TheMongoose

Ok moved up to spitball'n here! In the interest of lots of pics for a wip here's the current mockup

you should start getting tunnel vision now. The end you're looking through will be solid, with a clear acrylic rod sticking out to hold the Blackbird, well probably 2 rods, 1 for each engine to be stable. Sand along the bottom of course. 

and that's everything i laid out to start setting the size and depth. The dang SR71 is huge even in 1/72. It's what I've got tho so not buying a smaller one haha I'm supposed to reduce my stash. another huge display I'll have to trip over later lol

yes, that is a drywall square in the background. This will be 30" long and 11-12" wide. For now i put arcs every 6" in hopes that would be enough to support the shape of the water. More on that later...

 

this is the wave style. Image frogs leaping from the curls. There will be some red to the sea of course. Going to depict it with the algae bloom it's named for.

ok let er rip. Perfect time during ideation to throw out opinions. What do you think?

edit - late night work...

 

 

 

 

 

Mongoose, I like it! Very intense diorama; it'll be fun to watch it come together!

After seeing the graphic, can we all agree that you gotta add the lightning bolt and glowering skies?! Lol, just kidding...

Gamera

Oh WOW Mongoose! I don't know how that's going to work so I'm really interested in following along! Please work your magic, I'm all eyeballs!!!

John: Good luck with the Bel Air! I've only really built military style stuff with matte finishes so glossy and pristine is a whole new ballgame for me.

 

Thanks, Gamera! Not sure when I'll start it, but the fun part about the Bel-Air is the idea of plastering it with custom-made decals on the back!

In news on my project, I ordered the frog for my diorama! Hopefully it doesn't take too too long to get here.

If anyone else is interested in getting 1/35 frogs:
https://www.jonsmith-modellbau.com/132-135-frogs/

Gamera

Oh WOW Mongoose! I don't know how that's going to work so I'm really interested in following along! Please work your magic, I'm all eyeballs!!!

John: Good luck with the Bel Air! I've only really built military style stuff with matte finishes so glossy and pristine is a whole new ballgame for me.

 

i gotcha covered Gamera  here's an early inxprocess shot. An old trick from the body shop. Once you rough out what you want in corrugate slather it with fiberglass  my radiator fan is gonna run for 6hrs to keep the smell out of the house!

this should make a nice frame for the parting sea. Ordered the resin for that last night. May slow down for awhile unfortunately. We're working ot tomorrow and I've got some chores I've been ignoring lol

After seeing the graphic, can we all agree that you gotta add the lightning bolt and glowering skies?! Lol, just kidding...

HA, you kid but I'm seriously considering that! Honestly o not sure if i want to close up either end to do it. May have to wait till the framing is done and then look at another mock-up?

So, time to crack open my loot:

First off, I start on the tank:

Lower hull:

Upper hull:

Full hull:

Out of the required blood, sweat, and tears it takes to build models, I can check off the blood requirement; for my X-acto attacked me. 

Time to take a break from the tank and to get started on the characters in our cast:

Children first! Starting with the youngest:

And then his brother in arms:

That's it for episode 1! 

TheMongoose

After seeing the graphic, can we all agree that you gotta add the lightning bolt and glowering skies?! Lol, just kidding...

HA, you kid but I'm seriously considering that! Honestly o not sure if i want to close up either end to do it. May have to wait till the framing is done and then look at another mock-up?

 

Lol! Go big or go home! (You from TX or something? )

John you gotta watch those xacto knives, they're scared of frogs!

last night i grooved the mdf board and glued, well "Gooped" in, the fiberglass supports. Had that goop on the shelf for a couple years and finally got some use out of it. I added some wood blocks to square it up.

I think the big end should stay opn. Do the lightning on the small end...what do you guys think?

Agreed, lightning on the small end! Best tunnel vision effect. 

Wow Mongoose- that's gonna be frelling epic!!! 

You know, just spitballing here, If you had the SR-71's wingtips just barely touching the walls of water, you could do a water trail in those walls of waves. Maybe that would upset the SR-71's flight and slow it down, but interesting to imagine, nonetheless. :)

Take 2  

So, I have done some wheel assembly

And then there was THE TRACKS!  

These took time to make!

I finally got the tracks glued into three separate pieces per side. Hopefully, this will work!

Plus, more hull work including the driver's hatch:

 Cut scene

John that looks good! And if you've got the wheels and tracks done you've over two-thirds of the way done with assembly! 

Thought I'd post a quick update so you guys knew where I was at. Everything has been delayed because the resin I ordered never came in. Had to request a refund as they claimed it shipped but it never showed. Tomorrow I'll try and stop at Hobby lobby and see if they have a half gallon of resin.

Ouch! I hope your HL shopping goes more smoothly! 

I have get working on my project again. The good news is, my 1/35 frogs came in! Yay! But that wasn't all. I was pleased to find that the seller threw in a free 1/35 rat and a resin head. Has anyone else noticed that foreign sellers are often more polite and generous than American ones. Very nice! Just wish Americans would do the same. 

Highly recommended:

https://www.jonsmith-modellbau.com/132-135-frogs/

Ouch, hope you were able to find what you needed Mongoose. 

John: Sounds good, looking forward to seeing how it works out. Maybe you work the rat in there somewhere too! 

Hey the campfire lights came in   the pic wont do them justice but they look kinda cool. I will add some cotton painted gray to the exha to blurr the bulbs so it's not so bold. i set up the height so here's a few layout shots 

Mongoose: That looks good! Great addition!

Gamera: I could use the rat, but I'll probably save it for the future...I definitely like have extra animals to put in dioramas! (Besides, you never know if I'll need it in a future Models, Inc. build, right? )

I got to work again on the R-35. The turret is now assembled, and most of the Assembly overall is complete. 

Since one of the crewmen that came in ICM's figure set won't fit in the open hatch, I'll probably be using the figure which Tamiya provided with the kit. I got started putting him together, too. 

John: That looks good! Good luck with the figures. 

Mongoose: Wow that looks cool!!! 

John,

Is this red and "froggy" enough?

It's the Pejite Brig from "Nausicaa", and it does operate off of sand!

This thing has been bugging me from the back of my mind for some time now, and it will be a sort of exercise to gain experience in refinishing the Bakagalas.  I had planned on it being 1/144, but after some recalculations, I realized it was bigger than I thought.  So it will be 1/250, in-scale with the Bakagalas.  This means if I do the Tolmekian Corvette (which I do want to do), it will also have to be 1/250, which works out nicely I think.

Playing catch up here.  WOW Mongoose, that SR-71 parting the Red Sea dio is cra~zy!!!  And Gamera's K360 scooter car kinda looks like the Pejite Brig without wings doesn't it?

BTW, I started sketching up the Brig:

The scale on the drawings states 1/300 because my sketch pad was too small to fit it in 1/250.  Wingspan is a whopping 300' (90 meters), which translates to a manageable 14" in model form.  I'm still refining the proportions and details, but getting close to starting the engineering portion of the planning stage.

Real G

Playing catch up here.  WOW Mongoose, that SR-71 parting the Red Sea dio is cra~zy!!!  And Gamera's K360 scooter car kinda looks like the Pejite Brig without wings doesn't it?

BTW, I started sketching up the Brig:

The scale on the drawings states 1/300 because my sketch pad was too small to fit it in 1/250.  Wingspan is a whopping 300' (90 meters), which translates to a manageable 14" in model form.  I'm still refining the proportions and details, but getting close to starting the engineering portion of the planning stage.

 

oh nothing better than scratch built G! to answer your question btw - a 4 eyed frog maybe! lol

nausicaa doesn't look like anime? At least not as i know it. What type of genre is it?

Real G

Playing catch up here.  WOW Mongoose, that SR-71 parting the Red Sea dio is cra~zy!!!  And Gamera's K360 scooter car kinda looks like the Pejite Brig without wings doesn't it?

BTW, I started sketching up the Brig:

The scale on the drawings states 1/300 because my sketch pad was too small to fit it in 1/250.  Wingspan is a whopping 300' (90 meters), which translates to a manageable 14" in model form.  I'm still refining the proportions and details, but getting close to starting the engineering portion of the planning stage.

 

and dang if I didn't think of this just after I responded the 1st time  i bet if we go back to that age old modeling question of "why did Airfix choose 1/76 scale when everyone else does 1/72" I bet we'd get an answer like G's...well we were using A4 paper and the tank wouldn't quite fit so we changed the scale to keep the margins!

Mongoose,

Well the drawing pad only dictated the development sketch size.  All I needed from the sketch were basic proportions.  But I'm using CAD to loft the measurements at 100% size so I can get 1/250 scale plans.  I am in the process of figuring out the internal support structure, and how to accommodate surface details like the windows and doors.  The drawing below is at proper 1/250 scale.

"Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds" (Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa) is a feature length anime by Hayao "Spirited Away" Miyazaki.  It was the second modern anime I watched, the first being "Macross: Do You Remember Love?" (Macross: Ai Oboete Imasu Ka?).  Man, that was one life-changing evening that sent me careening down the anime rabbit hole!

I hope John will let this into the GB, as my model ADD has gone away for the moment.

Real G

John,

Is this red and "froggy" enough?

It's the Pejite Brig from "Nausicaa", and it does operate off of sand!

This thing has been bugging me from the back of my mind for some time now, and it will be a sort of exercise to gain experience in refinishing the Bakagalas.  I had planned on it being 1/144, but after some recalculations, I realized it was bigger than I thought.  So it will be 1/250, in-scale with the Bakagalas.  This means if I do the Tolmekian Corvette (which I do want to do), it will also have to be 1/250, which works out nicely I think.

 

 

Hi, Real G! That is definitely red, and I'll accept it as "froggy"! Are you scratchbuilding it? That seems hard! Taking on quite the challenge! 

Looks awesome to me Real G, love that! 

John, thanks for letting the Brig play!  Yes scratchbuilt, but it is so much simpler than the Bakagalas.

OK so let's see how far I get.  

BTW the fuselage structure has been lofted.  Using CAD is great as it allows offsetting the outlines to take plastic thickness into account.  Bulkheads will be 0.040" sheet, fuselage skin will be 0.030", and exterior plating will be 0.010".  I'm woking out where to provide cut outs for the cockpit, windows, and fin mounting points.

This build is bringing out some crazy stuff! Can't wait to see that one Real G

for my part I got my resin in so I started experimenting today. This is a small 4" x 6" pour about a 16th of an inch thick.

I added some light blue to start with and some flocking snow to make the wave breaking and then a little darker blue at the base.

Now it has to sit and dry for eight hours and then I'm supposed to be able to shape it. But I tried adding a little bit more snow to it after 2 1/2 hours to build up the breaking wave effect and it was too dry. since it's thinner than the build I'm using to learn from I will have to do everything maybe two hours sooner than they did with the thicker pour.

That's a neat technique to model waves Mongoose.

Meanwhile, some doodling has taken place:

I need to make sure details are accounted for before the internal structure is built.

Mongoose: Ah that's cool! Never thought of using flocking snow for the whitecaps! 

G: Looks cool, looking forward to more! 

I have been actively refining my plans for the Pejite Brig:

I need one more go-around to finalize the patterns for the fuselage.

And while I had the ruler and calculator out:

Compare to my initial sketch, made in the late 1980s:

This is the Pejite Gunship, the other model I started some 30 years ago.  It has a tricky shape which took me all these years to finally grasp.  I think the wing planform should be less of a delta and more like a spindle profile.  My initial attempt was not all that great looking, plus it was coupled with TERRIBLE workmanship: