Maddog Manufacturing 2023 Grand Reopening!

[Brandons_Iron]

There is NO WAY I could keep track of this many projects at once. You Sir, are an ANIMAL.

[Duke Maddog]

Thank you Carlos! I wanted to do more Shilkas, some for other countries but after the fight that Armory kit gave me.... no more! The Robert E.Lee is a build with a personal memory attached so it is significant for me.

Thank you Kari! It is pretty massive, especially when you consider how many other models I have going that I did not work on this session. I do like the little R4D helicopter, and I got some awesome and thorough tips for doing the vac canopy from another friend in the IPMS Forums. Also, it's two Tu-16's started, I just didn't show the other one because everything looked the same. The Robert E. Lee kit is an ancient Pyro kit that I got somewhere and somewhen that I don't remember... I just remember why I got it. I do have some space at Hobby Day to paint it; in fact, most of the white sections have all been painted already.

Thank you Brandon! Sometimes I wonder how I do it too.

[Duke Maddog]

Well, as promised, here's another tour. It'll be a short one as I have Christmas activities coming up. Merry Christmas everyone! All aboard the trams!
First off, in the Hangar, we have a coat of black primer added to the F-94 to see what seams and issues need to be addressed:


Later we added the silver overcoat:


Followed by the decals. These were not too hard, only one broke four times:


Getting close on that one. Meanwhile, in this next bay, we have the canopy being painted for the Nigerian Mi-24 Hind shelf queen:


That is the replacement I got from the Hasegawa kit. You can see there's gonna be some serious adjustments to make this fit the ancient Airfix kit:


That completes this short tour of the Hangar, now on to the Motor Pool....
Here in the Motor Pool, we decided to start one of the GAZ AAA tracks. The chassis was mostly built up:


Moving on, we got the camouflage painted on the German Dingo scout car and then added the decals:


The decals above are a generic marking set I got since I acquired this kit for free at the St. Crispin's Hobby Hall. It was a donation and the decals were missing from the kit. So it was offered to me and I'm building it as a version that has the M.19 grenade launcher....with generic markings.
All the final bits were added, so detail painting later can be done:


Finally in this last bay, we have the '37 Ford Stakebed truck. The front fender mounts were all photo-etch parts:


Once they were dry, we were able to mount the fender. We also added the headlights and horn:


Afterward, the decals were added to this. I figured it would be easier to get them on now and then later finish this off once they were sealed:


That's what's been happening in the Motor Pool, now on to the Shipyards again.
Here in the shipyards, work has been slowly moving forward on the Robert E. Lee. First off, in order to move forward, we needed to get the lettering done on the side of the ship. Here's our first attempt:


Pretty sucky, even with a very fine brush. Second attempt went a bit better as seen on the bottom:


Still not to my satisfaction, so more work will be done on that. Meanwhile, work on the paddlewheel cabin commenced. As you can see from this pic, the sides are quite warped, so we made a start gluing the ends into place on the curve:


The other side was added and when the ends were dry, we cemented the rest of the walls down, using the clamp and some tape to help it maintain the form it's supposed to have:


You can see some of the reinforcement applied inside to hold it into place. Another view from a different angle; the white is Gator Grip Glue applied to reinforce the extra thin CA glue that was used to keep the rear part in place:


What an ordeal that was, and it's not over......
Meanwhile, work on the forward part of the main deck was done while waiting for the rear cabin walls to dry. First, the boilers were installed:


Later the boiler walls and wood piles were cemented in place, along with the catwalk around the boilers:


The remaining main deck braces were added next:


And that completes this short tour of Maddog Manufacturing on this Christmas day! Thank you all for looking in, comments are welcome!

[KSaarni]

- Kari

[Duke Maddog]

I'm glad you go your popcorn Kari! I'm expecting another tour in another day or two.