dodgem37

Rammstein, Very clean work. This has turned out to be quite an engineering project, with all of the extra stuff you've needed to make to shape the hull. With the heavy weight styrene you're using, are you cutting these parts out by hand or with power? Nice organization of your Evergreen strips. The background bin that holds all of the rolls; Are they plans, elevations, and sections of other vessels? Sincerely, Mark

GGRRRRRR! I feel your pain on the masking. It's tedious, but effective. Excellent results. Sincerely, Mark

You are a monster! I love this! Sincerely, Mark

The pilot looks a lot like your Avatar. Most excellent. Love the scheme. Sincerely, Mark

Oliver man, it looks great! Good show. Sincerely, Mark

I use FS36081, Euro Grey. But that's me. Sincerely, Mark

Love those exhausts. Future will most definitely deepen the color. Test on some scrap plastic, for I believe the thicker the future coat, the deeper the color. I ran into a color variation on my Hartmann build. I painted RLM74 and RLM75 over the future, which is lighter than if the color were futured. Then I sprayed future until the values matched. Thomas' recommendation also works. And as he says, LET HARDEN! Good luck. Sincerely, Mark

Go, man, go! Cunning solution for the overlapping nozzle leaves. Sincerely, Mark

Thanks for the complement, Dutik. It is a 1/32 Hasegawa Bf109G-14. I don't have any aftermarket parts for this kit, so I didn't use any. Except for the bits that Jerry sent me. I think I have some seat belt buckles that I will be getting to at some time. Yes, I put on the black squares to indicate that there is an image there. But you are perfectly right. I could have left them off. It didn't occur to me. Thank you, Brian. As we know, with painting comes painting corrections. I'll be getting to that next week. Thank you, Vaughn. I have been wondering why I have had that tired feeling. It really is double duty to mask and paint 'decals' instead of applying only decals. Then masking prior to painting the mottle. A lot of masking during this phase. It did indeed try my patience. But I just tried take it slow and not be in a hurry. Thanks for looking in. Sincerely, Mark

That cockpit looks wonderful. Removing the flaps and retaining that strip undamaged. Whew! Excellent work. Sincerely, Mark

Thierry's explanation is just one of the reasons I am so grateful for this site. The knowledge base is truly remarkable. Thank you Thierry, and one and all. Sincerely, Mark

Thank you, Don. It's shaping up beyond my expectations, believe me. This is the first mottling I have done, and believe me it was an exercise of anxiety. 'All of that work only to ruin it because I can't mottle.' It was an anxious week. When I started this phase I had no idea at all what I was doing, which, as we all know, is not a good way to start. I had only painted solid areas up until this point, and with solid areas one doesn't need finite control over the spray. Not so with this exercise. I had read an article that said for best results for mottling one should thin high and spray low. So I experimented. I sprayed a sheet of Evergreen with paint-to-thinner ratios until I found something that I could control for the most part. For me, a ratio of 1.5:1 thinner/paint worked best, for Model Master Enamels. I can't say what my air pressure was as I can't see the regulator or the compressor because of visual obstructions, but I have an Iwata airbrush that has an air flow control valve, and I used that for the most part. The starboard side pattern sizes begin with small patterns at the nose, and moves into larger and larger patterns until one reaches the tail. This progression and direction was a fortuitous piece of luck. The direction moves from front to back because of pattern size and placement. Starting with the Balkencruz, there is that squiggle that is in diagonal alignment with the chevron which also aligns with the mottle below the chevron. There are 3 diagonally aligned patterns in front of the chevron, and 2 sets of 2 in front of that. Actually, 3. In addition, there are 2 sets of 4 diagonal patterns under the canopy that adds directional movement right above the wing. Once I figured out what it was I was looking at and realized what I had done at the nose and fuselage I painted over the canopy area, and worked it in. I still needed to go back over the fuselage with RLM76 to remove overspray, but I had an idea more important to me than random. Gotta run, work beckens. Thanks for looking in. Sincerely, Mark

I've been plugging away to have something to show before this weekend. We're all going to Birmingham, Alabama to visit family friends and for some festive R & R. With that, I won't be modelling for a few days, which is good, as I need recharging. I've worked on the mottle pattern this week. The chevron back and the cowling forward on each side were done in one pass. But that cockpit area on both sides gave me fits. I was able to LUCK OUT and get good directional movement and continuity in these two areas on the first pass, but needed to rework the cockpit area a second time. Here I'm working on the leading edge wavy pattern. It's a long story, mostly on an exercise of how to do things backwards and the hard way. Other wavy edge. That tulip really pops out. From a conceptual standpoint this mottle pattern isn't as nice as the other side, but it's functional, not terrible, and works without too much stretching. Rudder is slightly askew. BOTTOMS UP!! Which is what I hope to be doing this weekend. Tailwheel matches the rudder attittude. Well, almost. Thanks for looking in. Sincerely, Mark

Looks like a tinker toy man with an aerial camera. I really like that wire that turns back on itself. Nice stuff. Good show, Oliver. Sincerely, Mark

I couldn't believe how close the contours are to one another! Had this checkpoint shown discrepancies between the contour, it might have been a while before you heard from me again. Right now I feel pretty comfortable with the work to date. A relief for sure. A lot of head scratching, to say the least, would have been in order. I like what you're doing alot. You're producing a major champion effort. Keep up the good work. Sincerely, Mark

Oliver, For your Dec. 1 post all I get is a Photobucket 'Bandwidth Exceeded' icon. It seems others can see an image. Sincerely, Mark

This is too nice. This end result makes me want to run out and buy the kit in the hope of building something just as nice. Dog, this is good. Sincerely, Mark

If you happen to have rubber cement lying around you can use dried rubber cement as an adhesive remover. The same goes for liquid mask, as they have similar adhesive characteristics. Put a dollop onto something non-absorbing (It can even be put onto the adhesive you want to remove). Let the product dry. It is still tacky when dry, roll it up into a little ball, and use it to remove the adhesive by dabbing or rolling it around on the adhesive. Good luck. Sincerely, Mark

She's going to be a beauty. I'm wild about late war PT Boats. Sincerely, Mark

Liking this alot, Matt. Good show. Sincerely, Mark

I have painted decals in the past. What I've done is cut out the image without the perimeter clear decal and stuck it on some tape to hold it in place before I painted it. It water slid as usual. HTH. Sincerely, Mark

Thank you, Phil. Thank you, Kevin. I favor the tulip nose as well. But I've got to tell you, I'm glad that's over. With this build, Tamiya Tape stock is going to pay some real dividends. Sincerely, Mark

One step at a time, just keep plugging away, brother. If you look at what still remains it can feel daunting, fast. I'm feeling the same oats on the Hartmann build. Just a little every day. Sincerely, Mark

You are a MONSTER! Sincerely, Mark

Looking very sharp. I particularly like the scratches on the instrument panel. Sincerely, Mark