GazzaS

I've decided to support Croatia in the World Cup.

Very nice subtle effects on the paint work, Rob.

Scuffing. Time after time, someone had to clamber up on the wing either to get into the cockpit or to service the guns and motor. Please tell me what you like and dislike about the following series of photographs. I have my own opinions, but would rather here yours, first. Worst comes to worst, I can sand much of it back even though it is already matte coated. If I hadn't applied a matte coat, you wouldn't be able to see anything. Thank you in advance, for your input! Cheers!

Why on the SOD?

Looks great, Phil. It’s a shame that all of that brilliant effort will be hidden.

Rob, The results so far look promising. I was really impressed with your chipping and mosaic like pre-shading. The colours look fine, though greater detail shows once matte coated.

So are you big into four-wheeling, or just big into beefy detailing?

Thank you!

Ummm.... car.

Thank you, fellas!

Ooh, that looks sweet!

Yes, you want at least a little padding. But anything is better than a bed that may be too soft. Sofas... the absolute worst.

Ever tried sleeping on the floor?

Hi Friends! One more for today. So, since my last I: A. Continued to weather the underside. B. Added the exhaust streaks with pigments and then over-sprayed them with a thinned soup of yellow gray. C. Added the remaining decals. D. Put on the wheels. I will soften the decal colors with some thin filters applied by airbrush. The black panels on the wing root definitely take the 'dirty' aspect out of the exhaust staining. I got fed up with the way the '9's faded into the RLM 76. So, I put the masks back on (amazingly I had not thrown them away, yet) and added some RLM 81 and and RLM 82 to neaten it up. I am not quite content with the splay of the landing gear legs. It looks more like 109F to me. So... What's left to do: A. Foot scuffs and metal chipping where applicable B. Adding appendages... the 109 has many: Aileron balances, Morane mast, DF loop, Canopy, Antenna wire... am I forgetting anything? C. Matte coat. D. Pilot, Ground crewman, and base. Happy modelling!

The final stencils I'll be using from 1 Man Army on this particular build, and my thoughts on Luftwaffe aircraft and stencils. After going through my entire archive of late war 109 photos, the only conclusion I can make is that there is no way to be certain whether the provided stencils were used or not. Perhaps they were painted over. I went looking for the -ZU stencils used on cowling latches. In the dozen or so photos from the correct angle and taken at a useful distance I can say only 1 in 12 show the -ZU stencils. But that's my limited archive. So, I present the 'red' stencils on my ZM 109. Many of us work from 1 photo. Then perhaps we assume what we see on another picture of the same type of machine is what happened all of the time. There is really no way to be 100% right unless you can provide documentation. Happy modelling!

Wait... you want me to do a spitfire... in water... along with a 1/32 scale walrus? ... I'd need three figures, too. How much time do we get for this build? I suppose I might as well cut the spitfire off at the tail... that being the last piece above water and buy a walrus. Or... I could do the whole spit... with just the bow front half of the walrus. Ick... too much work.

Love the weathering and all of those shades of gray.

Hmmm... with the Kotare spit coming in... might be dicey. How about March? June? Either way... I'll work my way in. What's the theme again? Teach my Kotare spitfire to swim? I'm on it!

Thank you, fellas!

Welcome back to the fray. It's been slow going waiting for the oils to dry. Brimming with impatience, I broke out the hair dryer after adding more streaking. That allowed me to add some airbrush smoke residue on the center, and grime towards the wheels. Despite the fact that I used various shades of grime, they all kind of blended together more than I wanted. I will finish up the grime area hopefully tomorrow with some grayish pigments. Then, I decided it was time to get cracking with the One Man Army stencils. They are so finely cut. Finer than I could accomplish with my Silhouette Portrait. Any they are kabuki paper masks, so the won;t stretch like my masks. The direction card in the packet says to use dark gray instead of black. So I used SMS German gray which is very dark and meant for Panzers. You will notice that it;s not easy to read in the mottled areas. And far easier to read where the paint colors are more solid. They really are amazing, and there's no danger of silvering or showing a thickness of carrier film. Sorry for the blur. But I really like this photo. I devoted a lot of time and effort into weathering that yellow band to give it more structure and presence. So, despite the fact I wanted to show the results from the One Man Army masks... I'm more or less fixated on the weathering. And now I'm reminded that I need to place 1001 scuff marks on the wings adjacent to the fuselage. Happy Trails!

Welcome back!

Happy Thanksgiving! No turkey for me here in OZ. But I did make myself a Pumpkin pie. OK... I made two. The king of pies! Amazingly, Australians have never understood the joys of Pumpkin Pie. Pumpkin... Butternut and Japanese are common fare with roast meat here. So they don;t understand how their savory salt-and-peppered pumpkin can be turned into a delicious and sweet pie. I have converted a few of them. I like mine naked. No whipped cream or ice cream.

I hate reading about guys suffering with back pain. There are options! I wrecked my back when I was 25 and was just getting out of the USMC. It was just from wresting with another jarhead and landing on my hip when he got under me. I thought it was just muscle pain and I was already in the process of checking out at my EAS. I tried to stay in shape afterwards by jogging. But I had to stop. I could no longer feel the bottom of my feet hitting the ground... only the shock coming through my legs. So, off to a chiropractor I went. Turns out my lower disc was compressed into a wedge, greatly reducing the area through which passed my sciatic nerves. Pain, tingles, and a loss of sensation was my daily fare. After months of treatment, I started to improve. Now, over the next 31 years I went through various chiropractors as I moved around the country and world, and a lot of highs and lows of back health. Sometimes I had felt that a gentle breeze could snap me in half. But I didn't really learn about how to make myself feel better until I went with my wife to yoga. I don't go to yoga any more. I don't need it. I have an easy stretching routine that takes about 15 minutes including time with a foam roller. I don't need it every day, either. I still see a chiropractor for maintenance every three weeks. None of the doctors I have seen ever told me about stretching if I didn't mention it first. One even told me that he quit recommending it because people never did it. I'm telling you: It works! It enlarges the channels through which the nerves pass by stretching the muscles and removing the pressure that tight muscles give. And, it's free.... well.... the foam roller did coast me 15 bucks. My second ally is ice. I have about 5 ice packs. Just like a sports injury, I use ice to relieve back pain. After I have beaten the inflammation back with ice, I wait for my back to warm up, then I do my stretches. I'm glad I never went under the knife. I still do a physical job, drive a forklift with solid rubber tires, and regularly have to lift cartons that weigh around 40lbs. I lift carefully... because I know my back is a wreck just waiting to be re-injured. I'm not a small, thin guy. Quite the opposite... just hate typing the words. I know... many people, including my wife, don't believe in Chiropractic. Well... my wife is a convert. After her general practitioner prescribed her muscle relaxers and pain relievers, she hit rock-bottom after six weeks of suffering and almost complete inactivity, confined to the lazy boy. Now, after seeing a Chiropractor, she is back to work. I try to get her into the stretches... but she has depression. And trying to get a person with depression to do anything is sometimes impossible. Still, she can function. Really... you've nothing to lose but a few minutes a day.