Jerry and super Jerry

Just started fixing Jerry and Super Jerry... Not my favourite walker but it kinda grew on me. While fixing I found that the engine cover on the rear looked very familiar... and found that it was donated by the star wars AT AT kit.... nice find?

Falke 4 : air filter

Tiny update: constructed the air filter using just Pla plate. Will putty the gaps and sand down.

Falke 4 : Resin engines arrived!

Look at what came in today!

A kind member of the Mak forum gave me an original Falke engine resin made by futch who made and sold the resin Falke before the styrene version which we are building, came out!
It's beautiful!
Now I gotta figure put how to fix it inside ...

Thanks so much zerobxu!!!
So exciting !!

Falke 4 - tiny update

Been very tired last two nights due to work and a sick Elias.
Finally managed to cut the front armor from styrene and finalise the shape of te air brakes.
Also puttied up the two exposed magnets and added more on the top interior so that I can hang the Falke if necessary.
Time for bed!

Falke 4: Griffon part 1

Tiny update. I started on the mods to get the Griffon configuration.
I used a piece of paper and using the images from the web, started shaping the front shield.
Once finalized, I will use this paper template to styrene.

Falke 4 : magneto!

The magnets are so strong that I can place them on the inside of the fuselage and they will hold the magnets outside. I used 4 for holding the missile unit and 1 each for the ag shields for the Struzzo configuration.



I used magnets outside to adjust the positions before using super glue and epoxy putty to secure them.

Playing now, here's an easy conversion to Zuru jp's Nightraven design using the snakeeye's hatch and THAT neuspotter's missiles. I will cast thr hatch and scratch build the missiles to be closer to what his design envisioned.

Falke 4 part 2

Based on my experience on building the Falkes, I decided to apply what I learnt.
I deepen the gap between the front piece so that even after I glue it the panel line will be evident.

I drilled out holes and added strong magnets so that I can attach the different parts and swap them out to make different configurations.

The square holes provided the perfect place to insert the magnets. Later I will add magnetized plastic to the weapons so they can be attached. These magnetized plastic are recycled from my kid's barbie toy which uses magnets to hold the clothing and accessories.

I hollowed out the back and added color marker caps for added internal detail. They will be colored black silver.

Here's wishing all a Good Friday!

Falke 4 - Variations

It's rainy today so no spraying for me. Moving on to the project which has long been in my to do list.
Falke 4 - variations. Basically i want to make a Falke which has lots of weapon and configuration options,
as well as some designs by Zuru jp here:
http://maschinenkrueger.com/forum/index.php?topic=3172.0
Also I will finally paint the pilot and cockpit which I have avoided so far.
Some variants I am planning:
Stuzzo by Zuru jp
Falke bomber
Griffon

I don't plan to get the Griffon as it's still expensive and I already have 4 Falkes ...

Decals up!

Decals are up! And I like to put all the planes together to look at them...

Back to the falk3 : Shit happens!

I changed to another yellow, Tamiya xf-3 flat yellow, and then onto the orange which is a custom mix of monkey rose, mr color 59 orange, mr color Gundam yellow 1. 

At this stage I am getting careless and not a little frustrated and lots of mistakes and accidents happened. Checked the airbrush for the amount of color left in the cup, never clean my left hand, and yellow appeared on the underside of the Falke. Huge drop of paint landed on the left side too.

Its not very evident in the photo but it's there, right next to the nub where the antenna is supposed to be. I slowly resprayed over the mistake.
I almost gave up and wanted to strip the entire paint job. But going back to it one day later, I decided to try to finish this guy. 

Masked the front and sprayed white. This took one night of work. Finally its the best part again, decals!

Nutrocker - weathering begins!

Was a bit sick last few days so not much done. Back on the project, I used vallejo red to fill in the number 9 on the decals. Painted on nice and I should have used the yellow to paint the stripes instead of the lacquer. Lesson learnt.

Now the weathering, I will use what I learnt from Applied Modelling - armor and Advanced Painting Techniques to weather this tank.

Decal time!!!

Now comes my favorite part, decals!
Small container of water, mr mark setter and mr mark softener ready.
Before that I sprayed two thin layers of clear coat gloss to make the surface smooth and shiny so that when the decals go up they will not sliver. Tonights a bit cool so I dried the gloss immediately after spraying with a hairdryer to prevent frosting.
2.5 hrs later I am done! I chose the number 9 from the neuspotter decal set as it matches the one from the book and also more proportionate to the size of the Nutrocker. Time for Elias next feed, ciao!

Nutrocker circles and band painted, disaster and recovery

Hey guys sorry for the lack of updates, I took a short break for sleep ...
I finally took off all the masking sol and started hand painting the rings. My hand trembled due to lack of sleep.
Added complication was that the wire parts kept falling off due to my clumsiness.
I finished up the rings and touched up the errors here and there.
Finally I proceeded with the yellow band. I masked off the body and handpainted the yellow band , taking care if where the shadows.
However after removing the tape I realized the yellow had seeped under it and invaded the other colors! What a disaster! I nearly gave up.
Tonight, I took a tiny brush and slowly touched up the flaws in each picture.
Think I am ready to gloss and decal...

Pink highlights and slow reveal

After completing my housework, I airbrushed another layer of pure monkey rose. Finally I did the lightest layer using mixture of monkey rose, yellow and a tiny bit of white. This is sprayed on the top facing surfaces.

With much fear I took off the masking tape. There were places where the tape did not cover or stick well to each other, resulting in over spray and blurred borders. I should have used te masking sol to cover all the tape, as well as using fresh tape.
It's ok I will remember this lesson.
Taking off the masking sol proved to be a challenge and it took scratching with my nails, tape and blu tack to get some of them off. The circles are too thick.
However I like the color which is modulated.

Will complete the taking off of masking sol and hopefully finish painting tomorrow

Pink and shading with complementary colors

I started work on the Nutrocker again at about 12 am, using Ma.k color monkey rose as the pink/red forth scheme. 

First pass is with the mixture of monkey rose mixed with olive green, the same gray I used at the beginning and a bit of black as the shadow color.
I am studying shading with complementary colors and used the green to cut down on the chroma of the monkey rose instead of just adding pure black or brown.

I also used my fingernail to press down the edges of the masking tape before spraying as some of them are starting to lift. This is cos I am reusing the masking tape. El cheapo...

After that I let it rest for a while tp dry and then proceeded with a pass of pure monkey rose color. I took care not to cover too much in one go, using multiple coats to layer on the color ...


I am getting sleepy and so took a break at 2:45am and Elias woke just in time for his milk. Fed him a bottle and typed up this post.

Time to sleep.

Pink!

After the highlights are done it's time to paint the pink.
Instead of using the gaianotes monkey rose which meant that I have to do complicated masking, I decided to use vallejo line of acrylics to hand paint. Now I've bought these for ma.k figure painting, never thought will be using it on a tank.
I've placed an iPhone cover (argh my wife's broken Kate spate) to show how tiny this kit is.
Hope this pink will be successful!

More yellow on the nut

With baby Elias sleeping early, I quickly went back to painting the nut. Some of the wires fell off so I reattached them.
I masked off the top surface of the body and sprayed the highlights using a mixture of the yellow and white.
The fake shadows and highlights are quite obvious. The contrast will tone down when I do weathering.

Nutrocker wip : yellow

With the cool bluish gray done, I sprayed very thin coats of mr color 313 yellow which will be one of the two major colors of the squid scheme I will be doing. Took a while to get my airbrush groove back.

Notice that I left the shadow parts uncoated in the base color as the shadow effect. I kept referencing the photos I took earlier to see where the darker areas should be and avoid spraying them. Now this is quite experimental and I am not sure if this is alright. I keep thinking if I should use yellow plus a complementary color as the shadow or leave it as such.
What do you guys think?
It's not done yet as I will have to add yellow and white to spray the highlights on the top facing surfaces.
This is the book I have been reading and it was introduced to me by maxwinamp. Highly recommended!

Nutrocker base coat

Finally started with a base coat of gray mr color 301.
Highly diluted and took a few passes to ensure that all the shadow areas are covered.
That's all for tonight..

Nutrocker primed and pls tell will to start painting!

Will I please get to the painting stage?
Final primed pictures with strong direct lighting so that I can study them when I do color modulation in the painting stage. The shadows and brighter areas will be emphasized using color.
Make sense?