DocRob

Today, I spent some exhausting hours to sort the parts, mainly the white metal cast ones, as they are the most numerous. I made it a two step affair, first using the parts layout prints from the MFH homepage, to check if everything is there. These photos of the parts are especially helpful, as they are scaled and this helps to identify the parts. In the second step, I sorted the parts into a plastic box with different sized trays, ordered after the steps in the manual. The tiny parts, like screws and bolts, I left out, as they are easier identified separately. Tomorrow, I will add resin and rubber parts along with screws, nuts and bolts. Cheers Rob

Oh yeah Kevin, there is a load of different materials to master, mainly white metal, but also chrome plated metal, rubber, resin, some wire and tubing, but no polystyrol . Lets wait with the magic part until later, Martin . First some basic steps of preparation. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, Scott and Jeff, who knows, if I ever had started the big bat without the GB. Many lessons learned through the build, especially, it´s not the size or emphasize of difficult tasks, that should back you off of desired projects. This was 95 percent fun and never boring, like some ´simple´ builds sometimes are. Cheers Rob

That´s a very appealing color scheme, Kriss, which supports the the flowing design of the airframe, nice work. Cheers Rob

I was immediately in love with the Crocker on first sight and knew, I had to buy the kit. Lets hope, I can do it justice. Browsing through the box is another beautiful sensation, as the parts look so crisp and sharp and no sprues for a change . Cheers Rob

An adventure it will be for sure, Peter. I´m not sure, if I build the Crocker exclusively, as there is the 1/24 Fokker DR.I waiting as a quick build and the started 1/20 McLaren MP4/6 is waiting too. I also learned a lot from other build logs concerning MFH builds and borrow a lot of the described ideas. Cheers Rob

I think, I´ve seen nearly everything about MFH in short time, including these very interesting videos, Carl. I learned, that they mostly have no plans to measure and use photos for the purpose. The magnetic tumbler was indeed a good invest, as I plan to build more of the MFH kits, when this adventure turns out on a positive tune. Cheers Rob

It was my first MFH kit and after I opened the box, I was hooked. Now I have two more and one other will arrive next week, I guess. The tumbler will pay off sooner or later. I tried a rotating tumbler with steel balls also, but the result was not satisfying. The larger surfaces looked better than with the magnetic tumbler, but they don´t enter crevices and round the finer details. Are there especially good deals of MFH kits? I buy directly from MFH, the price is ok, compared to other vendors and somehow their FedEx shipping sneaks it around our customs . Cheers Rob

Fantastic detailing, Martin, this build will be epic. I love the addition of pilots fuel and the hatches inside, not to speak off the bomb racks, phenomenal. Cheers Rob

Coming together nicely, FA. I like your sequential weathering technique, where the layers add up depth, a necessity with that scale, I think. The added details let the build pop and are nice eye catchers. Cheers Rob

Ladies and Gentlemen, lets start our engines and begin a new adventure. Some month ago, I received my first MFH kit, after I saw some pictures of the finished model and fell in love with the bike immediately. There she was, all the great ingredients of an American bike classic minus the to my eye ugly mid section, the classic Harley Davidson models have. I will not tell a lot about the history of the bike, as I´m not an expert here, but it´s a pretty exclusive one. Hand built, the numbers of production bikes range between 60 and 300. The few surviving beauties are among the highest priced motorcycles of today. The Crocker was fast, so fast, that the company complied, to give back the full price of the bike, should the driver be overtaken by a Harley or Indian on a strait road. The kit was bought from MFH in Japan directly for a decent price and the fastest and trouble free shipping, I ever had and reached after six days on my doorstep. Since then, I bought some more MFH kits, as simply browsing through the boxes, the absolute top quality of the kits has an addictive spell over me. The kits are multi-media, most parts are from cast white metal, some photo etch, rubber parts, different hoses and wires, some chrome plated metal parts, nice decals, ... I preparation for the build, I read a lot about MFH kits, to get a hold onto the many new adventures, I was expecting with the build and as one result, I invested into a magnetic tumbler polisher for cleaning the white metal parts. It took my month to finally obtain one to my remote place in the world, but finally, it arrived. After some successful testing, all white metal parts were dumped into the tumbler´s bowl, then, I added water with a drop of detergent and 200 gram of 0,3 mm steel polishing needles. The strong magnet in the base swirls the needles around the non magnetic parts and `hammers´ the surfaces very gingerly. After about an hour of tumbling the water was dark black and the parts looked like this. It was not so easy to remove the tinier parts from the needles and I keep all the bowls with needles and the blackened water until, I made sure, I picked all the parts out. For now, I rinsed the parts with water again and layed them out onto kitchen paper to dry. The finish of the tumbled parts is fantastic, but of course, further cleanup will be needed down the road. Some parts will get polished, as the white metal looks perfectly, like steel or even chrome when polished carefully. Next step will be checking against a copy of the manual, if all parts are there. MFH manuals include only a rudimentary parts list, but on their homepage, they have pictures of the kits parts, which will be helpful for the task. I will add a few detail pictures from some of the parts, to show the fantastic casting quality. The tumble polishing of the parts effect surface detail only minimal, details remained sharp. Stay tuned for more. Cheers Rob

Your interior looks great, Peter. Good to hear about the quality of Eduard´s Mustangs. I´m considering buying the P-51 Royal Class boxing of their P-51-B Cheers Rob

I had similar effects with Mr. Hobby GX-100 gloss clear, mixed with leveling thinner in a plastic jar. Seems the mix dissolved the plastic. Cheers Rob

Thank you Kevin, I think there are still some AEG´s out their, new and for the original price. That and some month work, et voila . Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter and Hubert. I know a lot about figure painting theoretically, but am not able to convert it onto my figures. I know about the eyes. My mechanic looks like he´d seen a bunch of Camels approaching with his bug eyes. I always fight with color consistency with figures. too dense and you have a blob, too thin and it doesn´t cover. What really helps are good brushes and I´m not only using the smallest, as color soaking capacity is also important. Anyway, I added the second figure to my build and call the mighty bat FINISHED .

Thank you FA and Martin, the build was challenging at times, but somehow ever rewarding. Fortunately the Twins GB was enough of a kick a$$ to start this extensive project. Cheers Rob

Wise decision, Carl. I like to choose figures fitting for a build, which actually form a picture or tell a story, but I often shy away, when time comes for painting these. The eyes are terribly different and many of my attempts end cross eyed. Cheers Rob

Lots of fitting design elements there, Carl. The Super F-15 is coming together nicely. Cheers Rob

Nice haul, Paul. I have the grinder as well and had hoped for a more universal collet for slow revolution drilling duties. It´s a nice tool, but a bit limited due to the 3mm shaft diameter. Cheers Rob

Stunning looking Jug, Peter. You chose a very attractive scheme and the decals let it pop. Bummer with the description. My decal sheet for the Burma Banshees seems to have a very decent documentation with measurements even for the painted bars. Cheers Rob

Thank you Martin, I loved the figure, when I saw it first and in the GB-Finished section, you can see the other figure and that it is not a hammer, but a wrench, we are talking German engineering here . Cheers Rob

The big bat is finished now, that I found the courage to paint the figures. Cheers Rob

Well, here are my feeble attempts in figure painting. I try to do one or two figures per build, but often shy away, because painting these is always like a burde for me. Nonetheless, i try to improve my skills and sometimes force myself to finish the figures. The mechanic is painted with acrylic colors from Scale75, except for the skin, which was painted with oil colors. Cheers Rob

Inks are definitely worth a look, Peter. For testing the effect you can dilute every high pigmented color, where after thinning no pigments show and ´varnish´ over painted areas. It´s like a wash, but with a lot more density, pigment wise. The steel pins are included with some tumblers, with others not. I had to take what´s available and had to order extra pins, but that´s no problem, as I could order different sizes for experimenting. I have some time until first testing, as I start a little week trip to Galicia in Northern Spain for having the finest seafood among other goodies. Cheers Rob

That´s where the bock in the background comes into play, Martin. Earnestly, I used inks over acrylic paints for figure painting, but there are many other possibilities. The inks are very thin in consistence, but have a lot of pigment and can be used brushed or sprayed. One little example, I could remember were the boots of this shaving gent, where I used yellow and brown inks on his boots for color richness and depth. Cheers Rob