Merry Christmas from The Hobby Room

Wishing those who stop in to the Attic a very Merry Christmas. 

I spent a little time yesterday continuing to finish off the open projects I have- the AD-1, Armstrong's F5D, and the Blue Gemini. The Gemini gave me the toughest go trying to get the decals to sit into the corrugations.  But with 3 applications of Micro-Sol it worked out. 
Pics will be coming shortly. 

Have a Merry...

The AD-1 and the F5-D coming to the end

I managed another hour or so in the room today and managed to get the decals on the AD-1. As seen in the pic, the wing isn't on yet. As I imagined - rightly so - that putting the blue strip decal was difficult. But I did get them on and put some micro-sol to get it snugged down. It puckered and while it was drying I moved on the the decals of the F5-D. 
As you may remember these were homemade decals. As you can see I still have a lot to learn about home made decals, but I don't think it's terrible. Here's where I am.
Thanks for looking.
 

 

Busy Day With A few Projects

Since I haven't really been up in my hobby area in a while, I was happy to the opportunity get get up there for a few hours this afternoon and then again after dinner. This afternoon I took another look at the AD-1 I was working on a few weeks back. The problem was that the vac canopy didn't sit right, and no matter what I did, didn't help. Finally,  I just puttied the crap out of it, sanded it down and called it a day and put it aside. Looking at it today, I thought it wasn't the worst thing I ever built and went to put the decals on. Thats when I realized I never glossed it.  After putting the gloss coat on,  I also glossed Armstrong's F5-D, that's been sitting for a few months. I guess subconsciously I'm trying to finish off all outstanding kits for this year. While I was at it, did I think to gloss coat the Blue Gemini for it's decals? No... Doh! :-P

New Aquisitions: Susan:F4 + more

I had a bunch of models get delivered since I posted last.
First  is the first is the Heinkel 178. It was the first plane to fly under turbo jet power.  On 1 November 1939, after the German victory in Poland, Heinkel arranged a demonstration of the jet to officials. Herman Goering, commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, didn't even show up. Ernst Udet and Erhard Milch watched the aircraft perform, but were unimpressed. That seemingly was the end of that. 
The kit is by Special Hobby and 1/72 scale. I got it thru Squadron Mailorder. 

Blue Gemini part 3

In this session I got the hatches on --

New Aquisition: The Carver

In my never ending search for "oddball" kits, I came across the website of  Jean Louis Crinon and found a bounty of kits right down my alley. The one I picked up first is The Carver. 
I don't know of any backstories with the sculpts. So what we have is a ragdoll that has carved a Halloween pumpkin, but what the prototype image shows is that the doll has blood splatter on his shirt from possibly carving up something else....   Oooooh.

Blue Gemini Part 2

I managed a few more hours in the hobby room and continued with the Blue Gemini. Taking a good look at the clear parts that are the Gemini doors, I decided they needed a dip in Future.

Anigrand's Blue Gemini

Finishing the X-19, and still having some free time I picked out another kit that I thought would go quickly. So I chose Anigrand's 1/72 Blue Gemini. 

From Anigrand's site:   In 1961, after success of the Mercury spacecraft launch, NASA contracted McDonnell to design a larger two-man Mercury mark II for longer periods in orbit. This bigger spacecraft which soon renamed Gemini that require a larger launch vehicle, a Titan II missile. The Titan II was Air Force missile and naturally required close coordination with the Air Force. The Air Force was interested in the Gemini program because it would be ready much earlier than the Dyna-Soar space plane while Russians already had men in orbit possibly carrying nuclear bombs. In 1962, the Air Force had designated the spacecraft as Blue Gemini. It would essentially be an off-the-shelf NASA Gemini vehicle. In January 1963, Air Force and NASA officials went to Pentagon to propose DoD participation in Blue Gemini, but was rejected and cancelled by Secretary of Defense. 

X-19 Done

I finally got around to putting the decals on the X-19 and I'm calling this one done. The decals didn't line up exactly with the drawing on the directions. I don't know if some of the decals were too big or the guy drawing the illustration was doing so out of scale. But they went mostly where they belong. ;)

One thing I learned was that I should have left the nacelles with the propellers OFF until the decals were complete ...

One other thing I learned is that I put some of the decals over the windows to get them in place before cutting them.  These windows was the Microscale Kristal Clear. Once the wet decal went over the window, the moisture instantly re-wetted the glue and turned it White.  OH NO! But not to fear as the water dried that "glass turned clear again.  Here's the pics - -  

 

Rocketship XM Finished

This time will be a short post, The only thing that had to be completed was the decal. I ruined two of them but the third time was the charm. 
This time I started with the same image, but instead of just changing the color of the text from gray to an orange color,  I also made the black - blacker. 
After printing I let dry and gave it two coats of Krylon Crystal Clear Gloss allowing 24 hrs drying between each coat. 
I had no problems this time. Here it is - 

The decal looks a little wavy especially on top, but somehow that's an optical illusion. It's perfectly flat.  Thanks for lookin'.

Finishing up The Rocketship XM

I already had two tries at the decal. The first problem was my fault, the second one... I don't know what happened. As soon as I put the decal in place there was a little chunk taken out of it where the "e" is in Rocketship. Not noticing it right away I went to move the decal into place and where it bent it cracked, and a crack that couldn't be hidden. :(
I'm gong to give the home made decal one more shot before ordering a real one from Fantastic Plastic.

But I moved on to painting the ship itself. I had previous given it a coat of V's black gloss primer. Then today, not having the Titanium color that is called for in the directions, and Vallejo not having that in their inventory, I decided to use the color DurAluminum.  It's darker than Aluminum, but not as dark as the Steel appears to be. 

Here's the almost final image. I'll be back with just a finished image when I get the decal sorted out. Thanks for lookin' - -

Tried a Decal

Having never made a decal before, I was a little nervous to try. Then thinking "Hey, it's only a piece of paper and some ink." I decided to give it a shot.
I found an image of the "Rocketship XM logo" and brought it into my favorite viewer - Irfanview. 
There I changed the black and white image by bringing in some color to the letters, close to what the original decal looked like. I sharpened a little and after finding out the size of the decal I needed, I told Irfanview to print the logo out 2.2cm X 4.4cm, and voila, I had a decal.

It's not perfect as the black background as a few flaws, but I think because the part of the base where the decal will be is painted black - it'll be all right. I sprayed the decal with a clear coat and tomorrow will give it a shot putting it on the base.  Thanks for lookin'.

 

While I was waiting - RocketShip XM

As the title says - while I was waiting for the clear coat on the X-19 to dry I was looking thru my stack of kits. Part of a stack started to fall and when I straightened things up I discovered I had two stacks, one in front of another. I looked thru the kits that I haven't seen in a while and rediscovered Fantastic Plastic's Rocketship XM.  This looks to be a super simple build being only 8 parts, plus the base, plus the decal. 

From IMDB's entry on Rocketship XM : Astronauts (Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, John Emery, Noah Beery, Jr., and Hugh O'Brien) blast off to explore the moon. Because of craft malfunction and some fuel calculations, they end up landing on Mars. On Mars, evidence of a once powerful civilization is found. The scientists determine that an atomic war destroyed most of the Martians (who surprisingly look like humans). Those that survived reverted to a caveman-like existence. 

On to the kit. As I mentioned a super simple build. It took only a few minutes to rid the side fins of little pour stubs and a tiny amount of flash. Then it was already time to start gluing the parts together - - 

A Step closer to Finishing the X-19

Whew we're getting close to the end. I painted a few details on the plane, after redoing the canopy frames, I got those to look - OK. My next step was to paint the transparent green on top of the canopy. Not having ever painted transparent colors, I didn't know what to expect. Spraying it went from not enuff paint to too much in a fraction of a moment. >:-( 
I was going to redo it, but with the troubles I had, I decided to leave well enuff alone. Next time, I'll do better. After painting the green and attaching the canopy to the plane all that's left is to add the decals.  As a prototype, I can't see it getting really weathered, so I'll just leave it clean.

X-19 - Moving Along

I got so more time in the hobby room and continued with the X-19. First thing I had to do was get the plane on some sort of base. The easiest thing I could think of was to just insert a rod ino the plane and then have another rod attached to a base.  I bought a bag of different size rods at a hobby shop a long time ago, so I went looking about found two the went into each other fairly tightly, those were installed.

Moving along, I wanted to use the new Vallejo Aluminum paint. That needs to be based with some of V's Gloss black primer. It sprayed of effortlessly. This is going too well. Once dry the Aluminum was next. I have to admit that V's metallic paint is terrific. It went on effortlessly with no additional thinner added to the airbrush cup. (I spray at ~ 18-20 psi), and went on nice and smooth. 

Finally I had to tackle the canopy. Typical for Anigrand, the frame marking s are barely there - I guess that makes sense for the scale - but Whoo boy they are difficult to mask. On spec I bought some Humbrol Maskol to try. While it went on fine, not being able to see where the edges are, I had a hard time with the lines.  The last shot is the canopy painted and masked removed. Its just sitting on top of the fuselage for now. I'm going to need to do some touch ups to get it to look a little more realistic. Here's the pics, and as always -- thanks for looking.

 

More of the X-19 and a Snag

I made it up to the attic and quickly became aggravated. I have been using those rectangular plastic Chinese take out containers to hold all the parts of kits I'm building. We'll, one container per model. So I go in to the container because I wanted to get the landing gear doors on before I painted. The doors were right out in the open, but ... one wheel, one landing gear and ...  the other is gone. Both the wheel and gear is gone. Then I look for the front one and that wheel is gone too. I go to the box where I still have the clear parts and the decals, and that's all that's in there. CRAP!! 

I tear apart my desk, cursing all the way that I never went out to buy more shelves to get the stuff off my desk -- no parts. I crawl underneath the desk - and no parts. 

The only thing left for me to do is to show the plane with the landing doors closed. I really don't like that look, b/c to me "The door is closed because the modeler f##ked something up."  But now here I am with the doors closed. The first door went on with a little difficulty. It was slightly warped, but once I got it glued in place I was quickly able to even things off with a sanding stick.  The other door was put in place and Holy Moley it is TOO warped. I could have taken the part down and did the hot water dip, but in my state of mind I tossed it in the garbage and got out the Aves. I mixed up a ball of it and pushed it into the opening. I went in fine and with a wet finger and toothpick it looked fine. When dry I'll go at it with some wet superfine sandpaper and it will look good.
 

The resin door is on the right, the Aves door to the left.

 Same for the front gear. A little press to the edges with the Xact-o knife to insinuate the panel edge and I'm done. Sorry for th blurry pic. Here we have the front door Aves'd closed. 

Now I have to let it dry. Which is good b/c it's time for me to get some lunch. Now what to have? 
Thanks for looking.
 

Cleaning up My Desk with the C-W X-19

I don't even remember why I pushed X-19 aside. But I think it's time to get back to it. Today I started off easy by dipping the canopy in Future and setting aside under a cover.
Then I turned to installing the props. There must have been a little problem with the mould as the two front nacelles had the locator holes already drilled. The back ones, however, were covered over with resin.  I just simply eye balled the location and drilled away. 

Bartholomew the Haunted Ventriloquist Dummy

This guy is from the mind of Moondevil Studio artist, John Dennett. what I like about John's work is that with each original sculpture, he creates his own backstory for it.   This guy is named Bartholomew the ventriloquist dummy. Long story short - some people thought there was something odd about it, how it would appear to have moved on it's own, and generally just have bad things happen. Then one person tried to break it...

Once again I forgot to take a pic "before" I started, but these are after I got the basecoat down. Some areas need to be fixed a bit, and then he's ready for the wash, and then the details.
Any ideas for how the plinth should get painted? 

Thanks for lookin'

Chal Done and Popeye Started

Work completed. I added foliage to my tree and a few grasses here and there. Done.

A New Prehistoric Project

This time we have David Krentz's 1:72nd scale Chalcotherium. David Krentz is an artist noted for his work is many movies. He has also done a number of prehistoric sculptures.  Originally he sold them himself, but now you can get them thru his Shapeways Store and also Dans Dinosaurs webstore. 
I never seem to take pics before I start so here's a shot from Dans Dinosaurs of the Chal --
 

Calling the CAM-23 done

This session I took some MIG pigments and mixed it with some water and then ran the mix into the panel lines on the green surfaces. Since I can't find out if this is an experimental plane or not, I didn't want too beat up looking. For the Light Blue on the bottom I tried a little trick that I saw on You Tube in that I traced the panel lines with a 4B pencil and then smudged it with a cotton bud.

I then airbrushed another layer of Vallejo's Matt Clear and the silvering around the decals finally disappeared.
With that done I added the wheels, the canopy which needed a little Kristal Klear, and the propeller. Then there was two little spots on the boom that I painted on some Vallejo Air Steel, and highlighted the pistons (or whatever) with some VA Aluminum.   Its done. Weird, the lights are making my Bronze Green paint look a blue color. Hmmm...

 Thanks for looking.

CAM-23 Moves Fwd.

Moving fwd. with the CAM-23, I feel I'm in the final stretch. I think I left off mentioning that I painted the lower color (Pale Blue), and I started the upper color (Bronze Green) on the fuselage completely forgetting I had already painted the bottom color (the bottom color is almost exactly the same as the primer). After my first shot of the Bronze Green I realized... DOH. 

New Aquisition: Deinonychus antirrhopus

This started out as a Kickstarter a few months ago. The artist's vision was to make available scientifically accurate models.  One of his pledge offers was a 1:5 scale model + a T-shirt. Thankfully the Kickstarter was funded and the other day came to fruition when my model arrived at the door. 
I had forgotten about it being 1:5 scale and was surprised at the size of the box, and even more so with the kit. It's huge! 
The parts are very clean and you can barely see the seam lines. They should be easy to make disappear. The parts attachment points are ingenious in that there are feathers that will mask those points. Here are a few pics --

 Thanks for looking.

Moving on with the Cam-23

I managed to get up to the Hobby room for an hour or so yesterday. This plane is so small that it almost looks like I'm building a 1:144 scale kit. 
I left off with the Cam in 3 major subassemblies and got it all primed.

Getting To My My Hobby Table

Where we left off was that the AD-1's canopy was glued on and now we need to fill the area around it.  I applied the filler. When dried I carefully sanded it smooth only to find that I needed more. :-/ I was disappointed at what I missed as I put the filler on so carefully around  the canopy and sanded it equally as carefully. Dang!  So in a moment of anger, I just glopped it on there --

I'll let you know how this works out.

My Little Score from JerseyFest

While I could have gone crazy and spent the rent money ;)  
I behaved myself and only picked up the following kits--

The McVey Studios Ymir

Next is Parker's Nightmare from Gillman Productions, and Wee Bartholomew from MoonDevil Studio 

Finally the Terror Bird, again from Gillman Productions.  
The last picture is the bottom of the base. Sometimes the sculptor will surprise you with a drawing. He heard I was a retired firefighter and so the Dino Bird got a helmet! Cool! :)

Thanks for looking.

JerseyFest 2015

JerseyFest was this past weekend. I was only able to go the one day (Sat.). There was quite a number of models on the Contest Table, and a nice selection of demo's, throughout the day. There was even quite a number of vendors in their room.  It was good to see some old friends as well as some new ones.  I did make a few purchases from MoonDevil Studios, Creative Beast Studios, two kits from Gillman, I also picked up a pack of "organic" stencils that I can use for something -- 

Some pictures from the contest room are here:
http://s637.photobucket.com/user/kevtk135/slideshow/JerseyFest%202015

I did enter the 5 models I mentioned in my previous post and  due to a stupid move on my part never wrote the name of the model on the slip. Doh! It didn't matter to the contest as they go by the slip number. 

I was happy to win a Silver for entry "279."  I tried to figure out which was which - "279" was either my Twisty model or my Abominable Snowman model. (DOH! again) I guess I'll have to wait  for the public posting of the winners. 

Back to the Hobby Room for an Update

I finally got back up there this evening for a little while.  I wanted to get the Edmontonia finished for Jersey Fest tomorrow.  I just had to finish the eyes and then gloss coat them and the nostrils. I also had to paint the edge of the base. Done. I think I'm going to take that dinosaur, my Abominable Snowman, Dracula, and the Ghost Bust.  They judge on a GSB basis. So we'll see what happens.

Finally I did some sanding around the canopy on the AD-1 . not terrific but as I ended for the night I hit it with a coat of primer. I'll check it sometime tomorrow night or Sunday to see how it looks. Fingers crossed that it will look "good enuff."  ;)

Edmontonia's Base

Someone was asking about basing the Edmontonia. Evidently this animal was a reissue by Cretaceous Creations and I'm guessing, there was no base or the base was different. This time around it looks like this --

 Nothing special just a regular base. The "white thing" by the way is a branch of a tree.  I'm planning on just doing a simple job on it, maybe a few plants but that s it.  Be back when I have it done.
Thanks for lookin'.

CC's Edmontonia

This guy I've only had for a short while. It's Cretaceous Creations' Edmontonia in 1:18th scale.  The sculptor Shane Foulkes is a very talented guy. You can find him on his FACEBOOK PAGE, as well as his WEBSITE.
Here's a shot of the kit from his page --

This shows all the parts - not shown is a brand new base. 

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More of Muroc's AD-1

I've been tinkering with this one on and off for a few weeks now.  It's a fairly simple kit, and it all goes together nicely --

 until I come across my nemesis - the dreaded Vac form canopy!!

 This kit is no different. Measure and cut, measure and cut. Until I cut too much then it's filler time.  Well it's filler time. :-P 

The sucky part about that it that once you apply the filler which is the Tamiya putty this time, progress stops as you have to wait for the stuff to dry. So I ended up working on this model last night for a whole 10 minutes...

More later, 
Thanks for looking.

Composi-mold Try

So I found this stuff at the MicroMark site called Composi-mold. Since I saw it in their catalog, I've discovered they have their own Website. 

It comes in a tub of what looks like honey colored jello.  But once you've microwaved it for 30+ seconds it becomes a thick liquid and you can pour it over an object creating a mold.  

The beauty of this stuff is you can heat it to soften, make and use the mold. When you're done, cut the mold up with scissors, but it back in the tub - microwave it again and it melts back to it's original shape ready to be used again for the next mold. 
 



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Pics from The Columbus Nats 2015

Apologies for the delay. Since there was so man images, I decided to throw them all on Photobucket - 
Here's the pics from the R&D and Presdiential Hangar - 
http://s637.photobucket.com/user/kevtk135/slideshow/W-P%20USAF%20Museum%201

Here's the Aviation Hangars - 
http://s637.photobucket.com/user/kevtk135/slideshow/W-P%20USAF%20Museum%202

Pics from the Convention - 
http://www.ipmsusa3.org/gallery/v/events/NATS2015/

Thanks for lookin'

Back From the Nats 2015

I'm back a few days now from Columbus, OH and the IPMS/USA Nationals 2015. It was a very nice time with terrific seminars, 2K+ models and it was a chance to meet up with old friends.  I'm a member of the Real Space Modelers Yahoo group. We use the Nats as a groups get together with either a lunch ordinance and a seminar. During the seminar a member or two of the group usually presents in what he has been working on. This year there was a short history of Vanguard from a member that scratch built a terrific Vanguard rocket. Another member also gave a double talk in the New Horizons he built as well as a new GK venture he's started.  His first kit will be a 1:24 scale Huygens probe to Titan.  He had a trial cast with him and it looks really great.  I can't wait for production to start. 

All the models were top notch. I really didn't envy the judge's job.  

Another feature for the Nats was a tour to Wright Patterson Air Force Museum.  This included the R&D and Presidential plane Hangars. It was amazing to see so much history in one room.  After we went to the Museum proper where they had 4 hangars with planes chronologically from the Wright flyer thru a mock middle silo and the aircraft after the Cold War. An amazing place. If you're anywhere near Columbus, OH, you have to stop by for at least a visit.  Oh yeah- get there early- there's a lot to see. 

Muroc AD-1

After finishing the New Horizons model, I was looking for something that I could get through quickly. 
Looking through my pile, I came across Muroc's AD-1 model. Muroc was a garage kit Co. that was based out of the gift shop of Edwards Air Force Base. They put out a number of kits before going into hiatus a year or so ago.
The AD-1 is a resin kit of an experimental variable wing aircraft . There were 79 flights between 1979 and 1982  which evaluated the basic pivot-wing concept and gathered information on handling qualities and aerodynamics at various speeds and degrees of pivot.

New Horizons in 1:5th scale

Been busy for a while. I was commissioned by a NJ Science Center to build a New Horizons (NH) probe. The only instructions I had was to make it as close to 24" as possible. Naturally I jumped at the project. 
The first thing I had to do was to get large sized plans of NH. I took the .pdf blue prints from the New Horizons site, printed them out and took them to my local Staples. what I got back fit the bill perfectly --

NH blueprint with an 18" ruler for scale.

New Horizons

The spacecraft is almost at Pluto. Exciting!

Another New Model

As part of my series to my recent purchases, this time I added to my 1/144 launch vehicle collection. This time it's the Brengun Hermes R1.  I picked up this on eBay after going to Hannants and finding out they have a minimum money amount for international sales. I wasn't about to buy something I don't need just t get this model.
I knew the early rockets were pretty much all modeled after the captured V2 rockets, and were small. This model is tiny. But the kit is well thought out and even comes with decals and a piece of PE. I look fwd. to getting  to this model. 

Thanks for looking. 

Adam Savage Builds The Maze

The Shining Maze to be exact. I loved The Shining movie, even when I read the book and discovered that the two had really nothing in common but the names of the characters.
I just found these articles and videos from Tested.com and how Adam Savage build a model of the Maze.

Some New Aquisitions

Been away for a while but I'm back and with me a few new kits.
First one is a Vincent Price kit in chariacture form. Looks pretty good, sorta felt like a hollow casting. 

The Art of Creature and Character Design

A few weeks ago I pledged for The Art... Book by Sandy Collora on Kickstarter. Luckily the project was funded and I received my autographed book today. The card that came with it was numbered 334/794. 

Sandy Collora grew up in Staten Island, NY, and headed to Los Angeles for college and where he started in the business working for Stan Winston. 

The book contains Steve's work, and the works of Jordu Schell, Steve Wang, and Dominic Qwek to name a few.  

It's an excellent book for those interested in all the special effects monsters in Hollwood.  

Kreature Kid's Ghost Bust Finished

This guy has been sitting around for a few days. It was a very nice kit with just a few bubbles that needed to be filled.  It came in 4 parts - the bust itself, two arms and the headstone base.  
I added an artificial eye to the model. I don't know if it was supposed to come with a molded in eye that was ruined by a bubble or what. But I figured it would be easier for me to just buy a set of eyes. I measured the opening and chose a set of 4 mm brown eyes. Here he is --

Thanks for looking.