Wednesday, March 16, 2011

New Tool

Just a brief update, I ordered a couple of Punch and Die sets from UMM that arrived today. One is a set of round punches in 6 sizes(0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, and 1.6 mm) ...





...and the second is a set of 4 hex punches (0.8, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4mm).





I've have a Waldron Punch and Die set for 25+ years, and it has served me well (and will continue to). The UMM round set has several sizes that bridge some size gaps, and the Hex set was something I've always wanted. It probably won't be very useful from braille scale kits, but the .8mm punch looks like it will come in very handy for 48 scale Sherman's, and the larger sizes look great for 35 scale kits.

I was a little concerned about the design of the sets., but they appear to work just fine to me. I've included pictures of some .010 plastic that I punched out.

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Oh my!

It's almost been a year since I've posted anything. It's not that I haven't been building anything, I just haven't felt like blogging about it. My modelling interests have been straying away from braille scale armor subject too. So I think I'll start posting about whatever is currently catches my modelling fancy.

Fist up, a friend has been bugging me to share pictures of the finished Cromwell. I've competed it at a couple of shows: my own IPMS club's MarauderCon and 2010's IPMS Region 2 show, and placed in both. I might bring it to this years AMPS, I might not. It depends on how long I plan to stay at the show.



...and just to prove I haven't abandoned braille scale altogether, here's my Dragon M4A1 which I'm modelling as Derby. A 3rd Armor Tank from Normandy. The "big" progress I've made is adding the rucksacks to the turret. I've got a few more tidbits to add to the turret before I start painting. Missing from the picture is the pile of stowage that sits on a pallet strapped to the back of the tank.




Now is when I start to stray from the braille scale a little. After working on the Tamiya M4, I caught the 48th scale bug, and I've been picking up various 1/48 scale armor kits. Here is the Hobbyboss KV-1 "Ehkranmi." A vary nice kit, and a scaled down Trumpeter KV-1 from what I've heard. It was a lot of fun to build, and went together without any major problems. It's basically out of the box, although I did add an RB barrel (the bore of the kit part was off center) and some PE engine grills by Hauler.





and then I stray a little further. I've had the 1/35 Skybow Beep on the shelf for years. Well now it's in my build pile. I've downloaded the Tech Manuals (available for free on the internet archive) and plan to wire it all up. So far I've got most of the engine wired. I tride using brass and lead wire, but ended up using stretched spue (a lot easier to glue).





...andthen I really start to stray! Back to my first love 1/48 scale WWII Aircraft....well really any aircraft. I just took pictures of the Accurate Miniatures Yak-1. A really nice kit, although I hear it's got some serious shape issues because they tried to make too many Yak varriants out of it. It doesn't matter to me as it's such a nice kit, that looks the part enough for me. The build is basically out of the box, with the exception of seat belts that I made from lead foil.







I've been working on lots of other aircraft that I'll probably post later, as well as some 28mm War Gaming figures, that I'm primarily using to try and improve my figure painting skills. Oh well that's it for now.