Peterpools

Kev Nice start on the me 110 and right with you - just love those Quinta cockpit sets.

Thanks John While I'm waiting, I started tinkering with the ZM Skyraider, and it's one of their earliest kits and nothing like the 109 in quality and clean molding. Of course, it was your build that got me thinking about adding the Skyraider to the collection. Hopefully, going with folded wings.

Welcome aboard and what an entrance ... awesome build and NMF.

Gaz Nice work on the front office and the seat belts look awesome. Yup, always the same story, as so much of the cockpit detail disappears when the fuselage is closed up.

ON HOLD I’m not a happy camper as the saying goes. I started decaling with the undersides of the wings and the decals were perfect – printed by Cartograf. But turning to the top of the wings and especially the fuselage side crosses, I was totally disappointed with the decals. The upper wing crosses would have way too much carrier film in the clear center and tried as best as I could, I couldn’t cut out the carrier film and apply the insignia correctly. The fuselage crosses would be an adventure I never experienced in all my years of modeling. The center of each cross is clear carrier film and needs to be PAINTED RLM74. Why they couldn’t print the decals with the center color is beyond me or at least include a second portion of the decal with a correctly sized color strip for double decaling. I’ve never seen a set of decals requiring painting the center section. ZM can include loads of never to be seen detail parts and something as simple as this is overlooked. Did I missing something? I bit the bullet and purchased a set of DN Masks which will solve the upper wing carrier film issue for me and of course, the side fuselage decal issue as well. Until the masks arrive, I’m on hold, as I want to leave as much room as possible for the decal masks. It’s always something and quite possibly other builders wouldn’t have an issue with this, I just can’t see jumping through hoops and either pre-painting under the fuselage decals and getting it perfect or masking on top, even after a gloss seal cote – just too risky for me.

Thanks Bill, much aprreciated.

I'm old school and enjoy building models. Well engineered kits with excellent instructions, detailed parts and precise part fit are said to be 'shake and bake' kits. Kits that are poorly engineered, badly molded, poor part fit and bad instructions are said to be a challenge and the builder derives the greatest satisfaction upon completion. For me, nothing could be further from the truth. Build what you like and how you like. The satisfaction from building any kit, is seeing it cross the finish line and basking in the display case. Build what is rewarding, enjoyable and keeps you coming back for more. We each see the hobby differently and as long as what we build keeps us at the bench, happy, satisfied and fulfilled, that's all that counts.

Thanks Rob I guess I should have waited a day or two, then gone back and looked and the cammo, which came out much better then I originally thought. I think if I used worms or paper, the blend would have been a lot less and more mask like.

Thanks Carl The more I go back and look at it, the blend in the cammo is better then I originally thought.

Rob The Bare Metal Foil does look good in the test and should be the way to go. What about adding a few drops of Tamiya Gloss Black to the Pure Blue to darken it up, as it's always better to shoot gloss paints when the paint finish is going to be gloss. Canopy fit looks good and I do remember those issues as had the nearly the same on my F4 at almost the same time as you.

Thanks Rob for the information and yes, since it was designed for cross country racing and the forward vision wasn't that important - almost like the Spirit of St Louis. Also back then, I bet there was no such thing as crowded skies.

Kriss, I'm 75 and have already been there. Our sight just deteriorates with age and stronger and stronger glasses are needed. Getting new glasses this week! If it wasn't for my magnifying lamp and or optivisor, I don't think I could build at all these days anymore.

Beautiful build and an exceptional finish. No wonder so much weight was needed, as there is a lot of airplane aft of the mains.

Thanks Rob "...There is a limited front view, with the indentions in front of the pilot, covered by the clear canopy, but I guess, the Caudron was not easy to fly..." Makes perfect sense now and I am assuming the vast majority of race time, the pilot is nearly always in a turn, so visibility wouldn't be that much of an impossibility. I'm more then sure, it took a pilot of exceptional skills to fly her as stability must have been sacrificed for speed. With I had some knowledge of the actual aircraft but I'm of no help here at all.

Thanks Gaz, much appreciated.

Gus Just couldn't ask for better care.

Thanks John The more I look at the cammo color demarcation lines, I'm pretty sure the color blend and separation does look good.

Thanks Gus, I'll check it out.

Rob Spectacular find and going to be an epic build. Will be following with enthusiastic interest. Learning to fly in a taildragger, you had to continuously Fishtail or S Turns on the ground to see where you were going, as you couldn't see over the nose. Once the nose was lowered on takeoff, visibility was a non-issue. But for the life of me, I can't understand how the pilot in a race could see what was in front of him. In a turn - no problems but straight ahead? Maybe a slight side slip or nose down attitude but flying blind straight ahead - yikes! Paging Ernie !

Thanks Kev, feels good to have finished the major air brush work and decaling is just around the corner.

👍

Pete OMG, looking fantastic

Nice choice for your latest build and will be following.

John What a fantastic recovery - looks terrific and no one would ever know the problems you had to resolve. So no primer now, just MM gloss light gray. I guessing but for your next build, you're going to be priming with a new bottle of Alclad Primer ?

Hubert sounds great and keep those pics coming