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Landlubber Mike

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Everything posted by Landlubber Mike

  1. Landlubber Mike
    Made some more progress. Got the final 10 AA guns installed, along with some ammo crates and other assorted items. This one in particular was fun: I ended up spraying a coat of Future so I can start the wash and weathering process. Here are some shots of what it looks like. I always cringe when I post these, and have to remind myself that they are taken at high magnification: On the final stretch. Thanks for looking in!
  2. Landlubber Mike
    Nice progress man, looking fantastic!
  3. Landlubber Mike
    Beautiful work as always Craig. At the rate you're going, you're going to need a few more display racks
  4. Landlubber Mike
    Wow, very nice! Congratulations!! I was getting nervous as I started reading your post, but glad to see it worked out in the end. 😁
  5. Landlubber Mike
    Looks great Popeye! Just out of curiosity, for this kits and others where there is a propensity to be a tail dragger, do the instructions advise of that fact? Just wondering how one can tell when that happens. Apparently one of the Zoukei-Mura kits I own can be a tail dragger, and they mention this fact a number of pages into the manual (good idea to skim manuals before starting I'm realizing!). I think a different Z-M kit has a clever way to reallocate weight distribution by using cast metal parts in a particular section of the fuselage or wings to get better weight distribution.
  6. Landlubber Mike
    Niiiiiiiiiice!
  7. Landlubber Mike
    Very nice work! If I had to do it again, I would have done a little more on my stern as you are showing in your Corel Draw pictures. I like the bottom one better, but either would be a nice improvement to the kit. Rigging those cannons brings back nightmares for me when it came to rigging those 2mm blocks 🙀
  8. Landlubber Mike
    Some really incredible work there. The camo looks amazing - in that second to last picture, it reminds me of that artwork with the 3D cubes and other shapes. Are those figures from North Star?
  9. Landlubber Mike
    Lou and EG, those are some nice looking ships. To be honest, I'm not as familiar on the US side. Wonder if there's just more interest in Japanese ships out there? I like the Pensacola and the St. Louis class looks like a really cool one with the camo, deck details, etc.
  10. Landlubber Mike
    It’s funny, I was about to start the Hasegawa Shimakaze destroyer at 1/350, but it’s such a nice kit I didn’t want to muck it up from having no experience. So I got this kit to give me a little experience at a fairly low budget. Didn’t realize what I was getting myself into! But yeah, I think 1/350 will be an easier road now that I’ve tortured myself at 1/700. At the same time, I’ll definitely need to get it more precise. The 1/700 stuff is all done with tweezers, pins, toothpicks, and sometimes fingertips. Only so crisp you can get it. I’ll probably pick back up the Shimakaze when this one is done. I’ve got two hold and folds of different sizes and some other PE bending stuff to help me. Will certainly be a different set of techniques at that scale. The nice thing about 1/700 scale is that it you don’t have to have perfectly crisp corners because nobody will be able to tell - the bad thing is, well, it’s 1/700 scale.
  11. Landlubber Mike
    Thanks guys, really appreciate the kind words. @CDW - Craig you should definitely go for it. If I can do it you can. Optivisor and a pair or two of very fine tweezers is a must (one with normal action, and another that is reverse action so you can hold the tiniest parts while folding them with the other tweezer). I have to say that on 5-10x magnification, the parts look a little rough and would look like crap at 1/350 scale, but to the naked eye, these parts look pretty good at 1/700. @lmagna - Lou, welcome to the IJN side. I think we’ve had this discussion, but I’ve always liked the lines of the Japanese ships more so than the US side. The American ships (and planes during that era for that matter) have that very functional design that certainly worked well (for the most part) but to me just look less interesting. I think the only US ship I have is the Gambier Bay escort carrier by Hasegawa. For some reason, I’ve always been interested in that one.
  12. Landlubber Mike
    Funny thing here is over the past couple of months, I ordered some modeling supplies from a variety of places all over the world. I had packages sent within the US that took longer than it took to get packages from the UK, Australia and China. That made no sense to me!
  13. Landlubber Mike
    Quick update on where things are on this one. Been a little busy with work this week but managed to get things touched up a bit, and now adding some of the details that were sitting on the linoleum and needed to be painted separately, especially near the stern. Here are some detail pictures of the reels (I thought the kit ones lacked detail so I replaced them with some reels in a Tom's Model Works IJN reel set) and various racks: Here is where things look now. I have a few more touchups (including to unbend some PE parts), and need to add 10 more AA guns and various ammo crates and other detail pieces. Then the plan is to Future, weather/wash, add the rails and small boats, clear coat it, then finish with the rigging and flags. So, I think I'm on the home stretch. Critical thing I'm trying to remind myself is to keep the model well away until I plan to add to it. Some of the PE is so fine it's almost like you can breathe on it and it will bend. Thanks for looking in!
  14. Landlubber Mike
    Thanks OC! I wish my eyeballs could similarly zoom in and out like that. I've been a little busy the past few days, but have been slowly making progress on this build - touch ups, adding the final details, etc. I've always been bothered by the radar on the bridge tower (what looks like two horns) - seems a touch out of scale. I dug through the stash last night and found that I have resin aftermarket replacements that look a little smaller, so I might replace it. A few more details and then it will be on to some weathering/shading/highlighting, and then the rigging.
  15. Landlubber Mike
    Congratulations! One of the nicest models ever posted on these boards. Beautiful work! Forgive me if I missed it, but did you say what your next project was going to be (if any)?
  16. Landlubber Mike
    Damn, those are beautiful! Look better than most plastic models!
  17. Landlubber Mike
    You might be able to find generic stick on decking material that is pre-printed with deck planks. I've picked up a few for my 1/700 models, my guess is they have it for 1/350 as well. Seems easier to cut out the deck planking you want, rather than try to build it up from scratch and add the planking lines.
  18. Landlubber Mike
    As a Christmas present to myself (shh, don't tell the wife!), I ordered the McArdle 1693 Sussex book from Seawatch. It took about a month, but it arrived safe and sound today. I believe this is the third time I've ordered from them, and have always been really pleased with the books. I do think that in this day and age, probably a response email that they received your order would be nice. I don't know what goes into setting up a system like that, but an order email is what customers are used to and expect these days. For what it's worth, I took a quick flip through the Sussex book and plans and they look fantastic just like the other releases from Seawatch. Maybe one day I'll get to build it. I've always really loved all the ornamentation on it.
  19. Landlubber Mike
    Hey John, good to hear from you my fellow Unicorn hulker. Thanks for the kind words. Hope you are doing well!
  20. Landlubber Mike
    That's a good idea Carl. Would it turn the surface cloudy though, which would make it harder to see brass? I guess I could always polish it back out, but not as much so that it is so reflective.
  21. Landlubber Mike
    Looking great! I like that mini-belt sander. Can I ask what brand that is?
  22. Landlubber Mike
    The blade I use is a #10 curved blade: For this 1/700 PE though, I’m going to see if I can find a blade that is much smaller and more like a chisel. That might give a little more control and precision. The black acetate is nice because of the color contrast against the PE. I wish it was more matte though. It’s very reflective of overhead lighting which is annoying at times.
  23. Landlubber Mike
    Some cool pictures there EG - nice!
  24. Landlubber Mike
    Nice work Mark! Nice to see I'm not the only one that manages to get my feet in my build pictures 😆
  25. Landlubber Mike
    Nice job Craig. Are you using Mr. Surfacer from the spray can or shooting through the airbrush? If the latter, can I ask what you thin it with and in what proportions? I really like Mr. Surfacer as a base prime coat, but have been using the rattle cans for ease of use. I find they don't have the spitting issues that you get with some of the Tamiya rattle cans (though, I recently sprayed some Tamiya Insignia White from the rattle can without any issues at all).

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