AlexM

We hear a lot about AI lately. There are tools to generate pictures based on words, which is pretty impressive (and also a little scary when you can no longer tell for sure whether a photo is real or fake). Anyway, I gave it a try and wanted to create some pictures of our beloved aircrafts. I used this site:
https://picsart.com/ai-image-generator
 
And apparently, there is still some room for improvement This is what I got when I typed in Spitfire:

 
Here, we can clearly see the Fw 190:

 
And here we have the B-17:

 
Cheers
Alex

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

We hear a lot about AI lately. There are tools to generate pictures based on words, which is pretty impressive (and also a little scary when you can no longer tell for sure whether a photo is real or fake). Anyway, I gave it a try and wanted to create some pictures of our beloved aircrafts. I used this site:
https://picsart.com/ai-image-generator
 
And apparently, there is still some room for improvement This is what I got when I typed in Spitfire:

 
Here, we can clearly see the Fw 190:

 
And here we have the B-17:

 
Cheers
Alex

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Little update: I started with the engine, which seems to be rather challenging. Each exhaust consists of several parts, and is connected to the cylinders by small tubes (parts E13 and E19). Those tubes have tiny pins at the ends, which should help to connect the exhausts with the cylinders.
 

 
The problem is, that the correspondig attachments at the exhaust have no holes where the pins could be pluged in. Therefore, you have to make the holes yourself, which is quite challenging for my eyes. For such tasks, I use a "digital microsope" which is connected to my computer via USB. Something like this:

 
This tool then shows a fullscreen close-up view on the screen, what makes it possible to drill more or less precise tiny holes, even if you have sausage fingers like me. This is what is shown on the screnn while using the digital microscope:

 
So I got those two parts:

 
Just two more, and then gluing everything precisely aligned together. Sounds like a breeze...
 
Cheers
Alex

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Hi Andreas. The digital microscope is indeed very usefull when it comes to tiny precise drilling. I wouldn't be able to open gun barrels otherwiese. If you place the microscope direcly in front of you, showing to the object more or less the same angle as your view (so you don't actually see the object you want to drill, since it is hidden behind the microscope), the movement of your hands are more ore less the same as it is shown on screen.
 
I made some progress with the engines, and glued together the main landing gear. The exhausts are quite challenging, consisting of several parts. But it seems to have been successful so far. Not sure about the grey color of the forward engine part. I painted it with some grey color which tourned out very similar as the actually styrene of the kit , so maybe I'll repaint it with something lighter/less blue.


 
For the landing gear, there are corresponding recesses on the wings. They aren't very deep, so I glued styrene parts in the middle of the recesses. They are not high enough for the landing gear to be plugged on without glue, but at least they will give the glue a bit more area to melt together the landing gear with the wings.

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Nice! You‘re not the only one using such a digital microscope for detail work. Thinking about dipping my tooth into that water, too. So you can coordinate the work of your hands well when you deal with the actual piece(s) but only see a digitally enlarged picture on a screen from a slightly (?) different angle?
Andreas

Thanks Tim!
 
When placing the upper right wing halve, there is a noticeable gap at the forward area (maybe 1 mm wide). To close the gap, I glued some styrene and sanded to get a good junction.

 
On the left wing, it appeared that it might have been better to glue the upper part on the lower one before attaching the wing to the fuselage, because now the upper part was no longer aligned with the lower part, It stood about 1mm out (at the wing root as well as at the wing tip, so the parts would actually align if the fuselage were not in the way). Therefore the upper wing part had to be slightly shortened at the inner end, so that it would align to the lower wing.
This was a bit tricky at the rear, with the tab below. But it also gave me the opportunity so sand the forward area into shape to get a good junction to the fuselage without using styrene as shim like on the right wing:

 

 
That's it for now.
 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Little update: I started with the engine, which seems to be rather challenging. Each exhaust consists of several parts, and is connected to the cylinders by small tubes (parts E13 and E19). Those tubes have tiny pins at the ends, which should help to connect the exhausts with the cylinders.
 

 
The problem is, that the correspondig attachments at the exhaust have no holes where the pins could be pluged in. Therefore, you have to make the holes yourself, which is quite challenging for my eyes. For such tasks, I use a "digital microsope" which is connected to my computer via USB. Something like this:

 
This tool then shows a fullscreen close-up view on the screen, what makes it possible to drill more or less precise tiny holes, even if you have sausage fingers like me. This is what is shown on the screnn while using the digital microscope:

 
So I got those two parts:

 
Just two more, and then gluing everything precisely aligned together. Sounds like a breeze...
 
Cheers
Alex

Thanks Tim!
 
When placing the upper right wing halve, there is a noticeable gap at the forward area (maybe 1 mm wide). To close the gap, I glued some styrene and sanded to get a good junction.

 
On the left wing, it appeared that it might have been better to glue the upper part on the lower one before attaching the wing to the fuselage, because now the upper part was no longer aligned with the lower part, It stood about 1mm out (at the wing root as well as at the wing tip, so the parts would actually align if the fuselage were not in the way). Therefore the upper wing part had to be slightly shortened at the inner end, so that it would align to the lower wing.
This was a bit tricky at the rear, with the tab below. But it also gave me the opportunity so sand the forward area into shape to get a good junction to the fuselage without using styrene as shim like on the right wing:

 

 
That's it for now.
 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Great! Assuming that the guys from Hasegawa have some knowledge about "their" plane, I placed the machine gun that way (I had to shorten the gun barrelI a litte bit to make it fit, but I won't tell anyone if you don't )
The fuselage halves are glued together. Due to the heavy framing of the canopy, the view into the interior is somewhat obstructed. Therefore, I guess it is not worth the hassle to go too deep into detailing, if one choses the closed canopy (btw., some mediocre modelling gets hidden that way )


 
I also attached the lower wing parts. Contrary to the instructions, I decided to attach the upper wings later. It was challenging enough with the front and rear glue joints, and I didn't want to worry about the upper wing to fuselage joint at the same time. The upper wing parts have a tab that will slip under the fuselage opening. The left upper wing on the picture is just taped at the moment.


I managed to break of one hinge for the flaps, which was replaced by styrene stripe.

 
I also glued together the engine cowling, and drilled the openings for the machine guns.

 
That's it for now. Happy modelling!
Alex

Little update: I started with the engine, which seems to be rather challenging. Each exhaust consists of several parts, and is connected to the cylinders by small tubes (parts E13 and E19). Those tubes have tiny pins at the ends, which should help to connect the exhausts with the cylinders.
 

 
The problem is, that the correspondig attachments at the exhaust have no holes where the pins could be pluged in. Therefore, you have to make the holes yourself, which is quite challenging for my eyes. For such tasks, I use a "digital microsope" which is connected to my computer via USB. Something like this:

 
This tool then shows a fullscreen close-up view on the screen, what makes it possible to drill more or less precise tiny holes, even if you have sausage fingers like me. This is what is shown on the screnn while using the digital microscope:

 
So I got those two parts:

 
Just two more, and then gluing everything precisely aligned together. Sounds like a breeze...
 
Cheers
Alex