Hasegawa LUM-168 Camel

[House]

This is the Hasegawa 1/20 scale LUM-168. I have been working on it for about 6 months - a very short build for me. I've hit the 75% mark and wanted to get some feedback before I landed this project. It's a very nice kit. The fit is excellent, molding is pretty up there, decals offer a number of variants, and the instructions are great. My only complaint is the universal joints Hasegawa uses to connect all the moving parts. Some of them are difficult to fit. The male plastic parts are oversized to ensure a tight fit; but the ball and socket rubbery part is substantially smaller in some places and you really have to force the parts together. If you need to remove and replace the parts during construction and painting you must be very careful not to apply too much pressure and you can break open a joint or crack plastic somewhere else. This is a work in progress as I only recently started building Ma.K. stuff. I build almost all modern British armor subjects. I decided to do my pieces as British army veterans allied with the the Earth Independent Provisional Government , Independent Mercenary Army (IMA) . I switched out almost all of the armored hydraulic lines with scratchbuilt ones. I wrapped .015 solder around .050 solder. The pilot is wearing early Afghanistan (2008) camo (old surplus stuff) and I have replaced the the male head with a female one. The chipping/scuffing is not finished yet I will continue to post my progress on this piece. Comments and observations are welcome... and appreciated!

 

Fig. 01: Side view. I wanted to give the piece a cobbled together look therefore some parts are painted completely and others are just primed.

 

 

Fig. 02: 3/4 Front View. Hasegawa gives the modeler 2 canopies. One to use when painting and one to use for the final product. Pretty cool.

 

 

Fig. 03 Canopy Removed. Just to see the cockpit.

 

 

 

Fig. 04 Details and Decals.

I made my own "5" decals with Testors clear decal paper. As a note the instructions say leave them in the water for 5 seconds the place them on a damp paper towel. They mean 5 seconds - otherwise the decal will start to disintegrate! I also brushed some Microset on the surface of the model before I ever so carefully slid the decals off the backing into place using a damp paint brush.
The instructions fail to mention you should spray the decals with Testors bonder, wait 8 hours; then spray again and wait 24 hours before you apply the decal. (learned that online).
One other detail. You can draw your decals with a vector program but should save them as a 600dpi .jpg. Set your printer on the highest quality printing and choose matte photo paper as your paper.

Hasegawa's decals are prolific. They are really hard to stop from silvering. I had a bugger of a time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2019 by House
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[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Wow ...  !!!

[Pete in Lincs]

Welcome aboard @House A cracking first post.

I like the British Army idea, the paint looks great and so do the new hyd lines.

Thanks for the build tips. I have one of these in my kreiger stash. One day I'll get around to building them all.

At the moment though I'm having too much fun scratchbuilding kreiger.

Please keep the pictures coming and will your next build be another kreiger?

Cheers

Pete

[House]

Hi Pete,

Thanks for your comments. I am mostly a modern armour and figure modeler. I bought one of the old Nitto kits at a swap years ago. I needed a break from Armour and tried to put together a little dio using the Fireball. I will post the whole set of photos over in completed works later tonight.

[House]

[Pete in Lincs]

That's very nice too. Great paint. Nice figures, better than mine! I like the camouflage effect.

Looks like the Fireballs feet and legs are caked in sand. Subtle 'desert after the rain' effect. Nice.

I forgot to compliment you on the Camels's paint finish. Is there a secret to it? or can you share?

[House]

Thanks again!

[House]

I have been working on the landscape. I want the look of long-cooled lava field. I built the base from plaster cloth, plaster rock castings and carving plaster. I painted it flat raw sienna, brown vallejo wash, and Bone white drybrush. I'm nowhere close to where I want to be; but making progress.

 

 

1. The camel on the plaster and picture frame base

 

 

2. Rock castings with paint wash and dry brush.

 

 

3. This color is probably a little more accurate

 

 

4. Integration of rockcatings with wet plaster base. I used carving plaster and scrapped and dug at it with chisels and dental picks.

 

Edited August 16, 2019 by House
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[DalekCheese]

Very good!