DocRob

The time is now... ...the georgeous goddess Roisin Murphy always knew it Cheers Rob

Some more obscure additions to my stash from Ukraine. I look eagerly forward to build all of these soon. Cheers Rob

Wow, what a nice flashy surprise, the scheme looks great, Ernie. Cheers Rob

Well, when I dented something last time, it was a bit more on the rough side. I tried to let the floats of my Hansa Brandenburg look a bit more abused, like on the photos. Before the Extra Thin, I smoothed out the dents with sanding sticks. Cheers Rob

I'm hardly an expert, but the German name of RLM 81 ist Braun Violet, meaning brown violet and as far as I have used it, it's a dark brown tone. I used it only on one plane build, namely my recently finished Arado 234. The RC235 from AK's Real Color was a good interpretation to my eye and sprayed also exceptionally well. Which plane are you planning to build? I can hardly imagine a plane solely covered in RLM 81, but again, I'm not an expert. Cheers Rob

No wonder you didn't finish in time Hubert, with so many precious extra detailing going into the front wheel well only. It clearly is more visible with that natural near tail sitter and will be eye candy with equally detailed landing gear struts. You should move your thread to the LSM under construction section, as, I won't speak it out again, ...deadline, ... GB..., ...wet,..., finished. Cheers Rob

Nice progress, Gary. I like the drop tank, with a matte coat it will look good. I 'dent' surfaces mostly with a rounded scalpel blade and carve very carefully. With an application of Tamiya Extra Thin, I round the few edges a bit. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias amigos, the ignition wiring still looks overscale, but I don't have yellow cable or tube in a better size, but the Model Factory Hiro tubing looks more like the real thing. I wonder how much will be visible later, with the exhaust on top, but it needed to be done. The Tamiya tubing looked a bit toy like. Cheers Rob

Best wishes for your wife Peter and also for sorting out the obstacles KH put up on your building process. Detail looks decent so far, but a bad manual and kit design can make things a bit awkward. I hope you got it sorted and maybe some extra detail in the huge cabin will make it standout. Cheers Rob

Looking all good Phil, you are truly flying through this build. I loved the wheels especially, when I glued them together, as a test, if AM is necessary, but the way Tamiya engineered the wheels there is no need. Cheers Rob

I know, I know, I promised you a pause from my efforts, but today, while cleaning the bench, I thought about my desire to change the engines fuel tubing. I cut off the plastic connectors and glued on sections of clear brown tubing with an outer diameter of 0,4 mm and 0,6 mm. The first one, I pre-drilled and inserted 0,2 mm micro silver rod, but that proved tedious and simply butt gluing the tubes did the job. Then I painted all the tube connection points titan silver for contrast and all the screw heads around the engine in silver and sparkling silver. Last but not least, I found my cylinder head detail work showing not enough contrast, with the pencil onto the anodized blue. I carefully scratched the pencil and blue color away with a blade and voila, now it looks much better. Finally, I shortened the yellow ignition wires and bundled them with clamps made by tiny strips of wine cap foil. Now I feel good about the engine. Only for comparison, how it looked before: Cheers Rob

I will make a small comparison of the CR Plus and the Giraldez edition, when the compressor arrived and I have used both for a while. Cheers Rob

Very nice Kevin, I like your bluebird a lot. Liquid masks, hmm, I use different brands, but my go to's are from Mr. Color, I think they are called NEO and SOL NEO, one is solvent, the other is a bit thinner and water based. I never had problems removing these. I also have Molotow masking fluid, which smells horrible and I used it for half flood parts in it. It's a big bottle and therefore perfect for these occasions. I once used Microscale liquid mask, and this was nearly impossible to remove, horrible stuff. Cheers Rob

Absolutely, since 1989, I never thought about compressors, I only had a vage recollection of the producing brands, because members posted something about their compressors. RIP god old Aero Pro. Aren't the best tools these, you use permanently but never really think about them. Cheers Rob

I ordered the fastest available one, with good reviews and all the features I'm looking for. In my case it was the Sparmax TC-620X. Living remote like me, there is not a great deal of availability, but I think the Sparmax will be fine. I really liked the old Aero-Pro compressor, it never failed me and you are right Peter, there are no devices out there anymore, lasting 34 years of permanent use and minimal maintenance, the last year surrounded by usually between 80 and 95% humidity . Cheers Rob

Thank you for sharing your experiences Peter. I will try to achieve good results with the Mr. Color GX-100, when times come. I may have an idea, where the problem sources, that lead to the GX-100 changing to frosty goo on my last test. It might be, that I mixed it with thinner in a plastic jar, which possibly melted a tiny bit, leaving residues in the mix. Unfortunately this build is paused for a while, and experiments have to wait, because my trusty old airbrush compressor, which I bought in 1989 passed away yesterday. I hope the new one arrives soon. Cheers Rob

Bittersweet news for me. After two month of struggle, mailing the customs office umpteen times, the packet went back to Germany to be sent again, painful custom delays again and then, tataaa, my new airbrush finally arrived along some nice paintbrushes, maintenance sets and a beautiful stand. It is the new Harder & Steenbeck CR Plus Giraldez edition. It looks nice in the box, albeit a bit kinky for my liking, but if you expect a only optical changed product, you are completely wrong. If there is some interest, I will make a small comparison, between the new and between the standard CR Plus. It looks great with the new stand. First observations: The trigger went forward and has a distinctive new design and works much smoother than the normal CR Plus. The complete back chuck system is new and allows to fiddle in the needle from the backside, as there are no inside edges anymore. With the standard model, I inserted the needle always from the front side. Well, I mentioned bittersweet, but why? Two hours before the long awaited airbrush materialized on my doorstep, my trusty old compressor passed away with some enerving whoosh sounds. I bought the Aero Pro compressor 1989 in Berlin, so it has done it's duty always reliable, but why broke it exactly this day? Anyway, I ordered a Sparmax TC-620X as a substitute, the only reliable model, with hopefully ultra fast delivery, which in my case might mean two weeks. Cheers Rob

Very nice and quite different with the wheel fairings and closed canopy. Cheers Rob

Keep on rolling with the big heli Peter, a bit of competitiveness isn't the worst to get rid off routine. I really like to see your build develop, not only because of your usual magic, but also, because I can't imagine to do a co-build with somebody else. I may be to dominant with my vision and approach to think, that could work for/with me, but on the other hand, I have no idea, if there is another modeler around in a diameter of 50 miles . Cheers Rob

Nobody does, I question myself sometimes, when sanity hits. Cheers Rob

Not exactly modeling news, but I didn't want to open an own thread. Modellbau König of Germany has it's summer sale. There are even some WNW kits left with 30% off until 31.07., like the late Felixstowe, the early AEG G.IV, the AMC DH.9 and of course the Gotha on floats. After pondering a lot about the Felixstowe, I couldn't resist anymore and ordered one. It was not so much the price, but the sheer size, which made me thinking for almost half a year, hoping that the remaining ones got sold, only to cry afterwards bitterly . But a while ago, it hit me, I build the big one without the outer wings in a partly opened maintenance setting, so two RFC mechanics accompany my purchase and 225 € seemed fair to me for the grandest WNW offering. Sonderangebote (modellbau-koenig.de) Cheers Rob

One step forward, two steps back. I progressed with the addition of the front suspension and cockpit internals to the monocoque, steps made a bit delicate, because Tamiya decided on a flimsy workable steering and working suspension. The fit was a bit vague in places, but with a bit of wiggling all came together, but without the typical Tamiya snap. The decals for the dials went on perfectly, the RPM-meter got a self adhesive mirror backing, which was supplied in the kit. The yellow body parts are not mounted as of yet, but only show dimensions, fit and very important with this build, how the parts interact. Well, two steps back it was, because I was a bit lazy and omitted an old self imposed rule in plastic modelling. Never use power tools, if it can be avoided. After some hand polishing of the yellow body parts, I remembered, that I own a Proxxon micro drill with a cotton polish bit. To tell a cursing experience short, The bit caught on plastic edges and left marks in my paintjob on two parts . Repainting is necessary and I decided to airbrush the upper body part in white (Tamiya LP-2) first and then spray all the remaining yellow parts together. Luckily the white lay down very well and shiny. Cheers Rob

Thanks for your thoughts Gary. I used oil colors to 'sculpt' surfaces a lot on armor and sometimes on planes and really like the effects possible. Here it's a bit different, it's not only the appearance of a F1 car, which in my case should lock clean, like before a race, but also the very large scale, which has consequences on the way shadows cast and color rendition is accepted by the eye as real. If I would go for weathering, I would stain and dust the base paintjob, possibly toying with the shininess of the clear coat on pronounced contours. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, your process description is very helpful. There are still a lot of question marks, when it comes to high gloss finishes to me. Starting with the color application, you stated thin layers with gravity paint, where found a bit off 'flooding' helped to level out the Tamiya LP colors. My experiences with Mr. Color clear gloss are limited and the results ranged from good to very bad, with a frosty appearance and I haven't discovered, how I failed with the latter, with the same result, after a repeated thorough cleaning of the airbrush and respraying. Lots of experience to gain here on that delicate affair. Cheers Rob

I'm really excited, there is a new tool Sea King announced by Airfix in 48 scale. My favorite heli seems to receive an appropriate scale version. I like the idea by Airfix, that the same airframe is depicted in four different liveries over the service decades, the last, being a civilian scheme. The Modelling News: Return of the King - Arifix' new 48th scale Sea King HAS.1/HAS.5/HU.5 Cheers Rob