GazzaS

Awesome job, John! Quite an attractive finish thus far.

Thank you, John!

Thank you, Rob! I'll admit that some things are rewarding. But sometimes the battle lasts too long for my limited attention span. Thank you, Phil! I truly am an exteriors guy. I just don;t have a love for interior parts. Thanks, Mate! Thank you, Harv!

Thank you, Rob. I don;t know why the panzer putty acted this way. Maybe because it absorbs the over spray it has developed a penchant to be attracted to other paints. Anyway... it's gone. I don't have any washable white. I'm tempted to get some. But I was hoping to get away with using some oils.

Thank you, Rob! I have always had a great fascination with the Hohenzollern's.

Thank you, Jeff!

Thank you. Rigging isn't difficult at all once you provide yourself with three things: A: A workspace where the area to be rigged is at eye level. B. Plenty of light, behind the model as well. C: Magnification. The rest is all tweezers and super glue. Most German fighters have blissfully little rigging. You really should take the chance and let your creative juices flow. Remember... I am a big, clumsy guy with no previous hand talent like playing the flute, guitar, or banjo.

Kai, It's not quite as nice as a WNW kit. But it is workable. The only thing I dislike about Roden kits are the small gluing surfaces between struts and aircraft surfaces. I believe I will make some brass struts as Rob did for his Fokker D.VIII. Oh... and the decals are less than trustworthy. This is Karl Bolle's D.III I built from the Roden kit as my first 1/32 scale WWI subject. I rigged it with EZ line, and it eventually collapsed because the LG legs are a little weaker than the WNW legs, and the connecting surfaces are far too small. I had a heck of a time rigging it because the top wing kept popping off. But this D.I will have pinned parts. I have learned! The Albatros is my favorite WWI aircraft. I also have this one in my stash: ....as well as two WNW D.Va's.

Nice work, Kai! Those oils bring the shapes into nice relief! I'm curious, do you press the parts into the styrofoam, or attach them some other way?

Thank you, Kai! Fortunately for both of us, the community came together and provided me with useful photos and information. This pic was instrumental in helping me to be so adventurous: Note the MG151 bulge!

Thank you, Kai. My next bird will be the final mount of Prinz Friedrich Karl von Preußen. There has been a lot of ugly illustrations of the green used for the fuselage. I will use some form of fledgrau. Roden will supply the plastic, and hopefully at least the Albatros factory decal is still usable. I have some resin parts to dress up the engine and I'm not sure what I have for Spandau's. But I will use PE jacketed versions for sure. Apparently the the machine belonged to Boelcke and the Prinz would borrow it once Boelcke got a D.II to fly.

Well... for better or worse... it's finished. As I went to attach and unmask the canopy, all of my best-laid plans seemed to come apart. The canopy didn't fit closed, and attaching it open kept failing because other parts didn't fit, and the glue joins were too tiny to allow for fine adjustment. In the end, I used blutack to fix the canopy in place so that I could add the aerial. Anyway... you can see the RFI photos here: And... who knew... you can see past the engine fan...

More...

A learning experience, for certain, this kit allowed me to try out a few new techniques as well as suffer through a few problems associated with short run kits.

Interesting. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks.

Thank you, Kai. That Panzer putty is more of a threat because I don't know what will happen to it later. Will it migrate? Ooze? I know most of it will be hidden by the wheels and tracks. It's just very annoying is all.

Thank you, Peter. After stripping the hull and repainting, I've done three rounds of winter white (a bone color) and hairspray chipping. I've added some more parts and you might notice in the first foto that my Notek light is turned. I've left plenty of options for sponge chipping and mapping effects. You'll notice some black bits trapped in the chassis. This really gives me the shits. It's Panzer Putty. I had it stick once in aircraft wheelwells where I'd painted with Tamiya acrylics and left it in there for a couple weeks. On this occasion, it's bound to lacquer paint in less than 6 hours. I've tried heating it out by putting the model in the oven, freezing it out and even a couple substances. Goof off had no effect, and Isopropyl turned it into and oily mess whilst stripping the paint. As I'm opting for a muddy winter base, I can use mud effects to hide it. I've thrown Panzer Putty in the trash. As long as the stuff doesn't go mobile after I add mud effects, i won;t bin the model. Happy modelling!

Nice turret details!

But that Flak looks fantastically detailed for the scale. You've done well!

Phil, all of that work looks great! Glad to see it coming together so well. I've never built a ZM kit so far, but that is far beyond my normal level of detail work.

Rob, That is an absolutely attractive pattern. It'll be interesting to see once you've done the chipping.

That Hydraulic tubing looks pretty awesome. Never expected it.

The effects you did with those pencils look pretty awesome, Rob!

Hah! I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who has had differences of opinion with Mr. Byrden. The poor lad... he has been given so many accolades that he believes himself to be the lord and master of all Tiger tank knowledge. I will admit that he knows a lot. And has even provided information on his tiger I Info. site that I have used for a model or two. What I cited as anecdotal evidence, he cited as the demented ravings of an old man... who just happened to command a Tiger I. Just because he never saw a photo that he agreed with. Anyway... have a beer!

Thanks for the comments, Gents. I'm still in the learning process. With everything, really. The ultimate goal is to build realistic and believable and interesting looking models. I have a path I've chosen which may not be the most beaten path. Photos like the one above, help in my endeavor. I should buy more books. But bookstores don't carry the kinds of books I need. So, I have to buy most of books sight-unseen. My club does have a member who specializes in military books. The cropped pic above came in a book I bought from him. That pic was actually the clincher for buying that book.