PING!
STATUS REPORTS! ALL HANDS REPORT! :o
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Ah March, the promiss of spring! Completed the Aeronca Champ last month and realized that was my first completed project of the year. Regardless, on the bench for 1 March:
1/144 HMCS Bonaventure. Cutout for boat station started using jigsaw and drillpress
1/144 Travelling display hangar. Floor and wall completed. Ceiling rafters in progress using bamboo placemat.
1/72 Yukon horizontal plane carved but not contoured yet. Fuselage wood has been selected.
1/48 Argus - horizontal plane carved/sanded and needs primer/sealer. Sanding has started on the fuselage
1/32 Bolingbroke - Low priority project that requires much sanding after first application of primer
1/32 Luscombe 2A - fuselage cutout in block form. Materiel selected for wings and tail plane.
1/24 BAe Hawk - shelved awaiting renewed interest
I have tons of ideas but little time to do them. Need longer days and shorter naps.
Lou
The two Sikorsky S.38's are currently undergoing sealing and filling in readiness for paint finishes,the cold damp weather has held things up with a backlog of projects awaiting similar treatment viz-
Pitcairn Autogiro.
2x Colonial Skimmer amphibian's.
2x Stearman Hammond Y-1's.
Undergoing carving and sanding are-
2x Miles Mohawk's.
2x Nardi FN305's.
Drawings in progress for making solids are-
SAAB Scania.
Percival Provost large scale.
GAL 56 Flying Wing.
Arnbalete experimental aircraft.
Flying Flounder.
Cornelius Mallard.
Potatoe Bug.
Arup.
Arnoux Simplex racer.
AW 52G Glider.
Akerman 1936.
Solids planned soon-
Fleetwings Seabird amphibian.
Atlas H-10.
Argonaut Pirate.
Aeronca low winger.
Plenty of ready cut blanks to work on.
Barry.
Hi all,
- ID P-40 is now painted and hand-marked - I will not be hand painting US cockades again in a hurry!!! Photos to be uploaded soon.
- Parts cut for a Skybird-style SE5a. Luckily(?) Tilly our Jack Russell stole the fuselage blank off the table BEFORE I'd done any work on it.
- Templates set up for Skybirds-style Hannoverana.
- Having fun, although solid carved WW1 parts seem somehow smaller than I remember injection moulded ones.
Cheers all,
Will
To All of our Members:
Possibly I'm one of the slower builders of the Group:
- I've got my Vedette completed (last year) and more recently my P61 (started about 1946);
- Currently rectifying an error in masking the canopy of my CF101;
- Experimenting with airbrushing Testors Silver enamel to be oversprayed with Model Master Spray Flat Cote then re-silvered then Sprayed over with Model Master Glosscote and masked - where required to be painted using enamel - on a B29, a P51 and two Mariners.
- two Hellcats on hold.
Cliff.
Greetings all,
Miles M20/2 - 1/48th - Up to the finishing stage
Miles Hawk Speed Six 1/32 - Blanks cut out
Hammod Model Y - Blanks cut out, wings and tail shaped and sanded
Curtis XP- 55 1/48 - Pushing on with this. Wings attached and working on fillets. Fins are next
Supermarine Type 224 1/48 - Still on hold .
Boomerang 1/48 - Display stand completed.
Congratulations to Garet and Barry
Cheers
Gordon
Work still slowly progressing on the Fireball XL5. While catching up on the activities of the Osaka Model Club, I have been contemplating creating an interior for the XL5 with a clear canopy. Looking at taking things to the next step.
I also want to get up to speed on better joinery, so I plan to mass-produce some ID models, ala Barry the Balsabasher. If all goes to plan, this could be a big completion year. Of course, then I have to figure out what to do with all those models. I thought of giving them to a friend of mine who has two small boys, but he might not let them have them and keep them for himself!
I got a bottle of gesso from Walmart and will give it a try. I am finding a lot of uses for it from other modelers. That stuff is very expensive at craft stores but much cheaper at Walmart.
Ken Pugh
I am finally getting back to some wooden items. I am currently working on a Stormbecker B-24D spotter model. Putting on decals now.
Jim
I've started painting my Mitsubishi Ki-15
Still carving superman, I've made a goof in carving his arms and I'm trying to figure out how to fix it or if I should start over or if I should amputate and transplant.
Plans are scaled and printed for:
a 1/72nd scale defiant
a 1/48th scale albatros C.V
a 1/700th SS Almeda Star
QuoteI got a bottle of gesso from Walmart and will give it a try. I am finding a lot of uses for it from other modelers. That stuff is very expensive at craft stores but much cheaper at Walmart.
Ken Pugh
Well Ken if it was good enough for artists like Picasso it is excellent for filling wood on our models,I use Bob Ross gesso which comes in white,grey or black finish,it sands really well.
The basic ingredient of traditional gesso is chalk,the old masters used to build up the gilding ridges on picture frames with it then carve the detail in,likewise sculptors use it as well,a great material.
Barry.
I'll provide a full update on each started model. February saw me put some work into the USS Preston and VKA-23 spaceplane models.
1/48 Speed Spitfire: fuselage shaped, wing roughed out
1/72 Bristol LRQ-1 Seaplane glider: parts cut out, kitted up
1/72 Bristol Spaceplanes Ascender: primed, some final paint on
1/72 VKA-23 Spaceplane (USSR): white, black, and orange paint finished! Need some touch-ups, then on to painting the canopy and making decals.
1/500 USS Preston: Lots of progress! I made a full set of ship's boats, then cast another from molds, which unfortunately destroyed the molds. I need to mount the boats and then do some work on the masts. All guns and other details are complete and glued on.
Comet plans full-hull PT-9: needs cabin-top detailing. Other parts are primed and ready to install
Haven't quite started projects, but plan to work on:
1/72 or maybe 1/48 Cessna O-2B Super Skymaster gathering scale information, photos, doing research on serial numbers, etc.
Plans considering:
SIPA S.70 (1/72 scale)
SS Ancon 1939 civilian version (1/1200 scale)
1/600 USS Hartford: Civil War sailing/steam vessel: parts laid out; I may switch to 1/1200 scale, though. Need to solder up the masts and yards
1/1200 USS Monitor versus CSS Virginia (ex Merrimac): Dave T. pointed out these wonderful plans in Popular Science: parts laid out, ready for cutting
Bristol Racer Interesting race plane from the 1920s
Other related projects:
- Helping three children make pinewood derby cars. I'm considering making a semi-scale of model of an old-style racer
- Bought some Gesso to try it out as a wood sealer; will report back
- Need to make an airbrush stand
- Bought a book on clever wooden boxes for ideas for tool chests and "box project" boxes
- Looking into making a small display cabinet for tiny models (my 1/1200 ships and 1/288 Heinkel keep getting lost on a big bookshelf)
- Going through my old model magazines and tagging interesting articles
- Nearly completed inventory of my (mostly plastic) un-built model kits, each printed on a 4x6 card with a photo
And some barely-related projects:
Building two wall-mounted
bookshelves that will go up near the ceiling of my study, either to store my model magazines or my Winston Churchill and Home Mechanics books.
Garet
Labour unrest at Lou's shipyard has caused workers to walk of the job. Talks are scheduled for July 2010.
The Bonnie has been reassembled and will remain stationary til later this year.
(http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/normal_Shelved.JPG)
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4059
Kind of quiet on the site the last week. Not much going on in my workshop either, at least not much that can be reported. Sanding and sanding some more with very slow results. The Argus fuselage is 3" in diameter and over 2' long so hand sanding it to a round shape is long tedious work but it is starting to show somewhat. The skunkworks has begun a secret project and that too is at the sanding stage. I am attempting to use the motor tool I inherited from my brother-in-law. I am not well versed in using one although I have had one for 10 years. The new one has a flex drive and that makes all the difference in the world. Everything else is languishing on the bench. Even my plastic are at a stand still as the decals provided were crappy so I ordered some and they won't be here for another two weeks. The bright light is that the sun has been out the last few days and sitting outside without a parka is now possible. I nearly forgot, the Skymaster fuselage has been relegated to the kindling wood pile and a new one is been fashioned out of pine. Although the person who gave me the block of wood said gelutong, it carves more like oak. I hope others are fairing better. I decided to send out this motivational ping and see what gives.
Lou
Some nice weather over the weekend gave a chance to photo my P-40. It was a bit windy so she nearly tried a few ground loops. The markings are from a profile in the back of a book of preserved warbird photos and are for a P-40E of the 11th FS, 343rd FG in the Aleutians in 1942. All markings are painted on. The leopard's head on the nose was considerably easier than the US stars!
Decals would be more accurate and quicker, but so would a plastic kit - and that's not why we're here!
These should be the links to the photos:
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4062
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4061
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4060
I tried inserting the actual photos to a message last night but it all went wrong.
Cheers
Will
A very nice P40. Especially the insignia and markings and again especially as they were done by hand - a real art & a way that I could never do again.
Cliff.
Will,
Very fine work, Will! The P-40 really brought a smile to my face. You did a great job with the hand-painted markings. I'm still learning how to do that, and I have had mostly unacceptable results in the past, so it's nice to see someone's work out so well.
Funny story, but I showed my ID model P-40 to a friend of mine. I used a decal set that I bought at the hobby store for that one, which featured numbers for the nose which matched the real plane in question, and the numbers on the real plane were obviously hand-painted (and a bit crooked). My friend said, "Great job painting those numbers." I told him they were decals and that the real plane's numbers looked like that, too. "No, these aren't decals; you painted them on'. *Sigh*
To post the photos as photos, use the link to the actual photo: right click on the photo and select 'Copy Image Location' (the exact name varies by operating system). It should be something like:
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/normal_IMG_2314.JPG
Paste that link into your post, select it, and then click the 'Insert Image' button, or type '[ img]' before and '[ /img]' after the link (I had to add an extra space in each one to make it show up as text, so type it without a space). Alternately, you can click the 'Insert Image' button (which writes the img and /img codes), and then past the link in between.
And as a note, it is tradition and helpful to post the link to the gallery page, as Will did. Make sure that you use the "URL:" address that is listed near the bottom of the gallery page (Will, you got the right one). That link is fixed and will always work right. The url that appears in the browser window can change if a gallery is added or moved, pointing your link to a random other photo. This caused us no end of confusion when we first set up the gallery.
Garet
Here are Will's photos:
(http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/normal_IMG_2314.JPG)
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4062 (http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4062)
(http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/normal_IMG_2315.JPG)
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4061 (http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4061)
(http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/normal_IMG_2316.JPG)
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4060 (http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4060)
Garet, your instructions on how to post photos is so detailed that its value to us older and slower members might be of such benefit that perhaps it could be set aside as a permanent reference. Thanks again.
Cliff.
Good point, Cliff. I put a copy of the example in:
Posting pictures to your Project Board
under
(Questions About use.)
Thanks for reminding me!
Garet
Outstanding work Will. I will post it to the MoY section.
Lou
(http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/normal_WORKBENCH_ACTIVITY_14032010%23.JPG)
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/normal_WORKBENCH_ACTIVITY_14032010%23.JPG
(http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/MILES_MOHAWK_GETS_ITS_PROP%23.JPG)
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/normal_MILES_MOHAWK_GETS_ITS_PROP%23.JPG
Steady progress on Col Lindberghs Miles Mohawk.
Mid month madness has started. The skunkworks project is moving along and may be ready for viewing this weekend???? The fuselage for the Skymaster is coming along nicely and I plan to plane the wood for the wings and boom later today. The Argus' large nose radome is coming along as well. I even did a bit of sanding on the long neglected Bolingbroke.
Keep your blade sharp.
Lou
Hi Barry,
I'm always amazed at not only the quality of your models but also the productivity that you have displayed. However, on taking a closer look at your current bench quality is, as always, well represented by your model of a Sikorsky flying boat. But am I mistaken? It appears that you have built "two" of a number of your models. To one who has trouble finishing anything this is again truly amazing.
Cliff.
Yes Cliff you are quite right,I do build two of most of my model subjects,I do this for a number of reasons,firstly I find it easier to produce two at the same time from the templates rather than leave it until another timescale to make another one which is not uncommon with me either,secondly the two models will incorporate differences in the build process,for example the two S-38's have different wings,one is the metal clad version and the other fabric built up simulated with thin paper strips glued into place and covered with modelspan doped the other has experimental iron on covering called Solarcote which is normally used on flying models,then there is the colourscheme aspect,one Stearman Hammond Y-1 will be finished in all yellow peril U.S Navy drone scheme and the other will represent the one used by the RAF as a tricycle trainer,but there is one other most important reason why I build two,and that is I am a Gemini ! I have two of most things including cars,it is just the way that I am.
I also find it just as quick to build two,say for example a major part is drying I jusy go onto the next model,I also work up my models in batches so like you see here the primer is added at the same stage,next is the rubbing down,checking for blemishes,final sand,final primer then several gloss coats of paint,my paint bill is high to finish this little lot alone with auto paint has cost me about £57 all ready,but I like the convenience of the aerosol rattle cans at hand,cannot get on with air brushes and all of that cleaning,I also like deep colour body paint everything is acrylic so I can add details by hand with artists acrylic tube paint.
And at the end of the day I have a totally unique selection of hand crafted models,what more could we ask ? love them and every moment of building pleasure.
Barry.
Hi Barry,
That is really interesting. Thanks for your detailed explanation. It also should be filed under Tips and Techniques. But, I must admit I get exhausted just thinking of all that input.
Cliff
Silver paint finish added today on the Sikorsky S-38 Amphibians.
(http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/SILVER_S38.JPG)
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/SILVER_S38.JPG
And the good British mild weather at the moment has enabled me to get down to lots of sanding and priming,I placed them in the shed to cure out yesterday.
(http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/GREYS_PREPARED_16032010%23%23.JPG)
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/GREYS_PREPARED_16032010%23%23.JPG
Pete has been having problems logging on and posting comments. I have given him further instructions and we should hear from him shortly.
Lou
Well here I go......the guy who can't paint, so uses natural finish. My Chinook is completed. Next is the Supermarine 6B racer with floats as long as the aircraft, and grooves on the side!
I have a Yukon cut out and keep being distracted.....this time by a Lysander.....strange wing shape!
Monday afternoons I get together with three other carvers, one is carving an owl, one mice, and the other a moose.....nothing like diversity!
(http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/29032010_FINISHING_SHOP%231.JPG)
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/29032010_FINISHING_SHOP%231.JPG
April is almost upon us and shown here is what I have been working on this past month,everything is pulling together nicely and this lot is ready to lift off to the collection making space on the finishing bench for more projects shortly,you can carve em up and the detailing takes forever it seems ! tackle a few bits every day and it is surprising what can be achieved,more detailed pictures will appear shortly in the gallery.
Barry the Balsabasher.
Wow, what a collection. I like your creative color schemes for the Hammond-Y pair.
Thank you Dave,one aircraft is the example used by the RAF as a tricycle trainer,the other is a drone as used by the U.S.Navy.
Barry.