Tales from the Basement Lab by AndrewR

[AndrewR]

Here are more of the Smurfs...









Now, both the Romulan and Klingon ships needed some filler - much more than the Enterprise kit in fact.

Here's the Kingon battlecruiser, after some filling and another coat of primer.



This one is ready for the next colour, which will be pale green. I haven't decided which shade yet!

Meanwhile the Romulan is suffering from poor joins where the wings meet the main hull. This is unfortunate, as they are very prominent on the top of the ship.



After priming. Still not that great. I may have to do another round of filling!

[AndrewR]

And finally a new project. An Airfix Mk I/II Male tank.





The moulds must have been refurbished, the moulding is very good for a fifty-year old kit.




I'm going to do an early Mark II, so it needs the hatch removing from the roof of the cupola, the silencer replacing with little armoured shields over the exhausts and grousers attaching to every sixth track link.

All I've done so far is remove most of the traces of the hatch and replace the sanded-off rivets.

[mjatx]

The rivet work looks pretty good. I think if you just ran a sanding stick across them a few times, they'd blend right in with the originals.

Nice work! Lots of interesting stuff on your very busy bench.

[AndrewR]

A little assembly work on the guns and one sponson this evening too.

[jssel]

Good luck with the tracks. Mine were thick and stiff and needed two part epoxy glue. Only to have them crack and break away. Lovely kit to build however.

[Clashcityrocker]

It's a cool kit. Seems they have changed the box. Mine came in a top opening box with just the black and white instructions, even for the paint plan. The coloured diagrams on the back of your box will make painting easier. I stapled my tracks together and placed the staple on the bottom. When I build the female version I'll put some weight inside so it sits better on the tracks.

Nigel

[ShaunW]

Tons of interesting stuff going on here and it's great to see the Bucker finished, what a little charmer that is. As you are no doubt aware, the old Airfix Mk.I is a bit inaccurate as I think it was based on a Mk.II museum exhibit that was in itself not a typical MK.II. Still, onwards and upwards as it looks like you've got the measure of the necessary conversion work and it's good to see a tank in the Basement Lab

[Dazzled]

All excellent stuff happening as usual Andrew. I particularly like the Jungmeister and the Smurfs bring back a few memories.

[AndrewR]

It has been a long time since I did a tank, so high time for a go at one!

First the Klingons. They get a coat of VA Duck Egg Green (and I need a new bottle).



As I was working at home today, that was done at lunchtime. Then before supper, a simple masking job, and VA Medium Sea Grey on the upper wings and bridge area.



And then all was revealed:





The engine nacelles need a whiff of green, as does the bridge. Otherwise ,job done.

And the tank




A quick coat of primer to check for problems:



Meanwhile the Romulan gets drowned in white primer





cheers

Andrew

[skypirate]

Good grief! What goes on here? Tremendous variety and industry!
Great to see,

David

[AndrewR]

Good grief! What goes on here? Tremendous variety and industry!
Great to see,

David

I will be tackling a 1/400 ship kit in November's Iron Curtain GB.

[AndrewR]

A coat of Vallejo Model Colour Green Ochre first, then VA Panzer Brown and Khaki Brown. These three colours are quite close,so it breaks up any blocks of the same colour.






I have to do quite a lot of masking on this for the dark earth colour.

cheers

Andrew

[TobyC]

The Airfix Mk1 is a nice little kit. Goes together well. Yours is coming along nicely.

[PaulBradley]

Nothing like a little whiff of green in the morning......

[AndrewR]

Masking the base colour



Then spraying with VA Dark Earth first, then adding a little VA flat earth to lighten it.