Maddog Manufacturing 2018 Production

[BlackSheep214]

Looking good, Duke. I'd love to do another F-15 eagle but I hate doing all those damn tiny stenciling decals. Now I know why I've done only one F-15 Eagle kit in my youth years.

I've been wanting to do a Delta Dart as well only with Griffiss AFB markings.

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks Blacksheep, I know what you mean; they were certainly a pain in the tush to applyand I left off most of the ones on the bottom. Still, I want to do two more Strike Eagles: One IDF and one USAF only loaded to the gills with bombs on both of them!

Thanks Carlos! The Deuce is Done! Feel free to check her out in the Completed Aircraft Forums. I also completed a couple tanks as well. They are in the Completed Armor Forum.

Stay tuned, more to come....

[Duke Maddog]

Okay now that I'm finally recovered from that flu; I managed to get back to the bench and make some serious progress for once.

At Hobby Day I didn't feel like doing any painting, detail or otherwise; so I just pulled some things out to build. Here is what I was working on...




I started by making some more progress on another Aerosan for the war game I'm planning on doing in October. I started the engine on this little beastie:



After sanding the forward cone, I completed the mounting of the engine, the safety bars and several other little fiddly bits:







Moving on from that, I decided to stay with armor for the next project. I pulled out my new T-80 UM1 tank. I started with the turret as indicated in the instructions. Here it is after completing one half of the assembly:



This kit also received a metal barrel included in the kit. I decided to have another try at putting it on my tank. This time, I glued it to the mantlet first:



After that, I went back and completed the other side of the turret, completing the assembly as much as I dared. There are still some parts to add to this, but only after painting and final detailing:



You can see that I fixed the smoke dischargers.

With all that done, I assembled the hull, added the torsion bars, wheels and other details. I even started the tracks before I remembered to take this pic:



I eventually managed to finish the tracks on one side of this for now:



After all that, I was ready to move on.....


Well, I moved on all right, straight to an ACE kit that I'd been wanting to build for awhile. It was time to pull it out. This is the ACE Canadian Husky in 1/72 scale. I started with the main hull:





For such a short run kit, I was surprised at how well this fit together so far. That just means I'm going to have a bear of a time with the suspension and wheels underneath! h well, I decided to jump ahead and build the crane. It was a fast assembly, although the top of the main arm had a deep trench across it so I added some strip styrene to it to make it flat:




Okay it was time to move on to aircraft....


I started with a simple Matchbox kit just to have some fun.

I cemented the pilot to the bang seat and then added him to the fuselage since that's all that the cockpit comprises! No pics of that, sorry; I jumped straight to closing up the fuselage:



Later on I'll paint the pilot and whatever interior that can be seen and I'll close up the canopy and mask it. Before that, I assembled the wings and added them to this plane:



Once the canopy is all closed up and masked; this bird will be ready for paint.

Moving on again, I started a Hasegawa kit of the 1/72 scale Harrier jet, only this one is in the markings of the Italian Navy. I started with the small cockpit since this kit actually has one:



I then assembled the engine intake:



I then added some of the parts to the fuselage that could be added before removing the parts from the sprues. Things like the refueling pod, engine intake cowls and the exhaust plates:



Lastly, I cemented the wings together as well as various other parts that were halved or otherwise needed extra parts added:





Couldn't do much more without having to paint so I called it a day by then.

Thanks for looking in on my small update here. Comments are always welcome.

[speedgraflex]

Your work looks great so far, Duke! I am glad you are over the flu. I had the flu earlier in the season; the current strains are so strong it took almost a month to cure the cough completely. It is always such a pleasure to see you work! Have you any more details on the war game you are creating?

[Stikpusher]

That’s looking real good Mark. A nice batch of armor and aircraft builds.

[Duke Maddog]

Your work looks great so far, Duke! I am glad you are over the flu. I had the flu earlier in the season; the current strains are so strong it took almost a month to cure the cough completely. It is always such a pleasure to see you work! Have you any more details on the war game you are creating?

Thanks Bruce! I am thrilled to be over it too; I HATE being sick! I appreciate the compliments on my work, they always keep me motivated to do more.

The game I'm building these for is going to be based in the WWII timeline circa 1944 or so. It's a fictitious scenario centered on my six-and-a-half-foot long German Armored Train. The scenario is that the Germans have looted a whole mess of Russian treasures; loaded it all up on this German Armored Train and is making a mad dash for Germany. The Russians find out and the local Russian commander only has a few Aerosans to send after the train to try and stop it; capture it or raid it to recover their treasure.

The game will be set up on two eight-foot tables with the train in the center of the table. The Aerosans will be on the sides of the train to shoot at it and will be able to move side-to-side or slightly forward and backward. Here's the fun part: to simulate movement, the terrain will move! Every turn all the trees, rocks and other parts of the terrain will shift so many inches. If an Aerosan is positioned in a place where a tree or something passes through it; that Aerosan will have collided with the terrain piece and is destroyed. The ruleset we'll be adapting for this is Bolt Action rules. I hope to play test this game at Hobby Day sometime in the summer so if you wish to come down to Hobby Day to help with that, you are welcome.

That’s looking real good Mark. A nice batch of armor and aircraft builds.

Thanks Carlos! After a year of taking on large, difficult and troublesome models the past couple years, I'm sticking with models I can complete quickly and easily!

[Stikpusher]

Thanks Carlos! After a year of taking on large, difficult and troublesome models the past couple years, I'm sticking with models I can complete quickly and easily!

Now that is a very wise path to follow... I’m trying to do the same.

[speedgraflex]

Thanks Carlos! After a year of taking on large, difficult and troublesome models the past couple years, I'm sticking with models I can complete quickly and easily!

Now that is a very wise path to follow... I’m trying to do the same.

Truth. Right there. In fact, I made the same decision. I like friendly kits not intimidating ones. I was on the fence about the Wingnut Wings biplanes because of their large scale, parts count and rigging, however, after reading the "Tips n' Techniques" published on their website, I was relieved. Basically the designs of the kits can be built very basically and rigging can be left out to make even a beginner feel comfortable. Score.

I like Revell and Monogram kits for the same reason... and I am about to test whether or not Airfix is either of the same mindset or not. I used to think parts count was the determiner. The more parts in a kit... the less interested I would be in it. I thought engines would be a pain in the rear, but what I found instead is the level of detail is a controllable element. I still feel FORM or SHAPE is first, followed by COLOR and WEATHERING and DETAIL is the last on the list. Each of these qualities is incredibly important, but it is up to the modeler to choose the order by preference, taste or whatever factors govern their decisions.

[speedgraflex]

Thanks Bruce! I am thrilled to be over it too; I HATE being sick! I appreciate the compliments on my work, they always keep me motivated to do more.

The game I'm building these for is going to be based in the WWII timeline circa 1944 or so. It's a fictitious scenario centered on my six-and-a-half-foot long German Armored Train. The scenario is that the Germans have looted a whole mess of Russian treasures; loaded it all up on this German Armored Train and is making a mad dash for Germany. The Russians find out and the local Russian commander only has a few Aerosans to send after the train to try and stop it; capture it or raid it to recover their treasure.

That is a BRILLIANT concept, Duke. I looked up top speeds of vehicles and steam powered trains in snow and came up with 19 mph, which is by no means a hard and fast number, but it is very interesting. Do you intend to only have two commanders in charge, one German and one Russian? It seems you could add U.S. and other countries as well to the scenario.

I know so little about gaming and worlds that are being designed, but I would think you could find a Russian railway line with formidable terrain... and use terrain as another character in the scenario. Maybe that is already the design.

[BlackSheep214]

Man, that Aerosan looks tiny! Looking good, Duke!