king derelict

Going to be a great build Alan

The spike in energy prices in Europe is very unsettling. I completely understand your concern over the need to conserve. I'm heading over there next month to make sure my 97year old dad is ready winter. His heating comes from an oil fired boiler . No prizes for guessing where the cost of fuel oil has gone. Good luck OC. The diorama will wait until the time is right Alan

Very welcome Mark I knew very little about these German midget subs. They were developed late in the war and had a very limited impact on the outcome. Quiet motors and difficult to detect by Asdic they could have been a menace in the English Channel Alan

You are very welcome Ken. I hope you enjoy it. I think this will be more of a magazine article rather than a full length book but its a chance to try a few paint techniques and maybe a diorama seeing as the build is not going to wear me out. Thanks alan

The Berlin Mk10 work continues with addition of the baskets and lockers along with the detail parts. There are a surprising number of small details including PE. The L7 GP MG is really nicely detailed although painful to assemble. The headlight guards are three small pieces that also challenge patience. The continuing problem of pins being too big to fit holes and lugs too large for recesses continued and rather spoilt the fun of adding all the detail. I should have seen it coming after finding the first problems and drilled and filed everything to fit before painting. It was a challenge getting the parts modified to fit at this late stage and trying not to damage the paint scheme or liberate other parts. The Berlin Mk10 is now complete but needs the gun barrel painting (Mig Khaki paint arriving tomorrow) and then a cear coat before a light wash and decals. So what of the orphan - the poor neglected Mk11? Last seen with its base green paint. I masked up for the matt black part of the paint scheme. Paint applied And masks removed. A little of the paint came off the PE skirts (and the PE skirts came off the hull too) I quite like the black / green scheme. Now details get added to this one and finishing paint details. Thanks for looking in and the likes too Alan

I thought this might make an interesting return to small sea models after Campanula. I was a little disappointed in the part count and the moulding quality is not great Just one sprue of parts. Plastic is quite soft. so it is really going to be a painting exercise. Maybe I can try a little chipping - not done that before. The hull halves have no location / alignment features. I used pins through the three lifting eyes to get it all aligned. There is a considerable ridge between the halves to remove So I have most of the major parts in place and should finish the rest ready for primer. Thanks for looking in Alan

Really nice PE work Craig. It looks great alan

I've used BNA a number of times in the last two years and their service has been very good Alan

Beautiful subtle details and sharing Alan

The rigging and the details look splendid Alan

Great idea, Mike. It will be spectacular. The sun prints look very nice too Alan

Prop looks nicely 3 dimensional. Lovely work. I guess card model parts don't suffer from tweezer launches so much but maybe a draught can wreak havoc Alan

This morning was spent with a major effort air brushing primer onto all the detail parts left on the sprues. touching up I had noticed a bit of an odd smell as i worked but just finished the last parts and the compressor started vibrating and air pressure dropped. Shortly afterwards it gave a lurch and expired. It was my first (cheap) compressor and its been good for four years. I rather think I may have overheated it with the big spraying sessions on the corvette hull. I had thought the motor had a fan but stripping it down this afternoon to see if there was anything obviously fixable (there wasn't) I found it didn't have one. Replacement on order. Then onto touching up the paint scheme and adding the detail parts. I decided it was going to get too confusing to try to air brush them before adding them and figuring out which colour they need to be - and most pieces need just a touch with a brush anyway. The fun part was adding the periscopes around the commanders cupola. Nine tiny pieces to space around the cupola rim. Each piece has a lug to fit into the slot but in keeping with all lugs and slots on this build the lugs are oversize and had to be filed in both thickness and width. Naturally one pinged off into never never land but thankfully there is one spare per tank. The remaining details were added fairly painlessly and will be painted appropriately. The baskets and lockers will be panted before going on the turret. Not much more to do to the hull apart from a bit of light weathering. As a garrison vehicle I can't imagine they were allowed to get very grubby. Thanks for looking in and for the likes and kind comments. I hope everyone has a great weekend Alan

Thank you very much Craig. I was wondering if I could pull it off. I just took advantage of a Takom sale to get the 1/35 Chieftain to see how it compares. Alan

Thank you so much Mike. It was a bit like masking those 1/700 scale destroyer decks. Seemed to go on forever but it actually was easier than I thought it would be. One piece at a time. I was very thankful none of the paint peeled off with the tape. Alan

Thank you very much OC. I really need to up my game and try a 1/35 scale AFV Alan

Really nice job Craig, The railings really set it off. Alan

Really excellent work Craig. The detail is so very crisp and the shading subtle. Alan

The last set of masks were added ready for the brown coat. There are some discontinuities in the Takom scheme around the glacis so this is my interpretation using some photos off the internet too. In the end I didn't use the mask guide very much. The skirts were masked using copies of the Takom guide blown up to the same size as the model and the rest were cut using the large copy asa reference. And here we go with the brown coat in place. What a mess! Somewhere under all that might be a Berlin paint scheme. I went and had a cup of coffee to get my nerve up for pulling the masks off. Gulp! So off it all came Thankfully my worst fears were unfounded, The PE engine grills didn't pull off and the paint didn't strip off them wholesale. The track sections, trucks and skirts all stayed in place. The paint didn't peel off from previous layers. There is some bleed through in places where it wasn't possible to get the mask to sit flat but I think it will work. Most of it can be touched up by hand I think. The lockers and baskets still have to be added and a bit of weathering should take care of the rest. I really like the Mig paints on this build; they really seemed to air brush nicely and they didn't life with the masks. I may be a convert from Tamiya. I think this calls for a beer! Thanks for looking in and for the likes Alan

Thank you very much Edward. I really like these 1/72 vehicles (and the detail is really good on some of the brands). I keep thinking about a 1/35 version for comparison. Alan

Good luck with the RL issues OC .. This masterpiece is well worth waiting for Alan

Well, sorry for the (enforced) silence. The landscape guys cut through my internet cable on Wednesday and i just got it restored. Things with the chieftain has been moving forward a lurch at a time. The masks came off the road wheels and they came out quite well The trucks were added to the hull along with the upper sections of the tracks which are trapped in place by the idler wheels. It pretty tight in terms of clearance both in height and width. I had to sand the inside edge of teh tracks to stop them protruding. The skirts are made up of four pieces of PE per side and need to be fitted and carefully aligned. I used tape on the inside to try to make it easier. The PE was dished and needed a bit of rolling to straighten it out The attachment points for the skirts are small and they are a bit fragile. In hindsight I should have added some blutack or similar at the top of the skirt to increase the area for the skirts to rest on. The lower sections of track had looked like a good fit on the jig but with the assemblies on the hull they all turned out to be a little too long. Unfortunately not long enough to remove a link and take up the space. They were all about 1/8th link too long. If I had assembled it all while the glue was drying a link could have been dropped and the extra space lost in careful positioning of the remaining links. I ended up filing the edges of the adjoining links and got a reasonable fit. Its not obvious unless you turn the tank over and look at the pads carefully. We still have dirt and grime to add too. So now we have the basics done and the Mk10 will be focussed on A coat of matt white was given as the starting point for the Berlin paint scheme, And then the masking madness starts. The white sections are now covered. I have read that the Takom scheme is incorrect but it is close to the photos I have seen and is the only comprehensive side / top / front / rear reference I have. This took a lot of the day with several breaks. I have a feeling I should have given it a second coat of white but I was trying to avoid the blank white look even though it will be broken up by the other colours. The day finished with the blue grey paint air brushed on. Now back to masking for the NATO brown coat and then the great (I hope reveal) Thanks for looking in Alan

Thank you, Mike. Now the masking craziness begins Alan

Wonderful work. It looks really excellent Alan

As always the sea base looks so good Alan