SPA Modeler

Thanks ever so much guys. This was only a small update due to so little time to actually do something. Hopefully today sees even more progress done.

Well, I got a lot of things to post! I spent the day trying to get several projects moved ahead so I can get them off my workbench sooner and make up for lost time again. I am pleased that I got a bit more done than I had expected or hoped for.

Okay, let's get on with this since I have a lot to show here.

First off, I clearcoated a few things in preparation for decals. I re-shot the USS Virginia, and Annie; then shot a clear on the Spru-can. I've decided that she'll be christened the USS Caron, even though she's not quite in the proper configuration according to the instructions. Oh well; this was before her refit. I also shot a coat of clear over the Mustang in preparation for the Alclad. I didn't shoot any pics of them as they look the same as before. Once the decals go one and some other weathering is done, I'll have something to shoot.

Now on to the things that I can show progress on....


First off, the Monkeemobile I've had on the Shelf of Shame has been there too long. I took the body down and shot another coat of red on it. Still not very smooth.... again:



While that sat drying, I went ahead and painted the bottom chassis black:



I then checked the instructions and saw that the interior should be done in white, along with the roof. I'm thinking for simplicity's sake, I'm going to shoot it Radome Tan instead. Or maybe a camouflage grey, which is really really light grey, almost white. I'll see which one I have more of.

Moving on, I went to work on a couple of my aircraft. First I masked and painted a white stripe on the fuselage of the little Czech plane. I planned on getting that stripe painted yellow today but didn't get around to it:



Next I did what I could with the C-46 since I feel like it never gets anywhere no matter how much I work on it! I sanded the seams smooth that I'd filled with Mr. Surfacer the other day:



Then I shot a coat of Primer Grey on it again. Looks a lot better now:



After that, I shot Primer Grey over the top of it too:



You can see how big that monster is on my workbench. Now you know why I'm so eager to get it off my bench!

Finally, I masked off the bottom and shot Olive Drab paint on the top. Hopefully everything looks well enough for me to continue on with this plane:



After that, since I had the OD out, I shot some on the exterior of my helicopter I had started some time ago:






Moving on to my armor now, I had to fix a ding on the barrel of my Russian BS-3 gun. I didn't get any pics of that since it went so fast after the Mr. Surfacer dried. I did get pics of the fix I did to the rotating platform on Annie. First I scraped and sanded the top to remove the crinkled paint; then I took my Exacto blade and scraped out the messed up paint in between the ridges along the side:



Then I shot the OD over it. I did that when I was shooting the helicopter and C-46:



Wow, looks like I still need to do a little cleanup on that thing.


The next thing I did work on though was my IBG Diamond T Cargo truck.

I had finished up the chassis first, complete with engine:



Then I got the front of the cab built along with the cargo bed:



They are just sitting on that chassis to get a better pic. The next thing I did was paint the chassis Oily Black:





Paint was a little wet still I think...

After I painted the chassis, I shot another pic with the cab and cargo bed to see how it looked:



While I still had the OD out, I shot a coat over the Diamond T's fenders on the chassis; and then the cab and cargo bed:





Next I should be able to paint the interior details in the cab and then get it assembled. Hopefully tomorrow.

Now it was time to get some serious work done....

I started out with the little LAV I was finishing. I pulled out my Silly Putty and placed the masking on it for the second color:



Next I pulled out my brown and shot it over the little vehicle:



While that was drying, I pulled out my T-90 and started masking off the green with the Silly Putty as well in preparation for the second color:



This one got a dark earth color; more tan than brown:





The holes in the turret Silly Putty happened because I'd forgotten to take the pic of the tan color first before I started removing the Silly Putty where the black was supposed to go.

Once these two were dry; I removed the Silly Putty in the places where the black was supposed to go and then masked off the rest of the tan:





I also masked off the brown on the LAV in preparation for shooting the black:



I mixed up a little "light black" using some light grey in a jar of flat black and proceeded to shoot it on these two armor models. First the T-90:



Then the LAV:



Once they both dried, I was able to remove the masking to see how well these came out. First the LAV:





Black came out a bit pebbly because for some reason my compressor had turned off and the tank had run down. I hate when that happens! I turned it back on to shoot the T-90.

Here's the T-90:





Not bad if I do say so myself! The black turned out a little better.

Finally, after they had both dried sufficiently, I shot clearcoats on them in preparation for washes and decals:





The last thing I did before I ran out of time was to shoot the remaining black paint on the side of the Rescue Launch's hull:




Well, that's all for today. I'm hoping tomorrow to get decals on at least three models, if not more; shoot some Alclad on the Mustang, make more progress on the New York, and shoot the interior and roof of the Monkeemobile. If all goes well tomorrow, I might be able to get all that done. So, stay tuned everyone, and remember, comments are welcome. Thanks for looking in on this overly long post.

I don't know where to start! Love the C-46 and how it is coming together. Monkeymobile - not a favorite, but you are doing it quite well. Aircraft - Excellent...check.
Armor....out of the park!

You are a talented dude, dlude

Thanks Lyle! I feel as though the C-46 should be much further along. Hopefully someday soon this will be finished.

The Monkeemobile ain't exactly a favorite of mine, but I'm doing this in homage to the times my older sister and I sat and watched their show every day. We had some good laughs, and enjoyed the music together and the time I spent with her brought us closer together. The show may not have been the best, but watching it with her is a very warm and fond memory. Thanks for the compliment on that and the compliments on the rest. Posts like this keep me fired up.

Stay tuned, more to come.

Great stuff - I really like how you're using this thread as a sort of 'workbench window'. Nice idea.

Some great looking builds coming along - That Airfix ASR launch is really nice - I built one a while back - yours is looking much better.

Keep it up duke.

Cheers

Stuart

Duke Maddog wrote:Thanks Lyle! I feel as though the C-46 should be much further along. Hopefully someday soon this will be finished.

The Monkeemobile ain't exactly a favorite of mine, but I'm doing this in homage to the times my older sister and I sat and watched their show every day. We had some good laughs, and enjoyed the music together and the time I spent with her brought us closer together. The show may not have been the best, but watching it with her is a very warm and fond memory. Thanks for the compliment on that and the compliments on the rest. Posts like this keep me fired up.

Stay tuned, more to come.

LOL....I watched it religiously, too! What a goofy show.

portman wrote:Great stuff - I really like how you're using this thread as a sort of 'workbench window'. Nice idea.

Some great looking builds coming along - That Airfix ASR launch is really nice - I built one a while back - yours is looking much better.

Keep it up duke.

Cheers

Stuart

Thanks Stuart. I found that by having a single Maddog Manufacturing Thread, I have an easier time just posting everything I'm working on. Otherwise, I'd be doing three or four posts in Ships, five to eight in Armor and about five or six in Aircraft for each model I have in progress. That would take a tremendous amount of time to post! I'm glad this Forums and a few others have a spot for me to do this kind of thread. One Forum I frequent didn't have anything like that until someone started a Thread asking what was on the workbench. Of course, all my work is mixed in with everyone else's but at least I can keep it all in one post.

Thanks for the compliment on the RAF Launch. I did have an issue with spitting paint, but hopefully I'll be able to make some extra progress soon. Stay tuned for more....


I agree Lyle, that was one goofy TV show.

Absolutely a great way to follow your all builds!

- Kari

Today was finishing day and making more progress day.

I started out with trying to get everything done that was so close to the finish line already. That meant, for starters; my ships were getting decals. The Spru-can was first. I got the remainder of her decals on the hull:



Here she is sporting her new name:



Next I did the same for the USS Virginia:



Here's a better shot from above showing all the decals on the deck:



Gee, gotta fix my white balance....



Moving on, I shot some yellow on the little Czech plane. Now I need to find some decals for this little bird:



I also shot the Alclad on my Mustang. For once, it went on like it's supposed to the first time:



Later I masked off the nose to paint on the black anti glare panel. For some reason, my black just doesn't want to spray right no matter how much I thin it down or adjust the air pressure:



I smoothed it out a little with some thinner. I'll be able to buff this smooth more easily now:





Next I worked on some armor as well. The interior of my Diamond T truck is now done; I can assemble the rest of this now:



Since I was decaling my ships, I figured, let's get the armor done too. First up, my T-90 tank:



Later, I gave it a dark brown wash overall, and a black wash on the engine deck meshes; then I shot the dullcoat over it:



I noticed that frosting on the tank after awhile, so I think some of the wash in the deepest crevices was still wet. I'd thought I'd given it enough time to dry, but apparently not. That was fixed by shooting another dullcoat over this; all the frosting went away.

Moving on, I also decaled my LAV-25. This one had an interesting 'extra' on the decal sheet so I added it to this model to make it "Bertha". I had to guess where to put the decals as I had no instruction sheet to follow. I did use one of my previously finished LAV's as a guide:



This one then got a dullcoat as well:



I also washed and dullcoated my two artillery pieces while I was at it:





It doesn't really show up well in these pics, if at all.

Finally, there was one more armor model that I applied decals to. First though, I had to go on the AMPS Review site to get the decal guide that my friend Robert put in the review he did:



Granted, some of the wrong decals were applied, but they are all in the correct places! Here's the first decals on the gun carriage itself:



Then I applied the decals to the two carriers. You'll note that the bumper decals are far too long. I think Dragon did that on purpose:



I added Solvaset to these and let them set for a it, then I went back and trimmed the bumper decals. First though, I fixed the pivot plate under the gun itself:



Now you can see the bumper decals after I trimmed them off:





Just for fun, I put this whole beast together and shot a pic:




Okay, after all that was done, I went ahead and finished several of these all up. Finally I can post some finished models!!! You can see the finished models in the ships and armor pages of these boards.

Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

Here's a short update from me. I haven't had the chance to get too much time on the bench so I focused on only a few builds.

First off, I made some more progress on my USS New York. I got the whole superstructure assembled now. She's ready for fiddly bits:



I left these open to see if there's anything I can put in them, but it doesn't look like the kit included anything. Unless I can see what should be here that I might be able to add; I'll be closing these openings with the P/E provided:



Now lets do some dry-fitting to see how this ship is gonna look:



This is going to be a great looking ship to add to my collection!


Moving on, I decided it was time to focus on getting more done on my 1/72 scale Space Shuttle with Boosters. After all, it's been sitting on my workbench idly since February....

Back then, I'd only done the booster rockets themselves. The main tank had already been done by the previous owner who sold it to me. So, I pulled this out and sanded down the seams that the boosters had; filled a few gaps with Mr. Surfacer 500 and set them aside to dry. Next, I started on the cockpit of the shuttle itself:



Not too much detail inside, but once it's painted up; it looked pretty good if I do say so myself:



Next I completed the interior part of the cargo bay. I didn't worry too much about the appearance of this as the shuttle bay doors will be closed. I doubt they opened them once this beastie was attached to the boosters:



I couldn't find my regular alligator clips; so I pulled these off the block they came with.

After that, I figured I'd get a few more sub-assemblies done, like the wings:



...and the tail:



Next I assembled the main fuselage of this beastie. She's a big one all right:



The wings were only dry-fit to see how big this was going to be.

After that, I set it all aside to dry, while I went back to finish the bottom of the booster rockets. I had two parts to add to the bottoms of these and one booster was somehow more oval than the other. It took a lot of help to get this to glue properly:



Here you can see it next to the other completed booster tail:



Finally, they both were completed once the glue had dried:



Now back to the Shuttle itself. I installed the cockpit and some windows inside the fuselage. Looks pretty good in there. I hope once the glass goes in some of this can still be seen:



For added stability, I installed the back engine plate to the end of this. I left off the nacelles so I could paint this black first before installing them:



Now let's have a little more Fun with Dryfitting:



Oh yeah, she's a big one all right....

After this, I had a little time left to start a model that a friend gave me after winning it at the IPMS Nationals in Columbus. This is my Trumpeter 1/72 scale Madge seaplane. I started out adding about thirty-five pieces to the forward part of the main flight deck; including the lower nose deck:



Yeah, I had all that to add and I haven't even put in the pilot and crew seats yet!

That's about when I ran out of time. So, thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.