The Black Island (Loch Lomond Tanker)

Greg Baker
I know. It's not like I don't have 4-5 other projects on the go... but this one should be a very straightforward interlude... right?

I'm turning the Airfix Esso/BP tanker into something more enjoyable... the Loch Lomond Whisky tanker that Tintin hitches a ride on in The Black Island.

Greg Baker
Isn't it amazing how paint always seems to find a need for more putty and sanding...?

Martin Oostrom
A Whiskey tanker? Don't let P**** anywhere near!

Tom ...
How cool!... [edit] Ah I just saw your Tintin Collection. Love that idea. First thing that popped into my head was the rocket in "Explorers on the Moon".

Greg Baker
Thanks Tom. I know you saw the test rocket... but given that I'm trying to maintain a 1/72 scale across the whole collection, the Moon Rocket is just too massive... at least for now. 😉 I do have a concrete plan to build the Moon Tank though... so there's more projects to come. If you're interested in reading more about my project plans, feel free to check out my blog - strobez.ca/wp/index.php/tintin/ - the images are more or less the same as on scalemates, but there's more organization and background info to sift through.

Tom ...
I had a quick look and am blown away. Incredible work. I'm going to have to comb through it properly at my leisure.

I too loved Tintin as a boy and have been meaning to get back into the comics so you've helped re-spark my nostalgia once more. 🙂

Greg Baker
Any time you wanna talk Tintin... I'm up for it!😉

Spanjaard
almost missed this one 🙂 i am in of course

Greg Baker
This one has been a bit under the radar... it's just for something completely different in between other projects.

Greg Baker
Now that the Supermarine S.7 project is done in time for my GB entry, I started looking around at the other half-finished projects. The Tintin Loch Lomond whisky tanker needed a bit of love... and the fact that I just attended a major Tintin (Herge) art exhibit here in Seoul gave me the right amount of inspiration motivation.😉

Peter Hardy
My favourite Tintin story! Well, the only Tintin story from my youth. Now you have me paying attention Greg, do something spectacular! 😉

Greg Baker
Great. Now I feel pressure to add a wire ladder to the other side as well. I was thinking "ah... one is good enough" but I guess not.

Peter Hardy
And tread plate welded onto the rungs!

Spanjaard
for the steps of the ladder, you may want to use plastic, easy to cut to exact measure. and one painted, nobody will notice difference. i had quite some trouble with a F-4j ladder because i was using metal for all of it.

Daniel Klink
Argh!! Last row but it is 1/72 this time.. Sight should be no problem then.. I am in 👍

Richmond
In the original version of the Black Island album I believe it was a Johnny Walker tanker.

dardel.info/tintin/variantesE.html

Torsten
Nice project, I like it 👍

Greg Baker
Thanks for the advice Spanjaard. I did have a bit of trouble with the metal ladder at first, but then I figured out a system. I drilled a hole to the exact length of the rounds, inserted a bit of wire and snipped it off. Then I used a magnet to retrieve the small bit of wire. Then I used some tape to hold the rungs in place on half the ladder and used some CA glue to fix everything in place.

Greg Baker
Richmond, you're right. The original was indeed Johnnie Walker. I've seen that website before... very useful for figuring out what Tintin cars can be built. I'm hardly the first to build Tintin-related models, although I haven't seen anyone else try to maintain 1/72 scale for all the builds. Regardless, I'd love to see what you can come up with too!

Richmond
Greg, a car a figure and a plane in the same diorama would be something special but I bet you would struggle to get them commercially all at the meaningful scale. However just seen from your website you have had some luck at 1/72.

Love those little wooden bases and the name plaques by the way - very stylish and befitting of the subject.

René "Lord Bilbo" Bartholemy
Tintin and Asterix, my two biggest childhood heroes. Just when I decide to start a collection of Asterix dioramas, I stumble on this post... I'll be following this amazing project with much interest.

Greg Baker
The 1/72 scale, especially for cars, is a challenge. I'm most often left to my own devices and have supplemented the few kits I could find by either scratchbuilding or doing some resin casting of moulds based on old toys and then adding details. I also cheap a bit and have included 1/76 kits (like this one) under the "close enough" category.

Welcome aboard, René! Always glad to meet a fellow Tintin fan. This is only the latest of several Tintin-related builds I've done. You can find the rest in my categories/projects section here, or swing by my blog (strobez.ca) for more background on the pics.

Amrith Punja
Wow this is a fantastic project, my dream project

Spanjaard
nice trick and nice result on the ladder

Peter Hardy
In awe again Greg!

Greg Baker
Thanks Peter. I added some bent wire railings, so the undercarriage is more or less complete. The tank itself needs a few more coats of yellow, and that's really what's holding up the finished product here. Despite my neat trick with the ladder, I ended up bending it out of shape by accident, so I'm thinking I might repurpose it over to the Udet Flamingo project and just use the ladders that came with the kit. Once they're painted, they'll look fine.

Martin Oostrom
Just marvellous as usual Greg.

Daniel Klink
Just love your cartoon implementations Greg!! Awesome work again 👍

Greg Baker
And there we go. One Whisky tanker ready to bring the Loch Lomond goodness far and wide. I ended up screwing up yellow paint job a bit. Too many coats... too think, I guess. At any rate the paint was a bit soft underneath and the masking tape left an impression. Oh well, under the decal and the ladder, you can't really tell anyway. I'll just keep it out of direct sunlight.😉

Neuling
Looks good! Will there be a locomotive?

Chris Greathouse
So tiny, so cool.... think about it... a hotwheels car (1:64) is even a bigger scale than this...

René "Lord Bilbo" Bartholemy
And it all looks soooo simple... Great work Greg!

Spanjaard
very nice!

Greg Baker
Thanks gents! No locomotive, at least not for this build... have been thinking about one for the Tintin project though. He does ride several. And Chris, there have been many many times when I've looked at Hot Wheels cars and wished they were just a wee bit smaller.😉

Torsten
That's😎

Tom ...
Hmmm, suddenly I'm thirsty for a wee dram.

bughunter
Very nice! A typical volume 33m³ Whisky - to much for my liver! By the way, you are very close to the original: [img1]

Daniel Klink
Very good Greg👍 How many Tintins Episodes been written? I want more 👍

Chris Greathouse
33m3 is 8718 gallons for us who are state-side.... I don't think my liver would like me 😛

Greg Baker
Thanks guys! That's a great pic bughunter, thanks for sharing! 33m3 of Loch Lomond Whisky is Capt. Haddock's version of a wee dram, I suspect, but probably a bit much for the rest of us.

There are 24 Tintin albums, Daniel, and I have at least one build project from each of them, so there's plenty more to come. My list, which I keep adding to all the time, can be found on my blog - strobez.ca/wp/index.php/tintin/ - and I'm always on the lookout for 1/72 solutions for more car projects.

Chris Greathouse
Damn it Greg! 😛 Why do you have to be so talented! I just got lost in Tintin photos on your site for 20 min 😄 Love the rocket! Really needs a touch of rumbly engine noise (nothing loud/annoying) to go with the blast off... but the modeling. electronic LED's and clock/countdown is amazing as usual.

Greg Baker
I should also mention, I kind of started my blog after getting a bit of inspiration from Rajesh Sinha's awesome blog The Transport Journal - thetransportjournal...gory/cars-of-tintin/ - it's an engineering blog that has a special section devoted to the various modes of transport in the Tintin albums. He started with cars, then moved on the trains, ships and now airplanes... fascinating to read up about the real-world inspirations.

Greg Baker
Hey Chris - thanks for checking out the blog~ I'm not really sure talented is the right word for it. I just don't often take 'no' for an answer. So I just started looking around for alternative ways to accomplish what I wanted to build as models and learned (and continue to learn) new skills along the way. The Tintin rocket clock is a favourite of mine. Even just building the rocket, which you'd think would be easy enough, was difficult. The shape is very subtle, but it's not just a tube with fins... and it's not even just a V2 with a checkerboard paint job.

Peter Hardy
Well, Elon Musk has been reading your blog obviously! He has done a 1:1 scale of Tintin's moon rocket.

Greg Baker
I'm proud of the rocket because of the manual skill, but then also learning the programming to turn on and off LED lights in a sequence so that they represent the digits of the countdown clock was a challenge. I almost started the countdown at '9' because of the challenges I had with multiplexing. That's basically turning each of the digits on and off so fast that the human brain thinks there's two of them - which is why the clock looks so funny in most of the final pics... you can fool the brain, but not the camera. After I finally got it all together, with one button to turn on the warning lights, then arm the countdown, then start the countdown, and then reset the whole thing, I showed it to my 9-year-old son... and he said "but what does it do?" I think he was expecting an actual launch...😉

Chris Greathouse
well.... we're waiting 😛

Greg Baker
Heh... perhaps some day. I have thought about adding some sound effects though. In the meantime my Tintin list just grew. I had more fun than I thought with this rail tanker, so I just upped the ante and added a "Mogul" Class 76000 (B.R. "Mogul" Class 76000 (Kitmaster 30, 1:76)) to my wishlist. It's probably NOT a train that would've been rolling around America in the early 1930s, but it's the train that IMHO looks the most like the one featured in Tintin in America. Uwe actually reminded me about that one during my short Rail Car build. So yes, I will include the small dynamite cart as well. 😉

Martin Oostrom
According to the most trustworthy source of all, Wikipedia, the last was produced in 1910 in the usa. It is plausible that there could have been a few in use twenty years later.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-6-0

Richmond
Very nice

Chris Greathouse
Nicely done!

Greg Baker
Thanks guys. I actually finished this one a while ago, but after getting a new base for the Tintin Moon Tank, I figured that the Loch Lomond Tanker deserved a bit bigger base. It was looking a bit squished before.

Peter Hardy
Like fine wine, improving with age. Enjoyed another look Greg.

Spanjaard
better indeed 🙂

Choppa Nutta
Ah how strange ... Loch Lomond was where my dad died in a helicopter crash he was piloting about 28 years ago ...

Greg Baker
That is a strange coincidence indeed. Loch Lomond is Captain Haddock's whisky of choice, so that's the Tintin connection. Unfortunately, a terrible connection for you. I'm sorry to hear that.

Choppa Nutta
Ah just one of those things hey, and it was a long time ago but thanks for your good wishes anyway.
Sorry for the downer, anyhow, to brighten the mood a little it is a beautiful place though and I like whisky too ...... and Tintin of course !!😉

Matthew A
You could make another one in black and white with Johnny Walkers on it