DocRob

When I feel bad about an actual PE-project I browse through my extras for my 251 and start to get a more relaxed approach to the PE in front of me, even some dignity. This will be a true test of passion, I'm sure, but I will do it one day and in the end I can state, that there is more metal in the build than plastic. Actually the whole upper part will be made of PE and this will need to be soldered. Cheers Rob

Nice and clean work with the Tiger stripes. That paintjob suits the mean looking machine. Cheers Rob

Generally spoken, as an ex engineer, I love working with metal, be it white metal for gears or be it PE. For many subassemblies on armor kits, I love the stuff, as it reproduces the sheet thinness very accurate and you can dent and deform it in a very natural way. Bigger parts are better to solder to get a good bond. In aircraft modelling I have mixed feelings, as I like to reproduce very accurate flaps with PE. It's a pain, but no pain no gain, it is the best way to have the necessary sheet appearance. For cockpits I start to go away from pre painted PE, because on some of my last builds the Colour rendition was not good and hard to adapt Colour wise and sometimes the PE IP's were rasterized and didn't fit too well. Generally spoken, I'm a little bored by too many presentations of cockpits with pre painted PE, be it my own builds or others. Generally spoken, pure IP panels often look too flat for my liking. On the other hand, I received some Yahu panels lately which look great. The Colour rendition looks accurate, bezel details are great and they are matte. On many aircraft kits I built lately, the provided plastic parts for panels and IP's were too soft in detail to paint them nicely, dog. The best way of represent cockpit parts like panels and IP is resin. These parts hand painted look much more 3D and are better adapted into the cockpit. Another mostly sufficient way is the Tamiya/Trumpeter approach with plastic pars over film or decal. Proper painted this often looks great. For seat belts to me HGW's paper belts are the best, detail wise, and almost a must in 1/32, for 1/48 pre painted steel is sufficient. I have to admit, that I'm always afraid bending these, but never actually had problems with flaking Colour. I don't know which kit bugged you, but yeah, PE tends to let the emotions fly high, be it good, after you accomplished great stuff with it or be it bad, after applying 23 of 24 previously individual bended parts and loose the last one to the carpet monster. As a verdict, all of this could be written about resin, decals, white metal, vac canopies, foiling or paints and weathering products with different arguments. In the end it is our decision how to reproduce and which materials we use. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, it's not easy to get decent results on photographing models, it's a steep learning curve and depends a lot on the equipment, Cell phone or camera, what type of lens is available, the source of light and backgrounds and other equipment. If you use a camera, try manual metering and spot measurement for the light. Try to get as much light as possible and adjust the light temperature (in Kelvin) correctly (white balance). Use a decent aperture of at least f8 for sufficent depth of field. But do I remember right, that there were some nice pics of a Marder and a LRDG Chevy, so whom do I tell. Cheers Rob

Scaring work with these canopies, but it seems you have saved everything. Is there a reason, why you haven't masked the canopy before assembly? It would have made working with them a little less stressing. Cheers Rob

Thanks Jeff, it's always nice, when a vague idea transforms into the desired result. That is an important part of modelling to me, to constantly learn new things and take challenges, some bigger or some smaller like that leather bench and I have to admit, that the pure plastic gluing building process of a kit sometimes annoys me. Painting, weathering and finishing is the pleasure part to me. Cheers Rob

Thank you, this is an out oob build, the kit is very good and there is no real need for AM, but with all my builds I try to learn something new and in this case it was the leather effect and it will be to give a little live to a dull Panzergrau by adding tonal volume in a later stage and of course the placement of figures in a hopefully eye catching way. I toyed with both, black and white background and both have their pros and cons. In this case the contrast between Panzergrau and white is enormous and metering with the camera is a difficult task. In other areas than modelling I call myself a decent photographer, but to get used to harsh artifical light and a heavy dose of macro, with the need of a good depth of field still gives me the creeps. I use a good micro 4/3 camera and have a wide range of prime lenses. I don't use zooms anymore because of their optical limitations, but I'm always amazed, how good many of the Cell Phone pics are, without the fuzz of manual metering and adjusting. To me modelling photography is the most challenging field and I tried a lot of other very experimental ways to take photos like available light and art photography over the years. I try to learn from the masters and there are some in our little corner of the net. Cheers Rob

Next on my RSO schedule was the interior and I wanted to try something new. The leather bench painted in Tamiya semi gloss black looked way too new, so I decided to do something good for the health of my part time smoking wife and took some of her cigarettes, got rid of the tabacco and crumpled the paper. Then I applied some white glue-water mix to the bench and backrest and applied the paper. After that I dabbed some Tamiya earth brown onto the still a little wet cigarette paper as a background for the crackles. Looks ugly, but that was what I was expecting and the rib structure of the paper pays off. After everything was dried, I applied first some semi gloss black with a near dry old stiff brush carefully only stroking in one direction. After doing that several times, I changed to flat black and continued. While stroking I emphasized the places, where the crew must have left the most wear with the fewest color and added a little volume. The effect was a bit to glossy for my liking, so I mixed some drops of future with Tamiya flat base and applied again nearly drybrushing. A little shine should be left, like worn old leather develops. I like the result and the bench looks much more realistic and textured that way and sports the wanted crackled effect. The interior with all it's levers got some treatment first with Uschis steel pigments, some yellow penciling and MIG's European dust pigments and some tiny drops of AK's engine oil to the bases of the levers and tiny random drops, applied with a toothpick. Bad pic here, but Panzergrau against white background is hard to meter. I added some steel pigments to enhance screwheads, nuts and bolts and the suspension and added the exhaust which was given my trusty treatment of base color with different tones of acrylic rust paint and then different tones of rust pigments dabbed into the half dried acrylics. That is done with the Lifecolour rust set, which is perfect for the task, containing both, colors and pigments. As a last step, to get a little metal sheen, I apply a little steel pigment with a dry brush, just enough to get a slight metal look, which joins the different grades of corrosion. Cheers Rob

Nice, it's not all about large scale and tons of aftermarket. Sometimes it's about FUN and we tend to forget that. Your daughter looks proud, and I see you hop around and try not to tell her about the colour scheme of that specific aircraft and the possibilities to use some AM or at least specific decals Some time ago I built a Meng toon Kv-2 and had a lot of fun. It's not painted, maybe because I was not sure about 4BO and modulation combined with hairspray and enamel streaking https://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/5406-and-now-to-something-completely-different-meng-kv-2/?tab=comments#comment-67871 Keep the funny side up Cheers Rob

Nice eight wheeler, love the commander peeking out. Cheers Rob

Very nice, and an interesting approach to go fully oob . Pilot and workplace are looking bueno. Cheers Rob

Thanks to you that is forever stored on my brain hard disk . Cheers Rob

Very nice, I like your project and the way you tackle it. I was never much into Race planes with the exception maybe of sleek elegant French Caudrons or hefty Gee Bee's, but that might alter with your build. Cheers Rob

Very nice John, I like the RNZAF paintjob and the subtle weathering. Sometimes you have to wonder why they even bother with camouflage . I'm tempted to do my P-40 as Gloria too, seeing your build, but will lastly stay with my original plan and show her as Lulu Belle like on the box art (with the girl) Cheers Rob

Looking good Mike, what I like about these IV's in later stages is that so many stuff was added to keep them capable. Side skirts, front armor, turret armor, cupolas, you name it. They look like a driving scrap yard with tons of details which sparkle to the modelers eye. Yeah, there is nothing sleek or refined in that 'Mad Max attitude' Cheers Rob

Be my guest Mike, joining the components is next . Cheers Rob

Nice work on your Sherman. I love metal tracks, they just look most realistc. Do you plan on figures? I got these two fellows from Scale 75 for my future Sherman build. Cheers Rob

Muchas Gracias Senhores, Go for it, have fun, the key is preparation, specially the Colours have to be thinned to a non clogging grade for freehand action with predictable results. Hehe, until now it's only grey, but I hope I will bring it to live with some volume effects and highlighting. The next step is painting the leather bench for the cabin. I might experiment with cigarette paper for a crackled effect. I hope my grey base is a good canvas for further weathering. My dio will represent a scene in June, so dust will be the key. Cheers Rob

My go to variant is using Future combined with Tamiya flat base. The benefit is, that you can determinate the dullness by adjusting the mix. I had no issues with tackiness or whitening, which might appear if you use way too much of the flat base. Cheers Rob

Day is grey, night is black and white, like they say in the old ad, the RSO got it's first coat of Lifecolour Panzergrau. Everytime I use Lifecolour products I'm amazed how well they spray, very fine, no clogging and with very fine grain. At the moment I do some testing with Mr. Leveling thinner (after Ernies praises) and Lifecolour doesn't mix well with the stuff, it gets thick and unusable. With Tamiya thinner there are no such problems and there is no need for retarding effects, because clogging is not an issue. The Panzergrau will get some coats of lighter shades and some treatment to enhance the volume and used effects, but this will happen after assembling the major components. To distract myself from the dull Panzergrau , the engine and the leather cabin furniture got a coat of semi gloss black that will be a base for weathering and in the case of the leather, some creaking effects. Cheers Rob

Surprise, Surprise, tough decision to continue, I would have thrown the kit away, or thought about a workaround in form of building it as a burnt wreck half buried somewhere in rubble. I really like to see you progressing with this, because a Sturmtiger was tempting me since years and now with the new kid in town Rye Field Models) who knows... Cheers Rob

Are we talking about June/July in northern France, way too early for that many leaves. The wide angle shot of the scene looks dramatic and great. Cheers Rob

Try these in metal (there are some more sets available) http://www.profimodeller.com/detail/p32173-uk-us-hvar-rocket/ or these in resin http://www.aires.cz/en/product/r-a-f-3-inch-60lb-rockets/3-703/ I have both sets, the first for my PBJ-1 and the second for a Tamiya Mossie, both look decent and well made. Go for it, Yahu panels are worth it. The ones I have are printed much sharper and with a more correct color appearance than Eduard PE. Cheers Rob

Your Tiger looks great, yeah the rubber tracks, I don't like them and replace wherever possible, the more the rubber, the more the mud in the dio . Cheers Rob

Looking good, the half portion, specially the headphones. Maybe a little bit too much lip gloss and spread to wide, seriously, does he receive a flat coat to reduce the shine? Cheers Rob