HubertB

One thing I learnt with my Cutlass - and which seems pretty common in the 3D-printing world- is that long thin part have a tendency to warp, and tjis fairly quickly, whatever the resin used. However, a few weeks (5 , I believe) in a vise with the two opposing-warp slats clamped together to get a straight line, cured the issue, definitely. Hubert

You should be proud of having finished a kit that has beaten off many modellers. And the result speaks for your skills (on a personal note, I still don’t like folded wings on aircrafts) Hubert

Not « a lot »,but still « strikingly empty » ! Hubert

When I was a kid, in the mid 60s, long before the Museum was created, I have fond memories of crawling under the tanks in front of the instruction building in Saumur, with my buddy, who was the son of the commanding general of the Saumur School of Cavalry. We then climbed into the tanks via the manholes in the tanks’ bottom. Was it fun to « drive » a Sherman or T-34 ! Hubert

You can do a Bell X-5 with this one, almost without any modifications ... Hubert

The Duck has always been one of my favorites, and, in despair of ever seeing one released in 1/32, I was seriously considering launching myself in the dauntring task of designing and 3d-printing it. Thank God, the prolific Lukasj of Lukgraph has come to the rescue and released a fully 3D-printed kit of the Duck. You can already see an incredible build log of the kit, by member Boch. I am not sure I will be able to match his skills in painting and weathering the kit, but his build is a great indicator of what can be done with this marveouis kit. There is however a slight twist to my build (as you could expect ) ... Lukgraph have chosen the J2F-5 version, which was characterised by a long-chord engine cowling, and wore mostly wartime camos. I like my kits not too war-like, and especially not too camoed. So my choice fell upon a J2F-3, BuNO 1539, used as the personal aircraft of Rear Admiral William Brown when he was commanding the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, in 1939. It's a typical "Blue Goose" aircraft, with an Admiral blue fuselage, and silver wings and empennage. However, some pics of the said aircraft lead me to believe the upper wing was chrome-yellow : when applied the yellow was overlapping a part of the underwing at the leading-edge. And one pic of this specific aircraft, taken from the front, shows a distinct darker area (vs silver) on the leading-edge of the upper wing, which I interpret as chrome-yellow. The J2F-3 was different from the -5 however. So, before committing to this version, I had to understand the differences. They focus mainly on the cowling, which was short-chord, and the front fuselage fairing, which had a different carburetor airscoop, a fairing for the oil-cooler scoop, and distinct louvres to evacuate the air from the accessories compartment. BuNo 1539 also sported a bomb-rack under the lower wing, which, unless I have missed it in the kit's extensive parts count, has not been represented by Lukgraph. So, these parts had to be designed and printed in 3D, before converting Lukgraph's kit the -3 version. In the design process, btw, I found out that the front fuselage fairing, above the float, as designed by Lukgraph is too "flat" and not rounded enough. The way the engine bearer is represented is also completely fanciful, and the front fuselage too short, but this is of little consequence for the -5 version with its long-chord cowling, which will hide the issues. I am happy to report that the design of the conversion parts is finished, barring some (probable) mods when I try to mate them to the kit. The new cowling, in two halves : The underwing bomb rack was a rather involved piece of design : And, finally, and most importantly, the front fuselage fairing, with the new carburetor scoop, the oil-cooler scoop, the revised profile and the louvres : You can see that the engine bearer ring has been designed as an integral part of the new fairing. I have also opened the metalsmith workshop. Lukgrpah's kits tend to be heavy, and the Duck will be no exception. When converting the Potez 25 to the TOE version, the weight of the solid wing was 186 grams, and I went to great lengths to have the landing gear reinforced with metal rods. On the Duck, the representation of the landing gear in printed resin is beautiful, and scale accurate, but I suspect it will not bear the weight of the finished kit. This suspicion is reinforced by a cryptic remark in the instructions (cryptic surely as a consequence of translating from Polish to English) that mentions adding additional supports to avoid the splaying of the landing gear. So I have undertaken to redo the whole landing gear in soldered brass. More on this in a later post. Hubert.

Why do you need a Kotare 1/48 Halifax, when there is a « perfectly good » Fonderie Miniature kit available ? 😂 Hubert

If you want to trade it back, I might be interested … It’s one of my « stash purge » regrets …. Hubert

It’s a weird idea to put a cutaway F-105 flying on a pole with pilots on-board …A bit like the modeller could not choose between two types of models … Hubert

I love your weathering style. It’s difficult to have light colors with what are basically khaki / olive drab vehicles. Unless you went for civilian … or completely rusted … Hubert

Thank you, Mark. I have no dog in this fight, as I am not interested in the Phantom. But I fail to see the aggravation around this new release : the Revell kit is 50 years old, not totally accurate, and requires sinking a lot of money in AM to get a decent reproduction, which will not be a « B » any way. All summed up, you won’t be far from the 300 USD or more to get a potentially good Phantom, assuming you put as much sweat as TLC to achieve this result. The Tamiya offering, still not a B, is a decade younger than the Revell kit, starts with a 3-digits RSP, and, again, requires a significant amount of AM, and work, to achieve a good result and correct some inaccuracies. This kit is far from the superlative quality and fit that has propelled Tamiya 1/32 aura to the sky, which started with their Zero, then the P-51 … A 1/32 twin-engined jet is a lot of plastic, therefore a lot of steel to mold the said plastic … It has to be expensive. Even the cheap F-105 from Trumpeter retailed initially at a 3-digit RSP, and once you had bought all the correction sets available, you had pocketed more than 350/400 USD, with still some areas that were not properly addressed, like the canopy (I know, I did spend that much before reselling the whole lot for the lack of an accurate canopy ). So, whilst I agree this seems a lot of money to begin with, it may not be that much if the level of detail and the accuracy of the new Red Pill F4-B make AM sets unnecessary. Mark’s first-hand report seems to indicate the cash outlay may be justified, in the end. Hopefully this will calm down the nay-sayers. Hubert

Thank you Kevin. Glad you like it. Next one, already started, quacks and splashes. I am in the process of: 1) validating the feasibility and design of conversion parts for a -3 or -4 variant 2) testing my brass working skills, as the landing gear looks scale-accurate, but weak for the weight of a 3D-printed kit (and also by Lukgraph’s own admission) Hubert

Happy +1 birthday, Carl ! Hubert

This rigging is really adding presence to what is already a great-looking Scharnhorst 👍 Hubert

What a great result on a challenging build, with all this rigging … As usual, following your progress has been a pleasure as well as an instructive read. Hubert