DocRob

Thanks Jeff, it's such a cool looking plane, sleek and reduced with only this parasol wing. I hope, I like it enough, to be tough enough for the task . Cheers Rob

Very nice, the way you are breezing through the build, I'm near tempted to start mine. Cheers Rob

First paint is flowing. I primed the inside of the fuselage and spar behind the seat gloss white for decaling with Lozenge and Plywood. Then I masked fields between the inner struts with kabuki, using a sharp blade to cut the frames free. These were sprayed in RLM66 then. Tomorrow after drying, I will decal the innards and paint some oils for the wooden floor, to simulate woodgrain. The Aviattic decals are not cookie cut, but it was a fast job, to cut them out. Cheers Rob

I have the same kit in stash and saw the flimsy construction of the track links. I haven't build the kit yet, but decided to go aftermarket for the tracks. Takom has a set available, where you click together the one piece track links which are already removed from the sprue. I clicked two together easily, without breaking the parts and the connection seems stable. There are ejector marks on the inside, but that's not a problem with the MK. IV Cheers Rob

That is very true, sometimes you have to show yourself, that you can do it. Progress is a bit slow, because of a lot of processual thinking. The good side on the bad plastic is, it's good to work with, not brittle and I haven't broken any part yet, even the fragile inner framing, a topic I could make no mark on, on my two WNW builds, where I broke struts and frames. Cheers Rob

The shortage is maybe caused, by the closing of Wingnut Wings. Everybody scored some last minute German Lozenge clad airframes and doing the base layer for the decals in exactly this Tamiya gloss white. Just a theory . Good that you found some bottles. I bought a ten pack in summer, watching my WNW stash and Lozenge- and/or wood- and/or linen decal jobs to make. Cheers Rob

Very nice, I like the mottling, it looks so uneven even, in other words, right. Cheers Rob

Back to the Fokker after all these festivities. If you are really bored by the perfectness of a Tamiya kit, this is for you. Some parts, I cleaned three times and still found blemishes while test fitting. Some parts, are barely recognizable as such on the sprues, they are just blobs of plastic, but there is nothing, which can't be solved by now. The good thing about the kit, is the general appearance of the fuselage covering fabric, which looks very realistic and you got the chance to use all your skills and tools. I don'tknow why, but the build has been motivating, where I can't explain why, I wanted to be sure about the fit of the fuselage, with the engine cowling mounted and test fitted for a second time. That was also necessary as I wanted to use the Aviattic PE firewall and access panel. The supplied firewall has no attachment lip to the four fuselage panels, it has to be glued flat on them, which I didn't like. I cut some spars from 0,5mm sheet, glued two together as a guide, cut a wider one, with the diameter of the hull, then attached the PE firewall and a last 0,5mm part as a guide for the cowling. As you can see, the front was taking shape, but the fuselage sides are bended inwards on the upper side. I loosely added another spar in a place, where it hopefully will be out of sight, to bend the fuselage correctly. First I thought about soldering the inner frame from brass tube, but with the spar, this seems unnecessary, I will try and use the horrible plastic part. (The spar is not final) Finally, I think I got it manageable. I never used that many tape and time while test fitting, but I think it was an important thing to do. Better now, than with painted parts. Cheers Rob

A shame to do so, hope enough of the detail will remain in sight under the bubble top. Cheers Rob

The skull would fit into one of these early German movies like 'Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' or others, which means, it looks perfect and fits the timeframe with it's design and making. What a badass Gotha. Cheers Rob

Just do it, that's what LSM is for and I personally like to see a great variety of different subjects. It's not only about 109's and Spit's. A little off the trotten path is, where it gets really interesting. Cheers Rob

Amazing, love the twin engine layout, and have again to bow my head, savouring your scratch building skills. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, I mixed them up, the waxes are clearly buffable, the paint not. Cheers Rob

Looking good Phil. I never thought about buffing AK's Extreme Metals and have the feeling that wouldn't change the look a lot. I would be interested in your experiences. Cheers Rob

Very dynamic display, I like it a lot, with the flag adding a lot of contrast. It's always good, to see something different in modelling, chapeau. BTW, welcome to LSM, you will notice, that you found the right place of laid back plastic nuts, at least, I hope so. Cheers Rob

Go gold, 'b' is not bad either, but chrome rims on a Stratos? I hope 'c' is only a joke and makes the Lancia look like the piece of soap, the original donator looks like . Cheers Rob

Call yourself lucky, discussing about a kit subject with your wife. I've given up on that, after my last try of showing her my Lozenge camouflaged Siemen Schuckert D.III twins. She said, the Tarnstoff reminds her of the anti graffiti design on the seats of the Berlin subway. Hell yes, the effect is the same, it's camouflaging, but how can you compare . The only way, I can get to her, is discussing technical aspect. As an engineer, she has a wide interest into engines, gears, ..., like, what was that about the Oberursel Umlaufmotor... Can't wait to see your Santa ride grow, is there still something left from the original plastic ? Cheers Rob

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. The resulting pics look great, but show the reason, why I was hesitating to buy a camera for snorkeling. On my island, the water normally is very transparent, when the sun is shining and there are only small waves, but the blueish greenish refraction effect of the water is strongly visible, even in shallow water of two or three meter depth on photos. The only real solution is artificial light, which makes the equipment heavy and expensive and/or the use of software to reduce the effect. It seems, I have to rely on my brain HD to take underwater pictures and ponder about, how amazingly well the human eye adopts to difficult lighting conditions, where technique still partly fails. Most of the fishes you see while snorkeling, are relatively small, colourful and you have to try to get really close. sometimes you spot some bigger rays or a turtle. Octopus, Sepia, and Morenas are common and sometimes you spot large flock of fishes, sometimes with hunting Barilotes (small type of tuna) darting through. There is quite a mix of close up, motion capturing, which a camera had to fulfil. The depth range is between surface and 10 meters. Cheers Rob

I hope for you that your second you is not made by Mikro Mir. If so you would mess up your working situation eternally, without installing a lot of AM and do lots of grinding, which could accumulate to more work, than you had before, while working . Cheers Rob and a Happy New Year

I'm not Fran, but it will be a Revell kit . Cheers Rob

Thanks for posting Fran, my favorite is also the SR-71 and I hope they get it right. The other (re-) releases are not very tempting to me . Cheers Rob

Very interesting and nice pics as well. I'm pondering about what camera to use for snorkeling here on my island. I will not go professional or with a heave lighting equipment. What type of camera do you use for your photos? Cheers Rob

Wow, the bike looks very real, nice work on the details and painting. I wish, there were more interesting high quality bike kits in large scales on the market. I could go for one of my old KTM 950 SM, which looks a bit more badass. Cheers Rob

Thanks Gaz, but the only night fighter in my stash is the ZM HE-219, where I have some metal antlers and a Fly Arado-234 in midbuild, with a Master set for the antennas. Cheers Rob

Something about compability of the Lukgraph Le Rhone engine. I went the extra mile and tested all cowlings in my stash, for whom a Le Rhone engine would be suitable, maybe somebody is interested. Mikro Mir Fokker D.V/E.VIII kit cowling fits (look at the plastic and it's one of the better parts) Aviattic Fokker D.V/E.VIII fits (note the shape differences to the above kit part, the Aviattic cowling shows four full cylinders, were the Mikro Mir one shows two full and two halfed cylinders) Wingnut Wings Le Rhone Camel fits tightly, not sure if it would turn, because I didn't assembled the firewall attachment Roden Fokker DR.1 cowl fits tightly as well, no idea if it is able to turn. And this is how the primed engine looks, ready to receive metal colours. Cheers Rob