ccoyle

I got the basic rudder finished and attached to the vertical stabilizer. I say 'basic' because I still need to attach the actuator rods. Just a dry fit for this shot.

She looks great! Congratulations!

The naming instructions are also pinned at the top of every build log category. For finished models, the word FINISHED in all-caps should be added immediately following the user name and set off by hyphens, e.g.: HMS Phlegmatic 1762 by jenny8675309 - FINISHED - Middling Models - 1:50 You can also add 'Finished' as a tag.

She looks very sharp!

I just learned today that Shipyard has released a new offering in their series of wooden kits (it's so new, in fact, that it's not yet even available for purchase in Shipyard's online shop). The new kit is the English revenue cutter Rattlesnake 1777 (the kit says '1776', but I think they got the date wrong). Shipyard have been highly regarded for years for their card model design, but they are relative newcomers to the world of wooden kits. Despite the fact that these kits are constructed of wood, they are designed -- and built -- in much the same manner as one of Shipyard's card kits, using plywood veneers instead of wood planking strips. That makes this type of kit a kind of 'wooden card model', if such a term makes sense. If you want to see what this looks like in actual practice, you can check out my build of Shipyard's Wütender Hund here and gallery images here. The prototype model is quite striking. If you're thinking that it looks rather like HM Cutter Alert 1777, that's because I believe the two ships were in the same class. There are, of course, several very nice kits of Alert already on the market, but this kit gives modelers an option to build something in a manner a little different from the usual POB wooden kits we see. As is usually the case, high quality comes at a cost; in this case, the Shipyard kit will set you back 1546 PLN, or about US$394.11 at today's exchange rate. That'd be eye-watering for a card model, but this is a wooden model -- with all wooden parts laser-cut. I hope we'll see more wooden kit offerings from Shipyard in the not-too-distant future!

I used to only build in 1/72 scale when I was a kid, but between my aging eyes, being accustomed to working in 1/33 scale for nearly two decades now, and seeing your hand in the picture for scale, my first thought was, "Dang, that's little!"

Normally I only do edge coloring. The quality of the graphic artwork varies widely among kits, from no weathering at all to photo-realistic artwork. Some designers color their own models, while other employ the talents of graphic artists. The team of Andrzej Halinski (designer) and Marcin Dworzecki (artist) is one well-known example. Some of the best artwork I have seen is done by Luis P. Igualada, whose models are available as downloads from ecardmodels.com. I have learned a few interesting tidbits about the 109 during the course of this project. If you zoom in on my last photo in post #28, you can see that each of the two parts of the stabilizer fairing has three small, red tic marks. Those marks are tail plane incidence indicators. The 109 had a variable incidence tail plane, which obviated the need for elevator trim tabs. Those Golden Age aeronautical engineers were extremely clever fellows!

Congratulations on finishing a stunning model!

Welcome aboard, Nick, from the author of the post you referenced! As I wrote in that post, it is not unheard of for a newcomer to our hobby to finish a project on the order of Indy, but it is rare. Nevertheless, you sound like you are well aware of the challenge ahead, and you will find as much help as you need here at MSW. Good luck on your project! P.S. You'll see in their signatures that many of our members also dabble in modeling subjects other than ships!

A small bit of progress. The vertical stabilizer is now skinned and glued to the last fuselage segment. I will complete the entire empennage before permanently attaching this assembly to the rest of the fuselage.

Yeah, this happens with a lot of my projects, too!

Greg does great research.

The H had a redesigned fuselage, giving it a chunky look compared to the refined lines of the D. If you see a 'D', and it just doesn't look quite 'right', it's probably an H.

As I stated in post #1, one of the things I hoped to accomplish with this model was to avoid some of the mistakes I made during my E-4 build. One of those mistakes was not getting the vertical stabilizer perfectly vertical, as the name suggests it should be. To correct that, I went about constructing the aft fuselage slightly differently this time around. First, here's the last fuselage piece and the stabilizer framing. Let's zoom in a little closer. The part I've circled is where the difference is. As you can see, there's two bulkheads glued together there. The left-hand one is the aft bulkhead of the fuselage section. On the E-4, I glued that bulkhead into the fuselage and afterwards attached the stabilizer, essentially creating a dreaded butt joint (shudder!). This time, I glued that bulkhead to the stabilizer before it gets glued into the fuselage. This allowed me to perfectly align the two bulkheads; there are tic marks on the fuselage bulkhead that will make plugging it correctly within the fuselage a fairly straightforward process. That should produce a nicely vertical stabilizer. That's all for now!

I agree, in this instance, given the popularity of the subject and the fact that fans of Surprise have been waiting for over two decades for this announcement. I suspect such a thread will attract a lot of attention. I'd be happy to split the relevant posts off into a new topic for you, @chris watton.

Good luck!

I'm quite sure that this announcement will spark waves of rapture throughout the period ship modeling world!

Chris Watton designed both kits. The Caldercraft version is one of his earliest efforts -- the Vanguard kit is light years ahead of it in terms of design. That said, the Caldercraft kit is very buildable and can easily be super-detailed. I built it as my second POB kit. It's worth a crack.

Last one for the day.

If you have enough deck planking to replace those pieces, I'd do that, but wait until after you are sufficiently far along in the build to remove the bulwark extensions first.

Making a little magic happen during one of my vacation days I have to use up!

Very nice, Steven!

The nose is all skinned. Here's the top with the machine gun channels added. And the bottom, with the various lumpy, bumpy fairings. I have one more lumpy, bumpy 109 in my stash, a T-2. The others are F and G variants, which had a redesigned forward fuselage that streamlined the aircraft by eliminating the various lumpy bits. Construction will now transition to the rear fuselage!

I'm thankful that my college major only required one semester of calculus. Graphing calculators had just come on the market, but our instructor was a monk and an old-school math guy who insisted on doing all of his calculations by hand (but, fortunately, he didn't require us to do likewise). For me, calc was one of those skills that I never had to make use of after college 😬. Mind you, I'm thankful for all the folks who do need it and know how to use it!

I know I said this build would probably slow down a bit, but darn it, it just goes together so well that I can't drag myself away from it! Here's the finished oil cooler scoop and the next skin section. The oil cooler inlet is a real booger to shape properly, and this was true on the E-4 as well. The best I can say about this effort is that it doesn't look worse than the E-4's. I do think the yellow on the E-4 did a better job of hiding the workmanship than the light blue RLM 76 on this kit. I do like that this camouflage pattern is great at obscuring tiny seam imperfections. The new paint pens have helped in this regard, too. You can see there's a seam right down the middle of the JG 27 unit badge. Here's how it looks with the next skin section added. The pens were very helpful in patching up that particular item.