DocRob

A shame, you should have used only half of the fuselage . Cheers Rob

You can rig a dozen of Camels with those. Remember to clean the holes with a drill or tip of a scalpel after cutting, it's not so easy to fiddle the Chameleon line through for the second time, even with cleaning. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, I have a well filled stash of figures and busts in different scales and materials for diorama purpose or stand alone, better you get the dust off your lurkers, and on you go... . Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias Señhor, I'm blushing right now. Like you, I like the shearling leather jacket best, besides the gauntlets. I found it much easier to work with oils, because they blend better. I experimented with different types of thinners/turpentines for the first time. Oils leave a shine whn they dry, with normal turpentine, which is great for leather, but not so for cloth and skin. Here worked AK's Flat Thinner beautifully, drying matte enough. Like I said, there is a lot to learn with figure painting and I always have to force myself to do it, but there are tiny successes and more experience leads to better results. I used new good brushes this time and that helped a lot too. Another thing to mention is, the quality of the cast is important obviously and these figures were great, with crisp details. The eyes were problematic (aren't they ever?), they lay deep into the hollow, because of the leather caps and goggles. Cheers Rob

I know Hubert and I normally do so. In this case I waited, because I haven't made my mind up, where to place the figures in the dio. One of them might stand on a float of the Kamel or on a wooden plank leading to the plane, maybe the other is so close to the water, that I place him into the transparent Acrylic. Cheers Rob

Thanks Carl, I always like to be a better figure painter, but it's a hard way. Poco a poco, like we say here in Spain, step by steep. Cheers Rob

Yeah guys I know, the Kamel already was in the RFI section, but I gave the figures a go. Not my strong side, but I push myself, as to learn a little about figure painting t's my first attempt, using oil colours only and it was a nice experiece. The bonus is the longer blending time, while acrylics tend to dry to fast for my liking. The downside is, yeah sounds strange, the long drying time too. It's not easy to hold the figures without getting fingerprints. With the use of different turpentines, you can adjust the sheen of the oils and simulate different materials like leather or cloth. Some details and the boots are left to paint, but this will be done, when inserted into the dio, if ther is one... Cheers Rob

You'll need more panel liner, than a thirsty sailor could drink for al these surface details. This will look great, with a decently weathered Japanese green paintjob over bare metal, bring it on. Cheers Rob

The assemble process of the tiny 1/16 Chinese tankette is nearly done, a fast and uncomplicated task. The fit is good and there are just some minor quirks, where the engineering is not the best, but really nothing to worry about. Running gear exhausts and tools are not added, because they will be painted separately. There are only three PE parts, which are easily handled too. If painting will start soon will be determined by the beginning of my Christmas project, for which I need the postal service to hurry up. Cheers Rob

I like the look a lot, a bit on the dark side, but will look fantastic under some dense trees, with toned done grounds and plane, to enhance the realistic lighting. Cheers Rob

You could display a 1/32 B-52 beside your B-24 and it wouldn't be noticed . Indeed an eye catcher. The paintjob looks great and definitely unique, well done. Cheers Rob

Thanks for the review Fran, the book seems to be very comprehensive and should be a nice source of how to's for AFV, dioramas and figures. I will not buy it though, because with that kind of assumed price tag, to me it's to biased towards Valejo products. No wonder here, since they produce the book, but even with most of the AK books, the builders/artists use different kind of products, wich is interesting for me, as there are products within the Valejo range, which I use happily and others, where my experiences have been not too good. Painting and weathering has a lot to do with the used products, besides of course skills, techniques and creativity. To me focusing seemingly on only one producer is shortening the subject for one very important part. Cheers Rob

Chipping looks great to me and certainly not overdone. I like the chipping multi coloured like you did it, with some bare metal some corrosion and some abrasion. The cupola looks gorgeous, like Phil said. Cheers Rob

Nice and smooth work with all that filling. With the silver coating it looks stunningly beautiful. Cheers Rob

I miserably failed with the finish, German pilots polished the floats with their toothbrushes seemingly Cheers Rob

Somewhere I read, that it's possible to stretch the mid section of cotton swabs over a flame as tubes for turnbuckles, but never tried it. Cheers Rob

Si Cheers Rob

Thanks Jeff, I will specialize in floats . It's all about multiple layer hairspray technique and after sealing that, it's oils for weathering and imagination about how to weather with algae and salt residue. I wonder if there has been a real Kamel in this state of neglect, given the island of Sylt belonged to Prussia . Cheers Rob

That's a tough situation Phil, and I hope it will be better soon. You don't have to go the expensive way though, just use brass micro tube with the inner diameter of 0,3 and outer diameter of 0,5 mm. With a scalpel rolling, you cut ca. 0,3-0,5 cm (depending the type of turnbuckle) length from the tube and don't forget to clean the holes with a micro drill. The eylets can be made of thin wire by yourself, use a small metal hook, bend the wire around and twist the hook. Cut the twisted part and you have an eyelet. Sounds complicated, it isn't so much. It takes some effort, but it's well wort it. For easier rigging, you can glue in all the eylets into pre drilled holes and then rig all the wires from the upper wing first. After assembling the upper wing onto the struts, you have to do the rigging only on the lower wing to complete the process. Cheers Rob

Beautifully done, love the weathering and the heavily used look. By the way, welcome to LSM, make you feel comfortable among us plastic addicts. Cheers Rob

Hi Phil, I didn't mean tensioning with heat, I meant using turnbuckles like Bob's or self made ones cut from micro tube. First you thread the Chameleon line through a micro tube with inner diameter of 0,3mm, then through the anchor point/eyelet and again (a bit fiddly) through the micro tube. When you pull the Chameleon line taut with tweezers, they are almost self fastening and a drop of CA makes that permanent. Rigged this way, the rigging becomes kind of a structural element and gives more rigidity. I hope my babbeling is understandable . Cheers Rob

Nice figure painting skills, impressive work. I have actually started the figures for The Hansa Brandenburg build and think, how should I... Cheers Rob

Looking mighty good Phil, CDL looks great. Chameleon rigging is eye testing, but very rigid and helps to support the structure. That from a near newb with two WNW builds and two 1/48 WWI SSW's . Cheers Rob

Extremely nice, could do with better pics though . Cheers Rob

Nice and shiny, always a great feel to have buried all the problematic areas under a coat of paint and not being able to spot them anymore . Cheers Rob