Maddog Manufacturing Production in 2019

[Duke Maddog]

Well, it’s the week after Hobby Day and I’m very happy with the progress I made this weekend. What a great couple days! Here is my latest work, starting with my helicopters and aircraft.

First, I spent time adding all the windows and clear parts to the fuselage of the German Gotha:

…and to the Huey Hog:

I had already done the same with the HUP 1, so I added the interior to the right fuselage:

I then built up the engine for this little bird:

When that was dry, I installed it in with the transmission rods. I didn’t paint it because so much of it won’t be seen:

After that, I closed this bird up. You can see there’s a lot of seam filling work ahead of me. I also will have to paint some of the engine interior and transmission rods that can be seen through the open holes:

Now moving on to my armor, I first added the detail parts to the turret and then added the roadwheels and sprockets to bring my T-15 Armata closer to paint:

Next it was time to move on the rest of the Russian eight-wheeled trucks. First off, I started work on the AA-60 fire truck/crash tender. This needed the cab added to it. So, I assembled three sides to each cab; after having built the interiors, and then cemented them onto the chassis where they were supposed to go:

Here you can see the interior of the driver’s cab:

The middle engine cover and front grill needed to be installed at the same time as the cab sides since they were separate parts. You can see here once again how short-run this kit is:

And because of my lack of checking first, I had mistakenly removed a vital section of the rear of the cab, so I had to close it up again with some more sheet styrene. You can see it sticking up at the left of the pic:

Next I painted the interiors of the cabs in preparation for closing them up. I did a crude job, but once these are closed it won’t be so obvious to anyone looking at this. Here’s the driver’s side:

And the other side:

And finally, I did some sanding and adjustments and then closed up the cabs. Here it is all assembled. You can see from the right and left side shots that this had some tough fit issues that will need to be addressed:

Next I added the highly simplified axles to the chassis. After all the crazy assembly from the other five trucks; this was a breeze, despite the difficult fit:

Here’s a better shot:

Next up was the Iskandr on the KZKT chassis. First I needed to assemble the cab, so I painted the interior first:

Again, a bit crude but it won’t be that clear when it’s together. While that was drying, I added the axles and fuel tanks to the chassis to complete it:

I then assembled the first and second cabs and added them to the chassis:

After that it was time to work on the missile cabin in the back. First thing I did was to assemble the elevating arms for the missile tubes. They are the long thin things at the bottom of the plate:

These were made so you could elevate them if you wanted, so I did:

Next I built up the rest of the rear cab minus the hinged lids, which are not hinged:

And finally, here it is all dry-fit on the back of the chassis:

After some more work adding the missile tubes and the photo-etch details as well as some smaller parts, this will be ready for paint.

To close this latest update, I’ll leave you all with a pic of all six Russian eight-wheeled trucks almost ready for paint:

I hope you all enjoyed this latest run though the factory floor. Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

 

[bob letterman]

Damn Mark!

You've been kickin' Butt again!!!

 

[MM2CVS9]

WOW, Haulin butt there. Takes me a month to get that much done.

EJ

 

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks Bob! I'm trying! I think I might even get most of these done by the end of the year. I sure hope so!

Thanks EJ! I feel like it's been a month getting to here already myself!

Stay tuned guys!

 

[Duke Maddog]

Despite my best efforts, I didn't finish anything else for 2019. Too many things kept interrupting bench time and the wife had a lot of things she wanted me to do. That being said, here's my best efforts over the past three days. I'll start with my aircraft...


First up, I applied the decals to the cockpit of the German Huey and then closed it up inside the two fuselage halves. I had a devil of a time with seams all over:

I especially had problems with the nose, so fortunately; the two chin windows popped out. I used the openings to clamp it shut and this bird is finally together:

Next up, my HUP-1 was filled with Mr. Surfacer 500 on the seams and the windows and openings were masked:

Later I sanded the seams and masked off the cockpit with more tape:

Finally, I added the tail feathers to this little bird:

Now, this HUP will take awhile to finish due to the fact that one rotor set disappeared. I found one rotor blade that had broken off, but until the hub and two other blades are found; this bird can't be completed. This won't stop me from airbrushing and adding the landing gear, decals and other bits to bring it as close to done as possible.

Moving on, I decided it was time to get the remaining paint on the Israeli F-16I so I masked off the base coat:

I shot the light tan over this and let it dry:

I know it's not easy to see in this pic; everything blends. That being said, after the tan was dry I masked over it to be ready for the third color:

Now I can shoot the third color next time I get the chance.



That's all I have done on my aircraft so far. Now on to my ground vehicles.

First up, I decided to get my T-15 Armata up to the paint stage. I still had a lot of extra parts to add to this. So, I finished off the turret; added the driver's and radio operator's hatches and any other detail parts that were missing:

Then I moved to the lower hull and added all the roadwheels and any other detail parts needed:

After that, I added the tracks and cemented the upper and lower hulls together. I also assembled the side skirts and dry-fit them to the sides:

I gotta say, the tracks on this Armata were so easy and quick to put on! Zvezda knows how to do tracks right! I decided to do the same for the Terminator. Here's the Terminator sporting her new shoes:

Later that and all the other vehicles got a coat of green but I'm getting ahead of myself.

On my eight-wheeled trucks, I knew I had a lot more to do before painting. Starting with the KZKT trucks, I added all the photo-etch to the cabs and undersides:

I then added the cruise missile launch tubes inside the Iskandar:

I also did the same for all the MAZ trucks but there was very little photo-etch to add to them. I then masked off the windows on all the trucks to ready them for the paint booth:

Once I took that pic, I realized one truck had fallen behind. My "Baikal" command truck was missing from that pic. I pulled out the box and got going on it.

First thing I did was to finish closing up the command cabin:

Next I installed the two sides of the drivers cab interiors as well as the lowered radar. You can see I started painting the interior as well. I had also masked off the windows on the cab ahead of time and removed the main radar/communications mast from the sprue:

I test fit the communications mast. This is gonna be a tall one:

The board underneath it was to determine whether all the wheels were touching the ground.

Later; after the interior was fully painted and the cab interiors dry enough, I added the cab exterior:

The top of the communications mast had photo-etch, so I added it to the top:

The three horizontal bars all need to eventually be bent out to form a 'star'. I'll do that once it's dry.

There was one final truck that needed to be finished off: the MAZ AA-60 fire tender. This beastie had been fighting me all the time I was building it. I pulled it out and got started on adding all the extra detail parts, foam cannon, railings and other accessories to this. I also masked off the windows:

I then painted the white stripes on the sides of this, as well as the white fender in front and the two stripes on the back doors. It is a bit difficult to see in this pic, but it is there:

That's when I noticed (not visible in the above pic) that the rear of the cabs were open. I couldn't have that. I added strip styrene to the openings to seal them off:

Later on I cut and sanded them flush:

Yes, that tiny hole not visible to the naked eye got filled. Now this beastie was ready for paint.

After all that, I was finally able to move forward. I had masked off all the trucks on their windows and their wheel hubs so that I could glue the wheels hubs straight to the axles without having to scrape them first. Here they are all ready for paint! Yes, the Baikal's doors were added to the cab before I painted:

On this pic, you can see the photo-etch I added to the bottom of the KZKT trucks:

Six of the above trucks needed a green base coat so on it went on all six of them. That is two and a half bottles of Testor's Model Master Dark Green sitting in that spray booth:

As mentioned, I also shot paint on the BMPT Terminator, T-15 Armata and the BMP-3 Early. I used a Russian Armor Green from Testor's and it was lighter and semi-gloss. Oh well; it was going to be flattened anyway. I forgot to get pics of the three of them in their green coats; I was moving too fast and forgot to shoot them. However, once they were dry and while I had the Silly Putty out, I started to mask them off for the second color, starting with the Armata:

Next I started masking the BMP-3 Early. It was easier to pull the turret off and mask it first:

Next I masked off the main hull:

Finally, I decided to move forward on the Leopold railgun. This was going to be grey so I pulled out my Schwartzgrau and shot the main trucks first:

Next I shot the interior of the main trunnion where it would be visible once the top went on:

After a bit of touch up, that will start going together faster. And that is where I had to stop.

So, I hope you all enjoyed this year's tours of Maddog Manufacturing. As I close this year out on this thread, let me leave you with a preview of everything I'll be mostly finishing off in the New Year:

Thanks all for looking in and supporting me throughout the year. Your comments, suggestions and compliments have kept me going. Take care and I'll see you next year in the new Maddog Manufacturing Thread for 2020.

Comments are always welcome.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

You got a lot done the other day Mark! I ended up doing a bunch of things around the house that were needed (and still need a LOT more done).

 

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks Paul! Now you can see some of the work I was doing while we chatted. Now hopefully I can get many of these finished before the weekend.