Captain Slog

Hi all,
 
I have been a bit slack in updating this log as progress is now up to Part 13 on YouTube but thought I would show what I have been working on for a future episode.
 
I recently purchased a decent soldering station specifically for photo etch and have been using it successfully for items such as PE hatches but really wanted to push my abilities by using it on smaller multi-part assemblies.
 
These are the Pontos 3” guns, which there are a total of 16 with 15 parts per gun and I completed 2 guns as a proof of concept to see if I can fully solder them which I managed to do.  A few lessons learned in the order of assembly should make the subsequent ones quicker, easier and neater.
 
The beauty for me over gluing, is that with small multi-part PE assemblies I usually end up knocking off previously glued parts when attaching new parts or sometimes just in handling.  The soldering makes them very sturdy knowing they aren’t going to fall/break apart if dropped etc. 
 

 

 

 
 
Cheers
Slog
 
 
 

Hi all,
 
I have been a bit slack in updating this log as progress is now up to Part 13 on YouTube but thought I would show what I have been working on for a future episode.
 
I recently purchased a decent soldering station specifically for photo etch and have been using it successfully for items such as PE hatches but really wanted to push my abilities by using it on smaller multi-part assemblies.
 
These are the Pontos 3” guns, which there are a total of 16 with 15 parts per gun and I completed 2 guns as a proof of concept to see if I can fully solder them which I managed to do.  A few lessons learned in the order of assembly should make the subsequent ones quicker, easier and neater.
 
The beauty for me over gluing, is that with small multi-part PE assemblies I usually end up knocking off previously glued parts when attaching new parts or sometimes just in handling.  The soldering makes them very sturdy knowing they aren’t going to fall/break apart if dropped etc. 
 

 

 

 
 
Cheers
Slog
 
 
 

Hi all,
 
I have been a bit slack in updating this log as progress is now up to Part 13 on YouTube but thought I would show what I have been working on for a future episode.
 
I recently purchased a decent soldering station specifically for photo etch and have been using it successfully for items such as PE hatches but really wanted to push my abilities by using it on smaller multi-part assemblies.
 
These are the Pontos 3” guns, which there are a total of 16 with 15 parts per gun and I completed 2 guns as a proof of concept to see if I can fully solder them which I managed to do.  A few lessons learned in the order of assembly should make the subsequent ones quicker, easier and neater.
 
The beauty for me over gluing, is that with small multi-part PE assemblies I usually end up knocking off previously glued parts when attaching new parts or sometimes just in handling.  The soldering makes them very sturdy knowing they aren’t going to fall/break apart if dropped etc. 
 

 

 

 
 
Cheers
Slog
 
 
 

Hi all,
 
I have been a bit slack in updating this log as progress is now up to Part 13 on YouTube but thought I would show what I have been working on for a future episode.
 
I recently purchased a decent soldering station specifically for photo etch and have been using it successfully for items such as PE hatches but really wanted to push my abilities by using it on smaller multi-part assemblies.
 
These are the Pontos 3” guns, which there are a total of 16 with 15 parts per gun and I completed 2 guns as a proof of concept to see if I can fully solder them which I managed to do.  A few lessons learned in the order of assembly should make the subsequent ones quicker, easier and neater.
 
The beauty for me over gluing, is that with small multi-part PE assemblies I usually end up knocking off previously glued parts when attaching new parts or sometimes just in handling.  The soldering makes them very sturdy knowing they aren’t going to fall/break apart if dropped etc. 
 

 

 

 
 
Cheers
Slog
 
 
 

Hi all,
 
I have been a bit slack in updating this log as progress is now up to Part 13 on YouTube but thought I would show what I have been working on for a future episode.
 
I recently purchased a decent soldering station specifically for photo etch and have been using it successfully for items such as PE hatches but really wanted to push my abilities by using it on smaller multi-part assemblies.
 
These are the Pontos 3” guns, which there are a total of 16 with 15 parts per gun and I completed 2 guns as a proof of concept to see if I can fully solder them which I managed to do.  A few lessons learned in the order of assembly should make the subsequent ones quicker, easier and neater.
 
The beauty for me over gluing, is that with small multi-part PE assemblies I usually end up knocking off previously glued parts when attaching new parts or sometimes just in handling.  The soldering makes them very sturdy knowing they aren’t going to fall/break apart if dropped etc. 
 

 

 

 
 
Cheers
Slog
 
 
 

Got a smidge done so far -- cockpit bits. The intermediate-level nature of the kit is evidenced by the mix of 3-D detail parts and plain 2-D printed surfaces. No provision is made for glazing the instrument panel.
 

Finished!!! 

One barge to go 

First cuts 'n' glues. I've never built a kit like this that has the wing spars as part and parcel of the cockpit framing -- just seems to me like a good way to snap the spars off accidentally. But I will try to be extra careful moving forward. As I said earlier, the Wildcat is not as beefy as the Hellcat, but it's still bigger than I had imagined. The next -cat I build will have to be the relatively diminuitive Bearcat. But don't get your hopes up -- I don't actually have one in my stash.
 

Ok, pretty much done. Talk about a project that gets out of hand . 
IMG_3829.mov

Ahoy!
 
Well, it is time to start a new build log. For those of you who might be saying, "Hey, don't you already have, like, three other unfinished builds in progress?", I will simply observe that what you say is true, but I'm starting a new log anyway, so there! Anyways, I haven't been doing much modeling lately because I have a six-month-old, very active puppy, and for that same reason I may not make speedy progress on this model, either, but we'll see.
 
The Subject
 
The subject of this log is Leroy Grumman's famous F4F-4 Wildcat. I won't go into too much detail about this airplane, because if you are reading this then you are probably sufficiently airplane nerdy to already have a good grasp of the Wildcat's place in history. It will suffice here to say that the Wildcat was America's front-line, carrier-borne fighter for the first year-and-a-half of the country's war against Japan. Although the Wildcat is frequently compared unfavorably with the Mitsubishi A6M 'Zero', I think it is fair to say that the Wildcat, when flown to its strengths by a skilled aviator, could hold its own in a scrap with the Japanese fighter. You can read more about the Wildcat here.
 
The Kit
 
The kit is a brand new offering from the Polish firm of WAK. In fact, at the time of this writing the kit is still listed as 'NEW' on the company's website. This will actually be the first time I have ever worked on a hot-off-the-press kit, so you should all feel fortunate to be among the first to see one of these being built -- perhaps not likely to be among the first to see one finished, but close enough. The kit is designed by Jerzy Janukowicz, with artwork by Marcin Dworzecki, who is famous in the card modeling world for his work done for Kartonowy Arsenal (Halinski). Let's have a look, shall we?
 
The kit depicts the personal mount of the famous Lt. Cdr. John S. "Jimmy" Thach, the man who perfected the "Thach weave," a combat tactic that allowed a Wildcat pilot and his wingman to get a drop on the more maneuverable Zero. As you can see in the photo, I also have the laser-cut frames for the kit. Now, I took a bit of a gamble by not buying a canopy for this kit, since I already had one on hand, albeit for the ancient Halinski F4F-3 kit. I'm not aware of any changes made by Grumman to the canopy for the dash-4, so I'm cautiously optimistic that the dash-3 canopy will fit.
 

 
Lots of lovely diagrams.
 

 
And beautiful graphics. Don't be alarmed by the printed wheels -- there's an option to build the kit wheels-up, which I will probably not elect to build.
 

 

 
The back cover has pictures of the prototype model.
 

 
A nice touch in this kit is the inclusion of instructions in English.
 
To wrap up this introduction, I thought you all might like to see a little comparison of this kit with the older Halinski F4F-3 kit published in 1998.
 

 

 
A side-by-side view of the graphics (I don't believe Marcin did the art for this Halinski kit) reveals the nearly complete lack of weathering on the older kit (at left). The difference in detail is even more stark for the cockpit interiors (not shown) -- the older kit has almost no three-dimensional details at all.
 

 
Well, that's it for the introduction -- hope to get started soon!
 

Hi All, thanks for all the likes and comments.

Starting on the amidships assemblies with a couple of winches.

 
 
The winches have some kind of frame or brake band made from 0.2mm brass wire. 
 
 
Finished ready for installation.  Some discrepancies in the indicted parts positions meant pulling some of the assembly apart to correct.


 
 
Installed in their location on the deck.

 
Cheers
Slog

Okay, so I have made a tiny amount of progress on this build. As you know, I have a now five-month-old puppy on my hands, which is like having a toddler in the house. To make matters worse, my wife had to travel to California for a month, so I've been taking care of the toddler, er, puppy all by myself during that time. Needless to say, modeling time has been precious scarce.
 
Regarding the 3D parts we last spoke about, my initial impressions have been more or less borne out. The 3"/50s are indeed nice. Do they look like the real thing or even like the kit guns? I can't say for certain -- they're just too small for me to tell easily. At the very least, they are satisfyingly lumpy and bumpy, and I think anyone will be hard pressed to notice if they are faithful reproductions or not at stand-off viewing distances.
 
The 1.1" mount, despite the poor barrel shapes, does have some astonishingly fine details molded into it, although at the small scale a viewer may wonder whether they're details or imperfections in the print. I ran into a couple of difficulties with the mount. First, it proved impossible to replace the unsatisfactory barrels with the much better barrels that came with the earlier set of parts I received from Darius. The good barrels won't fit into the mount. So my choices were either use the bad barrels or build the mount from kit parts to use with the good barrels. I chose the first option. The 3D mount had separate parts for the trainers' seats. One seat had a footrest, but the other's footrest had broken off and was nowhere to be found. No problem there, though -- while trying to glue the bits together, the first seat's footrest likewise broke off (the plastic is very brittle), and my tweezers subsequently flung the tiny, tiny footrest off into that Dimension of Lost Parts. So now neither seat has footrests.
 
I went ahead and glued the aft 3"/50 and 1.1" mounts into their tubs. There's no rigging in that vicinity, so they should be safe from getting knocked around.
 

 
Cheers!
 

Hi, I'm no expert, currently working on my 1st plastic ship but will give my thoughts.
 
I would be reluctant to keep sanding due to the amount of filler to remove but instead use a curved knife blade to scape the excess filler down to the original plastic again so as to have a fresh surface to start again.  You don't mention what type of filler you used but I made sprue goo (plastic sprues dissolved with Tamiya Extra Thin, TET) and applied it very localised on the seam with a toothpick. Takes time to apply but quicker than sanding excess afterwards.
 
The benefit of sprue goo is because it is made from TET it is 'hot' and melts into the seam line so that the seam doesn't keep reappearing again after final sanding. Then progressively sand down with finer and finer paper.
 
I've attached the link below from my build log and if you scroll down to Part 4 you will see how I did the hull seam lines, which is in more detail in the Part 4  YouTube video linked there also.
 
Cheers
Slog
 
 

Thanks Slog - I looked at your log and will watch the video. 

Hi, I'm no expert, currently working on my 1st plastic ship but will give my thoughts.
 
I would be reluctant to keep sanding due to the amount of filler to remove but instead use a curved knife blade to scape the excess filler down to the original plastic again so as to have a fresh surface to start again.  You don't mention what type of filler you used but I made sprue goo (plastic sprues dissolved with Tamiya Extra Thin, TET) and applied it very localised on the seam with a toothpick. Takes time to apply but quicker than sanding excess afterwards.
 
The benefit of sprue goo is because it is made from TET it is 'hot' and melts into the seam line so that the seam doesn't keep reappearing again after final sanding. Then progressively sand down with finer and finer paper.
 
I've attached the link below from my build log and if you scroll down to Part 4 you will see how I did the hull seam lines, which is in more detail in the Part 4  YouTube video linked there also.
 
Cheers
Slog
 
 

I use 'easy' grade silver solder paste from a syringe but applied with a needle for tiny components and succesfully use it on 0.2mm brass wire.
The paste is sticky and once in place doesn't blow off with the torch.
Obtained from a jewellers supply shop.
 
Slog

Although I only have one plastic kit under my belt since my return to modelling I have came close to knocking over the Tamiya Extra Thin glue a couple of times narrowly avoiding destroying my cutting mat, which prompted the purchase below.
 
I really like the Dspiae products and think they have found a niche, providing well engineered products with quality packaging that Apple would be proud of.
 
The glue bottle holder comes in a nice solid thick walled box (although mine looks like its well travelled!), with an internal lid with a Thank you and some basic instructions.  The lid has high density foam on the underside which is handy for rolling photo etch and paper parts into curves. Bonus!

 
The box holds the glue bottle holder and underneath is a sheet of  very thin self-adhesive plastic like material (but behaves like rubber) which is required to be stuck on the bottom providing a great deal of slip resistance when placed on a cutting mat.

 
Rubber stuck on the base and a bottle of glue inserted.  There is a fair bit of space round the Tamiya bottle but bear in mind this is designed for other manufacturer’s products such as Mr Hobby, Ammo etc who have all seemed to go down the square glass bottle route.

 
Is it worth the A$30 it cost?  Not really as there are dozens of zero cost DIY options such as hacking a square in a block of foam or making it from card etc.; but to me Yes it is worth it.  Who doesn’t love a chunk of beautifully machined and red anodised aluminium doing nothing more than holding a bottle of glue.  I smile to myself whenever I look at its extravagance.
 
Cheers
Slog

It’s hello again from Jeff, some acrylic paints and brushes arrived today for me to experiment painting some detailing on ships boats so fortunately I have some extra boats for practice work, so going to dive in the deep end and see if I can swim. 🤪 took some more photos in a better light as my camera skills are zero. Still trying to tweak the masts slightly, might just manage to steal a little bit I hope, no pain no gain as they say. 🤞

Started on fitting the jib to this mast had to make some minor alterations because of gun tub position, the wire etch running down to jib support had to be rethought and reworked ie passing through the gun tub. My answer is total speculation as there’s no information as to where the cables run to, Pontos just stop the etch at the jib support to the mast, they must have gave up as well, I would have thought the winches on main deck were for the jib, but can’t even remotely see how it might work, plus no winches on forward mast so I’m just burying my head in sand on this one. 😂 also  altered some of etch from pulleys on mast as deemed them a little heavy, so cut of and replaced with 0.2 wire, did this on fore mast as well, much cussing and swearing trying to get this all to work, have came to the conclusion that metal etch rigging can be a bitch. 😳
 
 

Hi guys, a quick update on my Mikasa build. Still on the mast, have added more rigging and etch. 

Hi, I made chains out of wire and silver soldered them which was a first for me also. They were also blackened. It can be found in my Endevour build log which you would have to search for as it’s been many years since I updated it.
 
cheers
Slog

I just checked out your build log.  This will be helpful.  
 
Thanks.
 

Hi, I made chains out of wire and silver soldered them which was a first for me also. They were also blackened. It can be found in my Endevour build log which you would have to search for as it’s been many years since I updated it.
 
cheers
Slog

I am starting a new topic as the last one just got huge....over 2000 replies.
 
Its fitting that I would do so today actually.   Today marks ten years since I have started Syren.  Its been a long and interesting journey.  Ten years and miles and miles of rope made and thousands and thousands of blocks sold.   Here's to the next ten years.  Maybe not that long, LOL.
 
For a bit of news....I have finally received the parts to maintain my CNC Mill.  So blocks are on tap over the next few weeks.  In fact I have already started.   3/32" singles and doubles are now in stock.   More will follow. Although half of the 3/32" singles already sold out.  UGH!
 

 
Onward and upward as they say.
 
Chuck