krow113

Thanks Rob. Bombs are documented in 3 colors. Starting the day woith a quick test assy: Tight WNW fit. Reason being the fitment of the bombs and rack. I thought the bomb tails may foul the rear of the fuse , not the case: Bomb rack detailing can now be finished a set aside with the plethora of pre assy assy's . Its been 10 years since the release of this kit . Gathering reference materials and personal research has gone on for that time period. I got the kit as soon as I saw it and began this pathway. Not a lot of material to look over , compared to others , but going over the material over and over gleaning as much as possible not only of obvious details , but trying to visualize the not so obvious details has me confident the choices I have made are ok. Pretty much everything has been decided on as far as color goes.

Thanks you guys! Fully shagged from looking after last minute customers all day. The hulking menace of A Gotha , pronounced ; "GUHOO -TAH" in the most gutteral voice you can manage , if thats not possible ask a German to pronounce it for you , is creeping my back big time these past few days . I'll be waking in the morning and immersing , business closed , phone ignored ! I'll leave you with A Gotha trivia tidbit; The Royal house of Windsor was once the royal house of Gotha. However the raids on London and the realization the public's opinionated eye was starting to look askance at the Royal House they changed the name to Windsor. One more fact that beefs up the Gotha's reputation as one of the most influential types ever built. Where we will be starting :

Last minute gifts going out; The 2 in the back are maple burl with all the striations , birds eye, spalting , etc. The red one is a rare juniper burl. Almost ready for A Gotha onslaught.

In a professional bottoming out, I relented and made these for a customer: Feels like I've wasted my time and money on expensive equipment and near-continual learning to end up making this sort of guff. Shoot me now ,please.

And rolling forward I lashed some paint on the rack, and got some undercarriage rigging started: Here I'm using some mini clothes pegs to set up a 'pull' on the lines , this helps me to guide them and line up the turnbuckles: Getting the work feeling back , went in and strapped up the bombs. I was going to test fit but I think I'll leave them in place a s they are nice and snug:

I knew it was too soon for that joke!

No-one hurt. So .......

Too soon for a 'Sale on Pre-Annealed P/E Sets ' joke?

Nicely done!

Not a flaw in the Spit. A specific flaw in the fuel intake system. Despite that, the Merlin could be argued as one of the top factors in the winning of the war.

There is a dead animal somewhere creating the flys. Most likely in the vent. MMmmmmmmmmmmm whats for dinner!?

Thanks Rob The p/e set I mention is by them for the Gotha. None of it used. I cant see any use for the AEG set other than maybe sizing the parts you will have to make to have a decent bomb rack. None of the actual materials used for the racks are represented properly in the p/e sets offered. And As I said, Gotha and AEG most likely did not manufacture their own bomb racks, they were supplied by a separate contractor building for all of the bomber manufacturers, so pics of bomb racks from many aircraft can be used. Proof of this is the bomb rack pic in the RR build book where he states the racks were all the same.

Thanks Gaz. And part of this for me is figuring out how things work. The bomb rack specifically had me stumped for literally years , until today. There are a lot of pics, which is not a common statement for Gotha modellers , of bomb racks ,as they were of the same manufacturing policy as a lot of components. Made by a singular company for bomber manufacturers. I did rob some rack parts off of the AEG G IV kit. The rest is added. Here is how the mechanism appears to me to work; See the lever shaped part molded to the left of the front piece of the rack: That is the actuation lever. It should be molded inside the tube to the right of it. IE: at 1 o clock not 11 o clock. Because if you look at pics there is a slug sticking out of that tube. When the commander toggles the bomb levers in the front cockpit ; the slug slides into the tube and the lever rotates counter clockwise , the hook at the bottom releases the sling . Its all there to see in pics in the instructions and Gotha! and RR's book. The parts from WNW are not incorrect , they are just molded in the released position! There is a decent amount of reference pics and materials to indicate the possibilty of a p/e set to do a more complete and detailed bomb rack. It appears to be mainly flat bar and tubing. I opted for the kit parts over an available p/e set ,which I do have as well , thinking it to be of little improvement. The bomb rack is at 90% . some more hardware detail and some paint. I used EZ line for the slings and added the brass tube cradles to fit the 300kg bombs more snugly:

Thanks. I can almost see Comox from my house. I see the big Labs overhead every once and a while doing S&R training . We have an aerodrome here too , used to have a Fly-In and get around 40 planes

Thank you. And slowly , but because I am thinking more and more about it , steadily moving into the reaquaintance of this model. Part of the length of time involved has been rethinking the procedure to suit my building methods. Mainly concerning the large part assy's one encounters at this stage . I want to joint the wing lower and fuse assy and immediately turn that assy over to get the bomb rack details on. Bomb rack work begins with some saddles cut from a slice of brass tubing: I finally got the bombs to stay together too , using epoxy rather than crusty crap-ass cyano. This will be a full sub-assy with bombs attached all going on at once. I also bit onto the rigging work , setting up just for the 4 wires under the wing. 1/32 metal turnbuckles and eyelets are used for this rigging:

Getting close to the end of the holiday rush. Orders still coming in and going out: Crib boards are a standard now , rolling trays were a new venture and well received. Something to make from the smaller pieces of wood. Also a year end clearing of sorts started , with a mind towards uncovering A Gotha . And a feeling of the need to finish the model this year surfacing.

When is the Tamiya upgrade to have taken effect? Is it relevent to the prop action Grand Slam kit?

lol That looks like a two-headed dog!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good news. Now get on those WNW molds!

I thought this would be about using all colors to build up black. Did you guys notice the wing walkway decals are intact through the chipped areas? Unrealistic to say the least. Good try and I can appreciate the effort.

Thats a popular self portrait for many others too! lol

Uschi's also comes on a nice metal thimble, so when you do a 'setup' for rigging it can be easily put on an axle for better handling.

Check out Uschi's stuff. I have a selection of it and it would seem to be tiny enough for warship rigging.

...so basically an assassination weapon. lol

proof of hobby lol