king derelict

I'm sure it will be terrific when its finished but there is no deadline. Enjoy it when you can and we will be happy to go along. Life has an annoying habit of throwing in far too many distractions. MEanwhile its always good to get your comments and ideas Alan

Gosh Craig; This is really excellent. The chrome and paint job really gives it presence. Alan

Dan The dressed up landing gear looks very good. It makes the gear look much more than sticks alan

Thank you very much OC. I think the scenery needed to complete this is going to be a real master class. The good thing is I have plenty of supplies to experiment with. Its also starting to feel like its getting time to work out where I am going to pit it when completed. The cats vetoed me using the shelf that their bed sits on! And after I gave them smoked salmon for Christmas too! Alan

Today brought a little more progress. I used a mix of the Mig Ammo Terraform texture (beach sand) with craft acrylic paint (khaki). The Mig texture goes a lot further than I expected and it does break up the flat look that paint alone would give. The colour approximates to the ground in the real castle. I then added the Woodland Scenic green blend turf in the areas that it appears on the drone flights. I'm not sure if I have overdone it and may need to thin the green turf out a bit. I'm also considering adding a bit in some of the other courtyards. The drone flights only show it in the areas I have added it but to my mind it leaves the rest of the model looking a bit bare. I needn't have worried about the painting of the figures. They are sort of lost on the tower but they do give a bit of scale Once I adjust the grass to my liking the tower will be ready to glue to the supports on the main base and the build up of the landscape can start. Thanks for looking in and all the likes Alan

Thank you OC, It's nice to be messing around with the castle again - especially as it isn't stacking little blocks up. Woodland Scenic makes an amazing range of goodies.. Alan

I'm back albeit in a rather lethargic sort of way. The covid hung around much longer than I expected and although the symptoms were more annoying than life threatening I still seem to get really tired easily and find it difficult to work up any motivation. However coffee is starting to taste better so there is much to be grateful for. I spent most of yesterday staring at the model trying to remember what I was doing before I went to Europe While I was away a parcel of Woodland Scenic goodies came from the nice people at Mega Hobbies and should get me started on the landscapes. I think the end result will be a blend of the techniques suggested by @Egilman, @Canute , @Jack12477 and others. Many thanks for the help I reviewed the painted miniatures and touch up a few and I think they are as good as I can get them. I tried the Agrax Earth wash (thanks @Old Collingwood) and I like how its shaded and added to the shadows. Its toned down the yellow tunics a bit too. I played around with the hot wire cutter. It does a good job as long as you don't expect accuracy but its great for removing material and shaping hills. I have a lot extruded polystyrene so I think this will be used to block out the basic shapes. Hydrocal and plaster bandages will be used to achieve the final shapes. I had a bit of an experiment with one side of the tower and I think it will work. I'm endlessly rerunning the drone footage of the surrounding landscape. The Aedes Ars guide has now made it to the bin. The main towers are only sat in place while I was fiddling with the foam. I need to finish the ground and add the figures before hooking up the lighting and gluing it in place. A few of the figures have made it to the towers. Better photos tomorrow I hope My Spanish friend who kindly sent me the Loarre Castle kit a few years back was thoughtful enough to send something restorative for Christmas this year. A bottle of Franklin Four Maple Bourbon. It looks like a great covid antidote. Its great to be back. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a belated Happy New Year to all. Alan

Very nice work on the name board Alan

The paint has a lovely deep shine. It’s a shame about the metal foil Alan

Have great Christmas Ken. Alan

A safe and happy Christmas Dan. I’m looking forward to the continuation in 2024. They have a F104 with the Zero Length Launch rocket attached at the Berlin Gatow museum. I think it would help to have no imagination to fly one alan

All Best Wishes for Christmas alan

I built the 1/700 Flyhawk 1937 Hermes when I was a bit too new to the hobby to do it justice. It’s a lovely kit. alan

Thank you Andrew if you have to be sick, home is the best place. Icarus work with the RBL making some very nice stuff from recycled metals from WW1 shell fuses through F-35 wing panels. i would love a modern Ark or Hermes preferably in 1/700 by Flyhawk. Sea Vixens, Phantoms and Bucks i hope you have a wonderful Christmas (with a bit less wind than when I left) Alan

Thanks Craig. At least I wasn’t sick while I was wandering around Europe. That would have been really annoying. The trip was excellent. The Luftwaffe museum in Berlin and the airborne museum in Oosterbeck (Arnhem) are both spectacularly good. Happy Christmas Alan

Thank you OC. Dosing with vitamins and hydrating and laying around with the cats. I’m very pleased to have got the Hermes model. A very tiny piece of history. I hope you have a great Christmas alan

Thanks Ken. Things seem to be easing. The sense of taste has got a bit weird. Suddenly coffee and red wine taste very strange. At least tea still seems okay. I’ve bought Nate Greys Hazard Spectrum. He was a test pilot for F-35B at Pax for a while. I think I’m going back for the Mosquito book. I made the mistake of checking the 2022 and 2021 lists and bought two more there Happy Christmas alan

I’m back. I got home about midnight Tuesday after a miserable 20 hour travel day. I felt even worse on Wednesday morning so I did the nose / swab thing and Yup I’ve got Covid. Oh joy. Looks like being a quiet Christmas. i had hoped to be back on the castle but I think there may be some schedule slip. I just put up the Christmas tree and retired to the sofa to recuperate. There are some interesting titles in this list. I already fell victim to one. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/aerospace-book-choices-for-christmas-2023/?utm_campaign=2674865_22 Dec - Insight Blog Roundup&utm_medium=email&utm_source=2674865_22 Dec - Insight Blog Roundup&dm_i=4OGU,1LBXT,33UWYK,7GP92,1 in am effort to add a little model content, I wanted to show something I acquired on my travels. From Trinity Marine and benefiting the Royal British Legion. Nice to have small piece of Hermes. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a joyous New Year Alan

Those are beautiful designs and paintwork. I guess it’s a different world now but somehow a Kia Rio doesn’t hold up against them. Looking forward to seeing this build Craig. Alan

I’m still out there. I’m sitting in front of the fire at my cousins cottage in North Wales and thinking about a glass of wine. Christmas markets in Berlin and Copenhagen were great and snow in Berlin made it look festive The Arnhem Airborne museum is spectacularly good. The photos are on my camera unfortunately but it’s definitely worth seeing Took my dad to the National Arboretum to make his yearly pilgrimage to the Parachute Regiment memorial They have a nice Pegasus bridge monument now Also new is the HMS Sheffield memorial, the Shiny Sheff I’m looking forward to catching up on logs when I get home. I’m getting badly behind but as usual the work is uniformly high standard. I should be home late on Tuesday. My cats have probably gone feral. Best wishes everyone alan

Beautiful neat work. It all looks so precise Alan

Thank you Jack I'm looking forward to it. Alan

Thank you Andrew I remember the east wind in Berlin this time last year. It cut through clothing like a knife. My dad is all fired up to visit the National Arboretum so I'm hoping for a decent there Alan

Thank you very much OC. I have the Agrax Earthshade so I will give it a try on one of the figures and see what we get. I am very impressed with the Pendraken figures, They have packed a lot of detail into such small figures and with the Mr Metal Primer I have been surprised at how well the paint has taken (apart from the yellow) Looking forward to the holiday; catching up with a lot of friends and family at a special time of year. Alan

Thank you @Old Collingwood, @Canute and @Egilman for some really helpful suggestions. I have screen mesh, plaster, extruded foam in sheets and blocks. I have ordered Hydrocal, plaster bandages and a hot wire foam cutter. Let the fun begin. I just cleaned the dust from the blocks out of the garage so I'm all ready for a new mess. I have been working on a selection of figures to add a bit of scale to the towers For the figures in slashed doublets and breeches I used a base yellow and dry brushed the red on top. I think its effective for the size of the figures. These figures are 10mm tall so there are limits - at least for me. I did try for moustaches and beards with varying degrees of success. I still need to touch up the details and correct some overpainting. I also need to decide on a colour for the shields> I was going for yellow but yellow seems to be a horrible paint to get good coverage with so maybe blue. SSerious medievalists and figure painters are probably running screaming for the hills. So far I am happy with some, less so with others but I will try to refine them. I am wondering whether to try a dark wash over the details but I'm concerned that the figures are so small it will overwhelm the paint. Any thoughts? There will be a bit of a break for a few weeks. I am working tomorrow and on Friday flying to Manchester UK to start a three week vacation. Starting with seeing a cousin in North Wales then flying to Copenhagen and then train to Berlin to visit more friends. Train to Arnhem and then Amsterdam before returning to the UK to spend a week with my 98 year old dad. It sounds like I can leave the flip flops and board shorts at home and think about some cold weather gear. Thanks for looking in and thank you for all the support and helpful comments Alan