The List Part 2

  Here is the second part of the stuff I have still yet to make.  This part will be the ones I have started.

  This is my little Rafale, painted in the colours of Espada 2 from Ace Combat Zero : The Belkan War.  I dont have any decals for this one yet.  I got an idea tho, I love the way this plane looks.  I've gotta admit it is a really good looking plane.  I know the Typhoon lost to this plane in India this year, not really sure on that tho.

  Who doesn't know this plane?  The F/A-18E Super Hornet, I bought this wondering if there was any way I could turn this into a Growler (the "Wild Weasel" version of the F-18, an aircraft designed purely to attack enemy radars/anti-air assets), but alas I dont think I can. I might use the CAG colours or if I can find some low-vis markings from another kit (update : I have in the F-19 kit). I might buy the Dragon Growler kit at a later date.

  This is a little kit that I picked up on special offer also, I know it's a cargo/light utility plane.  But it's a unique looking plane, so it wins in my eyes.  Altho I found out that the Do-28D2 Skyservant is no longer in service with the German Army anymore, however it is with the Luftwaffe and German Navy.  I'm not too sure if those colours on the rudder are for a Tigermeet or not. Oh well...

  I got lazy at this point, I was meant to photo the Sherman Firefly and A-34 Comet on their own, but wanted to get the Harrier AV-8B and Tomcat in it.  The two tanks are built awaiting painting... actually they are painted I just need to find the decals for them.  The Tomcat is a lovely little plane, I've always liked them and respected what it could do.  The long range of it's radar and the AIM-54 Phoenix was phenomenal.  I also found it amazing that if the Tomcat had it's maximum load of 6 Phoenix's on, it had to drop 4 of them before it could land because it was over-weight even with no fuel onboard. Also the Tomcat was the inspiration for the VF-1 Valkyrie from Macross.  Now the Harrier, one plane that is a piece of British Engineering genius (Yes I know the AV-8B is American, but the Harrier is a British plane no questions).  However I am a bit annoyed with Revell for this kit, the Harrier always is and always will be a CAS (Close Air Support) plane.  So why have they only shipped it with two fuel tanks, 2 Sidewinders and cannon?  Not very CAS to me... I might be able to steal some unused weapons from other kits.  Speaking of stealing, this kit has 2 decal options, one for the USMC VMA-231 Ace of Spades squadron or for the Spanish Navy Air Arm - Armada Española Arma Aérea, now I am thinking that I could probably nick the Spanish ones and put them on the Rafale as Espada 2 is supposed to be Spanish... it could either work or fail totally.  One way to find out.

  Now Tanks aren't really my area of specialty, but I love the lines of the Leopard 2 A5, it looks so mean.  This kit is a cool and quick kit to make.  Just waiting to finish it with paints and decals.  The Camo looks cool too, there is also a turret in the kit to make the A4 I believe, but I didn't look too much into it as it was too square for my liking.

  I said earlier that Tanks/Armour isn't my specialty, so I am not too sure why I bought this.  I guess the Half-track was cool, the huge arse 40mm Rocket propelled grenades are an added bonus. :)  But alas I dont know much about the Sd.Kfz. 251 (what a long winded name).

  Like tanks and Armour, I know next to nothing about marine vessels.  This Gepard-Klasse 143A was on offer and looked cool to me.  I've gotten as far as you can see in the photo.  I need to start painting the hull tho.  I had problems with the deck when I was making it as I had glued the hull too close together so the deck wouldn't fit correctly.  But elaccy-bands sorted that one out and brute strength. ;)  Updates as and when I get them done.

  Peace!

  Dazz

The List Part 1

  Well I am have been meaning to do this for a long time, here will be a list of most of my projects going on right now.  This list is not complete as there is some other stuff I got laying around that I couldn't be arsed to photograph yet, I may do later on tho.  Right I will start with the aircraft first.

Here we have a Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIC with a conversion kit to turn it into an IID (from 3-D Kits) which was as far as I am aware the RAF's first dedicated Tank-buster.  I also have another IIC thats half built but my dog had a chew of it and ate the left tailplane.  I might be able to bodge something with the other parts and see if I can have an IIC and IID together.  I'm sure I read that they worked together in the African desert.  Still I love that plane.  There is a P-51B Mustang, I can paint this in RAF or USAF colours.  I'm thinking RAF, just because I am English. The Tornado ECR (electronic combat/reconnaissance) in Tigermeet scheme, I know the Germans are famous for their grand Tigermeet paint schemes (they are pretty epic) but I will not be using it.  I'm however gonna try to cut out the markings from the stripes tho.  Last there is the F-19, which doesn't exist, officially.

  Next up we have this little lot.  I'll start with the Hawk, this kit was actually sent to me by the RAF through the post because I was doing an MSc degree in Aerospace Engineering and thought I'd like to join.  I did try later on, less said about that the better.  Then there is the Ju-87 Stuka, this was always a weird and interesting plane to me.  It had great success until it met with the Hurricane and Spitfires of the RAF over the skies of Southern England in the Battle of Britain.  To say it was ripped a new one is an understatement. Also there is the A-10 Thunderbolt II/Warthog, a plane I have massive respect for.  It was literally designed around the GAU-8 Avenger, a gun so powerful that it actually slows the plane down when its being fired!!

  Got this one on sale from... ModelZone I think it was.  I'm looking forward to building this one.  I love the design of the Beaufighter for some reason.  I remember reading that the Japanese where totally petrified of this little plane tho.

  Another two models I got from ModelZone on sale.  I'm not too sure on the MIG-29, not sure if I'll do it in "The Swifts" colours or military colours yet, altho I am reading online that the Swifts and the Russian Knights have disbanded.  Shame I loved the Russian Knights' Su-27's. As for the Walrus, it's a weird little Fleet Air Arm plane that I like, I dont know why, but it has a weird charm to me.  Then again I have always liked weird and wonderful things.


  Thats it for the time being, next I will list the things I have started.

  Peace!

  Dazz

Warhammer 40,000 WiP 1

  Right before I go any further I will make this clear here and now.  I do NOT play Warhammer, I can't be bothered and the "image" is has is enough to keep me away.  I like the idea of Warhammer but I hate the way it's implemented and why-oh-why do all the shop-staff have to have long greasy hair and be about 20 stone?!  Also I hate the cost of the thing... says the man who paid £160 for a Gundam... hhmm... However, I like the models/figures/statues/wargaming things whatever you wanna call them.  Dawn of War was a cool game too, my friends and me used to play online as Chaos and see who could last the longest with their ramblings.  Was quite funny over TeamSpeak.  Anyhow, a few years back I bought a few models off Amazon. If I remember corectly, I got a Space Marine Battleforce, a Dreadnought, Scout Biker and a Tatical Marine Squad. I've built some of them and have given them a basic coat of paint.  Most of them are just primed black at the moment, with a few a little more painted.  Most of them are painted in the Ultramarines colours, except for the Assault Squad which... I think where Dark Angels.  The name escapes me for the time being.  I'll throw some pictures down and then ramble on a little more afters about them.

A little line up of what I kinda have, you can see the Dreadnought with it's two arms. A painted Tatical Marine, two primed Tatical Marines and the Scout Biker painted too.

 
Three of the 5 Assault Marines I have, but these have been drybrushed with a dark green colour.  I can't remember it's colour atm.  Need to finish this soon.

  One of the Tatical Marines I have that where painted using the Citadel blue paint, not bad actually.

 The scout Biker that has also been painted with the Citadel paint.

This is where the fun starts.  This was painted using a Revell "email" paint called "Ultramarine Blue".  Now I have always like Revell's paints, however this went on patchy and is a wee bit glossy as you can see.  I might have to strip this model of it's paint and try again.  I was hoping the colour would turn out okay. Oh well...

 

And last but not least the two arms of the Dreadnought.  That "Ultramarine Blue" paint is well blotchy to say the least.  Unless I am really missing something about how to paint it?  I'm gathing it's a glossy type of paint.  But surely it wouldn't go like this?  Saying that, every time I paint white, it turns out like that... hhmm... If you look hard enough you can see on the base of the Dreadnought where I have dry-brushed the edge of the slabs.  I need to get some sessions with these to paint them well. 

"My Armour is Contempt,

My Shield is Disgust,

My Sword is Hatred,

In the Emperors Name,

Let None Survive!"

I love that saying, dunno why tho... I am weird like that. :)

Peace!

Dazz

The Scope!

  Well I did promise a picture of the Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian compared to something else.  Well here is my scope, right next to our Sofa.  Now most people own a sofa, so they can appreciate how big the 200P actually is...

 
  Now, I am 5,10 high and not weak by any standards, but I struggle to carry this bugger.  I think it's just the sheer size of it.  For anyone who plans to get one tho, a different kind of view finder is a must.  It will kill your back looking through the view finder like it is there.

  Clear Skies!

  Dazz

Iterali 1/72 BAe Hawk

  For the more attentive people out there, they might of noticed that I am making an Iterali 1/72 BAe Hawk Mk.100 in colours of the Royal Australian Air Force I was going to do the BAe demonstration aircraft, shown below

 That's the actual picture used on the Iterali box, now I was going to paint it this colour, until I sprayed it with the primer and decided it looked better grey.  And thus it turned out as the RAAF's trainer, I'm not too sure if they are used as 2nd Line Interceptors just like the RAF's Hawks where back in the 90's I believe??  And actually checking on Wiki, the RAAF never used the Hawk 100, it was the Hawk 127 for the geeky ones of us out there.  Well onto the fun parts of it, I had problems once again with getting some weights for the nose.  In the end I just used a lot of fishing shots that where strategically placed in the nose cone to weigh it down, thankfully it worked. :)   

  That's it dry fitted before I had finished the cockpit tubs.  Thats my bed sheet btw, funky eh?  Well once that was all done I started to play around with what I weapons I wanted to put on it.  I've taken liberty's as I am not sure how many hard points the Hawk 100/127 has, I know it has 2 hard points on the wing, one in the middle of the fuselage and two wing tip's for AAM's (Sidewinder's I believe not sure if it's cleared to use the ASRAAM yet).  But I have seen that the Hawk 200 has 4 wing hardpoints (2 each side) so I went with that.  Next was what I was actually going to put on it.

  Here you can see the original fuel tanks that came with the kit and the centre line 30mm Aden Cannon.  I also have 2 x Matra SNEB rocket pods and 2 x 100 gallon (?) fuel tanks from a Harrier GR3 kit that I am not going to make now.  I know that the Hawk is cleared for the SNEB's but the fuel tanks look a bit OTT for the Hawks little wings, and to be honest they looked a lot like floats to me... imagine that, a Hawk Floatplane.  Don't think I have ever seen an Jet-fighter float plane, except for the Convair F2Y Sea Dart. Anyhow I noticed that the kit came with 4 Sidewinders (I think they are AIM-9L's for some weird reasons...) two of them are to be used on the wing tips anyhow (not shown in the picture above) but the other two where random bits in the kit not to be used... maybe Iterali are gonna make an Hawk 200 in the future??  Well I went with the 4 Sidewinders instead of anything else, oh and the original fuel tanks as well.  The Sidewinders will be put on the two outboard stations with the fuel tanks in the middle with the cannon in the centre line station.  You get the idea in the below picture.

 Not that I look at it, I think the outermost hardpoint for the Sidewinder looks too close to the Fuel Tanks... hhmm... I can always snap them off and re-attach them at a later date.  I'm quite proud with how far I have gotten with her.  The cockpit is the best I have ever done I think, dry-brushed some of it and hand painted the rest.  I am thinking that an Eduard Zoom kit might of been a better idea tho.  I might try them on my ME 110 C-2 when I get around to doing that kit.  One problem I have come across tho when dry fitting the canopy of for the Hawk.  The back "headrest" is leaning to one side so the canopy does not sit right, I can either file down what I have buggered up OR have the canopy open.  I'm thinking open, means less work. ;) More to come as and when I do it...

  Peace!

  Dazz

Revell 1/144 Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye Part 2

For the people who have actually read the other parts of my blog they will know that I started a Revell 1/144 scale Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye sometime last summer and all of the trouble I have had with it up until this point.  Well below is a picture of it semi-dry fitted

Thats it before I started to paint the main plane and attach the canopy to it.  At this point only the main wings and the tailplane are glued to the fuselage.  The Rotordome and it's struts are not glued yet as I think it'll be easier to set the decals for the walkways on without having to navigate my way around those strut legs.

  If you look at the dark grey bits below the rotordomes shadow you will see the Walkways which I speak of and know why they would be easier to attach before the rotordome is glued in place.  I also think thats an Hawkeye E-2D (aka Hawkeye 2000) as opposed to the E-2C I am doing, but that matters not.  Anyhow, I moved onto painting this little one, now for some unknown reason and as far as I can tell, Revell only give the numbers for their paints and they are always something stupid like 97.35% Matt 8 with 2.65% Matt 5 hardly ever a single colour.  Well this one asked me to mix white in with a light grey which I done and well to me it looked too dark.  To me all the Hawkeyes look a little white with a very fine little grey in them.  So I had to take the paint off, luckly it hadn't cured yet so I could use white spirit to wipe it off.  The picture below kinda shows you how well their colours come out.

You can just see a bit of it between the fuselage and the left wing engine.  What you can also see is my well painted arrestor hook.  Cool no?!  Anyhow that colour didn't work either, so I tried a little more white in the mix this time, still no joy as you'll see soon below.  So I have been on the search for a light enough grey when shopping around for a colour for my Hawk Mk.100 I noticed it gave an FS number, which to my understanding means "federal standard" (please correct me if I am wrong).  Anyhow the Hawk uses a colour called Light Ghost Grey from ModelMaster I thought I might be in luck there, I tried it on my Hawk, and altho I love the paint now, it was still too grey.  However looking around on the interwebs, I found another modeller who used Light Gull Grey, I have ordered that and will try putting that on.  I'm also debating if I should use the standard decals that come with it or not... still not sure...

Do you see what I mean about the grey being too dark?  If it was an F-15 or an F-16, no problems but it just seems... wrong to me.

Anyhow I've received my Light Gull Grey paint now with two other greys as I am now painting quite a few grey models.  Lets hope I can actually finish this model this year eh?  more to come...

  Peace!

  Dazz

Holiday fun...

 There has been a little delay in my posting the last 2 or 3 weeks, I blame this in part to me being in Tenerife for a week with Nat and her family.  At the age of 28 this was my first holiday to a hot country, previous holidays had been to New York (it was -3*C when we landed) and Holland.  Hardly the stuff of sun tannage inducing fun.  Anyhow the total holiday was completely epic and I enjoyed it, spend a lot of the nights looking up at the skies trying to see what I could.  I saw Jupiter and Venus literally next to each other, shame I didn't have any scope with me, would of been cool to get a photo of them two close together.  Was also weird seeing Orion so high in the sky but it was fun.  I was on the look out for some geeky stuff, but alas I saw none, except for Dragonball Z characters... not my fav show... not a show I would recognise as being a show either, I hate it.  But alas I got nothing from my cheapo holiday.  Closest thing I got to being geeky was looking at the sky and tricking everyone about which planet was Jupiter and what one was Venus, they still dont believe me! Oh and we flew out on a Boeing 737-800 which is pratically the same model as the Royal Australian Air Forces 737 "Wedgetail" (I love that name!), which is as geeky as I got out there... not much geeking for me then. :(

  Peace!

  Dazz

Revell 1/144 Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye Part 1

  

I picked this kit of the Revell 1/144 Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye up last year sometime as a quick and easy "summer project", it didn't turn out that way.  Read on and I will explain why.  I'm not going to post pictures of the spures or the decals, you can get that information elsewhere and the model usually doesn't last that long before I start on it for me to get the camera.  I might start with future models, but do not hold your breath.  Anyhow, building starts with the cockpit (shown below) as usual with *most* models.  As I dry fitted the cockpit to the fuselage bits I thought that you wouldn't see a single thing through the cockpit windows.  So I decided to use a black rattle can on the chairs and such.  Which typically ran out half way though the spray. I so need to get an airbrush for future stuffs.

   Thats with the instrument panel decals added and brushpainted, I must stress at this point that all my models are brush painted.  So if they look crap theres your main reason.  Right, got the cockpit done and I then spent a while looking for something to weigh the nose down to make sure it wasn't a tail sitter.  Believe me, with that huge rotordome on top, it will become a tail sitter. Well could I find anything to fit it? Could I crap, I tried the local fishing shop, apparently it's the biggest in the country, admitted it's a big bugger but it had no decent weights in there.  I got some shots and bombs from them, typically the bombs where too big.  A week later while throwing a paddy at the garage door (it's a bugger to open) I noticed a bolt on floor.  I tried that and it was the right weight... HE SHOOTS HE SCORES! So I PVA'd it to the fusleage parts (shown below)

Oh yeah, this picture is of all the main parts before I put the bolt in it's new home.  Notice the rudders being held in place by blu-tack.  I swear this stuff is the tool of the Gods, I use it for so much in my modelling (for the time being).  Need to acquire some more me thinks.

While I was sorting this out and my Airfix 1/72 Me-110C, we heard a weird propeller noise.  Now I have learned to recognise an engine noise on most planes that fly in my area (yeah I am geeky), I can even know when the usual Chinook HC.2 is flying past when I am in work.  When we saw this little bugger struggling with the headwind.

This is my first Goodyear Blimp, I have never seen one before, this one was heading East for a while then it turned to South-West and shot off like a bat out of hell.  I guess that head-now-turned-tailwind was helping it a huge lot.  It was gone before I had a chance to get a proper camera for it.  Cool little thing tho. :)

  More to come soon...

  PEACE!

  Dazz

Gunpla

Well this is the first of many, many Gunpla posts I will put up, I have quite a few Gundam "models", must be close to 30 if you include the little ones that where released in this country after Gundam Wing was shown on the Cartoon Network all those years ago.  Anyhow, for my 26th Birthday, Nat was a sneaky little thing and she bought me a Gundam as she knows I liked them.  She picked one at random and looked the coolest, lets be honest there is loads of series and for anyone who doesn't know jack about them you can get lost very easily, well she went for the newest series out at the time which was Gundam 00... I suppose she was also influenced by the fact we like one of the main them songs from that series.  Ash Like Snow by The Brilliant Green (this is the best copy I can find), Nat and I both like Tomoko Kawase's music, it's so weird and cheesy at the same time.  Well she got me the 1/100 GN-007 Arios Gundam, unknown by Nat is the fact I am a UC timeline fanboy (aren't most people?), nevermind she knowns for the future eh?  Well it took me a while to build cause I lost interest a few times, but it got finish last year on my birthday, I dunno why I was doing it then... anyhow the bugger is posted below, might take it apart and paint it "correctly" one day.  Doubt it will be soon tho...

Not a bad little model, still I wasn't a big fan of Gundam 00 for some reason, I dunno...

  Peace!

  Dazz

Models!

  Yeah who didn't see this one coming?  I can't remember who, what, when or why but I got back into modelling last year sometime.  Every time Nat and I go to Lakeside, we always take a trip into Modelzone.  At first it was punishment for Nat dragging me into all of the clothes shops (for anyone who knows me, fashion and clothes really does not interest me), but as I started to see what they where selling I decided "why not?!"  So I bought one... Which turned out to be 3!! An Revell 1/72 Sukhoi Su-25 "Frogfoot" and a Revell 1/144 Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma and also an Iterali 1/72 BAe Hawk Mk.100 they where all on sale, I think they where half price, but I got them.  The Hawk I am buliding now, the Frogfoot is still under my bed and the Puma, I gave up on that one as I got bored of it believe it or not.  That was last year in the summer, however I have made a few more, well getting there slowly, there is a lot of skills I needed to re-learn or learn entirely. 

The Hawk in Royal Australian Air Force colours,

An Airacobra built for a friend, this was a shocking Airfix kit, probably from the 1860's!! (yes thats a joke).

A Dassualt Rafale in the colours of Espada 2 from ACE COMBAT ZERO : The Belkan War, this is a 1/144 scale so it's pretty small, I have next to no chance of getting any decals for it, so I might have to bodge 

something.

A Revell 1/72 Focke Wulf Ta-152, I love this plane, had this kit since I was 13 I believe.

Last and not least a VF-1A Super-Valkyrie with a weapons set from Macross : Do You Remember Love?

Yeah, I know some are not finished and some need work and the rest are shocking.  But I am pleased with what I have done, I've tried my best and I am learning as I go, I can not ask for anything more than that.  Any tips anyone has I would be welcome to them.  I have a fair few more to make now, which Nat is getting annoyed with as she's wondering where I am going to put them. :P  I got a few Gunpla (Gundam Plastic models) to do also.  I'm not too sure what I can do with them tho as I have lost the "decals" altho they where really stickers. I'll see what I can find and do.

Peace 

Dazz

First Light!...

  Well for Christmas last year (2011), my mother had some spare cash and she said I could have anything I wanted.  Wanting a new telescope for ages, one with a bit of kick to it, I asked for a Skywatcher 200P Dobsoian.  It's a huge bugger, I really wasn't expecting it to be as big as it was!  but I really do love the thing.  If you look at the pictures below you can see the difference.

This is from my 3" Newtoian scope.

This is from my new 8" Dob (25mm Wide EP)

 My 8" Dob with an 10mm EP

See the difference? I know the pictures aren't that great, but that's because I used a mobile phone held to the eyepiece.  I believe it's called afocal photography, and it's bloody hard when you are cold, holding a phone to an eyepiece while trying to hit the button to take a picture.  I took the below picture in the same method to see what I could do, not this is not going to win me any prizes.  But you can see what can be done with basic equipment, and this zoomed in a fair bit, so please excuse the pixels, and I am sure you can work out what it is supposed to be.

I've have since ordered some new bits to help with some semi-decent pictures.  I ordered a Skywatcher Universal camera adaptor, a Light Pollution Reduction filter, the book "Making Every Photon Count" by Steve Richards and a Fuji Finepix S2950 bridge camera, I know it's a bridge camera, but it should be good enough for a few pictures surely??!!  Everything mentioned above is linked to where I got the stuff from by the way.  All of the telescope stuff was purchased from First Light Optics, a great place to order stuffs from, can't recommend them enough.  They also support Stargazers Lounge too, which is a great place to get advice from about this kinda stuff. :)

  PEACE!

  Dazz

College was fun

Well last year me and my mate Josh attended night school.  Anyhow we are both very computer literate, we both know how computers work or shouldn't and we know what makes them work and how to fix them.  We had to do the course just to get the qualification, I had previously started the course way back in 2008 but it was one of them online ones where you get to do the A+, Network+, MCSA and CCNA all in one.  Being online I always thought that I'd "do it tomorrow" then the year finished and my access to it had expired.  So, I went back to college to give me the kick in the arse to turn up, luckily my friend Josh wanted to do it also.  I can't actually remember when we both talked about it, but it turned out for the better for us, as one would drive then the other.  We are about the same level when it comes to computer knowledge, altho I think Josh knows more because he is a Mac-fanboi where as I hate Apple/Mac's/Iphones/Ipads/Ipods (long story).  Well we put up with the lessons, we put up with the silly questions (like when will "Sky-Net" take over) and such.  But in the latter half of July, Josh and I are both...

We both know it's the lowest qualification to get, but it's a start into a job that actually requires me to think.  Once I can actually find one...

 We both looked at doing the Network+ also because that's a good step onto either an MCSA (or whatever it's called now) or CCNA, unfortunately the college we done the original course with didn't have enough people sign up to do the Network+ so I am looking out to do that soon.

  Peace!

  Dazz

Enter the Geek 2.0

Hello one and all...

I know I have neglected this blog for a while, I have been a busy boy believe it or not, I know Nat doesn't :oP

Anyhow I am going to try to update this thing as and when I can, now I can do it from the confines of the work canteen, I swear that place is boring as hell! We need a dancing monkey in there or something...  I'll be pumping our few "thoughts" after this one then will try to update it on a regular basis, like once a year :P

Peace!

Dazz