DocRob

I wouldn't comment or dig deeper, as I lived very close to Poland for the most part of my live . Cheers Rob

Not to point the finger at someone, I bought that, because one of our fellow members whose name starts with Ha and ends with rv (no names ) , got me hooked onto these 1/16 things. As I own a FT-17 in 1/35 along a lot of goodies, I stumbled over this one. It's based on the Takom kit, with the Spanish field modification, adding a 20mm Breda cannon. Four of those were build. As much as I love the strange looking subject, I debated a lot with me, as I'm not too keen on the Spanish Nationalists. This will probably result in an abandoned or knocked out tank, do I hear the word hypocritical? . Just today, I saw on one of my online hobby stores the gadget with the worst money per equivalent rate in modelling . You can buy the track link pins (really, only the pins), made from metal (the kit ones are plastic) for more than 100€, I think, they were made by polish virgins on a wet grass field while there was a solstice. A Chinese Tankette in 1/16 from Takom will follow soon. Cheers Rob

This might be the last one, I would go for, if one shows up somewhere. Nice find Bill. Cheers Rob

I like your Dora with her elegant lines. It's like something graceful slipped in a mottled camo dress. There are not many builds of D's without a colourful but distracting waistband. Could have lived with another pic from a little more up, showing the wings camo with the fuselage mottling, because it seems to contrast nicely. Cheers Rob

Congrats Gaz, you nailed the M-47, a rarely seen model in early Bundeswehr livery with figures. Speaking of them, I think they look great and add a nice contrast to the tank. The richness of the colours in your natural light pics is great, with that deep and rich olive green. Were the copperish parts on the tracks to add even more contrast, or is that depicting the real thing? I know, how good it feels to throw away the box of a finished kit, That and adding the spare parts to the big spares box seals it to me and then there is always the cleaning of the bench for the next kit. Cheers Rob

Thanks Carl, together with that flexible glass holder, all makes sense. Seems to be the way to go and not having any more glass shards in the nozzle of my AB Some chemical warfare against these dammed lids . But why not, sounds perfectly logical. Thanks for the tip, Bill. Now I got three ideas and feel a little like an idiot with my shattered glass, but that's the way, we got out of the swamps, learning from each other. Thanks guys. Cheers Rob

Time for some rants now, but first, I have started giving the interior a used, worn look, but there is more to follow. With the storage bag, I tried to replicate rubberized canvas, like the old Klepper coats of the Marine. Now to the rants, the clear parts by WNW are among the worst, I have seen in a while and it's just straight panes. They do llook wobbly and a coat of Pledge, didn't help HGW provided not enough etch frames nor are there enough masks provided, normally, I like the products of HGW, but this set is a total waste. You have exactly three of the C2 window panes and at least one of it needs a frame and mask on both sides. This combined with the unusable paper wood insert for the fuselage and the hyper fragile wood decals, let me wonder what these guys are smoking . Cheers Rob

Thanks Jeff, I will consider buying one of these, I have only a large one for diameters up to two meters. Thanks Carl, I know these tools, but do not have one, because, when the jar is so hard to open, the problem is not to get hold of the lid, it's the glass part, which is difficult to hold. Therefore I go with Jeffs option and use my pliers, like I did before, but with that band tool around the glass. Cheers Rob

I like the ideas and designs too, but have some neighbours here, who built tiny wooden houses for themselves. I always imagine how live in these is when we have 37 degrees and a sandstorm like last weak in these not too well isolated houses. Our so called Bruma (a dense heavy fog) we have very often mainly in spring with the humidity up to 90% dosen't sound like fun in these houses as well. On the other hand they are better off, than lots of other people on the islands with tiny flats, surrounded by lots of noise, with having a patch of earth around their houses. Cheer Rob

It was an old glass jar of Tamiya acrylic and not to open without the help of devices. In this hard case, I used a vice and juuuust a little bit too much force. I've done it before and the vice has aluminum tin for protection. The worst beside the spilled colour and glas shards was, that I had no comparable colour at hand. So I tried to use the rest of what was in the jar... Cheers Rob

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