S-3 Viking and Trumpeter E-50 with Heimdall turret

I'm still not happy with the join at the wing root so I've filled it again;

Instead of using Mr Surfacer 1000 I've gone for the 500 grade stuff as it's thicker so *hopefully* the join will disappear when sanded down.The E-50 has been touched up here and there and I've decided on utilising the old modelling cliche of having rusty metal panels. These will be the four covers over the engine air intakes so I sprayed them black prior to applying various rust colours;

And that is that for another year! I started a few projects but most of them have ended in disaster for one reason or another (Airfix C-47), proved troublesome (Dragon Fokker E.V/ D.VIII) or I just became bored with them and they have ended up on the Shelf-Of-Doom.
I did actually finish two models this year, the Trumpeter E-25 and Revell Leopard I;

At this point I WOULD like to say I won't be buying any more kits as this year alone I received around 30+ for review plus all the ones I bought but you KNOW that will never happen.
Thank you to everybody who has taken an interest in my work and ramblings for the past twelve months, it is very much appreciated that so many people look in and hopefully I've been able to provide some hints and tips to you.
2017 will still see me trying to finish stuff started this year, the E-50, S-3 Viking and Fokker E.V/ D.VIII plus currently being looked at is the Revell 1/32 Hawker Hunter FGA9 and Tamiya 1/32 Mosquito FB VI. Quite where I'm going to store them (if I finish them of course) is anybody's guess but what the hell :o)
Happy new year people!

Trumpeter E-50 with Heimdal turret

Many of my projects tend to stall due to one reason or another, usually boredom but the main reason with this one was the camo scheme as I did'nt really know where to go with it after it was done so it went onto the Shelf-Of-Doom.
I did'nt want to repaint it totally so I decided on a winter scheme but in a splinter pattern to match the vehicles camouflage. The crosses used were rub down ones from Archer then carefully masked so that the tape would'nt pull them up.
I wanted the white to be on the hull and turret sides only so a pattern was thought out and masked off. Then hairspray was applied to the model and when dry Tamiya XF-2 White with a drop or two of grey thrown in was sprayed on. After that the masking tape was removed then the white was attacked with warm water and an old tooth brush to portray a worn finish. It needs some touching up in places as the tape removed some of the base colours plus where the hairspray pooled some areas are too regular and need respraying, other than that I'm quite pleased with the results so far;

S-3 Viking

Further to the mini-disaster with the port wing breaking away from the fuselage, the joint has been filled, sanded, sprayed with primer, filled again, sanded and finally resprayed with primer;

And after all that there is STILL a bloody visible line in the joint so another rethink is required about carrying on with it. The plan at the moment is to spray the overall grey top coat but when dry mask off the wings where they join the fuselage and spray them in a slightly different shade....either that or drown the bloody thing in black primer!

S-3 Viking

After a bit of swearing and throwing my toys out of the pram the wing was eventually fixed back into place, this time using cyano glue and left overnight to set. There was a bit of a step between the wing and fuselage so this was sanded back and the wing joint filled with Milliput which was smoothed out using a soft brush and water;

This will be left to cure for a couple of days, the area will be polished to get any scratches out and  resprayed with primer to check for any gaps that may have been missed then MAYBE I can start painting the thing.

S-3 Viking

Well that was'nt supposed to bloody happen;

I was priming the model with Games Workshop Chaos Black and while handling the model the port wing came loose...so much for using epoxy resin glue for strength!
I pulled the wing off completely, cleaned off the epoxy resin and stuck it back on but this time using superglue and I now have a nice gap to fill both sides;

This is made even more awkward as the engine pylon is in the way so this should be fun. I was going to do it tonight but it's best I step away from the bench for awhile.

S-3 Viking

By the Power of Greyskull the thing is built! The various blade aerials found on the machine will be added after painting as they will only get knocked off when the model is handled plus the pile of bits to the side will be painted seperately and added later;

The model will now be washed down with warm water and detergent to get rid of any greasy paw prints and dust. When dry the the side windows will be masked and the model will receive a coat of primer spray.
This is the part of the show I'm dreading to be honest as previous attempts at painting an aeroplane have resulted in disaster for various reasons so we'll see what happens.
If you hear a loud bang then you'll know what happened :o)

S-3 Viking

Time to get this thing nearer the finishing post so the bang seats were fixed into place and the canopy glued on;

The actual fit of the canopy is'nt brilliant and it had a tendency to pull in at the bottom either side so small shims of plastic strip were glued to the cockpit bulkhead and painted in the cockpit colour. The canopy was glued into place using GS Hypo cement (Jewellers use the stuff) as superglue will fog clear transparencies unless coated beforehand with Johnsons Kleer or similar.
By the way the canopy part does actually have a tint but to me it's not dark enough so the inside of the canopy got a coat of Tamiya X-19 Smoke as the tint is pretty strong on the S-3.

Rather than use model filler and creating yet more dust on clean up I used black Milliput for the gaps and smoothed it out with water (this is an old tip by the way and I take no credit for it).

Once dry I maybe able to finally get some paint on it after a clean down. Exciting times! :o)

S-3 Viking

Wow more progress! Today was spent fitting the engine pods to the wings, spraying the canopy interior with Tamiya X-19 Smoke (the real aircraft had quite a heavy tint) and making better fairings for the windscreen wipers.
The engine pylons had the locating peg cut down substantially as the indents in the Wolfpack wings are very shallow, this applies to the stores pylons too. Also the curve underneath must be shallower than the kit wing as there was a huge gap between the pylon and wing;

To save destroying any surface detail I stuffed Milliput into the gaps;

The Milliput was then smoothed out using a brush and water and left to set;

The windscreen wiper fairings in the kit are a bit of a funny shape and after gluing them to the fuselage forward of the canopy I decided I did'nt like them. I found alternatives in the shape of 1/72 Mk82 bombs from an old Airfix A-7 Corsair that were in the spares box so a flat was filed on one side of two bombs then the noses were cut off and glued into place on the Viking after removing the kit ones;

Far better! New wiper blades will be made from scratch and added after painting. You may notice a hole next to the left fairing and this is for a navigation light that will be glued in after painting.
As I said above the canopy got some extra tint and this will be fitted when I glue in the overhead instrument panel.

S-3 Viking

A bit more progress on the S-3 and this time it's the turn of the air intakes. The kit is pretty naff in this area as the insides of the intakes need building up with Milliput and new fan blades making. I decided to make covers to hide these areas so some Milliput (the white superfine stuff) was rolled out thinly and a narrow strip placed around the circumference of each intake, triangular pieces were put in four places (I used a drawing compass for measuring where they went) then some more Milliput placed over the openings, smoothing it all out with water and a brush.
When dry the Milliput was sanded down then 5amp fuse wire was used to make the triangular fastenings for the covers with 1mm strips of a double layer of masking tape put between the fasteners and covers. For a first attempt at making covers I'm quite pleased with the final result;

The sonobouy tubes were also finished off and this area looks MUCH better now I feel;

Hopefully I can get the build finished soon and be able to get on with painting the model.

Dragon Jagdpanther revisited

I built this model a few years ago but I was never happy with the weathering so after looking at it again I decided to re-work it a bit. The model has been on display at a few model shows and consequently there has been a bit of damage which has been repaired, what I could'nt find was one of the fenders on the right side so I touched up the area where it was with Vallejo German Black/Brown acrylic.
So here it before;

 And this is the model after a bit of extra weathering;

 The front right fender fell off during the re-vamp and I was going to fix it back in place but I thought the model looked better without it. Anyway I reckon it looks better

Italeri LMV Lince

Repairs! After breaking off the front wheels I drilled holes in the back of them and the steering knuckles. A 4mm length of brass rod was super glued into the back of the wheels although they won't be fitted just yet as I need to paint stuff I had missed;
At least it's still a viable project and a chance to try a few different weathering techniques.
By the way this post was brought to you via my mobile phone instead of the pc :o)

Italeri LMV Lince

Another one from the Shelf-Of-Doom and I've decided to start the weathering. The wiper blades were used to figure out the arc and then masking tape was cut to size;

After much fiddling I eventually put the tape on the windscreen then gave the model a very thinned down spray of Tamiya XF-55 Deck Tan, making sure the vehicle underneath, sides and rear got a good blast and a lighter coat on the top surfaces;

At this point I remembered the tyres but fitting them resulted in me breaking the front wheels off and loosening a rear so before anything else I need to repair it.
A warning here too. I had previously coated the transparencies with Johnsons Kleer and before I painted the model I masked them off with Tamiya tape, however it's been a while since I last touched the model so when lifting the tape yesterday the tape had reacted with the Kleer so remove the tape pretty soon after painting. That and the fact I've managed to break off the wheels has brought the model perilously close to the bin but I shall persevere with it, if anything I can try different weathering mediums on it.

At least the camo scheme has been toned down somewhat!

S-3 Viking

Progress is glacial as per usual and last night was spent figuring out where the support struts are fitted for the folded wings. The weight of the resin wings is giving me some cause for concern as I don't think the hinges will take much to break, especially when moving the model around so I need to add the struts which means drilling holes in the wings and top fuselage.
After some research I've decided where the holes will be (well as near as dammit anyway) and this pic will give you some idea what the model will look like with the wings folded (without the sanding pad of course);

Still lots to do though!

S-3 Viking

I bet you all thought I'd forgotten about this did'nt you? I've had a rest from the bench for a week or so but last night I was looking at those damned sonobuoy tubes and come up with this solution;

I drilled out the holes in the fuselage and inserted short lengths of 2.5mm (outside diameter) styrene tube which in turn was drilled out to reduce the thickness on the tube inside. Once dry the tube was cut flush with the lower fuselage and using a dentists burr the lip was thinned a bit more.
I think it looks much better than it did originally, only another 40 odd holes to do :o)
Told you those sonobuoy chutes were bugging me :o)

A new book!

I got this to review recently for Model Military Int'l and although I can't say much here what I CAN tell you is that if you have any interest in Soviet period armour then I can wholeheartedly recommend this book;

Available from;

Inside The Armour

To be honest I was a bit sceptical as some books I have with builds in them tend to be spoiled by sub-standard models however this is CERTAINLY not the case with this one, plus the addition of photo's of actual armour I personally found inspiring. Good stuff and well worth a read!

S-3 Viking

When I fitted the Wolfpack inner wings there was a slight step between them and the wing roots on the fuselage so after some filling and sanding they look a bit more acceptable. The engraved panel lines did'nt quite match between the resin wings and fuselage so the upshot of all the sanding was their removal so these were re-scribed and liquid glue was then run into the lines to clean them out;

I'm waiting on some styrene tube so that I can line that hole in the base of the fin but the build is'nt THAT far away from completion...I think....then again I'm still pondering on those sonobuoy tubes.

S-3 Viking

I've had enough of detailing the main gear bays and it's time to get moving with this build so tonight I've started to glue the inner Wolfpack wings to the fuselage. As they are quite a big chunk of resin I'm using a two-part epoxy resin glue for strength as for something this heavy I do not trust cyanoacrylate;

It's a five-minute epoxy resin glue but it won't be fully cured for at least 24 hours so I'll repeat the process tomorrow night. Although I've had enough of detailing the gear bays those sonobuoy tubes underneath are still bothering me so I need to have a think about them :o)

S-3 Viking

I've done a bit more to the bays, this time I've added hinges to the upper gear bay doors;

They hang a LOT better than if I had glued the doors directly to the fuselage. I drilled holes into the roof of the gear bays and although it looks a bit naff you won't see them unless you turn the model upside down.
All that is needed is connecting rods from the doors to those white round bits with sticky out bits attached to it during the final assembly after painting.
Trouble is I keep looking at those sonobuoy tubes as they are starting to bug me....hmmmm.....

S-3 Viking

I added a bit of detail to the main gear bays as there is'nt any in the kit apart from the fictional lumps of plastic either side that are supposed to represent part of the retraction system. So a few happy hours have been spent cutting styrene rod, tube and strip to jazz them up a bit and 5 amp fuse wire will be used for the hydraulic piping, some of which has already been fixed in place;

When cutting the main gear legs from the sprue I managed to break one of the legs, not a problem as it was easy enough to drill a couple of holes, insert a length of brass wire and glue it together again. While I was doing this it occured to me to do the same to the other gear leg as the weight of the resin wings is giving me cause for concern as to whether the undercarriage will be strong enough so a bit of metal in them will help (hopefully).
The nose gear bay won't be getting any superdetailing as you can't see it but the nose gear leg will get some hydraulic piping added where necessary.

Fokker E.V/ D.VIII

The wing has been stripped, start again I s'pose;

It took a LOT of sanding to get it down to virtually bare plastic but at least the trailing edge is thinner so every cloud has its silver lining really :o)
All I have to do now is figure another way of getting the effect I was after the first time.

Fokker E.V/ D.VIII

I masked off the wing last night so that I could spray the white band around the leading and trailing edges and wing tips. I had a sneaking suspicion that all would not be well as even after a month or so the varnish was still susceptible to finger prints, anyway after spraying the white I removed the masking tape;

Unfortunately the masking tape pulled up the wood grain decal underneath the paint....BUGGER!!!
This means I now have to strip the wing entirely and start again from scratch.
Analysing it now the first mistake was to use Johnsons Kleer as a way of getting the decals to stick. Secondly the use of Winsor and Newton gloss varnish over the top of the paint as I should have known the stuff stays tacky forever.
So I'll strip the wing entirely and recover it with the woodgrain decal, however I'll use an acrylic paint instead of oils for the streaky effect as I can use varnishes that don't take long to dry.
I can't say I'm pissed off as I'm used to making mistakes these days, it's just the time factor and keeping the motivation in projects when things like this happen. Live and learn I s'pose....

S-3 Viking

I've been tweaking a couple more areas on the model, one thing that is poorly done in the kit are the fuel dump pipes on the lower rear fuselage;

So with some styrene tube bent to shape and drilled out I now have new fuel dump pipes;

The worst fitting part so far is the cover for the FLIR turret under the nose but looking at reference pictures the cover is'nt quite correct anyway so a small strip of styrene sheet with a crescent cut out was added to one side as per the actual aircraft. The kit supplied door had a smaller curve put into the edge and then fitted into place;

The 330gal fuel tank arrived from Poand this week so after a bit of fettling to get the tail cone to fit flush to the rest of the tank, holes were drilled into it that corresponded to the styrene rod that was glued in the pylon earlier. The oval indents in the tank were filled and will be sanded down when I'm off work next;

I decided to replace the turbine blades on the Wolfpack buddy refueling pod with brass sheet cut to size as (A) the kit ones are too thick and (B) I managed to break off one of the blades which promptly disappeared into the arms of the Carpet Monster....ffs!
The bomb bay doors have been closed up and these needed some TLC to get them to fit properly, the elevators have been glued to the rear fuselage too, taking care to get the dihedral correct and all the panel lines that disappeared after sanding have also been rescribed.
The next big job will be detailing the main undercarriage bays, what will also be interesting is fitting the resin wings as I can't see the wing fold hinges being able to carry that much weight. The 'plan'' at the moment is to fit the red braces that you see on Vikings when the aircraft are parked up so I shall be looking at references to see where exactly they are fitted on the wings and fuselage.

S-3 Viking update

 I had a good session at the bench last night until 4.00am and I've finally managed to stick the fuselage together, also the underwing pylons received some TLC with extra bits added;

The styrene rods sticking out of the bottom of the pylons will match up to holes drilled into the refuelling buddy pod on the port side and the fuel tank on the starboard. The kit does'nt have any fuel tanks so initially I stole one from a Tamiya Skyraider with a view to putting two extra fins on the rear however after a search online a Polish company (www.attacksquadron.pl) produce the Douglas 300 gallon tank with a choice of fins so hopefully one will be on it's way soon. (Factoid; the Douglas tank could be fitted with a variety of rear sections to suit different aircraft and could be found on the A-1 Skyraider, A-4 Skyhawk, A-7 Corsair, A-6 Intruder, EA-6B Prowler, S-3 Viking and AV-8B Harrier).
The engine pods have been glued together and cleaned up and for these I'll be attempting to make intake covers, probably from thinly rolled out Milliput. When I started this kit a while back I separated the elevators from the tail plane and built up the leading edges but that's as far as they got so last night I fixed them in a lowered position as originally planned.
Still some way to go but at least I feel I'm progressing with it at last.

S-3 Viking update

I finally finished messing about with the cockpit today so after a wash down it will be primed with black then sprayed a light grey and the details painted, THEN I can at last nail the fuselage together.

The boarding steps will be down so this area had some detail added such as the electronics box and fire extinguisher plus a pulley wheel for the step retraction;

The rear cockpit has a couple of ejection seats in there and a representation of the instrument panels where the sensor operators would stationed. You can't see much especially with the tinted canopy but it's there.
The canopy would not fit as the seats were too high but I found that the moulded-on seat belts hanging over the side were getting caught on the centre console and once these were trimmed the canopy fitted once again;

Once the fuselage is together it will feel that I'm actually getting somewhere as it was at this point a few years ago the build was shelved. Still much to do on this one though as the undercarriage bays are missing a lot of detail and a few other areas need some TLC but on the whole it is coming along well.