DocRob

Sorry to hear about your issues with the ship kit. 1/350 details are very small and the scale is not the best to start with ships. There is a learning curve with al that scraping, sanding cutting and replacing with PE, but I´m sure with a bit of training, your results will improve. I used quite a lot of tools for my ship build and chisels with 2mm or 3mm blade were extremely helpful, specially for removing plastic from flat surfaces, like mentioned molded anchor chains. Working with these at the right angle leaves a near perfect flat surface. PE folding tweezers were more helpful than the larger folding tools. I have two Tamiya tweezers, a long one and a short, pointed one. Folding up box like structures is easy with these, much less time consuming than with a large folding tool, which has other qualities. When it comes to rounded contours with PE, it helps to anneal the brass with a lighter flame. Heat up the metal until it turns bluish, no more. Glad you seem to stay with the USS Fletcher, Peter, albeit with lesser detail. I used a lot of PE with my USS Arizona, but far from all and my plastic was worse than yours. Give yourself some time and patience, it´s a new genre, which calls for a different mindset and new skills, but it´s worth exploring. Take the Fletcher as a learning mule and maybe you are surprised with the outcome in the end. There are many sea faring options in larger scales, from 1/200 up to 1/35 and there is also WOOD modeling . Cheers Rob

Lots of prep work done lately. I filed, sanded and near polished fuel tank and mudguards, primed them with Mr. Color grey primer 1200 and sprayed the tank with Tamiya LP-2 gloss white, which came out nice and shiny. Of course, I drilled all the necessary holes beforehand. The rims needed also a lot of preparation. As you can see on the pic, there are prominent cast seams between the spokes, which I cleaned with a sharp blade and then used a rotating tool to refine the surfaces. I decided against polishing and also primed the rims, after I drilled the holes for the spokes. Body color will be black now, where initially thought about dark blue, but I don´t like the look of blue rims. All other parts, which will be painted black, were drilled, prepared and primed. Luckily some help arrived today, more drill bits and two DSPIAE hand drills, the left one with a collet, the right one with a chuck. You can´t have enough of these, as you permanent need to drill holes in different diameters. Cheers Rob

Absolutely Carl, I rarely have jumped so often from step to step in the manual like with the Crocker. Additionally you always have to identify, where which fitting belongs with the parts list and drill the accepting hole, after measuring the appropriate diameter. Until now, the most important tool was the Proxxon mini drill with a stand and even more important the foot pedal for the hundreds of holes to drill. Cheers Rob

Indeed Peter, but they are human after all. Since yesterday, I prepare the mudguards and fuel tank for painting and this includes a lot of prep work. There are blemishes in the cast, which has to be filed and sanded away, then a bit of polishing. These parts are primed now and the tank got a gloss white coat and needs to fully dry now. I also drilled the rims, to accept the spokes and cleaned them a bit. There is a small but very visible cast seam from spoke to spoke, which I removed with a sharp blade and smoothed everything with a brass brush on a rotating tool. Initially, I thought about polishing the rims, but that would be very difficult and I will paint them, as were a lot on the original bikes. Cheers Rob

Looking good Carl, this will be a one off Eagle and a beautiful one. With these large kits, gravity takes it´s toll sometimes. Better now, than after painting. Cheers Rob

I purchased five or six times there over the last year. No problems at all. The shipping took some time, but that was ok for me, as I chose the cheapest shipping method. Cheers Rob

Indeed interesting and an ideal example for 1/16. I have the 1/35 Riich kit in my stash and will pass, but I guess the Riich kit is challenging with lots of tiny details and zillions of parts. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, these MFH kits are something special. The detailing is extremely good and I often ask myself, how they achieve the amount of detail with their white metal casting. Now with the engine almost done, I´m half through the manual, but there are still a lot of challenges to master. There is the spoking of the wheels, the PE chain to build and to airbrush a decent finish onto the tank and mudguards. I´m really interested, if the motorcycle kits are easier or more difficult to build, than the MFH car kits, but I will find out soon. Cheers Rob

The battery/alternator area was a little bit nightmarish to assemble, with lots of connecting parts, PE brackets and the wiring, which needed to be pre fabricated, because of the tiny PE connection fittings. Somehow, I got it done with a bit of wiggling. Adding the pedals on both sides was much simpler affair, luckily and they are now awaiting the footrests. Until now, there is one thing to remember with that kind of build. Study the manual, examine, where all the parts connect and how, measure the connecting diameters and drill out the corresponding holes and try not to forget any, as they may be impossible too reach later. Sure, test fitting is mandatory as well. Cheers Rob

Thank you all, the battery / alternator area proved to be very difficult to finish, so far the hardest part of the build. The space is crammed and the alternator needed some wiring and the battery of course too. The wiring consists from normal electric wire and needs very tiny bended PE fittings at the ends, which have to be mounted with equally tiny rivets . It´s also hard to determine the length of the wires, which needed to be pre fabricated. After a lot of cursing and test fitting, I finally made it. Pictures will follow. Cheers Rob

I added the ignition wiring, spark plugs and the mysterious third wire, which leads to the hidden condenser coil, the shift rods and gearbox. The alternator and battery are finished, but only mounted temporary, to determine the length of the wiring. The only "AM" used is the tiny bracket, which holds together the ignition wiring. I fabricated it from tin of a wine bottle cap. So far no real worries except a wrong aligned part (my fault), which needed to be pried loose. Luckily I was test fitting the following assemblies and noticed it. Electrical wiring is a bit tedious, as there are tiny PE parts to bend, to accept the un-isolated wire, which easily slips out before gluing. You learn to like Tamiya manuals, where they show you the length of the wires, but apart from that, the MFH manual is pretty clear and easy to understand. Cheers Rob

We´ve all been at this point Peter, no mojo left for finishing the actual project and no desire to start the next in the row. It even happens to me with nothing like a fixed path of subjects, only building aircraft. I need permanent change to keep me interested and I hate redundance. You spoke about your situation and I like your approach to start a new adventure, no matter what is the outcome. To me modeling has become a very important hobby, not only for the results and the time spent, but also as a tranquilizing factor in times, when other things in live were not in sync and helped me through difficult phases in the past. Sometimes, when I´m in a modeling slump, it feels, like I owe something to the hobby and it will keep me sane with future problematic phases. It helps to fuel the spirit and start over again, even better, like you did with an empty desk - do something new approach. I have only the experience of my 1/350 USS Arizona build under my build, considering plastic ship modelling and this was a challenging project due to the poor plastic quality, but it was a lot of fun also and I learned a lot of new skills and techniques. I have only two more 1/350 kits in my stash, but some vessels in larger scale, like the Revell 1/144 Flower Class Corvette along a nice Pontos set and I look forward to build this one. I also have my eye on the 1/200 IJN Mikasa, as I like the older shaped ships a lot and the early livery of Mikasa is quite colorful. I wish you tons of fun with the destroyer and all that brass and maybe there is a sea base in the looming, a thing I never tried. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias amigos, good plastic motorcycle kits do look great, but what separates the metal kits is the weight of the material, which adds another dimension. Besides, it´s fun to leave the aluminum parts unpainted, the white metal looks the part. Cheers Rob

Nice progress with the started painting phase, Chris. I hear you on faded or not. A bit of fading should enhance the look of the finished model, I think. Cheers Rob

Fantastic result FA, the Russian heavy metal came out great. I like the wear and weathering a lot as well as all the tiny details, which pop the eye. Cheers Rob

I achieved some important progress today, marrying the engine and the frame. Luckily casting precision and design is very good and I had only a little wiggling to do, while join the numerous connection points of the engine bearing plates to the engine. The frame itself needed some bending, to accept the engine, which I did before painting. The cast material is durable but easy to bend an very good to work with, luckily. Cheers Rob

Excitement finally granted, Martin , you were right. The Crockers were all hand built and not two of them were equal. The ignition system varied with two different types, magneto or distributor type. The ominous third wire leads to a condensor coil, which is shown on your pic. Earlier ´Small tank´versions of the Crocker had that coil behind the engine under the seatpost. The later model had it often hidden under the tank, or like on your pic in front of the engine. I cannot say from my sampled pictures, how the original configuration looked and which are modified later on. Over on Modelshipworld, there were some very knowledgeful fellows, who added a lot of information in my mirrored build thread. Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, the wiring is just the beginning. There are more fuel lines, some steering cables, the ignition wiring and the shifting mechanism to be done. Until now, I finished only the later hard to reach lines, manipulating the engine with all the wiring and tubing would be difficult. Cheers ROb

Thank you Phil, I guess, the final weight will be about one kilogram, but the metal engine feels weighty. There are two stands with the kit, a side stand and a rectangular stand for the rear wheel. Cheers Rob

A fantastic looking big bird, Martin. Everything is coming together now and the layered weathering is amazing. The turret barrels caught my eye as well as Hubert´s, hopefully it´s only caused by the wide angle lens. Cheers Rob

After airbrushing the frame with Tamiya LP-1 gloss black, I continued with the engine. I added the carburetor and some fuel lines, which are hard to reach later. The engine is more or less finished now and will be mounted into the frame next. Cheers Rob

Thanks Martin and Hubert, this picture shows my configuration with the distributor. The third wire vanishes somewhere under the tank, like shown in the manual as well. Cheers Rob

Thanks for the photo, Martin, my Crocker´s set up is different from the pic, yours show the magneto version, mine has the smaller distributor. Said cable goes up under the tank, possibly to one of the both ignition keys?????? Cheers Rob

I built up the frame from it´s various parts, which again included lots of drilling and leafing through the manual, to see, which diameter is needed for a hole and what´s going in. Luckily the precision of the casting is fantastic and there are only minimal irritations in the parts. Here is a mock up with the engine mounted into the frame. Meanwhile said frame is primed and the missing carburetor parts got airbrushed. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, I have lots of fun working with metal for a change, but you are right, precision and a good plan are needed to tackle these kits. Cheers Rob