DocRob

Just saw, there are some detail sets out there made by Magic Factory specially for the Corsair, Peter. A set of figures and a superbly 3D-printed engine. The Modelling News: Construction Review PT I : P&W R-2800 Double Wasp & Separate display version from Magic Factory in 1/48th scale The Modelling News: Construction review PT II: 1/48th scale F4U Ground service (5 figure set) from Magic Factory Cheers Rob

Very nice and colorful little birdie, PW. I don´t think it´s overweathered, in fact, all colors and patterns blend in nicely. I haven´t heard, that Bob no more produces buckles, but have some quantities left. In fact, they are relatively easy to reproduce, like you did. The Tatzelwurm marking makes it special. Some years ago a WNW Pfalz D.III was my first ever WW1 byplane build and I enjoyed it a lot and liked the sleek appearance. Cheers Rob

Finally you did it, Phil. I´m sure you won´t regret it, reliable, refined tools are the way to go and the Infinity definitely is all of that. Cheers Rob

In short, Scott, it´s Tamiya LP1 gloss black, thinned with 2/3 of leveling thinner direct onto the plastic. There was no PE or resin involved and I therefore, skipped the primer. Tamiya LP´s are relatively durable even without priming. Then I misted on Alclad´s polished Aluminum in very thin layers, until the blackness of the base barely disappeared. This is critical, after this point, the shine reduces. After testing on some dummy´s, I chose Alclad over AK´s Extreme Metal, because of a slightly higher reflectivness of the Alclad stuff. I would have used AK´s product, if I had to mask onto the NMF, but I chose a scheme, where no further masking was needed and for which I had high quality decals. In my WIP, I described the process a bit more detailed. Cheers Rob

Some beautiful builds PW and Scott. I like the Gladiator picture a lot, a kit I will build as well soon, but in silver doped livery. It´s good to see, that LSM is not only LS, but open to all kinds of builds, which can be seen in the diversity of your builds. Well, for me it was a relatively quite year modeling wise. I was set to rig my Duchess of Kingston, but that again stalled and I ask myself, when I find the courage to continue. Hmmh, that´s where I am. The Gentlemen Pellew and Hornblower aren`t amazed about that and are about to let me be flogged for my failings. The 1/350 USS Arizona was a demanding project, with loads of PE involved, but I had lots of fun with the project. I finished the delicate 1/32 Arado 234 Nachtigall. This project was stalled earlier, but this year, I found the courage to pull through. My first full resin plane kit was a pleasure to build. The tiny 1/48 Caudron C561 was a plane, which I couldn´t resist to build, due to it´s avantgarde design. Another racer, but from the 80´s, the mighty 1/12 Tamiya Renault Re 20. An old kit, but still not too bad and builds into an impressive representation with some extra love. Finally something sparkling. The Tamiya 1/48 P-38 was the perfect victim for my high shine polished aluminum airbrushing ambitions. Cheers Rob

Tedious work Carl, but that´s why they made magnifiers and good background music. The running gear looks great and next are some bigger parts for a change. Cheers Rob

Fantastic Peter, your Corsair looks sweet with your typical finish touch. What´s more to say about a kit, other than it shows the splendid signature of it´s maker. Cheers Rob

I use the H&S Infinity since years and have nothing to complain. They are great and reliable tools and I won´t lookback to cheaper models, except sometimes, I use my Rotring´s for sentimental reason. Half a year ago, I bought the Giraldez edition of the H&S Infinity, which is more than a slight upgrade. The trigger has moved forward and is much finer in movement, my only down fact with the standard infinity. The needle mount has been also reworked and you can insert the needle from the backside, without risking to bruise the tip. The quality of the needle and nozzle has also improved along with a better clarity of indication for the nozzle/needle/cap size. The design of the Giraldez´s trigger will not be to everybody´s taste, as it is better incorporated with the finger tip, than the finger print area. Here is the comparison. I will do a further test evaluation, when I find the time and have tested the new kid under all circumstances: This is the new needle/nozzle/cap marking with clearly visible engraved lines, better than the confusing markings on my standard Infinity The needle adjuster above old and the much smoother working Giraldez set below. Hard to see, but no hard edges endanger the tip of the needle, when mounted from the backside (new one right) And finally, the guiding tips of the Giraldez model, not tested yet, but should come handy with freehand camos or figure painting. Cheers Rob

Very nice Jeff, the truck came out great and the extra detailing is eye candy. Cheers Rob

Great progress with adding detail after detail, Kevin, your Scharnhorst will be epic. Watching the last pic, I may would add a tiny drop of thinned flat black color into the portholes for contrast. Cheers Rob

At first, I thought there wer not so many for me, then I remembered some, but a lot were 2022 releases, but browsing through my stash and to buy lists unveiled some personal candidates, some mentioned before, like Airfix´s Sea King and Gannet, along the Kotare Spitfire. Further, I like to mention Copper State Models 1/32 Bristol Scout and the unbelievable detailed 3D printed British Motorcycle Triumph Model H, also by CSM. SBS released their 1/48 resin Macchi M.39 and 1/72 resin Gee Bee R6H Q.E.D. I also love my boxing of MiniArts Tempo E400 in 1/35. Vanguard´s excellent wooden ship kit of Pellews HMS Indefatigable 1794. Last but not least, another personal favorite is the Brengun 1/72 Texaco Doodlebug. Cheers Rob

These colors are in the range from sand to earth, but I guess, with not that many living witnesses, you can go freestyle. I used some gloss black for the pupil, silver for the eyeball and a translucent green ink for the borders with my giant squid, pulling down my Nautilus submarine Cheers Rob

These colors are in the range from sand to earth, but I guess, with not that many living witnesses, you can go freestyle. I used some gloss black for the pupil, silver for the eyeball and a translucent green ink for the borders with my giant squid, pulling down my Nautilus submarine Cheers Rob

These colors are in the range from sand to earth, but I guess, with not that many living witnesses, you can go freestyle. I used some gloss black for the pupil, silver for the eyeball and a translucent green ink for the borders with my giant squid, pulling down my Nautilus submarine Cheers Rob

Where quality meets quantity to perfection. Your output results in a nice collection Peter, despite all the issues, you had a very productive year, congratulations, ... and a happy new year. Cheers Rob

There is not only Gundam out there, to leave the trotten path, Mike. You could also try Maschinen Krieger. There are tons of kits out there in different scales, but mainly in 1/20. Main producers are Hasegawa and Wave, but there are many other brands available. Most are 1/20 scale, which give a lot of freedom, when it comes to painting experiments, others are in 35 scale, which naturally allows some bashing and dio opportunities. The mainstream kits are of the same quality, Carl described. i once build a Hasegawa AmmoKnight as a stipple on brush painting experiment and loved the scale and the kit. I have some more in stash and welcome the variety. Cheers Rob

Only some days a bit off the forum and bang, your beautiful Corsair is nearing the finish line, Peter. Your paintwork is perfect as ever, I love your soft edge camo. I feel with you about the navy colors. I think for my Corsair and Hellcat builds, I researched and tested more colors than ever before. Recently I mainly use, what AK offers with their Real Colors, which mostly look about right. Generally, I think, plane´s colors weren´t too unique in the field, depending on the theater, the age, the maintenance and color availability. Pictures of the time are sometimes hard to read and leave a lot of room for interpretation. Lighting and refraction are also to be considered. Decaling looks spot on and I have another reason for your first misting clear over the decals. At this late stage of a build, I wouldn´t like to ruin my decals with hot color / thinner mix. A misted coat dries fast and reduces the risk of the chemicals affecting the decals. Cheers Rob

1/35 leaves a lot of possibilities, Peter... Cheers Rob

I will enter the dinosaur universe as well soon. X-Plus from Japan produces this beauty in 1/35, but I will wait for the even more sexy Spinosaurus. Cheers Rob

Nice collection Carl and lots of diversity. My production was a bit low this year, but some of the projects were really time consuming. Cheers Rob

I´ve two of these still to build along with a bunch of goodies. I would fancy the Mig boxing with Indian markings, they are so colorful. They look like great kits. Have fun with your two arch enemies Gus . Cheers Rob

My only reason for hesitation is, I don´t like the turbo era engines. I´ve built the Renault RE20 and the engine is somehow uncool. I´ve no love left for these minimal ccm max turbo blast type of thingies, but that would be the same with the announced MP4/4 Nice catch with the Lancia, Carl, a true icon, but I would have gone white. Cheers Rob

Not a lot modeling wise, but may help myself to the 1/12 Nunu Lotus 99. We had a quiet Christmas with our son, great food and Barbecue and some tiny wave surfing and great snorkeling. One little gem for me showed up on our present table, a Veritas mini Block plane, which hopefully will ignite my urge to stay focused with my wooden model ship builds. Cheers Rob

Sorry, no FB and will never have. Cheers Rob

Don´t throw them away Phil. I like the Xtreme Metals a lot, most of them spray very well and are more robust than Alclad. My only issues were with Titanium, which didn´t adhere very good. Alclad chrome looks a bit better than Extreme Metallics chrome, which I tested a lot with my Renault RE20 build. I recently sprayed a NMF 1/48 Lightning with Alclad´s polished Aluminum, which also is a bit better then Extreme Metals, BUT, I only used the Alclad, because I deliberately chose a paint scheme, which omitted masking after the NMF. In the WIP, I described my testing and base coating with Tamiya LP gloss black and the application of polished aluminum. Like Peter suggested, I keep the air pressure relatively low and if you go for a high shine finish, very fine layered application is the way to go. You have to reach the point, where the blackness of the base barely disappears. Flooding is no option for high shine finishes, no matter if it´s Xtreme Metal or Alclad. The only real letdown with Extreme Metals from AK is the black base, which can ruin a model completely. I threw my bottles away and will never use them again. Cheers Rob