Newbie Alert! Newbie Alert!

[Kevan Bailey]

Right, then. My first group build.

Saw this build a couple of days ago, thought it sounded interesting but had no idea what to make. Then I discover the Airfix sale and amongst everything else (don't tell Mrs Bailey, she thinks I've cut down to one a week) I order a pair of nice modern Landrovers in 1/48. Don't I have some 28mm SAS guys somewhere? Nearly the same scale, so as far as I'm concerned, a match made in Heaven. Probably fits onto a CD. Off we go!

As I've no idea when the Landies will arrive (if they're anything like our old one, their head gaskets have probably blown and they're in a layby outside St Albans waiting for the AA) I've made a start on the troopers. By the end of the the day they're coming along nicely, although Terry Taliban's missing his beard as I hate painting beards; I'll do that in the next session when I'm fresher. Don't know about anyone else, but my eyesight's had it after about five hours.



I think the one on the left is in charge and his name's Chris.

[jssel]

Hi Van. Interesting. Will be watching.

[AndrewR]

Nice. Where are the figures from?

[JohnRatzenberger]

Wow, quick work !

[Kevan Bailey]

Andrew: The figures are by Empress Miniatures, from their Modern Combat range. Very excellent stuff, especially the Spanish Civil War figures. I don't do wargaming, but I seem to have a stack of things like this squirrelled away. I like 28mm figures, and one day I will complete my Last Stand of the 44th at Gandamack, honestly.

John: I got this far in 6 hours. These figures are quick to work with and I usually paint one at a time, as the drying time is negligible. I'm using Vallejo paints on these and I wanted to see how the washes I've just bought work on them with my "impressionistic" approach to painting. I don't think they stand up to close scrutiny!

[Kevan Bailey]

Finally, the Landrover has arrived!

Couldn't believe my luck here as Mrs. Bailey is out and so it's been no problem at all smuggling in the rest of the stuff in the massive package (with, admittedly, not a lot in it, but questions would be raised at PMQT ,that is, Paranoid Modeller's Question Time) the postie left by the door. I'll throw the chassis together in the morning; fingers crossed it will fit onto a CD.

[Kevan Bailey]

Just thought I'd post up this image of the bits before I get started:





Got to say, I'm surprised at how much flash there is for a new-ish kit. If I'd paid twenty quid for this, I might have been a tad disappointed, but, for a fiver, I'm prepared to get scraping.

[splash]

I just received my set of LR's from the Airfix winter sale, first impressions are very good, they both look like very good kits, unfortunately my set came minus the instructions and decals, so I have had to email Airfix to get them to send me the missing items.

Your figures look excellent, I will enjoy watching the rest of your build.

Regards Splash

[Molly-new]

Quite a comprehensive number of parts there Kevan, I hope it is going to fit on the CD.

[Kevan Bailey]

Sounds like you got a bad one there, Splash. If your instructions don't turn up in the next few days, let me know and I'll scan mine for you. Just so that you're forewarned, it took me two hours to clean up the WMIK sprues this morning.

Fortunately, it does fit on the CD, but I'm going to have to cull the personnel a bit as, in the words of the song, It's Getting Mighty Crowded! Perhaps that might be a good title......

[Kevan Bailey]

Just mocked up a base and it really does all fit. Cinderella shall go to the ball!




The figures are all finished now, so I'll get on with the Landy. Nothing much else to do today as it's cold, wet and generally horrible here in windswept Lincolnshire. They say the wind blows all the way from the Urals, but some days you'd think it was the urinals.......

[Arcwelder]

Looking mighty good, there. I lived in Cambridgeshire many years ago and used to speculate how much of a bloke spitting into the wind in Siberia was getting blown at me at any given moment.

[Stuart]

Those figures look good!

[Kevan Bailey]

If anyone was wondering where this thread had disappeared to, it's not because I'd given up (which I'm frequently inclined to do, what with a hopeless Eduard 1/48 Camel and a Tamiya Jeep recently swept off the bench and into the bin. Gotta be ruthless.) but because I've had a particularly arthriticky couple of weeks. Pleased say that now my fingers no longer look like bockwurst and there's still two days to go!

So, to continue...............

I'd managed to get the Landie mostly together when the Great Modeller in the Sky suggested I should knock it off for a bit. The body parts were sprayed with Vallejo Iraqi Sand:






Unfortunately I didn't listen, and made a right mess of it to the point where I thought I was going to have to buy another and start again. But, as of this morning, it's looking a little better:





At the same time I've been putting the base together. I'd mocked one up from some packaging material so that I could get the vehicle and figure positions right, with the intention of making a proper one later. Well, later's here now so I borrowed Mrs. Bailey's Polyfilla-in-a-tube and daubed it all over the mock-up. When it dried I gave it a blast-over with the nearest thing to hand and here we have.......





........ a Sainsbury's double chocolate chip cookie! Or something to do with cows. It will get better, honestly. Hopefully I'll have it all done by tomorrow.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Keep going !