New Aquisitions

This time around I got a few new kits.

With the upcoming release of Guardians of the Galaxy 2, I picked up Fantastic Plastic's version of  Star Lord's Milano. The kit is 1:144 and comes in gray resin. There are a few seams and a few uneven spots. There also looks like there are a few tiny bubble clusters at the surface and just under the surface - 

Next up is my delivery from MegaHobby; Bandai's release of the Y-Wing from Star Wars. This is in 1:72 scale - 

I also have planned a diorama here I'll need some ruins with a sort of slimy, mossy look. So I pick up 2 bottles of Vallejo's Environmental paint - Slimy Grime Light and slimy Grime Dark - 

Finally moving over to the Ma.K world I saw the Gefechtsboter "Hammerschlag" from  Modern Armies in Miniature (MAIM). It's in 1:35 scale and the model just naturally lends itself to an interesting dio. 
Why does it seem that many of the Dystopian future vehicle operators are women? ;) 

Thanks for looking.

Blohm and Voss P.170 Bomber

Besides my love of sci-fi and horror movies and their models, I also have a fondness for X-Plane group of aircraft. This includes the planes categorized as Luft '46 planes. 
But both the x-planes and Luft '46 has to be looking "spacey" for me to build the model. If it just looks like another WW2 plane, well then, I'll let someone else build it.

This time we have the Blohm and Voss (B&V) P.170. B&V were ship builders. But with the approach of WW2 they diversified in aircraft.**
The P.170 is one of the aircraft designed in 1942. Although still rather odd-looking, the BV P.170 had a symmetrical basic structure unlike other Blohm & Voss projects of the time. The fuselage was cylindrical with the central engine located at the front end and the cockpit at the back end. The other two engines were located at both ends of the constant chord wing and their propellers turned in opposite directions. The aircraft was equipped with three powerful BMW 801D engines which were fed by separate 2,000 liter fuel tanks each.
This plane was based on the Nazi propaganda concept for a Schnellbomber, a bomber so fast that it would be far faster than any enemy fighter aircraft threatening it. Therefore, providing it with defensive armament was deemed superfluous. Eventually, owing to other war-related priorities, as well as the new jet possibilities, the BV P.170 did not go into production.

The model came from Planet Models, and is a very nice resin kit - 

The parts are in separate sections of a poly bag and while there is some flash. It's not as bad as some other short run kits. Where the kit falls short is in the instructions, especially showing exact parts locations, etc...  I found this out almost right away while locating the radioman/bombardier seat location - 

The top of the canopy area went on and the wings went on with the help of some stringers made from paper clips. While close, there still needed to be some seam filling - 

There are two bombs that come with the kit and the holders are installed. The 3 landing gear are being built and I came across another hard time with the instructions. The diagram shows the support brace and a straight piece, but the parts show a triangular piece. Also one of the spars turns up missing so you can see one is made from tubing and paper clip.

I'm finally getting a handle of the large size of the kit being it's only 1:72 scale. Then I come across the next problem with the instructions when I go to close up the two "doors" at the bottom of the craft. Both pieces seem to be missing! After a bit of cursing, I take a break to give the vac form canopies a dip in Future and notice two additional windows. Those are the pieces - they aren't doors but windows! Problem solved but no where in the instructions does it give you the indication they are windows  - 

Here we have the wheels and landing gear installed. Since those 2 parts were windows, they are still off as they got their dip. The gaps are filled with tissue while I primed the model - 

Giving the landing gear adequate time to dry and solidify, it's now can rest on it's 4 wheels. You can see the bottom of the engines have also been painted their yellow color (RLM 4). Thankfully Vallejo has RLM colors noted on the bottles, plus on a listing of compatible paints - 

Still being too chicken to tackle the vac form canopies, I went ahead and painted the splinter camo on the top (RLM 81 and 82), and the light blue (RLM76) on the bottom of the plane. Here I've also sprayed a gloss coat in preparation of the decals and weathering - 

 I finally broke down and and tackled the canopies. Honestly, they were tough. The framework lines as well as the edges were NOT clearly defined and I ended up doing a lot of cutting and fitting and cutting and fitting.

In the end, IMHO they turned out ok. It will make a good "3ft. model."  It will look ok from 3ft. away. ;) LOL

Next time I'll finish it up with the bottom windows, and light weathering.  Being no P.170's were made, I can't see a lot of weathering on them.  
Oh yeah, I will also have to paint the canopy frames. Yikes.  

Thanks for looking.  

(** Plane facts by Luft46.com)

Gillman's Rosewell Alien Tribute

This is one of the newer kits from Gillman Productions in my pile. As is often the case, I start with the base.

The spaceship having been painted gloss black has been masked.

Having enjoyed the squiggle technique to make the Dunkleosteus skin more organic, I did the same to the little Alien-

 Knowing I wanted to make him a pale gray, I added a little blue to the recesses - 

Next I painted the spaceship with Chrome with Vallejo's Metal series. This is good stuff with microscopic pigment (flakes) as compared to both their Model Color and Model Air series. Then the ship is obviously crashed so I sprayed some smoke on to the craft, and up the rock face.

Then a pale flesh from Vallejo's Game Air Flesh set to slightly cover the wormy skin texture pattern. Finally I added some gloss black, and a few white dots to the eyes. Done.
Thanks for looking.

An angle that favors the spaceship

 

DeNiro as Frankenstein

This guy has been sitting on my To Do shelf long enuff. I got into it and just started going so there are no WIP pics this time.  I used these two pics as reference -

Here's the completed model. Thanks for looking.

New Aquisitions

This time around I have 3 new busts.  The first one on the left is Jack from American Werewolf in London (AWIL). It obviously shows him post death, when he comes back to warn David. He's already been primed. Then we have David, again from AWIL, post attack, this bust shows him how he sees himself while he's having those wacky dreams while still in the hospital.  
Number 3 is an alien. Why? Because you can never have enuff alien kits. ;)

Till next time. 

 

Laignach Faelad, The Wolf Men of Tipperary

I had this kit by Spyda Adams in my stash for quite a while, being Irish and a fan of mythologies, I couldn't say no.  Finally this past St. Patrick's Day I decided it was the perfect day to take it out and start it.

The  Laignach Faelad were reputed to be a group of vicious warriors  who were said to be half man, half wolf. These men are mentioned in an incredibly ancient Irish text known as the Coir Anmann, which claims that these faelad (soldiers) would fight for any king willing to pay their steep price. The text goes on to say that these men dressed in wolf skins and were tremendously brutal in battle, which is why the old Irish kings wanted them so badly. During this time the land was drenched in the blood of battle, the country was constantly at war and the kings would do whatever it took to win, including hiring the inhuman Laignach Faelad, which not everyone was too pleased with.
Now, you may wonder why one would be wary about hiring the Laignach Faelad, kings have plenty of gold right? Yes, but unfortunately these warriors did not ask for money, instead they asked for something entirely more precious – the flesh of newborns. They would divide among themselves, falling upon the flesh like wolves and devour it raw. A king would have to be pretty desperate and ruthless to hire these warriors.

The kit came in 4 parts of white, odorless resin. There was a little seam line, but it was easily dispatched amongst all the fur. I then applied some Aves to the two arms where the seams were. The other parts was the axe and the base. 

Starting to paint, I decided to try out my new Vallejo Skin color set. But first I washed the fur and a few of the details in a new technique I first saw on Sorastro's You Tube channel.  I also coated part of the base in an orange brown. Here, I want to simulate wood. If you look over his shoulder I also painted the handle of the axe with the same color.

As I like working from dark to light, I then sprayed on a darkish flesh color. That **HAHA** just gave him a sprayed on tan orange color - 

While I was waiting for his body to dry, I turned my attention to the base. Having scroll work in typical Celtic fashion there was no other color choice that green and gold. I also applied some Citadel's Agrax Earthshade wash to the wood area. After I started washing I realized I should have roughed it up a bit to get some "grain."  Here I just have the green down - 

Taking a side step, I looked up what wolf pelts really look like. This was tough as there are as many different wolf colors, as there are people. I really liked the Black wolf color - 

But painting a pale Irish guy, I figured it would contrast too much with the black pelt. So I chose a mixed color wolf to copy. There are other wolves with brown in them, so I added some brown to my pelt - 

You can see I also added the mid tone flesh to the warrior. So far so good.

Then I added my last highlight to the figure, but IMHO I thought it was too bright. So I misted the middle color over the figure. This settled all my colors down. Next steps were to add color to the fur gauntlets, the leather straps, and the metal bits. For the metal I wanted something dark and added Steel from Vallejo's Metallics line to the axe blade, strap ring and a few "decorations" on the belt. I highlighted these with V's Silver.
Finally, again thinking Irish, I added a reddish hair under the wold cap, blue eyes inside the wolf orbits, and some (rusty) orange to the chin mimicking a 5 o'clock shadow.  
 I slipped the axe handle thru his hands. I was a bit nervous about this as it was tight, but thankfully none of the paint scraped off. Whew. I then flicked some dark red "blood" on the axe blade and let it hit the face body and hands. When dry I touched it with flecks of a brighter red and then some gloss.
Thanks for looking.

 

Dunkleosteus Finale

(See Part ONE & Part TWO) 
Having thought I was finished with the fish, I moved on to the base. I left off putting sand on the sea floor. From there I decided to add a few more clay coral and sponges, a starfish or two, a few sand dollars and an orthocone shell (red arrows).  Whether they were all alive at the time of the Dunkleosteus, I don't know. I decided to just use some artistic license to make the scene a little more busy. 

 Next I painted up the corals in different colors to brighten the scene. On some of the corals I used a pearlizer additive to the paint.

 The scene was still a little bland, so I decided to make some clay seaweed. As in a previous post Sculpey III was a little too brittle. I bought some Premo and it worked great. It had a bit of flexibility to the sculpt without making it rubbery. But once again my newbie kicked in and I realized I made each elongated leaf way too thick.  So off to the pet shop I went to buy some plants. 

I see a lot of people use aquarium plants right out of the package but to me they look too plastic and scream fake. So I primed and painted them. I even took a few extra leaves off the stem to use as dead leaves that found their way to the sea floor. 

From eBay I also bought one of those Devonian  fishes that are sold in the candy machines. I also primed and painted that to hide the plastic -

I was happy now. What I decided to do to tie the whole scene together was to give the whole vignette a mist coat of turquoise to make the scene a little darker and to mimic the subdued colors you see in under water photography -

Thanks for looking.