Ricks' Ramblings

[NARSES2]

  

[Rick Lowe]

Star Wars 1/48 TIE Interceptor **Sci-Fi**

The old AMT kit, with a few tweaks;
Pilot and cockpit detailed (not that you can see much behind the smoked transparency...) and I added engine nozzles, as apparently the movie effects designers forgot them and AMT didn't see fit to add any....

Sprayed white and the solar panels were masked off and painted black.
Detail painting with other random colours, finishing with a black wash – though not too heavy; this is the Empire, after all, and their craft must be kept cleaner than those of the Rebel Scum!
I did add the odd laser scorch, though.

Then I decided it needed a base, as the landing legs provided just didn't do it for me.

I thought a Death Star 2 would be appropriate and found a small plastic world globe in a cheap store.
I cut it in half and chopped out a circle for the depression of the World Killer emitter array, which was a section of ping-pong ball.

I then roughly hacked out a section so I could scratchbuild the half-completed interior.
I made a base and back wall for the hole and then used various shapes and junk to depict a random 'under construction' effect, finishing with some bits of the removed outer wall as a secondary interior skin/armour layer, and used net curtain as mesh for the framework of the outer skin.
I honestly can't remember exactly what's in there, but it used up some parts that would otherwise have stayed in the junk box until the end of time.

The rest of the hemisphere was filled with bits of wood and builders' filler to make it solid enough that the display wouldn't be too top-heavy.

A spray coat of black, then detail painting with various greys drybrushed on, with the odd bit of light grey as windows or lit sections.
I then glued something on the bottom to give it some cushioning for any surface it was put on.

A piece of heavy wire for the fighter mount and it was done.

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[Rick Lowe]

And a few more.

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[kerick]

Excellent!

[The Rat]

Cracking good job!   

[Rick Lowe]

Cheers, Fellas.

[Rick Lowe]

1/72 Airfix Fiat G-50 *real world*

I used to help out with the Juniors group at my old model club, and they were often given kits by members of the club.
Some just weren't of any interest to the kids, so the adult helpers were given a few of them – this is one I got.
It's not an aircraft I'm particularly interested in, but it was free, so I thought I'd slam it together to get me out of a bit of a slump.

I decided to go completely Old School with it; this would also make it a quick build.

So I just made a basic interior and left it at that, then replaced the cowl guns, as well as adding blast tubes.

Paint is Humbrol enamels, brushed on as I was also trying to get out of the 'Everything Should be Airbrushed... when I eventually get around to firing the thing up again' -mode. I also painted the white tail band, as I was dubious about the kit one settling in the right place.

I can't recall what I used for the under-transfer gloss; possibly/likely Johnson's Klear at that time, or possibly Pascoes Long Life Shine; whichever, the kit markings went down well over it and then came a layer of Gunze matt varnish over the top.

It came out pretty well, and did indeed get me out of the slump and made me realize brush painting was fine and got things finished a lot more quickly.
So it was a good result all round.

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[kitbasher]

Nice 👍

That kit's been around for EVER!

Keeping it simple is a good thing, very therapeutic to get a quick build done.  And a reminder that this hobby is supposed to be a bit of fun, too.

[Rick Lowe]

Nice 👍

That kit's been around for EVER!

Keeping it simple is a good thing, very therapeutic to get a quick build done.  And a reminder that this hobby is supposed to be a bit of fun, too.

Exaccarey! And thanks.

[NARSES2]

Nice 👍

That kit's been around for EVER!

Indeed it was that kit that introduced me to the Regia Aeronautica, an interest that's stayed with me ever since 

Terrific job with the old girl Rick, I particularly like the way the camo scheme has come out    Shows what can be done with some of the old kits.

[Rick Lowe]

Thanks, Chris. And what can be achieved with Ye Olde Sticke of Hairyness.

[NARSES2]

Thanks, Chris. And what can be achieved with Ye Olde Sticke of Hairyness.

Indeed 

[zenrat]

 

I reckon the kids stayed away from that for the same reason I avoided Italian stuff at their age - fear of their camo schemes.

[Rick Lowe]

Entirely likely - and that it wasn't the latest 'TamiGawa' offering.

To be fair, I have shied away from Italian WW2 for the same reason; but like a lot of other things, when you give it a go, it's not always that hard and you can surprise yourself. (like my 1/35 Brit DPM painting efforts.)

[Rick Lowe]

WALL-E robot **Sci-Fi**

I wanted something for Sister #2 for one Christmas, so looked around for something like this.

There are a number of toys out there, but were either out of production or more than I could afford at the time, so as with the F-302, I went looking for a paper model.
One was found and I copied the picture into a word doc, resized it to a reasonable size and printed it out onto thin card.

I assembled it pretty much from the sheet, but I did make a few tweaks in the interest of ease of assembly and sturdiness.

As I recall, the changes are:

I put a rod into his neck inside the kit part, also replaced the upper part with grey kit runner.
The wires from behind his eyes are solder.
His arms were replaced with silver kit runner with the upper parts glued over, and there is more runner through the top of his body, into the shoulders to make the joints sturdier.
There may be a plastic bar through the lower part of his body, for the suspension units to attach to; this would seem logical, but I can't recall whether I actually did or not.
The wheels are discs of plastic with the face parts glued on.
The tracks are pieces of thick cardboard with the outer track faces glued on, and cut partway through on the outer faces, between the track shoes.
I used a bit of black pen on all the folds to stop the white card showing. As much...

Sister was happy, so all was well.

Now, of course, there are a number of printables available... and the toys are back in the shops; but she's got a bespoke model made special, so...

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