PanzerWomble

Cheers Maru For me - They are just going to end up as traded shelf queens I feel . I doubt there will be more than one run , and they will be on eBay for $5K in a few years. For anything that price.......... I'd expect to drive it home 😁 A few nutjobs will no doubt build them, but beyond "look at me I'm big" I'm not sure there is a lot to say for it as a subject . 2m by a meter .....I wonder how much bracing it will take to stop it falling apart under it's own weight . Something for people who feel size is everything perhaps? & without wishing to be contentious a 1/35 version would have given far better options on payload, figure etc. Mind you overly large models is HpH's thing , somebody somewhere will love it.

Nice recovery , PE or home brewed props ? . TBH building Airfix generally deppresses me too ....I want to like their new stuff but it always seem to underdeliver for me . It's like you can feel they could do better, but just a frightened to let go of the nostalgia toy legacy . Odd that Hornby went 100% towards new technology and reinventing itself as a serious contender in the train world ( although going bust in the process ...) Probably a lesson here somewhere !

On lighter note , thought I'd make some trees. Have made many pines before given my Ardennes obsession , thought I would make some birches , again scale is my enemy . Starts with flower arranging wire - this stuff is cheap, awesome and huge number of uses to me . I'm surprised the model manufacturers are not selling it yet as "speshul modelling wire" with a 500% mark up ! Twisty twisty , then painted with a few layers of Tamiaya white. I've used Milliput before for larger trees, it's ok , but the transitions from trunk to branch can be difficult as it can be thick. So that's enough said for now , there's more on the way, but of that ................another day.

And the end result .....frankly was crap ....and so it was launched to bin . Ground cover way overscale , no slope to the lake so the resin pour will look silly, bank too short . Yup it's bin fodder. Not even convinced that the rectangle shape is the way to . So now awaiting more foam . My other beef is that the grey and blue XPS sheets I have are tough as boots and very hard to work , and expanded polystyrene is very dodgy for resin, so trying something else .

Since my plan is clearly obvious , this is what I have been up to over the past few days . Mapping out the diorama using graph paper - I find this really handy as you can measure once and record , rather than keep checking . The pencil was foreshadowing the outcome however . Cutting Foam on my Proxxon ...I just love their tools. Quick check .....hmm not 100% sure, although me trying to work in 1/48 and not 1/35 is confusing , as all my groundwork is in the larger scale and I have a much better feel for proportions Pressing on........ it's all glued to a base of expanded polystyrene because that is nice and light , then I use a lighter / soldering torch to selectively melt the foam to kill any straight parts. Then made an edge with iron on veneer , skimmed it with builders fillers, and given it a few coats of diluted PVA as a sealer . Next . sprinkled this and used ballast freeze for the base layer of ground, added headnod to Saving Private Ryan ....

Today's meme brought to you courtesy of Godzilla ...

Could even go extra sneaky with an S-boot ....we used them post war for spy insertion into Soviet Europe. S-130 and S-208 had moved to Rotterdam in May of 1945 and eventually were taken over as British war prizes following the German surrender. Why the crew did not destroy their vessels is curious as German forces across North West Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands all surrendered on May 4th, 1945. The British took a number of German ships, including S-130, back to England so, in late May 1945, German delivery crews, supervised by British seamen, brought their vessels into Gosport, England. As they were to be used unarmed, the torpedo tubes were deactivated and closed and the cannon unshipped to reduce weight. Two additional fuel tanks were installed in order to increase operating range and radar and radio direction gear were fitted for her new clandestine mission role. S-130 had her 3 x Maybach 501 V-20 series diesels were replaced by three state-of-the-art Napier-Deltic diesels rated at 3,140PS each. This new lease on life gave the S-130 a speed of 45 knots, an increase of about 5 knots over her original German engines. She was attached to the British Baltic Fishery Protection Service, a cover for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6), using the now-converted S-130 to ferry spies and agents into Eastern Europe. In May of 1949, the converted S-130 and S-208 were used to insert agents into Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland against the Soviet Empire. Source

Dammit ........you're too smart Martin, you only missed the "....and then becomes an entry in the Get it Wet GB ....."🙂

That is really nice, beautiful aircraft and a great save on the model . I love those pre war colourful schemes . No idea why the USN went for Yellow and Red , but they certainly were flamboyant.

Holy bananas thats some exquisite work Mike . I had to go check this is 1/32 not 1/8 or similar . 🙂 Those gauges , do you know what they were - engine revs maybe ?

Could be 'owt ? recon aircraft, recon vehicles , recon ships even . ....or space bawooons . Jus spitballing here. EDIT - I've not done a Puma ....some nice Normandy hedgerow scenarios there .....

"Recon" gives you any number of really nice armoured cars to build , or light tanks .

More progress ......exhaust staining - pictures show this clearly on some of the Finnish aircraft. (Example below ) Oil weathering n dirt.................& a lot of spilled oil ! Also done as wheels up , the kit does not offer this as an option, I used the wheels and the doors; the oleo legs just would not go in there ...it'll all make sense later. Quick pix only as this is not done yet . "".ah no.............. Maarti has been shot up by a peski Russki and crash landed !!!!! " More later PW

Thank Chris , I use a couple of Iwata Neo's , 0.2 and 0.3 maybe . Just tend to buy a new one every 18 months or so rather than spend lots replacing bits .

Can anyone play ?

Must be the legendary Wodger Wodger

Feeling deflated over this.....

This is a real jewel , nothing needs work to get a perfect fit . So well thought out and executed .

Same as Airfix's marketing department ... certainly those who set the pricing .

Pentagon might have thought shooting it down after it had done some it's mission , and then examining the remains to see what it was up might be worth the loss of prestige. Also might have depended on what it was flying over . TBH we spy on China with satellites , this balloon looks low tech response to me , bit like all the Russian drones that are nothing more than an old Canon SLR wedged into an RC aircraft. Shite in other words .

Poor Iggy ...