realworkingsailor

I would add IHYLS (I Hope You Learned Something) to that list. Sometimes his pronunciations can be a bit jarring, but, he does inject a good deal of wit and humour in his videos. I think Rex has mentioned him in a couple episodes of his own. But yes, wading through the tsunami of AI slop that is propagating through YouTube is getting to be a pain. I wonder if it is worth creating a post on here where we can curate a list of reliable, accurate and non-AI military history channels that are worth watching? Andy

I think your scene is pretty crowded, busy and colourful as it is, the column seems to both disappear in the activity while reducing the “breathing space”. It might fit better in a simpler, larger, scene. Andy

Say it like Boromir 😆

I hope everyone had a good Christmas! I have been busy the last couple of days painting the No. 19 Radio set and all its various components, and getting the final bits assembled. I took my cues from a restored version found on wikipedia, as well as a few unrestored radios, to determine what colour would be appropriate. The outer casing looked to be a dark grey/green colour, and the face plate a blue-grey. I used a mix of Vallejo RAF Dark Slate Grey and RAF Dark Green for the casing, and the front guards and Vallejo RAF Ocean Grey for the faceplate. The front guards where painted on the PE fret, as it would have made painting the various dials, switches and knobs rather challenging. I painted the microphone and headset black, and the wires in a khaki colour. (Apologies for the out of focus image, the parts are being held by the fine wire, and they jiggle around at the slightest waft of air). I still need to figure out where on the radio set they plugged in. A couple of other control boxes I also painted RAF Ocean grey. The only thing left to paint is the antenna mast that will be mounted behind the driver's door. All of the remaining parts will be mounted in and around the work table I made earlier. As always, thanks for the kind comments and "likes", always very appreciated! Andy

The Airfix 1/48 Lysander might be of interest, although not open cockpit, the canopies can be left open. Definitely quirky! Great job on the Arado, though! Andy

Thanks Ken! I may have mentioned before, but this is definitely not a kit for beginners! There’s considerable ambiguity to be navigated. While many parts have some indication as to where they are to join (shallow recesses or slack locator pins), it’s hardly what anyone would call a “positive fit”. In other cases it’s up to the modeller to figure out on their own. The instructions are a black and white 3D CAD rendering type with and exploded view showing the parts and their orientation, beside a completed view: But as far as what order the parts go on in each step???? (Also looking at the part numbers, the engine has parts from no less than three different sprues and some PE, other assemblies I could count at least six sprues were needed) Of course, none of this is helped by me going off on a scratch building tangent for the cargo bed! 😜 No matter how you slice it, this kit, (and its IBG cousins), is a project, but if you’re willing and able to tough it out, the results will be worth it. Andy

With the approaching holidays, things have slowed down noticeably, but I think I have enough done to qualify for some form of an update. This will likely be the last until after Christmas. Most of the work I've managed lately has been with the chassis. I did, however, get the seats painted and glued in the cab. The seats were not without some small challenges. The cushions were fairly straightforward, but because of accessibility, I had to use CA glue to attache the forward ends to the bases. Regular cement was used at the rear. The seat backs are not held on by very much, just a small scarf joint on the uprights. Annoyingly, even though the frames were all aligned and square (the cushions have a couple of notches that line up with the lower part of the vertical backrest frames), they still ended up being a fraction too wide. It took tome time and faffing about to get the backrests to stay where they were stuck, but they remain fragile. The sooner I can get the cab back and roof on the better (a couple of small things to do yet, and that will happen). As for the chassis, the wheels, engine, radiator and exhaust have now been added: I gave the engine and any mechanical components a black acrylic wash to lend a bit of a greasy, oily look and bring out some of the details. Most of these bits will be hard to see once everything is assembled. The exhaust was another tricky component to add as it lacks any positive locating points. There's only a butt joint where the pipe meets the manifold and a peg on the plate above the muffler (but no corresponding hole in said muffler). To add to all that, the tail pipe slopes downwards from the muffler in order to clear the fuel tank. This is not evident in the installation instructions for the muffler, but it shows up a few steps later. As a bonus feature, I have also drilled out the end of the tailpipe so it actually looks like a tail pipe and not a solid cylinder of plastic poking out from underneath. Finally, since I was on a roll working on the wheels earlier (pun intended), I finished the spare tire mount that sits between the cab and the rear compartment. This was one of those weird "gotcha" parts to build. Everything I'd seen in the instructions, and from what I determined when dry fitting, indicated to me that I had to keep the spare tire separate in order to facilitate painting, as the brackets would not allow the tire to be added if I had glued them on first. Well.... turns out that assumption was very much incorrect. After I painted and assembled everything as per my plan (I didn't glue the spare in, thinking the brackets were enough to hold it in place), I picked up the now completed assembly up by the tire to put it in a safe place, only for the tire to slide ever so smoothly up and out from between the now solidly glued brackets..... facepalm.... Anyway, thanks to everyone who is following along and throwing in the odd "like"! Andy

All looking great! I’d be careful though, one wrong move and it looks like World War One might break out on that cabinet shelf! 🤪 Andy

I found one in 1/48 scale here in Canada: https://wheelswingshobbies.com/hph48011r-hph-models-1-48-ship-s-catapult-for-arado-ar-196-pre-owned-10117994/?searchid=0&search_query=Catapult+ Maybe you could use it as a basis for scratch building a scaled up version? Or, conversely, build another Arado in 1/48 scale? Andy

A small Saturday update. I've been picking away at some smaller parts the last few days. I've so far managed to get all the resin components of the No 19 radio set sorted out and off their casting blocks. Not much to see yet until after painting and assembly. I've also managed to sort out my dashboard! When I was researching this kit a while ago, I noticed Scalemates had an Eduard PE detail set listed as an aftermarket upgrade. Clicking on the uploaded instructions, Eduard would have you cut out a print of the dash and glue it in place. I simply downloaded the instructions, scaled the dash to the right size on white paper, then printed on some blank decal paper I had kicking around. I painted the pachgound insert with RAF Ocean Grey. In hindsight, I should have gone with a lighter shade, but this will do. At least it now looks like there's something of a speedometer in my truck! I have also begun to add a little wear and tear on the interior surfaces. I first made a mix of RAF dark earth, lightened with a drop of Khaki, thinned to a wash and dry brushed the mix onto various surfaces to represent worn, but not entirely removed paint. This was followed by dry brushing some Humbrol Gunmetal for where the paint may have worn off more completely. I will slowly build up the layers until I am fully satisfied. I plan to follow this with a dark wash to get in the deep recessed areas and bring out some of the details. Anyway, that's about it for now, thanks so much for all the "likes"! Andy

Well, after nearly a week, I have a brown truck.... or at least, an array of brown painted components that might assemble into something vaguely resembling a truck... I wanted to paint my truck in the early to mid war SCC2 brown, rather than the more commonly seen SCC15 OD green. I'm still debating whether to keep it solid brown or add the SCC1a dark brown disruptive pattern. British and Commonwealth vehicles used in the Italian campaign could be found in pretty much every possible British paint scheme, very often at the same time. Often the regiments were so short on time, and replacement vehicles needed so badly at the front, that (re)painting was often neglected. When the 5th Canadian Armoured Division, along with 1st Canadian Army Group Royal Artillery (which included the 2nd Medium Regiment RCA), were sent to Italy in the fall of 1943, they went without any motor transport or armour (no artillery guns, tanks, armoured cars etc). The political wheeling and dealing that brought the balance of 1st Canadian Corps to Italy (1st Canadian Division had been in Italy since Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily), meant that the Canadians would be taking over the vehicles and guns of the British XXX Corps, who were sent back to England in exchange. This fact was kept secret from the Canadian troops (so as to not dampen moral) by telling them that their vehicles has been lost en-route (a myth helped in no small part by a Luftwaffe air raid that sank two ships and severely damaged a third while the convoy was passing Algeria). Many of the vehicles left behind by XXX Corps were no prizes, however. Many had been in service since the desert campaign, and suffered from many war weary miles. The War diary of the 2nd Medium records an eventful journey in late December 1943 by an advance party in an old Dodge D15 15 cwt truck. The truck had no doors, no brakes, the transmission was missing a gear to two, questionable tires. They had to travers a not insignificant portion of Italy's mountainous terrain in winter. How the men and the old Dodge managed to survive the journey is still unknown. Back to my C15a FFW, Some more test fitting and detail painting has also been carried out. Unfortunately the dashboard is rather lacking in details. Yes there are some buttons and switches, but there's nothing for the speedometer or other indicators that were located in the rectangular panel to the left of the steering column. I will be painting the seats and setbacks in a kind of khaki colour, and after they've been added, I can finish assembling the cab. Just for fun another dry fit of the compontents: I will also need to add a few more small details to the rear area. There were a number of brackets for hanging various small radio components, like the headsets, spare aerial mast sections and even a few rifles. I should be able to make those up fairly quickly and get them added on without too many issues. Thanks, as always, for all the "likes"! Andy

Have fun: https://m.youtube.com/@HighwayThruHellCA/featured 😁😁 Looks like they’ve got the first three seasons uploaded, and they’re working on the 4th, plus a bunch of extra. Andy

You could do a nice dio with the two trucks… and maybe a trailer looking a little worse for wear, being hauled out of the ditch…. (You haven’t happened to see “Highway Through Hell” on TV have you?) Andy

A quick little update for a snowy Thursday morning! A few more components have now been added to the cab: The "headlights" have been added, these consisted of an insert and the blanked lens. IBG seems to have forgotten about the blackout hood that covered the somewhat useable headlight. I made mine out of some styrene rod. Fun fact: while in England, the hooded headlight was on the left hand side of the vehicle, but a couple of days before D-Day, the headlights were swapped so the hooded light was on the right in order to account for the change of roadside the vehicles would be using when on the continent. Interestingly, this change does not appear to have been applied to vehicles operating in Italy. The PE grill fitted perfectly, no issues there. The cab back and roof are glued together, but otherwise just dry fit for now. A little bit more clean-up on the really large sprue attachment points, but otherwise it's really starting to look like a truck! It's nearly time to start getting some paint on this build! I have quite the collection of various parts that will need to be painted separately. Unlike when I build the Tamiya Ford gun tractor, which broke down into only three convenient sub assemblies (not counting wheels and tires!). A bit more planning is needed with this kit! Thanks for all the "likes" Andy