DocRob

You could avoid cleanup through heave weathering with mud, Phil . Cheers Rob

Great work on the Spitfire Peter. The engine looks splendid and it's always a tough decision to display it or not. Generally, I prefer an iconic plane to be shown in it's flight ready shape, closed up, but I like the detail and eye catching abilities of a plane sans cowlings as well. Your momentarily approach, to open the sides will keep the maximum of the Spitfires shape, so maybe it's a good compromise. Cheers Rob

Never knew, it was meant like this by the Talking Heads Cheers Rob

Great build, great presentation Gary. The Jagdpanzer looks fantastic, with all the tiny bits and pieces and the figures are super cool (in the words sense) I like te mix of light shadow, dirt and abrasion on them, perfect Cheers Rob

Today my Proxxon mini mill arrived and it is MINI, I dare say it's a cute little thingy. You have only to mount the table with four screws and you are ready to go, if you purchased the milling cutters, which are not included. I did that with the help of a engineers square, because I don't own a dial test indicator. The first look and feel is promising, the clearance seems ok. Now I have to wait for my dividing apparatus and my mini vice to arrive and then I will continue with the Duchess of Kingstons masts, which will be milled and turned. As an immediate action, I cut a 3 cm thick wood panel with 500 x 500 mm size and added some rubber feet and screwed the mill and the woodworking lathe onto it. Cheers Rob

The Lanc is coming together nicely, great progress Marc. Do you paint the wings separately? Cheers Rob

Very nice build Sasha. Painting and weathering are very convincing and I like the Chinese livery. Cheers Rob

Nice to see this one started Carl, I won't buckle in, too confined space for my liking, but will be a spector all the way. If I only could lay my hand one one of the regular boxings. Cheers Rob

And I thought you were talking filler or putty, You can't eat that stuff, or am I wrong? Cheers Rob

Very nice Kevin, I really like the color scheme. I'm about to buy the Spanish Republican version, triggered by your build. I read in two different sources, that the supplied motor of your kit is wrong. The seven cylinder engine should have nine, being built by Salmson. Cheers Rob

A red brown pin wash would enhance the contrasts dramatically without being weathering . It's more an artificial shadow. Cheers Rob

Super clean, like it's your trade mark Peter. Now with the wings on, she starts to look like a Spitfire. Cheers Rob

You build a very nice one niter there Paul, The quirkyness of the design is showing great under the light color scheme you've chosen, love it. You could try some light weathering to enhance the contrasts, it works marvels. Cheers Rob

Adding the tools brought some extra live into the Jagdpanzer, they add a lot of contrast. Same does the wash, but I have to say, I don't like the scratches on the sides of the hull, they don't look right to my eye . Cheers Rob

I'm no expert, but starting with 3D printing might be the cheaper solution then. Aren't we all experts in letting plastic look like metal. Cheers Rob

Have you tried Ak's weathering pencils, I used them on some occasions, even the white one if I remember it right and it didn't disappear under varnish. The good with these, you can alter the application partly, using them dry or dipped into water. Cheers Rob

You are maybe right, pastels or pigments are more forgiving. Cheers Rob

As an almost livelong photographer, I'm completely opposite of Peter when it comes to post processing. Maybe a reminder from old analogue days, I think the picture is made in the moment you hit the trigger and not in post processing. I never alter my pictures, except I'm using IrfanView for reducing the resolution of the pics for forums, which can be done stack wise. I would suggest to go nearer to the object, when taking the pic. Don't use a wide angle setting, a slight tele setting is drawing more realistic proportions. The other tips are gold, concerning the lighting and white balance setting. Broad sunshine is a killer with hard contrasts and colors eaten up, specially with a well aged camera chip. If you have a smart phone, maybe it's camera is better than your 15 year old Sony. One more thing, taking good pictures of models is relatively difficult, as there are so many factors to think about. Don't be too harsh to yourself, it's a process to progress photographic skills, like modelling, but it pays. Cheers Rob

I like the snow you applied Gary. Snow can be very different in it's appearance from powdery to slush, from feather like fine grained to coarse over frozen stuff. I have different snowy / icy dios in the planning, but haven't tried out what works best, that way, I'm more a looker and learner. I would probably apply some light white coat with the airbrush or with pastels in the way of highlighting, to emphasize frozen rubber and metal, specially around the running gear and some deposits on the tank as well. Cheers Rob

Lucky you Hubert. The Proxxons were only exemplary and there are lots of manufacturers for every purpose and purse around. But not so many with small relatively precise machines. Of course they are not perfectly made and even the larger Proxxon's are not the most durable of machines. They fill a gap though, for modelers like me, with the occasional metal job, some woodwork and confined space. A niche product. Cheers Rob

Now that you mention it, drag her out and do a WIP. It's such a beautiful plane and specially in the rare version you've chosen. There is actually no risk, that WNW will release your version to spoil the fun. Cheers Rob

I love the scheme Mark, great work. Lot's of times, I thought about a Swedish splintered 1/48 Viggen, but lack the cojones for the camo. Cheers Rob

I used the hairspray technique on some builds and it always worked fine with me. In case of the floats of my Hansa Brandenburg, I used it even multi layered, with a base coat of aluminum from AK's Extreme metal range, than hairspray, Tamiya semi gloss black, hairspray again and last Tamiya flat black for the tar like appearance. The idea was to show deep scratches in metal and abrasion of the matte black color a bit shinier. I liked the result, which was achieved using different tools for abrasion, from brushes to cotton swabs sanding sponges and rubber erasers. Finally weathered up with salt and algae they looked like this. Cheers Rob

Thanks Gary, with the lathe there is no way to work seriously with metals. I bought the chuck only for more flexibility and because the supplied collets were of dismal quality. The drill chuck for the tailstock will enable me to drill center holes in round parts, maybe even brass and aluminum, that's all. There is no real possibility to fix the cutting tools, because with wood, you work free handed only with a adjustable tool rest. The weakest solution from the Proxxon range to work with metals would be this one PROXXON - FD 150/E, but it's very small and doesn't offer the power (torque) and has other limitations. Better would be this one PROXXON - PD 250/E which also offers a thread cutting device, which to me disqualifies the smaller one by it's absence. I ordered a Proxxon mini mill along with a steel vice and a dividing head. I will use it primarily for wood working, maybe some very small and simple brass working too. I learned to work with metals as an engineer and to do it properly, you will have to amount a lot of knowledge, machines and extras. For me it's do it right or leave it alone, in this case, it's to expensive for me to do it right for the rare occasions, where I need it. Sometimes, I think about building working steam machines, but that would need some serious update with the machinery. Cheers Rob

That's made with purpose eagle eye Hubert , the two larger deadeyes are connecting the shrouds to the lower platform, the smaller one to the upper platform. The minimal difference between the two large ones is due to clumsiness of the builder . Cheers Rob