Vampire Batman - spick and span

Looking forward to goring him up now. Last time, i had the base and stake in much brighter colours, with the emblem on the base the full yellow/black affair. Thought that detracted too much from the bust now now its all mettalics and the stakes a dark brown.

Draconian Fighter - finished

Decided not to go the rusty route as you could barely tell it on top of this colour scheme. So, all done.

B7 Hairdryer Ship - turning to the underside

Okay, have to tackle this sooner or later. These two shots you see here are all that i can find of the underside and all i can get from them is:

The positioning of the smaller Airfix stands at the front and how they're attached by some sort of thick tubing,
the positioning of the larger stand and how its much closer to the hull - guessing to make all three the same distance hanging down, thereby allowing the ship to rest on them. Are they meant to be an undercarriage then?

I've no way of knowing what Matt used for the connecting tubing so instead i'm going to do something that he might have done, and that is to use the upright part of the stand but have it facing the wrong way round to make it a bit more interesting.
Of course that leaves me with what do i detail the rst of it with if i dunno what was on the original?
As i'm having to go the "inspired by" route to replicate some parts, i'm not too fussy about doing the same for the underneath.
And you can see i've made a start.
I'm going to try and emulate what Matt did up top by having and blank areas in roughly the same places and having most of the gubbins towards the rear.

Got me a Bat-Blog

Been having a sort out of my den and it occured to me that i've an awful lot of Batman stuff, along with 40-odd years of back issues.
So thought i might as well set up a Blog to have a ramble about it all:

http://outofthebatcave.blogspot.com/

Vampire Batman - almost there

Just need now to finish off the symbol, block in the rest of the black, then go to town on the gore.
I've also finished the base - but that's kinda boring so not documented it.

Where the engine goers on the Draconian Fighter

This is interesting. Here we have AJA Models' take on the fighter which, as well as giving a fully detailed cockpit, also tries to explain how the engine can fit in such a small space - it points straight down

Getting rusty

With all the metallics done on the Draconian, thought it'd be easier if i did the rusty weathering of all three of my fighters at the same time.
Funny, but i didn't realise i was making three ships all pretty much the same size, even if the scales are different.
Speaking of which, the Viper is 1/32nd, i'm putting Greenship as 1/72nd, and the Draconian is, judging by the size of the cockpit chair, about 1/20th. Which beggars the question - how the hell do fit an engine in the space behind it?

New Ship - done with the green

Okay, just about finished with this part. It looks pretty garish, what with the bright yellow contrasting the greens, but (A) I want it that way, trying to evoke those outlandish colour schemes of so many 70's paperback covers, (B) I'm expect it to tone down a tad once i've put the pastels on.

Draconian Fighter - small disaster and pastelling

Once the paint had dried i put the decals on...
30 plus years had a VERY strange effect when they were immersed in water - they curled up good and tight on themselves. Had a hell of job to unfurl them and get them to lay flat. In the end managed it, but the small one's that are supposed to go up near the cockpit had no chance - so i left them off.
Annoying, but felt better once i laid down the brown and black pastels and sealed everything.

Draconian Fighter - painting done

So here we have him with different browns splodged on, making a mottling effect, building up in lighter and lighter shades.
I imagine the Draconians to be the Klingons of Buck's world and want to reflect that in the beat-up earthy look to this ship.
Its actually a lot lighter than i'd normally go for - but i know the next stage of pastelling will darken things down hugely so have to prepare for that now.

Draconian Fighter - lack of detail

I've always thought this was a pretty accurate looking kit - until i checked with this photo just before sploshing various browns around as you can see in the second pic.
Blimey, looks pretty bare doesn't it? There's not even a hint at so much of this lovely intricate detail Ken and co put on. And, oddly, what are surfaces with holes drilled in them on the original are duplicated as raised bumps.
Can see now why folk have produced a more accurate version. But, that's not for me - i got this one partly because it was a quick purchase but mainly as i wanted to rebuild something from my early SF model making.

New Ship - more green

Here i've washed the whole thing down with a Dark Green/Black mix which sure stopped it looking like a toy.
Trouble is, it went real dull, so i'm in the process of picking various panels out in different greens. That's proving harder than i thought it'd be as most shades aren't suitable at all. The only one that is is Games Workshops "Scorpion Green", so i'm mixing up small amounts of that with other greens to try and make some colours that do fit in.

Draconian Fighter - basecoat

With the canopy glass masked off it was time to decide what colur to do the thing in.
Watch the show and you get and odd pinky colour - but that's the crappy photography for you.
The full size version seems to be a salmon mixed with brown affair, while most shots of the minatures in decent lighting look like this.
But Ken Larson has shots on his site (which are copyright protected, which is fair enough) of his one's much more of a bone colour and i really like that, so that's what i'm going for.
First though is to basecoat, and here it is in Vallejo "Light Brown", which isn't too far off the original plastic of the kit.

Draconian Fighter - assembly

Pic 1 - This ship will soon be finished methinks - after a soapy wash last night (the kit, not me), i've started to put it together. made easier by the build being a case of putting a couple of inserts into the upper hull, glueing the hull and cockpit halves together and bunging a gun on.
Pic 2 - This is the cockpit area - a chair. You can get an add on fully detailed interior but there's no way you'll see it through the red canopy glass so would have to figure a way of opening the sealed shut cockpit to show off all your hard work and expense. You can only just about make out the chair in a good light, so i'm not going to bother even painting it.
Pic 3 - here we go all done. I'm waiting for the white glue i've used on the clear red piece to set good and hard before masking it up prior to priming.
Pic 4 - For Desert Scribe, Andrew and Mike - another shot of the still lovely 61 year old Wilma in her nifty alternative outfit (shame about the hair)

Off The Shelf - 9 - Poisen Ivy

A lovely kit this, packing incredible detail for only 1/8th. She was a joy to build and paint - the plant a right slog.

The lure(s) of Buck Rogers

So, i'm having a trawl around the Net and i stumble upon the Website of model maker Ken Larsons work on the Buck Rogers TV show.
I've always considered the programme to be naffer than naff and haven't seen it since it aired, but did like Princess Ardalas huge Flagship design, so thought i'd take a look.
WOW. Ken was a pretty prolific modelmaker, turning out some pretty nifty designs as well as the more well known one's.
He's sites really interesting and i urge you to take a look:

http://www.universalhartland.com/code/buck000m.shtml

Looking at the builds on there, i got to thinking maybe i should get the DVD's. "Nah" thinks i, "it'll still be as bad as you remember, probably worse". But i would like to see these ships in action. Then i thought maybe i should get it for that, and the Sprogs can get it for the episodes themselves. And, anyway, it might be duff to get it, but at least i'm not getting the *shudder* 2nd series am i?

So i go ahead and buy it - and what do i think?
Blimey, it IS as bad as i remember it. Most notable now with hindsite and all these years gone by, is:
how each episode is nothing more than "Hart To Hart" in space - God awful crappy soap operas but with Buster Crabbe, Cesear Romero, Julie Newmar etc thrown in,
how they had the gall to think disco light tubing could pass for fueling pipes,
how Gil can't act. At all.
How flaming annoying Tweakie still is (but the kids LOVE him and he's their favourite parts of the show),
how shoddy the model photography is,
and how alluring Wilma still is. That is, when she has this helmet on. The substandard Farrah Fawcett Majors, shambolic hair "do" that's under there is truely hideous. Which is a shame as it spoils that nifty blue/purple outfir she sometimes sports.

So, a right old pold to get through the discs, waiting for an effects scene that always is alet down with its crappness.
But, still have a hankering for them, so thought i'd get this here ship.
Oddly called a Marauder on the box, its never called that on the show, rather a "Hatchet Fighter" or "Pirate Ship".
I had one when they first came out and seem to recall it ended its life by having the cockpit ripped off and filled in, the engine taken off and a 1999 Eagle beak out in its palce. Then painted green.
I'm looking forward to the build as i've always liked this and the Starfighter, this one being the one i've gone for as its not only an unusal design, but its going to be great fun doing the painting and weathering.
The one i've bought has a pretty beat up box and all the parts are off the sprues and dusty as hell, so there's bath time before i can start.

B7 Hairdryer Ship - puzzle solving

Just about my only resolution this year is to finish some of the projects that are languishing in boxes or gathering dust on the bench.
So, minds turned back to this one.
I've multiple stumbling blocks of just what was used in some places:

For a start, in pic 1, if you look at the very "top" there's an angular shape that looks an awful lot like it could be a 1/72 jet fighter wing lain horizontally. Reckon it'll be near impossible to identify, as Matt Irvine doesn't recall it, so i'm on the lookout for a suitable substitute.

Pic 2 has a closer look at a couple of parts i need. The top one is infuriatingly familiar and i'm thinking maybe the underside of a 1/72 tank turret - that bit that allows it to turn on the main body.

Pic 3 has a couple of shapes from the rear, again ringing bells. Luckily, i've been helped out again by the Eagle Forum, with the left one being identified as part from the Saturn V kit cut down.

Lastly, i've got to think about the underside. All i know of it for sure is that there's 3 upturned Airfix plane stands down there. I've got them so that's ok - but how to attach them? Been having a ponder and, in the end, decided to go with just turning the base over and glueing the stand part into it. With no photographic evidence that Matt didn't do that, there's a chance he did, right?
The fact that the underside seems to be unknown actually helps me as i can go my own way, putting on parts that aren't right at all but hopefully in keeping with what's going on up top.