Chimpion
-
Posts
443 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Events
Profiles
Forums
Media Demo
Posts posted by Chimpion
-
-
It's insane of course, but I think this is much more a What-if than someone sticking decals from one air force onto a plane from another country. Top marks for imagination and execution!
-
1
-
-
Nice!
I'm intrigued by the bonnet - have you managed to attach the two halves to the central strut with some kind of flexible join, or did you leave them unassembled and find a way to balance them for the photo revealing the engine?
-
Don't count on it. My Citroen 15CV was locked away in a display cabinet, but my father-in-law still managed to pull the wing off.
-
I'd noticed this here in Austria. A couple of years ago most of the cars were under 20; now they're around 25. That may not seem much, but it's not hard to find second hand kits for around 10+5 postage pn eBay. The price differential has doubled, so I'm now picking my kits up on eBay instead of at the local shop.
-
They just don't build cars as beautiful as that any more. Cracking model.
or maybe they do......
http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20150601-the-mitsuoka-roadster-is-the-miata-that-thinks-its-a-morgan
-
Finished! Only just in time, but I made it. I haven't sealed the bonnet or roof so I can vary the display - the gap at the bonnet edge is the result of me not quite positioning it right - correctly placed, it's a good fit.
-
Just in time, I hope...
Talbot Lago Record Heller 1/24
Build described here : http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234978832-talbot-lago-record/
-
11
-
-
First the good news - barring a last day disaster this WILL be finished on time - I just hope I can get the photos transferred into the gallery on time!
The not so good news is that I have now bought myself a Nikon D3200, so the photo quality will improve and all the blemishes will be on display. The lack of a decent camera was a major reason for the posting hiatus, as my phone was refusing to take close-ups.
So here's where I was at yesterday :
Cockpit and engine. Looks like I could have done with another coat of silver on the steering wheel - it isn't that obvious to the naked eye.
The roof in the up position. I've completed the alternative roof in the down position tonight. I don't plan to fix either of these in place, but will alternate them on display.
The rear suspension. As will also be evident on the front suspension, my old tin of Humbrol Gun Metal has gone a bit iffy, leaving very gloosy patches. As the colour here shouldn't be uniform anyway, and in view of the time pressure, I've decided to just tone it down with a matt varnish. In practice these parts won't be visible when the model is on display.
The rear end of the bodywork. I'm pretty pleased with this - it's certainly better than anything I've achieved in the past, largely thanks to the spray can. Interestingly this picture clearly shows where I had to touch up the Tamiya TS44 spray can using Revell 52 enamel - I can't see this difference at all on the model; they really are an excellent colour match.
The instrument panel. Again, it doesn't look this bad on the real thing, as the detail is so small as to be barely noticeable. I definitely need to work on my fine painting skillls though.
The front suspension. Not going to pass an MOT with this botch, but given the problems I had, and the fact that it'll be hidden from view, I can live with it.
The bodywork. This really is a beautiful car. The badge, side chrome strips and door handles have since been added. The dashboard has been glued in place and the silver windscreen trim touched up.
All in all, I've found this to be a challenging build. The suspension is for experts only, although that's only really important if you want the steering to work. The bodywork fits together nicely, but I still struggle to cut chrome from the sprue without leaving obvious blank patches. I guess I need to find a supplier of Alclad and strip and paint for the next attempt. I did however try out a lot of new techniques, and this model is a good reflection of my current skill level. Hopefully I can look back in a years time and see that I'm doing a better job that this, but I'm certainly not ashamed to put it on display.
All that's left is to put the wheels on, the rear bumper, and attach the body to the chassis and cabin.
Andy
-
Things haven't been going too well with this build. The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed already that the number plate doesn't match the box art - that's because the decal disintegrated on contact with water. I replaced both plates with leftover French plates from the 1/25 Revell E-Type Jaguar. The slightly smaller scale helped with the front plate, which in 1/24 had a small cut-out to fit around the emblem.
The next problem came when I arrived home from work on a Friday night and decided I'd been too scared of the clip joints on the front suspension. I gave it some force and.....ping!.....it snapped.
This is the problem area :
I've managed to rebuild the broken bits, and cut the joint off on the other side and glued it (the steering had already been frozen in place by the earlier failed heat joint.
Then I touched up the boot hinges which I'd brush painted in silver and I got a huge stringer between the pot and brush that landed right on the boot. A quick attempt to clean it off smudged it badly. A combination of sanding and dry brushing more blue has made it invisible to the casual observer - fortunately my models only ever get casuallly observed
The next problem wasn't really a problem as such, but it has delayed me - I was away on a business trip for a week. Appropriately it was here :
en la belle France, near to Aix-en-Provence. Despite the best efforts of the protesting French taxi drivers I made it back on schedule, so I still hope to finish before the deadline. There's not actually very much left to do now, mainly painting the suspension and underneath.
-
You need to put resistors in series with the LEDs to limit the current. That's what's drained the battery. Work out the resistance using Ohm's law : R=V/I, where V is the battery voltage and I the LED current rating.
-
The elegance Wez referred to is starting to become evident. I've decided the bodywork has had all the coats it's going to get and started on its appendages :
Will need a couple more coats of the clear red for the lights, and I still have to paint the hinges silver, but it's turning into a smart car. The paint's not as smooth and even as I'd have liked, but it's the best I've managed yet and a much better finish than I get with a brush.
The chassis and interior have also now been joined. Next step there is to complete the front suspension and attach the wheels.
Andy
-
Yes Jim, I can see the improvement compared with models I finished a year or two ago. I'm not sure that I'm any more skillful, but I have learnt from the more experienced modellers on here and realised that I need to be prepared to experiment and accept the occasional disaster as part of the learning process.
Andy
-
The interior has now been assembled.
I tried a few dry test fits to see how it'll look in a few days time. I'm impressed with how easily these sections go together.
Added a few coats of acrylic clear gloss yesterday. Once that's fully dried and polished the fun can start with the chrome trim.
-
Time for another update. I ordered some micromesh online and have now sorted the scratches and sprayed another couple of coats today, followed by a clear acrylic gloss spray, whcih I hope isn't going to react with the Tamiya paint. So far it looks OK, will know for sure after a day or so.
This build may seem routine for most observers, but for me it has involved several techniques I've never tried before. I'm glad I took the courage, I think this is going to be my best model yet in terms of standárd of finish. Hopefully I can use what I've learnt to improve further on the next one.
I decided the cylinder head covers and other chromewd engine parts were far too shiny, so I stripped the chrome (first time I've tried this). I dropped them into household strong bleach, expecting to leave them overnight, and within seconds the chrome was gone. Here's the result after painting with aluminium enamel :
Since this photo I've added another coat and given a thin black watercolour wash (also a new technique for me, trying to highlight the Talbot-Lago inscription with a wash),
The seats are in place, I hope to combine the floorpan and sidewalls later this evening.
The black mark at the left hand side of the seat is due to the seat falling off and me overdoing the glue in frustration trying to get it back on. I've sanded and repainted it, and it won't show - in any case this area will barely be visible on the finished model.
I promise I'll take the gallery photos with a better camera - for now I've just been using my phone for convenience, but I realize seeing the photos now on the PC that they're not very good.
-
This just keeps getting better and better. The realism is unbelievable. You should ease up on the modesty and bask in the praise - it's thoroughly deserved.
-
Thanks for the tip Natter. I realised it was way too coarse for the final polish, but hoped it would be ok to smooth out imperfections in the underlying layers. Judging by the result, I was wrong. At least there's no harm done - I just need to get hold of something finer and give it an extra coat.
-
Time to post a few more pictures. I've been making progress, but am still not satisfied with any of the subassemblies. Maybe seeing the standard of build posted on here is turning me into a perfectionist - more likely I'm just not very good
I've been trying to learn from the techniques on disply here and elsewhere - for the first time ever I've tried a watercolour wash - in this case on the seats - I suspect I've overdone it, though it doesn't really show here. Still trying to decide whether to just put a gloss or silk finish to seal in the watercolours or try another thinned coat of enamel (Revell silk - the colour's a perfect match to the plastic).
Just need one more coat of silk black on this :
Engine is slowly coming together :
The bodywork has now had two coats of a Tamiya spray can - this was taken after one coat and sanding of the bits of pollen that got in (sprayed it in the garden to escape the fumes). The second coat seems free of 'particulate defects', but hasn't covered the scratches caused by sanding. I used the finest grade I could get at the local DIY store (600), but I think it was still a bit too coarse. Hope another coat will sort it.
-
I've got one of these underway waiting for the gutters and chimneys (I hate doing the gutters). It goes together very easily with no unexpected problems.
-
1
-
-
It seems noone is building a Hanriot H-232. Although I haven't built a plane for 30 years I saw it going unloved on ebay earlier this year and picked it up for peanuts, as a possible alternative for this GB. If I make good enough progress on the Talbot Lago I'll see if I can fit it in. Would be a shame not to include an example of yet another different aircraft type - this GB is, after all, fast turning into a museum of French aviation.
My copy is the 1/72 Azur kit.
-
1
-
-
Finally about finished the bus and able to seriously start this.
I'd been daunted by this stage :
I'd previously encountered these heat joins on the Heller 1/24 Citroen Traction Avant which I foolishly built last year before the GB.
There are a lot more of them here and the parts are very thin - holding the pieces together while welding the joint without burning my fingers was a challenge. I managed to overdo the first join and weld it solid.
Briefly considered trying to spearate it and redo it with some stretched sprue or a piece of wire, but decided life's too short.
Decided to persevere with the other joints anyway for the practice. Of course, with the pressure off, these all worked fine. So I now have an assembly that won't steer but has a mind of its own while I'm working on it.
Here's the steering assembly attached to the chassis :
Now working on the engine and the seats. It's a bank holiday here today so hoping to make some progress over the long weekend.
-
2
-
-
I warned that progress would be slow... I've not been able to devote much time to this yet because I'm trying to finish the Airfix type B bus, and it's taking longer than I expected.
I have now made a token start though. The first stage of the engine has been built
The wheels come in three sections, ready chromed. The sprue mounting points are well chosen so that any lost chrome at these points is either under the tyre or at the back of the wheel. The parts need to be rotated correctly relative to one another to give the best spoked effect, but the end result is good.
-
1
-
-
As promised I'll be building this :
bought for €12.50 on a well known online auction site.
Here are the sprue photos :
Nice three coloured plastic reminiscent of the Matchbox kits of my youth.
Bizarrely the box claims it has approximately 110 parts - do they ship some out with missing parts or couldn't they be bothered to count them? Mine came with the bags still sealed so I'm optimistic
I should warn you that this is my first GB and first public build thread - I don't expect to be able to compete with the standards of the other builds but as it's not the most common of kits hopefully it will be of interest anyway. I'm also a fairly slow builder, usually spending half an hour or so each evening and maybe an hour or two at weekends, so this is likely to take me a couple of months.
Comments and advice are welcome - hopefully I can learn from the experience.
-
6
-
-
Love the work so far. Having completed (to a distinctly mediocre standard) the 1/24 scale one in December I'm looking forward to seeing the results obtained by a skilled modeller with a kit three times the size with six times the number of parts.
-
Make that 12 more. I don't expect to have fewer of these to choose from next year than I currently have, as I'm buying them faster than I can build them.
SR 177/SR 53, any kits ever made?
in Aircraft Cold War
Posted
There's an old Airfix kit on the German ebay site at the moment, but the price will make your eyes water.