Clunkmeister

Went out today with four friends and we had a bit of a range day. The first time in a couple months we finally got some trigger time. I guess you could say it was US Army WW2 day. Some serious WW2 history here M1903 Springfield, M1 Garand , M1 carbine, M1917, M1911 Maybe next week we do Axis Forces, then Commonwealth,

D, the models I saw the floating ends used on were Silver Wings British biplanes. A Hart I think, and an ugly something. Maybe resin is Easier? I dunno. But I’ll never do it. Regular mono line painted silver works great and looks perfect.

D, I almost NEVER drink. More talk than action, but it’s by choice more than anything. I need a clear head for the business and I hate being hung over. However, being in Texas, I do eat my favorite tasty animals several times per day. Oh, and it’s good to see you here. It’s been awhile. I’d recognize that stash anywhere. Much like mine. Good taste in models, although I’m more into the resin stuff if I recall.

Here ya go.

Tony, you know I have a pretty refined taste in booze. But to stoop to Fireball tells much about my state of mind right now...

Well, it's here somewhere. I'll see if I can find it.

Wilco. I think there's an RFI somewhere on the board here. I will warn you, it was almost my first WNW kit, so it's not up to my standards of today.

I tell ya, I know, absolutely, no doubt about it, uhh huh.

well, my money is on me going home tonight, cracking open a big bottle of cheap Fireball, and proceeding to become rip roaring, staggeringly commode hugging, moon howling drunk. And maybe while I'm doing that, fondle some plastic.

It is, and I agree 100% I just deleted a comment I made because it borders on political. There's plenty of places we could go here, but I'm glad we're keeping this on the rails.

OK, I just spit up my coffee. Truth. For anyone even slightly contemplating it, build a Felixstowe. It's an amazing and liberating build.

yep

We're sympatico on the dead flat finish. I'll be overspraying in a semi gloss once I have the tones correct and my poiwders are all on. Dead flat metal finishes are usually found on ancient farm implements after sitting abandoned, baking in the hot sun for 80 years. but the dead flat is by far the best surface to apply powders on. the powder clings much better to the slightly rough finish. Rob, I will say that my photographic abilities come and go with the abilities of my iPhone. As the capabilities of the phone increase, so goes my photography skills.

None of the really match either the restoration, or the model, despite the model being sprayed with the bottom of the two colors. I sprayed it over grey primer, so it isn’t washed out at all. Maybe I should have used black primer?

I agree Rob, there are areas that could use some roughening up. Maybe a bit of wash followed by a bit more of a semi gloss topcoat? We certainly don’t want to overdo the wash, but the dead flat of the khaki is, to me, a bit extreme. I still struggle with the appearance of the khaki itself. To my eyes, it appears too light and a bit too brown. In person, it’s VERY brown. My original choice of color was a MMP color, ‘Rail Tie Brown’, but instead, went with the specially developed Hataka light Polish khaki. Here’s my original choice: Compared to the Hataka ‘Light Polish Khaki’. I used this right out of the bottle.

Tony, I’m looking for some old pics I have.

Thanks Martin. I don’t think I like the darkish streaks outboard on the wings. Yes, they’re often seen on models, but to me, they aren’t realistic. Out there, there’s no reason for that to happen, so, tomorrow he’ll perform the magic disappearing act.

But the lens is my friend here. I saw I forgot to paint the cockpit coaming, so on went some basic leather. Distressing it a bit tomorrow, I think. I need to mount the convex rearview mirror, touch up the edges, finish the exterior weathering, and mount the dipole antenna.

So she’s starting to look the part. Just slightly changing the light position totally changes he look of the Polish khaki. No wonder this color had raging debates over what it was for 80 years.

Phil, weathering powders are an old model railroader trick. They come in the normal range of colors and if you apply them over a deadflat surface, they cling to the surface and look incredibly realistic. The downside is that unless you seal them with clear, they rub off when you handle the model. When you seal them, the effect tones down a lot, so you need to apply several times to get the effect you want. I’d say they have much more use in armor modeling, but if you need to replicate dirt, grime, and such on an airplane, they work well. I much prefer oils. Used the same way we use washes, etc. Apply the oils, then draw them across the surface with a turpentine dampened brush. I get my best effects with oils, and if you don’t like the look, you have an hour or so go wipe them off before they stain.

Now that we’re firmly in the realm of conjecture, I will say that going full worldwide distribution as a massive mistake and only served to nicely remove whatever operating profit they were realizing. They had everything except for production under one roof. R&D, prepping, shipping and receiving, warehousing, sales, QC, advertising, and marketing. Not the biggest, but the very best, with costs directly under their control, all QC easily overseen, and a shipping department that actually cared, was easily reached, and modelers like us. Matter of fact, they were SO successful, they gained an unheard of cult following that still exists today. Then they subbed it all out with the grandiose plan of going global. Great idea if you’re Tamiya or Revell, but WW1 models are a niche of a niche within a niche. The market just ain’t there. They expanded it greatly, but it was about as big as it was going to get without expanding their market reach. In essence, they gave away the gravy. Third parties taking the easy money off the top, but WNW’s workload never decreased. Work hard for less money. I’ve never been a WalMart business model: sell 2 gazillion copies for a cheap price and make .20 per unit profit each. Instead, I’ve been more of a boutique kind of guy: supply the very best product humanly possible, with blow your mind personalized service for a high but fair price. In other words, BE THE BEST. Thats how you become what they used to be.

I have a few of my own observations on that, and it's simple conjecture with the benefit off 20/20 hindsight. 1. The release of the DFW series. It was preceeded by alot of fanfare, secrecy of the type to be released, only saying that it's the "most widely deployed German two seater of the war", yadda yadda yadda. Well, I was morer than a little bit underwhelmed when I saw it, I wasn't familiar with the type, and to me it looks like a pregnant Rumpler, both versions of which were still nowhere near sold out. I bought a couple out of loyalty to the Company. The Halberstadt, a real sleeper of a kit, should have come instead. 2. The UWD. WHY? Offer an add-on kit and be done with it. Or let the AM figure it out. Aviattic might have jumped all over a float kit, or even HPH might have stepped up. I bought one out of loyalty to the Company. 3. The Dolphin. OK, it's fuggly, and for similar investment, we could have had a 1 1/2 Strutter or a Baby, both much more popular. But, I'm not normal and actually LOVE the ugly Dolphin, so I bought a few to build. 4. FIVE Camel boxings. Why? Offer add on sprues and decals. save the huge costs involved with the various boxings, artwork, etc. They did the same with the D.Vll's, FOUR boxings of that gem. But they learned their lessons and have us another boxing, and sold add on sprues to make other versions: smart. I bought NONE, but traded for a few. It's not my favorite bird, and for this, I lose my honorary Brit card. 5. O-100, O-400, and two Lancasters, all at the same time. WHY? The cost of tooling all those HUGE kits at once must be bloody astronomical. A massive financial red pill to swallow and a forever nut to crack, just to get back to being in the black. MASSIVE mistake. 6. No Dr-1 untill now. OK, never. It's only 6 years late, no biggie. That, like the Albatros and the D.V11s, was a cash cow that was ignored all too long. 7. Stillborns: DH-4, Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter, Albatros C-anything, and a Be.2c and e (the flippin RE.8 sold out in a year. People wanted a Be.2 so bad they could taste it.), No SPADs, WTF? Another absolute cash cow. Add Caudron, Voisin, etc.... Winners lately? Few and far between, but the Junkers D.l was a stroke of genius. The Halberstadt, to me, had all the look of a winner, it's an amazing kit, but it'll never get a chance. The Lanc could have been the best kit by any manufacturer, ever, anyplace. That kit was hot and droolin' sexy. Observations? WnW was right about one thing: They'd never release a kit of the Dr.1. Ever. And you can take THAT to the bank.

I just talked to him the other day. harold's still kicking, doing fine work, too. And still just as miserable as me. :-) We get along just fine.

Do-17z. Nothing else even comes close. I'd be a bit concerned about schemes, because after every BoB scheme had been modelled ad nauseum, there is precious little after that that's all that interesting. Somewhere I had heard that HK is doing a Junkers 52, so the Do-17 will fill in the gap nicely. But what do I know? I'm the one voice that wanted an He-111b

I've seen Radu's stuff used on postwar British aircraft models with great success. I expect the same technique would work for wartime models as well, but what I was told they did was to let the one end that slots into the upper wing "float" uinsecured by glue, so it can expand or contract at it's leisure. I've never tried it, and it would do absolutely nothing for unit strength, but it would certainly look prototypical. Like you, I just use mono like. To heck with prototypical, I prefer strength, and besides, anything farther than 2 ft away, you can't tell the difference.