Model Expo 2017

Helsinki Model Expo 2017

The yearly model expo (and a bunch of others bundled together) were held last weekend. This time my visit was shorter than usual, thanks to my then three days old Project Assistant Candidate. The Project Assistant herself was pretty eager to see her own stuff so my personal "I want to see this" round ended up being a bit of a "running through" kind of a thing.

IPMS - Finland

My original idea was to take not just one but two models, just for the fun of it. But as the intro may have given a hint for the reason, my plans were thrown out just a few days before the Expo. Would I have dared to enter my silly builds into the competition instead of dropping them to the Display Only class seen in the end of the photoset? Why not, more variety to be wondered and laughed at.

I think I went through the tables in a funny order, but what could you do when you were constantly pulled somewhere else. The planes I've always admired and I don't think I'd ever have the guts to take my own along these others.

That B17G was enormous. With a model like this the mirror bases was even handier than usual, I thought. Sadly I didn't get to (wasn't allowed to) peek through the windows. I mean, sometimes people do pretty mad inside conversions.

I found this Bf-109E "Black 12" in Lapland diorama pretty. The description talked about a bird, which I didn't find even in the photo.

"Naval Port"

Comic book action! I missed the description, but I'd guess that this was an implemented panel from the comic.

This autumny mine clearing dio was the Project Assistant's favourite.

This tank has always been fugly but it did turn into a very nice-looking model.

The next two photos: some Finnish Navy and Army equipment from the '80s: a missile boat ("Kotka"), a T-72, a BMP-1 and something I thought to be a Pasi (XA-180) but then I saw the turret and got lost with the ugliness.

The next four (well, three proper ones actually) photos: some equipment of the Finnish Navy and Army from the '60s

The Display Only category

Heh, a familiar-looking construct. It's always nice to see V-2 in other patterns than just the black/white squares.

Palikkatakomo

Of course I tried to go through the Lego department. At this point the Assistant was getting more tired of my apparent slowness and I had to rush. Honestly, I'd stayed to stare at the GBC for a very, very long time. I thought that it was very nice of them to have the modules named so clearly.

I wasn't allowed to stop to take photos of the city anymore, my sincere apologies. All I can say is that it was mad, again, and I approved of it!

A launch pad

On some very wobbly feet

Of all the pieces in the kit the launch pad's bits were in the worst shape of them all. I spent noticeably more time on cleaning them up than assembling them toghether. Take the adjustable legs, for example: getting them and their foot pads together was a tiny act of war already, especially as the installation studs were more malformed than a dozen quasimodos. Still, they obeyed the blade and glue - to some extent.

Then I got to the next moment of pain and suffering, as the legs were supposed to have some sort of a notch where the deflector plate was supposed to sit on. Pffft.

I allowed the gluing of the plate and the legs to cure for a good while so that they'd remain attached together while I rotated the entity but so that they'd still be somehow articulateable for me to adjust any bad angles. So I glued this setup to the ring that can be seen in the next photo, again with horrendous swearing and fighting. The studs were awful and they just didn't want to cooperate with me at all. After these gluings had been curing for a good while again I attached the missing diagonal beams. Horrendous stuff, I tell you, horrendous.

On top of this construction I was supposed to install another, separate setup. This second ring got some weird upwards-bent things, some adjustment/control bits for them and some decorative bits. I really didn't have a clue what they were, specifically, as they weren't described anywhere. For that reason I also wasn't sure if I had "cleaned" them up properly, as the pictures in the instructions were more like guidelines, really. And the bits were molded pretty questionably, as I had already complained.

Finally three extra bits were glued on the top ring, bits that I guessed to have something to do with the rocket engine's ignition. I just installed them on in random angles for variety, based on my gut feeling and artistic eye (hehehe). Also, as you can see in the last photos, another protruding weirdly shaped piece was added. Because I didn't have a clue of what it was supposed to be - and if it was actually meant to be that weirdly shaped - I didn't do any corrective actions. Just to avoid making it wrong by accident.