test builders for recolors

[lfuente]

Good (or meh) news, everyone! I finally tracked down the source of the VW Beetle model I used, thanks to the WayBack Machine and an old paper model list.

As I suspected, the original version was cyan and was created by a VW enthusiast who also posted stuff about fixing and maintaining the real car. I'm guessing his last name is Nao and first name starts with U - 'he' since it's unlikely to be a Japanese woman, no sexism intended.

Other than the credits, nothing else in the file has changed.

Originally Posted by lfuente

I honestly tried to find the original source of this VW Beetle for proper attribution, but even the previous recolorers admit ignorance (help anyone?).

For the record it has appeared in cyan, Emma Swan yellow, Inspector Gadget red white and blue, Brazilian Police black and white, Kansas University Ecohawk red yellow and blue, green and black, and the ever popular #53 racer Herbie in white. I just picked the cleanest, highest resolution image and went from there.

Maybe it's the cop car hangover from the Eureka Jeep, but here are 4 liveries for Philippine Police VW Beetles for these cities: Marikina and Las Pinas in white, Pasay City in red then Quezon City in black, only the last has no roof light. I've supplied period correct 1965-1967 'towel rail' bumpers and government license plates. The red version has real plates while the others have plausible ones, as determined from period photos.

As usual, these will be available pending moderator approval.

[Comradesoldat]

I've been distracted for the past few days as something was bothering me about the Knight Bus. I thought it'd be nice to have the characters accompany the bus in a diorama, and thought I'd seen 2D paper flats somewhere. I finally turned up some, but only Death Eaters at this webpage:
https://www.deviantart.com/paladin-e...aters-91302037

There's a link that should lead to a file with the main characters, but it's broken. Since I'm not a member can a Deviantart member reading this contact the author and ask him about it? He's commented that he'd like to see his files used, and this is as good a reason as any.

And take time to browse his site, there's plenty of useful figures in 1:72 scale.

Alright. I got ahold of him for you; He said it's fine, so long as he gets credits and would appreciate a link to the finished product.

[lfuente]

That's great, thanks a lot!

Could you PM me his email address, or maybe pass on my thanks? The KnightBus file is in our downloads section, in the vehicles subsection. He's more than welcome to download it, or I can email it to him directly.

And if you use the same ID on Deviantart, you do great stuff too!

[lfuente]

(Before I forget, I just realized my VW Beetle police car collection is 1:68, not 1:72 - will fix that when I get a chance)

Just uploaded 4 new recolors!

First, my long delayed recolors of Tak Nagasawa's Beechcraft V35 V-tail Bonanza and Mooney M20J MSE into Philippine registered examples.

It's a bit sad that the only photos online of RP-C446 and RP-C1140 are from airport scrapyards. In fact the fuselage is only the only identifiable piece of RP-C1140, but its Mooney 201 factory colors allowed me to recreate the complete plane.

Next I fudged the 1965 and 1966 Mercury Monterey 2-door sedan from the Papercars.net 1964? Lincoln Continental - dimensions were close, and the Monterey was styled after the Lincoln anyway. Wheels look too big, though.

Finally I took a hard look at the Paperizedcrafts.com Kindig 1965 Ford Galaxie - Paulo did a good job capturing the essential shape, but I found it too flat and boxy. After a lot of thought I hit on the idea of continuing the graphics onto external tabs, to add layers to the tops of fenders and front grille. Depending on the paper thickness, the plain tabs for folded additional layers are optional. Corners of the tail lights should be trimmed for a better look.

Probably the most work went into the 'de-Kindig' of Paulo's graphics - mind you, I have absolutely nothing against Dave Kindig and I do enjoy his show (the 'not allowed' symbol is just my way of poking fun). It's just my goal was to create a plain vanilla version that could be seen on Philippine streets from 1965 and 1966, so I'd like to see your builds.

Incidentally, can somebody confirm if the 1971 Ford Galaxie is essentially the same car as the 1970 Ford LTD with a different front and rear? Could be my new project, based on Blake7's 1971 Galaxie.

As usual these will be available pending moderator approval.

[lfuente]

My recolor of Gary Pilsworth's Beech 18 was announced on his 'name this bird' thread days ago, but I'll put the update here.

I had to digitally sharpen Gary's JPEG files so lines would be thin and clean, but was unable to remove some artifacts and lost gradients on the landing gear assemblies and exhausts. The landing gear got pasted back but I forgot the exhausts, which are back now in file v1.

The artifacts cluster near lines and actually look like weathering, which is fine with me. In contrast the registrations were very sharp edged so I experimented with making them fuzzy and weathered, saved in file v2.

Since the original file was incomplete I replaced it with these new ones, apologies to the early downloaders.

And go read about 'Pappy' Gunn, he's one incredible guy who kept flying in the Philippines until he crashed in a storm on 11 October 1957!

[lfuente]

New recolors for today are the Daimler Fleetline and Sentinel Steam Waggon.

The Fleetline XF double decker bus is the oldest version from 1965, and just so people don't think all London buses are red, comes in blue/silver and green/yellow versions.

Minimodel.cz is a treasure trove of 1:100 models, even if they lean heavily towards eastern European vehicles. The 1920s Skoda Sentinel was hard to find among the hundreds on offer, and immediately intrigued me when I learned it was license built from the Sentinel Steam Waggon company.

My Corgi reference photos were of the later 1930s version, so I changed the wheels and added a few parts like the fenders and windshield. The windshield wraps around the chimney and back to the cabin rear, which could just be edge glued without needing tabs - refer to pictures of the Corgi models. Of the three versions included, my favorite has to be the Guinness flatbed, but the stanchions and chains in the back are left as an exercise for the builder.

As usual these will be available pending moderator approval.

[lfuente]

Back to Philippine subject recolors, this time it's the 1:20 Mercedes Benz L1113 short bonnet truck tractor by Joao Carlos at CEMODELAZIL.

Both recolors are of San Miguel Brewery MB L1113 (or similar model) truck tractors: the first based on a photo of the first group ever delivered to SMB, 1970-1973 based on the blurry license plate (plausible period appropriate plate included, but not the tall exhaust pipe with filter). The second is based on a photo taken 2000-2010 of a contract hauler's truck (real plate included), which would be around 40 years old! Neither displays San Miguel Beer markings, which were usually emblazoned on the trailers.

I'd long wanted to recolor this type assembled in the Philippines, but with lots of tiny parts shrunk from 1:20 to 1:72 I'm not sure I could build this. Good luck to the builders!

As usual these will be available pending moderator approval.

[lfuente]

Thanks for approving my last upload, Rick. By my reckoning I've added over 150 distinct recolors as of 2 uploads ago, so I wanted to try something different.

I've long admired the work of Fabrizio Prudenziati, but never did see him create opponents for his 90mm French soldiers. But as a fan of Napoleonic naval fiction, I've always wondered if adapting a Royal Navy officer from Zio's modular parts was possible.

Here's my best work so far, my recoloring skills were stretched to new limits. Online research suggested the 1807 Chasseur as the closest basis for conversion into a Lieutenant in 1795 undress uniform, and I opted for the closed jacket as it was easiest. The collar, breeches, stockings and sword were cut and paste from his other soldiers, and the Ravensblight flintlock could be a generic dueling pistol (toss the oversize trigger and round a thin strip for the trigger guard).

The bicorne/cocked hat is my simple version (tabs are pink, and the ring covers the inside uncolored edge), which should be worn parallel to the shoulders. There's a choice of 3 heads, with one bareheaded version.

I've maximized the page size to match Zio's 90mm scale, and if you've built his other models this should be more of the same (except half his original pixel resolution). If there's interest in more recolors I can whip up a quick conversion of the Fusilier into a French Marine with just a change of hat and breeches.

Some ideas for diorama displays
Download Sets lots of scenery
PAPERMAU: Papermau Original lots of buildings
TCF Gaming :: Naval Cannon (1:35 scale matches 45mm/1:36 version)

Dutch cannon from the Wayback Machine!
https://web.archive.org/web/20170404...f%20310310.pdf

As usual, this will be available after moderator approval.

[lfuente]

Too late to edit my previous post, but just need to add that Zio seems to use Letter size paper instead of A4 for his soldier figures.

I'll need to change the scaling conversion information on the file after the moderator approves it, multiple pages per Letter sheet don't have the same proportions (and therefore scales) as A3/A4/A5 sheets.

[lfuente]

Once again I feel I'm talking to myself, but there's more news for Fabrizio Prudenziati fans. Following my Navy Lieutenant I did a couple more recolors, with this caveat - the only British firearm Zio released was the Rourke's Drift infantry rifle, which is too modern for the Napoleonic era. It's quite plausible soldiers picked up enemy muskets and carried them, but I've opted to exclude them.

The first is a British 16th Regiment Light Dragoon 'The Queen's Own' in 1815 campaign dress - didn't do his mount, but the horse from Zio's Hussar may be a reasonable match.

The second is a British Light Infantryman from the 52nd 'Oxfordshire' or the 71st 'Glasgow Highland' Regiments of Foot in 1815 campaign dress. I was really hitting my stride when I did these and I'm really happy with them, even managing to create 8 variants in one file! Aside the 2 named regiments there's a choice of 2 heads and 2 ranks. I suggest adding fuzzy string or yarn to the outside edge of the wing epaulets.

I've read through old threads that wished Zio had gotten around to creating British soldiers and other opponents. Now I don't claim to be as good as the late master, but for what it's worth here are some of the missing ones.

Oops! The text files read 57th when it should be 52nd Regiment, but the graphics are correct -will correct that when I can.

Hope you enjoy building them as much as I did recoloring (and hope Zio's pleased)!

As usual these will be available after moderator approval.