Plastic Modelers in the IL-2 Community

[HappyHaddock]

Well "in theory" I'm manically busy  on a huge , complex, (yet tiny scale) model making project with a tight deadline and have been working seven days  a week without any time off yet this year. So naturally now is the time I get swamped with masses of other commissions and end up busy doing the "wrong" work.

 

Consequently I have ended up spending all day dealing with a whole lot of stuff  that's been piling up to package ready  to dispatch to various corners of the globe, all whilst trying to snatch one or two photos for my portfolio before the work is gone for good.

 

So on the basis that I'm pretty much writing off today as "non-productive" I thought I'd share a quick picture of one of those commissions that I didn't really have time to take on, but which was somehow squeezed in as a rush anyway for a regimental presentation piece... really simple work with  a quick paint job on mass produced war games figures set on the simplest  of scratch built scenic bases. It wouldn't win any prizes in a model making competition but the client seems thrilled with what I was able to achieve with their budget.

 

HH

[40plus]

44 minutes ago, ZachariasX said:

@Feathered_IV, I might have a little intermezzo below the 1/72 scale, 1/87 for starters. Or H0 as some would put it:

 

 

 The instructions are very manly though. Those two pages, that's it. Back side is just suggestions for stickers.

 

Those instructions just scream "If you don't know where the wings go, we're not going to tell you"

[ZachariasX]

47 minutes ago, 40plus said:

Those instructions just scream "If you don't know where the wings go, we're not going to tell you"

The wings go on the flat bed trailer.

 

But indeed  if you must have the plane assembled, for that Goethe had Faust say:

 

Wenn ihr's nicht fühlt, ihr werdet's nicht erjagen,
Wenn es nicht aus der Seele dringt
Und mit urkräftigem Behagen
Die Herzen aller Hörer zwingt.

 

Or in Shakespeares language:

 

You can’t, if you can’t feel it, if it never

Rises from the soul, and sways

The heart of every single hearer,

With deepest power, in simple ways.

[STN]

Slowly forward.

[40plus]

Argh, every time I see a post come up in this thread I think to myself that I REALLY need to make some progress on my IL-2 kit... I diverted onto building a new table for my model building work space which has gotten in the way.

 

Looks great STN.

[STN]

small progress on the QB. The decals made me almost rip my hair out- hard as a rock, decalsoft had little to none effect. They were too big.
After I managed finally to attach and cut them to shape, wanted to protect them with varnish. They reacted with blisters and were beyond rescue....
Had to sand them down including the base colour and spray on using masking tape. It left ugly marks. The whole conversion set is a joke.

[Hoots]

14 hours ago, STN said:

small progress on the QB. The decals made me almost rip my hair out- hard as a rock, decalsoft had little to none effect. They were too big.
After I managed finally to attach and cut them to shape, wanted to protect them with varnish. They reacted with blisters and were beyond rescue....
Had to sand them down including the base colour and spray on using masking tape. It left ugly marks. The whole conversion set is a joke.

Still looks bloody good!

[ZachariasX]

7 hours ago, Hoots said:

Still looks bloody good!

Better then a real one I'd say.

[40plus]

It's kind of on topic and I'm tired of having no modeling progress to share so here's a shot of my new hobby table that I've been working on and is coming along nicely. This will be where I will be returning to building models once it's done. I need to let it cure for a couple weeks as the wood is quite wet (weighs in at around 150kg right now). Then I'll dress out down, counter sink the timber washers in and give it some finish. I have a gorgeous set of cast legs that I bought from a foundry down in the US that I plan to use.

[ITAF_Rani]

Almost starting to read Buerling story over Malta....was intrigued by the blu skin of these spits..

I attempted to adapt a mk 9 to mk5..a bit fantasy model..

Not a great result...but was funny to build..

What a great plane the Spit was !!

 

Edited February 13, 2021 by ITAF_Rani

[ZachariasX]

Wow... My hobby table is just an excess wood board for built-in cupboards that I had the carpenter cut to fit ontop one of my surplus USM office desks and that is kept in place with holdfasts.

 

But I had progress with my Revell 1/72 Ju-Air Ju-52. With a little bit of child labor involved I have it finished now. The build was a bit of a mixed experience. I built this model once as a kid, I was about 14 or so. I built it in Luftwaffe style, with the benches inside and the guns. I Remembered while starting the worl on it. You never forget a mould. This time, we were to build the decomissoned variant.

 

 

One mould, for both civil and military version. First, washing them. Not easy watching kids doing that, under the constant fear that they either break one of the more delicate part or flush it. But no problem.

 

 

I was both putting on the silver outside color as well as the light gray inside color with the airbrush. Then handing over to the younger of the two and had him paint the smaller things, here the seats. It is of note that these seats are not the seats as they were put in any of the Ju-Air aircraft. These are seats that resemble the ones in D-AQUI, a plane that cannot be made with this kit, as it has different engines and three blade propellers. At least they didn't feature the furnished cabin interior D-AQUI has, but that would have meant a lot of parts. Not something Revell would opt for. In this moment, you realize this is gonna be a bastard.

 

 

Putting together the fuselage is nothing for kids, it is a bit tragic. And I remembered having screwed up the same way as I did building it the frst time. There are two simple panels with no details that serve as bulkheads behind the pilot seats. The door, another marginally deatiled board is just put there blunty. Having these bulkheads aligned such that the match the fuselage such that also the roof (that is put on much later) matches them is highly improbable and results in you being able to demonstrate self restraint and control in a way that would impress a levitating TM Yogi. Assembling the wings is child work however.

 

Again, I invested very little time in cleaning the parts. The young ones want to see progress. The parts don't show a lot of flash, but still require a lot of work to make them really neat. The fitting is ok'ish.

 

 

The wings are attached in a bit of an odd but effectve way. One has to find a method to ensure that the upper side binds al well to the fuselage to ensure proper dihedral. Putting on the control surfaces is also nothing for kids. Oh, how I hated that back then and I see myself trying it over and over. But now, a drop of glue on each of the (very) small attachment points, put it in place such that it rests in the correct position and that's it. I guess being nervous is the worst enemy to moldel building.

 

 

Putting on the roof and being presented with the calamity of the front bulkhead not really matching the bulkhead part of the roof. I think I repaired more than I built on this model. But hen, a second layer of color. It  is of note that also thsese Ju52 are painted inside out. The aluminum has a green primer. It is also of note that the "true" color is rather different from just "aluminum metallic". In fact, all remaining Ju52 varied considerably in their liveries over time. But I opted to make a bastard plane from the early HB-HOP and and HB-HOS aircraft, HB-HOP being of a whitish aluminum color, whereas HB-HOS was much closer to standard "aluminum metallic". hence I added some white tho the "aluminum metallic". I added "to satisfaction", as Italian recepies specify amounts of respective spices (or any quantity).

 

Then some more child labor to add some variation on the coloring. He's adding darkened locations of wing spars. You can see them. they also didn't clean the aircraft as often as they did in recent years. Below an early photo, from a set also used for the box art. That is as dirty as she ever got. You can see the spar attachment on the skin of the wings.

 

 

Especially older images of the aircraft show how coarse it wa streated during its military service in the SAF, from 1939 to 1981(!). Oh, how much the weekend warriors loved these crates. And they flew the like pigs. ´Cos you can. Mostly. As we know.

 

The image above is a newer one (there is internet now!) as the Swiss markings on the wings are gone now. Something that was indispensible during the service time. But after the first full repaint, they didn't bother adding those.

 

 

After that, painting the engine parts. I again used the airbrush for the cowlings and the exhaust tubes. I was rather fond of how the color mixture for that turned out, aluminum, leather plus "soot" and "oil stain" from the weathering kit in the mix. Then drillung the holes to make the tube a tube.

 

 

Assembling them was easy, but I remembered there being something fishy with the assembly of the cowls. Ah well. Browsing through the pictures, I got kind of fond of the black "Junkers" nose, also depicted in the photo abobe. It is of note that this Lufthansa pattern is rather new to the aircraft and until the end of the 90's, they didn't have such. Just a silver nose.

 

 

You can see how much I trust my airbrushing skills. It turned out that I was even optimistic with that kind of covering. Ah, well. I'll make progress there. Eventually.

 

 

Finally it is mostly assembled, minus the hinges for control surfaces and the antennae. And how right I was about the cowlings. there is literally nothing underneath to glue them on when positioned properly. I managed somwhow, but the outer ones are a bit tilted.

 

 

The stickers are no now. Finally. What a pain. Corrugated metal is about the worst to put stickers on. I accidentally destroyed the registration number HB-HOS, that should come in front of the old military number A-701 by holding the model there when placing other stickers. Using a litre of decal soft (I'm still amazed that the single sticker for the tail worked out so well), they take a long time to dry. Oh well. Ordered some decal paper for laser printer, something that is surprisingly hard to get. I'll add it later on. But until then, I finger proofed the model with Humbrol satin cote and gloss cote for the cowlings after putting on the hinges and oil cooler below as well as the dorsal antennae.

 

It turned out prettier than expected.

 

But some comment on the kit and the aircraft. First of all, this kit, no matter how you look at it has some severe differences to any of teh Ju-Air aircraft:

 

• Wrong seats (of D-AQUI). The seats used were (AFAIR) from a decommisioned DC-9 airliner and they are narriower without padding on the sides.
• Wrong panel lines on the cockpit window. The upper panels should all be parallel. As I have them in the photo above, this is the most modern "greenhouse" on the aircraft. Before, they were all three separated with an other parallel bar (I added them now), and not an orthagonal one in th outer panels.
• There is no attachment for the rear part of the exhaust stack of the central engine.
• The center engine should have two oil coolers, not a tripple one.
• The tail wheel should be a nosewheel from a Vampire, not the original one as the Luftwaffe used. (The main wheels have DC-3 tyres and French rims for these specs. The original, larger tyres had a havit of busting caused by cracking rims.)

 

Those Ju52 had quiet an evolution, both in shape and color. when delivered in the fall of 1939, they came all RLM dark green.

 

 

They were just added a red rudder with the white cross.

 

 

They soon got a bit more white to REALLY make them stand out from the German aircraft.

 

 

After the war, they got a repaint and they got their silver livery. Whatever silverish color they happened to have at hand. Plus the blue cowlings. They still had their big wheels. (Poor HB-HOT...)

 

 

You can see what those three steps on the side really are for. They are for cranking the inertia starter. later on the of course were fitted electric starters. You can see the twin oil coolers, not the set of three as supplied in the kit. (But I was too lazy for cutting them up.) You can also see how the exhaust stack are fixed to the fuselage. Makeshift I suppose.

 

The basket for the gunner below the aircraft was supplied by the Germans but nobody ever had any illusions about that one and it went in storage right away, only to be taken in the most special of all occasions.

 

 

And they flew like pigs. Here, visiting Koblenz, Germany. The aircraft I just built. You see, there's lots of fixing and patching up. I'm still missing the HB-HOS labels on the sides.

 

 

When idiots are accurate. This weekend warrior found the radio beacon tower of their home airport Dübendorf. But in these days, nothing to be worried about. For the interessted, the inside of the plane is dark green. Here:

 

HB-HOS as it is now at Altenrhein, HB-HOP remains at the Museum at her old home in Dübendorf.

 

 

The ads are gone from HB-HOP's fuselage. It will probably never fly again. The famous and all original Storch, the only one remaining in Dübendorf, is airworthy.

 

[40plus]

Well if that Tante Ju isn't just lovely! Well done and great write up too.

 

Snowed in today, made some more progress on my hobby table.

[csThor]

Did a bit more on my Ta 152 C today. Marbelling not done by any means, but after two hours I was getting cramps in my hand. The black area on the underside will be painted in metal colour (one of the Aluminium tones I have).

Edited February 14, 2021 by csThor
typo

[STN]

Attached the upper wing and the floats after 3 days of struggle. Not sure what went wrong, but had to cut the original hull support beams and make new ones. Either the wing is crooked from the box, or I am an klutz. The outer support gave me a headache of their own. Very subtle, bending did not want to hold the wing.... will have to touch up a few areas where the glue got on the surfaces.
The floats assembly is a bad joke- not only are the floats banana shaped after assembly, but the support beams are made of fragile material, came already broken in the box. The hind supports did not reach the hull in any way thinkable. Had to cut them off and make new ones with a different shape and length. The connecting rods snapped also- again had to replace them. I was very close to giving up on this one.

 

not to mention- I am almost certain the geometry of the floats assembly is completely incorrect....?

 

 

[namhee2]

The new Panzer IV F1 from tamiya (35374) part3 

now more about the FAMO, there are still a lot of details to be made

 

 

 

 

 

[Hoots]

7 hours ago, STN said:

Attached the upper wing and the floats after 3 days of struggle. Not sure what went wrong, but had to cut the original hull support beams and make new ones. Either the wing is crooked from the box, or I am an klutz. The outer support gave me a headache of their own. Very subtle, bending did not want to hold the wing.... will have to touch up a few areas where the glue got on the surfaces.
The floats assembly is a bad joke- not only are the floats banana shaped after assembly, but the support beams are made of fragile material, came already broken in the box. The hind supports did not reach the hull in any way thinkable. Had to cut them off and make new ones with a different shape and length. The connecting rods snapped also- again had to replace them. I was very close to giving up on this one.

 

not to mention- I am almost certain the geometry of the floats assembly is completely incorrect....?

 

 

But other than that you liked it yeah?

The finished kit looks as brilliant as ever so you deffo showed your skill. 

[STN]

Thanks Hoots, but it is not finished by far. Still missing the a few parts plus the rigging which will be a challenge of its own.
And I gotta say...no, I did not like the kit so far. It seems to be one of those where everything goes wrong from the start. I was looking forward to building this one, but am currently only frustrated. I will need to fix also one of the windshields- it broke in half when I was separating it from the sprue. Actually a few parts broke when separating from the sprue. This is my first Airfix kit so not sure- are they all made of such brittle plastic?

[Feathered_IV]

Got the top wing on the second Pfalz at last.  This one seems to be the lesser of the two so I decided to use it as the guinea pig for the rigging.  

I'm using 0.05mm nickel silver wire that has been rolled out flat then cut to lengths.  Fiddly doesn't quite describe it in 1/144, but I think I've got a system going now and I've recorded the lengths of each piece so I can repeat it across both models.  I'm kind of wishing I'd taken up an easier hobby and maybe learned to play the bongos instead.

 

 

 

[ZachariasX]

4 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

I'm kind of wishing I'd taken up an easier hobby and maybe learned to play the bongos instead.

 

Iˋm sure they‘d be 1/144 bongos. Playing Beethovens 9th on them would be a fast track to neurosurgeon. Seriously, your Pflaz(es) look awesome.

 

I‘m considering building a biplane, but I am looking for the 1/72 scale. I‘d love to make a Bücker Jungmann. Revell made a reboxing of an ICM kit, but at 1/32 scale. And at a level of detail that is suitable for an easy 1/72 kit. There are plenty of these aircraft around, easily accessible. I just don‘t understand how someone investing in a mould wouldn‘t want to spend that dime getting the details right. Maybe I try the RS Model kit. Although I do appreciate the variety of aircraft versions included, the last RS Model build left me with mixed feelings, as the parts really come across as moulding blanks to make the actual parts from them yourself.

 

Does anyone here make resin parts himself? I like making an aircraft that I actually saw or had hands on. The good thing about it is you know every detail of the aircraft for reproduction. The bad thing about it is you know every detail about the aircraft and then you see what you got in the kit... Then having the option of replacing or adding missing parts would be nice. Making those missing/faulty parts would of course be an end in itself as well.

 

Speaking of known aircraft, I caved and got me the 1/48 Storch from Tamiya when I was buying a new airbrush. I was fed up with my „color spray“. Opening that Tamiya box... THAT is how you can do kits. Parts with LEGO precision, beautiful reproduction of seams on the fuselage, metal spar (!) for the wings... All clean and straight parts. Has been about a quarter of a century since last time I opened a Tamiya box. Looking at the sad b&w copy of the building instructions at least proved that it is seemingly impossible to make everything right for any manufacturer, a kit is not a kit if there‘s not at least one thing wrong with it. But in case of Tamiya, they only keep the manual „as they always did it“, whereas Revell and the likes have no problem doing so with the moulds.

[HappyHaddock]

6 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

.I'm kind of wishing I'd taken up an easier hobby and maybe learned to play the bongos instead.

 

 

I know the feeling ... just take solace in the fact you are building static models... I've spent part of the last week looking into to how to machine my own mod0.2 gear -hobb for then cutting my own bespoke micro gears  for a somewhat reckless challenge that would require me to fit a reduction of at least 100:1 into a gearbox approx 6mm wide ... the same reckless challenge that has seen me in contact with specialist wire drawers to judge costs for producing  bespoke shaped wire at approx 0.6mm tall by 0.3 mm wide. I could try machining rollers for use in a rolling mill but really sense I need to learn to make my own draw plate... not a problem for simple round wire, or even square wire of a few mm diameter, but a tiny "H" beam may be pushing things beyond my skills set... all the more so when I'm not trying to draw soft metal like copper or silver, but it would need to work with a fairly hard steel.

 

Still it is the difficult challenges that lead to the greatest sense of achievement if mastered.

 

Gotta say though I'm loving your work as few can produce models that withstand such  magnification in photos and still look good.

 

HH

2 hours ago, ZachariasX said:

 

Does anyone here make resin parts himself? I like making an aircraft that I actually saw or had hands on.

 

I've been mould making and casting miniature parts for most of my professional career, be that low melt alloys like pewter, high temp metals like brass, bronze gold and silver, various resins, , plaster and have even done work in chocolate and also cheese. Basically whatever clients pay me to make where I've doen work for a wide range of retailers in the hobby trade.

 

Working with resins is never fun and in most cases although capable of producing the detail we want as model makers tends to produce parts that are too delicate to be useful... In truth I've never understood why the market for aftermarket resin upgrades thrives the way it does.

 

If thinking of trying your hand at mould making and casting consider starting with pewter  (unless weight of castings is an issue). Resin can give slightly finer detail in castings but only tends to be achievable with decent de-gassing and vacuum equipment.... and if you are looking at spending that sort of money that would buy those, then in this day and age you may be better off with a 3D resin printer. I built my printer for about £500 and it offers resolution down to 5micron layer thickness and nominal X-Y precision of 25micron enabling it to print detail within features the thickness of a human hair - details that would never mould or cast.

 

HH

 

[Feathered_IV]

1 hour ago, HappyHaddock said:

Gotta say though I'm loving your work as few can produce models that withstand such magnification in photos and still look good.

 

That is very high praise!  The camera definitely doesn't do it too many favours up close though.  Hopefully the yellow nosed one comes out a bit better.

I used .2mm wire initially to get the lengths of each piece of rigging then used them as templates cut each one to size.  With a bit of luck that should streamline the process a bit and avoid having to make each one a custom fit.  I really want to move on to the next project!

 

[ZachariasX]

1 hour ago, HappyHaddock said:

I built my printer for about £500 and it offers resolution down to 5micron layer thickness and nominal X-Y precision of 25micron enabling it to print detail within features the thickness of a human hair - details that would never mould or cast.

That is what I was thinking about. Basically creating the parts that are missing/incorrect in the kits and then add them. Too bad that good 3D scanners seem to be rather expensive. I mean the ones that can be used to scan larger objects. Especially when having an aircraft at hands scanning parts might be handy. It has been about 20 years since I did 3D modelling, I had to relearn most.

[HappyHaddock]

8 minutes ago, Feathered_IV said:

 

That is very high praise!  The camera definitely doesn't do it too many favours up close though. 

 

 

A high level of magnification in any photo will always show up weak points that don't look as good as you may have wanted, but the poorer aspects of your work are still such that many will aspire to reach that standard. I've produced models that when photographed have fooled people into believing they are the real life full size thing, but never when shown at four or five times their actual size, that is just unrealistic to expect. So yes the magnified photos do highlight aspects of your Pfalz that could be "better", whether I'd know anybody capable of reliably delivering better is another question entirely.

 

As I've said before, as a fellow miniaturist it's not the small size of your work that impresses as I have worked smaller (in some cases much smaller), but you do achieve a level of cleanliness and precision that gives even cynical old hacks like myself something to  work towards.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

18 minutes ago, ZachariasX said:

That is what I was thinking about. Basically creating the parts that are missing/incorrect in the kits and then add them. Too bad that good 3D scanners seem to be rather expensive. I mean the ones that can be used to scan larger objects. Especially when having an aircraft at hands scanning parts might be handy. It has been about 20 years since I did 3D modelling, I had to relearn most.

 

I have a desk top scanner  for rescaling hand made parts of models and it wasn't ludicrously expensive whilst offering nominal accuracy to 0.1mm. I've seen others use the same kit to scan their front door key, print a copy and open their door without any tweaking of the 3d model or print. Myself I've never achieved such precision with it and don't reckon on cleanly capturing any detail below 1mm

 

If you are scanning full size large parts and printing at small scales the "gain" in accuracy may be such that a basic £150 hand held scanner that plugs into your i-phone or lap top should be adequate.  They may only be accurate to within a few cm depending upon budget and scanner, but on a scaled down model that "inaccuracy" may still relate to printing parts at less than 1mm. I know one chap who uses such a scanner to run a professional business scanning full size historical reenactors in period costumes/uniforms as a basis for 3d printing miniature figures for model makers. He reckons the prints are great at 1/72nd scale and smaller, more than adequate at 1/48th and still tolerable at 1/32nd.  Of course you only need detail in a scan to a level your printer can reproduce.

 

HH

[ZachariasX]

Good idea. Something like that:

 

https://structure.io/

 

might be a way to go. After all, I would want to scan parts of an aircraft, then clean the individual structure and then just scale it for printing.

 

All the above in mind, I just can't think of a reason to produce cheap $10 kits. I mean, the ones who continuously buy these items, they already spent a lot on their shop anyway. If that Tamiya 1/48 kit cost about $60 (US), then this is not that expensive, given it is good quality. Why would I want to save $40 on a single kit if I am missing all the details?

[HappyHaddock]

5 minutes ago, ZachariasX said:

 

might be a way to go. After all, I would want to scan parts of an aircraft, then clean the individual structure and then just scale it for printing.

 

 

A great theory but sometimes it is quicker to model from scratch than clean a poor scan, all comes down to scanner, intermediary software,  3d printer and of course the original subject you are scanning.  I'd make sure any scanner you purchase comes with it's own internal software for outputting "watertight" meshes for 3d printing. Plus you need to check third party reviews before buying to ensure it does actually do what the manufacturers claim. 

 

Also bear in mind that the surfaces that scan best are those that are a drab matt finish... I'd hazard a guess that the sorts of details on a real aircraft you may want to scan may have a polished/oily metal, clear glass or at least semi-glossy painted finish all of which bounce light around in a way that can confuse some scanners.

 

When scanning model parts I can first hit them with flat grey primer  to kill any reflectivity on their surfaces... museums may not be so thrilled at such an idea if wanting to scan real heritage aircraft.

 

HH

 

[Feathered_IV]

Managed to rig the other wing today.  The weather has been too hot during the week, but a cool change just came through which allows me to take the lid off the PVA without getting a skin on it almost immediately.

 

Slightly better photos this time.  Funnily enough, the white background is the remains of the sheet of plastic card that the model is made from. 

 

 

 

 

[ZachariasX]

Absolutely stunning... You'll make the propeller blades from that matchstick?

 

[Hoots]

42 minutes ago, ZachariasX said:

Absolutely stunning... You'll make the propeller blades from that matchstick?

 

Shhhh! Don’t encourage the loony!

[Birdman]

Crazy stuff on that Pfalz! Rigging on 1/144 ?

 

Corsair is coming along, started painting the underside :

 

Still messing around with black basing, planning on doing a 3 tone paint scheme ?, wish me luck 

[Birdman]

Done painting the Corsair (pending small bits here and there) :

 

Decided to use white tak to get the feathered edge lines and let me tell you it sticks to everything but the model XD it has been a masking nightmare. The other problem was Tamiya doesn't carry the exact colors in acrylic so I channeled my inner chemist and got mixin'.

 

In the end pleased with the result

[STN]

The battle is over. It is what it is.

 

Dh.82b

1:72 Airfix/Print Scale.

 

Had to rip the upper wing off twice and cut the inner supports to correct the position.

As next, also had to rip the floats assembly off, since it warped and twisted. Took the floats apart, and shortened the connecting rods a bit. The rigging was a pain in the ass despite using EZ line. The conversion set from Print Scale is not worth buying. It is completely wrong as You can see from the attached picture of the real plane.

 

 

[Feathered_IV]

I find it very hard to dwell upon the issue with the floats when I am continuously distracted by your beautiful paint finish. 

[STN]

Thanks Feathered. The paintjob saved a few things. So much is true.
And now for something completely different....

[Birdman]

STN, is it a twin boom Fokker?

 

Decided to airbrush Pledge floor care as a gloss coat after wondering about it for a while, did the decals as well (didn't bother with the tiny ones because being black on navy blue you can't really see anything), put a couple more coats of Pledge on after the decals, next step will be building the landing gear probably:

 

 

(Don't mind the finger print of doom behind the cockpit ?)

Edited February 27, 2021 by Birdman

[ZachariasX]

6 minutes ago, Birdman said:

STN, is it a twin boom Fokker?

 

My bets are it being a Moskalyev SAM-13. But this is not the Unicraft kit?

[Birdman]

1 minute ago, ZachariasX said:

 

My bets are it being a Moskalyev SAM-13. But this is not the Unicraft kit?

 

 

I think you are right

[STN]

Correct. The Russian answer to Fokker D-XXIII

The kit is Mikromir. Looks like a nice pleasant build. A bit of filling and sanding will be required, but nothing serious from what I can see.

[csThor]

Oh  dear ... You know that feeling all week, looking forward to the weekend when you can finally do some modelling and when you sit down to actually do it you realize you're fresh out of something important? In my case - I wanted to do the first colour on my Ta 152 and realized I only have one almost empty can of RLM 76. Doh! ?‍♂️

[ZachariasX]

18 minutes ago, csThor said:

I wanted to do the first colour on my Ta 152 and realized I only have one almost empty can of RLM 76. Doh! ?‍♂️

Light blue (Revell or Tamiya XF-23) plus some 10% white. I doubt you‘d be farther off from actual RLM76 (Lichtblau) than most paint vendors.

 

Somebody made a nice chart of what they sell as respective shades and how they compare.

 

It is extremely difficult to reproduce orphan pigments with todays colors, a skill that few (companies) have. Making so many shades precludes even the remote possibility that they match exactly. It is a lot of work, and you wouldn‘t want to have to pay for all that.

 

You can see that for instance in architectural colors. If you for instance wanted to paint your house in the shades Le Corbusier used. You will have a very hard time finding exact corresponding colors. And just slight mismatch there kills most of your color composition. You will not get any matching colors from the large vendors that have „all colors“. Thankfully, color composition on plastic models has more artistic leeway there.

 

„Lichtblau“ is what you make it.

[csThor]

I know, but for colour range "harmony" and quality of spraying I actually prefer Mr. Hobby Colours. I did try Vallejos, Ammo etc but these "pure" acrylics left a lot to be desired IMO when it comes to ease of handling and especially durability. I find Mr. Hobby brings the most durable finish upon which I can base my weathering and they're easier to handle even than Tamiya paints (I've had issues with them in very fine airbrush detail work - they seem to dry far faster than Mr. Hobby which makes mottling or marbling difficult).