A New Dracula Kit.

Just a really quick post tonight showing the new Dracula kit from Yagher, and John Deary. Even tho as you already know, I have a few other things on the table. I had to give it a cleaning, and a shot of primer. There is also a little seam on the back of the head to take care of. I also had to put a little wash on the step base to get a good look at the detail. 

Here's the seam. Not too tough to lose.

Thanks for looking . 

F5-D A Break Needed: Looking at the Yeti

Haha. You can tell I haven't done a craft in a while. The F5-D seams are giving me fits. So much so that I needed to put it down for a little bit. 
so I turned my attention to Moon Devil's Yeti again. This guy has been sitting on the side about 80% finished for long enough. 
While he was waiting he suffered a fall and the toes of one foot were taken off. Thank goodness the break was clean and I was able to reattach the toes with little or no hassle. I did notice what looked like a tiny stress crack in the leg and quickly fixed it with the Vallejo Plastic Putty. I'm really starting to like this stuff! 

I also added another highlight coat to his fur. Afterward I gave his fur another mat coat to protect what I've done.  If I learned nothing else from hanging out at The Clubhouse it is to protect my work. While the body was drying, I turned my attention to the base. The rocks have already been done in shades of gray, but to give it a cold feel I gave some shadows with Army Painter's Blue Tone. This stuff is a very nice wash. I'm anxious to try the others in a little set I bought. More on those at another time. 
John Dennett, the sculptor for Moon Devil mentions he includes a little easter egg in some kits he does. This time around - - spoiler alert - -

-he sculpted in a set of prayer beads used by the Nepalese monks. 

I took artistic liberty and base coated the beads and tassel in Vallejo Cavalry Brown (a dark red), then highlighted them in Scarlet. When that was dry I used a final highlight of Clear Orange. I used Army Painters Hydra Turquoise for that one bead you can see in the image. I then mixed a little white in to create a highlight for it. Finally I added Vallejo's Old Gold for the oval bead. I added a *tiny* bit of silver to highlight that color. Next I gloss coated the beads, while mat coating the tassel.  

I started the around the edge of the base with Vallejo's Cavalry Brown (which is a red color). I didn't bother to set up my airbrush and just used a regular brush so this will take two coats. Then I will have to highlight the wording on the base. Finally I will sprinkle some Woodland Scenics Soft Flake Snow around the rocks and base. Then my first MoonDevil cryptid will be done. :)

F5D Moving Along

Put the fuselage together and hit it with some sandable primer. The seams are going to be a problem in some spots. There's lots of tiny problems that just make the kit "Meh." Looking forward to finishing this up and then moving on to the next kit. Thanks for looking.

F5D Moving Forward

This time around I started working on putting some weights in the front of the plane. Not knowing if this is a tail sitter or not, I played it safe. Here's a few 1/4-20 nuts glued in with PVA glue - - 

While I was waiting I turned my attention to the smaller parts. Ooh boy did they need clean up work. The stick was almost indistinguishable from the parts runners. Thankfully after watching a few miniature painting videos, I "learned" that you can prime with a brush. To me this is A LOT easier than setting up the parts for an airbrush or rattle can for small parts - 

As last thing for tonight,  I did the seams along the wing roots, and the jet intakes. I had recently bought some Tamiya putty after not having a great time with the Vallejo Plastic Putty. I decided to give them both a test. On top of the plane I used the Tamiya Putty, and underneath I used the Vallejo Putty.  My feeling now is the Vallejo is the way to go for very thin seam lines. As you see on the right the Vallejo cleaned up right away with good results. I'll have to wait for the Tamiya Putty to dry and then start sanding tomorrow.

Looks like after I get these seams cleaned up I'll be able to close up the fuselage, install the seat and stick and then work on some of the other parts like reinforce wheel and tail hook. Thanks for looking. 

Armstrong's XF5-D Started

Been a while but I had a few minutes to start the 5D. The larger parts are pretty good but the smaller ones are a little hurting. When I originally ordered this kit from Anigrand, they must have seen the the moulds were shot - took it out of the catalog - and sent me something else... :-/  I managed to find this one on eBay, and it too must have been close to the end of the run. A lot of the smaller details had bubbles but thanks goodness as I mentioned the larger pieces were fine. I washed the kit and then primed the interior. Not knowing if this was a tail sitter I went to put some weights in the nose and behind the cockpit area... only to find out I didn't have any left. I'll be heading out to the fishing supply tomorrow. Ha.  

So the next thing I did to move forward was to glue the wings on. There is a little seam that needs to be filled but it's nothing to what I was expecting. Only when they were both on did I notice a little discrepency. The pins and holes are not lined up correctly and one wings is a mm or 2 off from the other side. Normally I wouldn't have noticed it. But I did. Now, do I take the chance of muffing it by trying to sand off a little bit where it shows or should I leave it. The next pic show where it's off - - 

 LOL,  find out next time what I decided. Thanks for looking. 

New On the Bench

Next up I just got two kits in the mail recently. One is Anigrand's Douglas XF5D-1. I was inspired to do this kit because my friend Rob S. visited the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio (about 1 hr. north of Dayton). I've never been, but Rob generously sent me a number of images of the F5D that Armstrong flew which is also on display out in front of the museum - 
http://vva649.org/gallery/2013/neilarmstrong/A/IMG_0028.JPG .  

and here's the kit - 

I have to note that sadly this kit is no longer part of Anigrand's catalog. Anyone looking for it will probably have to go to eBay or someone like Rare Plane Dectective .  

Next up is a sort of throw back to my kiddy days when Aurora was releasing all those Monster kits. After all the kits were released and then version 2 with parts of the kit in glow-in-the-dark plastic, they released Monster Scenes. These kits would help you create your own "movie sets."  Long story short one of the smaller kits was the Saber Tooth Rabbit!  Thinking about Monty Python's Holy Grail and the killer bunny, I had to have it! 

I may do them concurrently or consecutively. I don't know yet. I'm doing both OOB, so things should go smoothly. 

And don't forget,  I still have MoonDevil studio's Abominable Snowman about 90% done and just waiting for my fake snow to show up. That may be back on the bench too. We'll see. Thanks for looking in.