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DocRob

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  1. DocRob
    Don´t get me wrong, Ken, AK titanium sprays well, but it´s not very robust, but if you don´t mask on top, it works fine. Cheers Rob This is an excerpt from my Zoukei Moura Kai Phantom build for the area you mentioned: Some year end shiny glitter metal work was due today. The tail section of the Phantom got my preliminar interpretation of the real thing. I used different metal shades all from AK's Xtreme metal range. The upper areas beside the tail wings were sprayed stainless steel, along with the tail wing protection, where the middle part was masked off and sprayed gun metal. The protective sheets around the nozzles, where sprayed with titanium and accentuated with pale burnt metal. After all was dried, I did some soft panel picking with jet exhaust mixed with titanium, to create the illusion of not totally flat appearing sheets. All metal areas will be masked and later, after airbrushing the fuselage finally treated with some pigments and maybe panel liner, depending the overall look. One word about the formidable Xtreme Metal colors. On many occasions, I used them, they were very good to spray, have very fine grain and dry fast. I even went so far, because on my other builds they were very durable, to mask onto them with Tesa and Tamiya Kabuki tape without de tacking and had not the slightest lift at all, great stuff Happy New Year mi Amigos! Cheers Rob
  2. DocRob
    Fantastic Greg, great choice of color, fitting grimy weathering, what´s not to love about it. Cheers Rob
  3. DocRob
    Thank you Ken, I really like the AK Extreme Metallics, they are nearly as good as Alclad finish wise, spray super fine and they are by far more durable than Alclad. Very important, if you plan to mask and weather on top. The only exception imho is titanium, which is fragile after applying and the black base is unusable, as it stays tacky forever. Cheers Rob
  4. DocRob
    After burying the fellow in his steel grave, I masked the front window and inserted it temporary with some diluted PVA glue. I added the missing bits and pieces to the Kampfanzug and sprayed it with Mr. Surfacer 1000 black as a solid base. Next was a coat of AK Extreme Metallics steel as the base coat. Cheers Rob
  5. DocRob
    Very nice, even better considering the small scale. The paintjob looks fantastic. My only small critique, I would remove the parting lines from the undercarriage struts, easy done with a sharp blade, scratching them away. Cheers Rob
  6. DocRob
    Wow, Alan, I was just catching up and wanted to underline what Mike said about Mr. Surfacer primers, when I saw, what you went through. Glad you and your cats were unharmed and the damage was not too much. It must have been a frightening experience. Your Yak looks fantastic and the NMF underlines the cool retro futuristic fifies jet thing. I also recommend Mr. Surfacer highly. I use them in black, grey and white ranging from 1000, 1200 and 1500, thinned with Mr. Leveling thinner. As a base for NMF finishes, I use Tamiya´s lacquer gloss black also thinned with Mr. Leveling thinner. Properly sprayed, you don´t need to polish it. Years ago, I used many Valejo products, but was often not too satisfied with the results, specially with the primers and some of the model air range. They had a tendency to build up pigments on the AB needle and sputter, mainly because you can´t use proper thinner with them. Cheers Rob
  7. DocRob
    Fantastic build, Yves. I have to go into your log thoroughly later, but your Bellona looks absolutely fantastic. I like the way you displayed your model and it encourages me to start with my HMS Sphinx without complete masting and rigging, but not before I finish the rigging of my Duchess of Kingston. BTW, I can´t identify your turntable, but like the clear acrylic look. I have some myself, including my top player, a Transrotor Fat Bob-S with a Sorane tonearm, a great setup, combined with the Phasemation PP-200 cartrdige. Cheers Rob
  8. DocRob
    Meanwhile, I managed to close the body of the Kampfanzug. Which sounds like a simple task, but wasn´t. A huge amount of pegs have to intersect and they had really tight tolerances. I had to use pliers at some points, always hoping, the side windows don´t pop out. Most of the kit could be build without glue, that´s why there are so many pegs. I masked the cockpit front window with kabuki tape and sawed off the huge mounting part, because it disturbed the view to the inside. The interior of the suit got water dampened to activate the hairspray and then chipped with various tools. This was followed be DAK sand effect, a kind of wash with pigments in it. I liked the effect a lot and applied it onto the poor pilot as well, before I buried him in his steel grave. I will leave the weathering for now, but I´m pretty sure, I will add more later. Cheers Rob
  9. DocRob
    Like Egilman said, an absolute stunner, the NMF is beautifully and believable rendered and I like the subtle weathering a lot. Cheers Rob
  10. DocRob
    There are only a few under 0,5 mm. Most are between 0,5 mm and 1,5 mm (with 0,1 mm inclination), a few are up to 2 mm. You need to drill hundreds of holes. I studied the manual very closely for each part and pre drilled all the needed holes for the part. If you forget a hole, it might be impossible to reach it later. Try to drill holes for adjoining parts together for a better fit. Test fit before gluing (more than normal). I had some problems with the holes in the PE, which were too small to accept their bolts. I took it for granted that they fit, first and it was a real pain to drill these tiny PE parts later. I found it easier to drill tiny parts on their casting sprues, especially connectors, which later accept wires or rods. It takes a lot of browsing through the manual to understand, where everything fits. This is especially necessary with the large parts, like chassis framings, where lots of components are added in later stages. Some holes are pass through holes for screws, where you can add 0,1 or 0,2 mm wiggle room. For the, in my case very dominant 1,4 mm screws, I usually drilled 1,2 mm holes and forced the screw in, sometimes with a drop of CA. Cheers Rob
  11. DocRob
    I still have a lot, but I find it hard to get good HSS drill bits in larger quantities. I bought some missing sizes from Mineshima and Tamiya through Plaza Japan. I also use the tungsten DSPIAE sets you can find on AliExpress. These are better than the normal PCB drills, but also have the same wrong incline (don´t know, if this is the right terminus) The good with these is the constant shaft diameter. I have three pin vises for drilling, along a Proxxon micro drill with stand and even more important, a foot pedal, which allows to work with both hands. I once bought a huge box with drill bits from AliExpress, ranging from 0,3 mm to 2,5 mm ? These were absolute crap, most of them had no tips at all and were not grinded correctly, beware of these. Cheers Rob
  12. DocRob
    It worked, Craig, I´m teased . Congratulations to that great find. These GTO´s are hard to come by. You will have loads of fun with the kit accompanied by challenges of course. I´m sur, with your skillset and experience, you´ll make it easily. Be sure to have enough drill bits in tiny diameters, you will need them. The classic HSS stuff works better than the brittle PCB drills, which "eat" into the material to fast. I´m always a bit underwhelmed, when I take a first look into a MFH box, exploring the resin bodies, but that´s only the first impression of the white resin, on closer looks, it reveals all the details and I´m happy again. Have fun with the kit and I´m happy to join in, when you start earnestly. @gsdpic I have an eye on the Gurney Weslake Eagle as well for some time Gary, should be a great kit. I hope you´ll find the inspiration with this kit. It will be demanding and utterly rewarding at the same time. Cheers Rob
  13. DocRob
    Absolutely right Egilman, there is so much to learn from MSW with all the experienced members around, willing to share their knowledge. Same goes for LargeScaleModeller.com. Cheers Rob
  14. DocRob
    Thanks Ken, the good thing with these subjects is, nobody can blame you for not being historical correct . Cheers Rob
  15. DocRob
    After two days of bodyboarding in nice waves, three hours in the water each day, I´m broke, muscles ache, but hey, it was a lot of fun. Why am I telling this here, because it brought me to a decision for the interior color of my Kampfanzug. What looks so beautiful, when you start surfing a wave, looking down in the direction of the ground, right, bright turquoise and then it hit me, why not painting the interior like in a Russian jet with that strange shade of turquoise. Cheers Rob
  16. DocRob
    Like Ken recommended, Pledge helps a lot against fogging of clear parts. If you dip clear parts into it and let dry properly, it even reduces the fogging effect of plastic glue and CA glue. If this doesn´t help, it´s sanding and polishing, I guess. I take, most of the clear parts are flat and van be carefully wet sanded on a flat surface and then polished with polishing compounds. Cheers Rob
  17. DocRob
    I didn´t had much time recently and made only small progress, but achieved some small steps. The deceased pilot got built and painted up. I used a guitar string for the spine, but the head is not fixed into position yet. I normally don´t like to show death and suffering in my builds, but this one should be a bit different, like black humor and so, I decided to give the figure a bit of a comic look through the paintjob, using heavily thinned acrylics and various shades of inks on top. The Kampfanzug (battle suit) was primed black, then the insides were sprayed with Extreme Metals duraluminum. I wanted to go titanium, but liked the shade of the duraluminum better. After that, the insides received a heavy dose of hairspray. Cheers Rob
  18. DocRob
    Ugly bugger, but neat painting, Greg. Exhausts look great. Cheers Rob
  19. DocRob
    I like it a lot Greg. I´m eagerly waiting for your paint scheme to work out. I never ventured into Warhammer or similar, but last week found this one and felt, I NEED IT. Cheers Rob
  20. DocRob
    Indeed, a great looking SPAD. Nice job on the rigging and the faded paintjob. Cheers Rob
  21. DocRob
    Well earned, the diorama looks absolutely fantastic. There are so many details to catch the eye. I wouldn´t have guessed it´s HO scale, had you not written it. Cheers Rob
  22. DocRob
    I made one myself for my Duchess of Kingston build, using wood for dowels, drilled a hole into the front, inserted a brass tube, which was before fitted with a brass rod inside secured with CA glue. With the inner diameter of the tube, you can adapt to the size of nails. Easily done. Cheers Rob
  23. DocRob
    Thank you Ken, I know some of the kits and own two or three, but never cared about the story behind. I like the designs from Kow Yokoyama and wanted to build some of these kits, since I saw the old Nitto boxes, when I was young, but couldn´t afford the hefty prices then. I like the scale and the possibility to go freestyling with detailing and painting as there exist no real examples, naturally. I use these kits as a canvas for my ideas. Once I built an AmmoKnight of the same scale, only to incorporate a, at least to me, new painting technique in dabbing on numerous layers of paint and liked it. Cheers Rob
  24. DocRob
    Well, some days later, it´s about time to actually do something with my planned Kampfanzug. I built up arms and legs and parts of the body, which is only fit loosely, to determine, how to line up the extremities for later positioning. The fit of the kit is very good so far and the limbs are connected via vinyl elements to keep everything moveable. I got two different left hands to choose from, but found this one perfect, to hold the squeezed empty PE-bottle. I have to plan the painting of the interior and figure - ahem - the remains of it, to be precise and started to mask the side windows, which unfortunately have to be mounted at a very early stage. That said, many parts are intersecting and depending on the right sequence to be build in. The outer side of the windows is protruding, so I adhered a double layer of Tamiya kabuki tape onto it, sharpened the contour with a fingernail and cut around with a fresh blade. One layer was left on the outside, the other went onto the inside of the opposite pane and vice versa. Inside and outside masking done. Cheers Rob
  25. DocRob
    ...and now to something completely different. Over on LargeScaleModeler, we started a group build wich is themed Sandbox, meaning all sand related subjects are eligible. I didn´t like the theme at first, as most of the desert related subjects have boring camo schemes. I browsed through my stash, before my Berlin trip and found only a few tempting subjects. A Do-17 in desert livery, yawn, some sand colored tank or LRDG Jeep, also yawn. Then I had an idea, pulling the 1/20 Wave kit of a Ma.K Panzer Kampf Anzug Friedrich out of the shelf. This will be a little dio with the Friedrich´s operator literally having bitten the dust or sand to be more specific. In Berlin, I bought some tiny but welcomed additions for the small scenery, including some squeezed water bottles and 3D printed skulls, which will add to the morbid scenery. Cheers Rob

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