Landlubber Mike

Clever way to come up with the nails and how to paint them Glen! Good luck removing the heads from the nails. Looks like you've gotten it figured out, but if it doesn't work, maybe consider using a hole punch and plastic card? There are the fancy ones for modeling where you use a mallet to punch the circle, but depending on the size of your shields, you could probably get away with something like this. You can get them in different sizes, like 1/8", 1/4", etc. They are designed for paper, but my guess is that you can do thin sheets of plastic (or even wood so that you have the wood grain already there on the back side) given that these have the capacity of punching amounts up to 20 sheets of paper. To paint them, you could always put a touch of CA on the end of a toothpick and you have a good holder. I'm not exactly sure of the diameter and thickness of your shields, but this could be an option if the nails approach fails (which I'm hoping it doesn't given all that beautiful work you put in!). Good luck! It's looking really good!

Cute dog Chris! My sister-in-law has one. Let's hope yours doesn't pee and poop in the house at age 2 like hers still does 😬

Looks like a fun subject and kit. I've seen things like this on HLJ and always thought that these look like a lot of fun. Hope it breaks you out of your funk!

Glad you're not a wimp like me! Feel free to ask any questions - good luck with the build!

Great work Patrick!!

Alan, if you're going to go with Mr. Color, try their primer if you haven't already. They make the standard gray, but also black and other colors. I have used Vallejo primer in the past, but I find Mr. Surfacer much better. They come in both rattle can and jars to be thinned like their paints. If you go with the latter, thin it with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner (as opposed to Mr. Color Thinner, which is also good, but I don't think it has the leveling properties of the former). People aren't far enough when they refer to it as "unicorn tears" for thinning. I do use Vallejo's Gloss Black as an undercoat for their Metal Color range. It works really nicely. But, I find Vallejo primers can be prone to lifting when taped, so I only use it when I'm not looking to tape (as with aircraft interiors, chrome parts on cars, etc.). I also have some All-Clad black for undercoating their metal line, but so far I've only used it once (and liked it).

Thanks very much Gary. This is the first model I've done using predominantly Mr. Color products - Mr. Surfacer for primer, Mr. Color for paints, Mr. Color Leveling Thinner, their clear coats, etc. The products have a strong odor, but spray and clean up fairly easily. What's really impressive is how well they level with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner. Also, so far I haven't encountered issues taping the painted surfaces, unlike my experience with Vallejo. If you're looking for a paint that will need to be masked, they are certainly worth a look. One caution is that their clear coats are very thick - in my limited experience, you need to go with a minimum of 2:1 ratio of thinner to paint to get it to spray the right way. The Special Hobby instructions had color call-outs using the Mr. Color line which made picking paints very easy. I bought a couple of similar colors as I wasn't sure how these particular colors would render in person, but I was very pleased - the three colors on this build all harmonized very nicely I think. Oh, also worth noting that they have a lot of paints made according to Federal Standard colors in the colors for aircraft, etc., so if you're looking for a particular FS number, they are a good place to start.

What a great diorama Alan! Feels like you're right there with them. I don't think it's sparse at all - just the right amount of figures and white space to not look too busy. I particularly love the guy sitting on the Whippet - cool touch to the whole scene. Congratulations, well done!

Thanks Alan! I'm using Mr. Color paints. I find they go down and level really nicely with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner. I did paint the blue in the insignia using Vallejo, but in part that was to be able to use a toothpick to scratch off any amounts that bled under the masks. Can't scratch off the Mr. Color paint, so using the two in combination like that makes things easier, especially since having to cover any bleeding of the blue with white would be difficult. Would probably lean towards sanding the blue off down to the white layer, and then respraying the white to touch it up. Using Vallejo on top of the Mr. Color avoids that.

Thanks Andrew! I managed to get everything pretty much painted and assembled pre-clear coat/weathering over the weekend. Stayed up way too late last night to get to this point, but things were going well and I wanted to go with the good mojo. Looking back, I'm not sure that at my experience level hacking up a Special Hobby kit to add in half a dozen plus aftermarket items was a smart decision, but I'm pretty happy how this is turning out. It probably doesn't look like it, but getting the engine mounts, engine, cowl, bracket, etc. were hours of work! Lots of dry fitting, sanding, filling, etc. The CMK parts are very nice, but the instructions are not always the clearest at times. I almost cried when I accidentally snapped one of the V-shaped landing gears in half trying to drill in holes for the hydraulic cables, but somehow the modeling gods were with me and I managed to get it put back together without much trouble. Anyway, here are some pictures. Clear coat tonight, weathering later in the week, and hopefully done with this and the Wildcat by the end of the long weekend. Thanks for looking in!

Really great work OC - epic build!

I don't recall much from drinking the rum. Not that I drank the whole bottle which caused me to forget but I am not much of a hard liquor person so I usually water my drinks with mixes. So I certainly don't have a refined palette in this area! This is the one I got a while back: If you go on Etsy, there a ton of these kinds of things. Just search for "kraken miniature." The sellers are using 3D printers to make them, so they can scale them up to the size you need. Or, to ensure the tentacles fit just right in securing the bottle, you could get a smaller one as a model to sculpt it out of modeling clay. With your approach of having the kraken grabbing the bottle, you can even go for one of the prints where the kraken is half submerged and just tentacles and the head are sticking up. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1148454888/kraken-miniature-from-goonmaster-3d?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=kraken+miniature&ref=sr_gallery-1-47&organic_search_click=1 https://www.etsy.com/listing/1161793199/mines-of-maznar-kraken?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=kraken+miniature&ref=sr_gallery-1-37&frs=1&sca=1&sts=1&organic_search_click=1 https://www.etsy.com/listing/933305132/breaching-attacking-kraken-sea-monster?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=kraken+miniature&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&organic_search_click=1 Hope this helps - whatever you decide I'm sure will be really sweet!

I'm in for this one Glen, sure to be another creative build! Funny, a year or two ago I was looking for rum and saw this bottle. I bought one thinking I'd do a Kraken SIB with the Kraken in the bottle, but I like your idea a lot better! I actually ended up buying a fantasy miniature of a Kraken just to give me a sense of proportions, head, tentacles, etc. Are you going to build the Oseberg with the oars? That will certainly make things challenging!

I built it a long time ago and remember having a little trepidation on that step, but just follow the instructions. Pin and glue the gunport pattern as a first step: Then proceed with the first and second outer hull planking. At that point, the planking together with the gunport pattern should be very strong. Once you install the deck base, you can cut off the bulkhead extensions so you're left with this: Then all you need to do is sand the deck base and the portion of the bulwark where the bulkhead extensions were to ensure a smooth fit, and then plank the deck and the inner bulwarks. To cut the bulkhead extensions, a veneer saw is a great tool though not essential. I picked that tip up from Blue Ensign. I agree with Jason - it's a lot easier to get help if you post a build log.

Painted on the insignia and the numbers. The Montex set of stencils worked really nicely. I was a bit worried about the numbers but they came out great with minimal touchup needed. Was hoping to get this one wrapped up before the end of the year, but don't want to rush the clear coating, weathering, etc. Thanks for looking in, and happy new year!

Great work Andrew! Very well done!

Looking great Alan!

It really depends on the species of wood you're looking to bend. Yellowheart for example just needs to be soaked and placed around a former. Here is a bend I did for my Morgan: I've found that other woods like ebony require lots of heat, and a heating iron is almost a necessity. Here is the same bend of a thin strip of ebony laminated to the main rail along the bow of my Morgan: So the answer is - it depends. For what it's worth, I've found this plank bending jig from Micromark to be very helpful for serious bends: This rolling machine is also very good to get a quick and easy bend into bendable woods like lime - also from Micromark, but a bit pricey: How to Curve Model Railroad Rail Using Micro-Mark #81356 Bending Machine Edge bending where you try to bend the wood laterally across its width is a little different and probably the tools above are less helpful.

Thanks guys, really appreciate it! Funny thing is I thought I didn't make the lines soft enough - shows what I know! EG thanks for that info. Didn't realize that. The 339-23 that I'm modeling I believe was first intended for the Dutch, then ended up going to Australia (where I believe they were actually assembled). Some stayed in Australian service, and a few made it back into American service. I'm planning to do this one as a US 339-23. I'm still learning on the painting - the techniques and skills of people are way advanced from where things were when I did plastic models as a kid. It's been fun, even with all the bad words trying to work with a limited run kit and all the aftermarket.

Thanks Kevin! Funny thing is on this one, I painted the lines fairly sharp, then tried to dial it back a bit and have softer edges as that is what this Atlantic camo scheme called for. I ended up using thinned Gull Gray paint applied via a sponge to try and get the effect. Did the best I could 😐 On the Buffalo, I could find nothing indicating whether the lines were sharp or soft. I decided to go with soft, given how the green and olive complemented each other. I used the blue tack method to separate the side and overhead camo from the sky-blue-gray under camo, but did the side and overhead camo (the green and olive) freehand. I have a 0.18mm airbrush which helped a lot.

https://forum.largescalemodeller.com I believe James runs that site as well. Good group of people, though maybe a little less active than folks here. Great skills on display if plastic (and the occasional metal) models are of interest.

This one has been close to the finish line for quite some time as I got a bit bored with it and moved on to other projects. Just about done though now, just have to add the wings and finish the diorama. Warning - even though the kit instructions say you can model it with the canopy open, the sliding piece just does not fit. I came to find out that others had a similar issue, with one person cracking the part to get it to fit. Thankfully, the eBay auction seller included a Taurus canopy, and I was able to replace the kit part. The Taurus canopy was a bit loose though, so when i pressed it to the fuselage, a bit of glue spread further than I was hoping. 🤬 Oh well, not much I can do. I almost threw the whole thing out when clear coating it - I ended up getting spiderwebbing in a few places when using one of the Mr. Color clear products. Even got it when trying out the rattle can version. I think it just pooled too heavily. My spray booth has these really bright LEDs, and sometimes I can't tell how much of a coat is being applied with certain colors and with the clear products. Live and learn. The good news is that was able to lightly sand off the clear coat, reapply a bit of dark wash, and re-apply the clear coat with no issue. Whew! I did spend a bunch of time trying to figure out how to put it in a diorama on a carrier hangar deck, as there aren't many pictures out there of what the flooring at least looks like. I did get a diorama base finished though, and at this point, just have to finish painting some of the mechanics to go along with it. Thanks for looking in!

Well, I'm trying to wrap up my builds so that I can start an upcoming 2023 group build on MSW's sister site. After a bunch of rounds of filling and sanding, I have the camo scheme painted on the model using Mr. Color paints. Was quite a tricky time getting to this point with all the AM but I'm pretty happy with where things are. The wing gun panels are just blue-tacked in place to take on the camo scheme as they will be removed and put next to the model to show it under maintenance along with the engine. I found a Montex set of stencils to paint the insignia and numbering, so those will go on next. The landing gear and wheels are also painted, so hopefully this will get wrapped up by the end of the year. Thanks for looking in!

Another beauty Kevin. I may have to send you some of my in progress kits so that I can join on you on the GB

Nice job Kevin!! Not an easy color to make look good. You work so fast I blink and you're done