DocRob

Like it a lot, small story, well told. Cheers Rob

Today in the morning, I fired up my trusted old compressor with the intent to prime all that glaring PE along the few plastic remains with some Mr. Surfacer. Inspecting the manual showed me that there are several parts better to add now, than later, as I initially intended, like railings on the superstructure and some ladders here and there and parts, where I believed, they had to be glued to the deck, instead they are to glue to the superstructure. Railings are especially painful and the rounded shaped are the worst. I think the superstructures are finished now, except tiny antennas, AA-guns, searchlights and water pumps, which will be added after painting. Last for today, where eight of these guns sitting on top of the deck. They are 3D printed and have brass barrels and are superbly detailed. The manual suggests to cut away the railings and substitute them with PE, but I think they look good as they are and handle safer. Cheers Rob

Thanks for mentioning rigging Peter , I hadn't had a single thought about that until now. Patience indeed is a key for these kind of builds, as well as realizing that some days are not good for progress with this kind of work. Cheers Rob

Slowly approaching the finish line with all the PE-laden sub assemblies, thanks Gary. Cheers Rob

I started with the boats, hoping to find some relaxation, but was soon proved wrong. The flimsy racks didn't help and the last four of the twelve (I hope, I counted right) fought back wherever they could. fragile railings went on along with portholes and covers, which all went airborne on the first attempt and then stuck with the CA in unwanted places. I start to loose my patience with these ever more fiddly sub assemblies. The racks aren't looking too good, but they will have to do. For my own sanity, only to show how far I've come with the build, most of the assemblies where loosely grouped on the decks for some brass shots. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter and I hear you. 'Prior to the completion', that sounds soon, but there are many things to do and my patience with this kit is starting to wear. Too much fighting, compared to the satisfaction it generates. I still have the urge to finish the Arizona, but it feels harder to resist other temptations. Cheers Rob

Not LS, but some of the phantastic Phantoms , made by Zoukei Moura in 48 scale where already built here. For the Wild Weasel-G-model, they added some extras to their portfolio, PE from Eduard, acrylic interior parts and sets of pilots. Search Results for "HE_221112_SWS OP" | VOLKS Official Hobby Paradise Online Store Cheers Rob

Thank you Chris, if I ever finish it, there will be only distant shots, not to show the many imperfections, I fabricated. The good thing, living on a remote island is, nobody except me will ever see the thing with the real eye . One motivating thing with this build, I start to find the PE parts faster, because the five large PE-sheets start to empty up. Cheers Rob

That's some great progress with the Cat, Chris. The pilots look perfectly well, drunken or not and the blisters are great with the figures in. This will be absolutely stunning when finished. Cheers Rob

There are some mighty fine Schnellboot builds presented here, lately. Yours becomes better with every step Kevin, be it detailing or painting and weathering. I would consider some white for the weathering, replicating salt residues. I imagine these boats take a lot of spray, even in moderate conditions. Cheers Rob

Nice Gary, all the detail painting with wood , masts and linoleum enhances the contrast of the vessel and pleases the eye. I will not dig to deep into maritime subjects in the future, besides wooden ships, but there are some plastic kits, I want to build. I have the 1/35 Vosper in stash, with lots of AM and figures and there is the 1/200 Mikasa in 1902 trim tempting my buy button push finger, along with some PE, maybe Pontos and Ion figures. The Mikasa kit is a Hobby Boss releas, so has to be inspected properly before buying, having the unbelievable bad plastic of the USS Arizona in mind. Cheers Rob

I continued with some more on deck subassemblies. The second catapult and the stern crane were easy to build up and I thought about having some relaxing fun with the boats and their cradles, but PE-madness stroke back. The plastic hulls needed a lot of cleanup but the extremely fragile racks where very difficult to glue into place unbent and more or less on level. They do look a bit rough and I hope to hide the crudeness behind primer and paint, as I have no intention to rework them. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias Chris, like I mentioned above. I use a candle and hold the part above the tip of the flame. What soot there is can by wiped off. All other soft flames, lighter,... work as well. Only blowtorches, etc. are way too hot. The correct temperature can be seen, when the brass surface of the PE part turns into a blue hue. That happens very quick with small PE parts. Don't glow the parts, as they will become very fragile then. Cheers Rob

Thank you Mike, I had a look into the document and I do know about the phenomenon. If there is deformation of metals, there is stress and the stress results in a bit of hardening, but I never have heard of such a change like you described from soft and flexible to hard and rigid. Live and learn . Cheers Rob

There went definitely some nice work into the hull? /fuselage? Mike. Like you, I think, most of it will be invisible or you think about lighting and polishing the windows. Cheers Rob

What I like about these early S-boats is, they still carry some sporting yacht genes. You are close to the finish now, and I'm a bit jealous, not having participated the GB with my S-38, due to having lost the PE and other brass parts, still a miracle to me. Cheers Rob

Looks great Peter, but what a shame about the cockpit fit. Can't be so difficult to get that right. I'm not an expert with Spitfires, but the airframe looks about right. I have some Revell kits in stash, but never built one after my twens. Cheers Rob

I will definitely get me one to have a smaller brother for my huge wooden Scout-C, I recently bought. To have a 1/32 3D model for detailing the big bird is a great plus . Cheers Rob

No problem with that Mike, we are here to learn, and I haven't heard of that kind of behavior before, you mentioned with copper wire. I worked a lot with copper tin when I was younger, but never experienced this effect. Cheers Rob

Well Peter, yes and no to your conclusions. The first part is correct, no water is needed for cooling down the parts. Harden metals is a different case, to my knowledge it works only with metals including carbon like steel. Hardening needs higher temperatures, depending the metal. When you want to fabricate a tool from steel, let's say a knife, you harden the blade first with high temperature and cool it instantly in oil or water. The blade will be ultra hard then (good), but brittle as glass (bad). Depending on the purpose for the blade, it will be annealed in the next step, to soften the blade to the right balance between hardness and flexibility. I only mentioned hardening, because these two heat treatments belong together. Maybe I should have left the hardening out, because it doesn't apply to non ferrous metals like brass. Non ferrous metals can have inner strains as well and these can be lessened through annealing. Cheers Rob

Thanks Gary, you don't need to start though, the GK isn't finished, am I right? Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, I got a bit of a brass flash lately . With metals there are generally two processes for altering the crystalline structure to achieve the wanted material characteristics. There is hardening, where you heat up the metal to a defined degree and then cool it more or less rapidly down with air, water, oil, whatever. The cooling process strains the crystalline lattice structure immediately and the result is a very hard version of your base material, which are mostly carbon based steels. Annealing is the process to release a defined amount of strain due to inducing a lower heat than with hardening. the crystalline grid relaxes a bit, so to say. Every metal has a different set of annealing colors, which develop with the heating and show the temperature to which the material was heated. you can study that on steel exhaust manifolds, where you often got a full rainbow of colors, each indicate a different temperature and if you know, which material was used, there are tables, which give you the exact amount of degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius. Brass is not hardened, but has structural strains resulting from the production process and annealing orders the inner grid of the material and as a result softens it. You don't need to pour cold water on the part, it's only about reaching the appropriate temperature. I hope my blah is understandable in English, it's not so easy to sum up complicated processes and figure for the right words. Cheers Rob

Sorry to hear about your situation, Harv. Being separated after such a long time is quite a change. Go slow and see the positives, maybe the way, some of the other guys mentioned, maybe in other ways. I wish you luck with the move and hope to see some building output, no pressure applied . Cheers Rob

Nice progress with the super smooth sub, Scott. I think it's a good idea to display it only with an ocean floor scenery. If you would use clear resin, it wouldn't be ready through the GB's deadline, as you only be able to cast it in 1 cm layers, to prevent bubbles and heat build up. Cheers Rob

Great display, love the water effects and general setting, as well as the low budget, but effective trees. I wonder how the heat build up happened with the clear resin. I only worked once with the stuff, a 2K resin, which worked fine and the manual said, never to build up layers of more than a centimeter, but yours is shallow, strange. Cheers Rob