GazzaS

Great to see your work again, Peter! Everything is coming together nicely.

That's beautiful!

This build looks excellent. Lots of attention to detail.

Thank you. Even the tiniest mote of dust can mar a finish. I don;t mind the look... but I donlt know if it's really any better than other representations. Thank you, Peter! Thank you, Kai! Thanks, Steve!

Rob, A stunner for sure! Great job! All of those little things pay off! Gaz

Mottle my dear? Thank you, I think I will. Also, you can now see how my rib tapes look under paint.

Mine aren't a model either. They're absolutely, hands down, the best drill bits I've ever used for modelling. Super sharp, they bite into styrene better than any HSS drill bits I've ever had. I use .35MM predominantly as it works well for rigging and the .2mm copper wire I have a spool of. I haven't found anything like them for sale here in Australia, and it's the one thing I'll pay crazy shipping rates for.

For some dumb reason I posted my update in the 'what's on your bench' thread. Just re-adding it here for continuity. I added WNW rib tapes to simulate the rib tapes and stitching on the FW's control surfaces.

Anyway.... A bit of decal drudgery. I believe that the only detail you can really see on fabric covered surfaces is the rib tapes, and maybe some stitching. But that wavy fabric look is just way off. So, after sanding the fabric covered surfaces smooth and adding a coat of paint, I have some rib tapes. WNW rib tapes. Most of the strips are meant to be 6mm long on ailerons and elevators. Still, I managed to make each one a bit different in length to the next one. Anyway... once paint is on, it should be alright. Later, during the weathering process, I'll lightly highlight them with a pinwash.

Beautiful job, Carl! Great lineup of Shermans!

They were the most modern German battleships at Jutland. Ten 12-inch guns. With seven 5.9 inch guns in their secondary battery.

To make that... I used cotton balls.... or cotton wool depending on where you grew up... acrylic gel medium, and something cylindrical for it to lay and dry on. It was so long ago, I'm not even sure of the process... but others have done much better. Since then, with the advent of UV light cured gels, i can imagine that I will use them to speed up the process.

The sea scape is in it's early stages. After outlining the ship, I just placed blobs of acrylic-based modelling paste in a random manner. It dries white and shrinks a little bit... I've used the same stuff for Zimmerit, incidentally... and I suspect that perfect plastic putty is the same thing... but I digress.... The rest was just airbrushing cheap acrylic tube paints in various shades of green and blue. IN the area where the propellers have churned the water, I painted it a bit lighter. There really is a lot to do on it, yet. This is my first seascape, using the same materials:

Awww.... I was looking fora warship buddy. Anyway... should be cool to watch you put them together.

Today I can celebrate finally having unified the foc'sle and battery deck. Laid on the PE deck hardware, and stained the wooden deck with a grey wash.

Nice start! I saw one at TOS a few years ago. It was amazing.

Who is MSW?

Those two D.VII’s and those engines look outstanding, Bill! On a slightly related note... is the proper pronunciation of Fokker done with a long ‘O’ sound, or a flat ‘O’ sound?

I’ve got two other warships to build before I even think of buying another. One already has a ton of AM that came with it, and the other requires an upgrade set that costs $250AUD. I’m hoping that some day before I lose the ability to model, a 1/200 scale Hipper or Prinz Eugen gets released by somebody.

More nice work, Kai. It has a nice lived-in appearance.

Meanwhile....work on the Schachtschiffe continues Over a year ago I attached the brass barrels to the secondary armament of the battery deck. They look a lot better than the plastic barrels, but they didn't fit inside the barbettes. So, I had to do some boring with the Dremel. The holes aren't perfect as they once were. But it's pretty hard to see... could just be my poor vision. I also populated the wood deck with coal chutes and bollards. The guns are fully position-able, though most will need a dab of CA to stay at a desired elevation. Also, you may notice that the lower deck is toned down from the original... it was just too bright for wood that has spent any time in the weather.

Good luck with that one:

Right now, the world is a crazy place. I'm sure packages are left to sit a while in case they carry covid from distant lands. I ordered some drill bits from Drill Bits Unlimited in the US. Here is the tracking: Date Time Location Status February 02, 2021 00:13 Sydney, Australia SHIPMENT DEPARTED CARRIER FACILITY February 02, 2021 00:13 Sydney AU SHIPMENT ARRIVED AT CARRIER FACILITY February 02, 2021 00:13 SYDNEY,AUSTRALIA DEPARTED February 01, 2021 07:49 Tokyo,JP SHIPMENT DEPARTED CARRIER FACILITY January 27, 2021 12:50 New York,US SHIPMENT DEPARTED CARRIER FACILITY January 27, 2021 03:35 New York,US SHIPMENT ARRIVED AT CARRIER FACILITY January 27, 2021 00:01 New York, NY, US SHIPMENT DEPARTED CARRIER FACILITY FOR INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT January 26, 2021 20:50 JAMAICA,NY,11430,US SHIPMENT ARRIVED AT CARRIER FACILITY January 26, 2021 19:00 JFK USPS ISC SHIPMENT ARRIVED AT CARRIER FACILITY January 26, 2021 16:40 IN TRANSIT TO USPS TRACKING #: LX698775070US January 26, 2021 16:39 LYNDHURST,NJ,07071 SHIPMENT ARRIVED AT CARRIER FACILITY January 26, 2021 10:31 Lyndhurst NJ SHIPMENT ARRIVED AT CARRIER FACILITY January 25, 2021 11:52 RUTHERFORD,NJ,07070,US SHIPMENT ARRIVED AT CARRIER FACILITY January 25, 2021 06:10 RUTHERFORD,NJ,07070 SHIPMENT DEPARTED CARRIER FACILITY January 25, 2021 04:33 Rutherford,NJ,07070,US SHIPMENT ARRIVED AT CARRIER FACILITY January 25, 2021 04:14 EAST RUTHERFORD,NJ,07073 SHIPMENT ARRIVED AT CARRIER FACILITY January 25, 2021 03:45 KEARNY,NJ,07099,US SHIPMENT DEPARTED CARRIER FACILITY January 25, 2021 02:15 KEARNY,NJ,07099 SHIPMENT ARRIVED AT CARRIER FACILITY January 25, 2021 02:15 KEARNY NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER ARRIVED AT USPS REGIONAL FACILITY January 25, 2021 01:23 KEARNY,NJ,07032 SHIPMENT DEPARTED CARRIER FACILITY January 24, 2021 13:33 KEARNY,NJ,07032 SHIPMENT ARRIVED AT CARRIER FACILITY January 24, 2021 13:33 NEWARK NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER ARRIVED AT USPS REGIONAL FACILITY January 24, 2021 05:07 WARRENDALE,PA,15086,US SHIPMENT DEPARTED CARRIER FACILITY January 24, 2021 01:49 WARRENDALE,PA,15086,US SHIPMENT ARRIVED AT CARRIER FACILITY January 24, 2021 00:34 PITTSBURGH,PA,15239 SHIPMENT ARRIVED AT CARRIER FACILITY January 22, 2021 19:44 PITTSBURGH,PA SHIPPING LABEL CREATED It took a few days to get from Pittsburgh PA to Sydney Australia... and has been sitting there for over three weeks.

Nice work, Kai!

Details look great, Carl. Would love to hear a bit more about the purple.