Maddog Manufacturing Open in 2021

[Dukemaddog]

Hey everyone! Happy New Year and welcome to the new Grand Opening of Maddog Manufacturing for 2021. Most of which I'm going to show right off is work I did just before heading out on vacation back in December. Since it didn't get posted then, I'll be showing it here.


So, all aboard the tram and remember to keep hands and feet inside at all times. Enjoy the tour!


To start with, these are my most active projects currently going on right now:





A lot of the work you see here has already been chronicled, but just before I left, I did some airbrushing of base coats.


First I'll show you the work I did on the C-54.


I worked on sanding and shaping the cockpit canopy to get it ready for paint:





I think it's ready, but I'll have to prime it first to be sure.


Then I built all the engines and dry-fit them to the wing nacelles to see how they look:





They look great in place, but I had a sneaky suspicion about something so I slipped a cowl on one of them to see how well it fit. It didn't:





That is way too far from the nacelle so the engines are gonna take a little finagling before they get painted and closed in behind the cowls.




Moving on, here are the pics of that base coating work on my armor and the 1929 Coke Delivery Van...


First off, I had the Olive Drab out so I shot the OD basecoat on these models:


M-5 Stuart:





M-551 Sheridan:





M-113 APC with Turret:





Next I pulled out the Dark Green and shot it over these:


Russian BTR-70 Early:





Russian BTR-70 Late:





...and my Russian 2S19 Artillery Vehicle that I'd assembled in 15 minutes some time before:





Later I pulled out the Green Drab and base coated the M-51 Isherman:





After that dried, I shot a coat of Israeli Armor Sand over this, trying hard to do it light enough for the Green Drab to show through in places:





I then changed things up and loaded some red in the brush and shot my 1929 Coke Delivery Van. It was still wet in this pic:





Personally I'm not that thrilled with that red, I feel it's too light. I want a darker red on this so I'll be looking for another color to shoot on this.


After that, I shot the dark tan over the D-9 Dozer:





I'll be doing a dark brown wash over that to make it pop and then after paint the interior, I'll add the windows to this. Then after I weather it, I think it will be done as I don't remember any markings for it.


The day before I left, I shot gloss coats over all the above vehicles to prepare them for decals when I came home.


Finally when I got home, I decided to tackle the BTR-3K that has the digital camouflage decals included. Alexey had a nice sheet of digital patterns but I feel there could have been more as I didn't have enough for the upper deck in back. Maybe it doesn't need it up there, but I added what I had left after applying them to the sides, front and rear. There was no diagram in the instructions showing where and how to apply them so I winged it. I think it looks pretty good, despite my poor application:





And no, I won't paint the remainder on the top. I don't want to deal with masking with multiple strips of tape over multiple layers, even on that small area. It's just going to be dullcoated and weathered after adding any other markings that might go on this. I also decided that after dealing with these, I was going to wait for another day to decal the rest.


Okay. that's what I have to show for the start of 2021. Hopefully I can maintain this momentum throughout the year.


Thank you for joining the Grand Opening Tour! I appreciate all comments.

[JCON]

Nice lineup to bring across the finish line in 2021!!!

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Well you certainly have been busy! Well done!

[Dukemaddog]

Thank you Bruce and Joe! I hope I can get these over the finish line soon. I have more projects I want to get to.

[jimrichards]

Welcome back Mark

As always, lots of good stuff going on

Will be watching

Jim

[JED]

Good stuff Duke

[RLFoster]

The start of another great year, Mark (at least for modeling!).

Excellent work all around!

[Dukemaddog]

Thank you Jim! I'll try to keep updates frequent so you have something to see.

Thanks Jed!

Thanks Robert! I tried to find time to call you to meet at John's Models but things happened too quick. I did have a great visit with John though.

[RLFoster]

Jan 20, 2021 11:54:14 GMT -6 Dukemaddog said:

Thanks Robert! I tried to find time to call you to meet at John's Models but things happened too quick. I did have a great visit with John though.

No problem, Mark.

I haven't been in John's nor attended a model club meeting since February of last year.  The infection rates in this area are just nuts (33 more deaths yesterday) and people are not following proper protocols to prevent the spread.

Glad your visit went well!

[Dukemaddog]

Well I got more to show from this past week. I was waiting for my airbrushes to be finished with their repairs, so while I did that, I managed to move forward on these models. Let's start with my aircraft.


After seeing how badly the cowls fit over the engines on my C-54, I sanded the edges of each one and tried again. Success! They fit now:





Now to build the other two engines and see if I can do more on this plane.


Meanwhile, I had a lot of sanding to do on my An-124 around the cockpit area and the shoulders in front of the wings:





While I was sanding them, I also sanded and adjusted the wings so that when I finally glue them, they will seal perfectly and be flush where they are supposed to be:





Later, all these subassemblies went out and got shot with another three or four coats of primer and another clearcoat:





Hopefully I can start moving forward on this monster now.



Okay, here is the work I did on my armor. Let's start with my 1/35th scale Patton. I decided to finish painting my tracks for this tank while waiting for my airbrushes:





Now, once I get them back, I can finish detailing and modulating this big tank.


Okay, enough of the big stuff, here's my progress on my small scale armor.


We'll start with the smallest one. I shot a gloss coat over the little Stuart so I could add the decals. Naturally, the decals disappeared so I dug through my decal stash to find some that would fit. This is totally fictitious, but at least it has markings:





Yes, the decals silvered, I took care of that. I also took care of the silvered decals on three other models as well.


After this dried and the Solvaset finished, I shot a dullcoat on this little tank. Then I decided to experiment with some weathering powders to see how well I could use them. I applied some on the hull and running gear:





I wasn't thrilled with this. However, I did kind of go a bit heavy since the follow-on dullcoat tends to make a lot of it disappear as you can see here:





Yeah, I'll be redoing this with paint when my airbrushes come back.


Moving along, I also did the gloss and decals on the turreted M-113. I liked the Snoopy decals so on they went:





Later this got dullcoated and powdered like the Stuart:

After the second dullcoat it looked better, but I'm still not thrilled:

The final tank I tried this one was the M-551 Sheridan. I shot the gloss and then added the decals:





Next came the powders:





...and finally the last dullcoat:





Well, that experiment on several vehicles was not a roaring success in my eyes, so maybe I'll shelve that idea until I can see what works better. Meanwhile, I continued on my three BTR's. First are the two BTR-70's that got a gloss and decals:





Next I decided to try and weather the wheels a bit before installing them. I painted the treads with a dirt-colored paint first. You can see six of eight done that way now:





Next I tried wiping the top color off, but the paint came completely off, despite whatever light touch I tried. So, I re-painted it and later semi-dry brushed a black color over the paint to get the effect I was looking for. It's kind of hard to see but I went ahead and added the wheels to these vehicles:





One thing I liked about these kits: the wheels were so tight, all I did was snap them on!


Later they got a dullcoat in preparation for weathering:





On the BTR-3K, however; after applying all the decals I had some repairs to make:





Once that was done, I dullcoated this little vehicle:





Then I added the wheels to this. All she needs now is weathering and it's done:





Finally, I gloss coated the M-51 and then decaled it using the old Star decals that I'd gotten for IDF vehicles. I had forgotten they were printed on a solid decal film so I didn't trim close to the decal images until after they were on the model. That being said the chevrons still shattered so they didn't go on. These ones did:





Later I dullcoated this and gave it a dark brown wash and afterward dry-brushed it with a light sand color:





All it needs is tracks and weathering and that little beastie is done!


Wow, I got a bit more done than expected this week. I can only hope that next week is as productive. If so, you'll be seeing almost all these armor vehicles in the finished Forums!


Until then, thank you for looking in, comments are always welcome.

[BUCKY]

Great stuff to start the year off! Everything is looking very sharp! That red looks like it has a lot of orange in it.

[JCON]

Like the little Snoopy Dog!!!

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

The BTR-3K decals, look like they would be a Night Mare to apply.

[Dukemaddog]

Thanks guys!

Bucky, I agree that's why I'm going to re-paint that Coke van.

Joe, thanks! I did too. Gotta have Snoopy!

Bruce, thanks! The decals for the BTR-3K were actually easier than expected to apply, despite all the grab handles and details in the way. I just wish I'd had a diagram for showing how the pattern is supposed to look since there are too many bare spots on the top and front.

[DPNM]

Good golly Bruce, talk about a lot on a persons plate. Kudos to you to be able to tackle all these projects and to build them as quickly as it seems you do.

Outstanding workmanship.

[JED]

Great work Duke,that digi cammo is pretty good

[JCON]

Jan 26, 2021 14:32:35 GMT -6 DPNM said:

Good golly Bruce, talk about a lot on a persons plate. Kudos to you to be able to tackle all these projects and to build them as quickly as it seems you do.

Outstanding workmanship.

Ya mean Mark? 
 

[DPNM]

Yep, my bad. Sorry Mark!

[Dukemaddog]

No worries DP! Thanks for the compliments, I'm glad to see you stop in and reply. I just wish I could finish them faster.

Thanks Jed! The fact that the digi camo was decals is the only reason I did it. You won't catch me trying to paint something like that on my tiny models!

[BUCKY]

Jan 26, 2021 14:32:35 GMT -6 DPNM said:

Good golly Bruce, talk about a lot on a persons plate. Kudos to you to be able to tackle all these projects and to build them as quickly as it seems you do.

Outstanding workmanship.

Hey, Jim....you should see a pic of all his finished builds. I heard he had to use a WIDE angle lens to take the pic!!