DocRob

Wow Peter, your Spitfire crossed the finish line fast and in beautiful fashion, as is your trademark. It´s a camo, but highly vivid and eye pleasing. Nobody would have noticed the missing rearview mirror, but now that you spoke about it... . Cheers Rob

Your engine looks sweet, Jeff. Tons of detail everywhere. I hope the hood opens easily to show everything. Cheers Rob

Pocher kits can be demanding, to say the leas, from what I read. Ixo Collections is a France based company, producing kits in 1/8 scale with pre painted parts and some even with lights and sound. Cheers Rob

Thank you Mike, the offers on ebay are a bit pricey, I find. Unfortunately the Cobra is not available from MFH directly unfortunately, they have the best prices by far. Cheers Rob

Thank you Chris, I guess, you can´t come much nearer to the original thing, than with a MFH kit. There are other companies, like Ixo or Pocher, but I never built their products. Build threads to me are a two way benefit, as I very much profit from the input from fellow forum members a lot. Another selfish aspect is, I can look for my own color call outs, later in the build, when I forgot, which exact hue was used. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter. When mistakes lead to good ideas, you got a hole manual, which would be highly appreciated by me in form as a drilling diameter guide. I meant the Whole manual , when I wrote it. Nearly everything mounts to the chassis and you have to identify every part throughout the Whole manual find it in the stashing boxes and measure it´s connecting pegs. In case of screws, you have to identify which parts are passed by them and in which they need to cut in. I use the same HSS drill bits as ever, as they are generally angled for most metals and the cast white metal is relatively soft. Some bits for drilling printed circuit bords are not so convenient, as they are harder, more brittle and therefore break easier and their sloping angle is for fiber plastics and doesn´t go too well through metals. The latter are a bit more comfortable to handle, because the shaft diameter is always the same and you can put them into a collet. Generally, I´m astonished, how few of the bits I managed to break during the two MFH builds. Cheers Rob

Thank you Phil. Not all of the detail will be lost, the Cobra has a huge openable hood. The drive train and differential will be buried unseen though. Cheers Rob

I am shipping some difficult waters lately, not with the kit though and that´s why I made myself sparse. Nonetheless, some progress with the mighty Cobra. Having thought, everything would build up easier than the engine was partly untrue. The chassis as the central element has so many parts to add, that you need a lot of patience and discipline to get it right. Every hole - and there are many - needs to be drilled with the proper diameter. To achieve this, you have to identify the various parts or sub assemblies through the hole manual and understand, how it joins and what is used for joining, nuts, bolts, screws, pegs, whatever. Finally, I build up the suspension arms and completed the front axle and tubing with a real metal leaf spring. Steerable wheels are not planned with the kit. I made some mistakes on the rear end with the differential housing, but managed to correct that without too much damage. Again Tamiya LP semi matte black proved to be the perfect weapon of choice for the black chassis parts. The engine is only loosely attached for now. Cheers Rob

Thank you jep and Andy, you need some patience and a methodical approach to tackle these kind of kits. Somehow everything goes together as should. Cheers Rob

A fantastic paint scheme on a great build, Gus. I like the vivid aspects, like tail, wing numbers and missiles, as they add a lot of detail. Like you mentioned, resin kits are not so much harder to build than plastic kits, if the casting quality and engineering is done well. Congratulations to a well earned prize, which now transferred to a beauty in your display shelf. Cheers Rob

Congratulations to your new 1/1 scale ride, Peter. I wish you lot of joy and plenty of fun miles with your Kia, BUT, where are the photos of yours? Cheers Rob

Fantastic result, Mike. The translucent effect on the wings is outstanding. Cheers Rob

Thank you, you dropped in right for the first ride, as it is in the finished builds section . Cheers Rob

Wow, love it, the turret looks great. I specially like your chipping, which looks very real. Cheers Rob

Great detail work in the landing gear bay and with the riveting job, Hubert. I never used them, but Eduard has 3D rivets launched lately, which are possibly an alternative, if Archer will not be available. Cheers Rob

Fantastic result Gus, the Viggen looks absolutely super bueno and will be a jaw dropper displayed in your shelf. I always wanted to build one with the splinter camo scheme in 48 scale, but chickened out. Cheers Rob

Thanks Peter, I´m looking forward to some more relaxing steps, like building up the chassis. The engine was a test of patience at times, with lots of parts involved in a tiny space. It became more and more difficult to even handle it. Cheers Rob

The first time, I used cello tape, because I had no sheets of transfer foil and it worked. Now I have bought some transparent adhesive foil sheet for that case. Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, there is more than enough clearance for the exhausts to fit in. It´s an optical illusion, with the area angled and no blockages are to be expected. Cheers Rob

Like Spitfire said, the 1ManArmy masks are fantastic. I used them on two builds now and despite a lot of masking work, the results were fantastic. The stencils are very sharp and you don´t have the typical decal issues. It´s a lot of work, especially, when the stencils are multi colored. When applying the larger roundels, 1MA recommends using transparent transfer film for placement. I would strongly recommend doing so, especially on rounded surfaces like the fuselage sides. Cheers Rob

Today, I reached the first real milestone, finishing the engine and transmission. The ignition wiring was a bit delicate and needed a lot of CA to proper glue everything together. Using tiny rubber connectors seemed not to be the best idea from MFH to my eye. The provided wire is very rigid, which helped to pre bend each single wire before gluing them in. Now Tamiya have a look, here is something to learn. the belt on the front of the engine is black adhesive tape over cast iron wheels, looks way better, than Tamiya´s rough cast parts on the 1/12 kits I knew. The transmission housing is made of a mix of resin and metal parts, with whit metal gear shifting rods added. The manual suggested steel color for the housing, but I went with metallic grey, to have a cast iron appearance. I read, later modified or rebuild chassis got an aluminum casing, but the original was cast iron. So much for weight reduction . Cheers Rob

Thank you Chris, it hasn´t been an easy kit so far, but the engineering and detail is absolutely fantastic and I hope, I can fight my way through the build. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter and Carl, I started with the belt drives and transmission and next will be the wiring. Main problem will be to insert the wires into the per drilled rubber connectors in crammed space. I tried the first and most complicated one, but gave up for breakfast. Luckily it´s not a 12 cylinder engine . Cheers Rob

Thank you Chris, well the figures. I like the mechanic, but he´s far from perfect. The bug eyed boy, err, ... On the other hand, the figure of the boy gave me the story line from the first view in some online shop. Cheers Rob

Wow (Little) Chris, what a beauty and well worth the extension of the GB deadline. If this F4 is not to your standards, then I´m really eager to see what is . Cheers Rob