2016

Hi all!

Still around?

Well I hope you had some wonderful holidays and time with the family.

Now that the year is coming to a close, I want to thank you all for being part of the journey.

In 2016 my wife and I did quite some travel and met many nice people.

But I also had considerable hobby time and I was able to finish 4 projects completely this year!

 

In February I finished the "Raiders of the Lost Light" diorama.

That was quite lot of work and fun.

Many new thing I tired. Worked a lot with the airbrush and experimented with artificial spider webs.

In the wake of the Raiders I built the "Rumble in the Rubble" diorama.

While actually not a bad diorama it isn't as captivating as the Raiders, and lack a bit of focus.

Nevertheless a fun project.

In May I completed the "Meeting of Scouts" diorama.

This one I've built specifically for the Scale Model Addict "Big Spring Contest" and I got a "Silver" for it :)

One vehicle is based on the EPIALES family and the other is wheeled scout vehicle.

In June I finally finished the ATHENA!

 

Started in 2009 I spent about 12 months working on it. 

It went through many redesigns and survived one major accident (as well as it outlived 3 cats *sniff*).

I'm mighty glad I was able to finish it :)

In August we got our two cats and hobby time declined rapidly :)

But I was able to finish one Dr Who sculpture in time for Christmas (not my wife's birthday as planned)

 

I also have several started sculptures that would like to get some attention....

 

 

But they'll have to wait till next year :)
I have started something new - but am not sure how far I'll get with it.

Many projects ideas are percolating in the back of my head, but none is yet bursting out.

:D

Well, last not least, Ben and Luna, are wishing you a good time.

And they keep a close eye on what's going on on my desk.

 

So I hope you all had a good 2016 and I wish you an even better 2017!

Have a good time.

Cheers

Klaus

Still around!

Hi all,

sorry for the long silence.

I'm still around, alive and well :)

The reason for the absence are these two cuties :)

 

Luna and Ben on 27th August as they arrived in our house.

I spent some time improving my woodworking and building some "scratch-trees"

 

 

Which they enjoy using :)

 

I also managed to build some toys and cleverness-games for them

 

By now they've grown considerably - Ben now weighting a hefty 3600 grams :)

 

And they claim some space on my desk :D

 

 

But they are worth any minute

 

And with November 21st (wife birthday) and Christmas fast approaching it's also time to think about presents.

Since my wife is a huge Dr. Who fan I wanted to try something new and sculpted this little fellow, based on the 10th Doctor.

 

Sculpted with SuperSculpey

 

As usual I mix 50:50 the grey "firm" and the skin colored "standard" to get a good sculpting mass.

 

 

Pleased with the first character I did another one, based on the 11th Doctor.

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see here I started with the 50:50 mix and then finished the finer details with the soft standard SuperSculpey.

 

They are now ready for painting.

Another project I started is a zodiac sign for my father.

He's "Pisces" or "Fishes" as we Germans say :)

So I did some sketches

 

 

 

and started with a quick sculpt test

 

 

 And started with a wire ring

 

closely observed by Ben :)

 

And, to keep the schedule buys, I decided to finally paint the dragon rider

 

 

So he received a coat of black primer and is now ready to be painted....one of these days.

There are some WH40K related ideas percolating in the back of my head, including the air assault with the HERMES, but they are not yet at boiling point :)

That's it for today.

Thank you for your interest and your patience.

Best Wishes

Klaus

HERMES MkII Air Assault (3)

Hi all,

thank you for your feedback and comments.

In my part of Germany the summer is very hot and very humid - murky - and we have quite a lot thunderstorms.

One could say Germany now has "rainy season".
It makes working and live a bit exhausting, breaking sweat just by moving a finger :P

But I got to work a bit more on the HERMES.

I started off with cutting the wood to the base size (30x30cm).

Then I built up the mountain on which the air assault is to happe´n.

I used Styrofoam as base.

And covered everything up with cheap masking tape.

I want it to look as if the HERMES is hovering above ground while unloading the troops.

Once satisfied with everything I covered it with instant plaster.

And while the plaster was still wet I added sand and little rocks. The sand is standard bird cage sand and some small black deco rocks.

The HERMES on the cured mountain section.

While the plaster cured I started to build some assault rifles and dismantled heavy weapons.
You can see I folded the tripod for the heavy Bolter and mounted the bi-pod for the mortar to the tube in a folded position.

Next I started to position the troops.

As you can see there's still a lot to do, much, much cleanup.

What do you think so far?
Cheers

Klaus

HERMES MkII Air Assault (2)

Hi all,

thank you for your feedback and comments.

In case you haven't seen it, I merged all ATHENA posts into one page:

 http://fischers-design-shop.blogspot.de/p/athena.html

But be warned, it is huge and will take a long time to load.

The build of the HERMES continued over the last few days, and I think I made good progress.

First I added the intake fan.

 

 

Then the first armor panels and the front grill.

 

More panels.

 

After that I started to build up the passenger pod.

 

 

Fits snugly under the body.

 

Other than the VIP pod, this one has sliding doors.

 

 

 

As Malevengion commented:

One thing I wonder about the HERMES design is how is it intended to maneuver? It's got plenty of thrust and vectored thrust nozzles for VTOL capability but seems a bit light on control surfaces. Of course, it's a bit of a roar in there and cause carnage sort of aircraft so it works (and it's looking good too!) but that's just my take. I look forward to seeing this diorama come along!

Maneuver? We're Imperial Guard! We only go straight! And we're only going forward 'cause we can't find reverse :)

Just kidding.
I added some flaps to the fins (top and side) that should allow some additional maneuver force to the various thrusters.

With most of the inside completed I worked on the passenger pod.

First was the bench.

 

 

GreenStuff for the cushions.

 

 

And some holders for the seats (in open position).

 

 

Mounted together with some grab handles.

 

Almost done!

Still needs the lights and a million of rivets :)

 

I really like this version of the HERMES.

What do you think?
Cheers

klaus