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Friday, August 4, 2017

Omaha 2017 IPMS National Convention


Last weekend I joined other humans in the Midwest to celebrate the Joy that is the building of plastic models. Here follows is a scale representation:


Four of us made the 8 hour drive, we were not sure how we were going to get our purchases home. This is the advantage of being typically male, as a future problem "this would simply solve itself". Onward! (&BTW, it did).


These places for the masses look best in the morning after coffee. For about 6 minutes.


One of the "Sprue Brethren" schlepping unassembled plastic goodness.


The contest room on Friday.


Typical of the vendor wares.


Vendor display of Nazi plywood Horton in 1/32 scale.


One of my purchases. I have others in the series. Sure, laugh it up fuzzball.


This was a seminar that I visited on building real space craft. I gave a seminar myself on resin kits. Fun and well attended. Uh, this one. Mine? Huh.


The nice folks from FSM had an advance copy of "Out Of This World Modeling". SHAMELESS PLUG: I have a model featured in it, this will be out in the fall.


Had this at the Sack museum.


OK, here are some models:


Here is a white car, presumably driven by Romy.


Helicopter.


Robot Spy.


Eindecker.


Claude.


Submarine, Yellow.


Bloodsucker.


Our "Group Build", F-4 Viet Nam Phantoms. Mine is the gray one. (We got 3rd place!).


After the awards ceremony we grabbed our models and scattered like rats.


Thus endeth another scale modeling event. We return to regularly scheduled blogness in our next installment. Plastic is dead. Long live Plastic!

Monday, July 17, 2017

Oscar Goldman Builds The DMB-87: PART 5


In this installment we welcome help from B. Page.


A view with more of the plastic bits ground off. By constantly comparing it to the 1:1 print out of the blueprint it is possible to keep fidelity to the original artwork.


A cutout of the canopy dimensions has been placed on the model to visualize how that section is going to get made. Still figuring that one out, but I have some thoughts.


Using Illy I draw the cockpit. The placement of the pilots is done by reviewing the animation. The rear pilot is only partially seen in the episodes.


It's cut out 1:1...


...and placed on the model.


If you recall, space was left for the cockpit tub, three sections of .25 styrene is dropped in and cut to shape. A notch is cut for the placement of the rear ball turret.


The idea is to cast the fuselage as one part so I put into one of our pressure pots (used for resin casting) to see if it fits. Tight, but it will work.


More shaping of the fuselage, this view shows the bottom. Note the strake and engines.


Wing is part of the fuselage. The various slots in the fuselage sandwich are for these brass pins that will locate and support the wing. Here is a paper template of the wing to get this part rolling along. No detail gets added until all the basic structures are in place.


Here it is with paper wings. A lot of colluding lines and bulges. Everything has to get built at once so they interact properly.


Vaseline is brushed onto the fuselage (here it is taken apart).


Apoxie Sculpt is then used...


To fill in the void behind the turret.


Dry and sanded. The Vaseline keeps the Apoxie Sculpt from bonding, so that it can be removed if needed.

That's all for now. You can see me at the IPMS Nationals in Omaha. I'll be giving a swell Demo at 2pm on Thursday on resin kits. Hope to see you there.



Sunday, June 25, 2017

Oscar Goldman builds the DMB-87: PART 4


Last we showed the soul grinding joy of creating infrastructure. There is no glamour, indeed this is the nuts and bolts aspect of building that turns most builders off and puts bricks to sleep. Not me! I am totally in for the tedium. Let's get rolling:


A view of the bottom. There are a lot of subtle curves down here. Looking at drawings and the Bandai model are not enough to get it in your head, you have to dive in. I've added some engine nozzle facsimiles and a crude strake. The thrusters are squeezed in like pig guts in a casein. Lot of bulges and interrelated arcs. This is the main reason why the orthographic drawings are different from the 3D animation models. The 3D artist had his work cut out blending a Stuka and Phantom together.


I cut off the rear section of the fuse (I can't recall why now, I'm sure I had a good reason). I'm using a ball end mill to cut in half the channel for one of the main wing supports.


I double stuck on the top section and milled the other half of the channel. This is a quick way to match these up.


The section is then flipped over and a brass rod is put in the channel. Four holes are drilled to affix the rear fuselage section.


A quick shot under the hood showing the Adobe suite hard at work. Once the "size" of the images is set, they don't change. As I add various things they get added in. Here I'm working out the nozzle dimensions.


I rough some out in PVC...again a way of thinking about how these things will get made.


A more finished nozzle in ABS. This may end up being the final, but I can now work with this.


The outer nozzle section is made in two parts, there is a whole $#@*% of detail on the inside. I also consider how these will get cast in a way that the pour stubs can be easily removed without damaging the parts.


Throughout this build I am printing out sections of the plans. In this instance a side profile of the nose, which is cut out and used as a template to draw on the model.


The nose is attached with double sided tape (on center) to a block of wood. The block becomes a handle.


On the disc sander.


Using a different block I put the slopes on the sides. Get the big stuff off using this way, less wear and teat on your muscles.


The heat generated from the disc melts the plastic, so you have to watch carefully.


Starting to look like something.


Using some sculpey the engine bulges and canopy are blocked in. Just to see if things look kosher.

Well, that's it for now. The excitement mounts as bits of plastic become transformed!



BTW, two teasers here. Upper shows current state (blog is behind). Lower shows possible next 2199 project in 1/72nd scale.

AND you slackers out there, push those like buttons so I can afford kidney transplants for the kids. COMMENT because, I feel like I'm shouting into an empty room.