DocRob

I more than once thought about buying this behemoth. Good grab will there be a WIP? Cheers Rob

Muchas Gracias Señhores, normally decaling is pure horror to me, as I always have various issues while doing it. With the Aviattic decals this has changed, they behave well in every aspect. They lay down perfectly, conform well, they are robust and don't fold over easily. I have no idea about silvering, as they cover the whole thing . You don't need any solvents, just lukewarm water and a drop of soap and of course a well prepared base layer. I have several sets for other WWI projects and am considering to even use a full decal linen cover on my Taube and Fokker Eindecker. Cheers Rob

I don't know where to start, the little dio, the material appearance, be it metal, the wood pattern on the fuselage, replication of cloth, the unique camo,... It blends all together as another masterpiece, which was a lot of fun to follow. Besides, there is always a lot to learn in your WIP's. Cheers Rob

Obrigado Hubert. ...meanwhile I applied the Lozenge decals to the fuselage. They are from Aviattic and a dream to work with. They lay down perfectly with only some water with a drop of dish cleaner. The key is the preparation, in my case with a primer coat of Tamiya X-2 gloss white. Awiattic decals are not cookie cut, so you have to do the cutting by yourself. No problem here, as the general fit of the print is very good. I decided to apply Lozenge on the inside of the wheels and the typical stripes only on the outside. The stripes were the first of the Pheon decals and received some Set and Sol to conform. I punched out a circle for the axis before applying and now it's drying time. Cheers Rob

I use Dymo tape for these occasions. Cheers Rob

Gracias Hombres, like you said Phil, there is a fine line... . The Fokker didn't cause a single curse until now, because mainly I was prepared for the kit. I had an idea of, how to tackle it and until now everything worked out. I don't mind an easy kit here and there, because that is not the main influencing factor to me. The kit of my AMK Mig-31 was very easy to build, because it was extremely well engineered. That didn't made the whole project simple, because I put some new and laborious techniques for painting and weathering on my shoulders, to get the look, I wanted. Cheers Rob

Great effect with the painting, I was really astonished, when I read BRUSH . The result looks terrific and it's good to see, how you've done it with your thoughtful use of the brush technique. Cheers Rob

First colour is sprayed on. Metal parts were primed, wings and fuselage not using my last bit of Tamiya rattlecan primer for the struts and PE-hatches and firewall. The fuselage received a high gloss white Tamiya X-2 coat as did the wheel covers. The front part was then masked and airbrushed with Tamiya Olive green, which looked like a nice fit. The struts, engine hatch and firewall were also painted in olive green The wheels were painted with an unhealthy mix of 80% hellbound flesh and 20% of undead flesh from Scale 75, which dry dead flat. The wings were airbrushed in Tamiya's buff as a base for the four colour streaking. In front is the 1/72 wing from the Armas Hobby kit, which consists of more panels. I decided to let the who is right and who is wrong question behind me Cheers Rob

There is a lot of truth in your words, Gaz. Cheers Rob

Was Step 1 a part of the instructions ? Your progress on the Firefly is looking good. It seems to be a nicely detailed kit. Cheers Rob

Like using my own struts and other scratched parts on the Fokker build, enhancing a kit with an 'own' scheme is purely satisfying. With the very high standard, some kits have today, like WNW's and Tamiya's, sometimes the 'serious' modeler feels like consuming convenient food. There is no need to change anything to get a decent result, but where do I have my individual fingerprint among dozens of other builds? To me this is not so important, as when I see a kit, which I'm interested in, I have very soon a picture in my mind, how I want to build it and how I wanted to paint and weather it. This process happens to be even before buying a kit. The quality of a kit is secondary to me, it's the subject itself, which has to attract me for different reasons, esthetically, historical interest, technical fascination or learning new techniques are my triggers here. As I live relatively isolated, with nobody interested in modeling around me (except you guys out there ), I build only for myself and not for contests or even for displaying the built kits. Cheers Rob

I assumed, that if I use the original kit parts for measurement, I will get pretty close with my construction. There is always a little wiggle room for adjustments. My backup plan was to use the jig, which came with the Pheon decals. It would have been perfect for the wheel struts and wing alignment, but it's some work to do, cutting the parts from cardboard to strengthen the provided adhesive paper. I decided to opt fot the jig, only if necessary. I compared what I did with the front and side drawings and if it looks right´, I'm good and remember the slight wiggling room . Cheers Rob

Thanks Kai, I actually enjoy working with metal, especially with brass. It's a welcomed change from all that plastic stuff . It's not that hard. You can use the kit parts for measurement and only the tripod connection on top needed a little adjustment. Test fitting though, is not so easy, because I wanted to be absolutely sure, that everything fits, before soldering the rods into the tubes. There are a lot of loose parts to get aligned for a proper test fit, but this is done now, luckily. Cheers Rob

Before painting and decaling started, I wanted to be sure, that the fuselage strut work was correctly measured and aligned. I now soldered in the end rods, which fit into the fuselage holes. Everything seems to be in line and on the pictures the struts are not glued, but stay in place on their own. Cheers Rob

There seems to be a lot of extra work needed, to get a decent result out of this PCM kit. I hope that's not a mojo killer for you. BTW, I have an electric toothbrush on my bench now, which just needs to be prepared. Thanks for the idea Gaz. Cheers Rob

Thanks Gentlemen, I don't know why, but this build is fun and I think it is because the kit is not up to todays standards. It is challenging in a way, that you have to find solutions. Not like with a Tamygawa kit, where scratching is not a necessity, but a 'yeah I could if I would'. The two WNW's I built were rigid enough, were the Pfalz undercarriage got significantly strengthened with the fishing line rigging. The other being the robust under construction for the Hansa Brandenburg, does not count. The brass legs would carry a large scale B-29, it's very strong. Cheers Rob

Thanks Jeff, actually the steering column was very good, with only minor cleanup needed . Before I start with painting and decaling, I want to get the hacking and slaying jobs done. I soldered the undercarriage struts and made a mock up test fit, testing if everything aligns correctly. Turned out ok and is very rigid. Cheers Rob

Every part in this kit has to be brought to form, grinded, bent or sanded more than once. There are not so many parts luckily, but it consumes a lot of time. I managed to close the fuselage and add the tail, so these parts are near ready to receive a gloss white cote for the decals. The whity putty on the nose was accidently caused by me, while heating up the upper fuselage part, to bend it to shape. The tailplane was more than 1mm to thick, to get at least a half decent fit to the fuselage, so I sanded away a lot to let that happen. I bought the 1/72 incarnation of the same plane from Armas Hobby and beside some flash, this kit looks way better engineered, with wing struts ready cast to the upper fuselage, as shown in the drawing and the wheel struts have a casted on jig, which will be removed after the glue dried readily. That's clever designing and you have to ask yourself, if somebody from Mikro Mir or Avis ever build the 1/32 kit. The tiny Armas Fokker also has a complete Lozenge camo sheet from Cartograph. I may start the little one parallel in a Polish livery Cheers Rob

Nice build and an unusual flashy scheme, well done. Cheers Rob

Wow, great work, I will store these pictures for my 1/48 G.V. This will be less detailed, but it should look about right. Your IP is a masterpiece with all the different materials actually looking like they are made out of it. Cheers Rob

Thanks a lot, to be honest, the Tamiya Corsair makes it easy to shine, it's a great kit out of the box. The Brassin additions caused a lot of extra work. Were they necessary, no, but they are better than the kit parts and my plan was, to have the resin engine under removable cowlings. That didn't work out, so now the cowlings are permanently closed. I left the Corsair in Berlin as a gift for a friend, when I left. I wanted to achieve a maximum result and involved lots of extra work into the build, because there were many things to learn for me and my limited abilities by the time. Seeing your great work, I think there are different definitions of 'serious' in modelling. The Corsair was my first kit since I was maybe twenty and now modelling has a part in my live, but I have a lot of other hobbies. De nada, I did all I could by the time and learned a lot through the built. Weathering to me is more having the right idea about the type and grade of weathering beforehand and then work out the imagined picture, considering the scene of action, climate, and most important materials of the original. Normally, I have an already made up picture in my head, when I start a build, completely detailed and I try to follow that, not always succesful , to the finish. The way you painted your Corsair is admirable, with the translucent layers of paint. It's not easy to achieve, but gives great depth to the paintjob. Bring it on Phil, it's such a great kit. It needs it's time, but it's worth it, because it's so enjoyable. Hacking at my Mikro Mir Fokker at the moment, makes me sometimes want, to drag one of my Tamiya's out of the shelf . Cheers Rob

I built the Tamiya kit when it came out, using a lot of AM, like Brassin engine and cockpit and Maketar masks for the stars and walkways. I have only bad pics, because I was not seriously a builder then (and not an LSM member) and just took some quick ones. In all it was a very enjoyable build. Cheers Rob Cheers Rob

Nice work all around, gratulations. Can't wait to see the finished scene. It's a nostalgia ride for me, because the Birdcage Boyington flew was my first serious attempt at modelling after a draught of some centuries. Cheers Rob

Gracias Hombres, but it's not much LS in between, only the British rigging points Cheers Rob

Today some little in between Lozengies arrived with loads of AM for different WWI projects along with some not shown Albion Alloys brass stuff. The Eduard set has two resin engines included. I waited a long time to receive these goodies, maybe caused by the snow chaos in Madrid, two weeks ago. I may build the tiny Fokker E.V along my ongoing build and use it as a testbed for the wing camo technique in multi colour streaking. Cheers Rob