Forma Obscurum

Whew!

2012-01-03T23:38:00.003-05:00

I've got four kits on the bench right now that had mostly been waiting for Tamiya to start shipping paint again. Joy of joys, my LHS just got some in and I will be starting up again. Maybe I can get at least one thing done for CanAmCon this year.

A good friend gifted me with Revell's 1/72 B-17! Wow! What a guy, huh?

When things got frustrating last week with my conversion of a Fairey Rotodyne into a gunship, I put that aside and opened up the B-17. I promised not so much AMS this time and dove in. Here's the thought process:

"Wow, pretty nice kit. Hmm. I think I'll OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO?"

It's a big kit. While waiting for the oil paint woodwork to dry (yes, there was a lot of wood on a B-17), I thought about display and came up with a little diorama idea. For that idea, I needed bicycles.

I searched online and found that the bikes were expensive and not that good. I then found a vintage Airfix WW2 German soldier on a bike and thought I could cut away the figure. No dice.

The only thing left to do was build one. I grabbed some sprue and started stretching. My first bike turned out okay, but the lines were wrong so I hit the internet to find a pic of a 1930's Raleigh. I took this pic, scaled it down to 1/72, traced the fame, tires and fenders in illustrator and made a template:

I laid out the frame and glued it. I made a coil of copper wire on an Xacto handle to make the wheels (the handle's diameter was nearly perfect for a scale 26"). The fenders were rolled styrene sheet.

Here's the difference between the templated (in tweezers) and the non-templated bikes.

I then made a second templated bike just for fun. Here's the trio painted:

And here's a close up of a tempalted bike:

Not bad. We'll see how the B-17 itself turns out!

Whoa! A new model in progress

2011-11-27T20:13:00.003-05:00

Actually, I've got a lot in progress. An L-39 Albatross (my first 1/72 jet since high school), an Accurate Miniatures F3f-2 and an original issue AMT Mercedes 300sl. Respectively, they're waiting for Czech decals, oil wash drying and Tamiya to actually start shipping paint.

Today, however, I want to talk about my newest Biting Off More Than I Can Chew project. It's a very speculative What If; an AC-119-style gunship version of the Fairey Rotodyne.

I'd started the Rotodyne last Xmastime and tried to do it in BAE Livery but my stenciling was not great looking and the poor fit of the model meant that I'd removed some panel lines during seam filling. I shelved it until, at my last model meeting, a friend of mine (who says that he doesn't like doing WiFs) suggested a gunship version. He graciously slid me a 1/72 model of a 105 Howitzer and I was off.

Another one of my model group members is a former AC-119 pilot and offered some insight into what to do. I sketched out a basic floor plan based on his input, a Squadron C-130 book and some very small pictures on the web. I am trying to have a plan with this one so I don't get stuck and rule #1 is: NOT DO DETAIL WHERE IT CAN'T BE SEEN (see my Stranraer).

I started working on the 105 and crafted a mount vaguely like that on a modern AC-130. I then totally scratch built a 40mm Bofors. You'll notice that the Bofors is not super-detailed. This is in keeping with rule #1. I did a lot of test fitting and was going for the silhouette of a Bofors.

I then moved on to the difficult parts: rotary cannon. My pilot friend suggested that in addition to the 105 and 40mm, I should add two Vulcans and two miniguns. I found some pics of mingun mounts (not the ones that used aircraft gun pods) but there was only a single pic of a vulcan mount from an AC-119.

The barrels were individually assembled from stretched sprue. The miniguns only have four barrels but the Vulcans have a full six. There are no belts going from the ammo drum to the Vulcans as you will not be able to see them (lots of test-fitting and looking through windows to make sure of this). I 'failed' a bit on the miniguns and put ammo cans and feed chutes that you can't see.

Yes, I just noticed that the barrel group of the Vulcan is not straight. Don't worry, I'll fix it ;)

Here's the interior with all the parts. The thing on the far right is going to be the FLIR station. The window that have the kit clear in them will be painted over (embarrassment: I was scratching my head for a day or so of how to deal with filling the windows. Had some crazy ideas until I had the forehead-smacking moment)

And here's the view from the rear of the cabin. You can see why I'm not going all Stranraer on this thing.

My main worry is trying to do the finishing with all of the gun barrels sticking out. I know the fit will be just as problematic as before only now I've got all of these bits I can knock free.

Any suggestions?

Cheers!

One-Month Jug

2010-12-16T10:37:00.004-05:00

I work part-time at my local toy and hobby store (laid off graphic designer). My boss, also a modeler was gifted with a Hasegawa P-47D (Tarheel Hal) a while ago and it was left sitting behind the counter as he really didn't care much for the Jug. On Nov. 18, he offered it to me and I accepted. I like the p-47, but it's not my favorite, so I decided to use it for an experiment.

How much and how well can I build a model in a month. Well, here's the result. Everything you see was worked on during the month. I'm sorry for the quality of the photos, I didn't feel it turned out good enough to use my SLR and macro :(

I built it OOB (if you accept that also in the box was a KMC resin cockpit).

Construction went well and after the Matchbox Stranraer, it was nice to build a model with good fit and clean detail. The cockpit took a lot of work as it was my first resin cockpit and needed some carving for proper fit. The kit seat was better, so I used that but I really liked the resin gunsight (too bad the photos won't show the tiny clear reticle I put on it).

I used Tamiya "Titan Silver" for the NMF which worked pretty well, but when it came to seeing if the finish was consistent, it was harder than white.

The "Tarheel Hal" decal was big and I thought it'd be hard to get it to sit well over the panel lines and I didn't want to mix a blue to match for the spine. So, I took to painting the blue and white and using the individual stars provided on the decal sheets. This proved to be nearly as hard. The decals were both fragile AND thick. The carrier film of the individual stars showed up awfully. I also found out that using Friskit Film was great for paint masking the blue, but NOT for the anti-glare section. Even with a coat of future, the film pulled off a good amount of decal. I suppose I shouldn't have been angry about this given that the decals didn't look great, but GRRR! anyway.

The dio base was done on Sunday; it's a bit shoddy. The figures turned out rather well, though.

The chocks and start cart I saw in a "How to Fly the P-47" video on YouTube and are totally scratch built.

As was the toolbox.

The whole thing was finished Monday (Dec 13) night. No "heroic measure" were taken for the build; I worked, drew an elven-page comic, read books, shoveled snow and watched Dr. Who with my wife. Was this a success or failure? I think right in between. It won't win any awards, but I learned a lot about seam-filling, resin-cockpits, masking, and a way to make NMF. All will serve me well in the future. By moving fast, I've now learned better how to go slow.

Also, I'm aware that maintenance would likely not be done on a plane with a full bomb load; I didn't decide on the figures or dio bits until the plane was completed.

Matchbox 1/72 Stranraer: The Madness Revealed

2010-10-16T23:17:00.006-04:00

I'm procrastinating inking the newest issue of Obscure Tales and I'm working on the Stranraer. I've completed building the interior and I've painted and washed it. It looks pretty good here. Nice and full:

Remember to click on the images as Blogger crops them to a uniform width. Most are wider

The problem is, when I button it up, it is virtually all invisible; the radio station with it's electronics rack and plush seat can only be seen if you shine a light inside and tilt the fuselage just right. Even through the dorsal gunners hatch, not much can be seen. I was fooled by the white of the Evergreen plastic into thinking stuff would pop out when I painted it cockpit green. Oh, well.

Here's the navigator's station, the only part besides the cockpit that will be visible:

The other thing I did, which will also be nearly invisible, was to make a new instrument panel. The kit panel is an embarrassment (especially when put next to the crisp, well-detailed Lewis guns and pilots). I found a panel layout diagram, drew instrument faces in Adobe Illustrator, laid them out to scale and printed them on paper. I then worked a sandwich of Evergreen sheet and paper. Turns out, that the detailed faces I worked on were a waste of time given the resolution of my HP DeskJet. At least they look busy. What did work nicely was painting the panel black and then twisting an Xacto #11 in the hole to reveal some white. In person, it makes the instruments pop. I'm debating whether to put a drop of Future on the faces as it may degrade the image more.

In other good news, I made a test of a technique I wanted to use on the wings and control surfaces (which are aluminium doped) and it worked! I'll share when I've done it for real and have some pics.

Listening to while posting: "Keep Fishin' " by Weezer

Stranraer: The Madness Continues

2010-10-08T20:48:00.005-04:00

With the interior done except for painting, and a break to participate in 24-Hour Comics Day, I've decided to venture into Biting Off More Than I Can Chew Land. It's been a strange journey so far.

The kit canopy is VERY, VERY THICK.

With all that (hopefully) beautiful detail inside, it seems a shame to hide it behind a warped, distorting canopy. So, I've decided to build my own canopy out of sheet styrene and that thin clear plastic they use for packaging headphones and the like.

I thought and thought and sketched and sketched and came up with Technique #1. I'm building a frame of styrene. The frames are a bit wider than scale, but I think (hope) that the clearer transparencies will make up for that. We'll see how it paints up (one reason for doing it this way was easier painting of the interior of the frame. My one worry is putting the 'glass' in I have a plan, but it wasn't fully formed because I didn't think I'd get to this point without complete failure.

I've got a tentative plan for Technique #2 which I'll be attempting Sunday. I'm doing that a) just in case placing the glass in the current frame fails or b) it looks like butt.

All in all, this is the smallest, most delicate thing I've made yet. Not only that, it's the smallest most delicate thing that needs to be structural! I'm pushing the limits of my engineering ability and my tools. Some of the parts are so small that I really can't see them when they're in the tweezers. Zowie. Stay tuned!

Listening to while posting: "Swans" by Camera Obscura

Matchbox 1/72 Stranraer

2010-09-30T22:16:00.007-04:00

I won a Stranraer at my model building club's auction two weeks ago (US$3) and jumped right in. I wasn't planning on much of an interior, but that little open door just called to me. It is my first 1/72 scale model since 1989...

More specifically, it called to that little portion of my brain afflicted with AMS. I'm holding back a bit, not putting super-detail where it really won't be seen, but I wanted the interior aft of the door to at least look busy when the viewer's eye moves past the windows.

The admin of the forum on Seawings.co.uk was very helpful when I told him my tale when applying to the forum. He sent some awesome plans.

This is the rough, unpainted interior. Much of the little bits (Lewis magazines, first aid kits, extending lamp, etc) are not in and will be painted separately. The major furninshings are done. The cockpit is nearly done, I'm deciding on how to do the second pilots fold-away seat and rudder pedals. Click on the images for the full view. Most of the images are longer than 600px and blogger just crops them.

Sorry for the odd angle on these...

A lot of work for a tiny door. But, it had to be done. Well, maybe it didn't, but I did it anyway...

Listening to while posting: the torrential rain hitting the roof. Zowie!

Well, isn't this ironic

2010-08-30T21:22:00.015-04:00

Or, maybe not. The definition of irony sometimes escapes me.

Here's the deal and the bad joke: I don't often post finished models. One might say, I'd post a finished model when pigs fly. So, here's a flying pig:

And my build of his aircraft, FineMolds' Savoia S.21 from Haiyo Miyazki's wonderful film Porco Rosso. (make sure to click to embiggen these)

The model is a marvel of engineering in most places, silliness in others. The silliest part is in the interior. Just ahead of the cockpit is the fuel tank, beautifully molded with nuts on the mounting flanges. The silliness is that when you finish the model, this part will not be seen except for a tiny glimpse of the rear of the tank under the instrument panel. There are no provisions, or even the possibility for opening a panel.

The other silly part is the engine. The engine was full of detail, including a manifold in the aft section and exterior detail to the engine gearbox. I had to try to show this magnificent little thing, especially when I went all AMS on it and put detail that would never be seen (and since I took no photos of the finished engine before buttoning it up...)

The engine cowling pieces were thick, so I asked a fellow Mount Mansfiled Modeler if he could vacuum form a replacement for me. He was gracious enough to do so (he and his wife also had me over for dinner and a great dessert, too. Both of which I was grateful for).

Looking to the film and finding a couple of shots of the engine under repair, I set to work. Here is a screenshot:

Here's my recreation of the panels:

Here are all the pieces ready for painting:

And here it is finished and assembled. Note how I also hollowed out the exhaust and the engine cowling vents. That was pretty touchy, but looks much better:

Here's a closeup of the cockpit, the harness are scratchbuilt as the kit only came with a decal harness:

The belly was my first attempt at oil wood grain. I've developed an easy technique for using Tamiya NATO Brown to make wood grain, but the large area and need for a more subtle effect prompted me to try oils (the fact that my wife is a painter made supplies easy to get). Try as I might, however, I could not take a decent photo to show off my wood grain. It looks good, but I should have kept at it until I got a more subtle Albatros DVa-style plywood effect. Also, the stripes are painted so that I could weather them as close to the main fuselage as possible. I think I'll paint all stripes from now on. easier in some respects to decals.

While this is not good enough to enter a contest, it is the best build I've done to date. I learned a lot and there are some nice moments on the plane. (though, looking at the photos, I need to re-tension the pontoon rigging. I'll get on that before the next modeling club meeting). I'd really like to build another and use this one to build an overly-ambitious diorama of Porco's lair:

Two more pics for good measure:

next in the pipeline: another Academy 1/48 P-26 Peashooter. I'm going to make this one shine (after I get some aftermarket decals to replace the very thick kit ones.

Listening to while posting: "Aeroplane" by Bjork (wow. Is THAT ironic?)

t-6 Texan: Round Two!

2010-05-22T23:01:00.006-04:00

To get over my frustration and low self esteem from the Siemens-Schuckert disaster, I decided to build another T-6 Texan. This is a good, solid kit and I really enjoyed building it last time. The first turned out pretty good and I would put the lessons I learned building it to the new one.

The lessons learned, basically, were procedural (I assembled or painted some things second that I should have done first) and detail (I put lots of detail in places that were not visible at all when assembled and didn't detail some places that were visible).

Right now, it's being painted, but here are some process shots.

First is the hollowed out exhaust. It needed it as the original was not very deep. First the basic drilling:

Behind the fuselage, you can see this little guy. It's a hollowed out black sprue.

That's needed to fill the hole, but also add depth. Here, it's glued onto the inside of the fuselage:

Of course, you can't tell the depth from this photo, but it's there.

I also decided to make the control surfaces in non-neutral positions. The ailerons proved impossible, but on all of the photos I checked, they were in the neutral position while the elevators drooped. I didn't have a JLC combo knife so I just used an Xacto. Slowly cutting over and over until the piece came free.

I also decided to put a bit more detail into the wheel wells. Here, I drilled some lightening holes that are in the actual aircraft. I've since added hydraulic lines and a small bulkhead on the airframe.

I also re-worked the rear bulkhead. It was very difficult to find a photo of this section. But, between a few photos of Texans being restored, I managed to get close

Here's a bad shot of the original (those lumps are ammo boxes. Only used on Texans used for bomber gunner training):

and here's the re-built:

I'm really moving slow on this one. Working on my seam filling and other basic stuff. I'd like to get this good enough to take to Valley Con next spring. We'll see. One of the guys in my model club is a very experienced modeler who was a judge at the Nationals this year, so he can pre-judge my work!

FAIL!

2010-04-26T17:52:00.002-04:00

Well, the Seimens-Schuckert is a major fail. I did a big post at theHyperscale forums on their, oddly timely, "modeling disasters" section.

Everything you'll need to know about why I'm not posting a finished pic of the Seimens-Schuckert isright here.

I'm doing another T-6 Texan to make myself feel better...

too busy building to post

2010-02-26T19:52:00.010-05:00

About Xmas time, The Mount Mansfield Modelers had their annual swap meet/sale. I saw what I thought was a little gem and asked the guy what he wanted for it. "Nothing", he replied. I asked him a couple of times to be sure and he was. He had too many to build and just wanted to get rid of it. Coolness!

Then I checked on eBay and found out that the kit, in shrinkwrap as this one was, went for $60 - $80! Now, I couldn't take that from him, so at the next meeting, I told him about eBay and what the kit was worth. He still told me to keep it. I told him I planned on putting this at the top of my list of builds. And I did.

Here she is, the Eduard Siemens-Schuckert D.III (kit circa 1993). This aircraft ("LO!") was flown by Germany's greatest ace after Richtofen: Ernst Udet.

Now, Eduard is now known as a company that creates some of the best cast, most detailed, best engineered model kits out there. It was not always the case. This was a short run kit and I'm not sure what they used as molds, but I think they may have been jello. Check out the flash on these pieces:

Here's a closeup of the prop blades:

and one of the guns:

Eduard is now also known for exceptionally detailed and meticulously researched photo-etched detail sets. To make up for the crappy molding and soft detail of the plastic, they included a massive photoetch set. The entire cockpit is photoetch and there are even gun cooling shrouds. However, cool this seemed at the start, the pe cockpit was to become the first bear of the project.

I spent a good three or four hours just sanding the pieces. Gods, there was a lot of flash. I also took the time to separate the control surfaces. It always makes a plane more natural-looking to have its control surfaces not in the neutral position.

Then to the cockpit. Bending and painting and assembling the cockpit was really hard. The pieces were filddly and fragile, but I managed to get it together. For scale, those lines to the left are 1" (2.5cm) apart.

I then moved on to assembling the fuselage (which, by the way, has no alignment pins). Then, due to handling, I broke the damned cockpit. Snapped those side arms clean of. Since the pieces were too small for CA glue and epoxy would be a pain, I decided to scratchbuild a copy out of sheet styrene. It was pretty easy as I had a three-dimensional blueprint handy:

Not bad. I have some shots of the fully completed cockpit, but I haven't dumped them from the camera yet.

And by the way, do you see those tiny buckles on those seatbelts? Those had to be slipped on the seatbelts individually. Jeezum!

Next up: Fuselage Follies!

The Eggs and Us

2009-10-19T23:49:00.004-04:00

As promised, here are some shots of the other entries to the Mount Mansfield Modelers Egg-stravaganza.

They are presented in the order that they appeared on the table, from left to right (minus mine, btw). Keep in mind that base of these models were eggs that were identical except for color.

First was the pun (and I did groan out loud, but the creator expected it), I give you The Nest Egg:

This requires a bit of explanation. It represents the first solar-powered anti-gravity fighter-bomber in the post-war British inventory (the upper hull has to be transparent for the solar panels to work, see?)

Next came the WW1 entry. The rudder is movable, the wings are doped fabric, the canopy opens and closes and the prop is battery-powered. UPDATE: This beauty took second place

This yellow beauty was created by the guy who's idea this whole thing was (he also generously supplied the eggs. Check out those fabulous eyelashes around those cool windows and the tongue dashboard!

Finally was the Spruce Goose-Egg. Everything was scratchbuilt except or the engines and props. Look how smooth and perfect the boat hull is; it was made with from scratch with plastic cardstock. The outboard pontoons were carved from wood then molded on a vacuum-form machine.

listening to while posting: Sweet Enemy chilling out on the floor of my studio with the cat. She just got back from a long drive to Portsmouth and is telling me about all the art framing stuff she learned how to do.

The Egg and I, Epilogue

2009-10-15T21:30:00.004-04:00

Well, I just got back from the Mount Mansfield Modelers meeting and the egg contest was tonight. Man was I nervous! I hadn't felt that nervous since my last Aikido test. Sheesh. First I was worried that it would break in transit, or that I wouldn't be able to assemble it, or it would break on the display table.

Why was I worried about breaking? Earlier in the week, the nose gear fell off three times, each time I was certain it was on for good. However, it made it to the meeting and it stayed whole.

There were seven entries and competition was fierce! Fantastic, fantastic works. Of course I forgot to bring my camera, but I'll try to snag some from another member. The two standouts were a Spruce Goose Egg with the wings, tail and boat-hull nose all scratchbuilt and perfectly shaped and a "Jokker" (A WW1 nut, he couldn't decide whether to build a Junkers or a Fokker) It was a monoplane with movable rudder, full cockpit, doped-fabric-over-wood-frame wings and a battery powered propeller. On the line were two trophies built by the MMM's chairman (a gold and silver egg trophy for first and second place).

There were two rounds of judging; one for first place and one after for second place. I voted for the Jokker both times, but it was tough to decide!

As I said, I didn't get any shots at the show, so here are some shots I just took of the completed Snowflea on the dining room table.

So, how did the Snowflea fare against the other outstanding entries?

The Egg and I, part three

2009-10-11T22:12:00.005-04:00

Nearly done! Here's the test-assembled fuselage. Despite my best efforts, the clear canopy has become dirty. I have to figure out how to clean it without messing with the paint. Grr.

I applied decals. Even though you can't see them, the "28" is not the only decal. I've got a bunch of random things like grounding points, RESCUE arrows and other little things on the lower half. Sorry no pic, couldn't get one to work.

Here you can almost see the expansive cockpit. It is, as you may guess, hard to take a shot of a clear dome without the light reflecting in the middle of it.

Here's the aft section. The ringed hole is the mount for the engine nacelle shaft.

I can't remember if the contest is THIS Thursday or NEXT Thursday. I'm building as though it were this Thursday, so I'll post some completed pics before then.

Listening to while posting: "Gebrauchmusik II" by Adrian Legg

The Egg and I, part two

2009-10-01T22:32:00.008-04:00

Still working on the egg. I got the first coat of paint on, but found that I REALLY need a moisture trap for my airbrush. I never noticed it because I'd been doing most of my modeling in the winter with a wood stove roaring in the next room.

Here's the fuselage. I faked some panel lines (with pencil and pre-shading) because I found the egg plastic did not like being scribed. Or, also possible, I'm a horrible scriber. The color is actually red, but I couldn't for the life of me get rid of the PINK color of the photo. The black thing on top is a radome.

Side view:

Front view (the thing on the front is the door. I'd planned on actually building a door and full interior but the crappiness of the plastic stopped that idea):

Here's the engine nacelle. Again, it isn't that pink.

This is the rear. The black bits are cut-outs where the propeller blades will go:

This is the intake. It features the only cannibalized part on the entire model so far (a spare bogie from some tank or another):

The propeller blades were going to be problematic from the start. I thought I'd try simple and made some out of wood strips. The result was... not good:

So, I tried again in plastic. Stuck, I hit the web and found a picture of a new Hamilton-Sundstrand prop and tried to copy that. Here's an in-progress pic. The tough thing is getting the four blades to be even closely related to each other. Next time, I'm doing one and then casting the rest out of resin:

The cockpit is turning out well, I added the instrument panel:

Here's a shot of the instruments. I designed up a set of instruments in Adobe Illustrator and, since I didn't have any decal paper yet, so I used sticker paper. The effect is not bad. The only problem is you can't move the stickers around like you can with decals.

Another view:

A close up, looking forward through the cabin door, showing the raised bits (fire suppression t-handle, throttles and some buttons). After I looked at this shot, I realized I had to re-position some of the instrument clusters as they are a bit askew:

That's all for now. I'm coating it in future and plan on assembling the engine soon. The contest is two weeks from today. I hope I at least get a nod or two from the old hands.

Sweet Enemy bought me a wicked cool Japanese model for my birthday. Oh, it is sweet. I can hardly wait to build it. But, since it is from SE, and it's hard to find, I'm putting it at the bottom of my stash so that my skills will be up to it when I get to it. Hopefully.

Listening to while posting: Scherzo: Allegro & Finale by Beethoven (played by the London Symphony Orchestra)

It's been a while part one: The Egg and I

2009-09-18T15:38:00.015-04:00

I may not have been posting, but I've been doing stuff. My local modeling club (the No Website Club, it seems) is having a contest. Back in May, one of the guys bought a bunch of ostrich-sized plastic eggs. Split longitudinally, half the egg is clear and half is opaque. Anyone who wanted to enter took an egg. There are only two rules:

1) if you take an egg, you have to make something.
2) a significant portion of the clear part must be left clear.

I took the challenge, but when I got home I realized that, since I have only been modeling again for less than a year, I have no stash of leftover parts. This meant that I would be having to scratchbuild the entire thing. Talk about biting off more than you could chew.

I dug and dug into my brain and came up with the idea of this thing. I've been into Forties and Fifties radio Sci-Fi for a while and thought about making some sort of exploration vehicle that an Golden Age-style exploration ship would drop onto a planet. Not having any wheels, I decided on an exploration vehicle for arctic-climate worlds and that meant skis:

the Heiden-Brinker SS-3b "Snowflea" is based on the Lotus Ice Vehicle a real vehicle made by the luxury car company.

A bit ambitious, but I pressed on. I drew some nearly-scale (1/48) plans (floor plan, furnishings and structure) and started in. My first test was to make a leg out of sheet styrene. It worked so well, I made all three.

Then I actually began working on the interior of the hull and the cockpit floor, but I have no images of that in progress. It was really hard for two reasons. First, constructing vertical bulkheads to fit the curve of the egg was nearly impossible (as I can't really get a good cross-section of it without cutting it apart). Secondly, the plastic of the egg is awful. It is very soft and no adhesive I have works, not model glue, not CA glue, not white glue; I don't want to try anything harder as it might melt the whole thing into a pile of slag. So, I'm doing a lot of wedging. to keep it structurally sound.

I then made four seats. This was extra-tough. Making one of something is easy, making four is hard. If I do something like this again, I'm going to make one and cast the rest in resin. As it is, each chair is more similar than identical. Ah, well. This wasn't going to win any contests anyway. Here's the cockpit:

And the cockpit next to the hull with the hull interior. You can see the beam that crosses the entire hull. This is the main support for the left and right main skis. Since I couldn't glue hinges to the side, I had to make it structurally sound by putting the solid beam through:

And the cockpit installed on the hull:

The engine is proving difficult. I tried cutting a smaller plastic egg, but cutting a perfectly circular hole for the inlet was impossible (and with the crappy egg plastic, I couldn't keep anything glued in anyway). I happened to find some cheapo wooden eggs with a flat bottom at a craft store. Sweet enemy's father drilled a hole in the bottom for me and I was on my way:

One part I'm proud of is the 'ice brake'. The Lotus has this and I replicated it as simply as I could:

I've begun painting it, but ran into a snag that is a lack of water trap for my compressor. Nothing like having your airbrush spitting water all over your work to slow down the process.

Well, the sun just came out, so I'm going outside, darn it!

listening to while posting: "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" by The Postal Service

post meeting update

2009-04-17T19:54:00.007-04:00

I met with the Mount Mansfield Modelers, my local modeling group, for the third time now. Interesting group. A mix of car and plane guys, of newbies and old hands. Two of the old hands are plane guys, one of them works in 1/72 scale and can really cram detail into a cockpit you can barely see! My goal, I think, is to impress the two old hands.

I brought the T-6 in it's unfinished state and spoke of the foolishness of working on two models at once (quite humorously, all of the guys after me, including the two old hands, admitted to working on two models at once! lol)

Here's the Texan:

Not, too bad. The landing light lenses are REALLY thick. I'm not sure what to do about that.

Here's the nose. I do like that engine.

The tailwheel broke off and disappeared entirely. Luckily, I had two tiny wheels in my Box-O-Parts. I have no idea where the came from, but the were the perfect size. I'm glad I had two, because my scratchbuild looks better than the original.

I could only present the chassis and cockpit of the Cobra as a paint test showed that something was very wrong with the paint I was using. It went on super orange-skinned. The old hands thought it might have been too cold and recommended soaking the can in warm water before spraying.

What I brought was well-received, even by the car guy who wires his engines in the proper firing order. He's really into making the bodies look good, so I doubt my skills will measure up to his standards. The 1/72 scale plane guy liked my seatbelts, but I know for a fact he puts in seatbelts that were hardly bigger than my buckles.

Here's the cockpit. The second shot is just to show off my scratchbuilt fire extingisher!

Listening to while posting: "Light the Match" by Mirah

dual model update

2009-04-11T21:38:00.009-04:00

I had to strip some parts of the Texan: the engine cowling and the tail. I had painted the cowling and a bit by the tail blue to replicate this scheme:

What happened was that some of the blue got chipped AND some of the Rub N' Buff got all caked up near the tail. So, I stripped the entire tail and cowling with Simple Green and then re-pre-shaded it (heh). A bit of the Rub N' Buff came off as well so I had to re-spray with flat (matte) white. You see, Rub N' Buff needs a slightly gritty surface to catch on. It just slides off of gloss paint or bare plastic. I've actually already Rub N' Buffed the fuselage and I'm going to be painting the tail yellow tonight and the blue bits tomorrow.

The Cobra's coming along. Sort of. I worked on finishing the engine last night. I bent up eight pieces of wire for spark plug wires individually, then installed them with Cyanacrylate glue. Here's my 'wiring diagram' so I can match my individually bent pieces to their proper places:

and here's the finished product. Tamiya silver certainly does photograph better than it looks in person. I mean, it looks pretty good in person, but looks extra good photographed. I also "scratch built' the oil filter. If you can call cutting and sanding a piece of sprue scratchbuilding. I can't believe they didn't include an oil filter on this car.

I also built a 'trunk' for the Cobra. It's not functional, it's just a sort of blocker made out of cardboard. What it does is simulate where a trunk might be and blocks light. You see, when the wheels were put on for a test, I found that without this blocker, you could see all the way through the wells in a non-realistic way. So, I took some cardboard and white glue and made this:

And, because I'm an aircraft guy, I had to put seatbelts in the cockpit. They're scratchbuilt with masking tape straps and wire and wine-bottle-cork-metal latches and buckles. I'm not all that sold on my buckles, but It was a first:

in workbench note, here's my Special Box. It's an ancient wooden box that I placed foam in the bottom of and use to put any very fragile built pieces or figures that I really don't want to get hurt of chipped. Occupying it now are the Cobra engine and the engine to the Texan. Mostly engines go in here, but some larger fragile assemblies like the landing gear for the Wildcat.

Another workbench note. I have learned a valuable lesson with these two models: ONLY DO ONE MODEL AT A TIME! I thought I could hack it and work on one while stuff on the other is drying, but it doesn't work. I've split my brain and both models have suffered.

listening to while posting: "I'm From L.A." by Go Betty Go

Two plastic models, muahahaha!

2009-04-05T10:34:00.010-04:00

Last month, I started work on a T-6 Texan. You usually don't see trainer aircraft, but I wanted to do something a little colorful and this was very cheap (US$ 12).

It's a pretty neat model, if a little strange. Strange in that in places, there is fantastic detail, in others, not so much and it's the choices of where the chose to put the detail that makes it strange. The engine for instance. The engine is not bad, but the detail on the cylinder heads is really soft:

The rear of the engine, behind the firewall, there is some pretty crisp detail. The thing is, after installation, you can only view this through a crack about 3mm wide.

The cockpit is very nice, with but a few issues. I re-worked the seats to make them more realistic, added some engine control levers, added the linkage between the two rudder pedal groups, built up the rudder pedal groups to be more realistic, added a crossbar underneath the rear instrument panel and added wires for the radio mics
.

Of course, once it's installed, you can see virtually none of this. I am such a nerd, but dang it was fun to do:

The figures are rather nice. Also included was a fig of the instructor pilot climbing in. His parachute is nicely cast:

One annoying thing was the lights on the bottom of the airframe. They are a single clear piece with three nubbins that fit in holes in the fuselage. It seems like a nice idea, but it makes seam-filling and painting very annoying. I did discover a new technique in making colored lights. I painted all of the outside of the light that would not be visible the proper color; leaving the 'lens' part clear. So, you see down into the color and it reflects pretty good. This offers a more natural way than just painting the outside of the clear.

Now, model two. At the model group I started attending, most of the guys are car guys. I used to be a car guy when I was 12, but not so much now. However, I thought I'd show them what a plane guy could do, so I bought me a Shelby A/C Cobra. Man. This model has some issues. Flash and mold seams abound; especially troubling were the mold seams directly down the top of the body! Pain in the ass to get rid of. It's also molded in white plastic which makes it hard to see if you've sanded properly. Oh, and tons of chrome pieces. Who wants chrome pieces? They look like ass and as soon as you cut them off the sprue, you've inevitably cut the chrome. So, I've soaked them in Simple Green and removed most of the chrome for painting.

Because I'm me, I've gone and put details where nobody will see them. I spend a great deal of time painting, shading and detailing the suspension. The front, you'll be able to see if you look hard enough, but the rear will be nearly completely invisible once the tires are installed.

Isn't that pretty? Too bad you'll never see it again.

listening to while posting: nothing, as Sweet Enemy is in the next room, in front of the woodstove, wrapped in a blanket with the cat and reading a new Terry Pratchett book (and I don't want to disturb her)

interlude: Figures

2009-03-09T19:43:00.004-04:00

I got a bunch of figures made by ICM and I can only sort of recommend them. They are basically rip-off recasts of Tamiya figures and the detail is soft in some places. However, it is really hard to find USN/USAAF WW2 aviation figures in 1/48 scale. Oh, if you want great Brit or Soviet, Eduard is your company and if you build 1/72, you can't help but find really nice stuff by Airfix.

But 1/48 is tough. I wonder why. So here are my two recent paints. I've got some film shots coming, but until then, you've got to deal with bad digital. I will say that they do look really extra nice when slightly out of focus.

I'm trying some new things. First, I gave the figures no whites to the eyes as you really wouldn't see the whites if it were a real person 12 feet away. The entire figure was painted white, then a light coat of flesh was applied to the skin areas. I put in irises and then shaded and highlighted around it. It helps to reduce that popeyed look.

The white base coat also helps with another technique. When it comes to clothing, I don't do highlights. I paint a quick, smooth light and slightly thin coat of the base color. I then begin to build up the shadow areas. First with the base color then a slightly darker version that I try to blend from dark to light. The thin first coat coats the entire area, but tends to pool a bit leaving the raised areas (areas that would be highlighted anyway) a bit lighter. The places where different things meet such as sleeves and arms, hats and heads, straps and body, I outlined in black to make them pop.

listening to while posting: Groundhog's Day (live in Lewiston, Maine) by Primus

Martin MB-2: Sow's Ear Edition

2009-03-09T19:15:00.008-04:00

I had a bunch of armor models lying around that I'd never build (one M113 ACAV was purchased in 1989 and was still only 3/4 built) and gobs and gobs of 1/35 figures, guns, heads, and assorted gew-gaws that I'd never use. I found out that a co-worker of mine builds and so I tossed them his way. I asked nothing in return except that they be built within a year; if they were to sit in a stash, they could sit in my stash and soothe my nostalgia.

The next day, he brought in a model he'd never build: a Martin MB-2 by a company called Glencoe. Apparently, Glencoe was an injection molding company that made models of odd subjects on the side. If this was any indication of their injection molding capabilities, I can see why they are out of business. This is a pretty terrible model. Where there are guide pins, they don't align, or the holes are so close to the skin that they are ripped; The injector points are in the stupidest places (trailing edge of fabric wings, center of mesh radiator screens); The pieces have no numbers unless they are large pieces, then it's stamped on; Sink marks; The figures, are an embarrassment; and the model is 25% flash.

It does, however have some very, very nice box art.

So, why am I building it. I have no idea really, except that I am between models, waiting for a Revell SNJ/T-6 Texzn to arrive from Great Models Webstore and I needed to build something.

So, I grabbed the engine and decreed if I could make the crappy engine look decent, I'll build the whole thing. Here's a compare of the unpainted engines.

First, I assembled the not-well-fitting pieces and puttied the bejeesus out of it. I'm actually very happy with how it turned out as I had to do some carving of the plastic to make things align; and it's smooth as a baby's cheek. I then carved away the wire/hose looking things below the cylinders and made new ones out of brass rod. I also added little ribbed supports that would have been cast into the block. You can barely see them as the white bits behind the brass. I also added exhaust pipes. Glencoe couldn't even make exhaust pipes. How hard would it have been? Jeezum.

The manifold that would go on top of the engine was problematic. I could have made an entire new one, but It would have been a pain and besides, I couldn't find a good reference for it. So, I just made some new 'blowers'. The new one is raised up a bit because I added some geeblie wires on the underside to flesh i out a bit.

The radiator needed work. As mentioned there's an injection mark in the middle of the screen. Check it out

The mesh is actually HO scale chain link fence that I had lying around for some reason (I may not have a current stash, but I have box full of model pieces that go back to the early 80s).

My SNJ Texan gets here on Friday, so the MB-2 may go into hiatus, but I think I'm doing pretty good so far and will complete it. Firstly because I could only find two examples on the web and also I'd like an excuse to buy one of these puppies

listening to while posting: The Elements (live) by Tom Leher

F8: part five, epilogue

2009-02-24T20:12:00.009-05:00

It's nearly done, so it's now more a near-failure. Or just a Disappointment. I had hight hopes and thought my skills could hack. However, there were too many things that I didn't, couldn't see until it was too late. Not enough experience... yet.

Here's the front:

FIP.

The underside photographs well, but it doesn't look smooth and 'in scale' enough when viewed in real life.
The landing gear scratchbuild turned out pretty good, but I didn't plan ahead for the brake lines and they just sort of end at the wheel well now and don't actually go anywhere.

You can also see a gap between the engine cowling and the fuselage. This was not there in the numerous test-fittings I did, but when I went to put the cowling on for final assembly, it would not go on any farther.

The oil cooler flaps turned out pretty nicely, though.

Here's the back. The paint job looks decent here, but up close the brush-applied future has some uneven drying. Academy's decals also don't like sitting in Future a much as the Tamiya decals did. What you can see that I like is a small, totally scratchbuilt bomb cart. I'm pretty proud of that mediocre thing. I also like the padeyes on the top of the bomb.

Here it is close up.

So, did I waste my time? No. I learned a lot. I learned to use photo-etch details; I learned a lot about scratch building; I learned that pastels don't like gloss finishes and stick better to matte; I learned about planning; I learned about using cyanoacrylate (super) glue;

Did I waste my money? Nope. I got a good price and I got it local. The only wasting feeling I feel is that I may have wasted the kit. I don't think the kit nor the detail pack is available any more. It's a shame, it's a really nice subject.

Listening to while posting: Something from the Fight Club soundtrack

F8:interlude

2009-02-22T21:34:00.001-05:00

Crap. Crap. Crap.

Things are going wrong left and right. My W.I.P is fast becoming a F.I.P (Failure In Progress).

And it started out so well.

F8 part four: oil cooler flaps

2009-02-07T22:22:00.006-05:00

I really don't know if these are oil cooler flaps, I just call them that. I never worked on radial piston engines, only turboprops.

Here's the real thing:

and here's what the kit came with (I accentuated the scribed panel lines:

I'd originally planned on cutting out the scribed area to install a scratchbuilt panel. As you can see, towards the front of the area it's very narrow. I wasn't completely sure if I could cut the panel away without breaking that bit or if it would even stay structurally sound. I would bet it would, but I lacked certainty. If I broke it, repair would require scratchbuilding skills that, if I'd had them, I wouldn't have broke it in the first place (makes sense?).

My solution was to make flaps and place them over the scribed area, painting the interior area black to simulate a hole. This MAY work. The problem is making the flaps look, at least a little bit, like they are rotating into the fuselage. It looks pretty good unpainted, but we'll see.

Here are the flaps:

and here they are installed. I'm sorry that the picture is after I'd pre-shaded (see below), but I mistakenly thought I'd taken good photos before I pre-shaded.

Pre-shading is a way of adding depth to a scale aircraft. I could explain it to you, but I'll let the the video by Brett Green explain it to you as he did to me.

listening to while posting: "Don't Let Go" by Weezer

F8F part three: engine, cockpit and misc

2009-02-03T21:31:00.009-05:00

It was a busy little week what with finishing this week's update to my comic and all these little things with the F8.

A lot of it was planning and experimenting.

I painted the wheel wells and installed the internal bay:

I then worked on the landing gear. I had to add some detail, as it was a little bit sparse. It was also incorrect. As I said, I'm not a stickler, but there was a part to the landing gear that was so blatantly wrong and so easily fixable, that I had to do it. In this picture, you can see at the top of the struts, I put in the retraction actuator and some sort of spring-thing that you can see in this reference photo. You can also see a brace that I had to scratchbuild. Those are the little things to the left of the struts.

I also worked on the engine. The detail was a little soft on the cylinders; ironically, it was rather crisp on the rear set of cylinders that will be all but invisible when the cowling is installed. I installed the ignition wires and the sort of circular tube that goes around the prop gearbox. I wish I had a the equipment for better digital macro shots. Sorry. You could pretend the reference shot is the model, if you'd like ;)

Finally, while working on the wheel wells, I felt the need to cut away the not-deep-at-all intakes on the wing roots. If you know where to look in the internal bay photos of the last post, you can see how shallow they were and why I had to deal with them. Here's what I've got.

The cockpit was fun and a pain. Photo etch parts are interesting to work with, mostly because they are very very very small. Using super glue is a pain in the ass, but necessary to adhere metal to plastic.

Before:

After (with the superglue looking a bit too shiny from the flash). There is quite a bit of 3-dimensionality to it, but it's hard to see in the photos. There's even a teeny (2mm) T-handle for the fire suppression. Sweet.:

Now, I'm waiting for the shop to get some flat black paint in before I can do any more.

listening to while posting: "Maybe Not" by Cat Power

F8F part two: Internal Bay

2009-01-31T09:56:00.007-05:00

The first scratchbuilding I attempted was to fill the big, empty bay underneath the cockpit.

It should look like this:

Isn't that a lot more interesting?

I decided to move slowly. I bent some sprue and found a v-shaped brace and installed it with white glue to see how it'd look. Not a bad start:

I then had to fill it. I experimented with a number of techniques from stretched sprue that was too thick for antennae to basic wire. In the end, I stripped the thick-ish casing from some braided copper wire and slipped a bent piece of steel wire into the end to create the fitting. Then, I added some steel wire hydraulic wires (with casing left on the ends to simulate fittings) and some random geeblies to simulate filters and check valves. I wasn't going to attempt a recreation of the real thing, I just wanted it to appear more natural. I went for white paint rather than a zinc chromate green fro three reasons. First, more than a few of the vintage Bearcats I found photos of had white wheel wells. Second, it was just after WW2 and during WW2 USN aircraft had white wheel wells. Thirdly I thought it might show off my stuff better :)

Here it is test fitted:

I'm pretty happy with it. I learned a lot doing it. One thing was using white glue on most of the non-structural elements. I'm curious to see what happens over time; white glue is not really archival. But, It was easier to work with than super glue when gluing dissimilar materials. Plus, It could be broken when I needed to fix a mistake ;)

One thing I'm trying to do is find the border between making something perfect and knowing when I've done all I can do. I'm notorious in my artwork for re-working a piece in an attempt to make it perfect, but never actually finishing it. That is no way to learn.

Next up: landing gear and wheel wells.

listening to while posting: "Darker" by Doves

new model: F8F Bearcat

2009-01-27T21:09:00.009-05:00

My new model is the Academy's 1/48 Grumman F8F Bearcat. I've decided I prefer radial engine aircraft. The possibility to add detail is more available than an inline engine (like a Mustang) or a jet engine. The Bearcat was the last fighter made in WW2 and entered service just as Japan surrendered. It saw no action with the USN, but has the distinction of being the first aircraft used by the Blue Angels.

The model isn't bad, but is lacking in detail in some places. I'm no super-detailer, but since the out-of-the-box detail of the Tamiya, I find it hard not to want to add detail. I'm not the stickler that says things like "the prop spinner on the Tamiya Spitfire is more of a proper shape than the Hasegawa but still not accurate", but I have to make things look at least naturalistic.

The places I'm going to do some detailing:

The cockpit
This needs some major detailing, so I'm making my first foray into using photo etch parts.

You non-modelers check out the size of the details. A bit overkill, perhaps? I mean look at pieces 16 and 26, for crying out loud ;)

The bay under the fuselage between the wheel wells
This is a big, empty hole. It must be filled.

The wheel wells and landing gear
I said I wasn't a stickler, but sometimes I exaggerate. I'm going to come pretty close to accurizing the landing gear. I'll try to make the wheel wells look pretty natural, but there's like a dozen hydraulic lines I'm so not putting in.

The Engine
I like doing this part. I'm going to expand (a very little bit) beyond the basic addition of ignition lines. This will be all scratch built as I'm not buying a $15 aftermarket engine. The model only cost $25 and I'm not spending almost as much on an engine.

The oil cooler flaps
Well, I think they're oil cooler flaps. Just at the top of the fuselage at the end of the engine cowling there should be two flaps. They are on every picture I've seen on a parked Bearcat, but they aren't on this model. This part frightens me the most. I have to cut holes in the fuselage and if I mess this up, I've ruined the model. We'll see if I do it. There will be NO turning back if I start.

Here's the kit

Here's the real thing

I've already started on the scratchbuilding and I've finished the fuselage bay, but that's the next post. Wish me skill

listening to while posting: "Breakdown" Jack Johnson (on Pandora.com)

Wildcat almost done

2009-01-24T18:56:00.003-05:00

Here's the Tamiya Wildcat I'm almost done with. I'm just waiting on some Eduard photoetch metal seatbelts taht I mailordered. After I get those, I'll finish the weathering a bit and install the aerials. The carrier deck thing is a new experiment. I went a bit too fast and didn't cut everything to the tolerances I should have. Looks not bad for a test, though.

Better photos once I get it really done. I only have a macro on my film SLR, so I'm not going to waste film on an in-progress shot.

listening to while posting: St. Louis Blues March by Glenn Miller

I forgot

2009-01-20T21:54:00.003-05:00

In order to let everyone know where I stand, this blog isn't to spread my vast expertise over the internets. In fact, the opposite is true. You see, I have no expertise and I'm going to post my process work in addition to my finished work in the hopes that a passing expert, say from the hyperscale forums, will tell me what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong so that I can improve.

So.

There.

Onward.

Listening to while posting: "Rite of Spring" by Angels and Airwaves

It begins (again)

2009-01-18T22:29:00.003-05:00

In 1989, I completed my last model. It was, if I remember correctly, a German Marder (modern infantry fighting vehicle). It was done entirely with a brush, and has not survived.

This autumn, I suddenly got the bug again. After a hard day at work, I stopped by the local hobby store and picked up an Academy Boeing P-26 Peashooter and I was hooked and I mean hooked. I had been gifted with an older Aztek airbrush a couple of years ago, but it sat idle until this September.

Here's the Peashooter. It turned out just good enough that I thought I could keep going. The pilot is from Tamiya's F4U-1a that was the next model I built:

The Corsair was an eye-opener. I'd built a lot of Tamiya armor in the late 80's but their aircraft are spectacular. The engineering of the kit was fabulous. Not just the detail, but how the pieces fit along existing panel lines to minimize seam issues. Wonderful. This Corsair is displayed on an in-progress scratch-built (scratch-building?) carrier deck. There will be better photos taken when the deck is complete:

So, that was the beginning. I'm not 75% done with a Tamiya Wildcat a nice model that I've been working on since mid-December. I'm trying to go slow and not end up with things that 'will do' and make sure that it's the best I can do.

listening to while posting: "Blood Red Roses" by Sting