DocRob

New kits in the hood. On a wombeling kick, I decided to hit the buy button on the ugly but appealing at the same time Gannet. It seems to be a nice kit and I think, I will build it in a rotten German Bundesmarine livery. For less than 60€, I couldn´t say no to this little bugger. I always loved the tiny Fiats and often drove in some, when I was young. I´m not so fond of Italeri kits, but this one seemed to be a decent one, lets see. Cheers Rob

After evaluating different methods on clear spare parts, I decided to use Tamiya Extra Thin for my sand blasted windows. I used the supplied brush nearly dry and applied the cement very carefully. This is only preliminary, to check the effect and more effects will be added, especially for the front window. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias for the suggestions, Hubert, Carl and PW. The clear parts are indeed polysyrene. I thought about using CA as well, but fear a not very controllable application. I will try thinner and matte clear on some spare parts. One side window should look blinded, the opened windshield only on the side, which calls for a faded effect. All will be followed by dust and sand deposits. Cheers Rob

Thank you Martin and Kevin. After the hairspray thing didn´t work, it was clear, that it will be substituted by a multi layer weathering effort, starting with sanding, scratching and other sorts of mechanical abuse, followed by steel paint and then light sand paint. Later I will add more layers of sand, dust, but that will be done together with the base. Cheers Rob

On went the second layer of dry paint dabbed on. This time it was a light bone color, called Moonray Flesh. I also applied the paint with a stiff old brush, but this time not only in the direction of the sandblast, but also a bit more from above to simulate some bleaching. This is only the basic weathering and more will be added later with sand deposits and dust everywhere. I have to decide, how to weather the clear parts. I´m open to any suggestions. The sandblast should have blinded this canopy side, but the other and front window should be relatively clear. Cheers Rob

Time for some pointillism. I lied a bit about the looming panic, because the hairspray didn´t work like it should. I hate to alter my original plan, but this time, I didn´t bin the project and instead worked on a plan to add the sandblast effect with different kind of paints, dabbed dryly onto the surface with an old brush. It took a while to get the Extreme Metal Steel dotted, like intended, one side blasted, the other nearly unharmed. Cheers Rob

So true Kevin, I usually work out my painting and weathering process in advance with the finalized picture rendered in my head and mostly stick to this plan by the numbers. Not this time. This is often a point, where I ditch a project. In this case, I decided on a different approach. Cheers Rob

Fantastic progress Hubert. Glad that the production of the reinforced struts went well. Your experiences with 3D printing will be kind of a guideline for us non enlightened. In surfing we call the first person in current dummy Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, I used sanding sticks as well. Your wear looks absolutely fantastic and I managed something similar with my F4-U, using multilayer hairspray. With the Kampfanzug it was different somehow, because of two factors, I wanted decals to be similar treated than the rest, which meant an additional gloss layer of Pledge and a sealing layer of W&N acrylic matte. The second factor is the shape of the Kampfanzug and the idea of having a sandblast wear, not impacting with the airflow, like with the wing, but straight on. Cheers Rob

Another interesting attempt, in parts, I will replicate some of it the other way around. I´m not in panic mode right now, but felt, bast work substractive, removing material and then add new layers. Yup Hubert, but unfortunately, this time it didn´t work too well. The colors I chose (Tamiya XF) dried rock hard, even when sprayed in thin layers and were not easy to remove. The fiber pen left a lot of unhealthy glass fier shards, but had nearly no effect, other than sticking in my hand . Cheers Rob

It´s time for some heavy wear and tear for the Kampfanzug. Unfortunately, the hairspray wasn´t working like planned, possibly due to many layers of paint and varnish on top. Right, plan B, scratching, chiseling, grinding, sanding and rubbing was incorporated using a variety of tools, to achieve different looking wear, a messy affair. I don´t like the effect right now, as it doesn´t look like my planned sandblast treatment, but it will have to do as a first stage for weathering. I will try to accomplish the sandblast effect with sponge chipping and stiff brush dabbing. You can clearly see, that one side is almost stripped of paint, while the other is relatively unharmed. I want to simulate a one sided sandblast, to add some dynamic into the weathering. Cheers Rob

A yellow winged beauty, PW and nice pics with good lighting. You could use a larger aperture for more DOF (depth of field), to get the whole plane captured in sharpness. Cheers Rob

What the nose art says, Rod. I love the shades in the metal finish and nice photography too. Cheers Rob

Fantastic rigging job, Mike. Your DH.2 will be a beauty when finished. Somehow your build motivated me to start my Fe.2b or Caudron G.III soon. Cheers Rob

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