belugawhaleman

Working on this little Tamiya M3 Stuart at the moment. Seen here. still in gloss coat, with decals applied. The decals are Cuban national markings from Star Decals. They went on ok. The one decal on the Side looks silvered, but is not. The decals on my AMX 13 looked the same before the flat coat and turned out fine. Still have to put the tools and M1919 on and finish painting the tracks. Then spray it with flat.

Very nice Mark. Well done!

For sol, I've used walther's Solvaset with good results. Also Tamiya makes decal sol in various Strengths.....Mark fit... Try one of the stronger ones.

What type of decal solution are you using?

You did a wonderful job on the Spitfire Peter, it looks great!

I got the product quicker from BNA in Australia than I get items from Kitlinx in Utah partly because Kitlinx sits on the order for several days before shipping out. BNA shipped the next day...really in less than 6 hours in this case.

I had some circle templates as well, but apparently I lost them both when I moved. I also have a Dspiae circle cutter, but I thought I'd give the Quick Wheel stencil a try. I have ordered from BNA before, but that was when the pandemic was at its height and shipping was at its worst. This time things were faster.

A surprise came in the mail today......... Ordered on August 10th......from BNA Model World in Melbourne, Australia, and delivered today , the 18th, my order came. That's pretty darn quick! Quicker than Anything that I ordered from Kitlinx......and that's in Utah! Anyway, the item is from Quick Wheel. It's their QW-249 wheel stencil for the Tamiya Hummel (35367). This should work with the Nashon kit as well as both kits share the same wheels. I've never used one of these Quick Wheel things before. I've been using a 20/0 AIT sable "mini liner" brush, and it works very well for the purpose. I noticed that on the Hummel and Nashorn kits from Tamiya the line between the rim and tire is not as well-defined as on other kits...so I thought I'd give this Quick Wheel stencil a try. We'll see how this works out. Once again, kudos for BNA model world.......A great business to deal with. Not only for their shipping, but for their service. Emails and questions were answered quickly... Very pleased.

I really like those bases. My models end up unceremoniously placed on a coffee table Looking sadly out of place.....I'll have to look into those bases. I really do like the Tamiya kits.....trouble free, great quality, and NOT Chinese..... Silly, I know but that kind of matters to me. My next purchase will be a non-Tamiya kit perhaps. I saw that the Brothers Sprue have a long sought for kit in stock. I will buy this thing....if still in stock..next week.

It's hard for me to say, the Master barrels I have purchased have been for the most part been less costly than my Aber barrels but then the Master barrels have been less complex than the Aber. I guess my closest comparison would be my recently purchased Master M118 Hellcat barrel to the Aber KV-1 barrel, both simple one-piece items, their price was about the same.

Well, I've been thinking about buying this one for some time, and yesterday I decided to go ahead. Today from Tower Hobbies came Tamiya's 8.8cm Pak43/1 auf Geshtzwagen III/IV (Sd.Kfz.164) Nashorn (35335). This was released in 2014 and shares the lower hull and running gear of their later Hummel kit but nothing else. This kit, unfortunately, does not have the nice link & length tracks of the other kit.....it has the "rubberband" style tracks. Still, it's a very nice kit according to the reviews and a quick look in the box confirmed this. It has the barrel molded in one piece, so an Aber barrel is not needed I think. The muzzle brake is separate and is made up as three pieces. Nashorn ,by the way, is German for rhinoceros. Anyway, I have loads of kits right now to choose from and yes, I do agree I'd better get on with building some!

Interesting choice........odd looking bird! Will be watching.

Nice work John and happy birthday!

Ok..not really a meme, but a classic Thurber doodle.

My Gosh....that Jeri Ryan was really...loaded for Bear.

Thanks. I'm still grinding my way through the Stuart right now, but the Hellcat will be near the top of my list as it looks like a great kit.....some of the details of the kit look really impressive. The grilles on the engine deck, inside the turret, and fabric cover for the gun mantlet especially stand out.

I have a Barrel from Master on the way from Sprue Brothers as well....ordered it yesterday.

More items this week: First, another Tamiya kit; their U.S. Tank Destroyer M18 Hellcat (35376). I've heard a lot of good things about this kit and it looks great. Very detailed! It has link & length tracks, detailed suspension, and some very realistic rendering of the fabric cover for the gun mantlet. Looks like really nice kit. I also got a couple of barrels from Aber: 1). Russian 76,mm F-32 tank barrel for KV-1 early model 1941(35 L-43) Tamiya 2). German 105mm L/28 barrel with muzzle brake for LeFH 18M/2 & Wespe Sd.kfz.124 for my Tamiya Wespe kit.

Great set of items Rob! I have the Tamiya pointed cutters.....I like them, I prefer them to my Trumpeter single blade cutter, which, although sharp, never cuts flush. It always leaves a wedge shaped nub on the part. Hate it! The tweezer handle scissors look like A future purchase for me as the scissors I use currently for decals is a clumsy thing.

Glorioski! Hubert! I never said it was right!

There's been a lot of talk about the wing profile but I understand that the actual wing shape was a bit different. It was called a Davis wing if I remember correctly. Anyway, nice work Carl. I'd like to tackle that beast......if I had a spare bedroom to put it in...that is! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_wing

Today items I ordered from Hobby Easy in Hong Kong arrived. Two Tamiya products. First their German Steyr type 1500A Kommandeurwagen S.gl. Pkw Steyr type 1500A. (35235). In 1/35. This version in not easy to find in 1/35 scale. It's an odd looking vehicle, but I like it and it's a nice little kit. I also got Tamiya's accessory kit for their 2 1/2 ton 6x6 U.S. cargo truck. (MM 231). It includes a ring-type mount for the M2 machine gun, M2 machine gun, jerry can holders with cans, ammunition boxes, side curtains, folded top, road signs, and even includes a 1/35 scale puppy! Also a hard to find item......although Kitlinx claims to have one in stock.......or do they?. Anyway, like I said, a small order, but I've been looking for these items to a while and I'm happy to have found them. Shipping at $ 15.00 U.S. was high, but total cost was cheap compared to sourcing them elsewhere. My 1/35 Steyr was purchased for about 1/2 the cost of what the Tamiya 1/48 scale versions are sold on U.S. websites. The Accessory set was about a third the cost of what I've seen elsewhere.

Items arrived from Hobby easy today! It wasn't a big order, but of an order of hard to find items. Both Tamiya. The shipping time was 16 days and I'm pleased! I will post items in the What did you just get? Thread.

Did I hear that correctly? 150+ Wingnut kits!!!!??

Update!!! I just counted my stash......I actually have more like 70 kits! Thank God! I thought I had a Problem!😀