Finished my 1/6 Scale Battlestar Galactica “War of The Gods” display case featuring Majestic Studio’s Limited Edition '05 Wizard World Philadelphia action figure set. Only 500 were produced. The case also plays music and audio from the episode.
Didn’t get any kits for Xmas but did get some under cabinet led lights for spray booth ( I think it was Al that mentioned that idea, thanks) and a booth exhaust kit. I will install the exhaust later tonight but did the lights already. Since it was unseasonably warm today, I used that time to rattle can some Mr Surfacer primer on the VW truck outside. I want to use a grey on the body so the colors are slightly different between inside and out. Since the truck is not factory colors, I am thinking a black leather bench to try some new to me painting techniques.
Some good news today, a set of wheels I was waiting for arrived, so into action they went. It’s 2 sets of front M54 tires/wheel with a civilian tire tread pattern, and each set comes with four tires - two for the front axle and two for spares. I want to use them as pairs for the tandems in the rear of a 6x6 flatbed. So out came the knife, CA, and parts from an old sprue:
Above you can see I cut off each bolt head, and not shown, the center cap. I inserted the tan part (from the Panda MATV kit). and glued two together. The grey resin tire is from an MRAP which I’ll use as a super single in the front, and as hoped, it matches the diameter of the M54 tires/wheels. Reassembled the tandems now look like this
With these in hand, and knowing the tires match, I finished and installed the front axle:
As you can see, parts from several kits and some scratch to make this work. Looks pretty good, and steering is posable. I’m still pondering how and if I want to add the twin steering gearboxes and linkages, none of which I can use from the Mk. 23 donor kit, as it’s designed for a rig with independent suspension. I’m sure I can do it, but it’s a fussy task that I’m not in the mood to fool around with yet.
And, the truck in all of it’s glory:
Once I get the suspension and tires/wheels resolved, I like to see how/if it all work - not bad as the rear suspension is from an old M923 kit, mounted to frame rails from an M1083, spliced into the Mk. 23 rails 
Of course I see the floater on the rt forward on the tandem! I’ll fix that!
Cheers
Nick
The Tiger is waiting on aftermarket parts to arrive so started on the new Das Takom Werk’s SuperBlitz Late Panther G.
It builds faster than a typical kit.
Working on a Tamiya P-51B.
These 1990s Tamiya warbirds really were some of the best model kits—a perfect blend of detail and good engineering. Same with Accurate Miniatures, IMO. A lot of the newer stuff (looking at you, Eduard) has kinda lost its way sacrificing everything for details.
*No, I didn’t bother with the ejector marks. They won’t be visible.
Also tried “chipping” with a brush and model master enamel. That’s tough!
Not totally happy with this—too uniform—but also not terrible for a first try.
Just over eight hours total…most painless model build in a very long time…
…hope to wrap assembly tomorrow.
That looks excellent. Nice and tidy.
Looks pretty good to me, got to start somewhere 
Watto🍻
What surprised me the most was that it was put together in 8 hours!
Yuri, that shocked 
me too!
I’m painfully slow building. If it took me 8 hours to build the hull, I’d guess the majority of modeler’s could to the same in ~4 to 6 hours.
Das “Takom” Werk’s does a lot of first rate engineering to make parts clean up very easy and that really helps speed up the process.
You mean Das Werks. That is their stick with this line to get folks to the painting and finishing stage quickly.
Yes, thank you!
Editing for confusion 
I decided it was time to work on detailing the front suspension and steering on the flatbed truck:
This moved along as well as hoped. You can see the drag links in the upper photo, and the steering gear, pitman arm and a few bolt heads/brackets in the lower. The geometry is a bit weird, but it doesn’t bind steering left or right. If this were a larger scale, like 1/24 I might have added steering limiting bumps, but as this is mixing and matching so much at 1/35, I decided against doing so. I’ll add some shock absorbers and move on to something else. Once the cab side of the front fenders get added, you won’t see the floating steering column. I’ll add a few more wires and hoses in side the fender wells.
Cheers
Nick
Looks fine to me. But next time, you may consider using a sponge.
given the bad weather rain instead of snow…it’s not very good for the snowmobile so I worked on the VAB of HELLer I tried to improve some parts with parts that I already had from another kit the .50 cal of the kit is a disaster there is nothing that fits I improvised a support for the machine gun and I installed an ammunition box directly on it I know that in reality it is not representative it does not matter there is nothing that works in this kit I also redid the support for the shovel and the other tools it took a lot of patience and time to join the 2 parts of the hull and a lot of putty in short the worst kit that I have assembled I hope to see in the future a serious manufacturer make a decent VAB
Repaired Revells Black Pearl and finished of a Bandai 144 Razor Crest. More time photographing and uploading pictures. As it’s nearly 22:00 here wondering if I aught to load up an airbrush or would I be likely to rush it; oh decisions
Wrapped construction today and waiting for good weather to start painting! Wheels, tracks, skirts etc aren’t secured yet to help with painting.
12 hours and 47 minutes construction time. The kit is a joy to build.
Yuri, chess clock would be ideal!
On some kits, I like to track by checking time at start and end of a session and keeping a running tally.
Tracked Tamiya’s newest 1/35 KV-1 and it took ~19.5 hours. That was the fastest ever.
