Plastic Modelers in the IL-2 Community

[Feathered_IV]

10 hours ago, Buglord said:

Speedy recovery Von , did they go through your Arm or Groin , mine was done through the arm

 

I always say; The best way to get to my heart is through my groin.

[voncrapenhauser]

11 hours ago, Buglord said:

Speedy recovery Von , did they go through your Arm or Groin , mine was done through the arm , freaked me out when my arm turned black & blue.

 

42 minutes ago, Feathered_IV said:

 

I always say; The best way to get to my heart is through my groin.

Seemed I was special ....LOL.

I had one on my left arm, one on my right arm, they couldn't reach the blockage so eventually through my right groin.

 

So to date I have had three stents and a balloon through right groin 12 years ago, 4 angiogram /angioplast procedures in total now two of them back to back operations.

Geez that was to say the least, tiring.

My left arm is still black with bruising Bug, hurts like hell.

 

But as I say "It could be worse, I might not be here at all"

Looks like a long road to recovery this time around.

 

Thanks for the concern guys and the jokes Feathered, are always welcome I need some cheering up.

I try and see the upside to all things ,this means more modeling and flight sim time.?

 

Close up for the firearms aficionados.

 

[Hoots]

1 hour ago, voncrapenhauser said:

 

Seemed I was special ....LOL.

I had one on my left arm, one on my right arm, they couldn't reach the blockage so eventually through my right groin.

 

So to date I have had three stents and a balloon through right groin 12 years ago, 4 angiogram /angioplast procedures in total now two of them back to back operations.

Geez that was to say the least, tiring.

My left arm is still black with bruising Bug, hurts like hell.

 

But as I say "It could be worse, I might not be here at all"

Looks like a long road to recovery this time around.

 

Thank god for the NHS. Get well soon from a fellow glider pilot. 

[STN]

On 3/17/2020 at 10:32 AM, Feathered_IV said:

 

I always say; The best way to get to my heart is through my groin.

 

This reminds me of Louie Anderson describing his operation in his Big Baby Boomer stand up. Can't find this particular part right now. But the whole thing is worth watching

[voncrapenhauser]

Think my heart is more stent than heart now. I now count 5 stents plus my tripple bypass 2 and a bit years ago. Ithink the NHS are tired of me now.☝️☝️ Think I need a holiday.  

[STN]

now this looks more like it :)

 

 

[40plus]

Just lovely

[Buglord]

Well as ive got this condition which von also has today my work (NHS) sent me home for 2 weeks and it may be 3 months before i can go back because of the covid 19, but i have to stay in my house with my tin hat on, full pay thou

i have 20 models in my stash so i wont be bored. 

[andres43]

Hawker Typhoon Ib Airfix 1:72 work in progress 

[40plus]

3 hours ago, Buglord said:

 

i have 20 models in my stash so i wont be bored. 

 

20?! ..... "Hey wife, come here. This guy has 20! I only have six!"

 

1:32 Rata kit here I come!

[STN]

Six.... twenty.... Until this very moment I did not think I need help... professional help....

[STN]

This slowly turns out to be one neat looking plane. The outcome depends on the next step.

Wish me luck guys, I am about to try rigging with ''Uschi Van Der Rosten''. I have zero experience and no idea how it is gonna work out.

[Hoots]

11 hours ago, STN said:

This slowly turns out to be one neat looking plane. The outcome depends on the next step.

Wish me luck guys, I am about to try rigging with ''Uschi Van Der Rosten''. I have zero experience and no idea how it is gonna work out.

 

That does look a lovely little aeroplane, looking forward to seeing it in one piece. 
 

[voncrapenhauser]

Looking good to me ST.

On 3/18/2020 at 10:59 PM, Buglord said:

Well as ive got this condition which von also has today my work (NHS) sent me home for 2 weeks and it may be 3 months before i can go back because of the covid 19, but i have to stay in my house with my tin hat on, full pay thou

i have 20 models in my stash so i wont be bored. 

Yep were both vulnerable mate u Take Care now.

[HappyHaddock]

On 3/18/2020 at 10:59 PM, Buglord said:

Well as ive got this condition which von also has today my work (NHS) sent me home for 2 weeks and it may be 3 months before i can go back because of the covid 19, but i have to stay in my house with my tin hat on, full pay thou

i have 20 models in my stash so i wont be bored. 

 

Well as a self employed professional artist/model maker I work alone anyway, so in one respect having had the household go into isolation because of the virus  hasn't impacted my ability to do my work. However I am seeing exhibitions, trade fairs and conventions being cancelled left right and centre so my ability to attract new work/clients over the next few months has diminished greatly... though hopefully my reputation is such that existing clients will continue to contact me via the internet.

 

Who knows if the worst comes to the worse and I get with drawl symptoms from model making and miniature sculpture I may end up doing something I've not done in ages and actually make one or two bits for myself just for fun!

 

Or perhaps if a get a break in my diary I may have time to get back to modding IL-2 which I've not really been able to do so far in 2020.

 

What is bizzare is how the pandemic driven closure of the schools in the UK is/may affect my wife as a teacher who is still going through her 14days isolation with her cough (though still teaching kids remotely over the internet).The UK government's list of "key workers" whose children are still to be supported at school is so extensive it may not actually remove that many children from school, and whilst everything is a "constantly evolving unknown" at the moment, there's talk of needing to support these key workers so they are free to go to work through the normal school holidays such that my wife's school is making provisional plans for having to have staff in looking after pupils over the usual Easter break.

 

Everything at the moment reminds me of an old Chinese curse that says "may you live in interesting times!"

 

Hope everyone and their families gets through this unscathed, both medically in the short term, and economically in the longer run!

 

HH

 

[andres43]

On 3/19/2020 at 9:12 AM, STN said:

Six.... twenty.... Until this very moment I did not think I need help... professional help....

Two guys need professional help ... and maybe much more ones ...?

[40plus]

Hmm. Well I may only have six in my queue, but at 1:32 they take up almost as much space ?

[Feathered_IV]

Oh dear.   Adding up mine, there's just over 150 them in the stash. Luckily they are all 1/144 scale though, so they are easier to hide!

[voncrapenhauser]

20 hours ago, HappyHaddock said:

 

Well as a self employed professional artist/model maker I work alone anyway, so in one respect having had the household go into isolation because of the virus  hasn't impacted my ability to do my work. However I am seeing exhibitions, trade fairs and conventions being cancelled left right and centre so my ability to attract new work/clients over the next few months has diminished greatly... though hopefully my reputation is such that existing clients will continue to contact me via the internet.

 

Who knows if the worst comes to the worse and I get with drawl symptoms from model making and miniature sculpture I may end up doing something I've not done in ages and actually make one or two bits for myself just for fun!

 

Or perhaps if a get a break in my diary I may have time to get back to modding IL-2 which I've not really been able to do so far in 2020.

 

What is bizzare is how the pandemic driven closure of the schools in the UK is/may affect my wife as a teacher who is still going through her 14days isolation with her cough (though still teaching kids remotely over the internet).The UK government's list of "key workers" whose children are still to be supported at school is so extensive it may not actually remove that many children from school, and whilst everything is a "constantly evolving unknown" at the moment, there's talk of needing to support these key workers so they are free to go to work through the normal school holidays such that my wife's school is making provisional plans for having to have staff in looking after pupils over the usual Easter break.

 

Everything at the moment reminds me of an old Chinese curse that says "may you live in interesting times!"

 

Hope everyone and their families gets through this unscathed, both medically in the short term, and economically in the longer run!

 

HH

 

Yes I haven't seen this level of paranoia since the Cuban missle crisis . But for sure social  distnce is only  gonna help beat this. Stay safe  and healthy everone.

[Hoots]

Ok, so first plastic model in about 30 years (thank you covid 19) and it was much easier when my eyes worked properly...

[40plus]

57 minutes ago, Hoots said:

Ok, so first plastic model in about 30 years (thank you covid 19) and it was much easier when my eyes worked properly...

 

Welcome to the addiction

[STN]

Upper wing attached without too many complications.

But then it started. Are these Uschi rigging lines something for masochists? It took me half an hour to attach the first small line. And I still don´t trust it will stay in its place. Am using quick dry glue, gel. Any tips for working with this products? I saw some videos where the guys basically say how easy it is, but either I am a klutz or ....

[Vig]

Beautiful plane.  Take a deep breath, you almost got it!

[Feathered_IV]

11 hours ago, STN said:

Any tips for working with this products?

 

I don't use it.  However I've heard some people put a tiny dot of superglue gel down where they want the thread  to go.  Then dab the end of the thread with a fine brush loaded with superglue activator before positioning it with tweezers.

[STN]

Phew. Done. Gotta say, I learned a LOT. The material is very specific to work with and will still require a lot of practice before I master it.

[No_85_Gramps]

Looks amazing!

[Feathered_IV]

I've established a breeding pair. 

 

 

Using the D.IIIa fuselage as a master I was able to make a resin copy of the fuselage and started backdating it to an earlier D.III with a narrow tailplane and without the exposed guns.  You cant see it in the above shot, but the cockpits were later burred out to accept a few details like seat, instrument panel and control column etc.

 

The seats are simple styrene affairs, made with their bigger Wingnut Wings cousin's used as reference.  They got a coat of Mr Color Leather and were later brushed over with some raw umber oil paint to give them a bit of depth.

 

 

I also had a try at reproducing the wings.  The first mould was a bust, as the wing was placed vertically and didn't allow for the bubbles to escape entirely.  The second mould was much better and gave a very good cast with no warping at all.  I can probably harvest the ailerons from some of the dud wings and pose them in a slightly more relaxed position.

 

 

The detail comes out pretty good!

 

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by Feathered_IV

[STN]

Fantastic job.

[voncrapenhauser]

You could always build a Phaltz Zwilling with x2 fuz's LOL.

 

Looking good feathered.

1 hour ago, STN said:

Fantastic job.

Ditto

 

[Bonnot]

On ‎3‎/‎21‎/‎2020 at 11:35 AM, voncrapenhauser said:

Everything at the moment reminds me of an old Chinese curse that says "may you live in interesting times!"

 

Other ones ( German WWII  ??? )  said something like :  " take the best of War , Peace will be terrible "...

 

So,  ...que sera, sera...

[Bonnot]

On ‎1‎/‎27‎/‎2020 at 5:59 PM, HappyHaddock said:

Sculpting figures for table top war games manufacturers  and other model accessories manufacturers has been a big part of my professional employment for many years, though always at the "miniature" end of model making; typically under 40mm tall (1/43 rd scale down to 1/300th scale) though the smallest I have so far created as a one off (rather than for reproduction and sale as castings) was 1/800th scale where I ended up carving human hair for the finer details

Wonderful an amazing :

 

I never expected to meet miniature wargamers here !

When I began , I was the crazy guy who played toy soldiers....then came Featherstone, Chandler, and many" serious"  people like general Peter Young, re-edition of HG Wells...

then came manufacturers with talented creators like you to offer ready cast army to paint, then seriously researched rules , clubs etc...

Then came Boardgames with Greenwood, Dunnigan or John Hill  -Squad Leader-....

All florished until about 30 years ago computer games began to Crunch large parts of the market.

I followed the move , as I grew older , hands shaking, eyes tired  painting was to demanding...and good partners disappeared like "old soldiers who never die..;"

As a reminder , I look sometimes at my armies  -from 1/35 skirmish to 3mm blocks- but most 1/72; 25 and 15 mm

I'll return my mess, but I am pretty sure I painted those Vikings and Saxons for DBA challenges...

So, thanks for giving me the pleasure to write this , in memoriam to the many good men playing now in some Walhalla ....certainly with good beers and more  !

[voncrapenhauser]

Wargamers are a rare breed. I dabbled way back in my teens.But moved on through many more hobbies, but the enduring one has always been modelmaking, be it R/C planes ,boats ,tanks ,cars. Then getting my Glider pilots license in 1/1 scale aircraft "incidently way easier than R/C flying".-,,Thanks for sharing.

[HappyHaddock]

1 hour ago, voncrapenhauser said:

Wargamers are a rare breed. I dabbled way back in my teens.But moved on through many more hobbies, but the enduring one has always been modelmaking, be it R/C planes ,boats ,tanks ,cars. Then getting my Glider pilots license in 1/1 scale aircraft "incidently way easier than R/C flying".-,,Thanks for sharing.

 

I encountered table top war-gaming in my early teens and it didn't take long for me to realise that it wasn't the gaming aspect that interested me but the challenges of making ever smaller and more detailed miniatures. I took on my first paid commission work dealing with miniatures before heading off to university. Despite studying sciences and notionally being a theoretical physicist I kept going with the various arts and crafts all through a decade in various form of graduate and post-grad study.  Since leaving the education  system I've spent close to two decades self employed with various forms of artistic/creative work which always seem to gravitate back to some form of small sized and fiddly work.

 

However where other model makers seem to focus on "making".... well.... models. The need to deliver a finished end result is very much part of my paid employment. My hobby is simply learning new miniature craft skills where over the years there is little I haven't taught myself. One memorable "challenge" came about through an FX project for BAFTA winning director who had been struggling to 3D print some tiny models... To cut a long story short he/we ended up having to scrounge access to what was at the time the UKs finest resolution 3D printer   being used for post-doc research in a London university. It struck me as ridiculous that the market couldn't offer anything better for doing detailed work for affordable prices so I ended up designing and building my own low budget high-res printer more for the challenge than any need.

 

Of course it is now common for all manner of detailed miniatures to be 3D printed, but the desktop gadget I built theoretically goes down to a nominal 5micron layer thickness and 25micron X_Y precision, though I've never needed such detail, and which all these years later is still finer than most machines can handle.

Edited March 26, 2020 by HappyHaddock

[Bonnot]

Twenty years ago I dreamed to build very large armies on ( apparently ) 1/1 basis but by blocks with layers of distinctive colours - rifles and bayonets era )

This idea came after watching an open market on German/czech border....There were thousands of Garden dwarfs aligned, all size and shape; from a distance it was amazing !!!

I crafted some blocks in  balsa, clay, plasticine, paper etc..... but it was almost impossible to cast and paint at affordable price for say :  Austerlitz, Waterloo or Fontenoy ?

The obvious solution is your printer if I understand ......Alas, I'm now really too old to do more than computer game...and in slow machines !

The idea is open to all ....

 

ps the mysterious Russians : size small 15 (thick base), fine enough not exceptionnal, a full army with nice cav. and superb guns, the flags are uniques (I think) one piece cast and turned to the front -Wind coming from behind.........purchased ca 1999 in France

5 hours ago, voncrapenhauser said:

Wargamers are a rare breed. I dabbled way back in my teens.But moved on through many more hobbies, but the enduring one has always been modelmaking, be it R/C planes ,boats ,tanks ,cars. Then getting my Glider pilots license in 1/1 scale aircraft "incidently way easier than R/C flying".-,,Thanks for sharing.

 

5 hours ago, voncrapenhauser said:

 

Lucky ones who see some dreams come true.... more later

G.

[40plus]

Hmm, we may need a breakaway thread just on wargaming. ?

 

I have one strike squad of 40k grey Knights that I bought just for the painting experience.

 

More on subject I'm also building up a collection of plane miniatures for the Wings of Glory WW2 table top air combat game. They can be a bit spendy as the game is largely out of print but I have 2 spitfire mk1s, 2 109 Es, 2 109 K4s, a Beaufighter mk1, and coming in the mail 2 Stukas and a B17G ?.

 

It's a fun extension of what we do in this sim..... Just more social and you have to make your own sound effects. ?

[csThor]

Not in Covid19 quarantine (I work in a shop which has not yet been closed as we primarily focus on professional craftsmen as customers), but I have a few pics of a model I've finished quite some time ago. The kit is from Airfix, it's their Bf 109 E-4 in 1/72 scale. Contrary to what the kit claims "Yellow 13" was flown by Lt. Josef Eberle (who would later be killed in a Bf 109 E-4/b "Yellow 13" over the Channel) of 9./JG 54 in 1940. The figures are from Andrea Miniatures but I didn't much like them ... the casting (in metal) is simply sub-optimal and I have seen soft plastic figues in that scale with far better and crisper details.

 

 

[Bonnot]

14 hours ago, pfrances said:

..... Just more social and you have to make your own sound effects. ?

What we do in sims is very fun often, no paintings, research, broken lances, cats on the tables, space to work, play ,  store boxes on boxes of unpainted, half mounted,  etc.......

But  : no real partners to cheat on,  cheers,  and share beers and jokes !  _  although wargamer's beer is certainly different from sports one, as I never (?) saw drunk animals savagely fighting each others  or noisy  breaking wargamers manifestations ...

The problem is to rely on the Black Box, often obscure to understand and capricious like lady's vapour who ruin your best battles plans ????  and sometimes it let you alone in the dark without reason _  (Knocking wood it is now the best friend of millions constraints people ) but I love my own  Dark Vador...he is listening .

For Battle sounds  (in old days) I'd tapes 4hours in magnetoscpe , filled with military music, borrowed war movies , ......The 1949 "MAN in IRON"  ( ?  un homme de fer -french title) offered  exceptional atmosphere of B17 raids and fighters attack , I used them also with SWOtL

[Rolling_Thunder]

I don't know why I did it, I don't really need it, I have a 1/24 typhoon in my stash and no real room for it. But I saw a cheap Airfix 1/24 hellcat, the highest bid was low, so I bid on it. I ended up winning the thing for $70. My wife is going to be pissed when that turns up.

[HappyHaddock]

2 minutes ago, Rolling_Thunder said:

I don't know why I did it, I don't really need it, I have a 1/24 typhoon in my stash and no real room for it. But I saw a cheap Airfix 1/24 hellcat, the highest bid was low, so I bid on it. I ended up winning the thing for $70. My wife is going to be pissed when that turns up.

 

It happens to the best of us. I have a single cupboard about 4ft wide, 3ft tall and about 2ft deep in which I keep my stash. I now have a simple rule that if a new purchase won't fit I won't buy until I've completed enough to create space for the next unopened box. However when you largely scratch build/sculpt, enjoy micro modelling, and only have one box in your stash larger than 1/72nd scale (the bulk is 1/144th down to 1/2500th scale) that one cupboard holds an awful lot!

 

HH

[STN]

Done. Happy to have this one off the table. It is a gorgeous plane and would deserve a better quality kit.

 

Potez 25 A2, RF 22
Nr.2054

Rochefort training unit
French Naval Aviation
1937

 

1:72 Azur Frrom

 

Edited March 27, 2020 by STN