We've had three weeks of awesome productivity here, so it's time for another tour of Maddog Manufacturing. Once again this will be a bit of a long tour, so please remember all safety requirements and enjoy the tour!
Our first stop as always is the Hangar. We have a couple of started models, and a few Shelf Queens that are receiving attention too.
In the first bay here is the British Spitfire Mk. XIV. We got all the paint damage repaired from when the paint cracked under the gloss coat:
Later the white stripe had to be painted on, so that was done. Yes, I decided to do it by hand:
After that dried, we shot the whole thing with a gloss and added the decals:
Other details were painted and most final parts were added. Later the rockets were added and this was declared done and sent to the Dispersal Field.
In this next bay we returned to the Fleet Air Arm F-6F Hellcat. This one got a shot of light RAF grey on the bottom:
Later, it was masked off and the upper green color was shot:
After some Silly Putty application we'll be able to shoot the second color. Looking forward to that!
In this next bay we have a shelf queen that was started some five or six years ago, packed up in the box again and promptly lost. While organizing and going through boxes, it was found again and so work commenced in this to get it done. This is an R-4D helicopter used in the Korean War and we had it built up to the basic fuselage stage. When we brought it out to work on it, the first thing we did was use this model to teach a couple kids how to airbrush. Later, we went back and painted the interior and then sanded smooth the seams that showed up in the paint:
Next was the addition of photo-etch parts and the assembly of the tail rotor:
Following that, we got the main rotor assembled, which was quite the ordeal given the weak attachment points on the blades. We got it done though:
A little dry fit showed us what we were dealing with:
Later we started on the main landing gear. We got the main support struts installed, but had lost the main gear legs so this is where we left off at the time:
You can see the main rotor is still dry fit. Now a day later, we found the main gear legs and added them, then added the tail wheel and strut along with a couple more detail parts:
Here you can see why this was packed away in the first place: Vac-Formed canopy. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, we got the frames painted first:
Any suggestions for installing those would be awesome. Meanwhile, we masked off the cockpit with more Silly Putty and got it ready for paint:
Which went on a short time later:
That was later shot with a gloss coat for decals which will go on later. This is where we stopped on that.
Moving on to the next bay, we have the start of an Egyptian Tu-16 Badger. I have a second one that will be done up in Iraqi Air Force markings too. For now, we got the cockpit assembled and dry-fit inside the cockpit module:
We then assembled the wings since they were so easy to do:
Further progress required paint that we did not have so we put this aside to start another fast and relatively easy kit; one I had never previously built before. This is the Heller F-94D in 1/72 scale and we started with the cockpit which was then cemented inside one half of the fuselage:
Later that cockpit was painted but before that, we built the main wings:
Later on, after adding the right amount of nose weight, this was all assembled together; puttied and sanded and readied for paint:
Later the cockpit canopy was masked and installed and this got a coat of flat black paint as a primer so we could see what issues this was going to have:
That's where we stand now with that. This completes the tour of the Hangar,now on to the Motor Pool.
Here in the Motor Pool, we have a number of things happening, some of which are new, and some are borderline shelf queens.
First up is this frustrating Armory ZSU-23-4 Shilka. Amazingly enough, we managed to get the torsion bars and wheels installed, followed by the individual link and length tracks. In fact one of the road wheels does not have a torsion bar because when I was trying to position it; the torsion bar sprang from the tweezers never to be seen again. So, I realized that the tracks touch this wheel top and bottom so it was cemented into place with the tracks themselves holding it into place.
Later photo etch parts were added to this:
Once they were all dry, we sent this to the spray booth where the base coat was shot. Honestly, I never thought I'd ever get this model to this stage, but here it is, shot with a darker green than it's supposed to have due to me being out of the proper green:
In order to try and lighten it up, we took some Euro Dark Green and modulated the color over it. This is the first pass, later we did more and it improved a bit:
Once that was dry, we shot a gloss coat on this, gave it a wash, decals and other attention:
After this a dullcoat was applied and weathering done during it's shakedown run. Then it was sent to the Dispersal Yard.
In the next bay is another shelf queen, started some six years ago, packed up again in it's box and promptly lost. It was found in the same box as the helicopter so I figued it was time to move on this one. This is the Trumpeter SdKfz-9 with a crane. The basic chassis had been already done, so we continued to finish up that part, mostly adding the roadwheels, drive sprockets and idlers:
The main floor was then worked on, mostly assembling all the parts for the driver's and passenger's compartment. It's just dry fit on that chassis:
The base of the crane was then built as seen here:
That's as far as we got on that one. In the next bay we started another German truck, the Steyr 1500. The box was so messed up we just had to build it. Basic assembly was pretty good for a short run kit:
The remaining parts and some photo etch was then added:
Later this was shot with paint in the spray booth, but no pics of that.
Moving to the next bay we have the start of another easy model; this time another german armored car (more modern this time) made by Revell of Germany. It was left behind at the hobby day hall, so I decided to build it. First was the chassis:
Next the whole body and interior was assembled. Then we added Silly Putty to the interior and added the roof so we can shoot the base paint on it:
That came later.
Finally in this last bay we went back to work on the little ACE Ford Stakebed truck. Some dry fitting was done to the chassis after we had painted the stakebed slats and the leather seats in the cab:
Later we finished the cab, except for the roof so we could get the windows in there later. The cab and stakebed were then glued to the chassis:
That's as far as we got with that, along with some touch up to the paint here and there. Hopefully thi swill be done soon!
That completes the tour of the Motor Pool, but the tour isn't over. We're going to detour into the Shipyards briefly so you can see the start of a new project that I'd been wanting to do fora very long awhile. This is the ancient Pyro kit of the Robert E. Lee Paddle wheeled Riverboat. We started with painting the waterliine on the hull and then adding the main deck to it. While that was drying, we started the paddle wheels. These required us to cement every paddle to each if the wheel sides as such:
You can see where we started by adding a few paddles to certain quarters of the wheel to hold it together first. Then all the rest were cemented into place. That was the first one. The second one is here:
Both wheels eventually got done:
This final shot shows the paddle wheels and the boilers dry fit in place on the main hull:
By the way, that model is a little over two feet long. It has been and interesting and fun build so far.
And that completes this tour of Maddog Manufacturing for this second week of December. I hope you enjoyed it and remember comments are always welcome.
