DocRob

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

Very nice start Peter, I will follow your build, as I never build a Spit and have only two 1/48 ones in stash. When I'm grown up, maybe I will purchase a Tamiya Spitfire. Two questions remain, is the Mk. IX IP identical and do you plan to lower the loop of the seatbelts a bit, they look a bit strange in the side view, the way, they are draped over the upper bar. Cheers Rob

Quite some bending involved with these sneaking exhausts. The whole engine section looks great, with a nice 'feel' for the materials. Cheers Rob

Nice and smooth Phil, time for some colors . Cheers Rob

No problem Martin, humor is an individual thing and I'm sometimes on the not completely political correct side either. If I'm overboard in one way or another, I value it, if someone tells me, that he's offended. It's always best to talk about sensitivities and not dismiss the humor for all the correctness. . Cheers Rob

Sorry Martin, not so funny this time, as there are thousands of refugees drowning near my island every year. Of course, you can't know that, just to let you know. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, but no place for a Houdini rigging , I will somehow pull through, but it may take a while. Cheers Rob

Very sorry to hear about your loss. They are a part of the family and will be missed. Can't imagine to loose my dog. I hope she had a wonderful live. Cheers Rob

Positively trashy, I might add , I like the worn look of your Mig Martin. I know the feeling, I only wear my glasses on night drives in the car. Would I wear them permanently, I would feel like half death, It's a too hard decline to get used to. Luckily my eyes are better now, than some years ago. Doing a lot of outdoor activities with wide views and not only staring on tiny plastic parts through magnifiers and onto computer screens helps a lot. I also know the feeling to not get the right ambition for some builds, without having an obvious reason, but good to see that you pulled through. It happens, but then there are builds, where it's hard to stop and that's the good news. Cheers Rob

What a wonderful looking car Mark. Pity you dropped it, but good to hear, that all is fixable. I'm with Peter, as I try to paint car bodies and motorbikes in one go, but I think you have painted all the red parts in one instance and only polishing and clear coat at different times.

Fantastic looking plane, the detailing of the engine and wheel covers please the eye Sasha. Cheers Rob