DocRob

Thanks Gary, I added some more to the starboard side today, but I think that's all now. Cheers Rob

My bad Hubert. I had it glued wrong and the picture was taken, before I corrected the mistake. You have eagles eyes . Cheers Rob

Wow Martin, looking great. Cheers Rob

Today, I managed to apply most of the PE decorations to the hull . I decided to use CA instead of Future / Klear, as I do not trust the floor polish to adhere enough. I worked with a certain discipline, using always fresh liquid CA, used an applicator to put it on very thin, holding near the end of the part with a tweezer and place it with a toothpick pushing it on on the other side. This way, I had only one tiny smear and only, because I orientated the PE part wrong. There are two types of white window frames supplied, I mention it only, because I had not realized that, until I tried to glue them in. It's barely visible on the bench, but you will notice on the ship, as they are slightly angled. Cheers Rob

Thank you Hubert and Gus, the result of my little poll is clear and I will add the upper rail and skip the lower. In the manual, the lower halved one is perfectly straight and covers the seam, but my stern section came out a bit different, so it would look even more silly, to use the halved lower rails straight. I'm with you Gus, the lower ones disturb the lines of the stern. As I'm only applying the upper one, I will paint it gold and I will try to thin the wood a bit, because it looks a bit blocky from above. Cheers Rob

I used some coarse steel wool, like on the first pic, when I airbrushed my Mig-31 and liked the effect. The risk of color flowing under a mask is practical zero and by varying distance and orientation, you have a truly random pattern. Another benefit is, you see the panel lines clearly while spraying and fill in marbled color for individual panels. Cheers Rob

Nice Martin, I look forward to the result. never tried salt myself while modelling, but more often while surfing . Cheers Rob

Today, I moved to the bow, where I assembled the prepared parts. The whole assembly is a bit delicate and in the pics there are still missing two supports for the protruding catheads, which wouldn't like to fit like I wanted. There is a minor mistake in the manual, which claims to glue on the decorative wooden rails, which curls in front of the Lions foot. If you glue them on on both sides you can't add the figurehead later, like it is supposed. I glued the rail only on one side as I like to add the figurehead very late in the build for safety reasons. Here are two pics of the stern, one with additional wooden rails and one without. As I'm still not sure, if I will mount them, I'm interested in your opinion. I have a little tendency to go on without the rails Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias señhores. This kit builds like an onion, you start with a frame, first and second planking, wooden decorations, PE-decorations. You add layer per layer to finish the hull. The design is exceptional clever. Cheers Rob

I never thought it through completely, but wouldn't it be possible to paint the entire turtle in black, using a Molotow masking pen for masking the demacration lines and then spray the camo. If the Molotow masking pens adhere well enough, it should be possible. It was my first thought for a French Schneider tank, but then I changed my mind and will built it as Spanish Republican tank. Cheers Rob

Nice little kit, it came out great with the near monochrome paintjob, which let the eye focus on the details. Cheers Rob

To put it into a cheap rhyme, I love the look of your Stug . Earnestly, the tri tone camo is great and I can't wait for pictures with the figures and other details on. Cheers Rob

Again a beautiful result with the Fokker, showing the usual mikeness fashion, which is like a good trademark of your builds. Cheers Rob

I added some more decorations to the stern and put on the horseshoe and fish PE with pins and glue. I then prepared all the bow parts, which needed to be beveled in some cases and painted them black. The catheads were also painted and the holes, where they pass the bulwark were adjusted with a file. The Duchess of Kingston starts to look like a real lady, slowly. Cheers Rob

Thank you Kevin, if you are prepared and have a good plan, planking is demanding, but not frightening. When I understand it right, your Baltimore is a relatively modern ship, where there is paint on the planks, which is more forgiving, than a natural wood look. I'd like to see you Wip-ing your build. Cheers Rob

Very cool build with the lighting Kai. It is always a demanding task, to add lighting to a kit and prevent stray light and the usual installation probs. Seems to work out well with your build. I added lighting to kit only once, but it enhanced the appearance of the build a lot. Cheers Rob

After all that self inflicted stress, some relief finally. The stern fascia's glue hold up, even some wiggling couldn't pry it loose, phew. I added the ready painted PE-window frames and the gold PE decoration between the windows with CA. A few touch ups later, I added the wooden rail under the windows and could make it fit without a gap under resin decoration. I'd seen gaps there on other builds and didn't like the look and tried everything to let these parts meet closely. The kit supplies two more protruding golden rails under the stern fascia, like shown in this manual pic, but I'm not sure if I like them at all. If I decide to add them, they will be in natural wood, as I don't want to have golden decorations below a certain level. I prepared the lower halved ones yesterday and blue tacked them on and still am not sure, if the look benefits with these. Cheers Rob

Thanks Gary the stern piece is a true shape shifter, I will go to my cave now and check, not without a cloud full of thoughts in my head . Cheers Rob

Nice Gary, I also have a soft spot for these machines, outdated, absurdly improvised with more and more add on modifications, which lead to even more modifications, because of the increasing weight. I will follow your build, as I have a similar boxing in my stash and it's on top of my to build tanks list. Mine has metal wire mesh combined with PE for the Thoma Schürzen and a supplied tool for bending them correctly along Magic tracks and represents the late version. Cheers Rob

Very nice choice of subject, Hubert. Leipzig in Saxony has also blue and yellow painted trams. You may find some pics in the net from some old trams, like the MiniArt kit. Will you include the passengers? Cheers Rob

Thank you Gentlemen, I hope the stern solution works out, an area which I dreaded since two weeks. Hopefully the glue will be strong enough. Cheers Rob

After a calming breakfast, I decided to give the stern another try. I set the DoK in the lately rarely seen sun and let her sunbath for an hour, to dry the wood and be able to glue the stern fascia again. After I removed the rubber bands it looked like this, almost perfect, bummer that there is no more space to get some glue in between . I then applied some CA, wherever possible and now hope, that tomorrow everything will be good, but somehow have my doubts. Cheers Rob

I ran into the first real trouble with the DoK and I expected it to be troublesome since I addressed the stern fascia for the first time, two weeks ago. The wooden part was soaked then and clamped to dry on a corresponding tin, to have the right curve for the stern. The next day, I had exactly the right curve, but found that the part got 1 cm wider, even after the drying time. I never could have imagined such an expansion. I tried to further dry the wood with a hairdryer, which helped a bit, but something was always wrong in the end, curvature or width. This is even more problematic, as there are the resin and PE-decorations to fit precisely. If you ever build the DoK, be warned, NEVER soak the stern fascia, this will invite trouble all along. The resin decoration were pre bent by me, using a hairdryer and had the perfect curvature. Yesterday, I prepared the wooden part, which was bended correctly, but was again oversized, as it seems to expanse through humidity in the air after the initial soaking. I used a hairdryer again and got the size issue solved and instantly glued the resin decorations on, while the wood was still warm. After curing, everything looked good and both parts had the right curvature. Then I glued the parts to the hull with white glue and secured everything with rubber bands. Everything looked perfect. In the morning, I checke, how my method had worked and found the whole stern assembly absolutely straight, no curve at all, pure horror. I don't know what to do now. I will carefully try to soak the wood again from the inside and try to bend it again with some force and glue it again, but have no idea if this works out. I may add two or four pins as support. The worst option would be to fill the gaps somehow and live with a straight stern, which would look absolutely silly. Cheers Rob

Thanks for showing the rubber brushes, I will try them with pigments, as I can see the benefits. But mostly they could be a tool, I was looking for since a long time, for applying decals. Should be comfy to push on decals with these, to get rid of water or air bubbles, trapped under the decal. BTW, I love the Skoda turtle, such a nice, steam punk like design, but the camo will be a challenge. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, easy may not be the right term, but the well designed kit helps a lot. There are tough tasks to fulfill, but the build is so rewarding and somehow, there are no real dealbreakers. I built so many kits and some ended on the SOD, but with the Duchess of Kingston, I never had that feeling. Thank you Gary, I like the look too. Other than plastic kits, it's somehow more sensual to work with wood. It looks good, when it feels good, in the sense of being smooth and well finished. Thank you, the whole idea of my search for a good gold color was, it needed to be brush- and airbrushable. I wanted to have the same gold shine on all the parts. I tested some, from Tamiya , from Gunze (Super Metalic Colours II Super Rich Gold) better but not good, Scale 75's Elven Gold (good to brush, but not very good to spray) AK's phenomenal to spray Extreme Metallics gold (Too thin for brushpainting) and considered without testing AK's metallic waxes. The Vallejo Liquid Gold can be thinned (and cleaned) with Alcohol (white spirit). I thinned it only while testing, but used it decanted from the jar with a synthetic brush and sprayed it with my Infinity airbrush through a 0,2 mm nozzle without problems. The result of airbrushing is difficult to capture in a photo, but it came out decent, I think. Cheers Rob