the Motor Pool in the next post.

[Mark Deliduka]

And the tour now continues in the Motor Pool here. 

 

There's loads to see as we have started a number of new projects while trying to get some shelf queens off the shelf of doom. 

 

Let's start in this first bay...

 

Here's something we started near the beginning of the year last year and I figure now it's time to get it going again. This is a simple horse drawn supply train from Caesar Miniatures:

 

 

Another shelf queen of sorts, this is the German SdKfz 9 with a crane that is slowly moving forward:

 

 

One more shelf queen, this is a Russian Aerosan that we've been trying to build for a game. This will take some finessing but will get done soon:

 

 

One of the last shelf queens; this Russian SCUD C has been giving me fits. You can see why in this shot, the launcher arm was glued on too high:

 

 

After some careful work, the launcher assembly was repositioned into the proper place:

 

 

In these next two bays are two models waiting for additional replacement parts. First is the South African Eland 90:

 

 

The other is this French AMX 61 self propelled gun, waiting for replacement gun mount parts:

 

 

We might be able to move forward on that in a bit while we wait for parts.

 

Moving on, here are a number of New models started this year. First in his next bay are a series of Swedish light tanks, starting with the Strv M38. Lower hull was built first:

 

 

Then the rest of the main assemblies were completed. Here it is all mocked up:

 

 

Next to it is this mocked up Strv M39:

 

 

Then we have the Strv M40K:

 

 

And finally, this Strv M41L:

 

 

All of them are in this bay, ready to move forward:

 

 

In this next bay, we have a new project, the first of my Christmas presents to come in. This is the Dragon Stryker Engineering vehicle. The hull was built first and here it is shown with the dozer blade parts next to it:

 

 

We then built the dozer blade assembly:

 

 

Additional detail parts were then added to the main hull:

 

 

Here it is with the dozer blade positioned in place for a dry fit:

 

 

Finally in this last bay we have a fast and easy model in production. This is the Dragon M103A2 that I've been wanting for awhile. After twenty minutes, the main hull was almost complete, except for easily broken parts:

 

 

Later the turret was assembled, except for a number of easily broken parts. This little tank is now ready for paint:

 

 

And that completes the remaining part of this first tour for 2024. Thank you all for coming in and enjoying the tour, comments are always welcome.

 

[Ron Bell]

Which Robert E Lee kit is that, Revell or Lindberg? I've heard the Revell one is "better", but the Lindberg one is more readily available. I just got on eo f the Lindberg kits and it looks pretty good, although there is a lot of work involved in just getting it together. There is a wood veneer deck available for it, but it costs over $70, so I'll just practice my wood graining skills. 

[Mark Deliduka]

Ron, thank you for responding. This Robert E Lee kit I'm doing is the original Pyro kit that I picked up somewhere for a song. Lindbergh might have picked these old molds up, which it sounds like they did because of your comment about all the work getting it together. I am also passing on the wood deck; I am simply making this a BKB because I'll be feeling lucky if I get this thing together without it looking horribly built. As it is, it won't qualify for BKB because of a modification I will have to do because of the mistake I made earlier when gluing the main engine room cabin to the deck. You'll see that in future updates.

I might have the Revell boat somewhere in the stash as well; I started this one because it was readily at hand.

[Jmarc]

NNNNNNNNNNeat lots of interesting stuff , my favorite on this advance is the X-55 and the HORSE DRAW CONVOY !.. I'l be looking forward to follow them in your next MMMMMMMMADOG season 2024 amazing work !... Go,go,gooooo 

[VonL]

I'm not worthy! A bunch of cool subjects in-work here. You may finish more models in one year than I have in my whole life.

Viva 1/72 - !!!

[Mark Deliduka]

Jean-Marc, thank you! The X-55 is almost done, just need paint. There were supposed to be stencil decals in the kit, but they were not in there so I'm not sure what I'll do beyond the painting at this point.

Thank you Bob! I may finish more, but your work surpasses mine in quality! and I agree: Viva 1/72 - !!!

[Jmarc]

16 hours ago, Mark Deliduka said:

Jean-Marc, thank you! The X-55 is almost done, just need paint. There were supposed to be stencil decals in the kit, but they were not in there so I'm not sure what I'll do beyond the painting at this point.

Thank you Bob! I may finish more, but your work surpasses mine in quality! and I agree: Viva 1/72 - !!!

CCCCCCCCCCool, I'm sure you have ton of decals you can use from your spare box with all the stuff you have done I'm not worry ..Go,go,goooo !

[Mark Deliduka]

Well, despite having a lot of time to work on my hobby thanks to Hobby Days; I have had no real time to start a new tour. Because of that, this will be another two part post so all my projects can be viewed. 

 

So, all aboard the trams everyone, it's time to start our tour!

 

 

 

As always, we start in the Hangar. We only worked on one aircraft this past week. It's the old Italeri kit of the 1/72 scale B-66 Destroyer. The cockpit had been built already so it finally got painted. Yes, it might look a bit sloppy, but it won't be seen once this gets closed up inside the fuselage:

 

 

 

Later that is what we did, we closed this up, cemented it and allowed it to dry:

 

 

It was so surprising how well this fuselage.wings and tail fit together! As you can see here, half the cockpit can't even be seen:

 

 

The canopy was added and masked off for paint next:

 

 

...which came later. We hit this with a black primer to see what issues we had:

 

 

We found a considerable number of small issues, (all of which I brought on myself!) so some filler, sanding and more filler and sanding happened:

 

 

We had started out with Tamiya putty, then moved to Mr. Surfacer 500.  Later we shot a gloss black coat on this to see if everything got fixed. It didn't so another round of sanding and filling will be happening.... not that you can see here:

 

 

Finally, the little AS-15 Kent had it's trailer painted up. Not too much longer before that one gets done:

 

 

 

 

 

That completes the tour of the Hangar for now, our tour continues in the Shipyards....

 

Here in the Shipyards, we tried to mask off the main deck of the 1/600 scale USS Enterprise. It started out pretty good:

 

 

However, we found out that the flexible Tamiya tape doesn't play well with the cold and humidity we had that night. Expensive lesson to learn:

 

 

The regular Tamiya tape seemed to stick well, unless it was on the flexible stuff, so everything will be replaced with Tamiya tape later.

 

In the next slipway, we have the Tamiya British Vospers Perkasa. The main bridge was painted and detailed before being closed up inside the cabin:

 

 

Meanwhile, the barrel broke on the 40mm Bofors so we had to fabricate a new one and replace the broken one. I can hear the comments now, but this was the best way to make sure it glued straight:

 

 

The crew at least showed up to prepare for training:

 

 

We started adding some of the detail parts to the main deck; the Bofors is only dry fit right now, that is why it's cocked. There isn't much to see here:

 

 

More parts went on....

 

 

....and still more. The torpedoes are only dry fit to see how well they place, we still need to touch them up. The hand rail stanchions are installed, they just need to be rigged:

 

 

That is as far as we got on that one, so we move on to the next slipway where the Robert E Lee has been fighting me. In this shot, you can see the incredible warp of the rear railings that required us to glue, clamp; wait for it to dry. Then move a little further, glue and clamp, etc. You get the idea:

 

 

Later the rear deck got added. Because of a mistake made earlier, I had to compensate for it by shaving a section of one side of this so that the paddle wheel housing would fit where it's supposed to... or close enough:

 

 

Once that was dry enough, we added the upper cabin walls to the deck. These too needed to be finessed into place. The curved section next to the housing needed to be shaped to fit:

 

 

Later we added the front portion of that deck after prepping the upper parts of the cabins and pylons below. This also needed to be shaved on the one side so it would sit straight and not have a huge gap. You can see here how much persuasion it needed to hold in place:

 

 

When the tape came off, it looked pretty good:

 

 

While all that had been drying, we went to work on the Grand Staircase:

 

 

Again it took some serious finagling to get that staircase installed. We had to fix the railings three times before everything stayed in place as it supposed to do:

 

 

Here's the look over all so far. It's starting to look like a riverboat:

 

 

Later the forward cabin went on the deck. This was slightly easier to build, but we still had some issues with some gaps, too-long pieces, and other issues. After dealing with them and getting everything cemented down, I'm happy with the results:

 

 

Just for fun, we test fit the upper deck on top of all this. It's going to be a bit easier than the previous two decks:

 

 

That concludes this tour of the Shipyards for now; as we head on over to the Motor Pool, you can see some damaged buildings and sandbag emplacements we are working on for another project:

 

 

I found a whole mess of Matchbox bases that they used to include in all their armor models, some were even duplicates. My idea is to find a way to arrange them all on a board in some manner, add these ruin pieces, fill in the area between them with putty or something and create some kind of scene/base. It'll be interesting.....

 

 

 

The Motor Pool tour will continue in the next post due to the large quantity of pics for that tour.......

[Mark Deliduka]

And now for our tour of the Motor Pool. There's a lot going on here that also includes a couple of started models as well. So without further ado, let's visit this first bay here.

 

 

In this first bay we have the M103A2 Marine tank getting it's base coat:

 

 

After that dried, we added the decals and some detail painting. This one is very close to being done:

 

 

Speaking of almost done, in the next bay we have this Russian SCUD C that has been a bit of a challenge all this time. It finally got the correct launcher arms on it:

 

 

Then all of the new parts were painted up:

 

 

Later on we weathered the wheels and tires; put them together and installed them on this model. Some additional weathering was applied to the vehicle as well:

 

 

On this model, they had no call outs for decals, even though there was a full sheet of them included. Well, I had to add something, so this beastie now sports a Guards emblem on the doors:

 

 

Final weathering was added and the missile was sent out to be painted:

 

 

Yeah, that beastie is almost done too.

 

Moving on, in this next bay is the Stryker engineering vehicle. It's got it's basecoat of green, now we just need to find the decals so we can finish this one too:

 

 

In this next bay is a model we previously started, it's one of two GAZ AAA trucks that has been slowly worked on between other projects. Here we have the cab half built and the bed installed:

 

 

Only a few additional parts were added to this:

 

 

In the interest of working on something fast and easy, we pulled out this M109A7 from Foreart and got started on it. Hull was done first:

 

 

While that was drying, we completed the basic upper turret assembly by adding many of the detail parts to it. We had been having difficulty with the gun mount so that is why we went this route:

 

 

The hull was indeed fast and easy, we got wheels and tracks, detail parts and everything else installed that wouldn't break with handling:

 

 

Finally we got the gun mount sorted and were able to finish the turret almost completely:

 

 

Yes, that turned metal barrel and 3-D printed muzzle brake came in the kit, not aftermarket. It's coming togfether nicely:

 

 

Next we assembled the turret baskets and then added all the photo etch to this vehicle:

 

 

Moving on to the next bay, we have this long-term shelf queen. It's the Modelcollect 1/72 scale BMP-3 with full cage armor! It has to have been close to nine years since I picked this up again. First thing that we needed to do was to try and assemble the turret cage armor. This was the result of trying to get the main parts at least completed:

 

 

Here's our first attempt to mount it on the turret. I figured it would be easier putting the straight lengths of the rear cage on after the main parts had dried:

 

 

It got done, but still looks like crap! Even then something was off on it:

 

 

Our attempt to fix it resulted in the loss of a strut:

 

 

While that was drying, we went ahead and installed the tracks on the wheels and sprockets. These tracks will be covered in deep skirts so we only did the lower runs of track:

 

 

In testing this in the hull, we found numerous protrusions on the bottom of the cage armor that kept snagging on hull parts... and I hadn't even put in all the hatches and such:

 

 

Eventually, we attached all the hatches and other additional detail parts to the main hull. Some filing had been done on the bar armor, but it only helped a little:

 

 

I originally had hoped to paint this with the three tone camouflage, but that ain't gonna happen. Now that the turret is mostly completed, it got a coat of the base color that I'll be painting it:

 

 

After all that, we wanted to get back to a simple build, so out came this Academy 1/72 scale French Le Clerc tank. Upper and lower hull got assembled first:

 

 

Then the wheels and sprockets were added, later the tracks went on:

 

 

Finally, the turret was completed, the tracks added and the side skirts installed:

 

 

And that quickly, this was ready for paint:

 

 

Finally, in this last bay, I decided that the last Roden bus I needed to build should be done. Out it came and the main body and chassis were assembled:

 

 

We then added the interior and painted it:

 

 

The underside got the suspension installed afterward:

 

 

While that was drying, the pigeon loft was mostly built:

 

 

It made for a pretty good fit. This is only dry fit too, I want to keep it separate until everything was done before it gets cemented in place permanently:

 

 

After that,the lower part got painted, the wheels and fenders got installed and the main window covers went on:

 

 

Once that was sufficiently dry, the remaining headlights, steering wheel, and other detail parts were added:

 

 

The top pigeon loft was also painted and for fun, here it is dry fit again on the bus:

 

 

While that was drying, we went to work detailing the pigeon loft. Pigeons like to nest in straw, so we added some to the pigeon loft interior:

 

 

We used this rough twine cut into 1/8th to 1/16th inch lengths:

 

 

Then we slathered the floor with Gator Grip glue and poured the straw inside, pressed it down and then shook the loose straw out:

 

Now that the straw was in place, we started adding the screen material on all the sections we could before closing it up:

 

 

Once again the loft was dry fit in place, and the pigeons came home to roost:

 

 

I expect that in a day or so, we might have this bus finished!

 

 

And that concludes this latest tour of Maddog Manufacturing! I do hope you enjoyed the latest progress we've made here. As always, comments are welcome, thanks to all who came in to take this tour!

[Stikpusher]

Quite the assembly line going on here right now Mark! Very nice work using the twine as straw for the pigeons' roost!

[VonL]

You are still the Hero Modeler of the Soviet Union. Some epic stuff here. Love the pigeon truck. Good call, painting the CVN-65 deck stripes. And the pic of the Tu-142 looks just like one of those overhead, treaty-verification pix, c.1990s. 

 

Rage on, bra'!

Edited February 15 by VonL

[Jmarc]

WWWWWWWWWWhat a treat !..Juts love it ..and going back to it ..Keep them coming I never get tired to look at your work !..GO,GO,GOOOOOOOO

[Mark Deliduka]

Thank you Carlos! That bare interior just screamed for detail and; having had chickens in the past, I remembered how almost all birds like that like to roost in straw. It just made sense....

 

Thank you David! It seems that Soviet/Russian equipment is the most numerous potential models for my collection as everyone seems to be releasing it in my scale. That you again for stopping in.

 

Thank you Jean-Marc, Yes, they are still coming....

[Jmarc]

16 hours ago, Mark Deliduka said:

Thank you Carlos! That bare interior just screamed for detail and; having had chickens in the past, I remembered how almost all birds like that like to roost in straw. It just made sense....

 

Thank you David! It seems that Soviet/Russian equipment is the most numerous potential models for my collection as everyone seems to be releasing it in my scale. That you again for stopping in.

 

Thank you Jean-Marc, Yes, they are still coming....

CCCCCCCCCCOOL !..Now my turn !..lol

[Mark Deliduka]

Yes it is and you will have posted three times what I did. I know; I was just there!

[Jmarc]

HI,HI,HI !.. I got to invest before you do ..

[Mark Deliduka]

Yes, and you always will my friend! I am still plugging along as best I can and will hopefully have more to post soon.

 

Thanks for looking in again!

[Jmarc]

AAAAAAAAAAAAH RIGHT ...Better get some more  DrPepper this time cause I drank them all while looking at your work !.. .GO,GO,GOOOOO..

 

Jmarc

[Mark Deliduka]

Now after all the effort to putting all my ground vehicles on parade for inspection, it's time to start a new tour. This one will mostly be in the Hangar and Shipyards as we've been focusing on projects in those departments. Now that we've reached that milestone, it's time to get some long time projects off the workbench and on to the shelf. So, without further ado, let's all board the trams and see what's happening at Maddog Manufacturing.

 

Starting in the Hangar, we have these projects going, most of which are quite large and been sitting idle for awhile. First, let's visit this first bay where we have a 1/72 scale MQ-9 Predator under construction:

 

Basic assembly of the body and wings happened first. They didn't say in the instruction sheet that weight was needed in the nose, so that was carefully added later:

 

 

Later the engine and landing gear were added, that's where the weight issue was discovered:

 

 

Weight was carefully added and then all the final detail parts were added, this bird is ready for paint:

 

 

Next it it, we also have another MQ-9 Predator. Two came in the kit with options for two other versions. I chose to build this for my RAF, and now this one is almost ready for paint as well:

 

 

Moving on to the next bay, we go back in time with this Airfix 1/72 scale Dogfight Doubles set. It was a gift for me from a friend and avid WWI aficionado. The first plane from it is this British Se-2C scout plane that went together fast:

 

 

Later the engine was assembled and installed in place:

 

 

The beauty of this kit is that Airfix included these strut alignment jigs so the struts line up perfectly so we thought we'd try them out:

 

 

The jigs worked, simplifying the top wing mounting:

 

 

Later we got all the painting done on this. 

 

 

While that was drying, we started on the other half of the Dogfight Double set, the German Eindecker E.II. Basic fuselage assembly was fast:

 

 

The rest of the plane fell together perfectly so we starting painting it as well:

 

 

 

And now both of them are ready for final decals and rigging.

 

Moving on to the next bay, we have a 1/72 scale Super Model Italian Macchi C-205 that was sitting in a very broken up box. It was time to get that one done. Basic fuselage and wing assembly was quick as there weren't too many parts. What parts there were certainly had some pretty serious fit issues. The propeller is in a cowl that glues into the opening of the nose so the propeller will continue to turn. It'll be one of the last things I glue into place:

 

 

As you can see a lot of filling was needed for the gaps around the wing roots, under the plane and around select panels. You can also see how confident the pilot was in the abilities of his plane; he bailed out before it is done. Again, propeller assembly is dry fit into place:

 

 

Some judicious sanding and shaping and this is starting to look much better. The pilot is still MIA so we closed up the canopy and started preparing this for paint:

 

 

In the next bay, we finally got the fuselage halves together for the British Westland Sea King. It went together pretty well with only a little bit of persuasion:

 

 

There were some seam issues that got addressed and then the main landing gear sponsons got installed along with portions of the glass:

 

 

Now on to some of the Big Stuff. The B-66 Destroyer had been sanded smooth after the second coat of primer wrinkled up. Now a third coat was shot on it. Overall it looked fine, but there are a few small blemishes that will need attention again before a metal coat goes on this:

 

 

In the next bay is the Egyptian Tu-16 Badger, one of two we're building, here is a reminder:

 

 

The cockpits were painted, the cockpit modules were assembled and the engines were mounted on the fuselage halves of the Egyptian plane. You can see both cockpit modules here too:

 

 

We got one set of glass cockpit and nose masked and ready for paint:

 

 

To make things easier, we installed those parts to one of the cockpit modules; the fit is amazing:

 

 

Now we'll try to catch up on the Iraqi Badger so this is where this stands. Meanwhile in the next bay we installed the inside engine and landing gear nacelle to each wing of the Tu-142 Bear:

 

 

I decided we should dry fit this together to see what we're dealing with. Remember this is sitting on a standard TV tray:

 

 

Finally in this last bay, we have the British Airways Concorde, here it is with the cockpit module dry fit to the rest of it. This is alkso sitting on the same TV Tray:

 

 

Work was done on the flaps for this, all these ejector pin marks needed filling which we started after adding the actuator casing to them:

 

 

The tail feathers were attached after that:

 

 

Here's another shot showing how big this is again:

 

 

Later we got half of it inside the spray booth for another couple coats of white primer:

 

 

Yep, more paint will be needed for that.

 

That concludes the Hangar portion of this tour, now on to the Shipyards....

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the Shipyards, things have been slowly picking up. We even started this project here in this first slipway. This is the Revell 1/106 scale tugboat that I'd been gifted so it was time to lay the keel. Mind you the instructions are missing so everything done in this slipway is done sans instructions. Here's where this boat was after the the first few steps:

 

 

Yep, badly warped main railings. Glue was applied on the rear portions and then after it dried, we glued the remaining parts in with a bit of persuasion. That allowed us to get this far:

 

 

While that was all drying, we started on the main superstructure, again all sans instructions. It went together quite well:

 

 

A test fit shows how well this is gonna look:

 

 

That was about an hour's work. More projects were taking a lot longer. One of them that didn't was the main deck of the USS Enterprise; white paint was finally shot after the last of the masking was added:

 

 

Later we'll paint the yellow portions and then see how much cleanup I'll need to do before moving on. 

 

Finally in this last slipway, the Robert E. Lee was slowly being built up. The outer railings were added to the two lower decks; Pyro did it right making them one piece that spans both decks. Even so, due to issues from earlier deck and bulkhead misalignment and some slight warpage these still took a lot persuasion:

 

 

Some of those issues, I am not sure how I'll address them.

 

Still, more progress was made building up the Texas skylights, Texas deck house, pilot house and other minor details. We had also re-sanded and re-shot the main stacks so I decided to dry fit them here for this picture. The Lee is starting to look like a steamboat:

 

 

Finally, as we drive by the Motor Pool on the way back to the main lobby, you can catch a glimpse of one of the newer projects to expand the land forces again; we started an Egyptian Su-100 for my Egyptian Army:

 

 

Work will commence on that and others after the crew gets a good rest from vehicles. 

 

 

Thank you again for coming on this latest tour; comments are always welcome!

[Jmarc]

AAAAAAAAAAAHH RIGHT !

   Very inspiring visit to the hangar, lots of neat and large stuff you are working on ,RB-66 is almost true Neat .. and wow , what to say about the ROBERT E. LEE will soon be braking champagne  Great advance and looking forward for your next one ..GO,GO,GOOOOO    

[Mark Deliduka]

Thank you Jean-Marc!

[Jmarc]

AAAAAAAAAAAAny time !

[Mark Deliduka]

Well, it's been nearly a month since the last tour, so we are due. As there has been quite a bit of progress during that time, this will be another two-part tour due to the extensive amount of things to show.

So, all aboard the trams for the latest tour!

The Hangar is the first stop as always and here is where the majority of the progress has been. Starting in this first bay, we have some Russian ordinance. This was a short run kit that I got in the Distressed Kit Auction some time back. These finally got some paint on them and since the stand to the flying one went on walkabout, we modified one to hold it:

Not too shabby...

In the next bay is a project that got started because of all the white we were spraying on the Concorde. so, while I had the white out, we shot a white on the fuselage of this Canadian Otter to get a jump on it:

Now on to the next bay, we have another started project; something that had been crying out for me to start. This is the Eduard Profipak Israeli S-199. The cockpit sans instrument panel was started first:

After that the basic fuselage was assembled:

Then we completed the rest of the fuselage and slipped the cockpit sub-assembly inside to dry fit so we could see how it fit:

Looking pretty good so far. Next we worked more on the Italian Macchi C.205. The canopy went on after some more sanding had taken place:

The the canopy was masked; it was easier to do it while installed on the aircraft:

Next stop was the paint station, where this got the undercoat. Once it was dry, we masked it off for the upper coat:

The upper coat went on after that:

Followed later by the darker green splotches since we still had that color in the color cup after spraying the T-34:

Moving along, we got some more progress done on the two Reapers (that I mislabeled as "Predators") shooting a base coat of Light Ghost Grey over them both:

Once that was dry, a gloss coat was sprayed and we got the decals down on the British Reaper:

I'm waiting for word from my nephew to see if he knows a particular drone he's flown the most so I can model it.

Now for the larger stuff. In this bay we have another attempt at shooting a gloss coat on the Concorde:

I was not satisfied with the joint between the tail and the main fuselage. However, to facilitate things we did what I should have done long before: we built the stand that came in the kit:

Now this is much easier to maneuver without having to touch it and dirty up the white! It also made it easier to add the additional Mr. Surfacer to try and smooth out the troublesome joint again:

Moving on while that dried, we have in this next bay both of the T-16 Badgers under construction. Both cockpit modules had the clear parts masked off to prepare for paint:

The engines were added to the main fuselages of both planes and the main fuselage halves were cemented together. You can see one of them had already got the cockpit module attached:

Afterward, the other cockpit module was attached and the wings were installed on both planes:

Later their first color went on. I'm not exactly happy with this shade and I may re-shoot another one....or not:

Now for the next big model, we go to this next bay where the Tu-95H (also mislabeled as the "Tu-142) is being built. I wasn't happy with the way the inside nacelle on one wing was sitting; there were too many large gaps along the nacelle and wing. The only thing to do was to remove it and re-set it correctly so that that the gaps are gone:

Once re-set there was still a bit of putty needed at the top joint where the nacelle meets the wing:

Naturally doing all that caused the main landing gear to break, so this was fixed to dry along with everything else:

While that was drying we moved on to the front fuselage section where the canopy was installed:

This was then masked when it was dry:

After that, the rear fuselage and the front fuselage were joined together. Now you can get some idea of how big this thing is as it is sitting on a standard tray table:

Naturally you'll be able to see how incredibly messy my bench is, but hey, it can't be helped....

Moving on, we then installed the wings:

I had to pull the entire tray table out to fit that thing! Here's another view of this thing on the tray table:

Later on, this Big Bird got it's first color:

That will all be masked when it's time to put the main bare metal silver coat on. First, we still need to add some of the lighter greys on certain areas first.

Now this tour has been quite extensive already so we shall continue the tour in the Shipyards and the Motor Pool in the next post.

 

[Mark Deliduka]

And now to continue our tour of the Shipyards next.

In the first slipway here we have the Japanese PT-15 that finally got the base coat of grey on it:

In the next slipway, we continued work on the deck of the USS Enterprise. Some masking was pulled off, but the the yellow stripes were painted on the deck:

Later, the remaining elevator stripes were masked off, the yellow painted on it and then we added the red stripes on these same elevator stripes:

After some touchup, this deck is done:

Finally, in this last slipway, we worked on getting the railings on the Robert E. Lee looking more even and refined. Additional parts were added and the seams on the upper cabin and deck were filled as well:

 

That completes our tour so far of the Shipyards and so we move on to the Motor Pool.

Production has been picking up, starting with a small shelf queen project that I wanted on the display shelf. This is the Military Wheels 1/72 scale Russian Field Kitchen. We had started it some time ago, found the box again and decided it was time to get it finished. First off the kitchen and limber were completed:

Here's an idea of how small this is too:

The horses were in four parts. Seriously. Two body halves, the head and the tail. They seemed pretty desperate to add some kind of 'detail' to this model! It didn't help that the parts were all so badly molded that massive sanding, carving and other adjustments needed to be made:

Finally we got them painted:

Moving along to the next bay, the Syrian PzIV got a partial run of tracks from the spares box. More will go on this when additional track pieces are found:

Overall it's looking pretty good:

Next are two Distressed Kit Auction winnings. These were mostly assembled by someone else before they gave up and donated them to our club for our Auction. First is this Dragon StuG III ausf H that they had added photo etch zimmerit to:

This is going to be a Syrian StuG, and yes, there are pictures of several of these in Syrian service still sporting their Zimm. We started on the tracks for this for now:

Our last Syrian tank is this Trumpeter T-34/85 that they had given up on because one of the idler wheels disappeared. I conjured up a replacement pair and added them to this tank:

Next the tracks went on:

Someone else added those metal fenders, saving me the trouble....

And then this got basecoated with the dark green:
 

Then the decals went on. These are Braille Strike decals and went on well. I just forgot to trim them very close so some judicious cutting with a very sharp Exacto knife got them the right size. You can also see in my clumsiness, I messed up the red triangle on this side. Nothing a little paint can't fix:

 

Lastly, I've been talking about starting my P.1000 Ratte to make into a carrying case for my small scale vehicle contest entries. Well, one Hobby Day Monday I made good on that statement. No, it never existed, or was ever used. Yes, this is in 1/72 scale. No, I don't think I will count it as one of the collection....mostly because it is pure fantasy that never got built or used. But I am building it.

Here are all of the components and/or sub assemblies for the main track bogies. The drive sprockets are already finished:

We had to make 32 of these rocker arms... or was it 36?

This kit gives you springs so that the bogies articulate:

Here's a close up of the drive sprockets:

And finally, here is ONE bogie consisting of 44 parts in that one assembly.... I need to make eleven more:

While that was drying, we finished up the majority of the main hull and turret:

 

Now in this back lot, given how much lumber we use, we are building a new Lumber Mill:

This is also a tribute of sorts for my paternal grandfather who was not permitted to serve in WWII: he owned one of these and because it was a vital industry back then, the government made sure he stayed on and supplied them throughout the war.

And that completes this tour of Maddog Manufacturing for this time. Thank you all for looking in and as always, comments are welcome.