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Thunnus

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Everything posted by Thunnus

  1. The black Slipstream edition is the kit that I built... Black and silver are my least favorite plastic colors to deal with but like I said, the effort is worthwhile...
  2. It wasn't an easy build for me but the kit can yield a very nice result. There is no other WW2 fighter quite like the Tank and a 1/32 representation really highlights that amazing wing span. I've got an H-0 kit on the shelf and am planning to convert it to an H-1 since I did the opposite last time.
  3. Thank you Richard! Appreciate the comments! Thank you sir! T-bird is such an iconic warbird... had to make at least one of these! Thank you and sorry for the late reply! I'm being pulled away from modeling for the time being and have not been regularly active here at LSP. Hopefully, after I get some things done and out of the way, I'll be able to settle back into the modeling room and resume my projects.
  4. Wow! That's great! Thank you! Thanks again, Ernest! The Ki-61 is such an elegant airframe and I was really taken by these markings when I saw it depicted on a 1/48 Hasegawa Ki-61 box cover. Wasn't sure the masked tail markings would work out but I'm happy with how it turned out.
  5. Thank you Jay! I was very surprised at the quality of the kit, especially the fit... very Tamiya-like, dare I say. Thank you so much! Appreciate the check-in and comments! Thank you Ernest! Appreciate your comments, as always!
  6. Thank you so much Nikola! I appreciate the generous comments! I can't remember the particular gauge of wire that I used for each application but I use spools of lead wire originally intended for fly fishing. They can be bought individually or in small sets. For 1/32 aircraft, I am usually utilizing the 0.010, 0.015 and 0.020 sizes (in inches).
  7. It's been a while but I think I can get back onto this build. After starting this build, I've learned that the XIVe cockpit differs in some ways from the XVIe and I wanted to attempt to address some of those differences. The most significant is a big control panel that resides on the port sidewall. A rectangular box can be a relatively simple thing to scratchbuild but I personally have trouble getting square corners on boxes. When I saw that Mathieu at Laminar Flow Design was developing a set of XIV-specific cockpit details including the control panel, I decided to wait for it to save me some work. It took a while but I finally got it... Like his other 3D-printed products, Mathieu incorporates a protective crate around the printed parts. He graciously include an entire spare set and I found that the spare set was definitely needed. Here are the parts still attached to the base but with the protective walls removed. Many of these parts are super tiny and lots of patience and care needs to be taken when removing the parts for use. I tried to be careful but I still managed to lose and/or break a few parts. Mathieu includes two copies of the especially small or fragile parts in each set so sometimes I had four copies to work with. I needed all four removal attempts to get a complete throttle lever detached without breaking! After the parts were freed completely from their printed supports, I glued together the sub-assemblies. These included the pilot door and crowbar, throttle quadrant, landing gear control quadrant, cylinder priming pump. The control panel, waffle-style foot guards, canopy crank and a small trim wheel are stand alone items. The parts were given a light coat of primer (Mr Primer Surfacer 1000). I've got a lot of Spitfire cockpit stuff from Barracuda as well so I'll to sort out which bits I'll be using. One of these is a resin seat with the backrest cushion, which looks to be a nice upgrade from the kit parts.
  8. Thank you Gaz! The build ended on a bit of a whimper instead of a bang but I was just trying to get past the finish line so I could move on to other projects. It is 1/35 but my fingers are so used to typing 1/32 that I made the mistake while posting. It's corrected now! Thank you so much! And yes, it on to the next airframe, which is the Spitfire XIVe that I'll be jumping back onto shortly! Thank you Quang! The Border kit is surprisingly good and I really enjoyed working on it as the fit on almost all of the parts was excellent. Typically, I would have glued the gun/engine panels into place but Border's engineering allowed me to keep them removable. Thanks John! Not sure what is after the XIVe but there might be something quite different on the horizon for me. It flies but it is not a plane! More on that later... Thank you! A good kit makes things easy and Border definitely produced a good one. Thank you! ABL... Always Be Learning! That's my motto! Thank you Rod! Thanks, I really like this scheme for some reason! Thanks Mike! Thank you, John! Thank you Nikola! Thanks very much! Yes, Thomas! It's a great scheme! Thanks Martin! Thanks and get cracking on the Border 190.... it's a great kit!
  9. Whoa... you're so far along, Tom! Paint looks wonderful. I finally got what I needed to start up my XIVe build again.
  10. Looks awesome, Andy! I love these late war Luftwaffe camos!
  11. Wow, Jay... that nose assembly looks so convincing! The weathering is spot on. I'm glad I was able to provide an assist via the masks and decals. I can print and send the larger masks when you need them!
  12. Thank you Tom! It's a very good kit and I enjoyed the build very much! Thanks Troy! Appreciate the feedback! Thanks Matt! Yes, an Anton was on my bucket list since I've done so many Doras so its good to have that checked off! Thank you very much! Thanks, John! Thank you! After this long break, hopefully I can get back on track and start building again!
  13. Ok... wheels are on and the masks are off! I'm calling this one done! Photos of the completed model have been posted on the RFI board:
  14. Here is my finished Border 1/35 Fw 190A-6 painted in the markings of Walter Nowotny's Double Chevron. It was built mostly out-of-the-box since I couldn't find much in the way aftermarket for this kit at the time. Major markings were painted using custom cut masks. The kit was slightly modified to depict the inner landing gear door configuration. I left the upper gun cowling and two engine cowlings unglued so that the gun compartment and some of the engine can be viewed but the trade-off is that the joints aren't as tight as they could be if they were glued. The complete build log can be found at the following link:
  15. Yes, I've always have trouble dialing in the effect of the salt weathering step. Since I prefer a more subtle effect, the line between visible and not visible is always super thin but due to the effort involved, I'm not feeling motivated to do a second round. And yes, you are correct on the basic principle, a lighter shade (highly diluted) is sprayed onto the model after the salt has dried. Thank you! The inner doors are not 100% correct but I was more concerned with getting an acceptable look and moving on with the build. Thank you Matt! I'm thinning the brown/black at about 10:1 thinner:paint ratio. And make sure you're not getting any splatter.
  16. Thanks guys! I've not forgotten about this one! I took the trouble of giving her a salt weathering treatment and got absolutely no visible results! That knocked my enthusiasm back a bit. On the flip side, I've begun to attach the smaller bits and pieces including the wing gun barrels and landing gear. I fashioned the inner door retraction struts from the leftover PE fret from the model. I think they were intended to help pose the engine cowlings open. The small spring lever for the main landing gear was added last, after the main components were cured in place. The fit is very good and even features a very small locating hole in the gear well to help placement. You can also see some of the post-shading that I've done on the bottom. My normal super-thin brown/black mixes sprayed along the panel lines and streaked randomly.
  17. In a bit of a holding pattern as I await some XIVe specific cockpit parts from Laminar Flow Designs. Decided to kill some time and assemble and paint the kit instrument panel to see how it would compare with the Quinta Panel. I started off trying to use the decals for the gauges but I had Airscale's instrument decals as well as the PE instrument bezel fret so it was dressed up with those. And I topped each gauge with a clear acetate disc. Obviously a lot less detail than the Quinta panel but I do like the less cluttered look of the kit panel and the superior contrast between the individual elements.
  18. Some photos of my unbuilt Folgore fuselage. I stuck my Tamiya XVIe in there for comparative purposes since it was on my workbench. Shot with a Canon S120 Powershot in RAW format. Processed in Lightroom. Dual monitors calibrated with a SpyderX Pro. Comparison of the hatch detail. Compare the hinges and circular fasteners between the two. Also note the line of raised rivets on the bottom edge of the Folgore cockpit fairing and how they disappear towards the rear.
  19. Yes, I think both Barracuda control sticks look very nice.
  20. My research says that the circular grey control between the radio box and door is the Type 45 gun camera film footage indicator.
  21. Sweet! Your paint and finish work is superbly detailed and clean too! You've got skillz!
  22. Great to see your Griffon Spit build here, Tom! And I love the alternate approach you took for the tailwheel well modifications. Unfortunately, Tamiya has run out of the VIII sprues but I was able to get VIII wings from them so I don't have to scribe the top of the wings. Cockpit looks great!
  23. Decal/mask combination would alleviate some of the issues of an all-mask option. The yellow portion could be a mask and the thin red border could produced as a decal. Another possible way to approach the "Cripes A Mighty" logo would be two identical custom decals laid on top of each other to ensure opacity of the yellow and red. Anybody have a decent reso copy of the logo? I'd like to perform some tests!
  24. If the Cripes A Mighty logo were a single color (yellow), I think it would be slightly fiddly but do-able. But if it's yellow with a thin red outline like I think it is, this would complicate the mask and push it into the extremely fiddly zone. Masks with thin borders are difficult enough to work with. And consider that these are narrow letters which would be the toughest to put a border around, compared to a big simple shape. Then you add those isolated "islands" with the mask that are also bordered (the "e", the cursive "s", the "a" and two in the "g") and the difficulty factor goes through the roof. I would recommend going a different route such as a custom decal. Maybe geeddubelyer has a good method to deal with this as a mask that I don't know about.
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