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CDW
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Everything posted by CDW
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Trust me when I tell you, I cussed my way through this fiddly, goat rope of a masking job to get all these itty bitty stripes painted on today. Now, I shall go say ten hail mary's and our father's and be extremely thankful it's all done for this part. But I do have some more, less fiddly masking to do to finish the deck. It will be a cake walk compared to what I finished today, thank goodness.- 135 replies
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That may be an option I will use if necessary. This Pontos set is an engineering marvel, but they fall short on several key points. The instructions need improvement for sure. Yes, I realize these sets are made for experienced modelers, but they can be improved for sure. The die cutting is really bad on their wood deck pieces and their masks. If other commercially available alternatives were available, would definitely try those instead of what comes with the Pontos set.
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Just to provide an update on where I am with this Essex build, here are some pictures of the mostly completed catwalk assemblies. Still to be added is one large portion that runs next to the control tower/superstructure. I will wait until after the deck striping and numbering is completed and the tower has been attached before adding that detail. Speaking of deck striping, this is an exercise in frustration for me. The Pontos set thoughtfully includes precut masking for the delicate deck striping. Great, right? But the problem is the striping cutouts are not completely cut through the masking tape. So this requires that I recut each and every little bitty stripe with an X-Acto blade to remove it without tearing the mask. It's enough to make a preacher want to cuss. But I will get through it and paint the stripes, one way or another.
- 135 replies
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As soon as I finish my current ship build, the USS Essex CV-9, I plan to build this 1:12 scale Tamiya Honda 250cc Grand Prix Racer. The model as depicted represents the 1966 World Champion who won 10 out of 10 races held that year. The stock model kit is quite a well detailed offering from Tamiya. But to satisfy my OCD, will add super detailing parts just to make certain I keep things as complicated as possible. The detail parts include an updated, fully detailed front fork assembly; a detailed metal link-by-link drive chain and sprockets (with an assembly jig); a set of microscopic rivets; and last but not least, a fully detailed set of metal spokes, rims, and hubs, along with an appropriate jig to assemble it all and lace the wire spokes. I can hardly wait, and it gives me motivation to get my Essex finished, soon!
- 150 replies
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You did a remarkable job on the mast, Greg. The Pontos mast on my current build was also a difficult proposition. Seems like some sort of assembly jig would be in order, but it was challenging to fashion anything of that sort. Congratulations on a job well done.
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Looks really nice, but I know next to nothing about cameras. Looks like quite a lens on it.
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Magnificent. Do your references include detail photos on the rigging? Those have been hard for me to find.
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Wow, all those little gussets are quite an eye test. As you once stated, it is highly critical to acquire the very best fine point tweezers you can get your hands on to do work like this. Just no other way, really. Normal variety tweezers just won't get the job done.
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Hey Greg I noticed you and I are both using the Small Shop's black plexi photo etch cutting board. After using the board for a while, it gets full of nicks and scratches from cutting the etch pieces from the frets. Those scratches are raised and sometimes cause the photo etch to get stuck in place rather than sliding around freely on top of the board. By accident, I discovered you can take a single edge razor blade, holding it at about a 45 degree angle to the cutting board use the blade to scrape the board and it takes away all those scratches like magic. Makes it smooth and glass-like again. if you haven't already discovered it yourself, try it on your board and those scratches will be gone.
- 135 replies
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Started adding the catwalks. These will extend around the entire perimeter of the flight deck. I'll have to work a little harder/better to get clearer photographs next time. Not sure what I did wrong here, but they sure are fuzzy.
- 135 replies
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I recently stayed at the Rising Star Casino in Indiana. While there, admired a beautiful scale model of the Rising Star Riverboat. I thought it was one of the finest looking models of that type of boat I had ever seen until I found your build thread. This model is amazing. Would love to see something like this in person.
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I took these pictures just to add a flavor for how subtle the photo etch details for the deck will appear after they are painted. It almost makes it seem like a long climb for a short slide, but I will plow on notwithstanding. I think with all the deck PE details, the stencil work and some rigging along with all the aircraft might be okay once all is said and done.
- 135 replies
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La Couronne by yancovitch - FINISHED - RADIO
CDW replied to yancovitch's topic in - Build logs for subjects built 1501 - 1750
What a great looking model! Cheers.- 213 replies
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- la couronne
- 74 gun
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Ha - there is a mess all around it. If I had a wide angle lens, you could see it. As far as I know, there is no other alternative to the wood deck that came with the Pontos set except to leave it stock and paint it. But my copy of the Pontos deck is rather poor. Have you ever had a balsa model with die cut parts where the parts are not cut through the sheet so you have to either sand one side until the parts are free or re-score everything with an X-Acto knife to free the parts. That's the way this deck is made. The cut outs are not completely cut through and it requires each and every one to be cut free with a blade. What a pain. And then, there are several variations of the Essex class of CV under different names. Apparently, my deck is maybe cut for another version and not the Essex because a couple of key spots like the side elevator are not cut correctly. I'll make the best of it but if anyone else decides to give this build a go, be aware of the wood deck issue. The aft elevator is cut in a completely different place as the stock kit elevator. I just glued my elevator in place and let the deck fall where it may as there would be no satisfactory way to otherwise correct that in my view. In the end, I am probably the only one who even knows unless one is a real micro detail expert. It won't be a glaring error that will be easily noticed.
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Wow, been a long time since I had something like that but remember well how bad it was. And I was in my 30's then. Glad you're feeling better and hope you make a full recovery soon.
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You have my sincere condolences, Mark. Hope you get things up and running with the least impact possible on the good ship Visa.
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Did you notice in the "what did you receive" topic that some fellow modelers are acquiring those stereo microscopes? That may be just the ticket for these very small PE parts. Normal magnifying lenses just are not quite powerful enough sometimes. Like you, I have so far procrastinated on building all the 20mm single guns for my project. A certain amount of dread in building so many and so small, tedious.
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What a thing of beauty this ship. If I could build a model ship like this....I would. But for now, am content just to watch modelers as skilled as you just to learn how. Great work, Mark.
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Oh, and by the way, most of the parts seen attached to the hull are not actually glued on at this point. I just have them sitting in place.
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As I am working on my model, I like to set things in place to see what it looks like and help keep me motivated to finish. Marching onward, trying to get the last few things attached to the hull before painting it. After it is painted, there are tons of detail that goes into recreating the catwalks that outline the perimeter of the deck, the wooden decking, a myriad of antennae and pieces that get attached to the deck (photo etch). I will have to paint all these parts before attaching them so as not to ruin the wooden deck.
- 135 replies
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But hey, if you take your model/s to a contest, you can be sure some judge/s will be there with a flashlight looking inside every possible opening to see whether you finished everything inside or not. Been there and done that many times in the past.
- 473 replies
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- greek bireme
- dusek
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