All Righty ... What's on the bench today?

[Swordsman]

What you see is a F-35 ... I would like to scratch build a foamy RC VTOL ... you see the ducted fan up front for forward lift but back Ducted fan will be for forward & rear lift ... my wing span should be around 21" ... guess I'll order the fans first lots of complicated movements here ... but I figure with a Arduino chip it can be programed to function as a VTOL F-35. You tube has lots of these working without main wings ...

 

[ausf]

What you see is a F-35 ... I would like to scratch build a foamy RC VTOL ... you see the ducted fan up front for forward lift but back Ducted fan will be for forward & rear lift ... my wing span should be around 21" ... guess I'll order the fans first lots of complicated movements here ... but I figure with a Arduino chip it can be programed to function as a VTOL F-35. You tube has lots of these working without main wings ...

Jeez, I have hard enough time keeping a slow moving prop Trojan or Corsair in the air, I'd be down right dangerous with a ducted fan.

 

[Duke Maddog]

There's some really great stuff being done here. It's awesome to see this thread getting so much action.


After an interesting start to the New Year, I finally managed to get some bench time; mostly thanks to my monthly St. Crispin's Irregulars Hobby Day. Here is where I am now.

I finally completed my decals on the F-102 Delta Dagger. Now I can dullcoat this and complete the final details:

Next I finished all the crazy stencils on the F-15E Strike Eagle. Now I can finish the rest of the decals and move forward on this:

Next I started a helicopter that was given to me by a friend and fellow IPMS member. He knew I had wanted this helicopter and he got it for me. This is the EH-101 Merlin Royal Navy bird. I was so excited about building this, I had almost forgotten to take pics! Here is the first pic I took, showing the entire interior assembled together:

Later I dry-fit this inside the fuselage to see how it fit. I was quite amazed at how well this fell together:

Finally, here's a shot of all the fuselage components sitting together:

One thing I like about this is that they give you an operational hinge on the tail to fold it. They also make the main rotors foldable too!

Moving on, I also started one of my Christmas presents, the Mitsubishi F-2A. I started with the cockpit of course. It's a very simple affair:

I then added all the main gear well walls and such, as well as the main intake scoop on the front of the lower fuselage:

I had also assembled all the missiles and drop tanks for this too, but I didn't shoot pics of them.




Moving on to my armor, I was able to accomplish the following work....


Here is where I was with my USAAF resupply set. I had finished dullcoating these after applying the decals:

Later on, I added the cab tops and the wheels to all of these:

After this, I tried to complete all of them with the final details and such, but every time I tried to move forward; something broke off. When I fixed that, something else broke off. I spent two weeks re-fixing broken things before I finally got this whole set finished. Finished pics to be posted soon.

Moving on, I finally installed the tracks on the Japanese Type 89 Late:

After that, I painted the tracks a flat black; added the tools, the machine guns, and a couple small roadwheels that had fallen off. Then I added the decals before dullcoating this little beastie:

Due to the confusion many people have had thinking that the white stars are American markings; I've decided to add a couple small Japanese flags to the sides of this tank behind the hull numbers so people won't question why a Japanese tank has US markings. It may not be accurate, but at least it will help people understand it is a Japanese tank. You will see them in the completed pics of this tank; which will hopefully get done in a couple more days.

Finally, I took the time to complete the photo-etch on the Russian T-80U that I'd started and set aside some time back. Here it is with most of the photo-etch on it:

Later on when all that was dry, I went back and added the two flaps on the front of this tank, as well as touched up a few other areas:

Now to get this primed and ready for paint. I believe I'll be brush painting this the whole time as I'm concerned that the Silly Putty masking will remove some of this photo etch; especially the flaps on the turret and the two front flaps under the front of the hull. After all this time and effort, I don't want to take any chances.


Well, that is my small update for now; hopefully it is the first of many to come. Stay tuned for more and thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

[Duke Maddog]

Okay, here's another small update, thanks to the time had yesterday to work on models. I'll start again with my aircraft.


The F-102 has been coming along. After dullcoating this plane once the decals dried, I peeled the masking off the windows. It took a bit of cleanup afterward to make the canopy look well enough:

After doing that I had also started the missile racks underneath. But first, I shot some white on the AIM-4 Falcons and set them aside to dry while I worked on the rest of the plane:

As mentioned, I started the missile racks in the weapon's bay first, adding the lowered racks to the interior:

Once they had dried enough, I completed the painting of the interior of the weapons bay as well as the landing gear bays:

After a break and after checking the missiles to see if they were dry enough; I masked off the forward parts of the Falcons and painted the rear section red:

While those were drying, I added the main landing gear as well as the gear doors and weapons bay doors:

Next came the nose gear and the wheels. I cemented them in place once the gear doors and main landing gear were dry enough:

Finally, after adding a little more white to the missile fins, I cemented the AIM-4 Falcons in place on the launch racks:

After a bit of touch up and final parts additions, this bird will be finished. I am hoping to have it finished today.


On one of those breaks working on the Dagger, I also got the last decals on the F-15E Strike Eagle. Now I can finally finish this bird too:

Finally, on my armor; I focused on the T-80U since it was so close to being finished. I first shot a base coat of green on this with the airbrush; then I used my Sotar to freehand the brown pattern over it:

Later on, I sharpened up the edges using a brush and then added the little black squiggles to complete the pattern:

Once that was sufficiently dry, I shot a glosscoat on the turret and added the decals:

You can see the Solvaset still has to work to pull those decals down. Now all I have to do is dullcoat this again and finish the final assembly and weathering. I hope to finish this today as well.


That's it for now; thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

[Swordsman]

What you see is a F-35 ... I would like to scratch build a foamy RC VTOL ... you see the ducted fan up front for forward lift but back Ducted fan will be for forward & rear lift ... my wing span should be around 21" ... guess I'll order the fans first lots of complicated movements here ... but I figure with a Arduino chip it can be programed to function as a VTOL F-35. You tube has lots of these working without main wings ...

Jeez, I have hard enough time keeping a slow moving prop Trojan or Corsair in the air, I'd be down right dangerous with a ducted fan.

The craft has dual fans ... The back duct is controlled by three little motors ... It would be hard to do with servo motors ... I was hoping you would reply as I've seen your work ... I have some adurinos on the way ... Next is to enlarge plans ... And start cutting foam board ...

 

[Swordsman]

Mark Your workmanship has Improved again ... Outstanding Work ...

 

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks Gerry! I appreciate that very much.

 

[Jeeves]

Been working on finishing up two of my GB builds so I've got room to focus on the big Rhino kit. First up- the Midway Buffalo-

Also the Academy Humvee which I am truly enjoying. Using some of the stowage from the Meng Toyota Technical kit as well...

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Mike the Hummer looks great and the finish on the Buffalo is quite nice as well.

But

Umm, you might want to have another try at your landing gear on the Buffalo. I think they are on the wrong sides.

 

[Jeeves]

Huh....that might explain the trouble I had attaching them :smack :tomato

 

[Sherman 18]

I had every intent to plug my can into the bench for the next two days................ But I just got called into work. Don't know if it will be a couple hours or all day/night thing

I was going to work on this for the next two days to try and clear my head.

I have been more or less playing with a AC Mack a little at a time for the last couple months.

I guess I need to add pictures to that album.

You guys have fun. Keep posting the great work your doing. I at least can watch from my phone. I don't post as I fat finger too much.

:drinks

 

[Duke Maddog]

Well Sherman, welcome to my world with that Modelcollect it! I just started one too.

Okay now that I'm finally recovered from that flu; I managed to get back to the bench and make some serious progress for once.

At Hobby Day I didn't feel like doing any painting, detail or otherwise; so I just pulled some things out to build. Here is what I was working on...




I started by making some more progress on another Aerosan for the war game I'm planning on doing in October. I started the engine on this little beastie:

After sanding the forward cone, I completed the mounting of the engine, the safety bars and several other little fiddly bits:

Moving on from that, I decided to stay with armor for the next project. I pulled out my new T-80 UM1 tank. I started with the turret as indicated in the instructions. Here it is after completing one half of the assembly:

This kit also received a metal barrel included in the kit. I decided to have another try at putting it on my tank. This time, I glued it to the mantlet first:

After that, I went back and completed the other side of the turret, completing the assembly as much as I dared. There are still some parts to add to this, but only after painting and final detailing:

You can see that I fixed the smoke dischargers.

With all that done, I assembled the hull, added the torsion bars, wheels and other details. I even started the tracks before I remembered to take this pic:

I eventually managed to finish the tracks on one side of this for now:

After all that, I was ready to move on.....


Well, I moved on all right, straight to an ACE kit that I'd been wanting to build for awhile. It was time to pull it out. This is the ACE Canadian Husky in 1/72 scale. I started with the main hull:

For such a short run kit, I was surprised at how well this fit together so far. That just means I'm going to have a bear of a time with the suspension and wheels underneath! h well, I decided to jump ahead and build the crane. It was a fast assembly, although the top of the main arm had a deep trench across it so I added some strip styrene to it to make it flat:

Okay it was time to move on to aircraft....


I started with a simple Matchbox kit just to have some fun.

I cemented the pilot to the bang seat and then added him to the fuselage since that's all that the cockpit comprises! No pics of that, sorry; I jumped straight to closing up the fuselage:

Later on I'll paint the pilot and whatever interior that can be seen and I'll close up the canopy and mask it. Before that, I assembled the wings and added them to this plane:

Once the canopy is all closed up and masked; this bird will be ready for paint.

Moving on again, I started a Hasegawa kit of the 1/72 scale Harrier jet, only this one is in the markings of the Italian Navy. I started with the small cockpit since this kit actually has one:

I then assembled the engine intake:

I then added some of the parts to the fuselage that could be added before removing the parts from the sprues. Things like the refueling pod, engine intake cowls and the exhaust plates:

Lastly, I cemented the wings together as well as various other parts that were halved or otherwise needed extra parts added:

Couldn't do much more without having to paint so I called it a day by then.

Thanks for looking in on my small update here. Comments are always welcome.

 

[ij001]

Using an old AMT P-40N to make a RNZAF Kittyhawk IV. Not a bad kit, this is the third one I've done. I chucked the dreadful kit seat and replaced it with an Ultracast one that I've had for years.

Ian.

 

[sharkman]

Those AMT kits are simple but with some additions can build into a great model Ian. I've made a couple now, had a bunch but sold a lot of them off as I thought I could never build them all.

 

[moon puppy]

 

[ij001]

Kittyhawk primed:

Ian.

 

[bob letterman]

Always liked those P-40s!

Looking good Ian!

Bob

 

[moon puppy]

Kittyhawk primed:

Ian.

Classic lines!

 

[reconron]

WIP, Master Box ,West European Cart.Well yeah,that's how MB calls it.
:hmmm

 

[moon puppy]

Looks a bit Western cowboy...

Nice to see you at the bench Ron!