amateur

Hi Jules,
 
very interesting stuff to read. Thank you for taking the time to write and post.
 
what I was wondering: those drawings did not make it into the archived building contracts (as far as I am told bybothers, never checked myself). Where in the proces between ‘ordering a ship’ and ‘launch’ did they play a role. Was it in the translation of design into a specified contract, or in the proces of building a ship from the measures as stated in the contract? 
 
Jan

Hi Jules,
 
very interesting stuff to read. Thank you for taking the time to write and post.
 
what I was wondering: those drawings did not make it into the archived building contracts (as far as I am told bybothers, never checked myself). Where in the proces between ‘ordering a ship’ and ‘launch’ did they play a role. Was it in the translation of design into a specified contract, or in the proces of building a ship from the measures as stated in the contract? 
 
Jan

Niiiice!
 
Did you consider replacing the props with a transparant disc? Some diorama builders do to solve the discrepancy between the speed shown and a non-moving prop.
 
Jan

When I take pics of my model and show them 'larger than life', all kinds of unwanted specs, uneven surfaces, blobs of glue etc show up.
Yours only show impeccable craftmanship.
A joy to look at.
Jan

Nice work! 
Almost all inland steamtugs had funnels that could be lowered.
It is rather difficult to find a pic of a lowered funnel, though. I have been looking for it, and I found one (at 1:35 you see a boat nearing the bridge) 
 
 
Jan

Beautiful, Greg! Those figures add so much life to your finished pieces. Wouldn't be the same without them. While the movie was running, it looked like they were moving.

First step in making the wings was adding the remaining internal frames.
 

 
Each skin is a single piece, shaped, folded, and glued with the help of a joiner strip.
 

 
Each wing structure is then slipped into its finished sheath. No fillets have been added yet.
 

 
That's it for now.

Niiiice!
 
Did you consider replacing the props with a transparant disc? Some diorama builders do to solve the discrepancy between the speed shown and a non-moving prop.
 
Jan

Niiiice!
 
Did you consider replacing the props with a transparant disc? Some diorama builders do to solve the discrepancy between the speed shown and a non-moving prop.
 
Jan

Niiiice!
 
Did you consider replacing the props with a transparant disc? Some diorama builders do to solve the discrepancy between the speed shown and a non-moving prop.
 
Jan

Niiiice!
 
Did you consider replacing the props with a transparant disc? Some diorama builders do to solve the discrepancy between the speed shown and a non-moving prop.
 
Jan

Niiiice!
 
Did you consider replacing the props with a transparant disc? Some diorama builders do to solve the discrepancy between the speed shown and a non-moving prop.
 
Jan

Nah, just imagine it’s a 1/3000 shot. Super slow mo 

My first seascape! 

Eberhard, my thesaurus of unused adjectives for words to describe your beautiful work is running low. I’ll just have to reuse Amazing.  😁
 
-Brian

When I take pics of my model and show them 'larger than life', all kinds of unwanted specs, uneven surfaces, blobs of glue etc show up.
Yours only show impeccable craftmanship.
A joy to look at.
Jan

When I take pics of my model and show them 'larger than life', all kinds of unwanted specs, uneven surfaces, blobs of glue etc show up.
Yours only show impeccable craftmanship.
A joy to look at.
Jan

When I take pics of my model and show them 'larger than life', all kinds of unwanted specs, uneven surfaces, blobs of glue etc show up.
Yours only show impeccable craftmanship.
A joy to look at.
Jan

When I take pics of my model and show them 'larger than life', all kinds of unwanted specs, uneven surfaces, blobs of glue etc show up.
Yours only show impeccable craftmanship.
A joy to look at.
Jan

Yes, this is a small space, parts are produced here, and their assembly takes place in the next room and it is a little larger. But even on this table, models with a length of up to two meters are quite successfully placed.

Any country in mind? Or just ‘period’?
Not much available , I think: it is either earlier (mayflower, Wasa), or quite a bit later: victory or cuttty sark (i know, there is more than these four  )
Only one that comes to my mind is Friesland (mamoli), around 1670, but outside your scale range (1:75)
 
Jan

Any country in mind? Or just ‘period’?
Not much available , I think: it is either earlier (mayflower, Wasa), or quite a bit later: victory or cuttty sark (i know, there is more than these four  )
Only one that comes to my mind is Friesland (mamoli), around 1670, but outside your scale range (1:75)
 
Jan

Any country in mind? Or just ‘period’?
Not much available , I think: it is either earlier (mayflower, Wasa), or quite a bit later: victory or cuttty sark (i know, there is more than these four  )
Only one that comes to my mind is Friesland (mamoli), around 1670, but outside your scale range (1:75)
 
Jan

Ahoy!
 
Well, it is time to start a new build log. For those of you who might be saying, "Hey, don't you already have, like, three other unfinished builds in progress?", I will simply observe that what you say is true, but I'm starting a new log anyway, so there! Anyways, I haven't been doing much modeling lately because I have a six-month-old, very active puppy, and for that same reason I may not make speedy progress on this model, either, but we'll see.
 
The Subject
 
The subject of this log is Leroy Grumman's famous F4F-4 Wildcat. I won't go into too much detail about this airplane, because if you are reading this then you are probably sufficiently airplane nerdy to already have a good grasp of the Wildcat's place in history. It will suffice here to say that the Wildcat was America's front-line, carrier-borne fighter for the first year-and-a-half of the country's war against Japan. Although the Wildcat is frequently compared unfavorably with the Mitsubishi A6M 'Zero', I think it is fair to say that the Wildcat, when flown to its strengths by a skilled aviator, could hold its own in a scrap with the Japanese fighter. You can read more about the Wildcat here.
 
The Kit
 
The kit is a brand new offering from the Polish firm of WAK. In fact, at the time of this writing the kit is still listed as 'NEW' on the company's website. This will actually be the first time I have ever worked on a hot-off-the-press kit, so you should all feel fortunate to be among the first to see one of these being built -- perhaps not likely to be among the first to see one finished, but close enough. The kit is designed by Jerzy Janukowicz, with artwork by Marcin Dworzecki, who is famous in the card modeling world for his work done for Kartonowy Arsenal (Halinski). Let's have a look, shall we?
 
The kit depicts the personal mount of the famous Lt. Cdr. John S. "Jimmy" Thach, the man who perfected the "Thach weave," a combat tactic that allowed a Wildcat pilot and his wingman to get a drop on the more maneuverable Zero. As you can see in the photo, I also have the laser-cut frames for the kit. Now, I took a bit of a gamble by not buying a canopy for this kit, since I already had one on hand, albeit for the ancient Halinski F4F-3 kit. I'm not aware of any changes made by Grumman to the canopy for the dash-4, so I'm cautiously optimistic that the dash-3 canopy will fit.
 

 
Lots of lovely diagrams.
 

 
And beautiful graphics. Don't be alarmed by the printed wheels -- there's an option to build the kit wheels-up, which I will probably not elect to build.
 

 

 
The back cover has pictures of the prototype model.
 

 
A nice touch in this kit is the inclusion of instructions in English.
 
To wrap up this introduction, I thought you all might like to see a little comparison of this kit with the older Halinski F4F-3 kit published in 1998.
 

 

 
A side-by-side view of the graphics (I don't believe Marcin did the art for this Halinski kit) reveals the nearly complete lack of weathering on the older kit (at left). The difference in detail is even more stark for the cockpit interiors (not shown) -- the older kit has almost no three-dimensional details at all.
 

 
Well, that's it for the introduction -- hope to get started soon!
 

I agree.  Here you can see my long sanding stick.  Its about an inch wife and 15” long.  It has 120 grit sandpaper.  
 
I will create a smooth sheer line with it that marches the top of the template.
 
Then i will add the fairing cap.  Pictures of that to follow…