king derelict

Thank you Andrew I had the same feeling when I started sanding it down. Unfortunately it will all get sanded off to reveal the bricks again. I was a bit heavy handed in places. Alan

Thank you very much Gary It does tend to look a bit rough at first and then you sand and shape a bit and suddenly it starts to look like it might all come together. I love the Welsh mountain countryside and the castles are spectacular Alan

Lovely detail work. The grating is a very nice piece of work Alan

I'm working along the next wall and round tower. One more round tower and I reach the part of the wall that is partly covered by the hillside so it doesn't get completely covered in brickwork. Today has been spent playing with ideas for the lighting and mapping the wire runs in the main structure. The upper floor is complicated and I was thinking about adding the cardboard formers before placing the upper floor in place but I think that might cause problems because I think some of the walls have to be covered in blocks before other walls are added. That part of the build is going to be very interesting. Today more wall building but I also continued shaping the towers and added a filling mix of sanding dust and diluted white glue to the gateway. This now needs to be rubbed back to bring the blockwork back into view but it already looks better. The arch needs more tidying but I will probably wait until the other side is in place so it can be matched. Thanks for looking in and all the likes and support To borrow @mtaylor tag line The wood might be patient but the stones are glacial Sorry Mark Alan

Thank you Waitoa The build is enjoyable but I wish there was an elf that visited the garage overnight and squared off and chamfered the blocks for the following day Alan

Thank you very much OC. This is turning out to be much more enjoyable than the Towers of Rochelle. Working on the bigger tower was soul destroying. I was adding bricks but nothing seemed to be happening. Castillo Loarre has more elements which are generally smaller so I can see progress - even if its not a very exciting spectator sport. I think it will look good as a finished model especially with lights and figures. Thanks for the support Alan

beautiful work Alan

I built the Dragon 1/700 Z38 and it was an enjoyable build. That was a simple grey hull so you should have a lot more fun. They are nice kits Alan

The mainsail looks great. The weathering is perfect. Nothing more needed. A beautiful boat. Alan

I'm still working slowly along the outer walls, The round towers tend to slow things down as most of the blocks require sanding to fit. Only two more round towers to complete on the outer walls. Today I reached the main gate, The kit has preformed keystone shapes for the arch but they still need a bit of filing. The gateway was quite fiddly and not helped by the limited access caused by the adjacent towers. The stones above the arch are a bit ragged but they will look better after some attention with a sanding dust / glue mix. At least the tiers remained level as they crossed the archway. I'm starting to plan out the lighting. That looks like it might be a bit more complicated that I first thought but still very workable as long as its planned in advance. So work to date And to break up the tedium of watching the walls slowly grow. This is Dolbadarn Castle in North Wales. A medieval Welsh castle at the head of the pass into the mountains Thanks for looking in and for all the likes and comments Alan

Hi Mike Sorry for the slow response. I get the custom cut acrylic sheets for TAP Plastics. They have always been great to deal with and are very fast Cut to Size, Polycarbonate & Acrylic Plastics : TAP Plastics A hint that I have learnt. If you get smaller pieces for display cases like the WW1 in this topic the price of the cutting outweighs the cost of the acrylic. When that happens you can order multiple pieces of the same size without affecting the prices. So in this case I wanted a case 11 x 9 x 4 inches. The 9 x 4 pieces came out at 10 dollars but stayed at ten dollars all the way to six pieces. So I ended up getting 6 off 4 x 9, 6 off 4 x 11 and three off 11 x 9 without increasing anything except the shipping price a little. So that makes three cases at the price of the first. Hope that helps Alan

One of my favourite aircraft. I'm definitely in for this. Looking forward to your masterly treatment of the subject. And hoping to learn some ideas for my own Typhoon kits. Alan

It's beautiful. It looks real enough to walk into. Alan

I'm a fan of old castles which is what drew me into these kits.whenever I go back to North Wales I insist on visiting at least one cadtle, either the Edward First ones of Conwy, Harlech, Beaumaris, Caernarfon or the Welsh castles of Dolbadarn or Dolwyddelan. I'm December I was lucky enough to visit Caernarfon on a cold rainy day and with my cousin we were the only visitors. It was great, spiral stairways, gloomy passages and lots of atmosphere. If Aedes Ars ever make a Welsh castle kit I'll at the front of the line with my credit card Alan

It's all wonderful but the shed door with the split boards is just brilliant Alan

Thank you very much Gary. I will be using your ideas to create partitions in the lower part of the building. All the windows and doors in the upper part (above the horizontal line in the photos will be in separate upper floor rooms so they should be taken care of. The doors on both levels will need to be thought about though. They are very big and easy to see into. Maybe partly open doors and a black or walled partition might work. I have plenty of time to experiment a I build up the outer walls, Next update when I get to the main gate - hopefully soon Alan

Thank you very much Denis I learnt a lot about making an effective setting. And now have lots of Woodlands Scenic stuff for many more Alan

Thank you very much for the kind words EG Your wish is my command Alan

Thank you very much Patrick. I wish I had the room to do more of this Alan

Thank you Zig It was a really enjoyable project Alan

Thank you Phil Alan

Great subjects. Looking forward to a great build Alan

Thank you Mike I plan to try colour in the next attempt. I also probably stirred the mix too fast. It's a bit scary committing your finished model to the resin but for some displays it's a great look. I have a handful of 1/700 submarines that I want to use this technique for Alan

I think your Hood diorama will be great. It's worth practicing with your chosen resin before committing to the main task. I found a half inch layer cured no problem. A few stray bubbles aren't going to be an issue with all the mayhem of the sinking. Alan

In an effort to maintain my last unbroken New Years resolution (finish all started projects). I completed an experiment with the 1/700 Hobby Boss HMS Astute. I have a few submarine models and it always puzzles me to find a good way to display them. I have also been impressed by modellers who have encased their finished project in resin. I wanted to try it but had no real idea about how to build a casting tank, the right resin, release agents, does the curing heat damage the model or the decals etc. So this is less about building Astute and more about trying to set in an epoxy sea. The Hobby Boss kit has few parts and the submarine has a simple black paint scheme. The decals are a bit of a challenge with lots of long thing bands to place on the hull The casting tank is made of 1/8 Perspex and held together and sealed with hot glue (first mistake). I sprayed the inside of the tank with Future polish as a release agent The plan was to present the model on the surface so the craft sticks, double sided tape and Lego bricks set the sub at the right depth in the tank The project was going to sit on the brand new dryer while the resin cured. It seemed a good idea to put the tank in an extra container - just in case. There was a bit more resin than I expected in the first pour but I put it all in and was not terribly happy to find that the tank had a leak on one of the sides. - but I was thrilled that I had decided to use an extra container and I decided to carry on. Then winter hit Florida for a week and I didn't want to try the second pour in case it didn't cure properly. I resumed with a different brand of resin and made three further pours to get the depth I wanted. They all cured nicely The leaked resin peeled off the bottom of the casting easily The sides of the tank released with a bit of force and the basic casting seems to be successful with a couple of caveats. The long delay between first and second pours resulted in a definite interface between the two pours. Also the second resin has a slight tan cast to it. I had planned to try to colour the resin but couldn't think of a way to get a consistent colour. It belatedly occurs to me that I should have coloured one part of the two part mix which would then be used in all the pours. There are small bubbles - I'm not sure how to improve that I added some waves and wakes with artists gloss medium but it wasn't very visible against the clear resin so I added some medium with micro balloons added. I think it was a bit too much and its stark against the clear resin So i added a sea blue base which has got closer to the effect I wanted Far from perfect but it answered some basic questions for me and I'm happy with a first attempt. I have a part built 1/700 USS Gato for the next part of the project - full immersion. I have a couple of Flyhawk U boats that I would like to make up into a single display with one surfaced and one submerged. They are much too nice to pour resin over until I know what I'm doing, Thanks for looking in. Alan