jargonking

In an attempt to break a two month bout of modeller's block I've dug this out of the stash.... I've got several almost-finished projects on the go so I'm hoping this build will pull me out of the doldrums. I'll start with a parts run-through for anyone unfamiliar with the kit.... Chrome parts....most of these will be either stripped or replaced....the clear nose is an option I won't be using either.... Asteroid-type base...deep enough to hide the battery for the lights.... Some nice decals although all the small ones appear to be generic aircraft stencils....I may invest in the aftermarket sheet for this... Solid nose cone will be going in the spares box too.... Lots of fuel/LOX tanks... The moulding is typical '70's fare with some fine raised details...the moulds are in pretty good shape, probably because it hasn't been reissued since then... Habitation and hydroponic modules...expect some lighting in these.... The brass upgrade set...typical high quality from ParaGrafix...note the antenna arrays and the long truss assembly... So, on with the build.... The etched truss ready for assembly...it can be assembled without any special folding tools... I used the kit part that the etch replaces as a former to fold around.... The plastic part was removed and the long joint held tofether with tape while CA glue was run into the joint... The finished truss...it's remarkably strong... Note the end plates folded in and glued... Strangely the three engine bells are moulded with solid bases so require hollowing out and the trailing edges thinning... The truss was test fitted into the central core assembly...one odd thing about the kit is the complete lack of painting guidance other than the front and rear of the box...going to go for red for this assembly I think.... I decided to blank off these openings in the rear engine section as you can't see anything behind them anyway...I used small sections of Evergreen strip.... Blanks completed.... These are parts that will be used on the build but which I'll paint so I set them aside to de-chrome... These are chrome parts that are either replaced by etched brass or that I intend to replace with aluminium rod so these are headed for the spares box... The only piece I'm using off the chrome sprue as it comes is the mirror for the telescope... Parts to be de-chromed were set in a glass dish... Parts were soaked in neat household bleach, a process which normally removes chrome within about ten minutes....not this time, the bleach had no effect after an hour so I resorted to foam oven cleaner...still no joy, the MPC chrome is pretty much bullet proof.... A last effort to de-chrome involves soaking the parts in Coca Cola which I've heard will work....maybe.... Meanwhile it was time to remove the moulded struts on the habitation modules... These are replaced with brass parts although I'll leave them off until I've done the seams on the modules.... I'm intending to light the interiors of the habitation modules so first job was to line the halves with self-adhesive aluminium tape...this acts as both reflector and a light block to prevent the light bleeding through the styrene.... More soon....

Nigel, you should try buffing those steel slats with 0000-grade steel wool....works a treat and it'll get rid of those CA marks easily.... Great build by the way....each installment has me reaching for my Sevans Davros that's in the stash...

Seems a bit odd to change your company name when the whole world knows you as something else...not the best way to drum up trade for a hitherto unheard of website. I did think something was going on at Telford when I found that Tony had slashed his eyewatering prices to something approaching normal....

Nice job....was it a total repaint or did you just weather the existing finish?....looks brilliant whatever you did....

Modelmaking is a hobby, plain and simple....much as it might upset people on here, so called 'serious modellers' (and I include myself in that description) are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to kit sales in the UK or, for that matter, the rest of the world. By far the biggest market share goes to buyers who are happy to buy a kit, some glue and a few paints and put the thing together....these modellers will buy kit after kit and assemble them straight from the box and are happy to do so. They might buy the odd magazine or look on the web but by and large are happy to just build kits as they come. It's these people that WHS and Hobbycraft cater for and will do good business from, just the same as it's these same people that Airfix and Revell do good business from. I'd love a shop where I could buy any kit or modelling product that was available but those shops don't exist anywhere outside of Japan because the demand just doesn't exist. Also, the idea that a first time modeller would be put off by a kit's supposed shortcomings is total nonsense....kids building kits from fifty year old moulds just see a Spitfire or a Sherman tank, they don't see raised panel lines or seams or even that they left a couple of smaller bits in the box. That's why Airfix and Revell keep selling them....

I worked for ten years for a specialist retailer, not model shops but a similarly niche market. The main things I learned were to always make the customer feel welcome and to make them feel that their custom was valued regardless of how much they spent or how much they knew or didn't know about a product. This is why I am persistently frustrated by the attitudes of the owners of many of the model shops I have visited up and down the country. It appears that customers are, at best, a distraction to be tolerated, but more often than not an inconvenience who get in the way of their primary goal which is to spend their days surrounded by unbuilt, and largely unsold, kits.

There's an awful lot of snobbery rearing it's head on here with comments about staff on minimum wage etc. I happen to know several people who work in retail who, despite their relatively low wages, will go the extra mile to help customers. Also don't get it in your head about the so-called 'serious modellers' somehow being disadvantaged by retailers only offering Airfix/Revell...retailers are only interested in what sells purely because of operating costs and if there is a demand for it. In an average sized town how many people on any given day are looking to buy an 'Eduard kit with all the bells and whistles'? If kits of that quality and price were in such high demand then there'd be a model shop on every high street. A retail outlet would be insane to hold stock like that unless it had a mail order service too. Modelzone may well have been scuppered by overstocking on RC and diecasts but they would have been in deeper trouble had they stocked shelves full of high end resin and brass...the reason these items make money is because they are largely stocked by online retailers who aren't paying thousands of pounds out simply for shelf space. MZ did well on kit sales but I'm willing to bet that most of those sales were Airfix/Revell/Tamiya....I think the management at WHS may have checked out unit sales of each brand before deciding what to stock.

I don't recognise the rosy picture a lot of people have here of the small independent model shop whose staff are knowlegeable about the hobby and are only too keen to help the customer. Whilst I am sure these places exist, they are in the minority....it seems that the majority of independents that I have visited (and I've been in a LOT of model shops up and down the UK) tend towards the business model of 'If you can't see it on the shelf then we can't get it or it doesn't exist', 'Stop wasting my time if you're not going to buy something' or the most common 'I can't be civil or pass the time of day with you...can't you see I've got an empty shop to run'.... By contrast, the staff in the two Modelzones that I used to frequent...Chester and Liverpool....were always friendly, tried to be helpful even if you were asking for stuff they didn't sell, and several of them had a genuine interest in the hobby. I'm cautiously optomistic about the WHS experiment...more so than I was when I first heard about it...I doubt you will see anything more than the 'hobby' market in there (Airfix, Revell, Tamiya) as opposed to the 'serious' market (Dragon,Trumpeter, Hobbyboss, Meng, Hasegawa) but, when you consider the alternative....nowhere handy to buy paint/cement and nowhere to browse while the missus shops for frocks in Debenhams...then I'm happy it's happening.

The Chester WHS is carrying kits in the basement, mostly Airfix and Revell with a few Tamiya bikes and cars....also Revell paints....no sign of Humbrol

The MLEV is based on a scratchbuild that Randy built (I think) nearly 30 years ago.....I remember it in a feature in Finescale Modeler....the original was built around a clear plastic hamster ball. It's going to be over the $100 mark so expect imports to be at least double that in sterling......best option will be to order it via Cultman or Mega Hobby and import it yourself.

If you are where your profile says you are then there's one here..... http://www.theworks.co.uk/store/ipswich

Have you not got a branch of The Works near you Roy?

Just been in my local branch of The Works discount book chain and picked up these two excellent Batman/Dark Knight reference books for just £6.99 each. The Batmobile book has excellent reference pics of all the screen cars....the Dark Knight book has pull-out facsimile blue prints, police evidence reports etc.....both books well worth getting at that price.... Here they are on Amazon..... http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Dark-Knight-Manual-Documents/dp/1781162859/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y http://www.amazon.co.uk/Batmobile-Complete-Mark-Cotta-Vaz/dp/1781162840

Great job Gordon and a great rescue of the heatshield paintwork. Your build has got me itching to get mine out of the stash.

Nigel, in the last run of pics you show both your postal address and your car registration number....not a good idea to post these on an open forum....

Good progress so far Nigel....given the size of the parts, personally I'd abandon the airbrush and use Halfords acrylic rattle cans instead. The finish is excellent and you can build up a dense colour finish relatively quickly. I use them exclusively now on anything that requires a solid primary colour.

My guess is that you'll see a lot of cheap tat masquerading as modelling items.....think of the knife sets and brush sets you see in pound shops, along with maybe some Humbrol paints and a small selection of Airfix and Revell kits. I think anyone expecting to be seeing Hasegawa, Dragon and Trumpeter in WH Smith is living in cloud cuckoo land.....

Most weekends whilst out shopping I always check out Home Bargains as you never know what useful modelling stuff they'll have in. Most of their stuff in the toy department tends to be surplus stock of the 'blink and you'll miss it ' variety. True to form, a visit there today resulted in me coming away with a few of these for £1.99 each..... They look like Chinese knock-offs of maybe Japanese originals. You get two sprues along with some stickers, some gears and a tiny solar powered motor.... The real attraction for me is that the sprues are in hard plastic meaning it's glueable.....not sure if it's styrene or ABS but it should stick with Plastic Weld or CA. Lots of parts with interesting shapes and detail which are ideal for cannibalising and all for less than two quid...result!

That looks fantastic Gordon....great job

Pick up a roll of aluminium ducting tape....basically aluminium foil with a peel-off backing....Aldi were selling 3M brand Aluminium tape a while back for about £3 a roll or you can get it from any decent builders merchants.

Well there were Airfix starter sets in Home Bargains today so we might get a pre-xmas bonanza on bargain kits....

Good to see another fan of the Detolf cabinets...I've got three and am contemplating another two...at £40 each you can't go wrong aside from rupturing yourself getting them in and out of the car....I fitted the Grundtal lights in mine which look great....http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/50119313/ Really enjoying this build too....I'm tempted to get hold of a Sevans Dalek to go with my Davros which is still in the stash....

Fabulous builds Jörgen, have you thought of photographing them outside with a real background?

Just reading this thread and was bemused by the comments about copyright from Parkes Decals as a quick look at his website found this statement.... 'In producing colour schemes from any aircraft, vehicle's from land sea or air, carrying sponsors names or logo's Parkes682decals is not attempting to obtain any endorsement from the owners of the logo's and/or trademarks. No infringement of sponsors copyright in the trademarks or logos is intended. Parkes682decals is not attempting to pass off any decal sheet as being an official product of these sponsors.' Which to me sounds like a roundabout way of saying that he doesn't own the copyright either and produces the designs without official permission....so who is he to slag off Peddinghaus anyway? Great build by the way which shows just what can be done with a relatively inexpensive kit.

I'm hoping to get back on it next week....been re-arranging the house....shouldn't take much work to finish it off now...