Landlubber Mike

Wow, what a great year Peter! Very nice collection there. Hope you are having a nice holiday and best wishes for 2024!

Always love your work PW! Happy holidays and 2024 to you!

Love it PW! Your dioramas always tell an interesting story. When I started reading the title to the thread, I knew it had to be one of yours. Happy Holidays!

Looking great Peter! With all the Corsairs on here - *cough* @JohnB *cough* - I broke down and picked up a 1/32 Tamiya Birdcage off one of the FB auction sites. Will be eagerly following your build for tips!

Wow, that worked up into a nice model, great job!

Nice job! I have this in the stash with the Pontos detail set. I might start it as my next 1/350 build. Heard it builds well.

Another beauty PW! Agree with all your thoughts on how amazing the people involved with that raid were - ballsy for sure!

Glad to see you back - sounds like you're on the mend which is great news

Fantastic job! That's even more precious in that you built it with your son. I remember my dad built this back in the 80s when I was a kit. He had it in the den bookcase as a source of pride. Don't tell him but yours came out better

I will NEVER buy from Kitlinx again. One order they sent me an aftermarket set missing pieces, and to their credit, they sent me replacements. Even got an email from Loic the owner. The next order, I ordered a bunch of Taurus engines, which are not exactly inexpensive, along with some other items. Well, they did not ship the Taurus engines. I politely emailed them and Loic directly multiple times, without even the courtesy of a reply. Needless to say, they were shitty and never made good on my order or offered a refund. Buyer beware - I will be happy to spread the word as to their shady operation as much as I can.

Nice steady progress Kevin, looking great!

Wow, nice job Martin!! You make me almost want to start adding armor to my stash...almost...

A "bit too long"? I think you're being kind to them. Yikes!

Yikes! I've seen those kits on Hannants and on eBay from time to time. Hope that's the only issue in your kit and is not a forecast of further problems to come.

Well no matter what the inputs were like, the output was fantastic. Really nice job PW!

Great start PW on a cool subject. Looking forward to seeing this come along.

Congratulations on another wonderful build Peter! Looks really fantastic - great job on the construction and the paint job!

That's what I'm talking about Kevin! This build is going to be awesome!

Thanks Peter! Always appreciate your support as I fumble my way through on things. After my last Super Hobby kit and now this one, I feel like construction wise, I'm pretty far up the learning curve and can handle most anything. It's certainly extra work when the parts don't fit, there are no locating pins, etc., but in the end it probably makes you a better modeler - at least that's what I'm telling myself.

I totally hear that Kevin. That's why I stepped away from wooden ship models for a break to move to "faster" plastic builds. Of course my plastic modeling takes forever too Are you getting any aftermarket for this kit? From Scalemates, looks like KA Models came out with a bunch of PE sets. Certainly adds to the cost of the build, but the detail you can get is amazing. There is a live 1/200 Bismarck build on MSW with the Pontos sets that is very inspirational.

Wow, for all the challenges, you have really made a beauty out of this one. Great job Peter!

Yes Kevin!! Great subject and kit - looking forward to following this one!

Oh interesting, so the bullet must have gone through the back of the seat and was stopped by the armor plating. That looks to be the case from the picture. That confirms that the armor plating sat inside the seat as opposed to behind it. Thanks for posting the interview and the pictures. Very interesting account!

@FullArmor thank you for that link. I believe this is the aircraft that was pulled from a lake in Russia. This picture is wonderful - I've been struggling with what to do with the pilot's seat: The kit includes two seats - one with a rounded top like in the picture, and one with a squared off top. The instructions tell you to use the rounded top one, but I came to learn that the BW239s had armor plating - the display to the right of the seat - which extends above the seat with the top connecting to a frame directly behind the pilot's seat. The kit's instructions have nothing on the armor plating, but have some parts that are not used that seem like they would be used for the upper part of the armor plating but seem too small as if they were for 1/48 scale. I couldn't quite figure out whether the armor plating went behind the seat or was inset inside the seat. One modeler, and a couple of other kits (as well as the CMK 1/48 interior instructions) had the armor inset into the seat. From this picture, it looks like the armor plating indeed sat inside the seat, with a shoulder harness included and what appears to be a leather seat pad. The other kits (and CMK aftermarket set) use the squared off top seat, but it looks like I could use the rounded seat as well. From the bullet hole in the seat, my guess is this seat isn't necessarily the same seat that went with the armor plating next to it. Anyway, thanks again! This really helped. I spent an hour a day or two ago trying to figure out how the seat was configured, and now I think I have a better sense with this picture.

Wow, some really talented folks up your way. Some kinky ones too 🤤