Maddog Manufacturing 2017 Production Line

[speedgraflex]

Cool photo! Thanks for the explanation of why colored plastic is prejudiced against. This certainly makes a lot more sense now. I have heard that light gray or tan plastic may be easier for a painter to see if they are missing any spots, but that is one reason to use primer first. Humans! A finicky lot when it comes to choices. Like you, I feel a kit should be judged on its merits, fidelity, assembly first. I have read about the disadvantages of working with clear plastic as brittleness and opacity, which is why I asked. Thank you, sir.

[Duke Maddog]

Bruce, Carlos said it best. For some reason clear plastic is more brittle, but that just makes these tiny planes more sturdy in a way. Helicopter blades tend to break easier though, but then there are P/E parts for those who want them. Carlos' explanation about multi-colored kits is spot on. I, however; love building those multi colored kits as it beings back fond memories for me.


Carlos, if I can find someplace that has enough in stock, I will get them. Right now however, I need income. I only have $12.00 to my name and that has to last me till Christmas.....

Thanks for the confirmation pic; I also appreciate all the great comments here guys. Gotta head out for some things and then maybe I'll get more done in the Hobby Room today. Hobby Day is coming up this weekend; I hope to get a ton of progress done that weekend!

Stay tuned, more to come!

[Stikpusher]

Sounds good Mark. BTW, the new Squadron catalog came in the mail the other day. They have the Trumpeter 1/72 SA-6 on sale right now... so if you happen to stumble onto some good fortune...

[Duke Maddog]

Yeah, I saw that when I got mine too. Of course it is on sale when I'm flat broke! That always seems to be my luck!

Maybe someday things will actually happen when I am in a position to finally take advantage of them.

[Stikpusher]

Lol! I hear you my friend. Weren’t you also unhappy about the lack of a 1/72 M109 SPG? Well Revell is releasing one this month.

Ya know, my son raised a lot of money for his Eagle Project by recycling bottles and cans...

[Duke Maddog]

Oh yes, I am very disappointed in not having an M-109 SP Gun. I know Revell is coming out with the one; I plan on getting it. I also want the two from Riich Models. And yes, I'm recycling; I cleared $25.00 on my last trip to the recycler.



Well, I had a very productive week on the workbench followed by a very productive Hobby Day weekend.

Brace yourselves people, this is going to be one long update with a ton of pics.



I'll start out at the Shipyards with my ship this time. This Russian carrier Baku got some additional detail parts on the island. I also added the ships boats and other detail parts to the main hull. I then assembled all the missile launch tubes and dry-fit them to the forward deck to see how they were going to look:



The "Cake Stand" radar is also just dry-fit. I still need to paint it first. Here's some more shots:









Moving back into the aircraft assembly line, I managed to get a lot done on a number of my aircraft. On the F-15E, I removed the masking to see how well the steel laid down. It was a bit rough as you can see here; this has since been buffed out to a smooth finish:





Now to add decals to this.

My next model was the P-51B Mustang I'm doing for another Group Build. I painted the pilot and placed him in the cockpit of the plane and then sealed him in under the canopy. This plane is now ready for making and paint, along with the P-40 that came with it in the box:



Another aircraft I made progress on was my F-102 for the "Charlie Don't Surf" campaign. I masked off the areas I needed to so I could shoot the tan color:



I hope to fire up the airbrush this week to finish that camouflage pattern, along with a number of other models I have ready for paint.

One of the aircraft I did get primer on (again!) was my Boeing 737. After having sanded and buffed out the discrepancies, I shot it again to see how well I did on smoothing this out:



Not bad. I will need to buff this to a fine shine again before I attempt to shoot paint on this,

Another model I primed was this little USAF Jetstream I was working on. First though, I had to fill in and sand smooth all the sink holes all over this little plane. Here are some pics showing everything I had to fill and try to feather out:





I even had to fill a few places on the wing assembly:



After all that sanding and buffing, I added the main cockpit canopy and started to mask off the windows:



Finally, the primer went down:



If you look close, you can see where I have to try again to fill some of the sink marks. Still, it turned out better than I expected.

Moving on, I decided to get some more progress done on my two F-14 Tomcats for the review I'm doing. It's been too long and far too late so it was time to hustle on these. First off, I added the P/E additions to the inside of the canopy:





These were slightly difficult to glue in place, be sure to check the bottom edge of the P/E parts to make sure they don't fall below the edge of the canopy. Also, check the instruction sheet closely to insure that you glue them in right side up.

Again, I am doing one with the full P/E workup; here are the two canopies side by side:



In my haste to close the two cockpits sections up, I neglected to paint those inserts, but they aren't that easy to see anyway. What I did remember to do was to paint the yellow stripes on the ejection seat handles:



Finally, I closed these up:



The fit of the canopy pieces was very good. Despite the gap you see in the one; these fit exceptionally well. The gap was my own mistake, not due to any lack of quality in the kit parts.

After having closed everything up, I cemented the cockpit sections to the rear fuselage assemblies. These two aircraft are now ready for masking and paint:



I do know that the wings appear to be retracted too far; they are not glued in yet. I need to find out why they keep slipping into that position and set them properly.

Now that I made such significant progress on these two Tomcats, I decided to start another review kit I had gotten. This one is the Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II. I'll get that review Thread started tomorrow, for now, you can see here the work I did on it.


As usual, I started to assembled the cockpit. It was a very easy and quick assembly. The parts fit very well and I was later able to paint them after assembly. Here in this pic, the seats are only dry-fit in place. The instructions have you add the seats after closing the cockpit tub inside the fuselage halves. I don't know why since there disn't appear to be any obstructions, but I decided to follow the instructions for the purposes of this review. Everything is shown here:



The decals for the instrument panels went in well. I always trim along the edge of each decal anyway to insure a good fit. The main instrument panel was glued under the cowl and then the decal was added after it dried:



I used Solvaset to help draw the decal into the detailed engraving on the IP. It hadn't quite finished yet when I took this pic.

The instructions then have you assemble the nose gear bay which will later be cemented up under the fuselage assembly:



They also give you a schematic showing where to add the nose weights to keep this model from being a tail sitter. So, I added my nose weights to the gear bay assembly:



Yes, it is probably too much, but I just wanted to be sure. Once this is closed up, it won't be opened again!

Moving on, they have you assemble the engines. The parts for these engines don't quite fit very well with lots of little 'steps' and misaligned parts. It's very slight, but if you try to adjust one side, you pull another section out of alignment. I did the best I could with these:



It's just going to take a bit of extra sanding on these.

After that, I assembled the main wings. These were a fairly good fit for the most part:



The roughness around the edges was me adding a slight amount of extra glue to squeeze out of the joint to seal it up better. The bottom however is where you find some of the fit issues that need to be dealt with:



Here's a close up of the worst part. Try as I might, I could not get these ends to lay down properly:



I'm not even sure how I'll sand that given the rectangular detail near that seam; I'll have to experiment.

Finally, the empennage went together exceptionally well. The vertical stabilizers went on at a perfect 90-degree angle on this:



NOTE: Be sure you cement the two vertical stabilizers in the proper direction! It's easy to cement them on upside down if you forget the opening for attaching this to the fuselage is on top, not the bottom of the horizontal part.

After all of that, I closed up the cockpit assembly inside the fuselage; added the forward gear bay, and the engine and empennage assemblies:





Everything fit well here. The only issues I really had were the forward gear bay assembly did not match up too well with the fuselage assembly. It took some judicious manipulating to get everything lined up. I'm happy enough with the results; I think my issues might have been caused by the nose weights inside. The other issue is the step on the engine assembly. I'm still debating whether I'll sand that down or not; it is in a difficult position with a difficult curvature to match.

Finally, I dry-fit the wings to see how this will look:



It is a nice looking aircraft!

With all that going on, I wanted to also start something quick and easy that I could just "throw" together (and hopefully not miss to often!) I pulled out an old Heller J-32 Lanssen aircraft and got started on the cockpit:



Afterward I painted it up. I had to guess at the colors. but when the cockpit is all closed up, no one will really notice. Besides, this is just a fun build for me.



You can see where I dry-brushed the instrument panels to bring out the detail.

I then added the engine intake strakes to the fuselage halves along with a few other bits and bobs:



While they were drying, I assembled the wings:



All that was left to do was to put everything together. But first I taped everything together to check and see if this plane needed nose weights:



It did. You can also see where the nose was going to give me a problem. No biggie.

I added the nose weight; cockpit, tail cone, tail 'feathers' and cemented everything together. Then I added the wings and canopy. This is now ready to sand, mask and paint:



This final one is not a fixed wing aircraft, but it's an aircraft nonetheless. I started my Special Hobby AH-1G Marine Corp Cobra by looking in the box. The first thing I saw made me say out loud: "SERIOUSLY? I have to do WHAT?" Yes, I have to assemble the entire cockpit canopy piece by piece when the time comes:



Well moving on, I started; once again, with the cockpit. The first thing I had to do was to cut off the back part and replace it with the one shown in place right here:



Then I added all the control sticks and targeting equipment along with the instrument panels:



Afterwards, I added the armor plate and then painted this up:



The instructions said to apply the decals to the instrument panel faces but there were no instrument panel decals on the decal sheet! So, I painted them too:



After that, I assembled the seat and set them aside to dry. While they were drying, I assembled the tail section that my particular version was supposed to have:




I then went through and put all the weapon pod halves together:







That's as far as I got so far on that. Hopefully this coming week I'll be able to get more done.





Okay, that completes my aircraft work. Now we can move on to my armor....


Starting with armor, I primed the Schturmtiger:



Now I can shoot a better coat of paint over this and then camouflage it.

Next, I assembled the pilot deck for the 'phib, starting with the pilot house controls and then adding the hatch and other bits and bobs:



Later I cemented the interior and the pilot house deck in place:




My next project was another simple one I wanted to do. I pulled out the Airfix RAF re-supply set to go with my USAAF re-supply set. I started with the Bedford truck doing the basic chassis and cab interior:



They give you an option to make the Bedford a tanker or a cargo truck. I opted for the tanker version and built the tank for it:



The tank is just dry-fit on there, but this is a neat little truck:



After that, I started on the Tilly. Three or for steps later, I had this:



The rest of the cab parts for both trucks are molded in clear so I'll paint these as they are along with the clear parts separately.


Finally, my last model to show is this Roden Ludwig Areo bus that I started for another Group Build elsewhere.

I assembled the basic chassis and engine first:



Since the engine wasn't going to be seen, I didn't do too much detail to it. What I did was enough to get it mounted on the chassis and also support any other parts that needed it for support. I also added the wheel hubs to the axles:



Later I cemented together the double wheels that go on the back axles:



After that, I built the body of this bus and started to sand the seams that I found:



Afterward I primed this bus to see what I had succeeded in doing. Not much apparently:





Oh well, I just have to keep at it.

Meanwhile, I mounted the floor of the bus and the dashboard; then I added all the seats and controls:





Looks like I need to straighten a seat. That'll happen.


Okay, that completes this very long tour of Maddog Manufacturing, showcasing the latest in-progress work. I appreciate you stopping in to look it over. Comments are always welcome.

[speedgraflex]

Duke!

Wow, viewing your multi-tiered approach is incredible. Every time I think, “Okay now I have a question...” you showcase another great work in progress! What an incredible campaign of model building. Let me concentrate on this bird:



First, I assume this is the Mustang because you mentioned it comes with a P-40, too. I have a list started in the New Modeler thread concerning good starter kits, a lot of those kits are in 1/72, so I wondered if this kit qualifies.

http://www.spamodeler.com/forum/viewtop ... 1&start=10

I am not even sure if it is in production (Hello Scalemates!). I will have to look it up. Second, is this really a “repop” of a Monogram kit (actually both kits are supposed to be sourced from Monogram molds). So, what is your review? More importantly, what do you feel is the best all around P-51 kit in 1:72? Are you planning to create a NMF and if so how will you make your NMF finish?

[Stikpusher]

Bruce, those kits are indeed of Monogram origin. Accurate Miniatures reboxed a few Monogram kits under their label late in their company history. But as you suspected, these kits are no longer in production. Accurate Miniatures folded about 10 years or so ago, and their molds were scattered to the four winds. Italeri and Academy being a couple of the recipients of their molds.

But yes, either of those kits are ideal models for beginners. I built a few of each as a kid. They were quite inexpensive, and widely available in the toy aisles of all sorts of retailers:drug stores, grocery stores, etc.

[Duke Maddog]

Duke!

Wow, viewing your multi-tiered approach is incredible. Every time I think, “Okay now I have a question...” you showcase another great work in progress! What an incredible campaign of model building. Let me concentrate on this bird:



First, I assume this is the Mustang because you mentioned it comes with a P-40, too. I have a list started in the New Modeler thread concerning good starter kits, a lot of those kits are in 1/72, so I wondered if this kit qualifies.

http://www.spamodeler.com/forum/viewtop ... 1&start=10

I am not even sure if it is in production (Hello Scalemates!). I will have to look it up. Second, is this really a “repop” of a Monogram kit (actually both kits are supposed to be sourced from Monogram molds). So, what is your review? More importantly, what do you feel is the best all around P-51 kit in 1:72? Are you planning to create a NMF and if so how will you make your NMF finish?

Thanks for the great reply Bruce, I shall try to answer your questions as best I can.

1) First, I assume this is the Mustang because you mentioned it comes with a P-40, too. I have a list started in the New Modeler thread concerning good starter kits, a lot of those kits are in 1/72, so I wondered if this kit qualifies.

Yes, that is the same Mustang from that dual kit from Accurate Miniatures. This does qualify as a good starter kit as it does have simple assembly and there is not very much detail in the cockpit to do. In fact, the cockpit areas are almost non-existent. That is why I painted the pilots and installed them inside.

2) Second, is this really a “repop” of a Monogram kit (actually both kits are supposed to be sourced from Monogram molds)

Yes, both of these are re-pops of Monogram kits. If you look further back in my Manufacturing Thread, you'll see when these were first started that I posted a pic with the Monogram copyright molded to the inside of the wings of these two aircraft. At least I believe I did. And Carlos answered the question more effectively about their availability.

3) So, what is your review?

Well, overall it is good. These kits bring back some memories for me as I had built these same kits as a kid. The fit is quite good for such old models but the detail is lacking from more advanced kits. This is a good thing for new builders as they don't get bogged down in mojo-stealing extras and small parts. More info can be seen in my build log.

4) More importantly, what do you feel is the best all around P-51 kit in 1:72?

Overall, the best possible kit in 1/72 scale is the Tamiya one for all the detail it has. This is followed closely by the new-tool Airfix kit which is an absolute dream to put together; it has great fit, and excellent detail without all the small extra parts of the Tamiya kit. Both look just like Mustangs when they are done. Here is the Airfix one I did some time back:





5) Are you planning to create a NMF and if so how will you make your NMF finish?

I am a natural metal finish for this and plan on priming it first with a grey primer. Then I'll use one of my Tamiya spray bombs of Bare Metal Silver to coat this after smoothing the primer with an 8000-grit buffing pad. You'll be able to see the results here on this Thread.

I do hope this helps in answering your questions Bruce. If you have any more, feel free to ask away. I'll try to help as best I can.

Stay tuned people, more to come.

[speedgraflex]

Carlos and Mark,

Thanks so much for your response! I was on the lookout for good starter kits yesterday. Is there such a thing as a starter aircraft carrier? A friend asked me that a week ago and I had no idea at all. You both probably know the answer.

Mark,

Thanks for posting the great photos of your superlative Airfix build; a real beauty! I appreciate the techniques you use to create such realism! Although I wanted to know concerning the photograph is the background more blue than violet? I saw more blue... could be the drugs, though, hah! All the best.



Soon I am going to open a thread somewhere in general modeling I suppose on the vintage 1/32 Monogram P-51... is it “F.” I don’t want the clear shell, but having a “Model Action” Mustang might be a great 2018 project, I don’t know yet. I have Mustangs on my mind these days (thanks, Airfix), and am wondering if I should choose a vintage path or go for accuracy, modern tooling and a lot of aftermarket madness!