mc65

Sorry about that! in my not-so-big experience (but with an high percentage of errors) it seems to me an issue due to the underneath coat not perfectly cured. Sometimes when a varnish film has not properly set (and it may request days or aeons, it depends on that product's specifical chemical reactions, humidity, temperature, voodoo, moon phase and so on) the new film interacts with the old one, often shrinking it when the volatile part of the new varnish evaporate, producing a tension in the film itself. the solution (well, the mine, but keep in mind that my mantra is "modeling is suffering") is to let the chemical processes complete themselves, and then intervene where necessary with very fine abrasive paper, and start over with colors again. regarding the use of different types of colors, taking care to be sure of the drying of the previous layer, I have no problems in using them. my favorite clearcoats are the matt and gloss W&N acrylics (3030930 and 3030929) mixing which I get the degree of semi-opacity I want. hope it may help, don't give it up! Greetings, Paolo

Mmmmh... really nice painting work! how did you achieve the wearing on the wings, where the zinc primer shows from under the blue? it's absolutely stunning!

really?? another Bf109? well... yes. these are like cherries, one leads to another! after having completed two of these, an hasegawa and a Trumpeter one, I was just waiting the right profile to build a late G10 and, when finally I found it, I mess it up. but let's go in order. this one is my last 109, RFI: the JG300 black 11, a G-10/AS based at Löbnitz, early 1945. Eaglecals sheet #155 credits it as piloted by Lt. Willi Rühl. actually, I started it as black 4, also of JG300, but found wrecked at Langensalza, June 1945. only after having put on it the decals I purchased with some difficulties, I realized The black 4 had little bulges on wing, where I built it with the big square ones. after an afternoon of dismay and brainstorming, i decided to have a go with black 11, being the switching confined to some changes in color patches, beyond obviously numbers and werke nr on fuselage and tail. I scrubbed away the wrong decals, mantaining just a little spot on an hatch, to remember to myself how much newbie I am, despite age and tons of styrene seen. in this picture is also quite visible the riveting I did on the fuselage. I kept that as subtle as I was able to do. apart from this little incident, the building was fun and enjoyable, maybe the best in my three 109. I had to add an A.M.U.R. resin nose, but after some worry about such big cut, I was really satisfied by it. I modified it adding a Barracuda oil radiator, Quickboost exaust and some Eduard PE, I think it shows better like that. I then added on it some Archer rivet row decal, and after some painting I was delighted by its asimmetrical, boxeur-like appareance nose. other things I put in it where some Eduard PE and some wires here and there. nothing too picky, just to render the cockpit a little more busy than OOB. and obviously some HGW belts and harnesses. I really love these products! as usual in my last models, I rendered the canopy openable by simply drilling and inserting some guitar string wire. everytime I complete a cockpit, but with Bf109 in particular, I can't avoid to ask myself how would be to take off in a tailwheel, seating with feet on the engine, a big gun between the knees, surrounded by avgas, live ammunition and oxygen bottles, and go straight up looking for troubles! I also added another beautiful AM: prop, spinner and hub by Henri Daehne. I was so impressed by these that I managed to conceal three couples of micromagnetos to render the hub accessible at will. actually having purchased a G6 one, I had to install the kit's G10 wider blades, after some fitting. another change requested by the switch from a subject to another was about the landing gear legs: the black 4 had these RLM76, the black 11 02 with low part in red, indicating the use of C3 fuel, a typical AS feature. so I had to strip down the prepainted and assembled gear legs and paint these again with the right colors. these suffered a little bit the torture, but with the help of the nearby details, like the beautifu Alley Cat's wheels, the intervention is less obvious, I hope. although the revell kit is described as solving the typical problem about the leg fitting, I found it somewhat unstable. on the other hand, the strange leg's engineering allows to easily adjust the compression of the oleos, thing that I like to do on my models, giving a more real appearance. adding a dirty (less than in the reference pictures!) drop tank helped to disguise the landing gear troubles, too. i slightly modified the MDC drop tank rack to better adjust the fitting of the tank. speaking about landing gear, I decided to rebuild the tail wheel struct with some metallic tubes, I worried about its strength. I made pitot and Morane antenna with Albion alloys micro tubes and guitar strings. here another mistake I realized too late I did: the slats didn't open parallel to the wing, but by 7cm toward the fuselage, and just 5 toward the tips. I made the radio antenna with EZ line and some scratch to assemble ceramic insulator and tension spring. and here we are. I'm so concerned about its legs that I wanted to realize a solid base asap. I kept the weathering on the upper surfaces to a minimum, all in all this airplane should have not seen too much flight time, in its life. I worked some more on the undersurfaces, adding some mud splotches, being the Löbnitz field situated in a valley rich of water (nowadays only a little area of this valley remained out of water, having been flooded after the war). so, that's all, now I just need to park it between its brothers! to do that, I assembled the usual mc-standard wooden base, doing some simulations to find the best arrangement of the scene. then I built up some terrain with rich, next-to-spring green grass. I want to tone down a little bit the grass, now somewhat too irishly to my eyes, assemble some decent fuel and oil drums, and -oh gosh- paint the Three Men in a Scene (To Say Nothing of the Dog). well, I musty admit to have a soft spot for the latest Revell's kits. I find these a good solid base to implement a little bit a kit already fully satisfying (being a quiet type). I hope you like it, I had great fun with this one! cheers, Paolo.

"..I hope you like the photos!" you have changed my afternoon programs: now I must put in standby everything else and go to the pc to better look at these! wonderful impressive big work, congrats!!

well, hum, I flew the CL215 some years ago, and altough we were always confined to the most remote area of any airfield we landed in, due to the large amount of oil leaking from the two PW R-2800 (plus it was a great idea to do not walk under or downwind the engines, in the light grey overall we wore on duty) all those spots on the PBY fuselage just seem too much. doing the transition on that plane I was amazed by the really large oil tanks and by the max allowable oil consumption referred as "normal" by the manuals: by heart something like 120 litres and 60 liters/hour per engine! but, again, the most of the oil was burned by the engines, only few (hundreds) drops reached the tarmac during the night stops.

mmmmmmh... I'm definetly not an experten, but all the 109's schemes without mottling are confined, in my memory, from G-10 onward. you may find some good reference in Barracuda and Eagle decals, but I think that if you want to use the G-6 kit, at least you have to modify it in an AS, as suggested by Kagemusha, using the A.M.U.R. conversion nose. I too used one of these, and I was delighted by it.

Truly inspiring building, congrats! may I ask where did you find the canopy's internal details? these are really intriguing, and I don't have anything like them in my books! TIA, Paolo

Simply beautiful! may I ask about the figures? I don't recognize those...

Sure! it's an honour!

I'm speechless! that's really a blown-minding work! even more incredible, considering the small size of this plane, even in 1/32! just a question: shouldn't be the serial number in the middle of the upper main spar, being visible througt a little window? by the way, how did you realized these numbers? these are beautifully rendered!

hi all, here is a little nice kit by ICM to wich I added Begemot decals, Yahu instrument panel, Rescue resin wheels and IGW seatbelts. truly, all started some 40 years ago, when I saw this picture: I collected references and the Azur kit for years (for decades!) but when ICM's kit appeared, I had no more excuses to procrastinate this project. the kit is accurate, yet somehow "heavy" and simple in many aspects. so I worked a bit the cockpit, adding flares, pistol, throttle quadrant, retracting landing gear handle and so on. the kit's IP seems interesting, but I purchased the Yahu panel with the same order of the kit, so I used the latter. not that you see much, in the end... also in the engine compartment there are the very basic items, so I added oil radiator and his air duct from scratch. I enriched the engine's rear with magnetos, carburettor, air intakes, spark plugs and wires, most of these spares from other built kits. doing the same with the front end, altough all will be buried under the tight cowling. trought slight modifications to the kit's cowling I rendered the internal rotating plate fully functioning, leaving the chance to see something of the engine. also on the rear i obtained access to the engine installing some micro magnetos on the upper and side panels, so these snaps on when you approach these to the fuselage. actually I found little references about the Shvetson M-25 engine, but assumed it was the licence-built Wright R-1820, all appeared simpler. some gyzmo was necessary, anyway. I was delighted by the Rescue wheels, a really nice product! I kept to minimum the scratches on the Karman, being the real aircraft made mostly by wooden panels. the Begemot decals where printed on a rather thick film, but after some working with dedicated liquid products and some pledge, these made their mark on the fuselage. I painted the exaust fumes as per photos, and decided to leave the flaps up due no images of these down was found by me. all in all, a really enjoiable building, I had a lot of fun with it. cheers, Paolo.

Very good, now it stands correctly on the ramp! I hate to touch again a model I condidered completed, respect!

Idem, the total weight is too much for the provided resin trolley, I did the mine sodering some brass profiles. also the main float is poor in surface detail, but is the only player on this game, so it's the winner! nice rendition of a superb aircraft, congrats!

Er, ehm... so I suppose! on this side of the pool we read about Elmer glue as white vinyl glue, but I have not ever seen it! in Italy there is a very old brand called "Vinavil" wich is, well, white vinyl glue, and wich -I guess- it's basically the same product. it's white when wet, but it cures translucent, and in little quantities it disguises itself very well. I also use it to other uses, i.e. To create little bumps on scratchbuilt steering or trim wheels.

Well, for this kind of task I use white glue, quite simply! it's not the stronger bond you'll have, but it will do the job. sorry for the awful photo, it's a quick shoot of the very same product we were speaking about. greetings, Paolo

Wonderful! may I ask wich color did you use for the cockpit interior? I'm planning a MiG17, and I'm a total newbie at soviet aircrafts!

Wonderful build and awesome paint job! I love this aircraft, and have the same kit on the stash waiting ,with all the gorgeous aftermarket I found on it. Did tou find the barracuda nose-kit's fuselage joint satisfactory? Also, forgive me for saying that, it seems to me that the model seats a little bit too high on the undercarriage, maybe it's just the photos prospective?

Hi, I'm silently following your beautiful work, I like the way you dive in each detail crosses your road! about the gunsight, have you considered the Brengun BRL320033 product? It has resin main device's body and PE arms to hold the "glass". cheers, Paolo

Thanks to all for the appreciation and suggestions, for sure airplane and men will be muddy very well, at the moment these are only resting on the base, on wich I'm still working! I'm not yet satisfied by the broken ice in the puddle, so I'm experimenting different materials to do that, meanwhile I'm adding water layer by layer. cheers, Paolo.

Sounds interesting! I didn't know it, I think I'll give it a try, thank you!

hi all, often during the building of a complex kit I take a breath with little projects, just to avoid the target fixation on the main one. also, I build subjects complementary of the main one, being the idea (the hope) to match these on a diorama, at the end. here is a Zoukei Mura Kettenkrad, I wanted to try it for the scale, being the alternative the 1/35 one, and for the manufacturer, just to have an idea of their kits level of detail and of the cost/benefit ratio. nice, I must admit. but I threw in all the AM I found, like PE and driver, and still I was not satisfied with some items. in example, I had to change the seat springs and modify its pivoting point to have access at will at the engine compartment. engine compartment wich is very nice, albeit missing some detail I added by scratch. a thing that drew me crazy were the front fork springs, the real one are two biconical objects, while the kit's ones were some orrible cylindrical rods. it took me some time to find the solution, but here we are. so, nice kit, but at an unreal cost, with all the extra ZM proposes, and wich obviously I purchased. to add some frustration, I managed to lost an external wheel, and realized that willing to tow my Me262, this was my first intention, it's not prtical due to the dimensions of the two linked togheter. so, it will probably tow a Special Hobby V1, creating the paradox in wich the towing's kit cost will be tree times the towed's one! these two reasons, plus my deep idiosyncrasy at painting figures, leaves it as is, at the moment. cheers, Paolo

thank you all! the more I advance toward the end of this project, the less I'm convinced about it... I know that's uneasy do create a compelling and interesting base for a in scale aircraft, given its inherent flattness, but every time I try to measure myself with this task, I'm dissatisfied with the results. so. this is the state of the art: I find it so... flat! I tried to give some interest by putting low bushes, made with lichens, and using these as obstacles for the wind-blown dry snow. and, to render the right side less empty, I added a mud pool. I'm building the deep adding layers day by day, and I'm exerimenting (on another sheet) some solutions to give it a final layer of broken ice, but I'didn't find the right stuff, yet. greetings from a perplex builder! cheers, Paolo

sure I'll be pleased of that! just let me know if you need other info about it!

oh oh, just let me check if i have enough beer and pop corn... checked, I'm ready to watch happily at your build! actually the b/w image is really impressive, for a few moments I too indulged at thinking how to solve the diorama-related problems to solve, eventually. to ansewer to DonH, please sorry for the OT, nowadays there are several choiches about tractors: after the old (and not cheap) Plusmodel's Fordson, Miniart and Thunder (this also boxed by Airfix) have produced different types of tractors. in 1/35, but better than none!

...WooOoow! I just read all the WIP. truly impressive and somewhat frustrating, building for an awesome result! chapeau!