Landlubber Mike

This looks really good Alan, nice job! I like your approach and might try it out someday, especially for larger waves like you are showing. My approach is very similar, just uses crinkled aluminum foil to build the waves, with a final sheet on top to lessen the sharp angles from the crinkled foil underneath. I haven't seen the paper towel layer approach, but did see someone use art paper so comparable. You might find if you add another layer of paper towel that you will start to lose a lot of the definition in the sea. I found that with using a single layer of foil and even had to build a bit back with gesso. Looking forward to seeing how this comes out!

Thanks Alan! Most of the pieces went on just fine, but the trickiest was the landing gear. Each side was a single piece of PE that was very fragile. The wheel was located in the middle of it, and you had to fold it over. Then you had to bend the upper half which consisted of two very skinny rods that fit into two locator holes in the fuselage. Then the bottom half had to be folded twice to fit up into the fuselage as well. Took a while to figure out the angles so that it looked fairly accurate, and a couple of them broke from too many folds. Thankfully the FS kit included extras.

I've turned my attention back to this kit while waiting on some aftermarket for my Seishu Maru. This is a really nice kit, with more scale friendly details than the Aoshima kit on the market, but it's also lacking a bunch of the various details seen in the Aoshima kit, particularly under the deck (which really won't be easily seen). I've mostly completed rounding those details up and have them painted and waiting for inclusion in the kit at this point. The biggest accomplishment was finishing this pack of four Ki-76 (Stella) planes. You have to buy them separately from Five Star, which is a bit of a pain, but they are really nice. Each pack contains four planes. I built all four and will likely include the best ones the deck, with the remainder below deck. These planes are incredibly detailed with 15 separate photo etch parts per plane. Fairly difficult, but you end up with a really nice group of these Type 3 Communication planes in the end. Thanks for looking in!

Hey Randolph, thanks for looking in. I'm a little stuck at the moment as the kit only provides two of the E1Y planes, and the ship carried up to eight. Pit Road won't sell the E1Y sprues separately, and there is no aftermarket E1Y out there. The closest I could find was a file on Cults3D that I could purchase and print, but without a 3D printer, that won't help me very much. So, while I'm waiting for a solution to appear, I'm trying to work on some of the other 1/700 kits like the Akitsu Maru.

Hey Alan, looking really great! Lots of fine detail work. I know what you mean about knocking things off. I’m considering in upcoming builds attaching a block to the bottom of the hull (for waterline ships) and sticking the whole thing in a vise. I got two different vises from Dspiae that might help alleviate my problems of knocking things off, etc. I’ve set the hulls on things like old paint jars and plastic shot glasses, but the set up is not very stable. In a vise though, it should be a lot better. The Dspiae ones are a bit pricey, but the vise bases are weighted so they are quite stable. And, having the whole thing in a stable setup would make attaching parts much easier than laying the model on the bench, holding it in one hand, etc. For seascapes, what I do is before any work is outline on a piece of thin cardboard the waterline of the ship using the top half of the hull. Then when I’m ready to do the seascape, I can place the cutout on the base and figure out orientation and build up the sea around where the ship will be. Make it a touch bigger and then all you have to do after you glue the ship into the base is fill the minor gaps. I learned on my first couple that it is tricky to do this after the model is mostly completed because you have the risk with the fragile assemblies and it can be difficult to get a fairly accurate outline of the waterline if you’re trying to keep the model stable on a piece of cardboard while tracing it.

Absolutely fantastic work Joelle! The small boats are works of art in and of themselves!

Looking good Alan. Complicated assemblies, nice job!

Coming along really nicely. I've always like this subject. Very cool that you are building it with the enhanced plans.

Great subject Alan! For the missing pieces, I wouldn't worry too much. I'd either look online for potential PE/resin replacements, or just scratch build something close. At 1/700 scale, we tend to be so focused on even the tiniest parts, but in the end, when the model is completed, painted, etc., nobody will be able to look that closely and see that the item isn't quite spot on. So don't torture yourself on this. Hope your father is feeling better.

Another great one Kevin - nice job my friend!!

Beautiful work!!

Thanks for that info! Came out really well!

I've been drowning in kid stuff the past couple of months, but now their travel sports are done so I have time to catch up on things here and at the bench. I'll try to post some of the things I have been working on, including, of all things, a Revell VW Samba bus for one of my kids. I need to try those paints out. I like using Vallejo metal colors for smaller things like engines where you don't need a uniform finish on a large area. I find that 95% of the time, Vallejo Metal sprays perfectly, but there are times when you sorta get these dark swirls where the paint doesn't seem to want to stick to the undercoat. It's probably user error - maybe I spray too much/close, or I have some oil or other residue from my fingers on the model. Can't tell which. I also tried the Mr. Color super metallics and they spray perfectly, but I don't think you quite get the range of metallics that Alclad puts out.

That's amazing work! I'm always impressed by wood carvers. Modelers usually add material to build a subject, but wood carvers take material away (and it's not easy to put it back if you make a mistake!). Really impressive! There was another modeler here that posted some of his bird wood carvings years ago. It's something that I might try when I retire, but it seems very daunting not only from the carving aspect, but also the painting aspect to make them look so lifelike. I really love your sandpiper (I think that's what it's called).

Really nice build!! So many cool details on this subject, I bet it was a lot of fun to put together. Great job!

Holy cow that's nice! Really shiny bird! Well done my friend! Can I ask - what paint did you use for the aluminum? Looks really nice!

Great build Yves! Doesn't look like the easiest of subjects to model but you did a fantastic job!

Coming along really nicely Biggles. The Chipmunk is another cool subject - great start!

Wow very cool models! Nice job!

Wow fantastic! Really nice job Alan, you've turned these into little works of art.

I'm just catching up on build logs and missed this one. Looks really great Dave! And I have to say your first try looked really good as well!

Cool kit!

Wow, that came out fantastic!! Really nicely done man! With winter I think I can get back down in the workshop and will dust off my Pegasus - your build is very inspirational!

Joelle, this is looking so good as per your usual high standards. I have the Hasegawa 1/700 kit with the Infini set in the stash. Your 1/200 build is a "big" inspiration! Nice catch on the scale difference for the compasses - that would have driven me crazy had I experienced that!

Thanks Joelle! Always appreciate having you along for the ride!