The Madhatter

thanks ringleheim Yeah, it's pretty small measuring in at 19cm long. That bridge section is only 3mm in width but the amount of detail on it goes to show the advancement in tooling and molding techniques. Simply amazing

Hi guys As a little side project, I bought myself one of those new little SSD's that were released not long ago to put on my desk at work. I have the Korbanth kit as well but that's not really a work friendly display item (would certainly raise a few eyebrows on the train in though! ;D ) Straight from the box the way Bandai intended it to be. No adding details or what not. Just slap it together and paint it. So easy I painted it in Tamiya paints: Light Grey (XF-65/66 I think) and Dark Grey XF-24, highlighted using pastels and powders It was a fun kit and goes together very easily - although as many before me have said - the parts are very small so handle carefully Like I said, its a fun kit and well, let's face it, it the only-option choice if you don't want to shell out a heap for a huge resin kit That's it but thanks for looking Si

Thanks for the useful tip! I've yet to buy the start up kit from Arduino but it's on the top of my to-buy list. Thanks for the vote in confidence mate. I'm looking forward to the paint stage! Thanks Mark, there's a few other parts like the scattered around. At the back there are parts going into various surfaces. The resin parts are my casts of different kits I use a lot of. Its purely a money saving use for me

Hi again Last update before a short tools down period. I've not really spent as much time on the bench as I thought I would but did still manage some decent progress The front end is as busy as I want it now. Just need to start filling out areas around the hull. I won't go to crazy as I want to try keep to the grand scale and immensity of the ship. At the same time, most of this detail will likely be obscured by the paint. Well, that's it for now but feel free to share any thoughts you may have Till next time Si

Thanks mate! I'll be honest, sometimes I ask myself the exact same thing, but I am determined to finish it and to an extent, I do enjoy detailing it. I have almost finished detailing the front roof section and will be starting the rest of the superstructure side walls in the next couple of days. The roof section has taken me a lot longer to do than I thought. World of Warships hasn't helped either.....

oh, the nose is there alright, but it's supposedly not as high on the studio one as it is on the Zvezda kit. I can live with it quite happily though

hi fellas Time for a quick update. The wife is heading away for a week with the boy, so I shall have lots of spare time to invest in getting some serious work done on this - provided World of Warships doesn't interfere too much. I promise nothing.... I've started work on the "nose" as you'll see. I steered clear of cutting it off and dropping it like others before me. Fair enough if I was replicating the studio build but it's not necessary here. I realised I had cut out the backing board where the front roof sits thinking there would be something sitting in front of it - there is, but it's not what I thought. A quick sheet of styrene fixed that and I shall add some detail to it in due course. My intention is to have some pipes running back over the edge up into the cavity above it. Time will tell if that will be something that could work as the roofs will be the last thing to be glued on after the fibers have gone in. Still lots of detail to add to the rest of the surface but I am getting there slowly but surely The rear side roofs are also completed and ready to go on. They were a nice quick and easy job - well, in consideration of everything else they were Well, that's all I have for now, but hopefully the next update will be better As always, thanks for stopping by and having a look Si

Great to see you here Brett! I do enjoy your work - it's always been very eye catchng

the only draw back to that is the end will have a convex shape to it and won't be flat, but that won't be an issue if that's the effect you want.

Sorry to hear of your woes with FO's. They can be very fickle at times. Your method with a light box maybe the way to go if space is at the utmost premium and bending the fibers is not working out. The only issue I could see would be that the light is very direct and not evenly spread out, so the center of the IP would receive the most amount of light where as the smaller side dials wouldn't. In this case you could do exactly what Nessus said but with a slight tweak. You could cut small segments of fiber, mushroom one end, then slide the non mushroomed end into the IP from the back leaving the mushroomed end sticking out the back pointing toward the SMD and the fiber would collect more light. It would look a little bit like a glassy hedgehog when your done. You could bend the fibers slightly before inserting them to really make sure they are facing the SMD (or MLEDs or what ever term takes your fancy). Secure the fibers with PVA and once dry trim off the excess flush from the front face. one suggestion is to avoid using white SMDs and go for warm white ones - it'd be much more realistic. If you need a red colour or what have you, then paint the light collecting end of the fiber in clear red and it'll do the same job as having a red SMD. Can't wait to see how this all comes out when your done.

yeah I'm wondering how much of this detail will be lost to paint. Once it goes on, I think it'll be pretty hard to see most of it or at least be able to distinguish it unless you knew what was on it before the paint.

Those tracks look very realistic! Great use of weathering tools. I keep forgetting about buying some pastels. How do you powder them? Shave the sticks and then pulverize them? Also a good reminder for using pencils for metal edges Awesome work as well for your first airbrushing too BTW. Are you a convert now?

Thanks for your kind comments Rob - your welcome. And thanks for looking! hey guys I've started the roof panels now and added some details onto the body to try and blend it al in a bit better. It's slow work but quite rewarding (well, to me it is) I'll start making my way forward now and finish off this side and then mentally prep myself to start all over again for the other side! Joy I only took 5 pictures before the light ran out, so that's it till next time. Which incidentally won't likely be until I have finished most of the other side, so another few weeks away. I'm also going to take the plunge and teach myself how to use Arduino boards, which ought to be interesting. There's heaps of forums about how to do it, so I reckon I'll pick it up easy enough. (famous last words) Thanks as always for looking. Feel free to comment - good or bad. You don't need too though - the view count tells me if your interested enough. Cheers Si

yeah me too, but that will be a long long way away yet

Hi guys It's that time of the fortnight again - yup: update time! I've been plugging away at yet more side walls and naturally, there is still a heap more to do yet. I did say this will be a loooooong build (ticked over the one year mark already with so much more to do). I sometimes wonder why I do this to myself but for the rest of the time, I love it I have to remind myself that I still have the other side to do yet as well as the bottom and then the sidewalls. Maybe by 2021 it'll be done..... As you can see, I still need to add some details to the hull to tie in the sidewalls but that'll happen soon enough. Anyway, that's all I have for now but I will be back again once I have done something worth showing Thanks for looking and if you have any suggestions for details etc, I'm open to them Cheers Si