Vacation Modeling

My better half decided she wanted to participate in a horse show that frankly was more clinic than a show. 10 days of riding culminating in 3 “rounds” where she actually showed. Cool enough but what does that have to do with modeling?

Our dog is old, too old for a kennel. That means I was going to spend 2 weeks at home dog-sitting while my wife was having fun down in Florida. She was reluctant to go simply because it meant a 2 day drive each way (she has a lot of stuff that she had to take like saddle, boots, clothing, etc.). So I offered, “I can drive down with you, dog-sit there and bring my mobile modeling toolkit and do what I was going to do with you gone.” She then made some calls and got us a home rental that was perfect. A place to walk the dog and I can set up for the duration and focus on modeling.

I brought too many models, but then again I wasn’t sure what my mood would be once I started.

I decided to begin by working a bit more on the March Madness build with a goal to be ready for masking, primer, and paint. The details and updates are in separate posts but here is the Airfix 1/48 Spitfire TR.9 built as a TR.8, buttoned up and awaiting the clear bits.

After the first week I then shifted to an Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk Ia. Using AK Markers I quickly got to a point where I could assemble the fuselage.

Within an hour it was ready for masking, primer, and paint.

Next I opened the shelf-of-doom Spitfire box which had an Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk 22 and Special Hobby 1/72 Seafire FR.46 with 3 added Mk 22 kits and conversions to make another FR.46, Mk 24 and an upgraded Mk 22. Since I had the SH kit planned for sitting on a base, I decided the conversion would be another Seafire, the F.46 (no cameras) in flight. Easy to do given the Airfix kit comes ready to be in flight out of the box.

By end of the second day I had two more models ready for masking, priming, and paint.

On day 3 I decided to open my Ki-84 batch build shelf-of-doom which had 6 cockpits completed with fuselages already painted. Four Hasegawa and 2 Arma Hobby. I decided to focus on the Hasegawa and build one in-flight and the other 3 on their feet. If time permitted I’d tackle the Arma Hobby kits, but they are more complicated and would likely take just as much time as the 4 Hasegawa kits.

A bit more cleanup that I’d thought, this actually took a few days to get them ready for masking, primer, and paint. Hmm, as usual I was in the moment and forgot to take more pictures.

While waiting for some cement to dry I opened up a Walthers N scale local business building played around with markers to determine what colors I want to ultimately paint the stores. I’ll need to strip as I learned that markers work well on small areas but large flat areas are hit/miss.

Below is the family photo of all 10 models ready for masking, primer, and paint after 10 days of focused modeling!