Plastic Modelers in the IL-2 Community

[ZachariasX]

46 minutes ago, voncrapenhauser said:

Top Pic The old Airfix model complete with The inaccurate non copyright infringing Spectrum meatballs.( Later versions have corrected decals).

 

 

 

Ha, I had this one as well! Never had an idea where they got the idea of that model from and because it (AFAIR) doesn't have a landing gear (wasn't supposed "to land on clouds"?) was an oddity, but it sure was pointy. I didn't paint it though and left it white as the plastic was. That was about 40 years ago...

 

EDIT: Yes, exactly this:

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by ZachariasX

[ZachariasX]

Alright, the kids finished their two builds, the Revell 1/72 P-47 and the Me-262:

 

 

They are actually more recent moulds and I expected an easier build. I never really cared for that P-47, as I don'tt really like the livery. There's a 1/48 Hobby Master version out that I find apalling on many levels and that kind of ruined the impression of the livery for me. As for the box art, maybe it works for the painting but it is very coarse of a contrast.

With the jet, I was positive I was not gonna try such a camo, but keep it more to standard and taking Mutkes jet as a template, the one he landed in Dübendorf, Switzerland, after he had seen enough of the war and that Jet is now in the Deutsche Museum in Munich.

 

Both models were built somewhat in parallel, but attending two kids (that are using using really sharp and pointy tools at the time) is slightly overhelming, so it quickly turned into one after the other. Again, it showed me that the most difficult part in modelling is actually about how to organize your bench, how to hold the piece such that you can both work comfortably and obstruct neither the light nor your sight. The rest... comes along much more easily then.

It often reminds me of Loriots sketch Zimmerverwüstung ("room destruction") about a man that has to wait in a room for his appointment and sees a picture that is haning inclined. As he tries to rectify that

 

the Zimmerverwüstung takes is course. After that, the door opens and out of a messed up room

 

 

he says "Das Bild hängt schief!" ("The picture is hanging crookedly") while leaving the room. It always reminds me of what can happen when working in a tight space with lots of tools.

 

 

 

Allright, first the 6 year old with "Devastatin Deb".

 

 

After washing the sprue, mixing the color for aluminum primer, dark green and yellow. Leaving the parts on the sprue prevents a lot of potential disasters.

 

 

How to paint details with a steady hand? All they learn is school is painting billboard scale while wearing space proof protection gear. As much fun as that might be, that skill doesn't help here. Painting is fast. Training a steady and precise hand is not.

 

 

Alright, time to start assembling. That is where spirit rises again.

 

 

Placing the cockpit dash and then the seat. Holding parts in a way that lets you see exactly where they are placed is less trivial than it might appear. And it doesn't work without bad words, but it works.

 

 

In the end, he's rather fond of the level of detalil he's achived. And I'm ready for a drink. Or two.

 

 

Then there's the decision about the final configuration. Fuel tanks.. not cool. Bombs? Uhhm.... Rockets! Rockets it is!! So then one has to make the holes as attachment points them.

 

 

Then putting the main parts together. Almost finished, they think.

 

 

After he placed the canopy, I masked the windows. This would be a pointless and frustrating exercise otherwise for him. But placing the canopy was a struggle. In principle, it is attached to a handle that allows sliding the hood forth and back. But if there's just a bit paint on it, it gets stuck.. and eventually breaks. So closed it is. I have yet to see someone who painted his model and that sliding thing still working (in the hands of a kid).

 

 

Time to get the aluminum color on the model. I like to give it a slight tint of white. Unfortunately, I had to find out that my Revell color somehow started to dry inside the can and had to resort to any white acrylic paint I had in the house. I had some white color supplied with the cheapo airbrush. A couple of drops are enough.

 

 

This was basically the template (the rendition of the livery I like most for appearances sake) we decided to go with, but color vibrance should be less dull. It is of note that I decided not to put on the antenna behind the cockpit. That is where the fingers go when holdeing the aircraft if it has to go dakka-dakka and I just can't be fussed reattachinga nd reataching that thing.

 

 

But once the blue hues had to be sprayed on the true misery of the situation revealed itself. The revell colors dry in about 5 minutes and that white dried in like 5 hours and it mixed terribly if used in larger volumes. Although we got the desired shade of blue, spraying that on in an even fashion was rather frustrating, especially as I figured initially that we free-hand the camo pattern. After many bad words, at least I had it like we wanted it with the colors matching each other to make for a pleasant appearance. 

Then I made another idiotic error. I never tested the prop pin on the propeller. It was slightly too thick. Also, the engine and the cowling are an extremely snug fit and the kid had several attempts to get it in place. This obviously left some glue inside that bound the pin. Making the pin fit the propeller on the assebled aircraft is a pain, especially compared to how it could have been with a tad more foresight.

 

 

Ah well. No moving propeller. But the rest fit rather well, also the landing gear parts fit well. We did some panelling with the sharp tweezers. Just pulling it along the panel lines revelaled the aluminum color beneath. Works great for any scratches as well. Stickers on. Putting wear on the paint was another exercise and one can see not only scraped the color where he intended. But so what. I made him (as usual) do the big stickers. The small ones, especially the stencil, would be plain child abuse. But Revell has really nice, clear stickers. I have to give them that.

 

 

Rockets on! I asked him what color he liked them to be. Aluminum and yellow. Even though they should be grey with white tips, the yellow tips look good with the blue and he's happy.

 

 

 

Then some more makeup. We put the powders on with a dry brush and removed excessive material with a dry paper. It is very quick like that and it accentuates the panels. Then the while thing was fixed and finger proofed with Humbrol clear and satin cote, 50/50 misture. It is the shile I like and it is notably different from the one you get from the canopy.

 

Although not having a turning propeller is awful, the model turned out much better than I thought and I like it in those more blueish shades than what probably was the original. A F-UN kit.

 

 

Then the Schwalbe.

 

 

Having seen the progress of his little brother, the older (9) needed to catch up fast. And he painted like that.

 

 

Assembly is king.

 

 

The parts are rather clean as they come on the sprue, but he could have made slightly more effort in cleaning and preparing the parts.

 

 

Almost caught up!

 

 

Finally. The jet needs 20 g of weight in the nose if it was to stand on three wheels. That is about half of the lead in that bag.

 

 

20 grams... in there.

 

 

I do well remember when I assembled a 1/32 Vampire (I think it was the Airfix one), that one also needed weight in the front. I used contact adhesive to fixate the lead weight. It melted the whole friggin' nose after I put it on. I needed to carve a replacement from a piece of wood. At least I had an understanding parent who could show me how to do that. This time, I found it smarter to have an adhesive that can't dissolve plastic. Just mixing the lead with the adhesive and putting it in the nose.

 

 

It fills almost the whole section in front of the cockpit bulkhead. But placed like this, one can just put the cover on it and all gets glued in place. Simplicity matters.

 

 

The cockpit. Well, that is not the best thing about the model. The canopy must have come slightly hot from the mould. It is slightly too small and slightly bent inward and most of the paneling is not visible anymore. As we all know the layout of the window frames of the Me-262 by heart, it is not a problem for masking, but the poor fit on the model is.

 

 

Aluminum base. I suggested he makes very thin layers for underlying color for showing through later layers. The aluminum color worked well. Also a darker tint of it could be applied free hand.

 

 

Mixing what should be RLM76. Light blue and white. I had bought new colors...

 

 

That also worked well and without much drama.

 

 

One also sprays the wheel covers. Also here, Revell supplies them as one piece on the sprue and if gear is modelled as lowered, then one has to cut them.

 

 

Masking. Generously. Very.

 

 

Putting on the green, mixed by hand after the Museum exhibit. That was the point where things got difficult and the airbrush started to get clogged all the time. No matter how I diluted the color and and mixed it thorougly with a syringe, it was bad.

 

 

The dark brown was even worse. That was the "leave it to me!!" moment. That color clogged so badly, even if excessively diluted it wouldn't really want to go through the nozzle. And I cleaned that nozzle for what felt like a whole afternoon.

 

 

Putting the specks on was not fun, given that brown color wanted to come out of the nozzle only in an all-or-nothing manner. I couldn't be fussed anymore putting them on the engines.

 

 

Sticker time. Again, the large ones for the kid, small ones for me. I didn't want to put PVA glue on the brown paint. The paint remained very porous and drew water and only got the lighter color again when it had dried. I feared PVA glue or clear cote would permanently darken the area below the sticker. So we had to live with a bit of silvering.

 

 

 

Finally. The jet has another small antenna on the lower back of the fuselage, but also there is where fingers go, hence, we would not put it on. Then also for this model, I made a 50/50 mix of Humbol clear cote and satin cote for the finish ti seal the patina and stickers. I like that as a metal shine in the 1/72 scale.

 

 

In the end, the kids are rather fond of what they built. That's all that matters.

 

[LukeFF]

Excellent! ??

[Feathered_IV]

Nice one. I really enjoyed reading that and the results are fantastic too. I love those nostalgia feels you get when seeing kids take their first steps into modelling. 

[voncrapenhauser]

23 hours ago, ZachariasX said:

 

Ha, I had this one as well! Never had an idea where they got the idea of that model from and because it (AFAIR) doesn't have a landing gear (wasn't supposed "to land on clouds"?) was an oddity, but it sure was pointy. I didn't paint it though and left it white as the plastic was. That was about 40 years ago...

 

EDIT: Yes, exactly this:

 

 

It dose have landing gear of a sort....a front leg skid which you never see retract in the show incidentally lol.

It has skids on the outer edge of The wing also.

 

At The time TV 21 Magazine had an Artical showing how they land.

Believe it or not according to TV21, Cloudbase had a portion of deck which raised to 90 degrees (Bit like The American "Pogo" aircraft if you are familiar?)

Even more unbelievable it had multiple fans which sucked The interceptor on to it......after pointing the aircraft vertical on approach..........  sheesh!.

 

Loved the shows when I was kid but now my knowledge of how aircraft actually work has destroyed my child hood ,I say with tongue in cheek.........

The wonders of Gerry Anderson anti logic design strikes again lol.

 

CORRECTION ALERT....... I just searched and found a Vid on facebook showing this from the show , however ramp is only at about 45 degrees,..... as if that would still work?    lol..

Edited August 30, 2021 by voncrapenhauser

[Feathered_IV]

Can't quite believe I have got this far.  The booms are permanently attached now and some more details added.  The horizontals had chord bindings along their length to strengthen them (76 in all - tedious AF).  I added these from strips of painted decal and gave them a faint wash of artist oils to help them stand out.  I'm hoping to rig the back end over the weekend, which should be relatively easy compared to the wings.  Cant wait to get the tail on too so it finally looks like a whole flying machine.

 

 

[Birdman]

Changed scale and era for this build: 1/72 A-4. So tiny ?

[Feathered_IV]

Great choice of scheme.  I always liked the A-4s without the hump on the fuselage.  Isn’t it a little big though? 

 

Got the tail codes done on the Fee.  I’m really beginning to like printing my own decals and it opens up all kinds of possibilities for future projects.  I had to print the A and 7 on white, then carefully cut around them to leave the outline.  Eye watering but it looks good once it’s done.  

 

Started on the rigging for the booms too.  I think I’m about halfway there. 
 

[HappyHaddock]

5 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

I’m really beginning to like printing my own decals and it opens up all kinds of possibilities for future projects.  I had to print the A and 7 on white, then carefully cut around them to leave the outline.

 

It may not be economic depending upon how many decals you print, but you can buy computer printers that print white ink,  or  you can simply "cheat the system" by putting white ink into  a section of a regular printer designed to print colour and "mis-colouring" you art art work.

 

Hence if you want a black letter with a white outline simply draw a black letter with a red outline, and then put white ink into the printer where there should be a red ink cartridge.

 

The other way around the situation I've used is to leave the print transparent where you need white, print the surrounding colours around the letters and then apply a larger decal onto a white surface ... hence for your tail you'd print the red and blue strips as part of the decal.

 

As may be apparent I've spent a bit of time playing around with how to get the best results with printing white lettering on DIY decals.

[ZachariasX]

34 minutes ago, HappyHaddock said:

Hence if you want a black letter with a white outline simply draw a black letter with a red outline, and then put white ink into the printer where there should be a red ink cartridge.

by "red" you would mean you'd have to do pure magenta, else your printer will always mix in some parts of the other three colors. But how long would I have to print until all the magenta is gone, and how would I get the white out of the system again?

 

And from the hands on persepctive, how would you swap the ink?

[voncrapenhauser]

7 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

Great choice of scheme.  I always liked the A-4s without the hump on the fuselage.  Isn’t it a little big though? 

 

Got the tail codes done on the Fee.  I’m really beginning to like printing my own decals and it opens up all kinds of possibilities for future projects.  I had to print the A and 7 on white, then carefully cut around them to leave the outline.  Eye watering but it looks good once it’s done.  

 

 

Started on the rigging for the booms too.  I think I’m about halfway there. 
 

 

Results speak for themselves mate.

Top notch......wow.

[Feathered_IV]

2 hours ago, HappyHaddock said:

 

It may not be economic depending upon how many decals you print, but you can buy computer printers that print white ink,  or  you can simply "cheat the system" by putting white ink into  a section of a regular printer designed to print colour and "mis-colouring" you art art work.

 

Hence if you want a black letter with a white outline simply draw a black letter with a red outline, and then put white ink into the printer where there should be a red ink cartridge.

 

The other way around the situation I've used is to leave the print transparent where you need white, print the surrounding colours around the letters and then apply a larger decal onto a white surface ... hence for your tail you'd print the red and blue strips as part of the decal.

 

As may be apparent I've spent a bit of time playing around with how to get the best results with printing white lettering on DIY decals.

 

I was looking at some of those white cartridges a while ago.  The one suitable for my printer was around $200Au.  A bit too rich for me

I did find that placing a white decal underneath a coloured top layer worked well though.  I did that with the B'1 markings under the wings and was very happy with the result.   

[Feathered_IV]

Edging closer to getting this done.  Had a busy lockdown-day, making the bomb racks and control cables for the undersides.  Added another dozen rigging wires to the rear booms as well.  Also got to indulge my vintage coin fetish, as my 1917 shilling came in the post today.  

 

 

[Hoots]

5 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

Edging closer to getting this done.  Had a busy lockdown-day, making the bomb racks and control cables for the undersides.  Added another dozen rigging wires to the rear booms as well.  Also got to indulge my vintage coin fetish, as my 1917 shilling came in the post today.  

 

 

Feathered, that is a creation of exquisite beauty. Absolutely incredible, thank you for sharing it with us. 

[voncrapenhauser]

Well done feathered.

Possibly your best to date and a favorite of mine.

Awesome!

[HappyHaddock]

On 9/12/2021 at 2:48 AM, Feathered_IV said:

Also got to indulge my vintage coin fetish, as my 1917 shilling came in the post today

 

Superb work as ever, and an inspiration even to a cynical old hack like me whose been around the block a few times in terms of making miniatures.

 

As for a love of old coins, I've a few from the 17th c in my collection but my main interest is early medieval hammered silver penny's where I've an extensive reference library on the subject and have done work for museums making replicas .... funny how certain interests seem to align despite being unrelated.

[Feathered_IV]

Nice one  If we ran into each other in a pub I reckon we'd have a lot to talk about!  

[Uufflakke]

On 9/12/2021 at 3:48 AM, Feathered_IV said:

Edging closer to getting this done.  Had a busy lockdown-day, making the bomb racks and control cables for the undersides.  Added another dozen rigging wires to the rear booms as well.  Also got to indulge my vintage coin fetish, as my 1917 shilling came in the post today.  

 

 

 

The advantage of making these super small scaled models is that they hardly need space on a shelf.

[Feathered_IV]

On 9/14/2021 at 3:25 AM, Uufflakke said:

 

The advantage of making these super small scaled models is that they hardly need space on a shelf.

 

That's true.  My little cabinet is only about 45x25cm and has 18 aircraft in it.  And that includes a Halifax, Whitley and Wellington.

[Feathered_IV]

I went out today to fetch takeaway for my wife and me.  As I stood on the kerb outside waiting for my order, a bird did a poop which landed on my mobile phone. Somebody told me it was lucky, but I don't understand how.

 

I had much more luck inside later on however and managed to do a reasonable job of the external course-setter bombsight on the side of the observer's cockpit.  Its tiny and ludicrously complicated, but it was there on A857 so I had to do it.  3x1.3mm and a mere 14 parts in total.   ? 

 

Here's a shot of the bombsight glued in position.  I must admit I'm a bit shocked that I managed to pull it off.  Maybe it was magic poop after all! 

 

 

Plus the rigging and control wires for the tail are done.  Hopefully it will be finished next weekend.

 

 

 

[ZachariasX]

1 hour ago, Feathered_IV said:

Hopefully it will be finished next weekend.

You know, most people our age can't even see objects as small as your rigging stuff.

 

It is just awesome!

 

Regarding the bird poop, a friend of mine who works downtown was reprimanded a while ago for his rather aloof way of walking through the downtown streets, always with a maked nose up attitude. He has a rather particular walk this way, I must say. As he was approached once regarding his vain walk, he clarified that he's just always watching up to where the bloody pidgeons sit on the tramway wires and walk besides them for not getting pooped on. (Because sh*t actually does happen.)

 

 

[Feathered_IV]

OMG, pinch me...  It's actually done!

Added the landing lamps and last few bits of rigging today.  Definitely the hardest scratchbuild I've ever done, but it's perhaps my all-time favourite aircraft and I'm really happy with how it came out.

 

 

[DEDMANcjp]

2 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

OMG, pinch me...  It's actually done!

Added the landing lamps and last few bits of rigging today.  Definitely the hardest scratchbuild I've ever done, but it's perhaps my all-time favourite aircraft and I'm really happy with how it came out.

 

 

Museum quality work right there. Its perfect!

 

Edited September 25, 2021 by DEDMANcjp
improve idea conveyance

[AKA_Big10]

Took a little break over the summer then knocked out Tamiya's P-38 F/G. Mainly is was a test on riveting a whole model as I have never done that before. It is a lot of work and very time consuming, not something I would do on every build.  

[Feathered_IV]

That looks outstanding.  Beautiful finish!  I’d be interested in giving the riveting a go too.  It looks very effective ?

Edited September 27, 2021 by Feathered_IV

[voncrapenhauser]

Truly awesome build there big 10.

 

I like it ,I like it a lot.

[AKA_Big10]

Thanks!!!

 

This was my process of adding the rivets to the model. 

 

I found some plans on the internet and got to the correct scale. Then imported the drawings into my Cameo 4 software to make a line template for my rivet wheel tool. 

 

I would cut the pattern on some vinyl and transfer to the area of the model where the rivets were to be added. 

 

The hard and time consuming part was doing the layout. 

 

Edited September 27, 2021 by AKA_Big10

[Feathered_IV]

That looks fantastic.   Really inspiring. I just had a rummage through my toolkit and came up with some  watchmakers cogs with very fine teeth.  It might be possible to modify them into a little riveting tool.  

[AKA_Big10]

26 minutes ago, Feathered_IV said:

That looks fantastic.   Really inspiring. I just had a rummage through my toolkit and came up with some  watchmakers cogs with very fine teeth.  It might be possible to modify them into a little riveting tool.  

I have seen that done a lot with watchmakers cogs. I used on of the Rosie the Riveter tools 0.65mm for all mine on the P-38. 

[Feathered_IV]

Just gave it a try.  Sharpened the teeth and it seems to work.  The spacing is 0.35mm which makes it about 50mm in real life.  I wonder what the real life spacing of rivets typically was?

 

[ZachariasX]

2 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

I wonder what the real life spacing of rivets typically was?

As a rule of thumb, AFAIK spacing is between three and eight times the diameter of the rivet (the diameter of the rivet that passes through the metal sheet, not the cap diameter).

[Hoots]

7 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

That looks fantastic.   Really inspiring. I just had a rummage through my toolkit and came up with some  watchmakers cogs with very fine teeth.  It might be possible to modify them into a little riveting tool.  

Good god man! Step away from the teeny tiny things! ?

[Feathered_IV]

29 minutes ago, Hoots said:

Good god man! Step away from the teeny tiny things! ?

Aw c’mon Hoots.  I was just machining up a 144 LeRhone engine cylinder as I read that... 

 

[Buglord]

Fantastic work everyone ,some epic work and detail going on here ........after a few months recovery i`m finally back at work and i actually got back into my modelling this weekend after a 2 month break off it. So i`m nearly back to normal... ?

[voncrapenhauser]

On 9/29/2021 at 11:32 PM, Buglord said:

Fantastic work everyone ,some epic work and detail going on here ........after a few months recovery i`m finally back at work and i actually got back into my modelling this weekend after a 2 month break off it. So i`m nearly back to normal... ?

Nice one mate, keep chin up and keep on modeling.

[Confused_2018]

Ex WNW 1/32 Lancaster to be released by Border models.

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235044133-132-avro-lancaster-bmkiiii-by-border-model-ex-wingnut-wings-box-arttest-model-release-december-2021/

 

You can get the box art here:

https://www.posart.com/shop/veterans

[40plus]

Oh my goodness , had I the space to display that I'd jump all over it. As it stands, my 1/32 He-111 is too much to handle with is 70cm wing span.

[Confused_2018]

Link to test shot pics

 

https://www.themodellingnews.com/2021/09/preview-border-model-bombshell.html#more

 

[40plus]

Holy crap...I just might buy that anyways guys. It's so beautiful.

[Feathered_IV]

2 hours ago, 40plus said:

Oh my goodness , had I the space to display that I'd jump all over it.

It’s only 4.5x bigger than 1/144... ?