DocRob

Can't tell about the right angles Gaz, but on pic #2 it looks as the starboard wheel points a little outwards, but that's maybe only my vision. To mee it looks like G in general and I really like the work you spent with the rocket tubes. Cheers Rob

Thanks Kai, for the last decals I needed sunglasses . Makes you wonder about the sense of the camo. Thank you Peter, I was surprised, how well the often criticized Tamiya decals perform with Micro Set and Sol. On some of them, there is carrier film, but on the NMF, it's almost unvisible. That's good news, because I'm not sure, if I seal them. I fear, that some hot gloss coat could harm them or the wet transfers. Thanks Gaz, what makes this one your favorite Japanese plane. Is it the design, which cries Heinkel or the use of the more or less copied 601 engine? From what I have seen, the Hasegawa KI-61 seems to be a good choice, go for it, it's the first Heinkel in NMF . Cheers Rob

Decaling time Hombres , my all time favorite. Normally a lot of things go wrong on this stage, but the Tamiya decals performed well. They are a bit on the thick side, but they are opaque and nicely cut. Other sources claimed, that the tail markings are too big, which I can't see. If the supplied side drawings are correct, the decals are as well. Tomorrow I will apply another coat of Micro Sol and then on to some detail painting on the Japanese parrot . Cheers Rob

The tail area looks good to me, if you are after a more or less new appearance Peter. Let the decal fun begin with all these stencils . Have I told you, that I have a set of HGW wet transfers for my Academy Phantoms stencils . They looked so tempting, having some of the stencils grouped for a certain area. If you remove the carrier film, they will look completely separated, but who knows, If they work... Cheers Rob

That's the favorite time of my oldest buddy too and he suffered a lot over the decades. He is still fond of the Wayne Fontes era, where they also had this very special RB, whom I account for the best and most elegant player to ever play his position and that's me speaking as a Cowboys fan of the Emmit Smith era. Let's have a great NFL season. Cheers Rob

NFL for sure Peter. Doesn't happen too often, the Jets beat anybody, it must be preseason. We will have some difficult weekends in autumn, me being a Cowboys fan . Cheers Rob

Thanks Peter, in surfing we call it 'current test dummy', which is usually the first guy hopping into the water and sometimes paddles his a.. off, while the others find an easier access to the spot, seeing his misfortune . I hope the best (against better knowledge) for the transfers, otherwise, I will do another scheme. Cheers Rob

Stunning and eye irritating at the same time. Kai you have my respect for painting this kind of camo in general and especially being 19 years old, when you've done, it looks great. I haven't looked into the Bär camo or project at all, I just have the Eduard 109-G Royal Class box and some additional goodies like the Bär camo transfers, but I guess, it was hand painted on the original. I would use a brush as well or even a marker pen, If the transfers don't work. Cheers Rob

Great progress and sexy legs she has, Kai . In the side view, it seems, like the real thing must have been close to a tail sitter. Cheers Rob

What's the big thing about preseason football. I'm a die hard football fan too, but pre season bores me. It's only competitive training. Can't wait for September. But who care, when it leads to such a nice detail work in the end. The Marder is not a huge tank and with you reproducing wingnuts, I expect and unearthly level of detail. Gear and tracks look also good, with a perfect sag. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias Señhores, this build is more an experiment as to figure out, if a wet transfer camo is usable. The result is usable and some of the faulty areas are resolved with the last spare dots. The bad news is ,that there is no logical pattern, where the lifts occur. Some are in curved or angled areas, some flat in the middle, without any panel lines, so i have no idea, what I possibly could do better. The surface was gloss and absolutely fine, with no scratches, damages or other imperfections. One positive aspect of the wet transfers is, you can apply them onto normal decals, which was necessary here on the wings with the no walk lines. In the end, the camo will be usable, but if you are after a new unworn look, I'd say, thin your camo color and train your airbrush skills . I will do this later with a Vietnamese Mig-21, which sports a similar pattern. Until now, I have no idea, if or how I could repair the damaged dots. It would be a hard task to mix a matching color, given the slight metallic appearance. I fear, more could be ruined than saved. I have another camo set from HGW, which I will possibly use, dumb as I am . It's for a Me-BF 109 G2 from Heinrich Bär and I will not paint it by hand for sure. Bf109G-2 - Camouflage 1/48 - 248053 (hgwmodels.cz) Cheers Rob

After carefully removing the carrier film I got this. From far, it looks good enough, but as always with HGW's wet transfers, I pulled some of camo with the carrier film. In detail it looks like this: The right wing root received some spare squiggles, but here is, how it initially looked: As you can see there is a lot of little defects, but I guess, I can get away with it, with some repairs. This is how the removed carrier film looked and I was really careful. My opinion stands, HGW wet transfers are not to be trusted completely, even if you follow the manual exactly and prepare the surface perfectly. On the other hand, I like how the aluminum color gies the green dots a nice shine, as they are a bit translucent, blends great into the surface. Cheers Rob

Thank you Amigos, it's not done yet, still some sweat to pour . Cheers Rob

Today, I applied the camo wet transfers from HGW, not an easy task and I made some mistakes. The camo is separated in six parts, wings, upper and lower fuselage sides. I started with the upper fuselage half, to guarantee, that the camo reaches the camo reaches the spine and lays correctly under the canopy and cowling. I then added the lower part, which proved more difficult, because it also covered the wingroot and needs some cutting to fit well. On the other side, I cut the lower part in three pieces, which made the alignment easier. When I added the wings, I recognized, that I forgot to glue on the guns and gun covers and as I did hastily, a bit of glue went under the transfer, which has to be corrected later. On the second wing, while applying the transfer, some of the camo squiggles adhered rapidly to the wing, while positioning and had to be removed, before I finally positioned the wing transfer. The missing squiggles will be added later. Generally the wet transfers behaved well. I let them soak in warm water for twenty seconds and applied them to the surface onto brushed on Micro Set. They were strong, good to position (except the wing root accident) and seemed to adhere well. Lets hope, the kit decals, like stripes and Hinomarus will look good when added later. Positioning is not that easy with these camo transfers and needed a lot of pre thinking. In my case not enough sadly. In some hours there will be the time of truth, when I remove the carrier film, which is the part, where disaster is lurking, given my experiences with HGW' wet transfers. Cheers Rob

Like Gaz said, nice detailing, the shading of the tanks adds a lot of life. Cheers Rob

You'll love the Infini template, I have two different ones and use them often for masking jobs. No need to buy expensive Kabuki strips for lets say masking of WWI props. Very handy these templates, even better than the PE ones I used before. They cut smoother and are more blade friendly. Cheers Rob

Nice camo painting Martin and yes, judging the pic the pattern seems to be sharp edged. Cheers Rob

Like the others say, great job on the build and modification. Can't wait to see your smooth paint finish on the Ventura. Cheers Rob

Nice progress with the interior. Happy holidays Cheers Rob

Great thinking and realization with the scratch cowlings. You seem not to be distracted easy, even on such a huge project. At least, beer drinking helps with modelling, I knew it . Cheers Rob

Stunning paintjob, clean and smooth, great job Peter. Can't wait to see some metal magic from you, with the nozzles and tail parts. Cheers Rob

The Ki-61 is starting to look like a parrot. I added the yellow markings on the wings and wheel well covers, using AK Real Color maize yellow. First, I wanted to use the decals for that, but the gun cowling is painted red in between, and I didn't want to slice the decals over a curved wing. To add to the funky paintjob there will be blue stripes on the fuselage with white borders, but therefore, I use decals. Don't ask me, why they painted some camo onto this vivid airframe, which could be well hidden in a candy store. Cheers Rob

Thank you Phil, I'm looking forward to the wet transfer camo as well, with fearful expectation. It's wet transfers, it's HGW, it failed to me in the past, what can possibly happen . Cheers Rob

After a light buffing of the clear coat with a cotton cloth, I masked the anti glare panel and tail. The complicated shapes of the tail masking where cut on the more or less 1/48 scale paint plan, using detacked Kabuki and a sharp scalpel. The tail was sprayed with Tamiya's Italian red lacquer, which is glossy and a good base for the decals. The same color was used on the to add gun covers. The anti glare panel was sprayed, using AK's Japanese blue black acrylic, which is indeed a bluish shade of black and should look better than pure black. Some yellow markings on the wings will be next, followed by some decals, which will be half hidden under the camo. I intend to do as much masking and painting before applying the camo wet transfers, because I don't dare to mask on these, even with a clear coat on top. Cheers Rob

Thank you Kai, your pics prove, how great NMF can look, awesome job with the Starfighter. I really like Future as a clear cote, but where Micro Sol comes into play, I'm a bit frightened. More than once Micro Sol left some cloudy areas, where it passed the borders of the decal. That's why I look for a more durable gloss coat for these occasions. Cheers Rob