DocRob

It´s hard to center a drill bit perfectly for drilling out a gun barrel or similar, because of the dead center. What helps, is to stick a fresh triangular blade to the tip of the gun nozzle and carefully rotate the blade, marking the center. Then it´s easy to finalize the hole with a drilling bit. Cheers Rob

I don´t know, if H&S sell them separately, but they should fit onto other Infinity muzzles as well. They replace the needle protector cap, which I don´t use normally. X-22 with some added flat base came to mind Peter, thinned with normal Tamiya thinner, which shouldn´t be too aggressive. Applied, like Carl said, a misted, fast drying coat and then more. Cheers Rob

Thanks Carl, misting over a very thin protective layer could really help. I haven´t used the airbrush tips before, but they seem very good for certain airbrushing tasks. It helps to get lines with the same width over a model and like I said, helps aiming. Fine airbrush work, like skin tones or similar on figures will benefit too. Cheers Rob

Sealing them will be the first step, Peter, but with several weathering steps planned, I would have liked to use a durable varnish. On the inner fuselage decals, I tried AK real color matte with leveling thinner, which slightly attacked the decals. I will have to experiment with Tamiya clear matte and the Tamiya X-thinner or worst case with Future and added flat base. Cheers Rob

After I figured out, which parts were needed for the nacelles and radiators, I started to paint them. The left engine will be displayed un-cowled, the right one with cowlings. All parts were sprayed with AK matte aluminum, which is not that matte, but covers great and has a nice metallic sheen. It will be only the base layer for weathering and was followed by two coats of horrible smelly hairspray for later chipping. Then the parts were sprayed with Tamiya XF-22 (RLM 22) for the engine bearers and XF-17 sea blue for the outside of the cowlings and radiators. The sea blue was highlighted then, with some drops of sand color added, highlighting the upper sides and the panel borders. The effect is hard to see on the pic, but it´s there. Later, the cowling outsides will be dampened to activate the hairspray and scratched with a variety of tools for chipping. Airbrushing slightly lighted sea blue onto the dark surfaces proved difficult, but I remembered that with my H&S Infinity Giraldez edition airbrush came three different nozzle guide horns (the mounted one is the longest), which were very helpful, placing the slightly lighter dots and will come handy with free hand squiggle camo, as you keep the same distance to the kit and it makes aiming easier. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, I´m looking for a used, weathered look with the AEG. For the engines it´s relatively easy to achieve, with the fuselage not so much. I need a plan for this, as the decals are fragile and I have to think about, which products I can use onto them. Because they were opaque there was no way of preshading, which I normally prefer. Cheers Rob

Thank you Mike, I use the AK waxes frequently, but only on surfaces, I do not plan to cover them with paint or varnish later. It might work, but I haven´t tried yet. They are a good addition to base paint and pigments and spread thin and even, with great coverage. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias amigos, I have a huge box in my workshop containing all metal colors, waxes and pigments. When I start WWI engines, I open it, like the make- up kit a Grace Kelly would have done and let the contents speak to me . It´s an iterative process, only partly planned. The drilling was partly superfluous, as the CA got soaked into the tubes and I had to but glue the wires, which works good with that easy to bend lead wire, luckily. Cheers Rob

I guess there is, CMK has a cockpit set and there is the HPH cut away for the He-111, Scott, screams heard . Cheers Rob

Fantastic progress Carl, mottling looks super, as does the masked markings. I have HGW wet transfers for mine, but with my experiences with these, I´m not so sure, I will use them. Is the kit landing gear so bad, it needs to be exchanged for AM? Cheers Rob

I finished the engines today, which were fun to build, but a ton of work. I wired only the left engine, as the right one will be hidden under cowlings. After priming all the parts with Tamiya LP-5 semi gloss black, the aluminum parts were sprayed with AK´s Extreme metals matte aluminum, the ignition harness in copper and the tiny ´golden´ parts in brass, all from AK. I wanted a blotchy look for the lower aluminum parts and used the salt technique again, spraying dark aluminum on top. After that, I used AK´s true metal wax aluminum, dark aluminum and steel, dabbed on with a stiff old brush and then worked into the surface with a flat brush. The result looks more dotted to the real eye. The tubing received my usual treatment of steel pigment rubbed in only slightly for a tiny bit of sheen, followed by some dark brown pigments on the intake manifold and cylinders. The oil tanks were sprayed brass, salted and followed by pale brass, later waxes of brass and bronze for a worn, but shiny metal look. I applied a self mixed black oil wash, thinned with matte thinner, to enhance the details. Wiring was next, I but glued the ignition cables to the spark plugs with CA and cut the overlap with a fresh blade, easy with 0,2 mm lead wire. The ´bushes´ of 6 cables for each magneto were sorted out and glued into place. Finally, I dabbed some semi matte black onto CA residues. Per my usual practice, I used CA for mounting painted parts, which is more comfortable to me. I use a toothpick to add the CA, a less potential messy affair than using Extra thin, eating through the paint and running into unwanted places. Cheers Rob

Thank you Martin and Peter, some of my efforts didn´t play out as wanted, but I got it done anyway. the CA capillared into the brass tubes and I had to glue the ignition wires flat on top of the ´spark plugs´. The fantastic Colle 21 CA did it´s job here again. Cheers Rob

Indeed a beauty. Painting and weathering looking outstanding. Cheers Rob

A few days off the forum and bang, the big cat is half done. Your cockpit looks absolutely fantastic and I´m glad to hear, there are no real issues with the kit. When I read through your log, I had to smile, thinking of my huge AEG powered by only 520 horses and in contrary the huge amount of power, the Tomcat possesses. Cheers Rob

Please keep the file, Martin. I have this one planned as a future build and have no cutter yet. Cheers Rob

No Paul, it just run out of luck, at least, when I built it. Cheers Rob

Sweet Carl, I never have attempted a mottling camo myself, but hope to do soon. I would be lucky, if it comes out like yours. Cheers Rob

Today, I received some planes and only a bit of large scale stuff. The Savoia Marchetti SM 79 Sparviero was on my list from the moment, I first saw that there will be a re-release. The plastic originates from the old Classic Airframes kit and looks a bit robust on firs sight. Eduard added a heap of resin parts for wheels, engines, props, cockpit,... along with some PE to enhance the base kit. I always liked the quirky looks of the Sparviero and built one (Airfix 1/72), when I was a teenager. Next there is another re-pop in 1/48. I always wanted to build a HS-129 and was amazed to see that Hobby 2000 offers a re-release of the old Hasegawa kit, but with Cartograph decals and masks. I added Master gun barrels and might use the kit as a testbed for a white wash winter camo. The following decal sheet is a last chance buy. I have grown very, hmmh - let´s say ambivalent feeling for HGW´s products over the years. I like their seat belts, even if they manage to get every type of manual wrong. The rest of their range lasts from superfluous like many of their strange designed PE for WNW kits to unusably and crappy, like my set of extra details for my WNW Hansa Brandenburg, where they made none fitting paper inserts for the inside of the fuselage. I can´t imagine anybody used these successfully. In the same set were IP wood decals, that were the most fragile, I ever used. Speaking of fragile, their wet transfers look great in best case, but to achieve this best case, you have to work really hard, to fulfill the requirements. The wood decals for my WNW Albatros are my last try on HGW decals. They claim, the fit should be perfect and I hope they are not as fragile as others I used from HGW. This is a new release and if it doesn´t work, it´s the good ole` oil color wood rendering technique. Not shown is a PE fret for my 1/35 Tamiya Citroen C11, with am etched front grille substituting the plastic. Cheers Rob

Fantastic work, congratulations. I really like the diversity of your builds. It seems you get bored easily, when building only certain subjects in a certain scale, like I do. Cheers Rob

Great work on the burner can, Gus. The fit generally seems to be ok-ish, but the detailing looks fantastic. You´ll need a lot of patience with this build, I guess. Some years ago, I enlarged my spray booth, using a large transparent plastic container, duct taped to the vent box of my old booth. I described what I did in this thread, a simple fix. You´ll need a bigger booth, Gus to stay in adopted movie terms not Ad bullshit, which is the same here, but I seldom watch it. Cheers Rob

How could you weather the aluminum in such a short time PW? Did you leave it out in the wild for some years, with snow, rain, sun and wind to abuse it? 1/1 weathering I would call it . Looks really convincing, great job Cheers Rob

The creature got it´s tail, but without the rudder and elevator for now. The joints are fragile and therefore they will be added later. The intersecting tail parts are pure genius, they hold all three parts exactly in place with perfect fit, I only glued for security. As a break from decaling, I decided to start the engines. One will be covered with cowls and less detailed, the other will be without cowls and receive some updates, to enhance detail level. First, I scratched the top rocker springs for a more coiled look with a sharp scribing needle. Next, I drilled out the holes for the spark plugs with a 0,5 mm drill bit, to accept 1,5 mm long pieces of brass tube with an outer diameter of 0,5 mm and an inner diameter of 0,3 mm. Said tube pieces were cut with a sharp blade, only rolling them on a flat surface with only slight pressure. This way, you cut easily without leaving burr in the hole. These spark plugs will be CA-ed into the holes and will become 0,2 mm lead wire inserted for the ignition cables. Then I prepared the ignition harness, using the kit part and gluing a six pack of 0,2 mm lead wires to the end of the tubes, which will later be connected with the magnetos and glued a pair of lead wires for every cylinder to the plastic part, which will later be inserted into the spark plugs. Cheers Rob

Indeed Peter, a few days, after I made the purchase, I received the mail, that the homepage of the company will be shut down and maybe reopened under another name later in the year. Glad, that my parcel was on it´s way then. Cheers Rob

Thank you Mike, decaling is definitely testing my patience, but the quality of the decals helps. Nonetheless, it´s hard to do something in between, I permanently visit my bench, to do some adjusting here, some decal softener application, ... . I hope to start with the engines soon and will develop a plan for my weathering approach. I´m a bit lost here, because the opaque character of the decals robs me of my favorite methods of pre shading for WWI planes, I built before. The Rexx exhausts are a treat, not necessarily needed, as the kit parts are not too bad either, but they will look fantastic. I will build one engine with and the other without cowlings or maybe scratch a bit and make one half open. Cheers Rob

Is it a Heinkel He-220, Carl ? I knew it, these Cylons were evil. Cheers Rob