Gaia1984

Hi everybody! It has been long since the last update. With the summer I spend less time doing hobby things and more time outdoors but now that the rain has come to stay I have decided to give a last push to this project and bring the construction to an end and there has been quite some progress over the past couple of weeks! Let's start! First some general picturesof the entire structure set-up as it stands right now. Do not mind the wobbly looks of it and the wonky columns. All the parts are still not fixed together and I am in the process of ditching the original column (on the left here), which had as you may remember (see some of the previous posts) a core of cardboard. This became an issue when creating a mold of Blue Stuff for casting other coumns. The internal cardboard core became a bit loose and started to break up. My recommendation is that if you ever want to try something like this, use a stronger material for the core of the column. The one I am carving at the moment (on the right) has tick wood rod in the middle (detail picture further down below somewhere). First look at the inside of the roof! Exciting!! I decided originally to have this section closed somehow but I changed my mind mid way during the project for having it open. More detials about this below. You can also see that I have now covered with Milliput the inner frieze of the porch and the made up wall bricks. You can also see that most of the wall (cella) surfaces have now been engraved with the brick layout. I did manually using and engraver (from GreenStuff brand I think). Interior side of the temple and roof. I still need to add a few more vertical posts (the ones in the photos are not fixed), and I will also move the smaller vertical post a bit more to the left by cutting it shorter. I am also considering extend the left shorter wall higher up to cover the frieze piece. More engraving is still needed on the inner cella wall. Detail pictures of the roof space. The floor and ceiling boards are actually a mix of coffee stirers and balsa wood. The beams are a from a piece of pine wood I got at B&Q. Also I have just noticed that I need to cover the top section of the wall so that the card board structure does not show up. Corner column still to be added. I will cast one, once I finish the new colomn piece to use as a mold. Also details of the external roof with decorations. I need to add a bit more milliput at some places at the cornice. Detail of the underside of the cornice. I am thinking of adding shields on the frieze underneath the metopes,, which was a tradition in ancient Greece. Detail picture of the porth ceiling. Detail picture of the new coloumn I am making. This will take some time! Anyway, this is it for today. My aim is to have the whole project done and painted before Christmas. We'll see how it goes. I have started to see some documentation on polychromy in ancient Greek temples to see what colours to use. One particular doubt I still have is how I am going to paint the marble, striated/non-striated, white/cream/polychromic... I would also like to add more 1/72 civilian Greek figures, but I must say, there is not much in the market out there! As always I hope you like all this. If you have any question about any of this or comments, please feel free to write down below! All the best!

Hi everybody, I have been making progress slowly on several fronts on this Hasegawa kit. To be honest, one of the most dificult parts of this job is to actually get good reference images! There aren't many for the Mig-27, perhaps this is as it was not adopted by many countries.... Anyway on to the job at hand! I have glued now all the major parts of the fuselage and there were a few regions that required a significant amount of sanding and filling. This was most notable around the air intakes and where the cockpit section joins the fuselage. Here: The two pieces that form the intake needed a bit of filling and sanding to level them but not too much. Where the whole piece of the ait intake joins the main body of the plane that a different story.... there were significant gaps and missalignments and as you can see it is still a work in progress... I am using Revell Plasto and I am finding it difficult to work with, to be honest. Also where you can see the panel square with just two rows of rivets, that section required A LOT of sanding on the cockpit section... which was about 3-4 mm higher than the main body. I will need to rework some of the panels and the rivets. Also you can see a red piece that I added to the nose. This was done by carving a piece of plastic into shape of a probe that was completely missing in the original kit. Side view of the air intakes. This lateral section also needed quite a bit of filling and sanding... I will also start commenting on the gun. I have glued it to the main body and added a few details using styrene sheet (the latches for the metal holders/straps and for the side deflectors at the front of the gun), making tape for adding a few more circular holders for the gun barrels, and streched plastic sprues (see next picture, for several details on the back end). I have also just added today the bulb at the end of the gun, Hasegawa's one was just too small. I am waiting for it to dry (using Milliput white) and I will shape it further. Underview. I may add a few more details to the gun, but I feel quite good on how it looks at the moment. Next two photos are the main wheel bays. They are still a work in progress, I am going to add a bit more of cable work, pipes and details. I have also added some rivets to the background structure. Pylons... during the past few days I have been working on these, adding raised and low details to them. I still need to do the other sides but they are coming along nicely. Most of the details done with stretched sprues. More details added to R-13s (AA-2 Atoll). I may add more details to the fins... we will see... A bit out of focus but it gives you the idea. I am also making a few extra parts for the wheel bay doors and for hte landing gear that also missing in the original kit, these are tiny! I have also purchased these sets of decals for the for once I paint it. I have decided to go for the Kazakh Snow Leopards Mig-27Ds. The decals look very nice but some of these decals look a bit complicated as they are two parts going one of top of the other (see the leopard head and the blue and yellow emblem). I have never used a two part decal set, so we will see how it goes. If you have any advice it would be much welcomed! Soem technical stencils for more detail. So this is it for today, I hope you enjoy this update and will come back again soon with more progress! All the best!

Hi everybody, I can't believe that this project started in 2015! I recently opened the box of this unfinished project and decided to give another push and bring to an end. I think I specially owe to Davek72 who was so kind to provide me a spare part for the canopy. The kit was pretty much left as in my last post, during the past week I have been getting to it again and checking out what I still want to do. Luckily I still got stored many of the reference pictures I collected from the internet when I was doing the project back in 2015. So far I have been preparing the armament and now I am starting to detail the landing gear. The front landing gear shaft is pretty much done, I still need to add some cables once it is glued to the main frame. Picture of the armament, fuel tanks and mid section landing gear. You can see that I have scribber some parts of the armaments and rails based on reference pictures. The underwing fuel pod is a PTB-800 (it took a while to put all the names to these parts of the kit as Hasegawa does not provide any name in the instructions). One thing I did for the fuel pod was to add a couple of "winglets" at the tip as in reference pictures. For the rocket launcher (I think this is a UB-32) I added a a "pointy cone" at the center of the tip (you can a red tip in the photo) which was missing from the original piece and I also filled one of the rocket holes (12:00 o'clock position) with putty as this was a missrepresentation in the original piece (not shown in the picture). The missile is a K-13 // AA- Atoll, I scribed several bits of the missile, filled the ver marked ejection pin holes, added some bolts with a shark drill bit and also removed the tip of the missile and added the lens with a cut off piece of clear sprue. For the exhaust I tried to do something different. I used Tamiya masking tape to recreate the different inner parts of the exhaust nozzle. I am still not 100% on how it looks, I may be more convinced once I paint it but it will be nice to hear some thoughts of all of you and see if anybody has tried to something like this. The different parts was also done following reference pictures. Underneath the masking tape there are small plasticard squared rods so that the whole masking tape belt has a corrugated look. Here are some pictures of the nose landing gear. I am pretty happy with it. I have added several parts using plasticard and scratched built part from old sprues. The cabling was done using several lead wire and I also used masking tape here and there to create highlights in the shaft or in the cables. I am particularly proud of how the nose landing gear light come out (see third picture, it is picture with a cross made out of masking tape). I did the general form of the piece using a cut out piece of an old sprue and I started to add some details. As I said this piece is pretty much done I will need to add some cables once it is attached to the main frame. In the coming days I will be doing the read landing gear and detailing the LG bays. I think this will be the most time consuming bit as I want to add quite a few scratch built pieces and cablework. Anyway this is all for today, I hope you enjoy it. All the best!

Hi everybody, Here it is an update on the Artemis temple. First I have been focussing on creating the outer wall of the temple, which is the last part of the main structure of the diorama. Here is a view of the front part of the building (see pic below). The wall was done with two flat cardboard rectangles with internal perpendicular cardboard bulkheads to give the structure strength. You can actually see in the bottom left corner a section which did not have an internal bulkhead that got damaged when sanding. As you can see I have started to draw some of the brick rows and started to carve some of the individual bricks as well. In this next picture you can see the lateral section of the outer wall. I have started to add some cardboard boxes that will imitate the bricks of the wall, these should go all the way down to the floor and will be covered with Milliput when done. Different view with floor and the temple steps. There some space at the back of the diorama which will be inside the temple but I still need to think how to fill in that space. Half column in place, this is hollow and was created using a blue stuff mold of the original column I made . There will be a 3/4 column also in the corner of the wall, plus two standing columns at the front end of the porch. I run into problems with the original column I made, during the process of creating the blue stuff mold, the inner cardboard core of the original column broke up resulting in a twisted column. This means that I will have to remake the full column using a core of plastic/tin pipe to give it more strength. This is going be a significant delay as making the column it is not an easy undertaking. Detail picture of the half column. I have also started to cut some balsa wood pieces that will go to form in the inside of the roof. I was originally planning to have the inner space of the roof close but I think it will look pretty even if I add just some detail. This picture shows a couple of the balsa wood strips on what is going to be the floor of the attic space: Also I have been working of a couple of figure for the front pediment of the temple, which I am sclupting using white milliput. Here is a little deer (to keep the Artemis mythos appropriate) that will go in the pediment: I think this is all. I am planning to finish the main structure of the temple wall first and then once I can find a suitable platic pipe do all the columns. Last bit of work will be to finish the roof, attic and the scultures for the pediment. Then I will move on into paiting!!! Hope you like this, if there are any comments/questions please join the conversation! All the best, Alex

Not of course not! Also if you have any questions please ask! I was actually planning to upload another update this weekend, there has been some progress with the porch ceiling, figures and temple wall.

Hi everybody! I hope you got some time to relax during Easter holidays! I am just bringing a quick update since the last entry. Here you can see a view of the roof, now with the tiles cut and glued and with the antefic pieces I have done. I did the original scultupre of the antefix in green stuff, then I did some molds with blue stuff and used Milliput white to create the copies. You will also see that I have done this for several other parts of the diorama. Here you can see the ceiling of the portal. I have been working on the decotation panels of the ceiling of the porch. These are done with styne plastic pieces. At the point where all these pieces end (left side) will be where the outer wall of the temple will start. I have started to coat another cardboard sheet with milliput for this. I still need to check to thick the walls on the greek temples were but I think I will be able to show some of the inner surface of the wall temple. Here you can see a set of copies of the decorative wood carvings that will go also on the ceiling of the porch (see next picture). I did these as the antefix pieces on the roof using green stuff, molds with blue stuff and then Milliput white. I got at the moment the rest of the pieces I need curating in the molds. I have also done a sculpture for the akroterium for the roof, but it is still work in progress and I have started a little sculture of a fawn to go on the pediment of the temple, we will see how it turns out! Next big step will be copying the column 3 times to sustain the whole structure and do the wall of the temple! Hopefully copying the column with bluestuff won't be too messy! I would hate to go 3 more columns from scratch (it would take me ages....)! Anyway this is it for today. As always if you have any comments, feedback please do so! All the best, Alex

Hi everybody, I want to present to you a little project I have been working on during the past weeks. I am making a 1:72 replica of the front corner of Artemis Orthia temple from Sparta. This pictue is a few weeks old, from when I started the project doing the first column. As you can see I cut circles of cardboard which are glued together with contact glue. The black marks at the base mark the position of the column flutes. The cardboard disks decrease in diameter with column height, I think the base is close to 1.4 cm and the top of the column (not in this picture) was around 0.7 cm. You can also see one of the Spartan figures from Zvezda that I will be using. The cardboard then was filed to create the flutes and then covered in Milliput. At the beginning I tried to use DAS clay but I switched early on to Milliput. After the Milliput is dry I sand and even all the surfaces. Here is a more recent picture of the (from down to top): architrave (this is filled with layers of carboard, solid), the frieze (this is a box of carboard, hollow) and different stages of the cornice (flat cardboard pieces). I added some details (the metopes, mutules, and regulas) in plasticard and plastic rods. The next picture is the piece above plus the roof which I started last weekend. The roof is hollow, although I added several bulkheads to reinforce the structure. The roof has a stepped suface which is a mix of plasticard and carboard underneath to fill in the spaces. I will have to add perpendicular tiles (you can see them in the next picture, pieces in black). I tried a couple of techniques to give texture to the roof plastic bits: 1) I tried to dissolve some milliput in a lot of water and then pour it over the plastic and leave it dry. This was a bit cumbersome, cardboard and water was a bit messy, plus the milliput did not dissolved as much as I wanted it. 2) I used Mig Ammo antisplip black paste (for 72 and 48 scale) which I applied with a sponge. This was what I did for the longitudinal strips in the next pic and the effect works perfectly plus it is really easy to apply. This id what progress I have done so far. There are still many things to do: 1) I am going to copy the column by making a mold with bluestuff and make 3 copies. 2) I need to do the outer wall of the temple and finish the base. The floor will be covered with tiles. 3) I am going to sclupt a couple of statues for the pediment. 4) I need to finish the roof, cut and place all the tiles. Prepare the Akroterium and antefix pieces. 5) I may do a few random objects such as vases and amphoras. Any comments/feedback are welcome, I hope you life it! Alex

Ok I dont know what happened there. The images should be displaying properly now. This was weird, I have just repeated the same thing I did the first time and now they show up correctly. Many thanks Badder for letting me know and also for the suggestion to work with moss. I never have thought of using glycerin for fixing the moss. I had in mind was first to dry it for some days and then fix it with hair spray, do you know if this would work? I have to say that painting the 1/48 figures is being a good fun! Although it is sometimes challenging to get some detail done onto them. All the best, Alex

Hi everybody, I just wanted to share with you some of the preliminary work I am doing on a Battle of Normandy diorama on 1/48 scale. This project started as just a single tank from a very old Academy kit I found from when I was young, which had remained forgiven for many years. Then I developed the idea of the diorama of a tank travelling somewhere near the frontline and encountering by surprise some enemy troops nearby in the horizon across a hedgerow. The troops were jumping off the tank and starting to take positions on top of the hedgerow and the tank with the turret already aiming starting to rotate its hull. As this project started with just a single tank built I started a topic in AFV section of the forum but I did want to share here as well for those people who may not check the other channel. I will post a link below to the other topic for easy access. Please if you have any comment / suggestion do not doubt to share it. All the best, Alex LINK:

Hi everybody! I am bringing you quite a lot of updates regarding this project! Very exited about this! I have almost finished the paining of the tank. I will have to do some work in the rear part of the tank and paint a few details. As you will see in the pictures I have changed the position of the turret (although I have not fixed it properly yet) and I will have to do some painting in the newly exposed regions that were previously covered by the turret in the old position. I may also have to cut the barrel lock in the fornt and have it in horizontal position instead of vertical. The reason for the change in the position of the turret is because I want to place this model in a Battle of Normady diorama, a bocagge style type of scene. About the painting, I have done this using a Badger sotar 20/20, this is my first time for painting a model with an airbrush and I am quite happy with the results. I have also added some more detail with the brush (rust, chipping, battle damage). I have also got the Tamiya 1/48 Panzergrenadiers set for the diroama. I have been painting some of the figure during the past weeks. They are not finished yet but they are at the point I am happy to show them. I will be finishing the undercoating of the uniforms in brown and I will be adding the pea dot camouflage pattern after it. As for the diorama concept, you will see that there is a bocagge road setting. The idea is that these guys were travelling somewhere when they spotted some enemies in the distance over the hedgerows. The troops which were supposed to be travelling on top of the tank are in the process of taking positions and the tank is aiming under the cover of the hedgerow. For making the base, I have used a square wood base, which then I have covered with a layer of cork. This will be the dirt road surface, I used a large file to create the ditches on the margin of the road. I have also done the hedgerow structure using layers of cardboard. I will cover the hedgerow and the "soil" section on the other side of the road with DAS clay to give it some texture and cover it with some grains of sand, small pebbles, etc. I will also add some trees along the side of the road and on top of the hedgerow, for this I will be using some old dry heather branches. I did some spring clean up of the garden and I managed to collect some moss that came off, I collect this to simulate the dense hedges from the bocagge. I will also use some of it for the folliage of the trees. There is still a lot of work to do but I can feel that the end is coming a bit closer! I would like to bring this diorama to a show once it is ready. Any way I will stop writing and give you some pictures. It would be great to hear your thoughts and please if you have any comment/suggestion, I would be great to hear it/them. All the best, Alex

Hi everybody, It has been a long long time since I have post anything in this thread or in the other I have opened. It is amazing how quickly time flies! Most of my models have been sitting on boxes waiting for me to sit down with them and finish them off. A lot has passed since my last post but I am coming back to the hobby and I am trying to invest some time in the models I have already started before beginning new project. Anyhow, hands to businessm! I have been preshading the Panther tank, using primarily Vallejo model air paints. I would like to try the B&W technique as described by Jose Luis Lopez. I will add a few more shadows to the darker regions. I also need to add the armour skirts to the tank and the machine gun to the commander's cupola. I was thinking of using the stripped tricolour pattern for this model. I don't seem able to use Google Photos with the "Insert other media" button so I will just copy the links if you have any suggestion on how to post pictures stored in Google Photo please let me know. https://photos.app.goo.gl/d9Luq9aK37nQn7kH6 https://photos.app.goo.gl/RCXXnNT6j3huXFoEA https://photos.app.goo.gl/yexQBGW4Qmr3E16v5 https://photos.app.goo.gl/3gVQAJeLcWmCuHrm6 All the best, Alex

Hi everyone, It has been a long time since the last update. I have been working on the panel lines, there are almost ready to go. I have been working on independent pieces so I decided to join the main two pieces of the fuselage when the wings were ready. Now I gotta tell you, this thing has bolts! It has been tedious getting them done with either the riveter or with a steel glass scribber. I am now joining the lines and rivets from both part of the fuselage. I have also been working in the cockpit section, I have done from scratch all the instruments on the dashboard using: Milliput, plastic card and lead wires. It was easy to get the bulky stuff done although there are almost no pics of the Mig-27 cockpit, and specially almost nothing of the dashboard section so the cable work was totally at discretion of my imagination. Also as you can see I have been painting the avionics in the panel I opened in the nose. I decided not to open more panels as it is already taking its sweet time to be built. 1) I think next steps will be to finish off to join panel lines, rivets etc etc from both sides of the hull. 2) The machine gun has a couple of guards on both sides of the nozzle. I will be scratch building those 3) Working on the landing gear. The is plenty of work to do here! 4) I really wanna do something with the engine exhaust. It looks as dull as it gets, although not sure exactly what or how to do it. 5) Start doing some painting on the beast! Anyway guys as always comments / suggestions are always welcomed! All the best, Alex

Hi everyone, Just a quick update on the Flogger. I keep on scribing and riveting the whole thing. I have been having troubles riveting some parts with my riveter tool (the trumpeter one) as the wheel does not reach some places. Any suggestions on this? I also have to figure out how I am going to detail the engine as it looks too flat at the moment, any model/thread for inspiration? I also want to thank Dave for letting me use his canopy as I manage to loose mine! THANKS SO MUCH! Cockpit is already mounted, I still have to scratch-build the electronics on the dashboard Front wheel bay has been primed in light grey and will do the painting soon I have also mounted and started to paint the avionics on the side. I will add some minor cable work once finished. The green stuff on the panel is the cushioning on the avionics, it was made and sculptured with Milliput. On with the panelling and riveting I have also carved out the gun bay so it does not look it is sitting on the top of the hull. As I expanded the front wheel bay to its correct shape, I had to shorten the gun as it was too long for the current dimensions... I will add the lateral guards of the gun once I finish with the hull. Also as you can see I have painted the main wheel bays. Primed in light grey and painted on the top with GW Boltgun metal. Will start to do the landing gear soon and will apply some washes to the bays. Another thing I will have to make from scratch in this lateral holder (see the ref pic) as the piece provided by Hasegawa is just literally a handle... REF PIC: Hope you enjoy it. As always if you have any comments/ suggestions please do not hesitate to post! All the best

Ohhh calamity!! It seems I have miss-placed the canopy!!! I will keep with it and hopefully it will appear at some point! I have sent an email to AMERANG to see if the can supply a spare but no answer back so far.... Upper section of the fuselage is done, cockpit assembled and will start with the lower section of the fuselage.