Maddog Manufacturing 2025 Grand Re-Opening!

[Duke Maddog]

Thank you Carlos! I've always enjoyed those old Revell ships, so now that I'm done with the armor for a bit; it was time to get them built.

Thank you Mike! Personally I can't wait to get those monster planes done so I can clear the bench!

[Stuart]

As if one B-2 wasn't enough!

[Duke Maddog]

LOL!@Stuart! To be honest, I had five of these kits! One I gave away, the others are being used as backups or being cannibalized for parts should any go missing. Some time back, one of the IPMS National conventions released a decals sheet with some different B-2 bomber markings. I have a copy of those decals so one of these will have the kit decals, the other will sport the IPMS Nationals decals.

Besides, at least I have a backup if one gets stolen again.....

[speedgraflex]

Bravo, Mark! There’s so much happening on your work bench I’m not sure where to begin. You’re definitely winning the multitasking award between all of these projects. It’s truly inspiring to see so much activity. Usually it’s just watching one project come to fruition, but here there are multiple stages and different approaches. It boggles my mind! Cheers, mate.

[Duke Maddog]

Thank you Bruce! That means a lot to me!

[Duke Maddog]

This month is a short tour, showing some aircraft, ships, and another miscellaneous model I wanted since I was nine. So, without further ado, let's board the trams and see what we've been doing....


Here in the Hangar, we have the cockpit assembly for an F-15E Strike Eagle in this first bay:



The wings were next, being an easy assembly. The appropriate holes were drilled out and the wings cemented together:



Later, the conformal fuel tanks were cemented to the lower fuselage:



And that is as far as we got on that. And believe it or not, it's all the progress on aircraft this month so now we move on to the Shipyards...


Here in the Shipyards the first slipway has the Hasegawa Hikamaru passenger liner. All the deck assemblies were completed and the first of the detail parts went on:



All that's left are the masts, booms and cranes, along with some additional detail parts.

In the next slipway, we made more progress on the Long Beach harbor tug. All the decks were cemented together and the hull side rails were added. Some red was slapped on the deck to see if it is a shade I want to use:




Now in this final slipway we have one of the new French frigates, mislabeled the Normandie, but this is actually the Aquitane. The keel was laid and the superstructure was added to the hull:



And that is where the work on the Shipyards ended for now. Now we divert back to the Miscellaneous area where we have a lot of work on one of my most wanted models, the Budweiser Eight-Horse Hitch...

First, here are some closeups of the lead horses of the team, all finally rigged up and ready to be hitched up:



These were then added to their hitch:





Later the rear horses were accoutred and here you see the front horses with the rear horses which are the ones on the right:



Only four more horses to harness!

Before that, I decided to build the wagon. It was tough as the largest pieces were warped and needed some persuasion to stay in place:



The Budweiser cases were a solid piece that required stickers to simulate the beer crates. I added those on next:



Lots of finagling and silvering, but they are on. Later they were washed with a brown wash to take away some of the shine and silvering.

While they were drying, the wagon got painted



Next I had to build the driver and his mascot Bud:



Based on the size of these guys, I'm thinking scale of this model is around 1/24 scale or possibly 1/18; or somewhere in between.

The wheels and suspension were then painted and assembled, ready to be mounted on the main wagon box, first the front:



The the rear:



Here's a shot of the mostly completed wagon with some of the detail paint and pin-striping:



Of course I had to test fit the driver and Bud on this:



Later the brass parts were added and the beer crates were fitted. I opted not to glue them in place so I could have a small compartment to "hide" things in:



Finally the remaining four Clydesdales were harnessed and hitched and the whole team is now close to having the reins and chains added:





Here's a closeup of the wagon with a painted driver and dog:



Later I added the reins, hooking them up to all the horses:



Another closeup of the driver and Bud with the driver holding the reins:



And there they go driving off to the finishing area where the backup bar and chains would be added to complete this model:





And that concludes this tour of the facilities once again. Thank you all for stopping in, comments are welcome!

[speedgraflex]

Duke! Duke! Duke! Bravo, bravo, bravo!! On the first two ships what are their scales? Everything looks neat and tidy!

[Medicman71]

Awesome work Mark!

[Duke Maddog]

Thank you Bruce! The scale of the first two ships is 1/700 for the Hikawamaru, and 1/106 for the Long Beach tugboat. It's a rather odd scale but it's the 'box scale' Revell did back in the day.

Thank you Mike!

[speedgraflex]

Thanks, Duke! I thought I recognized that tug from cover art I’ve seen online! I’ve never seen anyone build it before! Bravo!