Saturday 28 November 2015

Lunar Module - Part 1

Among last weekend's loot from the convention, was Airfix's 1/72 Lunar Module. This is a very old kit (1970), reboxed many times and likely to have flaws, sinkmarks and a whole lot of flash, but I bought it anyway.
It's a model I build 20 years ago, that got ruined in a moving accident. I can't remember the brand, but it wasn't Airfix. I think I bought it at Space-camp. I'm now rebuilding it for nostalgia's sake.

There's not that many pieces, but enough to keep me happy for a while again.


I found one picture of my old model. You can imagine what happens to all those fiddly bits when you drop a shelf on top of it, It was painted just one shade of aluminum, but it was a sad moment when I had to toss it in the bin.


The old model kit had a sheet of gold foil for the legs and descent stage. The Airfix model does not, but I'm going to try and see if I can replicate it with aluminum foil and paint it silver/gold/.... Call it another experiment.

Everytime I (intend to) start a more "casual" kit, it quickly escalates to more serious while doing research. I was just looking for which parts I needed to paint gold, when I found this site detailing which coating was used for every part of the module. Turns out they used over 10 different kinds of metal/fabric coating to protect all the parts. I guess painting will take a little longer that anticipated.





Artevelde Challenge 2015

I'm member of the local IPMS chapter (Ghent), which organizes it's own convention every two years. For me, it's the second time, and the first time helping out and being part of the jury.

LOOT!!

(As avid D&D player and dungeon master, I can't let the opportunity pass to yell this out loud :-))

I'm on a tight budget, so I'm a sucker for second-hand tables. If you're early (easy, if you're helping with setting up), you can find nice things among the admittedly high amount of crap.
I usually buy once a year, at conventions, from people or clubs that I already know, so I'm sure that the kit is still in good condition, even though the box might have some dents.


Left to right, top to bottom, we have :

  • AFV Club's 1/35 leFK18 10.5cm Howitser
    Second-hand from the chairman of our club. Trustworthy fellow with an eye for quality, who tends to buy too many kits. Yay!
  • Lindberg's 1/35 T-55 Main Battle tank
    Second-hand from a fellow member, who's just never gonna build it.
  • Heller's 1/72 M4 Sherman "D-day"
    I decided to get a few smaller models. 1/35 takes a lot of my time and I want to give smaller scales a try. Cheaper, faster to build and paint, not necessarily lacking detail.
  • Revell's 1/72 Leopard 2A5
    Same scale, same reason to buy. It's in Belgian service and officially licensed by the builder of the tank.
  • Airfix 1/72 Lunar module
    Second-hand from the owner of a hobby shop I used to frequent, but sadly no longer exists. It's one of 2 models I once made that got crushed during a move, so I'm building it more for nostalgic value.
  • Esci's 1/72 Merkava
    Second-hand. LOVE the Merkava. €5. Nuf said.
  • A set of 10 drills
    I was lacking a few sizes and some of my older drills are getting worn and don't actually drill anymore. (Okay, I admit, I ruined them drilling tiny holes in plaster)
  • Vallejo's new metal colours.
    I already indicated I wanted to give these a try. 2 vendors had them at the convetion, but aluminium was already sold out.
    I'm guessing few people will point out the difference between aluminium and duraluminium, so I bought that instead, along with the gloss black primer and the metal varnish. (if that last one is even any different from the regular gloss varnish).

Jury duty

For the first time in my life, I was asked to be a judge in the scale mdel competition. My own models wouldn't stand long under the scrutinous eye of any jury, but that doesn't mean I don't know what to appreciate or look for in other models.

It was fun, but in some categories very difficult. Knowing all modellers spent many days, weeks or even months on their (often awesome) creations, it wasn't easy to pick one over the other.

Below, I few of the more interesting entries. The first one is scratch-build, the second one 3D-printed (in pieces of course). The last one wasn't a contest-entry, but too good not to share.










Monday 2 November 2015

AC130H - Moment of truth

Weathering is done (slightly too heavy in some places) and after another coat of flat, it's finally time to see if we did a good job masking all those cockpit windows. I dare say it's okay.
Flaws are extra visible under the harsh bench light. It actually looks better in reality.



And because nothing can go completely right - even just for once - the last window fell inward when removing the liquid mask.
Do I dare re-attach the twice-broken antenna at this point?