SPA Modeler

It's hard to imagine climbing into something like that and then taking it up thousands of feet in the air! Whoo boy, that took some nerves and guts!

Bruce, your stalwart pilot looks to have both qaulities in spades! I like his grip on the sides too.

Agreed, Garyi. Certainly ain't an Airbus! Looks great, Bruce.

Thank you so much, Kari, Lylex2, Gary!

I hope I thanked all of you in order.
Unfortunately, I think the figure is sitting higher than he should be. We know he is overscale and from the photos I have of Barker seated and flying his shoulders should be in the cockpit not outside of it.













This means I will have to “disarm” him once again.

Oh, bother!



To be clear, I cut off and saved his “original arms,” those are my Milliput creations. The hands are from the original figure model which is why it’s been tricky to solve how to use them.

Hahaha! Thanks, Gary! That actually looks a bit like the Tamiya saw I used initially, only much much MUCH larger scale. I recall first seeing bone saws touring Revolutionary War battlefields; and those first impressions are nearly impossible to forget. I think it was at Fort Necessity that the majority of battlefield wounds were treated by amputations. Anyway, thinking along those lines led me to consider building the arms, legs and torso using Milliput and simply using one of my spare Russkit driver heads for facial features at least. Although I think the Russkit head sculpts are more primitive. Let’s see!

Model Shop Budget

Kit - $20
PE Aftermarket - Tom’s British Cockpit - $10
PE/Resin Aftermarket - CSM Vickers - $8
Cox Driver Figure - $5
Custom Decals - $15

$58

I’m $8 over the budget.

Bruce this is amazingly stunning work! Great research too; I also thought the pilot sat wrong in the cockpit. It's kinda hard to fly a plane with both hands outside the cockpit. LOL! I think sculpting a new body will be a tremendous improvement. I'd even go so far as to use the head that is on the current pilot, along with the arms.

Thank you, Mark!

I really appreciate your advice. I will think about your suggestions on how to modify the figure. I don’t have as much experience as you do and certainly appreciate your thoughts. One issue to resolve: I’m going to release the white glue as well as the rubber band holding the fuselage parts together and free the cockpit so I can work from the feet up. Something I noticed from building arms—

Gravity.

The arms would droop after the fifteen to twenty minute mark in setting. My solution was to invert the figure to prevent this.

I’m hoping to avoid too much slouch. Maybe this is why sculptors use Aves? Or maybe why they use armatures?

Also—I’m really grateful I can share all of my mistakes here. I wish there was a drawing forum like this. Too many forums are full of “jobbers” with “one way (my way) thinking.” The best artist slash teacher I had told me to go into the kitchen and paint with whatever was in the cabinets—peanut butter and jelly, peas and carrots—to get over the fear of the blank slate. The unbuilt kit, the blank page, the empty canvas are scary to me.

Why not use some quick setting epoxy with the arms? I use that stuff fairly often instead of CA glue… or I did until I ran out…

Thanks, Carlos!

I didn’t explain this well. I chopped off the flesh plastic arms and put those away. I built arms from rolled Milliput then CA gelled the hands to wrists. This is all a bit crude but I’m learning how tough figure work is.

Mortal Kombat I releases guest Conan on my birthday.
Crom laughs at your four winds.