Reilly

Ok, here goes, 1st attempt. Started off with Vallejo Deck Tan as the base coat. Followed that up with khaki and saddle brown lightened with the deck tan. Followed that by dry brushing Iraqi sand. Tried this on one of the legs on the guy at the front. I think I've gotten it right with the deck tan and the dry brushing. The other two colours need some work and the pattern needs to be more horizontal. I think I'll try a nice red for the next attempt, see if that improves the result.

That floor is looking good. A few opticals attached to the bar would work nicely. I kind of like the idea of handing out a swift one after any particularly nasty pick ups.

Anyone for a man on a stick? Here are four of the six figures after a bit of clean up and a layer of primer. Had thought about mounting the Cougar next to an empty Nissan with the lads giving it a look over but that would need a fair amount of space as not even the thickest are going to park up in the vicinity of a suspect vehicle. Rethink required. Time now to learn to paint MARPAT.

Thanks for the comments. I've finished the basic weathering. Tyres dusted up, some general day too day grime and some fading of the upper paintwork due to be being in the sun. Now I have to come up with a way to generate the thin film of dusty sand that ends up everywhere.

Nooooooooo! I was enjoying this masterclass. Bit like reading a good book and then discovering that somebody ripped out the last chapter. Sorry for your loss although I suspect that most of us, at some time or other, have thrown the odd object across a room out of frustration. I'm looking forward to the next build.

Minor update. Not having built anything from the sandy places I've been playing around with weathering the tyres, hopefully then transferring a lesser version onto the vehicle. I had tried some fading on the Cougar with some oils. Didn't quite work. Once it had dried there was no effect visible so its back to the drawing board on that one but I don't want to overcook it. I was also planning to add a pickup to this. For that I'd "picked up" Meng's Pickup with ZPU-2. For my purposes the ZPU-2 was excess to requirements but I decided to put it together anyway and keep it for future possibilities. It's quite a detailed piece. At the moment its in its component subassemblies. Lot of work to go on it.

Oh dear, I can see this costing me money. I quite like my H&S but its been a difficult relationship at times and everybody praises the Iwata. I'll be interested in the results particularly on an airframe. My F16 is looking at me longingly from the stash and I want to do it proud.

Oh well, no subversive pictures of doors allowed. Link here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/113106574@N02/24108749164/in/album-72157657427275534/ Here's some of the little guys. The grey ones are from a MasterBox set. (Sorry, little men weren't allowed either. Link here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/113106574@N02/24710759906/in/album-72157657427275534/ ) The sand coloured guy (Tamiya) was going to be the gunner but unlike the others he's wearing BDU instead of MARPAT. Then I remembered that some of the stash kits might have a figure and found one in an Academy M1151 humvee that might work. He needs a new head though, as its dire and the legs don't exactly match the body. Looks like he's wearing Wallace and Gromit's robotic trousers. Oh well, nothing a bit of putty can't fix.

Time for an update, although by comparison with the photo above it isn't that much. Managed to repair all the broken antennas and machine gun, completed turret, decals done. Almost time for some light weathering and lads to go with it. I loaded the wrong needle in the paintbrush when it came to a layer of clear coat. It looked like I'd hit the driver's door with a paintball gun. That needs to be repainted, finished and decals added. (Was supposed to be a picture of the driver's door here but editor won't allow it to be posted although its identical in format to the others! Will try another post, maybe that works.)

Nice one. Found the picture after you passed on the link. In one report a council type had identified it as a tonka, and I thought my eyesight was going bad.

That is going to be one whopper of a chopper! A few years ago I saw a Black Hawk on a stand at the Sikorsky plant in the US. I was thinking that some similar structure could be used with the Chinook enabling it to be displayed with a load slung underneath. My version of Google maps is banjaxed and won't show anything other than maps but if you look at Stratford, CT and follow the river north you should see the Sikorsky plant. The Black Hawk was planted in the parking lot at one of the entrances.

This is a kit I started a few months ago before I signed up. My builds tend to be slow burners partly due to my tendency to start more than one at any one time. This one is however making a break for the finishing line. Here is the current state of play: This was my first effort with Meng and overall I was impressed with the quality and level of detail. Firstly the kit is some 19mm longer than it should be. This has been discussed on various fora where the Meng Cougar kit is compared to the Panda offering. Of course I only found this out after I’d purchased the thing. Some of the parts are very fragile. I had to rebuild the gunner's platform as it was nigh impossible to separate its component parts from the sprue without them breaking. Compared to the rest of the kit it has to have been somebody on work experience that built the poorly constructed equipment rack in the back. I eventually binned it and built my own. A little while back I also dropped the Dremel from height into the box of parts thus resulting in a sudden increase in the number of parts! Meng provides decals for the instrument panel, however, cutting the decal film from individual instruments, that are less than 2mm across, so that they fit within the recesses on the panel was quite a challenge. The instruction flow starts with the suspension and underside of the Cougar. It would be better to start with the interior and then join up the four parts that make up the body of the vehicle. Once the suspension is fitted its almost impossible to use any clamps or tape in order to hold the parts together while the suspension is in place. The fit of the parts is generally excellent however there is very little tolerance and this can lead to issues. In order to get a good fit I found myself removing the thin layer of primer from parts in order to get a good fit, something which I haven't had with the likes of Tamiya. This was also an issue in fitting the top and bottom parts of the hull. There fit is strongly dependent upon the position of the air conditioner unit (top half) and the instrument panel (bottom half). The position panel isn't as well defined yet the accuracy is essential for a good fit. I now need to finish the doors, antennas, turret and decals before moving on to adding general wear and tear plus some figures. I was planning to include it in a diorama along with the pick-up which is shown in the background of the picture above. A few additional pictures can be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/113106574@N02/albums/72157657427275534