Maddog Manufacturing Now Open Here.

[dukemaddog]

I know it's been some time since I started here so I apologize for the late opening. I wasn't sure where to break ground so if the zoning here doesn't allow this here, I hope my plant will be moved to a more appropriate site.

Most of you already know why I am Maddog Manufacturing. For those that don't, here's that story.

Way back in the heady days of the League of Extraordinary Modelers forums; (the second forums I ever joined), I had posted a lot of pictures showing the  ten or twelve models I was working at concurrently. One of the replies by one member said something to the effect of "You're not a builder, you're a factory! You go Maddog Manufacturing!" So, I decided to go with that; even using a mphoto backdrop of a factory building interior with miniature workmen around what ever model I was shooting pics of. I would love to go back to doing that, but the backdrop is too small to use and I have been unable to find or build a better, larger one.

Anyway, moving on, here is the basic layout of Maddog Manufacturing. There is the Hangar where aircraft and helicopters are built. Following that are my Shipyards where all my ships and motor boats are built. Finally there is the Motor Pool where all the armor and vehicles are built. The tour generally goes in that order. I am also opening up another manufacturing branch for some more miscellaneous models I started such as the Budweiser Beer Wagon, the Borax 20-mule team wagons, anything Sci-Fi (although I might open a "Space Port" for those if I have enough models to do so) and other types of models that don't fit in the other three divisions.

So, without further ado, we can start the first tour here in the social club. Before we take a look at what I've been recently working on, I will take you through all divisions showing everything that was still under construction by the end of 2022. I am hot linking my pics from another gallery so hopefully I don't run into any issues with photo posting limitations. If I run into anything, I'll split the tours here.

These are the models I had still under construction at the end of 2022: in the Hangar we have these projects in the works that I'm hoping we'll finish this year. Frankly I'm tired of their boxes taking up space!

In the first bay here we have this monstrosity, the A-400 Grizzly. It's about time to get this bird done:



Next is this one, another large plane that needs finishing. This is the C-54 Skymaster that I need to get done:



Another long term project that has driven me crazy is this Japanese Shinmeiwa. Time to get this finished:



We also have this Russian Shtormovik under construction:



Speaking of Russians, we need to move forward on this Ka-29 Helix:

These are the models I had started at the beginning of the year this year: First is this ancient Airfix F-5B Tiger II with Iranian markings. We started this as a fast and easy going build. Our first Aircraft started in 2023:



Another new project started, another big box model. This is Trumpeter's Russian Tu-95 Bear H. So far all we got done was the wings and tail surfaces. That was hard enough!



And a final first start for the year is this Revell Concorde I got from an estate sale. This one will be in British Airways markings because that's all that was included in the box. We started with the cockpit on this one:



The tail was a separate assembly so that was next:



Revell got smart, they had outer wing panels set to glue into the upper wing sections behind the leading edge so no edge seam can be seen. Then the whole sub assembly is attached to the central lower wing after adding the main landing gear bays:



The main fuselage is then put together; first by adding the bulkheads they included to allow it to keep it's shape:



The tail is just taped on to mock it up and see how big this beastie is going to be. Speaking of mocking it up, here's how the wings and fuselage look together more or less:



That's all that's happening in the Hangar, lets go out to the Shipyards...



In our Shipyards, we have the following in our slipways. Our biggest project is this USS Enterprise:



She's going to move up on the list of models to do first.

In another slipways we had laid down the keel to another motor torpedo boat; this one from Vospers:



So far that where that one stands, It is stalled due to the two-tone paint pattern on the hull sides. It involves a curve that I need to replicate on both sides. Hopefully more to come on that soon.

Followed by another Vospers boat in the next slipway, this time the Perkasa Motor Torpedo Boat. First the main bridge interior was constructed:



Then the outer cabin was completed....mostly:



The engine cover was completed next and the whole boat was mocked up:



This is gonna be awesome!

That's all that's happening in the shipyards now. Let's see what's going on in the Motor Pool.



Surprisingly. there isn't anything being worked on from the previous year, save for this commission build of this 1/35th scale TKS for a friend in San Diego. It's slowly coming along:

And now you are all caught up with everything I've got going for the past year and a half so far. I will eventually get back to each of them and hopefully get most of them finished by December.

So, now that everyone is all caught up, I welcome you all to the latest tour of Maddog Manufacturing showing the latest work I got done in he past couple weeks. It's gonna be a pretty long one, but most of the work to be seen will be in the Motor Pool. Very little was done in the Hangar and Shipyards. So, all aboard the trams, and remember to keep hands and feet inside at all times.



That being said, let's check out the progress in the Hangar....


One of my shelf queens I've been trying to move forward on is the C-54 that I started quite a few years ago. This has been a far more complicated model than expected. This week, all we did was to complete the last of the four engines that still needed to be built. Each one had seven parts to it:





Those will be painted sometime later then we'll be able to move on.


Over in the Shipyards, a little more progress was done, almost all on the British Vospers 73ft MTB.


First, after the black bottom dried, it was masked off so that the light grey could be shot on the hull:





Here it is after the Grey was shot:





And now the masking has come off:





Later this will be gloss coated and decals added, then the clear parts will go in the portholes and we'll move on.


The last thing that was done in the Shipyards was painting the green on the deck of the Vospers Perkasa:





That's all we have for this week in the shipyards, it's time to go check out the Motor Pool...


There's a lot that's been happening in the Motor Pool this past few weeks. First up is this Russian truck that I chose because it as simple and easy to build. This is the Hobby Boss Russian Ural 4320 cargo truck, and the first thing that was done was to assemble the rather basic engine:





It won't be seen so that is the extent of that work. Once dry, it was added to the chassis along with all the other suspension parts:





Later we added the spare tire cradle that sits behind the cab:





The cab itself just needed fenders attached:





The interior was done next, there's a lot of detail inside:





Here is a dry fit to see how it fits on the chassis. Because of the unique way it goes around the engine, this was a tough fit. It looks great in the end though:





Finally, painting was begun. Inside of the cab was painted first, and then I found a decal for the dashboard. Cool! That went in next:





We then assembled the bed of the truck while the decal was drying:





After that, the exterior was painted. Here is everything roughly dry fit together:





Hopefully a gloss and decals will go on soon.


Moving on to the next bay, we have another truck, this one pulls the trailer holding the SA-2 reloads. Paint was added to the interior, but there's still more to do. I have the driver to paint. Meanwhile additional parts were added to the bed and the cab was dry fit to the front of the truck:





The trailer then received all the remaining detail parts to be ready for paint:





Next we just had to assemble the load, one SA-2 SAM:





That missile has 20 parts to it. Not like the Hobby Boss one that I built before!


Moving on, we dry fit everything together. Looking good:





After that, the launcher had to be built:





Finally, the paint came out again. The whole exterior got shot with the green basecoat:





Don't worry, the launcher base did not break, it comes apart so I left it that way until later.


Since the green paint was out, the next one to get a basecoat of green was the SA-6 Gainful in the next bay:





That is coming along well. We also went to the next two bays where we painted most of the parts for the two SCUD trucks. First the SCUD C:





And then the SCUD D:





Finally, we shot the green basecoat over the SA-2 launcher; the Hobby Boss one. I call it Launcher No. 5 since it's the fifth one I'm building for my SA-2 SAM site:





After all that, it was time to get back to building something. We started on this old PST Russian PMZ-2 fire tanker still sealed in the shrink wrap. Out it came and the basic chassis was built:





The the cab parts and the tank were built. Here they are dry fit on the chassis:





That's where we stopped on that. After that I was looking for something quick and easy and so the dragon Stryker Dragoon came out. I was always trying to get this to add to my Stryker family, and finally it had come in. The Hull was built first; it took all of 15 minutes:





Next the turret was built. Another five minutes, but we were taking our time:





Next the inner wheel hubs were added. Dragon makes them so they all roll, and they roll well! The outer wheels will go over these, after the tires are glued onto them. Additional parts were added to the hull as well and the turret was placed:






The inner wheels were masked and the whole thing got it's basecoat of green:





Wow, that was fast!


Following these, we pulled out an ancient ESCI M48A5, the only Patton variant issued in 1/72 scale that I didn't have in my collection. First, the wheels were grooved to give the appearance that it's two roadwheels per axle and not one big fat slick each. Then they were all installed on the lower hull:





Next most of the detail parts went on the upper hull:





And then the turret was built, just a basic assembly at first:





We added the tracks and then dry-fit everything together to see how all of it fits. Looking good:





Just before painting, the last detail parts were added and the searchlight was built and installed. While trying to get the hand rails on the side of the turret to stay where they are supposed to, some of the holes we drilled ghrew too big. We made an effort using acrylic putty to fill them in. We were mostly successful:





The dark green basecoat was applied next. Later we'll break out the Silly Putty and start adding the other three camouflage colors:





While contemplating another project while the Patton dried; I spied another ancient ESCI kit: a Churchill with mine rollers. I'd already built one, but this gave me options for a Canadian one, so we got started on that for my Canadian Army. First we built the mine roller frame:





Next we started on the basic hull getting most of it assembled:





This is gonna be a long beastie again:





Later the turret was built, and placed on the hull, again with the frame positioned in front:





Finally, the tracks were completed and the fenders installed, along with most of the additional detail parts. I had trouble with those fenders as they were pretty warped:





Yes, I left the turret hatches off; there's a TC that goes there and I wanted to have them left open for him to pop his head out.


Finally, all the mine rollers were completed and installed on the frame. Once dry, the whole assembly was glued onto the tank:





After that dried, it got a basecoat of Olive Drab:





Finally, I tried again to get the T-17 rocket mounts to work. The instructions show one end of the barrel mount attaches under the T-17 rack and is not supposed to be glued so the whole thing moves when the gun is elevated and lowered. However, There is no hole or pin to go there to hold it; the "ring" on the bottom of the rack is molded solid and the rocker arms also have closed up ends where this is supposed to be pinned to move. So, after five efforts later to get these things opened and fastened correctly in a way that allows movement, I finally ended up here. The white strip on the side of that rocker arm is to hold the larger loop in place; it kept breaking off. After gluing it back five times, I decided to reinforce it with that. The other one got one too later. The Exacto blade shows how small these things are:





These are all the parts for the rocket rack's mount along with the rack itself. If you look closely, you'll see my attempts to get the upper rocker arms done right to make this work. The side mounts went together well at least. This was taken before the reinforcement attempts, but you can see the outrageous parts I have to deal with. It's no wonder I never never finish a UM Sherman:






Back when we shot the green on the Perkasa deck, we had also shot the same green on my Packard. The first time it had some dust on it, so we sanded it down with very fine grit:





Later a second coat was airbrushed on. Yes, it looks a bit grainy, but it is a dull color. I'm going to buff it and then gloss it:







And that concludes our latest tour tour of the plant. I hope you enjoyed it, feel free to leave comments, they are always welcome.


Thank you for coming in!

[mustang1989]

Good LORD Mark!!! I just don't know how you keep up with all of these builds...........BUT.......you managed to pull it all off with some fantastic turnouts. What an array of different subjects and scales. This is mind blowing dude!!  

[Joe Rix]

Mark, you are truly a marvel and a machine. You have an awesome array of subjects going on there. It is always a joy to watch you in action.

[Tojo72]

Wow,thats a lot going on there.

[dukemaddog]

Silverado Joe, thank you! It helps when I return everything to their assigned boxes ( I say assigned because sometimes the end opening boxes on some kits don't hold anything so the contents are moved to a box that will.)

Joe Rix, thank you! Stay tuned and you'll see more!

Thank you Tony! Yes,, it is but I am so determined to get all of these done!

[dukemaddog]

Here's a small update, not quite a full tour; more like an 'open house'. First of all in the shipyards we laid the keel for the USS Shangri-La:



You can see she required quite a bit of persuasion....

To help that dry better in place, we also built up the bow and stern sections:

Bow:



Stern:





Now over here in the Motor Pool, we assembled all but the cab on the Russian Ural 4320, and weathered it:



Once the windows get added to the cab we'll be able to install it and then final weathering will bring it over the finish line.

Finally, we prepped the Canadian TC for acceptance of his new command of the Churchill AVRE:



You'll see him next driving his tank out to the staging area for delivery to my Canadian Army.

Thank you all for attending my open house, comments are always welcome.

[mustang1989]

What scale is that Shangri-La Mark? Amazing progress on this plethora of models buddy. It just amazes me every time I see all of these going on at one time. My brain would be frazzled if I did such a thing.

[dukemaddog]

Joe, that Shangri-La is listed as 1/500 scale on the box. Thank you for the compliments too; I think because my brain is already frazzled; I'm able to do all these at once! LOL!

[mustang1989]

Mar 25, 2023 15:38:35 GMT -5 dukemaddog said:

Joe, that Shangri-La is listed as 1/500 scale on the box. Thank you for the compliments too; I think because my brain is already frazzled; I'm able to do all these at once! LOL!

My brain would have been toast a long time ago. 

[dukemaddog]

Joe, sometimes I feel like my brain is toast as well. Meanwhile, here is the latest update....

Here is the latest tour of Maddog Manufacturing. First, we'll show you some of the renovations being done to help improve things. This has been a long time coming. So, all aboard the trams and remember to keep hands and feet inside; especially now with all the renovation construction debris everywhere...

This is what was done first, rendering the 'plant' unusable for a while. This is the one side of the room where my workbench and staging area are:



The reason for this? Right here. I have some new shelves that will be holding so many things in a far more organized manner. This is the view from the door. You can see half of my armor tubs already in place along with a few other things; some of which will not stay there:



Later on, I re-positioned my wife's sewing cabinet (after removing her sewing machine) into a new position to hold more model kits in a more organized manner. I also added a long shelf along the side in front of my model shelves for the purpose of holding even more model kits. This is on the opposite side of the new shelves facing the closet:



Then I placed the remaining armor tubs on the one side of the long shelf board, along with some open boxes of models under construction. Using sturdy display boxes from Costco, I filled them with more models kits to organize them better, as well as a couple boxes of smaller in-progress models. The plastic totes behind the armor tubs are holding many, many parts that I will need to sort out and organize later:



That was two days of work.I still have to clear the workbench and the chair I use as well as some of the rest of that side of the room before I can use it again. Until then, here is what we got done in between the two renovation days and at our weekly Monday Hobby Nights.

Starting in the Hangar we can show the start of a new aircraft this is part of a mini group build on another boards. This is the Eduard Weekend Edition of the Me-110. Naturally, we started with the interior and cockpit:



Then the wings and engine nacelles were built up:



We then decided to place the interior inside the wing cavity for fun:



We have a good amount of interior detailing and decals to add to that before we can close it up inside the fuselage.


Now lets see what's going on in the Shipyards....

Here in the Shipyards a lot has been happening there, especially in the smaller slipways. To start with, the Vosper's 71 foot MBT, had the torpedo tubes and depth charges installed:



The mount for the 20mm gun was lost, so I had to fabricate a new stand. I calculated wrong on height, which was discovered later when I found the original part:



I'll have to decide later whether to remove my fabrication and use the original part later. Until then, all the remaining detail parts were added. All that is needed is the threads and the detail painting and this will be done:



The original kit did not have hull number decals, only a flagsheet. I'm considering trying to find a hull number to add to this.


Moving on to the next slipway, we had to do a marathon session of adding all the detail parts to the Vosper's 73 foot MBT due to the fact that the instruction sheet got stuck on a wayward piece of tape and practically disintegrated on one side with pieces falling off the other side:





We were on a roll, so instead of trying to find and download a new set of instructions, some serious construction commenced while the instructions could still be (barely!) read:

First, the bridge was built:



We then installed that onto the main deck, trying to get it to glue into the proper position:



We even tried a bit of persuasion, but this thing was stubborn:



You can see how stubborn it was by how it looks here when we tried applying the deck to the hull. This shot shows the deck placed on the hull to see how much persuasion it was going to need too:



That did need some persuasion but we applied a bit of glue to one section, allowed it to dry, then re-positioned the hull and deck to slowly glue it section by section into place. We then installed the railing around the forward gun. This was not so easy; the uprights were all individual pieces that had to be glued in place first, then the ring added later. Despite our best efforts, it isn't as pretty as it should look:



I was still not satisfied with the bridge cabin, so drastic measures were taken. The whole thing was removed and disassembled:



This time it was reassembled in situ right on the deck to insure everything lined up properly as it is supposed to do, starting with the troublesome side walls:



Later, just before the glue seriously set, the interior was added to the side walls, lined up and glued in place with a great clamp providing extra support:



After that dried, all the extra parts were installed at the stern of this boat; all but two of the mufflers because they both disappeared. They were too complicated for me to even consider scratching new ones so they got left off. The shafts, screws and rudders were also added at this time, hence the foam taped underneath to keep them from breaking off during handling:



The main mast was completed next, but not installed yet. That thing is screaming to break at the slightest pressure so it's being held off untill the very last:



Finally everything else was installed on the boat. Now for final touch ups, decals and thread and this will be finished too.

Following that, we masked off the bottom of the Vosper's Perkasa MBT and shot paint over the hull. The superstructure sub assemblies also got the same paint, even though it isn't shown here:



Later, we masked off the connection points on the deck and re-sprayed the green on the deck to make it a more uniform and solid color:



Here it is all mocked up to see how it will (hopefully!) look:



While we had that green out, we also shot it on the bottom of the hull for the Japanese PT-15, and we also shot the same grey over the PT-15 superstructure parts:



Finally, we started the PT-109 some days ago, getting it all assembled (mostly) and removing the life raft mounts on the forward deck. We plan on mounting a 37mm cannon on the deck like so many pictures of Kennedy's boat show:



This then got the overall OD green paint on it:




That completes what's happening in the Shipyards, we'll make a brief stop in the Motor Pool where only one things was started and another moved closer to the finish line. Next door to that in the miscellaneous workshop, we have something else to check in on as well.


Here in the Motor Pool, we started on a couple of simple Infantry Carts used by the Wehrmacht in WWII. It was something needed to clear the pallet. Assembly was quite straightforward; it includes two horses and troops. We did one of the horses and then built the carts. One cart has a couple mounting brackets for holding Panzershreks, while the other is supporting a self defense machine gun:



Next, since we were shooting OD green on the PT-109, we also shot some on the M-4 Sherman sporting the M-17 rocket launcher on top of the turret:



After a clear gloss coat, the decals went on:



This tank did not sport the white stars originally. I just took some artistic license and added them as I think it makes this tank look better.

Finally next door, we repainted the hood on the Packard, giving it a nice smoother and more consistent color:



Later this was gloss coated for the shine:



Meanwhile, the interior was built up:




And that concludes this tour, thank you all for coming and remember comments are welcome.

[mustang1989]

This is nothing short of incredible stuff Mark. I wish I had the time as well as the display area for this stuff man. WOW!!!

[dukemaddog]

Thank you Joe! Yeah, I wish I had the display area too! I ran out a long time ago. Stay tuned, hopefully more to come soon once I finish re-organizing and sorting the parts box(es)!

[dukemaddog]

It's been awhile since I've been here with enough time to follow everyone and due to so many issues, events, small jobs and other incidences; I have been very neglectful in checking out and commenting on anyone else's work. For that I apologize; it has been so hard to find the time to just enjoy the Forums. This coming week will be another extended absence as well due to a long and arduous job I'll be doing, so if I don't reply right away, you know why.

I don't know how many people take my 'tours', but here is an update from the last month or so, whenever I was able to find some time at home and at Hobby Day events to get something done.

That being said, this might be a bit of a long tour so all aboard the trams and remember to keep hands and feet inside at all times. Our first stop in the Hangar.....


Our first stop shows the Me-110 cockpit assembly finally painted. It may not be the most accurate color but it's the closest I have and I want this finished so this is what I used.:



Decals go on this instrument panels so that will be next before I close this up and start painting.

Next, two Spitfires were started. These were from Saul, and so I pulled them out and we started them while waiting for other things to dry. First is the Mk.VIII, starting with the cockpit of course:



Later for ease of handling while painting, we cemented the cockpit assembly into one of the fuselage halves:



While that was drying, we cemented the wing tops to the lower wing section:



In the next bay, we have the Mk.XIVC, which also had the cockpit assembled and then cemented into one of the fuselage halves:



Followed by the same wing assembly as before:





Yeah, not too much was done here, but some good progress was made. Now let us head on out to the Shipyards....



Here in the Shipyards, all the work has been focused on the small torpedo boat craft since some of them are so close to being completed. The first one is the German Schnellboot, which has been fighting us all the way. Final detail parts were added and some rigging was done, but I decided to leave off some parts that are just extra stuff. It's slowly getting closer:





That is one long boat! As of now, we won't be able to complete this until I find the screws to it which I had in place ready to install, and they completely disappeared. I have to wait until they're found before I can call this one finished:



Moving along, the British Vospers 71 foot boat got final detail painting, some rigging and some last details installed:



The white styrene rods are rigging that we're using instead of thread because we could not get the thread to look right. At least this; when painted black, will simulate rope better. Once that is done, final decals and finishing will be done.

Finally, in this last slipway, we have the Vospers 73 foot boat. Lots of seams needed filling and lots of extra parts were installed as well:



All of that was painted and now all that is needed are the decals, rigging and weapons:





That completes the tour of the Shipyards, now on to the Motor Pool.....


Here in the Motor Pool, there is a lot that has been happening. With the influx of new kits, we went to work to get as many of these built as fast as possible.


Our first bay holds one of the two SCUDs, this one is the SCUD C. The driver's cab was completed and windows installed:



With that completed, we installed all four body assemblies onto the chassis:



We can't go much further on this one until the sprue with the correct launcher arms are found. The ones I currently have are for the early SCUD B and this is the -C.

Meanwhile, we got the launcher arms assembled and installed for the SCUD D:



Yes, it does elevate and I forgot to get pics of it fully elevated. All that is needed now are the missiles to be painted, windows masked so we can start with Silly Putty and paint to add the other two camouflage colors.

In the next bay, we started the FROG-7 missile truck. Ever since seeing this in some larger scale when I was a kid, I've always dreamed of having this as part of my 1/72 scale collection. Finally, thanks to Trumpeter, that dream is becoming reality. We started of course with the driver's cab, building the interior and testing it with the cab shell:



Next all the rest of the rear parts were added to the chassis:



Preliminary paint and the final launcher arm assembly was added next:



This arm elevates vary nicely:



After the interior of the cab was painted, the windows were installed and the cab was painted outside; the whole sub-assembly finally added to the rest of the truck:



The missile itself was then completed and left to dry on the sprue:



Later it was removed and tested on the launcher arm. Additional rear body parts were added as well to complete construction as much as possible for the next coat of paint:



This one is coming close!


In this next bay, we got started on the SA-4 Ganef, starting with these wonderfully complex missiles:



Next was the lower hull and tracks, which were molded into one piece with the outer road wheels molded separately:



The complex launcher arms were next, they do work well when assembled:



The upper hull was completed with all but the most breakable parts, the launcher arm was added; and the whole thing was dry fit to the lower hull. Then for fun, we added the missiles to see how this ungainly vehicle was going to look:




That is where this is so far. I do have a lot of missiles that we need to get painted, so someday when I have the spare time; there's going to be a missile painting marathon!


Finally the last bay here contains the US Army D-7 Dozer that we got in. First assembly was the surprisingly detailed little engine:



Next were the tracks. Again, simple assembly, but very nicely detailed:



Now since most of this needed to be painted before any assembly of the main body could be done, we went ahead and built the dozer blade itself:



Now after some preliminary painting again, we started building this up. First, the engine was added to the main body:



Then the driver's seat and the rear section were added:



Final assembly, painting and early weathering were done next:



The track assemblies were weathered next so we could get it in places we wouldn't be able to reach when these tracks were installed:



Once done, these were installed on the dozer itself:



The dozer blade was then snapped into place:



Looks great doesn't it? The blade will be weathered later and then installed. This little model was a blast to build; just so you know what I was dealing with, here it is next to the Exacto blade I used for removing the more delicate parts:



Pretty darn small!



That concludes our tour of Maddog Manufacturing for today. Thank you all for stopping in, your patronage and comments are most appreciated.

[deafpanzer]

WOW! You have been busy! I wish I have your energy to build that many at the same time. The boats have caught my attention and I hope to see more of it until it is completed.

[stikpusher]

And here it goes… THE production line!

[TJ]

Jun 1, 2023 0:41:44 GMT -5 stikpusher said:

And here it goes… THE production line!

And I don't know how he does it. I'd have the tail of the Concorde glued to the Grizzly

[dukemaddog]

DP, thanks! I do hope to get more pics of those boats posted soon, along with a host of other projects.

Carlos, thanks! Although there is a guy on another boards that is just as productive as me....but his models are all 1/35th scale, making his productivity all the more impressive.

TJ, that almost happened....

[stikpusher]

Mark, Ive been retired for over three years now, and I'm still building at a slow pace... It all depends upon when the muse hits me.

[406 Silverado]

dukemaddog

I totally missed this last update Mark. Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang brutha!!! You always floor me at the amount of incredible work that you bring to the table. You a true mastermind to keep all of this straight and make them look as good as you do. Looking forward to the next update.

[dukemaddog]

Carlos thanks! I'm not surprised that your pace; you always have so many more fun and enjoyable things going on, and loads of family and friends visiting. It's all good; your work is always worth the wait.

Joe, thanks! Sometimes it's tough, but that's what model boxes are for. I'll try to get another update up as soon as I can. It might be a few days but that just means more to show. Besides, I have four new finished models to post as well.

Thanks again guys!

[406 Silverado]

Jun 16, 2023 13:57:32 GMT -5 dukemaddog said:

Carlos thanks! I'm not surprised that your pace; you always have so many more fun and enjoyable things going on, and loads of family and friends visiting. It's all good; your work is always worth the wait.

Joe, thanks! Sometimes it's tough, but that's what model boxes are for. I'll try to get another update up as soon as I can. It might be a few days but that just means more to show. Besides, I have four new finished models to post as well.

Thanks again guys!

Always glad to have you here doing what you do well Mark.

[stikpusher]

Thanks Mark. Honestly, the folks in and out of here depends upon the day and the week. Some days I’ll dive in non stop for hours, and some weeks I’ll to have any urge to go in there for days… ah well… I always enjoy your production line show.

[dukemaddog]

Thank you Joe! Glad to keep things going. The next tour is about to start, hop into the next Tram for another short tour.

Carlos, thanks! I know what you mean. Get ready, the next tour is about to start.

Despite having almost no time, I was able to get a bit more progress done, and even finished a few models. Some of those models have already been posted so these pics will show them on the way to the dispersal yard or dock.


Okay, lets start this tour by boarding the trams and heading out to the Hangar.


There's been some good progress in the Hangar here, starting with the two Spitfires we've been working on.


First, the Mk XIV got the decals in the cockpit which was also glued to the right fuselage half:





Meanwhile, the Mk VIII got the fuselage assembled and the wings and tails installed:





In this next bay, the German Me-110 got the final details added to the interior and sides of the fuselage halves:





This enabled us to then close it all up inside the fuselage:





Progress was quickly made as the wings and tail were then added:





Later the nose and exhaust were installed. The nose sub assembly had four parts to assemble before they could be mounted on the front of this plane:






That completes the tour of the Hangar, lets move on to the Motor Pool as my Shipyard crews are taking a much needed break after completing three boats.




Here in the Motor Pool, we have in this first bay the Russian FROG-7 Luna. First, the tires were dusted and weathered. This meant adding Tamiya weathering powders to the tire treads and then wiping them carefully off the raised surfaces after it dried:





Next the missile itself was painted and decaled. I tried to eliminate the silvering but no matter how many times I poked holes with a brand new Exacto blade and added Solvaset; they stubbornly remained silvered:





Finally, the decals were added to the main truck and then it was weathered:





Later on, the wheels and tires were added, the missile was loaded and she was sent to the dispersal yard for delivery to my Russian Army. You might have already seen those pics.


Moving on to the next bay, we got the base coat of green on the Sa-4 Ganef:





The missiles were then painted and the decals added. Once again, as with the FROG-7, these decals resisted all efforts to remove the silvering. Here's one of them. There were something like 30+ decals to add to each missile, I decided we'd only use about half of them:





This was then taken for a test drive sans missiles and brought back very dirty. Here it is before a loot of that dust and debris came off:





This one has since been cleaned up and the missiles loaded and final details added. She has now been sent to the dispersal yard for delivery to my Russian Army.


In this next bay we have the British Scimitar Mk.2. Almost all the assembly has been done and so the photo etch was then added:





All that was left, with the exception of breakable details was the base coat of green:





And that completes this short tour of Maddog Manufacturing again. Thank you all who stopped in to see this latest tour.

[stikpusher]

The Magical Mystery Tour is coming to take you away… 😉

Nice new updates Mark. But you’re messing with us putting that Frog-7 out here after it’s already completed 🤔

[406 Silverado]

That Bf110 is looking good for sure!! Even in 1/72 scale this one seems to be pretty well detailed. What kit is that and what scheme do you have mapped out for it Mark?

[dukemaddog]

Thank you Carlos! Sometimes this "Magical Mystery Tour" can't keep up! See below for the latest tour again.

Silverado Joe, thank you! The Me-110 is the Eduard Weekend Edition, the box and instructions show only the one scheme: a whitewashed plane with the hornet on the nose. As I'm not a big fan of hornet-type insects, I am looking to find an alternate marking scheme. Besides, I don't like whitewashing my models.



And now on to the next tour....


This has been a rather wild few weeks. I'm surprised I actually had time to work on my models. Now that I'm fighting a mild flu, I'm taking the time while I'm home to start a new tour showing what I have been able to get done in between fighting this thing and taking care of other things.


For those interested: all aboard the trams now for our next tour.




As always, we'll start in the Hangar...


Quite a bit has been done here, particularly since I've been sick and tired of some of these long term shelf queens. This particular one comes to mind:


The A-400 I started six years ago has been fighting me almost constantly. While I was applying the decals for the French Armee del'Air in this first bay, the main landing gear and nose gear constantly broke:





Because almost all of that won't be seen, I decided to try some out-of-the-box thinking to make these landing gear stronger. Here's one technique we used, gluing an angled piece to the main gear to support the forked wheels:





That's just one example; the rest glued just fine and I was able to finally call this beast done! One Shelf Queen finally off the Shelf of Doom!


Moving on to the next bay, we were able to slather a bunch of Mr. Surfacer 500 over the Spitfire Mk. VIII, give the number of crazy gaps and seams we had after gluing it together:





After a good amount of sanding, things started looking better on this Mk.VIII:





Once I was satisfied with our sanding job, we added the canopy and windscreen to this so we could mask it all later and get ready for paint:





I was very pleased with the fit of this.


The Spitfire Mk. XIV in the bay next door, did not need nearly as much attention, a good sanding took care of those issues. However, I did lose the little cockpit door so we replaced it with some sheet styrene:





Later on that canopy and windscreen went on too:





While we were doing canopies and windscreens, we decided to finish off the canopy/windscreen assembly on the Me-110 as well. All six parts fit together nicely:





Finally in this last bay, our improved cockpit assembly for the Tu-95 Bear was test fit inside the forward fuselage halves to see how it looks. It's a vast improvement over the kit supplied parts:





The forward fuselage halves were taped together and then taped to the rear fuselage assembly to see how this beastie is gonna look. She's a long one indeed as you can see by the Exacto blade next to it:





All we have to do is add some 50kg's of nose weight to this before we can close it up. Shouldn't be too long if I can recover quickly enough.


That's all that's happening in the Hangar for now. We'll bypass the Shipyards as they've been dormant for a bit and move on to the Motor Pool...




Here in the Motor Pool, we started a little Ford Model A car in 1/72 scale from Zebrano. It's a cool little car that started well:





I can't wait to start the little Stakebed truck I got and place it next to this!


Moving on, we found another Shelf Queen languishing in this back bay since 2015. It had been started for a "Modern Armor Group Build" on a Forum I left long ago, and while cleaning out the Motor Pool, we found it back here. Wheels were missing from it, and idler had broken off, but it was overall intact. It was time to start moving forward on this.





First of all, this is my Swedish Leopard 2A6, and here is what it looked like once the wheels were all glued back on. It is a Revell kit and was quite brittle after all this time. So, to preserve the wheels as much as possible, we took the one run of track and glued it to the bottom of the main roadwheels and then to the idler and drive sprockets to hold everything together:





The tracks don't wrap up far enough on either side, but it is enough to at least keep everything together. We can add more tracks later to close things up. You can also see we started the second of the three color splinter camouflage.



Later, the third color got applied. It was a mix with a gloss green to try and get the closest match to a field green I could so once I gloss this, decal it, and then flat coat it; everything should blend:





Another couple steps and another long term Shelf Queen will be off the Shelf of Doom....


Finally, I decided we should tackle the Armory ZSU-23-4 Shilka. Now you'll see why I am reluctant to get more Armory Shilka variants.


First, the four lower hull parts were glued together. Looks simple right? There was an interesting amount of shaving that was needed to make these parts fit this way, as the flash was so misleading:





And now for the craziness to begin. I shot all the first four steps of the lower hull assembly so you can see how much was needed to do even before adding the torsion bars for the roadwheels! The hull should show you how tiny these parts were too:





That pic above shows steps one, two and three for the lower hull. Next I thought we could start on the upper hull. Again, six parts to build this before getting to the hatches and engine deck details. It's obvious Armory does not have slide mold tech. I understand it is expensive for many smaller companies, but it shouldn't be too hard to simplify things a bit to make this fun. I don't mind detail parts but to break things down for the sake of adding to the parts count, is not cool. It did go together a bit better than the lower hull:





I decided to test fit the upper and lower hulls; as you can see from the inside, they will need a bit of finagling to sit right:





One other critique on this kit: there are no numbers and letters stamped on the sprue. One has to follow the sprue map on the instruction sheet:





That makes thing tough when you have to keep flipping back and fourth to find where the part is on what sprue. Once more larger parts start getting used, finding parts like this will be even more difficult to find, thus complicating this build even more. I've dealt with worse, so yes, this will get finished.


Well, that completes this short tour of Maddog Manufacturing again. Thank you to all who have joined this latest tour. Comments are always welcome.

[stikpusher]

Nice Maddog Manufacturing update Mark. I thought that you had already built a 1/72 Bear… 🤔

[deafpanzer]

Looking good especially the Me-110! Which kit did you use for it?

[dukemaddog]

Thank you Carlos! No, I had built a Badger and I have two more Badgers I'll be building soon: one for my Egyptian Air Force, one for my Iraqi Air Force. This bear is my first...unless you count that godawful Grizzly I just finished!

Thank you DP! The Me-110 kit is the Eduard Weekend Edition.

[dukemaddog]

Well, it has been awhile since the last tour, mostly because of difficulty with the PC which ended with erasing my entire ten-year history of photos taken with my camera. I'm also dealing with an unknown condition that has made driving for me too dangerous. At least I still have my hobby and now my PC is fixed enough to be able to start some more tours.


All aboard the trams, we will be departing soon for the Hangar....



Here in the Hangar, there has been only one project that we worked on, but a serious amount of work was done on it. This is a simple yet difficult kit from RPM; a very short run kit that I decided to start just to get it off the stash. It is a Russian Be-4 float plane, and the instructions had us start on the engine and cowling. After some intensive sanding, test fitting and sanding again, thwe engine finally sat in place correctly. There are no attachment points or guides for any of these parts:





Next we started on the "highly detailed cockpit". That consisted of adding the pilot seats to the main floor...that's it. Only they wanted us to place the seat bottom first and then 'scratch build' the seat backs! Forget that... I went straight to my parts box and added these seats instead:





Next the bulkheads went in place. They took a bit of finagling, as again; there's no guides or attachment points to put them in their proper place:





Finally, the "interiors" were added; I happen to find a third seat for the gunner/radio operator's station that matched the two pilot seats. You can see in this pic how the floors and bulkheads will need to be trimmed and sanded before the fuselage will close:





After a test fit, we moved the seats back:





After some snipping, sanding, test fitting, adjusting, readjusting, we finally got the fuselage together. It went together better than expected for such a short run kit:





There were still some seams and steps to deal with so out came Mr. Surfacer 500:





After test fitting the gunner's dome, I realized that seat needed to be trimmed so we got that trimmed down to fit:





Another test fit later; this time of the wing, we noticed that the pylon was too short and that the propeller would cut off the nose of the plane so an adjustment had to be made. We took some sprue from the kit; cut it to length, bent it a bit and then glued them into place:





Some judicious trimming and sanding later and the pylon is ready to take the wing and the propeller will be able to spin freely:





Speaking of the wing, it came in six parts. the center section is here:





The two outer halves on each side needed to be cemented together as well. We did this along with cementing all the outrigger floats and the tail plane halves together as well:





This poor molding leaves us with a butt joint that would break if you looked at it wrong:





Well, if they were not giving us a proper way to cement this together in any manner that would hold, we added some sprue runners that the end parts would be able to grip:





Here is the first attempt to glue the ends of the wing to the center:





You can see how poor fitting these are, worse than the fuselage. So, further adjustments were made...





...and made....





And since I still wasn't satisfied we took them apart and re-started them, hopefully finally getting the wing to look right. Pics of that forthcoming later during a follow on tour..


Meanwhile, the pylons were added to the outrigger floats:





You can see where we had to fill some holes where the pontoons themselves were short shot. They are ready for installation one the wing turns out satisfactory enough.


While waiting for the latest adjustment on the wing to take, we painted the interiors:





When test fitting the main canopy, we found it was too short to cover the whole cockpit opening, so we trimmed a piece of black sheet styrene to shape and added it to the front of the cockpit opening:





The results look much better and will look even better under paint:





Well, that completes the latest work in the Hangar, let's move on to the Motor Pool...




Here in the Motor Pool, a lot has been happening. We have two civilian automobiles in progress, one big scale and one small. On the small one, the Zebrano Model A Ford, we finally got the main body assembled and fastened to the chassis:





You can see all the dust that blew in from the Hangar after all the work on the Be-4


Later all the rest of the fenders, headlights, and radiator, as well as the wheels were added:





That's as far as we got on that one. On the larger one, the Monogram 1/24 scale Packard, a lot got done. The main fenders got their coat of gloss brown:





Since the fenders were being painted the dark brown, we also masked off the main body and shot the same brown trim on it:





A bit of a test fit later, we see how well this is gonna look....provided I don't screw it up first. You can also see that the seats had been painted leather.


The main hood over the engine had been giving us problems with the green base coat, but it finally went down smooth and the gloss coat as well. This was then masked off for the brown trim to be painted as well as some chrome bits molded in place:





Final result, better than expected:





You can see we started painting the chassis as well. More to come on this later.


There's a third civilian vehicle we're working on the ACE 1/72 scale Ford 1937 stakebed truck. First assembly was the chassis:





We then got half the cab finished:





Finally, the stakebed:





Great detail on this ACE kit. Here it is all mocked up:





These next few vehicles are ones we started since I've been wanting them in the collection or awhile. First is this French AMX Mk.61 self propelled gun. Basic lower hull was assembled first:





Another French AMX vehicle, this time the AMX-13 DCA. Again, lower hull assembled first:





We got a little further on the South African Eland 90, even building the basic turret:





Finally there's the Russian Br-5 280mm mortar from ACE. This one took a bit of time since the main tracked running gear had so many parts to assemble. First were all the road wheels on the main part:





Then the two outer casings went on, trapping the (twin) idler wheels, drive sprocket and roadwheel assembly inside:





Had to do this twice:





And we still have to add the link and length tracks! Moving on, we assembled the main carriage:





Finally we got to the gun:





The trunnion will be a tough build so we left it at that....


Our last project to look into is the M1070 gun truck. We took some time to get the main chassis almost fully assembled:





The cab was started next, leaving room for painting the interior before it is closed up:





Finally the gun bed was built up, sans barriers. There's lots of interior detail that can barely be seen:





There's still a center section to build up, but these three components are pretty much done overall:






One last treat before we conclude this tour, Rocket the Raccoon has been mostly painted up. I still need to do his nose, eyes, teeth, gun and his outfit:






That concludes this latest tour of Maddog Manufacturing, I hope you enjoyed it. As always, comments are welcome.