Lantern Building Assembled

I finally got everything assembled. Some UHU super-glue was used the most, with some Bison special formula to get the roof attached. 

For the lamp, Tamiya Cockpit Green (XF71) was used as Artitec's LGN specification, while the door was airbrushed with Tamiya Red Brown (XF64), followed by a drybrush with concrete. Both items had Tamiya Flat White (XF2) applied where needed. For the 2 pipes belonging to the roof, the same gray used at the end of this previous article was selected.

Proxxon Thermocut

About 2 months ago, while trying to cut some thin layer of foam to be placed under the Brawa platform support, I realized that the same old ways I used to cut foam are making me lose hours, with the results never being exact. So I went online and ordered from a local online dealer the Proxxon Thermocut 230/E.

Priced at 130 euros, this machinery could have easily saved me days (!) of work back when I was building the ramps and various pillars. With a very thin wire that's kept straight by the arm, you can do cuts in various angles, both horizontally and vertically  (the piece holding the wire on the upper side of the arm can slide). The guiding system is really good and sturdy (maybe it has something to do with the fact that the machine is built in Germany). To be on the safe side, I ordered a spare wire coil (like the one seen here on the top of the arm) which holds 30 m of wire. The heating temperature can be easily modified and the base is actually printed with cm markings and a protractor - all in all one of the best investments recently made.

Lantern Building Roof

With my eye both on the finished building, as it appears on the Artitec site, and on the list of colours supplied by the same manufacturer, I first tried using something different for the roof than the colour recommendation dictated. Since Artitec used a copper-ish finish, and since I already had 2 small bottles of Tamiya XF-6 (Copper) I first used the formula below:

64 drops of XF-2 (Tamiya Flat White)
20 drops of XF-6 (Tamiya Copper)
87 drops of X-20A (Tamiya Thinner)

The result above wasn't really what I was after - the glossy effect actually ruined everything. Hence I turned to the suggested Artitec colours, bought the Tamiya XF-56 (Mettalic Grey) which is the corresponding color from Tamiya for the suggested Artitec list (they only give Revell and Humbrol colour codes) and used it, while trying to leave a hint of the previous coats. Below the result, after the roof was secured to the rest of the building.

Formula used the last time:


20 drops of XF-2 (Tamiya Flat White)
20 drops of XF-56 (Tamiya Metallic Gray)
40 drops of X-20A (Tamiya Thinner)

[later edit] This is the color ZK on the Artitec instructions