Here Comes Santa

 I remember buying this kit last Fall, and then it promptly got lost in my stash pile. I found it again, and thought before I lose it once more, I'd just build it. 

The 54mm kit is from Aradia Miniatures, and is casted very well. 

First thing to do is clean the parts off the pour tabs, and then start painting. 

Taking a break from the painting I decided to put Santa in a snowy scene. I was going to do a roof scene, but I already did one of those with my Krampus miniature a year or two ago.  so I cut some pieces of foam, and went to work sanding it smooth.

 After the base was painted, I added the figure and I was done. But I did learn an important lesson. With these kits that are seemingly designed on a computer and then printed, the tolerances are extremely small. The kit gives no instructions, but it MUST be assembled in a certain order.  This time I should have added the reindeer's reins *before* I sat Santa in the seat. Once Santa was glued in place there was no way to slip the reins past his belly.  The second oops was I should have put the stick and presents on his should *before* I put his hat on. I thought I could slip the stick over the shoulder and under the hat - - no way.  

So, from now on I'm going to dry fit the entire kit together *before* I start gluing anything. 

I couldn't figure out what the droopy thing was hanging out of the bag. Turns out to be a sock with coal in it.  LOL

 

Small Updates: Nuclear Powered Bomber

 As the title says, small updates. I can't seem to get my act together, and time at the hobby bench has been minimal. In my latest session, I taped up the Bomber to paint different panels on the fuselage and the rear of the pilot pod. 

The entirety of the ship was painted in V's aluminum, and these sections were painted with Steel. I plan another larger area which I will hit with a slightly less dark Duraluminum.  But that's for next time.

After painting the real of the flight deck with Steel, I realized that I have to put on a black decal. So the Steel most likely is too dark.  It will be re-masked and painted over with duraluminum - dark but not that dark.

Northrup Nuclear Powered Flying Wing.

 Another oldie but goodie is Fantastic Plastic's Northrup Nuclear Powered Flying Wing.

From their site:

In the mid-1950s, the U.S. Air Force flirted seriously with the idea of producing long-range strategic bombers powered by atomic energy.  The main advantage of such a weapon would be its ability to stay aloft for weeks at a time, thus serving as the aerial counterpart to the Navy's fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

Jack Northrop, America's number-one proponent of "flying wing" aircraft, proposed several configurations for such an atomic-powered bomber.  The most exotic of these was an asymmetrical design that positioned the cockpit at the end of the port wing.  (German engineers had proved that asymmetrical designs were  completely airworthy more than a decade before.)  This configuration, while highly unconventional, had the advantage of putting the flight crew as far away from the nuclear reactor as possible while minimizing weight. 

None of Northrop's concepts got farther than the concept stage.

The kit comes in  15 white resin parts and a clear resin canopy. A nice set of decals is also included. 

This kit came deep out of the stash as the date on the instructions says 2007! The first thing I noticed was that one side of the wing was warped.  So after it received its wash, I boiled a pot of water, took it off the heat and dipped the wing. I only took a few seconds for the wing to become pliable and what I do is press it to the flat bottom of the sink and then turn on the cold water.  Now we're back in action.

Somewhere along the way there is an engine section that needs to be glued on. Being that was already done way back whenever, it was time to look at the jet nozzles. Eight need to be glued on and FP gives you another 3 in case of mistakes. I like that. ;) They come individual and you need to sand a small tab off the bottom. After, they they were just butt jointed to the fuselage. the next was the two vertical wings. They will also need a little sanding so they will mate up nicely. Finally, the cockpit pod needed to be attached. I dremeled out the slot a little bit so the tab went all the way, and a little Vallejo putty made a nice join. That was it, the model was built.

 

The jet is featured in it's wheels up position with no landing gear, so that's one less thing to worry about. There is also no features in the cockpit so I will tint the glass and just glue it in place. Since the jet never existed in real life the two color options mentioned was for a metalized body, or the typical gray upper and white lower color as the bombers of the day had.  But that's for next time. Thanks for looking.

Ae 607 and LRV Update

Wow, what a few weeks it's been Between the incoming Tropical storm coming up the east coast and then after the storm had gone by, we THEN had on and off brown and black outs for days. Ugh.  But in between I did make it to the hobby desk. 

The Ae607 continued to fight me to the very end but I declared victory.  This is the last time I quickly look that the parts fit - paint both halves -  only to find out that when the times comes, they really don't. Turns out the front needed just as much sanding down as did the cockpit area and the rear by the exhaust. 

Once the parts fit and glued down, then it came time to repair the paint job.  I think in the end it became a decent 3ft. model. 

Another one that turned into a fight was the LRV. In the end I had to rip the entire interior out. I was just tied of having to sand away most of it because the fit was perfect - no one will see inside anyway. 

I got the two  halves together after sanding away a bit of where the fuselage meets the wings. Then the slot where the starboard vertical fin goes was about 1/2 the size of the port one (which fit perfectly) and I needed to take a dremel and then some files to it to get the opening to accept the fin. 

The top and the bottom are together but you can see I'm still having problem with the g d white color. I needed to sand out a spot visible in the middle of the top and after 3 or 4 coats it's still visible! I think I'm about to go to the hardware store and get some serious can of white paint!  But at least the fins are on and the small gaps filled in nicely. Check back to see if I get this painted or does it get bounced off the wall.  Thanks for looking.