DocRob

You should become a fortune (or in this case misfortune) teller. I started with the chipping yesterday, but it proved difficult. The hairspray barely worked and I thought about additional sponge chipping . Cheers Rob

Nice one Paul, I thought about getting one too. I recently bought the Neuspotter, which looks sinister somehow. I purchased it also from Plaza Japan, but it took them more than three weeks to even ship the parcel. It hasn´t arrived yet, but I hope it will soon. I may ad the bugger to the Kampfanzug sandbox dio. Cheers Rob

Like you said PW, the positioning of the elements is very dynamic and snow and ice make it look like a chilly snapshot, well done. Cheers Rob

Interesting looking scheme, Brad. I like your P-51 and needed a closer look to realize it´s 1/72. Cheers Rob

Thank you Paul, Maschinen Krieger kits are a real fun to build and paint. You can make your own designs and there is no room for discussions about historical accuracy . I can´t wait to see what you make of yours, which seems to be one of the moon based kits (Kamel? or just a power suit?). Leakage may happen on the moon as well, maybe impacts from meteorite fragments and dust. Cheers Rob

Painting and decaling the Kampfanzug is relatively time consuming, as every layer of paint or varnish has to dry properly. I sprayed some yellow areas on the weapon arm and weapons and brush painted many details. A coat of Pledge went onto the camouflage as a gloss base for decaling. The supplied decals were good to work with, luckily. I had different experiences with Hasegawa´s MaK decals, which were rigid and won´t settle on curved surfaces. On top, I put a matte coat, using the matte varnish from Winsor and Newton Galeria, which @PanzerWomble recommended, for the first time. I need some more experience with the stuf, but like the result. I used Pledge and the water based matte varnish to hopefully be able to activate the hairspray under these numerous layers. Next will be heavy weathering, the most important step of this project. I hope, I can achieve the desired look. Cheers Rob

I usually use a drop of Pledge / Future or another gloss clear medium. Cheers Rob

I like oils as well, Hubert. I even painted a whole plane, a PZL P.11 completely with oils as an experiment and it worked. Oils have significant characteristics, you can´t have with other media. Cheers Rob

Great news, albeit I wish, it would be made by Tamiya. Nonetheless, I just bought Italeri´s Fiat 695 Abarth. I know, I once said, I would neve buy an Italeri kit, but the Stratos will be the third breaking of the rule, the other was the 1/12 Alfa Romeo 2300. As a sidenote, I couldn´t let the 695 Abarth go for under 60 €uro including shipping. It´s still available for that price on the big A.de Cheers Rob

Like PW said, you achieved a great finish and very real looking weathering, Kevin. I love the Tempest in NMF and hope mine will come out close to yours, when it´s time. Cheers Rob

That looks fantastic, I love the wood finish. Cheers Rob

I must have had this catalogue too, I remember all of the box arts. I might have circled numerous of the kits as well. Huh, sentimental journey, thanks for showing PW. Cheers Rob

Looks fantastic and I have to agree, the left side looks better. I had a similar effect once, painting NMF on a JUG, but can´t remember the details. Cheers Rob

Thank you PW and Carl, there were many options camo wise, but I wanted to create an own pattern. I used hairspray on many occasions and it always worked for me, even after days. With my Corsair build, I used it even in two layers, separating the primer color from the metal base and between the camo color and the primer, to achieve more depth with the chipping. The only issue I have, besides the dreaded smell, is that sometimes the covering paint layers activate the hairspray a bit, normally not a problem with weathered objects. I have some heavy chipping fluid as well, but never really used it. Cheers Rob

While my shipments from Japan are still somewhere on the planet, I received a packet from Germany. I got the Meng 1/24 McLaren Mp4/4 from Meng. There is all you need in the kit, besides the tobacco sponsor decals, which are on the way from Spain. The kit includes metal stickers for the mirrors and carbon decals for the monocoque, beside the usual plastic, which looks actually very good. 1/20 will not become my favorite scale for F1 cars, the kit body looks astonishingly small in the box. I couldn´t get the huge Ironclad and went with the frigate instead. It´s my first Warhammer kit and it will be all about painting. There are only two sprues, but the parts are well detailed. Cheers Rob

On to the camo. It´s the FU-52 disruptive desert scheme, I planned for the Kampfanzug. Not that such a thing exists, I made it up, because I wanted to achieve something different, but desert related. The idea is to build a camo from 3 mm wide Kabuki strips added with some 10 mm squares. The angles should be from about 75 to 90 percent, not less. I tried to get an even uneven pattern as a result. The masking took some hours obviously and I made sure to, there is no chance of color bleeding, rubbing all strips in and using a toothpick for the corners. Funky isn´t it? Now on with the paint, in this case Tamiya XF desert yellow. I sprayed it a bit less diluted than usual, to hinder bleeding under the masks. Masks were removed only minutes after application. I prefer to get rid of the masks fast, when the color isn´t completely cured, but dry to the touch. The camo has a kind of razzle dazzle look to it, but this will fade with weathering and all the abuse, I will put onto it. Cheers Rob

I feel a big relief to hear that your and Dianes outlook is positive and I hope you can maintain the positive vibes through the hard times with your brother´s health issues. Take your time for all the really important things in life and when it´s time again, you know where to find us. Cheers Rob

I have to leave my workshop for some hours afterwards Hubert, I hate the smell. Luckily my wife has long blonde hair and never uses hairspray, other ways I would be solo . Cheers Rob

I spare you the smelly pics, the next two layers on the Kampfanzug were hairspray for my planned heavy sandblast chipping. I use the stuff directly from the can. For those, who don´t know the technique. I made a steel base layer, then hairspray and on top I apply the two tone camo. When everything is dried, I dampen the surfaces, where I want to chip, which activates the hairspray and loosens the adhesion of the two tone camo layers. With different tools, I can now scratch the top layers away. Next was the base layer of my planned camouflage, using Tamiya XF-64 red brown as the darker tone. It´s a bit bring to show all the layers here, but I did, to describe the process. Cheers Rob

After burying the fellow in his steel grave, I masked the front window and inserted it temporary with some diluted PVA glue. I added the missing bits and pieces to the Kampfanzug and sprayed it with Mr. Surfacer 1000 black as a solid base. Next was a coat of AK Extreme Metallics steel as the base coat. Cheers Rob

I wanted to be a bit Carlesque and started a parallel build . It´s a 1/35 X-Plus Spinosaurus sans tongue for easier painting later. The build took only three hours. Cheers Rob

I can imagine, how hard it is to get all the measurements of the fuselage parts right during the design process. It´s so easy, to miss a millimeter here or there, but it definitely shows when mounted. Clear resin looks pretty good and your build log is a clinic for 3D printing, a way, I´m not willing to take myself right now. I can see myself designing and printing smaller parts, but not whole kits. In my case it could also be troublesome to get the needed materials, so I will relay on AM producers or just buy MFH kits . Cheers Rob

Wow Carl, yummy. I love my Kamado as well, perfect for everything except Bronto Burger. I even cold smoke Tuna and Wahoo in there. Cheers Rob

Meanwhile, I managed to close the body of the Kampfanzug. Which sounds like a simple task, but wasn´t. A huge amount of pegs have to intersect and they had really tight tolerances. I had to use pliers at some points, always hoping, the side windows don´t pop out. Most of the kit could be build without glue, that´s why there are so many pegs. I masked the cockpit front window with kabuki tape and sawed off the huge mounting part, because it disturbed the view to the inside. The interior of the suit got water dampened to activate the hairspray and then chipped with various tools. This was followed be DAK sand effect, a kind of wash with pigments in it. I liked the effect a lot and applied it onto the poor pilot as well, before I buried him in his steel grave. I will leave the weathering for now, but I´m pretty sure, I will add more later. Cheers Rob

Indeed Peter, I had checked an array of different colors for the interior beforehand, ranging from duck egg, sky blue, sand tones, RLM 02 and others, but after surfing, it was clear, I need some contrast for the sand heavy finish planned. Cheers Rob