DocRob

Today I closed the interior of the Nautilus. A lot of micro painting was necessary and I mean micro, it's 1/144 . The floor was masked for two Colour appearance as where the bookshelves, which were painted red brown and then varnished with clear orange to get a noble shine. The etched railings, heraldics and ceiling ornaments where burnished. I chose warm Colours to enhance the comfy effect with the lighting. Not much will be seen trough the multi facetted windows though, which were treated with Future to get a better transparency. All inside areas were painted with black primer to hinder unwanted light emission. Cheers Rob

I have a veeeeery sloooow internet . Cheers Rob

Ernie, as I'm no scientist, I actually can't tell you. There appears to be a correlation between availability of testing and the quota of infections. Some people far more educated than me mentioned exactly that, when they spoke about the enormous death quotas in Italy and later here in Spain. The quota for at least one reason might only be that high, because testing was not widely available and many infected where undetected. I think there is a lot to be learned of the statistics, but given the way the numbers were gathered and the luckily still low numbers (they still use per 100.000 people), it's hard to give meaningful statistics. With improved algorithms and more founded databases (as an ex big-data-analyst), we will learn a lot, but it takes time. Clearly not everything can be extracted from statistics, specially not when the interpretation of results is subjected by different interests. Cheers Rob

And he is save for sure Cheers Rob

Great attention to the detail concerning used materials in reality and the concerning effects reproduce them. I second that, what a great fake translucency. Cheers Rob

In normal times I may haven't posted this, but without mail for more than two weeks this arrived my bench. Some 08/15 for my Fokker D.VIII, a Sherman barrel and British pilots, some of them in a dinghy for my planned 1/48 scale Walrus dio. Cheers Rob

So true, I'm completely fed up with the lots of conspiracy theorists, faux scientists and other charlatans which would have been tarred and feathered a century ago. Let's step back a little, let common sense rule and let the scientists do their job and not to forget, everybody can do his little part to help fighting that pandemia. Cheers Rob

Ernie, this is looking great, with only manageable effort it seems possible to build a halfed model, showing all the components, hint . Cheers Rob

Great pics Richard, thank you. I wonder if the P11 in their time sported a high gloss finish, the colourways hard to read historical photos seem to indicate matte finish. Cheers Rob

At least, the Colours seem to match, more or less. Cheers Rob

I wish our Correos (mail) would at least be snarky, I can't remember the look of the post women, because I haven't seen her since nearly two weeks .

Looking great Harv, are you planning to show the engine, would be a shame to hide your nice work. Cheers Rob

The classic way to do it is to fill the tube with fine grained sand properly before bending, but the coil thing looks interesting. Cheers Rob

Hard to tell from that pic. To me it seems a tad too greenish and too dark, but I'm no expert on Polish planes. For my 1/48 Karas I bought A011 Light Polish Khaki from Hataka and if I follow their drift, that should be the Colour for the PZL-11 too. https://shop.hataka-hobby.com/aviation-paint-sets/21-htk-as01-polish-air-force-paint-set.html Is that gap in front of the cockpit on purpose? Cheers Rob

C'mon Ernie, a bit more than a year is FOREVER to you Yeah right, some other Clunkmeister hijacked your account Cheers Rob

Dementia Ernie? To help you out, a jet is where they forgot to add a propeller to the airframe and build bigger exhausts as substitutes. Cheers Rob

Your Nautilus is looking very comfy , where I have to start with the interior and furniture, does the sofa have a starboard and larboard side? You went through the trouble of cutting the Salon's ceiling and insert the grids. I decided against it, because I feared more light transmission and shine through into the hull area and hope for more light in the salon with only drilled holes for the LED's. To hinder see through effects, I will prime the inside of the hull in black. I was thinking about stowing the battery in the hull as well, but after maybe twenty years it will run out of power and what then. On the other hand I was afraid of the extra weight on the octopus arms, vinyl is not the best material static wise and I don't want to encounter a dead squid with sagging arms . Cheers Rob

Oh yeah, the windows , one of the next steps, but I think assembling tank tracks is an equally dreading task . Cheers Rob

I modified my stock booth by adding a big transparent plastic case to the fan housing as can be seen in this thread. It works fine for most large scale kits. There are some other good ideas in that thread. Cheers Rob

I don't get the laughing part Sapper, but looked up the RP tool. Nice stuff, but I recommend to add an evenly long sharp blade for e.g. landing flaps. It makes sharp bendings of big parts much easier. Some time ago I added this little gem to my tools repertoire and use it a lot for tiny parts. Cheers Rob

Have you sealed your metal work on your Camel, Phil, possibly with Future and if, how was the result? Cheers Rob

Wow, almost a year and no progress on the Nautilus, it's time to dive in again. The submarine was sidelined by other projects, but I felt after my recent pause with the Mig-31 (I will not get the needed Pilot figures soon), it would be good to continue with something else. The Nautilus will be a canvas for many experiments like lighting and for some future projects, the depiction of heavy metal or real old school NMF with no Aluminium involved . I spent some time to evaluate results on spare parts using AK's True Metal waxes and Mig Pigments. The waxes were of non FE-metals like copper, brass and bronze, the pigments where Neptune blue and Zombie green. Further experiments will show how the Extreme Metal paints from AK will behave and if it is possible to enhance and/or seal the result. Enhancement means here washes and working with pigments for the reproduction of algae and lichen. That is where I got so far. All surfaces where primed before except the bronze part, because coverage was good enough without. Copper and bronze with pigments rubbed in and buffed Here is a third sample of brass added These were the used products So far the bronze is very close to what I have in mind. Brass and copper needed primer and that effects the metallic shine and sharpness of detail a little a little. The uneven effect on the bronze is caused by not using primer, I guess. As I want to use at least two different metals for the hull, I will have to perform some Furter testing. Cheers Rob

We are at day 14 of lock down and it sucks badly. Today the Spanish Government will issue some even sharper rules concerning companies. Since two weeks we are not allowed to leave the house except for a doctors visit or to buy supplies and this only with gloves and masks. It sucks big time, BUT.... … I fully agree with Phil, it has to be done. The longer we wait the wider is the uncontrolled spread of the plague. It's not all about government decisions, but about common sense and responsibility. Cheers Rob

Ernie, you make one of the few actual must buys, into a desperately needed one with your great work. Thanks for the wallet attack. Cheers Rob

Bending PE is much easier and less dreading with the right tools. I got some different ones depending on what is to bend size ways, shape ways and complexity wise. For tiny parts I have a Tamiya made tweezer with a flat head, perfectly for e.g. optics in tank cupolas and other tiny stuff. Then there are flat pliers with differently shaped heads in my tool box. With a bending tool, you should first analyse your requirement size wise. If you plan to bend lets say landing flaps in 1/32 or large armor sheets you need a bigger tool. For these bigger tools you should get an equally long bending blade, smaller parts can be bend with a scalpel blade. It's always more fun to work with well designed tools made out of appropriate materials. I have this 5'' tool from the Small Shop since years and can recommend it highly. https://thesmallshop.com/collections/photo-etch-bending-tools/products/sms004-5-5-inch-hold-and-fold-the-5-speed Cheers Rob