DocRob

There is a lot of truth in your words, Gaz. Cheers Rob

Was Step 1 a part of the instructions ? Your progress on the Firefly is looking good. It seems to be a nicely detailed kit. Cheers Rob

Like using my own struts and other scratched parts on the Fokker build, enhancing a kit with an 'own' scheme is purely satisfying. With the very high standard, some kits have today, like WNW's and Tamiya's, sometimes the 'serious' modeler feels like consuming convenient food. There is no need to change anything to get a decent result, but where do I have my individual fingerprint among dozens of other builds? To me this is not so important, as when I see a kit, which I'm interested in, I have very soon a picture in my mind, how I want to build it and how I wanted to paint and weather it. This process happens to be even before buying a kit. The quality of a kit is secondary to me, it's the subject itself, which has to attract me for different reasons, esthetically, historical interest, technical fascination or learning new techniques are my triggers here. As I live relatively isolated, with nobody interested in modeling around me (except you guys out there ), I build only for myself and not for contests or even for displaying the built kits. Cheers Rob

I assumed, that if I use the original kit parts for measurement, I will get pretty close with my construction. There is always a little wiggle room for adjustments. My backup plan was to use the jig, which came with the Pheon decals. It would have been perfect for the wheel struts and wing alignment, but it's some work to do, cutting the parts from cardboard to strengthen the provided adhesive paper. I decided to opt fot the jig, only if necessary. I compared what I did with the front and side drawings and if it looks right´, I'm good and remember the slight wiggling room . Cheers Rob

Thanks Kai, I actually enjoy working with metal, especially with brass. It's a welcomed change from all that plastic stuff . It's not that hard. You can use the kit parts for measurement and only the tripod connection on top needed a little adjustment. Test fitting though, is not so easy, because I wanted to be absolutely sure, that everything fits, before soldering the rods into the tubes. There are a lot of loose parts to get aligned for a proper test fit, but this is done now, luckily. Cheers Rob

Before painting and decaling started, I wanted to be sure, that the fuselage strut work was correctly measured and aligned. I now soldered in the end rods, which fit into the fuselage holes. Everything seems to be in line and on the pictures the struts are not glued, but stay in place on their own. Cheers Rob

There seems to be a lot of extra work needed, to get a decent result out of this PCM kit. I hope that's not a mojo killer for you. BTW, I have an electric toothbrush on my bench now, which just needs to be prepared. Thanks for the idea Gaz. Cheers Rob

Thanks Gentlemen, I don't know why, but this build is fun and I think it is because the kit is not up to todays standards. It is challenging in a way, that you have to find solutions. Not like with a Tamygawa kit, where scratching is not a necessity, but a 'yeah I could if I would'. The two WNW's I built were rigid enough, were the Pfalz undercarriage got significantly strengthened with the fishing line rigging. The other being the robust under construction for the Hansa Brandenburg, does not count. The brass legs would carry a large scale B-29, it's very strong. Cheers Rob

Thanks Jeff, actually the steering column was very good, with only minor cleanup needed . Before I start with painting and decaling, I want to get the hacking and slaying jobs done. I soldered the undercarriage struts and made a mock up test fit, testing if everything aligns correctly. Turned out ok and is very rigid. Cheers Rob

Every part in this kit has to be brought to form, grinded, bent or sanded more than once. There are not so many parts luckily, but it consumes a lot of time. I managed to close the fuselage and add the tail, so these parts are near ready to receive a gloss white cote for the decals. The whity putty on the nose was accidently caused by me, while heating up the upper fuselage part, to bend it to shape. The tailplane was more than 1mm to thick, to get at least a half decent fit to the fuselage, so I sanded away a lot to let that happen. I bought the 1/72 incarnation of the same plane from Armas Hobby and beside some flash, this kit looks way better engineered, with wing struts ready cast to the upper fuselage, as shown in the drawing and the wheel struts have a casted on jig, which will be removed after the glue dried readily. That's clever designing and you have to ask yourself, if somebody from Mikro Mir or Avis ever build the 1/32 kit. The tiny Armas Fokker also has a complete Lozenge camo sheet from Cartograph. I may start the little one parallel in a Polish livery Cheers Rob

Nice build and an unusual flashy scheme, well done. Cheers Rob

Wow, great work, I will store these pictures for my 1/48 G.V. This will be less detailed, but it should look about right. Your IP is a masterpiece with all the different materials actually looking like they are made out of it. Cheers Rob

Thanks a lot, to be honest, the Tamiya Corsair makes it easy to shine, it's a great kit out of the box. The Brassin additions caused a lot of extra work. Were they necessary, no, but they are better than the kit parts and my plan was, to have the resin engine under removable cowlings. That didn't work out, so now the cowlings are permanently closed. I left the Corsair in Berlin as a gift for a friend, when I left. I wanted to achieve a maximum result and involved lots of extra work into the build, because there were many things to learn for me and my limited abilities by the time. Seeing your great work, I think there are different definitions of 'serious' in modelling. The Corsair was my first kit since I was maybe twenty and now modelling has a part in my live, but I have a lot of other hobbies. De nada, I did all I could by the time and learned a lot through the built. Weathering to me is more having the right idea about the type and grade of weathering beforehand and then work out the imagined picture, considering the scene of action, climate, and most important materials of the original. Normally, I have an already made up picture in my head, when I start a build, completely detailed and I try to follow that, not always succesful , to the finish. The way you painted your Corsair is admirable, with the translucent layers of paint. It's not easy to achieve, but gives great depth to the paintjob. Bring it on Phil, it's such a great kit. It needs it's time, but it's worth it, because it's so enjoyable. Hacking at my Mikro Mir Fokker at the moment, makes me sometimes want, to drag one of my Tamiya's out of the shelf . Cheers Rob

I built the Tamiya kit when it came out, using a lot of AM, like Brassin engine and cockpit and Maketar masks for the stars and walkways. I have only bad pics, because I was not seriously a builder then (and not an LSM member) and just took some quick ones. In all it was a very enjoyable build. Cheers Rob Cheers Rob

Nice work all around, gratulations. Can't wait to see the finished scene. It's a nostalgia ride for me, because the Birdcage Boyington flew was my first serious attempt at modelling after a draught of some centuries. Cheers Rob

Gracias Hombres, but it's not much LS in between, only the British rigging points Cheers Rob

Today some little in between Lozengies arrived with loads of AM for different WWI projects along with some not shown Albion Alloys brass stuff. The Eduard set has two resin engines included. I waited a long time to receive these goodies, maybe caused by the snow chaos in Madrid, two weeks ago. I may build the tiny Fokker E.V along my ongoing build and use it as a testbed for the wing camo technique in multi colour streaking. Cheers Rob

Nice progress with the 190, Pity as always, that much of the nice cockpit work will be lost to the eye in that dark RLM66 cave under the canopy. It seems, that you let the worst obstacles of the build behind you. Wish you luck with the repair of the cowling. Cheers Rob

I haven't read that, have I ?

The gun ring looks so real, great work. I second your thoughts about annealing mostly. I use it only for non structural elements, which have complicated to bend forms. With brass and copper there are roughly spoken two grades of annealing. First level is to get rid of the inner tension and needs temperatures between 250-300 degrees C. Most people let the brass glow reddish and reach higher temperatures above 450 degrees C, which make the material soft in addition to the first effect. Cheers Rob

I've never seen a kit of this type, it's quite interesting though. Your chassis and axle are looking great. Cheers Rob

Good question, simple answer, it was a brain fart by me , it's the ZM, I have. Cheers Rob

My pleasure Carl , in surfing we call the one who is taking one for the team 'current dummy', which is the first guy out, paddling his lungs out and showing the others, where not to go . Actually, even if I had known about these sets, I would have chosen manufacturing the struts by myself, because that was one of the things, I wanted to learn through this build. But there is the idea of doing a second one in a yellow black diamond scheme in the back of my head,... Cheers Rob

Very interesting, how special interest kits get attention from people, who are willing to fix their shortcomings. This set will be handy for everyone with an interest into building one, especially the wing struts, with the already made up tripod. Great find Carl, thanks for mentioning. Cheers Rob

It's not the first time the Hiro kits got my attention. As an engineer in my former live, with interests in metals, I'm attracted and sometimes browsed through their offers, but too many different interests for me in the last time, to start with cars earnestly. But who knows, what you show here, is mouthwatering. I love the detailing of the kit, which is not possible only with plastic. Keep on your great work. Cheers Rob