DocRob

I use the black base only for chrome and polished aluminum, for the other shades I use Tamiya rattle can or Mr. Hobby. Cheers Rob

Building speed seems to come to a near halt with the preparation of all the bits and pieces which go into the fuselage. I used some PE from a Fokker DR.I set made by Eduard, which is really helpful. The steering column, one of the few better kit parts, got some etch and a lead trigger cable. Next I will add the different lines for ailerons and rudders. The holes are pre drilled with a 0,3mm bit The magneto is borrowed from a Fokker D.VII, where I have a resin substitute. I lost the lever, so I made one from flattened lead wire. Not on the picture are the scratched fuel pump and some parts for the throttle lever. The glazing on the compass looks a little blurred, but that's only, because the Pledge is not fully cured. Hopefully, I will be able to install everything and close the fuselage soon, as I really want to have that step done. Cheers Rob

I've used both and I find both smell terrible. I got nice results with Alclads but it depended on the metal tones Titanium is one of the very fragile shades. Some of their products didn't cover well and were very fragile, making masking afterwards near impossible. The metal shine of the Alclads altered a lot with a varnish cover. I tried the Extreme metals on different occasions and these are now my go-to metals. They spray well, they are more durable (I never had problems with masks) and I like their shine and fine grain. I had only slight alteration when gloss- or matte coating them. They were resistant to all my used weathering products For a NMF job, with differently shaded panels, I would use Extreme Metals. On single shaded bare metal jobs, you can get away with the Alclads, which also have a great finish. One Alclad tone, I especially like is exhaust manifold, which is better than what I got from Extreme Metals. As a personal biased verdict, I prefer the Extreme Metals from AK for their general usability. Some Alclad colours give a slightly better result and some have a finer grain than the AK's and therefore a better metallic sheen. In the end, they both smell and I always use a mask when spraying and cleaning the airbrush and I wouldn't use them in the living areas of my house. BTW, I alredy finished a NMF P47-D Cheers Rob

I use the Meng incarnation of the cutter since a year now and yes, I like the sharpness of it's blades, but can't find mayor advantages to my Tamiya cutter. One thing, I especially don't like about the Meng is, that sometimes with fragile parts the sharp of the two blades got stuck into the plastic and there is a risk of breaking the part while removing it. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, can't wait to make the next one on a Fokker D.VII, but next time with another cushion colour. After the Hansa Brandenburg, it's the second green one. Time for a maroon or dark red pillow. Like you, I absolutely love the AK metals. They spray perfect, have a fine grain and they are durable, that's the most important advantage over Alclads, where some collours were impossible to mask over. The waxes are great too, very versatile stuff. Cheers Rob

Thanks Carl, I hope, I get everything together fitting into the fuselage. I've seen different pictures of uncovered aluminum seats, not the least, the pic wich came with the Aviattic seat. How did you finish the seat of your D.VII, should be the same or very similar type of seat? Cheers Rob

Très cool Carl, what a beast. Cheers Rob

Thanks Jeff, one of the reasons of my recently arisen interest in WWI planes is the depiction of the various used materials. Wood, linen, different metals,..., it's a canvas for trying new techniques. Cheers Rob

Hola Señhores, progress is very slowly with the Fokker. It's not that easy to get everything aligned into the fuselage. There are virtually no attachment points and the manual is not helpful either. A great help have been the build logs of Sandbagger Mike here and another one on the Aviattic site. All inner fuselage parts received a Flory wash of dirty grime and then I glued the shortened side frames into the fuselage parts. With some creative bending, they were aligned and left to dry. Next was the already prepared seat. I CA'd the framing to the spar and added the Aviattic seat. The cushion was painted with Abteilung oils and for the first time, I used their matte thinner, which dried, yeah matte . The seat is a tad darker and less shiny to the real eye, but my phones white balance was not to overrule far enough, even using some tricks. I attached some seatbelts from a pre printed Eduard set, which also received a treatment of Flory's grime wash. This picture is a little too dark, but gives a better idea about the aluminum look, I was after. As I said, I used my Alessi espresso maker as a guide here. Cheers Rob

Welcome to LSM Pintar and I'm sure you will be helped here because the members are resourceful and willing to share. Your basic process sounds right, paint, gloss coat, decals, solvents if necessary and then sealing with a varnish. Since I never worked with Revell colours, I can't tell you how they perform, but generally it is good thinking to develop a good working solution for the hole process for yourself with testing the stages. There are many hidden obstacles, like do the decals tend to silver, how thick are they,... Some products don't interact well, like gloss coat and decal solvents, some are too aggressive for the clear coat (I don't know about vinegar. The basic idea of an underlying gloss coat for decals is, to reduce the possibility of silvering, where the decal would not set properly to a matte surface and to enhance the adhesion for the decal. It has not to be a clear coat, if e.g. the model received a gloss colour paintjob. The final varnishing is done to blend decals and surface together, so you don't have a different shine on the decals, than the rest of the surfaces. It is also applied as a protection of all primary stages of painting and decaling for the weathering process, be it with pigments, oils, washes, panel liners, ... It depends on the type of model and personal preferences, if that varnish should be matte, semi matte or gloss. The base line remains the same, try to find a working solution for yourself through testing. It helps through your modelling career. There are too many influences, to be discussed in on thread, It starts, with the question of primer or not, types of colours, in your case enamel, laquers or acrylics and it ends with the tools, airbrush or brush. You see, there is no simple answer to your question, but developing your process is rewarding and assuring for the future. I hope, I could help a little with my vague answer. Cheers Rob

Thanks Gaz, but what black leather do you mean, it's only wood, metal and inner Lozenge yet? Cheers Rob

That weird thing looks fantastic with your paintjob, keep rolling. Cheers Rob

Thanks Jeff, still a long way to go, I have to get the look right, used, but not overused this time. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias Kai. Meanwhile the engine received some love, but some details still needed to be added or repaired, because I dropped the engine and broke some rockers and spark plugs. For painting, I used AK's Extreme Metals, which are great to work with. First I sprayed the complete engine in steel, then added some transparent blue (hard to see on the pics but it's there) on the heads of the cylinders for heat treatment, then used stainless steel for the rockers and finally aluminum for the casings. The exhausts were finished in copper. The whole engine got a black panel wash and then the steel pushrods were added. I will dirty the engine later with oil stains according to the general appearance of the Fokker. As a last step the ignition wires will be applied. The seat was sprayed light Aluminum and the was dabbed with AK's True metal paste in aluminum and dark aluminum, using my espresso machine as a guide for the look. The pic is bad, but gives an idea. Cheers Rob

The bottle? Noooo wayyy , it has to be used in a properly way. Cheers Rob

Nice Harv, I have to admit, that I'm to lazy to mask the inside. I mask the outside, spray the interior colour first and then the extrior colour. I may make an exeption for let's say a 109 with the wide open canopy Cheers Rob

First I thought, I would use brass tube and use it structural, to give the inward bend front fuselage sides the correct widening. Instead my proposed solution, is to use a spar made from plastic sheet and cut the plastic framing to size. The plastic is soft and bendable, so I hope, I get it right. I don't think, that you can look that deep into the fuselage, that you will be able to spot the spar behind the ammo boxes. Cheers Rob

I built their Raiden some years ago, my only Hasegawa build until yet, but it went together like a breeze. It built up almost by itself with me concentrating on painting and weathering. Was almost to easy to build without PE and resin . edit: Forgot, that I built the P-47D in Eduard outfit as Dottie Mae. A good kit too, but needed some extra work on the cowl and in the pit. Cheers Rob

Nice and easy project, no rivet picking and the colour for the cockpit was misread by you, it's RLM 166, that's what 'what if' does to you . Cheers Rob

Muchas Gracias Señhores, it's a daring but fun project. I wonder what will remain to be seen of the inner fuselage work through the opening for the pilot. I fear the moment, when I have to add the bent and partly misshaped inner frame into the fuselage halves, but for different reasons, I decided against rebuilding the frame from brass tubes. Let's see, if that was a wise decision Cheers Rob

These are the sizes I have, got them cheap in a sale a while ago exactly for the planned purpose, using them for struts and tubing in WWI planes. I used them for the first time and like them, to be exactly. I used two of my three sizes. for the wing struts it was C-09 and for the seat, I used C-05. The numbers mean, you can push the Connecto into an inner diameter like the code says. The arm of a C-09 Connecto is square, measuring 0,6x0,6 mm, therefore fits into a 0,9 mm inner diameter tube max. With the flattened tubes, I made it worked well. The 05 variant is very easily bend, the others are quite sturdy. Hope that helps Cheers Rob

Today I decaled the inner fuselage parts with plywood and the faded inside of the Lozenge. This will be sealed matte tomorrow and dirtied a little. The woodwork were done with oils on Tamiya tan. The scratch on the lower fuselage panel will not be seen, I grained this part only for fun. The parts will be varnished too and get a little treatment to show some use. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, design yes, comfy no with the aluminum backrest. I will try something new painting the seat, using two different tones of aluminium colour, with liquid mask for chipping and wearing. That counts as preparation for my first swirled aluminum cowl for another future build. Another game of find the three differences with the kit seat and the Aviattic one. The cushion is part of the Aviattic set. Cheers Rob

After thinking about, how to attach the wider Aviattic seat with the given plastic, I decided to build my own seat tubing, mainly because there are no attachment points for the plastic at all. I drilled 0,5 mm holes into the 'spar' and used 0,7 mm tube for the construction, which takes 0,5 mm brass rods for the attachment. For soldering the front connections, I used Albions Connectos again. The tube construction will be removed for painting and decaling of the fabric parts of the spar. Cheers Rob

Congrats Fran, that's a stylish way, to present your great yellow Lib. Cheers Rob