HubertB

Well, Martin, sorry to disappoint you, but Cleopatra should be called Cesar, definitely 🤣. Thank you for the kind comments, guys. As I wear an high-magnification Optivisor, I see small imperfections everywhere …but, oh well, this maybe my first completed GB entry in 15 years Hubert

We posted simultaneously the last two posts. Great that you found some Vivak sheets. As i mentioned, the only potential issue with PETG is bubbles. PETG is an hydrophile plastic, that will absorb the moisture in the environment. Too much heat will result in the said moisture transforming onto vapor, and the bubbles will form. As you cannot adjust the heat of your machine (I have the same), the way to do is to fine tune the distance to the heating resistance. Once you have found the right distance, just fit a stop on the lifting lever of the machine. Hubert

I forgot : another great material (the best in fact) for vacforming transparencies is PMMA (« Parspex », the same that was used on 1:1 aircrafts) , but the heating is even more critical. A French modeller was heating it in hot oil in his fryer before push-forming the sheet. Hubert

Good work on vacforming the bomb aimer’s cockpit Jeroen. Be careful though : PVC yellows over time, even more than the resin part you have (btw, heating it gently should remove some of the yellowing on the resin part). For vacforming, PETG (Bayer’s « Vivak ») is the way to go. But it’s demanding on the vacforming parameters, as just a few degrees too much, or a few extra seconds, and you will get the dreaded vapor bubbles in the PETG sheet. Hubert

What I can say is that the set of expletives a certain modeller heard on Thursday evening had definitely a French ring to them 🤣 Hubert

Thank you Kevin. You must be right about the brain ... I had this week one of these "senior moments", and it took me two days of work to realise my blunder 😅. It was also a proof that I do less French aircrafts than British ones, and got habits ingrained in my aging mind. Let me tell you about it : British and French rounderls are concetric circles of blue, white and red. So, besides the different hues, especially for the blue, what is the difference between them ? All of you will answer this one easily. On British roundels, the red is in the center, and the blue is the outside circle. On French roundels, the blue is in the center, and the blue is the outside circle. The logic is that the blue is always on the side of the post on the French flag, and on a roundel, the "post" is a virtual one in the center of the roundel. Well, I carefully masked and painted my roundels, starting with the blue. I then mixed the red for them, and was about to spray it, one day passed in the roundels painting, when it dawned on me that I had painted the outside of the roundels in Azure blue, and was about to paint the center red ! Talk about a Frenglish mash-up ! So, I stripped the wings, and back to square one : painting the roundels on the wings, from the center to the outside, blue, white, red ! Some pics later this week-end. Hubert

When I was a kid in Elsass, I met an old doctor in his mid-seventies (he was the grandfather of a classmate). He was a pioneer in X-ray exams during his medical career. No wonder he finished blind when you see the contraptions of the time… these ones have definitely a German or Soviet feel to them 🥶 Hubert

A small additional remark, of you want to go further: you could have shown the wipers’ swipe mark on the windscreen. I’m not sure if it’s possible now, though. Hubert

👍 Hubert

Very nice ! Maybe the windscreen should be less clean, in line with the battered look of the rest of the truck ? Hubert

I am genuinely happy for you if you are satisfied with your Kate. I attach a pic of a basic comparison design of an aircraft shape I have drawn. Left is "1/35" and right is "1/32". All dimensions are strictly proportional. For me, that is not really "close enough". But to each his own. Hubert

Careful, guys. Someone is going to say it was military « Army » in nature, the true predecessor to the helo, and we (well, not me 🫣) will see it released in 1/35 scale 😱 Hubert

Even better, in-between 1/48 and 1/24 … what scale could that be ? Hubert

Because it is soooooo cool looking Hubert

Peter, good to hear from you again. Hopefully, things will only be going up for the better from now on. I can understand your frustration about not having the time or mojo for modeling. I have been through this so many times. I confess I am having a blast being able to sit at my bench for many hours, mant times a week, on my Potez 25. It’s a feeling I had not had for decades 🤗 i am looking forward to see you deal with the Kotare Mk V Hubert

Ernie, Martin, I took this thread as a humorous approach to deal with an unusual - and cartoonesque in appearance - subject, and there is no doubt it was in PW’s mind. Sorry, and apologies to the members that this may have upset, if I contributed merrily to the frustration some have felt. In fairness, I’d have a bit of trouble to follow a thread on the Avia 534 in Czech (Martin, beware ), or the PZL P 11 in Polish, even though most browsers now propose a fairly good translation. PW, if it’s any consolation, the French syntax in this thread was - unfortunately - better than 90 % of the threads on French modelling forums 😉 ! Ok, PW, what about the replacement of those chenilles tracks ? Hubert

Lindissimo, Ricardo 👍 Hubert

I am sure you know the famous saying about « the two happiest days in the life of a boat owner » 😉 Hubert, who lived his second happiest day as a boat owner some 25 yers ago.

Good mork John 👍 ! The scratchbuilt one is slightly more pointy, but that’s barely noticeable. Hubert

Attention au stylo rouge pour les fautes 😱 ! Hubert

Il n’y a aucun problème avec ma langue maternelle … juste mes deux centimes … Hubert, né du bon côté du Channel

Bonne idée PW ! Comme je viens de faire ailleurs (dans le fil »Potez 25 ») une remarque sur site Master 194 où le français est régulièrement massacré à la tronçonneuse, quelques remarques de syntaxe : « Tracks » se traduit par « chenille » (caterpillar), pas « pistes » ni « traces ». A part ça , je vais suivre, et commenter ça Hubert

M Jigs, masks, figures, the trilogy of progress … Well, time for the Sunday evening update. A few hours of work this week, whilst I was struggling with a back-ache which was making sitting in front of the bench for hours in a row a bit difficult. First, I am happy to report that my jig to glue in position the cabane struts worked ! To quote Hannibal Smith, « I love it when a plan comes together » As I am nearing the time when I will have to splash some paint for good, it was also the time to glue the cabane struts, an essential step before gluing the lower sesquiplane wings, and then the upper wing. Last time I showed the jig I had devised for gluing the said cabane struts at the proper angle. Installing the four cabane struts, the two side jigs, and the upper jig required four hands at some time, with a bit of stress as I had used 5-minute epoxy for the struts, but everything went fine in the end : Even though the glue is 5-minute epoxy, I let it harden for 24 hours before removing the side jigs. I will leave the upper jig in place until comes the time to glue the upper wing. The struts are solidly fixed, but I’d rather avoid risking knocking them off in all the coming manipulations. Then I started applying masks to prepare he painting stages. The fin pennant, and the « BZ 65 » code mask are in place, as are the lower sesquiplane roundels. No pic of the lower sesquiplane. I have in fact started to spray them, as the underside of the main wing, and I will show them when I have progressed a bit further on this. The rudder is also masked for the tricolor stripes. Whilst we mention the roundels and rudder masks, I have also mixed the colors for the underwing « light blue-grey », the fuselage and upper wings « dark blue gray », and the elusive « French roundel blue ». These colors do not really exist as ready-made references from major paint brands, unfortunately (TBH, there is a good match of the French roundel blue in the Humbrol range, TBH, but I have given up using enamels with an airbrush). I am not really a specialist of French interwar colors, so I lifted the tips for color mixing from the specialists operating on the (dreaded by me, because of the bullying and French language massacre taking place constantly) French modelling forum « Master 194 » I am also almost finished painting the figures and « fuel bowsers ». Some small touching up needed still, but almost there Meet Countess De Laborde : Her husband Admiral de Laborde in typical French pilots’ gear (the blue background makes his coverall seem a lot more orange than IRL by the way) : … the two « fuel bowsers », with their protective covers in place, and a harness : The covers are thin packing paper rectangles with stripes painted with various Posca pens, then made to conform to the hump by wetting them with a large brush dipped into diluted white PVA glue. There are two layers of covers, if you look closely, as per original practice. And finally their « drivers » : (Muhamad has lost a finger, apparently ) And a beduin to steer them in the Sahara : TTFN Hubert PS : the figures are close-ups in artificial light, and not very sharp. I’ll try better ones tomorrow.

Looking god from here. Some small issues visible, but nothing that putty and sanding can’t solve Hubert

If the front window was opened before the sand blasting took place, wouldn’t the inside wear effects of this (possibly on the opposite side to take into account the aerodynamic effect )? Mean looking drone. Reminds me of the drones in « The Empire strikes back » Hubert