My 2016 Production at Maddog Manufacturing

[KSaarni]

Oh no Duke, I have noticed and I believe most of us!
Your amazing thread just does not pass unoticed, that's for sure ! :-)

Some comments of the "biggies"

Happy to see the Shuttle getting next steps, and boy, it like grows in size!
Especially the fuel tank! Any possibilities to take one more pic of it and put a recognizable 1/72 build next to it ? Just to get some perspective of the size?

Madge is big and beautiful, coming along very nicely!

As a big contrast to the Shuttle and Madge comes the Stearman! A nice plane all in all, engine work is perfect and I love the color scheme ! Looking forward to the rigging!

Looking forward to next episode!

- Kari

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks Kari. I appreciate the comments here, they keep me going when frustrating times hit the bench like they did this past week.

I'll try to get another pic of the shuttle with something else next to it in 1/72 scale. I was kind of waiting to get the boosters and fuel tank assembled first before I did that. Then later on, I want to get a shot of the Shuttle sitting next to the Saturn V. That's going to be an epic pic!

Hopefully Madge will be painted soon, possibly this coming week. and the Stearman might be awhile until I can get some EZ line ordered.

Thanks again for the comments. Stay tuned for more.

[CallSignOWL]

damn....look at you go!

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks Owl! Today I had some time so I managed to get a little bit of progress done on a couple models. I even got three models finished so here's another short update.

Here's how it went down...


First off, I pulled a couple models down to decal. I started with the little Czech plane I'm doing as an aircraft in German service during the war:



Now to get this little birdie completed.

I then started on decaling the Aurora Jet Commando. The decals however; despite my three coats of Liquid Decal Film, shattered beyond use. So I had to look around for some extra decals in my stash of decals for something that could work. I discovered that I am woefully short of sufficient civilian-type decals for civilian aircraft, especially registry numbers. So, I found some stripes, some Americans Flags, a couple registry numbers and some other artwork and cobbled together a completely fictitious scheme for this aircraft:





Of course, while I was doing all this, the white coat got dirty again, but not bad enough for me to worry about it. I'm pretty pleased with how this is looking now. Later on I painted the end of the nose Black and did extend the red lines to the black nose. Eventually, I also added the landing gear for this plane, removed the masking; replaced a couple windows that came out and generally finished her off. You can see her all finished in the Aircraft Forums.




Moving along to my armor, since I was doing decals; I added the decals to the Russian SCUD, then I gave it a black wash to bring out the details:





I was about to clearcoat my Iraqi SCUD when I stopped myself since I wanted to do some chipping and wear on this one. So, I pulled out a fine sanding stick and sanded some edges and raised details until the green undercoat showed through. I tried to be as thorough as possible without overdoing it:



Later on, I gave it a clearcoat, decals and a light brown wash. I also added a black wash to the mesh screens on some sections of this model:






Afterward, I decided to try a different approach to doing the wheels. I assembled them still on the sprues and then sprayed them with brown and sand color to simulate weathering. Then I dry-brushed flat black on the raised surfaces of the tires where they would meet the road:

The Russian wheels still on the sprue:



The Iraqi wheels after I removed them from the sprue:



The weathering shows much better on the Iraqi wheels in these pics, but you can see the results.

After all that, I sprayed brown on the Russian SCUD and Sand on the Iraqi SCUD under the wheel wells and undercarriage to weather the bottom before I added the wheels to these. After adding the wheels, all I had left to do was to add the SCUD missiles and the last detail bits and these beasties are done! You can see the finished models in the Armored Forums.

Now I have a little more room to work on some more of my models so now I'll start moving forward on the Shuttle again; I'll get Madge painted and maybe I'll even get the C-118 interior painted and the fuselage closed up, along with a few more small scale armor models to keep me balanced. So, there's a lot more coming down the pike so stay tuned for more. Meanwhile, feel free to check out my finished models in their respective Forums and thanks for looking in; comments are always welcome.

[BlackSheep214]

Those are looking really nice!

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks BlackSheep! Having succeeded with all this progress sure felt good! I hope my subsequent projects go this well and quick.

[Duke Maddog]

Okay, I finally have some time to post some of my own progress here. I'll start with a few simple models that I only got a little done with.

This Panzer II was finally completed up to the wheels and tracks. I even painted the muffler before I enclose it behind the P/E screen that goes around it. After that, I can get it painted:






Next I started a Russian Aircraft Carrier for the Shipbuilder's Campaign on one Forum as well as the Aircraft Carrier Group Build on another Forums. I added all the tiny fiddly bits and decks along both sides of the carrier island:





I left all the forward deck parts off since I was concerned they'd break when I finally added this to the main deck.

Next I cemented the interior hull pieces that needed to go on and then I added the main deck to the top of the hull. Since parts of the deck didn't line up with the upper hull too well, I took my time lining up the edges and hitting them with Tamiya Extra Thin as I went around the edges of this ship. Here's a couple shots of the deck completed. I placed the island on the deck to show how it will look when it is finally glued onto the deck. Right now, I'm leaving it off until it's time to paint:






After this, I got down to business and moved further along on the C-118. I painted the cockpit and then added the decal sheet for the instrument panel:





I'm not sure why I bothered, that won't be seen through the cockpit windows anyway. Oh well, I know it's there.

The instructions called for about 40grams of weight in the nose. This looks about right:



Actually, it's a little more than I need. I used the converter on my phone to convert 40 grams into ounces and it came up to 1.4 ounces. I put three half-ounce bullet weights and one 1/4-ounce bullet weight. This puppy won't be sitting on her tail!

Once that was secure, I closed up the fuselage halves and then added the main wings:



The fuselage on this bird was slightly warped so I started at one end with some Tamiya Extra Thin and slowly glued around the edges section by section. Once the one section was secure, I used the twist ties to pull the fuselage together some more; added more Tamiya Extra Thin and tightened it up. On and on until all the edges had been glued. I used tape to hold together parts that twist ties couldn't hold; and clamps on the flat tail surfaces. Then I added the wings....

There are some pretty serious gaps at the wing roots of this bird so I will try out some Tamiya putty I found on my workbench the last time I did that major cleanup. I didn't even know I had any, but I found it and I will try that on the wing roots to see if I can get a smooth transition. You can see how big this bird is on my workbench, I have no space to work on this:



The final thing I did to this was to add the main windscreen/canopy:



This way I can hopefully blend that into the rest of the fuselage so it looks like it is one complete piece after painting. Another lesson learned from the DC-6....



Now the Liftmaster War begins.......




Moving on to my small scale armor, I pulled out the little Russian Fire Truck and finished building the rear tank and the hose and ladder holder. The bench behind the cabin looks crooked, but I checked it and it is on there straight. That is one interesting optical illusion there:





After that, I took some time to add the photo-etch to one of the two armored trains I'm building. For fun, here's the one engine without any photo-etch:





Compare that with the engine that is complete with all the photo-etch attached:





Well, I was on a roll so I started adding the Photo-etch to one of the armored cars for this train. After another hour and a half, it got done:







By this time I was going stark raving mad, so it was time to calm down with a nice relaxing, simple build. I found that with this set here which I decided to start for another Group Build on another Forums:



I figured: I need one for the other; and I have a V-2 already built that needs to be transported so I'd build both.

It was a good start. I did the chassis on the SS-100 Gigant first:



Wow, what a great fit! Moving on I added some more details and the fenders on this:



I finished that part up with a few more parts on top:



Later I started on a part of the cab. I assembled the interior and the forward engine cover. I stopped there so I could paint the interior before completing the assembly of the cab:





That was fun! After that I set everything aside and went to work on the Meilerwagen. I started, of course, with the wheel assemblies:



I realized later that those two single wheels were supposed to be double wheels. Easy fix taken care of later. Next I assembled the lower part of the trailer and added the wheel assemblies:



After that, I only had to assemble the rocket cradle and add it to the trailer:



Now I just have a bunch of tiny fiddly bits to add to that and it'll be done and ready for paint. That was quick! I'm looking forward to seeing this carrying my V-2 Rocket!


Okay, that's all I have for now. I have a lot to do next week so I don't know how much I'll be able to get done beyond this. Until then, comments are welcome; thanks for looking in.

[Duke Maddog]

Okay, I know it's been awhile, but I was able to finally get quite a bit done this weekend, although not quite as much as I wanted to. A lot of things at Hobby Day weekend kept me hopping up to help out. Still, I'm pleased with the work I got done.


I'll start with some of the aircraft I'm working on.

I first shot some paint over the two WWI aircraft I'm building for the Canvas Eagles wargame. The Fokker E.III got a shot of faded olive drab on it:



The Neiuport got a coat of metallic silver:



Later on, when I tried to apply the decals, most of them went on okay, but the words I tried to put on shattered. Also, the small roundels didn't fit on the bottom of the wings. So, since this was for a game anyway, I improvised:



Later on I'll seal this so the decals stay on, I hope....

I also have to paint a white stripe on the Fokker E.III before I can decal that one.


After all this, I spent hours sanding the seams on my C-118 and re-filling the wing roots and a part of the fuselage behind the cockpit canopy. I figured while I was talking long distance with my friend, I'd be able to keep making progress while we talked:



Finally, after exhausting my patience on that big model, I decided to start another simple model. This is the Italeri 1/72 scale Me-110 a friend had sent me. it was the perfect thing to start for the Twin Props Group Build on these forums so I decided now was a good time to get going on it. I started with the cockpit interior, naturally:



After that, I assembled the wings and engine cowlings:



Later on, I painted the interior base color. I'll add the detail painting later:




That covers my aircraft so far. Moving along, I also tried to make some progress on my USS New York. First, I shot a coat of blue over all the deck surfaces:



The white stuff is where I started to apply the liquid mask to the deck. Here it is after I covered all the deck surfaces with the liquid mask so I can re-shoot the grey on the hull and superstructure:



Later on I hope to shoot the grey over this, as well as several other ships whose decks were also sprayed.



Moving on to my armor, I first tried to see about finishing one of my flatcars for one of my armored trains. I got this far before Hobby Day tasks and general demotivation stopped me from going further:



Going back to the day before, I shot a coat of red over one of my Russian Fire Trucks:



While painting, I decided to pull out the grey and shot a new coat of grey over my WWI German A7V tank:



Later, I masked this little beastie with Silly Putty and re-shot the Olive Drab on this tank:





I think it finally looks far better now:



At Hobby Day after decaling the Neiuport, I added the decals to this little guy as well:





Finally, while painting on the day before Hobby Day, I pulled out the 1/35th scale commission build and shot a coat of black as a primer over it:



Afterward,, when I pulled out the grey to paint the A7V, I also shot the basecoat of grey over this tank:



After that dried, I decided to modulate, or panel fade the color:





You can see I also painted some of the details, like the jack block and exhaust system. I also clearcoated her before taking her to Hobby Day where I added the decals after working on the Neiuport and A7V:






Well, that's all for now. I was hoping to get a bit more done, but I'm pleased with my progress so far. I've got some good jumping off points for working on some of these this week, so hopefully I'll have time to spend moving some more of these further along. Until then, thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

[KSaarni]

Great update again Duke!

Some thoughts, feedback, comments of some of the builds

- Looking forward to the the Fokker Eindecker progress! Is this the new Airfix tool ?
- That C-118 is huge!
- Curious to see what the result is after the liquid mask is removed.. Have never really tried liqued masking.
- The Russian fire truck really hits the eyes with that fire-red color!
- Yes, camo on the shoe-box German tank makes it look much better!
- And finally the result of the color fading of the Panzer II is outstanding! Not too much, not too little, just the right amount !



- Kari

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks Kari!

The Fokker Eindecker is actually the old Revell 1/72 scale kit. The Neiuport is from Toko a division of Roden.

The C-118 is huge. That is why nothing has been put on this until I get the entire fuselage and wings sanded, primed, painted, clearcoated and decaled first. That way, nothing breaks off!

I should have the liquid mask off tomorrow after I shoot the grey. I'll most likely have to do a ton of touch-ups. We'll see...

I'm pleased with the look if the fire truck and the A7V. They both could very well be done in a few days.

Thanks for the compliment on the panel fading on the Pz II. It was a technique I learned and applied when I was building my 1/72 scale Dora Railgun. I thought it would look good on this tank to break up the monotone grey paint.

Thanks again for looking in and for the great compliments!