DocRob

I knew Martin, it hadn´t been there , but the camo existed. Cheers Rob

Wow Peter, your Jug looks absolutely fantastic. I like it even better than your Tamiya build. The paintjob has the ´right´ amount of panel lining and weathering. I always liked NMF Thunderbolts better, but yours changed my mind. Cheers Rob

This is my first take on the salt technique, I chose the bombs for testing, because I wanted to know, how they look in the end, and if I have to replace them with AM. Normally, I build my planes without ordonnance, but in this case, I chose them for contrast and for learning the salt technique. If I´m satisfied, I will use the method for the inside of the cockpit as well, which is primed and salted and waiting for some paint. First they were primed with Mr. Surfacer 1500 in black Then the bombs were brushed with water with an added drop of detergent for better distribution and then salted with irregular salt grains from a mill. After drying, I shot a layer of AK Real color RLM 76 overall and now let them dry until tomorrow, before removing the salt. The contrast will be too harsh by far, but that´s ok, because I want to overspray again with color in translucent layers until I reach the desired effect. First, I wanted to use Tamiya XF-23 but opted for the slightly more bluish tint of the AK color. Cheers Rob

Well, I was in Berlin, which is my excuse, I´ve missed your Berlin Badger build, Carl . Love your approach with the `Urban Camo`. Luckily these beasts were not part of the Brigade, the Western Allies had mostly slightly out dated material, maybe because they knew, it would only be captured or destroyed by the Russians, if the worst case happened. I´ve seen some of the Chieftains with this weird camo, when I was a kid, but lived in the American Sector, so Mutt´s and Patton´s along with Hueys were more often present. Uschi van der Rosten has some graffiti decals. I have some of these together with my Berlin Wall resin kit. SHOP Graffiti / Marble Decals - Uschi van der Rosten Carpet Decals (uschivdr.com) Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter and Phil, today, I will prime and maybe start painting the interior and bombs. I plan to use salt technique for the bombs for a first time. There is not much unpainted wood with that late war bomber, but the cockpit floor will be wood grained and than covered in black, with later to apply abrasion. @Bomber_County astonishingly there are some very thorough build logs on AEG builds, which will help me along the book by Karim Bibi. Cheers Rob

A very nice build with lots of attention to detail, which somehow skipped my attention until now. I would have imagined better detail on a kit in this scale, but on the other hand, it´s a pleasure to follow your modifications and detailing. Cheers Rob

This is definitely cooler than a Tomcat Peter. I never heard of the TV series, but really like your creative choice. Cheers Rob

I started it as a test bed for multi layered painting techniques then. As far as I know there is the typical CAT yellow under the IDF hemp color. I wanted to use the hairspray technique to show wear and tear through the different layers, metal, primer, yellow hemp for more depth in the weathering. I used the same technique later successful on a Corsair build. BTW, Cheers Rob

Looking fantastic, nice work on the weathering and the period photo relation makes it stand out. I started the kit some years ago, but have yet to finish it. Cheers Rob

Looking great Ernie, who produces the shell rack and the shells? I have a ProfiModeler set for mine, but I think this is not included. Cheers Rob

On with the RLM 02, Scott, your bird looks super bueno. Your solution with the casted on axle stubs into the brass gear struts is fantastic.. Like Carl said, AK Real colors are for real, spray exceptionable well, thinned with leveling thinner and are durable and seem to have the right shades. Cheers Rob

What makes a good modeler Peter? It´s when the result shows nothing about the troubles en route. The checkered cowl looks great and will even look better with some matte varnish on. The PLW gave a lot of contrast to the underside, bueno. Cheers Rob

I cleaned a zillion parts after cutting them from the sprue. With the tight tolerances, WNW kits usually have, this should be done with great attention. Before I start painting, I´ve done some test fitting, to see, how the innards of the AEG lay out and how the fit will be and which parts are visible and need painting and weathering. Test fitting was promising so far, but yeah these tolerances will call for scraping away paint and use the fiber pencil as my best friend for mating surfaces. Cheers Rob

I ordered the missing mechanic and Rexx exhausts for the AEG, my Albatros D.V and Fokker D.VII. The mechanic will be this fellow by Kellerkind: Cheers Rob

I´ve done that also, after I bent my needle. used a Japanese grind stone with 6000 and 12000 grit. Worked perfectly. Cheers Rob

I don´t know why you always have to heap another shovelful onto my narrow shoulders, Hubert . I will look into these galvanic grown parts, but I will not do it for myself. I will order the Rexx exhausts, which seem to be wider available lately. I remember the times, even before the war, where the signature of Rexx was ´sold out´. Cheers Rob

Can´t really tell, Mike, I never owned one. They were hard to find for a while. From the pictures, I´ve seen, they are very nice, thin material with a convincing finish. I think, I will ad them for the AEG, as they are very prominent and the protruding end parts of the exhausts are simplified in plastic. @Fran made a nice review some years ago, with detailed pictures: Cheers Rob

Well, it´s a bomber, why not starting with the bombs and the exhausts. In this case, it´s because the smaller 12,5 kg bombs will be filled into inboard racks and have to be painted first. I glued the parts together along with the exhausts, to evaluate the need for substitute them with AM. There are bombs from Kellerkind and the metal exhausts by Rexx. The parts look promising, but I will decide after priming. This beast was able to carry a bomb load of up to 800 kg and a later -.b version could handle a 1000 kg bomb, a lot more than the Gotha. It seems the ground was the worst enemy of this type, as many crash landed, due to night conditions and the tendency to nose dive easily when touching down. Earlier types were used in daytime raids, but better fighter coverage pushed the AEG´s into night duty. Cheers Rob

Thank you amigos, it´s not my first WWI build, but by far the most complex. I built a WNW Pfalz, a Hansa Brandenburg and a MikroMir Fokker D.VIII in 1/32 and two Eduard SSW´s in 1/48, but they all were simple to rig. Interestingly most of these builds were more rewarding than most other plane builds I did, even with lots of scratching and improvisation with the Mikro Mir Fokker. There is a lot to learn while building these old stringbags, but I have another even more challenging WWI twin in my stash, Aviattic´s 1/48 Gotha G.V (ex Hippo/AZ) with Aviattic, Gaspatch and Lukgraph extras. This is also a night bomber, but the 1/48 scale and base kit makes it harder than the AEG, I guess. Cheers Rob

One stupid question Martin, do the needle and nozzle have the corresponding size? With the older Infinity nozzles, it´s easy to mix them up, guess how I know Cheers Rob

Ok, due to the twins-GB, the McLaren build is boxed and paused. It gave me a lot of grief, but i felt, that now the fun part of the build would have started, but that´s for later. Cheers Rob

Can´t help with the bombs, Martin, other than finding these here made by Res-Im: FAB-250M-62 (2pcs), RES-IM 32009 (scalemates.com) Have you checked and cleaned the nozzle of your AB. If there is something sticking in there it can have this effect. I have something like this to clean the nozzle: The flat grinded side cleans away the dirt, used with some cleaner fluid (Best is imho AK´s Extreme Metal Cleaner / Thinner) Once, I even had a hairline crack on the tip of the nozzle, which caused a bad spray habit. It was only visible with a magnifier. Cheers Rob

I hope, you can fix these issues Mike. There should be some fitting props left from other WNW kits. If not, I can look into my WNW Halberstadt C.I/II kit, which I need and if there are some left. I need the Niendorf for my build, so Garuda and Axial are up for grabs. Cheers Rob

I have to admit, I was less than thrilled with this GB initially, when I read about it on my Berlin vacancy. Back home, I decided to browse through my stash for inspirations, still unsure about my participation. Lots of twins to choose, but one immediately rang a bell, the monstrous (for it´s time) night bomber version of the AEG G.IV by Wingnut Wings. I have a soft spot for quirky designs and since I bought the kits years ago, it was sometimes on my schedule, but was dropped, because of sheer size and complexity. Well, now with the GB, there is another possibility to tackle this lozenged monster. I´m absolutely not sure, if I can finish the AEG in time, but will try. This is the kit and this will be the chosen scheme, but with the shark? mouth only in white. The entire airframe will be decaled with the kit supplied night lozenge and I have to experiment a bit with the underlying color for contrast and accentuation. I will use some AM, like HGW Seat belts, Gaspatch MG´s and HGW masks. The figure of the boy will play a role along with a mechanic, which is still to choose. I think about adding Rexx metal exhausts and skipped the thought about adding Taurus timing gear for the engines. I watched at many pictures and decided, the gear is hidden under the wing in a tube metal cage, so not a lot can be seen and I will enhance the kit parts with some detailing. Rigging will be a nightmare and I´m not finally decided about the rigging material. I liked fishing line and Bob´s buckles a lot with other builds, but may simplify rigging a bit. A while ago I thought about a method, gluing in the thread directly into holes, pre drilled through the wing. this can be pulled taught from above, sealed with CA and cut flush, when dry. Because of the later to apply lozenge decals, the holes will remain invisible. Later I found a build log, where the builder used that method on his AEG build and it worked, lets hope the best. I will further use Karim Bibis great PDF-book, which I acquired from KLP publishing and use it as a guideline through the complex build. Cheers Rob

You are cruising, Martin. I´ve not even started my GB build log and you already talk about wheels, now that´s what I call discouraging . Roll on with that beauty, I really like the engines and exhausts. Cheers Rob