gsdpic

Thanks and sorry to hear about your fitting problems. Seems the Fokker is much more cast metal and photo etch and those are far less forgiving than wood. I can identify with the considering giving up. I usually just set it aside for a few months and work on something else.

Nice start, the planking looks excellent. Xebecs always look to me like the sports cars of the ship world. My "build someday" list definitely includes one, we'll see.

Ok, after a break for several plastic cars, I have just resumed a bit of work on the sopwith camel. No pictures of it yet, all I have done is glue on the lower wing sections. But I might have found a solution I like for all my quandaries about the rigging. I found some "stainless steel thread". I think it is similar to the beading wire but without the clear plastic coating, so a bit more thread like (i.e. more flexible). You can see below that I was even able to tie a knot in it, though the knot wanted to loosen so they will need to be secured with some CA. I have also wondered about using a tiny drop of solder to secure the thread. When cut, it does unravel a bit. But if you first put a drop of CA where you plan to cut, it does not unravel and is just thin enough to fit through the smaller holes in the photoetch parts. I've not actually attempted to use it on the model yet, just done some experiments with it. So, what is the source of this stuff? I got it off of amazon but it originally comes from "adafruit". They sell a variety of accessories intended for use with Arduino controllers. This thread is intended to be used if you want to add Arduino controlled LEDs to your clothing. 🤷‍♂️ I got the "medium" size, though they also have a smaller size as well. Here's a link to the stuff on the adafruit web site: https://www.adafruit.com/product/641

Looks like a lot of details there. And I thought I recognized the "Tarheel Hal" livery. The first picture below is from the 2011 Wings over Houston air show. The other three are from an air show in 2006 in San Antonio, Tx, I believe it was at Lackland Air Force Base. Back then they had an air show every fall that alternated between Lackland and Randolph AFB, so it was one of those two.

I'll follow along too, though I was really hoping you'd get back to that yellow Ferrari next

Wow, stunning result, well done! I'm not a warplane guy but seeing this makes me want to give it a try.

This seems to work though it can be refined if needed. Click on the "More search options" button, the click on "topics" and "content titles only". When you select "topics" it will show a new drop down in which you can select the "build logs for kits" and "build logs for scratch built" forums to further limit where it searches.

And maybe I should add, the progress looks great and maybe you'll have better luck with the kit supplied rigging than I have.

Interesting. So @Mike Dowling, on the model expo sopwith camel, the control lines are made to actually move the control surfaces? I am working on the Artesania Latina Sopwith Camel and the control lines are there but the control surfaces are not actually hinged, so nothing moves. I have no idea if the Fokker Dr.1 is supposed to have moveable control surfaces. Edit: Oh, I see it confirmed that the control surfaces are not moveable. But, I agree that figuring out a good material for all the rigging would be helpful. And if you manage to do it, let us know because so far I have failed. The AL Camel has some black fishing line and some thicker black thread and I am not crazy about either one. The fishing line does not tie well, making it at times difficult to get it to stay taut, and the black thread is too thick to fit through some of the holes in photo etched parts, making it more difficult to deal with and the slight fuzziness of the thread looks completely unrealistic. I also tried some multi strand beading wire. It looks more realistic (except perhaps the crimps to hold the ends together) but is difficult to get it taut as well.

Well done! Looks like you've been doing this for years, not just your second military aircraft.

Wow! I get tired of raking and bagging when I am on about bag number 5! At least I have fewer leaves after last year's ice storm took a huge chunk out of my nicest live oak The mustang is looking good. Looks like you are overcoming the challenges presented by the kit.

Wow, looks like an ambitious project for your first scratch build. But based on your past projects I am sure you'll be up to the challenge and produce a beautiful model. I'll follow along with interest.

Interesting craft. Am I reading the scale right, your model will be just under one foot long? That might make those railings and other details more challenging.

I happened to be in Galveston over the weekend and saw the USS Texas. Below is a shot of her from the Texas Seaport Museum, with the Elissa in the foreground. Apparently the Texas will be refloated very soon but it will be another year or two before they complete the deck and superstructure restoration. Eventually she will be moved to a pier just next to the seaport museum and re-opened. I also went to the Galveston railroad museum while there and they had a temporary exhibit about the USS Texas with a few artifacts, and about 25 signs with highlights of the ship's history and photos as well. For more info and more photos and videos, https://battleshiptexas.org/

Amazing details being brought forward on this jet. Looking forward to seeing it completed. Those extra decals look good but I've never seen a sheet of decals so packed together. Better not let the scissors slip at all when cutting them out. And as everyone has said, congrats on the retirement. I am about 10 months in on my retirement and still adjusting. Though I don't have an admiral around to "help" with the adjustment.

Nice, I'll follow along. I checked out the kit, parts list, and instructions on the Artesania Latina web site. Looks like it will be an interesting challenge, and I say that being about 75% through their Sopwith Camel. (Though it is currently on the shelf again). The Fokker definitely has more metal parts and fewer wood parts than the Camel. And it looks like it has a few more places to attempt the fake wood grain paint look, and those parts are more conspicuous.

Excellent! Beautiful, well built model and very sleek, professional looking case. Thanks for letting us all follow along on your journey.

And I'd recommend using a new, freshly opened bottle. Over time, once opened, CA seems to take longer and longer to grab and to cure.

Thank You. I kind of wanted to use the alclad polished aluminum, but they recommend to not use decal solution on their "high shine" paints and I knew I would need decal solution on at least some of the many decals. And in my experience you need to be very careful about what clear coat you use over the alclad paints.

Thanks as always for the likes. And here we have it, both models completed! Overall I enjoyed this project and felt the kits were pretty decent though not quite up to Tamiya standards. I have mixed feelings about the photo etch parts. I don't enjoy working with them and many of them would have been (near) invisible on the finished model. I probably used half or less. Maybe if you were detailing a model and showing it with doors open and wheels off it would make more sense to use all the photo etch parts. The decals with the Martini kit went ok, though I did tear a few of them. The third party decals for the Gulf car seemed a bit stronger though there were no large decals to apply. Unfortunately a couple of them bubbled up a bit when I applied the clear coat (Tamiya X-22 plus Mr Color Leveling Thinner). One huge win was getting the black "paint marker" and using that around the edges of the windows and clear parts for the head lights. That worked very well I think, and was fairly easy to do. I feel like each kit I do, I improve a bit, so that is something. Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures of the Gulf car then both cars together. Enjoy!

Nice work on the chrome foil. Do you just depend on the adhesive on the foil or do you do something more to ensure it stays where you put it?

Glad to see you back at work on this, it is looking good!

Thanks, as always, for the likes. Getting close to the end now. In fact, I have completed the Martini Racing car but still have work to do on the Gulf car. Below are a few pictures of the former.

Thanks all for taking a look and clicking the ol' like button. I've now completed the chassis for the Martini car. This time I took a few more intermediate pictures to try to show some of the steps of constructing the rear structure. Also note that this is the one that I received painted blue and partially started. You can see some remnants of the blue paint in these pictures. Also, the plastic pin for the left front wheel had apparently been broken or lost and replaced but the front wheel did not quite fit right, so it is now attached with CA and does not rotate. Oh well. Here I've added the X shaped piece in the back, and one piece on each side with vertical pipes to support the upper structure: And now I've added the upper structure with the spare tire, air intakes, and tail lights: Added a couple more supports for the upper structure: Added the rear fender liners and the top half of the engine: And finally added the wheels: This was easier the second time around, though still a bit fiddly. The parts fit together fairly well, though in some cases the locator pins were a bit lacking, such as on those angled support between the lower and upper structure. The end of the support with the point of the V shape did not have much of a pin to fit into the hole provided in the lower structure. I just sort of lined it up, put on a drop of Tamiya extra thin cement, and held it there for a bit. I hope that is enough to keep it in place....it is definitely something I don't want to touch or put any pressure on during the rest of the build. I still need to do the seatbelts on the Gulf car, then it is on to detailing the bodies.

The finish is looking great. One of these days I'll work up the nerve to go through all the steps to try to achieve such a shiny finish....just not on a build like my current one with a lot of decals....too much fear of sanding/polishing through the clear and ruining them.