Midweek Medley

 This week's catch so far:

See what you think?

In Wetherby, a large David Bowie framed print £5

In Fitzwilliam, various: JR21 TB3 minus engine £1 ( I have a spare engine somewhere!) , Swing Wing Jet minus tail £1, Night of the Ghouls VHS video £1, diver roller 30p, Ryan's Spy Case £1 ...

Japanese phones ( came with long green wire): needs attention, 30p

I passed on a boxed set of Denys Fisher Speed Burners ( Mego 1974). £25 was too steep for me but the two golden cars were fabulous.

I need to start selling now! 

Arto's Wait of 15 years is Over: The Telex X-300!

I've finally obtained a complete example of the X-300 Space Cruiser made in 1955 by the Finnish plastics manufacturer Telex!

Finding a complete one has been my quiet obsession for the last 15 years, and now that it is finally here I took a X-300 family photo! 

Enjoy!

From left: Pyro (US), Telex (FIN) with box, Kleeware (UK).

Have you an X-300?

Arto

Helsinki Base

Secret Rendezvous

 Some snaps of my latest car boot cars, both very slickish CIA and FBI!

Looey's Make Your Own Starship Enterprise

Like buses, you wait for Star Trek and a bunch come all at once!

A Star Trek TOS Enterprise to go with the TMP punch out model lady month!

Enjoy more

Looey

Oz Base

Rob's Kibri HO Tank Truck Station

Woodsy,

Here is a Kibri HO scale Tank Truck Station I recently snagged off eBay. 

It was partially assembled and missing a few parts, but I wanted to resurrect it to go with the Kibri Esso Fuel Tanks I got many years ago. 

This kit was imported into the US by Polks Hobbies, under their Aristo-Craft brand. Circa 1960.

Hope you all like it.

Rob Craig

USA

Ed's Star Trek Blueprints

Woodsy,

You guys are a bad influence - in a good way 🙂

I got to thinking of the few Star Trek items I had back in the day, and one of them was this set of blueprints for the U.S.S. Enterprise NC1701. 

I bought mine at a bookstore in a mall back in '75 and it was the first edition. Other than the books and the AMT kits for the Enterprise and Klingon Bird of Prey, that was my entire 'collection' back in the '70s - no toys.

Anywho, fortunately, these blueprints are still out there and they're quite reasonably priced. Mine is in overall VG+ condition with a couple of pages a bit yellowed with age, however they are just as I remembered them. 

Whoever was responsible for the interior design of the ship was a genius. It is - to my way of thinking - well laid out and highly detailed. 

There are twelve sheets with each sheet measuring 9" x 30" making it impossible to scan (even with my large format scanner). So I did the next best thing, I photographed them. Enjoy!

From Vegas Base

Ed

The Few Go Camping!

They say the longest journey starts with a single step, and my puppet film project has it's first completed filming miniature!

While researching RAF airfields, I came across a photo in the Imperial War Museum archives.

It was a civilian caravan that had been painted in camouflage and was being used as a Dispersal shack by Hurricane Fighter pilots.

It seemed odd and yet perfect, so I researched more deeply. I shared that information with my co-worker and fact checker, intending to get an approval before I built it Old School style using cardboard and a steel ruler. Taking a break from building a 1/3 scale Spitfire cockpit, he drew up and laser-cut a 1/12 scale prototype kit from MDF before I knew it!

Perfectly following my specifications, it eased my workload, but still allowed me a bit of Old School cutting joy on the window frames!

Then I airbrushed the camouflage and got into detailing and weathering. Because my film will be shot in 4K resolution, I've had to be very subtle with these effects. My old chemical film resolution techniques are too coarse for today's technology. What the eye sees, the camera now sees...

The old motto "You'll never see it" no longer holds true.

The 1940s style cartoon is a story point, where the established pilots make fun of our heroine because of her short stature.

The Squadron crest is a Hedgehog and the Latin motto roughly translates as "Beware the pricks" something she is acutely aware of!

Oh, Derek Meddings! The life you made me follow!

Looey

Oz Base

Ed's Hangar Background

Woodsy,

Here's a few shots showing how I did the hangar background for my air field diorama board.

I took photos of several different types of hangars while attending air shows at Nellis AFB (I'm only showing one here though).

Any distractions - like modern era halogen lights - were Photoshopped out, the photos printed on heavy cardstock, then mounted to foamcore.

I attached a flap at the back with about 2" sticking below the bottom of the foamcore which allowed me to insert the photo between the back of the diorama base and the larger backdrop.

This prevents the photo from just flopping over as well as allowing me to place it anywhere I like. So far, it's worked pretty good.

The in-progress photos were taken on my older 20" x 8ft shelf runway where I used Woodland Scenics 'Top Coat - Concrete' as the color for my ramp (the area in front of the hangars).

It is more of a tan color but did the job for me at the time. You'll notice however that the photo of the actual hangar shows a more realistic light gray forward of the doors, and this is how the new board is painted.

From Vegas Air Field

Ed