HubertB

Why not 1/32 ? (Then there is the DC-10, the Tristar, and the Trident …) Hubert

And the third half doing the Ford Tri-motor … Hubert

I always loved the America Cup sailing ships. The pride of my library is the Taglang & Chevalier « America Cup racers ». 15 pounds of America Cup history, drawings, pictures. Yes, you read it right : one book weighing (at last) 15 pounds … The Columbia was not described as such in the shop I bought it from, but there is no mistaking the magical pencil of Nathanael Herreshoff’s creations. Hubert

A big boat ! In spite of my bench being wide (5 Hobbyzone modules wide, so that’s 1.5 meters of « free » space, it’s pretty full with it … Some time ago, I showed some pics of a model of « Columbia », the 1899 / 1901 winner of the America Cup. It is not my build, but a model, probably made in Mauritius, that I bought off-the-shelf some 23+ years ago. It is not a scale-model per se, with a somewhat « rustic » feeling in some areas, but the overall shape is accurate enough to make it an unmistakable reproduction of Columbia. After some 10 or 11 moves in the same time-lapse, it was badly in need of a major careening : flaking paint on the hull, some rigging gone astray, some missing bits and pieces, the bowsprit which I had replaced a few years ago bending up under the jibs tension, etc. So I went through the restoration process. This was the last tick on the to-do list of the works in my (rebuilt) new house, so an important milestone for me: I have now a free mind to come back to modelling ! The idea was to keep the feeling of the model, and the unique features of the hand-made model. The cracks and flakes in the paint were puttied, sanded and the above-waterline hull repainted in the original white that adorned Columbia (the underwater part was probably green, but again, this is not a true scale model …) Some new brass fittings were made, especially by adding some cross-bars to keep the bowsprit straight and true, even though they were not on the model in the beginning. My soldering skills are still not great, btw … And here it is now, repainted, remasted, and re-rigged … By the way, in my restoration effort, I decided to replace the model’s original steering wheel, small and toy-like IMHO, with a new home-made one, more in-line with the scale size of the model … Now, on to clearing the scale aircraft models SOD ! Hubert

Nice project John. I’m sure you know the intake area is a high-cuss zone … Hubert

50 ? Happy entry in your 6th decade, my old friend 😇 ! Hubert

No way ! Hubert

This chain is really a scale rendition of the 1:1 prototype. Well done, Rob 👍 ! Hubert

Nice start to an interesting project. One comment I could not help but make to myself : I am not sure the fountain as positioned would not be a hindrance to a vehicle turning onto - or out of - the bridge … Just my Hubert

As a precaution, I’ll add a bit of weight in the nose in mine, before inserting the cockpit, nose gear bay, and joining it to the main fuselage, methink … Hubert

Hey Ron, where are you going tu put that gun ? Hubert

Great start Jeff ! Truck models certainly have a presence to them, and I’m sur this one will be no exception … Hubert

Damn ! Me and my big mouth 🫢 ! You’re right Martin, and I should have checked references before pretending to be an aeodynamics expert 🤣🤪😂 ! Hubert 🤐

Keep on trucking Jeff ! Hubert

The angle of the canards with its high dihedral looks weird to my eye, and make the canards of dubious aerodynamic function IMHO, even if this is a what-if model … But the whole is great 👍 ! Hubert

Now, it’s looking like a Cutlass 👌 ! Hubert

Looking good Peter, although, if it is a yard office at the age of steam, one could argue for even more soot. I have in mind the images of the soot the fuel-burning US Navy supercarriers were depositing on everything, including the Tomcats and Intruders on deck. coal-burning locos would do the same in a yard, IMHO. Hubert

One comment about another « oopsie » (from you this time, I am afraid) : the front LG shaft is not perpendicular to the fuselage line, but to the ground … Hubert

C’mon Rob, you cannot resist a 330SL Uhlenhaut. The epitome of car sexiness, with the 250 GTO, the Ferrari Daytona and the Miura. You know you WANT one 😇 ! Hubert PS : and I forgot the sexiest of all, even by admission of the Commendatore : the E-Type Coupé !

The Napier Sabre was a most incredible piece of engineering : 24 cylinders in H configuration, with sleeve valves … Hubert

Kudos to you Peter. I love ship modelling, but 1/350 is just too small for me. My go-to scale for ships is 1/200. But I still remember working on the capstan of a 1/600 Mauretania 🤪 ! Still, I’ll be watching with great interest Hubert

You use both actually. Vacuum chamber to « foam out » the biggest bubbles. But, once mixed, the resin has a limited pot life before setting, so the vacuum time is limited. A pressure pot will push the remaining bubbles in the resin, and shrink them in the same time. This way, the surface of the resin parts look smooth. If you kept on vacuuming the parts during the setting time, the bubbles could foam to the surface, depending on the orientation of the part in the mold. Hubert PS: the artisanal way of degassing the resin mixture without a vacuum chamber is to pour from high and slowly: the thin flow of resin will degas (partly) while flowing down.

Although I have just dry-fitted this area myself, I noticed the same issue on mine. So it’s a design flaw of the kit. As for bubbles, they are systematic with resin. They come from mixing the two components that make the resin. In cottage-style resin products they’d very often appear on the surface of the parts. To avoid this, the pros like Fisher pressurise the parts when setting. This way, the bubbles are shrunk and pushed inside the resin. But they are still there, and it’s always better not to have to sand a resin part … Hubert

That’s called « being caught by surprise » … Hubert

This is looking great, Martin ! It may be a parallax effect of the photography, but the guns of the turrets seem to be shooting on a diverging path … Hubert