SPA Modeler

Thanks Kari! You'll like this update then....



Here is my latest progress I was able to do a few days during this week, as well as at Hobby Day.

I'll start out with the Speed Racer car: I shot another coat of white over it. You can see how rough that coat is so there's going to be more sanding smooth and re-coating in my future:




Now on to some of my Shelf Queens. Earlier this week I tried to shoot a new coat of Gloss Aluminum on the C-118. The paint cracked. I'm guessing I was shooting too close. It's kinda hard to see in these pics, but it's there:





So, I sanded the cracked paint smooth again and then shot another coat. Since I'd gone down to bare plastic in some places, this coat turned out blotchy:



Again, kinda hard to see in that pic; but it was very obvious in person. So, I sanded smooth again, then applied some Mr. Surfacer 1000 from the spray can. When it dried, I buffed it smooth and re-shot the Gloss Aluminum. Much better; I can move on with this now:





While I was working on my large planes, I pulled out the B-377 and applied the decals to the fuselage. What a challenge that was! They broke a lot, and also didn't fit where they were supposed to so I did the best I could. Finally, I had them more or less acceptable. It even took a few applications of Solvaset to get these to lay down right:





A few days and a clearcoat or two later, I applied the decals to the wings. Not nearly so difficult as the fuselage, but there were a few challenges. One frustration I had was the globe portion of one of the front decals disappeared. I have no idea where it went and I have nothing available to fix it so this will remain that way. Despite that, I'm thrilled with the way this looks now:



Now to shoot another clearcoat to seal everything once again and I'll be able to move on and finish this. I can't wait!

Speaking of models I can't wait to finish, I also applied the ancient Airfix decals to the HP Hampden in order to move forward on this. These took copious amounts of Solvaset to settle down well, but I'm happy with the results so far:





Now this one is ready for a clearcoat before I start the finishing on this. That makes three clearcoats I have to apply; The C-118 will need another before I'm comfortable with any further handling of that model.


Finally, I felt the urge to start something new. Simple and easy was an appealing notion as well. With that in mind, I pulled out this Hobby Boss 1/72 scale Israeli Cobra and started it. I don't have one of these yet in my Israeli forces so it was time to fill that gap:



I started with the cockpit and the exhaust shroud first. Easy stuff:



Later on after painting everything, I closed them up inside the fuselage:



Now that was set aside to dry a bit. Since I had a little more time, I started my 701st little vehicle. This is the Roden 1/72 scale FWD 3-ton ammunition carrier from WWI. I started with the Chassis:



That was pretty fiddly but looks great I think. I also got that assembled pretty fast ; much faster than I expected. I was on a roll so I kept going. Before I knew it, this little beastie was done:



I gotta say, I love the little hand crank in the front that starts the engine! This thing has a pretty funky camo pattern that will take some Silly Putty and patience to do so I'll have to wait till I have a long modeling day to work on that some more.

Until then, that's about all I have done so far in this short update. I hope you enjoy. Stay tuned for more; there's some rainy days coming that will allow me to get more done.

Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

So far so good. Looking forward to seeing more of the WW 1 Ammo carrier. An interesting kit...

Thanks Blacksheep. Yeah, that is an interesting kit. Hopefully soon.

Jaw droppingly good builds Duke!

What do you think of that Cobra kit? I've been thinking about if for my IAF collection.

I love that Cobra. It is simple and easy to assemble and the fit is most excellent! I'm almost already set to paint.
I highly recommend it.

Thanks Duke!

You're welcome. I look forward to seeing yours when you get it.

Hello everyone and welcome to my newest small update and another exciting episode of "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back"! Yes, in trying to finish these two large aircraft I'm working on, I have encountered even more setbacks. It's as if these two refuse to be completed.

Let's start with the big B-377...

I had finished re-coating this and set it aside to dry and later picked it up to start removing the window masking. That's when I found this. It's hard to see in the pic, but it is a blemish on my perfect upper fuselage from running clearcoat:



So, after masking as seen in this previous pic; I sanded this smooth and re-shot it with the now-decanted Tamiya Gloss Aluminum. I think I got it close enough to how it was before:



Finally, I felt I could move along on this. I decided to remove all the window masking to prevent my breaking the landing gear and gear doors (among other things) later on. It seemed to go pretty well at the start:



Then I got to the other side. You can see how windows 1,2 and 4 fell inside the plane. Now I have a wonderful little high-pitched rattle inside this plane! Yippee!



Well, they weren't coming out so I did the only thing I could. Out came the window making fluid and now I have new windows:



My apologies for that poor pic, I was so frustrated with those three windows!

Moving on to Episode Two of "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back", we have my efforts to fix the aluminum coat on the C-118 which cracked. As you recall, I had shot the plane thusly:





Later I peeled off the Tamiya tape and lo and behold; it pulled a little of the white off with it, despite my clearcoating efforts! Okay, no problem; I was able to hide most of it under the 'cheat line'. Still some of it remained visible:



I primed it with a brush, masked it off again using the same technique with the B-377 and then decanted some white again. Here it is ready for me to spray:



Later on after spraying a couple coats of white and clearcoat; I pulled the Tamiya tape off and was gifted with a pain free and complete finish:





Finally! Now I can move forward on this.... again! Given the difficulty I've had in the past with this and with the B-377 decals, I pulled the decals for the C-118 and applied Liquid Decal Film to them. I just don't want to take any more chances!



Time to move on....

I added the remaining clear parts to the Hampden after dipping them in Future, along with the guns that are supposed to stick out from them:





Later on, I'll be masking them, dullcoating this plane and then painting the clear parts. Maybe then I can call this thing done.

After all those frustrating issues with all these previous models; I wanted to work on something more easy and fun. I pulled out the AH-1 Cobra and completed almost all the assembly on it. Now I'm ready to mask off the canopy and start painting this:



After this, I still wanted to work on something fast and easy. I then saw my Hasegawa 1/72 scale A-37A/B kit and decided to do that since I still have no Dragonfly in my collection. I started with the 'cockpit', such as it is. Since there wasn't much (not even control sticks!) I added the pilots to give this more eye candy:



After awhile, when they were dry I painted everything:



I had also built the wings while the cockpit glue was drying:



Since this little bird needs some weight in the nose; I added some cut up fishing weights to the inside of the nose:



Later on, when everything was dry, I closed up the painted cockpit inside the fuselage; added the wings and the tail, as well as some other detail bits and finally the canopy after I dipped it in Future:

Just need to mask those windows and then this will also be ready for paint.

That's all I got done for now. I hope you like it. Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

I feel ya on the two steps forward, one step back. At least you overcame both speed bumps. And your moving along well enough on the Hampden, Cobra, and Tweet. I'm sure that all of them will turn out just fine.

Thanks Carlos. I have overcome these hurdles.... for now. I almost expect something else will happen that I'll need to fix.Seems to always happen despite my best efforts. Still, I'm gonna beat these!

Stay tuned, more to come.