Tamiya M40: 87% In Progress

I was able to get some work accomplished this week. Decals are finished along with some of the small detail pieces. Mostly all that is left is the work on the drive system. The end is near.

Tyco Kit Village Blacksmith: Completed

I had a busy couple weeks. Moving and a trip to Vegas kept me from making much progress on my projects. The blacksmith shop is done, and I plan to hand it off tomorrow to my coworker. I have a lot of incomplete projects piling up so it feels good to be done with at least one.

Trumpeter Bauriehe 52: In Progress 5%

I can't get over how large this model will be once completed. Photos just cannot do its size justice, but the picture above shows the main frame next to a foot-long ruler. The thing to keep in mind is that this is just the engine. There is an entire tender that will be following behind.

One of the things I recommend when constructing the engine undercarriage is to leave the cross-member pieces unglued until you can get it squared and clamped. The model had a nasty warp in the middle that I was very concerned about. Had I not clamped the undercarriage between two straight edges and then glued everything in place, I would likely have had difficulty getting the wheels to line up on the tracks later. In general, the fit isn't quite like newer kits.

 

Yes, I realize I am completely ignoring ejector pin marks. I hate filling them and don't want to mess with it. I will take care of any obvious ones but these will be hidden enough to not bother.

Trumpeter Bauriehe 52: In Progress 4%

The BR52 arrived yesterday to my front door. In what admittedly was a complete lack of personal self-control, I jumped right into the build instead of waiting to finish my other projects.

I am very surprised by how large the final model will end up being. The engine itself is longer than the width of my laptop. It will easily take a full book shelf to display once completed once you add the stand and tender.

It is an older kit and very quickly you will notice that the modeling is lacking in sharpness. Flash and large mold seems will require a LOT of time for cleaning. There isn't much hope of being perfect with this kit. Rather, I decided to just have fun and not worry about producing the perfect completed replica. It will just have to be impressive from a distance.

 

Model Details

Kit: Trumpeter Bauriehe 52

Purchase Price: $120 from Mega Hobby

Part Count: 710

Village Blacksmith: Oil Dot Weathering

I recently learned of an excellent way of coloring models to create convincing weathering and fading effects. Called oil dot weathering, the basic principle is to apply dots of oil paint to a base coat. Then with a thinner (one that does not react with base coat), dilute the pigments in the oil paint down. Once completed, a light film of the oil paint pigment remains to add color variation and streaking.

  

After covering the entire surface, I let it dry overnight to get the following results. This is a very easy way to add character and depth to any model.

 

Tyco Kit Village Blacksmith: 70% In Progress

One of the side projects I have is creating an HO scale building as a small surprise for a model railroad buff. Tonight I airbrushed the base coat for the roofs. The next step will be weathering.

Model Details

Kit: Tyco Kit Village Blacksmit

Purchase Price: $12 (Local hobby shop)

Paints: Assorted Vallejo 

Trumpeter Bauriehe 52: Shipped

The fates have shown kindly onto me. This week I received an unexpected $130 check in the mail. Since I am quickly wrapping up my M40 build, I decided to use the money on the Trumpeter Bauriehe 52 Steam Locomotive. It is being shipped presently.

Choosing the next model is always a challenge and fraught with indecision (ironically as I am a fairly decisive person). A model takes me months to complete, so the decision is really one of how I am to invest a considerable amount of downtime. Regardless, I ended up selecting the BR52 in honor of a coworker who has gotten back into model railroading after a long hiatus. My hope is to keep encouraging his interest through mine. Plus, this kit looks bad-ass.