DocRob

Sweet, I like the in flight display a lot and the yellow paintjob is eye candy. Is this a pre printed prop blur? I will build mine as a Portuguese one from Angola and it will be a present to a friend who is Portuguese, but born there. Cheers Rob

Clean work with the frames, your Mi looks great. Cheers Rob

Thanks Mike, I will alter that 'good' look to something more dusty Thanks Martin, I will get rid of the clean look as soon as possible and then there is figure painting, phew, not one of my strong sides. Cheers Rob

Nice work on the wheels and hull, Gaz. Usually in Germany there is red cable for plus and black cable for minus, but like Martin said, it would have been surrounded by braided material or even flexible metal cover. Cheers Rob

Good news and a little sad for me. I had the limited edition of the Academy one from Eduard with all the goodies and lost it while moving to Spain. Some weeks ago I bought a new one from Academy and added all the PE and resin, bummer. Teaser, it's not the Tamiya roll out Cheers Rob

Sweet, never liked the Salmson that much, personally, but that might change. The Interieur and engine looks great. BTW, welcome to LSM. Cheers Rob

I have the same kit in stash, but will build the provided New Zealand version, therefore I never looked for conversion sets. The plastic of the kit is from Accurate Miniatures, maybe that helps. Cheers Rob

Outstanding, you mastered the difficult rendition of material and texture, great work. Cheers Rob

Actually some of their later issues have length and link tracks again, luckily. Last week I ordered the Archer, one of the later kits for nearly nada and it has length and link tracks, phew. Like you I hate the rubber stuff and spent many hours with assembling metal or plastic tracks, but it's worth the effort. Cheers Rob

Ahh, the track thing, always a tiny challenge in itself . Your wheels and tracks look great, love the tri tone camo. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil. No, there will be nothing towed by the RSO. I don't like to build guns and the dimensions of the vehicle without something attached suit my idea for the dio in a better way. I read, that they were not easy to drive, with their high center of gravity and narrow silhouette. Another problem were the steel wheels which were impossible to get traction with in icy conditions in Russia and were also problematic on tarmac in France. I guess, the max speed of 15 km/h prevented from worse, often. Cheers Rob

Good luck with this one Mike, seeing the resin parts it will be not the easiest kit, but seeing your other builds, I'm fully convinced it's in the best hands with you. It's good to see some objects a little bit apart from the mainstream like you did with the Floh. Cheers Rob

The Radschlepper Ost (RSO) is mostly finished now and ready for weathering. I added all the windows after airbrushing the frames with self made masks. The side windows had to be sawed for the half open look in the doors (summer setting). The front window is opened and I cut a mask to fit the swiping area of the wipers. The headlights and the still to be added taillight with license plate were treated with Uschis chrome pigments. The fit of the hood is not perfect and I hope I can camouflage that with some weathering. Final assembly of the RSO proved to be a bit tricky, specially with everything painted and due to many detail parts which tend to break while using pressure for everything to glue in order. This pic shows the inside of the door, weathered with my new AK pencils. They are nearly as hard as normal artist pencils and just a little bit more waxy. After applying different green, grey and brown tones, I blended everything with a damp brush. I like the effect and compared to normal washes it is not necessary to seal the surface with gloss varnish prior to using the pencils. A big advantage to me, you minimize risks with too many coats, maybe reacting awkwardly with each other and don't loose detail under too many coats of paint. I will try the AK pencils on glossy varnishes too but think they are better suited for matte finishes. Cheers Rob

Nice Martin, personally I don't like the mustard / spinach camo on Russian vehicles, but under a heavy coat of grime it works . Cheers Rob

Nice gal, err, meant plane . Love the contrasting paintjob. Cheers Rob

I payed 35€ for 37 pencils Nope, I haven't any, but I will use the AK pencils on my RSO and will write about my experiences. It is planned to use them 'dry' and streaked with water. Maybe I will add some thoughts to how they compare to normal artist pencils, wich I normally use. Cheers Rob

Muchas Gracias Martin, when I bought the kit, my first thought was tri tone camo. That held until I started to build and had a closer view at the RSO and the Colour scheme prints and found, that the dark grey suits the vehicle better. With a tri tone camo you disguise the contours of an object, which are very specific and interesting. The Panzer Grey has the more desired look to me specially contrasting the planned dust weathering. Often there are subjective thoughts which lead to certain preferences, esthetical, setting wise or other. If I would build a Tiger for example, I would never chose a North African setting, I simply don't like Tiger's in monochrome Dunkelgelb. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, sure do , it will be a summer setting, so a lot of dust will be involved, some chipping too. No need to be ashamed, it's a hobby, grown men perform, so do it your own way and your own tempo. You're supposed to haver fun with your big cat, that's why we all are doing this. If I remember it right, there are still some month till deadline . Cheers Rob

The issues you mention don't show on the pics. Isn't it always like this, the flaws of ones kit are mostly known only to the builder. I can understand you not liking decals, it's the same with me and I have my Lozenge covered Fokker ahead of me . Cheers Rob

Thanks Gaz, it's a fun project, as the kit is superb with only a few tiny fit issues and I still love the tarctoresque look of the RSO. I'm glad now, that I went for the grey finish, which fits better to the vehicle than tri tone. Cheers Rob

Love those seats, but stay with my 1/48 F-4 from Eduard / Academy with lots of resin and PE goodies and last but not least the great HGW stencils (no stenciling nightmares ). Cheers Rob

The Giant with the Maultier is a nice setting too, nothing too difficult in scratching a Giant for this one . Cheers Rob

Wow, great pics, love the RSO (the other one, not my actual build ). Could intrigue me to build one. Cheers Rob

I loved both, the Banjo track and the movie. It's one of those, which are rarely produced anymore, raw, hard, loosely scripted and most important of all, not designed to everybody's taste (translates to boring). They made some fine movies in the late 60's and 70's Cheers Rob

Thanks Harv, I hope I have some powder left for further enhancements . Cheers Rob