realworkingsailor

A lot of Airfix’s 1/35 armour kits are reboxes from Academy. So any aftermarket designed for the corresponding Academy kit should also fit the Airfix kit. Andy

There seems to be quite a bit of online controversy generated by Eduard’s switch to these kinds of decals. The film doesn’t peel up cleanly, the decal can get torn and/or partially lifted by the process and their print quality isn’t very good. I had a taste of these decals with my Blackburn Skua build last fall, however I think I may have stumbled on to a reasonably reliable method to deal with them. After allowing the decal to really set on the model, be sure to allow at least 24hrs for curing, apply some Micro Sol, and after a couple of minutes, gently scrub the decal film off with a stiff bristle paint brush. It’s a bit counterintuitive, but managed to make it work with some small stencil decals, which are the trickiest to do. I’ve seen some folks advise using mineral (white) spirits, I think with Micro Sol there’s less risk of ruining the paint finish. Personally I’m not a fan of having to take all these risky extra steps. Andy

Comparatively speaking, a container is fairly light. The heaviest containers are generally stowed low down, in the hold, rather than in the deck stacks. If the bridge was that vulnerable to collapse from a hit from a heavyweight container, I’d be more concerned every time a semi-truck jack-knifed (which happens waaayyy more frequently than a ship strike). Andy

It’s slightly more than just the angle of elevation that classifies whether a piece is a gun/howitzer/mortar. It also has to do with the trajectory of the shell, and the ratio of propellant to shell weight. To lob a mortar shell into a high looping trajectory takes far less propellant proportionally to the weight of shell than an anti-aircraft gun, even though both are designed to fire at high angles of elevation. However, you could technically turn an anti-aircraft gun into a mortar by reducing the amount of propellant from the cartridge. Jumping to WW2 British artillery practice, the QF 25 pounder field artillery, as well as the BL 4.5” and BL 5.5” medium artillery were considered to be gun-howitzers. Because their shells were loaded separately from their propellant charge, the charge weight could be altered on the spot, by the gun crews, as required. With this flexibility of trajectory, the pieces could be fired at low or medium angles. Both field and medium crews were trained in indirect fire as well as anti-tank shooting (the latter being done over open sights, direct fire, flat trajectory), although they seldom practiced the latter in actual combat. Andy

A better, long term and cost effective solution that could be applied to any potentially vulnerable bridge, no matter how old, is to put stone fill around the base of the piers abutting the channel. This would deflect any ship that strayed too close, regardless of size. The warning signs were there when the Sunshine Skyway collapsed in 1980 due to a ship strike. This is the LaViolette bridge across the St Lawrence river at Trois Rivières, about halfway between Montreal and Quebec City: You can see the stone armouring around the main piers. Andy

Yeah, when it comes to electronics, once you release the magic smoke, it’s all over…. They usually only have one good puff in them…. Andy

But for you, obviously, it “snot” a problem! 😁 Looks great! The fairing on the underside was to help with spin recovery. Andy

Have you considered, perhaps, a model smoke generator? https://www.walthers.com/smoke-generator-chimney-ready-for-model-buildings-667-117e This one from Seuthe has been around a while on the market and is relatively inexpensive. With one or two hidden in the base of your diorama, at strategic locations, you could add some ambient smoke when you want to. Andy

This painting is by Adam Willaerts dating from 1607: Almost front and centre is a small schooner with what could be considered a proto-Bermuda rig. Note that these are not lateen sails (lack of a vertical mast). Andy

Always the fun of dealing with Eduard PE. From my personal experience it has been more like assemble some plastic and PE components, look ahead six or seven steps in the Airfix instructions, study the Eduard instructions, wrack your brain trying to figure out how the next PE piece is supposed to be added/folded/bent, then turn the Eduard instructions over and realize that a different PE piece can only be applied two steps earlier in the Airfix instructions… try to add missed second PE piece without destroying anything done previously, then, after making a complete hash of it, go back to puzzling over the first PE piece….🙄 Andy

A bigger shelf is a better idea…. 😁 Nice job on your Archer and scene! Andy

I think it was the early to mid 00’s when Noch brought its static grass and electric applicator to the North American model train market. The model scenery “industry” had come a long way from the days of dyed sawdust! Andy

If you haven’t seen it, this might interest you: Andy

I’ve been basing my scenery on a few photos from a museum pdf file I found online. One colour photo in particular: According to the label on the package, the 4mm grass I used is supposed to be roughly 8” at 1/87th scale, so probably a little over 6”-ish for 1/72nd. Not much different in height from the grass these guys are lounging in. Admittedly, the grass in the photo is much more beat up than mine! Andy

Ed has some very interesting videos, his channel is well worth checking out. If you like the technical aspect, Greg’s Planes and Automobiles really dives into the nitty gritty of airplane performance, by the numbers (If you haven’t seen it already). He’s even done a recent set on human factors, why some WW2 planes are better than others from another perspective outside of performance. Andy

And like any typical public works type job, a suitable number of “supervisors” observing (there’s at least three standing behind the Bedford…..) 😜 Andy

Ed Nash did a great video on piston engined fighters. More than anything (agree with him or not), there’s a lot of caution needed when looking at an airplane’s alleged top speed: Andy

Thanks everyone for the kind comments and likes! Well, I think my grassy field is finished. Overall very happy with the way things turned out. There's a nice variation in the colour of the green grass , and I've added some patches of burnt grass to add some further colour changes in select areas. In the "runway" area I added more green grass towards the edge, gradually lessening the amount as I worked towards the hypothetical centre. All the characters have had their bases removed and a length of 0.012" stainless steel wire inserted, usually into one leg, and then into the scenery base, so they can free stand securely. I haven't added the mechanic yet, he will be glued to the trestle after I add a bit of weathering. I connected the refueller to the bowser with a length of wire. I kept the black rubber sheathing on, and it looks like a proper hose. Its a close enough match to the short length of moulded hose he is holding. I still need to add a few final details, touch up some paint work, and add a little weathering to the vehicles and other objects. But things are slowly coming together. Adding some "mud" to the back of the Tilly is going to be interesting..... I will also have to figure something out so the bomb train sits down in the grass, rather than floats on top of it... Even the other vehicles will need to be settled down a bit. It will probably require a little bit of delicate grass removal from directly under the wheels, we shall see what I can come up with. Andy

I’m glad you haven’t thrown in the towel on this one yet! Andy

Are there lots of photos in the threads you view? I have an iPhone and while it does start at the “unread” line, as the photos load, the line gets pushed “down” until I’m somewhere in the middle of the page. Any thread I jump to without photos (or maybe one or two small ones) does start exactly at the “unread” line and stays there until I start scrolling. It’s likely a quirk inherent to Apple devices and systems, (how the web browser chooses to loads photos), and not something anyone here has control over. I may be wrong, but that’s my observation. Andy

Thanks for the comments and "likes" everyone! Progress as of this morning: Surprisingly, it didn't take as long as I had initially feared after my first test areas, and I think I managed to do fairly well around the mud puddles. In that area, I used a small brush to apply the glue to the areas I wanted it, rather than risking dribbling it in to the puddles by accident. The line between the runway and the field is a little stark, but I plan to soften that by blending the colours in both directions when it comes time to add more layers of grass. I think the variation in the green colour is probably due to the inconsistency of the grass coverage, which isn't a bad thing. The darker areas are where the underlying ground foam is showing through somewhat. I think it adds a nice variety of shading to the otherwise uniform green. You can even make out a subtle under shading in the runway area where I had put streaks of green foam as well. Now it's on to blending, mixing and layering. Andy

Thanks EG! It’s not without concerted effort… many times I felt like I was one flailing finger away from a green disaster… to say nothing of the risk of tipping over a bottle of diluted white glue…. Andy

Thanks Alan! We’re definitely on the same page here! After hand sprinkling, I would say this is the cheapest method, followed by the bug-zapper approach: Andy

Thanks Mike! It’s definitely precise, in that you can target the bottle spout into various nooks and crannies, rather than broadcasting the grass all over the place and hoping for the best. I think the key benefit over just sprinkling, is that it does impart a modicum of a static charge to the grass (one that builds up the longer one repeatedly squeezes the bottle), so the grass does more or less what it is supposed to do (stand somewhat upright). Andy

As always, I would be remiss if I didn't start by thanking everyone for your kind comments and "likes"! I've managed to make something of a start with the static grass. What a fun process it is! First up, the glue. You don't have to spend exorbitant amounts of money buying specialty glue. I made my own with some watered down PVA. I initially tried a 3 parts water to 1 part glue, but found I had to add a little bit more glue, so it's closer to 1.5 parts glue. I also added a few drops of isopropyl alcohol as a wetting agent (helps break down the surface tension). This was dribbled and brushed on to where I wanted to apply the static grass. I should mention that I don't have a static grass applicator... at least, not the fancy electrical variety. A few weeks ago I saw this video about someone who just used an inexpensive condiment bottle to apply static grass: So rather than spend a ton of money on a fancy grass applicator, or putting my electrical mad scientist to work mutilating a bug zapper racquet into a homemade Frankenstein-ian Van de Graaff generator, I decided to give this method a shot. It does work, and very well, but it does restrict to a small working area... there's only so many times I can rapidly "poof" a condiment bottle before my hands get tired! Don't fill up the bottle too much, about the amount you see in the above photo is more than enough, and it will cover a surprisingly large area (big enough that your hand will be start to cramp!). The results shown here are using 4mm static grass. I did try a test area using 2mm grass, but it came out too quickly and became somewhat clumpy. Not altogether horrible, but not the effect I was after. The repeated "poofing" action generates just enough static electricity for the grass to do its thing. The lighter area in the photos is just due to the glue having not yet fully cured. The ground foam underneath provides a great stable base and the state grass grabs really well, after letting the glue set up for only a couple of minutes. I have some "burnt grass" and "straw" colours that I will layer on later to add highlights and break up the monotonous green. For that I'm planning on using some inexpensive hair spray as an adhesive. From what I've read, the odourless "extra hold" stuff works just as well, if not better than so-called specially formulated static grass adhesive sprays. For the more well trodden areas, I will reverse the colours, starting with the burnt grass and adding green highlights. I should mention, that I have managed to keep the mess under some level of control... so far..... Andy