Monday, February 27, 2017

Kazon Raider: Aztecing


Here's my best attempt at custom aztecing. I've chosen a color that's a little too red and a second color that's just barely more green/gold than the base color. Blue Artist tape actually works really well for masking everything off. I've simply primered all the pieces with Rust-o-leum gray primer and sprayed a base color. That's it! No other prep needed. Now I'm just blue masking tape everything and cutting shapes out of places!

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Star Trek Voyager: Kazon Raider




      You might be asking yourself, "Why the hell is he wasting his time with a Kazon ship?" First of all, it was free. Secondly, I need practice. I haven't built a plastic model kit since I was 18 and I have a stack of good model kits waiting for me. In this stack I have several that I've always wanted to build including (but not limited to) The Defiant, The Millenium Falcon, The Reliant and a Bird of Prey. I want these kits to be decked out with all the custom lighting, aztecing and brass kits I can find for them!!! But I want to use this ship to get a feel for the old hobby all over again. Thirdly, this is going to be a testing board for an aztecing experiment I want to try. Though all my federation ships will be custom decals or vinyl masks, I'd like to try it the super old fashioned way. 
      I'm not keeping this Kazon Raider either. I'm sending it to my nephew so he can blow it up over and over with his favorite ship, Voyager.

As you can see in the photos, I've started putting together the main hull and for the first time ever in my model history, I'm actually filling and sanding all the seams out! My brother did this on his 1:48 B-17 Memphis Belle model. I was so in awe of how it came out. But alas I was always too lazy to fill and sand any of my seams. But now with over 9 years of scenic and prop fabrication under my belt, not getting rid of the seams would seem like a mortal sin!

Another benefit of my age and experience is the knowledge of Cyanoacrylate, a super glue we use at work that cures with a kicker in 10 seconds, and is sandable!!! When I was a kid we had to rely on the orange Testors Glue tubes that cured in about a half hour!

Sunday, February 5, 2017

A new decoration for the garage.



  When I was a kid I had a black Porsche 911 matchbox car. It had a gold Porsche emblem on the hood and I pretended it was a police badge so it could be a cop car. That was my favorite matchbox car. I never stopped loving that shape. I love how the headlights have their own pylon that forms the beginning of the line of the entire car. I love that a sports car can be aggressive while at the same time retain all the qualities that make an old VW bug friendly looking. The long swoop of the back, the engine grill below the back window, the wide hips for the huge rear wheels... I love it all.  When I was 16 I got a  1:24 scale die cast car 911 for my birthday. It was a red convertible and I declared it my favorite car ever. (though I've never wanted a convertible). The idea of owning one was part of my fantasy of becoming super successful and rich someday. We all have that vision of the perfect future. I just never thought I'd be able to open my garage door and see part of the fantasy sitting there waiting for me.