SPA Modeler

Carlos, thanks. Yeah, I do have a bit of an eclectic mix of subjects; it does help keep burnout at bay for longer periods.

Bruce, thanks! Yes, the Dagger is the Meng kit. What a sweetheart of a kit that is too. I was told that the decals were wrong for the camouflaged bird I'm doing, but I'm just not eager to spend extra to try and find the 'correct' decal sheet. It has been a joy to build though. Thanks also for the suggestion on the whiteboard. I'll have to give that a try.

BlackSheep214 wrote:Duke -

How are the WW2 German Aerosans kits? Easy to put together ? Fiddly? I saw them at a LHS out of town awhile back and had thought of grabbing one of those because of the unique subject.

Blacksheep, the Aerosan kits are fairly good about going together. There are very minor fit issues; nothing that a little adjustments after dry-fitting won't fix. And if that doesn't work as well as expected, then putty and sanding help finish them well. I could even make these a bit more refined, but they are game pieces and so I'm not being particular. The plastic is a bit on the soft side so you gotta be careful removing the pieces on the sprues, and there is also a fair bot of flash that is easily cleaned off. You can see that they do build up into very nice looking kits.

Remember, these are also in 1/72 scale so they only measure about 2-2 1/4 to 2-2 1/2 inches in length. These two are two of three designs that are currently out there; I'm trying to get the third version to complete this set.


Thanks again for the great comments and suggestions guys!

Wow... you really have a WIDE range of subjects on your production line! I love the variety!

Thanks John! Yeah, I keep a good variety going. It helps keep each one fresh when I return to it; as well as reduces the chances of burnout.


Now to get some of these finished.....

"The Charlie Don't Surf Campaign"

That, Sir, made my day. Wiping away some tears right now.
I'm also a big admirer of your work and the variety. I'm also stunned by the fact that you're still able to finish anything.

Thanks Mostrich! Yeah, that campaign i\s still going on; and I believe it is the third iteration of that campaign too.

I appreciate you compliments on my variety and quality. I just wish I could finish things faster!

This is my latest progress on a number of my models I finally got to work on.

I'll start with my aircraft....


To start with, I finished the interior on the USAF Jetstream. It may not be accurate, but nothing much will be seen through those tiny windows anyway:



Once that was done, I closed everything up:



Then I saw all those sink marks everywhere. Time to bring out the Mr. Surfacer 500....





Later on I'll get that sanded.

Thanks to a good friend, I managed to finally get the burner cans on my F/A-18 Hornet! They will need some touch up, but I'll now be able to finish this soon:



Thanks again Fermis!

I also masked off the tail end of the F-15 Strike Eagle to add the bare steel plating to the aft engine covers:





I finished up the Eagle burner cans, adding some Tamiya blue weathering powder for exhaust nozzles to make them look more 'burned':



First time I ever used that stuff for this. I'm not sure it turned out the best but hey, it's done.

Here's the tail of this bird after I shot the steel. Somehow a lot of dust got kicked up so I'll have to buff this more smooth:





Finally, because I was painting OD green on something else, I decided to use the remaining paint in the airbrush on the F-102 Dagger. I only masked and shot the wings so far. I'll need to re-shoot more on the fuselage later:






Moving on to my ships, I started doing the many tiny detail parts on my Russian carrier Baku. These are tiny radar assemblies with six parts to each one, yet you can see the half-assembled part right here in the sprue by the instructions explaining how to build these. My Exacto is strategically placed for scale reference and to helpfully point to the assembly I'm trying to do:



I have to make four of them. While these half-assemblies were drying, I moved on and added more to the superstructure/bridge assembly of this carrier. Newest parts in lighter grey:



I also added about five more parts to the fore deck on the bow:



I later assembled the two main guns and dry-fit them to the hull along with the superstructure to see how this was coming along and motivate myself to finish it:



I also started the assembly of the air wing but since they are all in clear plastic, I'll wait till they're painted first to before trying to photograph them.




Moving along again to my armor, I did make some small progress. Before, I had tried to seal some seams on the tank part of the fuel truck in my USAAF supply set. I finally got the OD green shot on that:



I may still have to fix a few things on that but at least the worst of it is fixed.

The SchturmTiger is now completed with all the photo etch parts on it. I also scratch built a new vision port for the driver since the kit one had gone on a trip to Oblivion. Mine is most likely too big, but it's on there and I'm done:



I tried shooting a base coat of Panzer Dunklegelb on this but I appear to have thinned the paint too much. I'll wait till this dries, probably shoot a primer grey on it and then try again:



Finally, since I was shooting paint on tanks, I decided to basecoat the two little Japanese tanks I'm doing. The Type 89 Early got a coat of grey. This was an experiment since I lost the color call out sheet for this tank; I have no idea the proper color to paint this so I'm trying different ones to see what looks best. This shade I think is too light:



The other tank is camouflaged so; using the darkest-to-lightest practice, I shot the dark brown coat on the Type 89 Late tank:



That will get the Silly Putty treatment later. While I had the brown out, I also shot the remaining ten Mules for the 20-Mule Team. I didn't shoot pics of them since they look just like the first ten when I shot them with a basecoat.


Finally, I continued some experiments with my Star Destroyer to see what was the best way to bring out all that detail the most. First I shot a coat of Camouflage Grey over the whole thing:





My first experiment involved Promodeler Wash. I slathered it on thick like it suggested:



Later I wiped it off with a damp paper towel. It didn't turn out the way I expected it to so I played around with the Promodeler wash and camouflage grey drybrushing until I got this result on the bottom:



Pics don't show this to good effect here but I'm quite happy with this result.

Well, that's the latest update on my progress so far. I'm glad to finally see some of these move forward. I just wish I could get some of these done faster. I'll keep working on them. Meanwhile, comments are welcome, thanks for looking in.

Maybe this will help? I don’t know anything about tanks, sadly, but I am enjoying what you do!



Great progress on all fronts, Duke, including the farthest regions of space! Fantastic work on the Star Destroyer. The Emperor will be most pleased!

That’s a nice batch of builds Mark! I really can’t pick a favorite out of so many great subjects... too much good stuff there! I see you also have one of Leigh Eaton’s helpful stands at your work station...

Thanks Bruce! That tank does look good. However, the colors I will paint this will be slightly different. Looking forward to getting some Silly Putty on this and getting it camouflaged.

Thanks also for the compliments on everything else. I expect that I'll be finishing the Star Destroyer very soon if all goes well. Everything else was just a couple minutes of work here and there on each one until I managed some progress.

Thank you Carlos! I appreciate that very much. Yes, I have about five of those stands; they do work great!

Wow... you don't waste any time doing multiple kits. Looking good, Duke.