Greetings all, here's another small update due to life happening; or else I might have gotten more done. This time I'll start with my armor since I barely got anything done on armor.
Basically all I did was to mask the windows for the three tank transporters. First the Japanese Type 87:
Then the HEMMTT cab:
...and finally the M-1070 cab:
Later on I gloss coated the German Cabriolet car and painted the chrome on it, along with painting the roof:
After all that, I went to work on my two rockets since they were so close to being done. Here they are all mocked up:
The first thing I did was to apply the decals to the Atlas rocket; as you saw above. Here it is showing three sides when I had finished the decals:
After that it was only a matter of adding a few more external plumbing parts to this and it was done. Meanwhile the Redstone had a bit more to be done.
First off, there were some highly noticeable blemishes in the white coat of the main rocket body that were really annoying me. I tried to ignore them because I knew any fix was going to ruin the smooth finish I'd already achieved. I just couldn't let it go. So, I pulled out a post-it notepad and my Tamiya Tape and masked off the offending area. I then shot some more white; adding several coats to try and cover the blemishes. It was amazing how they kept popping out from under the white. Finally, I got it covered enough for my satisfaction:
I was right, there was a noticeable square that I could not eliminate; especially that close to the decal. So I have to live with it:
Oh well. At least I found the decals for the capsule and promptly added them to it:
A few more detailed parts to add and that one was done.
Finally, it was time to work on my large aircraft again. The first one I worked on was the Russian An-124. I finally got the fourth engine finished:
After that, it was time to work on the landing gear. I started with the forward landing gear wheels. I needed to make four of them and they had to have the hubs added to the middle of the wheel halves, just like the main landing gear wheels. That made them impossible to close properly without some serious sanding and shaping and squeezing:
I had four of those to do. Then I assembled the first forward landing strut, adding the wheels to it:
I'm supposed to make two of those but of course, the second strut is missing......
So, I moved on and finished off one side of the main landing gear bay; completing all the main landing gear struts:
After that I halfway finished the twenty wheels that go on those struts; adding all the hubs to the wheel halves. Next I need to put each wheel half together. Later....
Each main landing gear strut has eleven parts in it. I still have to do the other side. Once that is done and I paint these (along with finding and finishing the second forward landing gear); I'll be done with all the incidentals and can finally work on building the whole plane; adding the wings and tail to the fuselage. Man that is gonna be one difficult beastie to paint!
So, I put that aside and went to do something easier. Only it wasn't so easy. After two hours or so of fighting the fuselage halves to the A-400 Grizzly; I finally managed to get the whole fuselage to fit right:
The clear part is only dry fit to see how well it fits. Wow, it fits like a glove! Beautiful!
Next, since this was all glued together, I tried test fitting the wings and tail to see what fit issues I was going to have to deal with:
Yeah, that big beast barely fits on my workbench!
The third big aircraft I pulled out was my C-54. All I did with that was to add two extra windows to one fuselage half that I apparently forgot; then cemented the cockpit to the interior fuselage assembly and then added nose weights to the forward part of this whole assembly:
The next step will be to close this up inside the fuselage and move on.
Okay, that's it for this update. Thanks to all who stop in and comment, I appreciate everyone and everything. Stay tuned for more progress updates in the next couple weeks.
