DocRob

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

What a strange looking bird Phil, but I have a soft spot for fugly designs. Your rendition is absolutely beautiful, to answer your question, I did enjoy . Cheers Rob

Very nice Phil, thank for not withholding your JU-88 . I like the North African livery and how you performed it, a true beauty, which makes me thinking not for the first time, if I should use that scheme for my Do-17. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter and Mark, it is indeed a foreign language, which I only partly have knowledge of. For me it's more a foreign foreign language, as English is not my mother tongue. I know a bit, but not all about the maritime terminology and if I can make myself understandable, that's terrific and the good manual of the DoK helps a lot. Cheers Rob

Very interesting subject in a nice livery Kevin. I will build one of these variants too, sometime. I always liked the quirky design. Cheers Rob

Very nice Gary, it's always good to see, when the figures correspond with each other, to make a believable scenery. Cheers Rob

I added the strops to the hull, not before thinking about a proper method to align them correctly. I took some 6 mm wide Kabuki tape and adhered it to the side plan, marking the placement of the chainplates drilling holes with a pencil. With drawing the pencil lines across the Kabuki tape, I could use my template for both sides. I then drilled 0,5 mm holes into the hull at the marked positions, after I checked the angles of the chainplates with a metal ruler to the place, where the mast platforms will be. Then I pushed in the supplied brass nails without glue, but I don't think there is any need for gluing. Guess what, while checking the angles of the chainplates for the mizzen mast, I found, that they perfectly match my mizzen mast rake, which I found to be to far aft angled. Now that everything aligns with these angle, I may consider leaving the mizzen mast angle untouched. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter and nope, I wasn't cussing at all, albeit the fiddly work. I had to find a proper way to bend the PE parts, to accept the deadeyes, but after the first two or three, I had a routine established. Cheers Rob

Finally I was able to continue a bit with the DoK. I'm waiting for my Proxxon mini mill to materialize, which will make it easier to get the square parts out of te mast dowels. I prepared the strops, which are made from a PE frame with a pear wood deadeye inserted. That was easy for the smaller variant, but included quite some bending for the larger ones. Naturally, the pre painted PE parts took some damage while bending and needed to be touched up. Next were the mast platforms, which are pre cut pear wood, along with some support framing to be glued together. Alignment of the pre cut holes is most important here. Cheers Rob

Nice metal works Gary, I wish you luck with the skirts itself. Cheers Rob

Fantastic looking Gladiator variant with really nice winter weathering. A silver doped Gladiator is probably my next build. Cheers Rob

Measure the plank area on the spars on the plans Ernie, this way you know, if there are 20 planks on the widest spar, you can easily get the ratio for any given spar. Then you know, where to taper. I applied two or three full planks as well, before starting to taper. When sanding the second layer of planking, be careful not to sand to much, I have a paper thin part, where the bulwark meets the planks, close shave. I collected the sanding dust from the second planking and mixed my own filler with thinned white glue, to have the right color. Cheers Rob

Very nice with the digital camo Ernie. I wonder, how the Mig will look weathered, the camo suggests cleanness somehow. Interesting to see the interrupted yellow lining on the Ukrainian coat of arms on the tail. Like with many Russian planes, they seem to use reusable masks for spraying them on. Cheers Rob

It is this set, great to work with colors. Cheers Rob

Nice little rivet bucket, I really like the tanks on that chassis. It came out great and I use Nato Black often for rubber parts, when I'm to lazy to search for the right tone in my Lifecolor 'black set', where there are six different shades of near black. Perfect for aircraft wheels with different appearance on the sidewalls and the profile. Cheers Rob

Your first planking looks like a perfect base layer Ernie. To help with the second planking's width of the planks (tapering), I measured the to plank length over each spar and had an approximate for the necessary tapering. For training purposes, I tried that with the first planking. I first thought, beveling and tapering will be very time consuming, but it wasn't that bad and I didn't made a science out of it, only trying to have a nice and symmetrical planked hull. There is not so much planked area to be seen, with the copper sheating, where the much harder to plank lower part of the hull is covered. Cheers Rob

Thank you Gentlemen, and yes Kevin, I like the wooden oars a lot better, like the rug in the Dudes room, which tied everything together in 'The Big Lebowsky' movie . Cheers Rob

Thanks Ernie, you should give your HMS Speedy some love. Wooden ship building is so rewarding and at least until now was a trouble free experience and generated a lot of fun, while learning a lot. I will continue with plastic models as well, but wooden ships are a nice distraction and working with wood is a pleasure in itself. One of these days, I will try a copper sheated hull as well. I found Chris' models so well designed, that building them is relatively easy, but sure you have to do the planking and rigging somehow. Since two weeks, I'm a member on MSW as well and posted my WIP there, as there is a lot of expertise for my rigging adventures. It's a great forum with lots of members to learn a lot off. Of course, I contribute my plastic, metal, resin and airbrush credentials, which are not so wide spread among ship modelers. Cheers Rob