Zeppelin Rammer part 2

Picking up the Rammer again. I left off with painting the plane RLM 82 on top, black in front and RLM 65 on the bottom.  The painting guide shows that there is a camp pattern on top of the wings. It doesn't mention what color, so I just went ahead and used the RLM 65 - 

Since there is no pilot and I'm thinking of making an "in action" vignette, I darkened the windows with a black wash.  I also added the decals. I thought I had a pic, but no. I'll get one asap. 

Now thinking about how to make it look similar to the box art - 

I figured there has to be a website for just about everything - and there is. I search "B-17 battle damage" and browsed thru images until I came across this one, of The All American  - 

The story behind this was that the gunners shot down a Bf-109. It goes on to say the plane flips upside down (out of control?) and the wing slices thru the fuselage front to back. You can read an account HERE .
This is going to be my inspiration.  

Next step was to look for a 1/72 scale B-17. Obviously since I only need the back 1/3, I wasn't about to pay a lot for it. As if on cue I get Megahobby's email newsletter, and after a short look, I found an Airfix Memphis Belle for $17!  Sold.  Since the Belle was too famous to destroy like that, MegaHobby also had a set of generic B-17 decals. I bought those as well. 

Getting the kit, the first thing to be done is cut away anything I'm not using. I made my cut right behind the ball turret.  Then I took a pencil and drew out where I wanted the damege. Then it was time to take the dremel to the plane.
Having cut out what I wanted, I added back in some of the ribbing - 

More details will be needed, but this is it for now. Thanks for looking.

 

Ahab Finale

Well, almost. It seems that I tend to run behind on basing my models. The Capt. is the same. By adding the harpoon and the hand, I was calling this one done.

Now on to the base. For now I borrowed a rustic one from my Doc Holiday build, but I had a few ideas for Ahab to have his own. My first one was to fabricate a whale tooth in a scrimshaw look. But then the part that makes it "look" like a tooth would be the point - the part that would be cut off or hidden by the bust. The second idea would be to make some wood pilings that would be seen  in and around piers. Make sure to check back for that. 

In the meantime, enjoy Capt. Ahab. Thanks for looking. 

The Occupation of Jedha City

The Bandai Star Destroyer build was easy, and with it's small scale I left the painting minimal. I left it with a gray underside and a white and white gray topside. The details were highlighted with some V. Gray wash. 
Jedha City, from JPG Productions, was painted in browns and orange browns and then washed with sepia and brown. From there I highlighted some roof tops in Ivory, and Buff. Then I overemphasized the shadow of the Star Destroyer on the city with Citadels Nuln Oil. Thanks for looking.

Bandai's star Destroyer

This is a kit I felt I had to get after buying JPG's Jeddah City base a long while ago. I know, odd that I would buy a base first... ;)     
This is a pic from JPG page - 

The Ship doesn't have a scale, and I haven't taken the time to figure it out, but it ends up being about 4 or 5 inches long.  The big plus that's normal for Bandai kits is that the detail is tremendous - 

One "Duh" moment I had was that at first I thought I could build it w/o instructions (and prolly could), but don't see any. Then I see amidst all the Japanese writing to "Go to this site for English", which I do and then no directions. Then the box top gets turned over and there they are!  Should should have known it as other small Japanese models have the instructions there as well. LOL Oh well - here's an image in case someone else has a brain fart - 

I left off with the craft drying from a priming. I figure a coat of white and then some light wash to bring out the detail and I'll call this one done. Check back for the finished model. Thanks for looking. 

 

Ahab part 2

Work continues on Ahab, by adding details to the face and eyes. Then I decided to add some detail to the vest he's wearing. I'm following Ian E's techniques of adding layers and it seems to be working out for me - IMHO ;) 

Using this technique take s time, so that's was all that was done on this session.

Picking up where I left off the next day, the illustration shows that Ahab is wearing a striped shirt. So I thought I would try that. Luckily I had a long bristle liner brush by Wamp, I took my time and in the end the effort looked pretty good. The to make the striped be in the shirt rather than on it, I did a mist coat of white, and then with a smaller brush highlighted the tops of the folds and creases. Thanks for looking.

 

Scimitar Bomber

Yet another kit that has been in the stash for a long time. Making it's first appearance in the book, Dark Forces Rising, the Scimitar Bomber is from Kessel Run, and sold through Multiverse Models.  
The 1:144 scale kit comes in 8 pieces of resin and a clear rod for attaching the model to the base. 

The kit comes with an illustrated instruction sheet, but it's pretty self explanatory except for which way around the cockpit area gets attached. All one needs to do is pay attention to the greeblie pattern and is super glued right in place. 

The model is very detail for it's size, so painting it up takes a bit of time. I chose to paint in the front window rather than using the supplied decal. 

While waiting for the paint to dry I came up with a cratered landscape, and planned for a little colony, the subject, of the bombing in the largest crater. It was made with Sculpt A Mold on top of a Michaels pine plaque. It was primed black and then I came back with white primer at a very low angle to highlight the surface textures.  Little pieces of different sized square styrene is all thats used to indicates buildings.

 From there it was just a matter of drilling a hole in the bottom of the craft to accept the larger clear acrylic rod, and then another hole in the landscape.  Some tufts of painted cotton indicates the bombing in progress. Thanks for looking.

Brengun's Zeppelin Rammer

The second kit for the bench probably has to be the smallest 1:72 scale kit I ever built in the form of Brengun's  Zeppelin Rammer. 
There is a little discrepancy between the info on the box and whats being said on the Luft '46  site. The site says:

This project was first proposed in November 1944. The "Rammer" was to be towed aloft by another fighter (most likely a Bf 109). Once released, the pilot was to ignite the solid-fuel Schmidding rocket, accelerating to 970 km/h (602 mph) and then launching its 14 R4M rockets at the target. A second pass was then made, this time making a ramming attack with its reinforced wings. It was calculated that at the attack speed the aircraft could cut cleanly through the tail section of a B-17 without great loss of speed or stability. After attacking, a gliding landing was to be made on a retractable skid.

Looking in the box, Brengun gives you enough parts to make two Rammers. The back of the box gives you 3 paint schemes, sort of indicating that it saw service. I chose to create the 3rd option - The Trudi -  from late in the war. The second two apparently were named. The middle one is Anna. 

What Brengun lacks in attachment points, it makes up for in detail. The plane has quite an extensive amount of PE for such a small plane. while the Luft '46 page says that it had a rocket motor, the Brengun box says it was a glider, and no rocket motor is included. The plane is also supposed to land on a skid. While there is also no skid included, if you look closely at the panel lines you see this off panel on the bottom. It is the retracted skid. I guess if someone wanted to do micro surgery, that skid could be set up in landing mode.  My eyes aren't good enough for that. 

The cockpit is the first thing that needs to be tackled. For such a small plane it includes a full seat, a stick and a small instrument panel, with 3 indentations for gauges. The insides was painted gray with a dark wash. The seats were highlighted with VMC Red Leather, and then washed with Citadel's Agrax Earthshade. the foot pedals are painted silver according to the directions. Too bad 99% of it won't be seen after the canopy goes on.

Closing up the fuselage and getting rid of the seam line, the only other thing that has to be done is glue the vertical stabilizer to the tail.  The wings are one piece each - 

Putting the remaining part together I should have attached all the PE. But I got carried away and started painting. The scheme I chose was RLM 82 (lightened a bit) and a black nose. The instructions say the underside of the wings are to be RLM 83, which looking it up is also green, but the painting guide on the box shows, that I think it's meant to say RLM 76 or 77. I have 76 and that's what will go on there. Check back for the PE installation and my idea for a little vignette. Thanks for looking.

 

The canopy is only sitting in place in this pic.