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 This next project, I have been looking forward to for quite a while now. I bought it over a year ago and haven't got around to building it because of all the other models I have. The life of a model maker! 

Anyway, this is an exciting build. I have always been fascinated by space and especially the Moon Landing. It happened before I was born but has always been fascinating to me. So this project is going to be super cool. It's a model over 1m tall of the Saturn V rocket that sent the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and will be the starting piece of my space collection. 

I start this model by working on the first stage of the rocket. The rocket is built in stages. They can be dismantled to show off each stage of launch, so I will be building and completing each stage at a time. 

The first items to build are the massive Saturn V first stage engines. In real life these are huge. I put these together and used modelling putty to fill in gaps as much as I could. Then sprayed with primer. The engines need to be chrome silver so I paint them black. Painting metallic parts black before applying the metallic colour really brings out the metallic look in the paint. This can not be understated. If you are painting metallics, always paint the part black first. 

The fins were straight forward, just two parts to each fin, glued together and primed. Not much to be said about these. 

The main rocket body was a little trickier. Parts of the model was built of rounded plastic parts other parts were flat plastic parts that need to be rounded and glued to retain shape. These were then slid over flaps on the solid plastic parts. It required a little work and a hair dryer to soften up the wrapped plastic parts enough to stretch slightly, enough to slide over the tabs. 

The model parts are already white but I don't like bare plastic parts so I am going to paint all parts except those with pre printed logos on them. Hopefully the white colour will match. I mask up these pre printed parts and prime the body. Right now, it looks like an extra long toilet roll but I am sure it is going to look great very soon. 

Not much to see right now but soon, it is going to start coming together.

Catch me on my model bench stream https://www.twitch.tv/karidoesstuff when I do more work. We can see just how this iconic rocket takes shape. 

(Almost) Complete Arthur Morgan

 With all the parts of Arthur painted, there was just the face to do. I haven't painted a realistic looking face before and I have to say, I still need practice. I tried painting the base colour and then lightening the tones slowly over the cheek bones, jaw, etc. I then tried putting a wash over the face. The results were not as great as I had hoped but after the beard was painted on, it wasn't to bad. Next up, I glued the parts together and sat him atop his horse. 

Now Arthur was all glued together I had to paint the light upon him. I had always wanted him to look like he was looking toward a sunset, so I took the yellow and red and airbrushed the colours in the appropriate areas. I had to then paint the shadows. Using black, I airbrushed areas darker that were not under direct lighting. I also masked up an area under Arthur's hat and sprayed the black upon his face. This gave the impression of a sharp shadow being cast from his hat. 

 

I am pretty pleased with the result although there are parts I could of done better, such as the face. Those will come with practice. 

The overall model is complete but there are a few finishing touches I have to do, such as a base and the reigns. I will come back to those soon. I need to 3D print the base and decide how I wish to put it together. I have an idea for grass etc but need to spend some time thinking exactly how I would like it to look, until then, Arthur sits proudly on my shelf.