Clearwater Models: October 2020

Tuesday 27 October 2020

GUNDAM MERCURIUS MOBILE SUIT OZ-13MSX2

This is Ban Dai's very old (1995) Gundam 1:144 scale"MERCURIUS MOBILE SUIT OZ-13MSX2". I built it because it was cheap and I wanted a three day Covid-19 project.

The flame was done by using Tamiya gloss red acrylic in an airgun, the spraying gloss yellow onto the still wet red edges. The main colour is a Vallejo mecha sand primer with sponges used to add two Tamiya acrylic splotches.

I name this one "Major Alexander Sands, the Sandstorm Soldier"

Major Alexander Sands, the Sandstorm Soldier

Friday 23 October 2020

GUNDAM MS-06FS 'ZAKU II FS' (Ban Dai)

Ban Dai's 1:144 scale Gundam MS-06FS 'Zaku II FS'

The suit is positioned on a chunk of red clay brick to simulate Mars.

Since I know nothing about the Gundam world or about the characters or models, I will just leave it at that.

MS-06FS 'Zaku II FS'

"Keep off my red planet, earthing scum" says MS-06FS 'Zaku II FS'

MS-06FS 'Zaku II FS'

Tuesday 13 October 2020

SUPERMAN (Revell)

This is the very large 1:8 scale Revell re-issue of the SUPERMAN figure from Aurora in 1964. As a youth a built the 1974 re-issue version with the comic book/instruction booklet and full colour backdrop.

Paint is a mix of Vallejo and Tamiya acrylics applied with the air gun. The chest decal took three applications of solv-a-set to sit as flush as possible, but still had to be cut and have some touch-up paint added, and I am still not completely happy with it.

That said, the Superman model kit it was a blast from my childhood past. Also, I built it as a gift for my dear friend Lee who puts the fan in fanatic when it comes to Superman and who nearly went into mourning when Christopher Reeves died. Therefore the face had to be better than my skills allow, so the head and hands were done by Brian Latour - the best face/figure painter in eastern Ontario! Thank you Brian for assisting with this blast-from-the-past Covid-19 project..

SUPERMAN (Revell 1:8). Body and wall by John Clearwater; face and hands by Brian Latour

Superman in bits and Batman with a base coat

Superman waiting for the excellent face and hands done by Brian L.

Thursday 8 October 2020

C62 LOCOMOTIVE - IN PROGRESS

This is a multi-year project which really got kick-started with Covid-19. It is the very large 1:50 scale Japan Rail class C62 steam locomotive C62形 from ARII (#356029) Here are some photos of work in progress.

Hitachi and Kawasaki built 49 of these record-breaking locomotive between 1948 and 1949. Three of the remaining five engines are in Kyoto.

MODEL AUCTION

Yesterday I picked up my winnings at an auction house in Ottawa. Aside from the usual offerings of wooden furniture and bad glassware there was a small selection of plastic models; mostly ships and busses. What caught my eye were all the ocean liner model kits, especially these three which were sold as a single auction lot:

RMS Queen Mary 2, Revell, 1:400 (2004) #05223

RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, Gunze Sangyo, 1:450 (1979, 1986) #G-403

S.S. France, Glencoe, 1:450 (1963, 1996) #09302

I won all three for less than the cost of either the QM2 or the QE2, tax and buyer's premium included. ($135)

The S.S. France solves a small problem in that I could not come up with an appropriate model for the March 2021 "Anything French" contest at IPMS Ottawa. The ship was built in France; served as the country's national fleet flagship; and was conveniently named France. It could not get better than this. as a fallback I could also build the QM2, as this ship was also built in the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France.

However, I have no idea where to store them while they wait for their place in the shipyard which just so happens to be a folding table in my spare bathroom! My wife has already asked where a hull will go each evening once construction begins. Since each is a largely modular build, once the main paint is applied to the components it should be a fairly quick build. Perhaps I can devise a way to hang the hull from the ceiling.

POSTSCRIPT: These do not fit in my home/apartment. Therefore, after storing them for a year and realizing they were never going to fit in the model building space or on any shelve in this place, they were sold off in September 2021. I got my money back, and I do not miss them.

John with the QE2, QM2, and SS France.

Wednesday 7 October 2020

DAHLGREN NAVAL GUN (Verlinden)

It took about six years, but I finally started and finished this Verlinden model #1422 in 1:35 scale of a U.S. Navy Dahlgren 11-Inch Naval Gun this past week. Verlinden of Belgium went out of business in 2016, and the price of their kits has skyrocketed. I paid about $30 for this kit some six years ago. Now it is on ebay for $300. Insanity!

The kit is all resin, so working with it is dangerous in terms of toxic particles. Always wear a particle filter mask. All paints are Vallejo and Tamiya and ModelMaster/Testors acrylics. The kit was missing the necessary amount of pulley rope, so that came from my spare ship parts container.

Wiki says: "Dahlgren guns were muzzle-loading naval artillery designed by Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren USN (1809 – 1870), mostly used in the period of the U.S. Civil War. Dahlgren believed a safer, more powerful naval cannon could be designed using more scientific design criteria. Dahlgren guns were designed with a smooth curved shape, equalizing strain and concentrating more weight of metal in the gun breech where the greatest pressure of expanding propellant gases needed to be met to keep the gun from bursting. Because of their rounded contours, Dahlgren guns were nicknamed "soda bottles", a shape which became their most identifiable characteristic. XI-inch Dahlgren shell gun: 465 were cast at (various locations) between 1856 and 1864. This is the only Dahlgren gun to have been designed both with and without a muzzle swell. The gun was typically mounted on a pivot or in a turret on a monitor. When mounted in a turret, the crew for an XI-inch Dahlgren was seven including powdermen. The crew for the gun when mounted on a pivot was 24 men and a powderman. XI-inch Dahlgrens were carried on (various ships) and monitors as well as the original USS Monitor. Many other conventional ships carried XI-inch Dahlgrens on pivot mounts. A few larger river gunboats also carried XI-inch Dahlgrens."

This version fired a 280 mm, 75 kg ball, about 1000 m.