Got me a new Blog

Its dawned on me that, with showing films being my profession and watching them a hobby, why not have a whittle on about them?
Expect rants both for and against, plus the odd anecdote from this here Projectionist lark:

http://mangamax-outofthebox.blogspot.com/

Who can out-tom Tom Baker

So, i get a text from The Bronze from this here Blogiverse last night saying how he'd just seen Matt Smith on the Jonathan Ross show and how there's going to be a sort of nod to William Hartnell in the new series.
"Pish" i say to my wife this morning when discussing it, "Tom Baker would be much more fitting. Tom's better than any of 'em. Better than any Tom in fact".
And there followed a light-hearted bicker in which i maintained that there's never been a better Tom (not Thomas mind) in the whole of human history.
My wife tried putting forward candidates such as Mt Cruise and Selleck but they were quickly shot down in flames.
Then it occured to me - i'm right aren't i?
Which Tom in history can ever come close to the barking mad genius that is Mr Baker?
Go on, i dare you.

BigWing

So, taking apart my Griffon kit for use of some of the parts for my Fish 'Bot project. Which means junking this rather nifty backpack affair he sports.
It occured to me that if i turn it round and point it forward you get a nice spaceship with huge great wings either side of a tiny cabin - with a nice bulge for a canopy up top.
So, bung on a coupla greeblies and a coupla tank affairs, mainly to hide the fact that half a hing on one side had pinged off years ago, prime with white and its done.
Then sprayed in a bright yellow. Again, i want to invoke the spirit of Peter Elson but also what now is the canopy will be gloss black so i wanted a contrast to that.

Dragonfly Ship - progress

Quite a bit done now.
Slight set back in that the P38 that i'd shoved in the bottom of the neck then squished the body into that stuck fine - but didn't stick to the neck at all, leaving me this lovely P38 shape of the inside of it.
Got round that ok though by drilling a hole in the neck and the P38, pinning it and glueing with Araldite.
Been asking advice as what to do about the engine area, something that's been bothering me from the start, and they've come up with a mass of tubes a la and Atlas rocket. Which sounds neat so i'm going with that.
They also suggested Anti-Gravity pods slung underneath, which is another neat idea. Couldn't use the traditional ping pong balls cut-down for it though as the width of the body is far too narrow.
Luckily, the toilets where i work have a dispenser of toothpaste chewing gum which come in snap apart balls made of hard plastic. And here they are on.
Before i put them on though i had to get the surface ready.
You can see in the top pic two blue stripes. They are actual peel back covering for two lengths of sticky pads - the body is actually a conduit you attach above your skirting board to house electrical cables.
I could've taken the sticky stuff off but that would've meant a lot of scrubbing and rubbing.
Insead, i merely cut a length of Plasticard to size and used the sticky lengths to hold them on.
That works fine for them but i'm a bit worried that additional kit parts will make it too heavy and it'll start to peel away (especially as it'll be facing down). So bought a length of "L" shaped Plastruct which i'll be attaching along the edge to keep everything together.
Oh, the black hole in the top pic is me, for once, thinking ahead about displaying it.
Its going to need to be on a stand, but the usual clear rod i use will be far too thin - that filler filled neck is HEAVY - so i've drilled a hole, bung a biro cap in and i'll use the biro for the stand.

New kit on the way

Getting my work bonus means i can finally get one of these luvverely ships that i've been pinning for for a long while now.
Dunno what i'll do colour-wise but could be similar to the examples here - but not the skull one.

Kali - naked

Here she is stripped. You can see now just how soft and none existent the detail is. Next up, prime her with black, add the Gel Medium again and fashion new swords.

Fish 'bot

Java over on the Ma.K Forum has just posted loads of pics of his excellent scratchbuilt underwater robot.
Responded to it not only because its a brilliant design done brilliantly but i recognised some of the parts used - the nose area is the chest from a Griffon Mecha, the side stabilsers from same kit and the tail parts are from another Mecha i'd built back in the 80's.
As i had two sources of parts, and it being dead nifty, thought i'd have a go.
Java was kind enough to share what he used so it was off to get a Febreeze bottle to use the spray assembly for one of the parts.
So, this is what i've got so far.

WW2 Dalek?

Just come across this. Its cut very fast and there's an awful lot happening but its looking like we've got a camoed-up Dalek sporting a Union Jack having a wander through the trenches and what looks like Spitfires in space attacking a spaceship.
Knew RTD leaving would be great, but never hoped for this.

Slab Ship - all done...

... but the cockpit windows are a mistake.

Dragonfly Ship - eye

Again, i want an "eye" detail but have no way of attaching it. Here you can see i've added bands of Go-Fasta stripes and glued on to that. The eye in this case is a wheel from a 1/12th bike and a nice rounded shape from the B-19 kit. Trouble is going to be - and i've no way of sorting it out - is that parts are making this bit heavier and heavier and it doesn't attach well to its other half and i can't glue them. So what to do?

Dragonfly Ship - head

Here we are with the neck attached to the head. That leaves quite a gap between the two and i've started hiding it by adding kit parts. On the top, here, we have two bits from the SRN4 Hovercraft and, below, there's a couple from the B-19 plane.
As isay, the plastic of the bowls will not stick to anything so here i'm adding Go-Fasta stripes, which glue does stick to, and i can fix detail to that.

Chaos Terminators - all done.

Very pleased with how these fellas have come out, good value to have such detailed torsos for only 16 quid - shame i had to pay full whack for the legs and arms.

Dragonfly Ship.

Well, that's what i'm going to call it for now, as the bulbous head and slim body i reckon will sort of look like one - but doubt if i'll be putting wings on.
First thing i have to attend to is how to go about dealing with the fact that the yougurt pots are of that plastic that glue just doesn't work on.
I've gotten round the first hurdle of how to attach them together by drilling holes in both and bolting them together.
In the first pic you can see what i've found for the body - the black cup will be a sapcer between the head and the body itself, which is a length of grooved plastic tubing i've had lying around for ages.
How to join them all together?
I know the head doesn't stick and doubt if the black cup will either as its made of that horrible waxy stuff.
So, second pic shows how i'm going to deal with it. I've drilled two more holes in the head and put bolts through. And i'm filling the cup with Polyfilla. When its full i'll lay the head on top so the bolts go into the filler and hopefully it'll all set hard and stick together.
To attach the body, i'll be putting some P38 into the small recess on the underside of the cup and put the body in place, hoping the same thing'll happen.

Daemon Prince Of Nurgle - finished

Here he is then, eye dealt with and assembled. Am pleased how he's come out and enjoyed him a great deal.

Kali reborn

Was up in the attic this morning, moved a box and found this lady in this sorry state.
I'd built her about 10 years ago and displayed her on quite a large base. That's long gone, as to are the remainder of her swords, which i'd made from Plasticard.
So, think i'll strip her down, assemble again and repaint.
That'll be interesting as the detail on the kit is soft to the point of non-existant and i'd spiced it up a bit with Liquetex Gel Medium - be interesting to see how that comes off.

Off The Shelf - 1 - Drone Trooper

Ahhh, those were the days.
Back in the halcyon days of the FTVMC, the Drone Trooper kit was launched, alongside a - proposed - comic strip of the adventures of the fella.
That came to nowt, with me and Ian Ward only seeing one tale in print before lack of sales nixed that project.
But the kit garned a few sales and here's my take on him.
I've detailed him up a bit with the addition of kit bits on the armour and especially on the belt.
He's looking down slightly so thought it'd be an idea for him to be looking at a vanquised foe, which i sculpted out of Das Pronto with cocktail sticks for teeth.

USS Blen-Dah - nixing that idea

Yup, decided on a new scratchbuild - brought about by finding these nifty dessert pots in the supermarket.
Have it in mind to join them thus with a long form like this to which the propulsion section will be joined to.

Off The Shelf - 1 - Hammerstien

Going back quite a way now, and here's the vinyl kit of the leader of the ABC Warriors from 2000AD, guest star in the Judge Dredd film, hence the making of the kit.
Its a nifty piece of work, but i'd always had a problem with him looking sideways and firing wrist guns that he never has in the strip, along with a regular hand instead of the hammer that gave him his name.
So when i bought it, it was with a mind to get him back to his ABC origins.
First trick was to turn his head round to facing front, which was a nightmare as, to do that, i had to sever all the luvverly cable detail which of course never matched up once it was turned.
It was a case of laying in new PVC cables over the old to hide what i'd done.
A simple job was to remove his right hand and the replacement hammer was fashioned out of Magic Sculpt over a Plasticard former.
Finally, it was to give him a whacking great gun, and this is part of an old Macross kit i'd built in the mid 80's.