Landlubber Mike

Great job Craig!! What an impressive build! And I've learned that white and red are never easy colors to pull off, so all the more incredible! Funny, as I was looking through the pictures, I was thinking that I'd love to see Craig tackle the 1911 Christie's fire engine. It's been issued by MPC and others in 1/12 scale. Paul Koos - who many know from his fantastic Pocher DVDs - sells a DVD with lots of detail pictures taken of one in a museum.

Awesome job, love the diorama!

I think with a good Optivisor, seeing is not the problem - at least for me right now. It's really manipulating the photo etch. There are times when I need to use two tweezers - one to hold and one to bend. On the last tower I built, a couple of the leg pieces were intended to be bent the long way to get sort of a V. It's almost impossible when each of the two sides of the V are 1mm or less in width. In any event, I'll probably try to get through my stash in the next decade as the manual dexterity and vision won't be getting any better.

Thanks for the kind words Lt. Biggles and Hubac, really appreciate it Thanks OC - that guy does fantastic work! Here are two youtube videos that show what goes into models of this side (both Bismarcks, but the first guy I believe has done a number of other 1/700 scale ships):

Nice job EJ!

That looks like it will be a fun scheme to paint, ouch! Very nice job on the diorama base!

Glad my log was of some help. It of course builds on the work of some really good Swan class builders on here. I haven’t done any work on the Pegasus recently. I got to the point where I was going to start scratch building the quarter badges to give them more of a three dimensional look from the kit PE, but then wasn’t sure of my skills so decided to start the Morgan (which i got burned out from all the planking), and then went to the Renommee. Then I got bit by the plastic bug so I’ve been working in plastic for the past year. I’ve been thinking about getting back to the Pegasus, though I’m wondering about my earlier plans of scratching the quarter galleries, carving the stern and figurehead, etc. All that seems a little daunting, but I guess I won’t know until I try. Your log and excellent work has rekindled my interest for sure though.

Take a look here - they have a lot of hold and folds in various sizes. Very good quality: https://thesmallshop.com/ The PE I have been using thus far has been really small and with openings or carve outs along the fold line, so I haven't needed to use any of the Hold and Folds. Generally I use tweezers for the very small stuff, or these Tamiya PE bending pliers as my go-to: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001HBJ2YG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VZR6IM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Just read through your log. You're doing an amazing job on this - really nice! I am working on the Pegasus and have to say that these are fantastic kits! I went to grad school near the Shenandoah Valley - what a magical place on earth!

Thanks! I think you’re right. I was looking at the model last night and the lack of panels was making it a head scratcher for me on whether the black basing was worth it. I’ll just do the more traditional approach of base coats with panel line accents. I think I’ll also try that technique of adding various dots of oil paints that you smear down to help break up the consistency of color. That should do it. Thanks again for helping me to work through this!

Not sure what I'm going to do yet. Frankly, I'm a little intimidated doing it. Not exactly an airbrush pro, and I'm unclear how many layers of paint I'll need before getting to the final stage. If I did black base, I might start with black on the whole model, then a darker gray color along the panels across the whole plane, then on the whole plane go with the base coat gray color that would be the base for the top half of the plane. I'd stop there for the top half of the plane, and then go a lighter gray until finally hitting my base coat insignia white for the underside of the plane. Not sure if that all makes sense, and it's a lot more rounds of painting than I'm used to doing. The alternative would be to paint the top half in the base coat gray and the bottom in insignia white, and then use washes, oils, etc. to break up the solidness of the base coats. I'm somewhat leaning towards this option, but haven't decided just yet. Part of me wants to take the opportunity to try out blackbasing, but it does seems a little trickier to pull off.

You did a really nice job with those windows. With their size, I'd be nervous if there were imperfections. Yours look perfect - did you use Novus or any of the other polishing compounds? I started using Novus on my current Wildcat build and it helped clean up the clear parts.

Looking great! Very complicated to scratch build that - nice job!

Great work Patrick! Especially at such a small scale.

With any brand, vallejo, Mr. Finisher, etc. I generally leave on my primer coats undisturbed for at least 24 hours. I've had Vallejo peel even after that period. For example, on my last build, I had used Tamiya tape inside the cockpit to help seal it when painting the fuselage. It pulled the paint and primer off the instrument panel - which probably had been primed and painted weeks before given the rate I build. I can't recall whether the paint that was pulled was off plastic or metal though. On metal, Vallejo primers don't seem to have very good adhesion. The Vallejo primer I used on the PE frames for the open panels on this build scraped off fairly easily, and I've had that happen a number of other times. Maybe I haven't pre-treated/cleaned the PE frets enough, or maybe oils from my hands left a film on the PE, I don't know. I picked this up a while back but haven't used it yet. I might try spraying the PE frets down with this stuff first to give a better base for Vallejo to stick to. Of course, it's totally possible all this is due to user error, which, if you ask my wife, normally ends up being the case.

I'm a big fan of acrylics, especially when it comes to clean up. I hate cleaning out my airbrush after using Tamiya or other lacquer/acrylic lacquers. What I've found, however, is that Vallejo primers can pull up when taped, especially when painted on metal surfaces. For areas like the cockpit where I won't be taping, I use Vallejo primer just because it's easier. For areas like car bodies, plane fuselages, etc., I think the lacquers are a much safer bet.

I spray mine in a booth that is vented out a window. The booth is in my basement, and this stuff still stinks up the joint.

Thanks OC - I have to say, this primer really does all the work.

Well, it's taken me a while to get here, but finally got the fuselage primed. Woohoo! I love using Mr. Finishing Surfacer right from the can. It dries (very quickly) in almost a baked on consistency and can be sanded, unlike Vallejo which is prone to peel. Its leveling properties are almost magical. I had a spot where too much spray had accumulated so I was preparing myself to have to strip it off and re-spray, but I came back a half hour later and everything was perfect. The gray is nice because it highlights any flaws or other issues that need correcting. Fill, sand, re-spray -- piece of cake. Highly recommend it. Really stinks though, so make sure you have a spray booth with exhaust or a nearby window. I'll inspect for any issues tomorrow, and then I might be able to get the base colors on. I'm still considering black-basing the entire plane, then slowly coming back to a white underside and gray topside. Will have to sleep on that one though.

It does, but I have three kids under the age of 10 so I need to be careful. It's a good thing most of my modeling happens after they go to bed. 🤬

Good question Yves. So far I'm self-medicating with tequila and bourbon which seems to be going ok. The interesting thing is that despite the complexities of working on this one, I've been fairly even tempered and not at all frustrated. Maybe it's from having super low expectations. My 1/72 and 1/48 planes on the other hand drive me nuts as I seem to break things off almost as soon as I can put them on. Probably the worst for me was working on my 1/64 Badger build - I can't tell you how many times I broke a cannon loose off the deck, or an errant elbow hit the bowsprit or a spar and popped off the rigging. No amount of tequila or bourbon could settle me down when that happened!

Good question. I think you're right about the solid hull or the availability of the Morgan as having something to do with it. If I ever get through my stash of models, I was thinking of scratch building a weathered whaler like the Katy Cory - so much cool stuff you can do with all the whaling equipment.

Thanks guys, we will see how it goes. I've always had very good finger dexterity, but the eyes are another thing. For most of my life I had great near vision, but now in my mid-40s, that's kinda going south. So far I'm fine with the Optivisor but my guess is that the sands are running out of the hourglass on these kinds of models. Too bad as I love this scale for just the sheer number of different type of vessels, especially on the auxiliary side. I've picked up a number of kits from oilers to repair ships to submarine and seaplane tenders, etc. as well as the more standard fare like cruisers and battleships and aircraft carriers. I'm also hoping to display them as waterline dioramas, which is a little easier at this scale (or at least they will take up less space) - big reason why I'm taking a big interest in your waterline techniques! I originally picked this Hatsuzakura as a fairly inexpensive way to learn how to do PE before tackling my 1/350 ships. Little did I know how tricky PE is at this scale! When i get back to my 1/350 Shimakaze, I'm sure the PE will look huge. I'm chomping at the bit to get to some of the other 1/700 kits in my stash though. Ultimately, this is what I'm working up to. Only 15 sheets of PE 😳 There's a lot to do with the pagoda tower, lattice work, etc. I figure this has to be one of the ultimate PE subjects if you are a masochist.

Beautiful job! I've always liked this little whaler.

The diorama builds from @CDW and @Egilman inspired me to dust this one off and get back to it. I was a bit burned out cutting 1-2mm squares of tape to mask the linoleum deck, and got a little stuck in figuring out the build sequence given that a number of deck items to be painted gray would sit on top of the linoleum parts. I think what I'm going to do is get as much done on the ship as possible that isn't on the linoleum, paint it, then after removing the tape, separately paint the remaining items and add them to the model. It's going to be tricky as the PE is so small. I might just prime and paint the frets, then assemble the pieces, rather than assemble and then paint as I've been doing here. That's the only way I think I can get it to work. In any event, I finished building the bridge and bridge tower, and added the rear tower (not sure if it was for radar, radio, etc.?) which was a very intricate and tiny piece with at least five bends and probably a couple of more: I've gotten a lot better at working with PE this small, but it's still a challenge. Some of the pieces are like thick hair in diameter. So, you have to be very careful not only extracting it from the fret, but also in building it up. This Five Star set doesn't have any detailed instructions for the most part, so you are forced to study the pictures and diagrams and figure out how to bend the part to completion - some of these are like origami with a number of bends and folds, and the pieces are so small that even my smallest Swiss tweezers seem too big at times. Optivisor is an absolute must! Thanks for looking in!