Krote and Gustav - assembled

First up, hope you're having a great Christmas and all the best for the next 12 months.

Second, apols for the lack of posting just lately. Despite the Crimbo rush i have been a busy modeller, but haven't had time to take pics really.

But as you can see, the Gustav and Krote are pretty much done. Had great fun with both of these and they went together really well (despite some errors in the instructions).

The Gustav was a pretty standard build, notable for the nifty lead weights included to put in the feet and the lovely metal accessories that come with it. You can see here that the pilot is done. I haven't gone to town on the finishing of him as i'm enclosing the canopy.

The Krote was a revelation - just how many parts were needed for the engine and waist sections????. There's a side panel that you have the option of having on or off. I've chosen off as its a right bastige to stick on. So it'll be off and i have it in mind to have a diorama of it broken down and under repair. You should be able to see that i've added greeblies to the interior just to busy it up a bit and make it a bit more 3D.

I'm keeping everything in sub-assemblies for easy of painting and ease of applying the Mr Surfacer - the next step.

Krote and Gustav

My latest tow kits arrived together. Always wanted a Krote and i only really got the Gustav because it was cheap, i want a suit that's clearly got a man inside rather than a head popping out the top and i can try the Mr Surfacer out on him before i apply it to the Krote.

Neuspotter - done

Very suprised to see the light still works after all the constuction but don't think i'll be using it.

S.A.F.S - finished

Pleased with how the paintjobs come out but that pose is SO stiff and dull. Tried pointing the camera up the barrel to liven it up but no dice. Could've modified the joints but don't think i'd make a decent job of it.

Judge Anderson original art

Not a modelling project, but this site started as a 2000AD as well as SF themed one so figure this is worth a mention.

Been a fan of Dave Taylors work since his work on Dark Horse's "Tongue Lash" and knew he was going to be doing an Anderson tale for the Megazine from his previews on his Blog.

When it arrived it didn't disapoint - an old school Mega City tale involving sentinent buildings getting up and smushing stuff.

And the art was top notch. Dave is excellent at both inticate machinery and the female form and this strip showed both off brilliantly.

So, dead chuffed to get this page. I wanted this one in particular as the final panel is an excellent example of what i'm talking about - a stunning Anderson giving off loads of attitude in front of a very detailed city (the panel itself is relatively small but the amount of tight, tiny detail is astounding).

Psydon Ship - Command Module eyes on

Apologies for anyone who keeps popping back here for progress on the Psydon Ship.

There hasn't been any for a while as i've been putting off the next stage - putting the "eyes" on - as i didn't want to balls it up.

Bit the bullet though and its all done now.

Went ok but... either the Eagle beaks too small or the Hawk mouldings are too big, but the "eyes" cannot be positioned in place the right distance away from the bottom edge on both sides and have the gap between them on the top.

I've compromised - this side has the eye the right distance from the bottom, but the other side is too close (guess which side i'll be photographing from) and the gap up top is too narrow.

But, that's the best i can do.

My War Of The Worlds Blog

Thought you might like to take a look at my fledgling Blog devoted to War Of The Worlds in all its incarnations, be it book, album, art, model, concert, whatever.
Basically a ramble of my thoughts on things, with a heavy design slant:

http://thewarsoftheworlds.blogspot.com/

Psydon Ship - getting there with the CM

Here's that disc puttied in nice and smooth, the Saturn V cone underneath joined to it, and a bit of primer to give me an idea how its looking.

Amazing how mean it looks already.

Oh, and that's a blob of Blu Tac on the front keeping paint off where the "sting" will go, rather than the part itself.

Harrier Jump Jet

And i've one of these 1/24th beauties (the first since '73!) for parts for my Psydon Ship

Tamiya Pit Crew

Why there's a racing car pit crew here? Well, they're the few figures that are the standard Ma.K 1/20th scale and now, thanks to Ian Sinclair, they're mine!

Neuspotter

Thanks to Will over on the Ma.K Forum, i'm building one of these fellas again 24 years after the last one!

Its a lovely bit of work and goes together so well. I'm stunned by the part fit, the crispness of the detail, the multi media parts, the craftmanship - the tiny, tiny holes for the lights leads are drilled in just the right place and just the right size to fit the cables through.

Here's as far as i've got after just one afternoon and a bit of a morning.

Psydon Ship - skirt

Here we have the part kindly supplied from Darren. It replicates the shape of the Blue Ribbon container that Martin used but is virtually impossible to find these days.

The trouble with it is, being clear, its hard to see just where to cut, especially as its got a flange that's quite a bit bigger than the diameter needed. So you can see i've sprayed that area with white primer to make it easier.

Psydon Ship - Martin Bower to the rescue

Mentioned to Martin that i was hunting around for a disc to go behind the "sting" on the Command Module and, next day, the proper part arrives in the post.

Cheers Martin.

Here it is, with me in the process of blending it in.

Psydon Ship - Command Module progress

Just about finished sanding the join between the vac form part and the Plasticard underside.

Can't finish that though until i address this bit.

As you can see from the reference pics in the background, the ship has a "sting" at the front (one of three attempts Mr Bower made to infer an insect), which is an engine bell from the Airfix Saturn V kit.

Got one of them ok, but Martin had truncated the nose then attached a disc then attached the engine bell to that.

The problem is: what is that disc? Not bothered to try and find the actual thing used as its pretty clear from the photos that the disc has exactly the same curve as the Saturn V half cone on the underside. Got one of them too and, by drawing around it on a piece of paper, i can figure out the diameter.

Its a disc 2.5cm across and, eyeballing it, about 0.5cm thick.

While rummaging around for something suitable you can see i've cut the end of the nose in preperation.

Grand Lunar finished

About time i pulled my finger out and got this done.

Kind of happy with it but i've tweaked it a bit in Photoshop to make it look a bit more menacing and try and detract from the blandness of the grey.

S.A.F.S - the camo

Right, here's what i did.

Pic 1 is the pattern for it drawn over the basecoat of "Bleached Bone".

Pic 2 is where i panic big-time - going over the pencil with a band of dark grey.

Pic 3 is me feeling a little bit better as i fill in the inside areas with a dark brown.

Pic 4 is me feeling even better with Vallejo "Desert Yellow" mottled over the brown, a lighter grey inside the dark, and a wash of "Scorched Brown" over everything.

SFMUK London day out

Saturday last saw the first "proper" meet-up of forum posters over on the SFMUK site, with choice of venue being Comet Minatures.

Went up on the train with longterm modelling chum Dover Dave Trelfer (Gremlin on the Forum)and had a nice time meeting up with Mark (Tak5haka) as we tried navigating round the police tape near the shop, set up after the stabbing there. Yup, we were in London alright.

Bumped into Ian (MakMan) in the shop, who was true to form and did the usual of spending more than all of us put together.

Spent more in the pub opposite and that's where Phil (incrediblefruit) joined us.

A good day.

Picture has, left to right, Mark, me, Dave and Ian. Phil's behind the lens.

S.A.F.S

And yet ANOTHER Ma.K suit. Pretty similar to my Fireball but this one isn't space-born so there's no engines on back, plus there's a seperate pilot figure - so that's why i got it.

Was thinking of doing a similar colour scheme to my Himmlespion but i really like the green decals that come with this fella and they won't show up at all on that one, so am thinking of a brown.

My secret project

Not a lot going on here at the moment, and that's partially because of my working on the latest build challenge over on the SFMUK Site.
This time its build anything from British SF/Horror/Fantasy literature.
I'm well into my build but, because submissions have to be anonymus (sp?), i can't post anything about it.
Deadlines the start of November with voting shortly after. When we're there i'll tell you all about it.

Psydon Ship - Command Module assembly

Here we have it trimmed and stuck to the Plasticard underside. Helped immensily by the Vac Form sticking so well to it.

Armoured Crab - finished

Here it is then.

I've deliberatly kept anything off it that might give the scale away, so i can have it as a 1/20th Drone or a 1/48th manned craft as and when i fancy.

Psydon Ship - Command Module woes

Grrrr... had a reminder why i don't like Vac Forms...
So, i've trimmed out the CM shape. It needs sticking to plasticard for the underside. Put the CM onto a sheet of the stuff, draw round it in pencil then cut the shape out.
Then its a simple job of glueing the two together right?
Wrong.
Seems the Vac Form is so thin that, when i pressed down lightly to hold it in place when drawing round it, the shape actually splayed out a bit. Meaning the shape i drew and cut out is far too big...
Going to Blu Tac the shape back to it and draw again.

Paul Newman - RIP

Nothing to do with modelling but, sigh, another childhood hero leaves us.

Much more moved than usual this time, partly because he was a great actor, partly because he was so darn cool, partly the fact that someone who made so many films so long ago was still with us till now. But mainly that he seemed such a genuine, decent, honourable human being.

God speed Mr Newman.

Armoured Crab - a question of scale

Legs all on and setting right now.

Minds turned to scale.

On the box, it has an option of either it being a 1/20th robot device or a 1/48th manned craft.

Was going the 1/20th route but, with a figure that scale alongside, its not really doing it for me. Thinking it'd be a much more intimidating hunk at 48th, with the bonus that i can man it with readily available figures. So that's what i'm going to do, and scrap my initial idea of all my MAK things being 1/20th.

Psydon Ship - progress

Thanks to Canadian Top Bloke Darre, i today got my vac form Eagle Beak and shape to substitute for the Blue Ribbon container.

If you come here Darren, i owe you a trans-atlantic drink buddy.

Armoured Crab - nearly there

Legs are almost done now so i've gone and glued the first two to the lower body. Whether through accident or design, i've found the body part sits just right on top of a Tamiya paint pot while the legs are setting.

You can also see here i've finished the upper body and am in the process of applying decals.

And here's a leg masked up before applying the identifying bands that MAK things seem to always have. Was going with yellow, but there's already a yellowish tint to the colour scheme, so am going to go with white.

Armoured Crab - base coating

Been a while since i've posted on this fella and there's been quite a bit of progress.
Clean-up was pretty minimal, mainly getting rid of minor seamlines and filling a few airholes. There's a few instances of "clinker" but they just add to the feel of the piece. I've realised that building it then painting would be a bit of a bind as the 6 legs are quite close together and getting into all the recesses would be dificult enough for the base coat, let alone the washes and weathering. So decided to finish it all in sub-assemblies and fit it all together at the end.
That's made dead easy by the fact that the upper body fits onto the lower very snugly.
So, i'm going to paint, wash and weather the legs, claws and lower body by themselves.
Assemble them.
Build and paint the upper.
Then join everything together.
Here's where i am today - everything based and i've started on the washes. The legs went together very well. Used Superglue to stick the shrouds on, but Araldite for the two main leg pieces and toes as they're going to be taking the weight of the body.

Phebus Judge Dredd rider

While i'm talking Phebus, here's a kit i made years and years ago. Was deeply into 2000AD at the time (and if it was any good right now, i'd be again) so did him up as a sort of high speed despatch rider blasting across the Cursed Earth.

Phebus "Thor"

Went to Euromilitaire yesterday looking for things i could use in the Ma.k world. Didn't get any of that but did get this.

VERY Ma.kish and, at 1/24th scale, a close match. Lovely resin castings, but there's an awful lot i don't understand where they go...

Himmelspion - finished

Here we are then. Pretty pleased how things've turned out - was a bit unsure of the waist section for a while.

Like how the camouflage turned out, which i pinched from a scheme from the MAK Modelling book.

Himmelspion - what a whopper

Don't know if you can make it out here, but its the waist and upper section balanced on a jar.

Its quite a size and width, as you can tell by my 1/20th Fireball alongside.

Armoured Crab - end of the day.

Just a shot to show how many parts there are. All been rubbed down and are drying after their bath. Some pieces are missing and are one's still needing work - just some filler on the ends of bits.

Himmelspion - camouflage

So, what to do? Its a dirty great hunk of machinery, hovering over enemy lines held aloft by noisy, stinking engines belching smoke. Not much need for camo then. But (a) the large empty spaces cry out for it, and (b) haven't done any for decades.

So decided to go for it, but what scheme? In the end took my cue from the MAK Modelling book and did a version i really liked.

Went thus:

Pic 1 - The two parts are based in "Tamiya JA Grey". Drew the pattern in pencil then went over it with a mid grey.

Pic 2 - Filled the area in very blotchily with "Games Workshop Catchan Green".

Pic 3 - Splodged on "GW Gretchin Green", leaving the darker still showing.

Pic 4 and 5 - washed with dirty washes, added decals, sealed it, put on rusty washes. Oh, the top of the beaker is the underside so that's "Vallejo Sky Blue".