Surf - Design Planet Blurp No.83

My Neuschwanstein Castle Model by Doyusha - Progress Report No.3:

(continued from Surf - Design Planet Blurp No.80)
(continued from Surf - Design Planet Blurp No.81)
(continued from Surf - Design Planet Blurp No.82)

Castle Foundation:

Before starting to paint and assemble the castle building parts shown above and below, I hand-detailed/textured, in shades of Light to Medium Greys, the lower castle's stone foundation walls all the way around.

And on the model's mountain base, I applied some scrub grass areas. Future shrub and trees will be added as noted in my blog no. 81. As my model will appear to be in the early Autumn/Fall time of year I used a brownish grass mixture with a little green grass. Scenic cement was brushed on to my chosen grass areas, and then the mixture was sprinkled over. The model was tilted and tapped to remove excess material, and then vacuumed up.

Assembling and Detailing the Castle Buildings:

Previously, I had looked up photo detail reference on the internet on the Royal Neuschwanstein Castle in West Germany. These were saved in a folder for their future use. As I was now ready to start painting some of the castle's many parts, I printed out a few of the best photos for color and detail use.

The first thing that I did was to organize all of the roof, turret tower, stair, chimney parts etc. into separate styrofoam trays (old food trays that were cleaned) These are also great for holding larger parts while paint spraying.

All parts were cleaned and sprayed with an Acrylic White Primer. All castle wall and roof parts were removed from the sprues, but their part number was written on the part's underside. Smaller parts, such as chimney parts were left on their sprues - they look similar but they fit differently.

The Doyusha manufactured model's instructions are in Japanese, with limited broken English underneath. This does not hinder assembly at all, as the Illustrations are excellent (sample above).

All of the roof parts were painted using an Acrylic Paynes Grey (a blackish/blueish dark grey). Then Paynes Grey was mixed with different small amounts of a Medium Grey with the addition of Liquitex Matte Medium. This gives the color transparency letting the underlay color show through. This was brush on by following the lines of the linear metal/slate roofs.

The Castle's Entrance

Tower, Turret, Stone Wall & Mural Detail

Castle Wall, Roof & Chimney Detail

Before mixing a large amount of the Castle's Medium/Light Grey Wall Color, I decided to paint all the small castle wall parts that were of different colors. I studied my reference photos for accuracy. The front castle's entrance parts contained two colors of brick-stone, as well as top dirty stone parapet walls. The larger rear castle building contained various trim/ledges , turrets and chimney parts in a yellow ochre/beige color.

Camera Flash tends to make the images a little blue looking.

Once all of the small components, roof parts, and the building trim were painted, I mixed in a sealable container the overall wall color - a Light/Medium Grey Acrylic. This was hand-painted to all of the stone grey castle walls.

Later I will apply a transparent wash of Light Beige mixed with 60 percent Acrylic Matte Medium over the Grey coat to warm up the stone a little.

The Castle's Front Entrance Building and a couple of other components have been glued into place on its foundation. Other castle buildings and their roof will be applied later, as I am presently waiting for an order of Switch, Battery-operated LED Lights to arrive. The LED's will be placed within the Castle Diorama Display to illuminate the windows when in a dim room. I purchased the LED Lights from Evan Designs in Broomfield, CO.

March 12 - 4pm- LED Lights arrived.
March 13 - Morning - Taped 3 sets of LED Lights onto the interior walls of castle buildings. Drilled 2 holes where buildings intersect, ran the 3 sets of LED lights wiring through 1 lower window to the outside wall and connected to the switch/battery wires. Fused switch to wall with super glue. Hid exterior wires by cutting a slit in the styrofoam mountain and pushing visable wires under. Minor paint touch-up. Cut a slot in the styrofoam mountain where I wanted the battery holder and pushed the holder into the styrofoam. Installed the building main roof and turrets after verifying that all the interior LED Lights worked ...Horray!

Note: the final landscaping shrubs and trees will be placed to hide visible wire parts.

I will keep you updated on my progress ...thanks for visiting ...comments always welcome!

Night Night!

Surf - Design Planet Blurp No.82

My Neuschwanstein Castle Model by Doyusha - Progress Report No.2:

(continued from Surf - Design Planet Blurp No.81)

After gluing on the Styrofoam rock additions and smoothing out the Styrofoam's natural bubble look with some Acrylic Modeling Paste, as shown in my Blog No.81, I then painted the rock with Flat Black Acrylic, adding layers of dry brushed Dark, Medium and Light Grey. I also added a little Burnt Umber for surface soil on flat rock areas.

Once the rocks were totally dry, I masked the edge of the base pine board with 3/4 inch painter's green masking tape, letting the tape stick up above the board half way - 3/8 inch. I put lots of old newspaper under and around the model. I then poured and spread out with a brush my Liquid Scenery Cement/Glue (white glue that dries clear would work also) around the rocks and up to the taped board edge. I then sprinkled crushed railway type ballast rock pebbles into the glue. I had to do a little little pushing and mixing of the pebbles and glue with an old brush and my finger to make sure the glue was securely surrounding the pebble stones.

I let the surface pebbles settle and dry for a day, before I shook the board lightly to remove any non-glued pebbles. My trusty shop vacuum is always close by for cleaning up.

The stone pebble material I used is very brown/sandy looking. I will now add some gray dry brushing over the pebbles to blend in with the rock mountain color.

With the holidays coming up very fast, I will leave it for now.

In the new year I will add a decorative wood trim/moulding all around the base. Then I will return to paint detailing all the castle building components from my online collected reference photos.

I am also looking into lighting the castle's interior with some battery run LED lights, which will include an on-off switch.

In case I don't get back to my blog before the holidays, "I Wish You All a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year ...and Many Thanks for Viewing My Blog Blurps!"

Surf - Design Planet Blurp No.81

My Neuschwanstein Castle Model by Doyusha - Progress Report No.1:

(continued from Surf - Design Planet Blurp No.80)

Before continuing on with the Castle Parts of this model, or applying the Landscaping Shrubs and Trees, I am finishing the actual Ground of the Mountain that it sits on. My Styrofoam created slopes are pretty steep. Maybe a little too steep for applying the forested trees to the mountain. So I am adding a little extra mountain pieces to the main base which will give me more flat areas for planting the trees and shrubs.

These are all hand cut out of scrap packaging Styrofoam and glued with a caulking gun to the existing mountain and pine board base. The foam pieces have been cut at different angles and sizes for a random natural look.

All of the mountain will be painted Black. Then wet and dry brushed with Dark Grey, then Medium, to eventually a light White/Grey painted mountain rock base. A little Burnt Umber (a dirty brown) will be added to the Greys, which adds a ground soil look to the flat areas of the mountain.

Styrofoam, when hand cut, tends to look like popcorn in areas (is too pitted - potholes) instead of looking like textured rock/ground. To give it a more natural look I apply (with a Palette Knife) some Acrylic Modeling Paste to the surface where required.

My Model's Base Pine Board is 12 inches x 25 inches. A Mitred Frame will be added around when I have completed the mountain base.

Surf - Design Planet Blurp No.80

Two Large and Quite Different Model Projects that I'm Working On:

Before I write about other Star Blazer YAMATO Battleships that I've finished, I'd like to share a little about these two large models:

1. The Royal Neuschwanstein Castle (in Germany) by Doyusha.

2. The 1/400 scale, huge WHITEBASE E.F.S.F. Pegasus-Class Assault Landing Craft SCV-70, Gundam Collection by Bandai .

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1. The Royal Neuschwanstein Castle by Doyusha

I've mention this large castle model, quite a while ago, in my blog Surf - Design Planet Blurp No.9 (towards the bottom of blog) that I created a display base using Styrofoam built up on a pine wood board. When I finish the base texture, I will add a wood design moulding frame all around the bottom board.

Presently I am adding texture to the castle's styrofoam mountain side, and preparing to make several trees. Looking at the photos (on the model's box and below) you will see that the real castle Neuschwanstein is located on a rugged forested mountain plateau top high above a valley.

To make the ground cover and trees, I used Woodland Scenics hobby supply. They supply a variety of hobby materials and landscaping materials to model railway builders and other model/diorama makers.

I purchased the Forest Canopy trees (shown below) to use together with other packages of foliage by Woodland Scenics of Light Lichen Mix, Autumn and Greens (3 types). I keep a few of these in stock for a variety of model landscaping, along with Scenic's Glue and Cement. The castle model's trees will be in colors of green; with a few added in Autumn colors (the beginning of fall - this will give my model some nice color interest).

Click the tree directions (above and below) to enlarge. They give detail on how I constructed my trees below. I have a few more to do. There is also a list of typical foliage/tree types available on the instruction sheet below.

I'll probably need twice as many trees than what I've shown in the photo above. It does take time and patience to get them looking good! While they dried, I stuck them into a styrofoam block.

Some natural dried foliage (shown above) is supplied in the 'Forest Canopy' package (which is also shown in a previous photo).

One of the trees (shown above) where I applied Green and Autumn foliage material.

As well as natural plant material tree foliage, plastic and aluminum type material branched trees are available also, in a variety of tree types, for adding the foliage.

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2. The 1/400 scale, huge WHITEBASE E.F.S.F. Pegasus-Class Assault Landing Craft SCV-70, Gundam Collection by Bandai .

I will be building a total of three of these models. The two that I have started will be painted in traditional color as recommended by the instruction sheets. The third ship that I will build, at a later date, will be a camouflage version.

Some parts are factory color finished. These have very glossy plastic look. I prefer to paint all parts. The parts shown on the above table have been painted.

I am presently waiting for some Gundam color line markers that I ordered from Hong Kong. Apparently they are stuck in Canada Customs - they should have been here two weeks ago. Postage delivery certainly has been slow, and very costly, since 911. The markers are fine lined and used to detail the groove lines of many Gundam type character and science fiction ship models. Other Gundam Markers are available in a variety of point types, and sets are available for specific Gundam Model Types. Color that accidently goes over, or outside, of a groove can be removed carefully with a white art type eraser/rubber.

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Once again, I will again up date you as I proceed further along on these models.

Surf - Design Planet Blurp No.79

Space Battleship YAMATO

In the World of Space Battleship YAMATO (AKA: Star Blazers in the USA) there are several Capital/Official Ships and Smaller Craft under different areas/or groups. Included are EDF, Gamilon/Garumman, Comet Empire, Dark Nebula, Bolar Federation and Deingil. I don't know a lot about this world, but I did find this incredible Starship Schematics Database created over several years by Jim Steverson and the SSDB. This is the link.

I will be sharing several of these Battle Ships/Cruisers with you here, and in future blogs, as I complete them. Some of the models are around 8 to 10 inches long. I also have a boxed set of 30 smaller ships in this series. I have assembled them all, but they will require finishing yet.


Some Space Battleship YAMATO information from Wikipedia:

Space Battleship Yamato is a Japanese science fiction anime series and the name of its eponymous space craft. It is also known to English-speaking audiences as Space Cruiser Yamato or Star Blazers; an English-dubbed and partly edited version of the series was broadcast on North American and Australian television under the latter title. An Italian-language version was also broadcast under the name Star Blazers in Italy, and a Portuguese-language version was successfully shown in Brazil under the title Patrulha Estelar ("Star Patrol"). The Space Battleship Yamato series generally involves themes of brave sacrifice, noble enemies, and respect for heroes lost in the line of duty. This can be seen as early as the second episode of the first season, which recounts the defeat of the original battleship Yamato while sailors and pilots from both sides salute her as she sinks (this scene was cut from the English dub, but later included on the Star Blazers DVD release). The movies spend much time showing the crew visiting monuments to previous missions and recalling the bravery of their fallen comrades. Desslar, the enemy defeated in the first season and left without a home or a people, recognizes that his foes are fighting for the same things he fought for and, eventually, becomes Earth's most important ally. In this — the Japanese concept of "the honorable enemy" — and many other respects, Star Blazers is almost certainly the most "Japanese" anime to survive the editing process and be widely syndicated in the United States.

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Space Battleship/Cruiser, Name ______________
1:6000 scale # 0011580-700 Bandai, Japan
Illustration by Nishizaki

This is the first battleship model that I completed in this series (Box top shown above). Presently, I do not know its' name, nor do I know this ship's storyline.

Shown above, a rendering (side/top/front) of the battleship - from the Starship Schematics Database.

The model comes with the above printed card illustration that can stand up with supplied braces. The card has holes for projecting wires to hold and suspend the ship model in front if you wish.

Another rendering above from Starship Schematics Database showing the large object(?), which is shown in the above card illustration, along with a character (?).

New Japanese mini ships, shown above, from Mugen Toys. Box shows similar ship that I've built.

Instructions were easily followed. The front, middle and rear tail are separate components that fit together. Patience is required while installing all the ship's tail fins, many guns and the angled wing tips. Note: I did not install all the guns facing straight, but slightly angled them in different directions for interest.

Right side view (above) showing underside with its' large removable component/missle?

The model is 10 1/8 inches long by 2 1/2 inches high without any mounting support.

After detailing and fine sanding I decided to give this battleship a rough textured surface. I applied a layer of Matte Black Acrylic with a flat faced 1/2 inch brush, going in different directions.

When it was completely dry I then sprayed the model with a Deep Navy/Prussian Blue Acrylic for Plastic. I sprayed quick passes with the color until it just covered the black. This way I did not over paint and cover the flat brush texture created underneath.

A middle range Bright Navy Blue Acrylic was then chosen and painted for accenting the front area, the wing tips, and the tail section.

Citadel's Mithril and Boltgun Metal Silvers were used to hand paint all of the ship's mechanics and guns.

Liquitex Acrylic Fluorescent Orange (a complimentary color to the blues) was used for various small warning lights and the large front lights.

A couple of light blue and white logo type decals, left over from another model, were applied.

Top Tail View shown above. Citadel's Tin Bitz with a touch of Black Ink was used to dirty the ship's rear exhaust area.

The model photos are shown before I applied a final Matte Varnish to the complete ship for its' look and protection.

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