Christoffer Lindelav

Summer has slowed the build down a bit. More time outside. And, of course, the start of another high school football season ... summer camp starts in 2 weeks!
Along with the ongoing application of zimm.... I've been looking at the turret changes needed from a Tiger I early to a Tiger I mid.
 
So far, I've managed to move the ventilator fan from the rear to the middle of the turret top, and I've removed the early commander's cupola in preparation for the 3d printed cast/late item.
 
 Hoping to finish hull zimm in the next week . Then on to the turret.
 
Cheers. And yesssss the NFL regular season begins in 26 days!
 
Dave/Ironman1945

Here's a bunch of photos of the "pretty much finished" marathon tank build that's cured me of doing any more 1/16 tanks and any vehicles with interiors...done-dun-dun..LOL.  Enjoy the photos and as always, comments are welcome.  NOTE:  No further narrations of the photos...these are just photos.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

It's been a while, but my 1/48 Revell (ICM) Dornier Do215 B-5 Night Fighter is being published- right now! I'm absolutely pumped. That radar is soldered bras(s) , and the cockpit is 85% scratchbuilt. Here's a couple of images from my article:
 

 

hey again
Got one building done and primed and have started on the second one. I'm hoping to have the first one painted by the weekend. I have already drilled out the holes where the fibers will be going. I lost count after 50 and 8 drill bits later
The good news is it won't require a lot big lengths of fiber. I am contemplating sticking in just little bits of fiber and flood lighting the entire inside but I am not sure I can get much light through the top sections. They'd require longer lengths I think. Also, there would not be enough room to angle an LED bright enough to fill the space... unless I used SMD strip?
Enough pondering, here are the pics. I used my phone and not my proper camera coz I can't be faffed getting it all set up
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In black primer with a very light white primer highlight coat brings it all together nicely
 
 
 
 
And together with the new building. I drilled out some vents on the side of the tower and I'll stick in some strips of clear sanded styrene to cover the openings from the inside. With a red LED shining up from the bottom it'll look pretty cool with the sanded styrene diffusing the light nicely. At least - that's the plan
 
 
 
 
 
and lastly, the new position of both on the surface:
 
 
Well, I think I have bored you all enough, but as always, please feel free to critique or suggest anything that could be improved. Like, share, subscribe...? LOL
I watch way too much Youtube
Thanks for looking

I used Future floor polish - others have used hair gel - if you have no hair get someone else to buy it for you

Got the Kiowa Warrior back on bench and made some good progress.  
 
decals on and panel liner/wash done

an outside shot before the flat coat 

flat coat on..


and masking is off! 


 
and a mandatory group shot! Lol

 
Next on list is weapons and lights/lenses
 
I need a bigger photo box!   Lol 

Thanks!
Great stuff to show you all today!
First, I have started casting the larger central engine fins. I need eleven in total and I am much to lazy to cut and shape all these pieces.
 

 
And I have just received the Falcon 3D printed cockpit set for the MPC kit. Beautifully printed parts, and very well packaged.Here is the link for those curious. 
 
https://www.falcon3dparts.com/products/cockpit-set-for-amt-ertl-snowspeeder 
 
Here are some pics of the parts, and they appear to be very accurate. They are a straight replacement for the kit parts.
 

 
Front

 
Rear

 
Clear part for rear cockpit screen

 
MPC vs 3D parts!

 
Seats

 
Pilots and clear visors

 
 
Harnesses. Actually only two of them are necessary.

 
The casting base is very easy to remove, the cutters not really necessary.

 
Very good fit!

 
Very exciting to check over the parts. Scratch building all this would have been quite time consuming so this set was very welcome when I discovered it very recently. 
One major reason to work on the kit again.
 
Bye for now!
Alain

Additional thoughts...
 
I've seen a few negative comments out there on the interweb - it's a short-run kit and, to be fair, anyone building this type of kit will probably have the skills/confidence to make some alterations to the kit if  they feel they're warranted.
 
If it had been a resin kit - at more than twice the price - I suspect there would have been less hyperbole - but because it's an injection-moulded kit it's 'too expensive/not accurate enough'. 
 
I'd also point out that many mainstream kits from the big names have their fair share of things that can be improved.
 
This is a limited edition kit - from a very small team - I suspect that it'll be the only injection-moulded Vampire we'll see in 1:32.
 
It deserves supporting IMHO.
 
I really don't want this thread to put people off - hopefully it'll give some ideas for possible modifications others may want to incorporate in their builds, or not.
 
If not - you'll still have a nice looking Vampire IMHO.
 
For me fettling a kit what modelling is about - and I quite enjoy it! 
 
Iain
 
 
 
 

The kit actually stacks up pretty well in profile against the Airfix CAD images (as I said earlier, these are based on LIDAR scans - so should be pretty accurate).
 
Airfix designer blog post with images.
 
Canopy isn't actually that bad - in fact, it looks like trimming a little off the rear of the sliding portion (frame area) the profile will match pretty well - with one caveat: The angle of the interface between rear sliding portion and the windshield doesn't look quite vertical enough from what I've gleaned so far - but I have a plan for that that won't involve replacement...
 
The aim of my build will be to improve the look of the kit - the nose area of the Vampire is a focal point of the airframe and can make, or break, the look. I'm reasonably confident at this stage I can make this close enough simply with some nips, tucks - and a little judicious 'bending'. 
 
Rivets - they're pretty fine - I suspect they'll pretty well disappear under a coat of my favourite automotive rattle-can primer and a quick sanding session.
 
BTW - assembled the tyre halves last night - the CAD designed detail parts on Sprue D are superb - and the fit is spot on.
 
Bit busy today - involved in some flying over the weekend (50 odd retired RAF Trainers at Goodwood and over south coast of England on Saturday/Sunday) so probably no further updates until next week...
 
Blue skies!
 
Iain

Thanks Thierry,
 
Yes, I have that image - and printed at 1:32 with respect to longitudinal dimensions - and I'm pretty certain now where some tweaks need to be made. 
 
I've also been comparing with the Airfix CAD for their 1:48 release.
 
So far the nose looks pretty good in side elevation/profile.
 
The nose is about the right length. It does look too wide towards the bottom in plan elevation - and too blunt on that section towards the nose.
 
The good news is that my current thoughts are that this is a fairly easy fix with a couple of razor saw cuts by the intakes and 'squeezing' the sides around a former and reshaped bulkheads - followed by squaring off the upper and lower mating surfaces.
 
I've already had it looking a lot better in plan and front view just by squeezing the sides in with my fingers!
 
I'm still, cautiously, going through data I can find - any input there *really* appreciated!
 
The cannon muzzle positions are out and need relocating.
 
Cannon ports should be straightforward to relocate and I'll use styrene, or aluminium, tube to replace - depending on what I have on stock.
 
There are a few other things that need addressing also - but nothing I haven't had to do in similar fashion on mainstream kits.
 
I like this kit - and the build is progressing pretty well so far - but do reserve the right to change my view as things progress...
 
Made a little more progress at lunchtime - if I get a chance later I'll post more images.
 
Happy kitbashing everyone! 
 
Iain
 
 

Progress this evening:
 
Various sections that are 'halves' have been prepped and bonded:
 

 
That bonding includes the upper main fuselage and wings.
 
I need these to dry off thoroughly whilst I corroborate thoughts on nose shape in plan, as I think it's a little too wide/blunt when comparing with photos and  plan images of the CAD for the Airfix 1:48 kit - which is based upon LIDAR scans, so should be a reasonable reference point. Nose looks pretty good so far in side elevation.
 

 
Trailing edges have been given a quick sanding with 400 grit wet and dry on the sanding bar to true up and thin just a little - the trailing edges are commendably thin as moulded.
 

 
Central bulkhead/mini spar in place - this won't be bonded for now...
 

 
Lower port wing half being prepped on the sanding bar...
 

 
That's about it for now - *if* I decide to narrow the nose (and I need to confirm that) I have a cunning and fairly straightforward plan for a fix that should work.
 
More when there's more...
 
Iain
 

Now that the review is done I've made a start on the build.
 
The first step was to remove the major components from the sprues, loosely tape things together and see what we've got to work with:
 

 
A Vampire!
 
As I mentioned in the review, I suspect the nose is a little bloated in plan view and could do with a little reshaping - along with some adjustment to the position of the cannon ports, but I'll come back to that.
 
I think the blending of the intake trunking and intake areas will need some careful work.
 

 
Canopy parts loosly positioned - this caused some head scratching as the sliding portion appeared to have fit problems where it interfaces with the canopy rails - but there are more parts to add for this area - parts A10 and A11.
 

 

 

 
I've started gluing some parts together - efflux halves, intake trunking, wing tanks - each needed the mating surfaces dressed off on some flat 400 grit wet and dry - a very quick and simple process that makes things easier!
 
Iain
 
 

A little more-
this is the one-piece hot metal section on the belly that wraps around each fuselage corner. A tricky one-



All of this yet to be weathered-
 
cheers
Pete

Hey, I'm famous !!  see 0:43   
 
No autographs , sorry.

Got my second order(Viggen) #10918 shipped today
no info about the Learjet(ordered together)

Update for those still waiting in line, my kits 10905 & 10906 shipped today.
 
Gary

Hasegawa 1/48 scale TA-4J converted to an OA-4M using Phase Hanger resin set and Furball decals. Painted with Vallejo products. 
 
 

Hey all-
here is the ballast fairing unique to the AT-38B. Typical of scratch building, there are three not perfect/destroyed ones at the trash end of my bench-

 
The basic shape was built up with sheet styrene and then skinned-
cheers
P

A little more this a:m

Across the line...

Well finally the beastie is finished! it was an epic build and my first all resin kit.
Jetmads did a piece of wonder there even though it shows that they still have kinks to work out. For a resin kit it was humanely priced at $190 for a preorder.
They kept the price down with using 3D printing technology and that was a mixed blessing. Even though it got cheaper it demanded more work to remove printlines, I suppose you have to reach compromise of speed and resolution when you have to fill hundreds of orders. Though I think they could have done things a bit better by aligning the parts as to minimize the printlines. 
For example the cockpit and it's parts suffers greatly from printlines and they are hard to remove. It was actually so bad that the printlines in many cases ruined the fantastic details they put into the model.
I found that the best way to remove lines was to brutally scrape with scraping tool or knife. This meant in turn that details on the fuselage had to be removed to asure the best surface treatment.
The hardest part was the joining of the fuselage and main wings, it ate lots of putty and was hindered by the hot air exhausts on the fuselage as they were always in the way and got damaged in the blending process. They would have benefitted from being separate parts.
The next thing I didn't like that much was the decals, The big sheets were good quality and printed by Cartograf, though they skipped a lot of stencils! As a nerd I frown upon such short cuts! But the air wing insignias were terible, I had a friend print new ones for me that truly made them justice.
The resin pitot tubes and probes was another headache...they snapped as fast I looked at them, I finally managed to replace them with brass from Masters 1/32 Gripen set
It sounds like I bash Jetmads but I don't really, their product is fantastic and with a wee bit of extra tinkering it would be absolutely, incredebly awesome!

My suggestions for improvement is as follows:
New instruments, preferably 3D printed acrylic ones like Red Fox or Quickboost.
Metal parts for pitot tubes and probes
And add the fuselage hot air exhausts as separate parts instead of molded on to the fuselage.
Improve the decal sheet
These are the big things....all the small things you just have to deal with as a model builder

Finally, I truly enjoyed the build and I learnt a lot about working in this media and in the end I got pretty close to what I wanted to achieve....
This is NOT my last Gigant Viggen! 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Cheers and thanks for all the support during the build!

It's a wrap!
 
So after almost half a year on hold I have finaqlly finnished the last bits.
I had waited for either Master or Maestro to make a metal pitot tube for Viggen in 1/32nd scale but unfortunately that did not come to fruit.
In stead I started looking for tubes to adapt. I ordered a Hawker Hunter tube in 1/32 and a F-100 ditto...and oddly I found that Master had pitot tubes for JAS39 Gripen in 1/32.
Upon recieveing the tubes I dsimissed the F-100 tube out of hand, the Hunter tube could be adapted BUT the Gripen tubes were really interesting.
At first I thought the Gripen tubes were in the wrong scale but when I compared to 1/48 I saw that they indeed were larger.
 

 
 
 
As a matter of fact they are exactly the same length as the Viggen pitot tube!
 

 
 
 
 
 
I still had to adapt it a bit since there is a thicker section at the base of the Gripen tube with a cone at the end. 
I sanded the cone to the thickness of the base section and drilled a 1.2mm hole in the nose of the Viggen.
 

 
 
 
 
It still differs a bit from the Viggen tube, there should be a slight bulge at the end of the Viggen tube and the shaft should be the same width instead of progressingly thinner as the Gripen tube. But in the end it looks the best!
So my big tip is that you should get Master's Gripen pitottube set in 1/32nd scale!
 

 
 
 
 
Also the fin pitot tube is usable from that set. Again not 100% correct as the it should be constant width instead of thinning towards the end...but it looks good! And it's metal!
 

 
 
 
 
I drilled a 0.8mm hole in the Jetmads part (after breaking off the resin tube) and glued the secondary pitottube in place. It cracked a bit so I had to fix with CA glue and then sand it before painting and installing it on the kit.
 

 


 
 
 

I had other stuff to do as well...
I had glued the saftey handle wrong so I had to remove it and reattach it.


 
 
 
 

And lastly There should be protruding a couple of tubes from the tailcone. Probably cooling inlets for the stuff in the tail cone.
Jetmads had the tubes molded in place but I removed them to be able to clean the surface.
I made them from warm drawn sprue, glued them in place and painted them black. They should really be separate parts, Jetmads!


 

 
 
 
 

With that the build is a wrap.....finally and I will take neato pics of the finished model during the week!


 
 
 
 

Cheers and thanks for all the support during the build!

A little more-

 

that always catches me out - eyes like a hawk and senses like an other worldly being !   I've been caught too often and these kit manufacturers tend to keep growing the size of the boxes the "kids toys" (her words) come in which makes it hard to smuggle in without being noticed.  Thankfully I'm of an age where the punishment of withholding conjugal rights has zero impact on me now .  

Hi all
Quick update
The edging is all done and putty applied. Still a couple of spots to clean up but nothing dramatic.
I've started to add some more detailing to the surface, with some gun batteries which i thought could be quite cool. I'm not trying to replicate the DS or its surface to its filming parents, so the relevancy of their existence is mute. Looking at them, I do need to change the shape slightly to mask their origins though. Just on the bottom front corners I think
I'm looking at making some kind of central building structure, like a control center of sorts, again, just to break up the surface more. Not too high, but high enough. I've been furiously rummaging through the spares box looking for something suitable but nothing is matching my idea, so I think it'll have to be scratch built.
 
Anyways, enough words
 
 
I just started the detailing, but you get the idea of where its going
 
 
 
 
That's all for now, but open to ideas, suggestions or constructive critique
Cheers
 
 

Here is build number 3 of (hopefully) 8 kits for 2022.  I've wanted to do a knocked out/burned up tank for quite a long time, but never had the gumption to try it.  While looking around for reference photos for my Firefly kit, I found the historical reference photo and decided to give it a go.  I wasn't able to find much info on this pic, nor much more about the tank itself, so I didn't shoot for a true 1:1 recreation of the scene.  Instead, I opted to simply say that my vignette was/is inspired by the pic.  
 
The kit is the RFM Firefly and went together really well.  The tracks were a bit of a pain because there are no extra parts included and several of my sprues were damaged in shipping, so I had to buy another set of RFM tracks to complete it (conspiracy theorists, eat your hearts out).  The figure had most of his limbs custom sculpted.  The broad leaf plants were made on my mask cutter and the wiry ones were made with speaker wire.
 
The battle damage was done almost exclusively with dry pigments of varying shades.  It was a fun project and I'd definitely do something like this again.