MechTech

@sketchley Those Death Star details are a vast improvement over the stock version. The red looks weird at first in assembly, but complete really pops for the right reasons. @Urashiman Great clean-up on the canopy and paint on the pilot! That's going to be a beautiful build! - MT

@pengbuzz WOW! That's a LOT of detail you put into the starship! It looks REALLY good and especially cool since it's a rare subject. - MT

Thanks guys! Yeah, the voids molded into the parts class as grand canyon gaps. I filled it way over the void to sand and it STILL had major shrinkage. The water evaporates and nothing is there to take its place in the formula. It's probably good for thin seam fills, but as Big s said, I just use CA myself. CA and Baking Soda for thicker expanses. Oh well, the voids are gone now😁 @electric indigo That is a BEAUTIFUL kit! Someone brought it in to our club meeting a little further along than yours and the cockpit details look awesome (out of the box). - MT

@Big s @Chas Thank you guys! I'm glad it's just not me! Whoever formulated that putty was on crack - or crack was part of the formula🤣 How are you supposed to sand rubber? That stuff would have been fine for calking tiny bathrooms, but not model building, that's for sure. - MT

@pengbuzz That's cool! You continue to show that you are THE MASTER with a roll of tape! @electric indigo Beautiful looking paint and weathering on that SLUF! @Cheese3 For a second I thought you were building the Minerva and the related tank for Crusher Joe😁 You've also reminded me why I wouldn't let my children drink beer, play with guns, and ride German armor - all at the same time🤣 @derex3592 Great paint and panel lining! If you guys recall, I told you how the 1/35th Dougram kit has voids molded into a lot of parts. Roll bars or whatever you want to call them ALL were like that. What a pain. I tried filling them with the Vallejo filler and it SUCKS! I tossed it out since it dried like rubber and had MAJOR sinkage as it dried. So I've been trying to rebuild these dumb bars! I tried styrene. Its impossible to get the same temperature and bending radius. I litterally wasted several feet of styrene rod and sprue. I tried heavy electrical wire, but it wouldn't hold the paint with its flexible insulation. The only option was to bend 1/8" (3mm) thick brass rod. I encountered the same problems with it too. I finally realized I needed a wire bender. Sometimes you need a special tool for a special job. I watched some videos online and figured out the simplest version. Just three pieces for the whole thing! The base is a solid bolt body that the bottom half had filed away two sides so it would lock into a bech-top vice. Then that has a channel cut through it for the wire to go through. And finally, a socket head screw was threaded into it. Here's the parts with a couple of tests. And a close-up to see how simple it really is. You can see I filed away some of one side to work out the radius angles. Four weeks later, I FINALLY got a full set of roll bars! Thank God they came out OK and are done! This is where each roll bar goes... I think its on to the weapons back-pack next. Thanks for checking in guys! - MT

@derex3592 Paint looks smooth! Just watched one of those flying over and hitting targets in Syria. There's no replacement for that plane! - MT

@F18LEGIOSS2 Everything will scratch - sadly! However, Big s is absolutely right. In fact, sanding will give the paint more bite into the surface. I build a lot of parts like that and always try to get the correct color plastic so scratches won't show easily. But that's obviously not gonna work in your case. Like Big s said, try the lacquer paints. Maybe even an automotive rattle can if you can find them. Best wished with your paint! @pengbuzz Is that another masking masterpiece!? That looks cool and the detailing on the surface really adds to the depth of it! - MT

@derex3592 I loved that kit! My son and I built it years ago. I love how they engineered the guns to raise and lower sequentially. @electric indigo COOL! An Air Force Corsair! That cockpit looks great too! An Air Force livery Corsair is a rare bird. - MT

@pengbuzz@Thom @arbit Thank you guys! I hope to get more work done this weekend and post photos, but we'll see! - MT

Thanks for sharing! I'm not a toy guy, but these look great and have a lot of features that are accurate! - MT

A little more progress on the 1/35th Dougram kit. The cooling vents (I think they are) in the legs would have nearly vanished if I merely scraped them off and covered over with the blackened brass mesh. So I scraped them off and coated them with a whitish-gray coat (actually three to get it solid - I hate white paints). The paint edges were later scraped clean (not shown here yet). Next came the fun part of custom cutting and blackening the strips of photo-etched brass mesh. Then gluing them into place. I think they stand-out better and give it more character. Next, I used the overly priced - but REALLY COOL God Hand bits to make handles in the leg hatches and "upper calve" hatches. You can see the difference in details. That and a fine Gundam marker. I also added all sorts of bolt heads around the leg pieces, but don't have photos yet. Thanks for checking in guys! -MT

AWESOME!!! - MT

@Cheese3 The first picture - "Oh no! The Zentraedi are coming down our street again!" The last picture - That's just tooo funny! Congrats on a beautifully finished model! - MT

@Thom, @wm cheng, @Gabe Q Thank you, guys; I appreciate it! I'm trying to make this a cool build for upcoming shows. A lot of people never even heard of Dougram, so this might inform them. The cockpit will be the fun part! - MT

Thanks Thom! Here they are above and below. The only stock thing left is just part of the hand's back. - MT