Thanks to some spare time and another Hobby Day weekend I managed to get a good amount of progress done. Several of these are actually at the paint stage now. Without further ado, let the Maddog Manufacturing tour begin....
We'll start in the aircraft division where I worked on the Gotha Go-242.
First off, I painted the pilots and the rest of the cockpit that can be seen. I then installed it along with a lot of nose weight in the front:
Next, I was going to add the main cargo bay floor, but I saw this great looking molded in detail. I had to paint it. Once it was dry, I installed in inside the fuselage half:
Next I assembled the rear cargo bay door, adding the hinges to it as well:
All that was left was to close it all up:
The rear door does open. I like that:
After that, I added the wings and assembled the empennage to complete most of the structure of this plane:
Here you can see the rear door does still open:
Despite my best efforts I still had some steps and gaps to fill, so I pulled out the Mr. Surfacer 500 to fill everything in. My jar was quite thick, but I still laid in on well:
Now moving on to my armor and vehicle division....
I was looking for something simple and easy to build after all those difficult Big Trucks, so I pulled out my Modelcollect V-1 Launch Ramp. How hard could that be? It was actually pretty simple, but I still had some issues getting the bracing to sit right:
Later I'll do the V-1 bombs.
Another fast and relatively easy build was a Christmas present given to me by my AMPS club. This is the V-2 rocket from Condor and I'd built one before. However, the first one went onto my Mittraelerwagen as a load so now I'm going to do this one on the launch pad. It went together fast and well, although I had a few broken and short-shot pieces on the launch pad that I left off:
I added more fast and easy builds that also add to my Japanese modern forces. These are the two JGSDF Light Armored Vehicles that I started up. First I did the suspensions and undercarriages:
Yes, they gave me two models in the kit.
Next was the interiors. They had you build them in a tub like the 1/24 scale car guys do and then install them on the chassis:
Next I built one of the upper bodies for these. It was a fast and easy build. I did leave off a few parts that I know will break when I try to close these over the chassis and interiors:
I also left off the windows as they go on from the outside so it's easier to paint these without them and add the windows later. I also decided to differentiate between the two by having the upper hatch closed on one and open on the other:
Yeah, those are ready for paint now. I just have to find out what color the interior is now.
These Fujimi kits are so much fun so I pulled out two more to do. Of course, they came in the same box, but they have two versions inside. So, I started the next ones, these being the Type 99 Self Propelled Artillery. Here's the turret for one of them:
That took all of four minutes to build. The hull took an even shorter time:
Here you can see how incredibly long that gun is:
Finally, about 20 minutes later, I got all the wheels and tracks on both of these. Now they are almost ready for paint, after adding a few more hatches and other detail parts:
Next I did the Fujimi JGSDF Anti-aircraft artillery. I started with the turrets like before:
These two I differentiated by adding two different styles of smoke dischargers to the sides of these turrets:
These look great on the hulls that were easily built in another four minutes or so:
I ran out of time at the end of Hobby Day before I could complete the tracks, but that will go fast. Fujimi has an outstanding system for roadwheels and tracks.
Finally, another fast and easy model to build. This is the Trumpeter M-1117 Guardian that I'd been wanting for awhile. I started with the suspension:
It looks complicated, but it was fast and easy to do. Next I built the upper hull and turret, adding most of the detail parts except what would break with handling during painting:
After about five minutes getting the above results, this little beastie is ready for paint.
Finally, after all that, I decided to start back on something that I'd had sitting for awhile. I also wanted to do something different so I pulled out my languishing Coke van to try and move forward on it. First thing I noticed was the chassis did not fit well under the body so I had to do some minor mods to this to get it to fit right. You can't see them too well in this pic, but it does fit much better now:
Next I noticed that several vital parts were missing on this, in particular the engine covers, front grill and the gear shift mechanism. Thank goodness I had a second kit to steal these extra parts from so I could finish this! I pulled the gear shift mechanism out and added it to the interior and then assembled and installed the engine cover and grill to the front of the model. I also added the seat:
Now I'm going to paint this beastie and finally get it done.
I did start another project that I'm not going to post in this Thread. I'll be starting another Thread for it as it is a Tribute Build to several modeling friends from some other Forums that recently passed away. Some of you may even know them as they were previously members of the LEM. It is also being submitted as part of the SoCal AMPS Nationals Group Build entry. Anyway, for more information, feel free to check it out.
That's all I have for now, thanks all for looking in, comments are always welcome.