DocRob

Thank you Paul, this will not be my very next build, unfortunately, but with MFH kits, you have to buy them, when they are available or they might be gone forever or are in the hand of scalpers. I have not that much experience with car body finishes, I only built three, but will continue with the Cobra Coupe, after the GB and painting the body is one of the next steps. You may be right Carl, I only browsed through the contents of the box quickly. It looks like this: I will do a WIP Gus, but not so soon. I like the car, but it is not one of my favorites and I have to do some research about it as well. Seemed to have been racing, before I developed a slight interest int F1. Cheers Rob

Thanks Martin, you got it right. This dio will be about how weird technology fails to always save you. Cheers Rob

Thank you Gus, I wanted to use mostly natural products for the base and searched the garden for fitting volcanic stones, which add to the strange sensation of the setting. I wanted to use beach sand, but our only sand colored beach is not accessible at the moment and the sand might have been too coarse anyway, as it´s only ground clam shells. I have a bag of fine sand here for decoration and a Mig paste for desert sand. Cheers Rob

Thank you Kevin, I´m not the plan B kind, as usually my plan a is profound and if not, I often bin the project, because, it will not be like I desired. With the Kampfanzug, I thought, I give it a chance. Cheers Rob

More Italian stuff, I must be infected . The Ferrari is the only so called hybrid in the MFH universe until know. Hybrid means, it´s a multi media kit like the others, but has a "normal" polystyrene body on sprues instead of resin body parts, which makes the kit noticeable cheaper than others of the same producer. This is a re-release, which sports new Cartograph decals and was up on the MFH page only for one day, then was sold out. I missed it there, but luckily Spotmodel had one left. To fill the carton , I ordered some paints from Number Five and Zero Paints for different car projects, as well as a small picture reference book about the Ferrari 250 GTO and some resin and metal detail parts for other kits. Cheers Rob

My base will be "framed" by a plastic tub, which I sprayed in sand color. For the hovering drone, I added a threaded rod, epoxied onto the base and a nut also epoxied into the lower part of the Neuspotter. I hope, I can cover the rod with some dried grass later. I used it, because it allows to adjust the height of the drone over the surface as well as the angle, because the nut is not glued in in a right angle. The bowl was then filled with plaster of paris. Meanwhile, I primed the parts of the Neuspotter in black and white, black for the pure metal parts, like arms and exhausts and white for the rest. Cheers Rob

Your ZIL looks fantastic, I like your painting and weathering style, very convincing and at the same somehow adds more depth due to the drybrushing. Cheers Rob

They didn´t Paul, but to my knowledge the FT-17 tracks and the Schneider tracks are of the same type. Hobby Boss claims 64 links for their tracks, the Friul pack has 70. As I´m no expert, I can´t tell for sure for the Chamond. Cheers Rob

Good to have you back here again Peter. I hope you can find a groove for you with the Spitfire build. I often feel it hard to concentrate on modelling in difficult times, but mostly relax a lot, when I force myself to the bench and do something productive. The mojo meter starts to rise again. I hope, your medical issues will be solved and you and Diane keep happy and healthy. Cheers Rob

I helped myself to a set of Friul´s for my Schneider tank. Less fiddly than the Hobby Boss ones. I guess, the wheelset is more or less the same. Can´t wait to see you start the Yak-9, PW Cheers Rob

So you are also a Kow Yokoyama design, PW, hopefully in 1/1 scale . Cheers Rob

It looks somehow sinister with it´s long spindly probing arms. The plastic is a redish brown, maybe because one of the suggested paint schemes looks like red primer and when the kit hit the marked first, 40 years ago, not everybody painted the kits. The original kit had a tiny bulb included for lightening the front section, as well as the arms were mostly made from metal rods instead of plastic with mine. Hmmh, aerodynamics, so many questions. When was the front window opened and by whom? Was it the then still living pilot or the drone? Was it one storm causing the sandblast or continuous wear? Was all that happening on earth or on some deserted planet with different conditions? Let´s wait, how the story unfolds, Hubert There are really some similarities to the drones used in the Empire Strikes Back, but the Neuspotter was a bit large for being used for interrogations in tiny cells inside the death star. No Paul, there is another story behind it. The Neuspotter has no weapon systems, it would have needed a Krachenvogel for your scenario. BTW, I love the use of pseudo German names for many of the MaK subjects. These are no real words, but build from German parts of words. I always have to smile when I read them. Good find on the P.K.A., you will enjoy the build. My teenage favorite was always the Hornisse, a Kampfanzug with a hover jet attached. It was re-released by Wave some years ago and I definitely have to find one. Cheers Rob

I know the feeling, Carl About forty years ago I browsed through "Werken Spielen Schenken", a hobby shop in West berlin as a teen and eying these brown Nitto boxes with photos of the build kit on top. I read, they are multi media and I had only a slight idea, what that meant. Anyway, they were quite expensive by the time and I couldn´t afford it at the time, being a teen with a lot more dubious interests. The boxes are still light brown and they still feature the carton print card of the subject. Some of the kits seem to be old molds, like the Neuspotter, others, like the Kampfanzüge (battle suits) are newer molds. Cheers Rob

Top notch as always Mike. Your Airco scenery looks like a post colored snap shot of the real thing, with your signature finishing. Cheers Rob

The huge Neuspotter drone is nearly finished. Not shown on the pic are the antigrav unit and the exhaust nozzles, which will be added after painting. If I use the Neuspotter in my dio, I have to find a way to let it hover. I guess, I will use slide fit brass tubes for that, epoxied to the base and the drone. Cheers Rob

A great addition to my electronic bookshelf. I used the KLP issues about the Arado 234 and the AEG G.IV during my builds and they were very helpful. Cheers Rob

Let me introduce you to this sinister looking drone. The Neuspotter is also based on a design Kow Yokoyama for the MaschinenKrieger universe. The kit was first issued by Nitto 40 years ago and my Wave boxing marks the 40th anniversary. Still it looks cooler and somehow more frightening than modern drones. I started with the sensor unit, which besides the strange colored plastic features coil springs, vinyl tube and different wire diameters for the numerous antennas. The age of the mouldings is visible, but everything fits as it should. I will quick build the Neuspotter and then decide, if I add him in my scenery. To get a better idea about how the Neuspotter looks, I add this illustration, which comes with the kit. Cheers Rob

After quite a long journey some more goods from Japan arrived at my home. It seems, I have an Italian phase with car kits at the moment with the re-released Alfa Giulia, a car I always loved and nearly bought one many moons ago. The kit seems to be of decent quality, and even has an engine to show. I may add a set of PE for some further detailing. The 1/20 Neuspotter from Wave might be added to my sandbox GB entry. The version, I got is called 40th anniversary edition and since more or less as many years, I wanted to have one, among other of the veneer Nitto kits of MaK subjects. I also got a lot of drill bits for my MFH kits, a new pointed tweezer and Hasegawa Flexible Cutter. The cutter has a tiny rotating blade, which may be helpful for cutting masks for organic shaped camo patterns. Cheers Rob

Thank you Chris, I´m blushing. I´m also lucky, that second effort worked better than the hairspray, which never failed me before. Suggestions for the window treatment came through some of our knowledgeful regulars and I tested the different methods on spare parts. The effect, I´m after is a sandblast through a storm, therefore the undoubtedly very robust windows of the Kampfanzug wouldn´t be penetrated, just blinded. Cheers Rob

Glad you found your mojo back with the Lightning, PW. The result is stunning, the NMF fits the brutish beauty perfect. Cheers Rob

Thanks for showing, Kevin. this is retro cool somehow. We had a member from Belgium or Holland, who built rubber band driven planes, when I remember right. Cheers Rob

Can´t wait to see your approach on the Camel. It has been on my list for a while as well, but I also have the even cooler () looking Küster in my stash. And there is also an Nutcracker hover tank. Cheers Rob

Yes it is 1/12 scale, about as long as one of the American cruisers in 1/25 . Cheers Rob

Thank you Paul, indeed, he hadn´t the easiest of times. Good to hear, that your Camel arrived. I ordered my Neuspotter and other items from Plaza Japan in the beginning of October and it still is a no show. Cheers Rob

One has a Pinocchio nose The fit of my ZM Kai Phantom was indeed tamiyaesque. Cheers Rob