B4en's Bodgery

[KellerModeller]

The bearcat is almost back to life, looking nice and shiny! Good idea to use the existing decals as basis to replace paint them!

[ShaunW]

That's a great bit of restoration work on the Bearcat, Ben and certainly it's going to get a new lease of life. If it was unfortunate enough to be in my hands, it would have got broken for spares!

[Lone Modeller]

Those markings look as though you had used a replacement set of transfers - they are super!

[B4en]

Thanks guys, it's been satisfying trying to resurrect the old thing. I am pleased with the decals refurb which came out better than I'd expected - even the carrier film is nearly invisible now except when the light catches it.

So almost there now, just some minor filling and painting to do and the stand to finish off. I spent some time earlier on assembling some ordnance. I think it was supposed to carry 500 lb bombs, but I'd got none so smaller ones wil be fitted. The rockets are just plastic rod with stretched sprue.


The windscreen was a pain to fix. When I finally got it assenbled in place I managed to dribble superglue down the inside of the new front pane. The remaining original parts are so fragile I couldn't risk taking it all apart so just had to cover up the mess as best I could. The .50 cals on the wings got tidied up and rockets and bombs attached.

[Andy Dighton]

The Bearcat is certainly looking much better than when you started Ben. It's been an interesting restoration.

[Migrant]

Looks great! I think I might have to add a Hobbyboss Bearcat to my stash.

[JamesPerrin]

Very nice work so far.

[B4en]

Thanks for looking in guys, and I look forward to seeing your Hobbyboss version one of these days Mike!

The Bearcat is as done as it's ever going to be - a bunch of pics here: https://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?p=578369#p578369

Doctored action photo...

[jssel]

That came out really sharp.

[Softscience]

That's an amazing photo, Ben.

[B4en]

Thanks chaps! The photo was mostly luck Ralph - the model wobbled about on the wire stand when I blew on it and I had only a couple of seconds to get a shot before the prop stopped spinning. I took about 10 photos and two came out well. I did put little motors in a few when I was a kid - I remember a bubbletop Thunderbolt had more space so got a larger one and it used to pull itself across the tabletop when I connected the battery!

Predictably the Ace Citroen is already proving to be a belligerent little swine. Typical Ace really... Fragile plastic which breaks parts however much care I put into getting it off the sprue. Sidecutters don't help at all, even when I cut off any excess sprue gates that might put pressure on the parts when snipping the next bit.

To cap it all the front axle - not exactly a tiny part - pinged out of place when being dry fitted, flew towards me, and instead of landing in my lap vanished into M-space. The torch found no trace of it anywhere - I even dropped a similar sized piece on the carpet and it showed up fine! Looks like I have to make a new axle. This would have been the first part to glue into place. Yay.

[iggie]

The carpet monster is the master of mystery and irony

[B4en]

The carpet monster is the master of mystery and irony

Didn't Douglas Adams come up with the idea of a pocket dimension filled with odd socks and missing biros? Or was that Alan Moore? I think we can add kit parts to the list of occupants.

I was out most of yesterday so didn't get much done on the Citroen. Further intensive searching failed to find the missing axle so I knocked up a new part from plastic rod and card. Once that was in place the broken part (mounting for the front bumper) could be glued together in situ, so that was an easier fix than I expected. After cleanup and some careful bending the bumper itself went on easily - about 3 minutes later I found I'd put it on upside down. Doh. The glue hadn't set at that point so again an easy fix. Phew!

Free day today so hopefully I can get plenty done. I have a couple of vignette ideas for this - currently veering towards a civilian rather than a military version as it'll give me a chance to practice a glossy finish some more.

[Stuart]

Didn't Douglas Adams come up with the idea of a pocket dimension filled with odd socks and missing biros? Or was that Alan Moore? I think we can add kit parts to the list of occupants.

That sounds like something Douglas Adams would have come up with, it's up there with his planet inhabited by sentient mattresses.

Despite it's best efforts to the contrary, this is looking good!

[iggie]

Didn't Douglas Adams come up with the idea of a pocket dimension filled with odd socks and missing biros? Or was that Alan Moore? I think we can add kit parts to the list of occupants.

That sounds like something Douglas Adams would have come up with, it's up there with his planet inhabited by sentient mattresses.

Despite it's best efforts to the contrary, this is looking good!

It was indeed Douglas Adams; Veet Voojagig is a philosopher who meets Zaphod Beeblebrox in a bar. After this fateful meeting he begins an investigation on where all the missing biros, an English term for ball point pens, have gone to. He publishes a paper claiming they all disappear to a planet with the ideal biro lifestyle. He then claimed to Jane found the planet and indeed, he worked there as a chauffer to a family of cheap green biros...