Sunday 27 March 2011

VALDEMAR MEDIEVAL CIVILIANS 1/72.

 Hello all,

What with work being "Warp factor 10 Mr Sulu", I have had to make the choice between blogging and having something to put on the blog!
So I went for a bit of painting (and beer) to de-stress from it all.
Looking at my blog I thought it was all a bit green and brown so I thought I would have a change, they say it's as good as a holiday!
 Being a proud member of Benno's forum, I get to see Alex's work (the sculptor of these figures) on the forum , so we get to see a lot of his amazing work.
Without doubt he is the best sculptor of 1/72 figures there is.I dare anyone to find one better!
This is from one of his medieval civilians sets.And that's right I went for the "working girl" first.
As you can see she is rather a "gifted" girl.

I thought She should have nice shinny hair so a quick coat of satin varnish came to the rescue.I also used Vallejo game colour opaque red with a wash of Vallejo red wash, not that it stands out that much.The face is not to shabby but then again having  a bloody good figure in the first place helps no end.
Next up is the inquisitor what ever the hell that means.He reminds me of the "Baby eating bishop of Bath and Wells" from Black adder the second.I should have painted him black as well.

I was quite happy with the wash on this figure, in places it's a bit heavy but this is a work in progress so a quick touch up is not out of the question.
 This is the best shot of this figure showing off the wash.
I have to thank Paul (off of Paul's bods) for telling me about Jewellers hacksaw's.I have had knackered three blokes feet and snapped two clean off trying to remove the metal base's.On Friday I bought on and spent the afternoon sawing away!
This will also help with a few other set's of modern figures that I have bought.
Not sure what this figure is in the set, but he looks like he is not up to any good!This could be an episode from Black adder.
A very simple paint job only using about five colours.
 I am chuffed with the shading on this bloke, I used paint to highlight this chap.Normally I use Tamiya weathering powder for highlighting but thought I should give it a try.
A very watered down Vallejo medium sea grey was used on Vallejo black grey, with a black wash.
There are about 17 figures in this pack and I have some more already painted and just waiting for a base to be made for them.It will be a large one, with a few bits I traded with Maurice(Cheers mate!).
Very happy with this lot but don't worry I  have a load of brand spanky new moderns that I can't wait to paint!
PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES FOR A LARGER VIEW AND ANY COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME.

Cheers For looking,    Rich.

Sunday 20 March 2011

AIRFIX MALE TANK WWI 1/76.

Hello all,

This is an Airfix re-release of an old favorite.Not a favourite of mine because of all the stuff about being inaccurate has prejudiced myself about this kit.
Paul (off of Paul's bods.) conned me into a group build on the ATF, and I drunkenly agree to join in.
To be honest it was a nice kit to build.The new tooling meant that it fitted together quite well, and I have to say I enjoyed building it.
I ran out of time to build the wheelie thing at the back but I have it knocking around the spares box.
 I did do some scratch building of ammo racks and shelves inside the tank.I did it from memory from a day I spent at Bovington tank museum.They let people sit inside an old WWI male tank for a guide talk on it, which was cool.
I also made handles for the doors and had every intention of building with figures and that but ran out of time.
The tracks went on better than I thought they would which always gives me a good vibe about a kit.
In fact everything went right with this apart from me so I will forgive the little details that are wrong with this kit and sign its praises.
This was the first model I had tried Pro-modellers wash on and was more than happy with the results.
A good dose of tamiya weathering mud stick gave the tracks a muddy look.
MiG pigment rust was used on the sides and the exhaust pipe and that worked well.A quick dry brush and that was the tank finished.
The base was simple MDF cut to shape,bought at a model show.I tried a new way of doing mud for base's using wood filler and glue which didn't quite work out how I hoped.
I didn't let it dry enough before painting and the weather pigment made thins worse when applying the thinner as a fixer.
All in all a great build that surprised me.I am happy with the result so much that I sold the whole thing on EBay to fund my new airbrush.

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES FOR A LARGER VIEW AND ANY COMMENTS OR TIPS MORE THAN WELCOME.

Cheers for looking,    Rich.

Friday 18 March 2011

AIRFIX HENSCHELL Hs.123A-1 SPANISH CIVIL WAR 1/72.

 Hello all,

I will never learn drinking beer and building models do not mix!!!!8 beers and decals do not go together.More on that later.
This model was tempting me in the model shop and for £3.99 you couldn't go wrong.I saw Paul's mate Dave's go at this kit on his blog while doing a bit of research.A very nice build too!
 The build was quite good on this plane. It has only 38 pieces and must be a new or improved mould because 99% was bang on.A little bit of flash and a couple of sink holes on one of the bombs but that's was hidden anyway so bonus.
 
The engine block didn't quite fit but I will put this down to me.The wings all fitted together well and didn't collapse like normal.

I decided to go with the the Spanish civil war paint scheme for something different rather than the German world war two option.I tried a different way of painting by masking off bits for a straighter edge.
This is where eight bottles of beer go a bit off plan.I decided to finish off the planes decals after a night on the sauce,so just before I went to bed I thought I would  put the decals on.All was going well and I was just putting on the last decal on the fuselage when  I dropped the f#$ker!!!I should of just let it fall the 1 and a half foot to the carpeted floor but like a tit I grabbed the bloody thing and scrunched up the decal.The number seven could not be saved and the black circle is more egg shaped.

There a lot of other bits I missed like painting both sides of the wing tips white, I missed the radio wire,the tail decals don't match up and I could have painted it straight but I was well and truly pissed by this point and thought better of it after juggling the plane.
All in all I am chuffed with this little plane, a different era for me and the problems can be fixed.

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES FOR A LARGER VIEW AND ANY COMMENTS MORE THAN WELCOME.

Cheers for looking,     Rich.

Sunday 13 March 2011

CAESAR PARTISANS WWII 1/72.

Hello all,

Two new base's as in as many post's I hear you cry!!!!See, I am not a complete and utter liar.
These are from two of Caesar's sets
Caesar ww2 underground resisters(partisans)
Caesar world war two partisans (Europe),
This is the one other set of partisans (apart from preisers) of any quantity around.




These are more than likely the most used figures out of the two sets.I should have used some of the British commando's in this dio as well,setting up some explosives.I have the Tito's Yugoslavian partisans to paint so watch out for them.

This is a strange dio to describe because the bloke holding the sub machine gun looks Russian and the bloke with the plunger is completely French.The only thing he is missing is a string of onions and bike.
I started this base off being all grey with a bit of dry brushing but it just didn't look right.A bloody good dose of MiG dry mud pigment has just about rescued this one.I thought I would try some silfor moss on the rocks.Most of it looks right apart from a few bits I didn't quite glue down.
This figure is the best of the two.The painting and shading is a lot better, shame the picture I took was crap and does not show it.The face on the other bloke is quite good but not an award winner if you know what I mean.
The first pictures I took the det cable was silver and stood out like tits on a bull.It look like one of my many grey hairs had fallen out on the dio.I like these Set's and there will be many more to follow at some point.
PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEW AND ANY COMMENTS OR TIPS MORE THAN WELCOME.
Cheers for looking,    Rich.

Saturday 12 March 2011

CAESAR GERMAN MOUNTAIN TROOPER WWII 1/72.

Hello all,

After weeks of decorating,overtime and being ill, I now have some time on my hands for a bit of blogging and painting.

This bloke is from Caesar's German mountain troops.A bloody great set, that is just as good if not better than the Airfix set.




I thought this bloke looked like a tooled up "Tommy Cooper", the urge to paint that fez red was very strong.The white was a sod to paint.I had to touch it up a few times and gave it a wash with grey.I tried highlighting with paint this time and like the final look of it.
I have had this figure on the work bench for months and was relegated to a storage box in one of MrsWest1871's cleaning missions.This box was then rediscovered when looking for a box of screws during the epic hall job.So expect a few more weired and wonder full figures to crop up.
He is meant to be roaming the around the mountains of the Balkans looking for blood thirsty partisans.
the base is made with sand, PVA, a bloody big rock and a bit of Vallejo sea/snow foam.
I thought about covering the whole base in snow but that is for another figure.Besides I wanted to try something different.I am not sure if it has worked or not on this one.

Looking from above its not that bad.
PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEW,ANY COMMENTS OR TIPS ALWAYS WELCOME.

Cheers for looking,   Rich.

Sunday 6 March 2011

ACE ZU-23 ANTI AIRCRAFT GUN 1/72.

Hello all,

Yes I know I said I would never use this base again,but I lied.I am a very good lair,I once claimed to be pope Gregory the ninth!!!No really, when I was chatting up Mrs West1871 I claimed to be a traffic warden.Then I claimed to be an estate agent, because anything after that would be a bonus!

This is my first ACE kit,again that is not true.This is my second attempt at this model.I asked a mate to try the first one and I never saw him again (left the area before he finished it).
 This might also be my last ever ACE kit as well.
To be honest this build was a pig and nasty horrible PIG!!!!
It has taken me well over 7 months to finish this one.It has sat on the finish tray for ever.The instruction's were crap, the kit was crap and you had to build most of it with copper wire yourself.
To say this is not for beginners is an understatement.
The carpet monster had  a big lunch while I built this kit.I lost the traversing wheels and one of the ammo box covers so I had to use some plastic card to cover it.
The wheel arches sucked as well.If you don't research this model on the net you are well and truly F#$KED!!!!!
The figure is a REME NCO form CMSC figures with was the only bonus about this build.And that's because I painted him a while back.

To be fair this is not a bad kit, it is not that good either.If you miss a stage a place a piece wrong you have lost the kit.I have seen some great build builds on this model so it can be done,just or by me.
It would help if the instructions had more that 4 stages to  them and a bit clearer.
 I nearly left the wheels off because I got the arse with the hole project, but I was determined to finish it and clear the bench a bit.
Normally I would say that I would buy another one but not this time, I could not handle the stress.
It could have been a lot worse, it could have not been finished.
For work I have adopted a new saying I heard on the TV series "The deadliest catch".Moaning is a lot like a rocking horse.It gives you something to do but doesn't get you anywhere.
So on that note I will wrap it up.
PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW & ANY COMMENTS OR TIPS WELCOME.

Cheers for looking,     Rich.