Some Classic Ships

In a thread at The Clubhouse, I mentioned the classic star ships I built. So I figured I would post the image here too --

L to R: Friede, Luna, and Rocketship XM

Terror Bird (part 2)

As I mentioned last time the kit was very easy to clean up. One seam of note was the one down the back of the bird. The seam cleaned up nicely, but what was left seemed too blank to me. It's not that the seam eradicated it, it looked like there was never anything there --

So I took it upon myself to add some Aves feathers down it's spine. Looks pretty good to me--

From there, I finished off the seam on the head --

After this it was time to assemble the parts. I saw on a video my modeler extraordinaire, Rafael Robledo Jr, where he used resin to attach parts. I decided to try it.  The first thing I did was to dremel little holes for the resin to solidify in - 

Gillman's Terror Bird

This time around on the bench is Gillman's Terror Bird. After the dinosaurs went extinct, it was the Terror Birds that became the top predator in certain areas. 
The kit is a nice casting in gray and tan of odorless resin. The kit comes in 8 pieces - the base, two legs, the body and two heads - one with an open mouth and one with it closed. The open mouth option comes with a separate lower jaw. The 8th piece is arock pedestal for whatever head you don't use, it can be mounted on the pedestal. Good idea. 
 There's no bubbles anywhere and the seam lines are fairly easy to clean up. Once you get the hang of getting the extra resin out of fur or feathers, the kit is cleaned up in 30 minutes.

Paul Gill informed the sculptor, Mark Van Tine, that I was a retired firefighter. So I got a special autograph on the bottom of the base. Very cool! 
More later.

U.S. Moon Ship - Finished

I was able to spend a few hours at the desk and was able to finish up the model.  I got rid of the extra flash around the  astronauts and repainted them. I also added a bit more detail to the base - not that you can see much because the craft sits over most of it. Here's the base and finished Rocket. It was an enjoyable build. Thanks for looking. 

 

U.S. Moon Ship (part 2)

This time around is 2 sessions combined into one post. I started out to add the decals. They went on very easy but are *very* thick.  For the Star roundels I have to slit the decal to get it to sit down. The checkerboard around the top crew compartment was also a little difficult. In the end I put Micro Sol on the decals about 4 times. Coming back to it a few days later, I see that the decals for the most part have settled down on the model, so I gave it a coat of Satin Clear --

 Next step was the base and the crew. This time around I'm using the supplied base. To make it a little different I smeared some spackle on it, spread it out, and then as it dried using some sculpting tools added the craters -- 

 

These are the tools I used.

 I put the spackle on thin enough so there was no cracks. I primed it all black, then over sprayed it in a dark gray and left it so the black showed in the shadows. Finally, I added a lighter gray where the exhaust would have blown some of the soil away where the Ship landed. I also sprayed the inside of a few craters the lighter colors to simulate newer craters.  I'll show a pic of that next time as I sprayed it all with a DullCote before taking a pic. I didn't want the base to look wet and shiny, so check back for the finale.
For the end of the session, I turned my attention to the crew. The instructions calls for them to be in white, with red backpack (and a few details) and then silver face plate, boots and gloves -- 

 I didn't notice  how bad the flash was until seeing the picture, so I will go in and get rid of it and repaint if needed.
Check back for the finale. Thanks for looking.

New Aquisition

This time around it's not a model. I came across a site called The Prop Store. Looking thru the pages there were a lot of nice movie memorabilia, but also very expensive stuff. But there are some nice prices if you look. I started searching out a few movies and then I found this piece from The Chronicles of Riddick. Its the breathing device used as the group are escaping the prison on Crematoria. 

 Thanks for looking.