Luft46's Blog

The only difficulty so far has been getting the %^$## cabin to go together- three straight pieces with edge contact only has made this a fun exercise. After a few attempts it is now secured. I need to fit out the cabin and then onto the joy of the undercarriage/ sorry I meant tracks but I need to watch a video on how this is done as they really do dangle a bit off the main body.

I forgot to include the winner of the Miscellaneous section, you’ll know it when you see it as it is truly unusual.

I wasn’t the only person who thought so either going by the two guys nearby.

It’s been a month so here’s some Expo photos starting with the Swap and Sell crowd. Felt more like the old not so good days. For Covid conditions it seemed quite crowded.

The above is the arcade to Flinders Station that usually hard an ad hoc art exhibit and a great coffee shop.

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.