Saturday 27 February 2016

Ma.K. Camel

A while ago (somewhere in between the Undersea Pig and working on the AG Chopper) I started work on a Camel. Another kit by Hasegawa and as the name has come to suggest it was fantastic to build.

As per usual with builds involving a cockpit... I started with the cockpit. And this thing was pretty complicated. Because of its spherical shape, I had to first dry fit the whole thing... then prime it, paint it and chip it, and then assemble the whole thing.





This is still a dry fit because the pilot still needed to go in, just like a bunch of hoses and wires.









 The pilot came with a helmet... which didn't stay on very well so I added a little bevel to the connection ring to make the helmer fit better... but when I thought about is I found it didn't make enough sense to me to have the guy inside a space ship with his helmet on, especially since it didn't have a visor.
I'm get a little logical sometimes...

Anyway here he is... snug as a bug in a rug.




The rest of the build went of without a hitch or a mod. So it was ready for primer and paints...




My initial plan was to paint the thing a pale pink. The cockpit window was masked off and the kit had been on the shelf for some time because other projects had butted in...







So when painting got under way and this thing started getting more and more pink (I usually build up paints with really thin layers...) I suddenly remembered I hadn't seen the cockpit in quite sometime.
And when I took off the window, I suddenly realised the exterior and the interior colours really didn't work well together. So I changed course... to Mars (or the fire station)

Yep another one bound for the red planet... After a thin layer of orange, I mixed up some Tamiya flat red with a little pink and orange to make for a bright warm red.




I stuck on the big letter decals at quite an early stage so I could paint over them and integrate them into the paintwork... plus the decals sheet didn't have anything in the colour I wanted.

Anyway paints done...









...on to the chipping and decals...







As of this writing the decals aren't done yet but there, because there's a ton of them. But after they're all on it's time for some washes... but before that I want to build this beast a little companion in the form of a Luna Pawn...

Thanks for looking!


Monday 15 February 2016

UnderSeaPig finished

Stick a fork in it... its done.
I gave it a couple of oil stains. The first a mix of black and green and blue, to make panels lines pop and give it some underwater staining (algae and the like). 
And then a lighter one. A mix of white with a little black and brown to mimic ocean floor sediments (also nice to bring out the details on this slightly dark color scheme... 
anyway here's the pic of the final result. 

The conditions weren't great for photography (I need to buy better lamps or a flash or something) so these are slightly photoshopped... you have been warned.













Monday 1 February 2016

Undersea Pig Intermezzo

With all the work on the AG Chopper I had to put the Sea Pig build on the back burner for a bit. But I needed to step back from the scratch build for a bit so I had a chance to do some work on it again and maybe even finish it...

Any when I last left it the build was done and the base paint was on so I could get to the paints... I had been thinking about it for a while... couldn't really make a decision other than that I wanted it kind of blueish greenish and dark.... So I just dove dove in an started it... the scheme kind of developed as I wat putting it on.
I wanted to paint on a simple camo, giving the impression of light coming from above....




At this point I did have the smarts to start thinking about the decals (the box art model is white and grey and so most of the decals are black... this wouldn't show up very well on this scheme) But I noticed the big marking letters were only in red, black and gold. So I put on the red Rs on the top hatch and the shoulder plates and painted them over in white....


When this was done, I painted some details (metal parts and stuff) and then added some wear and tear in the form of some paint chips and some dulling of the paint here and there... Nothing too heavy this time.






I liked the camo as it was and the painted on chips looked pretty good... so it was time for the decals.

As I was putting the decals on (sourcing a many white replacements for all the dark coloured one son the decals sheet that came with the kit) I noticed something was missing... it needed something more. The thing was a little boring...

So I decided to paint on some more accents... yellow ones in fact.





Something went a bit weird with the yellow paint as I was putting it one.. It was a mix of Tamiya Lemon Yellow and Orange, and i had put down some masks and some liquid latex (for a chipping effect) but the paint reacted a little weird... to something. It went all flakey.
But I actually didn't mind it. It gave it a nice weathered look...

Likewise with the coat of the clear varnish I put on in prep for the decals... it didn't dry up smooth, but kind of pearly (you could still see the tiny individual droplets) but again this made for a really interesting texture. Especially for a submarine vehicle. So I wasn't too worried about it.

Anyway this is it with all the decals on... next up washes and stains.








Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Martijn