"Abdolutely Badass!" Aliens APC from GaleForce Nine

One of my favorite movie franchises takes place in the "Alien" universe.

I enjoy the creeping horror of the original Alien, and mil sci fi action of Aliens. The tech of that second film was given a "Vietnam" look and feel, both familiar and futuristic. While the popularity of the franchise endures, no major model manufacturer has ever place any of the second movie's tech into production. Fans have had to rely on short run toys and boutique vinyl and resin kits. With the much delayed release of GaleForce Nine's "Another Glorious Day in the Corps" miniatures game, gamers finally had an opportunity to get a set of their favorite Colonial Marines, Ripley, Newt, and the rascally Company Man, Burke (along with a small horde of the namesake Aliens!).

Still absent from this 30mm universe were any 3d representatives of the USCM hardware,  the Dropship or the APC. Until very recently.  In the spring, GF9 announced they would be producing a limited run of the APC, producing only as many as were preordered.

So I naturally had to have one. I sent them my CC# and waited...

A week ago, I received a FEDEX notice announcing a pending delivery.

The packaging quickly disposed of revealed the chunky APC body, a clamshell package of resin bits, and a small ziploc with some vinyl bits. The resin was all in dark gray, the vinyl in light gray.

The resin cast was fairly clean, as you eould hope for a new mold, but some file and sandpaper cleanup of edges was still beneficial. The cast-on grabirons on the body and turret had a filled in "web" that needed to be cleaned out. I ended up breaking one on the turret, choosing to replace with wire rather than fiddle with brittle resin. Assembly was straightforward, although I chose to complicate it as I wanted to have the ability to rotate the turrets and Not have them fall off when tilted.  I drilled and pinned each in place with pins made from straight pins.

The barrels of the laser turret were both cleanly broken off in shipping (a not uncommon occurrence from what I am hearing) but a bit of ACC had them back on.

The only other problem of note was the ladder that attaches to the rear of the vehicle. A vinyl part, it was soft and badly deformed. I chose to fab my own ladder from wire.

The kit provides slotted vinyl rails to allow the turret to be moved aft and down out of the way as on the movie vehicle. I used ACC to glue the tops in place, install the turret, and use it to maintain correct spacing at the other two attachment points.

The DIY ladder:

The forward turret:

There had apparently been provision for the two towing lugs on the front of the vehicle, but not included with the kit, so I fabricated them.

Everything was washed with a Dawn detergent solution, rinsed, and let dry.

Everything was primed,  dried, and then sprayed in Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab.

A slab of Marine Green, it needs some detail work to really pop.  I used some black panel wash to shadow recesses, panel edges, grills, etc. and then lightly highlighted wear area edges in silver.

The tires were painted in black, and then a dark grey drybrushed on treads and sidewalls to give it wear and depth.

In the movie, there is also stenciling on the nose of the vehicle, so I salvaged a "2" and a "D" in my decal stash to replicate the large marking.

I don't have the ability to print out the rest in white myself - maybe the aftermarket will come up with some? I also hit the headlights and side marker lights with silver. To give more depth to the tiny windshield, I cut small pieces of clear plastic and backpainted them in black before gluing in place.

Finally, an overall coat of Vallejo Clear Matt finish was applied. Now lets get her up to LV426...

Fun, quick build. It had it's issues, but not that unusual for boutique resin kits. Both pricey and limited production, this is for hardcore fans with modeling skills. Which, if you're reading this, may be you...

Nippers and Files and Saws - Oh My! 1/48 scale LTD Models IAR-80A

I came by this model unexpectedly in an online search for a Douglas Dauntless.  I had not heard of this aircraft or the company, but I liked the looks and the price was right (oh, and I bought the SBD too!).  I put out my question on this kit and the aircraft and received a lot of input and questions so I figured I should (again) memorialize my experience.  I can't explain this kit or company any better than the owner, himself,

Here is an example of what Jerry Campbell calls "Heavy Sprue".  The removing of parts requires care and patience so as not to destroy the parts in the process - hence the title of this post.  Little xacto saw blades, regular xacto blades, micro files and a nipper are all necessary to remove and shape the parts into what they need to be so things fit together.

On the other hand there is some surprising detail that has been incorporated into the molds that don't appear in some big company kits.

Even recessed panel lines - not deep - but they are there.

Another cool feature is the sheet of decals - I just hope they slide off without much problem.

A bonus for me was that Lenny (the seller) has purchased one piece resin replacement wheels.

To the build itself.  Careful removal of parts followed by cleaning and shaping and some painting of the light gray, per the instructions, continued with a bit of weathering and some of my own DIY.  I had some wine bottle foil (real foil, not the plastic stuff) and was able to craft a pilot seat harness. There is a control lever, stick and rudder peddles and a flaps lever on the fuselage.

There was supposed to be a throttle on the sprue, but it was missing.

I went back to the foil and made one of my own.

I trimmed up the control panel and painted it including the dials and gauges as best I could.

Both platforms are installed and now I can close up the fuselage - or so I thought!

Truer words have not been printed.  It took me all of a half an hour of careful filing down of the seat back and instrument panel to get the port half of the fuselage to close without seam gaps.

BUT.........

.........I finally got it done.

After trimming, attachment of the bottom wing half was easy, but note what looks like a small wing within the wing.  It is a separate piece that has structural molding similar to the inside of the fuselage.  Another nice touch in this rough kit.  I painted it dark gray and cemented it to the wing then attached the assembly to the fuselage.  What follows is the result on the underside!

Upper wing halves trimmed up and "thin" cemented to the bottom half. That was the easy part.  The tail/elevators were another issue that required a bit os trimming as well as drilling into the vertical stabilizer, but again, I got it done and sealed up seams with window glue. Looking like an airplane!

I mixed up some Black and Aluminum to accent the most obvious and well defined panel lines etc.

I moved on to the two piece cowl and tried to match the chrome yellow of the decals.

Mixing Testors yellow and brown works well enough.

Then some more detailing before a final yellow mix coat.

I only mix small capfuls at a time so I quick masked the fuselage and got the stripe on as well as a coat on the cowl.

Two vac-u-form canopies are supplied in order that the cockpit can be shown closed or open.

Since I did some DIY detail in the cockpit I opted for an open canopy.  A bit risky since I have to cut both canopies apart so they each have a frame.  I only get one shot.

All is well and the windscreen is attached with a couple of drops of cyano and then window glue.  I will mask and paint later.  Now on to the motor.

Another example of the "heavy" sprue and trimming necessary.  It took half an hour to get the cylinders off the sprue and trimmed up using both the xacto saw blade and the knife.

This blade is absolutely essential to remove parts without destroying them.  If you compare the two photos you can see the trimming done while parts are still on the sprue.  There are fourteen parts in all that make up the assembly and once everything is trimmed to fit, painted and assembled I can see why comments on the kit are that it builds up nicely.

Let's brush the cylinders with flat black and then copper!

Here is the layout of the assembly - no order and no instruction, but it did not look like the prop is supposed to turn.  LittleBro confirmed this but advised to do my Engineer Thing.  Ok, I got out the pin vise drill, a piece of 22 gauge wire, a piece of flat styrene and the cyano glue.

The prop will now not be static.  It won't "spin" but it will turn😁

I mixed brown, black and a little copper to get the called for "Exhaust Brown" for the exhaust ring and exhaust tubes.  A bit of trimming needed but in all - not bad.

With the exhaust ring in I could now glue the motor assembly to the fuselage and paint the spinner.  Next I tried fitting the cowl halves - hoo boy, lots of work to do to get them to close up.   I had to file down the exhaust ring both top and bottom.  After several attempts the cowl halves almost close - I will be forced to do a little filling, but the edges are close enough that my window glue should close up the gap. I will then touch up and dullcoat will take care of the rest.

The cowl ia secured and I did add window glue to the seams, but is not too bad.  Serious painting is begun including the windscreen framing.

Following the camo paint guide.  I had Dark Tan, but bought a new green and added black to make a jar of Dark Green.

I going to use the resin wheels - no mold lines and they even are flat with side bulges - I need some air!  I have to be careful installing these.  The gear and tail skid have to be installed and then I can add the wheels to get the flat spot at the correct angle.  Next I work on the underside, but I have the light blue mix already isnce I just used it on my Me109E. 

Starting the blue with my fine tip brush.

Blue is brushed in with two coats except on the ailerons (I thought being fabric covered the blue might look a bit different). Obviously I started the decals.  Actually these were the last applied.  It's  a two part application (if you don't count the piece of the cross that broke off).  The red circles are applied on top of the crosses.

All decals are applied.

I used the markings for plane No. 109 flown by adjutant aviator Pomut of 
Grupul 5, Escadrila 53 vinatoare during the summer of 1943.  Credited with 7 victories Pomut was killed on the Eastern front in 1944.  Now for a dullcoat before I muck things up.

I found this interesting.  The instructions show a symbol for "removing" - a knife symbol.  The strut cover components are molded as a single piece that has to be cut apart.  The saw is again a critical tool.

I got it done and put the landing gear together.

I painted the resin tires a 4-1 mix of black to white for a "scale" tire gray.

I think could use a little air!

Finally the canopy and radio antenna can be attached.

The radio wire - my trusty monofilament - is tied and glued (I drilled and placed a small wire in the rudder to attach the wire).

The underside shows a little soot and gun fire.  Also note that aileron counter weights are attached.

This shows that the pitot tube has been attached and painted.  The instructions require a hole drilled in the wing edge to accept the tube.  Now for a few finals.

I probably over did  the photos, but this was such a beast to build - but fun and challenging.