DocRob

I started a little side project, as a mojo refueler. It's an Eduard 1/48 F6F3 Hellcat almost oob, beside the juicy Brassin engine and some HGW wet transfers. As always, surgery first, I cut the cowling panels according to the resin substitutes and cleaned all the resin engine parts. For panel cutting, I used my new razor saw and I really don't know, how I could have lived without one. There is nearly no sanding necessary after cutting and the cuts are so precise and fine, I could use the removed parts as a substitute again. Cheers Rob

This behemoth looks almost like it sprung from a steampunk fantasy and that's why I nearly bought it. You made it look great with your paintjob and decaling. Cheers Rob

Your work on this iconic plane looks stellar Peter. She will be a beauty. Cheers Rob

Wow, great detailing, what is the scale? The fingers must be oversized Cheers Rob

On the British Amazon site I found a lot of these with the search term 'automatic belt punch'. I bought mine from German Amazon for six Euros and it includes six punches from 1,5-4 mm diameter and a rod to clean the circles out of the punch tool. The punched holes are perfectly round and you can produce discs as well. Until now, it's the perfect cheapo substitute to one of these expensive sets, as I use it seldom. I used it to cut away carrier film from bezel decals, with styrene card, to produce ammunition counters for the Fokker 08/15's and with tin foil and the tool never failed. Cheers Rob

I have something like this and for the few occasions, it worked good with decals and 0,5 mm styrene. The punches are sharpened and the brass part is a spindle to turn the punch, when pressing the handle. It was very cheap, but is useful. Cheers Rob

You got it all wrong. The Italeri approach is about humility not about finished kits. It's the same like sitting in a hole in the earth for eighteen years, with a vow of silence,..., ... do I hear Brian or just the cry of the Hermit? Cheers Rob

Good luck with your plan. Actually I think nearly nothing will be remain visible inside the cockpit. The difference in height can be not more than half a millimeter and the area is in the shadow of the turtle deck and partly blocked by the wing on top. Cheers Rob

The engine support came out beautiful in your brass version, much better than with the supplied wires , sometimes you have to scratch your head about what kit companies are thinking... Cheers Rob

Very nice, the modulation in the white camo came out great. Cheers Rob

Good luck with the move. Over the last weeks, I almost didn't have time for modelling, because, I cleaned up two sheds on our property, which were completely filled with stuff, we mainly brought to our tiny island, when we arrived here, six years ago. Now, only half of one shed is filled and organized, the other is completely empty and will be converted into a multi purpose room with a sea view, which includes to transform the place in front of the shed into a se view terrace, maybe with a yacuzzi included. What I want to stress with this lengthy description is, when you haven't touched an object for years, there is only a slight opportunity, that you will do so after the move. We were hindering ourselves to improve our living space, by clawing to unused clutter, lessons learned hopefully for me . Enjoy the move Cheers Rob

Good to see the exhausts align with the cowling, must have been a reassuring moment. You seem also to put the biggest obstacles behind you with a new project at first. Great work on an interesting project so far. Cheers Rob

Nice progress on the Albatros. the fiddly PE is enhancing te detail level a lot. I never used Part PE sets, so Im curious how they perform. Cheers Rob

Rest in peace, you had the heart of a lion, Dale. Rob

The pics are a bit on the dark side (overly? ), but show the modulation of the white very good. You could try and play around with the exposure. There is no magic about it, but white is a color hard to capture, because all cameras metering against a gray base. Whit, specially snow or glare on the sea are problematic, because of that. Even with most smartphones you can steer a little, by pointing on the screen, for different meterings in differently bright parts of the subject. If the contrast is to harsh, like your white tank in front of a black background, you will only reach a compromise, but with yours bein yellow, there should be room for a perfect exposure. When you use the Olympos, you could try spot metering, when the camera is equipped with that. Combined with an exposure lock, you could spot meter the parts of the tank, you put emphasis on, lock the metering and chose your framing, easy, you can do it even in automatic mode normally. Cheers Rob

Sorry for the irritation, I've written overly and meant mostly or predominant, due to my bad English. I had a wrong meaning of overly in my German blockhead . To put it right with other words, I like the white appearance and it absolutely interesting to look at, with your pre painting and weathering, breaking up the monochrome. Cheers Rob

You have to hand it to Trumpeter, that they make their boxes with foresight. There are not many boxes around, where you have space enough, to get all the necessary bits and pieces in . Cheers Rob

I don't hear much pop music, but I adore Roisin Murphy and Moloko with her as a singer. This is more than simple pop music to me and I like her approach. With Covid around, she decided to produce a disco album (definitely not her best, but so what), just o make you dance, in times, where it isn't appropriate. And now, when performing on stage is no option, she covers her own songs in her living room or somewhere on Ibiza in lockdown, with only some guitars accompanying her, beside an old dog and a tractor. She's a true goddess. Two examples of new and old songs here: Róisín Murphy Live @ Home in Ibiza – Murphy's Law - YouTube Róisín Murphy - The Time Is Now (Acoustic) (Live @ Home for Festival Marvin 9.5) - YouTube ... but it's Friday night and my amp is heating up along with some red wine and then it's setting the belt of my turntable to 45 /min and put on Massive Attacks 100th Window for a little massage of the stomach muscles. Good night Señhores. Cheers Rob

Concrete mix, tss, tss, tss, I would have thought you know better Carl. Casted resin is the stuff to go, no bubbles no irritations, if done right and the level of detail, is incredible . Cheers Rob

Nice work on the camo and a very interesting plane, which looks great in the nightfighter outfit. Cheers Rob

Brrr, I'm freeeeeezing. You nailed the winter camo on the STUG to perfection Gaz. Despite being overly white, the paintjob doesn't look boring at all, great work. Cheers Rob

I have some thousand Vinyls of every kind of music from classic music to rock, punk and jazz and just a little bit of selected pop. I have very diversified preferences, but pick only the cherries to my taste. Lots of my music is digitized, but I rarely hear music as a background. Maybe that's because there are only two elevators on my island . When I hear music, it's 90% vinyl, sitting in front of my good system savoring the music with a drink on my side, or as background as it gets, on the terrace with my small turntable. Vinyl, with only about twenty minutes of music on one side forces you to listen to the music, my digital copies are only used while barbecuing, when I prefer to turn the steaks, not the vinyl. Since leaving Berlin, some years ago, I rarely hear music in the car and enjoy the silence or the roar of the wind, driving open toped. While modelling, I don't hear music, it's distracting me somehow. You get the idea, when it's time for music, it's mostly time for music only. What I really miss on my tiny island, are good concerts. In Berlin, I used to go to concerts very often and some of these were epic and I will never forget them, because this is where music is made, on stage. We have some rock and reggae concerts here and some classic concerts too, but it's not the same. With Covid around, I fear for the worst for the musical business, specially were the performance is involved. Cheers Rob

Sorry for the inconvenience , but this will be another epic project, I'm sure. Cheers Rob

That's rich, given the situation with the fire in the Eduard warehouse in January , but earnestly, I bought the set some years ago. Cheers Rob

I had the same thought as Kai, all are placed very convincing, but I can't make out, what the Flak guy is doing, but that's maybe the angle of the photo. Cheers Rob