Jump to content
Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

Soo.... What did you just get???


Dave J

Recommended Posts

DSCF4509.thumb.JPG.468ffe81988e33fd8c4cc9d2143200db.JPG

Got these as part of my Christmas from the kids and it got me thinking in a couple of ways. I always try to learn a new technique with every build and I've also been contemplating what Hubert, Ernie and others have been saying about only building things with camouflage. Also, some really inspiring builds that Micha (elmarriachi) posted on here about a year ago.

SO......

DSCF4511.thumb.JPG.aa532e06960cc06ed08527b5bbe3b475.JPG

I got this and my CHET build is going to take a sharp left turn. Instead of a Greek military one carrying the Meng AMX-30 it's going to be a beaten up, rusty civilianised one carrying a nice dusty, dirty digger!

Best thing is it's all out of my head so I can't pressurise myself on getting it to exactly match a particular reference or picture. I'm hoping to have some fun with it anyway.

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest DannyVM
On 1/7/2020 at 4:14 PM, Clunkmeister said:

Oooooh Danny.   I hope you let us know what you think of that Tomcat. 
I’ve heard VERY good things about it. 

Well Ernie my friend, just by opening the box i can say i am very surprised. 

This is a photo of the content when i opened the box for the first time.

LSc5Mc6l.jpg

Very neat isn't, some goodies stored into their own little box. Very clever by AMK.....but when you remove the manual and a sprue this appears.......

XRMf08ml.jpg

Another box, and is isn't over yet.......removing some more sprue's........

BKJtbjJl.jpg

Well, do i have to say more..........:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrators
44 minutes ago, DannyVM said:

Well Ernie my friend, just by opening the box i can say i am very surprised. 

This is a photo of the content when i opened the box for the first time.

LSc5Mc6l.jpg

Very neat isn't, some goodies stored into their own little box. Very clever by AMK.....but when you remove the manual and a sprue this appears.......

XRMf08ml.jpg

Another box, and is isn't over yet.......removing some more sprue's........

BKJtbjJl.jpg

Well, do i have to say more..........:)

Very well packaged, now I hope it builds as nicely as it appears to look.  Their Mug-31 was a sweet sweet kit. 

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest DannyVM
1 hour ago, Clunkmeister said:

Very well packaged, now I hope it builds as nicely as it appears to look.  Their Mug-31 was a sweet sweet kit. 

Indeed, i hope it builds like it look's inside the box....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest DannyVM
7 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Nice Danny, I have the ZM F4J Marines in the stash, it will be my first fan so I’ll be watching your lead.......

Maybe you will be first to tackle this kit.......in that case i will learn from you Phil.....:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just got the last (missing from the box initially) component of an interesting little kit ...

But first, a couple of stories behind this acquisition : as you might know, our administratot here, James H, is also the administrator of another modelling forum dedicated to ship models : Model Ship World, at the following link : https://modelshipworld.com/

This is an outstanding modelling forum, with a huge (34 471 members as of this writing) and active membership. And with a wealth of talent hardly imaginable displayed at almost every thread. If I had to pick one as an example, I'd choose this one, by a Czech lady, Doris, who does a PAPER model of a 74-cannons ship : https://modelshipworld.com/topic/15981-hms-royal-katherine-1664-by-doris-155-card/

But brosing through the build threads there, of both kits and scratchbuilt models is juts as mind numbling ...

The site is not all about period ships, whose rigging will make any WnW British subject look like an amusing distraction, and wooden models. Plastic kits are welcome, as are wooden ship kits of all types and eras.

The forum merged some time ago with the NRG organisation, NRG standing for Nautical Research Guild, which devotes itself more to the historical part of ships. So there is another prominent administrator there, Chuck Passaro, who, besisdes his NRG responsibilities, is also a talented modeller and kit producer under the Syren brand.

If I mention them, it is because Chuck and James have taken a very strong stance against piracy and Intellectual Property theft. In our plastic world where cutting a steel mold entails a significant expense, we seldom realise that a wooden-ship kit is basically a set of flat plywodd sheets, with the parts die- or laser-cut, some wood strips, and drawings and instructions. They are in essence very easy to copy, and a vast number of companies, mostly - but far from exclusively - of Chinese origin have taken on the copying of established manufacturers' kits. Having no research and no development cost, it is easy for them to significantly undercut the original's price, all the more so if they go for cheap, poor quality, materials. Sometimes, they do not even bother to erase the original manufacturer's name on the plans or instructions !

The same issue arises with drawings and books. There are a few publishers of books and drawings relating to some ships' monographs, and their work is often the result of hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of labor. Here again, if an unscrupulous manufacturer uses these drawings without permission of paying a licensing fee, the author is just robbed of his hard work...

So MSW have taken the position of a) establishing a list of companies dubbed as pirates for copying others'kits or using stolen IP material, and b) banning these manufacturers' products from being published or shown in build threads on MSW. I have to say this position is not shared by all modelling sites, especially an Europen-run one, whose name shall remain untold, just not to promote them ...

In the meantime, Chuck is working actively to reconcile the "pirates" and the legitimate manufacturers, and to convince the pirates to take a different stance, and amend their behaviour by stopping the sale of pirated kits, or concluding licensing agreements. When one of these manufacturers change their attitude and decide in good faith to enter such talks, the ban is lifted on MSW. One such manufacturer is a Chinese company called CAF Models, who is in active discussions with ANCRE, a French publisher of renown monographs, to stop using their drawings without a license agreement. In the meantime, CAF models have suspended the advertising of the contentious models on their website, to show their goodwill.

So a few weeks ago, I read on MSW about the lifting of the ban of CAF Models, and went to visit their website, to find a little gem hidden in one page...

This is where I want to tell a second story. I am, as some very well know, a fan of exotic and non-camoed subjects. Hence I very often end up with sometimes obscure resin kits. One subject in particular is very interesting to me, in that it is a model of a glider, which is also the aircraft on which probably most of the Luftwaffe aces learned their trade : the SG-38 glider.

HPH have a resin model of the SG-38, and, of course I bought one. It is a very nice kit in appearance, with one drawback however: the wing is solid resin, when the 1:1 glider was a delicate assembly of wooden frames and translucent linen wings. I have been wondering fo ages how I could reproduce the diaphane look of the SG-38 wing by painting, and did not feel very confident in my ability to reproduce this unique look by paint alone.

Enters CAF Model website. And I found there a 1/32 kit of the SG-38, in wood and brass :o ! The whole structure is reproduced in thin plywood. In fact, there is no covering of the wing at all, but then this is easily solved with silk paper, which will have the translucent appearance of unpainted doped linen, just as I wanted !

 

So this is just what I got : two small carboard boxes, containing a 1/32 wooden kit of the SG-38. One contains the key components, whilst the second contains a base and pedestal, and a resin "pilot".

 

i-QWxL7fh-600x450.jpg

The content is made up of some thin plywood plates, with the various parts laser-cut, plus some additional wood dowels and brass rods, and a small PE fret.

i-S3xdG2M-600x450.jpg

And this is finally completed by a set of printed step-by-step instructions and a large A3 sheet plan of the SG-38.

i-MLHcZK4-600x450.jpg

So I am a very happy camper now !

And, btw, my original box was missing the "C" plywodd plate with wing ribs. I got in touch with Tom, CAF Models' owner, and he sent me the missing part in no time. So not only an original subject, but a great service from CAF Models as well !

Hubert

  • Like 6
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, HubertB said:

Just got the last (missing from the box initially) component of an interesting little kit ...

You found a treasure in the midst of a pirates nest. It's a great story, that there are companies willing to do legal business after they went rogue and were talked out of it, by the initative of a forum. Very good to see these things happen.
I would like to see you tackle this glider with a WIP and I believe this will be outstanding. The use of wood and silk paper will be a nice shift from plastic, though I believe it will be very fragile in 1/32. Seeing these laser cut parts, specially what seems to be the frame structure makes me look at my clumsy hands…
I wish you luck with that project and it maybe gets me to continuing my wooden ship kit of the Cutter 'Le Renard'. Actually there is lots of fun working on wooden kits.

Cheers Rob

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest DannyVM
On 1/10/2020 at 3:13 PM, Bomber_County said:

As my first jet since probably the mid 1970’s, probably not.....:rofl:

Don't be so hard on yourself Phil, i've seen some of your projects and they are just fabulous, so this on will be to.:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh and these two last Friday. Big shout out to my 91 year old dad who gave me some money when I was cleared of my cancer last year. Dad told me to spend it solely on stuff for fun. These days with my body being approximately 70% numb, modelling is the perfect thing. I won't drive a car again unless feeling returns to my hands and feet. Too dangerous. Okay to play drums happily. 

Aside from the large kits today, I got 2 of my favorite airframe. MiG 29 and Rafale. :D

UwATmH.jpg

UCOo71.jpg

Thanks dad! :wub:

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/11/2020 at 10:02 AM, DocRob said:

You found a treasure in the midst of a pirates nest. It's a great story, that there are companies willing to do legal business after they went rogue and were talked out of it, by the initative of a forum. Very good to see these things happen.
I would like to see you tackle this glider with a WIP and I believe this will be outstanding. The use of wood and silk paper will be a nice shift from plastic, though I believe it will be very fragile in 1/32. Seeing these laser cut parts, specially what seems to be the frame structure makes me look at my clumsy hands…
I wish you luck with that project and it maybe gets me to continuing my wooden ship kit of the Cutter 'Le Renard'. Actually there is lots of fun working on wooden kits.

Cheers Rob


To be clear with the piracy issues with CAF Model, they never copied anyone elses’s kits. Their kits seem designed « at home ». But they were using and reproducing extensively all the books and drawings published by ANCRE, without any formal agreement of the publisher to make use of these for a commercial purpose, nor, of course, any licensing contract. 
And you are right: it’s good to see people admitting their mistakes and taking action to correct them. So kudos to Tom of CAF Models for that.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of unscrupulous and cynical bastards out there who answer you to « f#!&k off » when confronted :(

As for a SG-38 WIP, I’ll do one, but not before I start - and finish - a WIP on Fisher’s Cutlass, as asked by popular demand (Harv IS popular here, isn’t he ? ;) )

Hubert

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Sir Desmond Glazebrook said:

I also got these. The GodHandtool soft sanding sticks are my new favorite thing, as well as the Tamiya tape/cellophane wrap for masking.

oHLLoo.jpg

Those sanding sticks look really interesting Dale. Is that the only range of sizes available or do they do different combinations?

Thanks, Gus

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...