DocRob

Hi Gus, that's what I call progressing. The paintjob looks great and I really like the result of using masks for the insignia. Cheers Rob

That's some serious brass bending,hopefully you don't decide to close the bomb bay doors Cheers Rob

I figured out who is manufacturing your mechanic. It's an interesting company from France which is specialiced in 3D-printing. They carry a lot of useful figures in different scales. Quite pricy, but I will check them out, specially because the carry 1/24 figures. The name of the company is reedoak.com. Cheers Rob

Go Rich go, can't wait to see that beast finished. Good that you solved your supply problems. I could tell you stories about getting supplies on my little island which would give you bad dreams . Cheers Rob

What a nice build and an interesting story to back that up. Great weathering, that bird looks realy used as it should. Who manufactures the guy in front, inspecting the coolers? Cheers Rob

Looking great Steve. You did a great job on subtely blending in the weathering to the monochrome paintjob to make it look right and interesting. Nice work on the ball and chain skirt, was that a lot of trouble to build? I have the same one in my stash and have to buid it one of these days. Cheers Rob

I'm a weak man, I have to admit it. I made a deal with myself, not getteng me a "Dottie Mae" from Eduard, because I already have a 1/48 Jug Limited Edition with some add ons like barrels, a resin engine and HGW stencils, but then there was the Jug for less than 60€, and I was not enough a man to resist. So here she is , the result of that weak moment and will be build with the only addition of some Master Barrels. I'm feeling bad about feeling good Cheers Rob

Sweet Jeroen, nice brasswork and convincing chipping too. Cheers Rob

Hehe, no problem here, I like to be sidetracked. Thanks for the build link and the Link for the Vintage Model Company. You took the base model to another step, very beautiful and hopefully not to heavy and well balanced. The Svenson 'Scout' is really big, actually to big to fly rubber driven and if I build it, it will be decorational only, because I will not borther with combustion engine and RC stuff. Something smaller like yours or like the Guillow stuff should be more appropirate. Cheers Rob

Hi Spliff, you got me with this one, is it a kit or do you build the bird scratch after a scale plan? I did some quick research and found an american producer called Guillow's. They have, among others, some WW1 planes in their portfolio, but they are between 1/12 and 1/16 in scale and are prepared for rubber driven flight. A year ago I found a wooden plane kit of a Bristol Scout in the only hobbyshop (don't think to much of it, they carry five plastic model kits, three from Airfix with included colours and two from Trumpy, actually it's a toy shop) on my island and nearly bought it. The producing swedish company (Svenson) is long defunct, but I'm not sure, because it was big and seemed not very detailed, but hey, it would be my only possibility to buy local . Thanks again for planting a brainbug, but this it what it's all about, in the end they are flying like they are supposed to do, thats quite a different approach to plastik modelling, which sometmes is a show of vanity (me included, no offence meant) and not function anymore. Cheers Rob

Hi Spliff, that is so cool. I had a rubber driven Cessna when I was a kid. I really loved that one and it was the only possibility to let something fly in West Berlin except kites, because of the special status of the city. No way for radio controlled flying outside a club. Thank you for reminding me of this times and I wish you lots of luck and good trimming with that beautiful Se5a. Must be a special moment to prepare for the maiden flight. Cheers Rob

Welcome to that place of large scale addicts, and you seem to fit in perfectly, as you have chosen one of the biggest kits available. I didn't have the courage for a B-17, I can't handle the size and decided that a B-25 and a Mossie are the max for me. I wish you tons of fun with the 'Belle' and hope you are sharing the build with us. Nice start with the figures. By accident, yesterday on TV there was a documentation about Pin-Up's in the european channel Arte and they showed footage of crew members of 'Memphis Belle' patting the 'Belle' on the B-17 after flight. Maybe a good idea for a dio. Cheers Rob

Seemingly smallish update today, but it took some effort and was done for a second time, which made it none less annoying. While painting the engine, the exhausts were already painted, but due to being a really overengineered kit, there was no way for me to leave the engine cowlings openable. In the end I closed up everything and decided to give the exhausts another pass after painting the fuselage. That needed a whole lot of masking to prevent from overspray. I used the trusted Alclad Exhaust Manifold (great stuff) and after that some Uschi Steel Pigments (great too). When applying the exhaust fumes, I will decide, if I tint them some more blueish-black, but that depends on the state of weathering. Cheers Rob

Hola Senhores, after decaling the long winged TA-152 got another sealing layer of gloss Future and is now ready for weathering. I added the prop wich was sprayed black green over aluminum and left of the front tips of the blades to show some wear. The white spiral is a kit decal and went on well. I added the tail wheel strut and finally glued the metal struts for the main wheels in place, adding the hydraulic cylinders and some details. The metallic surfaces are done in Alclad gloss aluminum with rubbed in Uschi chrome pigments. The resin wheels are a multicolour affair, but it is hard to see on the photos. They were painted near black, got some black green added near the rim and a grey tone on the tread, which was rubbed of slightly while still wet with paper tissue. I nearly forgot that I have to paint the exhausts. That will be done next while masking off with tape and after that i will apply the washes, a blueish grey one for the upper colors and a dark grey one for the light blue. And that's the look of the complete bird right now. Looks a bit skinny without the wheel weel covers, but these will be added after weathering together with the flaps. Cheers Rob

Thanx Jeroen, after building, painting and decaling the TA-152 so far, I can truely admit what you achieved with your "Wingless Wonder". I wouldn't have had the courage to start it your way, after I have seen the substance of that overengineered kit. Nonetheless between the pain there was fun too and now seeing the light on the end of the tunnel, I can say I learned a lot . Cheers Rob

Decalling was next, a step I was not looking forward to, because my various experiences with decals where mixed in the best case and suboptimal in the worst. This time was one of the better experiences, because the decals performed well and are opaque enough and settle good with the help of Micro Set and Sol. The decals are complete and include all the neccesary stencils. One thing I noticed while applying, was a misspelling of "Nicht verstellen" to "Nichit Verstellen" for the trim flap stencils. I left it the wrong way, not wanting to go AM for that and either not wanting to cut out the obelete "i". You have to be fast with applying the ZM-decals, because they need only seconds to soak. In the end the result is ok, but I have traces of the solvents on the Future coat. I hope another sealing coat will let that disappear. I was prepared to paint all the insignia, numbers and fuselage rings, but the very bad adherance of the Vallejo primer, was convincing me to take no risks with extra masking. Next time it will be my trusted Tamiya rattle can primer again and masks for everything, that is more complicated, but I prefer it that way, because it's much more controllable and blends into the paintjob much better. Cheers Rob

Beautiful pics, must have been a great experience to fly with that Moth. Cheers Rob

Wow, to much information for me, I have pictures in my head , and no, I will not ask. Cheers Rob

Great work on the internals Jeroen, you make it look like 1/32, only your finger gives a clue about the scale. Cheers Rob

Looks like a well balanced tool for the tiny holes, sometimes needed while modelling. Wouldn't have minded the addition of a 0,2 mm drill, because yesterday I needed one and had only a 0,3 mm. I will definetely get me one, because the use of an electric micro drill under 0,5 mm is risky business.

Welcome jjetmec to this place of spruecutters and high detaillers. Your Zero looks absolutely magnificent and tells a story of wear and tear. I like how you applied the different effects on the surface. That bird tells a story. The only (very little) critizism, if I'm allowed to, are the decals for the roundels. You applied the wear, but they still look like decals, A mask and an airbrush would have allowed further blending in. Cheers Rob

Straswudje tovaritch (should be something like hello comrade), If you are tired of rivet counting, if you have forgotten which RLM-colors are needed for the tunesian scheme of your Würger, if your eyes are burning, because you are researching in books and the internet until the winter is over, if you are tired of multi piece single track links for your armour, if PE-bending gives you the spooks, if you get an alergic reaction because of cement fumes you might encounter your personal MODELLING BURNOUT And mostly there is one reason why this is happening. About all these huge, big, medium and small sized subjects we are forgetting to have FUN After letting the Future on my actual TA-152 build dry for decaling (nearly all the above mentioned subjects except the track thing), I dicovered a little box in my stash which I purchased a while ago out of pure curiosity. Could that be where the fun is in, dunno, let's open the lid. Arghs no lid, it's opening on the sides Revell style, bad thing, bad start. On the other hand, the box looks great, even stylish. It's the Meng offering WWT-004, a KV-2 Soviet Heavy Tank in the scale, hey wait a moment, no scale mentioned, bad thing again, where should I put that here in LSM? And this was where my fun part started to ignite. I tried to imagine what I could do with that little fellow and be warned, if everything works out, I will put the KV in a 1/35 Dio (shocking) and this will make it LS for the M. I will not tell you now where this little heavyweigt will show up, except you can convince me to tell. I tried to make a thorough review, but while I was counting parts (no idea how many, maybe 60) and looking for flash and other polyethylene lowlifes, I had the green minimonster already built. So forget about the sprue shots. The manual is beautifully layouted and is parted in eight steps and leaves nothing unsaid. There is even a colour chart and a sprue layout enclosed. Decals (no kidding) are in perfect register and tonal balance and you even go multimedia with this one, because there are looped rubber tracks (no glueing required) and polycaps. Leave your cement closed for the other parts as well because you will not need it here, everything snaps in place and I loved that, because it is so easy to paint an weather with all the details removeable. After about an hour I had this little Russian cube with gun and tracks finished and had a big smile in my face and actually had FUN. Everything fitted perfectly and I never thought about checking references, but it might be only a short span of time, when the usual suspect like ABER, EDUARD or VOYAGER will spoil everything with a heavy dose of PE and Resin. Verdict: The good: - snap fit - good fit - nice engineering (you can de-assemble everything and have all the fun again without sprue cutting, not to mention easy weathering) - coolness factor - takes only one hour of your pecious time The bad: - there are no Friuls out there to substitute the rubber tracks - two part barrel and no Aluminum substitute - takes only one hour of your pecious time The ugly: - I haven't got another one of the series - I'm still thinking about 4BO green and a faded whitewash So is this little thing something for you? For me it's an Absolut recommendation for fun sake P.S. No Vodka was harmed through that review, i swear, honestly Cheers Rob

De nada Rick. I checked my manual and yes, it's a completely different gunsight than on your B. I will do some research, if it is the one you mentioned. Thanks for the input. Cheers Rob

I like that windscreen and I understand why this was frightening to you. I have to check the manual of my P-40 N. That might be a difference maker for me to deciede if that will be my next build. Macroed like this and isolated in front of a plain white background under surgical lights everything tends to look like a big fail. but after assembling normally everything blends in. Prop and hub look also good, but for my taste, I would have reduced the metallic shine at the tip of the blades a little, like you did fading the black on the backside. Finishing line ahead Cheers Rob

He he he, sometime you eat the bar and sometimes the bar eats you , but be sure Gus, I know the feeling. I can't tell, why these damned little airbrushes are so hard to use. I mastered so many technical devices in my live, but these "blow some air through a nozzle and add some color things" are mastering me. Cheers Rob