CDW

I've never seen inside the box of the Tamiya Tirpitz. Does it include the torpedo tubes? Look on Ebay for the 1:350 Merit John F. Kennedy CV kit. It consists of a whopping 1,200 + parts count including some photo etch. A much more modern kit that the Tamiya Enterprise. You would probably only need paint and glue for that model along with your conversion parts. I've seen it as low as $199 with shipping included from Hong Kong.

You made a wise choice for a plastic warship R/C conversion. Your investment won't break the bank, and not much else looks as cool as the Tirpitz. I love that box art camo pattern.

For that price, it should come with an airplane ride and the pilot's autograph. 😎

Not a lot of progress, but something is better than nothing. Got my hands on the set of Tamiya polishing compounds with a set of their applicators. Really great stuff as usual from Tamiya. Don't know where you would find anything better for models, it comes with coarse, fine and polishing (extra fine) tubes of compounds. Really makes short work of putting a super shine on your model paint job or for polishing clear plastic. I highly recommend it. I'll be making some radiator hose next, then paint and build the remainder of the chassis assembly. Most likely won't have time to finish this project before we leave for a vacation.

You'll just have to do like all the rest of us and consider yourself a work in progress. You will learn new things, get more proficient, and better with time and practice. I never ever build a model I am totally satisfied with. I think in a way, that's a big part of what keeps me interested.

Lou said he built his models, then without painting them, went straight to flocking. That alone is going to cause issues with the color of the finished job. The surface needs to first be painted the color (or close to it) of the flocking you're going to use. Second, no matter how tempting it might be, you don't touch the flocking until it's thoroughly dry. Touching it before it dries will cause serious issues. If you use white glue as the adhesive for the flocking, you could easily wash it off with water if you didn't like the results. In my view, it's a low risk/no risk proposition.

This ship has a narrow beam compared to a US or Japanese carrier. Not sure how that might play into it's stability.

Interesting. That's exactly how i detail paint with a brush and/or an airbrush...use my non-dominant hand/wrist/arm as a guide for the dominant.

1. You can generally touch up with a brush, but you will likely get by without any touch up at all. 2. Yes, and yes. For many modelers, it's easier to grab the spray can and go. However, for finer work and control, I like the bottle primer through an airbrush. This is the same paint that's in the spray can. You need to reduce it yourself using Tamiya lacquer reducer, not their acrylic reducer. https://www.scalehobbyist.com/catagories/Paint_and_Construction/liquid-surface-primer-white/TAM00087096/product.php?kw=tamiya,primer 3. You are going to get a wide variety of opinion on this question. Your own experience is going to be the best teacher. My opinion: Tamiya is far superior to Vallejo. It just goes down much smoother, much more trouble-free than Vallejo. The down side, Tamiya has far less color selection than Vallejo and is subject to availability issues which are related to Tamiya's production and distribution practices. Tamiya does not produce and distribute paint all year 'round. Don't ask, because I don't know why, that's just the way it is. When your distributor runs of of flat white (for example), there won't be any more available until the next production run and sometimes that's months. Vallejo is notorious for causing airbrush clogging issues, often a real pain in the butt. Tamiya paints often must be mixed yourself to get the particular color you want. Paint mix ratios can be found all over the net, just search. it's not hard to do, but a lot of modelers find that to be too inconvenient. It's a personal preference. 4. Tamiya primer is a lacquer based paint. You can paint practically anything on top of it. What you don't want to do is paint a lacquer on top of an enamel. That will be a disaster. You can paint a lacquer on top of an acrylic. It just needs to be done in light coats. Heavy coats of lacquer paint can seep down through the primer and attack the plastic causing cracks and crazing of the paint. Big problems.

1. Yes, photo etch needs to be cleaned first. I drop my photo etch sheets in a sonic cleaner. Alternatively, you could wipe them down with acetone or another similar solvent to remove any oil residue. If possible, it's best to also lightly sand the photo etch with a fine grit paper (600 or 1,000). I prime the photo etch while still on the fret using Tamiya primer. Either a spray can or from the bottle (reduced of course) through your air brush. 2. With most paints, you are going to need to reduce it before shooting it through your airbrush. Even the Vallejo Model Air paints need to be reduced in my own experience with them. For Model Air paints, start with a ratio of 10 parts paint to 3 or 4 parts reducer. Reduce more or less to suite your own taste. Paint reduced too much will be runny and not cover well...it will often look like "spider legs" have formed when you shoot it on. If not reduced enough, it will stop up and clog your air brush. Model Air paints are not the best for brushing, though it can be done. The standard Vallejo paints are best for brushing. With most other brands of paint, like Tamiya for instance, I start with a 50/50 mix of paint to reducer for the airbrush. Use more or less to suite your own taste. Tamiya paints are not the best for hand brushing in my opinion. If you do use them for hand brushing, use a retarder to keep them from drying out too fast which will allow smoother brushing and help the paint level itself. Tamiya are my go-to paints for shooting through the airbrush. Very well behaved. I use Mr Color 400 Leveling reducer, it is simply the best IMHO. Alternatively, you can use Tamiya reducer or even Isopropyl Alcohol (80% or higher).

So the cell phone will be between you and the object you're working on? I'm interested to see a picture of how the cell phone would be utilized.

I first had generic magnifying visors before I bought a genuine Optivisor. The difference is night and day. The genuine Optivisor was SO much better than the cheaper generic ones. The better lens quality makes a huge difference.

I once had a '62 Bonneville convertible, and a '54 Chieftan with a straight 8. It had the Indian head that lit up when the headlights were on. Super cool old car.

What you've done with the quads so far looks nice, but I don't know how those compare to the kit quads. Maybe some kind of combination of kit and Pontos parts would look good as well.

Oh yes, I'll bet you could really bring an animal model to life with flock. I just ordered five more different colors in the 1/2 ounce bags for $2.25 each. 1/2 ounce doesn't sound like much, but it's a lot of this stuff because it's so light and fluffy, almost like dust. On their web, you see woodworkers using it a lot for lining the inside of jewelry boxes, drawers, and things like that. I wonder how durable it would be for that sort of use? Must be decent because it's used a lot.

With some kits like your 1:200 Trumpeter Hood, the plastic parts are done well enough to allow their use, but the old 1:350 Tamiya King George V had such poor plastic gun parts, they replaced the parts with resin. The reason resin is used instead of injection molded plastic is due to the cost of creating the molds. It costs WAY more to create a mold for injection plastic versus a mold for resin. It's a budget constraint. Mold making is THE major cost of manufacturing any model kit. It takes a lot of sales of a kit to recover the cost of just creating the molds. These Pontos sets are what the industry calls "limited run" items. Once a certain small number of copies are made, the molds are shot and must be discarded and new ones made to make additional production runs.

I found my picture...the 1:350 guns come with a resin platform and a resin breach

If I remember correctly, the 1:350 Pontos pom poms came with a resin breach, otherwise, they are almost identical to your 1:200 gun parts just scaled down. Interesting and impressive looking guns when finished. I've read the guns had a rather short range but I'll bet with all the tracers flying they were impressive to see in actual combat.

I'm making a trip to Manchester NH in another week or so. My daughter and son-in-law are going to take me for some tours. Wow, there is so much to see up in this part of the country. Can't wait to visit some of these places.

What an interesting question and series of answers. It's something I've never even thought about before now. Glad to have read this thread.

Outstanding! Love it...this is what scale modeling is all about. You done good Denis.

That is coming along SO nice. It's the best I've ever seen anyone do the old Revell Arizona.

Thanks for the comments, Denis. Simulating the carpet is real easy to do. You need the correct color flocking, some watered down white glue, and a strainer to sift the flocking. Get your flooring painted the color you want and after it's dry, brush on a good coat of watered-down white glue where you want carpet. While the white glue mixture is still wet, sift the flocking on top of the white glue, then shake away the excess (flocking). That's it. As easy as that. Just make sure to sift the flocking and not just drop a lump of it down. The results will not be the same and would create a big mess. You can get all colors of flocking on Ebay for a couple of dollars per bag. A bag of it will do a LOT of models. You'll probably never use it all unless you build dozens of models.

Thanks OC. I have a lot more work to do on the engine before it's finished. Just have the basics together to dry fit everything.

Here we have the partially assembled chassis with the engine dry-fitted. Brown flocking has been applied to the floorboards to simulate carpet. The seats and door panels will be a light leather color. The door panels will require some custom work to obtain a higher level of accuracy. What Italeri did was to share the same interior (and other) components between the 250 GTO and the 250 California Spyder. What's accurate for the 250 GTO door panels are not accurate for the California Spyder. While at it, will add some aftermarket photo etch inner door handles, window cranks, and rear view mirror for better accuracy. She's coming along slowly but surely. I've got several irons in the fire right now and less time to devote to model building. Got a big trip coming up in the next 10 days and really looking forward to it.