15mm Helicopters

Final getting around to doing something with my 15mm Helicopter mountain, I spent some time looking for reference pictures on the web and found some nice plastic kit box art for inspiration. Also found a great line drawing of the 500MD/TOW Defender version which I intend to make for my Israelis. Looking at the line drawing you can see that the rotter blades that come with the model are hugely under scale, and the tail construction is different.

The next issue was to find some clear plastic to use for the rotter disc's which will replace the blades that come with the model. Cake was the answer, in the shape of a discount box of meringues from Morris's supermarket. The top of the box looked fine, but when cut out I thought it looked to flimsy. But one the discs were cut out. They were fine. I treated them in the same way as the propeller on the Zero project I produced. Using discs of sand paper to scuff the plastic. Next on the list is to make the pods for the TOW missiles and look at creating the new tail structures.

Sorry for the lack of posts around here, but real life is a tad frantic at the moment and hobby time is on the tight side. OMG I bought the Helicopters last December, how time flys.

A 10mm Roman addition

A quick and simple addition to my Roman 10mm selection of terrain items, a roughly 10mm scale model of the leaning tower of pisa. Saved from the rubbish bin as the daughter re-decorated her bedroom. I now the towers construction started in 1170, so its not really Roman by any stretch of the imagination, but hay it works for, it looks Roman to me. So that's fine by me. A quick black undercoat and paint job with a round base built up with filler and then flocked.

Back from the med

So back from sunny Kefalonia to rainy Shropshire, had a great two weeks staying in the west of the island. very relaxing. The only bits of military history related stuff that I spotted was the above gun and monument out side the cost guard post in Argostoli the capital of the island. Not sure who the chap was or what the gun is. Looks WW1 vintage to me, but thats just a blind guess. Also sore another monument on the way into the town which has two small mountain gun/howitzer type things either side of a white marble statue. No picture of that one I'm afraid.

During my relaxing time by the pool/beach I managed to read 5 paper backs, 1 Simon Scarrow "Eagles prophecy", 2 Voices from the battle of Britain/blitz, 3 "Zero History" William Gibson, 4 Conn Iggulden "Lords of the bow" 5 Christian Cameron "Killer of Men"

1) 8 out of 10 good story with some nice action. Ripping yarn. 4 more to go in the series.

2) 5 out of 10 Nothing new £1.75 from a charity shop so no complaints.

3) 9 out of 10 Been waiting for this one for a long time, well worth the wait. He invented the modern world

4) 8 out of 10 £1 from a charity shop, shows the dangers of buying historical fiction on a whim, I loved it, yes I now its historical accuracy is questionable, but I have always had a soft spot for the mongols. Must get the rest.

5) 8 out of 10 Ancient Greece and the Persians, what's not to love, a very few strange modern terms used. Will get the next one set during the battle of Marathon.

One thing that does bug me with Historical fiction is when the publisher changes the cover design of the books half way through the series, it just spoils the look of the book shelf.

I'm planning to finnish of some outstanding terrain projects before Christmas, will also be making a start on the Great Helicopter building project. TTFN

1/100 scale Zero in action

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.

Off on summer campaign for a few weeks, so it will be quiet around here for a while, but as sum American chap said once "I shall return" All the best Airhead

Zero 1/100 scale

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

Coastal Battery Finished

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.

Coastal Battery stage 4

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