DocRob

Nice work on that dinosaur Gary. We had rubber bands, when I was a kid and I knew how to use them and not only to snap someone in the head in school . Cheers Rob

Nice Carl, good idea with the bolt heads, noted . Cheers Rob

I'll ha I'll have a peek at your color scheme, to get mine right for my USS Arizona build, albeit about a 100th smaller . Cheers Rob

Engine looks great, nice recovery Bill. I never liked Montex or other vinyl masks and have only one exotic set, where no other made one. I will use it as a cutting template for Kabuki tape. Luckily you could keep the canopy clear, even after stripping. Cheers Rob

That's true, I used 0,3mm or 0,5mm nickel tube to enhance my WNW Hansa Brandenburg build. Looked right and no painting needed. Cheers Rob

That base looks beautiful, Kevin. Cheers Rob

Fantastic choice, I nearly bought one of these. The Polish version is painted grey, if I remember correct, so for me a German wood and linen one would have been the way to go, too. The engine looks great, but painting of the one piece thing could be tempting (reason, why I haven't bought some for my WNW kits). Maybe I change my mind about that, when I see yours painted up. I built one of Lukgraph's 3D printed radials for my Fokker D.VIII and it was extremely nicely done. Cheers Rob

I have this one too, better suited for tubes, but had no pic at hand. Mitre for Circular Profiles, JLC Libor Kopeček P006 (scalemates.com) Cheers Rob

If you want to avoid decals for stencils and markings, these are great. A lot of extra work, but they blend in perfectly and with the colors you choose. De Havilland Mosquito Mk.VI, 1ManArmy 32DET049 (scalemates.com) I used a set for my recently finished Corsair build and they are absolutely gorgeous and no silvering with thickish Tamiya decal stencils. Besides the stencils, the sets provide basic markings. Cheers Rob

I used the same mask for the first time on my recently finished Corsair build for pre shading and liked working with it. I used metal sponge cleaners a lot before that and they have their advantages. You can tear them until you have the desired density, you can see individual panel while you spray for panel accentuation and you can work with them without touching the planes surface if desired ,so no bleeding can occur. The effect is not so harsh, so post shading is what it's best for. Cheers Rob

Bummer with the barrels, but maybe they look ok with a bit of drilling out the muzzles. The progress with the Schnellboot looks great though, love the detailing of the stanchions. I also use a sharp blade and carefully 'rolling' the tube under it, or I use my micro mitre from JLC with a razor saw. Great to produce your own turnbuckles for WW1 plane, as it has an adjustable length stop. Cheers Rob

HGW makes (made?) wet transfers for the Mossie, which I bought for mine along many other goodies. After some disappointments with these, I may give them another chance, when time comes. Cheers Rob

What a great result you achieved with this kit. The pics show none of the difficulties you had through your build and what's more to praise than that. Just recently I was tempted to buy a Fonderie Do-24, because I really like the plane, but luckily let it pass. Cheers Rob

Thank you Gentlemen, I'm not sure, if I've done myself a favor building this. Maybe it's a kind of penance for losing the Schnellboot's PE . If I had only the base kit to build, I would sod or even bin it. It's too much work for getting a mediocre result in the end, but the extras change everything, as they smartly address most of the kits shortcomings. It will be an open ended challenge though and I'm not sure, if I have it in me, but for now I don't care very much and will continue to recieve my torment . Cheers Rob

I agree with Hubert. Wow , what a great build. I love your interior work and hope the best for the fitting issues. I'm really eager to see, what you do about the black finish. For enhancing the panel lines, you can use light grey or even white panel liner or oil color. I never had the cojones to do an all black plane, but with the floats of my Hansa Brandenburg build, which are tar covered, I experimented with a double layer black approach. If I remember right, I used a shinier black as a base, than hairspray on top and then covered everything with matte black. After activating the hairspray with water, I removed the top coat with different tools and the areas of wear and contact were shinier afterwards, as they would be in reality. I also have a white wash for ships in my stash, but never used it. I will test it on my actual USS Arizona build to simulate salt residues, what may look good on your blackbird too. This was after the hairspray treatment: And finally this was the weathered result: Cheers Rob

Wow Carl, your PE work looks spectacular. With ship builds, heavy loaded with PE, it's a shame sometimes, to cover the nice brass with color. The sheet thickness looks way more realistic. Cheers Rob

Nice choice Paul, I built that one some years ago, it's a great kit with maybe the best non-AM-tracks I've ever seen. Highly detailed and the links click together securely. The tank itself has the rough beauty of these early French designs, a bit of a dinosaur. Along with the interesting French camo schemes, it makes for a nice in between builds. Cheers Rob

Thanks a lot Martin, for putting me under pressure with kind words on a subject, where I feel like your beloved 'Fidel' out of the water Enjoy some mojitos on the beach and remember it's 'Let's Get Wet' time Cheers (in the word's sense) Rob

Inspecting the plastic, I have to say, I'm very disappointed with what's supplied. The sprues are sourced from Hobby Boss, which date back to a Banner Models kit from 2001. I never heard about Banner and don't know about their reputation, but this kit is partly very badly designed. The hull is a two part affair which is parted at or close to the waterline and on first sight, here the fit seemed to be good. There is a battery compartment casted into , but that doesn't matter. All plastic parts have all kind of irritations, bad casting, strange design, irregular shapes, burr and flash. Many details are casted on, but there is some light there too. The deck planking isn't too shabby, but will be covered with a wooden deck on my build. One example for head scratching design. The halved sidewalls will luckily be substituted by PE later. Another example are the portholes, where I don't want to comment what is there . I drilled out all of the 200-300 portholes with a 0,8mm drill bit and removed burr and other imperfections as a first step. I will not correct all the shortcomings of the kit, but will do my best to build a decent model in the end. The manual suggests continuing with the gun turrets, which I did. First steps were to remove the casted ladders and the other casting oddities with chisels and round bladed scalpels. I think, these tools along everything which cuts and sands in my arsenal will be used heavily through this build. Next, I prepared the main artillery barrels. I cut the plastic barrels from their foundation, drilled a guiding hole and glued the barrels in with CA and got them aligned properly, hopefully. Then it was cutting, chiseling and sanding again, removing winches, anchor chain and pollards from the fore deck which is halfway done on the picture. It looks now perfectly clean, but I wanted to show the casted detail to these of you, who were curious. Cheers Rob

Thank you Kevin and Peter, let's see how this will turn out. Looking at the plastic makes me wondering sometimes. Luckily a lot will be replaced by PE. The 'might' Kevin, will resume for a while in my mind too , as I have to find my path through the new terrain. Cheers Rob

A belated happy new year to you all and I finally decided about the build I will contribute to the GB. My year started a bit rough with house issues AND modelling issues to solve. Some were connected and affecting my initial choice to build the Fore Schnellboot S-38 in 1/72. One reason, I choose this one was, that during a heavy rain in December water entered my cave and soaked the box of the S-38 to a pulp. I took the manual, decals and PE away from the sprues to a safe and dry place and when I started the build the PE and decals were gone. I know, where I stored them, know that I took them to check some reference and then the tracks went blurry. So now to something completely different. I chose the Eduard limited edition boxing from USS Arizona as a substitute, after I cooled off my hot temper about the loss. This will be my first plastic ship build, since I was maybe 12, building an Admiral Hipper, possibly a Revell boxing. First, let's have a look into the box and onto the AM goodies, I plan to use. Dramatic box art: The two piece hull with the decks loosely fitted on: Not that much plastic on the sprues and a lot of what is there will be substituted by PE and printed parts: 3D printed parts and Master barrels: Lots of PE, and I forgot to take photos of another sheet: The goodies, I bought on top of what's in the box, an Artwox wooden deck and Ion Models US Navy figure set: Cheers Rob

Are you kidding me Gary, there are so many French design icons and some of them were technically so advanced for their time, I guess only the Citroen DS had more new technology built in, than the entire car engineering wizards of OZ had developed in total . Cheers Rob

Very interesting technique Mike. I have a E.II in stash and thought about the best method to reproduce the squiggles. In the end, I have to try my methods, ranging from using metal waxes and pencils or AK weathering pencils. I haven't ruled out markers on an Alclad or Extreme Metal base though. Your method produces a nice finish, but a bit to much contrast for my liking, as it's basically only different shades of the same aluminum showing. Cheers Rob

Great extra work with the extra detailing of the consoles, Hubert. I skipped purchasing a punch and die set several times, but I'm getting closer, as there were multiple situations, where I could have used such a tool. RP Toolz produces some and AK (I guess) has these rebranded as well. There are two sets, the smaller ranging from 0,5mm-2mm in 0,1mm steps, the larger ranges from 2mm to 4,5mm. The construction of yours Hubert, seems to be different though with a guide template to push the rods in the proper angle into the die, which is better, specially with small diameters, but makes the handling a bit more laborious. Cheers Rob

What a beauty Peter. Your painting and finish looks spot on and I think you went the right way with the faded blue insignia. It's good to read , that there were no issues with residues on the clear parts and that the masks fit so well. As a tiny eyecatcher, I really like the opened access hatch. I used Molotow Chrome markers on different occasions and only the first fas satisfactory. It was the headlight of my Ford GT MK II, where it looked like chrome. On all other applications, it looked dull and grainy, last on the LG of my Corsair build. After unsuccessfully trying chrome foil there, I went back to my trusty Uschi van der Rosten chrome pigments. Rubbed on properly, they have the perfect shininess to my eye. On the second pic the last two exhaust seem to be out of order or is it only an illusion, as it does not show that much on pic # four. Cheers Rob