Ricks' Ramblings

[Rick Lowe]

1/72 Raiders of the Lost Ark Flying Wing Fighter **Sci Fi**

I found an unfinished project in a friends' scrap box and decided it looked too cool to go to waste, so I snagged it.

I rebuilt one part boom, sorted the armament, got new propellers from a Henschel 129 and added the canards from a Bf-109; but most of the build was already done, even the painting had started.

So I finished it, brushed it with Humbrol enamels and added spares box markings. The less said about masking the canopy, the better...

I probably should have given it a brown scheme, but as the bomber in the film was in greens, that was a good enough precedent – besides, using Kit's Rule Number 2, I decided it had just arrived and hadn't been through the paint shop yet. And as for the 'Teutonic Efficiency' Thing, we'll say that as it's a secret base, they weren't going to advertise something was going on by allowing brown-camouflaged aircraft to be sighted...

Then there had to be some sort of base, and as I had envisaged it as being from the Raiders universe, it became a Fighter Escort from the unit based with the Flying Wing Bombers at a 'Secret base somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea'.

The base is an MDF sheet with polystyrene hills covered in plaster and with kitty litter stones. I used gauze bandage for the camouflage curtain over the entrance to the underground hangars. The runway is a piece of fine sandpaper, camouflage painted to look like a narrow stream bed. Painted in spray black and test pot browns.

And I scratchbuilt a Flying Wing Bomber, to make sure the point got across. 😉

[Rick Lowe]

And a few more...

[kerick]

Now that's tiny! Almost out of my vision range.

[Wardukw]

I love those.. totally epic in their midgetness   

[NARSES2]

I like that 

[zenrat]

I'm sorry, my eyes refuse to see anything that small...

Excellent work mate.  Really good.    

[Rick Lowe]

Thanks, all.

[Rick Lowe]

1/35 Hetzer variant **What If**

A paper project to mount an 88mm recoilless gun on the Hetzer chassis.
I found a conversion article in an issue of Military Modelling and decided I wanted one.
There is or was a resin conversion for this model, but I wasn't willing to spend that amount of money; and I had the bits there already.

I used an Italeri Hetzer, with the upper hull cut down in height and the gun position in the front plate filled in.
Tamiya Panzer 4 turret, with the top of the cupola cut out and this and the hatch glued straight on.
Kit mantlet with a scratchbuilt gun tube and muzzle brake.
I spent probably too much time drilling flat sheet for the perforated stowage box, but I only have the one PE example, so used it as a template.
I made a new exhaust system and used more PE for the heat shield.
I cut out the side skirt mounts and attached them to the hull and used door fly screen for the mesh skirts, held on with new brackets and Tichy bolts.
The mesh is flexible, which helps in that it doesn't break whenever I transport this – a nice, unlooked-for bonus!

I sprayed it with a rattlecan Grey and masked for the urban camouflage, using the Berlin Block scheme as inspiration.
Humbrol Black, and IIRC Floquil Railroad red-brown.
A drybrushing with something light and done.

*edited for the Mil Mod reference*

[Old Wombat]

Neat concept!

[Rick Lowe]

Thanks, though I can't claim the idea - I just copied the conversion article.

But yeah - there is a whole family of Hetzer/38d conversions one could do.

[zenrat]

 

[Rick Lowe]

Cheers

[NARSES2]

Always liked the Hetzer family    That could almost pass as an early version if it wasn't for the muzzel break.

[Rick Lowe]

One with the short, L24 75mm would be interesting, indeed.
A Panzer 3 turret would probably be more appropriate for an early version.

Yeah, the brake was because it was supposed to use a high/low pressure recoilless rifle.

[Rick Lowe]

Fieldair Topdressing Lodestar. 1/72 **Real World**

Fieldair Topdressing Ltd was established in 1949, based at Palmerston North. Initially using surplus Tiger Moths, they acquired ex-National Airways Corporation Lockheed Lodestars in 1957 and eventually went to using the DC-3s most people remember (and which scheme is available in the Flying Kiwis range).

I had started this conversion a decade or so before, and although progress was made from time to time, it always got put aside for one reason or another; motivation came and went, especially as the markings were always going to be an issue.

Then I got one of the aforementioned DC-3 kits & thought I could use those markings, and the project was off again.

I started with the Airfix Hudson, which was all that was available at the time; even though Academy and Italeri now have kits out, they are of the Ventura, which is a later model than this aircraft.

I cobbled together a rudimentary cockpit; two seats and two control columns, and cut a doorway in the rear wall, but I left it at that after checking with the canopy in place and realizing not much at all would be seen, especially as the Civilian version had a tin roof rather than the Military's clear one.

The fuselage was assembled and the turret position filled and smoothed. The nose was rebuilt to be more pointed than in the kit and all windows filled.
10 thou plates were glued over the fuselage windows.
I glued the tail unit on and mostly filled the gaps around the working elevators.

I sanded the rivets off the model and then built a small dam around the position of the drop chute on the underside.

The engine cowls were carved and sanded to a less-bulbous profile and the gaps around the working ailerons were likewise mostly filled in.

I got a bit overambitious and sawed off the flaps to try and depict them as half-lowered, as per the example I had photographed. I then realized that was beyond my skills at the time, so they were reglued back into place and the gaps filled.

The wings were installed and the model given a coat of white spray primer.

And there she stalled again.
I was thinking I could use the Flying Kiwi's DC-3 markings, but found them to be a bit too large. Trying to think of a work around, I happened to ask John from Old Models Decals whether he would be willing to print me a set of resized ones, and it turned out he had this exact aircraft in the range anyway! A set was duly purchased and the project went ahead again.

Here was when I realized I'd been a bit quick to glue the wings on, as the fuselage cheat line would need masking... out came the saw and off came the wings.
The yellow areas were masked and hand painted, likewise the black edging. Humbrol enamels again.

I checked the net and the photos I'd taken, but couldn't find definitive proof whether the overwing registration was carried. I wasn't willing to trust solely the evidence of the other airframe being restored in this registration and markings, but eventually elected to use them anyway.

The markings went on nicely, with only a little tearing and that was due to my ham-handedness.

The wings were reinstalled and the gaps filled with a mix of talcum powder and matt white paint. This worked well enough, especially as I wasn't going for a pristine look. Once the filler was sanded back and repainted, the model was given a brush coat of Gunze matt clear, followed by considerable dirtying down with a wash of Artist's Tube acrylic.

Final details were added; the kit's pitot and a duplicate on the other side, wheels from a 1/72 Catalina (for the correct hub pattern) and the tailwheel.

A long and sometimes frustrating gestation, but finally done.

As stated, the Model is the ancient Airfix Hudson, with Old Models Decals markings.