HubertB

Isn't it what ALL insurance companies do ? "Give me an example of the use of the word "insurance" ... - Once you have subscribed the contract and paid it, you have the insurance of being screwed in every possible way ! Yes, A++ for your understanding of vocabulary" HUbert

Nice Rob 👍 ! Personally, I’d add more grass, not just around the threaded rod, to justify that the drone is hovering in the middle a kind of edge, not just THE piece of grass in the neighborhood … Just my Hubert PS: and the plastic bottles should be « sand-blasted » as well, at least the ones exposed to the stream …

Sorry for the misleading moniker (memory and age don’t go together harmoniously ). It’s a machinist’s angle block. Here is the link : https://micromark.com/collections/mini-hand-tools/products/1-x-1-x-1-inch-angle-plate Hubert

Hi. Sorry I cannot really help you on the Hataka lacquers, but I’d try in a separate container before filling the airbrush cup. What I can tell you is that I I used some Hataka acrylics to airbrush the highlights of my Potez 25 - in the case I goofed the paint job, I could wipe it off on the MRP / Tamiya X-22 lacquer base - and thinned them with Tamiya X20 acrylic thinner. I could finish the paint job, but I found it left a gooey mess in my airbrush, which it almost clogged completely and which I spent an hour cleaning this morning. But then acrylics can react funnily with chemicals when water works just fine … I’d also try Tamiya Lacquer Thinner in case Mr Levelling Thinner dose not work. Hubert

Looking good Gus. It was a good-looking airframe, with neat, simple lines, just like the Hawker Seahawk. It’s a pity Supermarine missed the idea of a tricycle undercarriage… Hubert

Thank you Kevin. I retired on July 1st 2022, but still owned the company, although I nominated my right-hand as General Manager since October 22. He is now a full owner, and me a full retiree. As for the Potez, I am now on the home stretch. I should start the rigging on Tuesday, and hopefully finish it by next week-end. Hubert

MicroMark still sell these "engineering blocks" ... Hubert

Nice try, Scott, but I am not putting my finger into this pot of jam, no, no, no ... Hubert

A small hop for modelling, but a big leap for Potez ... she's grown wings Limited progress this week. I had to have a quick trip to France, which put modelling on the back burner. But I am now officially retired, including as a company owner . I signed the sale of the company, and to boot, I sold it to the man who seconded me throughout all the years, which makes me even happier to see the sale come to fruition, because he truly deserved it. Ok, back to the Potez. I did do the small touchups of the right fishhook / anchor on the top wing after the near disaster of laying the decal, then sealed all the decals with a coat of Tamiya X-22. When this was done, I proceeded to do some more highlighting / weathering / sand-dusting of the Potez, before sealing the whole again, this time under a coat of MRP semi-matte. I'm not 100 % sure about this one, as I feel the effects I had built up seemed to have vanished a bit under the last coat of varnish. To do the weathering / highlighting, I sprayed a slightly lighter shade of grey - that makes only 3, or 4 if you count the wheels, in total, not 50 - on the ribs of the top surfaces, as on the top fuselage. I then used blue-grey and light brown pastel chalks to further enhance the highlighting, rubbing the grey chalk on the upper surfaces (the ribs and the top fuselage), and the sand chalk on the lower surfaces, and then blending it in the surface with a stiff flat brush. I also added some sand chalk on the lower part of the rudder, who most likely was receiving the dust generated by the landings and take-offs on the sand "runways". Anyway, on to the pics : The fuselage, with the rudder and elevators : You may note the lower part of the "BZ65" number is slightly yellowed by the desert sand as well ... ... as is the belly and underside, where the effect is heavier, logically : The lower sesquiplane wing and undersurfaces of the elevators, before the application of the semi-mette varnish : The upper wing with the highlighted ribs : This one below is slightly out of focus nearer to the camera, but it also shows the starkness of the roundels and fishhooks has been toned down and blended into the general dusting effect (ditto for the lower wings, btw) And then came the time to glue the lower sesquiplane. The tube spars I had added worked as planned And I knew there was a reason I kept these Humbrol tins for 35 years 🤣 The top wing is just posed on the upper cabane struts jig : ... But it proves the landing gear is strong enough to withstand the weight of the Potez kit. The loaded weight of the Potez 25 TOE was about 2 500 Kg, which should result in a 1/32 scale weight of about 76 grams ... The kit is about 4.5 times heavier than that ... ... and the one above shows the modulation and highlighting I did much better. I have also worked on the windmilling generators. Lukgraph proposes some "propeller blades" on the PE sheet for those, but I am struggling to understand the fitting of these asymetric shapes, one blade being "fat" when the other is definitely "slim". So I put to a better use the PE "turnbuckles" supplied by Lukgraph converting them to emulate the windmilling wings. A bit of filing and twisting, et voilà ! I will now let the 5-minute epoxy of the lower sequiplane cure overnight before moving on to the upper wing. But before that, before the upper wing makes handling the Potez a perilous exercise, I will have to find the way of affixing the spare wheel on the left side of the aircraft ... TTFN Hubert

Another one to follow … FYI, « Le Train » is the title of a French film telling the story of the mass arrest of Jews in the « Rafle du Vel D’Hiv » in France in 1942, and their subsequent deportation to Auschwitz / Birkenau … Your thread title just jumped at me for that reason … Hubert

Great progress John ! You're not trying to replicate the Karman fairing at the rear of the wing root ? Hubert

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