24 hour Walker

Was having through my bits box yesterday and came up with this claw from a long gone toy. Turning it over, it looked like legs to me. Very Ma.K legs. So decided to do a speed build. Had another rummage and came up with this lighter and a couple of spare Ma.K parts.
After 5 minutes it was built, another 10 and it was primed. Waited a few hours then basecoated then put on the dirty and rusty washes.
And today decalled it up. What's good is that the super-bright blue LED in the lighter still works well, so made sure i covered it up during painting.
Quite chuffed how its come out.

Best Moments In Film # 6 - goosebumps #4

"You stay alive". Dunno why, but this scene has real resonance for me.

Top Ten TV Openings - #3

Best Who, best ever credits

Deep Water Hunter - build done

I've ummed and ahhed over what to do for this ships weaponry. In the end i've gone for this - an old lighter. Really wasn't too sure at first as i thought it detracted from the lines of the craft, but its grown on me since i've put the primer on.

Blade Runner Blaster - almost done

Gunmetal applied now. If you go on the forums, you see that the metallic parts are actually in about 4 shades. But, as this isn't the most accurate of versions, and i've not lit it either, i'm not that bothered by sticking to one dark and one light shade.

Deep Water Hunter - on its way

Quite a bit of progress. I was going to add lots of tubes and wings to make it a real different looking Sub, but the main hull is covered with rivets (one of the reasons i'm making it for the MaK universe) and anything add won't so would look a bit odd. So limited it to a couple of the small wings from the kit.
Been adding lots of tiny detail though and also filled in the huge gap where the wings are meant to go. I'm keeping the rear section just like this as i have it in mind that its propulsion system is rather like a squids - suck water in and shoot it out the back.

Blade Runner Blaster - colours

Here it is primed, black and black with aluminium for the grip area. I'm keeping the LED section apart for ease of painting the barrel.

Deep Water Hunter

Or "Tiefer Wasserjager" as its going to be from the Ma.K universe. Its - maybe - a 1/44th submarine that lurks on the sea bottom, rising up to attack surface ships.
as you can probably tell, its the 1/24th Airfix Harrier, turned upside down and round the wrong way.
All i've done so far to bung some domes (yo yo halves dont'cha know - a tip picked up from Mr Bower) to fill in the air intakes

U.S.S. Glazebrook - bit of an update

For anyone wanting to see how the ol' girl is getting along, here's where she is right now.
Am really taking my time on this, doing a bit here and there on the weathering and detailing side, making sure its right.

Martin Bower's Orion and Liberator

Bit of self-pimpage here, by the latest issue of Bowerhouse is almost ready to ship.
Inside you'll find a large article on 2001's Orion and a HUGE feature on Blakes 7's Liberator.
So huge in fact that the remit of one film, one TV and one original design has had to be given the elbow to do it justice.
Link here:

http://scifimodels.org.uk/phpWebsite/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=235

Nostromo

Here we go then with this lil' project. Clean-up of parts is underway and has been a simple job of removing some mould lines and rescribing some of the detail - helped by the resin being nice and soft.

Blade Runner Blaster

Off we go then - and straight into a snag.
I got this kit as it has the proper clear orange handgrips. It also comes with 4 red LED's for the side of the gun.
Problem.
While it'd be easy to install the LED's in the section (holes are marked), and easy to run the wires through the body of the gun, and the battery pack sits neatly in the hand grip, I'd have to drill out this spacer plug of resin you can see here to accomodate the tiny switch, also cut two channels for the wires then, when done, superglue the dummy switch on top of the real one.
Really wasn't looking forward to attempting that.
In the end i've decided not to light it at all.
Reasons:
(1) If i was going to light the red LED's then i'd have to purchase green LED's to make it totally accurate - but there's no way i can fit them onto the part where they go.
(2) If i lit it, i'd have to put threads into the handgrip area to allow for removal of the clear orange parts. a right palavar.
(3) there's no point in trying to be 100% accurate on the lighting side of things if the deail and lettering on the gun isn't accurate. Which it is/isn't.
So, no lights and an approximation of the real gun rather than a hero version. Bit lazy i know, but i'll end up with a better version than i had back in 1992.

Happy Birthday To Me

Yep, the days come around again. Planned on taking it easy, which i am, and - good timing here - two kits arrived today.
First up is the present from my Mum and is Deckards Blaster from Blade Runner. Had one of these back in the early 90's which was a solid lump of resin. This isn't, as you can see by the amount of parts, and far more accurate, having the clear orange hand grips plus LED's and wiring. It comes with a pretty comprehensive instruction sheet, which is going to be needed.
Also landing is a small version of the Nostromo. Always wanted a kit of this craft but the Halcyon is just too darn dear and too darn big (SO wish Fine Molds would have a go at it) and the Konami is tiny. So, at about 5 or 6 inches, this'll make for a nice project. It might be small but there's tons of parts and going to do a lot of research to work out what goes where (oh, the hardship)

Top Ten TV Openings - #3

Thought long and hard about this next one and, really, this is the TV show above all others that got me into SF.
As a 7-year old it wasn't the characters, the plot or any of that. It was the fact that i'd never seen anything like it before and, i'm guessing, back in the late 60's neither had many other Western folk.
Its the show that has the deepest impact on me, on the most emotional of levels. I listen to this theme song and i'm a nipper again.