The last show on our calendar this year saw myself and Brian make the relatively short journey to Nailsea nice and early on Sunday morning. No traffic so a quick arrival and the usual speedy set up ensured I managed to get a sausage bap down my throat in quick order! The show opened at ten and to be honest there seemed to be very few visitors coming through the door. However it was great to see Chris, aka Soapy and have a bit of a catch up and a laugh. On the retail side there were quite a few traders in attendance but nothing that really caught my eye except a Tamiya Archer SP Gun & a Tankograd book. Brian didn't buy anything, even he could not track down that elusive must have shite kit! There were some interesting models on the club tables too and with the lighting at the venue being very good in most areas it made taking pictures much easier. By about 1400hrs there was a distinct lack of visitors so most of the time we were chatting to fellow clubs. Perhaps this is the Telford effect, what with that show being at the start of November most people possibly have already spent their allowance for the month? I don't know but it's a shame as the venue is very good. Anyway here's what caught my eye at the show.
And the stash addition,
Thanks to BMSS Bristol & Kevin for the invite and all their hard work too.
The lynx has now had some of the detail painting done as well as a shot of gloss and decals. I'll finish off the detail painting now and start adding some wear before washes etc. I've also found a figure to go with it, an old tamiya french tanker from the Leclerc kit which should do the trick.
The Chinese transporter has also been sprayed in it's main colours and here I used tamiya XF-81, dark green 2 (RAF) which looks pretty good. I'll add some highlights to this later. The wooden portion of the trailer was painted with XF-60 dark yellow followed by XF-78 wooden deck tan.
I'm also gearing up for Stonehenge Modeller's final show of 2018. On Sunday we will be at the BMSS Bristol Bugle Call show which is held at Nailsea school. Today I've picked up Brian's models, as he can't fit them in his sad old aged crisis car, kicked them around the garage and started to sort my models for the show. Should be a good one so looking forward to it.
I've now had another bash at the paintwork for the lynx. I used mr hobby H321 light brown for the base colour then hand painted the green using vallejo 890 retractive green. A couple of coats of this did the trick nicely. Once the gloss coat & weathering are done it should all blend in, that's the plan anyway!
I doubt there will be much activity on the bench this weekend as I'm off to Cardiff tomorrow to watch the rugby. Looking forwards to that and the beer!
Last night saw me spraying the primer on the transporter & howitzer. I'd say it took a couple of hours work which included mounting parts for spraying etc. This morning the model looks really good with the primer on and I'm glad I deepened the door lines on the cab of the transporter as I think they would have disappeared under primer and top colours. The session last night was also an excellent test for the benchvent and it performed flawlessly. With such large parts to spray the unit had no trouble dealing with plenty of over spray and the added height of it really helped when spraying the trailer. I'll now let the primer cure for a few days and get back to the ERC Lynx.
The model is now all built with many parts left off until after painting. It's been the usual round of sand fill & repeat with some horrid pin marks to eliminate on the rear ramps. Also the trailer tyres are again a poor fit so I'll be gluing them onto the hubs to try and get a decent fit. I've really not enjoyed the build and almost put it back in the box a few times. However I can now move onto painting which is quite a relief! The completed model with the load is a big bugger so I'll have to shoehorn it into the display cabinet somehow when complete. It should look good once finished though.
So I've just tested out the benchvent and have sprayed the primer on the transporter chassis & re primed the Lynx. My initial thoughts are that the unit works extremely well and is actually very quiet. I've also got loads of space in front of the unit for spraying and a lot more height as well. Something which should be useful later whilst spraying the transporter. I'm very pleased with it and can see it really helping my spraying from now on. I've made a small video, my first by the way, just to show the set up and noise the unit makes. most of the noise in the clip is actually from my compressor.
For some time I've been unhappy with the performance of my "hobby" spray booth so have been looking for a better solution. I finally decided on the benchvent BV300S-D booth after seeing some excellent reviews on youtube. Today the beast arrived from www.air-craft.net for the very reasonable sum of £280. OK, not exactly cheap but it's an investment in my eyes and should last my lifetime! Once unpacked I immediately liked the solid weight of the unit and the quality finish. On switching it on I was amazed at how quiet it was, no need for the stereo to be on full blast now. It also sucks through the air at an incredible rate, something I'm sure will benefit my old lungs and cut down on dust contamination during spraying sessions. The unit also fits nicely on the bench with plenty of room to spray comfortably, something my old set up lacked. The benchvent also has a lifetime guarantee which adds more peace of mind when buying something as expensive as this.
I will be testing the unit out over the next couple of days so we will see if it meets my expectations.
Well after more swearing and beer the lower chassis is now at a stage where I can paint it. Luckily it's all black apart from the funky orange engine block so the paint should hide a fair few flaws! I also managed to get the wheels to fit better by using glue around the rim edges too.
I've struggled today with the model trying to get the rear axles fitted square and level. Lots of fiddling & swearing finally got the buggers in position. Nothing seems to be in the correct location and there are lots of these issues to deal with. For example the rubber tyres just don't want to sit on the rims properly so I think the only solution is to glue them in place. I'm not even going to attempt to remove the seam lines on them! I'm starting to get fed up with the constant need to fill, sand and repeat. Every part so far has needed some form of correction and it's starting to test my enthusiasm for the project. Only a pint or two of Sharps Doombar seems to be doing the trick at the moment!
Lucky this is a winter project as it may take all winter to complete!
