DocRob

Hi Gus, I built that F4 Corsair and it was a pure pleasure, I can highly recommend that kit. The only issues arose by using aftermarket stuff from Brassin which looked great, but caused some trouble. The Spit you are building was also on my wish list but I could resist, but have no idea for how long. My excuse for not getting one is that I'm uncertain, if I should take the iconic IX or the XVI with the bubble top. I fiddled a set of HGW-belts together without knowing about your tip and it worked, but I can imagine that leaving the parts connected will make it a lot easier. We also have huge storms on my island, but without snow. but other than you, my benchtime is shortend by that, because there are power failures and lots of things to repair in the house and garden. The rest of the day is filled with trips to different shores and watching (and photographing) enormous waves, I definitely don't want to surf. But it is a spectacle I don't want to miss. The TA-152 got little attention but is more or less prepared for painting. Poco a poco (little by little) like my spanish fellows used to say. Cheers Rob

Interesting version, this hunchback Ameisenbär. I can understand your troubles with closing up all cowlings and not ruin the shape vs. open up and show everything. Sometimes I'm thinking of building two identical kits at the same time in different ways of presentation. Cheers Rob

Now that is what you had hidden from us . Well done. These Tamiya kits are really great, you can fully concentrate on painting and weathering. While labouring with my TA-152, I tend do daydream of these shake and bake kits. Thanx for sharing the HGW-buckle tipp, sounds real helpful with the fiddely construction of the belts. Cheers Rob

Würger goes Mustang with some extra exhausts, a real Frankenstein creation . Now that is an interesting conversion, thanx for the review. Cheers Rob

A real beauty you built there. Nice painting and weathering effects and all the materials look like the real counterparts, impressive. Cheers Rob

Hi Rick, never tried black primer, but I like what I see from your experiences. Combined with that marbling effect you create a great depth to the following paintjob. You can hit Homeruns even on Curveballs . Cheers Rob

Yeah thanx, it is not frustrating anymore, it's a struggle, but i will not quit. Sometimes you are tempted to throw a kit in the garbage can, but with this one it got kind of personal, I like the subject to much to get rid of it, so there has to be found a way. i heard many good things about the Vallejo Metals from the dealer of my neighbour island. I might try them in the future, but not until my Alclads run empty, because i like them a lot. Everything is perfect about them, but the smell . Cheers Rob

Not much to show this time, but not only because of laziness. My struggles with the fitting of the 152 continue. I had to saw off two milimetres of the engine block (front) and remove some correspondent plastic from inside the cowling and the prop-shaft to get a propper alignment of the front cowling ring and the other cowling parts. More hours of grinding and cutting were necessary for the preparation of the installment of the PE-flaps. You have to hand ZM that if everything is glued together the static of the TA is enormous, otherways there could have happened serious damage while working with the heavy tools. The PE-flaps are primed and airbrushed with Alclad Aluminium, the insides of all covers and the metal wheelstruts were primed and airbrushed aluminium, as well as other parts like the prop and the wheelhubs. I used Alclad Chrome for the unpainted rods of the wheelstruts. Last but not least I painted the prepared exhausts first with Alclad Jet Exhaust and than a light partial coat of Alclad manifold. After some pigment treatment they should look fine. As on former experiences all used Alclad colors performed perfectly on Tamiyas grey rattlecan primer, my all purpose primer if PE or other metal parts or resin is involved. The Alclads spray perfectly even and have nearly no visible grain on the painted surface. My former experiences with metal acrylics like Tamiyas Chrome Silver or Aluminum where much worse in every grade of thinning. Without removing lots of plastic there would have been a 2mm gap between the front ring and the cowlings Cheers Rob

Wow, that is nearly looking more real than a real one. The attention to detail is amazing, a league of it's own. Cheers Rob

Only some small updates today, but painting will follow soon. I painted the canopy cockpit grey (RLM66 from AK) after attaching the precut masks, added the anti glare dashboard cover and the gunsight, a clear part, which I sprayed after masking the optics with liquid mask. Some final weathering and highlighting was added to the cockpit parts and the headrest and lether cushioning were painted. The last views, before botteling up. Nearly ready for painting now Cheers Rob

Thanx Paul, the point of no return on that TA-152 was the bending and glueing of the flaps, nothing is gonna stop me now from finishing this one. As it is my first ZM-kit the difficulties caught me by surprise, I was expecting something more refined. All in all there are no problems which can't be solved, but I was looking for a quick build and was willing to concentrate on my first German paintjob with all the RLM things and mottling and so on. I have that same P-51K in my stash and hoped it would be better. Lets wait and see what this one will bring up. I just don't understand the philosophy of ZM. I like the idea of opening the cowlings for engines and weapons, but the way ZM realised this is not sufficient to me. Some of the inner assemblies do not look the part, they seem toyish. My first thought was to show everything of the 152, but after I started the build that changed to "I don't open up, I don't bend PE-hinges for the cowlings, who cares about the already painted engine, ... Usually i have a fixed picture of an actual build in my mind. Minor changes are possible, but this one changed a lot, since I started. Cheers Rob

Not even ready and promptly discovered room for improvement. I removed the inwards LED's and duct-taped them outwards for easier cleaning of the booth and added a second strip, because the emitted light was too cold. It's hard to see, but the first picture is only warm light, the second one is a combination of cold and warm light together and much brighter if needed. Everything needed for the booth construction was found in the house, so the spent total equals nada . But now, get away Raiden and back to the TA-152 again. Cheers Rob

I'm not sure if I will get me one, but other than Danny I think that the choice of subject is an interesting one. This plane may not have great significance as a fighter in WW1, but the way it is constructed and engineered shows the development of a new kind of planes. You can easily see the familarity with a JU-52 for example. That there is nearly no rigging involved is not only a nice touch for the WW1-kit-coward, it is also a sign of that new era of plane constructions after the war. On the other hand will the corrugated Aluminum make the task of masking not to easy. Looking at the instuctions, I love the option of showing the wings seperated from the fuselage with internal detail supplied. I guess this will tempt some of you . Looking at the paint schemes nearly gets me convinced that I will buy one, because there is one placed in Adlershof, a suburb of my old home town of Berlin. Cheers Rob

My cheapo enlargement project for my spraying booth is finished. I cut the plastic box, glued some flexible LED-Strip in and attached everything to my existing spraybox with Duct-Tape, so the foldable design of the old one will be kept if needed. There is enough space now for even more than the 46 cm wingspan of the TA-152. Cheers Rob

Thanx mikester, I hope you are right about the progressing engineering of ZM. I have a Mustang, an UHU and a Horten in my stash. Actually I'm bugged by another problem, which is sidetracking me. As you can see it will be hard to manouver that bird while spraying. The shortcoming of my booth is nagging in the back of my mind since sometime. There is a Mosquito and a B-25 to be sprayed in the future. A solution has to be found and today i might found it. That's not the final booth, but it is my new compartement. In the next days I will cut a rectangle in the backside and fix the old Ventbox right there. Lighting will be provided by flexible LED strips. Cheers Rob

Glued the upper cowling in place (after taking this photo) and again did a lot of test fitting around the nose section. At least everyting seems to fit with lots of effort, glue and brute power. In my last text I mentioned the problem how to fit the engine struts and engine into the fuselage and wing section, because of the multi dimensional alignment points. I think it can be done, if you change the order of assembley and do not as shown in the manual. It should work, if you glue the engine struts to the fuselage and after this is done, add the wings. I don't understand the engineering on such an expensive kit which is newly tooled. Around the air intake you could look through gaps into the engine compartment. Other parts do fit perfectly. The small intake got drilled open. A very nice addition by ZM are the supplied canopy masks. The vinylesque material is easy to work with and they fit perfectly. Cheers Rob

Very nice job, and a rare and interesting subject. At first sight I was tempted to look for a second wing. I like the unusal paintscheme and the way you subtly did some preshading and mottling t make the look even more interesting. Cheers Rob

Thanx Darren, don't know who will win in the end, but at least I accepted the challenge . I think I will adopt your method of painting your splendid Typhoon for this one. Cheers Rob

Amazing, I wish I had the time, the courage, the talent and the patience to do these kind of builds. I love the metal works of the cockpit parts, as I was an engineer in my former live . Thank you for showing that jewel and if there is more to show I will follow. Cheers Rob

Some little progress was made the last days. I fitted the engine and engine mount into the fuselage and the engineering on these parts turned out to be a nightmare. The align points are multidimensional, so there is no way to fit everything in cleanly without heavy bending or cutting of alignment bolts. For future builders I would recommend to leave the front cockpit section unglued into the fuselage until this step, because you have more room to manouvre while assembling and try to fully understand how everything is connected. I had to cut the lower alignment bolts to get everything together properly. I used so much force (and glue) on many different areas of the build to get everything aligned, that I wonder if when ready a small pointing of a finger will let everything explode . I never test fitted so much on a 1/32 plane and I dislike the multi part orgy for the wings, cowlings and fuselage more and more. That might be the last time the engine can be seen. I experimented with PE-hinges made from the additional exterieur set, but I dont think there is a way to leave the cowlings openable and gain a proper fit of the cowlings when closed and I want to have the undisturbed shape of the plane in the end. Finally done, phew , the metal flaps where a nightmare to build, at least the upper ones without the plastic rods. Many of the small struts came loose and they had to be glued seperately. I used a different technique for the second one, but breakage rate was the same like the first attempt, so no recommendation here. I really like the result and now that they are ready there is no way stopping me that TA-152 project. Finishing these was a gamechanger, I don't want to put so much effort into something for the bin, so watch out TA-152, I'm ready for you . Cheers Rob

Welcome to LSM David, that is a truly impressive build. Is this really an all metal Spit? I'd like to see more pictures of this excellent piece of workmanship and I might throw away my 1/48 Spit XVI from Eduard . Cheers Rob

Hi Danny, nice haul. the meaning of the russian might be a warning message, that you could gain hallucinations by viewing at the torquise cockpit color for more than an hour , but my russian is a no show as well. @Cees, cant wait to see a 1:1 Spit scratch build, that would be a first and truly Large Scale Modelling . Cheers Rob

Amazing, not only great attention to detail, but very lifelike as well, stunning skills combined with the eye for the situation. Cheers Rob

Hi Wouter, that's what I thought, brass should be strong enough. Albion Alloys have Slide Fit brass tubes in their programm. Like the name says different diameters can be slided into each other There is one set with 0.4 - 0.6 - 0.8 - 1.0 mm and it seems that they have a 0.3 - 0.5 - 0.7 - 0.9 mm set as well. Maybe that helps. With plastic you have even to reduce the pressure of your airbrush while painting . Cheers Rob

Wow Wouter, that is quite a project you started here. I really like the work in the cockpit area and the general attention to detail. Will these fragile antennas be robust enough 3D-printed? Cheers Rob