Michel C

Thank you Bill and jfmajor60! M

Thanks, Nicholassagan! M

Just finished this 1/20 Hasegawa Falke armored flying tank from the Machinen Krieger universe. More pics here Cheers! M

Pics part 3: Cheers! M

Pics part 2:

Just finished this one. Nice kit. Goes together like a Hasegawa kit. That's because it's a Hasegawa kit. ;) It's a shot-down, crash-landed bird that will be part of an upcoming dio in a desert setting. Here are the pics, part 1:

Cheers! M

Thanks, Crackerjazz! Here are more pics of the model's details.

Just finished this one. Nice kit. Goes together like a Hasegawa kit. That's because it's a Hasegawa kit. ;) It's a shot-down, crash-landed bird that will be part of an upcoming dio in a desert setting.

Thank you my friend. Glad you like it. This was my first figure but I found it was fun and I'm sure there'll be more in the future. M

Here're the final pics. Enjoy!

Thanks, Gianni. Glad to know the detailing work was worth it! M

Thanks Wayfarer, glad you like it! M

Thanks Ruud, glad you like it. OK folks, let’s take this adventure to the finish line! Hellfire missiles. They have a transparent nose where the evil eyes sits and stares straight at you before it blows you to bits. A piece of transparent sprue was glued with cyano glue to the sawed off front end of the missile body. This was then ground, sanded and polished while the exhaust was drilled out. Some sessions of painting, decaling, etc. later: Lastly, attaching the antennas. The big one is not problem. For the tiny ones (made of pieces of soda can, I remind you) here is my me

Byzantine Archer, late 13th century. Metal 65 mm by Athens Miniatures. Hope you like it! M

The beast is on its last legs. Well, not exactly but at least it’s on its legs. And that was no easy task, believe me! In spite of the test-fit I did earlier there were serious alignment issues. The aspect ratio of the MQ-1 and its V-tail really make things hard for the modeler. Any error with the tail shows right away due to the fact that the ruddervators are just a couple mm off the ground. I decided to get those right and let the error end on the wings. As a result one wing tip is 2.5mm higher off the ground than the other one. It’s not that bad and can be seen only in a front view, which e

Hi there, Liquid cement definitely works too but is a lot more expensive than lacquer thinner. The candle wax, aside from the 'why not' quip, is a good alternative for CA or putty, which can have a tendency to react with the plastic due to the chemical reaction while they cure. No such danger with simple candle wax. As to the heat, it's not an issue. You can make a simple test by lighting a candle and letting some drops of liquid wax drop onto a piece of sprue. You'll see that wax is just not hot enough to harm the styrene. As to how solid the bond is, it's more than enough. There's no way

Italeri MQ-1 Predator, 1/72. OOB with only a few added scratch details.

Next I detailed the landing gear. The front gear is amazingly well detailed. I only added a brake line and redid the oleo. In contrast to the nicely detailed front gear, the main gear is rather bare with only the disc of the disc brake and nothing else. I added detail to the brakes... ...and scratched the retraction system. The front oleo was redone with a piece of hypo needle and wire. I primed it with Mr. Metal Primer. Love this stuff. You can just daub it on and it'll be invisible. But it really gives something to the paint to grip and painting the spring black was a piece of

Sorry people for not updating earlier but I'd fallen prey to 'home stretch fever.' lol I'm finishing this one the same time I'm finishing my figurine. Now, that doesn't happen every week! OK, let's try to pick this one up where I left off. Last painting step: I sprayed a darker shade of gray (same was for the underside) onto the engine access panel, as can be seen on reference pics. Two coats of Future and decals were applied. These responded well to Micro Set & Sol. I always trim the carrier film off as close to the design as possible. Much better without the unsightly film s

OK, time to add some color to this bird, if gray can be called a color. First some pre-shading with dark gray (Tam NATO Black was on hand). You know the post-it trick for shading control surfaces, right? As the closest approximation to the gray that can be seen on Predators and not to stray from my trusted Gunze paints I used their light gray H308. I sprayed it straight from the bottle onto the underside. Careful not to cover entirely the pre-shading (not much of the pre-shading effect can be seen on the pix but the effect is there, although subtle). Now, for the upper side I us

Thanks, olcrow, glad you like it! M

Tests with the landing gear in place showed that it would not be a tail-sitter. But only just. Other modelers advise to use a weight. To be on the safe side I inserted a sinker into the nose, fixed with candle wax. If are wondering why candle wax, the answer is why not? :coolio:/> Then it was time to button this thing up. Some filler was needed in the rear section due to the way the kit is engineered. I used Tamiya light-curing putty. Daub the stuff on, leave it in the sun for 1 minute and it gets as hard as stone. Whoever said that good weather is the modeler's worst enemy? I jus

The lens on the nose was done by a simple groove by the kit-maker. I improved this with a small disc punched out of a piece of photo film (from the old times before it all got digital, some of you might remember... lol) The exhaust was made form a piece of hypo needle filed obliquely. Dorsal antennas (lumps of plastic, yak!) were removed and replaced by new ones fashioned out of soda can. Very useful, soda can. Beer can works to. Or any other beverage provided it comes in a can. lol The pitot and pitch instrumentation was scratched out of foil and bits of wire. The fiddly bit