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.

Greetings from Peenemünde

Missile building

The Backup Guidance System Container

I sat down one Wednesday evening to work on this weird weapon. The first thing I did was getting confused, as the cockpit tube was to be built out of a couple of unmarked and obscure pieces. There was just a single dimple for the joystick on the baseplate that was the only clear and unmistakeable thing. Then I was on my own and just glued the poor backup's seat on the plate next to the control stick, hoping that nothing would be protruding in awful ways while sealing the missile's body. After a moment watching glue set I glued the two discs on the plate, choosing the positions by my gut feeling.

The frame

I cleaned the frame halves like mad and I still wasn't sure if they'd fit together properly and cleanly enough. After some dry-fitting and recleaning rounds I decided that it was good and glued the halves together - not forgetting the emergency backup guidance system's workspace.

The results surprised me very positively as the setup worked prettily and even the cockpit fit in like a glove. The rocket engine's end wasn't quite as pretty but I let it be, trusting that the model makers had had a plan and had known what they were doing.

Wing-like bits

The wings... the thrice-cursed wings. Or whatever they were supposed to be called, I felt they were more like the fletching of an arrow. No matter what, they were in a league of their own. One looked and felt millimeters shorter than the other one. And getting them positioned, aligned with the frame and tilted at decent angles, it was awful. The final look gave me strong '50s scifi vibes.

To the rear end, behind the nozzle of the rocket motor I installed four steering vanes, which looked a few times too large for this scale. Still, I didn't start filing them down but I thought I may have to do that later on, before priming. Or maybe they wouldn't look too bad when looking from a distance and being painted and all. Hmm.

Oh well, I got my missile built, it was just waiting for the vacuformed canopy as I hadn't painted the pilot's death trap yet. That was all that was missing anymore. Next time I could do any modeling I'd at least start working on the launching scaffold. Whenever that was going to be...

Last minute update: I painted the human container and the bits that'd be covered by the canopy later on with dark grey (VMA 71052 German Grey) and the seat brown (VMA 71077 Wood).

Project V/17

EMW A9 - Amerikarakete

Yes, this model was clearly on the kraut's Wunderwaffe line and pretty far out there to begin with. I mean, a radio controlled missile with a living pilot with a joystick as a backup. What the hell was going on in their minds, if anything at all?

Without further ado, let's go through the next project's bits as traditions dictate. First the one-page wonder: the assembly instructions. Rather amusingly the missile itself was a hundred times simpler than its launch thingamagick. There wasn't much to wonder about the painting guide, either. Some of the details like the red corners on the wings were mentioned in the assembly instructions instead of the painting part, but that sort of stuff happens everywhere. I've just found it a bit curious.

Then the pieces in their sprues, they were just about as shocking. Some of the smaller bits looked like they had more flash than material on the actual piece! That wasn't an issue, as this was a just for the fun of it -kind of a project. I didn't pay much attention to the decals, I noticed a couple of Balkenkreuz and two-piece swastikas for those who want to lose their minds with decals. We'd see the future of those much later, but as a constant reader I would not bother holding my breath.

Helo priming

A ghostly white 'copter

Without any weird explanations: I finally sat down with the Ka-50 and the white primer to get some painting done. This took a couple of short moments on two days. As I always tend to do these things. The white primer worked here nicely, as my Project Assistant was going to use bright and light colours in any case. There would be less issues with paint coverage this way.

Kamov assembly

The Black Shark and its pointy teeth

The building process was pretty typical. First I piled up the bits of the pilot's workstation and then forgot it for days. Then I started working on the rocket pods and the missile launchers. First things first, the 80mm S-8 rockets, which consisted of a couple of pieces per launcher and the pylons to top it up.

Next I built the 130mm AT missiles, of type 9K121 Vikhr (NATO: AT-16 Scallion) and there was a good load of them. I didn't really have a clue of how good those have been but I'd guess that twelve missiles would be good enough for a couple of tanks and/or tanklike vehicles.

The double mixer

I have always liked the counter-rotating blade setup that a bunch of Soviet and later Russian helos have used. They've just looked neat (and it was great fun flying with them in OFP). The mechanical and structural complicatedness has been something I haven't looked into much care, but by the Empire, the yule tree that was to be built...

The helicopter's airframe was a simple two-piece build, all the extra bits (such as the wings, exhaust pipes and so on) fit like noses on faces. It was a very pleasant build. The most bothersome piece was the 30mm autocannon (Shipunov 2A42) thanks to its flimsiness, I was a bit afraid that it'd just snap off in two when I was cutting it off the sprue. That's also why I didn't drill out the end like I had wanted to.

The rotor blades (6) settled in nicely, except for one. To support it I left the xacto blade's arm under it while the setup was curing overnight. When I checked it later on it looked just fine.

At this time the infamous real world started being a bit on the way of hobbies and I was pretty low on spare time. The priming was to be done "whenever I get to" and as always, the painting itself was going to be on the mercy of the artist's whims. Earlier these may have had weeks in between, so the Project Mumblings will return to the story of the Ka-50 when we can. Hopefully sooner than in half a year or so.

Project IV/17

The Project Assistant's assault helo

Last autumn we visited the Hobbyscapua again and my assistant grabbed a Ka-50 assault helicopter from the shelf the same instant I had said that "I've always wanted one of those or the two-seater version". Kids these days... Oh well, it was all the same, I was going to get to build it and then observe the forming of the paintjob - safely from the side.

The assembly instructions fit on a single sheet. The painting instrcutions could've been thrown away immediately as they weren't going to be followed anyway. I also assumed that the decals were going to be skipped.

All the bits fit into two sprues again plus then there were two transparent pieces and a set of not-so-military-looking decals. I didn't expect that building this was going to take many sessions.

Miniproject III/17

Father's day (spanish)

It was the father's day yesterday in Spain and to celebrate it I got, among other things, something to build. This time it was a Lego set and I've always liked them. The TIE/sk or TIE Striker, known from Rogue One and it bumped into the top of my todo queue.

Assembly

There wasn't much left to say about this, as Legos aren't known for being awfully complicated to build. One thing that has popped up clearly while I've done some of these newer sets is that there's a load of internal pieces that are of the very bright variety. Of course being always deep inside they didn't really matter much to the look of the finished build, so they could just as easily be brightly red and whatnot.

1/5

2/5

3/5

4/5

Aaaaand done!

It was lots of fun and a very amusing model, the build took an hour I think. I found the openable rear hatch fun, it ended up containing some survival stuff for the Pilot. These necessities consisted of a gun, an enormous walkie-talkie and macrobinoculars. In addition to the Pilot (inside the cockpit, of course) there was a Ground Crew person with the "this way" glowsticks, a Shoretrooper and a soon-to-be-executed terrorist with an angry expression.

Project queue update

Yule gifts and findings at Kuivalainen

The Yule goat brought a couple of boxes around the end of December and then, in the early 2017 I just happened to be around Vallila and popped by tmi Kuivalainen - a legendary model shop. I spent a good while just ogling around, most likely with a very typical first-timer's expression. From the shelves I plucked out a Takom's Königstiger with innards (I was originally looking for a StuG or a PzIV, but...) and then asked if he happened to have something totally insane German Luftwunderwaffe kit.The scale wasn't important but if he had a Lippisch (P13a), I'd take that immediately.

No, he didn't. But after a few minutes and a loadful of boxes I chose a manned V2 missile over the Natter that I had also considered buying. I wanted something nuts and that's what I got.

Some box art

The Amerika Rakete was a Chech-made 1:72 model. If nothing else, I'd get a neat and unusual wtfif project out of this one.

EMW A9

The goat or more accurately the witch kings had gifted a Zvezda's 1:72 Stuka (that was also known as a Stukka in the rear cover). The box took some unsurprising damage over the trip home but as far as I remember the contents were still intact when I checked.

Ju-87 B2

I'd never build anything by Takom but there's always a first time for everything. The main point of this kit was that it had the interior as well, which is something I've craved to build for ages.

Königstiger w/ interior

My Project Assistant also got something to build - or to paint at least. Her first idea was "I'll paint it brown!" "Mhmmmm, ok then". Well, I'd choose brown over pink any day, because I just can't stand the colour.

Imperial -class Star Destroyer

Finished: project II/17

At long last my rocket launcher truck was in a publishable condition. Then I took the final photos (and while moving the model around I managed to snip the cursed left wing-mirror off yet again and just couldn't even care anymore) and am now revealing those to you. Oh, and the excuse for the whole setup, I guess I ought to type it here too.

Backstory

Everybody knows that our "dear neighbour in the east" has been invading a part of Ukraine for a good while now. Early on there were news of these green men, unmarked soldiers. In my madness I decided to tie my vehicle to these semi-recent happenings, as soon as someone had suggested doing a digicamo instead of a more traditional one.

Even though the digital camouflage is not a new idea, it's gotten some wider use pretty recently. Against that background the Ukrainian happenings were a very fitting match for this project. Also, the Guards emblems on the doors matched (well enough) those that have supposedly been sighted* in there, although on somewhat heavier and more modern launchers. Maybe the 438th Guards Rocket Artillery Brigade had a couple of older BM-21 launchers just waiting to be used and they didn't have enough GPS/ГЛОНАСС equipment to go around. So they could easily claim that the Grad had just gotten temporarily confused about  its whereabouts and so ended up in the wrong side of the border...

Photos

Here's a bunch of my traditional clockwise-running photos of the truck from the cardinal and the intercardinal directions. And some higher up views just for the show.

The strange bonus angles

There's the bottom so you can see that it was done properly as well

The final photo of the engine. I almost started making working hinges, but I wasn't quite insane enough.

*) I'm not able or interested in guaranteeing the validity of some random internet sources, especially considering this sort of a topic during these false news and propaganda filled times.