DocRob

Thank you Kevin, there is mor youth in it, than you might think. The Neuspotter is a 40th anniversary edition. In my youth, i couldn´t afford these old Nitto kits, with or without psychedelic enhancement . Gracia Martin, it is indeed refreshing to not being accused of have forgotten the tiny bolt heads on the rear of the left arm actuator and do some freestyling. Besides, 1/20 is a great scale and should be used by more producers and different subjects (duck because of burning pyre ). Search and rescue always was a difficult business and it still is in a MaK future, Hubert. These drones have lots at their mind, not to collide with each other, don´t run into mountains, watch your spindly arms, etc. Maybe this example was smart enough not to hover into a sandstorm, decisions, decisions... Thank you Paul, these type of kits are a great canvas to develop own scenarios, there is more freedom, as there are no limitations through real life. Cheers Rob

Today, I finished the basic setting. The main components of the Neuspotter were airbrushed with chalky white color (washable white) and then weathered with a stiff brush, but only slightly, as the rescue drone didn´t suffer that much. This was followed by a DAK wash with pigments, dotted onto the white color. After drying and manipulating a bit with a flat brush, I assembled the main components of the Neuspotter and added some wires and coils to arms and "body". Then I threaded the drone on it´s mount and the angle, it was hovering was like I desired. The backrest of the deceased pilots Kampfanzug was made from two lava stones from my garden. I liked the bubbly appearance, as it looks a bit strange. Next, I have to add the various bits and pieces, like water bottles, weapons, helmet, etc. and design the dio with sand baste and sand. Cheers Rob

I rig my WW1 planes the same way like Hubert. EZ-Line is too wobbly for that method, but monofilament works relatively trouble free, due to it´s rigidity. Some areas which were harder to reach during my AEG G.IV build (between nacelles and fuselage) were rigged with elastic thread from Infini (0,135mm), which is also threadable. If you make your own turnbuckles from brass or aluminum tube (I prefer aluminum, as there is no need for painting), cut the tube with a sharp blade, while rolling it onto a cutting mat and you minimize the burr. I additionally clean the holes of the cut tubes with a drill bit, which makes threading easier. Cheers Rob

Going with Kevin here, Hubert. You half made your own kit and paint it to perfection, what´s not to like. I generally enjoy the rigging phase, but always fear smaller accidents to happen, like eyelets coming off after tensioning, ... Cheers Rob

Have you tried to warm the #3 decal with a hairdryer, Chris. I had stubborn decals settled perfectly with decal solvents and some added heat. The black body prep doesn´t look too glossy and I hope, you will not run into silvering issues or visible carrier film later on. Cheers Rob

Fantastic progress on that odd looking But therefore interesting plane, Gus. Your patience with filling and sanding will pay off. Cheers Rob

There is not a lot, I have done lately. I like the creative phase of airbrushing and preparing a certain finish, but it comes with unavoidable drying times, which is time consuming. The Neuspotter got red dots, but wait ugly dots, why? Well, the solution to the riddle are the red crosses, which were masked then, using Kabuki tape cut quickly on my Infiny cutting mat. It´s a rescue drone. Next wase the base coloring, sprayed in Tamiya XF khaki. The other parts got different metal shades all from the Extreme metallic range. The exhausts were sprayed with dark exhaust color, the spindly arms with titanium, the drum like anti-grav unit in duraluminum and finally the lower body in gun metal. Cheers Rob

I used many Vallejo products in the past Chris, but was seldom really convinced by the result. When it comes to priming, I use Mr. Surfacer thinned with Mr. Leveling thinner since years and am really satisfied with them. As a good base you can also use Tamiya LP gloss black, which is fantastic and if thinned and sprayed properly dries with a near polished finish. Cheers Rob

I knew this would come from you, Hubert , but I silently thought the same. Cheers Rob

Interesting project Chris, hopefully the decals will behave, as they are the so important for such a kit. Hope your pneumonia will be better soon. Cheers Rob

Thank you Paul, this will not be my very next build, unfortunately, but with MFH kits, you have to buy them, when they are available or they might be gone forever or are in the hand of scalpers. I have not that much experience with car body finishes, I only built three, but will continue with the Cobra Coupe, after the GB and painting the body is one of the next steps. You may be right Carl, I only browsed through the contents of the box quickly. It looks like this: I will do a WIP Gus, but not so soon. I like the car, but it is not one of my favorites and I have to do some research about it as well. Seemed to have been racing, before I developed a slight interest int F1. Cheers Rob

Thanks Martin, you got it right. This dio will be about how weird technology fails to always save you. Cheers Rob

Thank you Gus, I wanted to use mostly natural products for the base and searched the garden for fitting volcanic stones, which add to the strange sensation of the setting. I wanted to use beach sand, but our only sand colored beach is not accessible at the moment and the sand might have been too coarse anyway, as it´s only ground clam shells. I have a bag of fine sand here for decoration and a Mig paste for desert sand. Cheers Rob

Thank you Kevin, I´m not the plan B kind, as usually my plan a is profound and if not, I often bin the project, because, it will not be like I desired. With the Kampfanzug, I thought, I give it a chance. Cheers Rob

More Italian stuff, I must be infected . The Ferrari is the only so called hybrid in the MFH universe until know. Hybrid means, it´s a multi media kit like the others, but has a "normal" polystyrene body on sprues instead of resin body parts, which makes the kit noticeable cheaper than others of the same producer. This is a re-release, which sports new Cartograph decals and was up on the MFH page only for one day, then was sold out. I missed it there, but luckily Spotmodel had one left. To fill the carton , I ordered some paints from Number Five and Zero Paints for different car projects, as well as a small picture reference book about the Ferrari 250 GTO and some resin and metal detail parts for other kits. Cheers Rob

My base will be "framed" by a plastic tub, which I sprayed in sand color. For the hovering drone, I added a threaded rod, epoxied onto the base and a nut also epoxied into the lower part of the Neuspotter. I hope, I can cover the rod with some dried grass later. I used it, because it allows to adjust the height of the drone over the surface as well as the angle, because the nut is not glued in in a right angle. The bowl was then filled with plaster of paris. Meanwhile, I primed the parts of the Neuspotter in black and white, black for the pure metal parts, like arms and exhausts and white for the rest. Cheers Rob

Your ZIL looks fantastic, I like your painting and weathering style, very convincing and at the same somehow adds more depth due to the drybrushing. Cheers Rob

They didn´t Paul, but to my knowledge the FT-17 tracks and the Schneider tracks are of the same type. Hobby Boss claims 64 links for their tracks, the Friul pack has 70. As I´m no expert, I can´t tell for sure for the Chamond. Cheers Rob

Good to have you back here again Peter. I hope you can find a groove for you with the Spitfire build. I often feel it hard to concentrate on modelling in difficult times, but mostly relax a lot, when I force myself to the bench and do something productive. The mojo meter starts to rise again. I hope, your medical issues will be solved and you and Diane keep happy and healthy. Cheers Rob

I helped myself to a set of Friul´s for my Schneider tank. Less fiddly than the Hobby Boss ones. I guess, the wheelset is more or less the same. Can´t wait to see you start the Yak-9, PW Cheers Rob

So you are also a Kow Yokoyama design, PW, hopefully in 1/1 scale . Cheers Rob

It looks somehow sinister with it´s long spindly probing arms. The plastic is a redish brown, maybe because one of the suggested paint schemes looks like red primer and when the kit hit the marked first, 40 years ago, not everybody painted the kits. The original kit had a tiny bulb included for lightening the front section, as well as the arms were mostly made from metal rods instead of plastic with mine. Hmmh, aerodynamics, so many questions. When was the front window opened and by whom? Was it the then still living pilot or the drone? Was it one storm causing the sandblast or continuous wear? Was all that happening on earth or on some deserted planet with different conditions? Let´s wait, how the story unfolds, Hubert There are really some similarities to the drones used in the Empire Strikes Back, but the Neuspotter was a bit large for being used for interrogations in tiny cells inside the death star. No Paul, there is another story behind it. The Neuspotter has no weapon systems, it would have needed a Krachenvogel for your scenario. BTW, I love the use of pseudo German names for many of the MaK subjects. These are no real words, but build from German parts of words. I always have to smile when I read them. Good find on the P.K.A., you will enjoy the build. My teenage favorite was always the Hornisse, a Kampfanzug with a hover jet attached. It was re-released by Wave some years ago and I definitely have to find one. Cheers Rob

I know the feeling, Carl About forty years ago I browsed through "Werken Spielen Schenken", a hobby shop in West berlin as a teen and eying these brown Nitto boxes with photos of the build kit on top. I read, they are multi media and I had only a slight idea, what that meant. Anyway, they were quite expensive by the time and I couldn´t afford it at the time, being a teen with a lot more dubious interests. The boxes are still light brown and they still feature the carton print card of the subject. Some of the kits seem to be old molds, like the Neuspotter, others, like the Kampfanzüge (battle suits) are newer molds. Cheers Rob

Top notch as always Mike. Your Airco scenery looks like a post colored snap shot of the real thing, with your signature finishing. Cheers Rob

The huge Neuspotter drone is nearly finished. Not shown on the pic are the antigrav unit and the exhaust nozzles, which will be added after painting. If I use the Neuspotter in my dio, I have to find a way to let it hover. I guess, I will use slide fit brass tubes for that, epoxied to the base and the drone. Cheers Rob