My first kitbash

I've been a science fiction dweeb for about as long as I can remember. So after building a few WWII airplanes, my thoughts began to turn to spaceships. How hard could it be to turn one of these planes into a spaceship? The answer, it turns out, is "not very."

The kit I started out with was this old (I'd guess from the '80s) Revell Germany Arado Blitz. This was a prototype jet bomber which was, as much of the Luftwaffe jet engine program turned out to be, too little, too late. It was an astonishing design. Had it come out a year before, the outcome of WWII may have been different.

Armed with a saw, some glue, some washers, and some patience, I set about transforming the Nazi wannabe death-dealer into a spaceship.

Here she is in her black primer coat. It's like Knight Rider went on a coke bender and mated with Battlestar Galactica.

I wanted to paint it in some bold colors as I was tired of German Grey and Japanese Naval Green. It's a spaceship, so it could be whatever color I wanted. Naturally, I picked something that would stand out against the black vacuum of space.

I really enjoyed the build. And the blue Tamiya paint was excellent. But I made the mistake of using Citadel paint for the garish orange.

It went on like latex and leaked badly under the masking.

So to compensate for the mediocre paint job, I covered her in "Mars dust" which came from the rusty brown pastel in my set of 48 pastels.

Then, using a rock I freed from Point Mugu, I built a stand so that she could always be flying. Up next, a scrappy scratch build. I promise it won't be months...