CarolsHusband

There's been a bit of progress. My paint order for the halftrack & the Chevy's never arrived, there's another on the way apparently. Once the small block for the street racer was completed the lack of detail was a bit obvious. That, and @Indiana_Jones's fancy spark plug leads, made me push on a bit. Fuel line, carb linkage & plug leads on the way. Bonnet will be mostly shut but meh. Also, despite the lack of paint, I got the SdKfz 250 back on track. / d'ya see what I did there ?

Shit update. Sorted suspension dangle angles for Kustom 51 Chev. Also made tunnel rammed small block for Street racer 51 Chev / no pic coz none came out. That's your lot, too summery for modelling TBH.

Halftrack coming along but I ran out of paint. Cut all the hatches out of the floor. In 1/25 news, I bought another kit to allow my two Chevys to come together. It comes with a tunnel rammed small block that'll go in the street racer (it comes with a hopped up s/six) & some skinny Cragars and white band tyres for the lowrider. The Nova will probably end up as a ratty jacked up teenage custom. Hopefully get on with a Chevy over the weekend.

You're like Yoda.

I like the smell of the poly so I'll stick with that / d'ya see what I did there ? CA for painted stuff but that's a top tip on the PVA. Fanx Steev

Liquid cement. I use Humbrol purely out of habit, Tamiya do it too & also a "super thin" one, though I don't know why. After 20 minutes breathing it in everything's peachy though. They come with a brush in the lid or you can use a paint brush. It melts the plastic and is so much less messy than the tube stuff. / pics of T Bucket plz.

Hatches open, he said. Gotta happen now as I broke one of the torsion bars putting it together. So..... Hatches open, floor up, suspension stripped, etc. Nice kit though. / Not sure Hans is enjoying it much. I bought something else the other day, coz I love early 50's Chevy's. 2 in 1 kit, stock or drag. I want to build it a street racer. And a lowrider. sorted. Gonna make a start on one soon so I don't go mad trying to find perfection in the halftrack.

Umm.... Dunno what's gonna happen with this next. A train of thought started with the passenger door lock knob falling apart this morning. Like all the plastics on the mighty Hilux, they have started crumbling or going brittle. So I pulled the door card off & effected a repair with a cable tie & a brass electrical fitting doo-dad. So I then saw a bit of flaky paint & had a prod. I stopped prodding pretty quick. Anyway, just a bit of rot which is not beyond my talent. But then I started doing a little appraisal in my head. The wiring's all gone crusty and makes & breaks quite a lot. A lot of it's missing too. It fills up with water when it rains, but is losing water elsewhere. And clutch fluid but fuck knows where that's going. It's leaking oil & diesel, rear brakes are fucked with gear oil coz someone forgot to clean the axle breathers out. One of the spring mounts is rusting pretty well too. That and it's a pain in the arse to drive in my advancing years. Nothing insurmountable but I have a nasty feeling when the MOT runs out in a couple of weeks my enthusiasm for it will follow. There's 28 plus years of history between us, I'm genuinely not sure if I should tear into it one more time or just give someone else a go. They are worth a mint, after all. I might have to keep it going just to see how big this little fullah gets to be, though.

/ rest of the car looks shite now.

Evening. Headlight surrounds/ grill have always been a bit tatty. The grill looks a bit odd anyway, as it's not a GT-R grill like most other Hako's on that internet. Much as I like the early front end/ rear lights I can't afford the NOS & repro's are pretty ropey, so it was out with the rattle can. Fiddly masking I repainted some black that had faded & blacked some of the centre badge. Not sure if I approve, will get it out in the sun tomorrow. Before After Meh.

Made a start on the halftrack. Takom like a lot of parts, and so far they seem to go together better than some other many-parted kit builders I could mention. As said before, I'm going to go for a hatches open repair job as the detail is brilliant. Also, pic next to dozer blade of 1/25 scale CAT D8H. I may need to actually give the rust some texture on this one. Did I mention it's a big bastard ?

Go for it with the weathering. You can only fuck it up once & it won't take long ! Joking aside, and bearing in mind I don't know what I'm doing... Think about what came first and last in the weathering story. General staining, oil & grease would be first, a bit of rust on exposed metal and then mud & dirt last. Crash/battle damage will fit in there somewhere but again, you need a bit of a story in your head to give a running order. I have a little side project going on repainting/ weathering one of my builds as I've hated it ever since it was finished.

Never mind the Austin, what happened to the Panzer IV ? Yeah, the halftrack has full engine & transmission and super detailed interior. It even has all the under floor torsion bars, etc. Maybe I should go full strip down. It came in a deal with Rommels version. Much more stowed kit & a radio aerial. Looking forward to that. /pic

Evening. What happened was....... I got all fired up about building the AMT 1/25 D8 dozer and then opened it up & had a look. It's a big old lump, but more importantly it's a big old, not massively detailed lump. I think I've been spoiled with this modern 1/35 stuff. I had a look for some photo-etch for it, but at 21 quid it wasn't going to change much except the most glaring problems. So, I need to get myself up to speed on the Cat D8 & prepare for some scratch building. It's bloody big though. There may be some rust/ wear & tear involved. So it's back to 1/35 for a Takom kit with many parts & lots of detail. It's got all the opening hatches so should be some fun.

I think It's done. As usual, t'would look better on a diorama. Or at least out in the sun. No chance of that this evening. Anyway, pics.

Was going to do leaves/ raccoon's nest but I might give it a bash. Scratch building .75 mm long hornets might be a bit beyond me....

Got an hour in this evening. Nearly there...

Speak for yourself, I'm proper fucked.

Finish the damn thing Kerry, leave it too long & you might break a hip lifting the box down from the loft.

I sorted the steering wheel out. I just couldn't leave it. Sadly, that's all I've achieved. There's only an hour or two left to get it done but the big stuff's getting in the way. I had a moment of clarity though and did the only obvious thing I could to remedy this life/modelling balance. I bought this. And this I'm pretty sure I now have a 'stash' that will last me about 10 years at this rate.

* And before anyone says it.... Yes, the steering wheel rim is the wrong way round. Though not according to the instructions. I tried to put it together the right way round but it's moulded to fit like that so I gave up. / I'll probably drape a dead racoon across it or something.

I'm running out of both at the moment ! Nearly there, it's turning into a bit of a long haul. Interior compost started... Kinda wishing I'd done the car silver but I'm hoping it'll all come together once the final weathering is done.

Evening. Got a bit more done. Lighter evenings, house stuff & real cars have been getting in the way, but on we plod. mouldy interior nearly done Cracked screen (though it'll mostly be covered in shite) Front & rear chrome gorn rusty, busted lights to follow. Engine bay next and then I'll glue it all together. Chur.

In my experience, tell them they're not allowed to.