DocRob

Thanks to remind me, that my Quintas 'decals' for my 1/72 Mi 24 are still in the mail somewhere, since two month. The reasons have nothing to do with Quinta, it's about regulations here on my island, which conflicted with other products I ordered in the same package, namely Tamiya rattle can primer. When (if) they finally arrive, I will add some pics, because they look very promising on photos. Cheers Rob

Beautiful detail work on the back float with all the rigging and scratched details. The worn look of the linen fits perfectly. Cheers Rob

Nice dio Gaz, with the figures and the fitting background. I actually nearly feel the heat radiating from the tanks. Cheers Rob

That guy on the bear does everything for a good article in the press somewhere. Lately he stalled a little with mixing the wrong vaccine into the drinks of some of his not so well minded adversaries, with harsh side effects. If I were you, I would make a hot toddy out of your tea with the addition of some rum . Cheers Rob

I have no idea about aquariums, other than I like to watch them and yours - err - your wives look great. It's a nice substitute for a holiday at the seaside. I can tell, because last Sunday I was swimming into the arms of a medusa, which burned like hell. It was one of these days, were I'm always very careful, when there is no wind, no waves and relatively warm summer water. The water seen through the goggles has a distinct look, completely transparent, but with a slight flicker near the surface, like heat on tarmac on these occasions, but there were only tentacles no body of the beast, very hard to see. Now after a week, it doesn't hurt anymore and the swelling went back to normal, so nor harm done, but I can appreciate to survey the fascinating maritime live through a piece of glass and guess looking at it has a perfect relaxing character. Cheers Rob

I did some partly gloss jobs on different models as a base for decals. If you can be certain that the covering flat varnish doesn't show different shines as an after effect you are good to go. I never had any problems doing so, but you can test it on a spare part with your usual gloss and matte varnishes to be sure. Cheers Rob

Thank you Mike, this is only my second WNW build and beside my recently finished testbed SSW's in 48 scale, one of the rare excursions in the field of WWI aviation. As I gain more routine and confidence with every build, there is also also a rapidly growing fun factor, while building these kits. It's so rewarding to reproduce the numerous different materials and to see, how these flying machines actually work. You might have noticed, that I copied (what an ugly word ) some of your techniques with this build. I appreciate your generosity to give us the possibility to browse through your builds and the connected thoughts with your PDF-logs. My philosophy building kits, is normally not to replicate the last screw, like seen on the original, but make it look right to my eye and fulfil how I imagined the subject. That leaves some place for liberties and imperfections, which to me are completely tolerable. With the HGW products I have similar experiences like you. I had really good products, made by them with a special mention of the wet transfers of my recently built Mig-31, where I would have gone loco with all these stencils as conventional decals, and the care that would have amounted around them. Their seatbelts are unbeaten normally, but with this kit, even the seat belts weren't too refined, the decals over brittle as you mentioned and the PE was at least a questionable substitute. The benefit though is, that with the bad results I had with the decals, I learned wood painting, because I had to, and for the future I won't even look for wood decals, because it is frightening me anymore. Cheers Rob

Muchas Gracias Gaz. The Jig is very easy to work with, put on the Kabuki tape on the desired template width and slice it with a scalpel, done, much cheaper then ready cut tape in umptenth widths. I have another one for circles, wich I used for the gunner/operator station to cover. The stripe jig is by far the most used, specially for WWI purposes, like struts masks or to replicate laminated wood for props. Cheers Rob

Actually I don't miss Berlin at all, well, except for hobby stores, good bars, concerts and cinema. With Covid though, there are only the hobby stores left, so no, I don't miss Berlin . Another thing is the climate, winter, were I live in the northern mountains of the Canary Islands is mostly nice, often sunny and dry. The worst time is spring, where we have a lot of humidity and wind. Sometimes you feel colder with +10 degrees, than in a -10 degrees winter night in Berlin, where the houses are better insulated and heated and live here on the islands happens to be more outdoor than in a big city. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, I have some time for modelling, but a lot of other duties in the garden and the house as well. Not so much painting in the moment, it's to hot most of the times, but a lot of watering the plants and gardening for hours and some work on one of the roofs. I finished some wood painting work lately with our main entrance and some other doors, with cobalt pigmented linseed colour. Linseed is perfect for our often hot, but even more humid conditions. This door gets all of it, wind and humidity from the outside and sun and dryness from the inside, sometimes it's nearly impossible to open the door, because of that. The scaffold and painting of the multi colored facade of the house will be next years business.

The fuselage and horizontal tailplane got a coat of Pledge as base for the Lozenge, crosses and numbers and then it was time to start something new. I worked with Aviattic decals on my SSW twins for a first time and was positively surprised, how good they performed. Given the 48 scale then, I didn't bother with preshading. This time, I decided to pre shade, which is a lot of work cutting 0,5 mm strips of Kabuki with my Voyager cutting template and apply these on the struts. I did a complete test of the process on one aileron. Then I cut the linen and Lozenge for upper and underside with the kit part and the WNW decal (above right) as a template. I cut the decals slightly wider than the WNW supplied ones, because I want to fit them around the corners better. The kit aileron got airbrushed with dilluted Tamiya Smoke Testing the method payed off, The result looks ok to me with the objection, that the preshading, which was equally airbrushed on the upper and lower side shows a lot more intense through the linen. For the next parts, I will take that into account and give the Lozenge side a little more shading Cheers Rob

I have to think about using it as a primer, as well as it sprays, but have to do further testing. I'm a bit sensible when it comes to primers. To me they have to give a smooth surface AND a very high reliability concerning mechanical and chemical abuse. I will try that, but not on these wings, where it is only a gloss base coat for the decals. Cheers Rob

Wow, your interior work looks really good. Love the colours and attention to detail. At least the Panzer III has some decent openings in the turret to peak in. Cheers Rob

After gluing together floats and struts, I couldn't resist a sneak peak and put some of the main components together for a pic. Then I started the preparations of the wings and ailerons for decaling. All surfaces were rubbed with alcohol, because on the decal areas, I don't want to have an extra coat in the form of primer, just a high sheen gloss white coat. As I know, how tight the struts fit into the holes, I took great care to avoid getting colour to seep into these holes with liquid mask and pieces of toothpick, which beautifully serve as a drying rack as well after spraying. All surfaces which will receive decals were then airbrushed with a very thin mix of ca. one third of Tamiya gloss white and two thirds of Mr. Hobby levelling thinner. This is my new go to mix, because it doesn't build up much thickness and has a high sheen in the end, with just a little bit of polishing, when dry. I have to thank Ernie, to be so persistent with his praises for the leveling thinner, where nearly all my tries went south, but with Tamiya acrylics it sprays like a dream, and especially the gloss white has so much opacity, that you are able to thin it down that much. Cheers Rob

Thanks Gaz, I'm not finished with these, I will add the environmental influences later . Cheers Rob

Indeed, an interesting kit, of an even more appealing plane. With the elegant lines and some internal additions, it will look great. Cheers Rob

Wich hole , all the detail is looking great, and I hope, lots of it will show in the end. BTW, there is a hexagonal cap near the rope which cries for a little scrape with a blade, victim of the macro . It happens to me all the time. Cheers Rob

Carls tip was gold, the dampened sanding sponge did a lot of damage, purposeful luckily . Among other tools like toothpick with or without some hardened CA on the tip, an old stiff brush and most important a rubber eraser, I finished the first step of chipping with the multi layer hairspray method. The eraser was used as the last step and made the difference, let the different black tones noticeable. Next will be some touch ups with different near black tones and on the metal parts and then salt and algae. Cheers Rob

Thanks Carl, I will try your sanding method. It might do the job as proposed, leaving the Nato black in the dents and having the semi gloss black showing, besides some metal spots. My first test with with a toothpick on the dampened surface looked ok, but didn't show the different black tones good enough, but maybe they are just not contrasting enough. If I can't achieve the desired effect, I will later paint on different black spots with a brush using my Lifecolor black rubber and shades set. After that there will be the fun part of salt residues and algae on the floats, poor old Kamel . Cheers Rob

Closing in on the painting and decaling - sigh- stage. I primed the fuselage, after extensive masking, but forgot to cower the holes for the float struts. And now it's waiting, because I shattered my jar of fuselage grey and wait for a substitute, as well as Aviattic linen decals for the lower wing sections., was the the postman honking,.... As the Horizontal tailplane and back of the fuselage appear to be made of wood planking, I think about, giving them a different look than the wing Lozenge. For the wings I will use Aviattics Naval Lozenge, but am thinking of using the kit decals for the mentioned parts, as there is no linen structure noticeable on the kit decals, they will look different and hopefully more painted. WNW supplied different shades for these parts too, as the wings are lighter coloured. What do you think? Detail view for the pattern and texture Cheers Rob

Good to see you back on this one. Mine got - err - finished this winter. Lets say 95% finished, as there is no weathering, which will be applied, when I can bring myself to do the snow sodden mud dio, I have planned for the fierce looking beast. Cheers Rob

Definitely not, it adds the trouble to cast crystal clear resin water to show the engine with a slight blue greenish tint in the freezing water with some of the cowlings bent or gone, which reminds me, that I want to make a broken ice dio since a long time. Cheers Rob

After closing the fuselage, I had to do a lot of filling and sanding, to get rid of the minor gaps of the halves. Actually there were no real gaps, but minor, but seeable steps, I filled with superglue and grinded clean. As I noticed that while test fitting before inserting the interior, it seems, that WNW was not completely up to their usual standard, but hey, we are modelers. All the struts were sprayed Nato Black and the floats were prepared for ageing weathering in a way, I never tried before. The idea was born, when I was building my Doobie tractor, where with IDF colour on top, there should be Caterpillar yellow under it and in parts with even heavier wear, base metal. I didn't come so far with the Doobie, so this s my test for multi layer chipping As always with WNW kits, I protected all the struts attachment points with tape, as fit is always very tight, and mostly impossible with a coat of colour. First the decks were painted with wood effect and the aluminum parts were coarsely painted with AK' Aluminum wax. The hulls got a coat of dark Aluminum and after drying the parts got two thin coats of hairspray. Second the hull parts got a cover of semi gloss black and another coat of hairspray. After the second coat of hairspray has dried, the hulls and decks of the floats received a generous coat of Nato Black for the tar like appearance. I hope, I will be able to activate the hairspray with water to different depths, with some aluminum showing through in some areas and the more glossy base coat in others, like where a wooden jetty scratched along, leaving some bare metal and some more shiny scraped tar colored parts. Cheers Rob

I achieved a big step today and closed the fuselage of the Kamel. The fit of the kit is great and there is only a slight gap between the pilots and observer place, but for now it's drying time with rubber bands and clamps. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, but as my next step will show, pretty much will be covered, but I have the pics . Cheers Rob