Britain's Reply (1/72 Brengun car-door Typhoon Ib)

[Procopius]

Try higher pressures some time, too.

After you suggested that, I upped my pressure to 25 PSI from 15-20, and it's made another huge difference. So weird...listening to my elders might be beneficial...that could be a real game-changer for me.

[Navy Bird]

After you suggested that, I upped my pressure to 25 PSI from 15-20, and it's made another huge difference. So weird...listening to my elders might be beneficial...that could be a real game-changer for me.

Elder? Who you calling elder? I mean, I could be your older brother I suppose, but elder? It sounds like some grey-hair, hump back, waddle instead of walk, have porridge for breakfast...oh, wait.

Cheers,

Bill

[Procopius]

Elder? Who you calling elder? I mean, I could be your older brother I suppose, but elder? It sounds like some grey-hair, hump back, waddle instead of walk, have porridge for breakfast...oh, wait.

Cheers,

Bill

Well, even a twin can have a few minutes head start.

[Learstang]

Yes, I know it's a bit of a crazy idea, young PC, but listening to older modellers, at least, can be beneficial. Just remember one thing - any mistake you make, we've made it years ago and hopefully come up with a solution (or walked grumpily away from the hobby in which case we're not likely to be lurking about this site).

Regards,

Jason

Edited March 30, 2016 by Learstang

[Procopius]

I'm still puttering about until I do another WIP -- been working on an Aoshima Ta 152:

Hope to finish it up by next weekend, not quite sure what I'll do then.

[MikeW]

So there you all are. Had some friends in town for the last, pretty much, two weeks, and am only now starting to shake the hangover. Canadians!

Aoshima? Never heard of those ( which is not saying much of course ) but it sure looks like a Focke-Wulf 190 viewed in one of those fun house mirrors - all stretchy like.

[Procopius]

Aoshima? Never heard of those ( which is not saying much of course ) but it sure looks like a Focke-Wulf 190 viewed in one of those fun house mirrors - all stretchy like.

As a small boy in the early 1990s -- which strangely seems a long time ago, these days -- I had a copy of that oft-reissued Rand McNally Encyclopedia of Warplanes, offering a glimpse of things to come with the EFA 2000 and probably the YF-22 and -23 as well on their own colour plate. Anyhow, it had the Focke-Wulf Ta 152 in it, but having just read Wing Leader, with its mention of "long-nosed 190s", I simply assumed this was what the book was referring to, rather than the 190D. In any case, it (and the 190D) has always looked a bit like a jalopy to me, all thrown together with no style.

I mean, look at this:

Kurt Tank never managed to design an attractive aircraft -- even the Marut, which shouldn't help but look sleek, being supersonic, looks like it was extruded. From a butt.

[Stew Dapple]

I'm still puttering about until I do another WIP -- been working on an Aoshima Ta 152...

Good gods, Luftwaffe stuff: have you been talking to that Duncan B fellow?

That aside it looks great, I like the mottling effect very much, that's very nice work PC

Cheers,

Stew

[CedB]

Jawohl! Zee paint iss indeed ferry gut! Nice mottling and the wing camouflage looks really cool... good stuff PC!

There is a fine balance between 'aggressive looking' and 'pug ugly' isn't there and I agree that the 152 is a step too far. You've probably seen mine in the 'Unsung Hero' thread? I keep thinking I should get another one and 'do it properly' but then I look at the thing and think 'nah'.

I'm about to come over a bit German too chaps so be warned! I need to get my BoB builds on the ceiling and they're a bit short of targets Luftwaffe subjects. The parts lent to Jaime for his Do17 have now returned and I've bought the new Stuka too so, after the promised Hudson, I need to change colours... I need to be a bit careful - John, one of my 'drinking buddies', had a father who was a German PoW and stayed after the war. He was in Panzers. My Dad was in Shermans and I don't think he liked it very much from the little he said. Talking to John about my modelling, especially when he sees my Luftwaffe collection sort of squashed in a corner of the ceiling, can be a bit 'Fawlty Towers' and of course we need to make sure we don't mention the war...

Enough about me (sorry).

How are the knees PC - are you back to running?

I hope Winston's settling down a bit although 'teething' can't be far off? Perhaps you should get him a model to chew?

Looking forward to seeing you back - let us have a link please and we'll be ready when you are

[perdu]

That is a blooooomin 'orrible green PC

But like most Aosima stuff it makes a very fine model

Kinda like you

Good to see a target or two littering up your threads

But,hoi, young feller me lad

Not too many please

Ced I s'pect young Winnie will have plenteous polystyrene to chew as the years roll by

I still enjoy nibbling the occasional Airfix Auster float even now

Come to think of it PC I have a couple of spares I could mail to you

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Kurt Tank never managed to design an attractive aircraft -- even the Marut, which shouldn't help but look sleek, being supersonic, looks like it was extruded. From a butt.

I've always preferred the look of the 190 series to that of the 109 and its scions, so put me in the Tank camp. Many accounts seem to think that the Sea Fury (to my eyes the best looking piston-engined fighter of them all) was heavily influenced by Focke Wulf, so clearly something good came out of Tank...

[Procopius]

Good gods, Luftwaffe stuff: have you been talking to that Duncan B fellow?

I am stealing some techniques from him (if by stealing you mean crudely imitating, like one of those Solomon Islanders or whomever talking into a radio made of coconuts to summon more C-47s), but it's a case of parallel development. In a moment...okay, moments of folly, I bought the three volume Classic Publications books on the 190, and then the two volume series on the 190D from Eagle Editions. There's a certain amount of elision going on...did you know that at the end of the war reliability suffered when Fw 190s were assembled by "prison labour", by which of course they mean slaves, being worked to death with no regard for their safety; or "Heil Hitler" at the end of a communique is rendered as "salute the leader", which is, I guess...technically correct. And a fair amount of sitting through boastful descriptions of Fw 190s shooting up Allied fighters, which I read with the same relish I might someone's epistolary on how they murdered my dad, but there is a lot of technical data I didn't know, too, and they are good modelling resources. Winston won't be allowed to read them without supervision and supplementary reading, however.

In any case, Luftwaffe aircraft are an interesting departure in painting techniques for me, and I'm using my "precision" airbrush, the SOTAR 20/20, to freehand almost all of the camo aside from the Reichsverteidigung (gesundheit!), so it's been a learning experience.

That aside it looks great, I like the mottling effect very much, that's very nice work PC

Along with "look, peanuts aren't important, just pick one" in Red Zone Cuba, that's a personal favourite.

You've probably seen mine in the 'Unsung Hero' thread? I keep thinking I should get another one and 'do it properly' but then I look at the thing and think 'nah'.

I did! It's a weird-looking bird, but just remember: 0-for-3 against Spitfires (a lone Spitfire XIV shot down two and caused a third to force-land when JG11 was ferrying their four Ta152s to a new airbase...basically their whole complement of wunderwaffen wiped out in a stroke), and only 1-for-1 against Tempests when attacking from a position of advantage with numerical superiority. There's a German word for that, I think...schadenfreude.

My Dad was in Shermans and I don't think he liked it very much from the little he said.

Ah, Ced, you're too interesting for it all to be encompassed in one visit to the UK! What was your dad's regiment? (I have a bunch of Asuka/Tasca Shermans.)

How are the knees PC - are you back to running?

Well, actually I've only run a single mile in the past two weeks -- big project at work that I've had to support. It's very interesting, because while I'm only on the periphery of this, it's a huge failure and I've never been this close to one before. It's a little like sitting in the Fuhrerbunker and ordering vanquished armies about on a map.

I hope Winston's settling down a bit although 'teething' can't be far off? Perhaps you should get him a model to chew?

A single tiny tooth tip can now be felt on his lower gumline. It's sharp! We're working on sleep training, and if you recall your description of it as two parents huddled under the covers while a baby bawls...it's a lot like that. He's already so tall, 27 inches at full extension, that Mrs. P feels like he isn't her little baby any more and wants another. Well, I don't, but there couldn't be any harm in trying...

I've always preferred the look of the 190 series to that of the 109 and its scions, so put me in the Tank camp. Many accounts seem to think that the Sea Fury (to my eyes the best looking piston-engined fighter of them all) was heavily influenced by Focke Wulf, so clearly something good came out of Tank...

Counterpoint: the 109 is also very ugly.

My understanding is that the Sea Fury borrowed a bit from the 190 in terms of engine mounting and cooling design, but a lot of its ancestry came from the Tempest, which was just Camm making the Typhoon more Spitfire-y with nicer wings and so forth. But I am not a radial engine man.

[CedB]

Thanks PC, reading this has given a much needed laugh after fighting with the PR XI...

The 152's record is indeed schadenfreude - what were they thinking letting forced labour build flying things!!??

I'm afraid I have no idea about Dad's war record - he often said "If you talk about it, you weren't there" and the few stories he told were really chosen to stop me asking again. I know he was a gunner but I'll have to wait for the service records to be released to find out more I guess.

​Watching a big project going down is entertaining if you're on the periphery; it certainly highlights the Corporal Joneses from the, er, who was the inspiring character in Dad's Army? Oh well. I lost my hair managing projects - on time, on budget, on spec - choose any two...

Cute shot of Winnie who seems to be smiling a lot more in your pictures. ​Good luck with the teething and sleep training - be strong! It'll be over sooner than you think (but it won't seem like it)

"Mrs. P feels like he isn't her little baby any more and wants another. Well, I don't, but there couldn't be any harm in trying..."

[Procopius]

Quick roundup:

Advancing timetable for completion of Ta152 from Saturday next to this Wednesday -- may try an oil paint wash(!!!).

Also, Gunze decal setting solution goes through thin western decals (EagleCals, in this case) like crap through a goose:

Finally, at long last, Winston smiles for the camera:

That's his normal smile, enlivened by a beet puree Mrs. P whipped up.

It makes him look a little like a tiny serial killer:

And:

[Stew Dapple]

"Hmm, I don't know why but there are serious quality-control issues on the new Ta152's that we are building using slaves who we are working to death."

For a strange warped stretched-out thing yours is looking remarkably nice PC

And that must have been a damn' fine Beet Puree from the look on Winston's face, or did Mrs P puree some nitrous oxide in there too?

Cheers,

Stew

[CedB]

Looking good PC - the 152 AND Winnie (and Mrs P of course)

Beet puree? Very healthy, apart from the subsequent health scares when it comes out the other end... that red 'dye' gets everywhere!

Bad luck with the setting solution but it's not that bad IMHO - I'd call that 'weathering' and give the rest a good going over, as you've suggested

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

My understanding is that the Sea Fury borrowed a bit from the 190 in terms of engine mounting and cooling design, but a lot of its ancestry came from the Tempest, which was just Camm making the Typhoon more Spitfire-y with nicer wings and so forth. But I am not a radial engine man.

In its very earliest (still on paper) days the Fury was described as "the lightweight Tempest", so you're right.

In theory I know what you mean about radial engines (for instance, I've always thought the Thunderbolt looked like a flying Hippo, however successful it might have been). But then I reflect on the fact that if I had to draw up a list of propellor-driven aircraft that I'd really love to fly (even now), the top 3 would be Sea Fury, Sopwith Pup & Fairey Swordfish. Not a hint of in-line between them (though arguably the best-looking Fury of all was the prototype which had a Sabre...)

Winston - "hint of the serial killer..." but one wearing a Mickey Mouse sticker on his nappy / diaper. It tends to make him a little less terrifying!

[Procopius]

Winston - "hint of the serial killer..." but one wearing a Mickey Mouse sticker on his nappy / diaper. It tends to make him a little less terrifying!

That and his habit of chuckling rather squeakily and very eagerly if mom or dad laugh at his antics, as if he's eager to get in on the joke. It's very endearing.

The Ta152 and my WIP holiday are almost done -- I applied a crude oil wash tonight and will dullcoat tomorrow, I hope.

My further adventures continue with...THE DRAGON.

[CedB]

Very nice PC - she's looking good (if you can say that about a 152...)

Off to see the Dragon. I'll be back.