Monday, May 23, 2011

Recent small projects plus...

I have been concentrating on my Model Railroad recently but along the way I have had to do some plastic modelling.

Firstly, I haver bought two kits by Atlas, in the USA, for station buildings. This is the first one. This is the smaller of the two. Although they are designed not to be painted, I much prefer them properly finished so I have sprayed this in a classic US colour scheme of yellow and brown!

BTW, I know that the finials on the roof are bent but I keep catching them so I will straighten them when the building goes onto my layout. This kit went together beautifully. There was no flash and everything fitted where it should. An example to a lot of aircraft kit makers.



Secondly, I have been repainting two caboose (cabooses - cabeese?? Who knows? Who cares?). One was in New Haven red and black (sorry Dan, it had to go) and the other was a modern Ontario based railroad in bright yellow! I am repainting them in traditional Tuscan Red with black roofs and trim and then will decal them up for my Sunset & North Eastern RR.


Lastly, a real challange. A couple of years ago, I bought this resin flat made by Pili Pili. It is in their Museum series and is in the style of Rogier Van Der Weyden (1400-1464). I have just given it a black undercoat and started the 'beige' areas. It is going to be fun(!) getting all of the transparencies right.


Thursday, May 12, 2011

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

WWII Russian Diorama

Unimodel released a Russian Fire Engine in 1/48th scale recently. I was interested in making it so started to consider how to set it in a scene.














As that kit has gone out of stock, I have been working on the other elements.














This is the first part. It is an Ark Yak 7D. It is actually the ICM kit and has gone together really well. The seams on the fuselage fit perfectly. There was a bit of a gap along the wing roots but nothing that a swipe of Vallejo filler didn't cure. I am in the process of freehand airbrushing the camo. At this point, I normally make a mess and revert to hand painting but - so far, so good!

The plan is to have this in the folds of a crash landing - so props all bent up, no undercarriage, etc. Not sure how I am going to get the canopy opened as it comes as a single item and I need it slid back.

Once completed, the next element is to get some people standing around. I have to hand a set of Eduard figures which should fit the bill nicely. This is the box top.












There are enough figures just standing around to make an interesting diorama.

Watch this step.