DocRob

Nice choice and quite a task with all the AM. I'm not an expert and didn't quite catch which ridge you mean, but found some belly pics of a FM-2, I took in NASM Pensacola some years ago. May these help. Sorry for the bad quality of the pics, but light was very sparse in that section of the museum.. Cheers Rob

Looking phreakin' phantastic, never build a kit with a screw in it, except for noseweight. Gus you ph*cked up royally, by now it's a FIVE letter word, it's ophphicial . Cheers Rob

Hehe, guilty as charged . I've seen that epic build in your picture and even if I would be able to do something like this, my plans are slightly different. My Kamel should look well used and worn, maybe with no time to pull it out of the water for some time, being exposed to the harsh conditions on the island of Sylt. I was thinking about a dio with the plane floating near a beach of the Königshafen in the north of Sylt with a plank leading to one of the floats occupied bey either the CSM crew or the fascinated boy, which I originally bought to accompany my WNW AEG. But in all the dio is a maybe, I want to train on acrylic water with my 1/48 Walrus. Cheers Rob

I'm interested in this one too. When I had probs with a bended needle, I straightened it and honed it with a Japanese grind stone for knifes with a final go with the 6000 grit side and some oil on it. Cheers Rob

Good luck Harv and afterwards you are eagle eyed again, maybe a 1/144 WIP for a change . Cheers Rob

Hello Mike, first of all, good to see you making it to our little place in the web, which is biased heavily towards large scale, but luckily not dogmatic about it . With the kits you show, you haven't chosen the easiest path into modelling it seems. Nice job with all that rigging and antennas and the engines seemed to have received some wiring too. Should you do a WIP, absolutely. From my own experience a WIP-log is helping others as much as it helps yourself, getting feedback, experiences and reference from other members. WIP-ing is a win-win thing, though and bread and butter of the forum. Cheers Rob

Some more adventures from oil colour land. I finished the fuselage and modulated a bit more while knocking back the colours a bit. I went to the floats then, which received light grey oils for salt and olive green for algae. Tomorrow I will decide, if the fuselage will get some clay wash applied and the Lozenge has to be oiled.

I love these oil colours more and more, you can remove them, you can dab and articulate them and they apply absolutely thin, so you get the colour without loosing detail. It's like painting and using a wash at the same time and you can emphasize lots of effects like streaking or blending. Cheers Rob Thanks Phil, I will try to keep Dudeism up . Cheers Rob

Working with oils is pure fun, so I went a little overboard with it, or maybe not. I used different light grey, blue and olive green oils to modulate the fuselage. Generally I like the effect, but am not decided, If I take a little bit away from that (that's the best with oils, you can always remove everything), or I use a neutral clay wash, which will roughly cleaned in the way of the airflow. The oils were applied as to emphasize different panels and then were partly removed with a spirit dampened saw brush using it in the direction of the airflow and up and down. Cheers Rob The still untreated side

Thanks Gaz, like the Dude said in 'The Big Lebowski', 'That rug really tied the room together' ! Cheers Rob

Entirely not my cup of tea anymore, but entertaining to watch. Since my Wild Willy Jeep got lost as a teen, I'm out of RC stuff, but had lot of fun, mostly with boats and self constructed ice gliders at the time. Cheers Rob

Today some long awaited oil colours arrived, so what better than trying them out. The Aviattic linen decals were a little bit on the cold side for my liking colourwise, which led me to warm and wear them with light yellow and faded yellow (a light orange tone in fact). The white underlying the Balkenkreuze recieved some light grey oil treatment. The oils were applied randomly with a sawbrush working right to left. Then I worked the oils in with a little thinner in the direction of the airflow, while modulating the colours with cleaning the brush more and more between the strokes. In the end, I got what I wanted. The wings look weather beaten and have an enhanced colour richness and reduced contrast between colours. I love to work with oils and will continue after drying with the fuselage and Lozenge upper sides. Cheers Rob Before and after All done

Nice, always a big step and some Fly fuselages are not the easiest to close. Cheers Rob

Under mottling, I would have called it . It will look good with a translucent paint job on top. Cheers Rob

Looking good Gaz. I like the metal skirts a lot, easy said, I haven't done any. All my skirted subjects are safe and sound in my stash, including a Jagdpanzer IV with mesh skirts. I would have considered soldering, but that leaves the problem of slightly misaligned joins. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, I use Pledge floor cleaner with 30% added Tamiya Flat Base. Do not mix more than 35% of Flat Base into the mix, as it will cloud. It may even cloud with less, when applied too thick. The benefit of my method is, you have control over the grade of dullness from near gloss to dead flat. The other thing you have to take into account, that Pledge and other floor polishes sometimes react with other chemicals like decal softeners or lacquer thinners. Cheers Rob

The Kamel got a flat varnish and that helped to tone down the contrasts between the different Lozenge patterns. This will be the base for oils and weathering. Cheers Rob

I completed decaling and varnished all surfaces with 70% Pledge and 30% Tamiya Flat, to get a n even surface for oils and other weathering steps. The numbers on the fuselage show some carrier film, which I wasn't able to get rid off. I hope, with some oils onto it, it will not show in the end. I have no idea what it is with me and the decals . Cheers Rob

Great choice Mike. I have the same kit in stash for a far future build, so I'm naturally interested into your thoughts and efforts going into the Bristol. Cheers Rob

Sneak peak of the different Lozenge patterns, linen on the wings and rudders, painted at the tail and back of the fuselage (already applied now). I think I will use them like this and tone down the contrast with weathering. Cheers Rob

Not much rigging with the Kamel, it will be a walk in the park. I think, when decaling is finished and sealed, there are not many more great obstacles in the way. Today I only managed to overspray the linen decals on the wings with a coat of translucent white, where the Balkenkreuze will be applied and on the rudder. I didn't dare to use Kabuki tape on the Aviattic decals and used post-it's for masking, which worked fine, without leaving any damage. Cheers Rob

Like Gus said, your F4 looks great. Just one or two stencils to add... . Cheers Rob

Definitely looking more than ok. Can't wait to see it finished. I use Pledge with added Tamiya flat base for flat varnish. works perfect for me and while adjusting the mix, I get all shades of flatness with this combination. More than 35-40% Flat base in the mix will lead to frosting effects though, but 35% is perfectly dull. Cheers Rob

All the Lozenge and linen decals are applied and they behaved great. After all the cutting and thinking about aligning the Lozenge correctly, the Aviattic decals performed absolutely perfect. Good preparation is the key. For me the application with lukewarm water with a drop of liquid soap in it, is the way to go. Decal solutions were only used around the corners of the wings. I think, decaling and weathering the wings will be done, before mounting them to the fuselage For the tail, I used the kit supplied decal, because I want to show, that it is painted on wood instead of printed fabric on wings and ailerons. I'm not sure about the contrast, which was the reason, why I didn't apply the Lozenge decal for the back of the fuselage, which looks the same. I will check that, while putting the tailwing onto the fuselage, with the wings mounted, to see if it works for me. The rudder is only crudely prepared and will receive a translucent white overspray. Cheers Rob

You accumulated quite a bit of annoyance for yourself, given it's a shake and bake kit and even pre painted. Sometimes a seem to be easy going build goes south that way. In our hobby there is so much doom potential, specially around painting, decaling and finishing. We use highly sophisticated stuff in paints, primers, thinners, wet and dry transfers, glues, decals and their solutions, washes and filters, oils and pigments, that there are umpteenth possibilities to fail. The good thing though, with experience made, the next time you know how to bypass the obstacles, but I feel your pain. Cheers Rob