Heinkel He-178 Part 1a

I call this part 1 a, because I ended up not having as much time as I thought I would have for this session.
This time around the tail planes and the wings went on. They had to be puttied on one side and then primed. I also got around to priming the canopy, but forgot to take a shot of it. Oh well, next time we mask off for the metal bits and then a coat of RLM 4 and we're done. ..

 

Report from JerseyFest 2016 - Part 2

After I finished the previous post and it went live, I remembered I left out little vid clips of some of the models that were lit. I think little vids make sense as it shows the lighting the best. Rather than add it on to an already long post, I'll just show them here - -

The Thing Spaceship

The Interstellar spaceship

The Beast and the Lighthouse

King Kong on TV. I thought this was VERY clever - 

Thanks for looking.

Report From JerseyFest 2016

JerseyFest is a 3 day scale modeling show that's is concentrating on Sci-Fi and Horror.  There's not a Sherman tank nor Bf-109 anywhere nearby. :) Haha Each year it has been taking place in the Marriott Hanover, in Whippany, NJ. The venue is a very nice place and they provide for a large Vendor Room, two large lecture demo rooms, and a slightly smaller model contest room. Each year the show starts on A Friday and there are a number of scheduled workshops.  The other cool part is the leaders of the workshops are well know experts in their fields. There was:

1. Painting a Creature from the Black Lagoon Bust with Greg McKellar
2. Airbrush Painting a Monster with Casey Love
3. Sculpting a “Hulk” with Randy Bowen by Polyform
4. Miniature Figure Model Painting by Morland Studios (Friday Evening Class)
5. Painting a Star Wars X-Wing with Michael Salzo

 On Saturday and Sunday was the Vendor Sales and also a few lecture demos. They were:

Saturday

• Randy Bowen – Sculpting demo
• Casey Love – Overview of monster creation from sculpt to paint
• Greg McKellar – Painting monsters demo
• Sean Sides – The art of scratch building and tips for building and painting resin vehicle kits, including Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica models.
• Steve Neisen – Overview of methods used to bring Sci-Fi spaceship models to life from concept to production.  Includes techniques used for various Star Wars and Star Trek models
• Saul Alvarez – Demo of Painting ”Regan” from “The Exorcist”

Sunday

• Randy Bowen – Overview of past, current and future Bowen models and statues including collaborations with other artists
• Casey Love – Sculpting demo
• Steve Neisen & Mike Salzo - Patterning, constructing and painting studio scale Sci-Fi vehicle models
• Sandy Collora – Creature design and sculpture

Honestly the only thing I find rather annoying is the people running the show seem to forget to announce the times beforehand and it's until you are there do you find out who's talking when.  The show is based (IMHO) on a person being there the whole weekend, and honestly I think this is a mistake.  

I went on Saturday and due to circumstances behind my  control I got there late and missed most of the talks. I did get to see Randy Bowen's sculpting demo as it was the last one of the day. He ended up creating an awesome Caveman bust - 

 Looking thri the contest room is a terrific treat. Tons of awesome models. Here's a little slide show of some of the models. I didn't try to take them all, but just a taste of what's there. Click here for the slide show. 

Lastly I certainly found time to do at least a few laps thru the Vendor room. I made it a point to meet up with friends John Dennett of MoonDevil studio, and Paul Gill of Gillman Productions.  From Paul I got a kit of David as the Wold from American Werewolf in London. This is being released by Sharon Carter and cast by Paul - 

It's an older kit so as I glued on the legs for the image, I noticed that the legs don't fit perfectly and some filling will be necessary. The second thing is that my kit was boxed with 2 front left legs. So a quick FB message to Paul got that straightened out and I should have it in a day or two. I just noticed I didn't have the fangs nearby, so he's kinda gummy looking. The other thing is that it comes with a severed head, which is by his front paw.

The next is a Frankenstein sculpted and cast by John Dennett. What make this one different is that John used Mary Shelley's description of the monster from her book, and not the typical flat top Karloff make up. While I'm not a Frankenstein guy, it was different enuff for me to get. Here he is - 

John was gracious enough to include another of his "fiends" in my Box. Its the Chluthu figure - 

Next up is a new monster created by Sandy Collora.  La Tiburonera (the Shark Hunter) looka like a cross between a Snapping Turtle and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I picked up the Bust of the Shark Hunter. He gave me a mini bust, and while we were talking - he also grew up on Staten Island - he drew his monster on the bag he gives for purchases. Pretty cool!

 Finally I found an awesome looking kit from Moreland Studios. It's Perseu holding up the head of Medusa to the Kraken (who looks like an alligator in the sculpt). Looking at the pic on the box, the amount of detail is amazing and it fooled me into thinking it was somewhere between 75 to 120mm figure. I didn't think realize the box and contents was too light to be a larger figure and was surprised when a 28mm came out of the box!. The figure is amazingly detail, just thats it's small. I'll have to take out my Optivisors for that one - 

Sorry the pic is a little blurry. Thanks for lookin'.

Heinkel He-178

Needing a change from my Figures, I decided to pull the Special Hobby He-178 out of the stash. I first saw this in the New Kits section of SAMI magazine.  It's not exactly my "genre" of X-planes and jets. But being it's "A first" I figured it's worth a spot on the shelf. 

The kit is one sprue, with a clear styrene "glass" , an instrumentation film, and a piece of PE.  Nice - 

I started the build with the cockpit and thats when I realized this wasn't going to be a simple build. The cockpit has to include a seat, the stick and the foot pedal mount. The foot pedals are formed with PE, but there are no indications on the part thats the floor of the cockpit. Oh boy...
So I just had to guesstimate. Then getting it in the cockpit I had to keep cutting the floor down so the seat and the stick would show in the opening of the plane. Ugh. I'm not used to, and don't like hacking up models like this.

Finally I got the two fuselage halves together with a lot of glue and tape - 

I needed to leave this for a while to thoroughly dry. So I went on to do the wings, which is in 3 parts. The wings "sorta" fit and again with lots of Tamiya Thin glue and some sanding afterward it went together. I moved to the landing gear which has PE folded around them. After getting the parts fold and glue to the styrene parts, I was ready for a break.

How can a kit have excellent PE parts, and the film for the instruments be so devoid if marking for where part should go?  Check back for another chapter

Finishing Up The Howling

This time around it's time to put paint on Eddie. Once again, the lighting on the set was very dramatic and it was hard to tell what color Eddie was. That and the fact that there were man werewolves in the movie and I have a hard time keeping everyone straight. So I went with a generic gray, and more brown on the face and hands. I also painted the eye a beige, in prep for making them a piercing yellow. Here's the start -

I basically did my usual, and make the deepest recesses darker and the highlight brighter. So here he is all finished and on it's base -

With some dramatic lighting

I think this time I missed on the seams. Using the Aves, I got carried away with the fur and didn't keep the direction in mind. Also in places I made the fur tufts too small for the surround fur. Oh well. It's a nice 2 footer model.  Thanks for looking.

The Howling part 2

I spent a few nights finishing up The Howling bust.  I think were I left off was I was just about to attach the arms to the figure - 

For the first time in a while I turn to Aves (rather than the Vallejo putty) to blend the furry seams together. I then glued the arms to the body and primed  - 

 While that was drying I turned my attention to the base and started in - 

I then looked online and found the poster I needed to copy - 

and came up with this -and then filled in the red color -

I also added a little color to the back

The Howling's Eddie the Mangler

Despite my saying it's time to move away (temporarily)  from the horror kits, Eddie has been sitting on my night stand with no nose etc...  Ok, I thought let me, at least, put his together.  Sculpted my Mark Van Tine and casted by Gillman Productions, Eddie comes in about 8 pieces of gray and cream resin. There are no bubbles or flash to be seen.
The parts were key and went together easily. IIRC there was only one join that needed more than a tiny bit of putty to close off.  Here's where I am so far - - 

Every once in a while you get a part where Mark has doodled on. ;)

 Thanks for looking!

Another look at my Hobby area.

There is an ongoing thread on SSM of guys showing their work areas. They're all good, from those with the tiniest tables to the guys that have whole rooms.  I haven't taken pics of mine since the side shelves when up, so I figured it was time for an update.

The work area - 

Kits, kits and more kits. Despite my age and the number of kits I have, I plan on doing every last one of them. 

This last pic also shows my home made photo booth. There are also more kits under my work table, and a few smaller boxes on the desk shelves to the left.
Eventually (when Lowes gets them in stock) there will be a counter top across the two cabinets (giving me more space). 

Finally, a shot of some of my completed, partially completed, and soon to be started models.  Thanks for looking.

2016 Columbia IPMS Nationals

I just got back from the Nats in Columbia SC. It was a great time with lots of over the top terrific models and great seminars. As a matter of fact the only negative of the Con was b/c of it's popularity. If you showed up any later than 20 minutes before a talk was to start you weren't getting a seat. I never saw that before. Nearly all the seminars I attended were 'standing room only.'
I had a great time, and can't wait til '17 and Omaha. 

Here's a pano of the Contest Room - 

 

I posted the pics I had taken at the Clubhouse. So take a look at them there:

Figures -  

Dinosaurs -  

"Sci-Fi, Luft '46 and Space" Vehicles -  

To see who won what check out this IPMS PAGE - 


2017 Nationals were awarded to Omaha, NE.  2018 to Phoenix, AZ, and 2019 to Chattanooga, TN. 
So, we'll see you there. 

Thanks for looking. 

Finishing the Juggernaut

Having gotten the vehicle toggether, primed and painted the next step was together decals on. Looking through the instructions there's no real indications of where the decals go besides the obvious stipes on the sides and the designs on the front and rear. So okay I'll wing it. Cut get the first decal ready to go on and put on the front of the vehicle and ... whoa ... they are *very* transparent. This isn't going to work. So the decals go inb the garbage and  I get my red paint, and Tamiya tape and I'll just do it free hand. When the striping as done, I thought it looked pretty good - 

Coming to the close here I felt I needed some sort of base to indicate the fighting that was going on. I too some Celluclay onto one of the woodn plaques I got from Michaels and made some uneven terrain. I decided at this point that I would add a few bomb craters, and maybe I would find something to drop into a crater.  When the Celluclay was dry, I primed black as I wanted to go for a scorched earth look. Adding some sand with PVA glue added to the texture-

The middle of the dio was left blank. No point in detail the part that will never been see again... ;)  Now I had to look for something to drop into the largest bomb crater. The model is supposed to be 1:350 scale and it was pretty tough to find something of comparable scale. In the end I figured I just wing it and found a Spider Droid from a miniatures game on eBay -

The droid came in a week, and as I thought it was pretty toy like. But I figured it was going to be blown up in the crater so I could really do a number on it. First thing I cut the antenna from the top of his head, the two back legs  and then cut his nose gun off. I found a replacement gun in the form of a very thing brass tube. Time to get the drill out. I drill out the hole for the nose gun, the left eye, and a large jagged hole to the side of the left. eye. The right eye I shaved down with an Xacto blade. I think to some of my very thin lead wire and created exposed wires that hung out of the hole, and the eye, and from the separated legs. I also took a pliers and bent the nose gun. Yeah he's pretty messed up. I then painted him with various pigments to make it look like he really exploded. I glued the main body into the crater and the legs went nearby - 

All that was left to do was to add black and white pigments to simulate ash, and then some brown pigments for some bare soil and I was done.  Thanks for looking.