Mike Posted January 24, 2010 Posted January 24, 2010 Hot on the heels of the Skunkmodels modern MD-3 Deck Tractor, Graham from Relish sent me this set for review, and I set about building the tug straight away. Like the modern version, it's an easy build, but the tractor heritage leaves you with an exposed power plant, so it was necessary to build up the chassis, body and engine housing separately for painting, which could be later married up once the engine had been painted. Here's are the assemblies tacked together in primer: It seems that some tugs were painted a blue grey, and others grey, so I chose the grey scheme, which was hardly any different from the primer, but gave a semi-gloss surface to allow me to get the Mig dark wash to flow along the panel lines. I painted the engine with GW metallics, added a little color with Mig rust pigments on the exhaust pipe, and gave it a heavy wash with oils, and a couple of rust streaks. Once that was looking OK, I glued the parts together after painting the wheels with Vallejo dark rubber - a great color for tyres, and much more realistic than the suggested black. You can see a small dent highlighted with a red arrow, which was sanded into the port corner with the edge of a sanding stick and then smoothed with a sanding sponge for later weathering.
Mike Posted January 24, 2010 Author Posted January 24, 2010 Weathering is easy on this little beast. Some scratches were added with dark grey acrylics, some accentuated with a paler grey than the chassis, a few streaks of rust using Mig Abteilung oils streaked downwards with thinner, then a wash of Mig European Earth pastels in the footwell and the small load area behind the crew seat. I'm preparing some rusty chain to busy up the load area behind the seat, and will revisit the weathering again after a little time away - it's a good idea to let things set up, and also take your mind off the weathering process, so you can look at the first round's results with fresh eyes
Dads203 Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 Some nice weathering Mike, looks the business Just need a suitable airframe to go with it. Dan
TonyT Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 Mike i would seriously doubt you would dent it, the body of these things tend to be built out of 1/4 inch steel plate, they need the weight on them you see to enable them to pull aircraft without them trying to rotate around the rear wheels...... Some of them have cast bodies to add even more weight to them. We drive them into hangar doors to get them to shift lol.
AnonymousER99 Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 It was a big impact It actually got HIT by the aircraft carrier as it was pulling into dock to load it
AnonymousER99 Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 Actually the bodies were made of thin sheet metal (think race cars) to improve deck speed! They sacrificed the possibility of damage in order to get another 1/2 MPH out of them. Great idea if you ask me!! Wouldn't arf look good yellow .rich
Mike Posted January 26, 2010 Author Posted January 26, 2010 Actually the bodies were made of thin sheet metal (think race cars) to improve deck speed! They sacrificed the possibility of damage in order to get another 1/2 MPH out of them. Great idea if you ask me!! I googled some pics and they didn't look very sturdy... thankfully I was right!
Craig Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 (edited) Do you know if this is the same tug as was packaged with the 1:48 F4 Corsair a while ago? I built one of those once and it was a nice little kit in itself. Plane wasn't too bad either. Craig. Edited January 26, 2010 by Craig
Mike Posted January 26, 2010 Author Posted January 26, 2010 Not sure Craig, but I expect it might well have been. It's a different color styrene than the figures, and the instructions show it attaching to a Corsair... See what I mean?
Mentalguru Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 Admit it Mike, you are doing a ride on lawnmower diorama for Cath
Craig Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 (edited) Hmmm, Does sound suspiciously similar dosen't it. Just found a picture of my Corsair with the tug on the back. Looks like a big yellow chock on the side as well...... Corsair picture link Craig. Edited January 26, 2010 by Craig
Mike Posted January 26, 2010 Author Posted January 26, 2010 Yeah - that's it. I've not finished the chocks yet, so they're not in the pics.
Craig Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 Excellent, I thought at the time that would make a great little kit on it's own. Plenty of carrier based aircraft it could be posed with on a flight deck diorama. Yours is looking good by the way, Must get back to modelling again to hone my weathering techniques. Craig.
stringbag Posted January 27, 2010 Posted January 27, 2010 (edited) Admit it Mike, you are doing a ride on lawnmower diorama for Cath You always beat me to it!!!!!!!!!LOL The constant foot traffic on the plates used to fetch the underlying metal up to a nice bright finish, so don't over do the rusty bits Mike. May have to get one of these myself and see if it could be civilianised. Nice one Mike Edited January 27, 2010 by stringbag
Mentalguru Posted January 27, 2010 Posted January 27, 2010 Yeah, but who is Cath? My memory- uuuhhhhhhh- where.....am....I.......? Kirsty<? Charlotte? Corrine? Carol? I give up - I'm
AnonymousER99 Posted January 27, 2010 Posted January 27, 2010 Gents It is the exact same tractor that Tamia offers in their Corsair kit w/Moto tug. Tamia does not include the bent body work that Mike's has though Cheers Mike
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