thierry laurent

Hi Chris,
The Rhodesians did not operate the Puma. The ones in that war were SAAF aircraft.  The intakes are a problem. The ones in the Revel boxing are too small. There are also around 3 different designs of the round filters. The round filters were fitted to Pumas with the uprated engines and the whole cowling was larger. These normally go with the composite blades.
 
The SAAF operated the C,H and L versions. The kit is basically correct for the C . The L needs the squared off spontoons and also a square sand filter. The H model has the larger engines and thus round filters and composite blades. The most common one used in the Rhodesian war was the L , so you need to scratch the spontoons and a square filter box to be accurate. The kit can be build as a C for a SAAF version during the late seventies. 
 
I designed a filter and took measurements from the SAAF Museum only to realize they are too big for the kit and the whole top front fuselage needs rebuilding. ( Plus new blades and spontoons)
Unfortunately the Revell boxing is also not very accurate for the version they are trying to depict.
 

 
 
This photo from the Rhodesian conflict and shows the config of the H model with the square filter and the square spontoons. Also requires the least scratch building.
 

 
Cheers
Nick
 

The antislip coat was a tar-like-based one. So initially it was not dead flat but with the climate effects the finish became duller and this also applied to the yellow body color. However, it was not uncommon to see bright spots here and there coming from oily items put/stored on their top.

Weathering of the hull is finished and it was a great and fun trip:
 

 
Tamiya and MRP Smoke and a very highly diluted mix of tamiya Buff (XF-57) were mostly used in cojunction with a lot of oil paint here and there.
 

 

 

 

 

There is normally a cover on both exhausts but it was not always installed. I decided to leave them out, liking the diesel fumes effects on both sides of the hull
 

 
The hull weathering shines on the closed hull but is also partially noticeable on the open side. That way, each side is attractive with different features
 

the rudders still need to be attached and the prop still need some weathering
 

 
I also kind of tried to replicate the sub resting on the ocean floor for long period of time by weathering the keel with residues of muds. At least it presents the advantage to highlight a bit the bottom area of the boat even if I soubt this would be highly noticeable on real boats. 
 
Next stop matt coat paintshop and i'll start working on deck details and rigging
Thanks for looking

Weathering the hull is uncharted territory
 
My guidelines are:
- I know I don't want to see much rust stains below the flotation line, which differs from the colour demarcation line
- I need to find a way to discolour the hull under the flotation line. the flotation line weathering is remarkable
- I would like to add a little bit of barnacles but really minimum.
- I have seen different weathering on WWII pictures.
Some boats are pristine, some are heavily weathered. I want to depict mine quite weathered but not like she stayed in a drydock for years.
 
Here are some examples illustrating the above:
 

Here's one pretty beat up above the floatation line, proving you can go overboard if you wish
 

Discoloration of the hull below the floatation line is obvious in this dry dock picture, not an easy effect to achieve
 

Discoloration also happens on the dark grey/blue above the floatation line as seen above
 

This one is probably not representative because it's been out of the water for very long, but I found the moss interesting illustrating the barnacles effect I would be tempted to achieve (bit less though)
 
I'll use only a few products for weathering the hull:
 

 
Both the naval wash and steaking effect which is brown rather than grey will be used randomly together alongside the hull.

 
Once a bit dry, it will be rubbed with a sponge for effect

 
Salt streaks will be next. pulled vertically but more patchwork under the flotation line. These will probably disappear with further treatment, so basically just a first encounter with this product (which can be replaced with any paint well thinned or even oil paint; It's just more convenient I confess.

 
The area just under the ballast gets a heavy grimeline which is then blended out

 
The difference between weathered and unweathered is quite visible. I'm not too much concerned at this time because I knwo more treatment will be added later on and i'll correct what I don't like doing while testing new grounds.

 
The model is huge but it's easy to work section by section

 
Rust streaks are added above the flotation line with the oil brusher which is again just quite convenient. 

 
I also like to use any default in my work to simulate damage on the model. So here the plastic was scratched and I used that just like if the real boat was scratched at that same place. rather than fixing the damage it's a good way to have simulated damage random.

 
The ongoing process rest streaks on the bow, rust paint is applied in dots, left to dry and then blended downwards with a thin bruxh controlled with more or less thinner happy with the result under the floatation line so far

 
Next: discoloration under the floatation line and I have been thinking about how to do that for the whole week
Thanks for following
 

Mason Doupnik announced his next release in his terrific walk-around book series (CAVU publications) and it will be dedicated to the Marines Harrier. No doubt this will give you the reply if you are not in a hurry.

By the way the official naming of the MD-3 mule is the A/S32A-31A Aircraft Towing Tractor.

There were at least some mules used on CONUS Navy bases as I found one bad picture of one MD-3 used in Pensacola. However, this really looks like a not very common case.

Years ago I got one nail varnish bottle shaker powered by a transformer. This is cheap, efficient, has no batteries and accept all bottle sizes. This has exactly the same function than a hobbyist paint shaker but the price is divided by three...

Here's a fun fact I recently discovered: all the large ships used to store and launch patrol seaplanes (e.g. Bussard or Zee Adler) actually belonged to the Luftwaffe rather than the Kriegsmarine. This looked to be a side effect of the Versailles treaty that limited the German naval fleet size.

To all my Brit friends and acquaintances out there, I like my tea and drink it properly:  loose, not bagged; kettle howling with delight; milk in the mug first because, yes, it matters and, yes, I can tell; and always drunk with my favorite munchie, graham crackers, which actually are flat, square cookies not crackers at all and certainly not biscuits fergawdssake.  All was well and good at three in the afternoon until recently when I discovered that my graham crackers no longer break neatly into four parts like they once did.  Nowadays they shatter into amorphous pieces of eight, more or less, yet another sign of decay in, arguably, the greatest country in recent history.  Not that long ago, graham crackers snapped cleanly at the divide leaving one to dunk and enjoy neatly to one’s heart’s content.  These days, one might as well try to dunk a slice of pizza.  I suppose I could blame my president but my heart is just not in it.  Besides, I kinda like the guy. The real culprit, I think, is the massive corporation that owns nearly everything that comes from the ground this side of the Suez Canal.  My guess is that their bean counters have fired all the experienced graham cracker bakers and replaced them with others who do not know exactly what a graham cracker should be and who are more comfortable baking things on a hot flat rock.  Or so it would seem.  I am very disappointed, as all of us civilized folk should be.  Cleanly snapped graham crackers are as American as apple pie and Oprah Winfrey.  And now they are not.  On a completely different note, we have suffered foul weather in our state of Texas that has claimed close to one hundred lives.  Torrential rains resulted in a flash flood that raised the level of a river system 26’ in less than an hour.  I repeat, 26 feet in less than an hour.  At four in the morning, people were swept away almost without knowing it.  Into the breach stepped a young United States Coast Guard rescue swimmer on his first rescue mission.  I have no idea how many actual rescues he was involved in that morning but, being the only triage specialist in the area, he evaluated and treated a whopping 165 flash flood victims solo - by himself - before being relieved.  He is barely more than a child himself but he was everything to nearly two hundred souls who had next to nothing left.  I raise my glass and so should you no matter where you are.  Semper Paratus, because that is how it is done.  

Yes sprue L, unique to the Tamiya E/EJ boxing, contains about 9 critical NLG parts — the clear ones from sprue D are common to all boxings. 
The L-sprue parts would need 3DP substitutes, possibly amalgamated into fewer parts that might make life easier
The early gun muzzle also needs to be done; the Tamiya part isn't quite right.
 
Putting my hybrid C/D/J —> E project on ice until something happens at LFD. 
Without the NLG door parts I'd still want a nose-only set to replace those ghastly clear parts in the Betty Lou boxing. Especially as LFD were apparently working on a system so that the Tamiya windshield quarter panels are correctly partly inset into the top of the nose barrel.
The dropped-down gun breech cover also necessitates a bit of rotary cannon inside.
 
Now in Phantom snooze mode. Have two MiGs to focus on this Summer.
 
Tony 

Mason Doupnik announced his next release in his terrific walk-around book series (CAVU publications) and it will be dedicated to the Marines Harrier. No doubt this will give you the reply if you are not in a hurry.

Thanks, everyone, especially @thierry laurent for the photos and comments.
 
Reskit said in a FB post they are ALL VN-era, but that seemed like a stretch.
 
They ARE expensive, but I purchased the Z-M and it had no decals. I believe I have a V-A one or someone else's, and again, not the same level of detail. Reskit is hard to top, and they're making these things while their country in under attack by a much-larger neighbor (who once upon a time guaranteed Ukraine's security in return for them giving up their nukes).

Mason Doupnik announced his next release in his terrific walk-around book series (CAVU publications) and it will be dedicated to the Marines Harrier. No doubt this will give you the reply if you are not in a hurry.

Actually we have some evidences of both cases! Some in which people modified the implementation of the rules to be as efficient as possible and others where the Nazi bureaucracy rules were stupidly rigid but complied with by units up to the end... So, this clearly gives artistic license to go in very opposite directions and I guess this is why there are so passionate debates about Luftwaffe late war colours. It simply looks there is not a 'single truth' there...

Hi Bill,
 
To me at least the mark A and possibly the B (later) were used on carriers before 1975. I do not remember having ever seen a mule on an SEA air base picture.
 
Hth
 
Thierry 

I noticed recently that one of the undercarriage struts on my Hawker Fury II (AlleyCat model) had come loose, so I took it to be fixed.....easily done.  Picked the model up to return it to the display cabinet and........
>
>
>
>
>
>
......dropped it!  Absolutely mortified, I picked up all the bits, put them in a box and hid them away in a deep dark place...a bit like my mind really!   Only now, several weeks later, I have I felt composed and "strong" enough to examine the damage to see what can be done:
 

 
A lot of clean up, complete re-rig and re-drilling of rigging locations, and most awkwardly a "re-skin" somehow of the shiny cowling, could be a complete strip back.  
 
Anyhow, I thought the trials and tribulations that no doubt lay ahead might be worth a build thread......bear with me fellas! 

Just been away for a few days in the Channel Islands, and apart from some nice walking and visiting relatives, I found that modern-day rarity, a real life model/hobby shop.  And in that shop I found one thing I did not expect to find: one of the Revell glider series at under a tenner!  Yes, really.  And it's an LSP that is small enough to fit in my small hold bag, so it just had to be bought, it would have been rude not to.
 

 

Actually we have some evidences of both cases! Some in which people modified the implementation of the rules to be as efficient as possible and others where the Nazi bureaucracy rules were stupidly rigid but complied with by units up to the end... So, this clearly gives artistic license to go in very opposite directions and I guess this is why there are so passionate debates about Luftwaffe late war colours. It simply looks there is not a 'single truth' there...

While I was digging in our garden I found a chest full of gold coins.
 
I wanted to run straight home to tell my wife about it.
 
Then, I remembered why I was digging in our garden.

For single truths, just look at Spitfires.....

Indeed and this is quite strange as with just a bunch of sets they could cover decades of bang seats use. It is one of those market gaps I'm failing to understand for years (another one being the total lack of detail set of wing hinges of naval jets). 

Actually I'm still surprised some people do not think RLM83 is a blue colour used on maritime schemes because evidences were found at least close to 20 years ago...

Take care as close to all old colour charts have noticeable naming errors that were corrected later by authors such as Michael Ullmann. You can probably copy such colours but do not rely on their naming conventions for late war hues.

Again, this demonstrates there are very challenging but no 'unbuildable' kits. Well done!!!