mc65

love this kite! and have one in the stash... is the Kagero book useful? cheers, Paolo

oh boy! this GB it's a mine of jewels to be enjoyed!

what a beautiful aircraft... I'm follow you on this project! 'bout riveting, apart the obvious help of dymo or straight rules, I found the mental state decisive: no rush, but a sort of Zen inner peace that is not always easy to achieve. I found it more rewarding to practice this than rolling miles of rivets with rosie!

just WooooOooooW... I'm more and more intrigued by the Zm kits, I'm following this creation carefully, wonderful work, so far! cheers, Paolo

spectacular. Is there really no way to make at least one engine visible, perhaps by installing the cowling with micromagnets? speaking of the execution of the camo on the planes bound for north africa, i found this frame part of a film on youtube, i think it could be interesting.

I was missing the final photos, great conclusion to a beautiful building, kudos!

well, i think the instrument panel is at its best, but the gunsight is just superb, really well done! every update is a feast for the eyes, keep it up!

thank you all, buddies! I glued the flaps at 30° in a completely arbitrary way responding only to an aesthetic need: being electric they weren't subject to the typical drop due to the absence of hydraulic pressure, and seeing them at their maximum extension (60°) seemed really excessive to me. unfortunately the photos of the complete plane are horrible, the tools I have at my disposal don't allow me to do better. so for the moment I refrain from creating an RFI folder, let's see if Santa Claus is moved and gives me a decent camera! so, here the classic mugshots, heavily (badly) reworked on the PC. some close... the belly and a couple of shots with a dark background, which should make it sexier, but actually it scares me... so, waiting for (maybe) better photos... wanting to make some final considerations on this kit, I can only talk about it very well, the very few problems encountered along the way I created them. it's so well done and satisfying, as well as reproducing the lines of an aircraft unique in its beauty, that it makes me want to make others, perhaps one with the tail of the Ta152, we'll see... thanks again to everyone for their participation and encouragement, without which something else would have come out, undoubtedly worse. cheers, Paolo

thank you all, pals! Tom, the horsehair it's a good idea, I have used them in the past without much satisfaction, being sensitive to humidity the tension changed according to the weather! but in this case, since the antenna has to remain limp, it could work... only that in these days it pours here, and I don't really want to go and comb the tails of the horses in the surroundings, let's see what I can do with what I have in home? ah, the tool I use to rivet is a classic RB set, nothing exotic: without going around too much, I tried with copper wire and plastic ceramic insulators: mmmmmmhyes, but I'm not convinced, the metal has too much memory and doesn't fall as soft as I would like. the insulator, which should be the heaviest point, actually "floats" supported by the resistance of the two wire segments. I could try to convince it, but there are three segments in question one of which, the central one, is connected to the fuselage with another thinner cable... a mess. so I got down to it and tried different routes: 0.14 and 0.18 nylon fishing lines; ez-line; elastic sewing thread and more plasticard insulators; in aluminum tube; combinations of these... one way or the other, nothing seemed right. in the end the least worst solution was the following: 0.14 nylon thread passing through Albion Alloy tube segments. to simulate the ligatures of the individual wire segments I drilled the tubes and made the ligatures with copper wire, again 0.14. to be able to do this I used an acupuncture needle as a temporary support, anything else would have deformed. let it be known: punk's not dead! and here the curve takes a softer turn, like this. the photo sucks, sorry, but I hope you see the difference with the metal one. I liked the plastic insulators better, but there's no way to make nylon loops that small without creating unwanted tension in the wire, even worse than metal. in parallel I built a series of tensioners to pull, instead of compressing like the ones seen so far on the various Bf109s. here the question was to get the fit right to make them compatible with the insulators. I ended up making four, the winner is not in this photo. but this: the insulators (to be retouched in color) even though they are false as they pass through, give the sensation of interrupting the three segments of wire, I hope. and the attachment to the hood. here, and at the end of the tensioner, to solve the problem of the nylon loop, I used a little trick: I made the loop in copper of the same diameter as the wire. once I put this in position in the support of the hood, I insert it in the aluminum tube section, in which there is already the nylon thread whose top I rounded and widened with a lighter. now pulling the thread, the ball at the top acts as a wedge and blocks everything by pressure. I'll put a drop of glue anyway, but the joint would already be enough to hold everything together. eeeew voilà. looks better than metal to me. while floating a bit on the fuselage, at least it doesn't make strange folds. I could force it into place with two dots of glue if I wanted to, but I don't know if that's the case. while I'm thinking about it, I'll leave it in place with two pieces of tape. would say that at this point I just need to lock the flaps in place and then I can declare it finished! See you soon, cheers, Paolo

thank you all! about modeling jazz, I think I have good news, tonight. we're almost there... now I'm at the final details and a general check to find and, if possible, correct the glitches that always come out at the end of the work. but let's proceed in order. for starters, the air intake. you will remember how I set aside the resin one preferring the one in the kit. well, it was a good choice. only now, with the camo completed and uncorking the masking, can I say that the fan can be glimpsed. here you can see also, in addition to the excess sanding powder to wash off, the micro-scratches made on the cowling. from other camera angles they are not so evident, but overall they help to make the surface feel lived in. other very good news, I think I have discovered a new technique to highlight the rivets. when I engraved them I didn't sand the surfaces to a mirror finish, thinking of helping me in the weathering with the three-dimensional effect due to the deformation of the material. the idea backfired on the lower surfaces, where the too many layers of paint created full-bodied lumps in correspondence with the irregularities. the upper surfaces however turned out as I expected: pleasantly wavy rivets that capture the oil and brush weathering. However the overall finish seemed too matt and dull to me. so before giving a coat of satin I thought of trying to polish with ultrafine nail pads (4000) and here is the result: well, stroke of luck! planing the asperities these are more shiny than the bottom. insisting too much everything becomes uniformly gloss, obviously, but by dosing the steps you get this result which I honestly don't mind at all. here we see perhaps a little better how also the background surface in the walking area is no longer uniformly opaque. while the back part of the flaps is still in slight relief. for the flap indicator this is the best I could do, unfortunately the decals I had identified were not decals, but just printed on a decal sheet without the adhesive part. in hindsight I could have provided with some microscale liquid, but by now I no longer have those microscopic numbers, so I gave a coat of black and engraved a couple of improbable "30s" freehand with a tip. I hope I have proposed an interesting idea, and that I haven't discovered something already known, which happens to me often, I must admit! what else... I took the writing "nicht betreten" on the air intake in white, it was invisible in black. pity about the patch on the left, to be touched up. then, I added some 02 on the elevators line normally hidden from view, it adds some movement to this part and highlights the elevators in rest position. while assembling the landing gear's legs I broke without even realizing it one of the resin bolts that I had installed before painting them. replaced, here still to be retouched in color. the Morane antenna I decided to paint it in natural wood, as it often was, not having certainties of how it looked on the Red 1. for solid placement I inserted a piece of guitar string in place of the (tiny, actually) kit's plastic pin. the "live" end of the antenna is also guitar string. the pitot of the kit was a bit poor (and fragile) so I preferred to remake it in Albion Alloy aluminum tubes. finally, I opted for the open cockpit canopy. the Hasegawa one was better made, but designed to be in the closed position, therefore with a width at the base greater than that required in the open position. rather than forcing it to an eternal tension through gluing, I tried to bring it to the right width by placing it on a template with a wooden shape and intervening with hot water. well...it worked, even too much: the width got smaller, but it also warped at the rear. RIP, plan B: the Revell one will do just fine, with a few minor tweaks. the open canopy implies, in this aircraft, the floppy antenna wire, which I honestly don't know how to make: in nylon I'm afraid it would be too soft, in metal too stiff... any suggestions will be welcome, come on with ideas! TIA, cheers, Paolo

thanks Ernest and Tom, I like to think laterally, a kind of jazz in using materials creating new (for me) techniques. if this translates into at least partial success, and I even manage to make it interesting for other modelers, well, it's a real pleasure! however, we are approaching the end in record time (for me). if I don't do some stupidity in the short final, I'm close to completing the model. once the base of the recent fumes dried, I gave a coat of W&N acrylic matt protective coat and -again in the areas affected by the exhausts- I worked a little on the joint lines of the panels, where a little by capillarity, a little by the physical conformation of these parts nestles the oily dirt produced by the exhausts and helped by the fluids flowing from the filler necks to thicken and hide. a lot of talk for some black oil resting on the white spirit's wet panels! going to sand the wings in correspondence with the areas that can be walked on in anticipation of a little earthy pigments, I unintentionally obtained the result I was looking for simply with the dust produced by the sanding: riveting and joint lines are discreetly highlighted. so let's skip the pigments on the wing and move on to the blacky, greasy part of the exhaust fumes. to do this I use these AK products, always using the airbrush. they are glossy, dense and enamel-based, you need to be careful to get the pressure and dilution right so as not to mess up. and here you go. a first broader pass of streaking grime, and immediately after another narrower one of engine oil. more than the color here the work is done by the consistency and the glossy finish... I don't know how much you can tell from the photos, but the result is there, I swear! well, here's another extended break, these also take a while to dry. but I would say enough with the fumes. having to leave the upper part alone, I can devote myself to the lower one: a few splashes of mud pulled up by the wheels, made with pigments diluted in little water and fired angled with an old brush and a toothpick. and all holy vents (nine!) made from sections of Albion Alloy aluminum tube. I was lucky enough to find a nice drawing where they are identified one by one. although marked on the Hasegawa mold, they were simple circles on the surface, without the design a good part of them would have gone unnoticed by me. instead drawing by hand I was able to drill the fuselage before closing it and inserting pieces of black painted plasticard inside which served as a base for the tubes. well, since the legs of the landing gear are well planted in their place, I might as well complete the job by gluing them and providing them with the relative doors. while the legs and hatches are being glued, I take the opportunity to check that the barrels of the wing cannons are straight and of the right length, to then give them a dip in gun burnisher before attaching them definitely. and while we're in the area, I definitely place the landing gear retraction electrical connections, and the tail wheel retraction cable, on the right leg only. and now everyone to bed! cheers, Paolo

Aaah, ok, now I've understand, it's a matter of or-or: engine on the firewall and fuselage (cowl on or off) and engine off the fuselage, with the rear part (on the left in tour last pic) fixed to the engine. now I see also that my question was pointless: why install the rear part with engine on the firewall, in fact? thank you for the clear and quick answer!

great work of painting, but above all of assembling! one question: what prevents the rear of the engine from falling into the fuselage, when you separate the front magnet hidden in the crankcase?

thank you, I'm glad you like it, and I gave you an idea to experiment with a new technique! still in the context of airbrushed oil colors, I also use them (to try) to reproduce the streaks that regularly form on vertical surfaces with the humidity of the night. to achieve this weathering, however, I need the correct inclination of the fuselage with respect to the ground, and therefore I have to present the legs in place. the fit was so precise that I decided not to try to remove them, but to leave them in their place, even if they will hinder me and the risk of doing damage increases considerably. unlike the wing, where I made a dotting with various colors, here I airbrushed a mixture of raw umber lightened with gray. after a light glaze on the sides, I pulled it away vertically with a brush moistened with white spirit. the risk of exaggerating is quite high, so I use a very light glaze of light color, trying not to leave too many pigments on the model. here are still too many, for example. but by insisting, especially on the upper part, you gradually get closer to the desired effect then since I'm not happy if I don't do something stupid, I made the drippings from the primer filler with an enamel product, which I usually use with extreme caution only at the end of all the other steps. I nearly stripped the entire fuselage. oh well, if one is stupid... at least on the other side, in correspondence with the fuel fillers where I want the signs to be lighter anyway, I used the oils. photo where maybe you can tell the difference between horizontal and vertical surfaces. the wing, despite being (almost) horizontal, has different signs, due to the passage of blackmen and pilots on the walkable areas. then I went back to the exhaust fumes, with the same blends used for the nose, but lighter and just with a couple of quick passes of the airbrush: first raw umber and then black. I don't know how clear it is, but I've tried to paint a stripe that follows the curvature of the airfoil to just past the trailing edge. seen from the side perhaps they don't seem too present, but looking at the fuselage from above you understand that there is something... done this, I brought to light the bulk of the scratches, previously protected with maskol. in this phase, with the oil still relatively fresh, with a sharp toothpick I made a series of scratches and marks in the fumes to try to emulate the passage in those areas. as always having the airbrush loaded, I sprayed the belly of the fuselage downstream of the main panels, where it is normal for dirt to accumulate. now it must dry well before the next step: a coat of matt protective in anticipation of further weathering work. cheers, Paolo

just wow! I am very curious to see it complete with insignia!

actually, I think he is the cousin, if not the older brother of FMA IA-58 Pucarà: I found myself in front of the muzzle of one of these, and it was an illumination: for me they are undoubtedly relatives.

with pleasure, but it's extremely simple: considering the extreme fineness of the oil paint pigments (for this I prefer Winsor & Newton if I can) and the volatility of the white spirit, I prepare a mixture that is not too saturated and shoot it with an airbrush, better if on a matt base. before giving a second layer I wait for the first to dry, speeding up the process with a hair dryer if needed. it can also be interesting to work "a fresco" so that the colors blend rather than overlap. also, using the zippo's fuel is faster drying than white spirit, but normally I use white spirit. once reached the desired quantity, deepness and variety of tones in the fumes, and they are dry, I seal all with matt acrylic varnish (again W&N). then if desired it's possible to proceede with further stains or oil leaks without fear to ruin the fumes. in the end, it's only a matter of trial and error, but for certain results (like the exhaust fumes in fact) the use if oil paint can be exhilarating, just give it a chance! I hope I've been helpful, if necessary I'll elaborate with step by step photos, but really it's just a matter of trying! enjoy, Paolo

alright, you got me hooked, I'm going to try and get one of these kits! I didn't know anything about the internal lining of the cockpit, do you have any good books to suggest for me to study this kite? TIA, Paolo

Seems like a great result to me! especially the black-man suit, always difficult to do convincingly, kudos!

thank you all, a little encouragement is always welcomed! after planing the accursed bumps, and filling, and sanding, and giving the paint, and re-filling and re-sanding and re-coloring (repeat several times, increasing the speed and raising the tones towards the hysterical soprano) I arrived here, and I I'm glad, exluding the lint present in the photo. then a Future's coat to protect the decals and after drying overnight, I sanded the edges of the decals and apply a new coat of Future. same procedure for those on the propeller blades, beautiful, present only in the Eaglecals sheet. mh. here the weathering effect with salt maybe got out of hand... and finally a meditative pause to allow it to dry without interference before further interventions which are by nature heavy. hem. I said without interference! it's written so clearly, not to go beyond the dotted lines! well, let's see if it's true that you learn by making mistakes... salt only in the areas to be made more painful, and a very light coat of very diluted buff. clean everything, I think I was very delicate, then oil dots without too many colors, contrary to my usual. and finally I can start with the exhaust fumes, which are particularly interesting on this model. from the historical photos you can see very well how the front part of the fuselage, the so called power egg, by its nature integrally interchangeable with relative simplicity, had important signs of fumes, most likely dating back to the previous life with another airframe, given the clear detachment with the rest of the fuselage. I would say that there are not many doubts about it. therefore the back must be protected to concentrate the first step only on the front. for the fumes I will use the airbrushed oils. as well as allowing me to wash them off and start from scratch practically indefinitely, if desired, in my opinion they have a perfect yield for these effects: in addition to being superimposable, creating depth and chromatic variations that I can achieve with no other type of color, they are subsequently very workable thanks to their worst feature, the slowness in drying. after a first coat of raw umber I delimited the interested area with black. having black in the barrel, I traced the exhaust fumes of the shell casings of the weapons. after an adequate break to let the paints dry just enough to not remove them too easily, I intervened with a dry cotton swab to make the edges of the fumes appear non-shaded as it's clear in the photos, but as if there had been an attempt to clean them. the very dark background of the cowl doesn't help to photograph clearly, nor to understand what I'm doing, actually... but roughly this is the base I was looking for for the front cowling. on the side I have resumed the excessive scratches on the right side. and even for today let's say enough. this is a slow process due to the drying times, it takes patience. cheers, Paolo

thank you all, I'm very happy to promote 1manarmy products, I find them spectacular. as I said the decals are often subject to too many variables to have a certain result, I feel safe (even with my specific limits) only with the Cartograf. even with the HGW, which I like so much, I had random results, unfortunately. therefore, I am approaching (slowly, of course) the completion of this model trying to apply all the signs to move on to the rubbish & werathering stage, the one that perhaps amuses me the most. before starting to mess with the decals, I gave a coat of Future to protect the painted stencils and to make the affected surfaces shiny and hopefully less sensitive to silvering. after a quiet night to let dry the Future, I chose the decals to apply. I discarded the Montex mask for the motto, this being done with a brush, so I didn't want to risk the slightest smudge. in all honesty I don't like the vinyl with which these masks are made, if I can I avoid them. in the end of the whole Montex set I only used the Wr. N. on the tail, and in any case I had to touch it up, in fact. ditto those in the kit. very well printed (an abyss compared to their first Fw, do you remember these?) but still with a rather thick film, compared to the Eaglecals. instead the Eaglecals have a minimum film and in order not to risk misalignments, they have separated the whites from the other colors, so you have to apply them in two distinct steps, to avoid mess. a bit demanding, but still appreciable, except that the front fuel tank carried 232lt, not 292... so off the Eagles, and replace with the Hase, which are thicker and stiffer in comparison. also the scratches under the hatches came out odd, let alone if the Quality Control passed them on to me... to be redone. an aside: both the Eaglecals and the Hasegawa offer the alternative of the type of comburent indicated in the yellow triangles: C3; 87; B4. after a search for books and sites, I came to the conclusion that... its not clear for sure which indications they applied at Fieseler factory. I decided on a liking for a B4, which would be a blue colored 87-octane petrol. also under the primer filler I used a Hase decal. I had mistakenly placed the stencil above, while from the historical photos it can be clearly seen that it was below (verify first no. eh? bravo). I didn't feel like masking with tape with all those decals around, so I gave up and after eliminating the wrong writing with abrasive paste, I put the decal underneath, amen. in this photo you can also see the film's step in various points, I will entrust myself to another Future's layer... for the double placards under the balken, an indication of the extensive reworking of this kite, I used some nice Airscale decals, which will also come in handy for the flap indicators, I hope. well, now a nice general check and I can could switch to protecting them in view of the weathering, except that out of nowhere this appeared: now I say... but it's the very first thing I've worked on, I've studied this cowl far and wide, eliminating some panels and bosses that shouldn't have been there, and why why why did I leave this one(s, there are on both sides)?? okay, it's a hobby, isn't it? and we pass the time, risking doing damage, too... chisel, steady hand, and... to be continued. cheers, paolo

Aaaaaah!! would you please give us (me) the links, if any, for the wip of these beauties?? TIA, and sincere and unconditioned kudos, Paolo

Wow, I hadn't seen the new zero hasegawa so far, it looks like a nice kit! Ian, if I may, about the rivets on the cockpit's rear deck, from memory it seems to me they were raised, not flush.

I confess I went to look at the market for this kit, after seeing your work in progress. hard times and an attic overflowing with kits to do dissuaded me... but your information today about the cyclical price fluctuations at Sprue Brothers fills me with optimism!

thank you all, pals! as anticipated, I proceeded with stencils and signs, but first I did some retouching to the upper part, especially in the engine area. having to realign the lines of the lower part (painted red and white after reassembly with different parts in the real one, according to my hypothesis) I took the opportunity to touch up the front annular cowl and the spots added later on the sides. to verify the contrast between the various colors and the effective alignment of the lower part, I presented the interested parts in position. and having everything in hand, I took a couple of shots to see how the prop fits with its spinner. as I imagined, little or nothing is seen of the radiator, too bad. but hadn't I installed a Henri Daehne prop and done all that magnet work? well actually... but how much do I like these resins? If there was a Nobel to aftermarket manufacturing I would be in no doubt who deserves one! well, there would be also other candidates, eh... let's talk about 1ManArmy products, for example, and let's enter the field of stencils and signs. I don't know how he makes them, but this Belgian craftsman produces sheets of kabuki paper on which extremely fine details are cut out. to test them I started with something relatively simple, the dotted lines that delimit the walkable area on the wing. it's a rather slow and demanding process, but definitely rewarding, compared to decals. oh well, you say, what's the point of making two pedestrian crossings? true, but those were just a test... the real wonder are the various warnings. I started from the largest and most hidden, but it was immediately understood that this is another level. now all the rest of the model seems to have been fished out of the differentiated garbage, in comparison! incidentally, the black cross is an Eaglecals decal, another test I wanted to do, having to use at least part of it. excellent quality and thickness, but painted it's another thing. while we're at it, let's talk about the rivets: I hadn't smoothed the surfaces to zero to take advantage of the thickness due to the process and increase the three-dimensional effect. here you can clearly see how giving seven thousand coats of paint didn't help at all... another lesson learned. gained some confidence, I moved on to the smaller and more visible stencils. what can I say but wonderful?? the overall yield is spectacular. yes, analogous results can be obtained with decals, depending on the quality of the decals themselves, the procedure used, and the skills of the model maker. here even someone with stone hands like me gets something more than decent at first shot! now the problem is that using decals, however good, seems to me a sacrilege, even if I'll have to negotiate with some. so I paint as much as I can, and only then will I move on to the decals. ancillary problem, both the 1ManArmy and the Montex sheets (which also produce a sheet of masks dedicated to the JV44) have insignia that do not match those of the Red 1, produced at the Fieseler factories, where they used their own measurements. that's fine, what's up. giant swastika and thin crosses rather than taking out the light table this time I preferred to build the masks by superimposing several layers of masking tape. doing this involves two risks: the thickness of the tape risks letting the paint infiltrate under the joints, and all this adhesive could be lethal for the underlying paintwork when removing the masks. I solved this with various expedients: I reduced the adhesiveness of the tape by placing it on the back of my hand before applying it; I went over the joints with a toothpick checking their adhesion with a 7-thousand magnification lens; I gave a quick coat of clear to seal the joints; I sprayed the paint extremely dry, almost powdery; and I prayed throughout all the process. aaaaaand.... there. what to say? so far I've been lucky, soon we'll laugh with the decals! cheers, paolo