DocRob

I soldered my own from flattened brass tube, when I built my D.VIII, but it was tedious. If I had known of the existence of these pre fabricated ones, I would have ordered them. If you are after more detailing, there are some nice Aviattic addons, like the very thin casted cowling and a PE set. When remember right, I used a Le Rhone engine from Lukgraph. You'll love the kit Bill, it's demanding but rewarding and the rigging is a breeze. I'm considering building a second one in a black yellow naval fighter scheme. Cheers Rob

It's 1/48 luckily, Hubert. Aren't there a zillion civilian schemes out there? I hope you do a WIP. Cheers Rob

Thank you shark and Peter, that's exactly what I do with de-masking, Peter. About half an hour of drying time, because I don't want to dab into wet paint. but I will not wait longer and risk cracks in the dry paint. After a proper drying time, I inspected the paintjob and found only some minor flaws, which will be corrected by brush. The constantly pressing on of the vinyl masks payed in the end. To unify the camouflage a bit better, I used a 6000 grit sanding sponge and wet sanded the whole model. It's interesting, how this seemingly unnoticeable effect integrates the different hard edged colors better. I now have a very smooth base and have to decide, if I go the painful route with the 1ManArmy masks or if I use the kit decals. Some markings for my plane are not included in the mask set, so I decaled the Arado's serial number and the kit decals behave exceptionable well. Thin but robust and easy to slide and position. I will evaluate after drying, which way I choose with the markings and stencils. Cheers Rob

This little beauty showed up on my doorstep today. It made the long way from Japan in record time and beat the masking set, I ordered in the UK the same day by far. These will show up next week, if I'm lucky. Mind, I choose the cheapest shipping option from Japan, I have no idea, how they do it. The Mitsubishi Karigane fits into my recent surge for inter war racers and record planes. I also ordered another narrower chisel from wave. I already own the 3 mm variant and the smaller 1,6 mm tool will come in handy. Cheers Rob

I thought about invasion stripes too Carl, but I want to reduce masking after applying the rivets as much as possible. Many great schemes for the P-38 out there. Cheers Rob

Like the others said, those straps look great and add a lot of eye candy to the PT-boat, Phil. Cheers Rob

The kit was with me for some time and I feel the urge to start it soon. I love the Lightning, specially in NMF and that's what I plan to do. Out of sheer curiosity, I ordered Eduards rivet set and I will choose one of the two gals from the Bombshell decal sheet for my P-38. The decision will mainly be about as less masking as possible over the riveted NMF. The decals are printed by Cartograph and include everything from nose art, to insignia and stencils. Cheers Rob

Gracias hombres, I will not weather the Nachtigall too heavy, like you said Carl, the service time was very brief. I may use a fine sanding sponge after masking and airbrushing the stencils and markings and then a bit of Flory's dirt clay wash. Cheers Rob

Great attention to detail Gary and I have to try the baking powder thing as well, never thought about it. I will look forward to your further riveting experiences, as I bought a set for my P-38 build. Cheer Rob

The hard edge camo is done. I sprayed the brown violet over the masked dark green areas and got a sharp result. I used a dedicated masking set, made by LF Models. The masks are made from vinyl and It took some effort to lay them down perfectly, to have no color running under it. The manual is a bit vague in places, relatively small and some codes were printed blue on green, hard to read. Definitely an area for improvement. I always remove my masks rapidly after application, before the color is properly hardened through. Luckily on first inspection, I couldn't make out severe mistakes. After proper drying, I will have a closer look. Cheers Rob

There is absolutely nothing to be ashamed about with your fantastic looking 110, Kevin. I hope for an at leas decent result with the Nachtigall. It was too much work for a complete bust. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, I will . I'm very glad, that I finished her without destroying the kit while handling it a zillion times. With my inner eye, I sometimes visualized, moving to fast out of the focus area of the magnifier and hit the superstructure somewhere and having the Arizona slip from the stand into the great nowhere. It was testing at times, but proved manageable throughout all phases of the build and I'm lucky to have a heave AM-ed 1/350 ship under my belt. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias amigos, I'm also very glad to see some paint on the Arado finally and I hope working without pre-shading, what I normally do, will turn out good enough in the end without looking boring. During masking, I realized, that for a long time, maybe forever, I haven't painted a hard edge camo. Maybe I should have prepared better, but I want the Arado off the bench and I take, what I get, if it's not too disgusting . Cheers Rob

Time and motivation are a bit sparse in the moment, but I managed to apply some color onto the Arado. After re-spraying the gloss black of the canopy after sanding, the whole canopy section was masked. The underside of the plane received a coat of RLM 76, followed by a very long masking session, a job, I really don't like. This was followed by a coat of RLM 82 Dunkelgrün (dark green) I decided against pre shading, because of the double coating in the RLM 81 Braunviolett areas. All camo colors are from AK's Real Color range and spray very fine and smooth with the added Mr. Leveling thinner. After drying, I will apply the camo masks, which are pre-cut luckily. Cheers Rob

Hi Mike, I indeed meant the kit decals. With a bit of post shading and weathering they will blend in perfectly, Mike. Cheers Rob

Fantastic result Bill, your Kingfisher is a vivid beauty. I wish, I could lay my hand on that kit, but I may stay with my recently finished 1/350 Kingfishers on board of USS Arizona . Cheers Rob

I was a bit skeptical about your decal strip pre shading method, Mike, but your result is absolutely convincing, like Hubert said. The benefit is a much clearer image of the framework through the 'cloth'. The only area, which doesn't fit perfectly are the decals, which look naturally due to their opacity a bit to prominent . Cheers Rob

Wow Peter, some days off the forum and bang, here is another stunner. Your interior work looks fantastic and spotless clean like ever. Fascinating, how you and some of the guys know all nooks and crannies about the Tamiya Spitfires and Mustangs and I have never built one and have only ONE Tamiya P-51 in my stash. Yeah, I know, I'm an outcast . I wonder, how the Eduard decals work, specially if it's a set of the new ones. For my soon to come P-38J build, I shied away from Eduard and will use a Bombshell set. The luckily few decals, I used for my USS Arizona build had heavy silvering and when I tried to remove the carrier film, the ink got partly lifted. I guess a properly polished surface would have helped. Cheers Rob

Because it's so narrow, it looks more like a water column than a wave and I think that was your intent, Gary. So true, not a Teutonic archetype I am in some respects. I never thought about a German translation for surfer dude, maybe 'Wellenreiter-Kumpel' . Cheers Rob

Thank you Gary, I'm happy to pulled through with the USS Arizona build, but wished, I had the guts for a water base. Cheers Rob

On the back of the package they list the planes for, which the basic markings are supplied. They should at least show this information on their website, imho. Cheers Rob

You'll need a bigger bench, Carl . Cheers Rob

Sorry Gary, it's just me. As a surfer I'm biased, when I see a mounting column of water . Your idea is even cooler. Cheers Rob

For my ZM Horten, I bought a dedicated set of woodgrain decals from Uschi van der Rosten, which I may use for my build. Cheers Rob

There are many different wood stencils out there. I tried a few and had the same prob like Carl and you have to take care, the sprayed wood texture color isn't to thin, running under the template. I prefer the oil color method, you can use it everywhere and have absolut control over grain and color rendition. Cheers Rob