Luft46's Blog

After a couple of weekends of solid work dremeling the tracks and adding most of the parts to the hull the muse has left the building. I have returned everything to the box with the assembly about 90% complete. 

Unfortunately I am going through a bit of a clean up phase so nothing much is likely soon. 

I have cleared the 4 racks of paint, glue , weathering dust , washes and paints back into my drawers to free up some bench space for 1:1 scale work.

I have even dragged out the drawer of cassettes … yes I am that old and will have a massive cull hopefully. 

The weather in Sydney has been abominable with 2 heatwaves in as many weeks and a third due tomorrow. On a couple of the rare ok days I have managed to finish the tracks. I quickly gave up on hand sanding and switched to my Dremel. Even then it took 3 sessions to complete. A final session was taken up in sanding the Milliput filled divots on some of the tracks. There seemed to be 3 types of tracks, one which only had raised mould marks, one with a mixture of both and one with 2 lots of divots. Fortunately the first was the most common type. 

Having done that I now need to connect these up.

A friend gave me an Academy 1.25 Panther kit he was never going to build. I have started and got to Stage 13 with no dramas.

The kit has clip together individual track links. Trouble is each one has 2 moulding marks that need cleaning up. I’ll post next when I finish it all. The only question is how many Resident Evil films it will take to do it.

Yes a day off and with my kids parties a chance to update WordPress.

The above is some modellers dilemma which never ends well. This is not my situation fortunately but I have met people in this situation.

Currently on the main bench is the Bv P178 and the Minion Dalek.

The first has now had 2 coats of primer and just requires the canopy being put on before I commence painting. At the stage of the photo above I had painted the u/c bays RLM 02 and was just removing the full uc covers that made this quite easy. Along with a little blu tack on the exhaust this is easy to primer.

The finished kit will have the uc down. The camo plan is to paint the upper half in 75 and then mask up some blobs and then spray 76 overall. Masking will be the usual tamiya tape which I intend to cut out with the new tool i bought at Telford. Photos to follow.

The Minion Dalek needs a quick wash and then I need to contemplate the painting order.I am a little unsure on this next step.

The above need a little work and thought still.

Somehow I have managed to finish the AA Panther with both turrets done.

The level of weathering won’t show up well on the photos but it is there.

Hard to believe that I have managed 4 this year after last year’s big total of 0.

Ok a little while since the last update. I have been concentrating on the AA Panther with a little weathering and the true joy of track construction. I am nearly finished one side and just started with one piece on the other with 6 links left on the other side.

Hopefully I will finish it by the 31st to make 4 kits finished in one year. after last year that is great.

I will share the Telford experience later in a separate post.

At Telford I picked up a resin Minion Dalek cross figure for about 9 Pounds. I know next to nothing about Minions so some research will be required. On the other hand I know a bit about Daleks.

The kit is from Retrokit SF and is fairly well cast. There’s a few bits of flash and a couple of lumps that will need to be scraped off but not a lot of work really. The bottom moulding plug is a bit thick and will need a razor saw and a face mask to clean up. 

The 2 guns and toilet plunger will require a little hot water bending to straighten.

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Flak Panther will be getting a look in with a matt varnish coat over the weekend.

And lastly a little wisdom from the Thai Border Patrol Commissioner.

More pics. Most are on my camera but here are a few off my phone

recreational weed below but only 1.35 scale

Some images below

I made it but quite tired after 26 hours travel.

Heres the Rammer after finally being wrestled over the finish line. Ended up only using the underwing bumpers in etched brass as the rest was too fiddly

I also got decals on the Panther AA kits. I need to do a little green on the rear section to tie in with the top but after that it will be assembly and weathering only. Maybe I will get 4 kits done for the year.