Jack12477

Lots of details in this kit. A new manufacturer or a subset of an older company looking to enter the armor market.

May have to pull some all-nighters. 😁

Excellent work  Dan.
 
OC.

Dear all,
please find the final assembly of my Mosquito build. I installed the doors to the bomb bay and to the landing gear compartments. And, after many finishing steps, I attached the underwing rockets.


The tiny wiper blade, which was clearly not molded on the vacuum formed canopy, was built and added:

Now only minor items are still missing and the next instalment will be the final one.
Thanks for following,
Dan

 

Thanks for the recommendation Chuck. Good to know there are other vendors.  I guess I didn't make it clear that there was no tariff to pay for my wood shipment from Europe. I don't mind an extended delivery from Europe, or the additional shipping cost.
I've been very pleased with the vendor I use since they consistently maintain the tight metric tolerances I require and they can also supply hardwoods that offer color choice and consistency within the same species.  

King, that's great to hear! It's a special place, to be sure. So glad my work is giving you good memories.

I cycled the Katy trail several times during my St. Louis years. Your scenery is very evocative and brings back happy memories.
alan

You should get  Rat Fink and Ed Roth  to help  they could do the miniature work.
 
OC.

Some Great figure painting going on there Alan,   I think they are not the easiest of subjects  from my own experience, but you are nailing it.
 
OC. 

It’s amazing how many parts they can cram into a 1/72 tank. Looks like an interesting project and you should have a lot of fun with it. I do like 1/72 armor except possibly the tracks.
alan

You should have gone with Modeller's Sawmill.  I believe the tariff from New Jersey is much lower.  😁  

Sadly, my own hair is the wrong shade for scenic use. It's either too dark brown, or too white. My wife suggested I do a winter scene instead so I could use it. Ouch (I'm in my mid 40s, LOL).

A 'waste' well used! When I had a (blond) beard for a while, I used trimmings from it to represent the stubbs on a winter-field.

I decided it was time to start adding vegetation to the Moniteau Creek area. As a reminder, this area was pretty grassy/weedy/scruffy back then, with scattered bushes and a handful of trees.
 

So I started with a layer of complex grasses. Modelers often use static grass for this, which is a product consisting of fine grains that are applied onto a glued surface and then made to stand up vertically using static charge. It actually works quite well, but my problem was that static grass doesn't come in the proper brown/deep yellow shade of late fall Missouri prairie grass. I also find that most manufactured scenery products never manage to have the subtle complexity in color and texture that natural materials do (just like the ground cover already used). But I found a really effective natural replacement that comes out like this:
 

Any guesses?
 
It's hair. Mrs. Cathead's hair, to be specific. Her hair color is nearly exactly the shades of dried Missouri prairie grass, and has all the natural complexity one could want in a scenery product. Here's how I used it.
 
I took some clumps leftover from the hairbrush (we save some of these anyway for use in deterring garden pests like mice). I twisted lengths of hair into tightly wounded bundles, then cut them off into short clumps that stick together naturally. 

I then spread scenic glue on a patch of landscape and began planting the clumps, teasing them apart a bit to create the naturally even clumpiness of prairie grass while still covering most of the landscape. To emphasize this point, too many scenery makers assume that natural grass grows uniformly, like a lawn, but prairie grasses especially grow in tight clumps with space around their base. That pattern is actually essential to the survival of a variety of native animal species, but that's a different discussion.
 
Here's a shot of one creek bank done, and of the broader area in various stages. The glue starts out white but dries clear.
 


And one more view of a completed area:
 

I really like the natural complexity in color and pattern this creates. It needs some bushes and woody growth to break up the pure grassiness, but it's a great start. I will be using static grass elsewhere in Rocheport, but wanted the creek banks to be especially wild and diverse in a way that static grass struggles to get right.
 
If you're wondering, I haven't poured the creek water yet because I want to do most broad-scale scenery work first, to minimize the chances of dripping glue or color onto the finished water surface.
 
I can give two other quick updates. One, here's the nearly finished bluff line on the east side, with mineral staining added. Here it's lit by a nice low-angle western sun. And the main Missouri River riverbank has had its scenic base layer of dirt and shredded leaves added, with the bluffs continuing on the backdrop downriver and the river itself having its base color added.

And two, I've started experimenting with various arrangements of building footprints for the town. I'm having to compress a lot of visual interest into a small area so there are various ways to use specific buildings to highlight aspects of the real town. I'm mostly going to use laser-cut wood kits for all of these, probably scratchbuilding a few simple structures. I don't feel the need to build all the buildings to match real ones; the keystone "real" structures for the location are the grain elevator / hay barn and the depot. The rest can simply create the right era and feel. Someday I can always go back and scratchbuild specific town buildings but I really don't see the need to put that much time into such things up front.

Hope my unorthodox scenery in this post wasn't too hair-raising. You can always comb through other build logs for more normal content.
 
Thanks for reading!

My second battle tank in space saving 1/72 scale.
T-90 is an advanced Russian tank continuously upgraded from the experience gained at the war in Ukraine

The kit

I got this kit from last travel in Malaysia from a local shop instead of ordering  the Vespid Kit form China as was my initial purpose.It comes from an unknown company called AM.
However it has a lot of pieces and fine details as well as resin made, flexible tracks. The instructions seems to be cramped somehow, too many pieces in one photo. Hopefully the parts will fit well


 
 
 

Closing in on a finish for the Southlandz show coming up on Saturday, June 7. Will it be finished by then? Rat Fink and Ed Roth seem to have their doubts. Stay tuned.

Nice work, a big task to have the cannon behind you. Fun stuff ahead!

Really nice work.   That was a slog indeed.  But well worth the effort.  Your model looks outstanding.

Hi, the guns are finished!!! A long slog, and obviously a few more to do when the Q deck and focsle are done.
I started by cutting the trunnions by hand but after breaking a few off I changed to a cutting disc on a small rotary tool
The fittings are all done in the bulwarks so the first dry fit of the aftmost cabin bulkhead has been done
A long way to go still, but I'm getting there.
Thanks for looking in and your continued interest.
There will be a short break as I'm off to the Yorkshire dales to do some hiking/walking for a week.
Cheers

So, the outer structure of the cowl is done. The front of the crankcase should be flush with the cowl opening, so that will help me determine how to fit the rear part of the engine to the fuselage.

 
Speaking of which . . .

. . . it's a good thing I didn't fit any air intake pipes, because my initial measurements suggest that the entire portion of the molded block that includes the pipe stubs will need to be removed in order to allow the engine to fit properly. Fun!

Very nice Andrew. The panel line shading pays off all the hard work of doing it.
alan

More progress over the weekend.  Some panel line pre-shading and the "Sky" underside coat.  That all needs to harden off before the next load of masking begins, but it will probably be the weekend again before I get to it, so no rush!
 
Thanks for looking in and the "likes" and comments, much appreciated. 😁

Message me with your visit dates. Perhaps we can meet up for a private tour of the ship.
 
Or, if your plans coincide, the ship is doing a turnaround cruise in the harbor on Sep. 19. I will get you on board.
 
Regards,
 
Henry

Fascinating work, Captain Henry!  I am anxious to see this all on display when I visit the Constitution this September! 👍

I finished dying the leather white.
 
It took 4 coats of white dye to get the coverage I want.  The first coat was 50:50 water with increasing concentrations of dye applied in the later coats. The final coat was close to 100% dye.
Now that the leather is white there are still a few more steps before I can start stitching up the pieces.  The water based acrylic really dries out the leather.  You can see in the picture where the edges of the leather have curled.  The next step is to get some moisture back into the leather by applying neatsfoot oil. Neat is an Old English word for cattle.  The oil is literally rendered from cows feet. Since the acrylic dye essentially seals the top of the leather the neatsfoot oil is applied on the flesh side (back) of the leather.
After the neatsfoot oil has been applied, I apply a topcoat satin finish over the dye to further seal and protect the dyed leather.  Next, if the piece needs more moisture I  will do another application of neatsfoot oil before starting on finishing the edges and the back of the pieces.

 
Regards,
Henry