Iceman

Had a chance to open up and take a close look at the kit this evening, it is superb. Highly detailed, excellent castings and the surface detail rivals or surpasses any ejection molding including Tamiya's recent 32nd scale kits. Cleanup of the casting blocks will take some time but score lines have been incorporated into the molds and will help with that. Very impressed with the kit, the construction plans are also very well done with color pictures of building stages all located on a CD. I look forward to getting it on the Workbench in the future. Kirk

Opportunity presented itself today and resistance to it proved to be futile, so I have a new addition to my kit collection. I would like to get this kit built as I have never built a full resin kit yet, so will add it to the "Build List". Kind of like one of those bucket lists, stuff just keeps going into the bucket faster than I can get the stuff in the bucket done!

Yes James, that is the one I have on the bench. They also have some floor stand types too, which are nice if you do not have room on the bench for desk lamp.

Agree with Paulster, Mr. Color Leveling Thinner is excellent when it comes to airbrushing Gunzye or Tamiya acrylic paints. I also spray a very light and fine coat of pure leveling thinner directly over the paint coat I just laid down before it dries, I find that it really provides a smooth and even final finish. Just don't touch it for a few hours as this type of thinner slows the paint curing time down. I also use the Tamiya yellow cap lacquer thinner for thinning Tamiya acrylic's, drying time is faster then with the Mr. Color and works well for painting smaller parts. I had pretty much given up on airbrushing Tamiya acrylics as I never had good results with them using the Tamiya X20 thinner. Then I learned that they are not actually true acrylics and are lacquer based, switched over to thinning them with the lacquer thinners and never looked back, made a huge difference in the manner in which they performed through the airbrush and the final finish. They are now my favorites in addition to the Gunzye line of paint.

"Liken" It!

The larger paint racks for the Tamiya paints, I made up in the garage out of some pine lumber and composite board. The smaller ones are the rack systems from MIG's Ammo line, they are kind of rinky-dink and a pain in the ass to assemble, but with a good coat of paint they work just fine.

Yeah I know way too tidy and organized, but I finally got fed up with the mess I had and got my shit together. Discovered I have about two of every paint jar as I kept buying them as I could never find what I was looking for. A lot cheaper this way, saves money on supplies! The desk lamp is made by Ottlite, it utilizes daylight blub technology and I find that it is really easy on the eyes, the light is not harsh or stark. The neck fully articulates at the lamp and the base so it can be positioned about anyway you need it, best workbench lamp I have ever owned.

Lol, I should have posted a before picture of the cave, it is like night and day! Cheers! Kirk aka Iceman

Thanks Dennis, I may have a blocker that is preventing me from pasting, I cannot even do the direct click on then paste.

This may have been already discussed, but I have discovered that I cannot copy and paste photos from Photobucket over to the forum using Windows 8. Trying to use the photo insert icon just locks up the screen when I hit the OK button to post. Also, if I right click to paste the URL directly onto the post area, it does nothing. Using another computer that I have with Windows 7 works find for pasting photo URL's, so has anyone else had this issue with Windows 8?

Spent a few hours this weekend installing some paint storage racks in the workshop and getting my paints and finishing products organized. Now have everything so well organized and accessible, guess I need to get on with building something!

Shep Paine was the how and why this hobby became a passion for me at a very young age. I began building Revell, Aurora & Monogram aircraft and armor kits in the late 1960's around the age of 8. Along came a Monogram 1/48 B-17G in the early 70's that I received for Christmas and inside was this wonderful color flyer of the kit presented in a crash landing diorama with step by step construction photos by some guy named Shepard Paine. I was blown away with awe. I tired and tired to duplicate his work, cutting my B-17 kit up and trying to make the same details with whatever I could find, and the painting he did, it was unbelievable at that time. My B-17 ended up in a crash landing diorama, all brush painted with Testor's enamels and displayed it in my bedroom, I was so proud of it. The kit build was actually a mess, absolutely awful, but hey, I was 10 or 11, and then came these wonderful Monogram 1/32 armor kits with guess what? ...... more Shep Paine "How To" flyers. Sometime in the mid 1980's I got back into the hobby after a long break from it for High School and College interests, Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll. I learned that Shep was offering figure painting classes in the Chicago, IL area and I immediately tracked him down (did not have internet back then so it was sending letters and making phone calls) and enrolled in one of his weekend classes. Best weekend I ever spent, learned how to paint with oils and all these cool techniques like blending, highlights and shadows, etc., etc. It was awesome. Although Shepard had not been modelling for years, and I understand he had sold off most of his Military collections, his influence on this hobby and industry was never lost or forgotten, always inspiring, always will be. Miss you already Mr. Paine, rest in peace my mentor and friend.

Using the set on Hasegawa's recent Fw 190D-9 "Late" w/ the Ta 152 tail. Looking forward to trying these out as results that I have seen from some other modelers are stunning!

Careful or you will get the Haggo delete, LOL! Beautiful work Jeroen, looking forward to more!

Gorgeous!, welcome.

Since I already have the Rumpler C.IV (late) underway, I am voting for two seaters

The Kagero Super Drawings in 3D of the Missouri has some good drawings and section profiles on the rigging. While I cannot comment if it is depicted 100% correctly, I will comment that who viewing the model would know the difference if it is 100% correct or not? I had an uncle that served aboard the USS Iowa in 1945 as a 20mm gunner, I would ask him questions regarding the ship and how it looked or how it was configured. He either could not remember or what he did tell me regarding a few things turned out to be incorrect, and this from a man that lived, worked, fought and looked at her everyday for months!

Very good subject choice, been waiting to see this kit in a build up. Looking forward to your progress, nice work!

Beautiful work!, love the subtle but distinct weathering. I find that many aircraft models are trending to be over weathered and panel line profiled. Your work depicts a battle harden Zero without going over the top. Well done.

Welcome aboard! If you have interest, the WW I aircraft kits produced by Wingnut Wings are the finest 1/32 scale model aircraft (if not finest scale model period) that have rolled out to date in my opinion. I never saw myself becoming hooked on the subject of WW I aircraft, but after I bought my first WnW kit that all changed and I now own over 20 of the companies kits. If you have never tried one, I will issue you the challenge of buying and building just one and see if you don't find yourself going back for more. Btw, I have no affiliation with the Wingnut Wings company whatsoever, just a fan of them. Kirk

Thank you for the warm welcome, it is a privilege to have a forum such as LSM to share projects, ideas and comments! KJ

Hi Jeroen, This one was and a start and stop for me too, but decided I would not move forward on any other WnW kits until I finished this one. Probably not a good choice for the first build of a WnW kit as it has a high number of parts and the rigging is quite extensive, but what the heck already had the wings finished so might as well finish the whole kit. I am building Rumpler C.IV 8231/17 which has the 5 color lozenge fabric on the wings and fuselage, it is one of the kit decal options. Took some doing to tone done the very bright kit lozenge decals but I think the end results was worth the effort. I will post some photos of the completed wings once I finish some repair work on the decals, did some masking over the completed wings with Tamiya tape and it lifted off the decal when I removed it. I don't recommend using tape over the decaled surface, even with three coats of Tamiya clear it still lifted off. Moving into late spring and summer, my workbench time will be extremely limited so I do not anticipate much progress on this build until fall and winter. Kirk

Working on the "business office" of the Rumpler, I have several items yet to finish and install but the cockpit build is beginning to take shape.