Ernie's Comfy Corner....Back to Building

[JCON]

Sounds good to this guy Ernie!!! I've still got my hobby room tore apart!!! Getting my subflooring next week and going to get it installed so I can get closer to building again!!! Missing it for sure!!!

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Thanks for showing your progress Ernie. Very inspiring.

[Ernie]

Well guys, its been awhile, so I suppose I should update what has been happening on the work bench! Not much really Work got busy, the world got Covid, my wife and I care for my mother, and so I just kind of got all wraped up in all that and just didn't have much left for anything else. But, hey ho it's early in a new year and all that so we'll see what happens.
I did finish the little P.1103 that I was working on, the photo etch set for it really helped the cockpit.





I added some wiring to the back of the instrument panel because some of it would be visible through the canopy.



I made a little base for it to sit on....





The canopy was the last ill fitting piece of the kit, Brengun also make a vacuform canopy for this kit, so I relucentely bought a set and had much better luck getting a good fit of the canopy.





I also finished a couple of other things as well, and will post them up soon.

[JCON]

That turned out amazing!!! Glad to see you here again!!!

[JED]

Great work Ernie,enjoyed this catch up

[BUCKY]

Stunning finish, Ernie!

[Ernie]

Thanks guys, really appreciate the comments. I also finished a pair of Ghadir class Iranian mini subs. I know, Iran has subs!! These are 1/700 scale resin and photo etch kits made by OKB Grigorov. They are really pretty nice and very well detailed. They were the first 1/700 scale ships I have built in quite a while, and made me remember why



There are two kits in the box which is nice has these subs appear to have two distinctive paint schemes.



Pretty much everything else that was on the bench has been put aside for various reasons and other things have taken their place. So I will have to see what is next......I have plenty of choices, it is just a matter of what seems to motivate me. And I have also started remodeling my work room so I can't do too much until that is done.

[Dukemaddog]

Welcome back Ernie, you've been sorely missed! What beautiful work you returned with too! Magnificent! I love those mini subs too. I think I should get them for myself too.

I'm looking forward to seeing what else you finished.

[JED]

Mini in more ways than one Ernie!!

[JCON]

Those look amazing!!!

[Ernie]

Thanks guys, I'll have to figure out what to work on next!

[Ernie]

So what to do on a nice snowy afternoon?? Work on a model on the new desk, make a snowy display base, finish a model on the new desk? decisions, decisions, ok, all the above!!  

This kit was issued in 1998, and I started it then when it was brand spanking new. However, as was usual for that time I was in a hurry and didn't do a good job, and of course something else got may attention,,,,so back into the box it went, which eventually went into storage and 22 years later I decided to take another chance at finishing it.




The beat up box after being in storage for many years.......




How I left the kit when I started in the last century  

It looked like all the important parts were there, so I decided the first thing to do was to thin down the way too thick shield; of course that is what I should do, I mean I couldn't finish building it out of the box 20 odd years ago, so why not start by making things more difficult  now    Anyway, I thinned the shield down, replaced the molded on foliage loops with photo etch replacements and the rivets with 3D decals. The lower angle pieces at the bottom were sawn off and then glued back on after the thinning had taken place.




I mixed up some Tamiya Dark Yellow and Deck Tan and sprayed the model.





I then gave it a coat of chipping fluid and hairspray before over spraying it in Tamiya white.




The white was scrubbed with an old paint brush and toothpick to fade and generally distress the finish. I found a cool video on You Tube showing how to pint plastic to look like wood using regular old craft paints, so I gave it a try on the shell boxes, they turned out pretty alright I think.




I also covered the boxes with hairspray and then gave them a coat of Gunze Aqueous color dark green and then destressed the finish. I found the kit decal sheet stuck in the corner of the box, though it had suffered moisture damage in storage, still I was able to get them to work and added the decal to the box, and when it had dried down, I beat it up with some steel wool.


 



I have never made a snow base before, so I got some materials to try out to see if I could do it. The Deluxe Materials snow I got a while back, the AK stuff is something new, and I also made up a little base for the Puppchen to sit on. I had actually planned to finish this over the Christmas / New Years holidays, but with the mail being so messed up and slow at that time the AK snow material did not arrive in time for that to happen, so I have kind of been holding off doing anything with this until I knew I had a decent amount of time available, as I have never worked with this stuff before.




I messed around with the Puppchen and ammo boxes until I liked how they were positioned and then took this picture so I could put them back in the right spots later (getting old sucks!).



The AK stuff turned out to be pretty easy to work with, it is acrylic based and is about the consistency of cake frosting.




I used a wooden coffee stirrer to spread out the snow material, and then a rather large soft brush wet with water was used to blend the surface, it is not even, but it doesn't have any obvious pattern from spreading it around with the coffee stick. While it is still wet I placed the Puppchen and boxes  on the base and sprinkled on the the Deluxe snow and some of the sparkle stuff as well. The feet of a Tamiya figure was stabbed around on the base to make foot prints, and some Woodland Scenics Field Grass was cut down and stuck into the snow.




This is how it sets now drying. I am not sure how long it will take to dry, but I will give it a few hours before I mess with it. I have to clean up the edges of the base and add a couple more details before calling it done.

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Awesome work! Had never seen this kit. A rare pleasure.

[JCON]

Looks good to me!!!

[JED]

Nice looking results Ernie

[Ernie]

Well, I finished the Puppchen a couple weeks back, but just haven't had time to take a few pics of it until this weekend. Pretty happy with how it turned out and especially with the snow base. That is the first time I have tried that and it opens up many other possibilities for future bases for me. The final bit I did was to drybrush the Woodland Scenics Field Grass with Tamiya Dark Yellow as it seemed tool light and monochromatic as it was. It looks much better now I think.





On to a new project, the Micro Mir 1/144 Walter U-Boat, which is kind of cool as it chemically powered by peroxide and was capable of nearly 30 kts. submerged.





I am also working on a couple of other shelf queens as well, but don't have photos of those at the moment.

[BUCKY]

Very well done, Ernie! A TOP SHELF build!

[JCON]

Awesome job Ernie!!!

[Ernie]

Thank you very much guys!

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Looking forward to watching them Ernie.