In the Mean Time...

They just keep producing models I can't seem to live without. One of my newer kits is Joan of Arc, sculpted by Marcus DeLeo.

Looking online there are a number of images of St. Joan, with all types of hair color, etc... But I think I will do my best to mimic Mila Jojovich's characterization of her - 

 But more on that as I get to the kit. I have to be honest with you. While I really love the sci-fi, real space and x-plane vehicle kits. I getting a real affinity for figure kits. They can easily leave you speechless with their detail! If you want to have a look check out The Clubhouse. I'm a regular in the Tar Pit.  ;-) Yeah, I'm a huge dinosaur fan.

Next kit is a continuation of the Friede theme of classic spaceships in the form of Luna from the movie Destination Moon. As with Friede, Luna was produced by Fantastic Plastic.  Here it is at the same scale as The Friede (1:288) -

Another I picked up is the shuttle Bruce Willis flew in the movie Armageddon. Once again by Fantastic Plastic. The kit actually comes with decals for both shuttles. I think I will build it as the Independence, in memory of those who "died" when the Shuttle went "flat line." This model is in 1:144 -

The last two models I have is from the Australian sculptor producer Wayne Pugh of Scale Solutions. His car died so he was offering his kits at a discount to raise money for a repair. I picked up the Star Wars TIE D Bomber a 1:72 scale (the scale of Kngs) :-)  automated bomber. I have no pics of mine so here's one from Wayne - 

I also picked up a rather ingenious  kit of the Mars rover (speaking of real space) still in it's landing airbags - 

The kit hasn't been cleaned of a little bit of flash yet, so it doesn't look perfect, but it's a nice little 4 piece kit that looks to be a very easy build. It doesn't come with a base but you imagination can go wild as you create your own Mars landing area!  His sale is still in effect for a few more days if you hurry! I plan for an out of box review in the next day or two. So check back.

A few things...

The spaceship Friede is progressing and no I didn't make it to finish the Friede model in time for the end of February. Just too many things going on - mostly of my own doing. But I'm going to keep plugging along on it and finish that and the Luna for the end of March. That should put me back on track.

I also got my hands on a few jars of premixed washes from Citidel. They are Badab Black, Thraka Green, Gryphonne Sepia, and Devlin Mud. I had been watching their use in a number of You Tube videos and they looked a little too easy. So once they arrived at my door I had to try them. I had a build up of my Krentz Styracosaur that received some critical criticism about brightly colored it was ala Luis Rey. I I decided to try these washes to tone it down a little as it were. The washes work great. Here's the lil guy in a more drab color scheme.

And finally, I've started working on my hobby room again - I really need all my supplies all in one spot. So I had to re-spackle what I paid a guy to do. It got done, but boy did he stink up the job.  So of course that means I also had to repaint. Next comes a rug and then a desk and I think I can get started ..

I just can't make things easy on myself...

Yeah, I know I haven't built a model in a year. Now I get the Friede started and what do I have to do? See the Destination Moon's Luna in my *to do:* pile. My eyes glaze over and I have to open it up take the parts out of the box and start trimming the flash off. Yeah, I'm going to build the two at the same time...

I was going to include an image of the parts, but for whatever reason, my phone is taking a million years to upload the pics. So instead I've decided to include a link to FP's page ans the kit is still available -

http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/DestinationMoonLuna-CatalogPage.htm

where you can scroll down a little bit to see the parts, and also take a look at the description of both the kit and the ship it's modeled after (a very nice touch IMHO).

According to the site, this was the first in a series of Classic Spaceships done in 1:288 scale.  The kit had a little flash on it - nothing major for a resin kit. But the fuselage had some problems. First thing I noticed is that there were two gouges in the side of the ship. Once I get my images downloaded I'll post the gouge shot here.  EDIT: Here are the pics of the gouges. I sanded a bit to make the resin around the gouges flush with the rest of the surface.The original looked like something got stabbed into the rocket and forced plastic above the surface. WEIRD...

Again nothing major but surprising since most of FP kits are *very* clean.  The next thing I noticed was that the bottom of the ship where the exhaust ring attaches was rather oval instead of what I expected should be round. It did take a bit of careful sanding to get the exhaust area round. 
A major pluses for the kit is the nice symmetric look to the fuselage, and the circular moon base. I'll definitely be taking some extra time time painting the lunar base up. :-)
So that's it for now. Next the parts will take a bath and get the mould release washed off and then time to attach the parts.
And yes, I'm expecting to get them both completed by the end of the month (ok at least the Friede)...   :-o