Andrew MacKay

skip spending money on a light tent and look at a setup like this. yes thats a 1:48th AC130 the paper is plotter paper with a damaged eadge that i scored for free 42" wide. the reflector could be replaced with a sheet of foamcore. gives results like this Save your money for off camera flash .... Don't need a tripod at 1:250th f16 at 100asa :) Andrew

She has 200g of lead in the nose and behind the stairs .. no tail sitting for this model. We had our roof replaced recently so have LOTS of lead sheet available Andrew.

Go for a trip to your local camera store.. get a 50 1.8 and a set of extension tubes ... the smallest one will get you close enough for most modeling work. The 50 is a fantastic little piece of glass, I got mine NEW for $120 NZ, personaly I use a Tamron sp90 macro, but find the focal length a little long for full model shots. If you can look at going flash, get the strobes OFF the camera and bounce them off some white card. you should be able to work at 1:250th at f14-16 depending on magnification and ISO. As for tripods get a GOOD one manfroto, Benbo or simular with a good head... light we

Back from conferance, and a little more done. Things will be slow for the next few weeks as I have a broken wrist (dont ask) trying to work with a cast on is danged difficult. I can airbrush OK with my left hand but anything else is just about imposable. Cheers Andrew MacKay

Dang when you have it closed up... all you can see is the 105, there is a 40 hiding behind it. Might have to open the starboard side door so you can see it. I've also had to redo my photosetup, scored a 30 mt roll of plotter paper that had a damaged edge, its 117 cm wide and quite heavy. This reminds me that I must run a steel spar for the wings, I realy doubt that any glue will hold. Cheers Andrew MacKay

Cheers Guys .. should get some paint on that stuff today.. I'm going to be away for a conferance in Wellington for the next 3 days so wont get much done this week. I work for a Regional Government org as their GIS / mapping specialist. Dan she'll be done in grey tones. Andrew

Rear weapons station is just about finished Just need to get a little paint on the 105 and the Gun Management equiptment, then it's on to the port side ramp area. Cheers Andrew MacKay

My build gallery is here Marcelo .. Keaphotos.com I'm sure mine and Bens builds will give you some pointers. Cheers Andrew MacKay

Paragon have some wheels and Flight path have a fantastic PE set ... apart from that welcome to the world of Scratch Building

Ta Curt, I actually have a camo jacket just like those, I'll get the 105 finished then might get a little figure painting done. Andrew M

0.25mm coated wire from the local electronics store, I have a roll of 0.4 and some 0.3 & 0.7 solder that I use also. 100mt rolls are very cheap. My day job is in IT so I have access to all sorts of offcuts of various grades of wire. Cheers Andrew Mac

Got the first of the BIG guns done.. 1 40mm bofers done, just the 105 to go.

Thats fine... I'm going to be using your gun designs for mine. BTW I've started soldering the PE togeather as it's easier than trying to glue with CA, the flightpath stuff is realy thick and heavy. Andrew

Thanks Curt, say do you have a shot of the Crew Chief, I have a 1:48th figure that might just end up in the back of there for scale.

In with the Kit is a cabinet not sure what the part number is ... I marked it out and drilled 1 heap of 3mm holes, then with some scrap styrene for the latches, the 40mm is a couple of bits of sheet styrene glued at a right angle with some 2mm strip glued to the front.

Got a little more done ... Not happy with the rack, so need to rebuild it ... The steps don't quite fit, so will need to do a bit of fileing on the base of them to get the fuselage to close up. The new U (mk2) boat threat scanner in place, one less boaring job for the crew. This is the bit you will see with the ramp open, really pleased with how it's comming togeather. Time to move on to the big guns...

Down here in the deepsouth the list would go like this Robinson R22 Hughes 500 Bell Jetranger Eurocopter Squirrel Bk-117 UH-1 (I think there are two) and a couple of Mil's for heavy lift work. From what I hear we have the highest ratio of Private Helo's to population of any where in the world Andrew

Dang... oh well they just got an upgrade "Wide angle highspeed Infrared/LiDar scanner" Cheers for that Curt Andrew

It's not supposed to be a light Curt, but just a guess as to what the port side threat scanner looks like.. There doesn't seem to be any photos / drawings of this. Andrew

No Idea what the port threat scanner looks like so I guessed Take a pen barrel, some evergreen, variuos grades of wire and a lot of imagination you get this. Add some paint and more imagination it becomes this... Hard to believe that took me two days and the top console Onwards and upwards. Andrew MacKay

Looking good Ben.. I'm working on a "Guess" as to what the threat scanner would look like .. will start a seperate thread with my build. Have you got the Flightpath PE set ? it's well worth the expence. Cheers Andrew

I'm in the process of building the same beast Here's where I'm at at the moment Also does anyone have photos or a sketch of the scanner on the non gun side (behind the clear door pannel) Cheers Andrew

Just a little thing ... but you might want to reshoot these with a slightly cleaner background....

Yup that is does ... Here's an Osprey I have just finished, first in bluetac/blue tape then the finished product. much more controll then hand spraying HTH Andrew MacKay

Go on do it