DocRob

Hola Senhores, I was following the forum not very closely due lots of summer distractions lately like BBQ, meeting with friends, work in the garden and on the house, surfing and biking, swimming and trailrunning and not the least, preparations for the birthday of my wife, which lead me to some one to one scale woodworking. Among other stuff for the garden like lanterns and an old wine barrel with an ornamental tiled side as a table, I build some (the Americans and Canadians among you might now these) Adirondack chairs. The work was mostly fun and a pleasant change from plastic and metal. Cheers Rob

Great inspirational build, Carl. You have to love these naval birds with all their sturdyness and tons of eye catching detail everywhere. Cheers Rob

Sorry, double no to your questions. I would have liked to take photos of the charger outlet, but the access was blocked, no chance for cockpit pics either. Cheers Rob

Very nice, this could be a start to a new sub genre, the 'what if racers', there might be canary yellow ME-262's or whatever comes to mind... Love the bright and polished finish. You achieved a bold bird of prey. Cheers Rob

That bird is looking speed, like it a lot, but with correcting the wingtip you made a mistake. The difference is purposed, because it turns easier that way, in fact it's a tuning step . Cheers Rob

Nice and clean work Phil. Your Tiger looks great in shining armor. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, never too late to add a commandant to your Tiger and if you put him in the cupola you only have to paint the half. Honestly, figures add to a build and give some live. On the other hand figure painting is daunting and I feel I mastered the second level of umpteen . Cheers Rob

While breakfast I was browsing through my 'Water' references and will present some here which have great examples not only for pure water from puddle to ocean, but also ice and snow, mostly combined with figures. I hope you don't mind me towing your thread into deeper water temporarily . The Weathering Magazine has some nice examples in it Last but not least there is an article about my favorite 'water artist' in modelling Jean Bernard Andre, if you google his work, you will be amazed if you haven't already had the pleasure. This is another great source of water and ice/snow themes in modellimng Not to forget this compendium, with great ideas and ho to's Last but not least this book, non related to water is a great source for the construction and painting of figures in more fantasy orientated way. The chosen examples are very interesting and it lead me to some of my future dio ideas Cheers Rob

Hi Danny, know the feeling, but it never is as permanent as it seems in the actual moment. A change of subject sometimes is like Ctrl-Alt-Del for the brain and there is new passion after some weeks. To me surfing and biking or running in the mountains a lot is good for a reset, as I'm physically exhausted afterwards and the emptiness of exhaustion doesn't last long and there is fresh modelling energy. Last week I painted figures for my RSO GB build and had fun with it, even when it was tempting and daring and I was firstly a little afraid of it. Things I learned where mostly, that there is a lot to learn and I will do that with some figure painting in larger scale in wintertime. I have a well filled stash of nice white metal and resin figures and I like to train my skills with these. I'm looking forward to your progresses, naked or not, I don't care (I have actually painted a peeing German tanker ), but what really interests me is how you tackle water effects if your speaking about clear resin. I have half a dozen dios planned which include water, like an abandoned burned out Japanese tank on the beach of an Island directly on the shore line, half in the water or a Supermarine Walrus rescuing pilots on a raft. Another will be a Steampunk submarine towed to a Jetty but mostly underwater and under it is a coral reeve and some divers. Please show your figure painting, it's such an interesting subject, because it's all about skill (or not ) and technique which is fun to study and learn. Cheers Rob

Intensity is looking good, personally I like it a little more brownish on sand Colour. It enriches the base Colour and is typical for rust and earth, very common ways of wear and soiling. After applying dirt, I would leave some iron pigment or pencil marks on the raised parts of the base plate structure for fresh abrasion and last but not least some little shiny oily dots from lubricants as a last step. That's how I tackle Dunkelgelb weathering. Cheers Rob

Yeah Ernie it would be so cool to meet you all there in Las Vegas. I, like you don't like that artificial oasis in the desert that much, but it's a great place to meet, accessible from everywhere, at least I hope even from my tiny island. The first time I was in Vegas I was really fascinated by the gleaming sparkling city which so much resembled the American Dream brought to me via TV, but I was young by then and Vegas had still something of that pioneer / mob approach of the 60's and 70's. Now to me it's completely streamlined and lost nearly all of it's fascination and is oozing an atmosphere of desperation and put on happiness. I hope I can put that aside with a healthy dose of friends to meet there and kits to view. I will have to convince my wife to go, but that won't be too hard, as we have good friends in California and I could make the trip to the desert on my own. And Ernie, you are right, there are some of the nicest places on earth near by, so it's always a possibility to go out into the desert. Cheers Rob

Very fine work on the camo which is looking evenly despite the starch contrasts and lots of Colours. Good luck with the rigging. Cheers Rob

Congrats

Oh boy, my eyes are hurting and I feel satisfied to have done the step of figure painting for my dio. Not everything went great, but in the end the guys will be good enough. Everything started out badly when I airbrushed the black base tone for the uniforms. Scale 75 Colour and Mr. Leveling Thinner lead to an enhanced cleaning process of the airbrush underlined by heavy swearing. Until now only one of my acrylics worked with that stuff and I'm about to bin the thinner. I used mainly Colours of the Scale 75 range which are not easy to handle, because they disintegrate a lot in the bottle and it is almost impossible to shake them alive, even with ball bearings in. On the other hand they dry fast and dead flat and are great for any kind of fabric or texture, leather and wood. Problems though occurred with layering techniques in the face, where the chalky appearance of the Colours hinder smooth blending. It's not the first time I notice and therefore I will shop for another skin tone set to hopefully improve my mediocre face painting skills. For boots and belts I used flat base Colour and enhanced the worn leather effect with Scale 75 'Inktensity' tones of different browns. These are a little shiny and translucent and give depth. Next winter I promised myself to do a lot of exercising in figure and face painting in different scales. I like adding figures, because it adds some live to the kit, but are always afraid of the painting stage.

This is right down my alley, not because it is some 'Luft 46' stuff, but because it might have flewn at least as a prototype. Maybe not for practical use, to complicated to start and land and not enough benefit to rectify the strange design. But I generally like obscure objects, real, semi real or complete fiction. To me the story told is important not the feasibility. I was a little disappointed to see the Triebflügel in 1/48 from Amusing Hobby with seemingly lack of detail. The Miniart offer though looks great and the strange choice of scale will not hinder me. Thanks for the great review combined with your personal opinion Jeroen, I like it that way, not only facts but biased in an accountable and reasonable way. Cheers Rob

I have been in Vegas several times, mostly passing while going for different places in the desert. Maybe this will be a chance to meet some friends in California and have a surf in Carlsbad, lets see. A place where I really like to stay in Vegas is the Red Rock Hotel, a little bit outside, but the rooms and views are great and I spent nights there looking at the gleaming but not appealing Strip zipping self prepared Manhattans and had a great time with my wife. And the Bowling alley in the basement is a true classic, entering there makes you feel like the Dude from 'The Big Lebowsky' Cheers Rob

Hola Senhores, I've been busy lately painting details and figures for my actual RSO build and ran into an old problem I have with Colours specially those of Scale 75. They tend do disintegrate and if you want to put a drop on your palette it is half oily binding liquid. Shaking the Colours, even with two or three ball bearings in it doesn't help a lot. What to do, throw away the bottles and use another brand? No, these Colours have the most appreciated tones and they dry fast and absolutely dead matte, a great thing while painting figures. I thought about a quick walkaround with my drilling machine and a hole driller of 80mm diameter and voila.... Colour before enhanced shaking. You can clearly see, that the Colour is disintegrated and even worse is the binding liquid on top The bottle fits into the 80mm hole drill perfectly and tight and after some heavy rotation... It looks like this and is well mixed and usable. The whole process takes only thirty seconds per Colour. No guarantee will be granted in case of flying bottles. I 'drilled' at least twenty bottles today thoroughly and none went flying. Cheers Rob

You went through a lot with that kit but your persistence pays. Your Tempest is looking great and there are so many things to mention. Love the gunsight, the wiring, the marbling technique and how everything of that not too easy build comes together as a new masterpiece. Cheers Rob

Nice looking bird of prey and the Colour fits great. I wonder how it would compete as a racer. Maybe they have to create a new class of high altitude races. Is the cockpit RLM 66 or shiny red? Cheers Rob

I'm buckled in, always interested how others tackle their 152. It seems like it is in the best of hands with you. Cheers Rob

Your engine is looking great and will be a nice eye catcher on your 152. Like you I'm hardly ever use a real black for modeling, but my attempts using MA with a brush where not very successful. Are you planning a WIP? Cheers Rob

Wow, what a nice Birdcage. I like your subtle weathering and I imagine, that this is the most of weathering you ever did on a kit . The kit itself is a true beauty, I built one myself years ago and because I left it in Berlin with a friend when I moved to Spain, I'm considering building another. If there is something like the best kit ever, these Tamiya F4's are pretty close and the earlier two or tri tone camos are a great canvas for weathering experiments on an airframe. BTW, the ZM 152 is not on my personal list of top to build kits . Cheers Rob

Nice, the engine is looking great. Will you show it? I tried to do my 152 with the cowlings removable and stalled with that after trying different variants. Be careful with the engine mounts assembly, when everything has to be glued into the wing/fuselage section. As per manual this is nearly impossible due to multi dimensional mounting points. Some more details about this are in my build log Cheers Rob

Metal on a heavy metal subject, what could fit better , seriously, your beefed up Tiger is looking good and I can understand how you enjoy adding the PE. Mostly I love working with PE too, but sometimes it can be a pain, when t gets really complicated specially with gluing points as big as a hairs diameter. For fenders and sheet parts like the exhaust covers there is no better material. Cheers Rob

Hopefully to be continued... Cheers Rob