mc65

"You need chaos in your soul* to give birth to a dancing star" (Friedrich Nietzsche) *and on your bench (mc65) beautiful work indeed, let me applaud at it!

I was following in religeous silence this work, really good cockpit, kudos. what do you mean with "hinging the cowlings"? you're looking a way to render these movable as in the real or just a way to let these accessible and stable in situ?

the cockpit pics are beautiful, thanks. Maybe with the tinted glass on a lot will be concealed, but you (and we all, of course) well know there is! let me surrender at your christmas outdoor decorations, I can't stop to laugh! pity here I can't even think at something like that: definetly too much xwind, probably I'll find those guys in north Tunisia.

thank you, seeing it as old-fashioned modeling can be acceptable, that's the way I'm taking it. today some progress, ready to some bad photos? well, the kit's seat would not even be so bad, but from the historical photos you can see that it was a metal tube structure with leather padding, which has nothing to do with the one supplied, so I tried to make it with welded copper wire and magic sculpt. the pilot sat on the parachute, so the base remains naked. the armrests on the sides would be missing, but I don't know whether to do these or not, in several photos there are not. another necessary thing, either because the original instrument panel was a flat piece of plastic, or because I also lost it, was to redo the instrument panel. side A and side B. the cables relating to each instrument will be glued into the holes, clearly visible between the panel and the fuselage (transparent permitting, another bad chapter in this story, I'm afraid). and up to here... now these have to go stuck in the chicken cage! the panel was fixed to a spider web of metal pipes that I tried to reproduce, while for the oil tank I limited myself to installing the rear wall, the only one visible -maybe- in the dark toward the bow and aft the instruments. the kit involved attaching the seat to the fuel tank, and under the seat a perch on which to attach the rudder pedals. of course I threw all this away and rebuilt everything trying to follow the diagrams and photos of the real welded structure. a second fuel tank was installed behind the driver on the SD. to make from scratch the latter I had to glue the upper horizontal truss, which now sits between my eyes, but at least stiffens the lateral struts and above all gives me the volume in which to build the tank itself. I think that I have placed the rudder pedals too far forward, I will have to intervene, I'm afraid. but in the meantime the volumes in the center are there, now I can move on to the side panels, here the one on the left, with throttle, mixture control, horizontal stabilizer control wheel, and a map case. and the whole story of the tailplane, you say? I did it ... and I'm moderately satisfied with it: Archer resin rivets and adhesive aluminum strip above. tomorrow I'll give it a round of primer, but I think we're there. forgive the David Hamilton's style photo, but I'm boiled at this point of the day (night, actually). well, it's a loooong way, but I think I'm starting to see a light at the bottom of the dark. cheers, paolo

It's a new and more intriguing form of foruming: no images, but just the description of the work done, everyone has to be imaginative about it! but since I'm a believer and a dreamer, too, I'll love it! about the Communication between flyiers and grunts, I've had my troubles coordinating the requested delivery spot for the water bomb I had in my CL215 belly... "we are coming in, just few seconds and we'll overfly the top of the hill from south, where do you want the next splash?" "on the left". Oh, I know that all the world tends to initiate to sing "jingle bells" at mid november, but by tradition the tree and all the paraphernalia should be mount not before 8 december! so, maybe there is enough tome to shoot some pictures... pleaaaaase!

well...a gin tonic? I think I need one. or two. seiously, I dont think, I'm sure about: the more I dive in this work, the more I curse myself. but either me or it, this workbench is too small for both of us! today I worked on tailplane, again. I like these? NO. and since they are mirrored, I can flip these over and give it another try. I know I may look crazy, but these are just guinea pigs for wing, flaps and ailerons! so, again. let's see, what else have I done: carried on the big feet, also called "spats". I filled and filed the seats of the landing lights, re-engraved the doors and the steps, glued the bulkhead that acts as a fender, placed the strikers for the fixing keys of the covers, created by vacuform what will be the lights ... but these are still so far from being called ready! but no one forbids us from doing a test ... but how ugly is it? ok, ok, this is body shaming, forget it... let's change argument: are ribs, the ones that can be glimpsed? actually yes: I threw in some ribs, and a sort of oil coolers. they are hideous, but all you will see will be this: and for today it would be enough, but I wanted to try to see how looks like the fuselage tubular structure which should be the cockpit cage and the wing support. it seems that even the two pieces that constituite it have some major mistakes, but I don't think I feel like doing it completely from scratch. rather, for a brief moment I hoped I could cannibalize parts from other kits, but the only thing I managed to adapt is the cloche, taken from a tempest Super Hobby. so it will have to do form scratch... everything, for a change. I started with the rudder bar footplates, on the right the ones proposed by the kit. phew. and that's it, for today, don't be too severe with it! cheers, Paolo

you are too kind ... this is a job that, however hard I try, will turn out a disaster! so. resumed the lines of the rivets on the stabilizer, which I would take for granted, and tried a way to emulate the details on the canvas of the elevator. does not convince me at all, I think that the next session I'll pull everything down and start it again. i scribed the tail after a turn of primer, and here too I see some lines to redo. and started bickering with the landing gear. just so as not to miss anything, I cut off the wheel covers and rebuilt the leg (which in reality was a single, big piece) with brass square and round profile. I thought it appropriate to install sections of aluminum tube in the landing lights holes to strengthen the structure of the fairings, weakened by the cut of the covers. in short, a disaster. it is true that this kit has its +40 years, but it seems to me to be Penelope, who makes and undoes the canvas over and over... nonetheless I go ahead, if only to see it come out of the IBG in the next six months! cheers, Paolo.

hi all, just some little steps ahead, I began to figure how to deal with the scribed lines proposed by the kit. actually trenches, more than lines. I tried to fill these with sprue lines and putty here after a first passage with sandpaper. it needs some primer and some retouch, but it should work. since the most of this aircraft was canvas covered, I hope to do it without going crazy. I also filled with sprue the wrong lines on the wings, and then rescribe these. here I highlighted these on the upper wing with some ecoline to better understand what the hell I was doing. before I had given a coat of primer and added the inspection hatches, simple plasticard discs. I think it would be nice to highlight the strips of canvas that covered the ribs, but I'm still figuring how to do. then the tailplane, here a photo in progress: on the left as they are from the box, on the right with first modifications: on the stabilizer I engraved a cutout for the end section of the same, cantilevered, and on the elevator I planed the part towards the stabilizer, which was plain. here after having scribed the joining lines on the tops, riveted them and glued the cantilevered sections. on the right elevator a test for the strips of canvas I mentioned earlier, but I'm not convinced at all. just as I really don't like the lines of the rivets seen on the monitor, I think some corrections are necessary. well, now I remembered why this box has been lying in the attic for years... the only nice new is that a friend of mine saw the restart of the building of this aircraft, and identified it with this picture. I just can't blame him! cheers, Paolo

Excellent!

Great build, and great intervention in the paint issue you had!

Mike, it's the story of my (modeler's) life! Has appened a number of occasions, mostly with tanks and trucks kits, so that I started to suspect that someone in the world's east is watching my wips! for sure some friends of mine ask me to start this or that conversion, hoping thay in a couple of years it wil appear on the market! you may guess my ansewer... but, just in case someone of a scouting team is reading... please considerate a new tool release of this machine!!! there are tons of references of it, either from WWII or contemporary ones. With an agreement and a ticket to GB you may see and touch and replicate every nut and bolt of it. even have a flight in it, probably. in 1/32 there is room to print a terrific level of detail in the wide fuselage, and is a subject seen in at least four interesting camo.

just WOW!!

glad to be able to help in some way, Troy! I think that the finnish camo is terrific, on this aircraft. also there are on the web some beautiful, high quality pictures of these. please take in account that there are some issue with the back end of the glass and the fuselage joint. now I don't remeber exactely, but these don't match perfectly. if I'm right I ended inserting a strip of evergreen profile in the rear fuselage joint to match the glass evenly. also the landing gear strut sports some difficulty to match his proper sit points, I added some punch & die plasticard discs to achieve a solid joint. last thing I remember, the kit lacks the spent cartdridge funnel, wich runs form the middle of the fuselage to the left underwing, just behind the landing gear well. I'm sorry I have no decent images of this detail, this is the sole pic I found in wich you may imagine there is a funnel in that position. even worse than the photo of the kit! in the end it is not that we see much, but if one wonders where the shells ended up, the answer is this!

hi all, sorry for start this topic just now, but I didn't discovered this section til now. also I fear I won't end the building in time for the assigned deadline, but maybe this will be the right boost to complete a kit that I have on stash since I guess 2003. it's a 1998 Revell reboxing of a 1978 Matchbox kit, wich I already did in my early teens when the latter was issued. in the years I piled up quite some references, but the book you must read if you are interested in this subject, is this one: the box in question spitted out a pile of pieces with which I have beaten myself several times over the years trying, and postponing each time, to give a little dignity to this plane, whose rendering as a model is correct in the general forms, but really crude as details. every time I opened the box I got discouraged and closed it again, after thinking a bit about what to do. so now I don't know if I can complete it this time, but I would like to put its direct competitor close to the Fi 156. let's start with the things I've already done, I don't even remember when: the wing. unlike the Storch, which had them fixed, this thing had movable slats, divided into three sections per side. the two outer sections automatically extended when the speed ran out, lowering the stall speed, while the inner section not only did the same thing (at a lower speed) but was mechanically linked to the flaps, making landing operations at low speed very simpler from the point of view of surface management (we will talk later about tailplane trimming). pity that the model provides the wing with the slats nailed closed (which is quite rare, on the ground) the flaps retracted and only the separate ailerons. the mc-answer was to cut flaps and slats, and reconstruct the rounded profile of the former, while the latter I remade from scratch in sheet brass. this, I see now, is far from acceptable at my present standards. I think I have to revise the scribing lines (part of these are simply badly mistaken by the kit) add rib tape to flaps and ailerons at least, add some hatches and so on. the other thing I did, who knows when, is the exaust ring. the kit rendition lacks totally the inner part with the collectors housing from the cylinders. I did a master with clay and did a resin cast of it. this is also a crude work, especially taking into account the fact that nowadays we may find very good rendition of this engine, being the same used in the Gloster Gladiator and PZL 11, rispectively made by ICM and IBG. there is to do ... everything else, and it's a titanic job. the cockpit, very visible due to the large windows, is unwatchable. the engine yuck. the tail planes mh-mh. the landing gear bah. in short, I foresee a tragedy. I hope that the already "done" parts are less than specified by the group rules. honestly it seems to me that everything in this kit has to be redone by roots, and whichever will be the effort, it never will reach a decent level. if you can encourage me, I will need it! cheers, Paolo

thank you, Anthony! actually is far from a perfect job, but I appreciate your words, thanks! about the choice to do a NZ craft, it was almost an obliged one, after having read this one:

doh. just stumbled in this page. on the stash I have a lot of boxes, from very old to brand new on the market, but in percentage I guess a good lot of these are blue boxes, well, of happiness! here a pic from my pc station toward the passage room. on the ceiling the trap door wich drives to the magic stash's garret, on the right some...blue boxes waiting to be disposed. that said, I must pick up one of these from the garret and join the group, if you don't mind!

Wonderful! I did the very same project, just the version with the third earth on the upper fuselage, but I didn't achieve a so beautiful rendition of it!

hi all, strictly linked with the Ki-43 Hasegawa kit, there was this building. something drawn me to realize an adequate sparring partner for the thin, beautiful designed and battered Nakajima. so, what else if not a sturdy, fat and clean Brewster? I like the SH kits, these are basically correct, relatively cheap, and there is room (a lot of) to improvements. in this case I worked out the interiors using just some skill and gizmo, no exotic AMs. on other items i was less forgiving, i.e. the air funnels in the engine cowl: by kit these where just two holes letting the engine to be shown through, instead of ducts driving air to carburetor and oil radiator. I made these assembling the relative duct's volume with DAS, a synthetic modeling clay that cures at room temperature and is water sensitive. when DAS was set, i built on a thin layer with magic sculpt. hardened the latter, i dropped in water the cowl, letting the DAS dissolve. well, if not perfect, better... also I worked a little bit the wheels, having these a strange profile. I was perplexed by the landing gear complex, I feared about its strength, but all in all it holds very well the weight of the whole model. I surrended at some AM installing the PE flaps by Brengun, a really nice product. as said before, I elected a paintwork relatively clean. normally I prefer weathered models, but in this case I was looking for a stark contrast with the Ki 43 so I kept to minimum scratches and dirty. and that's all. I enjoyed this building, I think the SH Buffalo can be completed as a wonderful model, spending in it research and time, thing that I didn't do, actually. cheers, Paolo.

Thank you, Maru! I just realized reading your post that I had write wrongly the name of the airport. Just edited and corrected. by the way close to the airport there is one of the biggest and best supplied model shop I have ever seen: aviation megastore. I strongly reccomend, being in the area, a couple of hours of compulsive, happy, shopping!

wow! all these identical parts and blood's evidence drive my thoughts toward the presence of a serial builder... whenever I've tried a multiple building I found myself bored of it... I follow your one really curious, do you have already choose wich subjects you want to do? cheers, Paolo

hi all, I'm here tonight to tell you a strange story... there I was, few years ago, stuck in Schiphol doing the transition course on B737. having won the night shifts, during the (rainy) days I could only get some sleep, study the next session, and thinking/searching for what kit I would build when I got home. since I was determined to build my Rufe, a very long-term project, I studied the Japanase colors of WWII, and doing that I found on the web a nice 1944 BW movie: "Kato hayabusa sento-tai ". I was fascinated by the heavy weathered and battered finish of the movie's planes, so when finally I got home, I forgot all the good intentions about the Rufe, and took off the shelf a box that had been with me since my teens, a real and sound 1970 Hase Ki 43 that I've used over the years as a test bed for some experiments: stressed skin, riveting, scribing and so on, and decided to have a try with natural metal base and then badly worn off green. here we are: I was not pretending to achieve an eye-catching model, just have fun and experimenting a little bit. I tried to cover the surfaces with bare metal foil, kitchen alu foil, high speed tape to see what would happen. obviously I wasn't able to build it OOB: I had at least to extend the flaps and move the control surfaces. and do something to the crude landing gear, using the dedicated Eduard sheet and some ingenuity. then after having airbrushed some colors, I riveted it, and the effect was exhilarating: the stress of the rivet wheel detached the varnish where the rivets where laid on. suddenly I urged myself to reconsiderate this building as I was pleased by what I saw. so I tried to nobilitate it adding some weathering with oils by dotting and airbrushing these higly diluted to emulate engine exaust. and that's it. right after having completed it, I felt the need to build a subject to pair it, and I elected a neat and clean Buffalo. but this is another story... I was so pleased by the results that I had to buy another Ki 43 to replace the spent box. I've in mind to build it again with same technique but more care for general building and details. cheers, Paolo

Excellent retouching!

I give up. it is not only the artisan ability to create the pieces (and that would already be enough) or the maniacal research and documentation, nor the pictorial ability ... it is the whole, which is at the highest levels and beyond! sincere congratulations, keep it up! Paolo

I like this subject a lot, I would like to suggest reading "red star airacobra" by Evgeniy Mariinskiy, it will result in a greater knowledge of the use of this plane in the Soviet Union, and the irrepressible desire to build one or more!

It's always painful to bury the details (like these, then!) under a closed roof, but in this case you can't even think about leaving it open: the geometry of the clear part changes from open to closed, and the antenna has that complex system of tensioning ... keep on going, please! So far it's beautiful, and I'm pretty curious about the riveting!