DocRob

Very cool, I had both the ED-209 and Robocob vinyl kits. It was very strange to work with that material. Robocob was painted with buffable Humbrol paints, the last wow at the time and I used some Verlinden copied oil techniques to paint the face and it looked ok for the tme. ED-209 was only built up with no paint, as I couldn't decide, if and how to detail it. Both kits got lost a long time ago, while changing flats. Cheers Rob

Thanks Ernie, it's a lot of fun to work with wood, as you may know . Cheers Rob

Sorry Gaz, I've no idea. With the W.12 it's interesting to see, how felt 80% of the articles you find with google are about the kit in one way or another. Do you actually have proof of any W.12's in that wood/CDL finish. As I understand it, three prototypes were planned to be built in Brandenburg, near Berlin. When ready, the lakes around Brandenburg were frozen and they had to move one plane (#1014) to Warnemünde (Balticum) for rushed tests. I have no evidence of the looks of that (these) prototypes, but they might be in your mentioned finish. Anyway, who cares about history, If I would built a second one, it might be in a fictive civilian scheme. Just found that thread in a partner forum with a google picture search, maybe it helps. https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=4749.0 Cheers Rob

Gracias Harv, very pleased to hear. Until now it's a pure fun project, except the decals and that I shattered a jar of Tamiya Xf-22 and salvaged a tiny rest out of the shards, because I have no substitute in the moment and sprayed these last drops on with a sputtering airbrush. While cleaning the airbrush, I noticed, that there were two tiny fragments of glass in the nozzle, make my day The Kamel was on my schedule, since I bought the kit some years ago, but needed some time to learn the necessary skills. I absolutely love the Hansa Brandenburg, despite the dull grey appearance. To me it represents an airframe which was made for the rough surroundings of the Northern Sea and my personal recollections of these northern parts of Germany and specially the island of Sylt are part of the nostalgia. To find more interesting schemes will not be too easy, I guess. There were some Dutch planes and I guess, Danmark had some too, but as far as I know these birds were grey sans the appealing naval lozenge. Cheers Rob P.S. The island of Sylt looks very much like the Outer Banks in North Carolina, with the dunes. The Polansky movie The Ghostwriter was filmed mainly on the island Sylt. Cheers Rob

In Germany they are the wow of latest, not only since Corona. Cheers Rob

Thanks Carl, specially the woodgraining is pure fun, wouldn't have thought so half a year ago and bought lots of wood emulating decals. Since my SSW twins, where I first used woodgraining with oils, I feel more and more confident to do so. The only decal I used for the Kamel, was for the IP and it was a total mess and that happens a lot to me with decals for various reasons. In the future it will be more and more oils on acrylics. I don't know, if the quality of the oil colours has a lot of influence, I'm using Abteilung 502 oils and find them perfect to work with, very fine spreadable and removable with turpentine dampened flat brushes and with a silky smooth finish. The drying time isn't that bad either. Thanks Phil, there is no reason to fear wood painting. train it once or twice on an old scrap piece, using some cream colour as a base and with two or three different oil colours you are on your way. When you seal everything with a coat of clear yellow or clear orange, the wood will really radiate warmth and gleam. I used matted Pledge, because my Kamel will be a well used workhorse. P:S. I have a woodgrain decal for the back of my Camel, but I doubt, that I will use it, with my experiences made with HGW decals with this build. Cheers Rob

After a lot of masking and airbrushing, I finished the basic woodwork and painting stage for the inner fuselage. Now it's time to get in some detail painting, wear and grime. Loosely fit, it seems that the fuselage halves will close properly, but still a long way to go before gluing. Cheers Rob

Good to see you back at the bench, not so good, to have heard why Phil. I wish you the best with your situation, but meanwhile it looks good how you rock the Grant. Seems like painting stage is approaching, were the real fun starts. Cheers Rob

Nice Gaz, but do you have pics of the 'Jager' writing, because in German it should be 'Jäger' with dots on the ä and means hunter. Jäger are a part of the Bundeswehr infantry, like Gebirgsjäger - mountain troops or other. There are some old writings, were the word Jager is used, like the Austrian Jagertee, a rum based hot drink, but it's fairly uncommon. I tried the same with my TA-152 and liked the result. My purpose was similar to yours and additional, I used it to simulate the surrounding conditions, with the partly use of near white wash, to indicate winter usage on a frozen airfield north of Berlin. Cheers Rob

Do I hear hairspray ? Cheers Rob

That is great, biking with the boys must be a great deal of fun. I'm eager to get on my bike again, but in the moment all our roads and pathes in the mountains are completely closed, because of dryness and heavy winds and the risk of bushfires, pity. Cheers Rob

Nice work with the drilling, I would have done it the same way, adding dynotape to hinder the drill slipping out of the hole with the flat angle. Cheers Rob

Your applied mechanics look great. That set of gears is fascinating, I hope not too much of it will be hidden in the end. Cheers Rob

Looking good Harv, Good luck with your eye treatment. Some years ago, a doctor found out, that I'm not able to see three dimensional at all. I couldn't believe it and told him, that I was always the best in abstracting three dimensional components and visualizing them while on university studying engineering. I'm mountainbiking, surfing, used to play baseball for 25 years and some years of American football and do very precise things while modelling. He explained to me, that the brain is able to take over the load and replicate everything to perfection. Until today, I have no probs whatsoever and use glasses only for driving in the nighttime (and a magnifier for rigging ). I hope it will turn out equally good for you. Cheers Rob

Thanks Bill, I got it a little better, but still with the decal on. I was a little afraid of removing the decal, so I only modified it with some oils and a wash and finally the decals. I have to admit, I start to really enjoy to emulate wood with oils on Acrylics. It's not so difficult and very rewarding. I start to get the feeling, I bought a lot of woodgrain decals out of pure Angst. Muchas Gracias Señhor . Cheers Rob

Hairspray time ladies , not for me, the floats and the engine mount were hairspayed twice. That smell is horrible, specially with 35 degrees in the moment. The look of a sports cruising boat from Laggio Maggiore will vanish, sadly, buried under a tar black layer, but then will be partly scraped back to live in the form of chips. For the metal parts, I used Dark Aluminum paste from AK, applied with a cotton swab. As it's only an under layer, that seemed to be enough quality. Cheers Rob

Thanks Gentlemen, I think the IP will look ok in real size in that crammed cockpit, there is a lot to improve though. That said, I was really wondering, that WNW didn't provide levers for the two brass selector switches. I made them out of 0,5 mm lead wire, flattened on one end. Cheers Rob

I made my peace with the decaled IP for now, after some detail painting and applying the decals. I matted all the wood parts down, because my Kamel will be a worn one. and coated the wood parts with a protective coat of varnish. One of the instruments 'glass' coatings (a drop of Pledge) is not fully cured and will be fully transparent then. I have wood decal sets made by HGW for two other builds, a 1/48 Oeffag 253 and an 1/32 Albatros D.V. If these decals perform either bad and are brittle like these, I will do all the woodwork on the fuselage with oils. I'm feeling more and more confident with this method. Cheers Rob

Beautiful rendered materials, wood, metal, canvas, all looks very convincing. I have to try these linen decals one of these days. Cheers Rob

Wohoo, nice haul, not so nice, to see two W.12's going down the drain, hopefully not mine Cheers Rob

I had to do something about the damned IP, couldn't live with that. I applied some oils, darkened the borders, used some oil washes and silvered the bezels. Now it's starting to look a little better. With added details like the Magneto switch and some levers for the brass instruments and some decals, it should look ok. Cheers Rob

I'm feeling with you, cleaning lots of sticky liquid mask can be a real pain, I learned it the hard way with my Mig-31, recently. For my Merkava, I have a tube of anti slip paste, but I never tried the stuff and to be honest, I will do a lot of testing, before I use the stuff on my tank. Cheers Rob

Handmade anti slip coating? Cheers Rob

Today there is a sandstorm and 37 degrees outside, so what better, to dive into the dark and relatively cool cave.. Today it was about the transformation from plastic to wood and leather, an aspect, I really start to enjoy, with gaining experience. The parts were prepared with primer and Tamiya Buff for the lighter and Tamiya flat earth for the darker wood. Then I used different brown and yellow shades of oil colour to achieve the grain. Generally I apply a little too much of the oils without thinning and erase the oils with a flat synthetic brush and odorless turpentine, gently stroking to the desired level. The seat got some green leather padding for better contrast and colour richness. The framework got some yellow highlights, to break the red wood tone and the fuselage planking was pre-shaded, using the frame as a template Floors and spars in different tones. The engine mount will be painted and then heavily chipped The decks of the floats look like custom longboards, but they will receive a tar black coat, where only chips of wood look through, pity The worst of the day, was again provided by HGW. The decal for the IP was so fragile, it soaked for only three seconds and broke, while looking at it. I wish, I would have been used oils, but decided against it, because of the extensive masking needed. Tomorrow I will decide, if I will strip the IP or not. Luckily it looks much worse on the macroed photo than in reality Cheers Rob

Very nice P-39, there are so many details catching the eye. Painting, weathering and photographing are top notch, chapeau. Cheers Rob