DocRob

Yeah Gaz, she's a looker and I hope she still is after me painting her . Cheers Rob

Muchas Gracias Kai, the sculpting of the welding girl is indeed superb. let's see, if I can do her justice with my limited figure painting experiences. The heart patch will be checked soon under a coat of primer for a sufficient welding effect. I made the welding bead with thick CA and a toothpick. Cheers Rob

Impressive work and craftmanship. This build will be epic. Cheers Rob

Very nice build and evenly nice paintjob. The flaps arrangement with the red underlying is a beautiful contrast and man has this bird flaps. Cheers Rob

I prepared the setting, adding the fog dispenser with lead wires. On the right side, two tins got shot away and will dangeling on the cables later, with a little deformation. Sasha the wielding girl put a heart shaped patch on the hole and wielded it on. Cheers Rob

There was only one Polish plane and if you look for Lukgraph's 1/48 offering and in the net, the markings of the German birds, seem to be pretty basic. Cheers Rob

This is a beauty, albeit a pricey one. Is it a must buy? I'm trying to convince me not, but seem to fail, open outcome with a clear tendency.... To ruin my idea of buying less models, it looks so well designed and I used Lukgraphs 3D printed Le Rhone engine on my last build and it was far superior to the e.G. Oberursel resin engine from Copper State. There will be a limited edition with wood and linen decals included for the German version, must resist,... BTW, thanks Fran for getting me hooked , but honestly, I spotted the Friedrichshafen before. Cheers Rob

There's a giant with huge fingers taking away an original Spitfire. Cheers Rob

Breakdance Cheers Rob

Scribing and riveting look sharp and convincing now, well worth the effort and will look great with some panel liner, enhancing the desret scheme. Cheers Rob

Have you done a NMF with Alclad's, Peter? You can get great results, but with my experiences the Alclad's are very sensitive in general some tones more than others. I would test a lot if you go for different shades on panels, which involves masking. Some of the colours don't adhere very good and some loose a bit of luster when taped, even with detacked tape. Another issue can arise when varnishing. Shine and tone of the colour may change. Don't get me wrong, they make great metallics, but you need to be careful and test a lot. I changed into the Extreme colour range because of that, using my old Alclads only where there is no masking involved or where they have exactly the shade I like, e.G. exhaust manifold. Cheers Rob

I hear you Peter, about the shortcomings of the Revell kit, but can notice none of it in the progress pics. You seem to breeze through the build and make it look easy. Do I hear NMF soon? Cheers Rob

You built a beauty Gus, your Typhoon looks spot on in every aspect. It really pays to spray the markings as they blend perfectly. Seeing yours makes me want to build mine soon, but that has to wait as it is a long project. Cheers Rob

It definitely is and you don't have to care about the real thing, because luckily there is non. You can go wild, using new techniques without a right or wrong, quite rejuvenating. Cheers Rob

I have the ZM Mustang IV boxing in my stash and would wish to start it soon, but there are so many other projects,.... Cheers Rob

Thank's a lot, the finish is easy achieved. I use Pledge as varnish, be it gloss or matte and for matting it down, I add Tamiya flat base. If you put too much of the flat into the mix, it will look frosted, with about 30% flat base stirred in, I have these results. On my WWI subjects, I tend to use a Flory clay wash before varnishing, which dulls everything a little and helps to blend the colours. There is a very helpful page about mixing Pledge/Future with Tamiya flat on the blog of the talented designer/builder fichtenfoo. Clear Coats with Future Floor Acrylic | FichtenFoo Cheers Rob

Nice problem solving Kai, not so nice that these problems exist. I have no, Italeri kits in stash exactly for this reason. I don't like the companies quality approach. They are one of the big players and in the market since decades, but despite having lots of interesting kits, they seem to lack thorough engineering. Yes, we are modelers and there is nothing to say against some extra work needed, to have a good result on a not so good kit, but I can't force myself to put my money on their kits, It's beyond my understanding, why they lack in so many aspects, where small companies have far better designed kits. Luckily there are not so many Italeri kits which attract me as a must have. I can understand, how it feels to you, as a fan of LS Jets like the 104, Mirage or Tornado. I was tempted by the Starfighter lots of time, because I like the design, but skipped it, being Italeri. When I browse through the announced kits for a new year, I often have that, wow, I want to have this, but wait, uncool, it's from Italeri sensation. I hope that's not too much a rant, to unspecified and hope for the best satisfying outcome of your bird. Cheers Rob

Thank you Gentlemen, there seems to be some interest into this buil..., - errr - paintjob and weathering, great, glad to have you on board, as I'm sure, I can profit a lot on your experience, where I step on no mans land. Kai, I'm curious as you about the outcome and if I can life up to my imagined picture with this little setting. Cheers Rob

Why does a P-51 always looks like it has a racers attitude, it's just such a beautiful plane and you are doing a great job showing it. I definitely have to build one soon. Cheers Rob

Welcome to the future, a knight, maybe it's history, noooo, its sci-fi. These Ammoknights are a sidekick to the Maschinenkrieger or Ma.K or ZbV 3000 universe and I spare you the banal story behind, because it's irrelevant for the project I have no idea, if there is any interest in a WIP of that kind. First of all it's not about building, because all building was done in a day and was a very simple affair. The fit of the kit parts is very good and to make painting and weathering easier, all subassemblies can be snapped together without gluing, quite comfortable. The only extra work went into the seamlines of the arms and legs, where I used Tamiya extra thin glue in a left tiny gap, between the halves, then being pushed together with some force, so that some glue dries on the surface and can later be sanded away, result, no gaps at all. What this WIP will be about is painting and weathering, where I will incorporate some new adventures. My plan is to brush paint the Ammoknight with a layering technique of different type of colours, let's see, how this works out. The little scene will include the opened Ammoknight powersuit and Sasha the welding girl, patching the worn and beaten knight up after battle. If you have guessed, that this will involve metal, rust, grime, flaked paint and some sex appeal, you're right. Like on most of my builds, I have a very detailed picture in my head, showing the finalized project and like always, I'm curious about, if I'm able to deliver. The scene will look like this Today I started with the base layer and wanted to create a surface of badly pitted metal, cast with bad quality, corroded and worn. For the first time, I applied a corresponding surface layer on a kit, using Mr. Surfacer 500 and dabbed the texture on, with different types of sponges in random patterns, which led to this. Next step was checking the result with black primer, which will be the base for all things to follow. My test pieces looked so promising, that I coated all the parts in Alclad's black micro filler, Here are the results on some of the main body parts and it came out exactly how I wanted the look. Cheers Rob

Great progress Carl, always a great feeling to close the fuselage without issues. Your de-hooking solution is also spot on. Cheers Rob

On the first pics, your STUG looks like covered with dark caramel sauce, sweet . I like the resulting camo though and think it's well worth the effort. I worked on a winter STUG project in an early phase as well, with only most of the Zimmerit applied. My plans for the winter camo were to use washable white colour by Ammo of Mig, applied by brush, to hinder overspray. I haven't tested the method until now, but will post the results. I like hairspray chipping and have used it to my liking on several occasions, but never decanted the stuff. Two or three passes, directly from the can were sufficent, depending on the planned effect. Cheers Rob

I had the same thoughts like you concerning bright colours and was also quite satisfied with creating lighter and darker spots, be it replicating light and shadow or abrasion or bleaching by the sun, with oils. I think it's a great way of post 'weathering' and yours look great. Sometimes you can achieve similar effects with Pigments too. I did that, pronouncing the wing spars of my otherways plain pfalzgrau Pfalz D.III I may try another approach on my 1/20 Ammoknight, using another brush only technique, which I found, use many of the larger scale sci-fi modelers. It sure is way overdone for your Focke, but I thought I should mention. Ma.K Weathering Camo - Free Hand brush Mr Color by Lincoln Wright - YouTube Cheers Rob

Cunning, I never thought about that method, thanks for mentioning it Jeff. On the 1/72 Fokker it wouldn't have been an option though, because I think this only works with brass rods in the struts, no option for 1/72. Anyway, it's a great method for pre aligning struts on biplanes and I will store it on my brain harddisk. Cheers Rob

It's a pleasure Mike. I live on a tiny island with nobody around having an interest in modelling. I don't do competitions, I build only for myself. I have only you to communicate about my loved hobby and I like the idea of a forum about giving and taking and to me LSM is such a place with friendly members and great discussions. The build of the Fokkers, I covered a bit closer than others, as I learned a lot while doing it. The formerly dreaded building of brass struts is now in my repertoire as is the general handling of completely decaled fuselages or wings. It's trail and error sometimes. On an older WNW build, the Hansa Brandenburg, I wanted to use wood decals and failed miserably. As the build progressed, I used the oil colour technique for wooden parts for the first time and liked the flexibility and relative easiness of the process. I have to confess, that I never used WNW lozenge. The 1/32 Fokker and the Hansa Brandenburg and my SSW twins in 1/48 were covered in Aviattic slear backed Lozenge, which is pure joy to work with. robust and I like the colour rendition. They have the benefit of a slightly woven underground, very cloth like. The clay wash, I use, helps to blend the colours better. The only kit lozenge, I used, were th decals for the tiny Arma Fokker. They were printed by Cartograph and were good to work with, albeit not as good as the Aviattic's. Be warned, If I really start with the Duchess of Kingston, I will be fishing for information . Cheers Rob