Luft46's Blog

Good progress over tge last three days on this. The desk now has a computer setup finished and the drawer is filled with paints and equipment. Next up is more stuff for the desktop including a lamp from the Diopark set and maybe making another one also. The chair now has all five castors on again though it may need rebalancing.

I made my usual trip to beautiful Melbourne in early June to sample the usual delights of  Expo and wandering around Melbourne. It was a slightly truncated version but good nonetheless. On arrival it was a wet grey day but this cleared by the early afternoon. Melbourne for me is a mix of ritual and randomness. I usually start with Hearns and spend very little there, this year it was Schonerts Ju 88G from Hasegawa. This thing is festooned with radar aerials and I intend to whif it with a few more just for fun. Rumour has it that Hearns is for sale, admittedly I was asked three times within a few minutes if I needed help so I think times are a little tough.

Next stop was the little group of shops under Flinders Street station. These rather quirky shops with quirky opening hours are a holdover that have long ago left Sydney. One of these spaces used to be a shop but for many years has been an art space. The obligatory busker was also on hand.

On to Vic Hobby which is now owned by the son in law of the Frontline owner, so its still in the family. Another reno here and looking more like the Newcastle store every day except it is much more hobby orientated. I bought something here but not much.
Various perambulations led me through some food and rest to checking out some old buildings. Melbourne’s rep for good food and outdoor dining is still well and truly alive.
Buildings with quirky directory boards

Old style directions

And old style offices

And decoration styles

Eventually wound up in the Block Arcade to see this sign on a new age shop

Obviously the magic isn’t working that well!

The day was rounded out with a visit to Showcase Models to pick up a 1/35 Marder from a Russian company with packaging reminiscent of Novo and a Ju87 book from Hylands. This is another store that seems quieter these days. Then again this trend is universal today, there are less second hand bookshops in Melbourne CBD these days. As for Sydney Elizabeths is the last one left and its a bit out of the way which is the only way it is surviving. Twenty five years have certainly cut bookshop numbers in Sydney, it used to take me all day to wander through them all, now there are way too few.

Saturday was the usual early morning lift to Expo with John, catching up on events and getting ready for Expo. Arriving early allows me to have a good look around and I bought a Panzerwrecks 13, a tank weathering book and no models. Being the defacto resin expert I ended up fixing up the u/c pitot tube etc on a kit that John had bought in. It always amazes plastic modellers how slow and careful this process is but experience is a great teacher.
Noticeable at Expo was the reduced number of entries with the lack of interstate competitors being cited as one reason, another popular one was the tight knit group of regular winners being associated more with the organisers. Possible solutions suggested were to introduce a Masterclass category and a non competition class. The latter is done at Wollongong and seems to draw a reasonable number of entries. Of course some were proclaiming the end but I am more inclined to think that demographics are also an issue, there are less modellers and we are all getting older. Undef 40 modellers are an anomaly now.

Overall Best of Show was a truck so I really didn’t notice this one. Peoples Choice was a sub which was very nice and hopefully photos of this will appear below. I also got to the show on Sunday and this early start enabled me to get anything I had missed. The usual social nature of this event was present so I got to chat with a few fellow modellers. In particular was Dean who had done the Jap fleet at  Pearl Harbour, it was obviously a labour of love involving lots of kitbashing. His comments on armour modelling ofter being a tank and a building at most was pretty true. His dio of the Staligrad waterfront was drawn from the movie I believe.
The rest of the weekend was taken up in social/family stuff,  some AFL X 2 and a quick visit to Minotaur sci fi bookshop.

This was 1/144 scale

The one I repaired

Santa’s plane

Manga madness

There was also someone selling 3-D printers,  the way of the future.
A must read is Cory Doctprow’s book Makers which is free under a Creative Commons licence about this emerging technology. I want one but they are still a bit too expensive for me. The Dalek fascinated me.

Also at the show was a Count the Rivets competition with a jam jar full of pop rivets.  I didn’t win so I am obviously not enough of a rivet counter! This was the 30th year of the show although you wouldn’t have known it from the lack of celebration, unlike the 25th.

Well I am hopefully about to start modelling again after a long hiatus. Part of this has been the realisation that I need an old man’s light ie a magnifying lamp to do fine work now so I got one from Jaycar for $109. This looks like the Starship Enterprise with a gazillion LED’s which even impressed my eldest. The swing arm is strong with a positive positionable action and a decent desk clamp, something many lights lack. One of my older lamps will be reassigned upstairs to the office.
Next job is to clean the desk a bit.

Paint is chaos black from citadel and xtracolour rlm 24. Will need a little weathering, just checked only four wheels hit the ground so a little bit to do tomorrow.

A very rough draft of the final product, lots of work to do yet.

A painful lesson learned from experience is that I label parts where needed so I orientate them correctly when gluing, wish some model manufacturers did this better. The labels indicate orientation for this piece, ie this is the back on the long side and this is the top. Simple isn’t it! Below is a quick shot of the table, things to be added still include a coffee cup, coffee cup stain, lamp with cord, computer, some brushes paint tubes, turps bottle, cleaning cloth, sandpaper and whatever else I can think of….. Nearly forgot the magazine stack and open magazine or book.

Firstly making the water bottle in the bin. This came from Accurate Armour and is in resin, unfortunately this has not been done quite right, probably not enough hardener in the mix and so was slightly sticky and rubbery. What was a problem actually helped as I wanted a label on this which I cut from roll your own cigarette paper. This was then pressed on the bottle and stuck. This stuff is very thin but still quite good quality and scrunches up nicely to put in the waste paper basket which came in the Plus Models office set. I must have thought it such a good idea that I had bought two of these over time and I don’t even smoke. The colour for the label was Citadel Skull White with a little Regal Blue and a tiny touch of RLM 24. I also did the same for the cap.
RLM 66 was used for the computer monitor screen colour topped off with a gloss varnish.

Not sure how others go about this but my take is the following.
Idea
This is the launching point. Sometimes this comes from a particular model but it is most likely from a passing idea especially when generated by a conversation with someone. These should always be noted down.  Very often these will go nowhere but the ones that do are most likely to be original. I once had the idea of doing a dio of a missile crashing into the sea near a whale which was based on a news article.  I got as far as buying a plastic whale but no further. I still have the whale, maybe one day it will get used.

Supplies

This is often the point of failure or delay for many projects.  For the one I am currently working on it nearly was. Not being happy with any of the tables on the market including stuff from Verlinden ( which was too old in style ) I had built my own but wasn’t that impressed with the result so just sat on the concept.  Enter Diopark with their work table set and away I went. This looked like something a modeller might use, old and sturdy but definitely someone else’s cast off.
Without enough ready made products to add to my own scratch building efforts this model would not have been started. 
Models within models

On many of these my approach is to try and duplicate real life as much as possible. With some vignettes I have seen like this the modeller forgets basics like lights that have no power cord or an overly clean desk.
An example is the waste paper basket. This has rubbish in it including some screwed up pieces of paper. All have what appears to be writing to add veracity.

See the previous post for more info

View here is end on

Above is where I am up to basically. The carpet is on top of the concrete floor. The floor is Mig pigments with their fixer on the bottom layer and more pigment on top. The carpet I had problems with, basically the threads on the end had to stay, not ideal as every time I cut them they unravelled, cue why one end is shorter than the other, by the time I have the scene a little more cluttered this should hopefully not be so noticeable. The carpet has been weathered by the following – drops of TSC207 Oil from Lifecolor, some more Mig pigments ie Russian Earth P034 & P 414 Track Brown both ground into the carpet at various points. Ther is also some flesh paint in there but at the moment not enough to be discernable so this needs doing again. The fabric has been roughed up a little with sandpaper to give a worn appearance. The carpet was attached with superglue and white glue, actually could have just used the white glue as it stuck well. Currently I am working on the architraves which will be wooden with a raw umber acrylic paint ( cheap art supplies type ) and a gloss coat over to look varnished but then slightly weathered. Ok now here I show my nerdiness or maybe OCD, in most room dioramas I have seen no one includes the architrave but these are very common in most places, in this case they will also hide the gap between the foamboard and the photo frame. Now if you are going to that trouble you may as well put some extra work in and trim the top edge at about 45 degrees then sand this to get a bullnose profile on it. This you would know if your father had managed a timber/hardware store and especially if you had spent part of your summer Uni holidays stacking the stuff, hot dusty and windy some days!

This is the first of my diorama projects that has got some work done. This idea has been brewing for a number of years whilst I tracked down the apprpriate materials as much as anything. Fortunately in recent times a number of manufacturers have cooperated with new releases that will find their way into this project. The above shot is my first proof of concept piece. This is glass from a photo frame that was painted grey then treated with Mig concrete pigment. Glass especially this thin is not the best material but usefull to get some practice on. Having discovered foamboard many of my next works will use this material such as the aircraft hangar that needs to get started. Moving on below is a quick list of items that will go into this dio/vignette. MAM carpet Verlinden No 307 Framed Paintings and Carpets, probably not the carpets as the above looks better but will need some serious weathering A.m.r.i architectural figures in 1/200 scale ie 1/35 of 1/6 figures is about 1/210 so close enough though mostly the female ones Archer Vietnam era pinups AR35360 Reality in Scale wallpaper, plenty in the pack Verlinden Movie posters, centr folds etc No274 Military in Detail Pinups and Magazines 35048 & 49 Verlinden wallpaper but this may not make the grade given the above Accurate Armour Accessory Urban refuse #2 A121 though the Meng set would be a better bet, found some of the resin vey soft and sticky

PC Station 224 from Plus model 1/350 scale aircrew from Tamiya, not sure whether bumps will be necessary in this scale and Diopark Factory Tools Set 1, great table including working drawers which also has a KV2 model on the back of the pack. This was a totally gratuitous inclusion on their part but indicates they thought the kit would be used by modellers trying to depict a modeller at his workbench scene.

Anyway back to doing the base.