GazzaS

Coming together nicely!

Now looking like a plane, John! Can't wait to see the paintjob you lay on it.

Enamel

Tamiya and Testors do not get along. If you paint Tamiya over Testors, you get problems. You can put Testors on Tamiya... but Tamiya on top will always attack the Testors. Learned it the hard way quite a long time ago. I have seen it mentioned before... but not much lately as fewer and fewer modellers use Testors. Gaz

Now we come to my personally most hated part of aircraft modelling: Scribing... rescribing.... and fault finding. First some black along all of the seams: And a nice smooth leading edge with rescribed lines... And I get to do it all over again with the nacelles, too.... I'll save that for the next episode. Thanks for looking! Gaz

I know a lot of people don't like to buy from the People's Republic.... But the prices are much better there. https://www.cyber-hobby.com/collections/dragon-armor However Covid has lengthened shipping times. It took me a while to get my Meng Fokker's. But they both came. One from Luckymodel, and the other from a club member who is a Meng distributor.

I'm all-in on Dragon. I check to ensure it doesn't have the DS tracks and click on the 'buy it now' button. I bought some Tamiya kits on the cheap last year and have to consider how I'm going to do the tracks.

Amazing looking Phantom, Frank! FWIW, I think it's almost impossible to get perfect in-scale replicas for the ejection handles. If memory serves, the black bands are only 1/2 inch wide on the real thing. ...and your handles look better than most. Keep up the good work! Gaz

A little bit of engine research: Nice and pretty.... with black cylinder jackets... kinda impedes my artistic desires.... This relic bears some black on the jackets as well as cool looking turquoise sparkplug wires. And at the far end of the scale, a truly thrashed Bramo Fafnir.

I love magic tracks... but all of my armor kits are not Dragon. And I have gotten a few sets of AM tracks. But yeah... doubling the kit price is a punch in the guts. I've used both Friuls and resin with pins. I imagine the real reason they're expensive is because there is always someone willing to pay, and no competitor is trying to undercut the market with lower prices.

Thank you Martin.

Meet Mr. Gettingnone

My friend... it's not by any particular skill, or finger control. it's technology. Using this little knob, experimenting with air pressure, and thinning your paint to very thin will enable you to do just about anything you want. Not saying you have to buy an Iwata. But this little control on any airbrush will save you from those embarrassing paint spiders. I wear a rubber glove on my free hand, and test on that before spraying on the model.

HI Rob, Thanks! It's quite a lovely airframe.

You're welcome Jeff. The bench itself is custom made with aluminum square tubing, rivets, and brackets with a plywood top. You probably wonder why I went to the trouble when I can get a setup from IKEA. The main reason is height. I wanted a bench high enough that I was working at a level that helped both my eyes and shoulders and back. I didn't want to slouch or overwork my eyes. Plus, I wanted it on casters so I could move it anywhere with ease. when sitting, the bench is just about level with my diaphragm.

Today I glued all of the main parts on with CA. And used CA for the filler so I was able to file and sand it usually within a half hour of setting it down to dry. So, in one day I've successfully filled and sanded a lot of ugly seams... but also done some re-scribing. The dark, straight lines are the CA filled seams. The new, lighter lines inside the 'shoulder' area are my best scribe lines ever. This is my reference book. Lotsa great stuff on the Dornier. Hopefully ICM will use it to inspire some of the prewar builds. Some great aircraft shapes, there. Haven't rescribed the tailplane, yet. But the seams are clearly visible. Again, the dark, wide lines are the CA filled gaps. My rescribing down here was much uglier. I'm guessing because I'm working with a concave surface. And on the port side, the lines formed by the forward spar don;t even match. ...no biggie.... nobody will see that anyway cuz the plane will be very dark below and nobody looks at undersides once they are done... unless you hang em' from the ceiling. I would have expected the tailplane to be a 3-piece arrangement making things a little easier for the builder. But, it wasn't. So, I took this pic to help me be sure that the tailplane isn't askew of the main wings. Thanks for looking and commenting! Happy building! Gaz

I think you did great using all of those grey's. It really adds a proper worn look to the thing.

I don;t know if there's enough space between the open cockpit and propeller arc to fit a proper MG, Ern. Might have to give up on this one.... not a warplane at all. The 30's is to aircraft aesthetics as is the late 70's to early 80's for cars.

A bit of a bench upgrade for me. I got a new, rolling chair. and a small wheeled cabinet which will perform a couple tasks... for instance, the capacious bottom drawer will become my sprue organizer once I decide on how to fit separators innit. I had been using a kitchen chair and a short stool to hold the model box.

No need to feel pressure, monsieur. I'm just another guy on a continent far, far away.

Rob, Looks Tres bien! What a cool machine! Would love to see a crew involved.

Yay! More likes. Oh... and can we have the middle finger salute and pile o' poop emoji, please. Sometimes the heart, trophy, confused, and sad emojis just don;t get it.

Happy Birthday Harv!!

Thanks mate. Have done... 1n 1/48: And the paints were much worse.

Thank you. When I freehand I try to remember I'm only 54MM tall with a 2-4 pound weight in my hand. I'm not always successful. Thanks mate. I'd love to have steady hands. I really feel like I'm squeezed with every stroke, trying to get the opacity and pattern in a very limited time. Now... I have to distress the green a bit. That is... the areas I can reach without endangering raised detail.