On the Bench 05/31/2020: Infantry

Felt like working on some miniatures with the arrival of paints. 

In the foreground are some older Warlord US Infantry, a testbed for some of my paint color matching experiments.

Radio Interference Part II

Moved to the tool bench in the basement to finish these antennae. Should be back to Modeling by evening.

More Ships - Military

Hello again.  My last post was out of the vault - The HMS Warspite.  What I learned from that build lead me to the next iconic Dreadenought, BB 35, The USS Texas and the first of the Museum Ships.  Again, this build journey can be viewed in all it's excruciating detail on  YouTube. The Texas is a very well documented ship so I had many resources to follow for my Snapshot In Time (late 1944 on the way to the Pacific).

The first of the 14 inch gun ships the Texas, second in the New York class, was laid down in 1912 and is still with us in it's museum birth in San Jacinto, Texas.

As with the Warspite I obtained the laser cut wood deck for this Trumpeter kit - this one by Art Wox.

Paint selection was a key for me to create the camo used for this late WWII refit.

Building the AA guns was taxing - there are 94 guns on this refit!!

This kit came with a lot of Photo etch parts, so the detail on the build is pretty good.

One of my favorite details is the launch gear for the OS2U Kingfisher.

And here is the 350 scale Kingfisher.  The parts were molded of clear Styrene which facilitated the look of the canopy.  I added the number on the cowel and the radio wire installation.

A bow shot of the completed model.

Mid-Port side.

Stern view and we are done for now.  Next is the real deal in San Jacinto.

Back To The Future - Bench 05/30/2020

"Marty! We've got to go back! To 1985!

If you've been modeling for a while, your paint collection may stretch back decades. Even though there are today a plethora or excellent paints out there, if the paint is still good, you use it. I have a couple of vintage go-tos for miniature painting, and I knew they wouldn't last forever. Rather than run out in the middle of something, I actually got proactive, did some homework, and avoided disaster....

Old Warhorses

Here are a trio of old standbys from the Citadel range back in the 80s that have served until present:

all now running low. Of course GW doesn't have its own paint factory, and it has changed suppliers, color selections,  and color names several times for their branded paints since these were new. With help from some modeling and painting groups it was revealed that the original mfgr of this Era Citadel colors was an outfit in the UK called  Coat d'Arms, which is not only still in business, but still sells these colors under essentially these same names. Eureka!

After transiting the Atlantic in a mere month (thank you, pandemic) I opened up my new replacements. 

But were they? Let's whip up a quick test and see. First, Flesh wash. Great for quick face shading.

On a white card, it went on in the expected thin consistency, and seemed a trifle lighter in application. This may be due to aging/ thickening on my vintage bottle, but very close. Good. One for one. Next,  Bronzed (now tanned) flesh.

Other than being a tad thinner, it went on with a virtually identical color. 2 for 2.

Third, Armour Wash. Great for minis, panel lines, and pin washes on armor and aircraft.

In this case, it went on darker than my old bottle, but remained in the same pallette,  not black. May take an additional test, but I'm calling this provisionally 3 for 3.

I guess we Can go back - if we're lucky!

Ships, Ships, Ships - Military

I like Dreadnoughts.  Some of the last battle wagons to slug it out in the Great War and support our troops in WWII.  I chose to build a couple of ships that were the first of their kind (the first 14 guns and the first 15 inch guns) laid down before the first world war but saw action and were decorated in WWII.  I first came across the HMS Warspite on line and found that laser cut wood decks could be obtained for the 1/350 scale models that I was interested in.  The Academy Warspite came with PE crane booms but not much else, so I did some after market purchasing of a Pontos deck and some Tom's Model works railing and ladders.  As with my Titanic I recorded my build with a Power Point slide presentation loaded onto You Tube (William Blecke YouTube).  I hope you enjoy some of the photos that follow:

Here are many of the fiddly bits that had to be constructed, including the Walrus bi-plane, boats, guns with scratch railings etc.

The boat and Pom Pom deck.

The Bridge.

Director tower with many scratch built components using left over PE.

The wood deck with hawes and anchor chains etc.

This shows the addition of the Acommodation stairs - completely scratch built - not part of the kit.

The cranes and the Walrus.

Bow Shot.

Mounted on my custom base.

 

Ships, Ships Ships

I have to admit that I am not that accomplished at building model ships as I am currently working on only my fifth build.  Despite my somewhat limited abilities I have learned a lot and continue to do so.  Like anything, you get what you pay for, so depending on the level of detail you wish financial decisions are required.  My ship building began with the Titanic.  The iconic liner has intrigued me along with the rest of the world and in 2008 my wife presented me with a Christmas present - Academy 1/600 scale Titanic.  I spent about 6 months off and on, but it got me hooked so that in 2010 I bought the Minicraft 1/350 kit that contained some photo etch railings.  In hind sight I could have built a model with more detail but it was a valuable learning experience which is recorded in a Power Point presentation that can be seen on William Blecke Youtube.  If you have about 30 minutes, check it out.

Titanic Build

What follows are a few pictures of the completed model, but the journey I took is detailed in the power point I mentioned above.

I added some 2D - 350 scale figures.

You will notice that the stairs from the Well deck are the out of scale plastic assemblies included in the kit.  In 2010 I did not know about PE stairs or ladders,  but in 2018 I returned to the model and did a bit of updating.

Did I mention that there is some lighting that I did?  I won't explain the rather simple process, but you can see that if you wish if you visit the You tube power point.

That's all for now.  Ships will continue later with my military adventures.  If you like Dreadnoughts, please return to the Atom Furnace! 

From the Vault - the Zarkov Rocketship

As a continuation of the Atom Furnace Theme I present the Zarkov Rocketship I put together a few years ago.  

On the Bench 05/29/2020: A Pause....

Man Does Not Live By Scale Modeling Alone....

LittleBro is busy with some radio conversion work which, while keeping him from posting modeling/painting stuff for a few days, will help him buy more modeling/painting stuff used in future posts. Carry on!