Landlubber Mike
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Everything posted by Landlubber Mike
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Not bored of the updates at all Kevin, on the contrary, I (and I'm sure others) like seeing them on this very cool subject. Especially since there aren't many logs of it.- 268 replies
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I tried doing that at 1/700 and it was too tiny and the brass too fragile. Ruined quite a few! On my current 1/350, the Infini stairs fell apart when I bent the sides in. The Hasegawa were a little stiffer/thicker brass and were fine. Eventually I'll get it right!
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Yeah, brain fart on that one. I believe you're right, they go on the inside otherwise you wouldn't have a clean edge. Hang in there on the PE. After a little bit, it's not too bad. I don't know if you have PE ladders that you're dealing with, but I find those pretty tricky - especially ones where the stairs fold out. I think I've figured out a way that works for me (essentially, fold the stair out first while on the fret, then cut out and bend up the rails), but I was glad I had spares around to ruin/practice on.
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It can be like origami depending on the piece. Have to plan out every fold because if you fold things incorrectly the first time and have to fold it back the other way, the PE may break apart at the fold line. Sometimes if a particular piece has a series of folds, I find it better to add a tiny bit of CA to lock in some of the folds. For example, if you are folding something like a box, get some of the sides up, add a touch of CA to the interior lines, then get the remaining sides and top of the box completed. One thing I learned - sometimes the PE will have what looks like a very narrow channel or groove cut out on one side of the fold line. That usually gives an indication which way the piece folds. For the life of me (maybe the two margaritas I just had are affecting my memory), I can't recall which way the fold goes. I believe the grooved side is on the outside of the fold, but hopefully someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Another way to tell is often times the PE will have the decorative outside versus a plain flat side. Naturally, the plain flat side is the inside or to-be-glued side.
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Greg, can I ask why you have a bottle of Tamiya lacquer thinner open in the last pictures? Are you using it to remove excess CA? If so, I hadn't considered that...the things you learn!
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Best bet is eBay. Sometimes they pop up on Amazon too. I purchased the Akagi with the three (or maybe four, I forget) detail sets from a MSW member a couple of years ago, but I remember looking for the sets back then and seeing them pop up occasionally - sometimes for very big bucks unfortunately. I'd pick it up wherever in the world you can find it if the price is right. Put in an eBay saved search for it - a lot of Asian sellers end up listing kits and aftermarket for international sales. Years ago I would never have bought things from overseas, but the past couple of years, I've managed to source a variety of kits and aftermarket from Japan, China, the UK, France, etc. My current F4F-4 Wildcat build came from Greece of all places (under $50 with shipping for the kit and a bunch of aftermarket)!
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Some of the newer kits are now in resin or plastic with resin and PE added to the box so you don't have to go out and get aftermarket. In 1/700 scale, companies like Niko, Rainbow and FiveStar are already doing that. In 1/350, Snowman put out a kit of the IJN auxiliary seaplane tender Akitsushima with a resin hull and resin and PE in the box (wooden box of all things). And Pontos not too long ago put out what I think is their first model kit - the Antarctic explorer Soya in 1/250 - which includes the plastic hull, wooden deck, PE and brass fittings, etc. all in the box. So rather than have to omit or remove plastic, the kits are designed from the beginning to take what is typically aftermarket but is included in the box. A cool development, and my guess is that more will follow, especially as modelers are increasingly looking to aftermarket to improve their models. I was just looking at a couple of my 1/700 Niko kits this morning. Having gone through what I went through on my 1/700 destroyer build of replacing much of the kit plastic with PE, the Niko kits - which are very nice by the way - might almost feel like cheating in that there are considerably fewer pieces in the kit. The hull is in one piece, the deck superstructures are cast in resin and just about complete, and many of the details like guns are cast in resin so need to fold PE into complicated shapes. The PE fret is quite small and mostly limited to things like railings. The Snowman Akitsushima is very much the same. http://www.nikomodel.pl/index.php/en/resin-kits/ships-en/scale-1-700-en/item/asaka-maru
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Nice PE work! Can I ask - how are you planning to paint the deck items with the wooden deck down? Do you have a mask? My current build has a linoleum sections of the deck with appliqué type stickers from Hasegawa, but I was planning to wait as long as possible before installing those deck sections to avoid having to mask.
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I think I can do peanut butter and banana, but bologna and whipped cream sounds pretty nasty 🤢 I've been making some progress on the Shimakaze the last few nights. I'm adding what I can to the hull that won't get broken off (or has less of a chance of getting broken off) so I can paint everything in one shot before adding the linoleum deck sections. I retried using Gator's Grip glue, and really like it. I had tried it with my earlier 1/700 build but had a hard time getting it to work without being too messy, but it was probably user error. So, depending on what I'm gluing and where, I will use plastic cement (Testor's squeeze tube), the Mr. Hobby and Tamiya jars of liquid cement with the brush in the handle, medium CA, two-part epoxy, and now Gator's Grip. It was a little overwhelming seeing all those adhesive options when starting out in plastic, but I think I've now figured out how each can play a role in the modeling process. In the meantime, I've got quite a bit of the bridge finished. Lots of pretty brass to dress it up. The kit isn't too bad, but the Infini set really dresses it up. For example, the windows in the kit are decals applied over a plastic solid piece. I like the Infini approach of using PE instead. The Hasegawa PE upgrade set has a similar PE set of windows, but I liked how the Infini ones looked a little more. It doesn't look like much, but this was hours of work! Definitely helped to have the experience working in 1/700 scale. I think I might pause here and paint the interior of the window section before adding the roof. So far I'm pretty happy how this is coming out. The Infini set is very precise. Their ladders where steps fold out are a bit touchy though (two of them disintegrated when I tried to fold the side handle rails), and I had to use the Hasegawa upgrade set for a pair. I just need to figure out a better approach to folding them I think. I was regretting getting the Hasegawa upgrade set as it was essentially duplicated (and bettered) by the Infini set, but now I'm glad as I have a spare to fall back on if I screw things up -- which is very likely! Thanks for looking in!
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Same here - amazing work Chris!!! I can't believe this is card!
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That's a good price. I've been waiting for an auction at a decent price point that included both the PE and the wooden deck, but hadn't been successful. People were asking a ton for the wooden deck! I was surprised that the model is fairly small in both scales. The 1:250 Pontos version is only 30cm long. Seeing it in your stash, I might have purchased the Pontos kit yesterday (was last kit in an online retailer's inventory)...shhh... 🤫 🤐
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Or just drop those discussions on this build log? Give people something to talk about since I don’t update it too often? 🤔
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McLaren M8B by CDW - Accurate Miniatures - 1:24 Scale
Landlubber Mike replied to CDW's topic in Non-ship/categorised builds
Coming along really nicely! -
Wow, how did I miss the finish line on this one?? Greg, amazing work as always. You really set the bar high over here. @RGL, I saw you have the Soya kit - I just found out that Pontos makes the Soya in 1/250 (I think their first complete ship kit). Looks like an incredible kit, but a bit pricey. The Hasegawa one looks good too for sure. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235083302-soya-1250-pontos-models/
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Learned something new! Thanks guys! I do bonsai as another hobby and I've heard of annealed copper wire to wire trees, but didn't think about annealing brass PE. Good to know!
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That's looking great Popeye, nice job! Not sure what to tell you on the railings. For my 1/700, I was a bit paralyzed by what to do, but ultimately decided to prime and paint them off model (while attached to the fret). I ended up spraying the frets with Mr. Metal Primer from the can, then a thinned coat of Vallejo black primer, followed by thinned Vallejo Model Air gray paint. Worked pretty well. My guess is at this stage that you will end up having to hand paint the railings. Mr. Hobby makes their metal primer in one of those little glass jars with the brush on the handle - like the Tamiya cement containers. Maybe that can work, or some other brush on primer, followed by a thinned paint layer?
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Dockyard Carving Tools
Landlubber Mike replied to Roger Pellett's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
I've them in the past to carve rabbets into the keel and stem for planking and for a couple of other purposes. They worked really nicely. -
That's coming along really nicely. Certainly not a simple build, nice job! This has always been one of my favorite kit subjects.
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@lmagna Lou, don't worry at all man. I'd rather talk about this kind of stuff on my log (more like listen) than discuss the evening I had last night giving myself a crash course on how to build PE ladders with the steps that can fold out 🤬
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That's looking great! Your technique worked really well. Gives me a little more confidence to try something similar on my builds, though it looks like the plate lines are already built into my Shimakaze hull so it will have to wait for a future build.
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No worries at all guys, no apologies necessary! Frankly, I find all this fascinating and it makes me more into my builds when I'm learning history, mechanics, etc. alongside the build. For me, it's less the final destination and more the journey that makes modeling fun for me. I could probably put models together in half the time if I just opened the box and went straight to work. Instead, I like all the learning about the subject that goes along with it. So, again, no need to apologize! Feel free to discuss these types of topics any time they come up! Since I don't have the knowledge that you guys do, I'm more than happy to extend the build log real estate for these kinds of discussions
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Looking fantastic! I know having all that wood decking will complicate the painting process, but that will look amazing in the end - already does!
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Haven't seen that page yet Ken, thanks for passing it along! Some cool pictures on that page. The Shimakaze didn't have many opportunities to use its formidable arsenal, and doesn't have much of a military career. With its speed and armament, it could have been really nasty in a fight. Interestingly, when researching this ship, it's one of the most powerful ships in one of those online warship games.
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