marktiedens

There seems to be quite a lot of debate on the colour schemes for the British tanks in WW1. Opinions range from grey, to olive drab and khaki. I decided to go with olive drab so the base coat was air brushed on. The tracks will them be worked up with rust, silver and dirt then washes and shading to the hull. With paint on the ditch rails look OK and I think the homemade Lewis guns will pass muster.

 

 

Thanks for looking in
Alan

Good evening everyone
 
as i mentioned earlier, to proceed with the Bluebell build, i needed to get my airbrushing up to speed, the other day i thought i had made leaps and bounds, today no such luck
eventually i kind of made it work, but after lots of messing about and 3 brush strips
it maybe down to old paint, this primer is over 10 years old, also it could be the AB needles they do look bent, so i took the hit and bought another brush from Amazon, should be here tomorrow, along with new paints and a replacement coolant vent PE set
i did however get some primer of most of the build
 




 





 
 
 

Due to some foul ups early in the planking, I figured out what I did wrong compared to my other models which involved miss sanding the taper of the planks.  About 50% would have been a better choice and bit better quality control on the taper to get it more uniform.  Too late to fix the starboard side so I did the best I could and it's now planked.  Live and re-learn.
 
I plan on painting per my previous post but still deciding on "artistic" changes like not painting over the keel but... still thinking about it.
 
I took the easy way out on the remaining planks and just cut each one in half and planked a way.  Now comes the sand-fill-sand-rinse-repeat until everything is nice and smooth.
 
After spending several hours cleaning up the shop, here's the progress photo of the starboard side.  

BUILD DAY 17 / 3hrs / (TOTAL: 45 hrs)
Headrests. There are altogether 10 pairs of them, one pair for each compartment.
I applied white glue using brush until the last step, where I used superglue to fix the loops to the back. 
Figures 183-193: Below I am adding several photos showing the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

That's all for now!
Thanks for watching!

Hello and thank you for your comments and likes
 
Yes Chuck, I used a scraper for the mouldings, but also carving tools.
Today I installed the first channel, but not fast at all. That was more work as expected, but at least I got it. The next will go faster.
 
The shipwright spend a grog for that and I think the water is hot 😃
 

 

 

It seems the balance of power needs to be redressed for the Entente Powers so I had added the Mark IV lit to the pile.

On Sunday afternoon I opened the box - just looking you understand.
There is quite a bit more to this kit than the a7v. More parts and three pages of instructions. Tracks are a rubbery fold around type. Detail is quite nice of the parts and not too much flash.

 

Then the glue came out - just to check the fit on a few parts you see

Sponsons assembled and the lower hull and inner skins mated. The fit is actually quite good. No positive locators but its all pretty obvious so far.

The outer skins and drivers cupola are in place and now the bit I was not looking forward to - the tracks. I have memories of dealing with the rubber track on Airfix tanks fifty years ago and they rarely went well. The instructions say that the plastic can be bonded using normal styrene glue which I was a bit cynical about. I tried a test piece gluing two bits of the sprue together and got a solid bond so on we go. 

I worked a bit at a time gluing and holding each section to get a good bond. Got a bit generous with the glue at the sharp radii to sften teh track and it wrapped around the corners and held very nicely.
The short section was added at the bottom. I was expecting the long piece to be deliberately long and provide some spare to cut back to fit. In the event the exact length is provided. Actually it is just a whisker short but I think it will fill and be unnoticeable

Looking through photographs of Mark IVs the kit has an error with the external fuel tank. The kit has the hatch and filler on the side rather than on the top where real life (and logic) places it. I sanded off the hatch and built a new one from card and some scraps of PE and added it to the model

 

The exhaust and rear structure has been added. It needs to be softened with some adhesive to bend it down the rear wall and across the top of the tank. The sponsons have been added and I was impressed at how nice the fit was after a touch of flash had been cleaned off.

The remaining parts are the ditching beam rails which look a bit fiddly and then its back to the air brush.
So far this has been very pleasant. I am rather disappointed with teh kits rendition of the Lewis guns

They are parts 34, 35 and 36. I am reluctant to use them and think it might be possible to do better with some thin plastic or brass rod inserted into the dome at the base of the kits effort. I see resin options out there but it seems a bit profligate to buy those and discard most of the gun
Thanks for looking in.
Alan
 

Hi,
Thanks for the likes and comments.
Just adding four guns to the upper deck.
Will add gun tackle later, maybe when my hands stop shaking.
Next is the channels and lower deadeyes.
Regards,
Sam.
 

Good morning.

Hi🙂

And here's a bonus pic, just 'cause I like you guys. Actually, I thought this would be a fun pic to include because this is the first time I've had two finished card models representing real-life opponents, the Oscar and the Brewster B-339E Buffalo.
 

The Big Reveal
 
Chin air intake, propeller, spinner, aerial, pitot tube, aaaaand -- done! A few final thoughts are in order. First of all, I forgot to share that yesterday I knocked over a bottle of thin CA on my cutting mat, enough to ruin the mat and glue two of my fingers together. Like, really together! Fortunately, I had some debonder handy. Even more fortunately, I somehow managed not to spill glue on any parts. 😮  Overall,I am very pleased with how this project turned out. I think it's one of the nicest planes I've built so far, despite the usual kit shortcomings. My main gripe with the kit was once again the diagrams, which I would say are about 90% complete. It's the missing 10% that can be aggravating. Happily, there were no deal-breakers in the mix.
 
Okay, enough gabbing. Enjoy the pictures!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank You guys.  You all will be up to this point shortly.  Just a quick photo to show the fcastle painted and installed.    Now to do it all over again on the other side.  The qdeck is looking very naked.   But that will be up next.  Just a few more details to finish up on the fcastle.
 

 

Cowling and machine gun channels done. Just a few bits and pieces left to do.
 

As I mentioned near the end of my America build log, I bought a Model Airways 1/16th Sopwith Camel on a bit of a whim when I got a good deal on it.  Then after doing more research I decided I preferred the version by Artesania Latina with its greater detail, including quite a few photo etch parts, so I bought one of those too. I then wondered what to do with the Model Airways kit.  One thing I like about the AL kit is that it includes a metal cowl which adds some color and gives a bit more finished look, though it hides a lot of detail of the rotary engine.  So I decided I'd build the engine from the Model Airways kit and put it on some sort of stand, to be displayed along with the AL kit once complete. 
 
Below are a few photos of the completed engine along with the carved propeller.   The engine is made up of a bunch (125ish) of cast metal parts.  Gluing them together is not the most enjoyable modelling experience.  Carving the propeller was much more fun and actually not as tricky as I thought it might be.   I recently bought an airbrush (more for a few model cars in my stash) and used it for the first time on this.  After putting the engine together I sprayed it with Badger Stynylrez primer (what a name...)  and then some Model Master "steel" color paint and used some Tamiya panel line accent.   I pretty much followed the kit, though I used some 26AWG kynar wire with black insulation for the spark plug wires instead of black thread suggested by the kit.  The stand was my own design made from 1/4" x 1/8" basswood from my stash, which is basically a scale 2x4s.
 
If you got this far, thanks for taking the time to read!
 

 
 

 
 

Dear all,
went on with the finish of the camouflage and brushed on a layer of floor polish to obtain a smooth surface in preparation for the decals. The floor polish is very quick to be applied, can be brushed, it is very thin, self-leveling and compatible with the Tamiya paints. Actually I brushed two layers on the location of the decals.
 

 
It was followed by a very light wet sanding which removed any remaining roughness. Then the decals were applied and a layer of Tamiya gloss X-22 sealed the paint and the decals. This version of MiG-15 is decorated with just few decals.
 

 
 

 
The decals are sufficiently thin, with little carrier visible and conformed well to the surface.
 

 

 
However, in my opinion, they have a shortcoming in the saturation of their colors. The red tone, which is the predominant one for this aircraft, does not look as a full saturated red, and appears slightly discolored, almost pinkish:
 

 
I think this is a shame for an aircraft of the Soviet Red Star 🙃. Unfortunately, I will have to live with that. Now the gloss paint needs to cure well for a couple of days before I can start working with oil washes for highlighting panels and details.
 
Meantime, I removed the first mask from the landing light in the sect of the air intake.
 

 
Now, I will have also to start working on the remaining parts like the landing gears, the drop tanks, etc.
This is all for now, thanks for following,
best regards, 
Dan.

Hi and, thanks for visiting.
Head timbers fitted.  These are all supplied laser cut
and as usual didn't fit.  All scratch built except for
pieces 138 and 133 which merely needed re-shaping.
The trimming pieces to the hawse holes disintegrated
as they were being detached from the sheet and,
as for the windshields part no. 181   -   there was only one
supplied on the sheet.  No big problem because the supplied 
part didn't fit anyway.
Compared the one third scale side elevation with the photo's supplied.
Checked to see what Mark and Sferoida did then went my own way.
This is my first build that doesn't supply full size plans.
How much is a piece of paper  ???
Next steps are   -  four guns on the upper deck then.
channels and deadeyes.
The lantern,  anchors, falconets,   ships boat
and touch up to follow.
 
Regards,
Sam.
 

 

Evening all,    Last stage of this build  -  I finshed making the tow ropes, these were fiddly  little fellas  as they are made of  thread, this needed  re-twisting  then gluing to keep the shape, then the ends were glued,   I then had to manufacture  Two clips  to hold them at the back  - but was able to use the Two original ones  from the  kit  (the other Two went missing).
I then painted and weathered  them.
 
So  I am calling this   Finished.
 
Sincere thanks to all the feedback and help  encouragement  with this  build  - it was a  great model to build  and am I  looking forward  to the M1   kit   "oh yes  deffo"
 
So here are the  last pics  of it.
 
OC.

Ta-daa!! Finished and installed. I left out a few parts, none of which will be obvious. I omitted the push rods on the rear bank of cylinders, because they are on the back side of the engine, which won't be visible at all once the cowling is on. Altogether, the engine has 154 parts.
 

So, I have been busy edge coloring and gluing cylinder parts. I can only do about 30-50 steps at a time before acute boredom sets in, so the process is done in bits and pieces. As I mentioned earlier, one of the ever-present risks associated with card radial engines is that the finished cylinders will be too tall, resulting in an engine whose diameter is too large and will thus not fit within the cowling. In this first shot, you can see that I have glued the lower cylinders to the block and have tacked one of the incomplete cylinder heads in place. As you can see, there is still plenty of room. That's good, because the diagrams are somewhat vague about how the valve covers are supposed to be built. Now I needn't worry about the process, because a 1 or 2mm difference in height isn't going to make the cylinders too tall.
 

 
And now, with the oil cooler temporarily in place, you can see just how much of the finished cylinders will be visible, that is, next to nothing, as the cooler pretty much hides the entire head. 🙄 Only the lower cylinder and push rods will be visible -- maybe, since the propeller and hub haven't been accounted for yet.
 

 
Cheers!

Evening all,    double tasking  today  -  So  I  sanded the wing/fuselage  join,   then I fitted the  airbrake  assembly, and the  tailplanes.
 
OC.

Hi All,
Just popping my head up after a long while with Cutty Sark. I have been in the shop from time to time, but that was for other projects. I have been working lately on CS's yards and they are now done except for the paint. I am now poring over the Campbell's rigging drawings, Longridges chapters on rigging as well as Underhill's book covering the same topic. All three are invaluable. Less so the drawing that accompanies the kit. That said, not everyone is a rigger and the drawings are adequate for a completed model.
Here are some pic's of the yards in place. They are dry fitted for the moment, so not all are level.
 

 

 

 

Hello, and many thanks for your likes
Finally, sawdust again! The fore channels are mostly ready
 

 

Pack 5 is completed out of 12 - this model at this stage has more wires than our Christmas Tree.  I should be testing many of the functions in the next Pack.  Forward superstructure complete - second turret "Bruno" added.

Figures 176, 177: Doors installed and the handles have been glued. They are now to be put aside until later. I have cropped the excess of the hinges (i.e. the copper tube sticks) from the bottom in order to stand straight. I will crop the excess on the upper parts after I have installed them in their place.