Landlubber Mike

I have the same. Having tried a bunch of different pin vices, including the ball end ones for the palm, the Starrett are my go-to.

Excellent work Alan! You've gotten very good at painting these figures!

Thanks guys! I spent a bunch of time the past few weeks working on the Opel Blitz truck for the second diorama. I had to wait for some brass parts to come in to be able to scratch some added details to the truck bed, so started a 1/72 plane model in the meantime to keep busy. I'll probably post it in the next few days.

Great start on what looks like a very nice kit! I have a Wolfpack P-36 in the stash that I will probably build next, so would love to see your H75.

I thought I had replied earlier, but just wanted to say I love the build! Really great job Alan!

I tend to agree with you Alan - the 1/700 kits are much easier to move around and certainly take up less room. There's also much better range of subjects in 1/700 than 1/350. I still have some 1/350 kits for subjects I really want to model, but most of my ship kits are 1/700. I do have a 1/200 Bismarck with full Pontos upgrades, etc. in the stash - now that is a big kit! I've been thinking about putting it up for sale as well. I really like your Derfflinger. You've done a really great job on it!

Came out great! Very nice job! Thanks for sharing the mast alignment technique.

Looks really good. You can see all the great little details from this kit. Going to be a nice model when you're done.

Thanks Alan! Really appreciate the kind words.

Thanks Andy! It was actually easy and without any aggravation at all. Just took a while. Probably took 2 hours to apply all the masking, and then another hour to carefully remove it. But the application of the masking wasn't difficult at all.

Feel better soon Vossie!

I'm slowly getting closer to the finish Iine. I spent some time detailing out the Vector engines for the first model according to some pictures of the Gnome-Rhone 14M engines. The Vector engine is on the left, and the kit engine (which is pretty nice) is on the right. I'm at the painting stage now. I first started with the second Hs 129, and used a 0.18mm airbrush to brush on the green splotches: I then tackled the first Hs 129. I had used Mr. Hobby paints for the undercoat European scheme (I figured Mr. Color would have a strong adhesion than Vallejo). Then I sprayed a light coat of Mr. Surfacer semi-gloss for a little added protection. I struggled with how to do the camo scheme, and eventually settled on using liquid masks. I did a bunch of tests first using Mr. Hobby - Mr. Masking SOL R and Vallejo Liquid Mask. I tried them both out with sprays of Mr. Color and Vallejo paints on top as I wasn't sure if the Mr. Color would dissolve the Vallejo. Turned out both were completely fine and compatible with each other, with Mr. Color on Vallejo's mask and Vallejo on Mr. Hobby's mask. I ended up going with Vallejo as it was slightly easier to apply as it's a little less viscous compared to Mr. Masking. One tip I found online was to paint masking solutions using silicone brushes. They made it much easier to apply - just apply to a section, wipe the brush (because the masking solution starts drying pretty quickly), and repeat. Still took hours to do, but well worth it with no aggravation. I was really surprised how easy it was. One thing to note is that I read that it's better to not leave masking solutions on for too long. Some said a week or two and it was hard to get the mask off. Others said they've left masks on for months and had no problems. I ended up going with Mr. Color for the Mr. Color RLM 79. I have the Vallejo equivalent to do touchups as I find Mr. Color doesn't brush as easily. Anywhere here are the pictures. Thanks for looking in!

I have an Iwata Eclipse CS as my workhorse airbrush with an Iwata compressor. Really great products.

And wow, nice stash of MFH kits!! I bought the 1/12 Corvette C.1 as well. Hard to find a nicer looking car in my opinion. I also have the Tyrrell P34 kit - got that one for under retail off a FB group.

Just catching up with your log now Craig. Funny, I was just messaging with Rob earlier about lusting after this kit. I'm trying to stay strong with my New Year's resolution to not buy new kits, but this one looks awfully tempting.

Nicely done - love that color you chose.

That looks really well done Alan. I think the technique is referred to as zenithal highlighting. Vince Venturella on YouTube is really good to watch for techniques on miniature painting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-dQU-dSNa8

Really nicely done Alan. I agree with the 3D resin printing being another rabbit hole. I've got a few prints myself, mostly using them to learn painting techniques for figures in my dioramas. Definitely a nice little diversion.

Another beauty! Well done!

Another nice one Alan, you're getting good at these miniature figurines! Glad to also hear that life is returning back to normal for you.

Just getting around to catching up on the logs on this board. Great job Alan on a not-so-easy kit! Really well done!

Wow, that came out really great! Well done!

I'm a big fan of this site precisely because of the build log function. I learn an incredible amount reading through build logs, and really enjoy the camaraderie that develops over a build. If this site moved to just being a virtual museum of finished models, I probably wouldn't visit all that often. You can get that on Facebook and other sites. Where this site really shines is in the build log and community departments. Don't get me wrong, seeing pictures of a completed model can be inspiring and I certainly can appreciate the artistry in a well-made project. I think the gallery function works great to alert people that a particular project is completed and give an overview of the project since I don't have the time to track every build log. Often times though, it seems like those that only post pictures of their completed projects are projecting their egos in a "look at me" and/or marketing kind of way without really contributing to the community by chiming in on other build logs or discussion topics (Chuck's examples about abuses to the gallery system are unfortunate examples of this). Again, I can get that on Facebook and other places that are not really designed to handle compartmentalized build logs. In summary, I think the build log and gallery functions serve good and independent objectives. The rules around both seem fairly reasonable to me.

Looks great! You're really flying along on this kit.

Wow, a lot of work there! I'm not sure I'm going to be willing to put that kind of effort into fixing the hull on mine, but am impressed by your dedication to improve the accuracy!