HubertB

John, glad my hunch provided a new input to the project. I have to say your assembly looks a lot more like the reference pic you submitted in your first post 👍 ! (Hey, Kevin, I keep trying hard to shake those few neurons I have left - without overheating them 🙄 ) Some more work to get there, but you can pull it off, John Hubert

I would not have thought about using this tool that brings me back close to 60 years… But I have preciously kept the Rotrings of my teenage years. If they have not any joint that may have dried (it’s a long time since I have opened one), I could put them to some use by using paint rather than ink, like for the trim lines on certain kits 🤔 Hubert

Cool looking scene, Rob. Unfortunately, it looks like the Neuspotter arrived a few years too late … Emergencies in the MK world look a lot worse than in our modern times, if that was ever possible … Hubert

Sorry to read this, John. Looking at the pics, but they give very little clue honestly, I’d venture the issue, and therefore the fix, is the wrong incidence of the wing. Not that it makes the fix any more workable, unfortunately. Hubert

You just need a good Optivisor, Carl, the one where you can change the lenses. As I have had a bad eye for the last 25 years, following a failed laser operation, I have lost some stereoscopic vision since then, which does not really help to judge the depth when presenting the monofilament to the tube opening. But, with the maximum magnification lens, and a steady hand - I don’t drink coffee, btw - anybody can do it. Of course, monofilament has the benefit of some rigidity. I just would not try with EZ-line. Hubert

Fly Navy ...you'll get free fishhooks ! Some small progress today. I sprayed Tamiya X22 where the decals are needed, then proceeded to lay the decals. Lukgraph's supplied decals are nice and thin, but need to be detoured as the decal sheet is a single piece of printing. They also have a tendenccy to curl and fold onto themselves, unfortunately. The lower wings "fishhooks" are the decals supplied by Lukgraph, and went on smoothly. Not so lucky with the upper wing. The right one went on without too much cussing, but the left one fought me for 45 minutes. As laid it's not ideal, but I will touch up the missing and untidy areas. I could have tried tu cut some masks, but the decal solution seemed a good, lazy, one at the time ... I also laid the homemade decals, like the admiral's pennant on the fin. The rudder decal was also laid, but it’s still wrinkled from the liberal amount of Micro Sol I applied. So, some pics later. The wheels got some weathering to reflect the desert use. I used some Tamiya brown and grey line accent, and some blue-grey and light brown chalks. The spare wheel is cleaner, of course. And "Cesar" received his fuel drums load ... Now, please, use parental caution for the next picture, which is a special "gender reveal" for Martin . Although in the shadow, some visual evidence shows that "Cleopatra" is definitely "Cesar" ... TTFN Hubert

I read (but never tried) that, contrary to what common sense would have you imagine, exposing the yellowed decal sheets to the sunlight will help "bleach" them ... Goods save on the decal on the back. Hubert

You know you can make a female vac-form mould, where the plastic sheet is sucked IN the mold, rather than a male mould, where the plastic sheet is sucked over the master, to wrap it ? I prefer this option - and it was the one used by the best vac-form players, making building a vac-form kit bo more difficult than an injection-molded one - as : - it allows to shape the master to the precise contour you want, without having to worry about the thickness of the plastic sheet, - you can surface details that will be sharply reproduced on the vac-formed sheet, as the details are on the « right » side of the sheet - as opposed to vague blobs in relief when using the male method, - the angle between the compound shape of the part and the flat sheet IS the cutting mark, and it is well defined on top, as the sharp radius is at the break between the part and the flat surround, - you can use an existing part as a master to produce the mould, but still keep it intact, and use a more resistant material for the vac-forming process. You can make the mould in plaster of Paris, or resin. The only trick is to have suction hole drilled in the mould, so that the air of the cavity is sucked by the vacuum pump and pulls the heated sheet with it. To have this hole, I use a 0.3 mm nylon monofilament, lightly tacked to the master and ideally covered with a release agent like vaseline (the master as well, btw), that will protrude from the mould once poured. When the mould is set, just pull the filament, and you have the right suction hole, And yes, 0.3 mm dia is enough for the purpose. Just make sure there is no other way for the air to be sucked by the vacuum pump. The process will result in a small blip where the suction hole is. On a transparent part, make sure this falls on a frame. HTH Hubert

Masking, spraying, unmasking, and threading monofilament ... The Sunday evening update. OK, time for the Sunday evening update. I am happy to report some visual progress on the 0Potez. In fact, the bulk of the painting is now done. Some more touch-ups needed, but the essential is behind me now ! (I will still have at the end to fade and blend everything ) So, some pic sto show where I am at tonight : The fuselage has been painted in Dark Blue Grey, with the nose and cowling panels in aluminium color. I have tried to introduce some modulation, which is perceptible to the naked eye, but unfortunately a bit "washed out" in the pics with a flash. You can also see I have removed the masks to reveal the "BZ65" code and the base for the fin pennant, as well as for the transparencies. Following my initial blunder with the roundels, they have been repainted, as the wing top in Dark Blue Grey, and unmasked. Here again, I have introduced some modulation to break the monotony of the dark top color, but the pic is struggling to replicate what the eye sees : The underside of the main wing has been painted Light Blue Grey : You can also see it has been pre-rigged before gluing it on top of the cabane struts. The "turnbuckles" are 0.7 mm dia brass tubes, and the 0.2 monofilament is threaded through the tube, into the eyelets, then back into the tube.... Standard rigging technique, but the exercise has elicited in me some renewed respect for people like Mike ( @sandbagger )who do this for each and every of their kits The underwing of the lower sesquiplane has also been painted Light Blue Grey, the roudels correctly painted and then unmasked. And the top of the lower sesquiplane has also been painted Dark Blue Grey And the 70-liters fuel drums have been painted, weathered and aged. Talking of French expletives, you should have heard the ones I proferred yesterday when I inadvertently spilled the (BIG) bottle of Vallejo "Light Rust" on the bench . Well,better that you didn't, in fact And here is the family shot with this week's work (including the tricolor rudder). The top wing is just posed on the cabane struts jig for the pic. Next steps tomorrow is to spray some gloss varnish on everything (to prepare for the few decals I have to lay), then matte varnish, and then it will be time to mate the wings and the fuselage Hubert

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