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DocRob

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  1. DocRob
    Thank you Gentlemen, after the time consuming and tedious work on USS Arizona, this was a welcoming fast project. I have to tip my hat to SBS Models, as the created a tamiaesque resin kit. I have another racer in my mind to be build in near future. It will be green. Thank you all for contributing and following, I took a lot of precious information out of your input about the Caudron. Cheers Rob
  2. DocRob
    I couldn't resist, as racers seem to let me go fast . Decals went on beautifully and luckily there are only four of them. I glued in the propeller blades and went through the painful task of denting all the chrome cowling holes with a toothpick. I will need some finishing touches, but then the beautiful Caudron is done. The kit was near perfect and an absolut fun to build. This will not be my last racing plane, there is another green one in the pipeline. Cheers Rob
  3. DocRob
    I finally added the undercarriage, which is a mix out of brass casted wheel struts, resin struts and three PE pars per side plus the resin wheel of course. Assembling the struts was easy, but the photoetched parts were a bit difficult to position, though the manufacturer etched some marks, where the gluing points are, luckily. Tomorrow I will add the prop blades and decals and the blue beauty will be eye candy in my display shelf. Cheers Rob
  4. DocRob
    Thank you Kevin, the Royal Blue behaved well in the end, but needed some passes, until it had the right opacity. With such a translucent color and the need for a 'flooded' application for the shine, it was always on the verge of running. Cheers Rob
  5. DocRob
    The sparse IP was added to the front cockpit part. It's made from a PE board over acetate film dials and I glued them with Pledge, to risk no fogging and have shiny 'glass' dials. The canopy was a bit adventurous to paint, masked with the supplied and well fitting Kabuki masks and Kabuki tape from the inside, then sprayed gloss black for the rear framing. These parts got over masked after drying and the rest of the canopy was airbrushed with the blue fuselage color. Photos show, that the rear vertical spars were metal colored and to replicate this, I applied 0,5mm strips of Bare Metal Foil onto the frames, cut on my Inifini template. Lastly, I painted the exhausts silver, but that will be retouched with a metallic black on top, that only a silver base will show. The canopy is only loosely fitted on the pics. Well, I think it starts to look fast now. Cheers Rob
  6. DocRob
    The blue color settled nicely, while drying overnight. The sheen has been a little less, but I like the look scale wise. There is a slightly lighter panel accentuation visible, due to the very transparent character of the blue color. I like the effect and it spares me another panel line wash or similar, as I often found, lighter panel borders appear more real than dark ones. The next bit was the nerve straining task of foiling the cowling with Bare Metal Foil. I made a test on the unpainted model, which was not too bad, but lacked perfection. The first try on the painted plane was not satisfactory, it seems, i struggle with keeping a straight line with the scalpel, to cut the borders inside the fine panel lines. I removed this attempt and nervously applied a new foil. It came out not perfect, but will have to do. Cheers Rob
  7. DocRob
    Thank you Gentlemen, I will check how the paint has cured next thing. What I learned about blue tones is, that they tend to look more different under changing lighting conditions and camera settings and not by little. I guess, that's what it makes so hard to detect the right hue, even from color pictures. Cheers Rob
  8. DocRob
    On with the Caudron. After almost two weeks my color order arrived and I got back in the tracks. I masked the canopy with the supplied Kabuki masks, which fittet, who wonders, perfectly. The airframe was primed with Mr. Surfacer 1500, after a rub with an alcohol soaked cloth. There was no place to hold the plane while spraying, so I inserted a 1mm brass rod into a pre drilled hole in the air duct. My pin vise worked as a handle than. Then it was time for the blue. After lots of considerations, I went with a dark gloss blue, namely Tamiya X-3 Royal blue. The picture was taken immediately after spraying and I hope the gloss will remain Cheers Rob
  9. DocRob
    I only built one bike so far, the Tamiya Ducati Panigale and it may tease you. It's an easy build, but painting is the challenge. I loved to replicate all the different metals, modern bikes are made of. This build was so much fun, that more bikes will follow, the Honda you are building is on the schedule as well as a Honda Dax with a very uncommon livery. Cheers Rob
  10. DocRob
    Exactly my feeling Alistair, on my island, it's impossible to get rattle cans sent to. Not too bad except for my formerly loved Tamiya grey primer. Some years ago, I changed therefore to Mr. Surfacer primer jars, but only yesterday two European online sellers claimed, that they are not allowed to send them anymore. Before I leave my island, I will find other ways or skip modeling . Cheers Rob
  11. DocRob
    Nice gal, but I wouldn't add her. Instead there is a Mike Hailwood resin figure out there from the Greek company GF Models. This also show, how small the bike really is and how the driver would have to fold himself in. I couldn't get one until now, but seriously consider it for my build. gf-12-009-_honda_rc_166_-_162_tamiya.jpg (960×720) (gf-models.eu) Cheers Rob
  12. DocRob
    On Scalemates you can download the Tamiya manual, which gives usually a good idea for the colors from their recommendable system. German Battleship Bismarck, Tamiya 78013 (2005) (scalemates.com) There is a section for downloadable (.pdf) instructions. Cheers Rob
  13. DocRob
    I use Future / Pledge / Klear for clear coating a lot. I mix it with Tamiya X-21 Flat Base to achieve different grades of matteness. Never use more than 30% Flat base, or you will have fogging issues. There is a link, helping with the mixing ratios from a great designer and builder FichtenFoo. Clear Coats with Future Floor Acrylic – FichtenFoo I like Tamiya's lacquer colors a lot in general, but the flat clear of this series never dries truly flat. Cheers Rob
  14. DocRob
    Muchas gracias Gentlemen, all around, it was a pleasurable building experience and I expected more difficulties up front. I have to thank all of you contributing lots of information for this build. I learnt a lot from you as well while building the ship. My first contact with the Arizona project, were actually the Ion Model figures, which inspired me to build the USS Arizona in a manned version. I had lots of fun placing the sailors and bring some life to the ship. It will not be my last venture into plastic ship modelling, but I like to build different subjects, so maybe some time will pass, until I lay keel on another plastic kit. I guess, the next maritime project will be the rigging of my Duchess of Kingston. The Arizona build may have given me the braveness to start with that. Cheers Rob
  15. DocRob
    I call the USS Arizona project done. I did a lot of little things over the last days, like a simplified rigging, added flagpoles, painted lots of details, added the anchors, I had forgotten before and took some final pictures. It was a demanding but also satisfying project, where I learned a lot of new stuff, as it was my first small scale ship build. The most important lesson was, not to limit myself with upfront fear of the lots of PE and small detail stuff. Finally, I also learned something new about photographing, focus stacking, which my camera is able to do in house. It means, that a lengthy object, which normally would have out of focus areas can be photographed without these areas. It takes some pictures of different focus points in one file, which later are merged in the camera to generate a completely focused image, cool stuff. Thank you for carrying me along this project with helpful information and encouraging comments. Cheers Rob
  16. DocRob
    I will try the PE variant with my build first. Maybe it's an option to bend the PE-fret sharply with a bending tool along the contact points and flatten it again. This could weak the PE material a bit. Cheers Rob
  17. DocRob
    A bit late to take a bit off your chain burden, but yesterday I found this set of 3Dprinted chains for the Honda, made by Falcon Scale Models. Never heard about that company before, but will consider this, if I fail with my PE chain. Falcon Scale Models FSM22: Chain set 1/12 scale - Honda RC166 GP Racer 250cc - for Tamiya references TAM14113 and TAM14127 (ref. FSM22) | SpotModel Cheers Rob
  18. DocRob
    After working on the bottom fuselage seam, I added all the major components to the fuselage. You glue the wings together first, push them into the fuselage and than add the intersecting cowling piece. Smart engineering and the fit is perfect. The tail was glued into place and now I have to wait for the delivery of my hopefully good looking blue color. Because size was an issue in this thread, I wanted to make a short comparison with other 1/48 planes, I built. The mighty MIG is no real match, the Caudron looks like an external tank with wings. The Hellcat is a monster against this tiny racer and even the small WWI Siemens Schuckert D.III has a lot more wingspan, but a shorter fuselage. Cheers Rob
  19. DocRob
    Some Caudron racers competed in American pylon races, but the C.561 was designed exclusively to win the third 'Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe' in 1936, were the rules were the following: In 1931 Suzanne Deutsch de la Meurthe initiated a new competition for the Coupe, which was contested for the first time on 29 May 1933.[12] The trial was to be run in two 1,000km stages separated by a 90 minutes refuelling stop, and was limited to aircraft with an engine capacity of less than eight litres. The starting point of the race was still at the aerodrome at Étampes. Suzanne Deutsch de la Meurthe was offering one million Francs, and the Ministère de l'Air (Air Ministry) offered another three million in prize money.[13] The course was over 100 km (62 miles), from Etampes aerodrome to Chartres Bonce and back. The race itself was in two stages, each of 1,000 km (625 miles). (Wikipedia) I guess with that configuration, there was a lot of straight flying. The only Caudron C.561 was not contending due to technical difficulties in 1936. Cheers Rob
  20. DocRob
    The cockpit is a sparse affair. I added an oxygen bottle, some levers and pedals, but most will stay unseen in the pit. The seat belts are made from PE and are the ones supplied with the kit. I sprayed the interior matte aluminum, as I think, the constructors would have gone for weight reduction at all cost and omit paint. By the way, I glued the fuselage halves together, an easy task, given the overall quality and fit of the resin, which is even equipped with guiding pegs. The seam on the lower fuselage was filled with some black CA, on the upper side, there is virtually no seam. Cheers Rob
  21. DocRob
    These spoked wheels look the part, CDW. Thanks for the warning about the spoke nipple count. I have no carpet in my cave, but don't want to go hunting for these tiny buggers. I may wear an apron, like jewelers do. Cheers Rob
  22. DocRob
    I guess, lightweight goes for the pilot as well in these racers, CDW. The Caudron is a very small airframe and the cockpit is as well. Cheers Rob
  23. DocRob
    Andy and Egilman, many thanks for nearing in on the color question, it seems, like the earlier Caudron models where of a lighter blue color. But the rendition of the French flag and the GSB examples in Egilmans pictures are very close to my eye. I will mix some blue hues soon and test spray them and will decide then. Cheers Rob
  24. DocRob
    Thank you LegoKing, if I had only used the plastic of the kit, it would have been looking like a piece of junk as well. The PE and printed parts made all the difference and some patience, of course. Cheers Rob
  25. DocRob
    Thank you Yves and Andy. The C.460 seems to have been painted in a lighter blue tone, like the replica you showed, Andy. There are lots of pictures from that airframe and there were three built, with a bit of service time. The C.561 was only built once and it didn't took part in the races, it was built for due to technical difficulties. To my knowledge the C.460 was later also flown in US races. I also own the comic book which indicates some mid blue shade, but the pictures @Egilman has posted indicate a darker hue. I guess it will we difficult to find the correct color, given, many photos were retouched and are also not always accurate. I will make some tests on spare parts and then will decide. Cheers Rob

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