Maddog Manufacturing Now Open Here.

[2whl]

Mar 17, 2023 0:08:22 GMT -5 dukemaddog said:

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.

Thank you for coming in!

Hi Duke.   You are one building machine.  

The reason I dropped in was because I saw you're in Rowland Hts.

So, Hi neighbor!


Paul

[dukemaddog]

Hey Paul! Yes, I'm in Rowland Heights, and I'm a member of Orange County IPMS too. Glad to see you stop in!


Here we are, two weeks later and I was able to get a lot done, more than expected. So much so that I will need to do two tours; one to the Hangar and then in the next post the tour will leave for the Motor Pool. So, all aboard the trams for the next tour through the Maddog Manufacturing Hangars....


In the first bay we have a shelf queen coming out again. This is the 1/72 scale Concorde SST we started about four years ago. The fit is atrocious and the wings have massive gaps. More attempts were made to close and fill those gaps as best as possible:





Even the bottom of this model had canyons to deal with:




That's as far as we got on that so far. Next is the two Spitfires, both of them were masked with the Silly Putty and shot with the RAF Ocean Grey over the top:

Mark IX:



Mark XIV. I changed the pattern a little to allow me to cover that uneven splotch of green with the grey:



It was sprayed like the Mk.IX at the same time:



After awhile, the Silly Putty came off both of them. he Mk.IX is here:



...and the Mk.XIV is here:



Believe me, the paint is much darker than these pics show. You can see that here after I shot gloss clear over them to prepare for decals:





While all that was going on, we also masked off the Russia Il-2M3 Shtormovik with the Silly Putty and sprayed with the second color:



Later that Silly Putty came off and we were ready for clear coat:



Here it is after the clear coat:



Again, that is more representative of the real colors we sprayed.

Moving on to the next bay, I was not happy with the main wing on the Russian Be-4. Therefore, we put about a quarter tube of Tamiya Putty on top and bottom where the discrepancies were:





Later, this was sanded smooth, another coat of putty added and finally repainted:





That wing has since been clear coated and the decals have been added. That one should be done fairly soon.


Our next tour of the Motor Pool starts in a bit. Meanwhile, comments are welcome; thanks all for stopping in!

[dukemaddog]

And now for our tour of the Motor Pool at Maddog Manufacturing. A considerable amount of progress has been made here.

Let's start here with the civilian Ford Stakebed truck, which has been painted with the cream on the cab and truck bed:



Later the red trim was added after everything was masked off:



That is where we left this right now. Moving on to the next bay we have another Shelf Queen, started about six years ago. Finally found all the missing parts and got all the rest of the main parts installed:



Later this truck also got a coat of red, making this almost ready to be declared finished:



Moving to the next bay we find the Russian tracked 280mm gun. The main gun has been glued to the carriage and almost all the final details have been added. Some parts and sub assemblies have gone missing, but we're going to continue to work on this until all is found:



Later the photo etch was added, bringing this closer to being done:



Next to this is the Russian tracked 152mm gun. This was started later, but we now have it catching up to the 280mm gun. First we installed the main gun in the trunnions, and made the hydraulics that raise and lower the gun:



We added more details to the main carriage, cemented down the gun and also finished off most of the details on the trunnions, bringing this to the photo etch stage:



Photo etch and some final details added next and this was ready for paint:



After everything had sufficiently dried, we shot a base of Russian Green on this. It shows much lighter in this pic than it does in real life:



The same had been shot on the 280mm gun but I apparently forgot to take pics of that.

Moving on, we found another Shelf Queen, this one only two years old. It's the Modelcollect SCUD D TEL that needed some more green paint on additional parts that had been added after it was painted:




'
I was going to camouflage this, but I don't want to hassle with re-masking all the windows again. We might hand brush the pattern on it, I'm still trying to decide. Meanwhile, this is ready for further progress....

In the next bay, we have the two Israeli Centurions. This first one, the Sho't Kal Gimmel; got all the detail parts on the main hull and we started on some of the details on the turret:



Later we finished all the details on the turret. Here it is all set and ready for photo etch:



Interestingly enough; the photo etch sheet for this kit is missing. So, we continued to work on the Centurion Sho't Kal Dalet. Again, most of the turret and all of the hull details were added, just as with the Gimmel:



Later the turret was done completely:



That thing on the front of this tank is a battering ram. Some Dalets had them so I added this to mine to help differentiate between them.

We had the photo etch for this one so almost all the photo etch was added to this:



Once everything was dry, we shot a base of Green Drab on this tank. It is still wet in this picture:





After this completely dried, we applied a light coat of Israeli Sand Grey over the top, modulating the color for added ascetics. It is real hard to see in this picture, but I assure you it is there:



That is where we stopped on these, next up is the most difficult Armory ZSU-23-4 Shilka. First, we did the simple part; adding almost all the detail parts to the upper hull:



Then we built the quad guns. They were built on two carriages, two each per carriage:



Now, adding these to the turret was a nightmare. There were three parts that you needed to glue together that were so delicate that if you looked at them wrong, they broke....and they were the mounting plates for these guns! So, after three and a half hours of finagling and fighting with this, we finally had this done:



Note the one gun wasn't straight. We fixed that but when we went to add the second set of guns; we ended up with this:



Yep! Everything fell apart, blowing away three and a half hours of work. While I fought to recover from that frustration, we finished off most of the details on the turret:



I figured it would be easier for us if these were added before the guns went on reducing the risk they break.

After about another hour and a half of work on the guns, we finally managed to get them installed.....and more importantly, looking correct!



Here's a final shot of the upper and lower hulls together (yes the lower hull is under there!) and the turret mounted on the top:



That was as far as I wanted to go with that one! It says cooling hoses are supposed to be added and shows a diagram, but after fighting this so hard; those will not be added.

Finally in this last bay we have the M1070 gun truck. First off, the last details were assembled and everything was cemented down to the chassis:



Next another full shot of green was added:



Afterward, we freehanded a camouflage pattern on this, and sprayed the gun box a rusted metal color:



We're gonna be clear coating this for decals soon, and then finish off the final details.


And that is the extended tour of Maddog Manufacturing Motor Pool. Thank you all for stopping in and remember that comments are welcome.

[kyledehart5]

A most comprehensive tour today!! The spits are looking great and good work on trying to deal with that Concorde. And I love the work in the motor pool. That stake bed particularly caught my eye but you had a ton of great projects there.

[adt70hk]

Yet again simply amazing!

[dukemaddog]

Thank you Kyle! I hope I can get that stakebed to look good. It is a difficult paint job!

Thank you Andrew! More to come soon!

[406 Silverado]

I don't know what to comment on first Mark! I mean you've got a Concord goin on??!! That's not to mention all the other good stuff that's happenin' in this thread. That HET gun truck is WAY cool!!

[dukemaddog]

Thank you Joe! Yes, I have the Concorde going, as well as a Tu-142 Bear, and a C-54 Skymaster. The last two I have yet to get back to; I re-started the Concorde because I want to get at least one big build kit off the bench. I'm also enjoying the HET gun truck; I can't wait to get that done!

[dukemaddog]

I have a lot to be thankful for this past Thanksgiving Day week, some of which is the progress we made on some of these models that have been fighting me. So much has been done that it's time for another tour.

We have kept the Shipyards idle again, so this tour will start in the Hangar to show the progress made on a couple projects.

First, we got the decals on the Russian Shtormovik:



They went on surprisingly well considering the extensive age of the decals. Now all that is left is the final details before this can be called done.

Next, we discovered that the support struts for the wing on the Russian Be-4 were far too short due to the fact that we had to raise the center pylon to keep the propeller from chopping off the nose. So we cut some new ones from strip styrene:



The originals are in blue above the four strips. Then; using Silly Putty to hold the fuselage in place upside down, we glued the wing to the fuselage and added the struts:



In retrospect, we should have done the same with the outrigger pontoons. I may still do that later....

Moving on, the Spitfire VIII got the decals applied as well:



Yes, they silvered quite badly, so that was addressed and the main landing gear and the tail wheel were installed:



Getting close on that one.


That closes out the tour of the Hangar; as mentioned it was a short one. Now on to the Motor Pool where a lot has been happening.




Here in the Motor Pool, we were rocking out getting things done. First, I decided we needed to get a couple of the Shelf Queens out if the Motor Pool and delivered to their respective forces. We started with the Russian fire truck that had been sitting for a couple years. It's an old PST kit which says a lot. It started out getting a new coat of red paint:



Next the wheels and some additional parts were added after which some more paint was done on some of the larger new additions:



The new parts were painted and other details were painted up as well:





That one quickly arrived at the dispersal depot after that.

Another Shelf Queen that had sat for three or more years was my Russian SCUD D. I had wanted to finish it alongside the SCUD C I was building in conjunction with it, but the serious lack of the proper parts for the C means it will take too long and there was no reason the-D should sit in limbo with it. First, a couple additional colors were added for a three-tone camouflage pattern; it was hand brushed as I wanted this done quickly and there were too many delicate parts on the launcher arms for Silly Putty:



You can see wheels were added as well. The missile was just dry fit for looks.

Later the missile was painted, the vehicle was weathered and later some small decals were added after this next pic was taken:



This one was sent to the dispersal depot after the last detail parts were added.

Concerning the two Russian tracked heavy guns; one was sent to the dispersal depot despite missing a few parts. They are not immediately noticeable, so until the missing parts turn up, it is being delivered. The second one, the 152mm gun was going to be delivered too, but the aiming scope was crooked. When we went to straighten it out, it broke off and disappeared. Since I was already so tired of these two guns taking up space, I scratched a new scope which is highly inaccurate, but screw it! It stays unless and until the right part reappears:



Moving on to the next bay, we found the photo etch for the Israeli Sho't Kal Gimel, so it was added to the turret and hull. Here you can see the basket part is partially glued and was glued the rest of the way after the glue dried:



The Gimel then got her side skirts on and a coat of paint:



The Dalet, meanwhile, had her tracks installed. Yes, I used the Pactra cement on the black vinyl tracks and it held them together perfectly, as if they were made of styrene:



With that, it didn't take long to get both tracks on:



Later the Dalet got some additional photo etch added that had not been installed before:



Back to the Gimel, we installed the crew machine guns and added the barrel decals:



The decals were also applied to the rest of the tank and the detail parts painted. This allowed us to send the Gimel to the Dispersal Depot.

Finally, in this last bay, we assembled all the major components to the chassis and then painted the camouflage pattern on this cab. It was freehanded with an airbrush because I was just getting lazy at this point and wanted this truck finished:



After a clearcoat, the decals were applied:



While they were drying, we went to work on the gun stations. They were fairly quick and easy to do, despite having a lot of parts:



Some of the last final details were added, including the anti-RPG sheets, the wheels and several additional detail parts:





After completing the rear view mirrors, this truck was also sent to the Dispersal Depot.


Thank you all for coming in and seeing the latest progress. Pics will be forthcoming of all the completed models, stay tuned for them later. Meanwhile, comments are welcome, thank you for joining this latest tour.

[kyledehart5]

Great update!! They were working overtime in the motor pool. I really like the gun truck and the fire truck. Nice work on the added details to the tanks as well. And scratch building the wing supports. Good stuff.

[dukemaddog]

Thank you Kyle! Glad you like them. The Fire Truck and Gun Truck are both done now, as is the Russian float plane. Enjoy!

Thank you again for stopping in!

[TJ]

[deafpanzer]

The Spit and gun truck looks lovely!

[stikpusher]

Pactra tube cement?! Where did you find that?!

[dukemaddog]

Thank you TJ!

Thank you Andy! They look even better on my shelf!

Thank you Carlos! The Pactra tube glue came from a set of tools and supplies donated to our Distressed Kit Auction that I won. They were from a deceased member who had them when he passed and his widow gave to the club. I found it was still good and kept it; only trying it out on these tracks just to see how well it worked on them. Tamiya glue may not work on those black vinyl tracks, but this stuff and the old Testor's tube glue does!

[stikpusher]

I had a feeling that the Pactra tube came from a distressed kit auction… I could picture that being in the “mystery box” among other goodies.

[dukemaddog]

Actually, it wasn't in the Mystery Box; there was a box though. It contained paints (Humbrol mostly), tools, an airbrush cleaning kit, several other bottled glues and the Pactra cement. I was so thrilled to have won it! Even more so when I found the Pactra was still good.

[stikpusher]

Humbrol paints and an airbrush cleaning kit sound like an excellent score on their own. The other things are icing on the cake.

[dukemaddog]

We've had three weeks of awesome productivity here, so it's time for another tour of Maddog Manufacturing. Once again this will be a bit of a long tour, so please remember all safety requirements and enjoy the tour!



Our first stop as always is the Hangar. We have a couple of started models, and a few Shelf Queens that are receiving attention too.



In the first bay here is the British Spitfire Mk. XIV. We got all the paint damage repaired from when the paint cracked under the gloss coat:





Later the white stripe had to be painted on, so that was done. Yes, I decided to do it by hand:





After that dried, we shot the whole thing with a gloss and added the decals:





Other details were painted and most final parts were added. Later the rockets were added and this was declared done and sent to the Dispersal Field.


In this next bay we returned to the Fleet Air Arm F-6F Hellcat. This one got a shot of light RAF grey on the bottom:





Later, it was masked off and the upper green color was shot:





After some Silly Putty application we'll be able to shoot the second color. Looking forward to that!


In this next bay we have a shelf queen that was started some five or six years ago, packed up in the box again and promptly lost. While organizing and going through boxes, it was found again and so work commenced in this to get it done. This is an R-4D helicopter used in the Korean War and we had it built up to the basic fuselage stage. When we brought it out to work on it, the first thing we did was use this model to teach a couple kids how to airbrush. Later, we went back and painted the interior and then sanded smooth the seams that showed up in the paint:





Next was the addition of photo-etch parts and the assembly of the tail rotor:





Following that, we got the main rotor assembled, which was quite the ordeal given the weak attachment points on the blades. We got it done though:





A little dry fit showed us what we were dealing with:





Later we started on the main landing gear. We got the main support struts installed, but had lost the main gear legs so this is where we left off at the time:





You can see the main rotor is still dry fit. Now a day later, we found the main gear legs and added them, then added the tail wheel and strut along with a couple more detail parts:





Here you can see why this was packed away in the first place: Vac-Formed canopy. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, we got the frames painted first:





Any suggestions for installing those would be awesome. Meanwhile, we masked off the cockpit with more Silly Putty and got it ready for paint:





Which went on a short time later:





That was later shot with a gloss coat for decals which will go on later. This is where we stopped on that.


Moving on to the next bay, we have the start of an Egyptian Tu-16 Badger. I have a second one that will be done up in Iraqi Air Force markings too. For now, we got the cockpit assembled and dry-fit inside the cockpit module:





We then assembled the wings since they were so easy to do:





Further progress required paint that we did not have so we put this aside to start another fast and relatively easy kit; one I had never previously built before. This is the Heller F-94D in 1/72 scale and we started with the cockpit which was then cemented inside one half of the fuselage:





Later that cockpit was painted but before that, we built the main wings:





Later on, after adding the right amount of nose weight, this was all assembled together; puttied and sanded and readied for paint:





Later the cockpit canopy was masked and installed and this got a coat of flat black paint as a primer so we could see what issues this was going to have:





That's where we stand now with that. This completes the tour of the Hangar,now on to the Motor Pool.




Here in the Motor Pool, we have a number of things happening, some of which are new, and some are borderline shelf queens.


First up is this frustrating Armory ZSU-23-4 Shilka. Amazingly enough, we managed to get the torsion bars and wheels installed, followed by the individual link and length tracks. In fact one of the road wheels does not have a torsion bar because when I was trying to position it; the torsion bar sprang from the tweezers never to be seen again. So, I realized that the tracks touch this wheel top and bottom so it was cemented into place with the tracks themselves holding it into place.


Later photo etch parts were added to this:





Once they were all dry, we sent this to the spray booth where the base coat was shot. Honestly, I never thought I'd ever get this model to this stage, but here it is, shot with a darker green than it's supposed to have due to me being out of the proper green:





​In order to try and lighten it up, we took some Euro Dark Green and modulated the color over it. This is the first pass, later we did more and it improved a bit:





Once that was dry, we shot a gloss coat on this, gave it a wash, decals and other attention:





After this a dullcoat was applied and weathering done during it's shakedown run. Then it was sent to the Dispersal Yard.


In the next bay is another shelf queen, started some six years ago, packed up again in it's box and promptly lost. It was found in the same box as the helicopter so I figued it was time to move on this one. This is the Trumpeter SdKfz-9 with a crane. The basic chassis had been already done, so we continued to finish up that part, mostly adding the roadwheels, drive sprockets and idlers:





The main floor was then worked on, mostly assembling all the parts for the driver's and passenger's compartment. It's just dry fit on that chassis:





The base of the crane was then built as seen here:





That's as far as we got on that one. In the next bay we started another German truck, the Steyr 1500. The box was so messed up we just had to build it. Basic assembly was pretty good for a short run kit:





The remaining parts and some photo etch was then added:





Later this was shot with paint in the spray booth, but no pics of that.


Moving to the next bay we have the start of another easy model; this time another german armored car (more modern this time) made by Revell of Germany. It was left behind at the hobby day hall, so I decided to build it. First was the chassis:





Next the whole body and interior was assembled. Then we added Silly Putty to the interior and added the roof so we can shoot the base paint on it:





That came later.


Finally in this last bay we went back to work on the little ACE Ford Stakebed truck. Some dry fitting was done to the chassis after we had painted the stakebed slats and the leather seats in the cab:





Later we finished the cab, except for the roof so we could get the windows in there later. The cab and stakebed were then glued to the chassis:





That's as far as we got with that, along with some touch up to the paint here and there. Hopefully thi swill be done soon!



That completes the tour of the Motor Pool, but the tour isn't over. We're going to detour into the Shipyards briefly so you can see the start of a new project that I'd been wanting to do fora very long awhile. This is the ancient Pyro kit of the Robert E. Lee Paddle wheeled Riverboat. We started with painting the waterliine on the hull and then adding the main deck to it. While that was drying, we started the paddle wheels. These required us to cement every paddle to each if the wheel sides as such:





You can see where we started by adding a few paddles to certain quarters of the wheel to hold it together first. Then all the rest were cemented into place. That was the first one. The second one is here:





Both wheels eventually got done:





This final shot shows the paddle wheels and the boilers dry fit in place on the main hull:





By the way, that model is a little over two feet long. It has been and interesting and fun build so far.




And that completes this tour of Maddog Manufacturing for this second week of December. I hope you enjoyed it and remember comments are always welcome.

[kyledehart5]

That was an intense tour!! You’ve got it all going on in this one. That old Pyro steamboat is awesome!! Vacuform. Yikes. I hate installing it on my race cars that include it. Normally I try to get one side stuck in place and then slowly work my was across the windscreen over several hours. Terrible stuff. Lol

[dukemaddog]

Thank you Kyle! I can't wait to finish the steamboat myself.I will give that technique a try on my vac-formed windscreens.

[dukemaddog]

Well, as promised, here's another tour. It'll be a short one as I have Christmas activities coming up. Merry Christmas everyone! All aboard the trams!




First off, in the Hangar, we have a coat of black primer added to the F-94 to see what seams and issues need to be addressed:





Later we added the silver overcoat:





Followed by the decals. These were not too hard, only one broke four times:





Getting close on that one. Meanwhile, in this next bay, we have the canopy being painted for the Nigerian Mi-24 Hind shelf queen:





That is the replacement I got from the Hasegawa kit. You can see there's gonna be some serious adjustments to make this fit the ancient Airfix kit:







That completes this short tour of the Hangar, now on to the Motor Pool....





Here in the Motor Pool, we decided to start one of the GAZ AAA tracks. The chassis was mostly built up:





Moving on, we got the camouflage painted on the German Dingo scout car and then added the decals:





The decals above are a generic marking set I got since I acquired this kit for free at the St. Crispin's Hobby Hall. It was a donation and the decals were missing from the kit. So it was offered to me and I'm building it as a version that has the M.19 grenade launcher....with generic markings.


All the final bits were added, so detail painting later can be done:





Finally in this last bay, we have the '37 Ford Stakebed truck. The front fender mounts were all photo-etch parts:





Once they were dry, we were able to mount the fender. We also added the headlights and horn:





Afterward, the decals were added to this. I figured it would be easier to get them on now and then later finish this off once they were sealed:






That's what's been happening in the Motor Pool, now on to the Shipyards again.





Here in the shipyards, work has been slowly moving forward on the Robert E. Lee. First off, in order to move forward, we needed to get the lettering done on the side of the ship. Here's our first attempt:





Pretty sucky, even with a very fine brush. Second attempt went a bit better as seen on the bottom:






Still not to my satisfaction, so more work will be done on that. Meanwhile, work on the paddlewheel cabin commenced. As you can see from this pic, the sides are quite warped, so we made a start gluing the ends into place on the curve:





The other side was added and when the ends were dry, we cemented the rest of the walls down, using the clamp and some tape to help it maintain the form it's supposed to have:





You can see some of the reinforcement applied inside to hold it into place. Another view from a different angle; the white is Gator Grip Glue applied to reinforce the extra thin CA glue that was used to keep the rear part in place:





What an ordeal that was, and it's not over......


Meanwhile, work on the forward part of the main deck was done while waiting for the rear cabin walls to dry. First, the boilers were installed:





Later the boiler walls and wood piles were cemented in place, along with the catwalk around the boilers:





The remaining main deck braces were added next:









And that completes this short tour of Maddog Manufacturing on this Christmas day! Thank you all for looking in, comments are welcome!

[kyledehart5]

An excellent and unexpected Christmas tour of the factory! Making some nice progress across the board there. Nice work.

[dukemaddog]

Thank you Kyle! I hope to show one more tour before re-opening in 2024