DocRob

I built several planes with NMF finish over the years and some aspects are making a good `metal` look difficult. As you mentioned the base coat is of great importance. The shinier the result should be, the better has the preparation to be. High shine finish calls for gloss black base coats. My go to here is Tamiya LP gloss black. It sprays very fine and has a high gloss finish, when thinned properly with leveling thinner. If applied correctly, there is no need for polishing. AK has a great range of metal colors called Extreme Metal. Most of them spray very well, fine grained and with a realistic shine. There are more durable than Alclad II colors, which are a tad better, when it comes to high shine finishes. Beware off the AK Extreme Metal Black Base. This stuff never cures and stays tacky forever. The application is another area of difficulties. High shine finishes are best, when carefully misted on in thin layers, until the blackness of the base barely vanishes. If you spray more, you loose luster. Another important step is preparation of the desired paint- and decal job. Most metal finishes are more or less sensible to masking, with Alclad being the worst that way. It pays to paint other colors before, if possible. Decaling with strong solvents can cause irritations in the metallic finish, as well as some clear coats. Generally, clear coats tend to lessen the shininess of the surface, even if it´s a gloss coat. I hope that helps a bit and I link a build thread of one of my more recent NMF projects here, where the goal was to achieve a P-38 as shiny as possible and with additional rivets. I described my testing and methods of application a bit more detailed there Cheers Rob

I recently drilled a lot of tiny holes into resin and cast metal during my MFH car and bike builds. I used different set ups and drill bits and gained some experience with these. The Tamiya pin vise accepts drills down to 0,3 mm without problems and centers them perfectly. If you have to change drill bits very often, a chuck pin vise can be helpful, but the minimum diameter for that is about 0,6 or 0,7 mm, as the chucks aren´t that precise (DSPIAE vise). HSS drill bits are preferable, they are made for steel drilling normally and are ok for plastic, resin and wood as well. With small diameter drill bits, lift the drill often during drilling, other ways the residues block between drill bit and hole and the bit tends to heat up and break more easily. The PCB drill bits are easy to change, because of the standardized shaft, but they are hard and brittle and break easily, The cutting angle is not suitable for the typical modeling materials and tools, as they tend to "eat" into the material too fast. I use both, hand vises and a Proxxon power tool, which works great and even better since I spent some bucks and added a foot pedal, which is highly recommended. I also own a Proxxon drill stand, which I use frequently for drilling and polishing. One word of warning, I recently bought a case containing lots of HSS drill bits 0,3mm - 2,5mm from a Chinese online vendor starting with Al... as backup. These are total crap. The smaller diameters don´t even have a tip . Cheers Rob

I‘m absolutely not curious, Craig 😁.

Great prices, Craig, I would keep most of them, or in other words, own many of these myself. I built the late AEG and it was a pleasure. Before, I built a Hansa Brandenburg and Pfalz, aso very enjoyable projects. Are you off the WWI planes? Would be a shame, as these kits are so nice. Actually, I'm in Berlin my former hometown and on Tuesday, I will visit the Technical Museum, which shows among others a restored Jeannine Stahltaube. If you don´t sell yours, I may post some pictures . Cheers Rob

Guilty as charged, Craig, but I share the same fate, as I bought the Cobra as my second MFH kit, after working on the Crocker. These kits can be addictive, somehow. You´ll like the tumbler, but don´t use the needle diameter too big. I choose 0,3 mm and that doesn´t soft the sharpness of the cast and gets into the crevices. With the Corvette, there will be the need of some polishing as well, despite the tumbler cleaning. If I would buy the Corvette directly from MFH, I would pay more or less the same, like you did and they ship within a week, even to my remote island. The Cobra was about 630 $ including shipping and somehow went through customs unharmed, somehow. @yvesvidal: I thought about the Auto Union as well, what a beautiful beast. Maybe, when I can lay my hands on one of these... Cheers Rob

I worked on the interior of the Cobra Coupe, lately, installing and decaling the switchboard first, then matte clear sprayed over the decals. Last were the switches, which are glued from the backside. Next was the shifting lever, which was not easy to install cleanly, with the tiny rivets to add. Last for these steps was the fire extinguisher, which is fantastically detailed. The chrome band is made from chrome adhesive tape, instead of the kit´s springy PE part. Then the tub was installed onto the chassis, followed by the seats and seatbelts. I love MFH seatbelts, as they provide double sided adhesive tape for mounting and installing them. No risk of CA blotches, smart. Cheers Rob

... meanwhile, the Cobra Coupe isn´t vegan anymore. I bought some self adhesive leather from MFH lately and decided, I give the seats a try with this. What looks better than the real thing . The seats were primed and sprayed semi matte black and then, I cut the leather patches roughly to contour. The shape of the seats is a bit difficult to cover, but the leather is luckily very thin and flexible and adheres very well. I think, with the seat belts applied and some final trimming, they will look good. Cheers Rob

Sweet, I never had imagined, I could fall in love with this kind of Porsche, but somehow your build ignites some `want` feelings in me. Interior and trunk look extremely good. Cheers Rob

Thank you Ken, I will take my time and add more internal components for further evaluation. This is a make or break issue and I will not rush here. Cheers Rob

Well, it was about time, to see how the body, hood and doors will fit to the chassis. I cleaned the excellent casted body parts and drilled all the needed holes and joined the hood to the chassis. There are cast metal hinges and the hood will be openable. When adding the body, which is not screwed on for now, I got what I feared, a gap, the hood being to high, because the air funnels don´t have enough room under the hood. I was prepared, as Pooh described the same problem in his YouTube build video. It looks a bit worse on the pics than it is in reality, because, I can lift the back of the body slightly. I inserted the doors on their metal hinges and found the right one fitting too low and the left one was ok. I´m close to the body painting stage and the fit issues have to be solved thorough and now, so next is analyzing, what to do best. Cheers Rob

I will join you in the backseat, as I have the early model Halberstadt and plan to build her with a very demanding paintjob. Have fun with the surely great WNW kit. Cheers Rob

Beautifully done, Dave. Your Spitfire looks very clean painted and finished, like you had it planned with a museum`s exhibits look. Cheers Rob

Sorry for being late, I had the same issue, the bowsprit interfering with the figurehead, but I didn´t glue the figurehead in place. It needed some tweaking, but finally, I inserted a piece of wood under the bowsprit, where it passes the hull, which steepened the angle a bit. Components like the figurehead, I glue permanently into place, after all the masting and rigging is done. Same goes for the ships boat, where only the supports where glued onto the deck. I try to keep as much wiggle room for rigging and save the delicate components for last. Cheers Rob

Thank you Craig, when all is forced into it´s place, it start to look good . You can´t imagine the touch up work, I don´t know, how often, I resprayed or brushed some damaged black areas. Cheers Rob

Looking absolutely fantastic. The benefit of classic cars is, a lot of the innards stay visible, where you have to hide your precious work. Anyway, I love your carbon fiber work, never heard of that method, but will brain store it, as CF-decals can be also a pain. Cheers Rob

Progress is slowly due to off bench issues and a healthy dose of sports every day, trailrunning, surfing or swimming and mountainbiking, to get the head free. Nonetheless, I finished the rear suspension, brakes and drive shafts. My normal process with MFH kits is, select parts for the next step, cleanup and drill parts, priming and finally airbrushing, before the real fun begins, assembly. This time, it was not so much fun, unfortunately. All parts mount to the outer suspension part, which later accepts the wheel. Somehow this was impossible and I identified the drive shafts as too long. I have no idea, if this was my fault, but the main shaft leading to the differential was also to long. It needed a bit of metal surgery to get everything to fit and there are some touchups to be made. I also started with the pedals, which means, interior is next. Of course, there will be hydraulic lines later from the pedals cylinders. Cheers Rob

Help is coming, Keith. Cheers Rob

Thanks Bob and I have not given up on the Duchess of Kingston, but have other projects to finish. The DoK is my first real wooden ship build and due to the quality of the kit, it was surprisingly straight forward until I entered the rigging stage. I like busy looking decks and thought, the addition of a boat would exactly work that way. Construction of the little thing was not the easiest, but I like the look of the finished boat on deck. I also have the Sphinx kit on my shelf and was really happy to hear, Chris is planning on sets of printed boats for her. Please feel free, to equip your DoK with a boat as well. I really like to see, how yours is looking finally. Cheers Rob

Thank you OC, I was sometimes about to kick her into life. But the tank didn´t hold the fuel . Cheers Rob

Thank you Tim and sorry for the late answer. MFH motorcycle kits are extremely detailed out of the box, so there is no need for extra detailing. I loved your Triumph build though, a completely different breed of kit, but with a very beautiful outcome. Cheers Rob

Due to illness and passing of my beloved dog, I haven´t been attending here lately. I have to get back to normal somehow and continued a bit with the Cobra, when time and mood allowed. I added the front cooling section, a fairly large and detailed affair. After that, it was time to mount the missing parts of the front suspension and braking system. The large venting tubes were sprayed with Tamiya LP brown metallic and then sanded over the risen parts for effect. Fit was very good, but I had to re-drill tiny PE parts again, as either the bolts (part 308) are too wide or the holes to small, annoying. Another disturbing issue is, there are wires or tubes, where there is no mention, where they lead to. You have to search the hole manual for a fit, but some are not shown. The manual of the Crocker motorcycle always stated the section of the manual, where you could see the other connecting side, but that´s not the case here. I think long and thorough, before altering the building sequence from the manual, but decided to add the tube framing before the cooler section, to have more wiggle room. The part around the engine proved to be a bit delicate, the more complex rear part was easy in comparison. The engine and drive shaft is now permanently built in and I´m ready for the rear suspension now. The chassis is quite heavy now and I will add spacers to relieve the suspension. Cheers Rob

Just a tiny update, while I prepare the cooler parts and some internal framework. If you wonder, why MFH kits are special, then look for this magnificently casted white metal part. genius and madness are sometime close, as you have to replicate four hose clamps from steel PE strips with the screw parts being tinies casted parts . Cheers Rob

Thank you Craig, the kits are so good, that they motivate you, to even tackle the hardest obstacles. A well thought through building sequence is the key with these kits. Cheers Rob

Sorry for the OT, Greg, but when I was a kid, I once visited the old Wiking factory in Berlin Steglitz, as it was near to my home then. They produced only cars by that time, If I remember correct. My father had a huge amount of these metal cast ships and a few in Plastic. Only the Queen Mary survived until today in my possession. Cheers Rob

What a cool project Greg, love it, specially with the sci-fi background. I have a flatbed Tempo from MiniArt in my stash and plan to build it soon, but my, never would I have had such a great idea for presenting it. Cheers Rob