Thunnus

Hey Bill! I've been using a California Air Tools 4610A since 2013 and I've been very happy with it. 1 hp motor with 4.6 gallons of storage (dual tanks). It's not silent but it isn't overly loud either. It replaced a Campbell Hausfeld compressor that I got from Walmart that used to make my heart skip a beat everytime the motor kicked in. I model in a converted garage so absolute quiet is not necessary. The 4610A is touted at 60dB which is equivalent to normal conversation or a dishwasher, which sounds about right. Video shows size and an idea of how loud it is...

Wow, very interesting, Mal. Looks like a big hot dog. Looking forward to seeing this built.

Hello everyone! Just thinking about what to do next. I have a couple of in-progress builds that I've not finished yet including the Infinity 1/32 D3A1 dive bomber and the Great Wall Hobby 1/32 Curtiss Hawk Flying Tiger. I promise to work on and finish those two but right now I feel like starting something new. Looking at my stash, I decided to pull this one out.... As a WW2 buff, I've always appreciated the graceful lines of the Italian designs, of which the Macchi Folgore and Veltro are the best known. Like the Folgore and Veltro, the G.55 was powered by the German Daimler-Benz DB605 engine and featured a very sleek and elegant airframe. The Pacific Coast Model version of the G.55 was released in 2009. It was produced in limited numbers and is no longer available. I stumbled onto this one in used condition on Kitlinx last year. As a short-run kit, execution/engineering can be a little rough. For example, there are no locating pins on any of the parts. Overall, this looks to be fairly simple kit with no representation of the engine provided. The kit is molded in very shiny grey plastic. Surface details are very crisp and fine. As my kit was pre-owned, some of the major parts were already separated from their sprues but luckily, I did not see any major damage, only superficial scratches and scuffing. The lower wing assembly is non-standard with the center section as a separate part. Note that there is no slot or tab for the horizontal tail surfaces... butt joint only! I'll have to beef up that connection. Styrene part count is low (less than 100), compared to most modern releases and there are molding ridges and flash to contend with. Clear parts are intact and in good condition. The resin parts provided look very detailed and include the cockpit floor, sidewalls and instrument panel. Eduard photoetch is also provided. Pre-painted metal seat harnesses are not ideal but I'll try to make it work. I've never seen this before... the instrument faces for the IP are provided as tiny pre-painted PE parts. I don't think I like this approach either so I'll be looking at using Airscale decals as an alternative. Cartograph decals (big thumbs up) are provided for four marking options. I've not decided which one to depict but leaning towards the experimental splinter or the RLM74/75/76 mottle. Right off the bat, I started futzing around with the resin and removed the exhaust stubs from their casting block. These are a tight squeeze into the openings in the fuselage and can only be installed from the interior side. So these will have to be glued in before the fuselage halves are put together. The rest of the resin parts were separated from the casting blocks.

Ooooh... I love the Dora so I'm very much looking forward to your take on this kit, Denis! I like your aftermarket list so far... please report on the fit of the cowling parts!

Bravo Denis! So much to look at and notice... true attention to detail.

Thank you Matt! Thank you Denis! Learned a little bit about the oil staining technique so that was a good aspect of this build. Thanks Jay! Thank you! And I'm looking at your G.55 build and its tempting me to try mine! Thank you Michael! Thank you sir! A few more pics of the He-162...

Thanks Matt! I'll try to finish up the Flying Tiger soon! The finished photos have been posted...

This is my recently completed build of the Revell 1/32 He-162A-2 model. It is a very nice kit with decent detail and very good fit. I dressed it up a bit with some aftermarket, most notably the Aires Cockpit and Wheel Bay set. All of the major markings are painted using custom cut masks. The yellow squadron insignia is from the Cutting Edge decal sheet. The full build can be found at:

Thank you Michael! Got lucky that the drop from hand to table top wasn't too severe. As far as the exposed engine goes, I've gotten zero response from my emails to CMK claims and service departments so I will not pursue that option anymore. But the closed engine nacelle is still removable and apparently there is another 1/32 BMW 003 designed to fit the Revell Salamander. I've ordered it out of curiosity and I will revisit the open engine when that arrives. Thank you Alan and Matt! When I have the time and inclination, I think I'm a fast builder and the Revell He 162 kit was relatively simple so it went by fast. Not sure what I'll work on next. Finish up the AVG Curtiss Hawk and Aichi D3A1? Start something new? I've got the Kotare Spitfire Mk I and Bf109K-4 in the stash as well as the Z-M Bf109G-14. I'd really like to get to work on a Fw190D-11 but still waiting patiently for Mathieu to finish his conversion.

Thanks for the comments everyone! The oil staining is definitely a learning experience for me so the results aren't ideal but I'm kinda getting the hang of it. After the legs are in place, I can place the wheels on the legs. Again, I used JB Kwik Weld that gives me a bit of time to make sure the wheels are aligned and the flat spots lie flat on contact surface as they should. Now, for the first time, the model can stand on its own legs. The wings aren't in place but it looks like I put enough weight in the nose to prevent the tail sit. The tail assembly and the wings are glued onto the fuselage. Wing fit is not the most positive of fits so I did it one wing at a time to ensure the correct dihedral. After the tail and wings are in place, I gave the model a light coat of matte clear (Mr Hobby GX114) to seal the oil weathering. And then... I dropped the model onto my work table. It wasn't a complete crash and tumble and I quickly caught it after it slipped from my hand but the damage had been done. The nose gear snapped and one of the landing legs became dislodged. Since the nose gear carries a lot of weight (think back to the lead weights that I added to the nose) so I couldn't just glue it back together. I drilled holes into the broken ends and inserted a brass pin for strength. This was fused together with CA glue. Luckily, the main landing gear didn't break, it just came loose so that was easy to re-attach. Whew... could've been much worse!!! However, that incident threw off the symmetry and I had to re-yank both main legs to get the model to sit straight. That got figured out and I'm not in the home stretch on this one. All of the little bits and pieces are added on including the landing gear doors, antenna on the bottom, the pitot tube in the nose, the nose gear indicator in front of the windshield and the loop antenna on top of the engine nacelle. The only thing left to do now is remove the canopy masks. So let's call this one a wrap. When I get a good window of opportunity, I'll shoot final pics and post them on the Ready for Inspection board.

A quote from the Eduard website regarding this kit (I added the bold highlight)... Playing around with masks in preparation for this release...

Markings options for this release...

Thanks Troy! The oil work on the fuselage is largely completed. I have to be careful since oils take a long time to dry and in the meantime are susceptible to fingerprints. So I'm trying to wear rubber gloves whenever I handle the model. The bottom of the wings were given the oil treatment too but since there are no panel lines, I've kept the effect very minimal. The landing gear legs have been glued into place using 2-part JB Kwik Weld. A question for those more experienced with oil weathering... do you seal the work with a matte coat or just leave it as is?

Thank you Ken! I haven't had any issues applying the salt weathering technique over areas that have been hairspray chipped using Tamiya and Mr Hobby Aqeuous paints. I haven't used Vallejo paints so I don't have any experience there. Typically, the salt technique will come at the very end of the weathering process so it is performed after the chipping has been sealed by a few clear coat layers. Examples include the Ki-61 The Tempest... Fw190D-13 F4U-1a Corsair, which had two hairspray layers (metal + chromate) Thanks Michael! I've been looking for another layer of weathering beyond my normal pastel wash, post-shading and salt weathering routine and oils seem to fill that role well. It's got that color variation going for it but it can also add some subtle hard-edged stains that really enhance the realism. Still working on it! That's what I do! Typically my salt weathering will happen over clear gloss + clear matte layers. Thank you Sam! Still trying to figure it out but its a good weathering tool to have. My clear coats have been Alclad Aqua Gloss and Mr Color GX114 Clear Flat. It may depend on the stability of the paint layer above the hairspray. In most of my experiences with hairspray chipping, that paint layer is fairly stable and I really have to work a stiff brush aggressively over the paint to make it chip. Even without sealing, I would feel pretty confident of doing the salt weathering over that. Standing water wasn't enough to disrupt that paint layer in most of my cases.

Thank you Matt and Hubert! After the salt fading, I wanted to double check the effects so I took the model outdoors and shot her in ambient daylight to get a better sense of where we stand. I think the effects on the upper wings is ok for now but the rest of the aircraft looks much too tidy and neat. I want to dirty it up a bit. I expanded the salt weathering to the engine nacelle. In the meantime, I was working on the wheel wells a bit. Using the Eduard Exterior Set, I lined the outside edges of the wheel wells with cut portions of the PE sidewalls. For one, it will help cover up the joint between the resin and plastic and two, I can utilize the hinges to help secure the doors. Let's continue the weathering. I decided to play a little bit more with oils on this build. Using a panel on the bottom as a testbed, I tried my hand at some oil-dot weathering. I liked the preliminary effect so I started to do other panels. This is a new technique for me and I am not very good at it so I'm learning as I go. What I'm doing is applying tiny dots of oil paint in different colors (brown, black and dark green) randomly within the panel. A little bit of oil goes a very long way so the smaller the amount, the easier it is to work with. Using a soft brush, the oil paint is spread over the panel. The color mix gives a bit of tonal variation to stains that I'm creating. Even with such tiny amounts of oil paint, the effect is much heavier than desired. So the oils are gradually removed by either dabbing with a section of dry paper towel or cotton swab and/or using a paint brush slightly moistened with mineral spirits as necessary. Mineral spirits are a natural thinner for oil paints but won't affect the camo paints that I'm using. I'll do the bottom first since this will be where the heaviest oil staining will occur.

Yes, molding the rear fuselage spine in clear plastic including the quarter windows would've been preferrable. At least the quarter windows had frames around their entire perimeter, which will make dealing with the glue seam easier.

Ack... I missed this! I'm sorry but I have no experience with Humbrol paints so I cannot help you there! Thank you!

Thanks guys! Appreciate the feedback! I gave the wings and tail planes the salt weathering treatment. I sprinkle fine rock salt onto the wetted surface. If the water beads, simply a little drop of dishwashing soap into the water. After the salt dries completely, I spray a very diluted coat of a contrasting color (in this case, Tamiya Deck Tan XF55) over the salt. When you remove the salt, you should get some sort of staining effect. What I got this time was too heavy for my tastes so the effect was dialed back by carefully rubbing down with wet Micromesh. In some areas, I lightly re-sprayed the camo color to further reduce the effect. Here are the results of some of the reduction work... While working on that, I also gave the fuselage a matte coat (Mr Hoby GX114) to seal the pastel wash. Since all of the components are being weathered separately, it's good to put the parts together to see how the weathering fits together. I'm still dialing in the salt staining effects and will add some post-shading and oil work as well.

More photos posted by Eduard on FB...

Thanks for the comments guys! Love the photo of the captured 162 with the someone sitting in the seat. It not only shows the dimunitive size of the aircraft to good effect, it is a very high quality pic and I see some interesting details like the metal color of the engine cowlings. Interesting lighter color on the upper wings too... I would've guessed natural metal but I thought the wings were made of wood. Thank you Troy for that information! Based on my available pics of White 3, I would say no scallops on the leading edges... Time to paint the fuselage markings. The fuselage is sealed with a gloss coat (Alclad Aqua Gloss) and then the decals are applied. I used mostly the Revell kit decals but the yellow eagle insignia came from the Cutting Edge sheet. I printed the black border for the 3 on my laser printer. Once the fuselage markings are done, the decals are sealed with another gloss coat and I start the pastel wash process. I make my own pastel washes using shavings from pastel chalks and water. A few different shades were made for this build including a grey for the lighter fuselage colors.

Another beautiful rendition of the Kotare K-4. It's so cool to see different interpretations of these late war Luftwaffe schemes.

Great work on the A6M5 Jay! I have this one in the stash just because I thought it was an important enough WW2 fighter to model at least once.

The rivets look great, Iain! Must be a relief to get through all of those decals!

Very nice and neat! I like the finish!

I'm glad the salt weathering results you got were to your liking! Always such a pain to go through the process and not see any visible result OR it comes out way too strong. It's good to see the model standing on its own legs... a significant milestone in any build.