An Airfix minikit Zero in 1/100 (15mm) scale for just £2.99 from Model Zone in Birmingham to provide air support for my Japanese forces, its a great little kit which went together very easily. It comes pre painted, but I've added some weathering to the panel lines and gun smoke to the wings.
It comes with a choice of two propellers. I decided to have a go at replacing the blades of the propeller with a disc of clear plastic to give a better impression of the plane in flight. The clear plastic came from my bits box, I cut the blades from the propeller and got my circle cutter out, a great tool well worth investing in. Now this next bit might be common knowledge among aircraft modelers, but I did come up with this just off the top of my head. After cutting out a test disc of plastic. I thought how do I get that comic book effect of the turning propeller, and the idea occurred to use sand paper to scuff the plastic to give the blurred effect. So next I cut a disc of sand paper the same size as the clear plastic disc. Then a disc of masking tap which I used to mask of the parts of the clear plastic to protect it from the sandpaper. Hopefully the pictures above give most of the information you will need to have a go at doing this.
Turn the disc of sandpaper to create the scuffing, one tip would be to make the sandpaper disc bigger than the propeller disc so it's easier to get hold of and turn by hand. I painted the inside of the clear plastic canopy light blue, to get that old school wargames Illustrated Rapid Fire rules articles from the late 80's - 90's look.
A useful exercise for me as I have a lot of helicopters waiting in the wings for this kind of treatment. Next up the zero mounted on its free standing flight base. TTFN
Taking the idea from the in-flight DFS glider, I adapted it for the Zero by super gluing the underside of the wing to the leaves in 2 positions, and securing it with a bulldog clip and leaving over night, to get a good strong bond. The key to the set up of the base is the two stones used on it to act as counter weights to the aircraft.
An Airfix minikit Zero in 1/100 (15mm) scale for just £2.99 from Model Zone in Birmingham to provide air support for my Japanese forces, its a great little kit which went together very easily. It comes pre painted, but I've added some weathering to the panel lines and gun smoke to the wings.
The coastal battery is finished, shown from a number of angles, lots of dry brushing and some static grass to finish it of. The pictures of the back of the bunker show the steal reinforcing rods made from paper clip wire sticking out of the roof of the bunker. With streaks of rust painted on to complete the look. I was tempted to put a propaganda poster on the big flat wall at the back of the bunker, but decided it was better to keep it generic, so I can use it for my British in Malaya or the Italians in the middle east.
Progress on the coastal battery, the bottom picture shows the first of the three types of paint I use on my ground work (cheep match pots from home base), the top picture shows the fortifications with camouflage applied to the concrete superstructure of the bunker. Just needs some more dry brushing and some flock on the ground and it will be ready to throw back the enemy from the shores of the motherland. Next on the list will be some smaller supporting HMG bunkers and mortar pits to support the big guns. TTFN
First I must apologies for the rubbish pictures, taken in a rush on Friday morning before work. Found this ship in Poundland for yes just £1. I have plans for building a 15mm scale landing force with landing craft, storm boats and supporting motor torpedo type boats, with some sort of tramp steamer type civilian transport ship. The idea is that the ships will be generic and will be usable for Allied or Axis forces by just changing flags and funnels on the ships. Top picture shows the graphics on the pack, the are several different types of ships, the next one shows all the items striped from the ship. The bottom picture shows the ship hull next to an Airfix pontoon from their Bailey bridge set which will be used to create a landing barge. The is also a 15mm Peter Pig figure on the hull to show scale. So for just one pound I have got a ready to go hull.
Steady progress on the coastal gun battery, pictures showing the battery with the roof on and also the application of the filler to build up the ground level. I've used a water bottle cap for the observation post on the roof of the battery. Got lots of these in my stock pile of bits and bobs and have been planing to use them for this type of project for ages. So nice to final get one into a live project. Other shots show the pva and sand after application. TTFN
