DocRob

I measured the steel mesh from my kit and it has a ca. 0,5 mm spacing, perfectly sufficient. Cheers Rob

Looking good, I like the multi colored wheels Gary. Is the mesh you're waiting for the Thoma-Schürzen mesh? Cheers Rob

I would never have thought so Gary Cheers Rob

Splendid detailing and nice paintjob on this very tiny airplane. sometimes it's pure pleasure to scale down to 48 or 72 scale for a change. Cheers Rob

Thanks Super-Gary, I now have a picture of you in my mind, combat ready with blood stained eyes . The Proxxon mini lathe is only for wood working, there is no way to adapt the necessary cutting tools for working with metals, except maybe sanding them. You can work with wooden parts up to a diameter of 8 mm with the standard issued horrible plastic collets. You can add a three jaw chuck for more flexibility, but the machine has a lot of limitations due to the tiny size and power. As I have to prepare the mast parts, which often are conical and have indentions, it will come handy. If you plan to work with metals, you have to spend more, not only for the machine, but the necessary tools as well. I thought about buying a better lathe, but skipped it, as I don't use it often enough to rectify the money. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, parts count isn't overwhelming. There is a lot in the box, a mix of materials, but opening some of Dragons boxes is even more frightening. The different materials need a lot of different techniques to be attended, but there is nothing which can't be done until now with a bit of experience in working with wood, PE and resin. The way the kit is designed, brings it nearer to us plastic addicts through the extensive use of PE and resin. Time consuming processes like opening gunports for example are made easy here with pre-fabricated parts, which only need a bit of clean up and adjusting. I haven't tracked the time consumed by the build, but I'm astonished, how fast it went on. I worked on the DoK for a bit more than two month now, but have no idea, how long masts and rigging will take. I've worked longer on some plastic kits, for example, my Fokker D.VIII build took more than three month. Cheers Rob

Our dog owns the spacy luggage compartment of our Jeep. He is not that big, but has more space than anybody else. On the other hand, he never destroys things other than unattended shoelaces. Cheers Rob

You created a beauty Peter. With the decals all clicks together. Great and flawless work. Cheers Rob

Speaking about solutions. I didn't like the look of the cannons wheels, so I measured the axle hole and found some Albion brass tube of 1,8 mm diameter, which tight fitted as an axle and put the wheels on the mini lathe. I then carefully sanded the char away from the wheels. Friction was sufficient to hold the wheels in place. The Proxon mini lathe is a great help as a tool for wooden ship models, but the quality of the plastic collets is horrible. Right from the start, you scratch the working material with these, because they have burrs. The four mm diameter collet needed drilling and sanding to accept 4 mm diameter workpieces . The first test assembly of one of the tiny cannons or should I say, muskets on wheels. There is more cleanup to be done, I have to paint the barrels and varnish the wood, but that's how the artillery of the Duchess will look. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, there are lots of subassemblies and test fitting to do and I will prepare everything and then drop it in the right place in a comfortable order. In the manual, the guns are last mounted, but I'm not so sure, if rigging them wouldn't be difficult with all the other parts in the way. In the prototype build the guns where not rigged, but I plan to do so, at least simplified. Thank you Phil, there are new challenges lurking at every corner, but generally nothing proved too hard to overcome. In fact part of the fun of the build is to find solutions. Cheers Rob

Nice problem solving Bill, have you used any guide or did you scribe free handed? Cheers Rob

It looks like nothing has happened lately, but as I'm preparing all the deck clutter, there is only not much to show. There are multiple sub assemblies like the anchor winch, the bell stock, , the binnacle, the belaying rails, pumps, ..., accompanied by adding numerous eyebolts. Speaking of, the PE eyebolts were primed and airbrushed satin black, but I should have burnished them, as through rough handling with tweezers, the color chipped often and a lot of touch up was needed. The wooden parts are mostly laser cut and the cleanup of the char takes a lot of time, if made thoroughly. I may assemble the cannons, before I add everything to the decks. I will make it as easy for me as possible, due to a well thought order of mounting the parts. So for now, there is only an ugly pic with some of the prepared parts, cleaned and varnished. Cheers Rob

These sleek lines of a Mirage, what's not to like there. Yours look wonderful Alain and has a great finish and great detailing especially around the cockpit. Welcome to LSM, where there were some Mirage derivate builds in the last time, all interesting to watch. Cheers Rob

Just have re-seen the movie Diva, which sports a snow white Citroen Traction Avant. One of my favorite cars along with the Goddess 'DS' of the same maker. I doubt yours will be white, but it will be a looker, I'm sure Jeroen. Cheers Rob

Just when I looked at my PE sets for the Halbkette, I decided, not so soon . Cheers Rob

All these struggles are luckily not visible in the fine result Peter. Bad decals are a pain to work with, but sometimes, it helps to apply a little bit of heat with a hairdryer. Anyway, masking and painting is mostly the better way, specially when you have to do the same cutting for the decals as well. Well she starts to look fast Peter, can't wait for the finish. Cheers Rob

Hold your horses Gary, this is a yacht and not a ship of the line. The armament consists of six four pounders, good enough to keep some rowing boats at distance. Four of the gun ports are only fake or were maybe used to feed the fishes by green faced blue blooded passengers. Cheers Rob

Thanks Martin, in this case it's the kit not me . Cheers Rob

You have bigger teeth then Peter, right? Cheers Rob

Great show Cheers Rob

Typical Dragon, I would say Phil. Countless part, tons of detail and very poor instructions. Normally they go together well, though. Your 1,5 steps look like half of the halftrack (or one quarter track ) is done. However, the result looks promising great. When I remember right, the tracks are made from single track links of two parts each, am I right? Cheers Rob

Today, I prepared the belaying rails around the masts. This included a lot of sanding, to get rid of the char and give the parts a better three dimensional appearance. Than they were varnished and left to dry. While working on these, a thought struck me, as there will be more and more delicate details added to the decks. Do the masts fit and do they have the right angles. I cut the lower parts of the masts to size and inserted them into their slots. The opening for the foremast needed some filing, the others fitted perfectly. Again, nice design by Chris as the masts sit very tight and barely movable into the slots. The angles seem to be good according to the plans. The fore and main mast look really thick with their 8 mm diameter, but this is supposed to be so. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, for now the rigging is finished and will haunt me at a later stage again. Concerning the macro photos, I have to admit, that I really like them, even if they are emphasizing on details, which never would be visible in such brutal clarity with the real eye. When I do a WIP, I like to be criticized, and this is helped by a little overemphasizing through a macro lens. A WIP is a build log for others and me, which could be used ass reference. I'm sure, I have forgotten half of my solutions during the build in two years and can reference to my WIP. Therefore it's helpful to show all the details, nice or not. Cheers Rob

Only the toothpick showed the scale Peter. Nice work on the fuselage and wings. She will be beautiful in yellow and blue. Cheers Rob

Makes all the sense in the world Martin. You must have caught one of the better days for taking the pics in your weather tormented home area . On my island the weather changes rapidly sometimes, so for me the soft top is perfect as it is opened or closed in two minutes and I often have to do it on my way, because of changing conditions. The main reason for closing up though is wind, as we have no freezing temperatures except on the highest summits in winter time. Driving open through light drizzle normally is no problem as astonishingly few rain enters the car. We have that very often, when passing the clouds. You seem perfectly prepared for winter conditions with only the exception of an ice bear frontguard with your Jeep. Love the color of yours, which would have been my second choice, if available for my model. Cheers Rob