DocRob

Sleek looking plane, Carl. Should be finished soon. Cheers Rob

This build is like a rollercoaster ride sometimes. After checking my building sequence again (very important), I decided, it´s time to add the doors, which means, I have to deal with the side windows, a task, I really feared and I was right to do so. This is, how it should be done. After drilling all the holes for the rivets with a 0,7 mm drill bit, you cut all the window panes and fairings for the sliding window from a luckily pre printed clear acetate sheet. This proved to be not so easy, it was hard, to have all the strips look equal. I tried first to use my DSPIAE profile cutter, where the blade bet slightly with the long cuts and rendered the parts unusable. I moved on to use a steel ruler and a new scalpel blade then. But how to glue everything together and align the parts perfectly, for fitting in the rivets. I decided to improvise a bit. I skipped the spacers (CS5) and used 1mm wide double sided clear adhesive tape instead. To reach the sufficient thickness, I had to apply two strips onto each other. These strips with the CS4 parts were then glued onto the window pane, trying to fit the pre drilled holes. With the second strip in place, I re-drilled the holes again, now with a 0,6 mm drill bit through the adhesive tape and then inserted the rivets. Luckily the residues of adhesive tape in the holes fixed the rivets. Unfortunately, cutting and assembling must be made on a relatively hard surface and that lead to scratches. The result looks horrible, but I think, I have to live with that, re doing the strips would result in more scratches on the window panes and I don´t have spare acetate. The only upside, the windows actually slide . Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, the Cobra is a demanding project for sure. I can´t understand anymore, why I shied away from rigging my Duchess of Kingston wooden sailing boat . Cheers Rob

Thank you Gus, Paul and Chris. Today, I rubbed on the Tamiya polishing wax and the shine became another bit brighter. I´m happy with the finish, but now I have to deal with doors and windows, another daunting act. Cheers Rob

I am really happy now. Since about two month, I´ve been working on the Cobra´s body and now, the shell is ready so far. I put in a lot of elbow grease to achieve the finish, but like I said, it paid off and now, I have a squeaking mirror shine finish, only faltering the bright sunlight outside, to let it really shine. After the first and most intense 4000 grit wet sanding round, I let follow the 6000 grit and the 8000 grit wet sanding job, followed by the three Tamiya polishing compounds coarse, fine and finish. For now, I left out the final waxing, because I have to permanently handle the body and will apply it last. And now out onto the terrace, shaking some cocktails for my wife and me, to loosen the arms Cheers (litertrally) Rob

Thank you Mike, the level of detail is really high with this kit, but this has it´s price when it comes to mounting everything. The complexity of the tasks sometimes let my head spin . Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, it´s not done yet. I still have to fine sand and polish the rest of the body, but I have high hopes for a good finish. Cheers Rob

I´m not very experienced, when it comes to finishing car bodies and for a while, I debated with myself about leaving the clearcoat as it is. It looked very good and had a high sheen, but it was not perfect. Out with the sandpaper and polishing compounds. I started to wet sand the whole body with 4000 grit sandpaper, which made the surface nice and even, but also dull. Of course, I tested my approach first on a lower body part, than on the roof, using 6000 grit sandpaper next, followed by 8000 grit. Then I rubbed in the Tamiya polishing compounds from coarse to finish and added some Tamiya polishing wax last. Yep, looks good, not the slightest orange peel effect left and a high shine polish. When ready, I will take some outside pics in the sunlight, which show the effect better. Cheers Rob

Thank you FA and Chris. You want to test fit enough, but as little as possible with this kit at this stage. It pays to have planned everything possible in advance, but something, I always forget . The next steps will decide about the fate of the Cobra. Everything has to fit together somehow, when the body meets the chassis. Cheers Rob

I assembled some more sub assemblies, before mounting the body onto the chassis. Foremost, I finished the dashboard. The dashboard got painted with Tamiya LP-5 semi gloss black and the instruments got decals into their tubs and a pre cut round clear acetate cover, which I glued in with Revell Contacta Clear and had no fogging issues. The instruments received tiny pieces of yellow Kabuki for identification. ...and where built into the dashboard later, accompanied with some toggle switches and rivets. Cheers Rob

Fantastic build, paintjob and weathering, Dave. Welcome to LSM, where you clearly fit, building this clearly Large scale kit. I especially like the coherent weathering, which looks very plausible. Cheers Rob

Leveling thinner is a real gift, like Paul said. Since I use it, my AB probs are far less. You are correct about the tip protectors, I leave them away. Specially heavy pigmented acrylic colors tend to accumulate there and then BLOB. Cheers Rob

I had none, just an educated guess . Cheers Rob

Can´t wait for the weathering Kevin, always interesting with these Japanese planes. I used Pledge very often with the airbrush and never had issues with application. I use Tamiya Flat Base to reduce the sheen, when necessary, but never more than about thirty percent. More flat base leads to candy cotton effects. The only issues after application I had was with decal solutions, which left dull spots in the clear, but were removed with a further coat of pledge above. Cheers Rob

Call me Sherlock, gents . No idea about the real plane, but imagination Cheers Rob

I used the curing time of the body parts to prepare the firewall. I installed all the components except for some electrical wiring and tubing and test fitted the whole thing into the body as well as onto the chassis. I hope, joining everything together later will work out. It becomes harder and harder to test fit and every test results in color abrasion or in knocking off some parts. Cheers Rob

Thanks Kevin and you are right, before binning the Cobra, I have to run out of options, but let´s see what the future brings. Cheers Rob

Thanks Martin, it´s not finished yet. I will wet sand the paint with 4000, 6000 and 8000 grit and then polish the surface. But this will be done after another week or so, for completely curing of the paint and clear. Meanwhile, I started to detail the firewall, pictures will follow. Cheers Rob

Nice finish, but you are right about the decals, Chris. It would look strange to have a weathered airframe and the decals are new and shiny. Cheers Rob

I like the badness of it´s looks momentarily, Scott. No chances for a transatlantic Cobraism right now . Cheers Rob

Could it be, that the drag was too big, when flown with the open canopy? There would be a much better airflow with the rear windows removed. Cheers Rob

Looking good, Chris. The wash on top blends the camo colors better. When there is a matte coat on, it will be perfect. Cheers Rob

That came out nice, Carl, I can imagine your nervousness cutting out the canopy. Cheers Rob

I´ve seen the GPmodelling engine, but plan to keep it relatively simple with this build. Only some PE where needed and the thinner and tinted Decalcas acetate windows will be used. The rear should be closed, but I have to inspect the kit a bit further to definitely decide. Cheers Rob

Today, I received a car and some car build supplies from Spotmodel. Besides being always reliable, they have the best packaging in the modeling world. The Lancia Stratos is one of my favorite cars and I didn´t own a single kit of it. I pondered about the new 1/12 Italeri release, but it´s Italeri.... When I saw the Hasegawa 1/24 Stratos in Rally Acropolis livery, I was sold and had to buy it. I added some extras, like Reji PE parts, decals from Studio 27, because Hasegawa only included the blue borders for the orange arrows and I´m to lazy, to mask all of it and very thin green tinted clear acetate windows from decalcas, which give the possibility, to show the side windows half open. Some random stuff, like Zero lacquer clear coat, which is fantastic, some texturized Zero paints for gearboxes and brakes and not to forget Tamiya´s fantastic lacquer gloss and semi gloss black jars. I also added some Tamiya masking fluid, let´s see, how good that is and some tiny sponges to apply polishing paste. Seatbelts and intake funnels for my Lotus Type 88 from MFH , some USCP 3D printed engine parts for my 1/24 Ferrari GTO and Falcon Models radiators, to substitute the kit parts of Tamiya´s 1/20 Lotus Type 79. The detail of the printed radiators is fantastic, you can read through the fine mesh of the radiators, if you like. Cheers Rob