DocRob

Pure wow, Gaz, the macro lens is not your enemy anymore . Cheers Rob

C'mon, build that toaster and WIP it please. As I have the same one in stash, I'm eager to see how this thing builds up. If I remember right, I added some brass substitutes for the barrel and MG's. Cheers Rob

There are alternatives for the lazy ones. Yahu has the Mk. I and Mk. II IP made from printed PE and Kelik, seemingly a Reskit sidekick, has a 3D decal version, with added seatbelts. I will buy the latter and try it on mine. It's called Mk. II, but as far as I see it, it's the Mk. I IP, same which is used in the J8 as well. Cheers Rob

You had it coming, when you named him Kaiser, which degrades you automatically to his subject . Cheers Rob

Very nice and grimy bird. I really like the translucent marbled paintjob. Cheers Rob

I absolutely hate these Mexican kidnappers. No sense of decency there, they put you on fancy ships, serve Mojitos and Enchiladas and leave you on precious beaches. What was the ransom to bail out, a WNW Felixstowe? Poor Martin, what a sad story . Cheers Rob

Very nice and what a relief, that you don't seem to have fallen into the usual Italeri blues. The Tornado must be a better kit than these other patience testers. Cheers Rob

One of the better excuses Ryan , welcome back. We are waiting for some half finished WIP's, so it's not only me . Cheers Rob

Two zeros are changing everything of course , sad to hear though. Cheers Rob

Nice problem solving, I would have also thought about rod length, when the engine itself is running fine, but I like the way, how you actually figured it out. Cheers Rob

Harv, I'm a bit astonished about 15 albums been called a collection and I'm a bit confused about your total living space, when 15 albums take too much space. Like a modelling stash, 15 signifies a few random items, not a collection . A broken heart because of the space equivalent of two pizza boxes sounds like a bad deal to me. I promise you, you will buy a turntable soon and weep for the lost vinyl. Cheers Rob

Meanwhile, I continued with the Phantom applying the base colors onto the fuselage and lower wings. There is not much to show, as the upper and lower color are not much contrasting to the plastic, so no pics. The good news, the used Tamiya LP colors sprayed expectedly smooth and fine. It's the first time, I use matte shades of the LP range, but I have no complaints. The colors used were Light- and Dark Ghost Grey (LP-36 and LP-37). After drying, there will be an extensive masking session for the black wings, canopy area, nose cone and tailwings. Cheers Rob

Being from West Berlin, I know these boxings from VEB only from pics. Are you sure it's silver color, not glue? Cheers Rob

Thank you Kent, I remember the times, where I used diluted paints from different brands for metallics, which had a grain as coarse as street asphalt. Alclad's were a big step forward and some of their shades still have a better finish than Extreme Metal colors, but the latter are the complete package to me, durable, resistent, maskable and easy to use. Cheers Rob

I never thought about the value of my kits. I buy them to build them and even when I know, that some will never be built, I would not sell them. I bought them for a purpose, had an idea, how to finish them. I guess, I'm kind of a hoarder. It's the same with my vinyl's, I sometimes I look for the raise of their prices, specially the rare ones, but would never sell one, because I bought them for their real purpose, to be heard. Cheers Rob

Very nice progress, this edgy style splinter camo has a nice contrast to the rounded shapes of the Henschel. What I see is mouthwatering, I can't wait to start mine. Cheers Rob

Thanks again Mike, I used Aviattic's Lozenge with linen texture on different occasions and know about the amount of extra work needed to apply them. Not only the linen sheets need to be cut to size, the ones which are specially printed to suit a certain type of aircraft have to be cut, they are only cookie printed. It's quite some extra work, but the results are the best you can achieve, like you show with your builds. The positive I found with Aviattic's decals is, they are very robust and very easy to work with and react very good to Micro Set and Sol. I even like the tiny bit of flex, they offer. I only had no idea, how translucent the basic transparent linen sheets are. The Lozenge qualifies for pre shading, but I never would have thought, that you can paint a camo under the linen and the colors stay mostly unaffected. Cheers Rob

Kaiser is maybe the best excuse, not to deal with ill fitting Zimmerit , he's so cute. Cheers Rob

Thanks for the review. When the Mk. I came out, I was not immediately attracted, but that changed rapidly, when I saw a silver doped version of the Gladiator. I bought the kit and share your positive reception about it. The only little drawbacks, I found were, that no seatbelts are included and liking the idea by ICM to include cutting templates for the canopy masking in the manual, found out, that there are none in the Mk. I instructions. No biggies, it's a great kit for a reasonable price and looks like it ill be a nice and straightforward build. Cheers Rob

Nice choice Phil, I ever wanted to build a decent 32 scale Lysander. I built one as a kid, I guess it was a Matchbox kit in 72 scale, but I'm not sure. I love the quirky design and am eager to see, what you do with this one . Cheers Rob

Thank you Mike, your information comes in handy, as I have to order some Aviattic linen decal sheets for different projects, like the Stahltaube and a Fokker E.III. The result is as you showed very convincing with the linen texture showing through paint and decals. Cheers Rob

Hi Mike, a Happy New Year to you, your work continuous with the same high quality in 2022. I don't know, if I understood the painting and decaling process right. Did you first paint the camo, gloss coat it, decal it with insignia and markings and finally apply the Aviattic linen decal, before semi matte coating overall? Is the linen decal so translucent? I only used Aviattic's lozenge decals with linen texture and these were relatively opaque. Cheers Rob

Beautiful paintjob Phil, the North Africa scheme looks great. Cheers Rob

That looks sweet Gaz, somehow I have a soft spot for Panthers and Jagdpanthers. The pattern of the Zimmerit looks nicely uneven. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil. we really do. Cheers Rob