martin.bavaria

Hi guys, as promised some update. I tried a preshading on the undercarriage and sprayed RLM 02 (Gunze). I think it's ok, heavy weathering is still missing! Clued the fuselage together, fitting was okay, needs some sanding and also did some... Put some heavy weight in the nose (underside of the gun bay) and closed the area there. I hope it's enough to avoid tailsitting... Still needs some filling, the panel lines (gaps) are a little bit wider than the rest on the kit. The Wikingerschiff compared to Jeroen's picture shows poor detail. But what to do without any good reference?!? Completed the gun bay... The cover in the kit is kind a wrong. The real cover that could be opened is smaller. So cut it into pieces and clued some styrene in, redid the rivets... Tried something at the access hatches, the original lines got lost during sanding... Looks okay! This is the access to the rear (fuselage) fuel tank... And here's the area in front of the cockpit... Two hatches are gone. But you can see the rivets I already did. Looks just fine to me. I'm thinking about redoing all rivets (remember my sinkmarks) and give the metal skin a "used / stressed" look by sanding the surface. Should be a boring job! That's all for now, thanks for looking in! Cheers, Martin

Hi Marek, your scratch Buiding makes me speechless... Just one word: AMAZING! Keep it up! Cheers, Martin

Hi Mark, thanks and that's the point! Modelling is fun... Hi Thomas, looking again at the pictures I think you could be right. But it would have been so much fun "Don't pull..." and a broken front wheel. Maybe I'm doing that scene! Had't this much time. Have to get some things done on the job. Maybe next weekend. Should look better! So long have a good time! Cheers Martin

Hi Marek, good to hear you are back! And your work is simply amazing! Love it... Cheers, Martin

Thanks, not quite a special plane but the following pic I love very much... A Messerschmitt in the "forest factory" KUNO captured by GI's. There's a stencil on the cover of the front wheel bay: "ACHTUNG! Nicht am Bugrad schleppen" (CAUTION! Don't pull at the nose wheel). For me it seems the angle of the front wheel is wrong on the picture... Maybe broken. Quite funny! This picture is quite an inspiration. Does not mean that I'm building exactly this plane. Small update though... Done the undercarriage: added the wiring (lead wire and insulation of electric cables) I also added some bolts as they were missing on the parts of the main gear. I made two different sizes. For this job i have a special "high tech" punch&die tool. You can do different sizes and get them thrown out by pressing a button. I don't know if this tool is available in the US but in good ol' Germany you get it in the staionery store... Some may call it pencil. Hope you like it... Cheers, Martin

Really looking cool, sharp paintwork... I followed the WIP with great interest and the result is almost perfect!

And as promised some pics of the pilot's place... The next thing will be clueing the fuselage together... All the best! Martin

Thanks guys for your interest. It's giving me kind of motivation to go on! You're right. The finishing touches are still missing. Actually I'm doing pigments and stuff like that almost at the end of the built, since then I know how all is getting together (the dust on the base has to fit the dust on the model... ) Nice you like it... It's kind of a time consuming technique... The first thing about is, that I use brushes on the small parts like cockpit and stuff (the airgun is for the big areas...)and I'm using enamel and acryls parallel. I start with the base color (higly diluted) and apply up to 3 layers till I get an opaque coating. Then I'm doing an extreme dry brushing (kind of pre-highlighting if you like...). The next thing is "filtering" with a darkened base color, maybe some black and at last an overall wash with redbrown and buff. Finishing touch is a dull coat. Hope that helps... The next time I'm going to do some WIP pictures of the paintwork! Okay, but also time for an update... Got the wheel bays finished: wiring, painting and the weathering mentioned above. And also the inner sides of the fuselage... And as I too think, the cockpit is the coolest part... Some more pictures in the next post. (Somehow I'm alwayss getting to the picture limit per one post, but pictures say more than words!) Thanks for looking in!

Sorry about the off-topic... But what about a Garfield-Bombcat, or somethong like that! I'd love to see, what would come out! And @Phil: You made the start! Really great!

My daughter (6 years) said, the spitfire is great... With a smile on her lips! You are bringing me in serious trouble! I guess the next thing I have to build is "what if" Me 109 or somthing like that... Keep up the great work. WE are loving it!

Great paint skills! I like the worn out effect... Looking great! Please post more pictures, maybe some in a "work in progress"... Thanks and all the best!

Hi folks, thanks for the kind words! Done some experiments to control the sink marks, maybe I've got the solution. But later more... First time for some updates: The rockets for the take off... Done some modifications, drilled out the tubes, added an injection needle and redone the bracket. Still don't know if I should mount them or just leave them... The gun bay with some color on... Alclad and some washes with dark grey and red brown. Done some wiring, electic cables and stuff (made from lead wire). As you can see I'm still dryfitting. After viewing my own pictures... I have to go at the decals again... Some setting solution is needed. That's all for this update. Hope you like it!

That's exactly what I thought. And after looking at some pictures of the real thing this should be the solution. An abandoned plane at the motorway waiting weeks or months till the GIs arrive. The aluminium skin must have suffered... Let's see how it could turn out in the model!

Some more! Dryfitting the wings... Last but not least, here comes the thing that makes me ! I've got sink-marks all over the surface of the wings! What to do?!? My decision is to sand an rescribe and do the rivets... Should be kind of boring! Thanks for looking!

Thank you very much! This is kind of a mistake... When building armor I was to impatient and did some filtering / washing on not hardened acrylics. The result with turpentine and oils were shrinkles and cracks in the color. What a desaster. But no bad without a good! I was testing and testing and now I can (sort of) control the effect. Paint with acrylics, wait till the surface is dry and put / brush / spray on turpentine (also works with enamel dull coat). Hope that helps! And I found some time for a little update... it's dry-fitting time! Let's see what we've got! Cockpit... Radio... Nothing (almost) can be seen, so what the heck about it... Sidewalls of the fuselage an what can be seen through the wheel bays... I cut away these ugly straps and knobs where Trumpeter wants you to fix the tube... Some more... Dryfitted gunbay... With or thithout cover!?! I drilled out the barrels of the machine cannons and added some injection needle to the cover... Think it looks better!

Just found out, that your JU is "ready for inspection"... Love the paintwork... not to say paintart! Really good job!

Besides the really small update... Really good job! Seems you are into german WWII jets, right?!?

Absolute stunning, perfect details, perfect finish... You make me jealous (with mine stalled and put to the hall of shame...)

WOW! Now this one is GREAT! Absolute Just love it!

Got some update... Still not the current state of the build! But I thought it would be nice sharing the pictures. The additions on the cockpit: wiring (soldering wire), the handle for the nose wheel brake (left of the instrument panel), the belts at the pedals... About the instrument panel: it's the kit's part: clear plastic with holes for the instruments (film part). I should have sanded the panel thin. Now it#s too thick so you can hardly see the instruments... Don't mind... Just put some drops of gloss coat into the holes (on the pics the gloss coat hasn't set yet, should be clear...) And here the pics: Thanks for looking!

Hi Daywalker, cool work! I really like it!

Thanks for the kind feedback! Cool, you like it... It's not meant to be a diorama of the real life scene, just sort of inspiration. I think it would be cool to build the abandoned plane (and to try out some weathering techniques... ) I think you meant the following But also another is interesting: maybe it's enough space on the base for the halftrack!?! Both pictures on http://www.warbirdphotographs.com

Hi guys, it's been a long time! I got kind of stuck with the Junkers, but what's best with lack of motivation? Start another build! Okay, put the JU to the "hall of shame" and grab another kit! By mistake I ordered the Me 262 two times... Uhm, one A-1a ("Schwalbe", "Swallow") and one A-2a ("Sturmvogel", "Stormbird"). For the "Schwalbe" I got some aftermarket but I thought it would be nice to do a ooB with the "Sturmvogel" first: kind of a test build to see fitting issues and stuff. One last thing: I started the build half a year ago and posted some progress in a german board, but I thought it would be nice to show some pictures here... and I'm a slow builder! A short story about the build: the idea is to show an abandoned plane left somewhere near the "Autobahn" in summer 1945, not really a wreck but we all know the pictures of planes aligned along the motorway. Maybe I'm doing a small base with some GIs just having found the stormbird... I talk the talk, but now walk the walk... First the belts: I got the PE belts from Eduard and some spare belts from Radu. But look yourself: I just love the Radu-belts. So the Eduard go into the test build! Radu left, Eduard right... I painted the Radu with acrylics. And now some impressions from the working area of the pilot... Painting done, some filtering, some washes (still wet on the pictures...) That's not the current state... I'll be posting more, step by step! Thanks for looking, I hope you like it!

Hi guys, it's been a while since my last posting here... Sorry! A whole bunch of things happened beside the large scale planes. No progress on the JU 88 but some "ground targets"... armor in 1/35. Maybe I'll post some pics in the non LSP work. But nontheless: THANKS guys for your kind words about this project. I've got the ordering-issues kind of sorted out and now the only thing I need is the addiction to continue this big plane! But be warned: I hear it coming... it's getting closer! I hear the Junkers already knocking! I don't know if it's still interesting: the tubes are made of streched sprue and the wires are soldering / lead wires... Aganin "Hi" and "Thanks" guys! All the best Martin

Hey, no worries... I booked our next holidays in Greece. Mrs. Merkel pays the bill. And I wrote a letter to her, that I would bring the billions to Greece... Just kidding... More serious... I love Greece. It's wonderful country...