mc65

hi oh! small advancement: I thermoformed (without resorting to vacuum, simply by brute force pushing the form into the heated sheet with the heat gun) four examples of rear canopy. I chose the best one, and I installed the correct frame inside and outside, taken from photos and drawings, therefore very approximate, but I still think better than the one proposed by matchbox. while I was there I stretched the lower edge, in order to have a match for the track on which to slide, a detail obviously omitted in the kit. obviously there is still a lot of work to do, but the bulk is done. cheers, Paolo

I mean... to rectify that issue I should have to disassemble and destroy what I have done so far, and being unique parts I would have to redo them from scratch, also risking damaging the site in the spat. I'll simply live with this shame, moreover in such a perfect model... to be 100% honest, I should already have done those lights again... look at the real thing: you can see that the bulb is bigger, the bulb holder is round base, not square, and the circular inspection door is flushed with the spat. ah, and the parable is much more bright and shiny than the mine. better forget this chapter and carry on with other horrors... e.g. the cockpit's greenhouse. the kit's parts are as thick as a glass block wall, so I have put them aside (in the bin) and I'm trying to redo them with lids of food trays and plasticard. obviously they have a shape of their own, and they are also different from right to left. did I already mention that modeling is suffering? ok, let's say that roughly we are. mating with the rear slide also seems to be fine. but, but... what isn't good *italian terrible blasphemies* is the trend of the longitudinal frames of the sliding canopy! here you can see how they converge towards the tail, while those of the kit are parallel. *again, loudly* okay, I'll try to redo that canopy as well. form this time in plaster, which last night I didn't want to play with Fimo. from here on, fingers crossed, please. modeling is suffering, but also patience and perseverance. I can do it, uh-uh. cheers, Paolo

Simply beautiful

Just WOW!

thank you all! Joachim, thank you too, I went to see excellent Max's work on his Tiger Moth. I know that Archer product, but I think that rivets are more suitable for the surfaces of the Lysander, on page two of this WIP there are tests done on the elevators, and I'm quite satisfied with the results I obtained. the trouble is that I ran out of rivets! there is an order on the way, but these will not be enough, I did it just to replace my stock, I didn't intend to use these for the wing. now the decision is from do another order (and wait more or less a couple o months) or find another way to achieve that effect. meanwhile, on the mc-workbench... I assembled the landing lights on the spats. I think I may call these subparts done and ready to be installed on the fuselage. some time after I glued on the transparent covers , I observed that the glue has ruined a parable, the one in the foreground. too fu§§ng late to remedy. next life. cheers, Paolo

hi all! here a project started a lot of years ago. decades, actually. at the time the only A6M available was the -5 Hasegawa, with all its limits, dimensional and 70's style. moreover, as I tried to understand it, my certainties crumbled until they thinned to a single one: sooner or later I would have done it, and I would have done it on certainties, not on hypotheses. and Tamiya finally came up with the suitable base, a -2, and the MDC made a resin set for making my-damn-Rufe. very well, but some uncertainties about the painting also emerged, until I recently found documentation that comforted me on what I should try to reproduce, hallelujah. so, here we are. Beyond the conversion itself, I focused on the weathering of the paints. I wanted both the red primer used on these aircraft and the factory color under the definitive green of the operating theater to appear. to achieve this I used the salt technique, but using baking soda, then eliminated with vinegar. in this way the peeling is finer, and the residues practically...well, zero, altough technically this is a Rufe. this effect was built in layers, obviously, each one protected with transparent for subsequent treatment. the hard part was keeping the layers thin! I worked the mainplane and the floats separately for ease of handling, joining up these at the very last stage. the trolley supplied by MDc was on my opinion too fragile to support the weight of the whole finished model, so I put it aside, saving just the wheels, and built a new one in welded brass and wood, based on the MDC one, on the Tamiya 1/48 and on the historical photos found. much better, IMHO. after some close inspection of the original photos and with the help of a friend from Tokyo, we decided that the writing on the wooden poles reads "front left/right" and "left/right". the building itself was free of troubles, I just cut off the headrest/rollbar not present in this version, and added few details here and there, mainly in the cockpit and engine area. all in all I'm quite satisfied by this work, now I'm just recharging the batteries to throw myself in the last step of the idro-trilogy I've in mind! cheers, Paolo

that's a terrific work, in terms of numbers and quality!

hi all, actually despite it's december, I found some mushrooom, after my last post! I start to worry about that... now I'll do a little test: I'll try to wish I could find miss january at my door. well, just some little advancing on this project. this is the external fuel tank by the kit. not wrong, but somewhat basic. well, in small side sessions, looking and finding reference photos, I finished it. almost: to be true it's still miss the two caps, of which I could not find a clear image. here under test below the fuselage. I preferred to install now all six arms that will support it. although everything is more fragile, it should be easier to paint it and then install it in place. to be noted the size ... it is a close relative of the jumo 004! and so far... now the painful notes: I ran out of Archer resin rivets. I placed an order but it will arrive who knows when, as well as being insufficient, I fear, while the HGW ones I was counting on are not in relief, I discovered. then the problem arises of how to create the reinforcement lines on the canvas of the ribs, as already done for the rudders. I'm studying it, but I don't see any light yet. here the least worst thing that came to my mind: highlight the points with the roller riveter, and then deposit a drop of black CA in each point. once dry, cover with a strip of adhesive aluminum. Beyond the madness of doing these one by one achieving a decent quality, there is the question of quantity: as you can see, the Lysander has the beautiful wingspan of about 48cm, and here there are no ailerons and flaps, also to be coated! and no trace of the replacement engine... in short, I'm a bit in the shallows, risking to have an halt at this project. ideas, suggestions, fantasies ... everything goes, you're welcome! cheers, paolo

hi, exploring the site I found this section some time ago. well, I'd like to contribute with something a little bit different... enjoy landing in Olbia, my home base since 1998! cheers, paolo

I just finished reading it all, I missed this wip, and as with any good read I'm a bit sorry it ended so soon. I guess your point of view is the opposite, given the time spent and the difficulties encountered. but the result is spectacular, and you have taught us several things along the way, thanks for that. I hope to see soon more of your works soon, even if they may be simpler than this one. again compliments and all the best!

Aaaaw... that's really a pity, I would have gladly read how all those AMs fit in the kit! I'm also curious about the subalar loads: I've the same kit (with the very same decals, cherry girl is simply irresistible) on stash, but I don't remember pictures of this plane armed with sidewinders, do you have any documentation of this? it would be very useful to me! TIA, and kudos for that beast so beautiffuly rendered!

hi all, thank you! really a lot of work, I begin to wonder if it is worth it, also because I continue to correct things that have already been done ... well, lets start with an half success. the idea was to save the shape of the kit's part, and sand that one until reach a decent shape, transparency and correct frames. so after some sanding and putty and sanding again I arrived here. then tried to thermoform. while shopping, I had an enlightenment and I bought a package of transparent lids for food-grade trays for a few euros. without bothering and going searching for my self made box to connect to the vacuum cleaner, wich is buried somewhere in the garage, I produced this. it looks like anyone? the idea was to save the shape and work the original piece, but it costs nothing to try, right? and it also reacts well to glue... in short, after a bit of cutting and sewing, here we are. it can certainly done better, but I'm so laaaaazy! at least it's transparent, and about almost correct in shape. I damaged the frames with the glue in several places, now the choice will be between putty or an aluminum coating. and this was half success... the fail is that I found that in making the rudder's ribs I followed the lines of the kit. could they be right? obviously NO. so do it all again. I'm starting to get tired of this building where one day I do one thing and the next I have to dismantle and redo it. also my mojo is considering leaving me and this kit at home and going for mushrooms. cheers, Paolo

hi all, thank you for the attention and the encouragement, there is still a lot of work to do! unfortunately little progress, I've been busy on other fronts these days. essentially I carried on just some niceties, not having time to sit at the workbench for long sessions: added the last missing arm to the structure behind the IP, the one that supports the central panel, here still without color: and here painted but not yet weathered. then I thought about the windshield, and decided to make an attempt at vacuform before brutalizing the original piece. so I made a copy of the internal volume with Fimo, a polymer clay, and here I understood why I had to make this damn kit... it was the dark side of modeling that called me! once the fimo was cooked I started working on it to give it the right shape, with the flat front panel. the road is long and uncertain, but let's try. another little thing I had in the lineup, the brake hoses for the main landing gear. the last segment will go in black color, and I will glue it after placing the wheels. I really can't look at that tread, but I can't think of anything to improve it! last thing I managed to do, a coat of aluminum and then green at the cockpit and the fuselage junction points, to check where there was still to putty/sand. while I was there I made a base for the chipping on the passage area of the rear compartment. here too, there is still work to be done. and that's all for today, I hope to manage to work on it in the next few days. cheers, Paolo

can we talk about fetishism in the case of landing gears? wonderful, sincere congratulations!

thank you all, I'm glad it arouses interest, it's such a crude model! well, let's see that I have done since the last session. as I said, the trellis that supports the collimator ring was short, compared to the photos of the real aircraft. so I took courage in both hands (actually i just took a new razor blade) and sliced it off, alea iacta est. then before redoing it from Evergreen rods, I thickened the front part of the fuselage with a plasticard wedge so that the windshield fits about almost well. with the rectified fuselage closed momentarily with adhesive tape, I had a template to redo the trellis. and, a few half hours later... done this, I finally closed the fuselage, it was time! so I stayed in the cockpit area for the details that go there now. with cardboard templates I took the measurements of the top that closes the rear compartment, obtaining the measurements of the hole by observing the photos of the real kite and using a volunteer luftwaffe rear gunner to verify that it was humanly compatible with the entry and exit maneuvers. how two (in some cases three!) could stay back there remains a mystery to me... but I imagine that having the gestapo at your heels made an air passage to England very welcome, disregarding the airplane's discomfort! obtained the precise measurements, I transferred them on plasticard and, after cutting the plan into several sections for an easier installation, I glued everything in place. to bring the horizontal surfaces of the two compartments flat, I had to add a strip of plasticard on each side. the wing support instead I unglued it, having decided that I should work on the dihedral of the wing separately. then I joined the corners with curves. test in place of the wing with upper and rear clear parts. mh. maybe these may remain untouched. the front one instead I discovered is totally wrong either about the frames, I fear I have to plane to zero, polish and redo that part. and here we are after a first putty session. I also repositioned the filler neck of the main tank, it is not visible, but now it is less in conflict with the seat. same on the back compartment. and that's all for today, I would say. to the next step! cheers, Paolo

here I am again! last time i talked about some mistakes... one was I forgot to paint the colored arcs on some instruments. so I took the chains off my pedantic me and rested my hand on them, retouching the instruments in color. please forgive me, but with the cell phone, freehand and with the cat (one at random, they take turns) on my knees, I couldn't take a better photo. on the back I added sections of aluminum tube to emulate the connections. an easy little thing but I think it is effective. I colored the cables following a rough diagram and referring more or less to the American color codes. a thing of fantasy, in short. then I positioned the compass and its perch, which took me a lot of time, having to guess the horizontal and vertical distance, as well as the inclination with respect to the panel. also placing it definitively in position required a certain amount of apnea, in addition to the removal of some horizontal mounting rods that had come into conflict with the cables. while the gluing was taking hold, I coated the yoke with copper wire to make it a little more chubby and emulate the non-slip coating of the real one. and here we are again. the cloche and seat have been temporarily positioned, the support rods for the instrument panel have been replaced and colored, the cowl flaps control has been redone, that strange knob to which the holster of the flare gun is attached. reverse shot showing the parking brake on the yoke stem. I threw some color on the seat, but I'm not at all convinced it's the right one. maybe I redo the upholstery in black, even if it risks having too much contrast with the seat belts, which are in sand color. and here it is time to deal with the black beast of this kit. the transparencies are thick, with badly engraved frames and as if that weren't enough, wrong in coupling with the fuselage. now the most serious thing would be to do in vacuform them all again, one piece at a time. but how much do I want? zero. What if I try to cheat a little bit instead? like inserting a thickness between the two half fuselage in the offending point? doh, look how much it distorts, that "transparent"... It might work... and it would also be convenient for me to have those two slits between the frame and the fuselage, in reality the two side windows slid vertically there. dunno. I'll sleep on it. from the photos I also see that the upper trellis (the one with the collimator support) remains a bit short compared to the panel, it should be redone too... let's think about it. advice, criticism, ideas, everything is welcome, come on! cheers, Paolo

thank you! actually, I spent a couple of days out of home, and I took the opportunity to tidy up the photo archive in the smartphone. this led me to discover a number of mistakes I made, some of these not remediable, I fear... more on that later on. for today just a couple of steps ahead: having to prepare the seat for the rear wheel, while I was there, I made it work with the help of a trivial lighter spring. useless, but nice, I think. also, I used a trick to position the wheels in the shoes at the height that seems most appropriate to me. in reality the main landing gear was made up of a single alloy crossbow (produced in Switzerland, moreover) whose function was to absorb the bulk of the weight and stresses related to the landing gear itself. the only aid to these was not in the usual oleopneumatic shock absorbers but in the Dowty wheels, which were cushioned inside the rim. so I just made the circular hole on the back of the wheels oval, so that I can place these wherever I like. in reality this will lead me to cheat a bit, moving from the vertical axis where I will need it to best center them in the fairings. here a photo with the two wheels at the maximum of their respective excursions. well, for today (tonight) it's all. cheers, Paolo

oh, my not-so-domestic cats well know where is the boundary to not trespass. the problem is that they keep on trying to eat me!

yesss! this one is on my "next to do" list, with the very same AMs, I'll follow your building!

thank you all, I'm glad you like it, all in all this wip seems popped out from a time machine! and surely it could built better... anyway I'm happy to have put my hands on this box now, I think later I would have just trashed it, considering how many diopters I'm sacrifying in it, and that I'm certainly not rejuvenating over time. let's say that I'm immolating myself for the cause... in my opinion at the end of a couple of years it will come out done as is appropriate by one of the emerging companies of the East. so. small jobs, ready for several bad photos? brought forward instrument panel by adding switches and "glass" to the front, and wires and placards to the rear. I'm studying the color codes of the cables, but I've not found certain sources, present time. sure, I can paint them in different shades of dark gray and stop there, but what does it cost me to try to get them correct? then I got a little package... I couldn't resist the charm of the aftermarket: plusmodel resin fire extinguisher. it's not a beauty? it would be time to close the fuselage, but it is difficult to work with Cigolo biting my fingers, better postpone! anyway the last thing to do before closing the fuselage was still missing... the fork of the kit's tail wheel as well as being short and really ugly, it seemed to me very thin, considering the weight of the whole model. I remade it with ballpoint pen offal and scraps of brass. and then I steered my attention to the engine cowling, engraving and riveting the outside of the central section; planing away the ugly details of the cowl flaps, replacing them with sheets of anchovy paste tube. the front part with the exhaust manifold is the one modeled in plasticine and cloned in resin. better than nothing, I guess. it's not beautiful, but neither is the rest of the plane, so I enjoy it. what worries me is what goes into it! the one from the box I would call it unclassified. the one I remade is a little less worse, and still requires a lot of work to make it look even remotely like a Bristol Mercury XX. when I may just go up to the attic and take a look at the IBG and ICM ones... here the IBG one, ripped from its sprue and stuck in the hood, to which I have meanwhile added the details in the carburetor air intake. definitely another planet. moreover, for the IBG kit there is also a resin aftermarket, but it seems difficult to obtain, as well as costing a sum, between living cost and shipping, while the ICM one would also have a hood that could perhaps be adapted to the Lysander... so? so we will see, I'm trying some paths, please have some fingers crossed, maybe I'll be lucky about that. as usual I used dead times to do something else. this time I produced a couple of Martian jellyfish: another small aftermarket, I must admit: PE headlight structure, a really nice and impressive Brengun product, combined with a little inventiveness: vacuform dish, heated fishing line bulb, plasticard lamp holder and two copper wires, voila. it should all look like this, in the end. holy cow, I have to work with putty and sandpaper again and again, here... and even today the workshop closes. It's time to get everything together (with cat's permission) and see if a plane will come out, but strangely I'm almost confident about, today. cheers, Paolo

hi all, some progress on this build.. I worked on the fuselage's outside, placing the panels fasteners. not difficult, just a little boring. after some time, I discoverd that following the kit, I put some fasteners (and some lines, too!) that don't exist, in the true kite. ok, remove these, and make the lines disappear, again. here is the final result, at least I hope it's the final one. actually a number of these things need to be removed and redone: it's not so easy to shoot the screw exactely in the middle of the circle! the good news are that I shoot some color in the cockpit area, and placed permanently the main fuel tank. same in the rear compartment, adding also the rear of the upper fuel tank. this thing has a really strange look, I know. also I placed the electrical panel, after having some fun with the weathered wooden surfaces. in the front office I had to rearrange some objects on the right side, and after the first coat of green I added other commands and some placards. on the left side the story was less complicated, albeit I have yet do some color corrections. while the various parts of the cockpit were drying/consolidating, I completed the construction of the spats, adding the trellis that supported the fairings. the finish of the surfaces is horrible, but I don't know how much I feel like insisting: the particular shape of these makes them really difficult to sand, and on the other hand the aluminum color highlights the slightest flaw... with a coat of pitch black and a bit of mud these will look the part without too many problems. maybe. and to close, the instrument panel in progress. several little things are still missing, such as switches and glasses on the instruments, but roughly it's done, on the front side. behind... is another whole story. well, next session I hope to do some weathering on the cockpit area, so to close the fuselage in the next days. cheers, Paolo

hi Zac, it helped a lot, thank you again! I spent quite some time watching closely to these, and I found these really interesting, I also understood more about the peculiar habits of that kite, awesome! well, tonight little advancing in the cockpit area: I assembled an electrical panel as per photos. and then I started to add wires on it, here just the thin ones. next, when it will be glued at station, the thickest ones. and what will be seen (maybe) and a little more wiring in the front too. added a pressure tank behind the instrument panel, I'm not sure what it was for, but in a couple of photos you can see it. definitively placed the upper tank and the seat-locker in the rear compartment, testing in the main tank. now it begins to be too crammed, I need to shoot some color on that before adding the next items. so, I added the last things on the right front side before the colors: command of the cowling flaps, command to release the emergency landing flares placed in the tail, and flare gun. the two panels with plasticard discs will serve as a basis for some other commands, but I will put them on later, however I still have to invent the way to make them. and that's it, for this session. next time, some colors, I hope! cheers, Paolo.

hi, I'm still exploring the site, and I discovered this nice initiative. one thing I don't like about social media is writing hidden behind a keyboard, so it seems to me a nice thing to do, introduce myself by putting my face on it! ladies and gentlemen, a slightly younger myself just few years ago, when I still flew my beloved and never forgotten MD82. you can pick up the blue or the red pill.. nothing changes, just the red one it's at cherry taste. and nowadays, while trying to have some reading when one of my seven cats has decided it's snuggles time. cheers, Paolo

You're welcome, glad to pass some useful trick! I use iron-base 0,3mm wire, wich is soft enough to accept the curve I made on these and the little adjustment that inevitably it needs. the curve's radius depends from the geometry of the peculiar cowling... as said, it's mostly a trial and error affair. I find this kind of wire easier to work with compares with guitar string, that is fair more rigid, altough it may be an option. to pass the wire trough the structure I simply drill holes of the appropriate diameter, and to lock the wire in the panel I use epoxy, more elastic than cyanoacrylate. enjoy!

thank you all, i really appreciate your kind comments! a special thanks to Zac, I just had a look at the Hadfield's videos (i didn't think at that option, til now) and I found some weak spots in my building, I have to corrrect these asap! tonight just a couple of little things i did today in the wake of what I did yesterday: the compass, that will go under the main IP, then established the size of the additional tank. still missing some stuff, but as a basis it works. now let's face it: this is the Mk.III, I threw away two, before guessing the right shape and size. to his left the bench installed on the SD instead of the gunner's seat. this allowed to seat two people (how I have no idea, the spaces are really small) and to contain the parachutes for the passengers. since I was in the tank area, I decided to throw the kit one (on the right) and to redo one that conforms to the space in the fuselage and above all to the photos which fortunately are abundant. even here I'm far to call it done, but the basis is there. I then gave the elevators some primer, and made the rudder in the same way. I would say that we are, I could switch to wing, aileron and flaps, except that I have almost run out of rivets, I have to wait for the order while traveling so far to the borders of the empire. it may take some time... between a minor job and the other I carried on the spats, and I almost see the end of these, at least until some primer will reveal more work to be done! the wheels are pitiful, but I really don't know what to invent, to come up with a credible tread. and that's all for today, I'd say. cheers, Paolo