RAF Lunar Interceptor - scratchbuild

[voozet]

On 30/10/2021 at 12:50, Uncle Monty said:

Here you can see the legs in position, having been left for a few days to dry fully.

(...)

Next, I decided it was time to glue the cabin to the fuselage which was easy as both faces are flat and made of styrene so all it took was a generous blob of glue and two days to let it all dry.

What glue do you use that you have to wait that long for it to dry?

If all the elements are made of polystyrene, I recommend Tamiya extra thin. Bonds elements well, has a nice brush to apply and dries very quick. Small elements are ready for further work in a few minutes, large in a dozen.

[Uncle Monty]

Hi @shortCummins, i spent a thrilling hour yesterday applying masking tape over the windows. I've had to leave it there for a while as other stuff needs doing. Applying the tape wasn't too difficult, i recently bought a new scalpel which helped with trimming and getting a clean edge. We'll see if it does the job. Hopefully I can get a coat of primer on in the next few days.

@voozet, my fault. I left it for two days because I had to do other things - nothing really to do with glue. Also it's good to leave this things for a while every now and then, gives me a fresh perspective when I get back to it.

[voozet]

1 hour ago, Uncle Monty said:

Also it's good to leave this things for a while every now and then, gives me a fresh perspective when I get back to it.

Risky tactic. I have a full drawer of things put aside 'for a while'. They have been lying there for years 🤣

[Uncle Monty]

6 hours ago, voozet said:

Risky tactic. I have a full drawer of things put aside 'for a while'. They have been lying there for years 🤣

 

Ah well I am a chucker-outer rather than a hoarder so that never happens with me 😀

[Pete in Lincs]

1 hour ago, Uncle Monty said:

Ah well I am a chucker-outer rather than a hoarder so that never happens with me

Shame on you! I run a home for unloved plastic kitbits with recycling potential. 

Of course, this means that I, along with @voozet have boxes full of stuff, but it keeps me happy.

[Uncle Monty]

3 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Shame on you! I run a home for unloved plastic kitbits with recycling potential. 

Of course, this means that I, along with @voozet have boxes full of stuff, but it keeps me happy.

I don't have the room to hoard - my 'workshop' is a veeery small room. My wife has all the spare space for her shoe collection 🙄

[Pete in Lincs]

21 minutes ago, Uncle Monty said:

My wife has all the spare space for her shoe collection

Lateral thinking, there's room in the boots and shoes for modelling bits.

[Uncle Monty]

8 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Lateral thinking, there's room in the boots and shoes for modelling bits.

With respect, that idea is right up there with taking a bone away from a hungry alsation 😲

[voozet]

@Uncle Monty Don't even tell me you don't have a pile of shame either. 🤣

[Uncle Monty]

1 hour ago, voozet said:

@Uncle Monty Don't even tell me you don't have a pile of shame either. 🤣

Well, now you mention it... three tank kits.... one aircraft kit... two Tamiya jeep kits... one steam train kit... a box of random plastic pipes and fittings.... but it's fine... I can deal with it.... not a problem....

[Alan R]

On 11/6/2021 at 10:26 PM, Uncle Monty said:

that idea is right up there with taking a bone away from a hungry alsation

Or a more Scifi'y perspective - "Poking a Rancor in the eye" ...

 

Cheers,

Alan.

[Uncle Monty]

Hi All,

Another update from the work shop on the Interceptor project. She's now got some paint on her so she's no longer just a collection of plastic greeblies and some 22mm pipe, as you can see below. She's actually starting to look like something a bit more real, although still very much in the UFO style which is the look I was after.

Here's a shot of the side thrusters/attitude jets, made up from various tank parts as I may have mentioned. They are quite chunky. I would have preferred something a little more delicate but they'll do.

 

 

This shows the radar housing almost (but not quite) sanded smooth and ready for some of that lovely primer. The next shot shows the louvres I added at the rear to simulate an exhaust pipe of some sort, don't ask me what, it just looks cool. Getting the louvres, which are just rectangles of styrene, into the right position was fiddly and involved much squinting and nudging with a cocktail stick.

 

 

 

Finally I got a coat of primer onto her. At this point I was concerned about how tricky it would be to mask the windows but at the same time I was fed up with delaying the painting so I just bagged the cabin and went for it. With hindsight, which is a wonderful thing, that was a mistake. I should have masked the windows and sprayed the whole thing but whatever, it's done now...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we have the first coat of Tamiya Gunship Grey, applied from a spray can as I don't own an airbrush (although maybe I should get one):

 

 

More coats, I like the colour more and more:

 

 

Finally I plucked up the courage to mask those windows and just go for it:

 

 

 

And here is the patient with the bandages removed. A few paint leaks around the windows which need attention - that's the next job - and then some painting, decals, weathering.

 

 

Well that's it for this update, wish me luck for what comes next because painting and weathering is outside my comfort zone, but it's a challenge and I do like a challenge

Thanks for watching and as always, all comments and abuse gratefully received.
Monty

[Hunter Rose]

Oh cool, nice seeing some paint on it! I always love the bit where the primer goes on and it all magically comes together as one

[Thom216]

I use an airbrush, compressor and all, but this looks pretty useful with a lot less fuss..

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Looking good in grey.  Next stage and decals will bring it to life!

[Uncle Monty]

Thanks guys. The decals will be interesting, I suspect that cos I'm using waterslide film the dark paint might show through a bit too much. We will see.

[2lefthands]

Thats a very cool build!

Yes, get an airbrush-its alot of fun with more control

[Uncle Monty]

hi all

Just got back from France yesterday, just before the new regulations came in. Not quite the last chopper out of Saigon but it made our last day there a bit more interesting 😲

Thanks for the tip @Thom216 i will take a look at that. I'm currently planning my next project which will be along the same lines but involving a lot of scaffolding, maybe similar to the Eagle Transporter. I imagine i'll have to approach the painting in a very different way!

[Uncle Monty]

Hi All

The latest and last update on the Interceptor.
I'm calling this done now although, as they say, any work of art is never really finished, just abandoned.

I made a sheet of decals which you can see here. These are scaled at 1:35 and were printed on a5 waterslide paper. I use Gimp for this sort of thing, after all it's free! I printed these on the laser and I noticed that once they were applied, the yellow was quite hard to see thanks to the dark paint behind it. Yellow looks much better on a lighter colour.

 

 

Here is a little radar assembly I made using greeblies and some staples, just to finish off the radar housing.

 

 

I have to admit I didn't take any pics while I was finishing it, clean forgot, so forgive me. We'll just jump straight to the finished pics. Here she is, with the one I made earlier, the USAF interceptor. They're both the same scale but very different shapes.

 

 

 

The painting is pretty simple as it's not my thing really, so I decided to keep a coppery look for the engines with a dash of silver. The cowls are gun metal. The skids are silver and gun metal. Weathering was done with tiny amounts of dark grey paint, dry brushed into the nooks and crannies. Matt varnish was sprayed over the decals, I used very fine wire wool to buff up the varnish and create a bit of a shine here and there on the rounded surfaces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally we have some fun money shots, heavily influenced by UFO of course. For the 'flying' shots I suspended her on fishing wire against a black background and then just played around in Gimp. The Moon surface is (as before) grey painted cloth and tin foil, with a few stones from the garden.

 

 

 

 

 

This build was a challenge and no mistake, but I learned a lot and I also took the opportunity to expand my toolkit so the next build should be a tiny bit easier, he said hopefully.

Anyway, thanks for watching everyone, best wishes of the holiday season to everyone here and happy modeling
cheers
Monty

[voozet]

 

Good job. They look nice set together: you can see that they are similar in style but at the same time quite different in details.

 

Decal photo is a GMP file, or a printout?

I'm wondering is it difficult to print decals at home? I've been thinking about it for some time but I have doubts if I can do it.

[Pete in Lincs]

Smart work. They look great together. Keep them coming.

I'm just (slowly) starting another big scratchbuild. I'll start a thread soon, I hope.

[Uncle Monty]

Many thanks @voozet and @Pete in Lincs

 

The decal image is a .png generated by Gimp, I printed this on the waterslide paper on the laser. The result is pretty good but as I said the yellow seems a bit watery and dark colours show through. Other colours seem fine. I got the waterslide paper from Amazon, not cheap but then I don't need a lot of it. It comes as A4, i cut it up into A5 sheets and I did test prints first on ordinary paper to make sure I was going to get what I expected to get.

 

@Pete in Lincs looking forward to your scratchbuild, i'll have my deckchair and snacks ready and waiting

Monty

 

[Richard E]

A good idea well executed and you have created the effect of well used engines perfectly; the last four posed pictures definitely have a UFO/Space 1999 feel about them.

 

Looking at the basic design of your interceptor it would probably provide a good starting point for a more utilitarian transport or survey type craft as well.

[Uncle Monty]

Thanks @Richard E !

 

The idea of creating another ship along similar lines, as would probably happen in real life, does appeal. This didn't happen with UFO but it did in Space 1999, anyone remember the Hawk fighter? Martin Bower based that on the classic Eagle shape and very effective it was too.

[voozet]

1 hour ago, Uncle Monty said:

Martin Bower based that on the classic Eagle shape and very effective it was too.

I personally associate this shape with a flying microphone 😉

 

1 hour ago, Uncle Monty said:

The idea of creating another ship along similar lines, as would probably happen in real life, does appeal.

Making many relatively small models is a nice idea. I have a problem with setting goals: I judge my skill and dilligence with excessive optimism and then for many months I do things that are a bit beyond me. Now I just dream to finally finish my current project and start doing something smaller 😄