Baker's Dozen: More spaceships and the helicopter receives paint

[SaxonHalfling]

cool project like the models

[ps where did you get the japenese battleships models form]

[Daeothar]

Thanks gents!

I find it hard to believe that you feel that your painting skills were on a slide, as you have produced some great stuff in

the last couple of years (that road system and the characters for your Pulp RPG are seriously inspirational).
If that is a slide, I would gladly suffer that.
 

Thanks for the kinds words Mason; they're much appreciated. But be careful with what you wish for though; the reason my painting has declined in the past couple of years is that I'm basically getting too old too fast. I've since been diagnosed with arthritis (a family condition), especially in the hands, and this results in my fingers being very painful, not able to flex and shaking hands, especially in the morning. Things gradually get better later in the day, but especially in the cold and damp, it often lingers the entire day. And I live in the Netherlands,so those are the weather conditions most of the time... This means that accuracy with the brush is a lot less than a couple of years ago. I am unable to do the fine detail work I used to do, and even simple block painting becomes a chore.

There are those times though, when all symptoms are gone (or a lot less) for a while, regardless of the weather, and I can actually reach the level I was used to. I used to place as Golden Daemon finalist on a regular basis and I dreamt of one day bagging at least one of them, but I'm not so certain now I ever will. Ah well; I'm still happy with those things I paint regardless.

[ps where did you get the japenese battleships models form]

http://www.hlj.com/

If I pimp this company much more, people might acccuse me of being affiliated with them!  

But back to business!

I went to the local hobby store this Saturday to buy some vallejo paints I had run out of, when I stumbled upon a very cheap 1/72 kit of a Kamov KA-58 stealth helicopter, and immediately saw the potential. So I picked it up and since the wife was out with her friends all Sunday, I had the entire day to play around with this new toy. Back to 28mm for a bit!

It originally is a rather large two seater, with the pilots sitting side by side, but by placing only one 28mm pilot in
there instead, the helicopter suddenly becomes a single seat, small attack craft!

So, I chopped up an EM4 plastic scifi trooper for the purpose. I used the torso and head as is, but cut off the legs (the standing straigh up ones) and reposed them into a sitting position. As I tried to use as much of the original cockpit as possible, I then had to shave down the legs and torso on the underside, so the pilot would not be bumping his head on the cockpit roof. I also added some plastic strip and sheet to suggest a seat on the back wall, and some greebles from the bitsbox to create a little more interest.

Then the arms. I used two EM4 sets of arms. Those arms are one piece; two arms, interconnected with a rod, which goes inbetween the two torso halfs, and both connected to the front by the weapon they're holding. there's not much detail to the hands though, so those had to go. So I used the right arm of the set with the pistol in a twohanded grip, and the right arm of the standard rifle arm set. Both hands were cut off and replaced with ones from the bits box. I believe the right one comes from a Cadian flamer guy and the left one from an Empire Flagelant (it held a whip previously...). I used a part of the connector rod of the arms as a nub to fix them (in)to the torso. The last remaining piece of scratch was an HUD from two small triangles of plasticard.

I got the idea to paint the pilot and cockpit as if it was luminated from several bright cockpit displays, I also had to add to the instrument panel, as the original panel only has a huge amount of dials for some reason. So I used a very thin piece of plasticard to overlay the panel, and cut out some screens and drilled some additional dials as well. This was then glued onto the existing panel and presto!

For fixing a flying stand, I drilled a hole and put in a length of plastic rod, which has the same diameter as the standard magnets I have (3mm). I also fixed it firmly in place with some plasticard supports. It helped that there are two large weapon bays, between which the rod (almost) fit perfectly. The rod was then worked into the body paneling on the bottom with some Vallejo liquid putty, which I really like for these little filler jobs.

Then the cockpit area was undercoated with a flat black spray paint, and rather quickly painted in an OSL style, with the instrument panel being the source. Worked quite well I think, especially for the quick job I made of it (Sundays suddenly seem very short when you're hobbying away; I did the painting when my wife had come home again, and I really should have started dinner already... ).

So; after one day (more of a very long afternoon btw) of work, the helicopter stands ready for painting. the cockpit's finished and the canopy added. I will try and do the undercoating this evening. I want to show the rotors as spinning, so I plan on sourcing some plastic sheet (stiff enough to not bend when free floating on the model)  that I can cut two circles out of. A couple of blurred rotorblades painted on, and it should look great.

It will make a fine addition to my growing collection of near future troops; finally some air support!

But enough of my usual blah; here are some phone pics of the status quo:









+++EDIT+++ corrected some atrocious spelling errors...

[Predatorpt]

Wow, never thought about using a 1/72 model with 28mm figures (I usually go for the 1/48 or 1/35 models). What model did you use?

The Revell one?:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/REVELL-KAMOV-KA-58-STEALTH-HELICOPTER-1-72-04413-/270605835660?pt=UK_ToysGames_DiecastVehicles_DiecastVehicles_JN&hash=item3f015d5d8c

Or the Zvezda one?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Zvezda-1-72-Kamov-Ka-58-Black-Ghost-7232-/221133978535?pt=UK_ToysGames_ModelKits_ModelKits_JN&hash=item337c9cbba7

[Daeothar]

I actually used the Revell one. It had been discounted from €12,95 to €6,50; my local hobby shop sometimes clears out static stock via a 50% off discount table. I picked up some nice bargains there over the years... 

Truth be told; I like this model a lot; it's a nice kit and the conversion was very smooth going, so I might consider getting me another one, even at the original price!

[Mason]

Sorry to hear about the arthritis, mate.
I, of course, did not mean I wished for the cause, only that I would take your results nowadays over mine anytime.
You are still producing top quality work that never fails to impress me.

This copter is a sound example of what I mean.
Excellent conversion work, you certainly have an eye for what 'works'.
 

[Predatorpt]

I actually used the Revell one. It had been discounted from €12,95 to €6,50; my local hobby shop sometimes clears out static stock via a 50% off discount table. I picked up some nice bargains there over the years... 

Truth be told; I like this model a lot; it's a nice kit and the conversion was very smooth going, so I might consider getting me another one, even at the original price!

Lucky you. I've scored my local hobby shops and they don't stock that particular reference. I'll keep an eye out for it and keep on following your conversion

[The_Beast]

Lucky you. I've scored my local hobby shops and they don't stock that particular reference. I'll keep an eye out for it and keep on following your conversion

I wish Revell here near matched Revell, Europe... 

Definitely has to be the right 'copter; Hind's and Apache's are definitely too narrow. Come to think, most like Huey's wouldn't have enough 'nose', either.

Speaking of larger, every time I've played with one (I complete NOTHING), I always think the engine area should be for a commander and/or gun turret/bubble. This one almost looks big enough to give a go.

Thoughts?

Doug

[Daeothar]

Lucky you. I've scored my local hobby shops and they don't stock that particular reference. I'll keep an eye out for it and keep on following your conversion

I just checked out some Ebay auctions for this kit, and got a look at the Zvezda sprues. They're identical to the Revell ones!! So either one would get you the same results; just a matter of getting the cheapest one...

Speaking of larger, every time I've played with one (I complete NOTHING), I always think the engine area should be for a commander and/or gun turret/bubble. This one almost looks big enough to give a go.

I suppose it would be possible, but I feel it would look 'off', if you were to add a cuppola instead of the rotors. Unless you add an alternative way to create lift and movement, that is.

In this case, the hole where the rotor is supposed to go is 14mm across, so a hatch and commander would fit, were you so inclined...

[Commander Roj]

Grmph; made good on my threat to order on the 31st and missed your post; sorry about that.

But that's not the purpose of this post actually. It's to show off the finished smaller iteration of the Indecent Proposal!

I really like this scratch built shuttle. I cant think of anything like it on the market. Well done!

[The_Beast]

Speaking of larger, every time I've played with one (I complete NOTHING), I always think the engine area should be for a commander and/or gun turret/bubble. This one almost looks big enough to give a go.

I suppose it would be possible, but I feel it would look 'off', if you were to add a cuppola instead of the rotors. Unless you add an alternative way to create lift and movement, that is.

In this case, the hole where the rotor is supposed to go is 14mm across, so a hatch and commander would fit, were you so inclined...

Oh, I always assumed winglet thrusters in most cases; the Hind I hacked up has both winglets and big a** outlets (I assume exhaust) just behind the engine, as thrusters. 1/48, but still a struggle to shoe-horn an SM Capt. in the top position, and one of those imaginary Squats as pilot...

I really like this scratch built shuttle. I cant think of anything like it on the market. Well done!

Maybe someone will contact  Daeothar  about a master... 

Doug

[MajorTalon]

Where did that Space Battleship Yamamoto model come from? It looks awesome.

[Daeothar]

I believe I got it from www.readmypreviousposts.com... 

OK, a smallish update again.

I started the paintjob on the helicopter. Under/basecoated in a dark grey, and the first camo colour has been applied; an even darker grey. On the left, you can see my trial camo scheme. It's a simple 3 colour affair, with irregular, overlapping  triangular shapes. Pretty easy to paint, and it looks nice. After the scheme has been finished, there will be a dark wash to bring out the surface details and the application of suitable markings and numbers.

The cockpit was masked when spraying the first coat, but the edges have already been blacked out on the outside now; I just need to paint in the camo scheme over the black in the end.



Next up is a small tramp freighter I cobbled together out of parts from the EM4 plastic robot set. It's the birdlegged body with the leg nubs cut off, and the the two included rocket pods glued over the arm nubs, with the front of the pods turned backwards. I cut off the rocket tips and replaced those with some short pieces of plastic tubing to form the rocket/jet nozzles. The back nub, where another weapon should go, received two very small pieces of thin plastic rod, turning it into a turret.

And that's basically it! the result is somewhat reminiscent of the Betty in Aliens IV, and I like the look. For now, it's been basecoated in grey, received a black wash and I quickly painted in the cockpit and observation dome. Finished paintjob pending...



And to finish off, here is the stack of plastic model goodness I received from HLJ yesterday. Yay!

There are: two large ships, same scale as the one on page one. 3 comparable ships on a much smaller scale, for use as escorts. Those come with a fighter each, which scales up perfectly with the EM4/Silent Death ones; another flight for free And then there are two fighters, which are approximately 1/100 scale, but are perfectly useable with 28mm pilots in the rebuilt cockpits. They're nice close air support, and maybe even a 28mm representation of some of the smaller scale fighters. I like the original paintjobs so much, I will probably do them up exactly like that (well; maybe not exactly ).

On the bottom though, is a box I received earlier this week and did not come from Japan, but Ebay; it's an original Silent Death box with another 48 fighters. They came out even cheaper (with P&P) than the same amount of sprues from EM4, so I could not resist. You can never have enough fighters after all.



Next in line will be green squadron, which had some work done already, but is not finished yet. Game night tonight (and they'll see some action again I suppose), so no painting, but who knows what Friday and the weekend will bring...

[Grumpy Gnome]

So much epic in this thread... I felt it deserved the necromancy to see how things have developed in the mean time. I am a real sucker for Star Blazers! So much in this thread to inspire my hope for future sci-fi projects of different scales.