SPA Modeler

Duke Maddog wrote:Yeah, I considered "Enterprise" also, but given that she was a test bed and never got attached to boosters for a trip to space; I ruled her out. I'm kinda leaning toward "Columbia" right now.

Nice pic of "Enterprise" Carlos! What a thrill that must have been seeing her.

Mark, they displayed Enterprise at Edwards for every air show that I attended from 79 thru 83. It was cool to see her there each time. Along with all the other stuff that you could only see at Edwards.

speedgraflex wrote:Carlos, That photo is great. So nice to see film.

Thanks Bruce. I have so many film air show photos that I need to scan or get digitized by my phone camera.

Stikpusher wrote:

speedgraflex wrote:Carlos, That photo is great. So nice to see film.

Thanks Bruce. I have so many film air show photos that I need to scan or get digitized by my phone camera.

lol - I took 15 rolls of 35mm and APS into the processor last week.. the woman behind the counter almost had a heart attack. She told me it was more rolls in one go than she'd normally do in a month and that she hadn't seem a roll of APS in about 6 years! Good fun.

That is indeed a great shot Stik - The shuttle is a great looking craft.

Well, this is a very short update as I have had no time and/or energy to get anything done lately. During the few times I had the time and energy and motivation to work in my Hobby Room, I did get this much done.

Starting with my aircraft, I got the decals done on the F-6 Hellcat. The decals are wrinkled due to Solvaset, I haven't checked them lately to see if they smoothed out yet:



Then I found the engine that had fallen down and disappeared briefly. During that time, all the exhaust pipes had broken off and disappeared:



Man, if it ain't one thing it's another with this kit!


Okay, by this time I was fed up so I moved on to my armor. I pulled out a simple and easy kit to start with. This was also chosen because my AMPS club is having an artillery group build all scales, so I chose this one to start with:



I started with the two base parts of the launcher, as well as the launching arm:



On the bottom of the base parts were these two gaps. I added strip styrene in the gaps to seal them:



Later I'll sand those smooth before painting. Then I started the missile itself:



That was enough of that for the day. The next model I pulled out was another Aerosan for the Treasure Train game I hope to be doing in September. I got this far before I got tired of it too:



I then decided to do something that was not short run. I pulled out the Takom 1/72 scale Russian tractors set and got started on them. First was the chassis, of course. This is the chassis for the one I'll call Tractor A until I figure out which is which:



Next I did the chassis for the Tractor B. Here it is next to the Tractor A chassis:



Tractor A chassis is at the top. Tractor B has a short bed on it so I snipped the parts for that and assembled the bed:



Here the bed sits dry-fit to the chassis to see how it fits:



After that I couldn't raise the mojo to work on anything else so I just snipped spare parts from excess scrap sprue and sorted the parts into my compartmented parts bins for the next couple hours.

So, that's all for today. We have rain coming for the next couple days and so I'll hopefully be able to get something done in my hobby room during that time, even it it means starting some of my latest acquisitions.

Stay tuned, hopefully more to come soon. Thanks for looking in.

Okay, here's my latest update, mostly on work I managed to get done at Hobby Day this past weekend.

I'll start by posting the pic that was wrong in the previous post. Here is what the truck bed and chassis look like dry-fit together:



Anyway, moving on from there, I pulled out my Dark Green and started to shoot just about everything that needs it. After it dried, I neglected to shoot pics; instead I went straight to a lighter green and started to modulate the green on all the single color vehicles.


Before I get to that, I'll start with the aircraft I was working on. As I looked over the Israeli Sufa, I noticed a few more gaps and seams that needed filling. Out came the Vallejo acrylic putty and into the seams it went. You may not be able to see the newest seams I filled but now they are all done:





Now I think this is ready for paint. I'll have to mask off the canopy first and then shoot it with a primer to actually see what might still need to be filled.

Moving on, I started the AH-1 given to me by my friend on another Forum. First was the cockpit:



Later I did the engine and transmission cover since closing up the main fuselage requires weight in the nose to keep this bird on it's skids. I didn't have any at the time so I just went ahead with the engine and tranny cover:





Moving on to my armor; I decided to start a couple new projects. One was the IBG Hungarian Toldi II tank that has been sitting for awhile. I started by assembling the lower hull and the wheels. I didn't shoot a pic of the wheels, but here is the hull:



Then because I didn't want to deal with the suspension, I went forward in the instructions and assembled the turret:



My next started project was another IBG model; this time it is the Diamond T wrecker that I've waited so long to get. First was the chassis which was surprisingly easy to do given that there was so much assembly required:



Next was the lovely, well-detailed engine that will unfortunately be covered up. But it looks great before it gets hidden:



Finally, I started the cab; but I only did the front part of it since I still need to detail paint inside the cab before I close it all up:








Now I can show all the painting I did on all this armor. I'll start with the Wrecker cab since I just posted the previous assembly. Here it is painted and semi-poorly modulated:



Next I modulated the Russian BREM vehicle. It didn't turn out anything like I was hoping. I seem to be finding it difficult to adjust my air pressure properly. Oh well, at least I had a lot of practice today, starting with this:



Subsequent washes and weathering will probably blend that in better. One can only hope.

I then shot the cab and front fender of the first Russian tractor:



Followed by the cab, fender and tractor bed of the second tractor:



I then basecoated and modulated the SA-6 Gainful:



Finally, I decided I needed to finish up another short run kit that I'd had sitting for awhile. The Soviet SG-122 got the second run of tracks on the other side, as well as the side armor protecting the gun. I also added some more filler to several seams that I found again:





Man that model is crude!

Next I assembled the gun. The front plate broke as I was pressing it into place, so I tried to get it sanded as smooth as possible after fixing it again. There was a lot of other areas that needed sanding as well. I then drilled out the gun barrel too, although it is not easily seen in this pic:



Here is the whole thing all assembled and ready for paint so far:



And finally, I basecoated this and modulated the green on this as well:



I find it amusing that the best modulation was done on the crappiest kit! Oh well, story of my life....

Last but not least, I also shot a base coat of dark brown on the IBG Japanese Chi Nu tank. I'm probably going backwards putting the darkest color first, but I started with it. These are the Mr. Color paints specifically for Japanese armor by the way. It's kind of hard to tell in this pic, but this is painted I assure you:





And that covers everything I got done on Hobby Day weekend and the rest of this week. Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

Looks like a very productive session Mark. I’m really liking the SA-6 TEL. I cant wait to see that one all done.... you know that one qualifies for the AMPS artillery GB...

Thanks Carlos. I have the decals for this on the way. I plan on making it West German. As for the group build, I am not sure whether I started this before or after the GB was announced and commenced. Still, if they allow it, I'll add it.

As Carlos said, what a productive session and start of 2019!

Wouh!

- Kari

Thanks Kari! I do hope things can continue to go well.