DocRob

I must have had this catalogue too, I remember all of the box arts. I might have circled numerous of the kits as well. Huh, sentimental journey, thanks for showing PW. Cheers Rob

Looks fantastic and I have to agree, the left side looks better. I had a similar effect once, painting NMF on a JUG, but can´t remember the details. Cheers Rob

Thank you PW and Carl, there were many options camo wise, but I wanted to create an own pattern. I used hairspray on many occasions and it always worked for me, even after days. With my Corsair build, I used it even in two layers, separating the primer color from the metal base and between the camo color and the primer, to achieve more depth with the chipping. The only issue I have, besides the dreaded smell, is that sometimes the covering paint layers activate the hairspray a bit, normally not a problem with weathered objects. I have some heavy chipping fluid as well, but never really used it. Cheers Rob

While my shipments from Japan are still somewhere on the planet, I received a packet from Germany. I got the Meng 1/24 McLaren Mp4/4 from Meng. There is all you need in the kit, besides the tobacco sponsor decals, which are on the way from Spain. The kit includes metal stickers for the mirrors and carbon decals for the monocoque, beside the usual plastic, which looks actually very good. 1/20 will not become my favorite scale for F1 cars, the kit body looks astonishingly small in the box. I couldn´t get the huge Ironclad and went with the frigate instead. It´s my first Warhammer kit and it will be all about painting. There are only two sprues, but the parts are well detailed. Cheers Rob

On to the camo. It´s the FU-52 disruptive desert scheme, I planned for the Kampfanzug. Not that such a thing exists, I made it up, because I wanted to achieve something different, but desert related. The idea is to build a camo from 3 mm wide Kabuki strips added with some 10 mm squares. The angles should be from about 75 to 90 percent, not less. I tried to get an even uneven pattern as a result. The masking took some hours obviously and I made sure to, there is no chance of color bleeding, rubbing all strips in and using a toothpick for the corners. Funky isn´t it? Now on with the paint, in this case Tamiya XF desert yellow. I sprayed it a bit less diluted than usual, to hinder bleeding under the masks. Masks were removed only minutes after application. I prefer to get rid of the masks fast, when the color isn´t completely cured, but dry to the touch. The camo has a kind of razzle dazzle look to it, but this will fade with weathering and all the abuse, I will put onto it. Cheers Rob

I feel a big relief to hear that your and Dianes outlook is positive and I hope you can maintain the positive vibes through the hard times with your brother´s health issues. Take your time for all the really important things in life and when it´s time again, you know where to find us. Cheers Rob

I have to leave my workshop for some hours afterwards Hubert, I hate the smell. Luckily my wife has long blonde hair and never uses hairspray, other ways I would be solo . Cheers Rob

I spare you the smelly pics, the next two layers on the Kampfanzug were hairspray for my planned heavy sandblast chipping. I use the stuff directly from the can. For those, who don´t know the technique. I made a steel base layer, then hairspray and on top I apply the two tone camo. When everything is dried, I dampen the surfaces, where I want to chip, which activates the hairspray and loosens the adhesion of the two tone camo layers. With different tools, I can now scratch the top layers away. Next was the base layer of my planned camouflage, using Tamiya XF-64 red brown as the darker tone. It´s a bit bring to show all the layers here, but I did, to describe the process. Cheers Rob

After burying the fellow in his steel grave, I masked the front window and inserted it temporary with some diluted PVA glue. I added the missing bits and pieces to the Kampfanzug and sprayed it with Mr. Surfacer 1000 black as a solid base. Next was a coat of AK Extreme Metallics steel as the base coat. Cheers Rob

I wanted to be a bit Carlesque and started a parallel build . It´s a 1/35 X-Plus Spinosaurus sans tongue for easier painting later. The build took only three hours. Cheers Rob

I can imagine, how hard it is to get all the measurements of the fuselage parts right during the design process. It´s so easy, to miss a millimeter here or there, but it definitely shows when mounted. Clear resin looks pretty good and your build log is a clinic for 3D printing, a way, I´m not willing to take myself right now. I can see myself designing and printing smaller parts, but not whole kits. In my case it could also be troublesome to get the needed materials, so I will relay on AM producers or just buy MFH kits . Cheers Rob

Wow Carl, yummy. I love my Kamado as well, perfect for everything except Bronto Burger. I even cold smoke Tuna and Wahoo in there. Cheers Rob

Meanwhile, I managed to close the body of the Kampfanzug. Which sounds like a simple task, but wasn´t. A huge amount of pegs have to intersect and they had really tight tolerances. I had to use pliers at some points, always hoping, the side windows don´t pop out. Most of the kit could be build without glue, that´s why there are so many pegs. I masked the cockpit front window with kabuki tape and sawed off the huge mounting part, because it disturbed the view to the inside. The interior of the suit got water dampened to activate the hairspray and then chipped with various tools. This was followed be DAK sand effect, a kind of wash with pigments in it. I liked the effect a lot and applied it onto the poor pilot as well, before I buried him in his steel grave. I will leave the weathering for now, but I´m pretty sure, I will add more later. Cheers Rob

Indeed Peter, I had checked an array of different colors for the interior beforehand, ranging from duck egg, sky blue, sand tones, RLM 02 and others, but after surfing, it was clear, I need some contrast for the sand heavy finish planned. Cheers Rob

Ugly bugger, the plane I mean, tipped me over and I hit the buy button, thanks PW . Cheers Rob

Bummer, a new species Kevin, the hardwood floor monster, but gear bay doors . You should fill the gaps, they must be canyon like . I once searched for an airborne PE part for about an hour and after giving up, I found it, while having breakfast, adhering to my sweat shirt. Riveting looks good and I like the rockets as well. Cheers Rob

Surfing is not to everybody´s liking Kevin. It´s often cold and obviously wet and you get bashed a lot. On the other hand, it´s rewarding and a great workout, but I start to feel my age after these kind of long sessions. I sometimes move to Sci Fi or steampunk projects for a change, because they are a great canvas to test new techniques and go freestyling with my ideas. You should give it a try, if only there is the slightest interest. Cheers Rob

After two days of bodyboarding in nice waves, three hours in the water each day, I´m broke, muscles ache, but hey, it was a lot of fun. Why am I telling this here, because it brought me to a decision for the interior color of my Kampfanzug. What looks so beautiful, when you start surfing a wave, looking down in the direction of the ground, right, bright turquoise and then it hit me, why not painting the interior like a Russian jet with that strange shade of turquoise. Cheers Rob

Love it Gus, You made the plastic look like real metal, almost feeling the weight of it. Weathering is spot on. Cheers Rob

This GB entry was a spontaneous idea, while grudgingly breeding over the firstly unloved sandbox theme. I hope, I can get my idea out believable with the painting stage of the Kampfanzug coming. Cheers Rob

Rub it in Carl, I haven´t done much modelling and more blabbing with the GB . The shirt is not finished yet, I will do weathering and blending on a later stage, to get a fitting appearance. I wanted a comic like harsh contrast base with the ex pilot as a canvas. Cheers Rob

I didn´t had much time recently and made only small progress, but achieves some small steps. The deceased pilot got built and painted up. I used a guitar string for the spine, but the head is not fixed into position yet. I normally don´t like to show death and suffering in my builds, but this one should be a bit different, like black humor and so, I decided to give the figure a bit of a comic look through the paintjob, using heavily thinned acrylics and various shades of inks on top. The Kampfanzug (battle suit) was primed black, then the insides were sprayed with Extreme Metals duraluminum. I wanted to go titanium, but liked the shade of the duraluminum better. After that, the insides received a heavy dose of hairspray. Cheers Rob

Unfortunately, it wasn´t like that. The huge model railroad was kind of refugee for my father and I was only allowed there on rare occasions, but hey, that might inspired me to do better in modelling than him which was easy and in every other aspect as well. Subtext, we had not the easiest of relations . Cheers Rob

Nice anodized and weathered look to the Jug, PW, I like it. The checkerboard contrasts beautifully. Cheers Rob

Try tapping on the object of desire on your screen while using the IPhone, it helps sometimes with better light metering. There are better camera Apps out there as well. I use ProCam, which is cheap and enhances the possibilities of the Iphone camera. Cheers Rob