Jack12477

 @wefalck thanks for explanation. Interestingly there is a landmark hotel in Times Square called The Knickerbocker built by Jacob Astor in 1901. BTW I agree with you about the inappropriate "active-wear" track/gym suits worn today, especially the ones that are so tight you can read the date on the nickel in their hip pocket. 

10 hours ago, king derelict said:

That looks very nice and neat Jack. Some lovely detail there. This is a new AFV to me so its great to learn about it.

Alan

This is a 50 year old kit a cording to date engraved on sprues.  The detail is very sharp, and no flash to clean up. 

1 hour ago, CDW said:

Did you do your primer from a rattle can or from your airbrush? It laid down super smooth. Nice job, Jack.

Tamiya rattle can.  Yes, it dries to a semi smooth (gloss) finish.

When this bridge was built, container ships were not as big or as heavy as the current container ships. The designers built it for the size of container ships of that day. This ship was well over 900 ft long. 

I too have driven over this bridge many time to visit family near Annapolis.  The locals avoid this bridge during periods of high winds; they get really scary vicious on the bridge. 

 Love the Lord Fauntleroy pants on the guy in group photo seated on far right. Seems a little too old to be wearing that style pant. 🤔 umm trousers? 

Assembly complete.  Applied a coat of Tamiya Fine Scale grey primer.

3 hours ago, Egilman said:

Not a big seller for Tamiya, that's why it costs so little,

Actually Hobby Lobby was having a clearance sale, looked like they were rearranging merchandise aisle and were getting rid of some kits. According to the engravings on the sprues this kit was produced in 1973. 

I wouldn't know  @CDW , was never a big fan of Cadillac cars! But then in my youth my buddies always told me a Cadillac drove like a tank. 😉😊😇

But I can say this is by far the simplest tank kit I've built. There are no interior details to mess with, everything is exterior. And true to Tamiya standards, no flash, no ill fitting part, superb detail in the exterior castings. A great kit for a beginner modeler. Other than painting it olive drab green when I finish assembling, I haven’t decide on how much, if any, weathering I want to do. It does have 3 figures which will be a challenge to paint. 

Of the 3 or 4 armor kits in my stash I decided to start with the latest acquisition,  the Tamiya M41 Walker Bulldog which I picked up in Hobby Lobby for a ridiculously low price of $13.  This is a remarkably simple kit to assemble. Painting it will be fun. It come with decals for 3 variants, 1 WWII US and 2 Japanese Defense Forces. I'm going to do the US markings.

The obligatory box art and contents

And the beginning assembly progress.

The Chairwoman of the Joint Chiefs has informed me that the Armour division is running low on tanks and other armor vehicles, so I guess I need to restart the armor production lines. Stay tuned.

Thanks Alan, Ken.   The faces are still a major challenge, I'm starting to get the hang of it painting/shading the clothing. I have two more of these figure kits but they're 1:35, not 1:24.

Thanks Denis, Phil !

C'est fini! Another figure for the shelf.  A few bricks, some broken dead tree stumps, foliage and a little sand, most courtesy of Woodland Scenics.

Newburgh is still the same, hasn’t change a bit, still the same reputation. You do not drive in or thru Newburg after dark, unless you're driving a MRAP. 

When I first moved to this area 50+ years ago, there was a large horse farm on the West Saugerties Road, there were so many black sedans with darkened  windows parked on the road opposite the farm with guys in suits with cameras and binoculars that the locals all joked about it. The owner of the farm was some dude named Persico. Need I say more? 😉🤐  

Just now, CDW said:

He's my favorite online modeling supply shop.

Mine too! I search his site first. And delivery to me is 2 days max. Altho I never understand USPS' routing, NH to Albany, then Albany down Thruway to Newburgh driving right past Saugerties, then Newburgh back north on Thruway to Saugerties. 

25 minutes ago, popeye the sailor said:

Scalehobbist is in Nashua.

Apparently he uses the USPS facility in Hudson NH cuz that's were the tracking originates. 

Almost finished :

Still have some touch-up to do. Biggest challenge for me post cataract surgery is finding the right closeup lense to use in the Optivisor. Mine has 4 interchangeable glass lenses, +1.5, +2.0, +2.5, +3.0 diopter. Pre-surgery  I would just hold the figure closer, but I could still see the paint pallette,  now the figure is in focus, but the pallette isn’t,  so finding the little drop of paint requires lifting the visor.  🤷

Next up is detailing the base.  Stay tuned 🤫

A small progress report.  Some light shading.

23 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

   I  was finding  Vallejo Surface Primer  (Black)  dries  with a  slight sheen   and  not a  nice  flat  surface like  other  primers, 

I find it does that for me also, but I don't find that it has much effect as I then go over it with a light misting of the white primer which breaks up the sheen.

The technique I am using to paint the figure is this: first airbrush a coat of Vallejo black surface primer over the entire figure, then after drying overnight, I lightly brush a coat of Vallejo white surface prime trying to hit mostly the high spots on the figure, leaving area like deep creases on clothing etc, black.   After that dries overnight, I start applying the main coat using a wet palette to thin the paints. I keep applying light coats until I am satisfied with the coverage.  Then let it dry overnight.

This is the wet pallette I am using, it's available at Michaels stores in their artist paints area. The wet sponge underneath keeps the paper moist. And a tight cover keeps it from drying out .

This is Vadim after the first application of the base color

16 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

I have seen this  kit  somewhere  on the  net.

 

OC.

Perhaps it was this series.  There are several characters in the series. I only have 3 of them

The next in the series by Master Box in 1:24 scale is Vadim

The box art and contents

A simple kit to assemble. The challenge is in painting the figure to closely approximate the box art.  When the paint dries, I will post some progress photos.

1 hour ago, CDW said:

Great looking project, Jack

Thanks ! 

19 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

I've seen the old Aurora figures around..........and Atlantis is beginning to reproduce some of the old animal kits.  but I've never heard of these kits..........truly off the beaten path    very nice job !  

Thanks ! Master Box Ltd is a Ukrainian company based in Dnipro. Don't know how they are able to continue producing such really detailed kits with a war going on in their backyard.  They have a really nice line of WWII military & civilian figures in addition to these "fantasy style" subjects. And they recently came out with Ukrainian Army figures.  SCALEHobbyist in Hudson NH near you carries their line. 

It is now finished ! 

Stay tuned for the next figure in the series, Vadim, coming to a Blog soon.