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DocRob

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Posts posted by DocRob

  1. 19 hours ago, ScottsGT said:

    Hey Peter,  My “big gun” airbrush is the Grex Tritium with the fan nozzle.  It can blast some paint for an airbrush!  I should be good to go.  I opted out for the spray can of primer because I’ve had it on hand a few years and didn’t feel like swapping over airbrush’s yet.  My regular work airbrush is the Iwata HP-CS.  
    And still trying to figure out how to make the model fit in the paint booth! 

    Lucky guy, Scott, where I live, it´s impossible to get Tamiya´s rattle cans sent to. Actually, even Tamiya extra thin is a problem, but my wife will bring me some from her Berlin trip.

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 1
  2. 2 hours ago, PanzerWomble said:

    Gonna be 1:1 scale for the next few months 

    ... and after that, 1/12? :D. Nice bike, with a air cooled engine, you don´t see that very much nowadays. I had a Suzuki GSX-750 once, a naked bike, which  really liked, until I changed it for a KTM SM 950, but that was a different breed.

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 2
  3. After half a square meter of lozenge decals, I have most of the wings finished. The process of decaling is very time consuming, but the decals behave very well, given these are the largest, I ever worked with. Fit is still outstanding.
    A good sequence helps, starting with the undersides from inside to outside. Then softener and hairdryer in iterative circles, until the decal settled around the corners and then on with the upper side. Good work for days, where you don´t have the time for continuous hours at the bench, but work an hour here another there, over the complete days. The most difficult parts were the smaller ailerons, where it is hard to lay the decals around the corners with relatively mild softeners.

    Now it´s decision time, I haven´t decaled the upper side of the upper wing, because of my pre thought rigging method.
    I will use proper eyelets and small brass tube sections for the lower wing side of the rigging, but initially had the idea, to drill the rigging holes in the upper wing through, using flexible rigging thread, inserted through these holes and use only a piece of brass tube as a fake turnbuckle. Then I could glue the taught rigging threads in place cut the rest off and decal over on top to hide the holes.

    The proper way would be rigging lower and upper side with eyelets and brass tubes and fishing line as rigging thread, which even strengthen the wing assembly.

    P1011176.thumb.JPG.654645663cdefa1fcdc3ccc1c1b338b6.JPG

    Cheers Rob

     

    • Like 5
    • Thanks 1
  4. 1 hour ago, Peterpools said:

    Nice buys for sure. I've been thinking about the weathering pencils for a while and would appreciate your feelings and thoughts on them after testing them out. Then I would make a decision on whether or not to buy a set.   

    I like the pencils a lot, Peter. I have the same set and use them on regular base. You can use them dry for highlighting, where some colors adhere better than others to the plastic. Where they really shine is dampened. You can produce a kind of multi color wash or panel line effect.

    Here are some pictures of my 1/20 MAK AmmoKnight, where I used the pencils dampened for interior weathering.

    IMG_8516.thumb.JPG.ddfa21fad21174bc90fcef561057d615.JPG

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    IMG_8519.thumb.JPG.0e7ddd167a1a0587c359bba414321bc2.JPG

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 6
    • Thanks 3
  5. 18 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

    Rob

    No matter what the kit and its complexity, organization is a key that took me years to come to grips with and learn. Even on the Big Cat I'm working on now, with almost every assembly having right and left parts, each is labeled as soon a it has been removed from the fret - just saves time and guess work and peace of mind. 

    You are going to love the Tamiya Clear Glosses ... awesome for sure.

    I generally don´t want to be too organized Peter, it´s more like a brain training to me, to keep everything in virtual order. Don´t get me wrong, I don´t like totally messed benches, but prefer training my memory, instead of labeling a lot. Well, the system has some loose ends, sometimes... :D.

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 2
  6. 13 hours ago, GusMac said:

    Wow, 5 days from Japan to the Canaries is good going. Hope the shipping price wasn't inversely proportional to the shipping time!

    Indeed Gus, this was record breaking, usually it takes 10 days to two weeks, even from the Spanish mainland. The shipping cost were on the upper edge of reasonable, but compared to the prices, European shops call for, It was a very good deal.

    12 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

    Can't wait to see this build. MFH kits are crazy detailed. 

    Me too Carl, but it will take a while until I start. First, I have to learn a bit about polishing whit metal parts and finish them perfectly.

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 6
  7. 22 hours ago, Peterpools said:

    Rob

    Love the prep and organization for sure.

    I always do as you do and label parts I remove from the fret that has at least a right and left, so as not to confuse which is which. I normally use a dot system indicating right and left on both the part and on the instructions to be sure and in case of more then two parts that look nearly identical, I number them. Just keeps the build moving along without discovering later on that the wrong part was installed and now backtracking needs to be done with lady Luck sitting next to me. Years ago, I went down that route and had a bin a very expensive model, as there was no fixing the multiple part eras. 

    Feel the same as you about Mr Color Clear Gloss (there are a good number of them in the range) and I just don't get consistent results. These days I use either Tamiya X-22 or Tamiya LP-9 and no issues or worries at all. Go figure. 

     

    I normally prepare parts in sections and put them in an organizer tray, but do not label them. With these struts, I do, because I want to be sure, everything is in the right place and they are very similar to each other.

    I hear you about the Tamiya gloss coats and will use them more on future builds. GX-100 is a strange breed, especially with these fogging issues.

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 2
  8. I´m absolutely stoked today. On Saturday, I ordered my first Model Factory Hiro kit, exactly on the first day of it´s availability direct from the Japanese homepage. I saw some preview pictures of the big tank Crocker and was immediately in love. Like a Harley, were somebody said, make it nice (I know this will make me enemies, but especially the middle section of Harley´s over the decades looked plump to me).
    After only five days, the Crocker made it to my island for a great price and without the Spanish charging customs for whatever reason.

    Could be an entry to the twins GB, but no, I will take my time with that beauty.

    P1011175.thumb.JPG.669451ae07475286bc9de1f6c51864a9.JPG

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 7
  9. Progress is a bit slow at the moment, but I managed to prepare the wings for decaling and painted struts and other wing connected parts.

    It´s a Wingnut kit and I spoke about tolerances before and that´s why used liquid mask and numbered tape strips for identification of the struts, to seal the connection points and wooden or plastic rods for the strut´s holes in the wing, glued in with heavily water thinned white glue.

    P1011172.thumb.JPG.3e7aec395d9e1c0671c85be9fd8425a0.JPG 

    I then applied some white pastel onto the seams of the wings, with a flat piece. This was the fastest and easiest way to pre shade the spars. I didn´t want to put much effort into this step, because I guess, it may remained unseen with the opacity of the lozenge decals on top.

    P1011174.thumb.JPG.b0ef6e3f552fdb7bb2fb3adca8f80ebf.JPG

    Then the wings were coated with Mr Color GX-100 gloss varnish. I always have mixed results with that stuff. If everything works fine, it produces an absolutely fantastic gloss layer mixed with leveling thinner, but when not.... 
    I learned the hard way, not to pre mix GX-100 in a plastic jar, as it produces very ugly ´frosted´ spray, maybe because color and/or thinner reacts with the plastic jar.
    In this case, I mixed everything in a glass jar, but still, I had the frosting effect three times while spraying. After cleaning the airbrush, I used the same mix without issues, very strange.

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 5
  10. Wow, your 1/32 toolbox looks better then my 1/1 box. You are really in a league of your own, fantastic scratch build abilities, building and painting as well. I like how your paintjobs look super realistic, but somehow have a trademark look of yours. 

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 2
  11. Wow Peter, if there is no book around, you can have a nice read on your missiles. Sometimes, I wonder about the service crews training, if they need these heap of stencils.
    The painful task was worth it, the missiles look fantastic. My last stenciling exodus was the ZM 1/48 Kai Phantom, which had about a telephone book of information spread around, my not so great urge to build modern jets, vanished a bit by then.

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 2
  12. Nice, to see your P-51 nearing the finish line, Phil. After all the issues she looks very nice. I´d never thought, I would like such a relatively dull aluminum color on a P-51, but somehow it fits with the camo. The fit of panels and cowlings would be an interesting question. I had tons of problems with my ZM TA-152 some years ago with these and even mor with the engine bearers. Blue or green, she looks fantastic, good to have her saved.

    Cheers Rob  

    • Like 3
  13. This may not mean a lot to most of you, but I got the decaled fuselage sealed in. I feared bad reactions with `hot´ varnishes, but because of my planned weathering schedule, I wanted a durable sealing coat, a contradiction.

    First, I wiped down the whole airframe with a cotton towel and purified water, to get rid of decal solution residues.
    I took out god old Tamiya X-22 clear and mixed it with Tamiya acrylic thinner and sprayed it on some test parts, so far so good. When I sprayed on my decaled test elevator, the finish looked like marbled and scratched, bummer.

    With shaking hands, I mixed the ´hot´ Tamiya lacquer LP-32 flat clear with equally ´hot´ levelling thinner at a ratio of about 55% thinner, less than normal and cautiously sprayed the tail underside and immediately blew the varnish dry with the airbrush, to minimize reaction time.
    Hooray, it worked, no smelt decals and a nice and even near flat coat. Even the resprayed elevator was rescued, with over spraying and looks good now. 

    P1011170.thumb.JPG.e7a4bb903d2e976fdf9dde0ae328049f.JPG

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 8
  14. 1 hour ago, Jeff said:

    And , as a matter of fact , I actually do have a DVII in the stash.  So I will put it on the ‘schedule’. 👍🤭thanks Rob

    What´s holding you then, Jeff :D, this is the perfect gateway drug, but don´t blame me, when you are hooked on the stuff. Depending on the type of D.VII, there are so many colorful schemes to choose. If you like, there are top notch decal sets around, taylormade by Aviattic in the UK. The lozenge decals look way better, than the WNW ones and they are great to work with. The best, they have a woven linen structure, which looks so realistic.

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 3
  15. 4 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

    Rob, with those engine pics, I thought I was looking at museum reference photos. The engines look amazing. 

    Very nice work there. 

    Tamiya now make semi-gloss and flat clear paints so you no longer need to mix your own. 

     

    2 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

    Master class. :respect:

     

    2 hours ago, Peterpools said:

    WOW, gorgeous work! WNW details are amazing and your treatment: brilliant. Chipping is looking mighty good as well. :construction: 

    Muchas gracias amigos, working on the nacelles and engine was pur fun, even with their fragile multi part character. I´m always afraid, when I start a WNW build, but settle in with the interior and engines, as there is so much to show and the precision of the kit helps, getting everything together. I have to confess, i had to consult the manual several times for getting everything in it´s correct place following a logical sequence.

    Good to know, that Tamiya now produces acrylic flat and semi gloss, but I had some issues with good old X-clear, which I will describe in the next picture post.

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 2
  16. 7 hours ago, Jeff said:

    Thanks for your very kind words Rob , you have given me more fuel to carry on. I certainly do plan on doin a WNW kit. I have huge aspirations and hope to try to achieve a modicum of success. I have to admit the rigging is intimidating. I will watch with great interest how you tackle this particular aircraft and take note on your techniques.

    You should give a WNW kit a try, best for starters are German single engine fighters, like the Fokker D.VII or Junkers D.1 with nearly no rigging. Generally, German rigging is simpler, because of the normal wire used, instead of flat wire with the British planes. A Copper State Nieuport could also be considered or the MengNut Fokker DR.I.

    Cheers Rob

    • Like 6
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