ringleheim

Believe it or not, you are free to not participate in threads of your choosing.

I often thinking about stories like the one you are telling, and then try to imagine poor German mechanics trying to do those jobs with 1930s technology in the freezing cold of a Russian winter and it gives me chills, literally and figuratively. Add in horse drawn logistics, and diversification of spares due to so many competing designs being in service, and the entire things scares the hell out of me. I can't fathom the repair difficulties sustained by the Wehrmacht on the Ostfront in WWII.

I had this happen to me just a few weeks ago. I was digging through a moving box filled with stashed model kits. I remembered/recognized everything, until I got to the little 1/72 Tamiya A6m5 Zero. Unbelievably detailed little kit, but I had totally forgotten that I owned it.

I had always though the weirdest model kit was Hasegawa's "School desk and chair" set. Then I saw the Cup o' noodle! This is way better!

I'm biased here, because I have 2001 somewhere in my Top 5 movies of all time, but... The scene where we realize HAL is reading their lips and the 2 astronauts do not have the privacy they thought they had, despite being alone in the pod...and then the cut to intermission. One of the great scenes in cinematic history.

I agree with the OP. I have one one my stash. There are some Youtube videos with them for those interested.

I grew up in WNY getting my hair cut by the same barber for nearly 20 years. He was also born in the east end of London and was stationed to an RAF anti-aircraft unit of some type during the war, in England as far as I remember. He had countless stories he told my dad an I during our haircuts. One that I remember: the time he was knocked unconscious and put in the hospital when a V2 leveled "an entire city block" that he was on, in London, at some point late in the war. He used to sing war songs that they sung back in England during the War.

My process isn't nearly as organized as the OP's. I have many projects in a working rotation, all the time. I like to work on the one that intrigues me at the moment. If the mojo isn't there to work on a given kit, even if I've spent a lot of time on it already, I wrap all sub-builds up in toilet paper (!), put everything away in the box, and even write down notes to myself for the future. Sometimes I don't get back to a started kit for a couple of years!

Mr. Color Leveling thinner. The stuff is magic. You can mix all sorts of paint/brands with it, and when it's combined with Tamiya acrylics in particular, and well thinned, provides really great airbrushing results. My second place vote goes to the chromed Tamiya paint stirring sticks. They come in a 2-pack. Dirt cheap, perfectly engineered, extremely functional, I used them a LOT every time I paint, either by brush or airbrush.

Elegant design?

Don't let a few trolls get you down!

Happy belated b-day, Maru! Hope it was a fun one.

I have never done this, but actually thought about doing this often! There is a certain cleanliness to the monotone look and it forces the eye to focus on the overall lines/design of the subject matter rather than detail. But I would paint the kit 1 color, probably a medium tone gray, or maybe white.

How "soon" is "coming soon?" Looks very promising!

Many/most of their 1/12 bike decals (at least more recently) are farmed out to Cartograph. They're great. I find Tamiya decals to be incredibly inconsistent. They are not always the same from kit to kit. Sometimes they work fine. Sometimes they are absolutely terrible. Sometimes they are thick, sometimes not. Sometimes they like to silver. As a general rule, I try to avoid using them. They are, easily, the single worst aspect to almost anything Tamiya does as a company. For a company that has equated its name with "excellence