DocRob

Thanks Cees, that's the thing with comfort zones, step in and feel cozy and... bored at the end. Isn't modelling always about challenge? I do not compare my results with others and I do not take part in competitions, but to challenge myself with new techniques and skills is what I love about modelling and sometimes I fail bigtime, like with that wrong orientated pedals . Cheers Rob

Thanks Spliff, there is always a hair in the soup, in this case even two. The mentioned one was already removed, but you are absolutely right about the orientation of the pedals. Now that I have closed the fuselage, that will be hard to fix. I like your idea about filtering with oils to reduce the blue tone of the PE. If that would hve been a Raiden or a Corsair I would have done so, but in the TA-152 nearly nothing of the cockpit details will be seen again after fitting in the fuselage and adding the hood above the IP, except you use some surgical optics. The blue is not that bad in reality, must be my otherwise well biased lightning or the chip of my camera, and everything is heavily macroed, sometimes to much for my liking . Cheers Rob

Hola Senhoras e Senhores, Some time ago I browsed through my stash and let my thoughts sway a little. After some time it arouse to me that I never had build a german plane with all that complicated camo and mottling stuff, so why not give it a try. My eye came to a halt on the nicely boxed TA-152 H-0 by Zoukei Moura, which I bought along with some AM stuff like barrels, Metal cast wheel struts and PE for the cockpit and some exterieur stuff. Having seen some very nice builds of the bird, some here in LSM (with or without wings ), I deceided to give it a go. The TA-152 is the last incarnation of the slim and elegant FW-190 D and stretches the elegance, along with the dimensions to a max. It looks like the plane is build around the engine and afterwards got stretched in the wind channel. The only exception from that sleek look is the air intake for the turbocharger, a huge snorkel which reminds me of the compressor hoods of american muscle cars. Enough of the prequel ,lets get to the plastic. Thankfully not multicolored like the sprues of the H1 most of the parts show decent detail. Some parts mostly in the cockpit area are not very well defined and there is a lot of cleanup to be made. The Instrument panel (a clear and a grey one), to my eye are not made for a decent paintjob without decals. there is no detail in the becels and overall detail is not very sharp, so I got lucky to have invested into the ZM-Eduard interieur PE. This is a nice and to me necessary upgrade, but not without little quirks. Having seen lots of colored PE from Eduard I have to say that these are to blueish and somwhat rsasterized. A matte varnish and drops of clear for the dials helped a little to blend in. I deceided against the PE seatbelts after painting the preformed ones by hand. A little sidenote to what I have expierienced so far with this ZM-Kit. I think they are really overpriced. They are in a price range together with Tamiya without the sharpness of mould and with at least questionable engineering in many parts. The internal structures are a nice idea on paper, but through lack of detail and beeing not overly correct I prefer a classic layout of a kit. Seeing the multipart fuselage gives me the creeps and I hope my other ZM Kits show an improved quality. One of my last builds was the very moderatly priced Raiden from Hasegawa and this Kit was on the money detailwise, sharp IP and very inelligent parts breakdown. ZM looks to my a little toyish. Another "untested" critique is for the decals. They seem to have wide borders of carrier film and look thick and have some mispellings like "nichit" instead of "nicht" for not in german. Enough of the first thoughts, some pics to follow. The very simple cockpit of the TA-152 with erased detail for the PE The IP with some levers and an added matte coat and the dials finished with a drop of Future After painting with AK RLM 66. The PE looks less blueish in natural light. Almost finished, only some chipping and moderate ageing to come. Cheers Rob

Nice build and a very nice finish. I like the scheme and think you really nailed this one. The very important contrast on the camo seems perfectly balanced, not to much, but clearly visible, not to easy on a hard edged one. BUT I wouldn't want to land with this one. Look for the wheels on the "Hand-Photo" . Cheers Rob

You should be pleased with the result, your Corsair is developping very well. I really like the layering effect, which simulates the real thing, metal, primer, paint, grime and everything between, like chips and abrasion and weather influence. Is there a slight tonal difference between the wings and the fuselage with wingroots? If there is that can be put like exposure to sunlight and fading colors on the fuselage and due to often folded wings a slightly darker shade on the wings. Cheers Rob

Cool, that undercoat painting looks soooo "primed metal in use" that I almost hear a clong when you nock on it . Cheers Rob

Hi Watts, you pushed me in a difficult position, who am I to be picky on your very nice Spad, but hey, you asked for it . For my eye the contrast between clean and durrty (like Cees said) is to sharp, for example the engine cowlings look like new, at least on the photos. On a white / light grey airframe I think a little shading would reduce that sharp contrast, maybe with a subtle oil color treatment. I believe in blending colors and try to achieve a translucent effect with very thin layers of paint, specially on monochromic surfaces. A very good example on what I mean can be found in this WIP by ajcmac https://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/5302-mitsubichi-a6m5c/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-67397 But please don't call me picky, I'm not a master modeller myself and I really like the look of your bird. Cheers Rob

Like Gus said, nice and subtle. I like your very thin layering approach. With a little bit of lucidity you achieve much more depth for the paintjob and less loss of detail. Time to turn her upside down . Cheers Rob

Love the approach with that almost vintage kit and you got a very nice result in the end. That is what I call satisfying modelling. Cheers Rob

What a nice "Baby" you built there. I like the appearance of the bird, specially with the wings folded. It adds to the "busy" look, with lots of eyecatching areas to explore. To my eye there are some areas of the Spad, which seem to "new" in the general picture, like the prop if this "very" little critique is allowed. Cheers Rob

Thats a clear "Wow-Job". Perfect blending of the different shades. I specially like the translucent effect of the greens on the upper side. Cheers Rob

Beautiful plane and nice finish. It's good to see a Corsair in a not so typical scheme. Having built one myself I can tell that these Tamiya Corsairs are really fun to build. Cheers Rob

Your Zero is coming together nicely. Nice and subtle shading effects on the underside. The good thing on these Japanese planes is the lack of camouflage, which allows to concentrate on varying possibilities for intense weathering and ageing. Cheers Rob

Hi Rich, if you only post here in LSM there is a way. The Forum Software allows to load up pictures. The "how to" could be found in the more recent entries of this one. Cheers Rob

Why Murdock are you wasting your time then. Member since 2013 and this piece of art is the second post. To bored to check the first one, but I'm sure it is another gem. Rob (without cheers)

Hola Plastic Cement addicted Community, Since some weeks I tried to figure out which kind of jig would be the best and most flexible to assemble, paint and rig single and double winged planes of different sizes and shape (hope to avoid a triplane ). I tried to contact a member of LSM because I liked his construction of a metal moveable arm with an attached metal jig, but the attempt to made a contact failed (https://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/3175-bos-model-claw-by-johan-bos-aka-pfuf/) and so I did some research about jigs and ordered one made by Vertigo. I recently recieved the package from Slovak company Vertigo-miniatures which included two separate sets of jigs. "EVO 3224 (VMP007)" is the basic jig for monoplanes and "Upgrade set Basic+EVO for 3224 (VMP011)" enables you to enhance the jig for biplanes. http://www.vertigo-miniatures.com/vertigo/eshop/15-1-VERTIGO-JIGS) The Package includes the very cleanly contured transparent acrylic parts, some of them with engraved scales on, lots of screws, some rubber feet and some foam material for protecting the models. The acrylic parts are one sided secured with an adhesive foil, which has to be removed before assembly (If the parts are engraved the protection foil is always on the other side). You have to glue all the angled parts and the traverse triangles. The manual suggests to use CA glue (which I did) or Epoxy glue. Since I didn't use Future before glueing with the CA, I got a little fogging on the transperencies, but hey, it is a tool, so no harm done. All in all the assembly took me about an hour and there were no difficulties to master after reading the A4 printed manual sheets. Everything fitted perfectly and no parts were missing. As an ex engineer I would have liked a better quality for the screws, but the included ones do the job. That's the parts count of the two packages without the screws. The monoplane setup Biplane setup With Hasegawa 1/32 Raiden for size comparison (three point fixation). The jig is labeled for 1/24, 1/32 and 1/48 scale, but my tiny 1/72 Mig-17 finds a save place too (four point fixation). Some more details Scales are engraved preciesely and you can adjust all the angles. My final thougts are, that the jig is a very flexible tool which will act as the often mentioned third hand in many cases of assembling, painting and decaling and yes, rigging, without ruining your bird by permanetly touching it and break loose tiny parts (own experience). It is robust and widely adjustable and will adopt to nearly every kit. The T-shape of the parts supporting the kit give you the possibility to secure your kit with a rubber band. You would have guessed, that I higly recommend these Vertigo jigs, although I will construct a one armed one myself in some future time, especially made for maximum flexibility while airbrushing kits. Cheers Rob

Wow, that looks bad and if I look for the covered rivets the decals seem realy thick. Cheers Rob

Another little gem as you are staying with the Brits and again nice attention to detail. I like the exhausts and the plumbing. What have the issues with the decals been? I try to avoid kit decals and use masks for roundels and letters. For some future builds I will have a shot on HGW wet transfers and hope for better results. Cheers Rob

Wow, I like your Mossie a lot, very nice paintwork and attention to detail and I like the all open (show me everything) aproach. A great way to start your LSM stint, welcome by the way. If you allow a little criticism, there is to much shine on the uniform of the pilot for my liking and the wheels seem to shine a little too. Maybe it is the lighting or a flash. Cheers Rob

Hi Darren, impressive work on the camo and a great idea about the masking. As I saw the first pictures of ocean gray I thought what the heck, but then it clicked . We share the same preferences for the airbrush, mate. A magnificent tool, I like even better than my old Rotring ones, which are engineered more refined, but are not so easy to use for modelling. They are better to use with inks and other non pigmented colors. Cheers Rob

A very nice Meteor, I like the paintjob. Cheers Rob

Hi Gus, make sure that all four barrels are in the packet. I had just a single barrel in my package and had to return it for annother one. My dealer told me that there is a batch of mispacked ones around. Cheers Rob

Thanks Mate, I will keep your advice in mind. Cheers Rob

Hi CB, nice job on the Tiffy, everything is looking great. Love the look of the wing guns. Did you had any problems with the fitting of the fuselage parts? The complicated nose shape cries for such issues. Cheers Rob

Hi Rick, I will not comment the right selection of the GP Turnbuckles, as I'm no expert and I think others more into the subject will answer. Where I can be of help is your question considering the quality of the GP guns. For some of my WNW Kits i chose the GP guns and I went the extra mile to make a little photo comparison for the D VII and the Snipe. Spandau 08/15 GP-No. 32060 vs. WNW for the Fokker Vickers British HylandType B GP-No. 32062 vs. WNW for my Early Snipe For me there is a clear advantage to the GP guns, especially the 08/15 with that perforated cooling parts. For my Brandenburg W.12 I will use ABER Brass 08/15 cooling jackets and barrels combined with the WNW plastic. The good thing on brass is that you can use burnishing fluid to blacken it to a very convincing look, much better than airbrushed. So is it worth the extra money, you have to decide for yourself, but given the very visible appearance of the weapons on a WW1 plane I will milk my budget. Cheers Rob