Okay, I’m back at it. While waiting for oils to dry on another kit I started assembling the VERY nicely casted and designed Markov Racer from Alb Labs. You can see an in-prog of his kit master here and can buy it here.

The kit has very little clean-up so as far as resin kits goes this one is relatively low-resin-dust from sanding which is a concern of mine these days. The fit is very nice as well and just required minimal Aves Apoxie Sculpt in a few spots to fill gaps. My only disappointment is the large thruster which was made in two halves. The detail makes it hard to clean-up and the halving it seems unnecessary. Aside from that it’s awesome. I haven’t touched the vac-form canopy yet or have ever tried one so that should be interesting. The female pilot is very nicely sculpted and a great change of pace.

Mine will have a custom decal scheme depicting a racers whose primary sponsor is none other than FichtenFoo.com. Jinkies! So expect a khaki drab base color with black fractals, orange and blue highlights and some cool little worker pillbots. Other sponsor logos were either sent to me in vector from the owners (Kallamity.com and Alb-Lab) or downloaded from SeekLogo.com to use on my custom decal sheet.

I’m waiting for Aves to dry then I’ll start cleaning up the seams and thruster. Until then, here’s some pics.

The “hotbox” is just an old paint of speaker-boxes made from wood with one side open enough to put a lightbulb in and raise the temp to speed up oil paint’s dry time. I have a 1/35 DAK fig in it now drying to go with this vignette.

After the modulation/discoloration had dried I wen back and added darker and more defined rust areas with the 502 oil’s Dark Rust and Shadow Brown colors. Then I used thinned Shadow Brown to do light pin washes on the rivets and panel lines. Then once more into the hotbox for some drying. After that it was all hit with a flat coat of FFA. Next up is pre-dusting with the airbrush and then pigment dusting.

I also started on a small display base for this build just for my own uses as I doubt it’ll make it to the box art. I started with a leftover wood box lid from a jewelery box who’s “box” had been used elsewhere for another dio… maybe the “Taco”. Anyway, I then built up some 3/16″ basswood walls and stained it. After the stain dried I sawed off some edges to create a few levels then filled the box with green floral foam for bulk. Plaster rocks were added then it was all filled in with a gravel, ballast, tallus, sand, white glue, and Celluclay mixture. This was worked in with a wet stiff brush and then more tallus/ballast was added to simulate rockfall fixed with white glue.

I wanted to simulate a Moroccan desert scene so with the help of some reference started choosing colors to paint the groundwork. After the Celluclay dried, I hand-brushed on several coats of cheap tan/chocolate mixed acrylics with a very slight hint of red based on my refs. I added several coats until all the rocks and groundwork was a uniform color. Next I darkened the base color with a darker tan/chocolate/red mix. Once that dried I applied a wash of Mig Productions “Dark Wash and let it dry as well. When dry I drybrushed the whole base with light tan to make the rocks pop more. Once done the whole thing was dusted with African Earth, Gulf War Sand, and Dry Mud pigments and doused with Pigment Fixer.

Plants are bundles of dark shaded jute fiber, drybrushed with white glue and dipped in earth colored fine turf.

See the gallery below for some parts images before I did the clean-up. The parts laid out on the towel were after I did the degreaser bath and scrub in order to make sure I had everything and for a pic of all the parts.

After the clean-up I primed everything with the green Duplicolor Self-Etching Primer.

Once cured I applied a coat of a dark blue-gray to all of the parts.

Then lastly for this update I clear-coated it all in Future Floor Acrylic and applied German insignia decals from my Dragon 38(t) kit.

Tomorrow I’ll hairspray the parts and apply the buff desert coat which will be chipped lightly to show the base-color beneath.

So I stripped it, reprimed it in the Self-Etching followed up with a sandable white Duplicolor primer. Then I basecoated in a lightened Tamiya Deck Tan and then lightened the belly up with an off-white Tamiya mix. Next I sealed all that in a nice coat of glossy Future. I did the same oil wash to bring out the detailed shadows. This time I thinned it with odorless turpenoid and buffed away the excess with the same on a damp rag. That was a bit dark so I oversprayed that with a light coat of the basecoat colors. Next I used Golden Airbrush Colors (GAC) transparent “Red Oxide” for the tail and spines. I mottled that on then over it I mottled on some transparent GAC Naphthol Red Light to redden it up more. After that I sprayed on some GAC Shading Gray to shade some of the creases and such.

Next I began airbrushing on the stripes. For these I used GAC Transparent Raw Umber Hue which is a nice slightly green brown. I started off light in order to mark where I wanted the stripes then mottled them in darker. Over everything then I mottled on some GAC Transparent Yellow Oxide mixed with a drop of GAC Opaque White This blended in the colors nicely and gave a nice yellow tint to the whitish parts making it look more natural. Lastly I darkened parts of the spine and stripes by mottling on some more Shading Gray. A yellow/red oxide mix was used for the mouth areas.

Lastly I used a technical pen with black ink to color in the eyes then gave everything a coat of flat Future. The flat Future made everything too dull but not flat enough. Very unnatural look really so I ended up mixing a little of the Rust-All dead flat (#3 in their kit) with a few drops of pure future. I used a piece of sponge to apply it instead of a brush since I wanted it apply thin. This worked out really well and gave me the sheen I was looking for. Not too shiny, but not dull either. Almost a waxy lizard scale look. After that I brushed a tiny dab of Tamiya Clear onto each eye to make them look glossy and wet.

Next up I want to add a little wash to the mouth sides to make them pop a bit then make the feet look a little dirty for when I place it on and make the display base.

I can’t recall if he still had his legs in the book, but I recall something about one being lost and them being an encumbrance anyway so I decided to leave them off. Some of the art I found had them, others did not. I also decided to have his arms inside of the “cowling” with his head as opposed to being part of the worms exterior. Again, I can’t recall where they actually were.   I figured if he’s turning into a worm (and mostly there already) and enjoys his time in the desert sands, that the ability to have his arms tucked inside of the cowl would be a bonus for burrowing about. I also recall Siona sleeping inside of his cowl in the desert under his tucked-in head so I want there to be some sort of space there as well as a visual mechanism for adjusting the head position. For that I am using something that looks what’s left of his “sandtrout” skin as the skin-folds and musculature. (spoiler: Sandtrout are tiny slug/worm like creatures that encapsulate the planets water to protect the worms from it)

The rear worm parts of the body I decided to leave somewhat plain and segmented. The only detailing being some muscle-like detail between the outward bent segments, a rough weathered stone-like texture with small scours from eons of sand, and some breathing-holes along the exterior in three lines. This lack of horns, ribs, etc is to allow thew worm to travel beneath the sands in a more streamlined fashion. Real worms and mother nature always have the best solutions, if not a little plain. Around the mouth/cowl though I plan to jazz it up a bit.

As usual I don’t have anything decent in sketches to show and am doing this mostly from my own head. What I have sketched is so rough that it’s not worth showing. Just arm placements, to-scale roughs for sizing the arms, etc… This is turning out to be a fairly big piece though and would be bigger if I didn’t have him in a somewhat coiled pose. Stretched out he’d be about 20-22″ long. He’s sculpted in Super Sculpey mixed with Sculpey III. The armature was coiled wire, like a spring in order to maintain the worm-shape.

I’m constructing this with possible casting in mind as it’s always a possibility and making it in sections helps. I’ll probably bake the tail section tomorrow after cleaning up under the segment edges a bit, then start on the front segment. The head is baked and the arms are roughed up. Just waiting till the front segment is ready to add/detail those. Here’s all the pics:

Here’s the start of my non-entry into the FichtenFoo Forums “Creature Feature” contest. I’ve been considering trying a dinosaur kit ever since I happened upon a copy of Amazing Figure Modeler Issue #31 which happened to have dinos as the theme of the month. The work was pretty inspirational, but for whatever reason I never got around to doing one… until now! Well… soon anyway. See I’m waiting on my kit to arrive, but as soon as it gets here I’ll post some shots of it and get the ball rolling.

In the meantime here’s some color schemes I’ve been working on for the beastie based on some illustration I found online. A mummified fossil of this particular dinosaur, the Edmontosaurus, was discovered and scientists believe that it had stripes based on the variations in the scale pattern similar to those found in modern reptiles. Using that knowledge and what I read about modern reptile coloring, Google image searches on lizard patterns, and how other modelers and scientists believe those same colorations (lighter undersides, darker top, avian color patches for displays, etc…) would probably apply to dinos, plus my own imagination, I worked up the following.

1 2

3 4

5 6

I’m leaning towards either 1, 3, or 5. Probably a mix somewhere between 1 and 5. Number 4 would be the “safe” one and 2 was fun. Six is blue… just because it could also be. I found plenty of blue-tailed/bellied reptile pics.  think 1 and 5 have a good feel though and love the reddish tail of #1.

The kit I’m building is the one from Rader Studios. It seems like a good one to start with. Simple sleek shape, detailed in resin as opposed to IP, and compared to others… not overly ginormous. This one is apparently 6″ high by 15″ long. More soon! Gotta finish up a MG GN-X first.

Here’s the near-completed interior. All I’ve left to do is to dirty-up the floor a bit with a little dust in the corners via a thin oil-paint wash.Seatbelts and consoles were the pre-painted PE that came with the kit. I just had to paint the backs of the seatbelts as some parts of those were visible. The ‘cloth’ gear and seats were painted with 502 Abteilung oil-paints.

I’ve been planning this build for quite a while now, but needed some motivation and additional reference and parts to begin. I can’t remember why I decided that I wanted to build this exact Huey. I think I was actually looking for Cobra decals and stumbled upon the Fireball Models website where I began looking at all their 1/35 scale decal offerings. This scheme and design really stood out and looked like it’d be fun to build.

The decals are alps printed and look very nicely done. There’s enough decals that I could do several copters and still have a lot of nice markings leftover for other stuff. Plus it came with some very nice color-printed decal and color/marking guides. I’m planning to do the Navy NAS FALLON version from the sheets.

Now before I get the inevitable “that’s wrong” or “that was never used in that particular helo”, or “there’s 182 rivets on that panel, not 123 and you suck for not having fixed that” comments, I should say that this is my first ‘real’ aircraft build and don’t expect it to be 100% accurate. Frankly that sort of stuff doesn’t interest me as I really want something that looks cool. If it happens to look close to correct in the process, well all the better! If I’m not having fun doing this then it’s not worth doing, right?

Back to the kit, this is the Dragon/Panda 1/35 scale UH-1N Gunship kit. It’s a rerelease of the old Panda kit with added detail and 2 sheets of PE, one prepainted for consoles and seatbelts. I’m working on the interior first so havent even worried too much about the exterior. I plan to have the side doors open so there’s a good but of detailing that needs to be done.

^ First Aid packs on floor will later be hung on interior walls. ^

Looking through my refs, these SAR copters are chock-full of stowage goodies. Bags, coolers, hoist, First Aid packs and kits, etc… I’ve sculpted a lot of packs using Aves Apoxie Sculpt and others are from various 1/35 armor kits. A few are from the 1/35 Gundam kits, but shhh! I won’t tell if you don’t. The hoist was ‘borrowed’ from my Acaremy/MRC 1/35 MH-60G Pavehawk kit. I was going to use the hoist from the UH-1D HEER kit, but it’s awful. The pack suspended from the roof is also Aves and lead foil and I use my Wire Wrapping tool to make the headset cords to be hanging from the roof as well.

I also have been using some PE parts from the Eduard UH-1C interior set. Again, probably incorrect, but it helps me fill in details like the sidewalls and door panels. Stuff that isn’t really all that noticible, but makes it more visually interesting by having added it.

Anyway, that’s all for now. More on this once I start priming and painting. The interior needs to be completed first so that I can glue the exterior halves together and detail/mask/paint them after.

Since my last post I’ve pained additional details such as caution stripes and the rubber feet parts and applied more chipping effects. First I went through and used a butter color to create false chip highlights next to some of the paint chips as well as scrapes that didn’t go through to the metal. This same color was sponged on for more of the effect on random places… wherever it looked good. Unfortunately the color looks too white to me now, but a few filters of yellow or German Ocher will fix that. After the light yellow I went back and added yellow back to some of the larger chipped areas. This is known as “negative chips” IIRC. Works well and helps when I’ve removed too much paint with the hairspray technique.

Lastly I added finer chips using two methods. First I flicked spots of dark gray Vallejo paint onto the model to make fine little chips. A little goes a loooooong way so don’t overdo it. Then I sponged on Dark Rust and Dark Gray Vallejo to create more worn areas of rust where there would be more wear and tear. Feet, shovel, lower legs/shovel arm, etc… Then I clear-coated and added a few decals followed by a satin coat to prepare for the weathering steps.

I included a few more of my reference pics I’m using to depict a well-worn construction mecha. Here’s all the pics!