Model Citizen

All Finished.

It was a lovely day, and with a model this size I reckoned I could take the pictures on the grass in the garden.

I'll probably do some post work on them for the modelling forum etc but here's unadulterated images.

Well you can decide for yourself whether the hassle with the hinges was worth it. I've seen some more posts on the net complaining about lack of detail on this kit. For the money my opnion is it's superb.

p.s. all the mud was painted with an old toothbrush and a credit card :)

It's all sprayed Silver. This is also the amount of parts I'm leaving it at before final asembly. Ypu'll notice a few tiny parts on the table too which I think will be placed on when the cabin is attached.

Well, guess what? I forgot to put any latex on. Doh! So I'll have to add the silver the old fashioned way with drybrushing. I've sprayed it all olive green and added the decals. I always add some Johnsons Klear to the decals after to help strengthen them and stop them peeling. There were loads of decals left over, with different number markings. Also, there were some screws left over and a couple of hinges, so there are spares.

I've taken the wheels off to make life a bit easier as well. Windows and clear parts will be put on last.

I've got quite a bit done now as you'll see so here's a couple of updates put together.

Tricky bit here. See the small wheels on seperate bogeys, they're held in place by a spindle that just touches the outer carriage. Thing is, a slight shake and they all fall off. I got round this by adding more tension to the assembly, and I did by that by boiling a cup of water, dipping the carriage in the water and while hot bringing the carriage closer together. So when the bogey goes in it's held under greater tension and is a lot more stable.

This is the lower assembly pretty much done. P.S., see the tweezers on the right? You'll need those!

And here is where my trouble began.

It's those blooming hinges. I had 3 attempts to get this right. Instructions say use super glue, and those are tiny rivets that stick through into both pieces. The hinges just wouldn't stop peeling off as I tried to open and close the doors after it dried. The hinges are pretty stiff, I'm not using oil on them though! So, super glue didn't work, next I tried just plastic gle, allowing the rivets to hold the hinge in place. That also didn't work, again the hinges are just too stiff and pulled away again. Patience, remember patience.

Lastly I tried the hot glue gun. It's a very unweildly way to work but I managed to just rub the hinges on the nozzle getting enough glue on them to allow to stick. Remember, your dealing with a piece of hinged metal the size of a baby's fingernail here! I could have I suppose just glued all the hinges in place without worrying about them ever opening, butI bought a kit that will show interior and I'm going for it!

So, the hot glue worked, but was a bit messy. it holds strongly enough to allow open and closing. The doors aren't the only places hinges are present so it's important to get this working right. I haven't got the rivets though, but I'm going to live with that. Working with a hot glue gun and tweezers will test anyone's patience to the max.

Lot's done here. I've completed the cabin assembly, can you see the hinged bonnet? That has another 12 hinges to sort out! Also the gun assembly is almost finished. This has options for 2 different type of gun (with carrying handle or without).

I must tell you something else at this point, I didn't bother using all the metal etch parts. Some were just not worth the hassle. There are lots of boxes with adequate looking hinges moulded onto them, I didn't want to scrape them off just to put metal ones on, to me that was asking for trouble. Large areas of metal against plastic I now used hot glue. Strange, but metal against plastic with super glue is just not as good a bond as plastic against plastic.

Last picture for now. It's on the table ready for spraying. The plan is to spray it all silver first as a metal undercoat, then the top coat and allow the paint to be chipped to see the metal underneath. I might use some latex on big areas, we'll see what happens.

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.