DocRob

The Blob ate my plane . Hope you don´t have any "flow" issues with the blob masks. Cheers Rob

Completely wow, Scott. I love how you solved the tiger head issue. What blends better than a decal, right, paint. I don´t know, if I had chosen this way or if I would have chickened out. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, with the Cobra, it´s the phase of the build, where everything has to come together and where all the tolerances and little errors show. I will find a way to get it done. Your Triumph must have been a nice one, but exact gaps were never one of the greatest virtues with British cars. Cheers Rob

It´s nearly the same with this one, except, I can handle it with one hand, luckily. For a kit it is no lightweight though. I´m not sure, if exact gaps where to be found on the real one, as they were build up in great haste. Cheers Rob

The only possibility lowering the engine would be shaving some material away, where the engine meets the chassis and I will not touch this area if there isn´t an urgent need to do so. The whole engine is like a block, not to be manipulated now. This is the time, where everything has to fit finally and I tike my time analyzing what to do. My hesitation buying my beloved Alfa Tip 33 Stradale was exactly, because the fit of doors and body is so critical with these kits, especially when it comes to swing doors and huge engine rear body parts. Thanks for your good wishes, Mike, I´m absolutely not in panic mode, as I expected this and if it doesn´t work out unforced, two little rivets would be a viable solution. Cheers Rob

I thinned that part of the bonnet before, Carl, but seeing, how it still provides tension, I decided, I will go a bit further. Luckily, I stopped at the right time. My first approach of thinning was about keeping the inside of the bonnet perfect, which I skipped now. With a tiny bit of force and two tiny rivets, the bonnet will sit good enough, I hope. Cheers Rob

I dreaded the day, but it has to be done. I speak about final test fitting of the main components, in this case the body to bonnet fit. This is quite delicate, as so many parts and sub assemblies are involved and the process is painful with some loosened parts, etc. and takes hours. First, I screwed the body to the chassis. All doors and internal parts are only fixed preliminary. Then I mounted the bonnet to it´s hinges on the chassis and got that: When I force the bonnet down, it will more or less fit, but without locking it somehow, it will open like shown. I tried to identify the protruding parts and attempted to look, where they interfere, not an easy business, with only two tiny openings to see through on the sides of the bonnet. As I identified the possible culprits, I dabbed some liquid mask onto them and closed the bonnet and bingo got the interfering locations. In an iterative process, I removed the material as much as I dared and now the bonnet is paper thin, where the front funnels sit. It closes a bit better now, but not near as perfect as it should. At some point, I have no more possibilities to enhance the fit, as I also thinned the part in front, where the hinges meet the bonnet, to raise the bonnet a tiny bit. I will make a final try and then, I will add two tiny bolts, which force the bonnet into place and can be removed to open the bonnet. Cheers Rob

Do you glue the controllers to the base unit, Carl? is there an assembly manual? Which scale is it? Cheers Rob

Very nice Mike. I´m a bit jealous at your Strutter tool. I couldn´t lay my hand on one, but helped me with wooden brackets for my vice, which worked well enough with brass tubes and inserted brass rods. Cheers Rob

Somehow the Attacker skipped my attention in real live as well as a model. Thank you Gus, for putting that right with your fantastic representation of this rare bird. I´m eager to see, where your resin infection carries you. I only built one full resin plane, a Caudron racer made by SBS. It was a very pleasant build and I can recommend their kits, but they are only 1/48 and 1/72 and mostly interwar planes and racers. Cheers Rob

That proved to be not too complicated luckily. I even left the rear ends unglued for now, because I have to remove the rear inner trim while painting and need a bit of wiggle room. These kits are designed so well, but sometimes you wonder how delicate parts fell together, but they are no shake and bake. Cheers Rob

Preparations, preparations and no end in sight. I added the rear spoiler, which was not easy and needed a lot of sanding and bending and a bit of filling to sit right. The bonnet got some scoops and hatches and a spoiler, which is bolted on with tiny rivets. These rivets go everywhere in great numbers now, as they hold the clear parts in place and are added around the rear spoiler too. Painting will start with the interior and I added some internal framing and the rear view mirror as further preparation. I also cut my first clear vac part ever, a task that needed to be done more often in the next steps, as I plan to prepare all the panes and windshield before painting. After a lot of searching, I found some thin clear double sided adhesive tape on my island, which I intend to use, to install the clear parts. Cheers Rob

Happy belated birthday Kevin. Always good to have family members, who appreciate the hobby. With my wife, it´s a bit different unfortunately, she accepts me building kits, but dislikes the spendings and only once made a kit as a present for me. In fact, it´s the priciest, I own, the HMS Sphinx from Vanguard models, a wooden frigate kit. Cheers Rob

Nice, Chris, will definitely follow, as I have two of these, along a galore of AM including one Brassin cockpit and engine. My plan is to build them together, one in NMF one camouflaged. The NMF bird in flying mode, the other fully detailed with open hatches on the ground. I am very interested, about what you say about the kits quality and fit. Cheers Rob

Don´t let you put off, Phil. there is a lot of fun in car building and my two examples, the Cobra and the McLaren where not the easiest picks for sure. I´m actually debating with myself, to shove an easy car build in between. The MFH kits are something special, but they need a lot of attention, specially with these huge body parts, which need to fit perfectly and also should stay openable to show the details. Car kits call for a different skill set and I always like to learn new techniques, so it´s a perfect break for me. Cheers Rob