CANicoll

Hi Ray - esp with the WWI stuff and having to do rigging that is anchored inside the fuselage I find it easier to just get everything done on the sprue (or apart anyway) and then just deal with the seams afterward. Here is the latest update - working on the rigging and finishing off the painting on the Sopwith Camel (I blew it - the front is actually metal, not wood) as I had to repaint the front. Also found a big error in the HobbyCraft Sopwith Camel Instructions so lets start with that: See the 'horn' circled below in red? Yeah, not only does that part not exist on the Sprues (no horns), there is also no hole in the fuselage anywhere near that area to mount the horn either. HOWEVER, there are two holes in the fuselage for the elevator rigging which are not shown in the figure above: Have had some issues with the roundel on the bottom fuselage so have some touch up to work on. That is where the white backing decal just disintegrated using MicroSOL (to get it over/around the stitching - oh well!). Here is the instrument panel for the Camel. Upon close inspection the 'instruments' around the face are all exactly the same and do not represent any real instrument faces. Airscale to the rescue! The large black face to the left of the bank indicator (that horizontal thing) is too large for the raised detail on the panel, but I felt like I needed a larger instrument there. Under the eye, you cannot see that it is off-center from the raised detail. Next up is a drop of clear for the glass. They went down beautifully over a drop of MicroSOL and a drop on top. Here is the thing about the HobbyCraft instrument panel: I looked at dozens of pictures of Sopwith Camel and Pup instrument panels. I could not find a single one with the configuration of the HobbyCraft panel. UGH!!! Pulling out a few different faces: The quality of the Airscale decals is excellent and take just a few seconds in the water for release. So easy to use. I have the WWI, WWII Allied and German sets. The decals for the Nieuport were MUCH easier to deal with: The decals were put down over a coat of Vallejo Clear, then another coat of clear after the decals dried, then a coat of flat. With the coat of flat, the carrier film just disappeared. I'm thinking of springing for Barracuda's excellent resin seats but may save those for 'better' builds. But the Camel seat is a mess, with a huge ejector pin mark right in the webbing detail so the Barracuda seats would be ideal (kind of see the seat in the instrument panel picture above. The Nieuport seat will be easier - I just need to drill out the existing smooth seat. Here is an example from a guy building a Nieuport from scratch (using original plans): Won't get a lot done this weekend as I'm doing a couple of days of autocross. Thanks for looking! Chris

WOW, NICE WORK! Love the subject matter too. I have the old Monogram 1/48 which I built years ago but someone gave me the kit again. Tempting. Keep up the good work and thanks for the many detailed photos too. Great stuff!! Chris

So figured out an easy way to take care of the translucent Hobbycraft decals for the green Sopwith Camel: Apply another set of decals! Looks good and since I knew exactly where they were going put them down over a coat of MicroSol. Perfect! And as far as the Nieuport white disks that had one mostly disintegrate - hey, they are round right? I SHOULD be able to just paint them (as kensar suggested) and not worry about finding another set of white decals. Also, got the outside struts onto the Roden Pfaltz I'm also working on so the top wing is on, but letting the GatorGlue dry before I install the inside struts. The top wing is already rigged so hopefully that will go relatively quickly.

Ziggy - apologies! Yes, HobbyCraft. I am doing a Roden Pfalz and just didn't switch the brain over. My bad....

What is the expected cost of the kit(s)? Thanks, Chris

Harv, So very sorry to hear of your brother's passing. I'm sure you have a number of good memories of your time and conversations with him. Don't forget those, and pass them along to keep his memory alive. Thinking of you, Chris

So I have a love-hate relationship with Roden's decals. I've had many of them crack and fracture on me. The ones for the Sopwith Camel were printed in 1996 - so showing some age but I think I've figured at least something out: They react ok to MicroSet, but MicroSol causes them to disintegrate almost immediately (ask me how I know...). Given how prominent the ribs are on the wings, you would think that MicroSOL is needed to get the decal to lay down - and you are right, but DON'T PUT IT UNDER THE DECAL!. Literally takes a matter of seconds before it starts to disintegrate the decal. FINE If you don't move it the second you put it down. But man, if you try and move it. ugh. Here is the white under-decal for the Sopwith Camel: I didn't try and move it, I was brushing the decal down over the ribs with a wide, soft brush. Yep - that didn't work well. Here is the other side that I put down and then just left alone: Originally I was using MicroSet - but it was not nearly as good at getting the decal to sit down on these huge ribs: I put the MicroSol on TOP of the decal 3x, then gently pushed the decal down onto the ribs with a moist paper towel. Here is the other side: Still have to work the flap seam, but that will come... The fuselage was easy - on the flat side. On the side with the stitching, I tried the MicroSol. NOW I know better! Again, the damage at the bottom in the picture was done using a soft wet brush. And just because this isn't enough to deal with, I had to take the rudder back to plastic as the Vallejo paint just would not feather very well (It was only 12 hours dry). All because of those ejector pin marks. Didn't take pictures, but the decals on the Nieuport fuselage and top wing went on much easier but that kit didn't have the white under decal - are more translucent, and are not exactly sitting down on those wing ribs as tight as I would like. Pictures to come... Chris

Rather than starting two separate build threads, I'm putting both of these builds into one thread. Already had a bit of an issue keeping the two planes straight. The obligatory box shots: I'm building the box art aircraft belonging to Capt Georges Guynemer, France's second ranking WWI ace. I did this aircraft before, but it has mysteriously disappeared. But doing a better job on this one already. Next is a Sopwith Camel, also doing the box art aircraft as I like the green scheme. As usual with rigged aircraft, I do the painting (and decaling) early so I can anchor the rigging inside the fuselage as much as I can. The Nieuport: Fuselage side is Tamiya Deck Tan to mimic doped linen, and the rest is Vallejo Dull Aluminum including the cowling. Engine cylinders are painted in gun metal, then a light coat of aluminum, and then the cylinders are dusted with black. Exhausts are copper with a light dusting of rust - will be weathered more but will be very hard to see in the cowling. Inside of both fuselages are painted basically the same: The wheels are showing some Vallejo Plastic Putty as there are four nasty ejector pin marks on each wheel on one side. First coat of 'wood' The rudder is correct for the Nieuport, but RED wheels are for the Camel not the Nieuport. Good thing they actually look the same so ideally interchangeable. Used Tamiya flexible tape to mask the edges and curves. Have to be careful to really get it pressed down on the wing ribs - it is kind of thick (the white tape). For the long - straight sections on the top wing I used the regular Tamiya tape. The edge 'tape' color is Tamiya Deck Tan but looks very white here... Only have a couple of easy touch-ups to do. And the Sopwith Camel: Same as the Nieuport: Engine cylinders are painted in gun metal, then a light coat of aluminum, and then the cylinders are dusted with black. Exhausts are copper with a light dusting of rust - will be weathered more but will be very hard to see in the cowling. Machine guns are base color of Vallejo Gun Metal, followed but a liberal spraying of black. The fuselage and wings are Vallejo Olive Green. Fuselage is over-coated with Vallejo Gloss Clear to prep for decals. Gotta watch out for the sneaky ejector pin marks: The Glossy part is where the roundel decals will go... Dull Aluminum on the cowling Sneaky pin marks on the rudder as well - one below the top hole and the other to the left of the forward (right in the picture) hole. My 'fix' didn't work so have to sand all of this off and try again (tomorrow): That's it for now. Thanks for looking. Chris

Hee hee. Well, you can always SAY you were!

I know he did a book with the Monogram B-17 showing a plane that had crashed. Pretty impressive actually - I think I still have the booklet somewhere. I did a lot of those Monogram B-17s. Chris

Regret? Not sure yet but I might let you know in a month when the kit is supposed to ship (from China). Found a KH 101B Voodoo for less than $40 shipped when the online retailers have it for nearly $100. Figured for that price I'd give KH another go. Paid with PayPal so not worried about the transaction. I don't bid on 4 or 5 things at the same time - I usually only bid on 1 or 2 things at once. Good luck (I think!). Chris

I did ship back four kits and a bunch of other stuff so spreading it out helped. What makes it worse is I don't have to pay for an extra suitcase to ship back. Oh well, lessons learned!

Yeah, poor planning on my part! Should have brought a larger/empty suitcase myself. Taking things out of the boxes would have saved a lot of space - oh well! My shipping was a lot more than $45 (ugh).

So I was a lot more restrained than at least one of my colleagues who shipped back three large boxes of models and stuff from Nats - I only shipped ONE box and it arrived today. Here is what I bought ( and one FREE kit! ): The ZM F-4 was bought after Mr. Shigeta of ZM and his son came and talked to the LargeScalePlanes meet and greet - and since they also are very generous with sponsoring the Nova Modelers Model Classic every year. Regardless of what you think of Zoukie-mura - they are unfailing in their support of the industry and various IPMS events. Their raffle was incredibly well attended and they gave away between 20-30 things. The MENG tank was just an impulse buy. G-factor was there as well so picked up their legs for the F-4, as well as the HK 335 I have. The SH P-39 was a freebie I found during set-up sitting off on the side on a counter. It even has resin exhausts! I keep swearing I will not build another P-39 after the KH P-39 debacle but then I built a SH P-39 and that was fun, and have the 1/48 Hasegawa P-39 and now another SH 1/32 P-39 to build. The base is for the ZM or Tamiya F-4 I have, and picked up lots of resin for the P-51Ds I have - two Revell and a Tamiya. The Tamiya will get built as Duchess Arelene for the Chattanooga Nationals. Bought resin seats with and without seatbelts. A bit of an impulse buy as in at least one of my builds (Duchess Arlene) I'll have a pilot either in the seat or coming out of the aircraft. Pilots in the seat, as in my Tamiya Mustang Big Beautiful Doll, covers up a LOT of interior detail. He might as well be sitting on a cardboard box... I picked up the CMK tyres and wheels for the Mustang as Roy at Barracuda was not there until the second day and I didn't know if he was coming. I did get the block wheel/tyre set from him as well. Picked up some airbrush hose quick disconnects as I have two airbrushes and one hose, 5 clamps (two shown here) the Vallejo Camo colors for the Meng tank, as well as a set of pin vise bits since I've dropped my existing bits so many times I have no clue what sizes I have. The Sharpen Air is an airbush needle sharpening kit - I have a very tiny bend at the tip of my Iwata HP-CS that no matter how I try and fix, doesn't fix it - rolling on glass, using a sharpening stone, etc. This is my final attempt before I buy another needle. Bought some Eduard PE for the free P-39 (figured why not, free kit!). The Tempest book was cheap and should come in handy when I do the SH Tempest Hi-Tech kit. I do like the look of the Voodoo so that was a last minute buy - and a cheap one. It is molded in WHITE plastic. :-) What did you all bring back? Chris

Blast, you beat me to it! I used them on my Revell P-51D and got a LOT of positive comments just about the block tread tyres. The only thing you have to be careful of is positioning for the brake line on the wheel hub. Easy to mess that up then the brake line is on the wrong side of the gear leg. But the detail is terrific - as you pointed out and very easy to separate from the mould seam. At Nats I picked up another set of these block tyres for another P-51 build (either Tamiya or Revell - have not decided yet). Chris