DocRob

You make me curious Carl, as you seemed to have built a Fly Arado, but no pics. Thank you for the generous offering concerning the clear part. For now, I think, I will make a clear hatch from some other material, as I think this would be a removable hatch without hinges, that wouldn't be too challenging. The FLy part has the misaligned engravings, which had to be removed and polished out. I let you know for sure though, when ran out of options with that part. Cheers Rob

I have some PE templates too, which are thinner than my steel ruler and will be fit for the job. Circles are another breed, I think, you cant use the Tamiya engraving tool for that. I think this is only possible with a pointed tool like a needle. Cheers Rob

Decision time, I prepared the star shaped antenna, where I had to sand the clear lens conical to fit the base, but then opted for the tear shaped clear canopy with the Naxos radar under it. I tried to collect more information, about how the Nachtigall's where equipped, but tend to say, as they were experimental, they were different antennas used, maybe for evaluating. Same goes for the bomb sight, which some seemed to have had and others not. So it will be the FuG 350 with Naxos antenna , but in the position of the star shaped radar. Next was the operators cabin, which I wanted to show open. In another forum was a build thread, which mentioned, that the engraved opening in the clear part is not orientated in the middle and inspecting mine it isn't by far So I decided to make my own opening and as the shape and size of the original are not very clear either, I masked a rounded rectangle on the clear part, mainly because I felt that the engraved opening wood have been very narrow anyway. I added Dymo tape as a cutting guide. Then I drilled first 1mm holes near the edges, which then were widened with a 4mm drill bit and then cut along the straight lines with a Dremel and different PE saws, razor saws and scalpel blades. That was done very carefully, with only light pressure, as the remaining plastic is very narrow.. ... and finally, that's how the opening looks. The part will be painted in RLM 66 on the inside and then glued in place. Along the way, I glued the nacelles to the wings and filled the gaps with black CA and Perfect Putty, and sanded everything to shape. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter for commenting so promptly on the Tamiya engraving blade. Guiding the blade can be a bit difficult as you say with Dymo tape. and sometimes a metal ruler doesn't bend enough. There is no perfect tool out there . Cheers Rob

I am a surfer, but would never put that thing under my boards . Cheers Rob

Good to know Carl, but I was expecting that, being made from hardened steel. What I like about the design is that it's small, to get into places, that are not accessible with other tools and that it is cutting dragged, so it's easier to get straight cuts. Speaking of cuts, using my needle for scribing, which sometimes is necessary, leads to a half risen and half cut panel line, I do not like as much. You can sand down the rissen part or level it with some Tamiya Extra Thin, but it's not actually cutting the material, which I expect the Tamiya engraver to do. I haven't used the UMM scribers and think they will be difficult to purchase for me, but they follow the same operational path, as I can see it, but I don't feel they are comfortable to handle with a blade for a grip. The razor saw, I like very much, as it is easy to keep a straight line with it and it obviously cuts, which is a good thing, but they are only usable on convex surfaces. Cheers Rob

Your little Marder looks really busy with the figures, which suits it very well. I always found it very difficult to put a figure into a crammed space in a believable pose. Your crew is looking convincingly good though. Cheers Rob

Very good, now you reach the areas that will be visible in your build. Can't wait to see you doing your magic on these. Cheers Rob

Just love those Swedish splinter camos, but don't have the cojones to do one of my own. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias Peter, I looked for the UMM and I can imagine, that these are good to work with. I think, the principle of dragging the cutting wedge, helps to get straight panel lines. I spent some time in the net looking for good solutions and decided, I will try the Tamiya engraving blades, which follow the same principle, but their cutting head is hardened tungsten steel and tiny, so it's possible to use them in confined spaces and on complicated shapes. They are not usable for working with templates, but for this, I have the needle type scriber. Cheers Rob

Thanks Peter, is there still a free place in the IHS-club, I'm even willing to bully myself in . I will look up your tools, as I only have the two, I described above. I do have lots of PE templates and metal rulers to produce straight lines, but what I scribe with my tools is by far worse than the kit provided scribings. The good news at least to me, is that most of the tiny mistakes, which are easily seen with a magnifier on the bare plastic under good lighting, will hide somewhere under paint and weathering mostly. In the end, it's the appearance of the hole model, when finished and that's a sum of applied skills and scribing panel lines is only one of them. Cheers Rob

Thank you Gentlemen, with all that volcanic ash in the air, you need only a piece of cloth to sand down plastic . It's not that bad, fortunate winds made the ash hit my island only for two days, but there is a permanent acid taste in the mouth and that's not caused by the kit. I've no idea, why I never had to scribe a lot on my kits, as there were bad ones among them, but until the Arado I got spared. Yeah I know, learn something with every build, but I have to do better with the scribing. BTW: what are your favorite scribing tools. For straight lines on konvex surfaces I like the razor saw, on others, I used the needle, sometimes guided with Dymo tape, but feel very uncomfortable, because I sometimes loose track and slip with the needle. @Kai, I don't think the Fly kit is as bad as the Mirage, it's demanding and far from perfect, but where I expect to have lots of swearing with Italerie's shortcomings, it's just a 'let's do it' approach with the Arado. Cheers Rob

Today was elbow grease day, lots of sanding, virtually everywhere and a bit of airbrushing, to assemble the nacelles with their resin inserts. I thought about, how to paint the cones green, after I sprayed the fan deep into the intake with steel color. I formed a ring of Panzer Putty and pushed it in, which did the trick. All halved plastic components had little steps or tiny gaps, which I covered with black CA and sanded and sneezed a lot, not without destroying a lot of panel lines, which lead to another task, I'm absolutely not comfortable with, rescribing. I managed to achieve a so so result. which I hope will be sufficient under primer and paint. I never scribed so many panel lines before and after starting with the needle, I switched to the razor saw, wherever possible. Cheers Rob

Nice Phil, the camo is looking great with the added bits and pieces to give more contrast. Let the dirt fly . Cheers Rob

That's how everything comes together. Nice display, I like it. Cheers Rob

Indeed very interesting, I might give it a try, possibly on a post war 48 scale racing Spitfire XVI. The fragility of the finish is an issue for sure. Thanks for posting. Cheers Rob

Freestyling without consequences, right down my alley, Hubert . If you cant do it right for sure, declare yours as right. Earnestly, that started to be my thinking too. I've not decided on the variant as of now, but have to do soon, so still every input is welcomed. Cheers Rob

Good to have you on board Gaz, and yes, the thread dates a while back . Cheers Rob

Indeed Phil, but it was meant as a build, with others in between. There are kits on the SOD, where I ask myself, why I haven't binned them, but others like the Nachtigall, which always magnetizes me to continue. Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, for browsing through your sources. Sadly it seems to add more fog to an already misty area. The graphic from the Vailiant Wings book seems to indicate towards a glass topped radar star, like on the HE-219. The profile of the SM FE coded plane, the one, I will build, is not clear in that point, but shows the bombsight under the nose, where I read, this was not equipped on the nightfighters. I seem to hunt a mystery plane and you are absolutely right, the night fighter Arados are not well documented, but that's maybe because they were a fail and only a handful were converted. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, it's a plane, which always fascinated me, as I think it's the most advanced design of it's time, which really flew. The build is not an easy one, but on the other hand, I was never really frustrated with it. Cheers Rob

Another beauty, Mike. The relaxed pose of the figure fits perfectly to the Albatros. It's amazing to see, how different the plane looks from different angles, with the lower blue on some pics and the upper camo on other pics. As always with your builds, I especially like the materials appearance and weathering. Cheers Rob

Nice progress Peter, it looks like a Mustang now, what a pleasant sight. Hopefully, the wings will fit well. Cheers Rob

Argh, that sounds bad Gaz, two centimeters is quite deep. Hopefully your hand will be ok. I use tweezers to grab the tiny drill bits and push them into some foam for better handling. Tracks and handles look good on your Frankentank Cheers Rob

I told you in the beginning, this will be a long term project, but I decided to continue a bit with the Nachtigall and like so often, I have a question for you experts out there. How should the upper fuselage side on the night fighter from Oblt. Bonow look? My two Kagero books do not cover the night fighter variants and the Fly building manual, cover art and painting plan are not conclusive either, as are the model pics, I found in the net. Variant 1: with the radar in front of the wingroot (of course build in flush with a clear part covering it) Variant 2: With what looks like a perioscope under a drop shaped canopy in the shown position or a bit more to the cockpit. or Variant 3: are there both or none build into the specific plane. So far, I closed the fuselage, but not before adding some nuts and washers as extra weight with two component glue. Looks messy, but never will be seen again. I tried to glue the fuselage halves together as good, as possible, but with all the innards, there were small steps after curing. So for the first time, I added black CA too the seams as putty, which will be leveled later. I did the same on the leading edges of the wings, where it's already grinded. I also added the tiny round windows for the operator, which I put in from the outside, after step by step, widen the hole in the fuselage, until it fitted. As I will prime some components like the nacelles and jet intakes and exhausts next, I assembled the Rato jets with their fragile mounting frames, which are built of four parts each. I glued these together and before the glue settled, tried to align the parts in the correct angles, matching the attachment points on the wings. Cheers Rob