CDW

If it's any consolation, a prop shaft should be one of the easiest things to replace from scratch. I feel certain you have the skills to remedy that problem if you want to take the time to do it.

Beautiful model, very well done.

Be sure to let us know how that glue works out for you.

He said in an earlier post he was giving up on the railings...too small. (I will be honest and say at this scale the railings are beyond me and I do not have the full set now anyway - so I am going to build her minus the railings. OC.)

An airbrush requires lots of practice to become proficient with it. Lots and lots of practice. This practice includes varying dilutions of paint to thinner ratios, air pressure, and distance from the tip of the airbrush to the thing being painted. An airbrush such as the one you own is meant to be a very precise way of applying paint. Once it's been mastered, applying very thin layers of paint precisely where it's needed will be a breeze. But there is a learning curve that only comes with time and practice. Painting a line not much wider than a pencil line will be possible with the equipment you own. Another area of expertise that requires practice is finding various ways of masking off the areas where you don't want paint from errant airbrush use. Lots of times this can be done by simply using a stiff sheet of paper to shield the areas to be protected. it doesn't always require masking tape. All that being said, the most desirable way to paint the photo etch railings (in my opinion) is to paint them after they have been attached in place. This is not always possible, but many times it can be done quite readily. When painting them before assembly, doing it with the airbrush while attached to the photo etch fret is the next best option. Yes, you may get some cracking and peeling of the paint when you bend the rails later on, but it's a breeze to touch up those places with a brush after the fact. You're working at a scale that makes your debut into airbrushing much more challenging. Don't get discouraged, just make it a habit to practice a bit with your airbrush every chance you get, and don't practice on your best models 🙂. Practice on paper or old models. I've seen Flory use the same model to practice on for years. He calls the model, "Buster". 😄

Merry Christmas OC

Very nice, Mike. Hope Santa treats you nice. Have a Merry Christmas.

Now you're talking! (Calypso) Can hardly wait to see that

Using a finishing resin on the inside? Excuse my lack of knowledge about this type of model ship building. My experience with it is very limited. Everything you've done so far looks excellent. Huge task of planking that big hull, almost done. You've got to be happy about that.

Incredible work. Over here in the States, ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) would be knocking at the door if they saw those on one's facebook page. They look so real.

It's always more blessed to give than receive.

If you have no proper acrylic glue, just use a dab of clear acrylic varnish as a glue to temporarily hold them in place.

It's nice that you are taking a slow methodical approach to building the Hood. Enjoy the journey. Very finely molded and machined parts are these kit's specialty, well written instructions not so much. Maybe sometimes not at all. I would consider gluing the tiny vents to a wooden popsicle stick using acrylic glue and then painting them. They can readily be removed after they are painted and dry to handle them.

You have a well trained eye for this, Mike. Years of experience. Looks perfect in size/scale to my eye. Should have also mentioned, your choice of metal flake gold looks perfect for this era.

Beautiful work on that deck planking Mike.

Not much practical at all about a Ferrari, but man they are out of sight beautiful.

The featured model is superb, Chris. The Italian biplane looks very very Italian, with all it's curves and sleek shape. Whether it's ships or aircraft, the Italians created some beautiful engineering.

You know, I have seen these Sterling kits around for decades but never seen one built until now. Oh man, it's a lot of work from what I see you doing. You have my respect for tackling a project like this. I'll bet there were a'many of these kits bought and never started or finished. One of the things that kindled my interest in building scale models was when I was a very young lad, a friend of my dad gave me some large scale model warships he had built from wood. I could play with them without much danger of breaking anything.

What a beauty she is!

Tried it a few years ago and quit before I finished. I needed to purchase a more suitable slicer software as the free ones could not handle the complexity of the print. I experienced a number of setbacks that occurred after many hours of printing (sometimes overnight) and just before they finished, something would go wrong and spoil the whole part. By this time, no telling what condition my printer is in. Have it stored in a large plastic container in my garage. I was trying to print the massive model of the F-4U Corsair.

From the 3D print model aircraft designers, today I received this offer for a free sample of lightweight filament suitable for 3D printed model aircraft. It looks promising as light weight is a huge factor model aircraft, as well as resistance to UV light/temperature/warping. FREE SAMPLE - PolyLight 1.0 - LW PLA – 3DLabPrint

Are the session boxes purchased separately or are they subdivided that way in the whole kit? Quite nice the way it's broken up into sessions, reminds me of the way you worked on the 1:48 Corvette in modules. It makes a large project like this seem much more manageable. Beautiful ship, and huge!

My daughter said she saw snow along the roadside when they drove from the Boston airport back home to Manchester on Monday morning.

Or as they used to say when we were young, mama didn't raise no fool. 🙂

Yves Just found your build log of this magnificent ship. Will eagerly follow along with your progress.