Old Dog, New Tricks

This is my first post for the Spru Cutters Union for 2015 after a break of around 6 months I think. This post is all about what I intend on doing new this year where modelling is concerned. In all honesty I made up my mind what I was going to do after making my "shop van" last year. Basically it was an extremely cheap 1/35 kit of a Ford model T. Being as it was the only version of this vehicle available on the market I bought it not knowing just how bad the quality of the kit was going to be. I am always up for a challenge and decided that it had probably been improved by another brave (or foolhardy) modeller like myself in the past. With that in mind I decided upon doing something different with it and converted it into a shop van version of the vehicle using a lot of plastic card and glue!  I realised at the end that I had loads of fun doing it and made a mental note to do something like this again.

Well as 2015 loomed and the Christmas bills rolled in I found myself looking for a new kit but could not justify the cost of my normal kits knowing full well that my wife and daughter had been armed with a detailed list of models for my Christmas presents! I rummaged around the model stash in search of inspiration and suddenly there it was in front of me!! A Tamiya Walker Bulldog in 1/35. This kit has been around since the 1970's and is well known for its inaccuracies and lack of detail when compared to its modern counterparts. It is however extremely cheap in comparison to other tank kits in this scale. I immediately began researching the tank itself and looking at other modellers attempts at improving this kit. I decided on the same course of action but I also opted for keeping the improvement costs to an absolute minimum thereby challenging my modelling abilities to the limit instead of opting for the upgrade and after-market kits available. For those of you who read my web site regularly you will probably be aware of the fact that keeping costs to a minimum is something of a crusade for me  in recent years. This is not because I am cheap or tight fisted (my wife would disagree) but because I am getting increasingly irritated by companies who sell you a kit and then offer an upgrade kit to go with it at almost the same price or after-market companies offering upgrade kits for twice the price of the model because they are well aware of the modelling communities desire to make the best kits available to them. I was really happy with the fruits of my labours and the link to view how I did it is here

I will also be kicking off the new year with a new workbench. I recently bought an old writing bureau

and restored it to its former glory, then adapted the interior to modelling rather than writing needs. I am really happy with the result and you can read all about this here

So my "theme" for 2015 is to take this old dog with the tricks that I've learned over the years and apply them to "tricking out" some old and tired kits or alternatively taking on new but undesirable kits (because of cost or detail) and turning them into something unexpected that I am proud to display on my website. 

So far the plans are:

RPM 1/35 beetle

Tamiya Bren Carrier

2nd hand Tamiya Ronin figures

How successful I will be in pulling these projects off I have no idea, but what I do know is that I will have a lot of fun in the process and of course I'll share their progress with you on my site. I hope that you all have a fantastic new year with lots of models and paint fumes!


If you enjoyed reading this article then why not click this LINK and have a look at the other members contributions for this months subject.