Egilman

I don't know, I started reading books when I was very very young and have been reading ever since..... the first book I remember ws Incredible Victory by Walter Lord... (It's how Winston churchill described the outcome of the Battle of Midway, he used it for the title) and "Sink the Bismarck", then there was "The Caine Mutiny" by Wouk, and I've been hooked ever since. I extended my study of facts by reading well researched historical novels like "From Here to Eternity" and "Once an Eagle" I've found that the historical novels although a fiction woven through real life events, give great context to the facts, explaining how all the facts interact in a human perspective, so when I go on to read Toland I can understand what he's writing about... The facts just stick that way, it's easier to remember the story than the cold hard facts, the story becomes a kind of memory index to the facts if you do it long enough...... Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it... EG

I'm here Jack... I'll have you know that I seldom come in from shore leave, so If I start bumping into things or asking dumb questions it's cause I'm seldom at work in the shipyard...... I"ll try not to make a fool of myself.. I promise.... {chuckle} Sorry for derailing the other. (it wasn't intentional) EG Where's the popcorn....

That my friend would be a WAAF, stands for Women's Auxiliary Air Force.... Your mossie dates this to '43-'44 correct? which means by the uniform she is wearing she is either a warrant officer or a flight officer. The skirt sets it off as an officer uniform. If she was an enlisted rank like a flight sergeant she would be wearing dungarees at the field... So at the very least she is the driver for the officer, a section officer or assistant sec.off...... With the clipboard I would say assistant section officer, (rank equivalent to an acting pilot officer in the RAF) and she was driving the jeep......

Personally, I would like to see a build log, but that being said with the scale of the individual parts, pics might be problematic unless you have a high quality setup...... I"m looking at what has been presented and it confirms my first thought when first seeing it... An injection molded monster.... and I thought the Tamiya Missouri was a lot of parts.... For complexity, This beats that hands down....

Yep she was a Sloop of War, never a Frigate. She didn't have the bones to be a frigate and when they rebuilt her they almost sealed her fate... within 30 years she was hogging so bad from the weight they put on her that they needed pumps 24/7 just to keep her afloat. Eventually, the muck built up around her hull where they didn't need to pump her anymore. but she started rotting.... An archeological survey told them to fix her now or scrap her, their last chance. This time, they called in the professionals Wood ship builders with a sense of history and the historians got to work digging thru the archives based upon others research and uncovered the only plausible history after eliminating all the other possibilities. Then the smoking gun document was found, an invoice for timbers from the original Constellation, (whose partially burned/buried hulk was still laying across the bay being broken at that point for salvage, and someone got the bright idea of using what was left of the old ships useable timbers in the new ship... That is how she got her name and the only connection to the old ship.... At least that is what I heard about it.... Surprisingly, she hasn't had one single problem remaining afloat since they rebuilt her into a proper sloop of war.... Seals the deal for me....

Yeah, I'm going to have to do the same thing in the future, take a break from plastic for wood and glass... Probably after the Bandit is done.... Definitely need the space......

You mean you found a char wagon and some NAAFI girls? {chuckle} Gonna be interesting at what you've come up with.... I"m sure it will fit in your tribute....

Very Nice Dennis... Anticipating it being finished........

It would be Panzer Grey either way with or without the turret "bustle" I've seen that pic that Backer has posted also... it was obviously mounted before the whitewash...... An issue tank before it saw combat, that's cool and how I like to do mine....

Yeah, that was definitely a convoluted conservation history there.... Full of personal ideals and politics... Along the way they forgot about actual history in trying to preserve history.... Or any semblance to factual historical research.... A perfect example of what agendas do to facts...... The real sad and unfortunate part, is the need to repair what was done to build a false narrative no matter the motivations once the real historians finally get their evidence recognized... But it is a beautiful period ship as best as it can be restored into one.... and the only example representing an important part of naval history......

If it did actually exist on a combat vehicle, it's a major rarity for sure.... The rear storage bin was a fairly common field adaptation taken from worn out Pz III's, but the side "wing" bins were not.....

As long as you don't repeat it 6 times like he did.... Enjoy brother, we all need a floaty thingy in our background...... It's good for the soul...

Yeah I saw that when Mark posted the pics and said "What the heck???" but not being sure I didn't mention it, but it is what brought out the idea for me that the manufacturer might not have his accuracy quite up there where we would like it...

Hi Patrick, Got the makings of a pretty good armored battalion there my friend... Ready for parade... My german armor interests died down a couple of decades ago... but before that I had every Accurate Armor Panzer Truppen kit in my stash..... Never got to build a single one of them though... For a while I dropped off the modeling scene and there's a huge gap in my studies.. lost time... but it gives me more to learn now, I only remembered that bit about the DunkleGrau and Tiger tanks from a very memorable argument a gent an I had over just such... you like grey PZ IV'S there are a ton of examples same with Pz III's, but Panthers and Tigers... that's another story... I knew they had painted them but until today never thought one actually went into combat... Personally I thought the troops serving them would have been smarter..... Citadel took everything as far as armor.. that is one thing about the german forces they were moving tanks around so much that many broke down before they could ever get to a battle... I read about one example of a Tiger that was mustered up battle four times but never fired a shot in anger... it would break before they got to the assembly point..... It's why the Russians put a premium on destroying railways..... Now I'm into American Armor.... which has as many devoted followers as German armor does...... But from building interests, I"m modeling anything that strikes me fancy at this point..... Got a few things I want to do and focusing on one small part won't get that done... Nice collection...... Nice to actually converse with someone who likes the history as well as I... I'm not alone.... EG

So then there were actually 4 of them that made it to the front before they were repainted, no longer speculative.... Nice to get that cleared up.... If you don't mind me asking, what book are you picturing there,,, I would like to obtain a copy.... MotorBuch-Verlag? or something of that nature?

Another filling update.... (moving towards a tastes better solution soon) Port Side... Port Side bottom... That filled out nicely feels smooth to the fingers sliding over it... ready for a primer coat.... The Starboard side is a different story.... The starboard bottom Clearly gonna need more fill here, it was a deep dislocation of part.... Starboard Top.. I'm gonna wait for the next round of primer before I will say it's done.... But it looks good.... The pic is a little grainy but you can still see the hump that needs to be reduced/built up..... Another application of Mr Surfacer.... One thing I REALLY REALLY like is the rapidity I can get to sanding with this stuff..... using putty, I would still be waiting for it to cure.... The difference? I'm almost done with filling long before I would be even able to give it a first sanding.... Mr Surfacer, A must have tool in the box IMHO.... (especially if your doing smooth compound curved surfaces like aircraft) And the obligatory disclaimer, I get no recompense from Mr Hobby, this is just my individual opinion based upon the usage displayed above... EG

I'm using 500 for this Ken, straight out of the bottle. It is the thickest and has the body to stand up while if hardens. The others are too thin for this kind of work.... As it is it's going to take several applications before the surface is smooth...... But, I'm only going to have to wait an hour between fills, it dries to sandable that fast..... The rest of the joints were paint it on, let it quick dry and use Mr Color leveling thinner on a q-tip to clean off the excess... Really a quite fast process.... I like it... (wish they had something like this 30 years ago) EG

I do too brother, it's perfect for not only showing you where to fix but how your coming closer to fixing the problem.... I'm beginning to feel the same for Mr Surfacer as well... just paint it in, let it dry/cure and sand away.... makes an excellent shallow divot/dent/fine gap filler.... Starting the second application of Mr Surfacer...... It fills the divot rather easily A compound curve into an edge, the edge can't change as that is a landing gear well... One of the more difficult fills for putty... Mr Surfacer 500, no sweat... Almost done on the port side, After this application, a re-spray with primer as a check for smoothness... The top starboard side may be done next time around also.... the split off from the outside surface to the air ramp? no sweat, Putty would have been difficult to keep out of the gap between the splitter plate and fuselage.... Mr Surfacer as a liquid filler handles it easily.... I'm impressed... I'm used to products not being as advertised, and having to make them work or come up with an alternative, this just plain flat works..... Simple and easy, even on the difficult spots... That's what I like... Onward.... EG

Absolutely fricken unbelievable!!!! Well done my friend!!! Nice rebuild!

Sir, your finishing skills are phenomenal!!!! I hope that someday I can get that skilled.... Beautiful work..... EG

I would lay my money on the kit info being incorrect. The only way it would be possible is the tank was in action the entire time. Initial production paint scheme as shown on the box ended sometimes in late '42 when paint stocks ran out and all field tanks were ordered to be repainted into yellow based camo I believe in February of '43...... So it is "possible" but I believe improbable.... and, a very important point, my opinion... of course not knowing what their info was when they designed the kit, it hard to know what they based their artwork on, so I would say it is their opinion also... Anyway, it is a possible paint configuration for a tank that was unavailable for repainting due to operations in early 43...

By '43 at Leningrad it would be in yellow with red-brown and green blotches or stripes. (there wasn't any Panzer Grey tanks anymore) Panzer Grey over Dark Yellow could still be found in that area in mid to late '42... (but it would be a sitting duck for soviet 76.2mm anti-tank guns in that dark color) That's the reason they made the full switch to yellow camo, the Russian winters and summers were a killer in more ways than just cold.......

Next update... Out of the paint shop and back on my bench... One coat of Tamiya fine grey primer, lets see how well I did filling the gaps.... Starboard side.... Bottom..... Looks pretty good, most of the panel gaps are gone just a few minor fixes needed, that's what we primer for... Clearly there are issues with the intakes, I knew this was going to happen from the assembly process. It's just the way the parts are designed... Starboard intake... Larboard intake.... Fuzzy, but there is a ridge in the middle ahead of the canopy, small but noticeable... The tail cone has a gap that I guess didn't completely fill.... And the gun bay cover edges didn't completely fill either..... Overall I would say she came out of the initial assembly in excellent shape.... a few minor issues to deal with and the worst one being a slight smoothing to a compound fuselage curve behind the intake plenums.... And the metal finish made it through the masking and spraying very well. I had to take off the masking to work the intakes cause I would have knocked it off anyway... Easy to re-mask when needed... Coming along, initial assembly turned out better than I thought it would.... Onwards... EG

Probably designed to get girls into modeling, but the real worth is a father modeling something for a special loved one...... A beautiful job..... EG

Well I plan on being around long enough to finish the Bandit as long as the man above agrees... It might be a few days yet for the eye protection. She is currently in grey primer, (drying) and shows some serious work still needing to be done to smooth everything out before I can put the base coat on.... I suspected that the intakes were going to be problematic from the way they were designed, I was right.... But other than that, the engineering is surprisingly good with everything joining and matching up very very well.... I'll post pics before I start sanding and shaping.... Thank you Carl....