I tidied my work bench today....

After finishing the SS-23 and the E-25 ready for painting I thought I would tidy the bench and take a few months away from modelling...well that did'nt last long :o)

It's the new-tool 1/72 Airfix C-47 that I pulled this out of the stash tonight as I was inspired by a photo I took last year at the three Lancasters event at East Kirkby in Lincolnshire. The C-47 was also at the airfield and I just fell in love with it;

I managed to bugger up the last couple of model aircraft so this one WILL be OOTB (Out Of The Box) as much as my modelling OCD will allow, I REALLY just want to get on with building and painting without getting bogged down in super detailing and allowing AMS (Advanced Modellers Syndrome) to creep in. That's the plan anyway :o)

30,000 views!

Wow! Thank you so much for looking in and taking an interest in the stuff I post here, it is very much appreciated :o)

Trumpeter E-25 rescue

A good modelling buddy of mine gave me this kit a few years ago as he got bored and was going to throw it away so I just HAD to give the poor thing a good home. Fast forward to 2015 and you may recall an earlier post in April of this year where I was cleaning up the tracks, well here's the built model.
I WAS going to post a few pics on the way but I completely forgot having been wrapped up in the SS-23 saga;

I can hear the collective groans of " Ohhhhhhh gawd it's a panzer and a paper one at that!"
To be honest I was never a fan of 'paper panzers' either but this have given me a sorely needed break from research-heavy subjects and it has been FUN to do as basically I can do what the hell I like with it construction AND painting wise. I used the Voyager etch set and an RB Model barrel to jazz it up a bit but even then I did'nt use all of the etch (basically because I was getting fed up with the stuff).
Anyhow like it or loathe it but it's built. So there! Ner ner nerner ner :o)

SS-23; It's done

FINALLY! The thing is finished YAY!

It's been a long journey but I'm calling it done. Hopefully you will be able to read all about the battle of wills between the two of us in a forthcoming edition of Model Military Int'l but for now I'm happy it's off the bench.

SS-23; Weathering started

Well once again this thing is fighting me and probably will to the bitter end, this time its the weathering. I'm trying to use washes and effects but these have all left tide-marks so I'm going 'old school' with the use of pastel chalks and spraying the dust on with Tamiya XF-57 Buff then using a mix of Tamiya Earth and Black, Pigment powders will be used to build up the dirt deposits but for now this is where I am;

SS-23; New windows again!

After a couple of days away from it and having lost the urge to drop-kick the model into the rubbish bin I've made new windows. I used a vernier gauge to get an exact measurement for the windows and because the clear styrene is fairly thin I knew it would be tricky to fix them in. Doing one window at a time I used a blob of Blu-Tack on the end of a wooden rod to get the piece into place then used liquid polystyrene cement to tack the window to the frame (yes I know poly cement does'nt work with resin).  I thinned down some PVA wood working glue with water then brushed it around the window to hold it in place, finally cleaning the Blu-Tack residue off with IPA.
I did this instead of using cyano glue as it would 'fog' the styrene and I did'nt really want to coat the clear styrene in Johnsons Kleer, also it looks a lot neater than cyano due to the fairly slow drying time of PVA glue.

All that's left to do is paint the rubber window seals then I can continue with the weathering.

SS-23; FFS! A word of caution using masking fluids

Parental advisory as the following contains strong language.

So the thing is finally painted and I'm moving on to the weathering stage which means it's close to finishing....
HOWEVER I used a masking fluid (Winsor and Newton) to mask the windows which is not THAT unreasonable I suppose as I've used the stuff before with no issues, unfortunately this time it has solidified under the paint. The masking fluid had stuck fast so I've had to use a chisel shaped craft blade to try and remove it and of course this has completely fucked up the side windows, fortunately the front windows have been spared as the masking fluid was applied later.
SO I'm back to replacing windows and putting more shit into the cabin, when I can face the model that is. At the moment I've put it back into a box before I trash it as I've really had enough of the fucking thing.

Rant over, we now return you to your regular programmes