Thommo

It is pieces of aluminium from a Coke can. Just trial & error cutting & trimming of pieces till they look about right....and multiple attempts to get them to stick down with CA 😵 Cockpit nearly done. Tiny fragments of decals used for lights etc. then much frustration getting them in position & getting them to stick. Had to brush a few coats of Future over the top to get them to stay put. Really struggling with the engines now. About to try my 5th idea after first trying carving them out of solid styrene blocks, then trying to shape styrene sheet. As you

Damn, how good are you going to be when you become a veteran at the hobby! At 1/72 scale, those Spits are epic, the weathering is perfect. I mostly build in 1/72 as getting a great result is a greater challenge than in bigger scales. You have nailed it 👍

Great idea re drawing them and testing it out. I'm thinking I may end up with one 1/35 scale spacecraft, rather than doing all 3.

Robot #1 primed & ready for paint. While waiting for my Alclad Dark Aluminium to arrive, I started on Robot #2 using bits from the pinup girls. Also invested in a pack of 1/35 Tamiya WW2 US soldiers to provide me with some rifles to modify into spaceguns, plus a few more figures as I'm fast running out of pinup girl pieces. Was thinking of doing a spaceship next, but can't quite get my head around the issue of scale. They can't be 1/35 scale as they would be massive, so they'll have to be quite tiny to match the perspective of the Frazetta painting, though then wi

First robot built, ready for paint. 2 options meant 2 different head build ideas being tried.

I know! This could take a while. Still battling with the first one's head (the one closest to the Maiden). 2 options on the go atm 😵

Nothing else comes near it.

Her assets suffered a bit when I had to sand off my first attempt at using rubber glove material to make the bikini top (which worked fine for the bottom, but my seamstress skills were a big fail for the top)....and my wife said I'd probably spent enough time fiddling with her assets, and just accept them as they were 😄 I'm working on the first robot now. Cobbled together bits of the girls from the pin-up girl 6 pack, then building an armour suit around her mostly from an old Coke can & styrene sheet. working on the head now - trickiest bit.

First element of the dio finished.

Painting the Maiden proceeds....and breaking off tiny bits as I go 😬, to be replaced later. If you really zoom into the Frazetta painting, the picture on the left bikini top is actually an orange & black vulture, with a yellow mountain in the background! Replicating that with a brush in 1/35 was attempted.

The Moon Maiden is turning out to be a much higher maintenance girl than the Encounter fairy! My wife is much amused about my rantings on how I've mucked up her anatomy 😆 Making the bikini proved problematic - the bottom want very well using latex glove material, but when I tried to do the same for the top, my seamstress skills fell well short. Next I attempted to make the bikini top outline with stretched sprue/invisible thread, but that was also a fail (edges too thick) & led to much superglue debris which had to be carefully sanded off, and many blemishes covered with putt

Some good ideas there mate. The hair I'm still pondering. Will probably experiment a bit. For the last one I used bits if the hair from the kit & carved/bent it to shape, but this one needs much more. Great idea re the city. It'll probably be on a circular base like the last one, and I was thinking of having a curved piece of styrene at the back & painting on the background including the city, but making it a bit 3D-ish with slightly protruding buildings from styrene is a top idea. Spaceships? Again tricky because they have to be much smaller so as to appear in the b

Yeah, when I first got an a/b, I thought there were some set rules to follow and away you go (paint:thinner ratio, air pressure). But only true to an extent. There are numerous other variables - e.g. paint brand, paint colour, mixing colours, thinner brand, cleaning, weather?, how you hold your tongue, what mood you are in....... If I was more scientific about it, I'd actually measure my paint:thinner ratios properly, and experiment with different pressures. But I tend to just leave my compressor at about 18psi, just put some thinner in the cup according to the total

I still had five 1/35 girls left over from my last Frazetta attempt, so needed another one with the girl as the central character. I'm working on her now - much more plastic surgery required than the last one, including serious breast enhancement! My wife thinks my constant babble about that aspect is pretty amusing. I'm not going to be able to modify the plastic of her eyes to look oriental though. My wife has suggested doing it with makeup shapes which is a good plan. I'll try to put in a few of the soldier figures (modify 1/48 pilot figures? Buy some 1/35 soldiers to modify?

I persisted with my Aztec for over 10yrs, but as it was my first ever a/b, I had nothing to compare it to. I was always pulling it apart (voiding the warranty), cleaning & rebuilding to get it to work. So much paint accumulated right down the body it was ridiculous. I also had one replaced because the trigger mechanism broke. I watched many of Brett Greens videos and could never figure out how his worked so consistently (maybe it actually didn't?). The Iwata is made so much better, it's not funny. And much easier to trouble shoot. The only minor problem I've had

Thanks gents. I'm really happy with the base & spacecraft, but think I could have done a bit better on the figures. In the end, the pilot was 1/48, but the fairy 1/35 & I had to put her further to the left than in the Frazetta painting. And she was too scrawny, so I had to fatten her up a bit with Epoxy (a Botticelli style girl). Her butt is still a bit small though! The rocks on the base are made from AK-Interactive carving foam. This stuff is absolutely the ducks nuts, so easy to work with. But make sure you wear a dust mask, else you'll think you are coming down wi

I replaced my Aztec with the HP-CP. Like chalk & cheese, the Iwata is so much easier to use & clean. A much much more consistent airbrush. But still not fool-proof. I find different colours of paint spray better or worse. I mostly use Tamiya acrylics with either Tamiya Acrylic thinner, Tamiya lacquer thinner, or lately Mr Color Leveling thinner. The performance can very a lot depending on the colour/thinner combination, but even at its worst, it is better than the Aztec. Sometimes I use enamels (Testors/Model Master) and find they spray much more consiste

Put all the progress pics together in the build video. Music might not play in some countries....but what else was more appropriate than 'Rocket Man'.

I'm a keen fly-fisher and also run a part-time business as a fly-fishing guide. Here's a recent video of me doing 'social distancing' - fishing & mountain biking....and dodging a snake at the end! I've recently discovered catching carp on fly (these are a pest in Oz so you have to kill them), it is absolutely fascinating....and tricky. Hard to get them to eat the fly, then hard to land them once you do.

So what's happening here in the Lucky Country (Oz). No grand pandemic plan in place (I can't believe this was not done decades ago), so the Govt are just making it up as they go Non-essential interstate travel banned - state borders closed - sort of.... Cafes, restaurants, pools, gyms, beauty salons - anywhere with big social gatherings closed/prohibited Urging people to work from home if they can, but not compulsory Social distancing in action - though this rule was flouted big-time on Bondi Beach last weekend & the Prime Minister rightly cracked the

Interesting that the symptoms could be so bad in someone who is young & fit! Here in Oz, if you make an appointment with your local doctor, they will ask you about your symptoms & if they sound anything like Corona, they do a phone consultation with you first to avoid you exposing the medical staff and other patients at the surgery. I'd been sick for a week (gastro followed by fatigue & throat a bit sore, but no respiratory issues), but they were not taking any chances, so only a phone consult. She did not think I had it & I'm feeling almost 100% now.

It's not the Australia I grew up in. It disgusts me. Australians have a strong track record of looking after each other in times of crisis. They don't act like total selfish a-holes.

Though let's remember it appears this virus in humans originated in China, due to endangered animals being kept in markets, then being eaten by humans = viral mutation. Hopefully they might now learn to clean up their act. Here in Oz, we've had people from cities hiring buses to travel out to country areas, and cleaning out small supermarkets - and guess the ethnic origin of most of these people?