September 3, 2019

3Dprinting Timelapse Video



It took some time, but finally I uploaded a video to youtube. I do not think that I will do this often, even when I have some ideas for hobby related videos, this stuff takes too much time. But at least it is a start and a place to collect all videos I made for this blog. In the next time I am going to upload them to the new channel.
You may subscribe, but I do not think it is worth it, since all videos will be shown in this blog.

Yesterday was the second try of doing this kind of videos, which was not successful, but today I tried again and as you may have seen, now the timelapse thing works, but the quality of the video is pretty bad. I think the camera is the reason, maybe I will try another camera for that. And for sure, a different camera angle, where more can be seen.
And maybe some nice music, without any sound, this is pretty boring.

The file I have chosen for this print was a P-47 Thunderbolt from Thingiverse scaled down to 1:144. Now the Americans will also have the choice of two planes.

The next roguish Montagsmaler meeting will be tomorrow today, oi that video thingi took long, then it is time to get the scenery piece with the crashed passenger jet done. If my mate Olli will build that one kit, a closer look at it may follow in the evening, when we have finished our roguish projects.

September 1, 2019

1:144 Messerschmitt BF-109 F2
&
Hawker Tempest Mk. 5

Some pictures of two recently finished 1:144 model planes. 

First there is the Messerschmitt BF-109 F2 made by Russian producer Zvezda for their "Art Of Tactic" Range. I got it together with the Ilyushin IL-2 and other things some time ago, while I built and painted the IL-2, see pictures in this post, the BF-109, you can see the sprue on this picture, was built but got lost somewhere.

When I found this thing in one of my bitsboxes, it had suffered some serious damage. The antenna went missing, what I still have to fix, two rotorblades were broken off, and both tailwings were seperated from the plane, one of it was broken in two halfes.

Fixing the rotor was no big issue, as also the reglueing of one of the tailwings, but the part broken from the other wing did not stick well to its counterpart.
It broke off at least 4 more times, the last time after the plane was painted, what you clearly can see on the picture below. But I thought fuck it, and left it as it is now.

The upper half was painted in Revell Aquacolor Khakibraun, while the lower half was painted in Revell Aquacolor Light Green, brightened with some drops of white. As usual, the decals were taken from the scrapbook.

The second finished 1:144 plane is the Hawker Tempest Mark 5 made by Revell from its old "Micro Wings" range. I wrote this in a previous post, and I write it again, it is too bad, that these small things are out of prodution, even when they are pretty simple and their moulds are almost worn out.

The belly of this plane was painted in a Vallejo Grey, which label is not readable anymore. The upper part was painted in a selfmixed blue grey, which got too blue, and Revell Aquacolor Dark Green. I used so liquid masking solution for the camouflage pattern.
The decals were taken from the kit and as usual produced in the same good Revell quality as usual.

At the moment the printer is running, I am printing a final plane for the planes expansion. If everything will work out as supposed I will add another post tonight.

August 31, 2019

15mm ZIS-5 Truck With AA DsHK

Some pictures of my recently finished ZIS-5 truck with an equipped DsHK AA machine gun. Basically it is the ZIS-5 from Zvezdas "Art Of Tactic" wargame with scratchbuilt arnament. I did not take a closer look at this thing yet, but you can find some nice reviews on the web and youtube.

The truck got painted in the same style like my other 15mm ww2 Soviet vehicles. I use different greens as basecolor for them but the rest of the procedure is always the same. Some red star decals from the sparebook were applied after it got painted.

Detail pictures show that I have at least 3 things to do, I will have to overwork the muzzle of the gun, the windshield needs some more blue paint and there are some spots on the mini which need some more paint.
A little bit annoying, but this should be fixed quickly.

I took the picture above from a previous post which shows the other Soviet AA truck which I partly scratchbuilt. The gun was built, using some needles, a part from Orions 1:72 AA DsHk, and an spare machine gun from the Battlefront miniatures T-64, if I remember correctly.
This thing was easy to build and it looked not as bad as I suspected when finished.

The operator of the machine gun was taken from the bitsbox, it is one of the spare crewmembers from the 1:100 Plastic Soldier Company Bren Carrier. Formerly under British service, after some rough handling with the cuttermesser and sanding paper, now this guy has joined the Red Army and, well, it could have been worse.

I am pretty satisfied with the finished model, before it was painted I thought this would look crude when finished, luckily everything went well, even the figure does not look too bad. If you read some of the last posts, you already should know what it will be used for. Some brainstorming with two fellow mates solved the last remaining issues, that a final playtest should show that all would work as supposed.
Maybe tonight but at least tomorrow I will show some legitimate targets for this new addition to my growing collection of 15mm models.

By the way, all planes and AA vehicles for a first revision of the planes expansion for "TANKS" are now painted and ready to get photographed, this will be done in the next days, I will keep you informed.

August 29, 2019

Zvezda 1:100 LA-5FN

A closer look at the 1:144 Lavochkin LA-5FN modelkit made by the Russian producer Zvezda. This kit belongs to Zvezdas range of 1:144 modelplanes for their "Art Of Tactic" wargame. I got the Messerschmitt BF-109 and Ilyushin IL-2 kits some years ago, that I had a rough forsight what would be to expect.

But as usual, with no further words left, let us take a look at the content of this game expansion:

The kit comes as single sprue of green plastic, which is pretty hard and takes modelglue very well. The parts are casted without flaws, there are no ejectormarks which could be seen when the plane is built. If there is any flash, I did not see it when I built the kit. Here and there are some mild mouldlines which need some sanding.

This kit can be build either with opened or closed landing gear, whatever you prefer. I built this thing with extended landing gear. Building did not take much time and made no issues, all parts fit well and this kit could be built even without the use of glue.

The second sprue in this box contains 2 parts to build a decent stand for the plane. It is included in every "Art Of Tactic" plane expansion. It seems solid and not too bad, I think I will use it for an other model and I think I already know, which it could be.

Next is the clear part for the canopy. This is casted as solid block but since there is no way to add a pilot figure this does not matter. But a nonsolid canopy and the addition of a pilot figure would have been a nice feature.

The last thing to show is the decalsheet which contains some red stars and generic numbers. These were printed in good quality , as all Zvezda decals I used before, and they took only some seconds to detach from the paper when watered. They are not as thin as Battlefront Miniatures decals but their borders will not be seen with a final layer of varnish applied.

Once again Zvezda offers a nice model kit for a fair price. I do not see any issues with this kit, since this is a gamepiece, it is ok. Some panellines would have been nice a nice addition, but except for the canopy its overall quality and level of detail is ok.
If you want a "real" 1:144 modelkit I would not approve it, but with if you need this for wargames, get it, with some paints and decals this thing looks pretty fine.

The paintjob was inspired by the boxart and pictures from the LA-5 wikipedia page. I used only basic colors on it, no washes or weathering were applied, this thing was almost speedpainted.
Basically the model is finished but it needs a new and final layer of matte varnish, since the stuff I normally use gave a pretty rough surface. It is not as heavy as it seems on the picture, but its surface is really rough. I ordered some new matte varnish (normally I am using the Revell Aquacolor stuff but I had some bad experiences with it), I hope the new paint will work as supposed.


And would it not be nice to get better canopy pieces for this and other 1:144 Zvezda model planes?

15 years ago I was into slotracing and had some successful attempts to vacform the windowpieces of some of my cars to get less weight on them... I could try this for the Zvezda planes, should I do this again and would it work for this small scale?

The stuff needed for that is pretty lowcost, some basic materials for the vacbox and the frames, a heatsource, and a vaccumcleaner, all stuff that can be found in every household. Except for clear polystyrene sheets I should have everything ready, I think I could use Forex either.
I may give this a try in the future, eventually you could expect even a video for this, but this would be at the end of my list of ongoing projects (2020?), there is enough stuff with a higher priority to do first.

One of that are one or two posts about colors, pigments and all that stuff. I got some more or less useful new things which I would like to show to you.

August 28, 2019

Rubicon Models
Kingtiger is coming

I just found this on their Facebook page and wanted to share it. Rubicon Models soon will release a 1:56 modelkit of the Panzerkampfwagen VI.
Normally I do not write about future releases like this, but, at least for me, this thing hits the nail. As they write in the post, this tank will come first with the Henschel turret, but later, more versions will be released. And there will come a version with full interior, what is pretty nice.

Just look for yourself:

Even the seriously underpowered engine will be included in full detail. Later versions of this kit will have Zimmerit and/or the Porsche turret.

Did I mention that this kit will include photoetched parts? Seems like I will have to take a closer look at this kit, when it is available.