Landlubber Mike

Oh wow, what a sturdy looking chassis and cage.  Looks awesome!

Very cool Shipman!!  I'm jealous!

Dan, not sure if it was or not.  Looks like a fun ride for sure!

Wow, that's a nice stash!  If you don't mind me asking, I assume you have the CMK resin interior/flaps for the JRS-1?  Is it nice?  I recently reached out to CMK and they aren't planning to make it anymore ☹️

1 hour ago, popeye the sailor said:

this looks really cool Mike!    I saw one of these kits.........almost pulled the trigger on it.  I may change my mind!    very well done!

Thanks Popeye!  It's actually a pretty decent kit.  My windows were a bit marked so I used a lot of Novus to get them in as good a shape as possible, but otherwise, things fit together quite nicely.

48 minutes ago, lmagna said:

I am beginning to suspect that you have an affection for mutt cars Mike!  First the 2CV and now this Morgan. Got any others in the stash that we don't know about?

 

Just like the 2CV I think you did an excellent job at building it even finding a unique way of dealing with the older decals. Congratulations. 

Thanks Lou, really appreciate it!  I'd have to say this is probably the quirkiest on the shelf.  I have a bunch of kits spanning the 1890s-1910s brass age, a group from the 1930s, and then a batch from the 1950s-early 1970s.  I also have been picking up those old metal Hubley kits with the old Fords, Chevys, Packards and Duesenbergs.  Cars might have fewer parts than plane and ship models, but I find them pretty tricky as you really need a perfect finish on them, whereas you can get away with a lot more on planes and ships with weathering, etc.  Still need to learn a lot more!

I blame you for introducing me to the mutt planes though   I have a few amphibious planes in the stash - JRS-1,  PBY-5A Catalina, JRF-5 Goose, OS2U Kingfisher, Supermarine Walrus, F1M2 Pete, etc.

Some cutaway pictures and pictures of the real thing.  I believe Morgan still makes them!  Looks like a fun car to drive.

I didn't take many in-construction pictures, but here are a few that show how the drive train was set up:

In trying to wrap up various models I've been working on, I finished this old kit from Entex that I think is from the 1970s or maybe the 1980s.  I tend to like quirky subjects, so this seemed to fit the bill.  It went together fairly well, and I built it mostly out of the box except to add some engine wiring and replaced the radiator grill with a stainless mesh.  I used Zero paints for the body and seat, Vallejo for the chrome, dash, wheel, etc., and oils and Tamiya clear orange for the wood portions and for the leather seat.  The hood emblem decal disintegrated, so for the dashboard gauges, I used Microscale's liquid decal film to help firm up the decals.  That helped a lot but there was some tearing still, so I just cut them out and glued them on with the paper backing still attached.  Fun little project!

Spectacular work BE!

I love how you painted the friezes - on my Pegasus, I've been toying with the idea of hand painting them on, rather than use the PE.  Seeing how detailed they are, I'm working if i'm better off with the PE.

Great work Alan!  I love it!  What is next?

Sorry to have just now found this build log - wow Chris, you've gotten to be really good with these card models!  Fantastic job!

I like the idea of the resin frame.  That must have saved quite a bit of time and angst in trying to get everything square and stable.

Alan, when I did my waterline diorama, after gluing the crinkled foil pieces on the board, I then took a sheet of aluminum foil and covered the entire surface.  That helped soften the sharp edges of the crinkled foil.  I’d do that before the gesso, and then use gesso if you need more softening.

The stamp is a really nice touch.  Great job!

That photo etch looks fantastic.  Will turn that nice kit into a really beautiful build.

On the colors and having trouble with Vallejo Yellow Ochre, consider whether it makes sense to put down a primer layer first.  From my limited experience with plastic models, some colors are more difficult than others.  Yellows and reds come to mind.  Not only is a primer coat beneficial for even coverage, but the underlying color will affect how the yellow and red come out.  Undercoat color especially matters when it comes to reds.  

Coming along great Glen - this is going to be fantastic!

Looking really good Alan.  Lots of nice details there!

I'm in for this one Yves - this is going to be another masterpiece!

John, I've followed you on bottleshipbuilder, glad to see you posting your amazing work here!  I have to say, your hidden hinge technique is very clever - better than the staple hinge you typically see.  Gives me a lot to think about when doing my build.  Thank you for posting such clear pictures of how you did it!

That hull with all the gunports looks really good!  Very nice job!

I love the Belvedere.  Cars had style back then, unlike the boring ones today.  Looking forward to this build!

That looks amazing Glen, great job!  Can I ask how you blackened the hardware?  I really like the look of it.  

That's a really nice looking model!  Great job Kevin!

Looks good to me!  It didn't impact the end grain that much at all.  I would have done the same

Doesn't look bad at all from what I can tell.  Did you try it on the end grain of the carriage sides?  The change seems very subtle, and not so drastic as with redheart.  Looks nice to me.

Redheart is an extreme case.  It's a very interesting wood in a variety of ways besides the end grain turning black with oil products.  It cuts and sands as if it is a hard wood, but inexplicably can get crumbly and not have much lateral strength.  With UV light it turns a more orange-brown color over time.  Has a little bit of a rubber-like smell when being worked too.

22 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

How do you finish wood with this type of natural color?  I've got minimal experience with wood-working like this so any advice is much appreciated.      

I'm not a super expert on finishes, but have tried a variety.  All I can say is the best thing to do is test them out first!

I really like tung oil for woods like pear and walnut.  It brings out an incredible richness in the wood.  I've used 100% tung oil - make sure that the bottle says it's 100% because most formulas out there are a blend.  Wipe-on poly is another good one.  Maybe slightly less vibrant than tung oil on certain woods, but really easy to apply and looks nice.

The one reason I caution you to try out finishes ahead of time is that some woods look completely different if a finish is applied with the grain versus on the end grain.  With planking for example, end-grain is not an issue.  But with things like cannon carriages, deck items, etc., you might have visible end grain.  This came up in my use of redheart on my Pegasus - take a look at the picture below.  Tung oil with the grain is gorgeous - but when applied to the end grain, it turns the piece almost black in color!  Would have been a disaster had I not known that.  I tried some other finishes, and varnish was the only finish that kept the original color in both end grain and with the grain pieces.

Some finishes also impart a slight yellow color to lighter colored woods.  Danish oil definitely does.  I also read that applying oils to holly could do the same things, ruining that pure white look that people go for.  I haven't worked with holly yet, but will have to experiment because I'm building the Charles Morgan, a black and white ship, using ebony for the black and holly for the white.

Some finishes also aren't able to penetrate woods.  A family member put Brazilian cherry wood floors in his house, and the wood was so dense the first finish they applied beaded on the surface.  Not sure if this would be the case with other woods we use in the hobby that are dense like ebony.

You can always think about staining woods.  Some take stain better than others.  Pear is great, basswood not so much.  Here is some experimentation I did with my Pegasus on staining pear a little darker: 

That's looking really fantastic Glen.  That wood you are using is beautiful.  In earlier pictures it was like a golden brown, now it seems to have almost taken on a color like swiss pear.  I bet when you get a finish on it it will really pop.  

I think the only problem is the stand will look so nice, you are now going to have to make a stunner of a SIB to match!