GazzaS

Thank you!

Hello friends! I'm here to say that painting scale figure faces is the pits of anything modelling related. Now, follow me if you will... As some giant trying to impart detail to a face half the size of my smallest fingernail... I often feel like I am trying to touch up the Mona Lisa with a 12-inch paint roller. Sometimes it works out. But often enough, you end up ruining one area just as you consider the other area perfect. So, to avoid going round and around fixing mistake after mistake, I've decided to stop at this point and call the faces "done". Here they are. Please pardon the shitty photography. It seems that in one shot, I blotted out the light, and in another the phone/camera wasn't sure which object should be the center of it's focus. In the forthcoming days, I'll start on the uniforms. There are some interesting things happening with the Waffenfarbe of the Hermann Göring Panzer Division. Hopefully I can lay them all out here. Interestingly, too the HG division also wore SS camo and uniforms made with printed Italian patterns. Happy modelling!

Thank you, my friend!

Thank you, Peter. One useful thing is to use CA friendly materials. Brass and copper adhere a lot better to CA than aluminum. So if you use a soda can, you're making it twice as difficult. I bought a roll of brass foil and it's proving very useful right now.

Thank you, Phil. You give me too much credit. Except for the guy with new arms and the wiring, I haven't altered anything.

Thank you, Kai!

Thank you, Carl. I'm still learning figure stuff. I hope to be as good as Jerry Rutman someday. Meanwhile.... I spent this morning wiring the guys for sound. Added plastic parts for the headsets... then joined them with brass straps. Then wires for both headsets and throat mics. Broke off a drill-bit inside one dude... not happy about that. I got some fab drill bits from the US... better than any I have found so far in Australia. They are carbide bits that mow through the plastic like nobody's business. But the USPS ain't shipping to Australia. Wonder when that will change. Anyway... a few pics. I also changed a hand on the loader who sits in the escape hatch. This guy is significantly smaller than anyone else in the crew. This guy is part of the Hobby Boss grouping. He would probably do well in a 1/32 dio. Anyway... Happy modelling!

Definite Time savers there. Stick in the rads, and those two others and you are done! ...with the nacelles... heh.

Do you need the engine block to hold the propeller on?

Thank you, fellas!

All the while building the LW infantry, it's been in my mind that I needed to do the crew. Except for a battle scene, I don't like to have the crew closed away. Because most tankers will tell you that the best place to be when the the tank is bouncing around is on the outside of it. They don;t ride like Cadillacs, and are smelly and noisy inside. So, I've done my best to give each member of the Panther crew a little breathing room. One guy required some arm surgery to get into a useful pose. The rest of them I either lopped bits off, or mixed and matched limbs and heads to get the poses I wanted. The milliput arms are still drying, so will take some work to get them looking better. I will also have to give at least three of the crew headphones. Then there come uniform issues. Originally I was going to make this a 4th Panzer Regiment and Luftwaffe Field troops in Italy. But then I broadened the possibility to making everyone in the dio belong to the Hermann Göring Panzer division around Anzio time frame. I've just realized that my tank commander is wearing an SS Schirmütze. I don't have any 1/35 Luftwaffe Schirmütze,but have some in 1/32. Or, I'll just have to try to paint it so that it looks Luftwaffe. I've just realized that the radio operator looks very unhappy. Poor guy. Happy modelling!

Great looking space! How many license plates are you gonna hang, Ern? Seems to be a staple of any serious car collection.

Good Progress, Carl. That resin seat looks pretty awesome. And it's funny how wingtip fit is off on so many kits. Not that I have done many... but any that I have done with a separate wing tip required some sort of filling and sanding.

My current read. Excellent!

Thank you, Peter!

Very smart plumbing, Kai!

Thank you, Kai. Thanks Phil. It's pretty much a dead project. I have too many un-built kits to play with.

Nice opening moves, Carl. Looking forward to more.

Nice looking work!

Oh...my mistake... it looked shiny in the b&w photo you showed.

Foil?

Hi Friends, I've just returned from Roma, Queensland. The wife and I took a road-trip to celebrate our 20th anniversary. Here in Australia, the attractions for the tourist are a little different. Paris has the Eifel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe... among others. St. Pete has the Hermitage. Belgium has Waterloo. And the Land of the Pharoahs has the Pyramids and too many others to even start listing. But we traveled to Roma in Outback Queensland. Where a big attraction is Roma's largest Bottle Tree. The base is around 9.5 Meters across. So, here is a picture of me in front of another great Aussie Icon. now... if this isn't thrilling enough for you, Queensland has other great sites like the Giant Pineapple ... ...or if you prefer architecture, Brisbane has a few bridges and other stuff.

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Ming Models??

Thanks, Buddy!