Historic Commercial Vehicle Club Display (Yarra Glen)

Having attended this event for the first time last year there was no way I was going to miss it this year, therefore it was firmly locked into my calendar of things to do, regardless of anything else. The huge turnout and variety of vehicles on display was amazing to see and with the day being blessed with glorious weather it was a perfect outing. I now look forward to seeing what turns up in 2016, bring it on.

Heritage Festival (Healesville)

This years Healesville Heritage Festival was promoted to be an even bigger and better event than last year, but in reality it failed to deliver on all fronts and was an absolute disappointment. However, there were still some interest items on show that warranted the taking of photos and made the journey worth it, but unless this event improves significantly I doubt I'll be attending it again.

Moebius 1/32 Battlestar Galactica 'Colonial Viper MKVII'

This is my fifth, and hopefully my last for a while, sci-fi subject to date and thankfully it was a much easier build than the Viper MKII.

As the figure in the kit is very ordinary - compared to the resin offering in the Viper MKII - I decided not to use it and instead built the model with the landing gear extended. With construction completed fairly quickly I then masked the canopy and moved onto the painting stage, which initially consisted of an overall coat of Tamiya Grey Fine Primer followed by a coat of Tamiya TS17 Gloss Aluminum.

As I wanted to use Mig's Absolute Chipping fluid on this model, my research showed that it would only work with acrylics and not enamels, meaning that I'd have come up with my own mix for the Pontiac Engine Blue colour. Following a liberal application of chipping fluid the model was then sprayed with light blue mix, which consisted of 80% Gunze H56 Intermediate Blue and 20% H21 Off White. Leaving the paint to dry for 20 minutes I then scrubbed it with an old cut-down paintbrush dipped in water to reveal the underlying Aluminum. Once I'd achieved the desired affect the remaining painted areas were then over-sprayed with a very dilute - almost translucent mix - of Gunze H25 Sky Blue. The engines, guns and landing gear legs were then sprayed with AK Interactive, Xtreme Metal Dark Aluminium (AK480), followed by a coat of AK Interactive Air Series, Engine and Turbine Wash (AK2033).

With the painting completed the model was then given an overall coat of Future and the decals applied. The model was then weathered by spraying a very dilute mix of Gunze H343 Soot around the guns, engines, intakes etc until the desired look was achieved. All the raised details were then given a light dry brush of AK Interactive, Xtreme Metal Dark Aluminium to further enhance these areas. The final touch was overall coat of Vallejo Satin Varnish, followed by the removal of the canopy masks a coat of Future applied to it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this model as it was an easy build and it gave me the chance to experiment with chipping fluid, something that I'd never used before and is now a lesson learnt for the future. 

Moebius 1/32 Battlestar Galactica 'Colonial Viper MKII'

This is my fourth Sci-fi subject to date and despite how well it turned out in the end, it was a bit of a complex kit to build, resulting in many gaps that needed to be filled, filed and sanded.

Also included in the kit was a resin pilot figure and because of this I decided to depict the model in an in-flight mode, meaning that I could dispense with the landing gear and just use the clear display stand instead. Simple.

With construction completed, all gaps filled and the canopy masked, the latter was then sprayed with Gunze H12 Black followed by AK Interactive, Xtreme Metal Aluminium (AK 479). The canopy frame was then masked off an the entire model sprayed with several coats of Tamiya White Fine Surface Primer.

Because I'd had a bad experience with the cockpit decals being brittle and disintegrating on contact with water, I decided to spray all the red areas with Gunze H327 Red. Because of the former all of the remaining decals were brushed with several coats of Microscale Liquid Decal Film in the hope that they would be salvageable for later use.

With the red areas masked the model was then sprayed with several coats of Gunze H1 White until the desired depth of colour was obtained. The engines and gun-bays were then masked off and spayed with AK Interactive, Xtreme Metal Dark Aluminium (AK 480), followed by a coat of AK Interactive Air Series, Engine and Turbine Wash (AK 2033).

With painting completed the model was then given an overall coat of Future and the decals applied, which thankfully behaved themselves this time around due to my previous remedial action. The model was then weathered, firstly by sanding back the red areas until the underlying white appeared and then by spraying a very dilute mix of Gunze H343 Soot around the guns, gun-bays, engines etc until the desired look was achieved. This was followed by a light dry brush of AK Interactive, Xtreme Metal Dark Aluminium on the raised details to further enhance these areas.

The model was then given an overall coat of Vallejo Satin Varnish, the canopy masks removed and a coat of Future applied to it and voila it was finished.