DocRob

Ernie, you make one of the few actual must buys, into a desperately needed one with your great work. Thanks for the wallet attack. Cheers Rob

Bending PE is much easier and less dreading with the right tools. I got some different ones depending on what is to bend size ways, shape ways and complexity wise. For tiny parts I have a Tamiya made tweezer with a flat head, perfectly for e.g. optics in tank cupolas and other tiny stuff. Then there are flat pliers with differently shaped heads in my tool box. With a bending tool, you should first analyse your requirement size wise. If you plan to bend lets say landing flaps in 1/32 or large armor sheets you need a bigger tool. For these bigger tools you should get an equally long bending blade, smaller parts can be bend with a scalpel blade. It's always more fun to work with well designed tools made out of appropriate materials. I have this 5'' tool from the Small Shop since years and can recommend it highly. https://thesmallshop.com/collections/photo-etch-bending-tools/products/sms004-5-5-inch-hold-and-fold-the-5-speed Cheers Rob

The Academy Hetzer isn't too bad either. I have built it some years ago over a weekend when I was ill. One of my fastest builds ever and it shows . I added Friuls for that Prague Hetzer. Cheers Rob

I will check the plastic seats for the Academy made SU-27 today, maybe the pit is not correct scale wise and Eduard had their Brassin seats scaled down a bit to fit. Don't get me wrong, the kit seats and the supplied PE will make a great looking seat, they seem to be a bit high, when fitted into the pit tub, but I haven't tried to fit the canopy. Where I got confused was the manual, generally well made, it fails to show the application of the PE parts well enough. I should have checked other references, anyway I will have the option with seated pilots from Aires, when I'm allowed to by the circumstances. Cheers Rob

Yesterday I ran into some trouble with the build. I tried to assemble the ejection seats where the plastic went together well, but somehow I totally failed with the PE. I was to lazy to check against reference and payed the prize. The manual is confusing concerning the PE to say the least Today I decided not to use the kit seats and sourced my stash. An Eduard boxing of a SU-27 UB has two resin seats with Colour PE of the same type (or very similar). When I compared the seats I got this. Right the seats look like they were made for different scales. The direct comparison looks even worse. I have no idea who is right here, but with the kit seats, I don't know if the Canopy will close fully without hacking. I may opt for variant No. 3 and order two pilots with ejection seats from Aires, which was my favorite from the beginning, but with the situation now, I have no idea, how to get them soon. We had no mail delivered since one and a half week. Cheers Rob

Hi Phil, British planes of the era were normally rigged with flat wire and Uschis thread is round. You can use it for the steering cables (Coded green, yellow and red in your manual) The blue coded wires have a flat (aerodynamic) shape of 0,1 x 0,3 mm. You can use the Prym elastic thread for that which has a flat profile or use PE if you want to make it right. German planes normally used only round profile wires. While rigging my recently finished Pfalz, I experimented with different threads and found it very hard (near impossible) to thread the 'wobbly' Uschi line through Bob's buckles. Fishing line was way easier to handle. Cheers Rob

There are usually measurements of the different thread types in the WNW rigging plans. Cheers Rob

I haven't build any of your mentioned kits, but built Tamiya's BT-7, the ancestor of your Finnish BT-42 kit. I liked it a lot and it went together like a dream. It has single track links instead of rubber band tracks, which I prefer. The Elefant and Tiger need Zimmerit and I believe it is not molded by Tamiya, so there is more trouble here. Cheers Rob

Nice Start, I will follow with lots of interest. If you carefully brushpaint the PE-wires with not too thinned Colour they will appear a lot more roundish. BTW, some years ago I read this book and learned a lot about Polish pilots. The Forgotten Few: The Polish Air Force in the Second World War (English Edition) Zamoyski, Adam Cheers Rob

Your patience payed off Dale, your Tony is looking marvelous. The weathering and finish blends perfectly and therefore very realistic. I love the panel articulation with, I guess pastels. Great Job Cheers Rob

Nice paintjob, can't wait to see it finished and weathered. More pics then, please. Cheers Rob

Thanks Ernie, I have to get me one of this fascinating little fighter, though it will be a bit complicated these days. Can we expect a WIP soon? Cheers Rob

I don't want to spread panic, guys. Like me most of you have a well filled stash, which will last for an eternity, BUT It's always the little things which are missing when you start a project, some AM here and finally, ups, I haven't noticed that my RLM 66 supplies are down. What to do with all these kits when there is no glue available. There is no pure alcohol in the shops to clean a kit before airbrushing and did I mention masking tape . But as I said, no panic here, we will survive and we will build the kits, learning to improvise more, you now, some old school approaches like building Airfix kits as a kid with brush paint jobs, using Colours which were mentioned for a fence renovation. Cheers Rob

Bring it on Ernie, I had my started wooden ship model of the French Kutter 'Le Renard' in my hands yesterday, maybe…. Cheers Rob

We are through our first week of curfew now here in Spain. Yesterday we were told that it will be prolonged at least until 11.04. We are only allowed to leave the house to restock urgent supplies and to see a doctor. There are police patrols in the streets checking the purpose of your trip. It's only allowed to be alone in the car and the only way to leave your premises is to walk your dog alone, which is still allowed. Strangely we get used to the situation more and more. It's interesting to see how easy people adopt. We are very lucky to be healthy, to have a lot of space and a huge garden to move and we are not dependent on work here on the island. The few opened shops are still stocked and our (food) stash is usually well equipped, because you don't get everything here at any time. Economically this will be Desaster on my island. There is only one plane out of ten connecting per day and only for a few emergencies. The ferry is only for transporting goods these days. Tourism, one of the bigger economical factors here is shut down until at least may. My flights to Tenerife to make a planned trip to Berlin in the end of may are cancelled. The employment situation is traditionally complicated here, but it will get worse with lots of small businesses without the financial background to survive for so long. You see a lot of solidarity these days, restaurants (closed of course) prepare free food for home delivery for the poorer people and neighbours hang bags with eggs an vegetables on your front door. Cheers Rob