Thursday 31 March 2016

Dwarf Lager or Wooden Barn for sale on ebay



SOLD

This scratch-built Dwarf Lager or Wooden Barn is the Terrain Gallery feature for March/April 2016. It appeared on Orcs in the Webbe back in May 2014. For full details of construction and painting see this link.

The Lager is being auctioned on e-bay with a very reasonable starting price of just £9.99. For details please see this auction.



Tony

Wednesday 30 March 2016

Ma.K Hover Tank - part twelve


The construction is nearing completion. Most of the additional detailing has been just that - surface detailing.


The hull has received some added tools and paraphernalia with an emergency exit door and rolled-up tarpaulin.


The rear has a rear light and a number plate.


Most of this detailing has been scratch-built but as you can see - some has come from Games Workshop parts and even a couple of bits from DUST figures.


The painting should be next.

Tony

Tuesday 29 March 2016

RAF Cosford - part two



Part two of my Away-Day report from RAF Cosford, Shropshire. More Aircraft and even a couple of tanks.












Tony

Sunday 27 March 2016

RAF Cosford, Shropshire



Earlier this month Sue and I visited Cosford, the RAF museum in Shropshire. This fantastic and free museum is about 45 minutes away from Droitwich, just off the M54. We had a great day visiting and seeing the displays. I even managed to pick up some books and magazines.

Details of the museum can be found here.

In this post I have included some images of the jet aircraft on display.










Tony

Friday 25 March 2016

Ma.K Hover Tank - part eleven



I have decided to use a strong rare-earth magnet to attach the turret to the hull. I have mounted a small metal washer to the hull.....

And the magnet is mounted in the turret.


I mixed up some Milliput and placed it into the turret. I then added some superglue to the magnet and placed it onto the Milliput.

I placed a spare washer under the magnet and also a thin shim of .5mm plastic card under the washer before pressing the turret down on to a piece of hardened glass.

When the Milliput had fully hardened, I tried it on the tank hull to check that it worked properly.


The plastic card shim meant that the magnet always stays just a fraction of a millimetre above the washer rather than sitting on it.

Tony

Wednesday 23 March 2016

Ma.K Hover Tank - part ten



More detailing.....

I have added a stowage bin to the turret. This was constructed from three layers of thick plastic card and detailed with sticky-back plastic and plastic card. I used Milliput to make sure I had a good join to the turret.

The turret cupola lid was cut from a Star Wars toy and the join was strengthened with a short piece of paperclip wire.


I have added two directional rudders to the rear. These were made from plastic card and plastic rod, detailed with plastic card. I envisage them being used for fine directional control.

The added clutter to the hull side includes a fire extinguisher and vision ports.

On the left side I have added a scratch-built storage box, jack block and metal tow hook. I copied the designs from various WW2 German tanks.


This top-down image gives an idea of the shape of this Hover Tank.


At this time, the turret is still loose. I will now have to sort out what I am going to do about securing it to the hull. Maybe magnets.

Tony

Monday 21 March 2016

Ma.K Hover Tank - part nine



With the turret taking shape, I thought I would add some detail to the hull. The tube-shaped storage container is a regular feature on late-war German tanks. I constructed this one from some spare plastic tubing with sticky-back plastic detailing and plastic card mounts.

The exhaust is a plastic gun barrel with a piece of curved, plastic sprue for the exhaust end. The half bullet structure to the top was once the top off a spinning wheel, which I trimmed to shape, cut in half  lengthways and then mounted onto a piece of plastic card.


I want to add some more hull detailing and a lid to the turret before I think about texturing the hull. All this to follow.


Tony

Saturday 19 March 2016

Oldehammer Buildings for sale on e-bay



SOLD

The three Oldehammer buildings (see earlier posts) are now up on e-bay for sale. For details please see this auction.

Good luck.

Tony

Friday 18 March 2016

Blue Foam - nothing but free foam

Yesterday evening I was sitting in the car waiting for Sue who had an appointment with the doctor - our colds and coughs continue. Sue had been in the doctor's surgery for what seemed too long, so I thought I'd take a look inside. She was still waiting to be seen and I sat down to wait with her.

As I looked around I saw that there were free or donated magazines on display and browsing one particular rack I saw both military model making magazines and aircraft monthly magazines. I picked up a few and sat down to wait.

It's amazing what you can find in doctor's surgery waiting rooms. I could have sat there for hours. But as Sue was called, I went back to the car to wait.

On the way out I saw that the local Chinese Takeaway was being re-modelled, with a full skip of rubbish outside. And there on top of all that rubble were three 2 foot x 2 foot pieces of Blue Foam about 12mm thick. I grabbed all three and threw them in the boot of the car. This should keep me in modelling foam for the next year.

A real win-win.

I should add that Sue is well, and just needed some stronger medication to shift her cough.

Tony

Thursday 17 March 2016

Ma.K Hover Tank - part eight



The detailing to the turret continues.....

I picked up the smoke dischargers from Worcester Wargames - they have a box of spares that they allow modellers to rummage through. I was able to pick up a couple of items for the tank then a suitable donation to charity and Ta-Da.

The barrel and mount were scratch built from a plastic lollipop stick, some spare tubing and larger, round plastic tubing cut in half lengthwise. The yellow gun mantle is a section of Biro pen barrel and further detailing are slivers of plastic rod or plastic tubing from the spares box.

I have reinforced the join between the gun barrel and the mantle with a section of paper clip and all construction was done with superglue.

Tony

Wednesday 16 March 2016

Oldehammer Buildings - for sale



These three buildings were originally produced after a conversation at The West Midlands Military Show last year. My brief was to produce some Oldehammer style buildings along the lines of the earlier Games Workshop Blood Bath at Orcs Drift card buildings.

The problem I have is that I cannot find any contact details or an e-mail address for the customer!

Therefore if no one comes forward in the next couple of days - I will be putting them up for sale on e-bay.

Anyone interested?

Tony

Tuesday 15 March 2016

Ma.K Hover Tank - part seven



As construction of the Ma.K Hover Tank continues I have been thinking about what colour will I paint it.....

Regular readers/followers will know that this particular model - a 1/32nd scale Ju 87 Stuka from Revell has been a particular favourite of mine since I was a very young boy and I first saw this colourful box art back in Swansea Models and Hobbies. At the time the price was way too much for my pocket-money budget, but the thought that one day I would indeed model it has remained a long-term goal of mine.

So why not paint the Ma.K Hover Tank in these colours?

An internet search identified these transfers/decals for a 1/72nd scale Stuka. The decals have now been ordered from China.

Please note that the blacked-out images are of the sometimes offensive swastika. Similarly the box art above has also had the swastika removed.


The purchasing of the decals might be a little premature, but this simple scratch-build has taken on a life of its own.

The actual aircraft is a Ju. 87 R-2z Immelmann - Libia 1941 - There is some disagreement about the colour of the fuselage snake, some sources have it as red (as detailed above) others as brown/yellow (the same as the base colour). I think the red/white is the most striking.

Tony

Monday 14 March 2016

Ma.K Hover Tank - part six



This set of images shows the continuing detailing work on the generic turret.

The cupola is a section of plastic road wheel mounted on to a 1/2 Euro coin, the weld seams are a mixture of stretched sprue and some thin Green Stuff, rolled out and applied over superglue while the two half-round 'ears' one to either side of the turret are round beads cut in half and then trimmed to shape.

The exposed torch-cut edges to the front of the turret were cut with the tip of a scalpel. The rest of the details is either plastic card or plastic rod.



Most Ma.K tanks I have seen have prominent weld seams on the hull. I reproduced these with thin strips of sticky-back plastic (ex advertising labels that have a very strong glue).

The light to the front is again a bead cut in half and detailed with thin sections of knitting needles. I strengthen the join to the hull by adding a short section of paper clip wire as this looks like it might get knocked.

Tony

Sunday 13 March 2016

WMMS Alumwell



Sue and I have just got back from the West Midlands Military Show, Alumwell. I am afraid that there are a lot less images than usual, as I'm still recovering from a very bad head cold and infection. We left earlier than usual and my purchases were minimal. However here are some inspirational photos I thought were worth sharing.













Tony