Onwards and Upwards

My plans get simpler and simpler. One day I have to make it to the end.

The current project is a Hobby Boss HE162 Salamander in 1/72nd.
I have chosen to do it in the simplest scheme possible - the kit includes decals for a captured Russian 162. This is painted in a light grey all over.

Even I can do this!

Did I mention that the current state of play is after 20 minutes of modelling!

Just how stupid can I get?

The Cutlass is nearly finished. All the decals are on and the undercarriage has been installed. It is a tail sitter but I knew that as I was going to fix it on a carrier deck base. The model has been finished in Alclad Aluminium and was looking almost done with no silly errors.

However, in the process of finishing, I had scraped the non-masked areas of the canopy so I needed to touch the Alclad up. I put some masking tape around the canopy and did the touch up. Forgetting, of course, that I hadn't put a coat of klear over the model to protect the decals. When I took the making tape off, some of the star and bars decal plus some unit marking came with it!

Yet another model trashed - unless I can source some aftermarket unit marking which would seem unlikely!

Here it is in all it's glory.

I might just get this one done

Well, the Mustang is consigned to the 'Ron' pile - as in 'Ron - who's Ron - Later Ron'. That spinner is going to have to wait. We took deliver of a couple of Fujimi F7U Cutlass kits in 1/72. So, always up for a useless challenge - the thought went - I can do a bare metal jet and get it finished for the club meeting on Tuesday 27th.

If I can finish this one, I will be in the situation of being able to cover all bases on the table at the club. I will have a figure, a tank, a ship and an aircraft. The ship is a secret for now (don't expect too much!).

Well here are some photos of the Cutlass. I am quite happy with how it is going. I am at the Johnson's Klear stage and just about to put decals on the thing. It has gone together very easily and the only mistake I have made (can I ever do a kit without a mistake?) was to not drill out the holes in the wing underside to take the drop tanks. Hence, I will be butt- jointing them. It should be alright to last until Tuesday.

The Marder is finished - at last

I determined that I must finish the outstanding models so I have got on with the Marder diorama over the last couple of days. I cut out a spare piece of pine board and used the new Tamiya texture paints to finish the ground work.

The Marder has an aluminium Jordi Rubio barrel and a set of Fruil metal tracks. I needed the tracks because I wanted to use the maintenance crew in a situation where a track had broken. The figures came with the Tamiya kit but are actually ICM figures.

I have got a new camera so instead of the little Samsung that I was using, I have got myself a new digital SLR. Having sold my previous one about 9 months ago, on the basis that i didn't really use it, I realised that, in fact, it was vital for good photos of my models. My family clubbed together for my birthday and gave me cash, thinking that I was goung to get one of the new Apple iPads. However, on reading about them, I decided that a really good camera was the better way to go. A quick search on EBay got me a great deal on a Canon 500D/Rebel Ti1 which has 15.5mp and a live view. It can even take 1080 HD video!

So here we go.

Why it has been quiet

This has been the project for the last couple of weeks. Valerie and I have been spending our evenings completing this jigsaw puzzle. It is a 636 piece puzzle called "Coming Home England" and depicts a B-17 returning on a wet afternoon somewhere in East Anglia.




















This is a closeup of the box art











Back to normal, I am working on finishing the Marder diorama and then back to the P-51D with the intention of having both completed before the next Ipswich Club meeting.

The Blackfoot Raven Bearer is finished

Here we are. It is a Young Miniatures 1/10th scale resin bust.

As Valerie says - even more reason for me to stop
'messing around' with aircraft. This is not as good as Sonia Maes
would do, but then I don't expect to get 'Best in Show' - well
done Sonia btw. I am quite pleased with this one. I particularly
like the 'naive' bird images and I feel I have got the shawl just
about right. I tried an experiment with the flesh as I have been
feeling that the finish is not as smooth as I would achieve with
oils. As I can't get on with oils I had to try something else, so
all of the skin elements have been coated with Johnsons Pledge
Multi-Surface Wax - the successor to Johnsons Future/Klear.

It did get a couple of coats of flat varnish and a dot of gloss varnish
in each eye to make it shine.

The Raven bit comes from a belief in the Blackfoot tribe. This was that the bearer of a stuffed Raven would have the Raven's soul to warn him of the imminent approach of an enemy. It strikes me that this would have been quickly disproved but what do I know.

My next project is a Deutsche Afrika Korps radio operator from the WWII desert war with the British. This is yet another Young Miniatures 1/10th bust. however, the headphones are a concoction of resin and copper wire - I can see some fun coming!

So what do I have to do?

The idea that I would get on well with the P-51D has proved to be an illusion. There always seems to be something with aircraft but I am beginning to think that it is self imposed. The block I have at the moment is this. The nose of the plane has a red and yellow chequerboard painted and the the spinner has a red and yellow pattern. the chequerboard is on the decal but not the spinner. Now that isn't hard to resolve because it is a simple 50-50 split on the spinner. However, matching the red/yellow of the decal with paint is proving to be difficult. So, the model goes on the back burner along with the Catalina. I will get back to it - promise!

In the meantime, I have returned to my series of 1/10th Native American busts. This one is of a Blackfoot Raven Bearer. It was believed by the Blackfoot tribe that the Raven had 'magic' powers. The Raven Bearer wore a stuffed Raven skin on the back of his head. The soul of the raven thus worn was reputed to give the wearer advanced warning of the presence of an enemy.

The figure is one of the Young Miniatures series and like all the others I have done, is extremely well moulded out of resin. It is shown here from 3 days ago when it was about 50% complete. I am expecting to finish the model tonight or at least tomorrow so final pictures will appear then. Just so you know, i am experimenting a bit with the skin. As opposed to oils, acrylics do not have a smooth finish when dry brushed, which is how you need to finish a face, for instance. I have given all of the flesh a few coats of Johnson's Klear (well actually the new and supposedly formula changed Pleadge multi-surface polish). This should have filled in any small surface imperfections due to it's self levelling feature. Once given a coat of flat varnish, I am hoping that I will get a good texture to the skin.