Sparzanza

Well let's see here gang. I'm just going to jump in here and hit the highlights. 
 
Managed to get the engine finished up. 
Glamour shots before she gets tucked away till a later part of the build.
 
It's pretty close to my original 351W that I had waaay back when:






 

 

 

 

 

Please find my first post here in a while. Bandai 1/12 R2-D2. Fully repainted and lightly weathered with Promodeller Dark Dirt. Lower areas finished in Dullcote Lacquer and the dome left in gloss of AKI Xtreme Metal polished aluminium, Tamiya Royal Blue X3. Silver sharpie used on the highlights and the hoses remade out of brass tube and lead wire.




 



 



 

 

 



 



 
Thanks for your time.
Kent

Absolutely stunning result to my eyes!

Model number 14 in this year.
Project 11. 1/32 Tamiya Model, HGW seat belts & wet transfers, All colours MRP
 



















 

Me again! This is my third kit with an airbrush, another great Hasegawa kit. Kit is brilliant. Decals aren't the best - was a struggle to get them down at times. I'm trying to use a new technique every kit, and this was my first kit using chalk washes. Still learning I certainly found it useful for the interior - less sure about how much at added to the body overall.
Tried to be too clever and paint the area underneath the stars on the invasion stripes before adding the decals - but managed to get my measurements wrong, meaning the painted areas in black didn't match up with the decals! A lesson learnt for sure. The green is too bright, but I'd finished my olive drab and was determined to finish this kit with what I had. Overdid the paint chipping again - too easy to go overboard with the sponge method - I'm going to look for alternatives!
Thanks for looking in!

 

Hi everyone
Time for an update. I have pretty much finished detailing the sidewalls on the starboard side and now just need to do the port side. Once the all of the detailing is done, I'll drill out the windows and then paint them ready for fiber installation.
I am very happy with how its all come out!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anyways, that's it for now, but I will update again once the other side is finished
Thanks for looking in
Si
 

A small update since I've last posted any progress....
 
I managed to get the lubrication lines installed, MOST of them anyway.  I'm fudging some of them because I just cannot determine the orientation of them all so some of the ones closest to the hull will be just "faux" lubrication lines.   As a few of you may be aware, I originally had installed these using 0.020 inch styrene rod...well, as I feared, that turned out to be a huge mistake mainly because styrene rod doesn't like to bend at 90 degree angles with a very tight radius and usually breaks.  So!  I  cut off the vast majority of the plastic rods where they wouldn't be seen (under a swing arm) and used 0.020 inch copper electrical wire in it's place.  It's springy but it bends nicely and stays in place.  I primed them and everything around the area with Tamiya surface primer so it'll take the water-based AMMO by MiG panzer red oxide primer.  It looks like hell right now but once I touch up all the myriad of spots, it should look a lot better.  First shot below is the left side of the hull; second shot below is of the right side of the hull.  I also started running the hydraulic lines to the transmission and steering apparatus as can be seen in the second shot.  I'll attach those a little bit later on.  Once thing I noticed about these lines is that they don't seem to be "neatly" installed in some vehicles.   I took that as a license to not be as pedantic as I wanted to be in bending the copper wires (which fought me every time I had more length than I could currently deal with....  I couldn't cut it off because it needed to be long enough to reach the other connection).
 

 
In the grand scheme of things, many of these lines won't be too visible once the other pieces are installed but they'll be conspicuously absent if I don't include them as the lubrication fittings on the sides of the fighting compartment are very noticeable.
 

 
 
Once thing I noticed while studying my references is that there is a metal box and pan on the left side of the vehicle between the power takeoff/hydraulic pump and the side of the hull.  Guess what?  Trumpeter doesn't provide either of these components so...you guessed it, scratchbuilding something else to go into this vehicle.  The pan and the box were made of styrene with thin solder clasps on the box and the frame made from 0.060 inch styrene channel.  The handle on the box lid is 0.020 inch copper wire inserted and  glued into two holes drilled in the top of the box.  Thank GOD I have the Rye Field Models 1/35 Panther G kit with the interior!  That has been a life saver in discovering what the Trumpeter kit does not include.  If you're ever going to do one of these projects, get that kit (if it's still available) and use it for a reference.  The pan is painted Tamiya Dark Iron and the box is painted Tamiya German Grey.  The frame is AMMO by MiG panzer red oxide primer.  I haven't done any weathering yet but had a little liquid cement run across the top of the box.  I think I'll use that to my advantage since all it did was discolor the paint.  Below is the photo of the pan and box installed on the frame.  The angle support at bottom left is to keep it clear of the hydraulic lines and the mount at bottom center is to attach it to the framework in the hull.  Both of these are actual installation points and not fictional.
 

 
Here's a shot of the pan and box installed (temporarily) along with the batteries (press fit).  It matches pretty well with my reference photos.  I got lucky...I think.  We'll see when the turret basket get set in place.  I'll need to shorten the mounting frame a little at the front as it shouldn't extend past the intercostal.
 
The driveshafts are two piece affairs in the real vehicle and I discovered that these are splined AFTER I installed them so that'll just have to be our secret.  I also created a decal for each driveshaft based only on what I can see in images.  For all I know, it may not even be a placard but to my eye, it sure looks like one.  So I made up some fake German text about torque and lubrication instructions and applied my decals to either drive shaft.
 

 
Lastly, here's a shot with the fighting compartment floor temporarily installed.  It appears that everything sits correctly and will not obstruct the  turret floor.  At least that's about a 85-90% good estimate on my part.
 

 
That's all for this short update.  Next up, the electrical board that runs diagonally between the left battery and the hull wall (clearing the left, rear ammunition holder); another area that Trumpeter does not provide in their kit but is very noticeably missing when the turret is removed.
 
 
 
 

Thank you.
 
More progress. The body is done. So are the doors and the engine panel made from the connection of thinned kit parts and PE bits. The exhaust painted and ready to be attached. The control horns are from Ed PE, except for the aileron ones which are made far too flat. Also the fittings for the upper elevator cable and the completely neglected very evident connections between the lower wing and the fuselage - these from scratch.

Dear fellow modellers,
 
I don't have much to show, but I wasn't completely lazy. I've prepped the wings for skinning and detailing the MLG bays. That was, somewhat surprisingly, quite a lot of work. The main problem was, that all the drawings of the wing I have are somehow not quite correct in some respect (nothing new here ... ). All the drawings seem to be based on Björn Karlström's drawing published in "Flygplansritningar 2" and, consequently, show the same errors. So I did my own drawings based on the meager photographic evidence I have. I then transfered the panel lines to the wing surface with a black sharpie. Now the fun can begin. Skinning and detailing the wing and the MLG bays.
 
Just a single image to show you that there is some (little) progress:
 

 
Thanks for looking!
 
Rainer

Hi gents,
it took me a while, but here is some progress. The main reason that I couldn't post anything earlier is that I did a lot of research on the wing panels. I now believe, that I have fairly correct drawings of the wings. The second reason is, that I had to sand down the primer. It turned out, that the glue I use to glue the aluminium panels to the structure reacted with the primer. It made a royal mess and it didn't cure. So I had to rip off the first panels I had glued on (of course, they where unusable after that) and I had to sand the complete wing surfaces. A lot of fun ...
 
Anyway, here are some photos. Note, that the wing panels of the Viggen where not riveted to the structure but screwed on (the exeption beeing the rear leading edge panel). I used a 0.6 mm beading tool to represent the fasteners as compared to 0.4 mm for rivets.
 

Upper side. I installed only the leding edge panels so far (the aft one is not yet glued on because I fear, that I will damage it) I'll leave the upper side like this untill I have installed the MLG side walls.
 

Lower side with some of the panel glued on.
 

And another view.
 

And some more skin panels and access covers.
 

Skin panels and access covers in place.
 

And another view.
 

And some more panels and access covers. They are not completely flat, but once they are glued on they will be fine.
 

These panels are not glued on yet because they protrude over the rear edge of the structure and I'm sure I will damage them while installing the MLG bay bits and pieces.
 

A detail of the MLG bay. The fasteners seem very large and deep. But that is an optical illusion due to the reflections on the aluminium. And the panels will be sanded down a bit to insure, that they are flush. And what's more, my painting is usually a bit heavy handed, so I'm certain, that after painting they will be unobtrusive enough, like in the next pic of a paint mule:
 

And this panel hasn't even been sanded ...
 
That's it for today. Next up are the MLG side walls and the the skins for the upper surfaces.
 
I know, it's way too early to decide on the loadout of my Viggen but I have made up my mind to hang a U95 Jamming Pod under the right wing. I have made a preliminary drawing, however I'm not sure about the dimensions. I found some dimensions on a somewhat obscure website (length: 3140 mm, diameter 494 mm). However, in the drawing I made using this dimensions the pod looks a bit too fat. What say you?
 

 
If anybody could point me to more information on the U95 pod I would be very grateful.
 
As always, thanks for looking.
 
Cheers
Rainer

A test layout of the vignette. 
 

 
 

 
 

 
Some minor conversion work on the Verlinden figures.
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Reading Joe's (mustang1989) build of his 1/35 Ryefield Type82e Staff Car, got me thinking of something I started back in 2009. I took the 1/16 Revell split window Beetle kit and began to backdate it into a WWII Type 82 military Kafer, using parts from the Tamiya Kubelwagen. The plan was to make three vignettes, with the Eduard Schwimmwagen, Tamiya Kubelwagen and Revell early 1950's Beetle. Progress halted because I wanted to replace the molded shut grill above the deck lid with a photoetch one. Purchased a Micro Mark photoetching set, then realized that I was not up to the task of designing the necessary CAD drawing for the grill. Still hunting for the right person to do that! Anyway, a good start has been made, thought it would be fun to share it here for old times sake.
 
The black plastic is Revell, the tan parts are from the Tamiya European theater Kubelwagen kit. Just like the real thing, Kubelwagen running gear was grafted on to the standard Beetle in order to increase ground clearance. There was even a 4WD version.
 
The Tamiya kit also provided important interior parts specific to the Type 82 like the correct steering wheel, e brake and gear shift.
 
I sincerely apologize for the low quality of the pictures, taken a long time ago.    
  

 
Large grooves where chrome trim is supposed to go were filled with putty. Note the grill below the split window. I would like to open that up and replace it with a photoetch one.
 

 
The groove in the hood was so wide I glued a Evergreen strip in place before filling. 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
My kit had a damaged body line along one side of the roof. The thin flange above the door was built up with Mr. Surfacer 500. If supported by a tape dam, it can be built up in a controlled way.
 

 
 

 
Overall, a nice kit but the wheel wells are funky. Sheet plastic is needed to close off large openings behind the front wheels that you can see through if left as is. 
 

 
 

Thanks for the comments guys! Much appreciated.
 
I've pretty well got this to the stage of hanging the doors, which I'm procrastinating about. Not a nice looking job. Most of the trim pieces on the body work have been attached with white glue, as most of them required careful aligning and I also get nervous about superglue on a finished surface. It was bad enough drilling out the holes for the attachment pins.
 
First up is the nose. There are some differences between the kit and Nick Mason's car as it is in later years: the race number is slightly smaller on the real one and, more noticeably, the bottom edge of the grill is flattened off. Neither of these were practicable fixes for me, however, so the differences remain. The headlights eventually get a perspex cover over them with a chrome trim surround.
 
 
 
The rear lights were opaque pieces which were painted with clear red and orange inside and clear coated on the outside. The reflectors come as a chrome piece with a polished stainless insert, which I painted clear red with gloss clear to finish.
 
 
The kit doors are designed so that the perspex windows can slide, but I fixed them in place. The finger pulls were scratch built. The chrome gave me a lot of trouble due to some artefact in the white metal repeatedly coming through primer and Alclad. It was causing the chrome paint to develop bubbles in a couple of spots, despite these not showing in the primer. I almost foiled them instead, but after a lot of stuffing around they came up OK. You can just make some out on the top right corner in the second photo.
 
The interior door panels are leather upholstered - I used a self adhesive leather from MFH for that. I still need to make a grab handle for each door which are not in the kit as these were not fitted to the door interiors originally.
 
 
 
The next photo shows the door sills (whisky bottle foil) and the jack point covers, which the kit does not provide.
 
 
The boot lid now has its functioning latch and I have started on the bonnet fittings. It still needs the clear covers over the intakes, the leather straps and bonnet latches.
 
 
Lastly is the scratchbuilt fire extinguisher which will sit in the boot. It's just over 20mm in length. 
 
 
Thanks for looking.
 
Cheers,
 
Mike
 
 
 
 
 

Finally got the decals on, but still a final couple of clear coats to go once the decals have throughly set. The one on the boot surrounds was a challenge to line up with the remainder of the race number on the lid itself. They were two separate decals, whereas my preference would be for one that I could then cut along the panel edge. The other challenge was getting the number on the nose to settle into the radiator access panel lines - it took a long session with multiple applications of Microsol to get there. A dark wash inside the panel line should sort it.
 
I also had my first go at chipping paint using the hairspray method for the underseal just behind the lower air intakes. Worked a treat, although it did make my garage smell like a ladies salon. I'll weather the underneath, wheel arches etc once I've finished the clear coating. The photos also show the door and window rubbers inserted and/or painted as appropriate. The headlight enclosures have been painted in Humbrol polished aluminium which seems to give just the right finish as compared with photos of the real car.
 
The first photo shows a finished air intake cover with the Dzus fastener in the open position. I used some fine fuse wire for the spring.
 
 
 
 
 
It can sit for another few days now before clear coating.
 
Thanks for looking
 
Cheers,
 
Mike
 
 
 
 

Not really concerned with being "dead" accurate.....but thanks for the info!
 
They say the devil's in the details, and after taking a week off, me and the devil had at it this week! Made a dent in about 1/2 of the Eduard sets for  this build, as well as getting the O2 tanks and bombs glued up......
 
Bombadier and Navigator station details....got maps to go over that splotchy section of the table!

 
Rear nose station bulkhead...

 
Eduard's main IP...all I did was add a piece of cigarette pack cellophane between the layers for the "glass"...

 
Central throttle/control quad...

 
O2 tanks, aftermarket control columns with Boeing logos in the center, and the "woodwork" applied to the ammo boxes...

 
Forward nose fuselage details....

 

 
Still a l-o-n-g ways to go...but it feels good to get something done!
 
Gil

I've begun working on the fuselage....added the "E" nose and tail to both of the fuselage halves...the fit was a little better than I expected for such a large kit.

 
The next step was adding a wash to the interior and many of the detail parts....

 

While not overly difficult, it was tedious....each fuselage half taking almost an hour each....
But, I can now actually start working on the interior parts themselves; AFTER first studying all of the Eduard interior sets to see what needs adding and/or modification to use them. There will also be quite a bit of detail painting that will be time consuming....but then that's the nature of this big beast. More pics when I have some significant progress to show!
 
GIL
 

another what if for fun :
 

 

 

 

Hi all,
my first post.
 

 

 

Third post

 

 

Second post

 

1/32 Special Hobby Model Eduard PE parts & wheels set. Decals from Kitty Hawk model All Colours MRP.  







 

Parts are coming together for the T-33 build...
 

 

 
Winch, launcher and 'target' for the Delmar installation.
 
Cheers: Kent 

Here is the two-part canopy.  The clear part, dipped in Future to enhance clarity, has been glued onto the canopy frame by carefully seeping Tamiya Extra Thin into the seam.  I'd much rather have this molded as a single clear piece like almost any other manufacturer would have done.  Why reinvent the wheel?



 

Hey Bill!  Those depression are molded in and are meant to accommodate the actual latches which are supplied as PE parts.
 
 
 
Thanks Jeff!  I thought it looked pretty good too until...
 
 
 
LOL!  OMG... funny how normal it looked to me even when reviewing the photos of it.  Yes, it is OBVIOUSLY and EMBARRASSINGLY BACKWARDS! Thank you for pointing this out!  Another LSP member was also kind enough to notify me via PM. Thank you thank you!
 
 
 
Thanks Gaz!  Hopefully, the gun sight looks more... ahem... "functional" now that it has been turned around.  I also replaced the stressed armored panel.
 

A bit more work on the Komet... instead of the kit-supplied gunsight or the one included in the Aires resin cockpit, I chose to use a Quickboost Revi-16 gunsight. The optical glass is cut from a sheet of clear packaging with the edges of the front element painted in transparent blue/green.

 
 
The mounting base from the clear kit part was grafted onto the bottom of the resin gunsight.  There are visible stress marks on the transparent armored glass... I have an extra transparent sprue courtesy of Meng customer service so I'll probably utilize it to fix this issue.

 
 
I've decided to glue in the side windows at this point and then mask them off for painting.  I REALLY don't like Meng's choice to mold the windows and canopy WITHOUT the surrounding frame.  It makes for a tricky and most likely noticeable glue joint.



 
 
And as previously mentioned, the three-part set of panels along the top spine were glued together instead of trying to glue them in separately later.

 
 
Hopefully this strategy will net a neater result but it's hard to stay at this dry-fitting stage.