GazzaS

My second Dragon kit was their excellent Pz IV H Mid August 1943 production. When I got to applying the schürzen, things were a bit snug and stressed some of the CA joints into popping. I'm sure it was all operator error, but today I decided to ensure the same thing didn't happen again. I made sure everything lined up comfortably while the glue was still soft. The schürzen aren't glued in place. I'm not sure if I'll use the metal plates, or if I'll cut plastic versions. The tools are already cut and cleaned. But with all of the extra steel around I decided to add them after painting.

Think of it as a term of endearment.

Staggering collection! Nice cabinetry, too.

You're quite welcome, Sir.

Harv, The 'blue' RLM 76 goes all the way up to the canopy line area. There is no light color in the middle.

Can't give them any credit for the 63. They didn't make it.

Love it!

Nice!

Love the fish and tanks. I always thought that few things were as appealing as a salt water tank with a living ecosystem. I never really had the stability to even consider one before.

Wow Beluga! Cracking little build!

It is a shame they did such a bad job. I know that it must have cost them sales. Cuz I really like the P-63, but ain;t gonna buy one of theirs.

I have changed my building habit for aircraft. All of the big seams I do with CA now. I believe that 're-occurring' seams are caused by the some-time long term instability of solvent and plastic. I've given up on sprue goo too. I did one model and filled panel lines with it. Once dried, I sanded it smooth. A few weeks later I applied primer and was shocked to see that where each narrow panel line had formerly been, there was now a 2-4 mm wide shallow ditch with very smooth contours. Mr. Surfacer is a pain, too. Sometimes takes three or more applications due to shrinkage. CA is now my go-to filler. Good luck! Gaz

John, I applaud your dedication. Seems to me you're bouncing back and forth from irritating kit to irritating kit. Keep up the good work!

Nice work, Rob.

I got this one last Christmas: The earliest night fighter variant of the Dornier Do 17. Kauz I. I don't think there was much different from the bomber version other than black paint and a fuel cell added to the forward bomb bay. The cockpit is pretty simple, and with a lack of knowledge of what the type really looked like inside, I was left to my own devices. After all of the hours I spent detailing the inside of my Do 217 nightfighter, only to have everything disappear, I've decided that investing too much time in 1/48 pits is pointless. The radio sets aren't very well depicted. The seat belts are just .5mm strips of Tamiya tape with faux buckels painted on. Sorry for the blur. ....oh, by the way, DocRob.... thanks for showing the Voyager cutting templates. They arrived just in time today to help me cut the seat belt strips. Why Diabolical, you say? I'll tell ya.... I was warned about ICM's older moldings. I didn't know this classified as older, but you can see here that I've used chunks of the spare fuel cell to try to get a better join between fuselage and wings. It's gonna be one of those deals where I glue one spot... let it dry, then glue another spot, and so on until the wing is securely dogged down. Then, it'll be filler and fun. This is the state of her now. I've added white card stiffeners to make the fuselage seams stronger. Hopefully the CA will trickle all in there and provide a seam I can't pop. This will be my first all black aircraft since I was a teen and ruined a Monogram 1/48 scale P-61. I hope to do better, this time. Thanks for looking! I'd love to hear your thoughts. Gaz

Looks like they laid down well. All in all... decals are so much easier than anything else. Too bad every kit doesn;t come with good decals.

Great work! I really hate working in the fuselage/wing junction.

Excellent photos, Guys! Muchos Gracias!!

Imagine modelling without tedious parts... *shudder*

I've been very fortunate. The Jug being my only real bad break. My decal solutions are Mr Mark softer And Mr Mark Setter are in nice, square based bottles much like the Tamiya Extra thin bottle. And the only time I ever tipped the extra thin, it poured on to bare plywood. One of my common errors is to gloss coat with Future and not put the cap on the airbrush. But each time a blob of Future has landed on the model, it's self levelled so as to cause no issue. I love Future. I cant believe how many people have issues with it.

Last time I needed nose weight I took some large sinkers and hammered them flat. Then cut them into thin slivers so I didn't lose any space to air.

At least it wasn;t a whole bottle of Tamiya Extra Thin or a bit of lacquer thinner. Once when cleaning my airbrush after spraying some Alclad on a 1/48 Hasegawa Jug, I dropped just a single drop of a thinner called Reducer 265 on the aileron. That one drop went down more than a millimeter into the surface. The only good thing was that I had been painting the underside.

Frank, Thank you! Glad to see you survived your last deployment. Gaz

I'm just noticing that the interior color looks way too light to be RLM 66. Notice how light the interior framing looks. It totally contrasts with the 70/71 exterior.

Holy S*&t, Martin! You da man! Thank you very much!