DocRob

Don't get me wrong, the 100 Euro are for the metal pins alone . Cheers Rob

I can see the finish line now with the Hellcat. I installed the Brassin engine and exhausts, which was a bit fiddly and needed some grinding on the engine mount, not so cool after painting. Finally the H-cat received a coat of matte varnish, after I finished some detail painting and repairs. On the pics, I found some other spots for rework. Cheers Rob

Breathtaking details, your wood and leatherwork is exceptional. Cheers Rob

I will keep your warning about being cautious with the pins in mind, for when I start my Spanish Breda incarnation. I definitely will not spend more than 100 Euros for metal replacements from Aber. Cheers Rob

The painting and weathering is mostly finished and will be sealed with a matte coat after adding the engine. After gloss coating the decals, I brush chipped with different grey/blue tones and some more with interior green as primer color. Then it was time for oil colors heavy diluted with thinner, first in blue and then in a color similar to interior green, which were spreaded and partly removed with a saw brush and some thinner. For effect, I used different brushes with the oil thinner mix and dabbed carefully to break the uniform appearance of the panels. Cheers Rob

Showtime, the start of the painting stage. All these tedious preparations are done now and you have the canvas ready. Bring it on Kai . Cheers Rob

Wow, like the real thing, what more can be said. Cheers Rob

Nice to see, how you adopt to the obstacles, taking one step after the other Peter. Way to go without a heart attack or heavy cursing at last. Poco a poco your laid back approach is leading to a very fine result, muy bueno. Cheers Rob

Tub and wheels look really convincing, I like it to have a monochrome paintjob made to look interesting. That's exactly how yours turned out. Cheers Rob

All are nice Kevin, the Hurricanes and the woodwork. Cheers Rob

Very nice, the pit looks awesome Peter. It's good to see some 72 scale planes here. I have only a handful in my stash, but will build them along the others. The only thing, which never seem to work for me, is the fast in between build. There is no scale / time factor in my projects . Cheers Rob

This putty stuff is moving a lot with gravity. It's a bit better to work with, if you use thinner rolls of the putty and add some contoured paper mask fo protection and you should spray immediately after application. Cheers Rob

Your Hansa Brandenburg will look awesome. I went the same way, using the Aviattic Lozenge for mine and they were a joy to work with. It's a great kit, where you can concentrate completely on painting and weathering. I'm eagerly looking forward for your progress. Cheers Rob

Très cool. Cheers Rob

Thanks for your effort. I made my own struts, by flatten brass tubes between wooden blocks in a vize, but would definitely buy a Strutter, when available. I searched the net for one, for some years now and look forward to a new release. The Ponnier looks great, it's an interesting plane with all these aerodynamic cowlings and hub and you do it justice, your own marveled trademark way. Cheers Rob

Thanks Nick, the biggest problems were indeed with the bigger and multi colored wet transfers, with the exception of the large US insignia, which went on problem free. On the MIG, I used them only as stencils and they performed well, with only tiny lifts, which would be normal on a big grey Soviet beast. With the Hellcat, I removed the wet transfers, which was not so easy, because they adhered very well, exactly 1 mm beside a lifted part and fitted the supplied Cartograph decals over, as best as I could. I will give them one more chance, possibly, when I build my F-4B Phantom, where they could make life much easier, as you can apply stencils grouped in places. Anyway, your P-40 build is exceptional and fun to follow. Keep up the great work. Cheers Rob

Great tutorial, and you are lucky, that the HGW's worked so good for you. I had lots of problems with these last week, which almost ruined my actual Hellcat build. I did everything according to the manual (or like you described) and had lots of wet transfer lifts, while removing the carrier film very carefully. If the stay on, like on my prop too, they look great, but to my eye, the product does not have reliable results, specially the larger wet transfers, like the cat fangs and eyes were problematic. The stars and bars and small stencils worked better. I switched to decaling then. I tattooed my Mig-31 with myriads of stencils and had only little lift probs, but on two different occasions, the wet transfers were not usable or to put it positively, they are for the friends of heavy chipping . Cheers Rob

I was aware of this set, but will not spend that kind of dough . I will decide later, if the Porsche will be build oob or will receive some extra goodies. I thought about a road car conversion too, but I think the 934 would have been a better base for that and then there is this intriguing Martini scheme. Cheers Rob

Yes, that one too. I only built a smaller version of the Constitution at the time and can't remember which company made it. I didn't paint the black plastic, but the white stripes were brush painted and the lower hull received some Humbrol copper enamel by brush as well. Happy times. Cheers Rob

Today, I freed our postwoman from a heavy burden, which was partly inflicted, by at least some of you. I will not particular raise my finger in the direction of a guy, whose name begins with m and ends with ark , who has shown some incredible 1/12 car stuff here lately. But that's only part of the story. When I was twelve, the Tamiya Jägermeister Porsche came out and led to my nose being permanently flattened against the glass front of the LHS, but there was no way, I could afford the kit by the time. As I'm not especially a car guy, the interest faded after some years a bit, but never completely, but I missed all the later releases of the kit too. Now I found the Tamiya 1/12 Porsches re-released with added PE for a decent price, which couldn't have been much more, than it was in Deutsch Marks by the time, so what to do? Exactly, buy one, but I have an enormous dislike of Jägermeister, so I chose the Martini 935, which suits me, being a cocktail aficionado much better, especially the extra dry variant. And then it was here, it's a very huge box and opening it, feels a bit like Christmas, it is packed full of quality stuff. On first fast inspection, I wouldn't have thought, that the kit is only merely a decade younger than me. If you are not totally bored about me blabbing, I share my theme based personal anthem with you. Remember, the Reverend is always right Reverend Horton Heat - It's Martini Time Cheers Rob

That's a fierce piece of armor. The paintjob looks great. Can't wait to see the beast with tracks on. Your build and Carls remark reminded me, that there is a Churchill AVRE sleeping in my stash. Cheers Rob

Das ist der Hammer Gaz, . It's hard to pick out well made details in this overall beautiful result. That maybe sums it up, everything fits together, representing a stunning Albatros, with a beautiful and uncommon scheme. Cheers Rob

Masking is better than reworking and the best is PAINTING, so close now, Kai. Your subassemblies look gorgeous and the Mirage will be a stunner soon. I had once a slight clouding effect with Mr. Masking Sol Neo on a canopy which I gave a Future bath before. The masking fluid was on the canopy for some weeks. Now I tried the water based Mr. Masking fluid and have to see how this worked out on my Hellcat canopy. It's a bit thinner compared to NEO and a bit less smelly. You know exactly, when you have used a certain word, like rework, too often while posting, when exactly these letters on the keyboard are broken . Cheers Rob

I second that, you can never have enough stability with these fragile airframes. Nice work with the brass as always, Mike. Cheers Rob

Muchas Gracias Amigos, there are some scratches here and there and some paint damages to repair, but it seems the Hellcat will be finished soon. The hardest part was, that a pure pleasure build was spoilt in an unexpected way. I still cannot believe, how god these HGW wet transfers adhere only a millimeter distanced from where I pulled the transfer loose while removing the carrier film with the utmost carefulness. Cheers Rob