Luft46's Blog

Just a few shots of my recent acquisitions. One of these is a large Academy 25th scale Panther from a friend who no longer models. 

and lastly some truth !

As the countdown to leaving for Telford approaches here is an update for the last few weeks.

First off is the Zeppelin rammer. This is one of those cursed kits. Anything that Murphy can think of has happened. This has included breaking one wing multiple times, decalling issues and airbrush issues. Unfortunately the last is entirely my fault. When reassembling an airbrush don’t forget to put all the parts back or you will have exploding paint all over the place.

Nice thin masking tape at least allowed my to mask off the nose section neatly. 

The Panther AA tank is above and from a bit of paint lifting is going well… except in removing some masking tape I broke a barrel off but as it is resin at the base it should not be too hard a fix.

I have also been working on the BV P178 which is now almost all together. I have buttoned up the cockpit but forgot to show how much lead I used. This kit is well known for being a tail sitter but the the night fighter is the best of the lot as it has plenty of room in the big radome at the front. Fill it up well and you should be fine. I did add a bit in the front of the engine just in case. Small tip …. do this before closing up otherwise you will be getting out the Dremel to open up the top as I did. 

Firstly my next computer game …. from EB Expo in Sydney… actually no!

I’ve been trying out the Vallejo Air acrylics in my newish Iwata. This has been on my Rammer which I have managed to break the wing on one side 3 times. I was happy with my canopy masking but made a few mistakes on the rest. I put on a second coat tonight and then removed the Tamiya tape. still a couple of minor faults but I might just hand brush these. 

All looked well until taking off the canopy area masking ….. then the paint lifted in 3 places . So back to the airbrush tomorrow. I had heard it was fussy but this is disappointing.

Below is my quick effort tonight. I finished painting and weathering the cockpit with RLM 66 from Xtracrylics which self levelled into light and dark areas for some reason. A quick touch up of the moulded in seat straps, some white and black for the instrument panel and some red and blue switches and all done as after all it is 1/72. 

Put all the cockpit area together and i have glued it onto one side and held this together with pegs as supplied by a friend. I will remove these tomorrow and properly add some lead and milliput to both sides and join it all up. This area has been very easy and fits quite well. 

Below is my quick progress on BV P178. With just six stages this is a quick build. Assembly is quite straightforward in line with every review I have read. The only problem I have seen is the need to add weight in the nose area which I will be packing with lead and milliput. That’s will be a nice quick job after work tomorrow.

Got cracking on some airbrushing yesterday while the weather was fine. I got both yellow and green on the Panther. I am not entirely happy with one side skirt attachment so back to a bit of milliput to fix this problem. 

The other  kit is the Zeppelin rammer which was painted with Vallejo Model air RLM 84 which worked quite well. Next up will be their 83 but given the wet weather this will be waiting till Wednesday and having time to mask. 

With spring has come rain and busy frogs making noises in my garden and lots of eggs. The other end of the pond had nearly as many eggs also.

To finish off the weekend a quick Blitzbau on the Bronco Bv P178 night fighter. 

One of my children is having a party for a significant birthday tomorrow night so to allow drunken frivolity the modelling desk is being cleared. Just before that I did a few quick photos. I even did some editing of these although it was only quick effort. 

First up is the Zeppelin rammer from Brengun which is a nice quick kit. I managed to get the canopy on tonight after some recent Finish being applied. 

Above the Zeppelin is 2 anti aircraft Panther turrets on the left with the Revell Panther body on the top right. 

The turrets were from Kora with the new gun barrels from Schatton Modellbau.

Next up is two  1.35 shopping trolleys from Royal Model and Brengun. As they are slightly different they will work well in an upcoming diorama. 

Next up is the storage area on the right below my modelling desk  where everything is stored for the next 48 hours. I will spend Sunday night unpacking all this. This is just some MDF screwed in to form a box.

It’s now less than 2 months to leaving for Telford so I am still hoping to get a few kits finished before then but none of these will be travelling with me.

To finish up here are some of  the necessary supplies for a party.

Believe it or not another model has been completed. That is 2 kits for the year so far. I am aiming for 3 at least this year by concentrating on kits that are nearly finished. The paint is Tamiya rattle can matt black with some rust coloured Tamiya chalk and finished with Windsor and Newton matt varnish. The trolley is also weathered with chalks. 

Lovely kit.

Hard to see but this is a Fine Molds 1.72 Kaiten submarine. Pretty small. This was a fairly suicidal weapon. It goes together easily except for some small issues needing filler. The kit includes a trolley which is pretty simple and I have already finished all the work on that.

It obviously needs some weathering after I have applied multiple coats of Tamiya rattle can matt black.