Zenrat's Flying Circus

[PR19_Kit]

This delay is a good thing as it means I should almost certainly get to attend Model Expo on 6th to 8th June.

Every cloud etc. etc. 

[NARSES2]

This delay is a good thing as it means I should almost certainly get to attend Model Expo on 6th to 8th June.

Every cloud etc. etc. 

Indeed 

[zenrat]

Day off today.  No chores to do so I was looking forward to spending the whole day at the bench.
Hah.  More fool me.
I finally got there after lunch having been requested to prune a number of trees.

I have finished the "gluing bits on" stage of the bodywork on the Buick Ute.
Buick Ute WIP 25-05-26 01 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Buick Ute WIP 25-05-26 02 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Primer time!  And then the cycles of PSR will begin.

And an AMT '53 Studebaker Starliner I have been working on is primed with foil on the scripts and is ready for paint when the weather permits it.
Studebaker WIP 25-05-26 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
This is going to be a stock build.

[PR19_Kit]

Both ot them are looking REALLY good Fred. 

[zenrat]

Thanks Kit.
Second time around for the Studebaker kit.  First time (18 years ago) I chopped the roof and powered it with a Mazda rotary engine.

Mazdebaker07 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Mazdebaker01 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[PR19_Kit]

One of the best looking US cars of its time for sure, properly styled, rather than last years model with added bits.

[su27rules]

    

[McColm]

Wow!

[zenrat]

An all cars blog entry today.

The Stude' is progressing.  I've got the chassis painted and the main colour on the body.  As I am building this stock I had in my head an ivory and pale green two tome paintjob.
Already having a bottle of SMS Mint Green Lacquer I wanted to use I went looking through their range for a suitable ivory colour.  Chamois seemed to fit the bill.  It looked like Ivory on the website.  It looked like a dark version of ivory in the bottle.  And it looks like duck egg green on the chassis of the model.
I've mixed it 50:50 with white which improves things and it'll work with the mint green but its still greener than the ivory I wanted.
I painted the body with it yesterday.
And then I discovered a bottle of Melbourne Tram Cream in my paint stash I had forgotten about which would have been perfect.
Oh well.  That can be used on something else.
The interior of the Stude' is two tone Vallejo acrylic duck egg green and a mix of duck egg green and the colour I use for Russian cockpits.  This works well but wanting a third colour for upholstery I today painted areas with a mid green which does not work.  However, the beauty of it being a model is I can just paint over it.

I have been slowly putting together the remains of the VW Beetle Stuff Car (a lovely typo on the destructions by Rye Field Model) which donated its roof to the Schwimmbeetle I built for the amphibian GB.Having got the running gear together I am working on filling in the gaps left by sawing off the roof.
Beetle Buggy WIP 07-06-26 01 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Being 4wd it's going to be a cross country buggy.  Wheels and tyres are options from the kit.  I've trimmed the front and rear bodywork for clearance.  It'll get a simple roll over bar behind the front seats.  I haven't decided whether to arm it or make it a recreational vehicle.  I may trim the running boards to give it a more Baja Bug appearance.
Beetle Buggy WIP 07-06-26 02 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

I have also been working on an AMT Bantam Blast Fuel Altered (a class of dragster - google "wild willy borsch winged express" for an example).   I finished paintng the colour on the body yesterday and put on some transfers...
Bantam Blast WIP 07-06-26 02 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
...which as you can see are out of register...
Bantam Blast WIP 07-06-26 01 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
...whicih I didn't notice until they were on.     I shall be very carefully going over the white parts with black paint.
The paint is all SMS lacquer.  Prismatic silver then clear yellow and finally clear red.  I really must start scanning every sheet of transfers before I use them as I could have easilly edited these and reprinted them.  I mean to do so but always get carried away with enthusiasm for getting the stickers on and forget.

And finally, regular readers will remember that a number of years ago Princess Charlie the Wonder Dog (may she rest in peace) decided to get my attention by picking up, and biting down on the chassis of an original mould 1/25 Revell Stone Woods & Cook Willys gasser.  A kit I have since been unable to replace.
After I removed it from her mouth I just put it into its box, wrote "chassis eaten by dog" on the end and shoved it into a cupboard.
Today, having been reading an old issue of Scale Auto magazine which has a pic of an example of this kit on the cover, I dug it out and had a look at how bad the damage was WRT making it good.  Turns out it should be repairable.  She only bit down, she didn't chew on it.  Both chassis rails are snapped, both rear radius arms are snapped, and a cross member and a rear spring are missing.
The breaks are all clean and should glue neatly.  Tamiya extra thin should give a strong enough bond provided I remember not to be too heavy handed before the chassis is glued to the floor pan which will reinforce it.  And, thanks to my former neighbour Barry the Barsteward giving me the remains of a wrecked build about 20 years ago I have the parts to replace the missing ones.
I had built the engine before "the incident" and thought I had done a good job but when I looked at it I realised I had obviously been having a Bad Alclad Day so off came the valve covers, intake parts, and headers to be stripped and redone.

[Old Wombat]

Like that paint scheme!

I rented a topless Beetle for about a week when I moved up to Darwin in 1984, until my car arrived via road-train. Fun little beast! (dak-dak-dak-dak-dak-dak) 

I suppose another re-spray of the Studebaker would mean 3 coats of paint, which would be pushing it a bit. Pity.

[zenrat]

Thanks Womby.

The Stude' will be fine.  It'll have a genuine 50's feel to the colour mix.

[NARSES2]

Like that paint scheme!

As do I, lovely work 

[PR19_Kit]

I really must start scanning every sheet of transfers before I use them as I could have easilly edited these and reprinted them.

Absolutely! I've been doing that ever since I got my first scanner. Indeed, I think that's WHY I bought it in the first place.