SPA Modeler

It is no mystery what keeps you up at night! That is an impressive amount of work. Very nice, varied and well done.

Thanks Lyle! However, none of this keeps me up at night. Working with power tools on homes means I need my eight hours a night so I get plenty of sleep. This keeps me from losing fingers. All this is stuff that keeps me up during the day!

Stay tuned; I hope to have more done soon.

Today I got to the workbench and got started on those train flatcars like I wanted. Here's my latest progress on everything today.

First off, I hate when they make the sprue gates so big like this that they fill up the channel where the wheel is supposed to sit on the rails:



I was working on two flatcars; one long and one short. I had to clean eight of those wheels! What a PITA!

After doing all of those and getting the wheels and axles assembled, I built up the rest of the flatcars. These are by no means done; I have a lot of detail parts to add to these, as well as the side rails. However, you can see here the basic look of these little cars.

Here's the short one:



And this is the long one:



There are four parts to that long flatbed that had to be glued flat. I'm still not sure I succeeded. Oh well, this one is done so far.

After all that, I'd had enough of UM's trains so I took a break. I didn't want to fire up the compressor today to airbrush, so I decided to do a few simple kits and a couple of easy distressed kits. Here's the first of the simple kits. This is the 1/72 scale Hasegawa Huey Hog I started some time back. I found it again and went ahead and painted the interior of the cockpit and cargo bay:



Later on I'll paint the pilots and drybrush the instrument panel. For now, I just went ahead and painted some of the other details, as well as the interiors of the fuselage halves:



Once the pilots and IP are done this little bird will be ready to close up!

Moving on, I picked up one of the first of the Distressed Kits I wanted to (re)start. This is a Trumpeter 1/72 scale LAV-25 that someone "severely started" before I got it in the Distressed Kit Auction at my IPMS club's June meeting. This is what it looked like when I got it:



Notice everything is there....... except the instructions.....

Oh well, I'm a model builder; I don't need no steenkin' instructions!

I went ahead and finished fixing the suspension parts that had broken off:



I kept thinking, 'what's up with this green color anyway?' but I went on and started the turret. Once I got the turret all assembled, I noticed a fairly large gap that I was sure wasn't supposed to be there. So out came some strip styrene that got cut up and placed in the hole to plug it:



That will get sanded smooth later on.

Here's a test shot showing the hull and turret together:



That's gonna look pretty good when I finally cover that nasty green...

The next Distressed Kit I got was actually given to me because they felt I'd do a better job on it that they'd already done. (Whaaaa...?) This is the Minicraft 1/700 scale spru-can that was; again, "severely started". The whole hull and superstructure as well as the masts were already built; and the masts and tops of the stacks had already been painted a gloss black. I started out by replacing the lost antennae on the masts and added the weapons to the hull. The previous builder had also added the poor decals which had already started flaking off. I hit them with Solvaset to lock the remainder of them down and then I re-painted the masts and tops of the stacks with flat black. Here is what it looked like when I got done with all that. The white parts were what I'd added to the masts:



After looking at this, I noticed that I'd used the wrong type of gun on the front of this ship. I fixed that straight away:



Next I painted the hull. Then I looked at several of the gaps on the superstructure and decided I couldn't live with those. Out came the Mr. Surfacer. I started out with the gaps on the forward superstructure under the bridge:



Yes, I already fixed the drooping antenna...

Then I filled the gaps around the hanger doors:



All that will be carefully sanded down till it's smooth and then I'll paint the superstructure. Some gaps are still there, but I can't get to them with what I have so they'll just have to remain.

Well, after doing all that work on that spru-can, I got motivated to finish off the USS Virginia, despite not finding the replacement parts someone had sent me. Out came more of the styrene strip and rods.

Okay, remember this? This is where I stopped before:



Well since that pic was taken, the masts had all broken off; the big square radar disappeared and several other parts broke off and disappeared. *cough*torpedo tubes*cough.

Okay, after tearing apart the Hobby Room again looking for the square radar; I finally found the back of another one. I added the front of it using sheet styrene and then added the extra parts that made this radar:





It looks like crap, but at least I got one on this ship again! I also added modified launcher arms to look similar enough to the ones in back that are still on; then I replaced the masts, and fixed the other missing parts:



Then I touched up the paint a little more, and fixed a few more bits and bobs:



I'm not sure why I posted that pic; it doesn't look much different than the previous one. Oh well, here's a stern shot I haven't included before:



Okay, I guess I can now declare that ship ready for decals. Finally, I'll have that ship added to my fleet; after so many, many years of waiting!


Okay, that's all I got done so far today. Tomorrow promised to be just as open for working on my Hobby so this time, I think I'll fire up the compressor and start shooting some paint. So stay tuned, more to come.


Meanwhile, comments are always welcome, thanks for looking in.

Today was a day of two steps forward one-and-a-half steps backward.

Today, I fired up the compressor and got some paint and clear coats shot on some models.

First off, I shot clear coats on all the models that are ready for decals. These models consisted of the Atomic Annie, the little Czech plane, the 1/35th scale F-5E Tiger II, and the USS Virginia. These got set aside to dry...


...while I cleaned up one of two Lacquer Thinner spills; this one affected two models. One was my little 1/72 scale Airfix F-51 Mustang which got some on the wing:



You actually can't see the damage here in this pic, despite my best efforts to edit it to show. Basically, it roughened and discolored the plastic. The other model affected was the Atomic Annie. Fortunately, it was only this part that was damaged:



Easy fix... again. This is the third time I've had to repaint that particular part.

Moving forward, I shot paint on the F/A-18 Hornet in grey on the top:



Then I shot some paint on another modern aircraft I started months ago. This is the F-35 I shot a basecoat of gunship grey on:



Next I shot some green since I had three models that needed that color. This first one was the little BS-3 Russian gun:



You can see another of the steps back: I broke off the little lower shield on that gun.

Next I did the T-90 in a basecoat of green. Amazingly enough, no issues here:



For the next model; I was told that the opening I plated over on the turret was supposed to remain open, so I had to remove the plate I'd put on the turret. After that, I shot the green on the LAV as well:





Finally, I shot some white paint on my Aurora Jet Commando:



It was about this time that I spilled the Lacquer Thinner a second time...

After all this time, I figured I could mask off the F/A-18 for the second coat of paint underneath, so I pulled out my trusty blue tape and went to work:





Then I shot the lighter color on the bottom:



While that was drying; I pulled out the little F-51 again and spent a couple hours buffing out the damage on the wing of this plane. I started with the 2400-grit pad and worked my way all the way up to the 12000-grit pad. After all that, I finally got this wing smooth again:



Now that it was completed and ready for paint, I shot a coat of gloss black over it in preparation for the Alclad:



There's still some orange peel on this so I'll be buffing it out again and then shooting some Aqua Clear over it before I shoot the Alclad.

Finally, I pulled the tape off the F/A-18 and realized why I don't normally use acrylics. This was the result:





Yep! Pulled the paint right off the sides and the wings.


I just cannot catch a break....

On that disappointing note, I pulled down the little Spru-can again and sanded the Mr. Surfacer I'd put on the day before. Then I painted up the superstructure, weapons and other bits and bobs. After some additional touch-up, I got it to this point:





Yes, I know the antennas are crooked again, and one is even missing. I will replace it later and straighten the rest after I mask and paint the lower hull. Then I can paint the little white parts and do some other detail painting before I clearcoat this to complete the decals.


Until then, I'm done for the day. I hope you enjoyed my less than satisfactory day. It would have been more satisfactory if I could have gotten more done instead of chasing broken parts; cleaning up two chemical spills and dealing with airbrush issues.

Anyway, thanks for looking in, comments are always welcome. I hope to have more to show soon so stay tuned.

I feel your pain. I knocked over a can of lacquer thinner a couple of days ago. Got it wiped up and only lost the paint on a couple of parts.

Thanks Lyle! Fortunately the F-51 wasn't painted so the damage was minimal and that part on the Annie was he only one affected. I've had to re-paint that part several times for similar reasons, so it ain't no big deal to me in that case.

I appreciate you looking in. Thanks again for the great reply.

Here's my latest progress I got done so far. I've not had very much time to get to the workbench the last few days, but during the short times I have had; I've managed to get the following done.

First off, I shot some Primer Grey on the bottom of my C-46. It looks spot on to Model Master Neutral Grey, so this will be the underside coat. It did reveal a few areas where some additional attention was needed so I added some more Mr. Surfacer to the areas. I'll be sanding these later:



You can see where the Mr. Surfacer is added...

While that was drying, I sanded and polished a couple other models: the F-51 and the Jet Commando. Since they still look the same, I didn't take pics of them.

Next I took a look at the little Russian gun I had painted and I noticed an obvious seam on the top of the breach block. That ain't supposed to be there, so out came the Mr. Surfacer again and I got it all filled and smoothed out. I also adjusted the wheels so they all sit right, and I painted the details on the wheels, breach, gun slide, and targeting sight:



Now to re-coat this in clear for the wash, then dullcoat and drybrush/weathering and this will be done.

Speaking of guns; I found this little Italian gun that I'd started some time back. It's a cheap little snap-together wargame gun with crew that I got for my Italian Army. It is in soft plastic and has some fairly soft detail, but this isn't expected to go to any contests or anything. Anyway, it was primered white when I found it so I applied some paint to this to move it along:



After all that, I felt it was time to get back to the Shipyards.

I pulled down this RAF rescue launch that had been sitting for awhile and decided it was time to get it moving again. I finished adding a few more deck detail parts and then masked the windows for this. It is now ready for painting:



Next I sanded the sides of the Spru-can I'm doing. Now I have to repaint some as I sanded down to the base plastic. I went ahead and masked and painted the lower hull anyway. Now it's got the red hull underneath and is that much closer to decals:



Yes, some of the masts and antenna bits broke off again. I'm leaving them off until the end so that I don't have to keep re-gluing them into place.

Finally, I was having so much fun in the Shipyards, I decided to open another slip and start a model that a friend on another Forums had just started. Now the two of us are doing a mini-group build over there building this model. It's the Dragon 1/700 scale USS New York and I started with the Rolling Airframe missile launchers:



They each had four parts each and they were tiny! That's why I left the bases on the sprue until I need them.

Moving along, I added the small parts to the main octagonal tower:



Next, the instructions told me to add all the small parts on the foredeck before gluing the whole assembly to the main hull. I figured that these small parts would be difficult enough putting on the deck part, and then might break off when I attach it to the main hull. I decided to reverse the process; I added the fordeck part to the main hull first:



Then I added all the tiny parts. It made this step so much easier:



By this time I'd run out of time again so just for fun I quickly dry-fit the upper superstructure and forward tower to the main hull to get an overall shot of what this will look like:



That's gonna be one impressive ship! I just hope I can do it justice.


That's all I have for now. Stay tuned, I hope to have more done soon.

Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

Very nice Duke,

I enjoy greatly reading Your latest issue of Maddog manufacturing edition. It was as good as always.

Not only the great & interesting builds you do, but also the diversity of the subjects! Planes, armor, ships and you name it. That makes this thread so special.

- Kari

wow ! simply amazing !
I couldn't even keep track of all the different build subjects, great work duke !
gino

That is some (more, and as usual) outstanding work. I love it.