Improvise, adapt, overcome: DIY parts molding on the cheap.

One of the perils of picking up a kit from the past, whether started by yourself or others, is the specter of missing pieces. In this particular case, a 1/72 ERTL rendition of the XB-35. 

This had been begun long ago by one of my boys, abandoned, and stored for the future. As I pulled it from storage and examined it for condition and completeness, it lacked only two parts, a propeller shaft,  easily fabricated, and an engine intake fairing, which was not. 

(missing on left, installed on right)

I have a supply of mold-making materials, however, the 2 part latex material had gone bad ( I wish they sold it in smaller portions, I don't do the volume to use it up before it expires...)

What I did have was a supply of lego bricks, and a candle...

Start by making a mold box from legos. Carefully drip your candle wax to fill the box. I drilled and glued a pin to the back of the piece, both to provide a way to support it while the wax hardened, and a way to remove it without harming the wax. 

It was inserted into the wax just deep enough, and held there by a pair of self-closing tweezers.

Once the wax hardened, use the protruding pin to gently but firmly wiggle the part from the wax. Mold complete! Now you can.pour your resin of choice into the mold and let it harden.

Once solid, disassemble the Legos and split the wax with a knife edge. 

Clean up the part and cut off unwanted resin. You have a perfectly serviceable replacement. 

Of couse, this is only good for a single new part, and not suitable for more complex parts woth a molded "back side", but it can help fill in for a lot of typical missing bits. Missing parts? Don't give up, get casting!

Installed. Smoothing, paint, no one will be the wiser  ;-).

TOP GUN - 02 - 2021 - A repaint of an Eighties Icon.

 Wow, LittleBro recently forwarded the extended trailer for the "Top Gun" sequel and we can't wait to see it.  The reason he was thinking Top Gun is because I found (in the storage box) an F14 Tomcat, 1/72 scale.  It's not like I had not seen it before in the box, but paid little attention because I don't build or rehab jets.  I'm a WWI-WWII guy.  If you follow this Blog you know this and you also know that I recently completed some 1/56 armor for Bolt Action.  So, I am waiting for the M3 Lee I ordered, but it is coming from Louisiana and the weather down there has been terrible and held up all USPS shipments.

Instead of continuing to twiddle my fingers I again perused the storage box and picked up the Tomcat.  Well, upon closer inspection I see decals along the canopy Lt. Pete Mitchell - Maverick" and Lt. Nick Bradshaw - "Goose".  While a bit yellowed with age, they were in tact!  I quizzed brother Bob about this, since it was obviously built in the late 80's, early 90's but certainly not up to his capabilities at that time.  He vaguely recalls assisting his son who was in a hurry to build it and play with it.  Upon further inspection it was apparent that plane had survived quite well - landing gear was solid - canopy was clear and not messy, although it did need some minor frame re-paint work.  I figured a bit of paint here and there and locking down some of the decals that were intact but coming loose, and I could spiff up the F14 while awaiting the arrival of my M3.  I had no intention of posting something that was a simple re-paint, but the more "spiffing up" I did, the more I thought was needed and soon I was all in.  My intention, as I photo the work involved, is some before and after pics and explanation of why I did what I did, after which I will put the Bird on my Carrier Deck for some finish photos. 

I marked this photo to illustrate the issues I considered correcting:

1.    open seams (poor fit).

2.    old decal "white shadow".

3.    Canopy framing.

You can see the yellowing of the crew name decals, but that can only be dealt with to a small degree.  A paint around has to be precise.  I get one chance.  If I cover a letter(s) I can't really correct that.

Here is an "after" photo.  The seam was sealed with Testors window glue.  I did a paint around with my fine brush.  This is very tedious work.  Many breaks are required to loosen tense shoulders, start breathing again and relaxing hands and fingers to keep down the shakes.  When you look close it appears the surface is rather rough.  This can't be helped due to the continuous stippling around the decals in order to save them.  The arrow decal at the front of the canopy actually came loose (in tact) and I had to "Solvaset" it back on before the paint around.

One regret is that I could not remove the canopy (was afraid to try) and insert pilots.  As can be seen, I believe that crew was included in the kit, but I will never know why they weren't used.  My brother can only speculate that his son was in a hurry to get it together  and play with it.  You can see the notches in the seats where the crewmen were to be😒

Another example of the decal "white shadow" that I had to paint around.

This was my Savior.  The Light Ghost Gray for the re-paint.  Besides this I had to mix a darker gray for certain other elements which can be seen in following photos. There is not a square mm that did not get re-painted, except for the decals.

This photo is for illustration of two things.  First, the contrast between the new Light Ghost Gray from the dingy, yellowed wing to the lower right.  Also, the paint around of the decals, including spaces between and within the letters.  The "NAVY" decal on the port side came loose (again, in tact - whew) and had to be Solvaset back into place.

One fix necessary was the nose, which at some point during it's "play life" had been broken off and then modeling putty applied.  I just sanded around the putty, pin drilled the end, inserted a piece of 26 gauge wire and sealed with the window glue before painting.

More before..........

.........during  (notice my fine tip brush, without which this re-paint and in-place painting would have been impossible)

......and after.  A lot here to show.  The wheel wells  freshened up with new white.  Door edges in safety red and all of the AIM 7 Sparrows completed in combat ready colors.  Oh, I did have to fill the intakes with black as they were not painted in the first place.

Another mark up showing the dark gray added, the paint around of the 114 and the tail insignia - Its the only photo that shows all three.  The other thing I need to mention here is that there was quite a gap where the verticals were attached so I broke them off, trimmed everything down, re-attached and used my trusty window glue once more to seal up the seams.

This image of a 1/48 scale "Top Gun" F14 I googled shows some of the features I wanted to include, especially the yellow walking strips.  I wanted a bit more color to break up the "sea" of gray.

Masking first and then.......

I think it worked!  I still have to find an insignia for the port wing upper surface, do some touch up and then a final dullcoat,  but I can already "Feel the Need for Speed"!

I added a couple of details along with touch ups and then put the Tomcat on my WWII carrier deck for a few pics.

Bolt Action - 1/56 scale Warlord Games M7, Priest - 105MM mobile gun platform

 Wow, long title huh?  I was having fun building the M36 Tank Destroyer (click here to see the M36), but my brother was building at the same time his Tiger II (see the post below that follows).  The Allies needed more offense.  Well, the Warlords M7 is a resin and metal model, and my first experience with this combo.

Count the parts - the big hull, the tracks, both resin.  The gun, gun parts, machine gun, gun ring, crew of three and tow hooks etc. - all metal.  So assembly is going to go quickly once I get all the details ready - like the tracks......

.......sure, I know that this is the bottom, but I needed to finish this before I continued, so I sawed off the resin mold connections (three on the bottom of each tread). and with the same xacto saw cut in the spaces between the treads. Fiddly, but the resin is soft enough that it does not resist significantly.  

Then I glued the tread assemblies to the hull with cyano and prepared a black wash with flat black enamel and some thinner.

After trimming off small flash, glued the gun parts together with cyano. and dry fit in the hull

I took it to the spray booth and it came out the way I hoped.  Most of the black wash is covered but it was good base and did not let the gray resin color show through.

The metal parts have been primed (the tow hooks were already glued to the hull before it went into the spray booth).

So out comes the Tamiya weathering.  I went with this very aggressively, adding water and mixing with Q-Tips and Micro Brush.  I applied the rust and black (soot) to the point that I did not need to do any painting in regards to weathering the the vehicle.  As you will see later the only paint used is on the machine gun and the ammo inside the hull.

Here is progress as the Tamiya is being applied.  

The 50 Cal machine gun is painted with a mix of silver and black just as I did on the M36, with the ammo can painted green.  It is a one piece casting and you have to be mindful that the barrel is thin and very malleable.  I carefully made sure it was perfectly straight before and after gluing to the machine gun ring.  The ring is then painted with the Olive enamel and glued to the hull.  The main gun is hand  painted with matching Olive enamel and sitting in it's mount.  More Tamiya weathering has been applied inside and on the spare treads etc.

This is the beginning of painting the crew - helmet and holster on the radio man.

Here is a view from the back showing more of the Tamiya application.  Now comes decals and final weathering.

Now to finish the crew.  I will be mixing paint for faces and hands and jackets and pants etc.  I am always apprehensive about crew painting, but it will get me ready for soldiers later on! 

 

So the crew has been painted and installed!  I think the boys are just OK.  I have to improve my technique(s) and find a decent flesh color mix.  I just don't seem to be able to get it right - always too pink or too dark etc., so I dirty up the faces and hands (not that they weren't dirty) to cover!  Tamiya soot was also applied with a micro brush to the creases in the jackets and pants (human weathering).  

As I said above, I mixed every color except the helmets (Olive).  If I do an M4, Sherman it will be from the 761st.  "The Black Panthers". They were part of Patton's 3rd Army and had a significant impact in the Battle of the Bulge.

I do have an M3 Lee coming and brother Bob can print LULUBELLE decals, although I may try hand painting - we'll see.

Tiger 222: Fallschirmjaeger tank riders

What started out as an attempt to recreate a specific photograph of a specific moment in history has become an exercise in increasing compromise....

(See part one Here)

My search for figures to ride Tiger 222 through the Kaiserbaracke crossroads on December 18, 1944 resulted in my ordering a set of Offensive Miniatures FJ Tank Riders from Gamecraft Miniatures  (gcmini.com).

White metal castings, the eight different soldaten were cleanly cast with little/no flash or parting lines evident. They are closer to "true" 28mm than the Heroic Sized minis from Warlord, which is a better match for the Rubicon Tiger and crew.

I discovered a significant hitch in my plan however. You may not have noticed consciously before, but most of these minis have heads that are looking ahead or to their left, as all these tiny soldiers shoot right handed.  The men hitching a ride on Tiger 222 in the photograph are looking toward the cameraman, below and to their right...

The biggest problem is with the most prominent of the 4 Riders, leaning against the left turret front above the driver, whose right foot is forward and his body turned to the left - the opposite of the only semi-standing figure among the eight. He fits more naturally on the other side of the turret, or if on the left, facing back, not forward.  This led to an ultimately futile search for an easily modified standing FJ figure.

My skills do not extend to making my own, or massively modifying figures, so my interpretation of the Moment has been modified to just after the famous photo was taken. :-(

So let's get these figures started. 

White primer:

Late war winter FJ uniforms were reversible, reportedly "mouse gray" (?) or splinter or marsh camo on one side, white on the other. Although the photo doesn't show much color variation, being a grainy high contrast BW photo, I don't see any clear examples of camo variegation on the smocks of the 4 riders you can see. 

Even the photos of a larger group taken earlier shows what appears to me to be a mix of gray and camo.

I think I see some camo helmet covers as well.

Being so prominent, the standing trooper will have his weapon changed from a K98 to a STG44, his K98 pouches removed and a 3 cell mag pouch added from spares.

We'll make a sling for the STG out of wine bottle foil, folded over at the ends.

A little ACC at both ends, then prime when dry.

I'll get the schmutz off his helmet before I re-prime.

Now after dry time, we'll switch to Vallejo acrylics and start getting them painted.

I haven't done Marsh camo for FJ before, and I've seen a number of 3. FJ Division Bulge prisoners wearing them, so I'll do my octet in Splinter, including helmet covers, except  for a few random uncovered helmets. I do see some photos of FJ with "chicken wire" mesh on their helmets, I'll see if I  can simulate that on a couple also (although not on the "front four").

Starting with feldgrau pants and black boots.

Using primarily the Vallejo range of colors, I tried for splinter camo, and 3 helmet styles, some just dark gray, some with cloth covers, and some metal camo painted. 

The lack of a base to hold them while painting resulted in several trips for flat clear sealer after touch ups. In retrospect, if I were starting over, I would drill all their posteriors and insert a wire which could be used to hold the mini until completed. 

Once completed, I began the tedious process of posing, photographing, checking against the original, reposing, reshooting, etc. The final effort was the result of 25 iterations. I have reached the limit of my photoshop skills.

All in all, an enjoyable process from start to finish. The Rubicon Tiger is a great kit with great detail, probably the benchmark for this scale. The Offensive miniatures scaled well with the tank, my only regret is I couldn't match the poses. We must assume that this was taken an instant later than the original, when the men looked back or away from the camera...