I finally started work on the last (I think) member of the Opus flight wing, an airborne early warning (AEW) craft, similar to the E-2 Hawkeye. I have had the model for some time but I could not figure out how to make the wings fold as the need to fold back along the body. This was extra tricky as I was using the Valkyrie as a base, and the model has wings that angle down so they had to fold with the tips going inwards and not outwards. That meant that the wings needed to fold downward and rotate, and that is kind of the same way gravity works on the wings which makes it tricky to keep them up. I solved it by friction and two small latches that can swing in beneath the wings to prevent them dropping when I want the model in flight mode.
Another obstacle was what to make the radar disc from. I did not have any suitable disc that could be used. I was thinking about using a large round base, but I did not have any spare so I decided to make the disk from scratch. The center is a plane 2 mm thick 10 cm diameter plasticard disk. The top and bottom disks were made from disks of 0.5 mm plasticard, with sections cut out to make them angle up a bit. Over all I think it is coming together nicely. Need to make a more permanent attachment for the disk and start with the wheels. Then I need to make some internal operator stations where combat command can lead the airwing operations and guide the Opus Magna's artillery. There is still a lot to do on this, but I guess that it will have to mature a bit at a time as the rest of the flight wing.
I also started work on the 30K Skitarii I got for my birthday from the Wifey. I really like the look of these models. Sadly there are only four poses, and there are 16 models in the box, but it turns out the arms are interchangeable so basically the four set of arms can be permutated through the four poses to get all individual looks. The bodies were prepped and painted in my standard rusted metal look. For the coats I tried a new technique, egging. This was also a present from the Wifey, it is a makeup sponge in the shape of an egg that has very fine pores so that one can get smooth blending's on flat and textured surfaces without dry brushing. I hope this can be a solution to a problem that I have been having, namely that to get smooth blends with dry brushing I usually need to use 6-10 layers of paint, and it has a tendency to stripp the paint back to the base coat on raised sharp surfaces. In this way I can get a base blend without wearing the layers down. I am pretty happy with how it turned out, but I still need to do some more experimenting with this to see how far I can take it. I also need to see how long the sponge holds upp before it is to clogged with paint to work properly.
