Luft46's Blog

Wandered into Hobbyco in Sydney and found this Hase J46 kit combo. Neither flew in real life but should be fun and the camo schemes are easy. Not sure of the decal though. I thought it was a bargain for $72 AUD.

On the news front Hylands books are due to close next month so there goes the last big military bookshop in Australia. I’m a bit sad at this but like many they failed to adapt to the internet and just got caned in the market place. Still very disappointed.

On other fronts I’m doing some modelling. Nothing major but slow progress on the train stuff. I’ve done some weathering on the tracks and the hut courtesy of some new paints specifically for weathered wood. Pictures next time.

The last picture is the Miniart 1.35 scale Triebflugel due in a while. It’s going to be ridiculously tall and the scale is strange but I gots to have one. Amusing Hobby are doing one in 1.48 and that will necessitate 2 versions being day and night fighter. I may try and stretch the night version

The other thing occupying my attention recently has been the 2 sets of drawers I have bought.

The wooden set ( library catalogue card drawerd ) were the ones I really wanted but refurbishing them has meant that they are too good for the garage and they are now destined for the front room. The only hindrance is that polishing the knobs and brass card holders is a slow process even with a Dremel.

The metallic set were not what I originally wanted but are now great. The only work involved was in creating many balsa dividers and the labels for the front of the drawers. I can now find all my many small parts and accessories.

Last up is a disturbing visitor to my work bench and the view out of my window recently.

Progress so far on the rail items including the Ratio kit

It’s been four months since my last entry and there is a reason, mostly work related.

I quit my job due mainly to a difficult boss, my replacement lasted 2 weeks before she did the same. The play out of all this has dragged out over the last few months and my modelling has suffered. It’s not that I haven’t modelled, it’s just that it hasn’t been very effective. The last KV2 is still unfinished.

In the meantime I have been dabbling with some OO/HO kits. The first is a abandoned wagon in 5 pieces from Ratio that apart from a little filler and some wood strip took very little to do. This came from the front of a railway hobby magazine. The other 2 kits from my stash are both from Dapol being a JCB excavator and a BP tanker. Both are 60’s vintage kits and needed lots of part thinning. In the case of the tanker I am replacing the ladders with etched brass ones. For the excavator the two buckets needed major thinning to look vaguely prototypical. The cab also needed some clear plastic for this which was not supplied.

Images to follow later.

No actual modelling this week. Just going through every box I have and chucking out a few no longer wanted kits. Still lots to do but away for a few days. KV2 will hopefully be finished by end of January but first need to finish the sorting.

Ok it’s bloody hot here in Sydney so not much modelling going on. Another small PSR cycle today.

I’ve faced the fact I may not get the KV2 3 storey finished by Dec 31 and instead of rushing it will proceed slowly now.

I’ve also started that other fun game of going through all my kits to see if any need selling and boxing them up in archive boxes to better protect them from dust and insects.

This of course quickly degenerates into chaos as per below. Due to the heat this is being done in 1 hr max sessions.

Despite appearances there is sone sort of system going on.

That was the cry as I finally managed to get the KV2 3 storey turret tank up tothe point where I could apply Tamiya primer. Mind you I may need another PSR cycle but the end seems possible.

Talking of Tamiya I sent my wife off to Hobbyco armed with the following 2 photos as she was in the city for work to get me another tin of Russian green just in case. Given its the Xmas season I did not want to be left without enough paint.

And lastly from a book a quote describing that special someone we all know whoever that may be.

When you arrive at the point where your AMS to add 12 rungs leads you into the 4th cycle of sanding and you are thoroughly sick of sanding and the diorama base also still needs work. SIGH !!!!

TRIGGER WARNING !

And a bad print from the 70’s that we had and I saw yet again in an antiques shop recently. I thought all of these would have been burnt by the end of the 80’s at least.

Yes another one is done. That’s six for the year now. The only one left is the 3 storey job.

The toon one was relatively simple and I did end up weathering it a bit. Decals were ok but the matt varnish (Lucky) I used tended to chip and peel when I was doing the weathering causing a lot of fiddling to get it right.

I think it would be better on aircraft where the varnish is the absolute last stage rather than on armour.

I always feel the urge to do a little weathering over the last coat of varnish just to make it more grimy and realistic, something I don’t usually bother with for aircraft.

Ok they could’ve been better, I might reshoot with more light later.

Just a few progress shots on the 3 story. I have now got all the steps (12) on, its not perfect but it will probably have to do. I’ll clean it all up , do some primer and work out which if any I redo.

The tow rope is now also done so the only other thing to do is get a new grass mat that has longer grass. I’ll probably add some Russian brown dirt to it to get a better look.