Jack12477

Sounds like Mr Btfsplk paid you a visit.  Nice recovery ! Folds look good.
 

Yesterday was another day that tries the patience of men. I was adding some highlights to the tunic of the Yellow Boy and the glue (Gorilla Glue) I used to secure the base to the pill container being used as a handle cracked away and the figure dropped. It landed hard, the base separated and the head fell off again. I decided to try 15 minute epoxy to resecure everything and had just placed the head back and thought it was settled when it fell off AGIN. Only this time it landed smack in the little tray of mixed epoxy and got a liberal coat. I gave it a liberal spray of alcohol which I had handy and wiped it off as best I could. Of course most of the paint came off too.
I switched to five minute epoxy and tried again and this time I think I got a good bond. Activity was suspended for the day to reconsider and repair the shower.
I initially thought of going back and air brushing the black and white undercoats but I suspect I wasn't able to get all the epoxy off and if so then over spraying it was going to obscure details.
I decided to use white primer hand brushed where needed and after it was dry, this morning, I started repainting. I may have lost some of the pre-shading on the turban but I think its good enough to carry on. I can try using different shades to deepen the folds. I see a couple of spots on the face which may need attention too then back to qorking on the details

I got ambitious and started adding the basic paint to Nabopolassar. In some ways it might be a simpler figure to work on. Its a great sculpt regardless.. The tan colour is an undercoat for the gold decorations that will follow - at least that's the idea.


Thanks for looking in and for the likes and comments
Alan
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mark
I think its the same sort of thing. I think it will only be useful for working over a small area but that's really what I want it for. It certainly firms up my uncertain brush when it comes to painting details.
This is the guide that was inside the box

Alan

Exactly; its a bigger canvas to showcase your skills
Alan

Thank you OC, I think your suggestion is better than just using brown or black washes. I watched a couple of videos which recommended the same technique
Alan

Thanks Jav. That is a good tip. I have seen some great painted figures with pop eyes and it turns them into cartoon figures. I would rather leave the eyes if I can't get it right. I'm still working up the courage to attempt the pupils
Alan

I will be very interested to see how the shading works out on a horse. I have a Historex one in the pile which I bought to finally satisfy an early teenage want. As I remember back in the late sixties Historex recommended using oils.
 
Alan

I think it's the same concept Mark. 

Jumping on the bandwagon here as well. From the looks of the second photo the pusher bars, they are called Tow Knees on modern day boats, not sure they were called that back in the day. But the entire structure looks like it is built out to flatten the front of the bow to maximize contact with the barges or whatever she was pushing at the time. I hate seeing anyone have to rework part of the build, but I think you are on track to making it right. 
 
-Brian

Yes - that would seem to be the way to go Eric.

Just caught up with your log Dave - well done!!  What a cool color scheme!  I bet it attracts a lot of attention in the display case.

Yeah, since they run around 170-180 new... I wouldn't regret it either... (even if I haven't a clue on how to use one)

Love the treatment of the seat!
 
I must say how I'm impressed with how authentic this kit appears to be, considering it's been available forever.
 
Your first post mentions CDW did a log of his build; how can I find it?
AHA! found it!

Enjoyed the spoke discussion… I’ve been pre stressed and tense myself lately; our modeling hobby is good therapy.
The seats in the kit are a black flexible plastic, good quality but looked a little plain. I wrinkled up some leftover tissue from my Guillows spitfire and applied it to them with a fluid mix of wood glue and water, then a few tries with various brown paints until it looked something like well worn leather. Finished it off with a few brass pin heads from my wooden ship box, and a bit of Vallejo gloss oil stain on the saddle to give the impression of wear and sheen.
I cut off the shielding from the headlamp just because I felt like it, and because the kit has rather a nice lens I wanted to see. Added bumpers on the tank. Haven’t put in any tubing into the machinery yet, hoping I can do all that at the end. 
Tim
 
 
 

That's quite a dramatic difference between the three.

Evening all,   bit of an update  -  the seller  has  issued a  refund in Full,  and  says  no need  to  return  the  broken  base,  so turned out ok in the end.
 
OC.

Ladies and Gentlemen, lets start our engines and begin a new adventure.

Some month ago, I received my first MFH kit, after I saw some pictures of the finished model and fell in love with the bike immediately. There she was, all the great ingredients of an American bike classic minus the to my eye ugly mid section, the classic Harley Davidson models have. 

I will not tell a lot about the history of the bike, as I´m not an expert here, but it´s a pretty exclusive one. Hand built, the numbers of production bikes range between 60 and 300. The few surviving beauties are among the highest priced motorcycles of today.
The Crocker was fast, so fast, that the company complied, to give back the full price of the bike, should the driver be overtaken by a Harley or Indian on a strait road.

The kit was bought from MFH in Japan directly for a decent price and the fastest and trouble free shipping, I ever had and reached after six days on my doorstep.



Since then, I bought some more MFH kits, as simply browsing through the boxes, the absolute top quality of the kits has an addictive spell over me. The kits are multi-media, most parts are from cast white metal, some photo etch, rubber parts, different hoses and wires, some chrome plated metal parts, nice decals, ...

I preparation for the build, I read a lot about MFH kits, to get a hold onto the many new adventures, I was expecting with the build and as one result, I invested into a magnetic tumbler polisher for cleaning the white metal parts. It took my month to finally obtain one to my remote place in the world, but finally, it arrived.



After some successful testing, all white metal parts were dumped into the tumbler´s bowl, then, I added water with a drop of detergent and 200 gram of 0,3 mm steel polishing needles. The strong magnet in the base swirls the needles around the non magnetic parts and `hammers´ the surfaces very gingerly. After about an hour of tumbling the water was dark black and the parts looked like this.

 

It was not so easy to remove the tinier parts from the needles and I keep all the bowls with needles and the blackened water until, I made sure, I picked all the parts out.
For now, I rinsed the parts with water again and layed them out onto kitchen paper to dry.







The finish of the tumbled parts is fantastic, but of course, further cleanup will be needed down the road. Some parts will get polished, as the white metal looks perfectly, like steel or even chrome when polished carefully.

Next step will be checking against a copy of the manual, if all parts are there. MFH manuals include only a rudimentary parts list, but on their homepage, they have pictures of the kits parts, which will be helpful for the task.

I will add a few detail pictures from some of the parts, to show the fantastic casting quality. The tumble polishing of the parts effect surface detail only minimal, details remained sharp.

 







Stay tuned for more.

Cheers Rob

Great progress with the big cat, Craig. The engineering of the AMK jet kits is fantastic and the fit of their MIG-31 kit was perfect, even on the most complicated parts, like the intakes. The only issue, I had with the kit, were the bang seats, which were horribly out of scale. I hope this is not the case with yours.

The pic shows the kit seat on the right, to the left is a seat from a Brassin refined SU-27 kit and in the middle is the seat with pilot, I used, I guess it was made by Aerobonus.



Cheers Rob

The Last WW2 Triple Ace, Bud Anderson, Dies At 102
 
Bud Anderson, the last World War II ‘triple ace,’ dies at 102 - Task & Purpose (taskandpurpose.com)

The main fuselage sections are done now. Next I'll need to go back and mount all the little lumpy-bumpy parts.
 

The vendor tables were well stocked at the show as well. Among a few other other things I brought these home.

 
Didn’t have any plans for a 1:35 PT boat, but the price was right so I snagged it. Good trading material if nothing else.
The Iwata HP-CS airbrush is smooth as silk. A great all-around airbrush. If you find one for $75 or less at a swap meet, do yourself a favor and grab it. You won’t regret it.

thank you Rick,
 
Nils

That  looks  so nice  -  what a  nice  tidy  fit  mate.
 
OC.

Your earlier question/comment made me realize I had not yet done a test-fit of the cockpit inside the forward fuselage.
Here are a few photos of a dry-fit test. 
 
I'm still debating whether to finish this kit as a bomber or equipped as in an air-to-air role....hmmmmm...decisions, decisions. 
 

Ah  yes  of course  aka  Flyhawks  hulls   (I should  have remembered that)
 
OC.