Marco1965

Thank you for all the positive comments, appreciate your opinion on the figures choice! I ordered a while ago the signal flags, Eduard PE, hope to get them soon and add that final detail! marco

Well, my Exeter is 99.9% complete! I finished the boats and glued them in place, total of 10 boats of different sizes and types. Rigging was added to each boat and cranes. In the case of the forward row boats, scratch-built rope winch reels were added. Minor modifications to the boat cranes as they represented some parts that are only used while deploying the boats, not while stored. Lots of time was devoted to thingies and dingies all over the ship, like these chain links in front of the wave breaker, no idea what they were used for. Around 80 figures were painted representing different uniform types, helmets were added to the crew of the secondary armament. The total of figures adding these to the ones that I had already added to the bridge area is around 100. And enjoyed very much gluing the figures wherever I wanted! Secondary armament got full crew of gunners/loaders. I added crew to the signal flags decks as well. Notice that the hull sides are still too clean, some weathering was added later, not much, the Exeter shows up quite clean in most pictures, even in the ones at the Falklands after the battle (I mean apart from the damage of course) Not forgetting the rear castle. Notice the ceremonial cannons. And some sailors looking last minute for their posts. The intricate hydroplanes platform is to me the most attractive part of the Exeter. After having glued everything in place, some additional retouches of weathering were added to the hull and superstructure, using Raw umber artist oils. And a final dull coat was applied (Tamiya Flat) And of course, I could not resist taking picture of it side by side with its archenemy, the Graf Spee. And so... why 99.9% complete? It is still missing the signal flags that informed the position of the Graf Spee at the beginning of the Battle of the River plate, E322. Still need to order them! I hope that you enjoyed this project as much as I did! Will post pictures of the final result after I add the signal flags. Marco

Having a 1/144 on my workbench has become standard practice for me. Beautiful, fast projects that motivate me to finish more! This time I started a Rafale M from Revell. The molding looks crisp and accurate to me, it represents a Rafale M from the 12. Flotille on the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in 2007, has decent cockpit, scribing, external ordnance, moving canards, good rendering of landing gear and wheel wells. Full decal sheet for a prototype and a French Navy 12. Flotille Rafale M, #45, is provided. Scribing is quite good for the scale, smart engineering of the parts matches panel lines to joints, and those which don't are quite easy to reach for putty/sanding. External ordnance provided is impressive, 4 MICA and 2 Matra Magic AAMs, and 3x2000L drop tanks. Being picky, I would have liked some smart bombs as that has been frequently seen in missions in the Middle East. As said, cockpit detail is quite good for the scale, has some tiny decals for screens and even some simulated levers on the side panels. With all that, wonder why they provide only an enclosed option canopy. The intakes was an area that needed some work, as the pins and holes inside of the intakes are easily visible from the outside. Just cut/sanded them to match the intake profile, applied some CA and sanded again. Parts cleaned, look better now without the pins. I painted the interior of the intakes same as exterior, Dark Gull Gray (FS36231), and the wheel wells Dark Ghost Gray (prefer that rather than mixing the % that Revell suggests... arrrgghhhhh!!!) All parts fall in place quite easy, minor trimming needed in some edges but nothing out of this world, I used very little putty, really happy with the quality of this thing. And the canards being able to move up-down, that is something nice! Need some delicate sanding of the plastic "axe" that joins both canards together, but they work quite well! Vertical tail required some additional pressure to get rid of a stubborn gap in the middle, but it ended up matching well, no putty needed to get rid of the gap, liquid glue melted whatever was interfering.. Engine exhausts are nicely molded, I am sure that I can find some PE remaining to simulate some detail inside of the engines, they have a flat, featureless bottom that I don´t like much! Intakes fit was quite good, and the external ordnance racks fit easily in place. And it is ready to paint now, an easy, one-color scheme of Dark Gull Gray. Marco

Neglected, historically important ships, HMS Ajax and Achilles. I would really like to assemble them both, they are quite similar anyway. I prefer 1/350). And not really in the mood for resin kits. Maybe somebody will issue a new kit for those, could include parts for both cruisers in the same kit, Marco

Thank you, BoghieWan! Which kits have you thought about for the Ajax and Achilles? I have followed Faraway’s Graf Spee as well. Marco

Yes, metal and colored on both sides, very easy to bend. They only need a retouch of white and blue in the edge where you cut them free from the metal trees. Marco

Difficult to stop with this... I finished the rigging adding the line between masts and the isolators, which are quite notorious in reference pictures, issued with black-tinted white glue. Finally came the radio antennas that run from that line down to the rear castle. Barely noticeable, the running rigging for raising the battle ensigns to the very top of the mast, was installed. I was doing some research about the flags that the HMS Exeter carried at the Battle of the River Plate, and found this painting showing four battle ensigns, not usual in modern times, and well, I thought it was the painter's imagination putting 4 flags on the HMS Exeter. Looked for more information and was so pleasantly surprised to see that it did not carry four, it carried FIVE battle ensigns at the beginning of the clash! Probably the equivalent of a battle shout, Capt. Bell ordered the five flags to be raised, all described in detail in the ship's log. Fantastic to see that touch of color! I used Eduard's RN flags set, the bigger ones (10mm x 5mm, equivalent to 3.5m x 1.75m). I was afraid of cracking the paint upon bending them but nope, perfectly fine, excellent quality. Started with the classical one, no issues, but I was not expecting the steel flags to be so heavy on the lycra rigging, I had to apply diluted acrlylic glue to the line above the flag to keep it facing backwards. Front mast looks really nice with the three flags! And it is still missing the signal flags reporting Graf Spee bearing, "E322", will install later. And the five Battle Ensigns installed and ready! Can't imagine the excitement that they all felt starting the battle, their first in WWII. I have not bought the Eduard kit for the signal flags, will try to issue them myself as I only need 4 flags, if I end up not being successful, I will order them. Marco

I painted my F-5 according to references Dark Ghost Gray and Light Ghost Gray. And thinned some parts to make them more proper for the scale, in this case the external fuel tank fins. Painted wheel wells in aluminum, highlihted panels using water colors. And I was highly disappointed with the decals provided in the kit. First thing that I noticed, was that the number "003" for the nose mas not included, thanks to a friend, I managed to get the numbers! And the second, which is worse, all the markings, including national markings and numbers, are like 60% of the size they should be (I guess around 1/220 Scale or something like that). It is a pity, if you want to depict an accurate Swiss F-5, you´ll need to find some new proper decals. As the kit was not really to the standards that I wanted, I decided to leave it in peace and used the decals provided. References show a quite different color scheme for the Sidewinders, chose to use it for my F-5 as it is quite different to standard versions. Little bit too thick Sidewinders, noticeable differences vs most recent Revell kits. I chose a simple configuration of 2 Sidewinders and one ventral fuel tank, filled all other holes for other racks as I preferred the clean configuration. General layout, antennas and cannon barrels still missing. Used small caliber medical needles to simulate the cannons, would paint them later Gun metal. And this is the final result. I issued a simple base simulating any of the roads the F-5 use in Switzerland as taxi ways, and added an appropriate badge. The dorsal VHF antenna was replaced with a thin plastic sheet one. And of course I couldn´t miss the opportunity of trying this one! You can see the tiny decals on the kit vs the real ones. In summary, not one of the best Revell 1/144 kits 😢 scribing is basic, not too sharp and, in some parts, inaccurate, several parts for the Swiss F-5 are missing, the canopy fitting really is an issue, and of course, the way too small decals, most appropriate for like 1/250 scale, not 144. Anyway, nice addition to my 1/144 collection. Marco

Mine were, too, when I restarted! After having worked on other, bigger scales during previous months, this is another universe, slow and calculated hand movements, tweezers only, think thrice before moving anything on your desk, etc, etc! I like it! Marco

So Fast Forward again... knocked out for several months due to basement remodeling, started again last week, and, although it might seem a little bit of advance, rear mast rigging was quite complicated. Following the same techniques as shown before, I had already rigged the standing rigging (Infini Lycra, 0.121 Medium), and added the running rigging using Infini Lycra 0.091 Fine. Started by working on the lower row of lines, 8 pairs running from the lower yard to the rear castle. attachment points molded in the PE are of big help gluing the lycra to the yard, as it gives a nice holding point while glue dries. Then came the upper yard running rigging, I decided to glue all 8 pairs to the yard, which at some moment made me quite nervous looking at that mess! How do I untangle and straighten this up! But after several hours, done! In my opinion, the most daunting parts assembling this kit are the masts rigging and the hydroplanes catapults & rigging. And this is how it looks currently, there is still some rigging and details pending, but i am quite satisfied with the progress. Marco

You are right, that must have been the intended use. Not wise exposing half of your body trying to use it in urban combat. They used the coaxial or the hull mounted MGs for that. Marco

Not to make this PE process boring, this is the final result regarding adding PE to the Pershing. Most of the PE will not need that much of adaptation. I appreciate the details of the hatch interiors, these are completely devoid in Dragon´s kit, and as I want to show the commander and loader´s hatches open, the detail comes in handy. The rack on the right side of the turret was the most challenging part of all PE add-ons. It will be under lots of canvas stuff when I finish the tank. Some plastic parts added on the left side of the turret, including the track rack. Notice the two brackets on the left side of the turret, one behind the cannon pivot and the other one ahead and below the pistol port, those were found in very early Pershings and were intended to support engine lifting equipment. They are provided in the kit, just need to bore a small hole through them. The racks for the machinegun barrel and the stored machinegun were glued to the back part of the turret, will stay empty as the 0.50" will be located on the turret, under a canvas cover according to references (and the reason why I did not add detail to it). I wonder how was the 0.50" supposed to be used, neither commander nor loader can fire forward with it, just rearwards or to the sides. And it is located quite ahead from the rear to manage it comfortably from behind the turret. Interior PE details for the commander and loader´s hatches are quite useful, as the Dragon kit doesn´s provide detail at all. I issued the internal padding and periscope support with plastic sheet, hatch will be shown open when I finish my Pershing. Marco

Instead of continuing with the tracks and suspension, I preferred to finish the turret. All the plastic bits came first, and then the metal cannon and the PE parts. The metal cannon from ABER is a beauty. It is designed for the Tamiya kit but the gun mantle need only minor boring of a larger hole for the cannon to fit in, no issues. Muzzle brake parts are either screwed or glued in place, needed only minor sanding for everything to fit perfectly, a big improvement over the plastic kit parts. And as I said, adapting it to the gun mantle is no issue at all. Adding little by little PE bits to the turret. It always surprises me how American tanks had the turret crew positioned exactly opposite to German Panther and Tiger crews, like a mirror. And started working on the internal details of the loader and commander hatches, using the PE parts. Marco

I always enjoy assembling these small scale kits, they are normally "relaxing" (with a few exceptions). The Revell´s F-5E 1/144 seems to have a nice shape, and comes with two schemes options, US Aggressor and Swiss Air Force. I chose the latter one as I had already assembled years ago the aggressor scheme. Only issue is that the decal sheet provided with the kit is missing the numbers that go on each side of the nose (which I got courtesy of a friend, thank you!). I will use a figure of the pilot standing on the tarmack and maybe somebody checking the undersides of the F-5, from preiser figures which I´ll modify. And this is the configuration that I´ll assemble, fuel tank and two sidewinders only. Added some bits and pieces to the cockpit, and spare decals simulating the instrument panel, inside a closed cockpit not much will be visible. Fuselage closed. I have to say that landing gear, landing gear doors and engine exhausts look quite good, I sanded the doors thinner according to scale and trimmed some plastic off the landing gear struts, but all in all it looked good out o the box! Had to use filler a lot, not a good fit in this one! Seat belts were added using metal foil. And the pitot tube... the plastic part is awful, i replaced it with nylon fiber from a brush. Re-shaped the nose with putty, sanded, and it looks much more to scale, and doesn´t break! Still some sanding needed, but will do that after priming. Canopy fitting is okeeeiiishhhhh but needs some putty, used Vallejo putti tinted black to fill the gaps. The Swiss F-5 have fairings for warning antennas that are not included in the kit, and the fairings for the position lights common for all F-5 are missing, too. Issued them with Evergreen strip, sanded to shape. On the picture below, to the left the Evergreen strip glued in place, no sanding, to the right already sanded. Evidently the whole thing needs rescribing. Same thing for the rear radar warning antennas (and the front ones, not shown) The chaff dispenser under the fuselage was scratchbuilt too, using plastic strip. And this is where I am, next comes rescribing, then masking, priming and painting! Marco

Thank you, guys, it would be ideal to have PE mudguards... agree with the "not so good kit", let´s see how it ends! Marco