GazzaS

Great looking wheels, wells, and struts, Peter. Your painting ability shines here.

Little bit, by little bit, Kai. She'll be a winner.

What is is called.Rob?

They are clued at the engine end. Only in the cockpit area is it not glued. Otherwise, that was my plane... to use superglue. My favorite filler.

Kai, That's a great idea. Thank you. I'm just wondering if it will pierce acetate.or stretch it. I'll experiment with the tools I have... I might not do anything for a while. I really need to learn the ins- and outs- of acetate as it looks like a superior way to make WWI windscreens.

Happiness is closing up a fuselage... at least for us on this forum, it's a major step on the road to completion. I'm almost there.... After a short tussle, I got the HGW fabric belts into shape. They are really a pleasure to work with compared to PE belts..... and... they'll never get the sprung look if they become disconnected. While adding the engine deck, I realized that all wasn't perfect. If I cement the engine deck to the fuse, there will be quite a margin between both turtlebacks. Sanding the aft section will result in having some dangerously thin material. Because of the visible nature of the cockpit, there are complications... so, I can't just fill it with putty and walk away. A: I have no idea what the putty will look like on the inside of the cockpit. and B: No idea if I can make it look good or, unnoticeable. So.... my current plan is this: 1. I'll put a narrow shim near the back corner of the gap, and use CA to make the first thin skin which once dried will hopefully support the raised turtleback. I'll let it dry overnight to be certain. That means I have to wait until tomorrow so I am certain that I won't dislodge the new joins by adding the shims. 2. I'll fill in the area where the shims were with CA... and let them dry overnight. 3. I'll reverse the wood grain painting process on the CA barrier in the gap, starting with Tamiya clear yellow, and then my wood color. 4. Continue filling in with CA until I can sand it smooth. Anyway.... that's the plan. Thanks for looking!

Their 104 was such a nice kit. It's a shame, really.

Excellent! Looking forward to commissioning day!

Thank you, Sir!

This is more like it! To take photos like this, I had to put my light box on top of a large storage container on the dining room table. Then I put the tripod on the table with the legs un-extended. This allows me to put the lens only centimeters from the part I want to photograph. I used oils to form some false shadows. You can see there is some 'fluff' around the outer edges of the bezels. I will tell you, these things are tiny. Probably only 5mm across. I tried to trim them close enough with scissors, but probably failed. I have a punch and die set, but it's an automotive set, and not a modellers set. I will experiment with it with some left-over material and see if it responds well to punch and die... then i'll bite the not-inexpensive bullet and buy a punch and die set made for modelling.

Thank you Rob! The art PE was nice first off... well, the 3 bezels I cut from the fret came off nice and easy. There is a lot of PE there. I donlt mind having spare parts. One of their "things" is stuff that is made of layers of PE. Five or six flat parts stacked to make a three dimensional object. They even include things like a PE flight column. But it's too flat to look right. But there are parts to dress up everything. Well worth the investment as these Roden kits can only be improved by a little brass.

Kai, I'm glad to see more seams and faults eliminated. The canopy is a bummer... but a common occurrence, unfortunately. You're getting closer.

Hello Friends, More work... some of the most tiny kind. If you follow the directions, they would have you attach both fuselage halves to lower wing at the same time. If you're like me and think that would be a bit awkward, don't attach the ammo and fuel assy as the directions say. I found this out the hard way on my first Roden Alby. So, I attached it to the fuselage... because there is a rib that runs the length of each side of the fuselage. I also added stiffeners to the dorsal and ventral fuselage seams. The Roden plastic is pretty soft. I set the fuel and ammo assy last night between the halves and let it dry as it didn;t want to stay in place any other way. The fuselage is made to fit the Alb. III. So, you need to remove the cabane strut bases. Believe it or not, there are enough parts in the box to make a D.II out of this kit without buying the Encore kit. The only parts you need to alter are the length of the wing struts. The II and III cabanes are already in the kit. You want some detail? Part (that's the company name) makes a boffo detail up set. It has an acetate sheet and skads of PE. Now... this is a completely new thing to me. I even had to put on my custom readers at 4.82X to do it. Brass bezel rings over acetate guage detail, over the plastic parts: The pictures are horrible. The white background makes everything look horrible. Once I do the oil detailing I'll put up some better pics. Thanks fer looking!

Thank you, Guys!

Good job! Congrats!

Wow! Great start!

Thank you, fellas!

Thank you, Kai. I played around with the camera a bit later and figured how to help with that problem to some extent.

Probably the only thing they get right.

Thank you Carl! I've come to the conclusion that no armor is complete without a figure to make it whole. So, that's another burden I've placed upon myself to learn on my way to modelling Nirvana.

Oh no! Another place that requires "inspections"! Better off to have a friend that is 'qualified' to fill out the inspection form. ...but you didn't hear that from me.

A fun build, and a new type of weathering learned.

Never??

Hi Everyone, Time to call this one done. I could play with it more... but I'm a bit over it... nd the tracks seem to absorb every attempt I make to muddy them up. I'm also trying my lighting box again. Last time I only had a phone camera. Now I have my wife's Olympus though I use it on automatic settings. If you have an opinion on the lighting, and ideas of how I might improve... I'm all eyes.

Some nice work... however, this little space reminds me of too many horror movies.