DocRob

Both planes have the same light brown color painted on the frame of the cockpit glas and this shade dosen't fit to the colors of the planes, so maybe it is typically for those Macchis for whatever reason. Cheers Rob

Nice elegant airframe, and your paintjob really enhances the appearance. You need a lot of confidence in your hand and airbrush to get the camo evenly on, chapeau. Is that stange colored canopy frame a standard feature of the Macchi? Cheers Rob

Only little progress for today. I spent a lot of thinking on the skirts of the beast and prepared the first parts. I cutted the plastic parts and substituted them with the rubber skirts of the Tetra works set. To get the right shape, there is a strip of PE glued on the inside of the rubber. I plan to leave some of the rubber parts away and rub the camo-paint off the left ones two show their dirty rubberish material. What looks most like rubber, rubber indeed. It's a lot of extra work, but I hope it will show in the end. Cheers Rob

Hi Gus, if I look at the picture in the beginning of the thread, I think you will not be succesfull with that Tamiya flex-tape. It is not useful for tight curves like on the tailfin. I bought that stuff and found it useful on wide curved masking. Maybe reducing the pressure and adjust the thinning of the colors will be more promising. What i found difficult about the blue-tack method, is that you have to spray in a right angle all the time, sometimes diiificult on an airframe. Another method is to spray on the contours of the camo with low pressure very finely and then fill in the rest the normal way. The secret is in subtle layering and giving the color enough time to dry. Cheers Rob

If you want to have better photos without much fuzz, take her out. If it is overcast it's perfect, the colors are right and the shadows aren't too harsh. If the sun is burning hot and bright, fix a cool drink, enjoy a good book and wait for some clouds. Cheers Rob

Hi Gus, can't wait to see the camo finished. The black is the leftout brown I guess, no need for black camouflage in desert like surroundings . I love that ball bearing stirrers so much, I added them to almost all my paints, if there is a shortage of ball bearings in the world, you know where you have to point your finger. Cheers Rob

Nice one Michael, a trip into my past, passing the GDR fom West-Berlint for Holidays, they romped the Higways, ratom, ratom, ratom, ...

Finishing the wheel well after heavy drinking? Give us pics Cheers Rob

Yeah Gus, these fabric belts are really the best, but I also like the PE-ones. The bad thing is you can't heat the PE ones over a flame when they are prepainted. That would it make much easier to bend them in position. When I'm thinking about a real nightmarish PE-challenge I have this project in front of my hurting eyes. I don't know when I dare to start that Halbkette, but for sure I will solder a lot instead of using CA-glue. The thing will be heavily damaged, burned and beaten and PE is perfect for that job. It seems to me that only the wheels and tracks ar left out, everything else wil be brass and copper and that really gives me the chills . Cheers Rob

Hi RichO, that is a great looking assortment of near scrap metal, forming into a truly huge thing . I pull my hat at the attention to even the tiniest details and all that as a scratch build. A deep perceived "WOW" Cheers Rob

Thanks Gus, the preparation and painting of the burnt parts was easier then thought ( it was a first-timer for me), the cruel thing was the PE-bending and glueing. Cheers Rob

Nice Job you have, very classy stuff. I always envision the frosted glass door to the Sam Spade office in one of theese 1930's Office Buildings in LA. Gold lettering is so cool. Is the Belgian Sheriff written with only one f? Cheers Rob

Hi Gods of the Forum, it seems that since yesterday's update many of the problems mentioned in other threads are solved. BUT what happened to the LIKE-Button? Theres defenitely something to like out there, so please give it back to us. . Thanks for the good job on solving the other problems. Cheers Rob

Welcome to that polystyrol haunted place Barry, that is a really nice 'gal' you finished there. There are not too many of theese olive drab Mustangs around, so it is a nice one for a change. Nice job of blending the colors subtely. Cheers Rob

Ladies and Gentlemen, it happens to everybody once in a while... I just finished a project, which dated back from my Berlin days. The T-55 Enigma was build then, as was the Mercedes Benz and the surroundings. Sometimes I like to tackle serious events in modelling, but try to give them a humorous aspect, maybe to enhance the view for something monstrous by adding some pure human aspects. By the time I got the Diopark Benz Kit and the Meng Figures, the plan for this little leaking scene came to my mind. It took me a long time to reach the finish line while painting the figures, not one of my most loved actions. The T-55 Enigma is from Tamiya, but heavily added with Voyager Etch, the marvelous SKP-Lenses, burnt wheels by MIG, Friul tracks, an Aber barrel and Resin for the Armour bricks, to let them look a little disaranged. Th Benz is build oob and the kit is a piece of art. I hope you enyojed this one. Cheers Rob P.S. Hooray to the gods of the Forum, everything is working again.

Hola Senhores, now, as my phototent arrived I will introduce you a little to my T-90 project. Some AM was sourced some time ago, like Friul Tracks, a Voyager Barrel, Tetra Works Sideskirts, SKP Lenses and some J's Work masksfor the camo. I started with the tracks and decieded to make a little shootout between the Friul ones and the provided ones. I chose the Meng tracks for my kit, because I liked the clever engineering, the flexibility and the durability with that cement free construction (except you opt for the rubber pads). You put everything together in a jig and it's a hell lot of work, because every link is made out of four parts. If you go for weathered tracks there is no need for cleanup. Detail on the Friuls might be a little bit better, but I didn't like the short connector wires (there are no holes through the whole link, as there are on other Friuls) and there are specially bended links provided for getting them around the sprockets. There is always the posiibility that you can't fiddle them in after mounting the sideskirts. But deciede for yourself Meng is black and Friul is grey And that's how they fit, perfectly, the sag is ok (81 links as mentioned in the manual) and they sit well on the sprocket. The wheels are sligthly movable for uneven turf The engine is a nice addition, but mine will have to wait for a job in the spare part box The Voyager barrel is really frigthening. I never saw a barrel made up from 40plus parts, but thats because of the thermal jacket. Outside it is pretty hot and sunny, so it is hart to imagine, that in the end this will be a snow and ice covered beast, preying through heavy mud. Time will tell. Cheers Rob

Hi Sharpshooters, Old thread, (more or less) new kid in town . I recieved a Havox Photobox today. It is a cubus of 80cm width, so it should be suitable for models up to 60cm wingspan (B-25 ?????). https://www.amazon.de/HAVOX-Fotostudio-80x80x80cm-LED-Beleuchtung-kommerziellen/dp/B01ATFIJYE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1503580427&sr=8-3&keywords=havox That ugly shot shows the size of the box with a 1/32 Raiden in it. That was my first test shot, free handed, without any adjustments with f8. As I'm a landscape photographer and startrd to take photos of model kits just recently I will have to do a lot of experiments in the next time. I promise though my photos will improve and I will not hurt your eyes again. I use a Panasonic-Lumix GH3 which is a Micro 4/3 camera with interchangeable lenses. I have a lot of different lenses, but use manely prime lenses and no zooms. I like the 90mm Macro from Leica for Modelling shots, because of the distortion free depiction. For field shooting I adore my 85mm Leica prime lense with f1,2 (I love to do available light stuff, mainly in black and white) and my 30mm f 1,7, specially because of a full metal case and thanks god, a real aperture ring, like in the old days. This makes it so much easier to handle the cam in lowlight conditions, at least when you are not using automatics. My third "always in the bag lens" is a zoom, but a special one with a focal length between 14mm and 28mm for the more dramatic stuff, but not useful for modelling subjects. After some more expieriences in the next days I will leave some shots of the finished Raiden in the Finished work section. Cheers Rob

Hi Gus, I start to see the finish line of your F-16 and it will be a nice one for sure. Is that liquid mask you use for the canopy a Mr. Hobby one? I had my issues with that stuff on clear parts, causing a little blinding of the transparencies. But maybe that is because I'm a slow worker and sometime it takes a month or two for the mask to get removed. Any way I'm interested in your experiences after removing the sticky stuff. Cheers Rob

Nice work Jeroen. The bucket (transport cover) on the nose robs the thing of some of it's elegance, on the other hand it's not a beauty contest and I see sense in applying it, while on the Schlepper. Cheers Rob

Hi Danny, thank you for your answer. What you have planned sounds like a very interesting project and I can understand the top prio on the jets and helmets for you. In fact I didn't want to push you into WIP-ing ahead into the Fe.2B, I just wanted to know, because your build is very inspiring. Actually I have no idea, when I start mine. As being a little geographical isolated, I build only for my own fun and after my own not very strict schedule, which is also rattled by lots of other hobbies. Have fun with the Phantom and tons of luck for a good APH-deal. Rob

I have to join the "wow-chorus", great work. Chears Rob

Hi Danny, you entered the Jet Age and I'm tempted to follow this one, but what about the old school stuff. I mean your great and encouraging Fe.2B WIP? Cheers Rob

Nice, sleek, aaaaaaaaaaaand wingless

Thanks guys, more or less 50 parts for one barrel is no fun ride, next time I will choose some WW2 stuff like a Sherman . Thank god the tracks are finished, that was simila painful to do, but that I will show later, so now it's time to cash in the fun parts of the build. @Jeroen: I hope it will turn out cool, because this will end up as a snow and ice covered caucasian beast.

Hello Friends of delicate plastic (and metal), I started a new summer (easy going) project with the thought in mind "and now to something completely different". After browsing my stash I decieded to give Mengs T-90A a try, using some aftermarket stuff to enhance detail. I will go into detail about that later, now the kit is halfway finished. Today was one of those more painful days being a modeller. Having bought a Voyager barrel, I was skipping through the manual and got a little afraid. Lots of stuff to bend, some brass parts I couldn't even see with my bare eye and turned barrel parts made from brass and aluminum. This is defenetly not made for the beginner and for the owners of carpets under their workbenches. As you have to bend a lot and due to the volume of the barrel I decieded against soldering, which I normally prefer to CA-glue. So this is the result of one full day with magnifying glasses and the use of many unprintable swearwords and an aching back. On some of these warm summer days you should go surfing instead of sitting at the bench, but that's for tomorrow. All looks to be a little twisted and bended, but that's not really visible with the bare eye. More than once I thought about using the supplied plastic barrel, but did not even try to, to not get tempted. More on the kit and further used AM-stuff later, when I hopefully receive my photo tent for better quality pictures. Cheers Rob