Christoffer Lindelav

I’m back! For those of you wondering where I’ve been, Eva and I decided to spend a couple months at my villa in Monte Carlo. She’s a great lady and we had some wonderful times at the casinos and zipping around the countryside in my Aston Martin DBS, but as much fun as she is, she has a terrible problem with flatulence. Ya’ know, having to stand up in restaurants and yell “That wasn’t me!” all the time can be a real buzz kill. We broke up during the plane ride back.
 
Me and Eva outside my villa overlooking the peasants.

 
But I’m sure that y’all don’t want to hear about my fantasy love life so let’s get down to the interesting stuff - MODEL BUILDING! I did manage to get the cockpit-that-never-ends all put together. Unfortunately I forgot I had the Barracuda cockpit decals and a few bits didn’t get any, but life goes on.
 
Never weathered the HGW seatbelts before so I tried it and it came out to my satisfaction. Only problem was that the gloss coat made my fluffy, crumpled up belts a bit stiff.

 
But after a lot of cursing, gnashing of teeth and a few tubes of super glue they surrendered to my will… kinda’ I also tried to add some wrinkles to the headrest with disappointing results, but life goes on.

 
Front part, in case you hadn't guessed.

 
And here’s the obligatory cockpit assembly picture.  I tried to weather this to kinda’ mimic the dusty coral environment this aircraft operated in. Again, pleased with the way it turned out.

 
Also got all the fuselage interior bits painted and glued in.

 
That just about wraps it up for now.
 
Thanks for watching.
Next up: The-engine-that-never-ends.

Hi Guys 
I am Ok and as Tim mentioned I'm far from the earthquake zone and I didn't even feel the earthquake.
However, the earthquake zone is quite wide and the destruction is huge. An area of approximately 400 km was severely affected. Two earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 occurred 9 hours apart. This is not usual. Turkey is an earthquake country, but it is still not ready. Especially buildings. Most of them were not built according to regulations. This greatly increases both damage and loss of life. To avoid this, the mentality needs to change completely, as Japan did. A large number of specialist rescue teams came from abroad and they are working now. People are still being rescued from the rubble. Unfortunately, the death toll is very high. Thank you very much for your interest and messages.

Some snow days here in Texas, means a few days spent at home, giving the perfect chance to wrap this up 
 
I printed extra background pics to wrap around the sides of the box, and painted them all with Tamiya matt clear to cut down the reflections. 
 
Stencils for the title, teddys and switch labels were made using Silhouette cameo, a clean up and called it complete! @eoyguythanks for the drawings 
 

 
It's a completely self contained box, the idea is that now it can be hung up on a wall, like any other shadow box. 
 
This proved to be a great fun build and I'd heartily recommend anyone with an interest to give it a go!
 
Cheers, 
Denzil 

And one final image, upon which I have inflicted a bit of quick'n'dirty Photoshop work. Don't look too closely!
 

 
Kev

Ready for riveting
 











 

Here's today's update:
 
Starting to look the thing! No big step forward. But this session of test assembly and make it fly with a Rooooaaaar quite motivated me. Blades are good to go in tolerances, another cross on the list. Only tape and slight pressure on the assemblies, no glue."
 
 
 
 
 
I mean, is it even a question about getting one of these? What a hot rod.
 
- Dennis S.
   Mount Juliet, TN USA

Today progress.
 











 

Oh my yes!
That to me is what was stopping me from building my two hole Mirage as well as stopped me from buying an F-5
Let's hope Mirage intakes follow!

Reskits are also listing 1/32 F-5 intake sets 
 
https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/RSU32-0077?result-token=Yy72E
 
Might I suggest a must have for this kit?

Finally got to the point were the basic superstructure is  together and base color is on. She's a heavy beast, a lot heavier than my M-51! On to adding/painting the details (tow cables, pioneer tools, etc) then camo colors and weathering.
 
Did take her out for a spin on the front lawn. What a hoot driving her around! Loads of fun!
 
 
Cheers and Go Bengals!
 
Dave/Ironman1945

It’s a great kit, I agree Tim. Yes, I too want to place it in Berlin 45. The Brandenburg Gates were something I pondered, but they are in fact HUGE. Like 24” by 36” in scale. Good luck with the project backlog and the show 
 
Got the tracks done. It was not so bad!
 

hello all and thank you for your feedback.. I don't currently have a hosting site but here are some photos posted on a French forum
dedicated to radio controlled helicopters. these photos are from 2020 and show the finished assembly work.
the construction was done phase by phase each part being put aside once finished and in 2020
I made this assembly. Since then I disassemble everything part after part for the paint job dimensions of the machine rotor diameter 140 cm. cell length 140 cm.
Cheers
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Its exactly like it sounds..............
 
Another one of my off-aviation creative projects that I didn't plan, but the print was so well done, I couldn't pass an opportunity to do something with it up. I wanted to make a "tempest in a teacup" kind of little vignette, so thought having this little guy breaching/jumping out of a small cup/tea cup would be cool.
 
I got this little guy as a free print when I ordered my tiny Blue spotted ray and cuttlefish. The little humpback whale is on a SUPER DUPER tiny scale, and really only needed one fin re-positioned and a print line around his mid section filled and he was good to go.
 
Its a VERY good print with amazing details for how small he is. I took a bit and mixed up some off white and some blue gray and went to town on the paint job, followed by a super dark gray/black wash.
The detail is really astounding:
 

 
 
 
 
An idea of scale/how small this little guy really is:
 

 
 
 
 
I went to the thrift store right behind our house with the wife and saw this cool looking glass cup with a fancy base sitting there for $2.30:
 

 

 
 
 
 
So far the tiny diorama has cost me a total of $2.30! 
I used some some of my old Lego collection to erect a small gantry to suspend the little humpback over the cup in a suitable breaching position. I quickly assembled a little loop out of some .25mm nylon thread and suspended the little guy position:
 

 

 
 
 
 
Breaching clear of the cup:
 

 

 
 
 
 
After a partially failed experiment with some new resin (I had both parts A and B way too cold to start and didn't have my vac chamber yet) I put a few drops of blue into some of the new resin and poured it around our little guy.
There were WAY too many bubbles for me to work with, so I was occasionally shooting the surface with a mini torch to get rid of the accumulating bubbles, and that did clear the resin up some, but not to my liking.  I kept on with the torch and actually super-heated the resin causing some of it to pre-cure before the rest of it. 
 
I managed to "save it" but there were a lot of bubbles. I set it aside for 24 hours thinking the worst...........
 
The next day/24 hours later I came back and the resin was cured and did have bubbles in it, but they actually had made some cool patterns under the surface that I liked, so there is that. The surface as you can see also got messed up some, but that will have ripple and wave treatments later so that will actually be no issue at all.
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
You actually can see the whales tail under the "water" in the end, so its better than I had feared after the initial disaster. I couldn't catch the bubble pattern on camera, but it does look a bit interesting if you take it as a turbulent under ocean type look:
 

 

 
 
 
 
I will be adding a layer of gloss Mod Podge later, spread out with a straw, then onto some Woodland Scenics water ripples and after that is dry some WS water waves around the jumping wales base, followed lastly by some white wave top dry brushing.
 
Cheers and thanks for looking in on me.
 

Wouldn't it be a SSLP? Small Scale Large Plane... 
 

Funny, I'm working on a 1/72 crew for the Millennium Falcon and had the same issues.
 
At least the ship itself is big enough. 
 

 

Is it just me but every time I see any Hs.129 I think it looks like a very serious metal duck. Maybe it’s the yellow nose on some of them, I don’t know …

Here's an example of how we design one of our more complex model ship superstructures, in this case, USS Arizona BB-39.
 
This model was designed by creating basic 3D geometric shapes of the right size then assembling them kind of like you would to make a model with Legos.  The model was designed from scans of actual builder's blueprints preserved at the US National Archives.  This 3D model was made from the same 2D plans the real ship was made. We think it shows.
 

 

 

 

 


 

 

Thanks so much!
 
We're sometimes asked how we design our models.  So let's pull back the curtain a bit and see how it's done.

We make our models using sophisticated computer-aided design software (CAD) one line and shape at a time.

Here is a rendering of the Phantom intakes as they were being designed.  Our designs begin as either 2D line drawings or basic 3D geometric shapes.  In this case, we started with 2D cross sections of the intake shown here on the left side of the rendering.  Each 2D section was drawn separately then positioned in the 3rd dimension.  The basic 3D shape of the model is then created by "lofting" through the 2D drawings.  The basic 3D shape is refined by sculpting away what's not wanted (the yellow objects) and adding features and details that are wanted.  After much work, the final design emerges, shown as you move toward the right side of the rendering.
 


The process is very time-consuming and normally difficult.  Research often takes more time than designing the actual model.

We often start our designs in a simple, easy-to-use CAD program just to get them started.  As designs become too complex for the basic CAD program, we import the designs into a powerful CAD program called "Fusion 360" made by a company called Autodesk in order to complete them.

To make the design 3D-printable, the CAD file is then converted into a format that our 3D printers can read, called an *.stl file.  Supports are then added to the model using another program called "PreForm" and when complete, the 3D model is ready to print on one of our Formlabs "Form 2" 3D-printers or on our newer Formlabs "Form 3".

Have fun. Monkey around.™
 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you fellas had a great Christmas. I had a pretty good one all things considered, I'll take a coil pack on the car going out to Sub Zero temps any day of the week. I did have a decent amount of time to work on the Shermans. The first E9 is at about 80% and number two is at about 60%.  It is amazing how fast things go once you know the kit. The second Sherman is fitting together much better too. 
 
I jumped right into the gun again, because I wanted to see how much better I could make it look, if I painted the big sub components before hand. I also went and looked up the mount details in several manuals for the Sherman, and the M1A1 gun manual. I was curious what various parts were. Specifically the big tubes next to the telescopic gun sight. Turns out they are basically flash lights that shine into the back of the gun sight to illuminate the reticle. While the mount is not perfect, it is pretty close to accurate, and you could fix most of the minor issues. 
 
In this image you can see on the second tank, I decided to pose both hull auxiliary periscopes closes. This will simplify painting, even though I already have the periscope partly painted. I may post them both closed on the first tank too, I had planed on one closed, one open, just to show them off, but after reviewing photos, they were rarely if ever used. They are very awkward to get to and just tilt up and down.  They were made it on the the M26 Pershing too, but they put them in the standard rotating mount on that tank, by late M26 production and M26A1 rebuilds, the aux periscopes were removed and plugs were welded in their place.  You can also see the photo etch screen in place. This time I wasn't an idiot and pit it on the sheet metal cover first, since it has the locating pins...

 
The Commanders cupola is very nice, it has the hatch lock, rotation lock, and friction knob all modeled, and if sanded slightly it will all rotate....

Guns in progress. The barrels are just in place with friction, but you can see the second one is already looking better. 

I should be getting better paint brushes this week. I got a wrapped IOU, since they did not arrive on time.   On the second gun, I'm going to pose it with the breach block open. 

You can see the it better here. I need to try the CA and Bicarb trick to close that gap in the breach face. 

I considering installing a light in the hull, to see if it will up make the gun more visible. 
 
A few more images. 
This one is another favorite. I love action, but not combat action shots. The tanks spent more time as part of the crews daily lives, than it ever did in combat. The tank looks very new. Its one of the few WWII photos I could find with the canvas mantlet cover. It's still covered in shipping stencils. 

 
Here is another fun action non action shot.  Tankers were always wondering if the world was going to fall out from under them. While building offered little protection from a rampaging tank. A basement meant a very bad day, so the rarely just knocked houses down. There is a funny story about an Easy 8 Sherman knocking down a neighborhood in Oakland California in the 60s that involves a basement... 

 
Easy 8 out on the town. Notice the board on the front hull holding sandbags. This was a very common thing for the crews to do, not just for sandbags, but for all kinds of junk. From extra roadwheels, to K Rations, they put all kinds of junk on it. This prevented the crew from using the tow cable hold down point on the front hull. You can see it, not in use, right below the board in this image. 

 
Note in this image, the lead e8 has a long pole sitting on the fender. This is the cleaning rod for the gun. This is normally broken down into three parts and in a rack under the rear shelf at the back of the hull. Once you notice it though, you will notice, E8 Shermans using the fender to store the put together rod. I'm going to model this on one of the tanks. Not sure if I will modify a wood skewer, or try gluing the kit parts together though. 

 
Thanks for reading! 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Construction work, mostly her work with a little guidance.
Paintwork, base coat mostly her work with a steadying hand to guide the airbrush.
Decal work, almost entirely her work. She just chose the decals that looked “pretty”.
 

Now I can get onto my GB JASDF ‘Eagle’

The only AM exhaust cans that mimicked the stock mounting are the Aires sets but they're undersized. 
 
Although not the Reskit burner cans, when I used the GT Resin ones I just inserted them into the assembled fuselage. They basically were a friction fit. Not too tight, but tight enough to stay in place and even adjust their angle. 
 

 

 

 
Hope that helps. 
 
Carl 

And some extra shots.
 













 

Hi everyone!
So here we have it! My first and only complete build for 2022…
 
Kitty Hawk’s 1/32 Mirage 2000C constructed to depict a heavily used Greek EGM.
 
Aftermarket products used include Grand Models’ resin cockpit and wheels, ResKit exhaust (since I messed up the one provided by KH) and LM Decals.
I found the overall build quite enjoyable with minimal fit issues and good all-round detail. The amount of weapons provided is also impressive.
 
What I didn’t like was the lacking instructions, general approach to the markings and poor quality of decals. The inadequate instructions are a perennial problem of KH’s and the modeller is pretty much left to their devices to figure out the correct parts for the version of the aircraft they are building. Suffice to say, lots of research and reference photos will be required. I managed to correct a few points including the arrestor hook but missed out on the tailfin… Most disappointing were the decals which were thick and had lots of carrier film while the stencils for the Greek version were wrong.
 
I think the Grand Models cockpit and wheels are a must for this kit while the ResKit exhaust is a lovely piece of casting the offers even more detail than KH’s resin counterpart. The LM Decals do provide the correct markings and stencils. However, they are all printed in a single sheet and each marking needs to be cut individually.
 
Despite the issues, one does end up with a lovely model of what I believe to be one of the most elegant looking aircraft ever built!  
 































 

I can't promise the force, at my age I can only offer the farce, but I will put my hands together and mutter my new mantra - "dear spaghetti monster, please make it an F.8, in 1/24 . I've paid my dues, I finished the Classic Airframes 1/48 Meteor F.8  Early and contributed more than my fair share to the swear jar during it's (so called ) construction.  I'll accept the kit in 1/32 and pay penance with 300 "Hail Meatballs" and 1000 "our Pastas, who's art be in styrene, shallow be thy panel lines. Thy box art is fun, thy decals shall stun, at home or in a build thread..."

After years of searching I got my hands on two of these little badboys today.
 

 
I built Tarangus' 1/48 Bulldog, and it wasn't exactly a walk in the park, so I'm expecting a similarly arduous build for this one too, but so damn cool! Will be built in a civilian paint scheme, and the other might get the Gypsy Major engine conversion