ScanmanDan

Thanks guys I am glad you like this little beastie. They are sweet little critters with endless modification possibilities. It would be great to have an X-wing and TIE Fighter in the set too! Progress; I had to sort out the stand as the way the kit is designed it is trapped between the two main fuselage halves and isn't removable. That's a non-starter in my book. Also the kit is quite big and heavy on the stand and I thought it could use some beefing up. To attempt to fix this I added a thin sheet of styrene to fill in the front of the base and flared it all in with lashings of superglue used as a filler. To get a detachable stand I embedded some small powerful magnets into the arm and corisponding ones into one side of the fuselage. I left just the front and back bit of the attachment point to act as locators. This works quite well and I can turn the whole lot upside down and the model is still firmly attached. I am now working on a way to modify the kit to allow me to add the tail faring as one piece after the whole lot is assembled. Thanks for looking in. Dan

Yet more wholesome goodness. I like how you have posed K2 as I think you can infer his personality from his stance. I always pick up interesting things from your WIP and enjoy them immensely, thank you. Dan

I have been on a little kick of building these character planes ( Tiger Models Cute series, the Meng bombers and some Hasegawa Egg Planes) When I saw this kit. But what really got me to part with my money this morning was being in the hobby shop and seeing someone else with the kit in his hands mulling over wether to buy it or not…. He put it back on the shelf as I quietly scooped it up and quickly bought it. MINE,MINE, ALL MINE!!!! The box artwork is quite nice in a retro kind of way. I was like a little kid and after about an hour and a half I had the sucker press fitted together. And I have tried it out on my usual base to see if it will work. To say I am happy is an understatement. Great little kit. It has no cockpit, and on some deep reflection I'm not going to try and scratch build one, though you could pretty easily do one. The kit comes with both decals and stickers. I will paint the stripes and use a few decals. I will also beat the ever-loving daylights out of it weathering wise because that's the kind of guy I am. I hope you like my little Viper, thanks for looking in. Dan

Thank you all for your kind comments. I love all the colourful markings that you can apply to WWI aircraft. I just wish there were more in the larger scales ( 1/24 - 1/28 ) as I just cannot work in the smaller scales anymore as it is too difficult to get my fumble fingers to work that small. Nice to see that Meng is coming out with a few kits in 1/24 and I have a Dr.1 to try out sometime soonish. I am glad that you folks like my made up markings Thanks for dropping in for a look. Dan

Impressive and inspirational. I just love to see kits built in flight. Thank you for sharing your beautiful lightning. Dan

I want to try and finish as many kits from the SoD as I can in 2017 and to that end here's my latest. I do love these little critters from Tiger Models, I still have the Spitfire, the La-5 and a few others in the To-Do pile I hope you like him, I sure had fun building it. Dan

I was taking some photos of older builds while I was cleaning and dusting the display cases today. I thought this one came out well and I'd share a build from when I could still see well enough to work in 1/48 scale. Totally fictitious markings as I stuffed the kit ones up. Nice little kit which was very fun to build. I hope you like it. Dan

Great to see you tackling another droid. I'm very interested to see how you do restrained scratches, as I find it hardest to be subtle and understated. Will you be doing a simple base or something more elaborate? I would love to know how many folks are like me and have picked up these Bandai kits as a result of your super builds. Keep having fun. Dan

Thank you guys for the comments and support. I'm encouraged that this diorama experiment might just work out after all. More messing about. After receiving some feedback on Missing Lynx I got to thinking that maybe I should button up as the commander and loader were exposed in ways they probably wouldn't be in combat. So I have spent the day doing just that and doing silly things like trying to run the plumbing from the exterior fuel tanks and adding more details. I should get some time tomorrow to work a bit more on the remaining figures. Let me know what you think. Dan

I'm still plugging away on this one. This diorama business is a bit scary. So many different little 'models' to get to work together. I finally got a bit of time today to make a start on assembling the Stalingrad resin figures. They are expensive but much nicer than the injection moulded kind. Here's what I came up with but still very much a wii. I'm not sure I know exactly what I'm doing but I am having fun. Thanks for dropping in for a look. Dan

So great to see all of your superb work in one spot. I'm always inspired to try new things and improve my builds whenever I see your work. Thanks for taking the effort to share it with us. Your builds always look so much fun. I would love to see you take on another one of the Tiger Models Cute plans because they have become a favourite of mine this year. Wishing you a safe and wonderful 2017! Dan

I very happy my little scrambled egg was well liked. These are such nice little kits but it is eggasperating that they don't have any interior details. So, easy as eggs I got cracking and whipped something up. Now where is that Mig -15 kit

My latest finished beastie; Lots of fun for limited cost and hassles. I hope you like the little guy. Dan

Progress; ( Errrrr, on looking over these pics I got the feeling that something wasn't quite right… But couldn't figure out what it was until it hit me. Maybe the right shoe was on the left foot? Rushed out to the bungalow and swapped them round before the glue fully set. ) At least the decals are on, which is quite a relief for me. Now all that;s left is some little touch up painting and a tiny bet of weathering and a final clean and nameplate. She came out much brighter than I thought she would but I do wish that Tiger models would come out with there characterisation of the Mustang just to see what it would look like. I hope you guys try out one of these little kits just for the sheer fun of it. Dan

Felt like some eggs today One of the limits I put on myself when I started making these little critters was to only use rattle cans ( Tamiya ) for the major painting and brush paint as many of the details to keep it simple. While not the cheapest way to paint stuff those Tamiya rattle cans work pretty darn well. I did muck up the masking on the canopy ( I even check it twice!!! )but I should be able to touch it in with a brush and not have it look too bad. I will let her rest until tomorrow when I will try out the decals. ( I HATE decals ) and see if I can stuff it all up. I have painted the exhaust shrouds all blue and I'm in two minds about trying to mask that angled line. I think I might just stick with all blue and be less happy but more sane. I was wondering if I should over spray the lot with Tamiya clear to seal all the decals in. How will does that work and will the clear lift the silver? Anybody have any thoughts? Thanks for looking in on my little critters. Dan

Progress; Still roughing in some of the colours but I think he is shaping up okay, Not too bad for a days work with the paint brush. Thanks for looking in. Dan

Progress; I have put off working out how I was going to add pilots to this build as I wasn't too keen on the figures provided with the kit. In the end I said to heck with it and cast up some copies of my modified bang seat and started hacking and scratching away at the kits pilots. After about four hours of work all I have to show is this meagre little dude. At least he fits inside the cockpit and will fill up the tub with something a bit humanoid I'll do a little more cleaning up and then add some paint to see what I'll get but while serviceable he's not my best effort. I'm not going to stress too much about it but I would have liked for him to come out better. Thanks for looking in. Dan

Progress; Slow work on the tail booms. I now have to do it all again on the other one. At least I have figured out how I'm going to do it. The kit is very plain and I thought I'd add just the big stuff, scribing and some little greebies, oh and enlarging the tail bumper. I am pretty happy with how the reinforcing panel came out as I thought I'd stuffed the kit when I first put it on. But a bit of sanding and putty work bashed it into shape. My newest putty friend is to thin Tamiya grey putty with Tamiya lacquer thinners and applying thinnish layers of putty with a paintbrush. It dries pretty quickly and you can work it a bit with the brush to smooth out the finish leaving less sanding to do after it dries. Just don't forget to clean your applicator brush or you end up with another stick. Thanks for dropping in for a look. Dan

Thanks guys for the encouragement glad you folks like her so far. The Sea Venom is such a great 50's style shape Progress; The booms and tails plane is roughed in and bless me if the darn thing doesn't fit!!! I am so happy that the booms went together so well. I'm going to do some more detail scribing and some little additions ( those tail bumpers for one) but the whole assembly sets nice and square/straight. Like everything on the kit all the parts got a nice rub down with some 240 grit followed by 400 grit to levee a nice level satin finish, The parts come with a really highly polished finish with some ripples and ridges which sand back nicely. Thanks for dropping by for a look. Dan

Progress: Christmas break means I have some time to build Lots of sanding and fettling but I have got the second wing on and the tip tanks mostly sorted. I have left the tanks separate to make painting easier but need to work on getting a better and more robust/seamless join with the wingtips. I have started cleaning up the booms and looking into some more details to add, like the RATO attachment points I have been messing about with some brass rod/square tube to make the tail hook, more on that when I have something tangible. Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Christmas. Dan

Progress - details; The Miniart jerry cans and 152mm ammo boxes are superb but fiddly to assemble, and I'm not great with getting figures posed naturally. More work on lots of little things but the shape of the thing is getting there. Thanks for looking in. Dan

Francis - Thank you for your support. Finish, well that is the rub. I have a few more figures to rough in and then some more details to fix before I can get to the painting. I want so for this to turn out looking good. I'm trying to put all the little bits that I have learned into one model/diorama. We will see if I can pull it off. John - I so like the Beast. It is such a Russian looking thing. Yes, the cobblestones are from Miniart. Pretty good value too as you get two sections of roadway in vacuform and two street lamp/trolly poles in injection moulded plastic. I will be looking at some of their other offerings in the future. Keith & Carius - I hope that I can keep you guys interested. I'm finding posing the figures so that they tell some kind of story harder than I thought. No rush as there is plenty still to keep me busy. Thank you all for your kind comments. Dan

Progress; The replacement Hornet heads are definitely worth the cost and effort, now if I can just paint them half way decently I'm just moving bits about to get the look I want. I want to get the figures to work together better and I have some Stalingrad figures coming( a commissar looking around the front of the tank and a prone trooper.) Hopefully I can pull everything into a working diorama and not a busy mess. Lots more details to do to the vehicle, the rear fenders are coming off!!! and more stooge and figures plus some junk and rubble. I have to make a name plate too. Thanks for looking it. Dan

Not much time to build this weekend but a little progress; Need to get some rubble, bricks and glass going Dan

Such a pleasure to see both your work and your clear explanations of your techniques and methods. Thank you! I am always invigorated and enthused by your models, no matter what the subject. They make me want to get back to the workbench and build something. I am so envious of your skill in working with colour schemes, just love em to bits. Dan