mc65

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!

hi all, here a "Kappone" (big K) built on request of a colleauge of mine, itself being the son of a pilot serving in the Aeronautica Militare Italiana, 51° stormo, in the 60ties. strange enough, being an aircraft built by Fiat on license from North American, there is not so much references about it. so, I mantained a low profile attitude, trying to hold off my rivet counter attitude and finish it in a reasonable time to present it to the unaware final recipient. I just added an Eduard set, very useful in the cockpit area, and made some stencils for the italian codes to emulate the 51-32, serial 54858, aircraft of the "pluto" group with the red tail, to wich was attached my colleauge's father. the only thing I modified was the angle of the opened speed brakes, totally mistaken by KH. painted with Alclad II and fitted with beautiful HGW RBF flags. a simple wooden base with lightly painted sandpaper was made to accomodate it safely. actually I haven't a big feeling with modern era airplanes, but build this one was relaxing and interesting, opening a new mental window toward the post WWII era in my mind. enjoy!

thank you for the attention! sure I won't try to move the undercarriage legs for any reason, it seems to me a miracle that it seats on these without troubles! well, it's time to arrange a decent base for the scene I have in mind. assembled a simple "mc-standard" wooden flat base, I tried different elements configurations, this one seems to be the winner: the area on the right of the airplane remains a little bit empty, but that's it. the focus of the action is on the stretcher bearers, so I drew an imaginary line on the stretcher's axle toward the two standing men near the cockpit, letting the left wing and fuselage lines working as orthogonal lines to force if not the prospective, at least the observer's view. well, more or less. wanting to give a title to the diorama, one could be "back home ticket", I guess... ok, I think this is the best arrangement with the available elements, I'm not enthusiast about that, there isn't any of the pathos of the bundesarchiv's image, may be more dinamic posture of the figures should work better, but I'm not a sculptor, no way about that. so, I'm trying some kinds of materials and effects to cover the base, this is something closer I want to obtain: a sligthly, wind blown, dry snow covered terrain. to be continued... cheers, Paolo

...So fast! thanks, I'm really pleased about that!

here I am, I checked the wheel track, and as you may see, it's 112mm, considering the centre wheel as datum. that means a difference of +20cm in the real aircraft, a difference I can deal with, considering the excursion of the whole landing gear structure and the presence on board of two stretchers and a man. either, is possible to adjust it (not in this phase, obviously) bending the metal core of the legs and adjusting these in the holes drilled in the lower parts of the undercarriage, an operation that I wouldn't try, definetly. here we say "don't wake up the sleeping dog", you know... cheers, Paolo

wonderful work of painting and decaling! I was, and still am, concerned abot the decals on that surface, but your words encourage me to climb to the marvel's ceiling where lies my secrete stash and pick up that box...

whoah! your work is absolutely stunning. respect!

Hi rafju, thank you! I'm sorry I'm not able to answer right now to your question: after writing the post I leaved home and I'll be back not early than tomorrow night. So, as soon as possible I'll check the in-scale wheel track. meanwhile, I suppose I may say that the Fi156's wheel track is not a defined measure, it depends how much load is imposed to the aircraft. as you see (if I succeded to post the image from the smartphone) there was a big difference in wheel track between the unloaded undercarriage in flight (ref. line 23) normal ground position (22) and fully loaded (21). Cheers, Paolo

hi all, thank you for you positive comments, albeit I feel myself a little bit unmotivated on this project, may be I'm just get loosing grip on it, approaching the diorama's phase... I choosed to do some light weathering on separate parts, and to build up the wing's strutctures on these before try to match these with the fuselage, adding in the process the last details, like landing light, mooring rings, air tubes for the foldable (yes, really!) pitot, fuel televel. on this session I added also vacu formed navigation lights covers, being the latter done with a scalded fishing line colored (speaking of the left one, the right was cologreen, ah ah). same for the landing light. I was concerned about the solidity of all these struts, but indeed all seemed to go straight on place. other details were the air scoop for the electric generator on the engine's RH and finally I added the exhausts, to wich ones I cutted the four front slots last item to go, the landing gear's brake lines and here we are, at last. I'll add doors and other little items when I'll be ready to glue it permanently on the base. with a slight modification on the lower cowling's exaust holes, I rendered the engine fully accessible. with the option to leave it without the lateral panels, as seen on many WWII images. but, being the idea to do a late autumn diorama, I think these will go installed, albeit with magnetos. well, after a glue hardening night, she seems to be sound and stable, really nice kit! really, I would like to know the designer of such intricate but efficient structure! what else? the kid that still lives in me ask for an engine run up... so, clear prop! next step, diorama base, stay tuned! cheers, Paolo

thank you! the NASM yellow 7 was the subject I tried to emulate with the Trumpeter kit, and I don't exclude to do it again with a Revell one. well, I think that the Revell one has the best value for money. the detail is somewhat a little bit less crispy, but it haven't the fully rivets detail, that the Trumpy has, and wich is a little heavy, IMHO. so you may choose to have these or not, or to engrave only the fuselage and the underwing, i.e. the general fit is excellent except the nose cone and some issue to persuade the wing to join the fuselage. on the other hand, it has a really nice (and sturdy) landing gear complex, I liked it very much. the weels has to be changed with resin ones, but this is a common problem, having theTrumpeter vinyl ones. having a so good landing gear area give way to improve its bay with just a little ingenuity: same for the cannons bay, the overall fit lets space to some easy improvements, if desired. and adding to it latches by Yahu is a big boost of detail, with very little effort. same goes with the engine, the kit's base is straightforward wanting to do these closed, but with an evening of scratchbuilding, one may achieve a reasonable naked jumo. to say it all about, I found the canopies marred by some little bubbles, but I wrote to the customer care address, and received in few days a good replacement. in conclusion, I fallen in love with this kit, I think the single seater will be a breeze to build and to have a lot of fun with, enjoy!

thank you, gents! one step beyond (madness, 1979): some red and black paint, and further oversights. I searched on the web for right lettering , then copyied and scaled it. I'm definetly analogic, so no computer based printers or cutters. I cut these on body shop tape with a sharp #11 blade, and painted on by airbrush, old style modeling. sometimes I get these things acceptable, more times not, well, in this case we are more toward the latter. but stop talking, let's see. I desumed crosses position and dimension by the historical pictures. slightly better on fuselage, especially considering that I have idea to play with mud on it. I consider the cowling acceptable too, it needs some fit adjustment, but I'm confident about that. I eventually found on the kit's decal sheet the right decal for the flare box built in the pilot's door, an Eduard's item. it was not indicated on the instruction, and being white on white I had not initially seen it. then something that often happens to me in this stage showed again: in the frenzy to see the model assembled, I skip some passage. I tried in position rudder and elevators, and was so glad to discover that the pins I positioned in the fuselage consent a little movement of the entire tailplane, so to show the trim's excursion at will, that I glued these without before paint the Werke Number, that has to be done by handbrush. paint it after was a pain-you-know-where, and after several trying, I stopped here. also, I was so apprehensive about the landing gear's strength, that I glued it before I completed the engine area. ok, not a big problem, in the end. being here, I scratchbuilt the upper legs footsteps, missing in the kit. to be continued... cheers, Paolo

sounds interesting! ok, I'm a little bit involved in this argument... please consider that I put away a LOT of pictures of this aircraft, in particular of the ambulance sub type: if I may help, just ask. a thing that occures to me to say before will be too late, is that opening the fuselage's rear doors, attention should be paid (ask me if I did it?) to the real shape of these. in all the profiles I found they are depicted slightly wrong. a good term of check it, is observe the pictures with the windows opened: the cuts in the fuselage was made allowing to open both doors and windows without interfere each other. also, it seems that the rear windows had a double hinged system that consented to let the window to go almost flush with the fuselage.

oh oh oh! I have a little soft spot with this airplane, being the last little one I flyied before passing to the heavyies... how is the Roden kit? I dealed with some WWI ones, and they seemed to me a little crude, albeit a good start point, generally speaking. also, about the will to do it in civil clothes, have you yet decided definetly? I mean, I used to fly the dismissed italian army ones, and they were (and are) still painted full camouflaged, sporting also a good number of military features, like the antenna bases, and underwing pilons cablages (!). I have some of my own pictures of the wheel version and idro version, if you wish I send these by PM, or post here, let me know. or, just to have an idea of what I mean, try to google "L-19 I-EIAX". enjoy, P.