Ran

Great looking Horten. What did he use for the wood decal? Ran

This past two weeks I managed a lot of bench time - but could not bring myself to sit down and write. I'm now masking with MicroMask and have to take breaks between layers so I might as well update this build log. The fuselage is closed and I'm gluing the outer stuff. Two major takeaways from this build: 1. This chopper is BIG - in 1/72 its almost as long as the 1/48 H-280. 2. Old mold 1/72 kits just suck with poor engineering. This kit has parts that resemble short-runs Want a few examples? Checkout the sponsons - nothing by way of guiding or fixing: Or this strange engineering: The bottom part of the chopper and the floor of the cargo hold are also a strange piece of engineering. The cockpit is simple enough - and I fought the AMS urge quite well. Well, almost, just added a couple of boxes to the rear part. I failed to win against AMS when I noticed the magnitude of grills and exhaust ports. This is the first time for me - I took the DSPIAE electric grinder, armed with a drill, and went to town. The same took in high speed generates enough heat to make it a hot scalpel: The tail was more challenging: The rotor base was glued, but the glue drooled all te stopper piece - I had to cut it and work something else: Fixing inside the fuselage was almost notional, same with engine#3 exhaust, almost no location features: I had to glue the fuselage from the Front to the Back in several steps and then do the same for the bottom part: You can't see the time spent on filing, leveling, filing {repeat} - rrrghrr Cutting those miniature masking parts for the canopy lookednot funnot-fun' so I decided to mask with Micro Mask. Most of the features on the canopy were boldly marked. I hope it will go smoothly. I did put some transparent green on the top windows. That's it for now. Comments are welcomed. Best Ran

With the P-51D done and on the shelf, and the He-280 back on the table I scanned the stash and decided a chopper is due. Picked out this one and will try to go for the White JDF Bird. This should be an easy build with a challenging paint job. Stay tuned. Ran

I'm a bit ashamed but almost 11 month passed since the last time I touched this kit. A lot of life interfered in between. I also lost contact with the friend who promised to 3D print me the lost landing gear. Fortunately I did asked Italeri and they sent me replacement parts. The kit has been looking back at me from the shelf of doom until I decided to give it the last push. So the landing gear legs where painted Tamiya XF-16 and I slowly started to paint and add the finishing touches. I did that over a course of 3 days, making sure I do not wiffle up the other parts. I decided to skip the radio antenna cable - do not have the stomach do mess around with super glue over NMF. So here she is, a quick photo shoot. I will try to put a more generous one in the RFI forum. All in all - a fun kit. A bit of a mess with the decal numbering. Improving, but still not there, with NMF Comments are welcomed as always. Ran

Managed another small step today. The wing strut structure needs to be painted and hence glued first. It's a tricky alignment so I had to use the fuselage parts. One thing that becomes quite easy when building in small steps is letting thing properly dry before going on Ran

Thanks @PlasticUtopia, losing things to the carpet monster can be very frustrating. Luckily for me, in this build its something that is hard to notice. Ran

The P-400 Double build is done and the kits rest in the model cabinet. I've been thinking about the next build for a while, and picked this one as it seemed easy enough, and could serve as a re-mojo project. When I pulled it from the stash I had second thoughts, as I was not sure if I want another profipack with these darn small PE bits. Turns out this is not the case. Making sure it's not too easy - I came across a post by Doogs at DoogsModels. Doogs is one of my favorite modellers and one of the few I follow. Doogs built a Me-262 with bare-meta, factory scheme. I though the He-280 looks a bit boring and I will try to replicate the scheme Doogs built on thi He-280. Check out his post. The part count and detail level are low, but the quality is Eduard. Ran .

Thank you @Corsairfoxfouruncle

The pair of P-400 are done, the build report is updated and the box if off the bench. Time for a quick session on the B-29. Today it was the time of some green. I'm testing (for the first time) MRP 131 Interior Green. It turned out to be quick nice to shoot. A bit thin, so several layers were needed. I'm going very easy on myself in this build on cleaning sink marks. This kit has more than a few. The tunnel got Model Master OE 1711 Olive Darb: While I searched for some other files, I found a couple of photos I took when my Dad and I set for the first time on this kit. That's it for today. Ran

Done at last ! Spent some time in the last days pushing the P-400 pair through the final stages of adding bits and pieces. Found out I clipped the wrong MLG door - the one I painted dark gray as part of the paint scheme for "the resurrection (B)" and the one I have to put on has the wrong color. AMS dilema once again - should I paint if over or just ignore it and 'who will ever notice?". Guess what happened (again)?? To my defense I can say that the fact that I had a spare decal (double build to the rescue once again) was part of the decision process. I used Tamiya XF-22 RLM Gray, the same as the underside of the left wing. After adding EZ-line antenna cable, removing the masks and gluing what's need to be glues - the pair are DONE. "The Resurrection": "PAT": They are both off to the model cabinet: I spent a long time, any many hours, with these two. Enjoyable most of the time, and a lot of fun learning about the P-39/P-400. This was my 41/42 building project, and it included a couple of 'firsts" 1. First Double Build - a first also in terms of actually buying two kits to build two models 2. First Eduard ProfiPack 3. First very detailed PE fret, including first time rolling up a pe part into a barrel. 4. A complex paint scheme - with panel painting in addition to a camo scheme 5. First time masking a camo scheme with Tamiya mask 6. Several painting mistakes that were corrected with re-painting 7. First time getting the nose weight correctly 8. First time with a BIG stencil sheet. 9. Reinforcing the fuselage sides with plasticard to support better closing of the fuselage Known 'issues' : - I lost the gun sights - Decal silvering on too many of the decals - I over sprayed some light green on parts of the wing - Some little PE parts were lost and never got it to the model itself - Antenna cable too heavy and too crudely attached. That's it for a most enjoyable build. Comments are welcomed as always. Ran

@georgeusa Thanks. For the nose art I have the Kits-world KW172072, 'The Outlaw' & 'Celestial Queen' and I still did not completely rule out using the kits decals. Ran

Another baby step Ran

Thanks @Planebuilder62. I usually do the cockpit internals just for the photos I take before closing the fuselage. But I'll give it a though in hope AMS will not take over again. Ran

Managed to grab some bench time, between the other builds. Used it for a short masking and paint prep session. Cut some 5mm Tamiya tape into 2.2 mm stips, per the instructions, and then used it to mask the tips of the propellers. 4 engine beast means 16 @#$@#$ blades. Started to think how to cut masks for the wheels - when I remembered I have an Eduard mask for this build just in time. Preping for Black and Zinc Chromate: Big kit, small steps. That's it for today. Ran

..... " I'm currently debating if to take out the airbrush and fix it or just leave it alone. My mind says - just leave it alone, my AMS nervous system - well you can guess. We will have to see. " .... Well, can you guess how did that turn out ?? Clue #1 - Clue #2 - note the tails. Clue #3 - Final clue: AMS got the better of me Ran