SPA Modeler

This is such an epic build. Love it. Go Apollo!

Well gosh diddley darn. Where in tarnation do you find the time and energy to build all these tootin' models?!?

Thanks Lyle! It is turning into quite a deal indeed. I do hope I can make good progress on it this week.

Thanks Owl. I find the time whenever and wherever I can. Sometimes it may be 20-30 minutes here and there between other things, but every little bit helps. Hobby Days once a month every month really give me loads of time for completing things and that's where I get most of this done. as for energy, I tend to find that on my workbench itself. I always get energized when I sit down at the bench; except after a hard day of working on someone's house. Then I get my sleep first.

Okay people, brace yourselves. This is gonna be a big update....


I'll start out with a little work I had to do on Annie's gun. I was about to re-touch up the paint on the main gun when I saw a big glue splash on the side of the breech block. Here it is right after I started to sand it off:



I've since sanded that down smooth and shot paint on it. Just waiting for it to dry.

Next I completed the painting and decaling of the F-18 cockpit so I could finally assemble the whole fuselage like this:



After that, it was real easy to add the wings and tail surfaces:



After this I should be able to add the canopy, mask it off and start shooting paint.


After all that, I decided to have some fun. I pulled out my Headless Horseman and started to detail more of it. I painted the horse's eyes red, painted the saddle blanket, as well as completed the sword hand and mounted it on the model; among other things. I gave his white shirt a dirty brown wash, touched up a few things and set it all up:





Look out, he's coming for your head next....




Later on I found his cape and after a few more additions and touchups, I put it all together again to see how the final thing will look when I'm done:



I still have a few more things to do for this, most notably the base of the tree and then add a Jack-'o-Lantern to the base next to the sign. I should be done in a few days I think.


Finally, I went to work in a big way on the Saturn V. First off, I figured it was time to finish up the LEM and Command Modules. I started out by masking the (already black-painted) LEM in preparation for the silver color:





Then I looked at the color call outs (such as they are!) on the instruction sheets. It called for a 'bright silver' color on this and the lower part of the Command Module. I figured the brightest silver I could use was Chrome. So, I went ahead and masked off the white panels on the Command Module next so I could shoot both at the same time:



You can see how difficult that was, trying to get every square properly masked off, but I succeeded...



Next I pulled out my Chrome Silver and shot these two:



They looked pretty good to me:





While these two were drying, I went ahead and shot some Tamiya Bare Metal Silver on the capsule, since it called for a different color silver:



While everything was drying, I went ahead and puttied the crack that I'd gotten in the clear part that the LEM sits inside of at the top of Stage III. This was after I'd c=glued the lower clear part to it so it would be more sturdy:



I should be able to have that all sanded and repainted tomorrow...

I had also finally finished painting all five main engines on Stage I. Man that was time consuming! Here they are dry-fit into place:



This is a view you do NOT want to have when this thing fires up!



After all that time, I was able to finally add all the retro rockets, sensors, doodads and thingamajigs to the outside of the LEM and Command Modules. These two are now completed:

Command Module:



LEM:




Now all I have to do is complete the white on all these stages, add a clearcoat and then mask these off for the black so I can complete this model:



This is where I am now, and for five hours I fought and struggled to get that rocket body done in a clean and smooth coat of white. So far, I've not been successful. I can only hope that I can get that done before the Nationals!

Okay, that is my long and tedious update, you can all wake up now. Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

Mark I am really loving that Saturn V!

That is out of thie world! What scale is that? 72?

LyleW wrote:That is out of thie world! What scale is that? 72?

BIG!!!!

Thanks guys. I appreciate the compliments. Carlos, if you're coming to the meeting, you'll be able to see this thing in person. I'm intending to bring it.

Yes Lyle, the Saturn V is in 1/72 scale. My apologies, I was certain I'd mentioned that before. And thanks for the compliments.

Duke, I am this happy you guided me to this epic Apollo build!

As happy I am with my pre-assembled 1.5 metres tall kit the more I am in awe about your painstaking work!

Love to see the completed build with you standing next to it.