Weird Model Subjects

Wow... Haven't started it, kinda scared of it. A seriously limited run kit (don't know who made it, Amodel?) of the An-72 made into an AWACS with the rotodome on the top of the fin. Looks cool as heck, but I've never done resin before and this one has a VERY messed up fuselage section. Gonna need some work and skill on my part.

Anyway, it looks really funky!

that is a seriously cool looking ac. don't be afraid, could you f*ck it up worse then the soviets? nah..............

Biggest was a Red Baron, Revell funny car kit, cost $8. Fortune when I was a kid. Snuck it into the house after carrying it home on my bike. Dad never asked about it after it was built.

I wish a lot of the old 50s and 60s Revell kits were back out. I liked the huge A1E they had. Back when it was a Navy airplane and Vietnam was barely on the news. The Airpower series? Had the AF numbered airforces on the box. One was a tanker refueling a B-52. I don't even care if they still have the 'real ejection seat' bit on them. That sort of made them fun.

I can just see the IPMS getting their panties in a bunch. #$%@$@# em.

Or Hawk. Remember the parachutist? took forever to get the chute together and they do all the risers on it. I must have made that a few times.

I think Revell released a atomic cannnon a decade or so ago. Same with some of the missiles. I'd like the old Regulus and Snark and all that. Revell says they never sold well. Loved all that.

Read all the old SAC histories, the crews used to make models while waiting on alert. Dad did some at home and was really good at it. Way before all the stuff we had, some were as good as the best we create now. And them it was an exacto knife or a razor blade and basic colors, no airbrushing.

I'd like the old Regulus and Snark and all that. Revell says they never sold well.

I also built many of the old Revell kits - haunted the local 5 & 10 and variety stores when the kits were due to be released. Very frustrating when they were 2 months later than promised in the catalog. I passed on the Snark - mainly due to the flight test red with white lines color scheme. This seemed to me would be nightmare to get the decals down and even without bubbles etc. I just bought two of the re popped Linberg Snarks - now I have an airbrush - I'll paint the stripes.

Val Kraut

I have the original Snark in stash and have been putting it off due to all the extra bits and pieces. Definately will be an airbrush job on the main missile as I find red and brush painting don't go together very well. Would be interested in a build report once you have it/them finished

Tony Christchurch New Zealand

I find red and brush painting don't go together

Some years back I was reading an artists handbook which had a section on the available oil paints and their ability to cover. It seems all pigments are not created equal - in particular yellows seemed to provide poorer coverage. This was something I had noticed but never really unnderstood. I also do military miniature figures - after than article I tended to avoid figures with yellow areas - and when I ended up attempting one I air brushed basic yellow first using something like Floquil, let it dry a week or so and then attacked the final shaded effect with artists oil washes.

Val Kraut

I remember that one! Had some rubbery type blocks you could assemble into a few lines of print, and a scale page from the Gutenberg bible, as a single block. I think it wasn't glued together but assembled with wedges, like the wooden prototype? Who was the manufacturer of that one?

The Beam Engine, and Trevithick's locomotive I also recall from ages ago, late '60's or early '70's. I can't remember if they were Airfix or another manufacturer back then. Motorised, with the Trevithick loco on a stand driven by a rubber sleeve on the electric motor's spindle.

I've got the Minicraft Trevithick and Stevenson's Rocket locomotives in the stash. It's a shame they aren't the same scale, and that the Rocket has a strange conically-shaped chimney.

I have both of the two locomotives mentioned (only built the Trevithick) and also have a Horse-Drawn Trolly and a 1:12 Rickshaw by Nitto. Interesting kits, but the Trolly is stuck with paste-on stickers instead of decals and I didn't know enough to make my own decals yet when I built it.

I thought that was how all of us miniaturists painted with oils: First, "block in" the basic color with enamel, acrylic, whatever - and then go over it with oils - either complete color coats, or just the highlighting and shading. Even the best-pigmented oils have a problem completely covering a primed surface.

"> I thought that was how all of us miniaturists painted with oils:

When I first started with artists oils I would apply them in thin coates to build up the color. I put the oil paint on a white index card - the card would absorb much of the oil, good grade of turpentine then used to thin and lift paint to be used. Faces were a lot easier since they didn't have to be dead flat so a slightly thicker oil paint with more oil was usable. I've also used floquil thinner piant in a airbrush to get an even first coat. This works great for yellow - floquil reefer yellow.

Val Kraut

The Soviet/Russian nickname for it translates as "UFO with an external store" which about sums it up.

Mark

Well, you could add the Airfix Cadbury's chocolate mini bar dispensing machine/money box. I've just received details about that today in my in-box but I didn't realise that they had anything to do with it the first time I remember it as a Christmas toy some decades ago.

For the lazy at heart, I don't think it even needs putting together!

Answering my self: Tri-ang Lionel was the name, in the UK at least: the pages of the instruction book are shown in this blog:

Price has gone up though. 10p per bar? In my day it was an old penny...

GordonD said the following on 31/10/2010 13:35:

I may just invest in one of those compilation chocolate sets backed onto a cardboard sock shape - and feel sick for it later.

Actually these aren't ~that~ weird. I'm currently working on a series of Kryomak Walkers from Fantasy Forge. They're about 1:72 and very detailed, with resin bodies and white metal legs. And I'm digging into my decals scrap bins for some stencils and numbers. I bought these at a going-out-of-business sale for about three bucks each and saw years later that they can bring in close to twenty-five bucks each.

Also have a BV 141 stash. Oddest kits in my collection are 1/8 scale bicycle from Fujimi and one of the Honda P2 robot. I keep being tempted by the 1/12 Deckel Model FP1 Universal Precision Milling Machine and the 1/20 Vertical Machining Center Makino V33i both from Finemolds.

I've always wanted a decent BV 141 kit - have you noticed that the gunner in the Airfix version would have to be Douglas Bader?