Luft46's Blog

First port of call after getting the tickets was off to Swap and Sell. This was more like the days of old with too many people in too small a space but this arrangement was supposedly Covid compliant.

I bought a tiny model car kit.

There was a good range of kits etc but nothing I desperately had to have.

Next stop was the traders downstairs and here I just got two books and a display stand for that Jap amphibious tank if I manage to finish it.

The first is an updated version of the NUTs & Bolts book on German AA Panzer IVs. It’s much thicker with lots more pictures and a modelling section.

The second book is the Ammo book on German armour in Italy which has quite a bit on the Panther and has lots of photos.

And lastly is the diorama base.

Next up is the actual models. I expected that given there was a two year hiatus there would be lots but some sections were still quite sparse. Perhaps others suffered my problem of lots of building but very little finished.

Customer numbers were reported as down on Saturday and I’m not sure making it mandatory to get kits in for judging on Friday really helped.

I suspect they will go back to the Queens birthday long weekend next year if at all possible.

I visited Hearns on Friday and didn’t buy anything as I often don’t. They seem to be moving more into Gundam and DnD areas with other areas especially model railways diminishing.

I think his writing is usually pretty silly but I did like the bookcover I saw at the airport recently.

I know all the trendy modellers finished lot of kits during lockdown but being contrarian I worked on lots of kits up to paint ready stage but managed to not finish a thing.

About 2 weeks ago I finally finished something being the 8 barrel flak gun kit from Das Werk. It’s mounted on a small Ikea photo base with some DAS ground work topped with brown weathering powder mixed with PVA to give a flexible slightly cracked surface.

Grass and some Flowers from Gamer’s Grass rounded out the base work. As usual artistic advice from my wife ensured it looked random and natural.

The diorama/vignette is based on photos in a NUTs and Bolts book with photos of this and other Flak guns etc from a Moscow outdoor museum taken back on the 80s or 90s. More recent photos on the net

show a bit more care being taken now but I prefer the rawness of the original photos.

I’ve had today off work so a little modelling time was possible. Due to the wet weather YET AGAIN I decided to work on the eight barrelled flak gun and got some if the ground work done. It’s not finished but with help from my art consultant SWMBO I’ve made good progress. It’s still a little way from finished but at least it’s possible.

Despite a long weekend no modelling was done. The muse has left the room well and truly. I’m sure it will return but just not for the moment.

In the meantime here’s some photos of recent acquisitions.

The main body of the submarine is now together with Milliput in the gaps after some fettling. The tanks have now been identified via Google as air tanks

For a change I have dry weather after 2 weeks of rain and shortly another week of rain is due.

So I’ve taken advantage of the break to spray the MaschineKannone kit with Tamiya TS99 rattle can grey followed by a generic gloss varnish rattle can. This was quite smelly so I’m still waiting for this to outgas before I work on it tomorrow on my day off.

I’ve also done some work on the base with a base of DAS covered with dark brown weathering powder mixed with PVA and water. In some parts I mixed in some light brown powder with this to get a drier look in some sections of the base. I’ll make further adjustments on how this looks as I go.

The lighter coloured circles are where the gun base will rest.

I’ve also been slowly working on the Lippisch canopy vac form former – still Milliput and PSR but it’s slowly getting there.

Having a little extra time whilst I waited on the outgassing I dragged out the MicroMir Kaiten 10 sub kit. It’s basic in parts breakup and moulding with quite a few thick sprue gates but not too bad for what is a more limited run kit. I spent the arvo doing parts clean up for the major parts with nothing assembled yet.

Doing the MicroMir kit is particularly appropriate as they are a Ukrainian manufacturer.

I got back on the weekend after going to see a friend near Newcastle. I collected a lot of kits and accessories from him. Before that I had been to Frontline and unusually found lots of kits I wanted including the Russian shipping container fitted out with 4 missiles, including one you can pose in a firing position.

Pictured below is the stash that I got excluding various accessories including guns, some metal pieces for various scratch building jobs and some RATO units

I also took up the below two kits that I was stuck on. The B17 tail wheel well is now fixed and the 8 barrels on the Flak gun are now reasonably well aligned. Either of these kits could be restarted now.

So apart from the Li P13 which still needs a new canopy to be vacformed the big question is which kit I work on next and I am still undecided on that one !

I’ve finished decorating the cockpit with various control panels I have lying around in the spares box or rather set of drawers. It’s not designed for an open cockpit but will look ok when the canopy goes on.

The exhaust area looks to be on its last PSR cycle but a busy week has precluded it getting done.

Speaking of the canopy I’m hoping to get some suitable clear plastic soon and have a go at doing a vac form one. I’ve made the form based on the current canopy but it will need some modification to get it ok.

I’m seeing a friend today and picking up about 9 months backlog of purchases including the already infamous block of flats kit- the Takom Berlin flak tower.

Apart from the relatively crude moulding the LiP13 kit from PM suffers from a pretty shitty canopy.

Firstly it does not fit very well which I have been slowly addressing and secondly the mould attachment points are overlarge and impinge into the canopy area.

I had tried to fix this with a fun afternoon of sanding the canopy with toothpaste but due to the cheap brittle plastic they used this resulted in some stress lines in the glass and very little visible difference in the obvious attachment points.

So somewhat inevitably the only solution left is to vacform a new canopy. I have done this before but not for many years and of course in the post Xmas clean up I have of course thrown out the couple of sheets I was keeping just in case.

The white blob at the front left is the canopy filled with Milliput !