[Thunderbird 3 (Progress 28-10)]

So we are still a go!  

Thanks for all the kind comments, I hope you are having fun because I'm still smiling!

 

Progress:

 

Spent a bit more time bashing a little base to hopefully partially hide the rocket on a stick look.  Should have gone bigger or smaller but this is where I'm at.  I've started to put the main assemblies together using 5-minute epoxy as it's clear and gives me some time to adjust bits before it grabs.  I'm very glad I pined the three rocket pods with very thin stiff brass wire as they went on without a fuss.  I think they are straight, true and evenly spaced....  The atomic core fins will be a bit of a chore to get straight and even but I think if I just keep my nerve and don't rush I'll be okay.  Lots more little stuff I want to do but I feel it's starting to look okay.  Pics of progress so far.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Dan

[Thunderbird 3 (Progress 28-10)]

Well I'm glad that's done   Those blue decals are a pain but after having several break up into pieces and some just not wanting to play nice I think I got them down okay.  I have started the rest of the decaling and adding little nonsense bits to make it look a bit busy.  Don't look too close as they are from a 1/48 scale bf-109 sheet and so are all in german ;).  I have almost finished the fins.  I scribed a line 2mm from the end of each as I'm painting the yellow tips because I just can't handle many more decals.  I'm having a lot more fun how and I hope to get the fins on soon.  That said I'm not looking forward to alining all those fins 90 degrees to the body of the bottom stage.

 

Pics.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Dan

[Thunderbird 3 (Progress 28-10)]

Thank you for you lovey comments James.  I hope my little efforts get you to take yours out for a spin   It's a great little kit except for those decals  , buy then I hate decals and they hate me.

 

 

 

A little progress.

 

This little kit is kicking my behind....  But some progress being made none the less.  Not intiely happy with my work on this one but I do so like the subject I'm going to push through and finish her even if it's not my best.

 

Paint on the engines..

 

 

Rough I know but I'm not too good at the shiny stuff.

 

Docking collar;  Rough as well but I think I can tweak it a bit.

 

 

Now the bit that is really doing my head in.

 

The long, thin blue "U" shaped decals that go around all the fins on the centre section.  I just knew that I had no hope of getting them all straight, plumb to the centre line and evenly spaced around the circumference without some guides or help.  The kit only has a series of small square holes that the ends of the fins hook into.  I added a scribed line at what I thought to be the bottom of the 'u' and some very small styrene strips which will set under each fin.  I took ages to try and get all the strips straight, plumb and evenly spaced.  They are okay and with a lot of cursing and patience I'm laying each decal in place and hoping they don't look kack.  

 

 

 

This has been hours of work and I just hope I don;t stuff it up.  There are no spares on the decal sheet and I find the decals brittle and unresponsive to any of the softeners I've tried on them.  So far one decal is pretty lame and the others are okay.  If I survive putting on the rest The model should at least look okay.  I'm certainly not rushing , just one or two a night to keep from screwing up.  I still have to paint the yellow stripes on all the fins but I'll worry about that latter.

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Dan

[Thunderbird 3 (Progress 28-10)]

I was lucky enough to be given an Aoshima Thunderbird 3 for my birthday this year.  I have finally gotten time to clear the bench and start having a go at it.

 

The kit is relatively simple and goes together pretty well but the surface finish is very slick and shiny and I have spent a fair bit of time block sanding everything down.  While sanding I noted a fair few wavy bits in the surface and the white engine pod caps need a lot of work to get them to smoothly to the main pods.  Nothing major and I doubt I'll need any putty at all just lots of sanding and checking fit and then more sanding.  I have drilled out some of the retros and added a few grubbins here and there.  I'm not too fussed if I cannot get it totally screen accurate but I do want to look the part.  Those centre section fins will be a challenge as I'm just finishing the block sanding on them, tedious but I think it will look better in the end. I note that they need a painted yellow stripe too!

 

I'm almost to the primer stage and I have yet to work out the finished colour as I have a few orange - red or red - orange shades to choice from.  Right now I'm concentrating on getting the bird prepped and primed ( it's just pinned together right now) as I would like to work on it as subassemblies for painting and decaling.  

 

Here's where I'm up to so far.

 

 

 

 

Lots of fun and I just love that ship.  

 

I like this kit so much I'm going to track down a TB2 for good measure

 

Thanks for looking in.

Dan

[B-Wing - Bandai 1/72]

Always such a pleasure to read through your WIP posts.  Thank you for taking the time and effort to put so much into each one.  I do hope you get a lot of joy and fun out of these build because that vibe sure comes though your posts.

I do like how you have contrasted the light blues markings with the orange meatballs, that's just magic.  But then you consistently manage your colour choices extremely well.  Much to think about while rereading your build.  Thanks again, I sure do like reading your WIP posts.

[My Tiger got left in the rain.]

Lookin' mighty fine there!

 

I love how much fun these kits are and they cry out to modify and bash to your hearts content.  

 

Have you thought of a little base for your Tiger ?

 

 

[ThinkTank! A toe in the muddy water.]

That's the way.

 

First you have to do, then be self critical and re try again.  Failure to meet your expectations is always a good thing so long as you learn something in the process and don't get too frustrated in the execution.  Have fun and experiment until you have a system of techniques you know and are happy with.  Above all have fun!  Don't get too upset if your results aren't 100 percent perfect, just build another kit!  I like your efforts and am looking forward to your next set of progress pictures.  

 

Dan

 

[ThinkTank! A toe in the muddy water.]

Enjoy!  These are some of my favourite kits, easy to build, lots of fun to modify and no pressure or expectations.  I've built a bunch and am picking the new ones up as they come out.  Go nuts and have yourself a grand time.  I would suggest cutting a bit of the pins off at an angle and opening up the corresponding holes for the pins a touch as these kits are a bugger to get apart while dry fitting.  There is no end to what you can come up with these little beasties.  I'm looking forward to see what direction you chose to go in.   

[1/48 Tiger and Pz III L ( Practicing basing )]

Thank you for all your wonderful comments gentlemen.

I finished the Jagdpanther base this evening.

 

 

 

 

I learned a lot, somethings worked, others didn't but I had fun and next time will be better.

Thanks for looking in.

Dan

[1/48 Tiger and Pz III L ( Practicing basing )]

Badder - Thank you, glad you like my little do-dads.  Such a shame to think of binning your older models.  Though I don't have much more space to keep displaying my newer builds.

 

Bigfoot  - The track is PECO O scale bullhead flexitrack that I scribed in more wood texture to and then painted.  The bridge is just a plaster blank I casted up then scribed and painted to look like a stone bridge.  I need to practice a lot more on my carving but I am getting a bit better at it.  The bases are just Ikea photo frames and dense foam with the usual scenery bits.

[1/48 Tiger and Pz III L ( Practicing basing )]

I've been mucking about building bases for my older kits.  Here's what I came up with.

 

Tiger I on the tracks;

 

 

 

Pz III L On the road again....

 

 

 

And a quick shot of the Jagdpanther WIP

 

 

All are just fun, quick projects to see what I could come up with.  I do think the bases set off the models better than the flat black bases I used before and didn't take very long to knock together.  I hope you like them too.
Thanks for looking in.

 

[1/48 Tamiya Kv-1]

Bravo!  I would love to see this on a muddy little base   I hope you hd fun building it and that leads to many more fine models.  Thank you for sharing.

 

[Tamiya 1/48 Panzer III Ausf.L]

Enjoy!  You look to be on a winner there which will look even better once you get to the painting stage.  Beware though, these little guys are quite addictive.  Once you get a taste for them they are hard to give up.  I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.  Have FUN!

 

[1/48 Churchill MkVII A tale of two tanks.]

Okay I'm calling this base finished unless I made some big mistake.

 

Pics;

 

 

 

 

PzIII is just standing in for the Churchill to see what it will look like.

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

[1/48 Churchill MkVII A tale of two tanks.]

Progress - A bit of colour.

 

 

 

 

Nice to be getting on with the base.  Just some bits of rubble and muck then I can get to painting the Churchill.  I don't know about figures yet but we will see what I can come up with.

I hope you like the look so far.  Thanks for looking in.

 

Dan

 

 

[1/48 Churchill MkVII A tale of two tanks.]

I've worked on a resin base by Black Dog and I'm about ready for paint.

 

Progress;

 

 

 

 

 

So far a fun quick project.  Getting to the good part, painting 

 

 

Clive- I did nothing fancy just made an open face mould, plenty of good tutorials on line, and used materials from a local artist supply shop. (Pinkysil silicon rubber and Easycast for the resin)

 

Thanks for looking in.

Dan

[1/48 Churchill MkVII A tale of two tanks.]

I bought my first kit on a whim as I'm not very knowledgable about British tanks.  Knowing that the Tamiya kits are a good, solid quick build I bashed the first one out in a fortnight. 

 

 

Straight out of the box I thought it came out pretty well.  In fact I think it would make an excellent first kit for anyone vaguely interested in trying out 1/48 scale armour.  The added bonus of being able to build a Crocodile Flame thrower is nice too.

I liked the kit so much I picked up a second to see if I could do a bit more to tart it up.  I wanted to try and remove the upper fenders as seen in some wartime pictures.  This required that I copy the lower run of track in resin and then cut some bits from the upper hull and add some styrene supports to the sponsons.  I've done a bit more sprucing up as well but nothing too fancy.  Here is where I'm at after a fortnights toil.

 

 

 

 

So about the same time in and I would recon another fortnight to finish her.  No all that sure I should just stick with OOB.  But I will say that I have thoroughly enjoyed both kits and I'm thinking of getting a third to back date to an earlier Mark.  

 

Thanks for dropping in for a look.

 

Dan

[Neko-Works Mustang GT350 ( Toon )]

I've been messing about with this for the last few days, almost finished with the detail painting.  Thought I'd make a little base for the Mustang.

 

Here's what I came up with.

 

 

 

 

 

Experimented with a few things but good old 240 grit sandpaper painted up looked the best to my eye.  Just a bit more work and this one will be done.

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Dan

[1/28 SPAD XIII (Back from the shelf of Doom)]

Thanks Haken,  I too love the colour and variation of WWI aircraft.  Though I'd forgotten how much my hands shake and what an adventure the rigging would be.  Guess that's why she sat for almost ten years.

 

Paul, thank you for your encouragement.  The pilot is a old Revell 1/32 scale pilot from the Beaufighter I think.  He 'fit the bill' and was on the bench so he was pressed into service. I should have modified his straps and shaved off the earphone cups on his helmet but if you don't look too hard he kinda looks okay.  Certainly the size isn't an issue.  I like to think this is an aircraft post war being used in a Hollywood movie al a 'Wings'  That way I can have a touch more 'artistic licence' than deserve.

 

Spent some time today 'futzing' and adding some weathering.  I noted that I left off the windscreen and who knows where that is now, sigh.  a little more and then it will be at least 'finished' if you know what I mean.

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Dan 

[1/28 SPAD XIII (Back from the shelf of Doom)]

Many years ago, maybe ten, I started three Revell 1/28th scale kits the Triplane, SPAD and the Camel.  They all got quite far into being built and then stalled hard.  I finished up the Triplane last year but the SPAD and Camel have sat there mocking me since.  I decided to clean off The SPAD and see if I could get her across the line as well.  The Camel will need to wait for another day.  

 

First thing was to clean a decade of dust and muck off the SPAD and then get to grips with what I could really do with her.  I quickly remembered exactly why I stopped work on the SPAD.  Rigging.  I had been using invisible thread and stretched QTips for crude turnbuckles.  Much of the original rigging of the struts survived and with a little applied heat returned to an acceptable tightness.  I have since used elastic thread and brass micro tube but even so it has taken about five hours to get to this stage and I still have the back wing rigging to do.  

 

I have started on trying to get the paint to look okay, I like a weathered look of an in service machine, so I can hide a little bit.  But I am limited by what I did ten years ago. This will never look as good as I thought it could when I started all those years ago but at least I will have finished it.

 

Here are some pics of where I'm at now.

 

 

 

 

I wonder have many folks brought back kits that have spent years on the shelf of Doom?  Any success stories?

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Dan

[MENG Panzer III]

I know not everyones as crazy as me but I do like these little critters.  So much fun and no pressure means building kits is fun again.  I did use some bits from an old Dragon PzIII that I had stuffed up and lots of Evergreen styrene but the base kits not too bad.  I hope you like how it came out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I plan on taking this one to Model Expo to see how many other critters will be in the MISC category.

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Dan

[Meng Panzer III ( Toon)]

Progress;

Just the basics  

Even wonder what you can use the wooden tops off soft cheeses for?

 

 

 

 

 

 

They can make nice round bases for smaller models.

 

Once this lot drys off I can add some greenery.

 

[Meng Panzer III ( Toon)]

Pretty much done, just a few more little tweaks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think it came out okay, better than I expected.  I might make a little base for this so I can take it to the local Expo.  I see that the new Toon Panther is available so......

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Dan

[Meng Panzer III ( Toon)]

Progress;

 

 

 

 

Having so much fun.  I want to get this one finished to take to Expo and then start on my first WNW kit.  But darn it if Meng hasn't got two more of these little critters coming out soon, Darn you MENG!!!!

 

Dan

[Meng Panzer III ( Toon)]

Progress?;

 

Not too sure about the skirts, need to work on em a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

I might do without em completely,  no rules

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Dan