Iain

Talking of fettling - here's an example - the wing root intake sections.
 
These are separate from the wings to facilitate differing versions.
 
Moulding looks very sharp - but alignment of parts at their edges is variable - so it's a case of aligning the parts as neatly as possible and then truing up the edges once everything has dried overnight:
 

 

 
And that beautiful Centaurus cowling - after partial clean-up and the addition of upper and lower infil panels:
 

 

 
Iain
 

Building spoked wheels:
 
As some of you might know, it all began in 2016 with the Crossley tender build, actually I think it was one of the first builds I posted on LSP?
 
 
As the Crossley build started out, only as little more than an experiment, not thinking it was doable, I didn't document the procedure...
Now, for the Jasta diorama build, I wanted to retry it with the scratch building of the German Staff Car.
To make things a bit simpler, I've been using the wheels from Roden's Rolls Royce Armoured Car.



Making a silicone mold of the three parts for the wheels and casting resin copy's.



This is the jig I developed back then, it's still the one I'm using. It's a fairly simple tool adding 24 wires x 2 to get
the look of a real wire wheel.



First I place a 'rim' in the middle of the jig with a axle made from 1.6mm styrene rod. Discs can be made in different sizes.
I've been experimenting with various types of monofilament, but right now I'm using 0.12 mm or 0.15 mm.
The 'wires' are glued to the rim with CA.
A second disc is glued in place for the second part. The second rim is glued on top of the other with CA to 'sandwich' the wires
between the rim parts and the second 'round of wires are mounted using the second row of 'pins' on the jig.



After that I've made a disc to 'land the wires on the rim to get the right angular shape of the spokes.



When the CA has dried the 'spokes/wires' are cut, leaving the finished wire wheel rim with spokes, ready for mounting.



Closeup of the finished rim.



The rim is mounted from the back into the wheel.



The finished five wheels for the Staff Car.
I know it looks quite complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it is really fast to produce this kind of simple spoked wheels.
 
I haven't tried it on aircraft wheels yet, but if you can keep down the thickness of the rim part, this might be doable too.
 
Cheers: Kent

Hi Max - indeed - I hadn't seen those parts until after you mentioned them. 
 
Looks like Brian and I came to the same conclusions - which is reassuring!
 
Hoping to get primer on later this week and I can then spend a while cleaning up a few things that I know will appear...
 
Iain

The German Staff Automobil is finally up on it's 'wheels'.
 

 

 
It's been a tough one and a lot of detailing is still needed...
 
Cheers: Kent

Time to pick up were I left the 'dreidekkers' - Still got a diorama to do...
 
The photo's I'm using as inspiration for the diorama:
 
 
 
The 'walkway' in the front, that would be a nice feature to add.
 

 
I also want to add a lot of crew and ground personnel. This is a nice shot showing the preparations for a 'sortie'.
 

 
 
 

 
German staff car has been in the making, on and off, for some time now...
 

 
This is were I left it, almost a year ago...
 

 
The last week or so, I've had time to refresh and practice the spoke wheel technique to make some wheels for the car...
 

 
The Fokker 'dreidekker' triple are ready.
 

 
The half 'dreidekker' is ready as well...
 
Hope I will be able to get somewhere with this in the foreseeable future..
 
Kent
 
 

Like many other modellers I've been quite taken by the WingNut Wings kits - and have been slowly collecting them over the years.
 
Again, like I suspect with many others, they've just sat in the loft - with me putting off the day of reckoning where I actually have to rig a biplane - and with my prime interest being British and Commonwealth subjects - that's meant those 'orrible flat wires!! 
 
Just before Christmas I invested in the various sizes of flat wires produced by Radu as part of his RB Productions range and, well, if I don't start one now, I'll keep putting it off...
 
So, Ladies and Gentlepersons, I give you the start of my first foray into the world of WingNuts - the "Le Rhône" boxing of their excellent Camel.
 
I have four Camels of various versions in the stash, so I figure I can cope with one being used as a 'test mule' to see how it comes out.
 
Learning/gaining confidence as I go - so please be gentle.
 
Currently playing with wood effects - oils over MRP Light Wood - before I dive into detail cockpit painting.
 

 

 

 

 
Great fun so far - we'll see how long it lasts, eh?
 
Iain

Trying to get back into actually building things again - have picked up on a Tempest I started a while back:
 

 

 

 

 

 
Really enjoying this one - some very sharp/neat moulding - but parts still need test fitting and careful fettling at each stage.
 
More shortly...
 
Have fun.
 
Iain

Trying to get back into actually building things again - have picked up on a Tempest I started a while back:
 

 

 

 

 

 
Really enjoying this one - some very sharp/neat moulding - but parts still need test fitting and careful fettling at each stage.
 
More shortly...
 
Have fun.
 
Iain

Thanks Quang - have added to the review - really useful photo! 
 
Iain

I think so. I took it from Wikipedia.

Little Marauder update:
Over the weekend, I made some more clear vacuformed parts for the nose, turret and tail. The nose must be redone as I wasn't careful enough when romoving from the mould, so what you see is just for a quick demonstration:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
It all still need some clean-up, but overall the plan seems to work out.
 
I enlarged the opening in the fuselage for the turret since I have the impression the turret is too small on the plan from the Warpaint book. Somewhere I read that the turret diameter is 41 inch.
 
Talking about the turret, the obvious question arises: what color for the turret? On some pictures they are some kind of interior green:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4908/44189918460_86a363267c.jpg
That's the turret from Flak Bait:
https://thumbs-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/86/6f/866f22ba-be2d-49fa-b846-9b78c6983c8a/4.jpg__1072x0_q85_upscale.jpg
Here, the turret seems to be metal/aluminium:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5099/5521447033_6b3d731ef3_b.jpg
Here not:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HG_DQC1deB0/maxresdefault.jpg
Here on the production line, they are black/dark grey:
http://320thbg.org/martin_marauder/domes_destruction.jpg
 
At the moment, I tend to black/dark grey for my model, but any additional information would be welcome.
 
Cheers
Alex.
 
 

Hi Jason,
so true, those Soviet twins in "our" scale would be great, as well as an Il-4.
 
 
Thanks a lot!
 
Christmas holiday means modeling time 
Sooner or later, the day will come when the fuselage halves get glued together. Before that, most interiors have to be done. One big challenge is the Martin 250 CE turret. I collected all photos I found, as well some handbooks and manuals. But I couldn't find one single scale drawing. The circumstance, that there were apparently variours versions of the turret with detail differneces doesn't make things easier. So, the end-result will contain some artistic licence and simplification. That's the current status of the 3d-model:
 

 

 
 
I also took a closer look on the rear gunner station and realized that the end opening is way to narrow, so the rear section had to be redone. To make it fit to the rest of the fuselage, some comprises were still necassary. It's far from perfect, but hopefully better than the old part:
 

 

 
The silver one is the old part
 

 

 

 

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Indeed - looking at lower cover it's definitely square at the back - hats off to ICM!
 
Iain

Er... from what I see from the photo, the back is open. You don’t even need to round them off.
To be frank, I admit I was tempted to replace them with metal rods myself until I looked closely at photos of the real thing.

We take a look at ICM's excellent 1:32 Gloster Gladiator Mk.I...
 

 
From what I've seen/heard this is proving to be quite a popular kit!
 
Have fun,
 
Iain

We take a look at ICM's excellent 1:32 Gloster Gladiator Mk.I...
 

 
From what I've seen/heard this is proving to be quite a popular kit!
 
Have fun,
 
Iain

Thanks for that— good news indeed! I didn’t want to miss out on any Gladiator, while waiting and hoping for the Sea Gladiator!
Bill M.
 

We do indeed Bill - kit 32042 
 
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/icm-32042-gloster-sea-gladiator-mkii--1259706
 
I want two of these - one for a Silver pre-war FAA airframe - and one for Malta...
 
Iain

Thanks guys, I just wish it wasn't so tediously long for you...
I work on her most days, but finding time is an issue as always.  However after many hours work I got the nacelles set at their correct angles (all the wing mods ment re-jigging the datums again).  The resin carb intake got removed 3times before I was happy with the final sit and orientation.  Now I have started detailing up the firewall.  I cant finish this area until I finish detailing and painting the wheel well and then gluing the nacelle halves together.
 
In the meantime here are a couple of pics to show where this nacelle is at.  There will be a lot of detailing and plumbing in here as well as using a modified Merlin from the Airfix Hurricane as the powerplant. I can now however remove the nacelles and finish off all the surface detailing, especially on the lower wing.  There are loads of panels, fasteners, drain holes to be added.
 
Sorry the update is not very exciting and does not reflect the hours gone into this.

 

 
Thanks for looking in
 
Cheers Anthony

We take a look at ICM's excellent 1:32 Gloster Gladiator Mk.I...
 

 
From what I've seen/heard this is proving to be quite a popular kit!
 
Have fun,
 
Iain

We take a look at ICM's excellent 1:32 Gloster Gladiator Mk.I...
 

 
From what I've seen/heard this is proving to be quite a popular kit!
 
Have fun,
 
Iain

We take a look at ICM's excellent 1:32 Gloster Gladiator Mk.I...
 

 
From what I've seen/heard this is proving to be quite a popular kit!
 
Have fun,
 
Iain

Thanks everyone, definitely appreciate it. 
 
More progress over the weekend. The engine cowling and flaps are done and painted. In the picture, then engine module is just stuck on, not glued in place yet so a slight gap at the top.  I've also painted the white sealing tape stripes on the wings, as well as the walkways on the upper wings using Maketar's masks and Tamiya tape.
 
I'm hoping to get a clear coat laid down in the next few days, then move onto the HGW wet transfers (lots of those!). Hoping...….
 
Comments, critiques, suggestions...….lay it on me. 
 
Thanks for looking. 
 

 

 
That's a big nose.....

 
Bye bye engine work! 

 
 

So, first thoughts on the HGW wet transfers. MAKE SURE YOU BEND AN EDGE OF THE CARRIER FILM UP. Otherwise, good luck getting an edge to catch and peel up the film once it's dry. There are 1-2 that I couldn't grab an edge on, thankfully very small and I can blend them in. The carrier film is nice and thin at least? More work than a regular decal to ensure that the film stays up till it's dry enough.....then walk away, walk away! The transfers I added last night, need to see what else I can do to remove the adhesive. The film came off well this morning, but I can see exactly where the adhesive was. Any suggestions? 
 
Montex Reluctant Dragon decal.....went on perfectly and sucked into the rivets and fasteners with just Micro Set. One bubble in the film, stabbed with the #11 and some Micro Sol took care of it. 
 
This is all for now, just a quick snap from the Nikon. Now it's back to remodeling a bathroom for most of the day! You can see the carrier film sticking up in the air on some of the transfers.....gotta have that edge!
 

 

These are brilliant - many thanks for making them available!
 
Iain