Angus Tura

Tony, Would a person, as opposed to "hardware", in the wrong hands be OK. I have in mind this: but as a York Hussar, which is to say an émigré fighting for the British. Alan

Pat and Jean, Thanks. I have been progressing this, Pat, albeit slowly. The Chasseur's carbine swivel comes moulded on and I've drilled it out and carved it back to look better. I think this might be just flash, but there is, or was, plenty of it: I've assembled and filled all the figures. I wanted them all to be free standing on their bases which took a bit of time and then I wanted to cut back the bases to pose them together more easily. That made all of them unstable on their bases again, however. Here they all are, ready to go, but stuck on with blu-tack again. I thought that a diamond drill bit in a rotacraft drill would make short work of the bases but the hacksaw in the picture was a lot quicker and less stressful. The base is hardwood by Oakwood of Leeds. I've taken the felt off the bottom of the base and the already finished top has become the bottom. Here they all are on the base but before cutting different levels in the base. , and here they are after starting to cut up the base. The wood cutting is with another new blade for the mini-drill, but it's still hard work. You can just about see some scratches in the base on the front made with a handsaw for finishing off the horizontal cut: I couldn't get a wide enough circular mini-saw to do it in a oner. Luckily, or otherwise, I haven't taken the front of the base low enough so I'll be cutting off the scratches next. I'm hoping to get painting started this weekend and, if I make that, I think I should be able to finish on schedule. More later, Alan

Thanks. I hope so. Alan

Rich, and all. You may remember these two shifty looking individuals from round one. This was as far as they got. In the meantime I painted the wood of their axes and their faces. The flesh tones are mostly finished. I've neatened up the edges of the base. Here they are now. I hope you'll feel they can be 25%-rule eligible, Rich, but please let me know. Alan

'Evening. So, I thought about it and thought that foot was going to bother me for the rest of time. I've amputated it with a 15 blade and rebuilt with Magic-sculp. St.Hubertus is in the business here of being redeemed from his sin of too much hunting. I looked up the "flower of redemption" on-line and apparently it's the crocus. This was a relief! Had it been the chrysanthemum I probably wouldn't have attempted this. I've sculpted some crocuses with Magic-sculp and painted on the petals and some extra stalks with Mr.Surfacer 1000. They're based on a watercolour found by Googling "Crocuses". Another thing I didn't like in the casting is the ray of light coming from the cross to Hubertus' head. I thought it looked as if carved from wood and thought this would not make painting any easier. I've re-etched it. I had my heart in my mouth starting his but it was very easy with dymo-tape, needle in pin-vice and no.11 blade. So here he is ready to paint. Other work done has been clean-up and filling in the centres of leaves and buttons. This last sounds like a terrible faff, but with a little smear of epoxy putty and a toothpick swiped over, was very easy. I've used Mr.Surfacer also to fill multiple pockmarks on his trousers especially. I notice one on his tunic that needs a bit more sanding. His sash needs a bit more too. I've painted the grass back on where his foot was and scraped a little space out to sign, hopelessly imagining that this will ever get finished! The R symmetrical to that is for Rieger who was both Editor and Engraver, I think. See you later, Alan

Here is the Red Iron 1/35 Luna-2 probe about to smash into the moon, 13/9/59. Front and side pictures with a weird green cast for some reason... Its a better colour "at home". Now I don't know what to do at Christmas...Red Iron Sputnik 1...Captain Rabbit USS Monitor... Whichever. I can't wait. Alan

Hi. It's done. I am chuffed. Thanks, Pat, for this do. I did say that it was ready for Alclad, but in fact it was ready for primer: Then the Alclad: The body is white aluminium, the aerials are steel, the blob on the top and bottom of the central aerial and the magnetometer (the round things) are burnt iron (for bronze). The title on the base is gunmetal. and here it is. The painting of it has revealed some problems with the casting, which need some more love and another coat of paint. I forgot to take this critical snap a while ago! So, something over an hour to spare. I'll put it in the Gallery, Thanks again, Alan

Hello, Breakfast, not dissimilar to yesterday but with massively increased BB-detritus around. Start time. I've painted the edge of the base black humbrol matt for a neater look and will varnish that later. I'm glad that neat Tamiya primer is such a good moon-colour. Here's where I left the spaceship the night before last. and here it is construction finished and all washed ready to Alclad-II-ise. The spike on top is just a push fit and I haven't glued it in to make masking easier. That's 5.5 hours today so I'm stopping the clock and should have 5.75 hours to get some paint on tonight I've looked at some pictures of this thing on line. Some of them show it all just white metal coloured, which I should think is more accurate, but others show it with lots of bronze/brass wiring and red blobs. I think that's probably less accurate but it's certainly more interesting. I'm going to go for the more accurate, mostly because of time wasted time on Saturday in resin-hacking, but I might well keep painting it over the next few days. Cheese and onion toast and orangina. See you later. Alan

Pat, I'd say that even for you, that's a gonner. I feel your pain. Been there...done that... Alan

Yup. See you tomorrow. This looks great. Alan

This is an end of day post as well then but it's a lot shorter. I'm planning to paint tomorrow and just wanted today to get an oils wash on the base tonight which takes a bit of time to dry. I just about remembered to photograph restarting, in the garage just now. Blast of Tamiya fine primer, wash of Payne's grey oils, and finish again. So, I reckon I've got 11.25 hours tomorrow. mañana, Alan

A post-day post. I had been hoping to finish in another twelve hours tomorrow but I have to attend a family Zoom tomorrow, i.e. Sunday, so I'll do some tomorrow and finish hopefully on Monday. I am realising how plugged-out I am. I had to look up Jason Todd to see what that meant and also, "Drill baby drill". I really don't get either of the Marvel thing, or the Tea Party thing. That was a rubbishy photograph of the base while walking round the park. Here's a better pic: The amount of hack is clearer in this photo. Here is the point: The "plinth" it a deodorant stick lid. It is beautifully finished. The next bit of agony was trying to drill a perpendicular hole in the base to attach the spaceship. The instructions say to use a bit of wire, but I am planning to use perspex to be less visible. I saw a youtube video sometime which suggested repeatedly removing the drill bit to see that the shank of the drill is perpendicular, and I thought that worked quite well. 'Trouble is that the perspex rod, allegedly 2mm, is really 1.7mm and I only have 1.6 and 1.8mm bits. So, its a bit wobbly. Once it's glued it'll look OK, I think. Tea: pork chop, apple sauce, kartoffelnsalat, beans. The actual spaceship itself goes together without much grief. I've completed the construction pretty much and stopped at 12 MN. The two little rectangles go on the body of the probe. I thought I'd paint them separately and add them when painted but the more I look at the clock, the more I think i'll stick them on and then paint. The blobby bit goes on top of a wire sticking out the pillar on the spaceship. I need a visit to Dave at Halifax modeller's world tomorrow morning to get some suitable wire. I thought I had something but it's far too thin. The copper wire with the kit is a bit thick and terribly soft. The two round bits, still on the block, are the magnetometer and I'm planning to add them after I've painted. Thanks again, mañana, Alan

So, I've had to break off to do the family walk. I thought I couldn't least do an update. It has also been a chance to learn to post on the phone and do phone-flickr: so quite exciting. After 4 hours of hacking, drilling and dremeling I've done this. I wish now I had " removed major parts from sprues/mold-blocks" before starting. I'm glad I've gone for the two day option. Alan

Probably not as brightly as you, dear heart.

Nearly forgot! Lavazza Espresso Classico and toast with Granny Cool Seville orange MMlade. A more than slightly ridiculous name, but pretty delicious MMlade. Alan