2015 Review of the year

Not much to report really as the only models finished were the Meng T-90, Miniman Factory SS-23

and the Trumpeter E-25, the Revell Boxer ambulance (ugh!) and Italeri Lince were done as build reviews for Model Military International magazine. The Dragon King Tiger was a late addition and with the weather being wet I have no chance of undercoating that or the Lince as I have to do that outside (I *could* do it indoors but the house would stink for days). Anyway here's my output for 2015;

Hopefully I can do more in 2016 but ya know.... :o)

Another from the Shelf-of-Doom; Dragon King Tiger

I was having a look through the stash for something and I found this that I had started about five years ago or more and got totally bored with. It was Dragon's first King Tiger with the zimmerit moulded on that Spud Murphy (the then editor of Model Military Int'l) gave me at a model show.
It's a decent kit as it had all the etch stuff, individual track links, metal tow cables and brass shells, something that you don't get in Dragon kits these days. The reason I got bored with it is because it's not clear what bits you need for a particular KT as there are a lot of parts in the box and depending on which vehicle you are modelling a lot of research was needed to see which bits went on or were left off. Also this was Dragon's first attempt at moulded on zimmerit and apart from being a bit too deep you had to smooth out the surfaces where the tool clamps and exhausts fitted, otherwise they just sat on top of the zimm.

So with all that I put it back in the box then two days ago when I rediscovered the kit I figured that I would just build the damned thing as most of the work had been done, besides which nothing says Merry Christmas quite like a King Tiger tank :o)
I'll get the sucker washed down and painted soon-ish.

It's not going to be entirely accurate but who cares, it was fun to finally nail it together.

Italeri LMV Lince built

Just a quick update to show the model built. If you are thinking of getting one then please do it as it's quite a nice little kit. There are a couple of issues such as the width of the door sills as these are too narrow and the reason why the doors are shut, however for the other issues you'll just have to read about them in a future issue of Model Military Int'l :o)

This how it will look for the mag article as it is a build review but once I've posted this update it's going for a bath then hopefully painted before the year is out (but don't hold your breath).

Edit; The build review for this is scheduled to appear in the May 2016 issue (121) of the magazine.

Italeri LMV Lince

Just the one photo to show where it's at as I've decided to do it as a build review for Model Military Int'l.
All I have to say is it fits VERY nicely, most of this was done in a day. I'll be adding some extra bits to the interior as the front seats need some TLC and the middle rear seat needs a base to it, other than that it's been a pleasure to build unlike the Revell Boxer;

The body is sitting a bit too far forward as it's only on the chassis temporarily.

Just out of interest here's my 'studio' (the loft and it's cold at this time of year) :o)

Winter projects

The bench is clear and tidy so I feel the need to clutter it up again and I'm looking at doing these three over the winter;

The LAV will be pretty much over a longer term as it's got one or two goodies with it;

It's a bit of an international kit this one as the Voyager etch set came from Switzerland, the Voyager IED jammer came all the way from Hong Kong and a metal barrel is on its way from Poland, the Blast set of wheels and Black Dog update set came with the kit (I traded it for a Dragon Jagdtiger).
Of course all these plans will probably change but I sort of got bitten by the 'speed-building' bug as I recently put together a Revell GTK Boxer ambulance as a build review for Model Military Int'l magazine and for the first time since I was a kid I managed to nail a kit together in five days (I did'nt paint it though). It's not pretty as I really did throw it together but it's proved to myself that I do'nt have to take two months just to open the box and glue a couple of parts together.
Out of interest here's that Revell Boxer;

If you want to see more it's scheduled to appear in issue 119 of Model Military Int'l magazine (probably February 2016) so you can read all about it then.

Trumpeter E-25; Done!

Here it is, the E-25 done. Like it or loathe it as it's a 'paper panzer what-if 1946 blah blah blah' but I'm quite pleased with and also it's been nice to actually finish something :o)

Hopefully this will make it into Model Military Int'l magazine in the new year sometime

Masterbox zombie figures

I was'nt really happy with the biker chick so I decided to replace the head with a Hornet one of a bald female, the only trouble is the Hornet head looks a bit too masculine and unfortunately there is'nt much choice in 1/35 of female heads.
After the original head was removed I needed something to cover the shoulders so I made a hood from Milliput and to be honest I'm quite pleased with the result;

I've hollowed out the cheeks a bit but I'll see what more I can do to make the head less manly :o)

Masterbox Zombie figures

I'm still at a crossroads with the hobby especially after the latest disaster with the Airfix C-47 and I'm very wary of starting another build until I get back my ability and/or confidence to airbrush models. I'm still capable (I think) of using a brush to paint with so I've come back to this set of Masterbox figures just for sh*ts and giggles.
The motorbike and male zombie figure are ready for priming, the female bike rider was ready but I've got an idea to change the kit supplied head for a Hornet item;

The female figure needed a fair bit of work as the coat tails supplied in the kit just did'nt fit properly especially around the bike seat so I made new ones from Magic Sculp putty. The hands and arms needed some chopping and changing to fit the handle bars and point the gun.
I've adapted the bike to be more civilian-like and it will be painted in pretty colours rather than green (providing I don't bugger it up).
Anyway the biggest model show in the UK is just around the corner and no doubt I'll see something shiny and new but this is an ongoing project with no time frame or urgency to finish so there will be random posts in between the tanks and aircraft...that's if I start any

Airfix C-47; Scratch another model and file under B (for bin)

I give up! The model has been niggling me since I started but after giving it a coat of matt varnish it has showed up just how rough the finish is, plus for some unexplained reason the areas that I used Johnsons Kleer for the decals are really prominent and something that has NEVER happened to me before;

So that's that! I don't intend to do anymore to the model other than use it as a test subject so sorry fans if you were looking forward to seeing it finished.
The other problem is that I am now reluctant to start another aircraft model due to the issues I'm having with finishing them.

Airfix C-47; Decals going on but.....

One of the problems with white decals is that they can be transparent and if I had remembered this I would have made a mask for the national insignia and painted the areas beforehand. Because I had forgot this happened;

You can clearly see the black of the invasion stripes showing through so the two options open to me were to make a mask and spray the white areas or put decals over the top (I chose the latter). The original decals came from an Xtradecal set printed by Hannants so I put the kit decals over the top and at the time of writing they appear to have bedded down well. There were quite a lot of little stencils on the Airfix decal sheet but I've only used those for the upper surfaces.
When I get the matt varnish on I can start weathering the model but I'll try to avoid too much 'post-shading' otherwise I'll just get a slagging for it :o)

Airfix C-47; Stripey!

The invasion stripes are now painted, all I have to do is mask them off again and respray the green base coat as the stripes on the top of the wings and upper fuselage on this particular aircraft were overpainted pretty soon after D-Day;

As with the white, the black (Tamiya XF-1) was toned down using a drop of Deck Tan otherwise it would be too stark.
The de-icing boots on the leading edges of the wings will be masked and painted next and then it'll be ready for glossing and decalling

Airfix C-47; Finally the base colours are on

After rubbing down the model with micromesh I resprayed it and this time put a couple of drops of acrylic retarder in the mix, after which the paint sprayed much better. Again I used a mix of Tamiya Olive Green and Flat Earth but don't ask me in what ratio as I just added brown to the green until I had a decent shade of Olive Drab (in my mind anyway).
Tonight I masked off the areas for the invasion stripes and painted these with Mr Hobby white with a dash of light grey to tone the white down;

On my next days off I'll paint the black stripes and de-icing boots on the wings and tail fin then get it gloss varnished ready for the decals.

Airfix C-47; Painting it (or attempting to)

Obviously it's going to be one of THOSE models. I sprayed the undersides without any issues, masked the model then applied the top colour. I was'nt happy with the mix of paint (Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab and XF-52 Flat Earth) plus the paint had gone grainy on the wing roots. I gave the model a quick rub down when dry and mixed up some XF-58 Olive Green and XF-52 with some X-22 Clear thrown in and I ended up with this;

Yep the paint is still grainy and it also highlighted the areas that had been rubbed down (badly by me) so it's going to be left alone while I think about it. Oddly enough after cleaning the airbrush of green paint I decided to matt varnish the Trumpeter E-25 with Mr Color and I had all sorts of issues in the past with frosting and grainy finishes however this time it sprayed perfectly. Weird!

Airfix C-47; Priming the thing

As I predicted in the earlier post the wing roots look a mess after priming the model so I'm going to have to think about how to rectify them without destroying the surface detail;

Fortunately the fuselage joints are better;

 The favourite solution (at the moment) is to mask off the wings and fuselage but leave the wing roots exposed and basically fill the areas in with paint, cheating I know but needs must and all that however that plan may change. More later folks!

Airfix C-47; Build complete!

A big update tonight as I was without any internet for two days (the horror) then back in work.
First of all I masked the fuselage and cabin windows and windscreen before I glued them into place then Tamiya masking tape was applied to the glazing;

Then using a sharpened cocktail stick the tape was worked into the frames;

The fun bit! Using a new scalpel blade the tape was scored along the frame;

With great skill (well a lot of luck really) you *should* get a neatly masked windscreen like this;

A word of warning using this method; I have totally buggered up a canopy and windscreen before now as sometimes the framing is that finely moulded the tape hides it so if you have any doubts use pre-cut masks such as Eduard or Montex ones.
Next we have the undercarriage which can be removed before painting fortunately. The gear legs were glued together but I also used cyano glue to give some added strength as I can foresee some problems with the model standing on it's own two feet (so to speak);

The windscreen and side windows were (surprisingly) a decent fit however there was a gap between the bottom of the screen and fuselage as demonstrated by the tip of the scalpel;

This was filled using black Milliput and while still wet it was smoothed out with an old paint brush moistened with water. Black Milliput was used as you have less chance of the filler showing on the inside;

The vent on the fuselage side was drilled out;

Finally the engines and cowling were glued on and I was concerned that after all the chopping and changing they received they would'nt fit properly, luckily I've got away with it and the Quickboost engines look FAR better than the kit ones;

And that's that! The final bits were glued on and it just requires a clean in warm soapy water before undercoating. Of course it could still all go horribly wrong as I'm still not sure about the wing roots and I can see them being problematic but we'll worry about that later.