DocRob

Today, I received some goodies from Aviattic.com the three days after my purchase (temporarily) defunct European distributor for Aviattic.co.uk. I spare you the details, but I was lucky enough to hold these items in my hand. Three sets from the Ukrainian company Rexx, which produces galvanic grown metal exhausts for my AEG, Albatros and Fokker D.VII. The mechanic figure is casted by Martin Hille from Kellerkind miniatures, a company from my old hometown Berlin. Some detail shots from the exhausts, definitely an improvement over the kit parts and fascinating product due to the thinness of the material. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias amigos, the decaling stage is testing. You need a lot of patience, specially for the thin elevators, where the decals have to contour around the corners. Hot decal softeners destroy the decal, so it´s Micro Sol and Tamiya decal adhesive softener type, a hairdryer and lots of tiiiimmmmeeeeeeeeee. When I first saw the kit, when it came out, it was clear, that I would choose this scheme, if I ever build an AEG. What kind of animal the nose art represents, that may remain unsolved. Sharks would not be too typical for Germans, lets call it a monster, which it is for sure . Cheers Rob

Your new AB did work great, with an experienced guy at the trigger, Martin, love the mottled look. The base paint cries for an oil color treatment for ebven more depth. The tedious work with the walkways paid out, they look perfectly blended. Cheers Rob

Your dog is even sweeter than your build Carl, I guess, he has some other virtues than laying around and looking cute . Cheers Rob

Uschi´s iron pigments are always a good idea for highlighting dark colors and give them a nice metallic feel. I like your experimenting with the surface of this tiny movie star. Cheers Rob

Don´t waste your Sea Blue, you´ll need it, if you ever want to build a night bomber AEG, like me. It´s the base color and works well with the decals. Can´t wait to see this thing drop into the atmosphere. Cheers Rob

Looking good Ernie and will look better, when everything got blended through filtering and weathering. I always thought the camo to be soft edge, but looking at period pics shows, it´s hard edge. Cheers Rob

The creature got it´s creature jaws. After finishing the fuselage lozenge camo, I added the shark? mouth and the fuselage markings. The serial number of my plane is not known, but the command is and so I used a fictional number for the correct unit. With the lozenge decals, I had some unexpected troubles, when I used the hairdryer carefully onto one fuselage side, it wrinkled terribly and I was next to bin the kit, but leaned back and continued with Micro Sol and trying to push the wrinkles away, with every tool come to mind. Finally it was ok-ish but not perfect. I hope for the matte finish and tinted overlayer, to look good in the end. I also started with the tail, applying lozenge camo decals. It proved to be hard to fit them around the corners, which needed several applications of Micro Sol and hairdryer treatment. I could have used a stronger decal solvent, but decided against it, after I´ve seen, how sensible the decals are with thinner. Patience is the key here, a virtue I´m a bit short of possession, unfortunately. Then it was decision time about the shark mouth or maybe better whale mouth. WNW supplies two different options, one only in white and one with bluish brushstrokes around. Further, you can decide if the inner mouth should be dark or red. The red was omitted initially and after inspecting the very good existing front section photo, I decided for the one with the blue brushstrokes around. No worries, the last wrinkles will be gone after some more Sol applications. This all looks a bit stark now, but will tuned down a bit due to the use of tinted varnish, matte coat and weathering. Cheers Rob

Looking good, PW. I only once worked with clear two component epoxy and the manual said to not apply layers of more than one cm, because if you pour it thicker, it develops warmth as part of the hardening reaction, which results in bubbles. Blowing over the surface with a hairdryer also helps. Cheers Rob

What a pity Peter, but like Jeff said, don´t bin it right away. Sometimes it´s better to lean back, relax, have your choice of drug to let your mind freely wander for a while and if you are lucky, there is a re-juicer kit on the horizon. It´s a hobby and meant to be fun. Sometimes the hardest builds are the most rewarding, but there is a certain degree of frustration, where it´s best to step back and let some steam off. Cheers Rob

Today I decaled the lower fuselage and wing stubs with lozenge camo. The provided decals are ABSOLUTELY fantastic, maybe the best I ever worked with. The fit, even for the cut outs and strut holes are perfect, which is a great relieve. I decided to work my way up, in case there are overlaps, which indeed are minimal. I used Micro Set and Sol and a hairdryer for the application along a flat brush, to push the bubbles away. One strange thing, on two of the five decal sheets, the decals need to soak for more than five minutes, where the others need only a minute. Then I changed plans for the umpteenth time in this build and build the undercarriage, which luckily is a very sturdy construction. Not visible on the pic are the eyelets, which I glued in, before painting as a preparation for rigging. Now the fuselage can rest on the undercarriage and the underside decals remain unharmed. Cheers Rob

Thank you Martin and there is enough space for Robin as well in the Batstringbag Cheers Rob

What I´ve seen from your builds, Scott, the only thing you are short off, is actually to have a WNW kit started. There are so many modelers out there, claiming these crates are overcomplicated, but like you, accomplish absolutely stunning builds. Let me tell you, it´s not that hard. The design of the kits help a lot and if you go for German WWI fighters, even rigging is a breeze, as most don´t have a lot. My WNW builds were all demanding, but so rewarding. If I had known, how relatively easy the AEG would be to build, I would have started her some years ago. Cheers Rob

Thank you PW and Phil. Compared with a WWII fighter, a lot will remain visible through the three openings in the deck and the one on the lower fuselage. Well, I asked myself the same question about detailing the interior, but if you built a WNW kit, you might have had the sensation, that you want to continue detailing. These kits are absolute amazing and with their great design, make it a great canvas for extra detailing. Cheers Rob

Nice work on the back spine, which looks much better now. On some of the pictures, it´s clearly visible, that the origins of the HE-111 where in civil aviation. Cheers Rob

I started to clean up the engine parts and parts of the nacelles, because I wanted to get a grip for the fit and for the painting process. By the way, I decided to wire the engines and pre drilled the magnetos with 0,3 mm holes for the wiring and the cylinder heads with 0,5 mm holes for my brass tube spark plugs. Meanwhile the fuselage was airbrushed with Tamiya XF-17 sea blue. In case you wonder, why the AEG looks like a porcupine, I put in wood plugs into the holes for the struts, adhered with a drop of thinned PVA. If you know about WNW tolerances, you got the idea, I don´t want to clean out every hole, before assembly. For the same reason, the engine support struts were loosely mounted. As much as I like the matte look, I need a glossy surface for the lozenge decals and sprayed on Mr Hobby GX-100 clear gloss, with two thirds of leveling thinner in the mix and ruined the perfect mattedness. Cheers Rob

Impressive work all around Mark. I really like the low altitude passing over tarmac with pilots in and lights on. Cheers Rob

Now that is something different, bring it on FA, what a beast. Cheers Rob

Today, I received a heavy workload in form of two sets from Unobtainium for my recently purchased Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Roadster in 1/12. The first set has printed rims, hubs and spoke nipples, pre drilled and wire for the spokes. There are six different spoke pattern and the rims have a jig printed on, to help with the alignment of every type of spoke. There is no manual included, but you can find one on unobtainium - super-detailed components for the discerning model maker. The second set addresses the wire lock bolts, which are not depicted in the kit. There are rows of printed bolts, which need to be drilled through the head, to accept the wire. This can be done with the help of jigs, included in the set, for easier drilling. And this is the kit, the sets will be used on. Cheers Rob

I haven´t done as much as I wanted lately, but checked the gaps in the fuselage and sanded a bit. A tiny bit more filling and sanding is needed, before I can continue with airbrushing the base layer for the lozenge decals. What I did, was pondering about the painting and decaling sequence, identifying where the fuselage decals go. Nose, decks and parts of the wing stubs are only painted, the rest will receive decals. The next decision was about the base layer, therefore I decaled a gloss white plastic strip, which I painted with areas of gloss black and added a spare decal, to see, how much transparency the decals have. It´s almost non visible, which means, I will airbrush Tamiya XF-17 sea blue as a base, followed by a gloss coat for the decals. If I would have base coated with gloss white, I would have had the possibility of pre shading, like with Aviatic decals, but this makes no sense here. It has to be post shading then. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, but the kind of fit quality of WNW and Tamiya are not the same. Where Tamiya snaps into perfect fit with not too fragile parts, the larger sub assemblies of a WNW kit bend and flex oh so slightly, to finally wiggle into the right places somehow. The result is more or less the same, but WNW parts tend to be very thin. I´ve never seen such a huge part, like the fuselage halves being molded so thin, which of course renders them close to the real thing. Cheers Rob

Preliminary to closing the fuselage permanently, I made a last test fit of the decks and had a last peek at the interior, where the final details were added, like the folding seat for the commander. I displayed it folded and stored, which leaves a narrow tunnel for the crew to slide through to the back of the cockpit, not too easy I guess with the thick leather outfit and maybe a life jacket. Then I closed the fuselage, did a first bit of sanding on the seams. Fit was good, but not perfect, due to the very thin plastic and multiple parts intersecting. On the lower side, you can see the dark patch of the tiltable window for the fuselage gun. WNW chose to produce the stitching on the lower side as separate parts, which seal the lower fuselage side seamless, genial. There is one rectangular part fitting between the two bomb slots in front of said window, where the WNW manual calls falsely for part A45, where A44 is the correct one. I shimmed the lower nose section with a strip of evergreen, because this area is very flexible, due to the thinness of the plastic Cheers Rob

Thank you Martin and Peter, I guess flying these huge planes had it´s toll, specially during landing. The weight is up front, with engines, weapons, fuel tanks and crew, so nose diving must be hard to avoid. Cheers Rob

Better a clean build, than a clean bench. Primer looks super smooth, about ready to put some color on. Cheers Rob

That fit looks really bad, Peter. Like the others mentioned, I would fit some styrene under the canopy, but it looks, as it is too wide also. If so you might consider cutting it in the middle with a razor saw. Luckily the top part will be painted and leaves you some liberty for filling gaps. Cheers Rob