Maddog Manufacturing Open for 2022!

[Duke Maddog]

Wow, I didn’t realize it had been so long since the last tour went through. I had thought that I’d hosted a tour previously, it apparently didn’t happen. Now since I have so much progress to show, I realize this will have to be a two-part tour. The first tour will depart for the Hangar and Shipyards first, then we will return to board the trams for the tour to the Motor Pool. The reason for this is I was so busy with so much other stuff in between bench sessions, much of it was preparations for the San Diego Comicon, among other things. I just kept on building, getting carried away. And then I contracted Covid. When that happened, I just kept on building and painting since that was about all I felt like doing when I wasn’t resting.

So, without further ado, the first trams are here. All aboard!



Here in the Hanger, work progressed on the helicopters, starting with the two AH-1 Cobras.

The early Cobra got the decals applied. I applied four or five applications of decal solvent to the Decal on the boom:

Later the dullcoat went on:

That’s when I noticed the decals on the tail boom again. I’ll never understand why every time I build one of the AH-1 Cobras from any company; the “United States Army” decals always silver on the boom! Never fails! After four more rounds of puncturing the decals and applying more solvent under them; watching it leech underneath from capillary action; we finally got them un-silvered.

The same happened with the Cobra Late, decals on after the gloss:

Followed by the dull coat again:

You can see we had the same issue on the boom, only this time not as bad. Still, further continuous attempts with sharp Exacto blades and solvent finally fixed it….so far

On another day, I was cleaning up and reorganizing the Hobby Room and came across several old kits that had been stashed out of sight. This Stormovik was in a broken-up box with a few loose parts inside. So, after checking to see everything was there, to keep from loosing any of the parts I decided we should start it:

After doing the “cockpit”, we got ready to close the fuselage. That’s when I found one piece had gone missing: the rear seat gunner. So, when this gets posed, I’ll just explain that the pilot is waiting for the gunner to return from his bathroom break…

The instructions tell you that this can be built with retracting and extending landing gear. Maybe at one time, but this kit did everything it could to insure that glue got in all the places it wasn’t supposed to go; so everything was glued in the extended position after we assembled the wings:

The fuselage and wings were then assembled:

The tail feathers are only dry fit on, I forgot to take them off for the pic. The clamp is because I found a gap that I added extra Tamiya Thin to so it would seal closed.

That was enough on that one. This last one was re-shot with a Flanker Blue Grey, which is darker than the original coat I gave it. This way I can mask off the darker parts with Silly Putty and then shoot the lighter Russian Topside Grey:

Now we can mover on to the Shipyards where the ship builders have been working very hard.

Let’s stop at this first slip where the USS Sacramento had been sitting for awhile before work resumed. There are a ton of tiny greeblies that go on the upper deck of the superstructure and so we started on the first ones:

These were difficult to get right since the instructions were as clear as mud as to where everything was supposed to go among the forest of holes on top. Fortunately, we were able to figure them out. This looks pretty good on the hull:

Next came the second round of details on this upper deck. There were a lot more:

She was then staged again, this time with the lower hull which we will be adding to the top hull. She’s looking more impressive:

Once they were all dry, we placed the superstructure on the hull and then shot a gunship grey over the decks:

The color schematic calls for a light grey, so I found my Testor’s Model Master Light Grey and we proceeded to start painting the sides of the superstructure. This ain’t so easy to do:

The superstructure is just sitting on the hull; it’s much easier to paint without it being attached.

The view from the stern:

I’ll be painting the hangar doors a different grey. Probably Dark Gull or Neutral. We’ll see.

Another ship we started to paint was the USS Indianapolis in the next slip. We started with the lower color, a Navy Blue Grey:

I used the Federal Standard color. Later we taped this off to paint the upper part of the hull:

That hasn’t happened yet, but I did get a supply of the correct deck color. Hopefully soon…

In this third slip, we did some refinements on the island of the USS Enterprise:

The side decks under the island were installed next:

And on the other side, additional deck parts and sponsons were also installed:

This hull is about ready for paint. Only a few more details to add. Meanwhile, we did shoot paint on the flight deck. It didn’t turn out a swell as I expected, so we’ll be trying again soon:

In this fourth slip, more progress was made on the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto. Her superstructure was built up with the basic parts first:

I then had the upper hull, lower hull and superstructure dry fit to see how this was developing:

After that I decided to cement the upper hull to the lower hull:

Once we finished that, we added additional parts to the superstructure to finish the basic assembly:

Now the only thing that is left to add to that are the guns, boats, gun directors, spotlights and other miscellaneous details.





That completes this tour of the Hangar and Shipyards. Now we’ll make our way back to the main entrance again so you can board the next trams for the Motor Pool.

 

[Duke Maddog]

Welcome back to the main boarding area. The trams are ready to go to the Motor Pool. All aboard!

The first project we have going is a new Japanese vehicle, the AAVP-7A2. I started it for a group build elsewhere. The first thing done was to build the interior:

After that we assembled the roadwheels so they’d be ready for installation later on:

More interior work was done, and then we painted the interior with the closest thing I could find to “seafoam green”:

After more details are painted, we’ll be able to build this up.

After all that work, especially the work in the shipyards, I wanted something simple and easy so I checked the stash. This Geschutzwagen popped right up so into a bay it went. First assembly was the wheels and lower hull:

Next was the easy turret:

There was all of four or five parts in that. Now the upper hull was finished with several detail parts and then cemented to the lower hull:

There are still a few fine details to add but they will go on later since they are easily broken. This little car is now ready for paint:

Moving on, my Russian tank buildup continues.

In this bay, we find the first step completed, the T-54B roadwheels are all assembled and ready for installation:

We then assembled the upper hull, adding all the stowage boxes and tanks etc.:

The turret was built next, all but the most delicate parts:

We tested the turret on the hull, it fits and turns well:

Time to install the roadwheels. They were devilishly hard to get straight! You can see here we still didn’t quite succeed, pretty shameful for a Takom kit:

However, Takom redeems themselves with this handy jig, just like all their other 1/72 scale tracked vehicles. This is one of the best track solutions I’ve seen on any kit:

While the tracks were drying, we added the ditching log and the fuel tanks to the rear of the lower hull. You can see that the brackets for holding the fuel tanks are far too small. I don’t know how they could have missed this:

If it isn’t hidden by some aspect of the upper hull overhanging that part of the rear, we can always toss a tarp over it. Gotta love armor modeling!
Finally, we added the drive sprocket and idler, thus also adding the upper track run. Then we connected it all together with the lower track run:

Now additional detail parts are added to the turret and the upper and lower hull are cemented together. This one is ready for paint:

In this next bay, we started the T-55 AM, starting with the lower hull:

There wasn’t much to add, but it was a start. Next, we assembled all the roadwheels:

As you saw above, Revell did an unusual and interesting thing molding half the fuel tanks and the brackets to the lower hull rear plate already:

Building these tanks was simple:

Upper hull details and side skirts were next, everything went on well:

We built the turret while that was drying:

Wow, after building all those T-64’s, T-72’s and the T-80; the turrets for the T-54 and T-55 are so bare. I almost feel like these turrets are incomplete…but they aren’t!

Anyway, the turret was tested on the upper hull. Great fit and movement:

Roadwheels and tracks were next, completing the lower hull. Then we attached the upper hull to it:

This is another tank ready for paint:

In this next bay, Another T-80 was started. This was an “N-in-one” kit, meaning all the parts were there to build one of five variants. I checked my collection list and saw that I had four of the five variants already built; the only one I didn’t have was the T-80UE. Basic turret assembly was first:

Additional external details were added:

While that was drying, we added torsion bars and suspension to the lower hull:

Since the previous details were dry, we finished off the turret…at least with all the plastic parts. Additional photo-etch parts are needed:

Upper and lower hull went together next, followed by roadwheels and sprockets:

We then tested the turret on the hull. It turns and fits well, thank goodness:

And that completes this latest tour of my facilities. Since I have to remain quarantined for some days more, I hope to move forward and get some of these even closer to being finished.

Thank you all for your patience enduring these long tours; I hope you weren’t too bored. If you were, I hope you had a great nap. As always, comments are welcome.

 

[moon puppy]

That's a lot going on Mark.

That’s when I found one piece had gone missing: the rear seat gunner.

What little I know about the IL2 was the back seat was basically a sling strung up across the fuselage.

 

[MM2CVS9]

Wow, I didn’t realize it had been so long since the last tour went through. I had thought that I’d hosted a tour previously, it apparently didn’t happen. Now since I have so much progress to show, I realize this will have to be a two-part tour. The first tour will depart for the Hangar and Shipyards first, then we will return to board the trams for the tour to the Motor Pool. The reason for this is I was so busy with so much other stuff in between bench sessions, much of it was preparations for the San Diego Comicon, among other things. I just kept on building, getting carried away. And then I contracted Covid. When that happened, I just kept on building and painting since that was about all I felt like doing when I wasn’t resting.

So, without further ado, the first trams are here. All aboard!



Here in the Hanger, work progressed on the helicopters, starting with the two AH-1 Cobras.

The early Cobra got the decals applied. I applied four or five applications of decal solvent to the Decal on the boom:

Later the dullcoat went on:

That’s when I noticed the decals on the tail boom again. I’ll never understand why every time I build one of the AH-1 Cobras from any company; the “United States Army” decals always silver on the boom! Never fails! After four more rounds of puncturing the decals and applying more solvent under them; watching it leech underneath from capillary action; we finally got them un-silvered.

The same happened with the Cobra Late, decals on after the gloss:

Followed by the dull coat again:

You can see we had the same issue on the boom, only this time not as bad. Still, further continuous attempts with sharp Exacto blades and solvent finally fixed it….so far

On another day, I was cleaning up and reorganizing the Hobby Room and came across several old kits that had been stashed out of sight. This Stormovik was in a broken-up box with a few loose parts inside. So, after checking to see everything was there, to keep from loosing any of the parts I decided we should start it:

After doing the “cockpit”, we got ready to close the fuselage. That’s when I found one piece had gone missing: the rear seat gunner. So, when this gets posed, I’ll just explain that the pilot is waiting for the gunner to return from his bathroom break…

The instructions tell you that this can be built with retracting and extending landing gear. Maybe at one time, but this kit did everything it could to insure that glue got in all the places it wasn’t supposed to go; so everything was glued in the extended position after we assembled the wings:

The fuselage and wings were then assembled:

The tail feathers are only dry fit on, I forgot to take them off for the pic. The clamp is because I found a gap that I added extra Tamiya Thin to so it would seal closed.

That was enough on that one. This last one was re-shot with a Flanker Blue Grey, which is darker than the original coat I gave it. This way I can mask off the darker parts with Silly Putty and then shoot the lighter Russian Topside Grey:

Now we can mover on to the Shipyards where the ship builders have been working very hard.

Let’s stop at this first slip where the USS Sacramento had been sitting for awhile before work resumed. There are a ton of tiny greeblies that go on the upper deck of the superstructure and so we started on the first ones:

These were difficult to get right since the instructions were as clear as mud as to where everything was supposed to go among the forest of holes on top. Fortunately, we were able to figure them out. This looks pretty good on the hull:

Next came the second round of details on this upper deck. There were a lot more:

She was then staged again, this time with the lower hull which we will be adding to the top hull. She’s looking more impressive:

Once they were all dry, we placed the superstructure on the hull and then shot a gunship grey over the decks:

The color schematic calls for a light grey, so I found my Testor’s Model Master Light Grey and we proceeded to start painting the sides of the superstructure. This ain’t so easy to do:

The superstructure is just sitting on the hull; it’s much easier to paint without it being attached.

The view from the stern:

I’ll be painting the hangar doors a different grey. Probably Dark Gull or Neutral. We’ll see.

Another ship we started to paint was the USS Indianapolis in the next slip. We started with the lower color, a Navy Blue Grey:

I used the Federal Standard color. Later we taped this off to paint the upper part of the hull:

That hasn’t happened yet, but I did get a supply of the correct deck color. Hopefully soon…

In this third slip, we did some refinements on the island of the USS Enterprise:

The side decks under the island were installed next:

And on the other side, additional deck parts and sponsons were also installed:

This hull is about ready for paint. Only a few more details to add. Meanwhile, we did shoot paint on the flight deck. It didn’t turn out a swell as I expected, so we’ll be trying again soon:

In this fourth slip, more progress was made on the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto. Her superstructure was built up with the basic parts first:

I then had the upper hull, lower hull and superstructure dry fit to see how this was developing:

After that I decided to cement the upper hull to the lower hull:

Once we finished that, we added additional parts to the superstructure to finish the basic assembly:

Now the only thing that is left to add to that are the guns, boats, gun directors, spotlights and other miscellaneous details.





That completes this tour of the Hangar and Shipyards. Now we’ll make our way back to the main entrance again so you can board the next trams for the Motor Pool.

The shipyard is looking good!

EJ

 

[Duke Maddog]

Thank you Bob! If I recall, that is somewhat how the rear seat looks. Yeah, they didn't waste much on creature comforts did they?

Thank you EJ! It feels good to have some decent work happening in the shipyards after so many years of leaving them idle.

 

[Duke Maddog]

Wow, I finally found a couple free hours to get this latest tour ready to go! So, let's climb aboard the trams and get this party started!

The Hangar has been idle for awhile, so we'll head to the Shipyards straightaway. Quite a bit has been happening there.

First up, we tried to get a more even coat of grey on the massive Enterprise flight deck. That still eludes us:

Not much else was attempted on that. However, we did get a lot done on the USS Indianapolis. First, we masked off as much of the deck as possible after masking the lower sides of the hull:

Grey paint was shot on hull and superstructure, aiming slightly upward to help keep as much overspray off the decks as possible:

I still had some overspray, but it was easy to touch up. After that dried, the masks came off. Now this was ready for more progress to be done:

Moving on to one of our smaller slips, we took the time to mask off the upper cabin works and shoot grey paint on the hull of the Swift Boat. Here it is after the masks had been removed:

Next we sprayed the cabin exterior while they were still on the sprues, as well as other exterior accessories. This was done before the windows were put in. I remembered to take this pic only after having added the windows to the front of the cabin:

And the cabin is built! All the side walls were installed and adjusted as best as possible, but there are still a few discrepancies:

Later we dry-fit the cabin roof to see what fit issues we'd have to deal with. The top gunner's position was also completed, which included the mast already molded to one part of it:

I'm glad we completed the interior and tried to keep the windows as clear as possible. It doesn't show well in these pics, but you can see a lot of the interior through these big windows:

That completes our tour of the Shipyards, let's check in to the Motor Pool...



Here in the Motor Pool, we've been at least as busy as the shipyards were.

The first thing we did was to shoot some base paint on the Geschutzwagen:

Now to figure out the camouflage....

Meanwhile, we tried getting further ahead on the Rolls Royce armored car. We had shot a gloss on this car to prepare for decals. When I looked at the roundel decals that go on top of the turret, I noticed they did not print any white! So, we taped off the sides as best we could and shot some white on top of the turret:

Yeah, parts of it are pretty rough; but after some sanding to smooth it out, it won't be seen under the decal.

While that was drying, we added the markings to the rest of the car:

When the top of the turret was dry, we added the roundel to the top of the turret. In this pic it is still wet with the Solvaset:

Here it is all mocked up. There's going to be a bit of touch up to do:

Another thing we did was to paint the underside details with Oily Black just for fun:

Moving on, my Russian tank buildup is moving quite well so far. We'll be showcasing the next three by the steps we took.

First thing was the application of a basecoat of green...

T-54B:

T-55AM:

...and the T-80 UE:

Next step involved coating each of these with gloss for decals and a wash...

T-54B:

T-55AM:

T-80UE:

You can see we had a bit of trouble with the black paint on the photo-etch flaps.

Because the green was not quite the shade of green I wanted; we have added an overall wash of medium dark brown over the whole tank to act as a filter and wash...

T-54B:

T-55AM:

T-80UE:

That looked much better in my eyes. so, moving on from here we added the decal markings. So many of these were ridiculously easy. These tanks also all got dusted first before we could take the pics. I think the crews got over eager and took them out for test drives early...

T-54B:

T-55AM:

T-80UE:

Finally, the last breakable detail parts were added to these tanks...

T-54B:

T-55AM:

T-80UE:

After some detail painting and extra touch ups and enhancements, these beasties will be done!

The last projects on this tour of the Motor Pool are the final two Russian tanks I had in my stash. These are both ACE kits; the early ones before they went with the digital design. This first one is the Russian T-62 and we started on the lower hull tub:

Next we added the upper hull to this to hold everything together:

We then assembled the basic turret and used it to be sure the thing turns on the hull before adding any easily breaklable parts to it. After sanding the hull and turret a number of times, we had great movement:

Later we added the containers and boxes to the upper hull and installed the main gun on the turret:

Once that was done, the torsion bars went on:

It took some doing, but I believe we have all of them lined up well enough so all the wheels will touch the ground and they will all look straight once they get installed:

This last one is a unique tank that I'd never heard of before ACE brought it out. This is the Drakon IT-1 missile tank. Instead of a standard turret, they took a T-55 and gave it a smaller turret with a missile launching arm on it. After firing the missile, a hatch would open on the top of the turret, the launching arm would tilt up and drop into the turret where another missile would be loaded and the arm would swing back up to level again and fire it off. The Russians built some 100 of these before stopping production to focus on newer tank designs.

As before, the lower hull tub was assembled:

The basic turret was assembled and tested on the upper hull to make sure it turned well too. As before, it took a few sanding sessions to get it to turn smoothly:

As on the T-62, one of the torsion arms is supposed to be reversed, but the peg on the torsion arm would not allow the arm to fit properly in the hole on the tub. Thus on both tanks, we had to do the following adjustment so it would sit right:

The upper hull was then finished off:

We then added the hatches and the launching arm to the turret:

Here is everything mocked up again to see if the turret turned without interference from the cleaning rod holder. The missile it fires is sitting next to this:

The turret is completed and is shown here in the hull:

All that's left for these last two tanks is to add the wheels and tracks before we can slap paint on them.


That concludes this tour of the facilities, thank you all for taking the time to tour us here and remember comments are welcome.

 

[Brokeneagle]

Those Russian tanks are lookin' fine....... The ships and the train look bigger than your usual scale, what size are they?

Ian

 

[Duke Maddog]

Thank you Ian! I am so hoping to finish these last two Russians. Then I will have completed all the Russian tanks currently in my stash. As for the ships and train:

-> The train is 1/72 scale, They are slowly releasing each train car for an armored train in 1/72 scale.

-> The Enterpirse is 1/600 scale; in my opinion, the perfect scale for ships.

-> the Indianapolis is in 1/700 scale. That seems to be the only scale besides 1/350 that anyone makes ships in.

-> The Swift Boat is in 1/72 scale

The Indianapolis is finished already. I need to check to see if I posted it yet.

 

[Duke Maddog]

Welcome back. This is gonna be a very short tour, at least compared to what I've done in the past. We won't even need the trams as everything happened in the Motor Pool. Let's go in and see what's happened this past week. It's air conditioned so the heat won't bother us.

We'll start with this Dragon M1128 Stryker MGS that I got. It went together so fast, I didn't even stop to take pics!

Here it is after twenty minutes or so:

There were three pieces of photo-etch to put on this. One on the bottom, the other two on top:

This little thing is now ready for paint. Wow, only thirty five minutes of work. Now if things would cool down enough to start shooting paint... Until then, we went to work again on these. I could even consider them shelf queens of a sort since it's been about a year or so since we first started them. These are my Japanese mortar towing trucks; there are two kits inside the box. The first one had been built some time ago as an open topped vehicle with the mortar in firing position. The second one will be a closed topped one and towing the mortar. Here's where that one is right now:

Here they are together. These are both almost ready for paint now too:

Next up, we got the torsion bars on the IT-1 Drakon tank:

Later we added the roadwheels, but I apparently didn't get pics of that. I did get pics of the roadwheels installed on the T-62 though:

We then turned it over to check wheel alignment. Looks pretty good so far. We'll see how good when the tracks go on:

Meanwhile, we went to work adding the hatches and all the other bits and bobs to the turret to finish it up. When it came time for the grab handles, the instructions said to use copper wire. Well, I didn't want to mess with wire, so we pulled out my stash of styrene rod, chose a size that looked about right and then started installing them. We drilled holes in the turret sides and then measured out the length of rod and cut them to size. We bent the one end and then cemented it in one of the holes in the turret:

Later, when they were dry enough, we bent the other end and inserted it into the second hole as shown by one in the pic above. We had cut the styrene rod long enough that the tension caused from inserting the other end gave it a natural bend that looked perfect:

We then mocked up the whole tank to see how well it has come together so far:

Looking good so for if I do say so myself. After building all those T-64, T-72 and T-80 tanks with all the greeblies on them, I still say this turret is too empty!

That be all for today; as I mentioned, it's a very short tour. Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

[Duke Maddog]

It's been awhile, so time to start another tour. There's a bit more to show here so all aboard!

We'll be diverting this tour slightly to stop by the parts warehouse first. There you'll see some of the behind the scenes work we've been doing to organize, condense and streamline all the excess parts that get left over or left off the various models that we do. We started with the small container holding pioneer tools and other accessories. They were all painted as best we could and then the many that were still attached to sprue parts were removed from them. That way, all the tools and accessories are free and ready for use. Before we started, the container was practically bulging from all the parts in it. After removing all the sprue parts, this is what we have:

The next box was the weapons box. This holds all the rifles, machine guns, hand held anti-tank rockets, tripod mounted weapons, mortars etc. Once again, they were painted and then most of them were removed from the sprue parts. Some of the sprue sets had ammo crates that are supposed to attach to the machine guns. They were put in that small glass vial at the top left. Again, before this, everything could barely fit due to the large quantity still attached to sprue parts. There's quite a bit more of them than the tools, but still, loads of room for more:

This is the small box containing the sprue parts we snipped off all those tools and weapons. They don't look like much, but they sure did take a lot of room:

That container is considerably deeper than that pic suggests.

Wait till we start on my stowage parts box!

Okay, it doesn't matter much, but I just wanted to show why productivity has dropped lately. That took considerable time and was very needed.

Now on to the production buildings where we finally did get a few more things moving forward.


We'll start once again in the Hangar where one small project was started as a 'palette cleanser' so to speak. In here we got started on a German Horten flying wing. This is the new Revell boxing that we received as a gift. First part of course is the cockpit:

Here's a shot of the instrument panel that will be getting a decal later:

Then this was flipped and the engine exhaust cones were added:

On the bottom of part of the fuselage, the cannons were added and the framework around the forward landing gear bay I believe:

The wings were then assembled and now here is where we are before detail painting starts:

Now on to the Motor Pool. Lots was done here, starting with the finding of the missing wheels for the Rolls Royce Armored car:

These were later added to the car, but the front axle broke (it's a Roden!!!) so I didn't get any pics of them until after I'm sure it has dried solid enough to hold the car.

Moving on, we went back to a Shelf Queen that had been sitting for three years now. The reason was because of the extreme (for me!) difficulty in mounting the wheels and suspension. I swear these must have been torn off and/or torn apart at least five times each time until we finally found out how they were supposed to go. I came to the conclusion the fenders we'd glued on earlier were causing all manner of trouble so we popped them off to finish this. Almost three hours hours after starting this again, here is the result:

Looks like a dead bug lying there like that. We had to reinstall several interior parts that had broken off in the fight to mount these right.

That was enough of that! I then set upon a much easier kit to do; this time it was a dual kit of two Japanese armored scout cars that we started. These are from the air self defense force, most likely used for perimeter patrol around air bases. They went together fast; here is where they ended up before I remembered to photograph them:

Later on we painted the interior with the base Green Drab using a brush. While we were at it, we also painted the bodies as well:

Next we painted the extra detail pieces (wheels, window frames, etc) to have them ready to install later:

That is where we left off on those. We then went back to the last two Russian tanks I have left to build.
Starting with the Drakon IT-1, we installed the tracks on the wheels and sprockets. You can see this is one of ACE's earliest kits by the roughness of the molding:

Here it is all mocked up, ready for paint:

We later shot paint on this. I had found a rattle can of the Dark Green I use, and sprayed with it. That was an ordeal as the can would not stop spraying once it got started. Therefore we only sprayed an incomplete coat, while catching the remainder in a clean bottle to use later:

The next one was the T-62B. Tracks were installed here too, as well as fuel cans on the back end:

This got the rattle can treatment as well:

You can see we had started spraying this one as it has a more complete coat.

That was a far as I could go with those so I decided we should start a couple more vehicles. Since we were doing tanks, it was time to get started on the last Leopard I need to complete the entire Leopard line...until they bring out a new version....

The torsion bars all had to be individually installed. While they were drying we assembled all the wheels while they were still on the sprues. You can see the start of that here:

Then the upper hull and rear plate were done with all the additions needed, including photo-etch:

Later the wheels were added, but we left the drive sprockets off until it was time to start the tracks:

The turret was completed next. I like how they molded the anti-slip coating right on the turret:

Here it is mocked up, almost ready for paint:

Finally, one last vehicle we started was this Trumpeter HEMMTT LHS (Load Handling System). I'd had it on my list of models to start so it was time.

Naturally, we started with the chassis; as always with these big trucks. Trumpeter's chassis was all one piece making it easier to assemble than the Modelcollect version of this type of truck:

Next was the interior of the cab. Fast and easy:

Next we assembled the engine cover. Once again, Trumpeter molded the cover and deck it sits on as one piece, all that was needed was to add all the detail parts. Much simpler than Modelcollect, while not compromising any detail:

Next we assembled the load handling system itself. This was a bit difficult due to the vagueness of the diagram. Looks impressive though:

Then the bed of the LHS was added to complete it:

Finally, we assembled the container box...all two pieces of it. I then mocked it up on the truck; it fits well:

Moving on to our Shipyards, we find that the main gun turrets of the Italian battleship Vittorio Venetto have been completed:

First we checked how one of the small turrets sat on the deck:

We then test fitted one of the largest ones and the four smaller ones on the ship:

With her boats installed and the main turrets and superstructure mocked up in place, she was finally launched and sent to the dock for final fitting out:

There is still some photo-etch parts to add, as well as some other details. I also need to find the scout plane they say was packed in this kit, but I never saw it anywhere. I might just be overlooking it. Once most of these are added, we'll be able to start painting.

And that completes this tour for today. Thank you all for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

[Duke Maddog]

Once again, another short tour. Just haven't had enough bench time. Thanks to Hobby Day Mondays, I am able to catch up. This tour shows the latest progress we got done.

Starting in the Hangar, we have a project that was started as a dual build with another guy on another Forums who's also building the same plane in 1/48 scale. Mine is in 1/72 of course.

I started with the cockpit as usual, in particular the seat. This sub-assembly has nine parts in it and I still have to add the photo etch. The cockpit tub only has five parts:

Here they are mated together:

Letting that dry, we moved on to any other sub-assemblies we could do. The main landing gear bays needed to be assembled (3 parts each) and then we installed them inside the lower fuselage:

There's some pretty sharp detail in there:

After that, we completed the rear fuselage sans burner can. All that was needed was adding the tail feathers:

There it sits until we can get to the photo etch....



Meanwhile, over here in the Motor Pool; we took a look at the Rolls Royce armored car. The decals on the turret roof were flaking off. Apparently the Solvaset didn't work that well. So, I decided that we should try some chipping technique using some light black to cover the missing decal parts. It's my first time ever trying this, so it is certainly far from being as refined as the Masters:

That was almost done so we moved on to others. The Leopard 2A7 was almost completed before. This time, we finished adding the smoke dischargers to the turret and installing the tracks. This beastie is ready for paint:

Finally, my Stryker MGS was painted and the wheels installed:

Just have to add the decals and then weather this one and it will be done.

That's it for this short tour. Once again, comments are welcome and thank you for taking the time to tour Maddog Manufacturing!

 

[Duke Maddog]

Wow, I just realized that I hadn't included the last tour here, even though I did include it in all my other Forums. Interesting. Well, that is easily taken care of. Here are both tours, one from before and today. Most of these early pics show work I did either before or after the big commission B-24.

Let's start in that Hangar....




The Horten's cockpit got painted:

We also painted the machine guns, not knowing if they were going to be visible:

Got the nose on. This pic is from before it was sanded smooth:

We then test fit the wings to see if there's any issues with the nose section:

Later we fastened the wings in place and closed up the cockpit:

Next I decided to try out the new MCR paints that were supposed to be exact mixes of old Testor's Model Master paints. The canopy was masked off and then this was shot with a base coat of the MCR dark green. You can see the results are quite spotty, although that might be because of the humidity we had that night. Still, I was not quite pleased with the way this covered, after all it wasn't this bad on the Leopard 2A7.:

Next we moved on to the FC-1 for my Pakistani Air Force.

We finished off the cockpit tub and added it to one side of the forward fuselage pod:

Next this called for the addition of photo etch shrouds as well as a four-piece HUD assembly using two photo etch parts and two clear parts. I lost the provided clear parts, so we took some clear packaging; cut it to shape and used it instead. Remember; this is a 1/72 scale instrument panel and HUD:

Here's a semi-closer shot of this, showing how poorly I did with the instrument decals and HUD:

That is a slightly larger than standard alligator clip, so you have a size reference.

Next we assembled the engine exhaust. This kit provided a full set of photo etch parts to build the engine with; but after the ordeal with the HUD; I opted for simple!

Closed up the cockpit inside the forward fuselage pod; then added the HUD/instrument panel assembly; then cemented to the rear fuselage:

That don't look too half bad in there:

We then immediately added the canopy and windscreen to this to protect the HUD and ready this for paint:

Canopy then got masked; this bird is ready for paint:

This final project is one I was intending to sell, but decided to build it anyway. This is the interior of the British Sea King helicopter I started:

Now we are done touring the Hangar, it is time to head to the Motor Pool....



Here in the Motor Pool, we finally started painting the SdKfz 234/4 with the stripes for the camouflage. This pic was taken after I realized I had already started the second color:

We then painted the gun shield. Looking at these pics; I saw for the first time where one of my cats had jumped up and tried chewing on the barrel. Gonna have to see if I can fix that:

Later on, I did fix the bite marks as best I could, and then clearcoated the hull with a gloss and added the decals. Good old Roden! Tiny German crosses and they make this two-part decals! I'm just hoping they look good enough:

My Hobby Room door kept opening overnight while I was sleeping over the past few days, allowing the cats to explore without my supervision. I fixed that by removing the strike plate altogether; it doesn't open on it's own now!

Moving on, while we were painting the SdKfz Pakwagen, we also added camouflage to the Geschutzwagen rail car. First the brown color:

Then the green:

Since the Pakwagen got a clear gloss coat, this one did too. I had to 'wing' the decals since I lost the little decal sheet to this. Then when I found the decals I lost the schematic showing me where they go. So this is how it looks now, later I can add the kit decals is I ever find the schematic again:

Those two will be finished very soon. Meanwhile I felt like I wanted something simple and nostalgic. I pulled out this ancient ESCI ambulance and we got started, building the chassis first:

Then we built the cab, as much as we could and still paint the interior:

The box was next; this was simple, easy and fun:

This little thing is so close to paint now after about 15 minutes:

As mentioned above, we gave the MCR dark green paint a try on the Leopard. While a little better than the Horten, it still did not cover to my satisfaction:

It does look good in this pic, but there are too many places where bare plastic still shows through. I also learned how tight the tolerances are for this kit. Before painting, the turret went on and moved smoothly and rapidly. After painting I had to do a lot of scraping to get the turret to move.

Next was a set of RAF Bomber Command resupply vehicles that we'd been tinkering with now and then adding a few pieces here and there between other projects. Well, these vehicles are now about ready for paint:

Then as the day was winding down, we decided to do a little upgrading to the factory floor, adding a few new tools and desks and such: These were from three kits I bought some years ago and finally found again, They are all resin and were quite difficult to build on some of these. First we built the compressor:

Then we did a lathe and a desk filled with tools and stuff; apparently is was overloaded. Gotta add a rear leg to that:

Another shot of those with the Exacto blade to show how small these are:

Finally a drill press and another desk, here shown with all the other previous pieces of equipment. We'll probably be tinkering with these between builds as well.

The last part of our tour takes us to the shipyards where work has progressed on the Italian RN Vittorio Venetto.

First, the decks got painted, intermediate blue was used for the main and superstructure decks and the rear deck was wood. This also included the wooden decks of all the lifeboats and launches:

Work continued on the superstructure, a seam was filled and sanded smooth and the whole upper works got the light ghost grey paint:

Photo etch was added to the stacks, as well as some on the rear deck. I only shot this pic of the stacks:

Finally the main and large secondary turrets got paint. These are finished and ready to go on the ship:

While all that was drying, the upper hull got paint. Once dry, the boot stripe was painted, and then later, every thing was masked off to paint the lower hull. We shot Tamiya hull red on this:

Once dry, the screws and shafts got paint:

That concludes this tour. Thank you all for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

[Duke Maddog]

Well, it has been a good long time since I posted anything here. Despite being super busy these past three weeks, I've kept production going at Maddog Manufacturing. In fact, I'm surprised we got this much done!

Note: My camera has gone missing, it is somewhere in the house. I apologize in advance; these pics were all taken on my Iphone and are not up to the quality I'm used to. In a number of cases, you cannot see the variations in some of the camouflage patterns.

This will be a long tour; I might even have to split it in two. So, all aboard the trams and remember to keep hands and feet inside at all times.

The first stop: the Hangar

On this Horten, I wanted a more deep green, especially since I didn't think we could replicate the splotchy look from before with the second camouflage color:

Next came the masking...

Then the painting of the second color. I know it is not the "correct" shade of grey, but it is a German grey and I'm making sure this gets finished instead of waiting for the right 'shade' of grey:

Off came the masking to see how well it looks:

It may not be 'accurate' but it's mine and I like it!

Finally, we masked off the landing gear bays and the top to shoot the bottom color:

That will come later. I found a nice "Helblau" in my Model Master collection; this is the perfect time and model to use it.

Moving on to the next aircraft, we find that work as resumed on the Marine Harrier. It had been shot with two colors of grey on the topside already, so all that was needed was a shot of the final grey on the underside

All masking was then removed when it was dry and I am pleased with these results:

I know it's tough to see in these pics, my phone camera doesn't pic them up as well, even after I have edited these.

Nest we shot a gloss clear over it to prepare for the decals. All coating went on fine on the fuselage, but the upper wings wrinkled and peeled. It's a good thing we didn't cement the wings down on this, we got it masked and now the fix will be easier:

That's where this sits now. Lets move on to the next aircraft.

Here is the Pakistani, FC-1 Fierce Dragon. It had already been primed black, so the first of the two colors went on, top and bottom:

Since this color has wavy borders, we applied the Silly Putty to the top and bottom:

The second lighter grey was shot next:

Again, despite my best efforts on the editing software, this color doesn't look the correct shade.

Once dry, the masks were removed. It did need a bit of touch up, but this was a great application in my opinion:

Later it was glossed and then the decals went on. Most of the stencils did not go on as they were too small to apply and looked like specks or blemishes more than stencils:

Next we find the Russian Ka-29 is finally back on the production queue. This got a third basecoat of blue since I was not happy with the previous color again. Then we started masking the darker blue grey for the second, lighter color:

I had called a halt to the Silly Putty masking because anytime we turned this one on it's side, the Silly Putty would catch on something and peel off. So, the top, the bottom and one side were masked and shot with the lighter blue:

Later when this dries, we will continue the masking on this side and shot the color again:

That completes the tour of the Hangar, now we can move on to the Shipyards....

Recently I acquired an old Airfix 1/72 scale Vospers MBT and couldn't wait to get started. The hull was laid down already. This hull comes in three pieces, two sides and the bottom:

That's as far as we got with that. However, my other small boat got a lot of work completed. First, masking was added to the upper superstructure and the hull which had already been painted:

The deck was then painted, followed by the bottom of the hull. I didn't get pics of the bottom paint though:

It called for Navy Blue Grey and it just so happened I had that exact color in my Model Master collection, so that is what I used.

Masking came off and we had near perfect results, certainly better than I expected!

Later on after a gloss coat, the decals went on. That includes the boot stripe:

It's beginning to look like we'll be able to launch this one soon, time permitting!

Finally, we move on to see the USS Sacramento. We painted a wide boot stripe on top of the lower hull and then masked it to make a boot stripe the thickness I wanted:

Definitely pleasing to me:

That completes the tour of the Shipyards, now on to the Motor Pool.....

In the Motor Pool this week, we continued on with a commission build for a friend who asked for this some time ago after a PzII was completed for him. This is his 1/35th scale Polish TKS, complete with a full interior which has not been completely added at this time:

Later we completed the interior. And just to show you how tiny this beastie really is, I built the officer (sans binoculars) and stood him next to the lower hull:

I don't know that I would want to go into combat in that little thing!

Moving on to my own subjects, we stop at this bay where the Leopard 2A7 is being worked on. As you might remember; I wasn't happy with this shade of green, nor the inconsistency of coverage:

We then went with the Mission Models Dark Green instead and got a better result:

Later on the other two camouflage colors were added:

...followed by a coat of clear gloss:

And finally the markings went on:

While that was being painted, the same process was done on the HEMMT LHS which was still in pieces to facilitate things better, at least for me:

First the basecoat:

Then the second and third colors:

We didn't forget the lower front of the cab:

There was surprisingly little additional patches to paint on this. Maybe it was because of all the colors on the Leopard.

Gloss coat was sprayed on the dry-fit parts next: again, sorry for the poor photo:

Decals followed. This should be ready for full assembly very soon...

That completes the tour of the Motor Pool, you may disembark from the trams now and thank you all for coming in! Comments are always welcome.

 

[MM2CVS9]

Very nice boot stripes! I sometimes struggle to get that thing the way I want it.

EJ

 

[Duke Maddog]

Thank you EJ! Yeah, boot stripes can be difficult. In the case of the USS Sacramento, having the lower hull detached from the upper hull makes it easier. Using Tamiya tape to mask also helps as you can semi- see through it to stay in line.

On the Swift Boat, those are decals. They were a challenge, but they look great and help cover up a rough demarcation line.

 

[Duke Maddog]

Well, it's been a couple weeks and I have enough for another tour. Feel free to board the trams again for this latest ride through the plant.

Starting in the Hangar again....

In this bay, the Horten got the bottom color sprayed on:

Here it is clear coated for decals:

Don't worry, the color isn't different on the bottom, it's my phone camera...

Decals next:

Speaking of decals, in this bay we had an issue with this one on the top wing of the JF-17 Thunder:

We used Navy Blue Grey on that and it matched so closely you can barely tell!

She got legs! Landing gear was installed next:

Later on they were painted:

In this final bay, We managed to get decals applied to the AH-1Z Cobra:

Some additional detail painting was done too.

Time to load up now. Pylons got loaded with weapons, and the tail rotor and the landing skids were installed:

The next pics you see of this bird will be after my Marines take delivery of it.


Moving on to the Shipyards, there wasn't much done except for one boat. The Swift Boat got the top of the cabin installed into place:

Later on, additional details were added:

Guns were mounted later, as well as a few other detail parts installed, but the next pics you dee will be after she launches.


Finally, there is one thing in the Motor Pool to see. We got the 20' container for the HEMMTT Load Handling System painted:

Yeah, that's it here. More will be shown later as things move forward.

It was a bit of a short tour, so thank you for coming along. Comments are welcome.

 

[Mo_]

Love that Cobra!!!!

 

[Duke Maddog]

Thank you Mo! Once that Cobra is done; I will have almost every variant of the Cobra completed from the -G to the -Z.

 

[Frank]

You have beaten me to all the different cobra variants.
Great job.
I counted my helicopters and only have 39. Mainly Hueys, Cobras, Kiowas, Loaches, Black Hawks, Chinooks and various other US helicopter

 

[Duke Maddog]

Thank you Frank! I'm a bit surprised at that, but that is cool. Thank you for letting me know that. My helicopter count is somewhere in the high fifties or possibly sixty now. but I don't know for sure. Still, mine also includes Hinds, Hips, Pumas, Alouettes, and various others from other countries.