SPA Modeler

Thanks to Hobby Day, I was able to make a good amount of progress. I even felt like I got somewhere!

I'll start out with some simple stuff. Just before Hobby Day I was working on the church. I started to fill in some of the seams and small gaps. I'll need to re-scribe some of the lines afterward:







Next up, I decided it was time to add the photo etch to these models so I could get them to the paint stage. I started with the Centurion, adding the photo etch to the top of the hull:



Next I added all the photo etch to the Centauro. Much of this was extremely difficult:





Now that puppy is ready for paint.

More photo etch fun was done on the little V-100 which fortunately, did not have much:





That one is also ready for paint now.

Despite the instructions, I was able to make some progress on the Nagmachon; adding all the reactive armor and other detail parts to the hull:



Later I posed this with the doghouse to see how it's looking so far. I next have to finish up the doghouse and then get the photo etch added:



After that, I got the windows inside the Trattore truck so I could close it up and get it closer to the finish line. I also added the wheels to it, after having to "adjust" the wheel wells:



Here it is with the tilt dry-fit in place:



Finally, I made some more progress on the MAN Pershing tractor, adding some additional parts and finishing it up. Now all I need to do is add the cab and photo etch to this:



After that, I started the trailer for the rocket:



While stuff was drying, I decided to pull out my Russian BMP-3 Early and get started on that. At least this is one BMP-3 that I have a chance to finish! It has me start with the turret, so I got that assembled:



Next was the lower hull. This kit had been very slightly started as all I had to do was to add one or two parts to this assembled lower hull:



Next I assembled the main parts of the upper hull:



Just for fun here's all that all test fit together:





Now the painting fun could happen!

Let's see what I got painted so far.....

First was the little V-100. I shot a coat of Olive Drab over it:





Next up I shot the Centurion. This got a coat of Bronze Green:





Later on I added the roadwheels and sprockets to this tank:



Next up I shot a new coat of olive on the Diamond T wrecker:



Afterward I completed the assembly on this truck, getting it almost completed:





While I was shooting greens, the next thing I shot was the launcher for the SA-2 Guideline:



You can see it was still wet when I shot that. I also painted the rocket white:



This will be painted the grey on white scheme, so the white went down first.


Finally, I shot the two Hell cannons; one was green in preparation for the tri-color camo pattern the other is black for the rusty version:





Since I had some extra black left in the airbrush after painting that cannon, I decided to shoot a few other things. One was the exhaust pipe for the Israeli Sufa:



...and the other was the lower section of the Redstone rocket that gets black on it:





Finally, to wrap this all up, I'm leaving you with a teaser of one more project I started that I expect to make a long term project out of. I will have extensive workup to do with this one. Here's the teaser....




That's all I have for now everyone! I hope you enjoyed the latest 'tour'.

Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

Heh.. the teaser Clydesdale horse you speak of is all too familiar to me. Lemme guess... The Budweiser beer wagon with the Clydesdale horses. I did one back in the 80s. If I'm right I have a story to tell of what happened to mine. It's not pretty...

A great selection of builds as always Duke!

Thanks for the great comments guys!


Blacksheep, you nailed it. I'm gonna slowly work on these Clydesdale horses and their bridles as an in-between-builds 'cleanser' until all of them are done. Then I'll probably go gangbusters on the wagon itself. It should be interesting.

Thanks Stuart! I hope to get some of these finished soon!

Ha! Now for the painful story...
I had that awesome kit back in 1979 or 1980. Spent a good 2-3 weeks building it. Loved every minute of it. Even better, it came with a display platform to hold the horses and wagon together. When I finally finished it I had it displayed on a shelf in the living room my dad had built for another reason.

One day, dear old mom was doing her daily housework and decided to dust the said shelf the Budweiser Wagon Train was on. She took it down off the shelf, dusted the shelf and went to put it back up except she dropped it on the floor. Needless to say, everything was broken beyond repair. I was heartbroken and angry. Ended up tossing it and not speaking to mom for a couple days. How I wish I can find another and start over.

Ouch! That is painful! I'm so sorry to hear that. That is indeed heartbreaking. I do hope that someday you can find another and start it again. I'll be moving pretty slowly on mine since I want to try and get the horses looking semi-decent.

Hey Tom! Lookin here!

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 3421670250

There you go Tom! That's the same kit I have. I think I paid the same for mine too at a local show. If you get this, you and I can build it together.

Yup. That’s the kit. Someday. I haven’t on the bench lately nor bought anything new model kit wise in a while. After 2 major home renovations this past couple months, and between a nephew’s 1st communion, my son’s confirmation and baseball games, and two upcoming graduations, money’s tight at the moment.

I hear ya Tom. I’ve gotta wind down production here myself due to an upcoming move late this year or early next year. So it’s time to cut back on stash additions, and new build starts.