Model Citizen

Ok, well I'm stuck into the kit. The worrying thing straight away on the first page was seeing a part not listed on the instructions. I've found this twice so far, you just have to find the part when you spot it on the instructions, and add it in.

 

 

In the next photo you can see the engine is pretty much finished. This will be visible via an openable bonnet. You can also see the metal chassis which has parts screwed into it. be careful, the screws are not that tough and you can easily thread them. In the picture you can see the glues I'm using too. These 3 are pretty essential for the kit. p.s. the little green bottle at the back of the photo is washing up liquid which I dip my brushes into after I've washed them.

 

And here's a pic of the boys hard at work

 

 

More to follow soon i hope.

Well, things this month worked out better than I imagined. I was in Bristol for the annual Comic Expo, and it was a much smaller event this year, co much so I had a fair amount of cash left over after a couple of hours at the show, which seemed the time to do it justice rather than the 2 days it lasted. Anyway, you dont want to know all about that.

I took a walk into the town (incidentally, as we walked over the bridge there was a guy selling ice creams, these are the BIGGEST I've ever seen!) and found there was an Antics Model Shop situated by the Police Station. So I took a look in there, I bought my son a model of the King George V battleship, as he's now showing a lot of interest in modelmaking.

There was very little there in larger scale items so just on the off chance I asked how much they would sell the Trumpeter 1/16 M16 for (I know it's not the M16 in the thread title...:) So, the guy said it would be £95, and they had some in stock and it would be best to have it delivered straight to me for no extra cost! Result! That's about £30 cheaper than I'd found on the net, and strangely, £10 cheaper than on the actual Antics website?

 

Well, it came. It's a huge box, and as I could find very little about the making of this beast, thought I'd start my own. So, here's a look at the size, I'm in it for scale. pictures just showing the box dont give the right impression of size.

 

 

The box has some lovely art on it with a stylish matt varnish all over.

back of box:

 

 

Side Art:

 

 

Another side view showing actual model and metal etched parts:

 

 

And lastly the open box showing all the plastic goodies inside. I'm gonna need one big work area for this so my boy better hurry up with the King George (he's only 8!).

 

 

So, hopefully more to follow in the not too distant future as I actually make a start.

 

It's only every once in a while that a film comes along that's this special. I will be giving away spoilers here, so be warned before you read on.

 

I guess the first thing to note is that although James McAvoy is the star, he's relegated on the front cover to the corner and Angelina Jolie gets the main attention.

The story is as follows:

There is a group of weavers, why weavers and not plumbers or Kwik Fit Fitters is never explained, but they are weavers.

They have a secret organisation of assassins. Again, why this is is never really touched upon. Perhaps they were getting problems in the textile trade by some unscrupulous company, perhaps a dangerous Mark One retail branch or something?

Anyway, the assassins are getting killed by a super assassin starting with McAvoy's Dad, or not as it turns out. So they get McAvoy to train to be an assassin to kill him, as apparently none of them are up to it.

McAvoy, has a go with a gun, and for a beginner does'nt do too bad as he shoots wings of flies.

Stay with this nonsense, it gets worse.

So, McAvoy, is fully trained in about 10 mins and Morgan Freeman, who runs the weaving joint takes him to the inner sanctum, where the magic loom is. I swear not even Enid Blyton would have seen that one coming. Apparently the loom misses threads every now and then and it's a binary code for who they kill. Well, it's enough information for the rest of the group and away they've been killing off loads of people that the loom told them to kill.

McAvoy wrestles with his conscience for 2 mins and then offs the first bloke.

Lets now cut to the chase, The Big bad Guy is McAvoy Father (yawn) and not really bad and Freeman is the real bad guy. Terence Stamp turns up and tells McAvoy what to do and McAvoy armed with 2 guns and 1000 suicide bombing rats (I swear I'm not making this up!) storm the weaving castle.

It all ends with McAvoy being cornered, if you can be cornered in a round room, by all the remaining assassins. Freeman tells them to kill him, but first McAvoy gives a little speech and hey presto Jolie manages to shoot all the assassins, including herself, in the head as they all stand in a circle.

Neat trick huh????!!!!

The film finishes with Freeman getting shot by McAvoy from somewhere over the other side of the world and I wonder how much I can flog this for on Amazon.

I must be missing something. This is the 3rd movie in a row now I've watched that's been absolutely slated by the critics and yet when I've watched it I'm thinking ???! What was wrong with it?
I was'nt going t buy it, but seeing as HMV had it for £6.99 I thought I'd give it a try.
First thing I was surprised at was it's 'real' and not a CGI movie like Beowulf. Dont know why but I thought this was an animated film.
Apart from that I thought the film was a really good adventure. The actual plot is almost a direct copy of Apocalypto, but without the gore level, and also with a smattering of dinosaurs thrown in. It was a nice change too from seeing Raptors and T-Rex's to seeing Mammoths, Sabre Tooth Tigers and the big bird things (not Sesame Street).

The kids enjoyed it too, which (rant start) is probably where all these negative reviews spring from. Perhaps middle aged single men who think Gore Fest Horror is the best thing you can watch should'nt be writing reviews for movies that are more 'young people' orientated. I think if the film is aimed at a family perhaps it should be reviewed by one. (rant over)
Anyway, as said, the kids liked it too. It's not filled with explosions and car chases, but is more about the determination of a hunter to return his kidnapped tribes people and love back home (told you it was like Apocalypto, even down to the Aztec's at the end).
Blu Ray quality was very good. pleanty of snowscapes and deserts to show off the quality. I did'nt notice much in the sound though.

Not been doing much in the model world for a while now. Well, actually it's been approx 2 years! That was the time I had my head down playing with 3D Modeling in Cinema 4D. Anyway, I recently got the board out again and finished the bust that was on it when I put it away in 2007.

It's such a long time ago I forgot what it's called even. So, because I'd been experimenting for so long with 3D, postwork and presentation I thought I'd bring these new skills into my modelling photos.

Result here:

 

 

 

I was quite pleased with this so one of my projects is to retake photo's of all my 'good' models and give them the treatment and make another photo book of them.

 

Other than that, the military bug has bitten again. There's just something about plastic! But this time I'm now looking at the big stuff! Tamiya, who seem to have cornered the market on these kits, produce a superb range of very expensive 1/16 tanks and other assorted vehicles at other scales, like a 1/12 Hummer! They're fully radio control too! Look at this YouTube vid of the King Tiger: