king derelict

Thanks Lou I hope you will like it. The kit provides three colour schemes all what i would think as late war. I think I will try what I think is the night scheme of black underside and the leopard light grey and violet grey above Alan

Thanks as always Egilman, Great reference information. I have a nagging feeling that there was a German tilt wing post war Dornier maybe? I haven't had time to dig out that STOVL book Alan

Thanks Brad I think there are a number of variations on the tilt rotor / tilt wing theme. Some were pretty successful even before the digital age. Alan

Definitely Ken Along with his fat Reichsmarshall I think they severely reduced the effectiveness of the Luftwaffe and could be argued paved the way to losing the war. No complaints on my part. The aviation designs and concepts are fascinating though. The Ho229 in particular. Again an early concept that led to things like the YB-49 i think. I have a Ho229 on the wish list Alan

Thank you Yves Its a very well thought out kit so far alan

Some very wild stuff indeed Alan

Craig You are right, I was being a bit frivolous but I do get the impression Hitler wasn't an easy person to tell that the wonder weapons were not working out. As you say their science and arts had some strange and esoteric frontiers all the way to mysticism. Maybe thats a fertile environment for unrestrained thinking Alan

Thanks Jav The leopard camo is going to be interesting. I have a Huckbein and a Me262 HG III in the pile for future indulgences. Alan

Welcome Mark I've been reading up some of my STOVL material and it registered that tilt rotor (like the V-22) requires a surplus of power compared with tilt wing because in tilt rotor you waste thrust blowing on the non-compliant wing. So for the days of limited power (although in STOVL you always have limited power) the Germans made the correct choice. The fixed stub wings might even have given them a little STOVL capability too Alan

I'm with you OC. These models are way over the horizon of my limitations Alan

Thank you very much Yves, You were the pathfinder for this build so some credit goes to you. I was right - I can't reliably lift the case and base solo so I am waiting to recruit someone trustworthy to help with the final move. Alan

Thank you Mike, very kind. The cases are bit basic but at least i can protect the models. I really need a display cabinet but I don't seem to have anywhere to put one so the cases allow me to spread the models around a bit. Alan

Thank you very much. It definitely stretched my ability at times Interesting to know that there are some printable crew figures out there. Thats a shame about the Castle class kit although I printed the Flower hull at 1/72 partly out of curiosity and also to prove to myself that I had a better grip on the 3D printing and it didn't have to be the marathon I went through with the first iteration. The hull still seemed pretty robust at that size but i suspect going a lot smaller would make it a bit fragile. Alan

Thank you OC, An interesting model and fun to make and paint. I have a British X Craft waiting to go on the table once the Luftwaffe make room Alan

Thank you very much Keith, I didn't want to park it on the two cradles provided and I wanted to show it in simulated motion. I have a hankering to try to encase a sub in a resin block. I've seen it done successfully in various places but I was too happy with the paint finish on this one to risk it so that will have to wait for a sub that can be given up more easily. It was good being able to play with the paint on something that wasn't a huge investment to build. Alan

Thank you Ken This gave me some good experience ready for another submarine project to follow soon Alan

Thanks Chris It was a short, fun project Alan

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