SPA Modeler

Those are all coming along great Mark. I’m really liking the Austratt as well. That Nagmachon (or however in hell you spell that) looks like something that Leonardo DaVinci would have designed. Keep up the fire my friend!

Thanks Medic! I try.

Thanks Kari! Unfortunately, I haven't any way of typing the turret name in Norwegian so I can't add that tiny 'o' to the top of the 'a'. I do appreciate the compliment on it though. Wait till it's weathered; I hope it looks even better then.

Carlos, thanks! The turret seems to be quite popular. I agree with the Nagmachon it is a very odd duck. Wait till I get the P/E on it!

Now for my latest work I did at Hobby Day this past weekend. All this is armor and at least three of these are brand new models started during Hobby Day.

The one model I continued to work on was the twin 128mm AA guns that go with the Austratt turret. I did get the first of two barrels built:



After doing the second one the same way, I then assembled the whole gun. It took awhile and had me highly frustrated due to the way the instructions aren't clear and the steps they tell you to do only make the assembly more difficult. I finally got most of this beastie completed:





This gun is almost ready for paint after a few more fiddly bits get installed.


After that I decided to try something different... hey, who left this engine lying around?



Okay, that above is the V-12 engine that goes to my Bereg Coastal Defense gun. There were fifteen parts on that I had to assemble to get that to this point. By this time, I was tired of tiny pieces so I jumped ahead and built the command and control cabin for this as well as the turret. Here is the turret all assembled. You can see the gun that goes on this in the background:



Here it is lined up behind the C&C cabin as it will be when installed on the chassis:



Next I pulled out the ACE BTR-3K and started on it. First I assembled the lower hull. There are five pieces that make this up:



Then came the upper hull. Three more pieces:



Here's the top sitting on the bottom. Putting these together will be interesting:



Finally I started another car; this one a Type 770 Cabriolet. I started of course, with the chassis. This was tough as the connection points were not clear in the instructions:



After that I built the interior and the upper body. Here it is all together:



Later I realized that the stance was not correct so I had to pull the front suspension off and rebuild it properly. I don't have pics of that, but this little car is almost ready for paint.

That's all I managed to get done on Hobby Day Friday and Saturday. I was surprised at how well I did given everything that was going on both those days.

This will probably be the last update for a couple weeks due to the start of a fairly large job so enjoy!

Thanks for looking in; comments are welcome.

That twin 128mm looks really cool Duke!

Thanks Clint! That twin gun was a fiddly bear to put together too.

Thanks Bruce! Overall it's a bit early for my impressions on the Hawk, but the pieces so far have gone together well. I do still need to check seams and such later though.

Thanks again for the great replies and I apologize for being so late to answer. Been so tired lately.....

Wow, after a considerable time, I finally managed to get back to the workbench. Here's my latest progress on several models.

I'll start with the church. Since I was putting a brown wash on the Austratt turret base, I also experimented with it on the side of the church building:



Later on I'll drybrush some lighter grey over that to see how it looks.

Speaking of the Austratt turret, here is the base with the brown wash on it. It can barely be seen in these pics but I assure you it is there and visible:



I had also tried a dot filter on the sides of the turret as well, but it is not very visible here either:





Later on I glossed this turret, then did a brown wash on the rivets, protrusions and seams and then dull coated this:



Again, not very visible in these pics; all the effects can be seen better in person. After all this, I've declared this beastie done.

Moving on, I experimented again with a dark earth drybrush on a portion of the church roof. The left side is not drybrushed, the right side is:



That drybrush was done over a base coat of Oily Black paint on the tiles.

Continuing on with ground elements, I was able to move forward on my George Creed Tribute Build for my friend. I first shot a modulation of a lighter green over the cab, trailer and missile:







The missile was also drybrushed at this time. After that, just for fun I fitted the missile onto the trailer to see how it looks:



I then detail painted the tractor portion with some Oily Black on the chassis and suspension as well as finished off the painting on other parts:



That chassis and suspension later got a dry brush of steel over it.

After that it got glossed for a wash. There seemed to be no markings on this tractor; at least the instructions didn't show any which I thought as odd, but I moved on. I wanted this done so I glossed the trailer and the missile and added the decals to both of them:



Here is the missile and trailer all dullcoated after the decals had dried:



My George Creed Tribute Build is finally done.

After this I also moved ahead on my Israeli Nagmachon. There was a lot to before the photo etch went on. First off, I painted the photo etch. Then I glossed the model and added the decals plus a medium brown wash:





Next came the dull coat and drybrush of a light sand over the details, as well as the painting of the machine guns:



Finally the tracks and last side skirts were installed. This one is ready for the photo etch screens:







And finally, I did manage to get some progress done on one of my aircraft. The Israeli Sufa needed more seams and gaps filled so I added some more Mr. Surfacer 500 to them:





After some sanding and repainting, it looks much better. It still ain't perfect, but I'm far more happy with this:



Next up will be the other two camouflage colors.

And that completes my progress for this month so far. Hopefully I can finish that Nagmachon and Sufa this week.

Thanks all for looking in, comments are most welcome.

Great looking builds Mark - I especially like that painting you did on that tribute build, it really looks good. what kit/type is it - it looks like a MAN truck?

What on earth is going on with that IDF tank? It looks like it's been attacked by a porcupine.

Nice stuff there Mark!

Thanks Stuart! I appreciate the compliments. As for the Israeli tank, I think they mated an M-60 Patton with a porcupine. and then threw some metal screens around it.

Thanks Medic! More to come soon I hope!

I can't help it Duke, but looking at most of these builds, just impossible to tell they are 1/72 scale!
Amazing quality, both the kit and building technic!

- Kari