DocRob

Wow, you did marvels with these pilots Chris, they do look very natural in their poses and are painted very convincingly. Cheers Rob

Congratulations Peter, you not only finished first, but in quality and style as well. Your Arizona bound birdie will be one of the more colorful contributions to the GB and I have to say, it's very high up the wow-meter. You took that good ole' kit and made it look special. My contribution, the platform for yours will take a while longer to be finished . Cheers Rob

My Albatros B.II is on it's way too Bill. Thanks again for your generous offer. I had a Dolphin on Backorder as well, but skipped it. I have too many British fighters in my stash. I bought some sheets of Aviatic linen decals instead, for the Albatros and other projects. I have the early Halberstadt here, which will receive a very complicated paint scheme. Cheers Rob

This is shaping up beautifully. I really like your way, fading the black camo and make it look interesting, which is not easy. Cheers Rob

Patience is the key to this build. While having Youtube videos on about esoteric hifi discussions - sigh-, I spent some hours with these two cranes. Again the fit of the PE is very good luckily and what's left of the plastic needed a heavy dose of cutting and sanding The roundels where annealed, an absolute must to my eye. The deck starts to look busy with all the sub assemblies joined together, at the same time it becomes more difficult to plan ahead considering the later wooden deck application. Every part hasto be checked, if it fits into the pre cut deck openings. Cheers Rob Cheers Rob

Thank you Gary, shipbuilding in these small scales is definitely another cup of tea, but once you're in a groove it's fun and sometimes even rewarding. To see the ship in it's almost entire form put the spurs in my sides again. I'd like to see, what you are doing with the Kurfürst. I have a soft spot for these early vessels and had considered buying the 1/200 Mikasa in the 1902 livery, along with some brass, a very appealing ship to my eyes and a better kit in every aspect for sure. Cheers Rob

Have you never done a super detailed cockpit Peter ? Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter and Chris, with this base kit, it was absolutely necessary to improve. I have no idea, how that piece of junk could have be thrown on the market by a major company. There are parts in the kit, which are so unbelievable ugly, I sometimes can only stare and laugh. Eduard did a good job, addressing the shortcomings with their boxing, luckily. Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, it's the first time the heap of plastic and brass looks like a ship, which really motivates me to continue. I haven't seen the video about the dio before, but similar ones, possibly by the same creator. He possesses great skills and imagination, to realize his project. I never thought about displaying the Arizona this way. It's maybe a bit hypocritical, but I don't want to show the moment of death of so many sailors. Cheers Rob

My shaky approach to figures is, when I think about a project, I plan for the best possibly available choice of figures, quality wise. I have so many ways to ruin a paintjob, that I don't need figures, which don't support me with detailed and sharp casting, good believable poses and correct sizes. Apart from modifying the position of a hand, I haven't done major surgery to figures though. I know, it doesn't really help with your actual project, its only my planning process considering figures for projects. Cheers Rob

My condolences as well Kevin, I hope modelling relieves the pressures of the losses a bit, when time comes. Your Schnellboot looks great with the mines on. Cheers Rob

Sorry to hear about your hand issues Carl, accidents and other maltreatments sum up with the years as well as different inner problems, like blood pressure , carpal tunnel syndrom or just artritis add to that. Is it advisable with your symptoms to train the hand with rubber balls or other power enforcing. My hands are relatively stable, not that it shows on my skills like figure painting , but I tend to cramp up after a while of micro work and loosening and strenghtening helps a lot. Cheers Rob

The kit benefits a lot from your scratched details Phil. It's what brings live to a kit, specially such a large one. I have to admit, I love to work with brass, it's a metal with so many positive characteristics for modelling. Cheers Rob

Have a nice trip into the sun, Bill. The Kingfisher looks beautiful and I don't know which livery I like better, your later one or Peter's yellow winged. It's such an appealing bird, which cries for detailing given the huge glasshouse on top, the possibility of showing the engine, ... Cheers Rob

Nice progress Gary, the deck starts to look busy. I like the color dots of the torpedoes, but how they were transported into the tubes, I have no idea, but carrying, I can't imagine. Sailors moving on the deck like drunk in a rough sea, carrying a ton of explosives in their midth, I can't see that. The torpedos have to be lashed somehow to the racks, you don't want to loose one or have it rolling on the deck. Cheers Rob

After so many distractions, back to the USS Arizona. I sanded the hull, where the seam of the meeting halves was and it does look good. I will give the final verdict on the Perfect Putty, when primed. Then it was time for the midship artillery and the casemates. I glued the provided metal barrels into 1,1 mm holes and needed to cut away some material on the stubs of the deck, which are casted there for positioning the turrets. The barrels are to long and the guns wouldn't sit flush without cutting the stubs. On reference pics, I found, the middle artillery is mainly directed to the front, which I didn't replicate, because it would have been difficult to insert the casemates PE On the picture you can also see the prepared PE casemates and the deck, where all the plastic was erased. After gluing on the upper deck, the PE-casemates where glued into place and they look so much better, than the plastic with a centerline and halved portholes. I then carefully removed the front superstructure, which stuck unwanted too the deck, due to running CA, some steps before. The wooden deck, was also glued to the plastic deck in these spots and I managed to remove the wooden deck with the help of some large sharp blades, between the decks. Now this is where I am with the Arizona and it looks, like the first priming and painting is not to far ahead. Cheers Rob

Hearing music together with a good drink or two, is a lot of fun. We sometimes have spontaneous vinyl evenings, with a special theme, like 70's live rock albums, or Jazz icons, ... Cheers Rob

That's a strange combination as well Gus. I always liked the early Judas Priest stuff, Abba, they do posees the ability to give their songs some special sparkle, other similar bands can't. I still don't like them and have no records from them. I also have some late night records, where my wife would have a very unpleasing look, if she would be with me. Rammstein though, is not one of my favorites, maybe because they sing in German . Cheers Rob

Got my long awaited Albatros B.II there, which I had backordered. I also backordered the Dolphin, but skipped it, because I have a Camel and a Snipe in stash, both more appealing and therefore more likely to be build. Some other guy got lucky with the Dolphin and I added lots of Aviattic stuff to my order instead. Cheers Rob

Transferring mediocre Italeri plastic into something special. Great detailing work with all the PE. Cheers Rob

MArtin this will be epic. You did a nice job working on the soso areas of the kit. Hopefully you will soon enter fun mode with the Mossie. I have only the Tamiya one, but will follow closely. So many great pics already. Cheers Rob

Thank you Chris, I don't know the ratio of hit and miss with CA, but I guess, unwanted glueing are the majority . I changed to plastic work for a bit and then it will be PE again. I'm really looking forward to have this done and enter the painting stage with the USS Arizona. Don't be so sure about being happy with listening what I'm listening . Yesterday it was the White Stripes, the day before some Off Country and some German Avant-Pop from the 80's. My wife has a wide taste for music, but I can easy overstep her border of tolerance. Luckily, I can hear music as loud as I want in the nighttime, without disturbing anybody, including my wife. I always lived with music and never liked radio, or in other words unwanted information, so for me, vinyl is the way to go, along a good reproduction of the carved information. Cheers Rob

Exactly Hubert, it's the music that matters finally and mostly, there is no good or bad, except maybe 'German Schlager' or the always same looking and sounding pop bands, produced by some laboratories called labels, which luckily produce more profit, getting their output streamed, rather than cut in vinyl. I was born and risen in West Berlin, this walled bubble of capitalism, run by the French, British and Americans. It was the perfect place to grow up and develop a musical taste. In this strange city, maybe one of the strangest ever, there was everything possible, it was complete freedom, except taking a hike in the countryside. This 24 hours, everything goes, next day nuclear annihilation atmosphere attracted many creative spirits and a way of life, always close to the edge. In my late teens and early twens, the city was boiling with musical influences, through bands/musicans like Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Nick Cave, but not to forget German Bands like Einstürzend Neubauten, which created new sound and many others. My girlfriend in these times used to live in Schönebergs Goltzstraße, one of the epicenters of what was called the 'Szene' (where everything happened). All these guys and many others were not only doing concerts in the famous SO36 or Kant Kino or Quartier Latin, but hanging around in the Bars and Cafes of the area. It was a crazy time, being in the middle of the that drug fueled eye of a creative storm. I never did the drug thing, but black rings under my eyes were a signature these times. A parallel Universum of a anarchistic and hedonistic dark bohemy. There were so many strange places, concerts being played in occupied houses, by bands still to be known, The Tempodrom Circus tent in the middle of nowhere on Potsdamer Platz, a wasteland then, which is now the middle of everything in the new boring Berlin. Later old bunkers or defunct factories served as the breeding place for Techno and the Szene went psycho. I loved these times and sometimes think, I should write down some of my experiences, If I'd be better with words, as this period in the world capital of strangeness is not that well documented. Well, I got carried away a bit, but the cultural melting pot of West Berlin, were the roots of my musical taste. The first records I bought, were Donna Summers Bad Girls and AC/DC's Highway to Hell though . I still own both of them. Cheers Rob

I'm a little late, entering the party, but really like your work with the Yak. These quirky looking early jets have their charms. Besides the wash accident, everything came together very nice and I'm with Hubert. You spent too much fine work to not have a try at cleaning the mess off. Cheers Rob

Good to hear, that you and the Kingfisher survived surgery and all is shaping up again, Peter. Your Kingfisher looks Ab-So-Lute-Ly gorgeous. With the masks off, everything clicks and the colorful bird shines in all it's beauty. Cheers Rob