king derelict

Definitely Craig. Paperclip had some controversy but it was practical politics in the postwar world. And some of the concepts were valid but the execution had to wait until the associated technologies were available to enable them. In my field the F-35B has a number of previous concepts in it but needs the massive computing power available today to make it flyable, some of which are actually derivatives of Soviet designs. Very little starts in isolation but is a development of something else. Fascinating stuff Alan

Thank you OC. I think the case will pay for itself in keeping the Campanula in good condition for some time to come Alan

Thanks for joining Egilman. The steadying hand is always welcome. I agree with you I am not very keen on the wild ideas that seem to have come out of Germany towards the end of the war. I assume having a megalomaniac demanding wonder weapons really stimulates the imagination. Although this never made it off the drawing board I think it has its basis in realistic possibility. Weight would be an issue and control and stability in VTOL mode would be interesting but it might have been possible. You only have to look under the hood of an AV-8B to see what you can do with rods, cables and bike chains. Alan

Thanks Craig. I think this is going to be fun and the kit is a delight. Its my first aircraft so I'm right back at the beginning working out order of assembly and basic stuff about colours. As far as I can tell this is the start of the DNA chain that leads to the V=22 Alan

Still on page one and I think its finished! The base started with a piece of closed cell foam of some sort that came as packing for some hardware at work. I added a few offcuts to form the basis for ridges and then worked it over with toilet paper and diluted white glue. Once dry I used acrylics to paint and shade the base and then topped it off with sand in the troughs. This is ceramic dust from my Aedes Ars model. It was all fixed with a coat of matt varnish The model is supported on a 1/8 inch diameter acrylic rod. (8$ for 100 on Amazon - just has to be a use for the remaining 99 7/8 rods). I tried a 1/16 rod but it flexed under the weight of the model and looked naff. I had toyed with giving the base a light spray of grey to blend with the model better but I think I will leave it as is. We will assume its a sunny day topsides in the Baltic Thanks for the helpful comments, the likes and for looking in. I was a bit underwhelmed with the basic model but I really enjoyed the painting exercise and i hope you enjoyed this short interlude Alan

Thank you very much Craig. I'm sure it could be made a bit dressier but I think they look fine and they keep fingers and dust off which is the main point. Its an interesting equation. The PE costs more than the kit and the display case in whatever form costs yet more. Its probably still cheqap for the amountof enjoyment and mental stretching that it takes to complete a good model Alan

Hi Yves I have zero carpentry skills so I can't make one of those lovely cabinets that some of our members do. I also don't want to deal with glass because of breakage and the extra weight. I could buy acrylic sheets from the hardware store and although I have cut them t size using the score and crack technique some problems arise. The scoring works for small pieces but the bigger the piece the more chance that the crack will depart from the scored line it seems. The other issue with doing this is gluing up the case. You really need well finished square edges to butt up against each other and that is not always the case with cracking the sheets. So I use TAP Plastics who sell a variety of plastic sheets and shapes and custom cut an order. Cut to Size, Polycarbonate & Acrylic Plastics : TAP Plastics They have been very good to deal with, reliable and fast (some orders are cut and shipped teh day I order). They also have resins and solvents and all sorts of interesting things that your next project needs Their products are all over the house. I generally use their extruded acrylic sheet (its cheaper) and I find the 3/16 inch thickness works well for me. Its thick enough to glue well and it doesn't flex at my usual sizes (although this one was a bit wobbly until the lid was put in place. The glue is their acrylic solvent which welds the panels together. I was a bit concerned about it being strong enough for these large panels but it has worked fine. It has the consistency of water so care is needed to avoid getting it on the panels where it isn't wanted. It works by capillary action pulling the solvent into the joint. The machine cut edges make this work well but care is needed when setting the case up to glue. Whatever method you use it must not have any elements touching the joints otherwise the solvent will wick back out of the joint and onto the case. So tape is not a good method. I use the corner clamps (cheap on Amazon) and the frame clamps I use a brush to apply the solvent to the joint but in this case i used a syringe with a fine needle. It needs careful handling because the solvent is watery enough to fall out of the needle without pressure on the syringe I use a base sheet which matches the outer dimensions of the case and a smaller piece which matches the inner dimensions (with a bit of slack for tolerances). The sides of the case can them be lowered onto the base and the inner piece locates the sides. In this case the base will be MDF board but still with an acrylic base on top TAP sell right angled rods so I also got one of those It was used to make locating pieces for the top piece which will be separate in this case (to try to reduce weight a bit when its lifted into place. The case is 50 x 24 x 12 inches and it cost $338 delivered. The 50 inch sides are over UPS standard length so an $18 surcharge was incurred. Shipping totaled about $80. It seems like a lot of money but its a huge case and I don't think I could have got a ready made case for anything close to that I hope this makes sense and you find it useful Alan

Thank you very much Egilman. I don't think I would have finished this without the feedback and support from the forum members. Some great help and kind comment there. As i look at the finished model I am very glad i finished the marathon. To my eyes it came out how I was hoping it would. Hopefully a testimony to the men who served in those desperately uncomfortable small ships. Alan

ike Well, a Maine Coon cross really. I got her and her sister as kittens from the local rescue place four years go. They are turning out to be great little companions. Alan

Lovely Lewis gun Alan

Display case for Campanula waiting to dry, Seehund base drying so I wanted something to work on that wouldn't take too long while other things were on hold. This is the VTOL concept Weserflug P1003 in 1/48 scale. I'm not sure if it counts as Luft46 material given that it was a prewar concept that never made it off paper. In essence it has a valid concept but as with all STOVL aircraft the devil is in the details. The two big issues are usually weight vs thrust (its a direct relationship in VTOL) and control. Tilt wing and tilt rotor have culminated in the V-22 and the complexity of the control system is staggering. This was to have been a two man crew with a single fuselage mounted engine driving the overlarge propellors. With driven shafts and gearboxes weight must be an issue and controlling the wing movement must be an issue. With limited wing in the flight plane the aircraft would have to be VTOL rather than STOVL I would think which limits weight even more and the in-air transition would be more exciting. I have spent more than half my career on non-helo STOVL aircraft so I'm a bit of an easy sell for this kit. I'm happy to park my doubts and see how it comes out. The kit comes with a nice big instruction booklet with three colour schemes (all fictitious of course) generally using the leopard spot camouflage in one way or other. Decent sized assembly drawings I doubt this is a recommended flight configuration The sprues are nice and clean, No flash or major mould lines and reasonable injection points to the parts. So fr the parts fit beautifully. Every locating pin fits its partner hole and it is delight to put together. Its a single seat cockpit (weight limitations must have ruled out that second crew member). The main landing gear is very nicely done, made up of four pieces with an arm that clips into lugs in the main leg and then swings down into position in the fuselage. So far this seems to be a very well thought out kit regardless of the authenticity of the finished model. It looks like being a nice side project and I hope you enjoy seeing it come together. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thanks Greg I added a light touch of rust wash and moved onto the base Alan

Volunteer for smoke production on full alert Some great diorama ideas here. Alan

A visit from a friend convinced me a display case was necessary. "What's this?" "Don't touch" What's this now"" "DON'T TOUCH" Got a bit strained for a while. So after a tour of the state due to the storm chaos the precut acrylic panels arrived last night. The case will be 53 x 24 x 12 inches. The perceptive may already see a problem. The baseboard got a couple of coats of matt black. I clamped up and bonded the side pieces. It was a real fight getting the pieces into place initially. They are big enough to be very unwieldy. A few scratche need to be polished out but it looks fine and is quite solid. Next, the top piece and finishing the base. The upcoming problem? I'm not sure I'm going to be able to lift the finished case into place. 🙂 Thanks for looking in Alan

Your photos are first class. Lovely crisp detail and colour rendition. The model is excellent. Really nice paint details Alan

For me Mr Color Metal Primer has made a big difference compared with Vallejo primer on the PE. Paint seems to stick better and doesn't peel off so easily. Very nice progress. I need to get back to 1/700 again Alan

Mike This is a spectacular work. The seascape is stunning and the rigging is amazing. The use of figures really brings the model to life. This is one to be really proud of. I hope it has a prominent dust free home. Great work. I think I will take p knitting Alan

Good Luck with the eyes Jack. This looks like a fun and interesting build while things are returning to normal Alan

Well. last night was my first attempt to use a filter and I thought I had ruined all the earlier work. I brushed on a light coat of AK Blue for Panzer Grey filter and it looked like everything had disappeared under a monochrome blue coat. I decided that things might look better after a beer (as they often do) and left for the night. This morning the filter has dried and the detail is back. I think the filter has subtly blended the shades together so we have an improvement over the raw patterns earlier. Some touch up needed while I decide on the rust. I'm somewhat against it given that these craft didn't have very long service lives in the water. I may add a little around the hatch in the rudimentary conning tower Thanks for looking in and the likes and comments Alan

One of the very best. And a great subject too Alan

Good Luck at the show. The rigging just amazes me, well beyond anything I can do Alan

Thank you Greg. I'm happy for a first attempt. I have the AK Blue for Panzer Grey filter so I'll give it a try. Its unopened so another first. With so few parts in the kit and a decent size its an ideal subject to experiment on. Alan

Thanks, its a learning exercise

Spectacular work Alan

Excellent work. I can't even line up biplane wings on plastic models Great stuff Alan