DocRob

Muchas gracias Peter, the Kingfishers got decaled, but they will receive a matte coat and propellers later, but they went together faster than your one . Lets see about my hand and eyes. I wouldn't like to be the victim of myself, if I were a surgeon. Figure panting will be kept simple and effective, I hope. Cheers Rob

Great progress Phil, it's shaping up. With these large scale boats, you can't have enough detail. The Bofors looks especially great. Cheers Rob

It looks like I've done nothing, but that's not true, did many little things, indeed very little things. I folded lots of boxes and hatches from PE along with ladders, which are time consuming, because I bent all the single steps with a sharp blade and a very fine pair of tweezers. There are more boats with racks and a big range of other tiny PE assemblies, some shown here. All these are now painted up and ready to install. Next were the Kingfishers, which received a two tone camo. The planes were primed light grey and then all undersides where covered with liquid mask, brushed on and then sprayed with the top color mix of light blue grey. I thought about how to paint the windows and tried black panel wash and liked it, as it pronounced the framing and dries glossy for contrast. Now they are up for decaling. Before I install all the larger subassemblies to the decks, I will apply the figures, which is easier due to better accessibility. These figures from Ion Models are really tiny and it took a while, to cut them off the print sprues. Luckily only one leg was lost, the print material has a bit of flexibility and is not too brittle. I grouped the 74 sailors onto double sided adhesive tape for painting and prime them white with the airbrush and continue with brush accentuation . Cheers Rob

Good you are back on this one, Gary. I could sense a starting urge to get the GK finished. Nice detail work all around. Cheers Rob

This is fantastic, all the details pop. I can imagine how time consuming and skill prone all your great work is, Mark. This is car modeling on another level. Cheers Rob

The Meng kit is a solid kit, actually they offer three versions of the 410. I haven't build mine yet, but it looks good on the sprues and I read many favorable build threads about it. There are a few known issues, like the shape of the spinners and props and others, but no game changer to my eye. Why should ICM compete with this, Phil? Cheers Rob

Fascinating plane, sad story about the replica's crash. You know, that there is a kit out there in 48 scale? I nearly bought it and may will do after one or two other experimental plane builds Bugatti 100 Racer 1/48 | Special Hobby - best for modelers Cheers Rob

Wow Martin, you got a special edition, the first ever modeled twin Spitfire with two props, I knew it existed (conspiratoriel whisper off) . Cheers Rob

Fantastic Gary, you revived the old Airfix dinosaur very pleasantly. All the details add a lot and the eagles are phenomenal. The guys on the bridge look great, but they seem a tiny bit overscale, what do you think? Cheers Rob

Well Peter, you made a huge step in your build and everything looks good to my eye. Hopefully the wing attachment isn't providing more unwanted obstacles. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias amigos, I continued with lots of PE ladders and storage boxes for the decks, while the black CA cured, in which I dipped the undersides of the gun shields. Through capillarity, the tiny triangle struts were fixed in place. Seems, I have to look into some Youtube channels more frequently, when there are so interesting builds and builders. Cheers Rob

I (not) used some of the Yahu IP's and most of them were great, much better printed than Eduard. Exceptions were the IP's for the 1/32 Tamiya F4U and 1/32 Dauntless, which got yellow dials printed on, which is wrong. I used the modified kit parts instead, with the Tamiya Corsair. Your Mossie panel looks very good on first sight. Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl and Kevin, I generally think, a larger scale is easier to handle and that's why I bought the 1/144 Flower Class Corvette and will add the big Pontos set. The build is seemingly taking forever, but what's even taking longer, is Eduards substitute pollards to get here. In early February, I contacted them, then storage reshuffle, falsely declared package and therefore returned and now, when I need them, the replacements haven't come in sight. Well they are slower than me, that's a surprise . Cheers Rob

Slowly pacing through the on deck applications. This build is testing my patience a lot and the last nagging bit are the gun shields for the middle artillery. They are made by PE and the enforcing struts, tiny triangles needed to be bent in place. I dreaded this part of the build, because the first shield, I tested, lost a lot of the tiny struts through breaking. The others, I annealed had less broken parts, but still some. Some of the sensible struts were too long and had to be shortened with unshivering hands. Nothing is glued, because the parts will be airbrushed off the deck. You will notice, that I left the cut out deck segments in place, which would have to be removed for the original plastic. Leaving them, will look more convincing, I hope. Cheers Rob

I couldn't believe it myself Hubert, normally we have between 80% and 90% humidity, when there is no Kalima (Sahara wind). I wouldn't have thought, it can go that low with the surrounding Atlantic Ocean, which evaporates with the strong sunshine. Possibly the evaporation covers the 6% exclusively . Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter and Chris, I slowly move on with the on deck applications, producing the delicate PE gun shields for the middle artillery at the moment, as well as hatches, ladders, winches, searchlights, ... As the humidity dropped to 6%, an all time low, I guess, I have to wait with the continuation of adding these assemblies, because the wooden deck is still curling up and un adhering itself. I have to wait for some more humidity, to evaluate the damage. The air here is dryer even, than my Martinis are . Cheers Rob

I have a Pontos set reserved, lets see how it works out, as it's sometimes a bit complicated to get stuff to my place. After USS Arizona, I'm not that much concerned about the complexity of the brass. I like the addition of turned brass parts and that's why I haven't considered Eduard's PE. I had my eyes onto the 1/72 Revell kit as well, with the GLS stuff. I decided it's too big for me and I hope the plastic is a bit more up modern standards with the 1/144 kit. I also have no idea, about how well the GLS PE is designed. I learned from my Arizona build, the worse the plastic, the better should be the PE. Cheers Rob

have another boxing of the Hobby Boss kit and added some Friul tracks for the FT17, because the kit tracks seem to be a bit delicate to assemble. I also added some resin parts and decals from FT ModelTrends to the package, as I will build mine in a version of the Republican army of the Spanish Civil War. Cheers Rob

I always use this trick, when I hold the CA-ed parts together in strange arrangements with my hands cramping up. I used it mostly for the second planking of my wooden sailing ship build, but it seems, all the humidity is gone with this kind of dryness.

Thank you Mike and Gary, In the moment progress is slowly, as I assemble all the remaining on deck applications, like gun shields boat racks, etc. I had the strange sensation today, that the self adhesive wooden deck slightly curled and lifts in places, but that's no wonder, I guess with a humidity at 10% at the moment along some un seasonal heat. I never had such dryness before and besides itching eyes and dry skin, the CA takes forever bonding. It will stay like this for some days with the addition of storm from Wednesday on . Cheers Rob

Now get out, you can't get away with it . Cheers Rob

I second Hubert concerning most of Eduard's printed PE. The IP's often look rasterized, but I've seen exceptions, where the print was dense and correct color wise. Well, Yahu, they are printed(?) way better, with no visible distortion and they have a good 'glass' effect for the bezels. For my PZL and some other builds, I liked them a lot, but I found them lacking in US panels, like the Corsair and Dauntless, where most of their instruments have yellow printed dials, which should be mostly white. Anyway Peter, you might try, how much of the IP will be seen after installation, maybe you can get away with what you have and use this 'Men in Black device' to forget about it . Cheers Rob

Your Spitfire looks very nice, with your trademark smooth finish, Peter. Cheers Rob

The engine looks great Peter, very crisp and neat. I thought about buying the ZM-109 too, initially, but luckily I've read the different build threads. I would have enormously disappointed by the kit and I cannot understand, what ZM is doing with some of their 1/32 offerings. I built the TA-152 and didn't like the kit at all, with the fit of the cowlings and the engine strut / wingroot section as the biggest areas of concern. ZM hasn't learned from that, it seems. The same probs with the same basic layout (single inline engine fighter). I have some more ZM kits in stash, namely the Horton and HE-219 and the Mustang IV, which follows the above mentioned line. I'm disappointed with the ZM's LS approach to a degree, which is only equaled by Italeri, whose kits I ignore, because what I've seen from them is unworthy for a big company. ZM claims quality and they fail way to often for my liking with the exception of their especially well made 1/48 Phantom, which I had the pleasure to build. Rant off and back to your great build Peter. Cheers Rob

Markings look like tattooed on, nice save Martin. I have to think about that plotter thing. Cheers Rob