gsdpic

Nice! I could not decide which reaction to use, the thumbs up, the wow, or the thanks, so I had to leave a comment.

Great result. Thanks for the videos, I was wondering how on earth you attach the threads to the hull. And yes I noticed the lurking penguin at the end of the first video

If you start a thread, there is an "add tag" button just under the thread title. People use that to add things like the kit manufacturer or the particular ship being built. Then it is possible to search for all threads with that particular tag if, for example, you are interested in build logs for kits by model shipways. The tags show up in the list of threads, e.g. the yellowish/pinkish/orangeish ovals in the screen capture below (what the heck color is that?)

Looking very good to me. The combination of the dark wood and white paint on the deck house and other bits is very attractive. And you are correct, for most of us mere mortals, close up photography reveals flaws that you would never notice at normal viewing distance. There have been numerous times I thought I was done with something, then I took some pictures of it and decided to go back and do some re-work or touch up. But I don't see anything in your photos above that would cause me to consider that.

Sounds like Gregory is helping you out, but this can easily be done in Microsoft paint (at least the version with windows 10, that is the only one I tried). - load the image - click the down arrow under "select" and pick "free-form selection" - carefully draw a circle around the inner part that you want to modify. It will show a rectangular selection box, but it has really only selected the part you drew around - click the down arrow by "rotate" and then click on "flip horizontal". It should flip that selected inner circle so the bear is facing the other way.

Will follow along, hoping it goes better. I'm sure you'll turn out another stunning model if you get past the rough start. Long ago I built a few of the tamiya 1/20th F1 cars but have never done one from Fujimi.

Ouch, seems like a tough situation. I too hope for a happy resolution. I wonder if this post would be better in another location as I think many of the ship modellers don't even visit this part of the forum, perhaps in the General Model Kit Discussions area. Maybe an administrator like @James H can suggest a better place or even just move the post to a better location. Also, I know that @MrBlueJacket sometimes does builds or restorations for customers. I've no idea if he'd be willing to take on something like this.

Ugh, no pictures but I have to say this kit is "this close" to going back on the shelf. Most of the kit is really good....the photo etch parts are well done, the laser cut wood parts are very good, I never thought of that as a high-precision operation but these parts fit together so well. Even the cast metal parts are very nice with minimal flash. But the few parts of the kit that are poor are really bad and really frustrating. I guess I'll leave it at that, just wanted to vent. If you don't see an update for a while, you'll know why.

Thanks, and no. The sealant was mainly to protect the little decals and to unify the glossiness as I had used a variety of gloss and flat paint on the parts. Dry brushing is more useful when trying to highlight some texture on the part. But in this case, I used a large, stiff-bristled brush and tried to just lightly touch the part to result in thin streaks of color. i.e. instead of trying to avoid visible brushstrokes while painting, I was trying to leave brushstrokes. To load the brush, I just lightly dipped it into the paint in the cap of the opened jar, then rubbed the brush on a small piece of paper to remove much of the paint before painting the strut.

Thanks again for all the likes and for those who have looked in. After a day or two off, I resumed working on the Sopwith Camel, painting the "wooden" struts between the wings. That is in quotes because the pieces are in cast metal. I painted them a medium brown then dry brushed some darker and lighter brown to try to achieve a wood look, though I kept it very subtle. I then painted the black metal connectors at the ends of the struts, applied some "Sopwith" decals, then coated with a semi gloss acrylic. The latter sort of reactived the brown acrylic paint, discoloring the decals just a bit. Oh well. These pieces are not quite done, as they have some photo etch bits that serve as the attachment points for the wing rigging and one of them has a cast metal propeller driven fuel pump to be attached. I admit, though, that the siren song of the Porsche 917 model is getting louder in my ears. Unlike some of the other cars I've built recently, I promise to do a build log if I make that diversion.

Wow, nice find. Looks like it will be another beauty for your collection. I'll follow along as well.

Again, thanks for all the likes and for following along. Sorry for spamming with three posts in 24 hours. I swear it will be a few days, at least, before the next post. I think I will next work on the struts between the wings. Those are a combination of cast metal and photo etch and require some painting to make the metal look like wood, similar to the center section of the wing below. I guess that was a sort of view port so the pilot could see at least a little bit above. The upper wing is done! I've attached the ailerons and threaded the control line that links the two ailerons. It is interesting that the upper wing ailerons are linked to each other, and then later linked to the lower wing ailerons and only the lower wing ailerons are linked to the flight controls. Below are several pictures of the completed wing. Apologies for leaving the edge of my "photo booth" in the first picture. It is not quite large enough for this wing.

Thanks everyone for the likes. The left side of the wing looks much better, so I guess I'll be redoing some of the lines on the right side, plus I have 2 more to do on the left side.

Just another quick update. I had hoped to get the upper wing finished before doing an update but I am not quite there. I have 4 of the 16 tension wires rigged. Once I complete the other 12, I can put on the ailerons and then rig the control wire for them. I am not entirely happy with which hole in the ribs I threaded the tension lines through, causing them to deflect. I think they would have deflected some no matter which hole I chose, but I don't think I made optimal choices here. I'll watch that more closely on the other side of the wing and if it looks a lot better, I'll redo this side. Here's a picture: I've also been working on the engine in parallel. It is done except for the spark plug wires. I found it interesting...for the copper exhaust pipes (not sure if that is accurate but it is the color the instructions recommended) I used some floquil paint that I have that must be 20 or 25 years old. It is still good and I thought it looked great once applied. I don't think modern alclad would look any better. For most of the engine, I used some alclad aluminum and then black panel line accent. The only remaining step on the engine is the somewhat ridiculous attachment of the spark plug wires. They provide some shiny silver wire and say to attach it from the little pointy bits on the back of the engine to the tiny nubs on the cylinders that represent the spark plugs and to paint it black as well. That seems unrealistic to me. In the photos in the instructions, it appears that they soldered the wires. I might try that or maybe I will leave them off as they will be virtually invisible once the engine and cowl are installed. After that, there are only three more subassemblies to build, the struts that go between the wings, the landing gear, and carving the propeller. Once I do those I'll have to take the more drastic step of starting to assemble the bigger pieces, eg. wings to fuselage.

Looks good to me. As said before, a hull like this is typically filled, sanded, and painted so the exact plank lay out may not matter as much. But you are correct that a hull shape like that does not lend itself to some of the normal planking techniques.

Thanks all for the likes and for looking in. I've made a bit more progress. The upper wing is now complete except for the rigging of the tension wires. There are about 20 of them in X patterns along with wing, similar to but more extensive than the lower wing. And I still need to do the upper wing ailerons. In parallel, I've also started assembling the engine. I need to add the 18 valve lifter shafts and then I'll spray the whole thing with some sort of aluminum paint followed by some black wash to accent details. Then I'll add the exhaust and spark plug wires and it'll be done as well. With this model, due to the cowling, not much of the engine detail is visible. Below are a few pictures. Whole wing: Pulley for the line that moves the ailerons, with the small view port to allow checking on the pulley: Nine cylinder rotary engine:

Looks great! You're a master with that alclad chrome paint.

Frankly, that planking looks excellent for a first effort. At some point soon you might want to start going keel down, though figuring out where the first plank by the keel should go might be difficult. There is another build log for this kit that shows the planking in progress. That person chose to plank over the keel but also chose to go keel down at about the point you are at. Here is that log: If the keel is not planked, it might be difficult to bevel the edge of the planks on the bulkheads next to the keel to have a smooth transition between the keel and the planking. Two other thoughts.... - assuming you are planning to fully paint the hull, the main goal of the planking is to get a smooth and fair surface. In other words, there is far more than one "right" way to lay out the planks and get a smooth surface. - the other build log indicated that he just did one layer of planking before painting. Given how smooth your first layer is looking, that might be an option for you as well, unless you just want more planking experience. I guess that the second layer of planking is likely some very thin strips of wood, so either way you will want to make that first layer as smooth as possible.

Looking good. That does appear to be a fairly intricate chassis. You are getting a lot of mileage out of the sawhorses. Hope you are not having to pay royalties to @yvesvidal for that idea

Another possibly helpful tip is to read ahead in the instructions to see what is coming after the planking. Where it says "leave enough space for cutwater positioning", I'd look ahead in the instructions for anything else about the cutwater. The cutwater is the leading edge of the hull, usually a sort of wedge shape, that slices into the water rather than having a blunt area hit the water first. From the instructions, I guess that the kit may provide another piece of wood specifically for this purpose, so the planking instructions are just telling you to take that piece into account when planking. With luck, locating the instructions for that piece will make it more clear how the planking at the very front of the hull should be completed. As for the keel, it is not clear if they expect to plank over the keel or just down to that keel since it appears to be a different type of wood, perhaps the same type as the second layer of planking. If you plank over it, the keel may appear too thick. Also, if the kit supplied any sort of mounting pedestals for the finished boat, it could be that you need to be careful about the width of the keel so that the pedestals still fit. I've done that before....had some brass pedestals that had a slot in the top to fit the keel in but ended up with a keel that was too thick to fit in the pedestals. And welcome to MSW.

That last set of pictures is even better. Thanks for going to the extra effort so that we can all better enjoy your beautiful work.

Much better! Definitely a sweet looking model of a sweet looking car.

Thanks. Fortunately it is not quite as delicate as it looks. And, I think I have said this before, I am very grateful for and happy with the laser cut ribs. They fit fairly snug over the spars so that helps make the whole wing more robust.

Wow, looks great to me! Very nicely done. It seems like there are a lot of Cobra kits out there, but I suspect that they have a lot in common with each other, and lot of the same problems. They were probably mostly created back in the 1970s too. Not sure which one would provide the best starting point for a model. The one I built....I am mostly happy with the result but there are just enough flaws that I'd like to try again, so maybe some day I'll pick up another Cobra and give it a go. Quick note on the photography...it seems like the blue base messes with the automatic color balance of your photos. The first picture that has a bit of the black background looks good to me. But many of the other pictures where there is no black background, just the blue base, the gray car has a greenish tint to me. Maybe if you have some sort of gray base, instead of the bright blue, that you could put the model on when taking pictures, you'd have truer color representation.

Well, so much for being able to fit the completed subassemblies in a shoe box. I've been working on the upper wing and it has a span of about 21 or 22 inches. I've got about another 50 pieces of photo etch to add to the wing, plus the top and bottom of every rib will be covered with a strip of thin wood, as seen in the pictures of the lower wings. Then on to the upper wing ailerons which are pretty much identical to the lower wing ailerons. The upper wing also has some rigging to do, similar to the lower wing. Oh, I think I'll need to get more CA as well, as my bottle is just about empty. I use wood glue when gluing two wood pieces but CA to attach the photo etch to the wood.