DocRob

Thank you Peter, it's more about patience with the little boat. I have to make three for HMS Sphinx, only the thought drives me nuts. I started to see it as an own project, given the time the boat took to assemble. Cheers Rob

These tiny boats can truly challenge my patience. I've managed to smooth the hull due to sanding and applying filler and have torn out the MDF frames, which worked surprisingly well, given the eggshell like appearance of the cutter. It turned out to be very time consuming, to get rid off the glue residues on the inside of the boat with sanding tools, rounded scalpel blades and small chisels. After this was done, I made a small placement test on my DoK. The boat is truly a model in a model and consumes lots of time to build up. My new Sphinx kit has thee boats included, that will be a real test . I added the spars, which are made from pearwood strips, which I soaked and clamped around a tin for drying with a curved contour. These were glued in with CA and then cut. Finally after adding the supplements for the seat panels, the inside of the boat got a coat of varnish. The rest of the boat will be painted matching the scheme of the ship. Cheers Rob

I'm completely opposite, If I own something, I use it, being it rare vinyls in my collection, which I unwrap and put them on my turntable and reduce their value by half, during seconds or build a rare kit. I would be very cautious while driving a genuine GT 40, but would use it. I can't understand, why people close away their valuable goods. Where is the meaning of buying goods, only to maintain them in perfect condition over time. Sure increasing value could be an argument, but to me it's a product, a thing, albeit a very special thing and things should be used as lifelike as possible. If you die tomorrow, how would you feel about not having driven your precious GT 40 only once. Cheers Rob

That turned out pretty bad Gary, sorry to see that. Your not un delicate solution could maybe work, but if your mesh is made from brass, it will weaken through the soldering process. I think, I would use only CA for the Schürzen. Another option might be, to sell the 45$ kit and to buy a newer one with the Thoma Schürzen like mine, pre cut steel mesh with PE framing. I guess, that should work relatively easy, but haven't tried. If you need more info about my Thoma's let me know. Cheers Rob

Great story Bill. I was eleven and probably ruining a glue smeared cockpit of an Airfix F-4. Cheers Rob

A fantastic and easy to build kit. I did one many moons ago, added resin ERA and wheels and lots of Voyager PE, along a metal barrel and Friul's, only to destroy it later, to show how simple human needs show in the grotesque scenery of war. Cheers Rob

After three month of shipping, which is nobody's fault but mine, because I opted for the slowest, cheapest shipping method, this great kit arrived from Japan today. I really like the Schnellboots appearance with the old style bridge, which later was changed to the armored version. The kit has a halved hull of approximately 50 cm length, nice and crisp looking plastic parts, Some sheets of PE, metal barrels and some rope for the railings. Hasta la vista Revell and Airfix, there is a new player in the pond. The nine crew members are from three CMK sets. Cheers Rob

Thank you Phil and Bill, the Sphinx kit was really a great surprise to me. After having a great birthday, yesterday I savoured the contents of the well packed box. Definitely another league compared with the Duchess of Kingston and I'm lucky that I build her first. Only seeing that there are THREE wooden boats to ad gives me the shivers . Cheers Rob

If in doubt, I would always chose the Kabuki variant if available. I had very mixed results with different types of vinyl masks. They are not as flexible, do not adhere as well, tend to shrink more, than Kabuki. I used masks from Maketar on several builds and they were perfect. The circular masks, Carl recommended are really very helpful. Cheers Rob

Love it Peter the Ford looks almost ready to race. Thanks for the explaining your method of applying decals onto the tyres. I have to do that soon and the last time, I added markings and logos to a models tyre was in my twens with a clumsy brush painting effort . Cheers Rob

You seem to build this beautiful Tomcat as fast as it flew Bill. The cockpit detailing looks beautiful and I will buckle in as I plan do do a -D version, albeit in 48 scale. Cheers Rob

Let us know about the results. I forgot to recommend double planking. It's much easier to get the outer decorative planking right, with a structural lower planking under it. Cheers Rob

That's hard to say, there are many thoughts to consider. As a beginner the most important aspect to me is a well designed and documented kit. It's also helpful to chose a popular kit, as there are many build logs to learn from. Good materials, being it wood, resin, metal and yarn are helpful. I once started with an Artesania Latina kit of the Cutter Le Renard many years ago, but haven't finished, because now I'm in a phase with the build, where you have to drill, sand, align, ... the gunports. It's not undoable, but difficult to get right and boring. With my actual build the Duchess of Kingston, it's completely different. Good materials, a well designed kit with many prepared parts makes live so easy, that I overlooked my goal to build smaller vessels in larger scales preferable. In her case the gunports, to stay with that example are laser cut and the three layers of bulwark fit perfectly even after the necessary bending. The later added decorations are fitting also perfect, so only a little cleanup is needed. I can highly recommend the kits from Chris Wattons Vanguard models. Another option is to build a fishing boat or a tug boat, which spares the rigging. I eyed the Fifie fishing boat from Amati for my purpose, as it's well designed (Chris Wattons work too) and is in 32 scale. I will buy the kit for sure and may build it in a used and weathered look, not seen too often in wooden ship models. These are only some thoughts about the subject, which I hope where of a little help. Cheers Rob

It's very helpful, that you can spray the wings apart from the fuselage. Your camo looks great. Do you buy your paints in gallons Carl? Cheers Rob

The chassis is looking great and very realistic to my eye. What I can't spot on the pics, are oil residues, which can be seen on every rail bound vehicle. I often add them to mechanical parts with a gloss finish in contrast to the duller parts. The short wheelbase in relation to the long chassis looks interesting, clearly allowing to follow curved rails better. Cheers Rob

The sales will tell, if Border made the right decision. You are absolutely right about the size difference of the seemingly close appearing scales, but what are we talking about? There are two kits, well represented by other companies in 32 scale and there are some builders out there, who think about dio possibilities with 35 scale gear and figures. I have to admit, I'm one of them, but until now, the right idea for a setting had not struck me. Cheers Rob

Thank you Gary, I had a great day and yes, receiving a model kit from my wife was very special to me. Cheers Rob

Yup, this is a windy part of my often windy island. We have two landmark trees here, one is set in a natural stone pool in the mountains and reflects the old technique to sample and collect water from the clouds, which was vital on my island, as there are no natural sources. The one on the picture represents the strength of nature and people here to resist bad conditions. The wind shaped form of these trees made them un useful for ship building purposes luckily. Cheers Rob

Thank you Mark, you should try a wooden ship. With your abilities and patience you will easily adopt. Wood is a great material to work with, lots of fun guaranteed. Thank yo Carl, the best about it was indeed the change of mind by my wife, priceless. Thank you Peter my friend, indeed the HMS Sphinx will make me Captain when finished. Until know, I'm deeply impressed how much bigger and well filled the box is. This will be a lot bigger workload than the DoK, I guess. The way to a post can't be too easy . Thank you Fran, I had indeed a great one . Cheers Rob

A Wildcat should give a little wild fight, shouldn't it? You've done great with the assembly Phil, and I can't wait to see some colors on the cat. Cheers Rob

I second Hubert, what a beautiful result after all the struggles, Peter. I never would have thought, that decals for windows would look the part, but with this scale, they seem to be the better choice, even allowing fine framing. If you later decide to gloss coat the Embrarer, you should mist on a very light coat first and let it dry thoroughly, before really glossing her. This way, the often aggressive component of the gloss, have less time to interact with the decals.

Muchas gracias, amigos, I had a great day yesterday, exploring the deserted parts of our island with the open topped Jeep, having a picnic in the wilderness and a great dinner in the night. I will make a WIP about Sphinx, but first I have to finish the Duchess of Kingston and then some other kits. Maybe next winter will be a good time to start. With such a project, it's good to have some coherent time, at least until in the groove with the build. Cheers Rob A landmark of my island, visited yesterday ...and a happy dog with us.

Today is a perfect day, not only because I have birthday, but my much loved wife made me a very special present, The HMS Sphinx kit from Vanguard models. Why is that so extremely special, besides from the fantastic kit? My wife approves my modelling hobby, but she doesn't support it in any way. It's an absolute first, that I received a model related present from her. What's to say, I'm a happy man and after finishing the Duchess of Kingston as a modelling midshipman, this will be my 'post' ship build with ranks. Cheers Rob

I built up the the Duchess of Kingston, hull and decks complete with all the decorations during a three month period and needed almost two weeks for planking the cutter. I have to admit, the little bugger took a bit of wind out of my sail, but I'm stubborn enough to want the boat having finished somehow. I'm really happy, that I wouldn't have to use the cutter in real live, as it's planking job is far away from being watertight and even if it was, it wouldn't row straigth at all. My second planking job was somewhat harder than with DoK. That's it in full ugliness, before sanding After a bit of sanding it looked a bit smoother. I wouldn't go to far with sanding, as the planks thickness is only 0,5 mm. I will use some filler next, liberally applied which will not disturb, because I plan to paint the outside of the hull. Cheers Rob

Peter, if the yellow strip is the main problem, you may should 're'-spray it on. While masking with Kabuki,, you can put some paper under one side of the tape, to hinder it sticking to the blue decal area. My very wise wife always says: 'leave it, love it or change it' . I had some builds lately with positive experiences while decaling. Aviattic decals worked great on my Fokker and SSW's, Zoukei's Cartograph decals were also formidable on my Kai Phantom and Tamiya's Ducati decals were good to work with, but other than that, it's mostly a painful act, to get the decals right. I often use masks to get around decaling and tried different products, like HGW's wet transfers, with very mixed results. Not to mention all the risks involved with preparation, sealing and weathering. As you can see, I fear the decaling stage as an error prone possibly project ending phase of a build. Cheers Rob