king derelict

Thats turning into quite a complicated build but it looks like you are solving everything masterfully. Its a great subject. Alan

Nice printing work Mike alan

Thanks Jack. I will try that for cleaning up the eyes. I'm not sure I aspire to doing the highlights. I think I will have to move up to 120 mm first. Alan

This one has soaked up a lot of time without making much progress. Its by alternative frustrating and rewarding. I put another coat of primer and the wing. fuselage and tailbooms all blended nicely (rewarding) There is definitely a touch of the Fat Albert in this one The messy blue line is down to be covered with masks for the demarcation between the white and pale grey colour scheme which is going to be challenging. I started adding the PE and then decided that there was no way I could mask for painting with the PE in place so I pulled it all off again (frustrating). The kit provides masks for the fuselage stripes but not for the booms. Luckily the masking template came to the rescue to cut some nice regular thin stripes of tape I was just stirring the pot of white paint and realised - I hadn't masked the inner sides of the booms so I also need to paint the blue line and let it harden before putting the masking stripe on (very frustrating) This is the paint scheme and rather grimy finish that I will be generally trying to emulate. It looks like the Rolls-Royce Darts chucked out a lot of oil. Never had much to do with them although they were part of my fleet portfolio at one time. I'm a bit puzzled about the red over wing stripe above the inboard engines. I don't see it as part of the colour scheme and it doesn't seem to fade away like stain would. It looks like there is a vent ahead of it. Hydraulic fluid is usually that colour but it seems a lot. Any thoughts please? Thanks for looking in and teh likes and comments. Alan

I've been experimenting with the base and sorting out problems with interactions between paint / glue and inkjet printing so things have been a bit slow here. Anyway the decaling was finished with mixed results. The decals for the engines and the fuselage stripes were nice and accurate and went on well apart from a tendency to break into pieces. The two that wrap round the cockpit and nose were another matter entirely. They seemed very oversize and misshaped. I had a lot of trimming to do and even then they were not a great fit and eventually I gave up and blended it all in with some black freehand brushwork. A clearcoat is now in place. I need to paint the exhausts, maybe some black wash and add the props to complete the model. So; the base. The idea is to display the model over a period map. I didn't like the maps of Germany I found so I went for a 1939 map of central Berlin. I mirrored the map and printed onto one of those bits of history, an overhead project slide. This means the printing is on the underside of the slide when mounted. I let it sit for a day or so and then airbrushed Vallejo metallic aluminium acrylic over the printing. The paint seems to cause the inkjet print to go a bit sepia which is a nice benefit. On the test piece I did it a bit early and it faded excessively. This will then be laid on top of the black painted base Thanks for looking in and the likes and comments Alan

I picked this up again. I have been focussing on the Condor and Argosy (i get hopelessly distracted with three builds in progress). I've started on the head, its coming out okay although I need to rework the pupils. I just read an article by a 54mm figure painter who not only gets the pupils on a consistent basis but also manages to achieve the white highlight in the pupil. Its time to consider knitting again. In other news Nate arrived from Spain on Friday. A bit slower than usual because the Art Girona folks were at a miniatures show in Germany when the order arrived with them. A different sculptor but it looks very nice Thanks for looking in and for the likes and comments Alan

The interior work is spectacular. I thought it was 1/32 scale; you have it detailed so well Alan

Very nice Jav; the paintwork is excellent. I need to improve my fading and tonal variation on aircraft. Looms very nice. I keep seeing references to Florey washes; nice to see it in action Alan

Beautiful work Craig. The detail is exquisite. Alan

Thank you OC. I nearly stripped it off to try again but I thought I would try to tidy it up by hand and I think it came out well enough to continue. alan

The aerodrome looks a fantastic place to visit. I would really like to take one of their flights too. The masking wasn’t as crisp as I would have liked but I tidied it up by hand and I think it’s acceptable alan

Super job. The wood finish is really nice alan

The aircraft are lovely little models and your PE work is excellent. alan

The carbon fibre effect is very nice, very subtle. Alan

I polished the helmet and added a black wash. The face has been given a coat of grey Vallejo primer to let me see the features better. Then I had to face up to the flag. A few experiments convinced me that the pencil outline / steady hands approach was not appropriate for my skill level so I tried the masking route (boo hiss cheat). Initially that didn't work out much better as I was finding it difficult to generate consistent diamond shapes with the masking tape. Then I remembered that I had this cutting template. And with a new knife blade and an inch of masking tape. I had decent diamonds And these were placed on the flag and given a thin wash of matte clear coat to seal them. I was nervous the thinned blue paint would seep under the masks. The blue paint was brushed on and once hardened I got brave enough to pull teh masks off. Its not completely perfect but I think it will work. A little touch up should improve it and I think its a success for the method. I don't think I would have liked to paint Jacks Albatross that way though. I think a similar approach will be taken to the green bands on the tunic arms. Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments Alan

After a couple of days getting seriously medieval with the tail booms and the wing / fuselage fit the major pieces are assembled and the first round of filler applied. She is a serious tail sitter but I plan to complete her with the doors open and I'm hoping the ramp will put her back on the nose wheel. I need to find a few decent photos of the clam shell door in the open position. The kit provides masks for the port holes (but not enough so some are liquid mask). Once the filler has hardened I will try a coat of primer and see what I have got. Thanks for looking in and the likes and comments Alan

Hi Ken Thats exactly how the Argosy kit is. Plus a mis-shaped parts. It does have some good features; the booms are designed to lock into the wings so they are aligned and fir the tail plane - but if only they fitted the engaging parts. I have the Amodel Firebar too. I'm trying to decide whether to start it in this iteration or complete the Beverley instead. Or make a break for sanity and pick a Firehawk ship are revel in the fit of parts. Alan

Thank you very much OC. The decal work is taking a while but only three more to go now I hope the laptop keyboard issue is getting sorted Alan

Thanks Mike I need to get better at metal finishes. The extensive decals help cover up some of the blemishes. Hopefully I can make the stand work to pull it together. Roden seem a bit hit and miss. I have made some great kits but this is not one of them😄 Alan

Great progress Yves. The gaps between the strips makes the build much harder but you have it very exact and neat. Alan

Mike, the scratch built gear looks spectacular. It definitely repays your efforts. wing looks nice too. alan

The Argosy kit is now showing its true colours and its turning into a bit of a fight. I have been working on the booms and its taken nearly two full days to get them completed. The gear is made up of several pieces shown below and the instructions need a lot of puzzling over to work out how they go together. Parts 25 and 26 make up the exhaust and have to be installed such that they will protrude through the relevant hole in the other side of the boom. Naturally the hole is too small and needs enlarging. There is a tiny actuator (part 74) that I couldn't make sense of and spent an hour or so on the internet to finally work out where it goes - its a bit of a wasted effort though - its going to be completely invisible. The detail is quite impressive for the scale but it was a long tussle to get to the point where the booms could be completed. I made up the outer engine nacelles and then started dry fitting everything to the wing. Nothing fits even closely. I had teh full range of material removing gear in play at some point or other. Th DSPIAE sanding pads bought on impulse are seeing a lot of action on this build. The wing / fuselage interface needed a disturbing amount of material to be removed and the booms were not much better. On the plus side the booms locate well into the wing and should line up and even allow the tail plane to fit properly (I think) The assemblies all fit now and the amount of material removed can be seen. I probably should not have primed anything until it was fully built. So maybe tomorrow I will have some bits assembled. I think nacelles and booms and then the wing onto the fuselage. Hopefully that should be the last of the seriously rough stuff. Thanks for looking in and the likes and comments. Alan

Well, this is turning out to be a humbling experience. Hopefully a learning experience too. My first encounter with metallic paints. I'm using the Vallejo acrylic aluminium paint. For some reason lacquer paints frighten me. The Vallejo paint went on well in thin coats although I think it was drying too fast in the heat of my garage. Maybe I should experiment with some retarding fluid. Its not as good as Alclad but it does have a reasonable shine. It may have benefited from one more coat too but I was a bit concerned with the paint pooling or drying rough. Its okay for a first attempt. I have learnt that you can't hide anything under a metal finish. I thought I had the primer down nicely but I can see all sorts of minor imperfections.. So now I am adding the black decals on the wings and along the fuselage sides. The fuselage one broke in three pieces but I managed to piece it together and my masking sems to have been accurate - the decal covers the masked area with no gaps (so far). I am doing a few decals at a time because I don't want to risk moving ones as I handle it. The acrylic rod shows up tomorrow, the props need adding and the base needs to be completed Thanks for looking in and for the likes and comments Alan

Some of those photos look entirely real. Wonderful work Yves. alan

Beautiful work Craig. Immaculate paint finish and great photos alan