"Battle for Mogadishu" ***COMPLETE*** 24oct09

"Fills Gaps" .... I was thinking of changing my screen name. HAHA....

I was thinking about that sidearm too .... It sits fine with the seats, but I was wondering if I shouldn't have put it up on his chest? But then again, I was worried about it getting in the way of the seat harness ...

I'm not an expert on flying thingies, but I can tell you have to break in a pair of boots! Rrrr.... Might need some "expert" opinion on this one!?!

I thought I'd post some ***UPDATE*** pics before the weekend started up.....

I've mostly been working on the two pilots figures this morning ... cleaning up some flashing, fills gaps, and scratching .... but just a bit. Here are the figs before priming.

The pilot:

The co-pilot:

The heads:

Here's the SF guys that will be riding the benches that someone cast for me .... (Thanks again!) Haven't even begun to clean these up yet ... maybe later this weekend.

Here's the work that I've gotten done since tearing the model apart. It's pretty much ready to go back together, minus a couple fo washes and weathering to the interior. Once that's done, I'll be finishing up the pilots and getting them in. Then sealing everything back up, masking off the interior and spraying it w/ Future in preparation for decals, etc, etc, etc. Doesn't sound like much, but I'm in no hurry. Anyways ...

I've gotten a little more since pics were taken, but I'll post those later. Let me know what you think. Thanks again for following ...

Thanks for the link, Ark ... that BH is sick!

For sure the blackhawk pilots wore tan, I'd assume that the uniform was standard with the littlebird pilots too...

http://dishmodels.ru/gshow.htm?p=428&lng=E

Look at the second picture.

HTH,

Austin

You're fine, Camo ... really. Its a dicussion that would have come up later on anyway. Plus, I like people with blatant opinions. They are the same people who get the job done ....

Anyway ... I liked the style of the old building as well, but don't worry. I plan on covering the cutaway with the spackle and scribing the brick & detail into this one as well. What else did you like about it?

If you go back and look at the "inspiration" picture, you'll notice some boards, etc scattered on the roof top. I'm planning on adding in some detail like that just so the roof top isn't BLAH from the lack of detail.

Right now though, I'm working on the pilots. I was planning on priming them this morning, but I ended up late last night cutting some legs IOT reposition them. I'm also trying to figure out how to scratch visors to go on the helmets. It may not be the most effecient way, but I'm going to hold off on the "riders" until I get the helo almost completed. I don't need them IOT complete it, so I'm just going to keep runnin'. I was also going to go w/ tan flight suits for the pilots ... would this be correct for this time period? I mean the movie has the pilots wearing them, but then again .... we know how Hollywood is. If they're not being blatantly incorrect, they're being blatantly gay!

modelchasm wrote:

Avus wrote: ...how about representing only the roof section, sort of a base for the scene? If I understand you correctly, you're suggesting to do away with the wooden base altogether and using the building's roof as the base for the whole thing.

Wasn't quite what I meant, but never mind. I reconsidered what I suggested: keeping only the roof section would be too little to understand there's a building underneath.

No .... No .... (dang it Chris! ... see what you started!!!!)

ITS A CUTAWAY!!!! ...... A CUT ... AWAY!!!!

Now its my turn to be confused.

You are having them land on the roof of a partially collapsed building?  Too much charge to blow the door? lol

Avus wrote:

...how about representing only the roof section, sort of a base for the scene?

If I understand you correctly, you're suggesting to do away with the wooden base altogether and using the building's roof as the base for the whole thing. Hmm ... sounds like an idea, but I've got a little more work that I want to do on the partial building before I change my mind again. (ie, I still need to add on the tile roof section, one of which I'm planning on collapsing, so I'll need to add in a little structure as well.)

Anyway, I'm getting closer to working on the base, as the helo is coming along nicely. Will be posting some more update pics here shortly.

modelchasm wrote:

... you don't wear tights do you!?! ...

The problem is not wearing tights, it's the underpants that go over it!!!

Enough comic-fun; you build is proceeding very well and the detail you had the cance to add, really makes the difference.

As for the building I agree that too big a building would detract from the helo and the figures.
Let me toss in this idea: how about representing only the roof section, sort of a base for the scene?

chris if he turns it around...he would need to make the cutaway roof longer/larger. with the "lip" like it is the helo wouldnt try and make a landing so close! i get what your trying to get him to do but...i think the way he has it is ok.

scott, again, dont change it based on our comments necessarily.  i get more now than i did. you are not going for a "damaged" look but a small section of the building look. nothing wrong with what a have and the best part is...its really simple. i do think ya see what i meant b4 about people expecting you to be able to build (all the time) something amazing!!! ya give a dog steak it aint gonna want dog food!!! yeah, why make it any more complicated if you dont have too. keep it as is and work on it as you have planned. i think your on the right track!!

Well... (haha yeah sorry about the rambling) I do like the smaller building's look better, I think the big building would have taken away from the helo and the fighters. I think though if you had cut away the floor though, it doesn't make as much sense (in my head anyway) to have the helo over top of the cutaway (although, now that I think about it, with the cutaway facing away from the viewer, it maker a little more sense that it's just a way for you to get the smaller base to help the helo be more of the focus...)

hmmm

I understand what you're saying about blocking the wall off and painting it black as if it was part of the edge of the base, if that's what you'd do if you turned it around, I say how about you go ahead and leave it the way you set it up now. I do like the smaller building footprint, and if the viewer isn't expecting to turn the base around and look into the underside and see furniture and a living room etc. then if you painted the whole interior black, it would just be an elaborate base extension, not a cutaway view like I had thought.

Here's the picture incase you still wanted it, but it sounds like you knew what I was going on about.



I just misunderstood, I thought the cutaway was for the purposes of allowing an interior building view, but now I’m assuming it was so you could support the helo and the main action over a hint at a landing sight. Makes sense!

Ok, so if I understand your rambling ...

You like the larger building. The smaller building is just what you said ... a cutaway. If I understand you right, the cutaway's walls should extend out to the edges of the base?

I can see your point about turning the building around as that would make more sense for the "momentum" of the helo. But, I'm not going to add in insurgent figures. As stated before, I want the helo and the SF figures to be the focus, not to try and tell a complex story. If I turn the building around, I'm just going to addin a "wall" on the open side and probably would paint that black. The rest of the building would be painted as mentioned before, but would now be out of the viewers primary line of sight.

I don't know ... I think that I need to "sleep on it" for awhile. I'm not any where near needing the base just yet, and either way, its not going to change anything in regards to the helo and the figures.

hahahaha whaat? Wait, so I'm a comic book nerd right now?

And whats wearing tights have to do with not being able to get girls- I'd think the tights would be the problem, not an alternate solution

And yes- that's spelled neway. There's also "gotchya" "whatchya" "what-rya" ...it's not my fault, blame txting.

So as far as the updates and the building issues. I say go with what you think is better, they look quick enough to throw together, so if you're not happy with it (or you are happy with it now) don't let us tell you one way or the other haha

But... I like the bigger building- while I like the cut away roof (it looks like you wanted to get some detail to show in the inside of the building? Maybe a few bad guys?) I don't think it fits with the helo. If you'd have the bird landing the way you pictured, it looks like there are two things going on

• 1. The building in "real life" has a full roof and walls and in the 1/35 version it's a cut a way view for the sake of the viewer (which is just not my thing, never been into that style) OR
• 2. The building in "real life" has a partially collapsed roof like it was it by a mortar and the helo's going to touch down on it to drop off the D-Boys and the unsound structure is about to collapse under it's weight and the Delta force is going to fall in on top of the bad guys. Which is a pretty cool crush tactic, I've never heard of it, but they are all top secret and stuff so I can understand that.

I dunno, it's your dio, I think my only problem is I can't tell if your modeling a building with a cutaway half roof or a partially destroyed building.

If it's a cutaway roof- I think the cutaway rule should extend in that plane as I have no problem with that style (as in that's the edge of the dio so anything on that plane would also be cutaway like it was cropped out of the "picture"). So maybe have the helo coming in from the finished side? You could then get the front "attack" view of the bird with the troops hanging off and then see all the Somalis freaking out in the house because they think that the top of the line in tactical shooting is waiving an AK around from the hip and running reaal fast.

As for the detail on the LB, you know I think it's awesome- love the copper wires, and did the pilots come with the kit?

I'll Photoshop you a picture of what I think you might be able to do. It'd basically be flipping the front of the building around, making it the back, then having the bird coming in in a similar fashion. Got to switch computers though, hold on while I lurk from shadow to shadow.

Wahoo! Let the building decisions torment you too......

Haha, good luck...

well, which do you prefer? Does the larger building look better b/c it incompasses more of the helo "into" the dio?

scott, i didnt have a problem with the last building but...i understand your desire to "get it right"! progress looks good, especially with the helo!

I've been really bad about loading pictures lately ... I think it has to do, ironically, w/ all the extra time I have on my hands. Funny how more time = less crap that gets done!?!

N-E-way ... that's how you spell it, right, Psst? ... ... I thought I'd post some pics of where I'm at right now. Not much of an update, as there's not much progress ... really just something to look at I guess....

Here's what I've found when playing with tints and Future, trying to come up something to tint the windows. Its a little hard to see the clear styrene, but the top piece was dipped in Future mixed with a little of the interior black from MM. The bottom was dipped in Future mixed w/ food coloring that was mixed to a black (per instructions from the net). As you can see, the food coloring mix really came out as a brownish color ... even when it was dipped multiple times.

Here's some pics of the new building I'm planning on using. I'm still not sold, as the tail boom really hangs of the back of the base. But then again, its not too noticable when you're looking at it from the front. May still play around with this some more ...

Also test fit the pilots in the cockpit. For the co-pilot, I've got him checking gauges and the other arm will be holding onto the wire handle in the door frame.

Part of the console w/ Futured guages....

More detailing of the interior after I tore the helo apart. Since I have it apart now, I changed the center of gravity of the helo to be right over the aluminum shaft that mounts the helo to the base. You can see the lead shot on the back of the interior wall (2nd pic).

Here's a shot of the outside, before repainting. I thought I'd post this one to show how the first wash messed up the paint job...

As always ... any C&C's always welcome....

Got to go: there's a young kitten stuck on a mammoth tree!

I was asked to rescue a cat in a tree once, (I'm with the SES volunteer rescue in Australia), and just said to the cat owner "Have you seen a cat skeleton in a tree?"

She thought about it for a few minutes, then said "No?"

"Good then. We're off." (if they can get up, they can get down.)