popeye the sailor

catching up on builds I follow. you've made some great progress........looks awesome!

I did my Dumas PT boat hull with resin, but I left out the cloth. I always seem to get the cloth texture showing through. this is one thing I wish I would have done with my Nordie.......didn't know about it at the time. you probably saw the results of my initial paint job I freaked out! what I did was sand the hull down and give it multiple coats of diluted white glue. that sealed up all the cracks. I was new at it......didn't know that one needed to cement between the planks.. the second kit I have is going to be the progress. the research I came up with, is that this model was offered along with the Nordkap.......it is a clone. there is also a 'junior' kit that was sold around the same time. look'in forward in seeing more glad you like the blogs.....hope they come in handy.

thanks for the info Patrick......is that a publication that Squadron put out? perhaps I can dredge it up on the internetoscope {here's a new word for ya Webster } I'm thinking that where Leopold started out in the gray color and was repainted, some parts were not painted, but passed over as part of the overall camo. the red/brown camo streaking wasn't added until a bit later, before it was shipped to Italy. this very well could have been done after it reached Italy. so......it spent time painted in the gray, then in the sandy yellow, and then sandy yellow with the red/brown streaking. the instructions give all three versions, but they are just drawings and in Black n white. there is a book......I'm going to try and get it. I did do a little painting today. the wheels gave me the most trouble, because of the way I had set them up. I had two Bamboo skewers pierced through a box close together and placed the axles on them in a long row. I started with flat black for the wheels and the underside. with the way I had them......getting the underside of the wheels could not be reached. so I grabbed a pair of tweezers and painted them one at a time. I added more to the trucks......the front and back panels and the side panels. the underside was painted flat black.......not getting any on the outer surfaces. in working with the Dunkelbrau gray.....I find that it is a variant of gray/blue. ....and yes, it is far from the Panzer gray { it's less blue tint}. I have a Schiffsbodenfarbe III grau1 that also possesses some tinting of blue........the number says it all KM 05 Kriegsmarine. all of White Ensign paint have this form of color numbers along with their name { Pactra was sold like this....I miss it}. after the underside of the trucks were painted in the flat black, the outer sides were painted in the German gray. this way, when the wheels are installed, they should blend right in. the next step is to take the sand yellow and spray it on an angle, so it doesn't totally paint over the bearing strips.......merely shadow them. anything that can't be seen from above....won't be painted the sand yellow. the gray is darker than the plastic.......in the beginning, I had my doubts. so this is where I am so far I also like the way the bearings are shadowed with the rust color.........food for thought thanks for look'in in gents.......I like the gray aspect too Ken it's not too late to change to a two camo gray........sadly, Leopold wasn't done like that.

well done.........

very nice work........well done!

when the time come to put the top on, it must be cut, because it is done in sections. ...not yet though.......it begins like this. four inner walls are cemented to 'the' one side of the insert with the faint arrows. the two pins that hold this together were really tight, so I trimmed them a tiny bit. now I need to use tape to hold it together...can't win for losing I left the slide pad off of the track till it dried......it wasn't hard to slide it in place. should be fun putting all this together.........hopefully it works

wait........helped with the turkey. still thinking of a direction to paint the trucks. now my thought is that they didn't paint the interior in the sand yellow, but left it in the gray {I'm using the Dunkelgrau 2...I have two tins}. best I have so far for the yellow, is Humbrol #119, which is light earth {I have the dark earth too}. I got some Model Master that might work too......I'll have to check. so in this light, there is a balance of color that I think should look pretty good. the undercarriage is another consideration too.......whether to do it in flat black, or in the German gray specified. while I played ping pong in my head, I trimmed up the 24 bearing caps and added them to the bearing assembly strips. next was the component assemblies that make up the elevator. the piston and slide track. it was pretty hard to glue this together, so the piston slides in and out. as it dried, I continued to move it in and out, until it move freely. I was going to paint the bearing assemblies separately from the truck bodies.......but it's beginning to frustrate me. in thinking what would be the best way, I said to myself......the heck with it and glued them to the bodies. I'll worry about it later. with these drying, I looked at the insert for the main body. funny.......at first, I thought that they had two different versions for the body........until I figured out that these fit inside the main housing and serve as the inner walls. the front and rear caps are shown with one of the inner walls of the insert. the floor has been added to the wagon the insert fits into grooves molded in the main part of the body. the front and rear caps were added to the main body......inside there are guides for the insert. for the top to fit on, there is no room for miscalculations. to make it easier, one half of the insert has faint arrows where the inner walls are to sit......there are 7 of them and three more along the bottom in the center for the piston assembly. the slide track was added to the main body. adding the wall that supports the piston was a pain........it too must be movable. thee underside of the fork has serrations.......they fit through holes in the forward wall. the paint tins you see might be the outer color....it's a good contender one side of the forward wall has been cemented....the other side will insure it's position until it is finally assembled with the piston assembly installed. I have one more small update.........

....in the coldest freezer I own.........you mean hotpoint was B.S.ing me all these years?!?!?! {sorry....the comedy bug bit me} hey gents.......been on edge the last week or so....not a whole lot of modeling going on. I've got an update since my last.........thought I'd better get it up here, before the admiral calls 'errand'. ..........Gibb's P call* ...back. she cleaning the chest freezer......I'm sure I'll come into play somewhere. to start this off, I decided to play with the ammunition and truck assembly. first thing I noticed, is that there is no floor....what can be seen is the part number stamped in the well. I began by making a floor to cover this over, but to stay flush with the door openings. I started to make it from wood.......but I didn't like the thickness. I had some sheet plastic that did though. ...seems odd that there wouldn't be one........there is a shelf for one to sit on I had to trim a little away to fit the door lips....inner walls are a flat white....the floor will be a rusty red color. I may make a rack to hold the extra munition........the kit comes with four, with one for the crane. speaking of the crane.......I must have done it, but the part that fits at the end of the crane is broken. I have glued it back together, but I got it backwards, so it looks opposite than what you see in the picture above....I have to fix it. with the deck on, it looks much better....looking inside....... I made a couple till I got it right....one of my attempts can be seen in the corner of the picture {the door openings is too deep and shows a gap}. .....update two coming up.......

gee.......sorry I missed this one cool look'in model! camo wasn't a big thing during WWI.......toss on some dirt and branches and you were good for the party sophistication came into play towards the end....likely a few 'Picassos' started the fad the use of camo was a gradual thing......unit markings was a big draw though..... ...as for the olive drab..........I have many shades of olive. it all depends on how worn you want to show her.......faded was the rage, as I recall....... very nice looking model

very nice so far....the cockpit looks awesome

great job so far Chris!......the skin must have been really something to cut out! really like the added detail on the underside......it will add to her overall looks. definitely following this one!

look'in MY-T fine Kevin.......nice work with the painting as well the more you use the airbrush, the better your gonna get.......by the time your finished with this project, I think you'll have no trouble carrying what you've learned over to other projects keep it up.......your doing fine! interesting idea with tightening the track. it'll never be noticed!

I find models that have a connection more enjoyable........one of my projects are the cars that my parents owned when I was a youngster. I haven't started it yet.......waiting an a pair of engines nice looking plane........was it hard to find and source the markings? love the color

good to see you working on her again! I see your out of the box with the airbrush........you'll find there's no boundaries.......the paint looks fantastic! looking really good !

the fitting kit you purchased is the new release of the kit.......the original kit had all metal winches.....even the pulleys were metal. those can be found at Cornwall Model Boats. the metal winches can be sourced, but they do cost a bit

even as an older kit, it's still a very nice model I built mine some time ago........an older kit that was given to me by a gent who had it in his attic for about 30 years. older kits did sell with the fittings separate in the event that the model was never completed {the wood half went for around $150.00}. he had the fittings and couldn't find them.......in the meantime before he found them, I had cobbled together the fittings with the help of Tom @ BB USA. in the end I had two sets of fittings. since a couple of years ago, BB USA {which is now part of Ages of Sail - Product Catalog } the fitting are now available for the Nordkap, the Mary Ann, and other kits that were never available before. I wanted to build a newer kit....the laser cut experience was a huge draw.....so the admiral got me another for Christmas. little did she know, she had bought me another of the older kits that was alright though, because when I researching about the Nordkap kit, I happened onto a clone of this model, the Progress. I have pictures of the finished model......and not long ago, I actually found one of the diagram sheets online. I have a log on her here somewhere........I really need to get back to her. I should have sealed the Nordkap the way you did....would have saved me from the headaches I had painting the hull. my only excuse is that it was my first wood boat model, even though the Cux 87 turned out to be my first finished wooden ship. it's too bad that my log is gone....lost in the big crash some years ago. the printed wooden deck platform showed the margins....I made those from scratch and I planked the deck. I did do a blog on her...if your interested I can give you the link, should have problems. an accomplished modeler like yourself should have no troubles though enjoy the ride.........I certainly did!

I've never heard of it......I'll give it a try next time. thanks Ken since I knew where I glued it, I was able to cut the parts free with a razor blade......the back ends were the worst, and of course, took the brunt of the damage. I though I had set everything in order......must have had my head somewhere else at the time. I will always post my mistakes OC.......if it saves someone else from doing it, then I've helped with valuable information I made a little bit of progress, but not enough to write home about. more soon

Gary's thoughts are my own as well......the realized size of the diorama next to a pair of glasses is amazing! very ....very nicely done!

nicely done

yea....folding wings and such makes the model all the more delicate. for myself, I've only been able to adequately repair a couple......the others I simply abandoned the idea and fixed the wing, attempting it again on another model. in my younger days, I had a lot of models on the shelf looking good......love the repair job with the gap

the planking is coming out really nice stove looks great too!

thanks Mike when I thought of this color scheme.....I had to do it. I'd be a fool not to. I'm pleased how it came out. I still have the nose glass to finish.....it's sitt'in here at my desk. the darn paint keeps rubb'in off from all the handling. once I get it done, I'll post a couple more pictures. concerning a third captured plane.........I saw one today! not sure I can pull the trigger, but if I do, it will have an interesting twist again....thanks to all of you for your likes

I wish I could say the same OC.........read on. today quickly went sour, when I realized what I had done. can't tell you how many time I fitted these parts....I thought I had it down pat....none the less, I still managed to cement the recoil mech upside down the recoil tube should be neatly tucked between the brackets with the curved sides up, so it can be attached to the barrel. the round tubes in each side are the shock absorbers.......shafts back is correct. of course, I made sure that this assembly is cemented real good.......now I have to figure out how to take it apart. it took a while, trying not to damage it too much......the front ends of the absorbers faired well, but the shaft ends did not. at least I was able to save the pieces, so it can be scabbed back together.. the parts were cleaned up of the dried glue and welded plastic. where the front and rear ends of the tubes are, tabs were trimmed off to better accept being rejoined. when the fit was good again, it was re-glued and clamped. the shock absorber housings haven't been added yet.......they slide over the shafts at the rear and cement to the barrel breech. the shaft have to be rebuilt. it's a mess right now.......you can see where the tabs I trimmed off were to fit. the shafts need to be exact for the housings to fit correctly. each housing has a hole to accept the shafts......I drilled them slightly larger to make it easier. the end of the main recoil tube {the round part with all the bolts} should have a hole in the center, so part B 16 will fit. it has three pins coming off of it, the center being longer that the outer ones. instead of drilling the hole.........when the time came to add the part, I simply trimmed some of the center pin off, enabling the other pins to touch their respective places on the shock absorber housings. there may be a little bit of cleaning up left to do......it should be unnoticeable when it's painted. that's how it's supposed to look........I can't believe I did that just to see what reaction I would get, I showed it to the admiral and mentioned that I should get another kit. I got an unsympathetic "make it work!" I'll have to come up with a new angle I did get to look at the supply of White Ensign paints......I unfortunately don't have the color I'd like to go with. Homepage | White Ensign Models from what I've seen, they cater to ships......little on armor, and nada on planes {as far as paints go}. I wanted to do the dark yellow......looks tan to me and the camo is a red / brown.......it's current scheme at the Aberdeen museum. most rail guns were painted in the original German Gray....I have either Dunkelgrau 2 or a darker Schiffsbodenfarbe III Grau1. I have some Norwegian grays too. Leopold started out in the German Gray, later to be painted in the dark yellow. likely some time before the war's end, it received the camo, as is seen today.

I'm more 'newsy' when building......probably why I like working at my desk. I can sit and read articles and of course, catch up with you fine folks here on the site.. I can also window shop.......very dangerous for me. the admiral cringes when I get updates from oldmodelkits as mentioned, the decal sheet from Peddinghaus has the decals for the trucks, which will be a nice touch. I haven't seen anything as far as the origin of the trucks...whether they were designs for it, or if they were modified from existing train cars. these are the same decals as from Archer....they need to be cut out exact......close to the images. I did get the second set of wheels assembled during the week. the tape was removed from the gun barrel and the seams were sanded....looks pretty good, but I need to do a bit more. ....and as can be seen, the recoil mech has been assembled. will be fine tuned when dry there's more to add to the lower carriage....got a few things to do today. once life is out of the way, I can get some play time in I'm also working on the paint......gonna try and use the White Ensign brand, since I have some of the German colors.

nailed it!!!