dnl42

Very nice job on this! Wow! I was certain this could be done quickly, but not that fast!

I have a drivetrain! Well, something vaguely like the representation on the Tilly. Back to the frame.

Welcome aboard! Good luck on your journey to building that Tomcat! As the joy is in the building, don't rush...there are many skills to learn.

Very nice build. I have a Minicraft boxing in the stash, so it's nice to see what's in store for me. And again, thanks for pointing out the story of this aircraft.

Outstanding build! That's quite a story too, thank you for bring this up.

Very nicely done and that scheme is excellent!

Very well done!

That's excellent work! Head and shoulder above anything Pyro imagined.

Bravo! Very well done.

Very impressive work! It's just about ready for the body builder!

Hm, a 2002 tii. I remember searching in vain for one of those in the early 80s...

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!

GIYF and beware of restorations.

Your subject is twin-engined. It's not clear to me a paddle-wheel towboat would be that useful without independent paddle wheels.

I use stainless steel mixing cups from the art store. Also Tamiya stainless steel stirring sticks.

Here's my 1st shot at a chassis. The gross geometry is OK I'll work on the mechanical parts before trying again.

Very nicely done! I particularly like the battered look to it.

Disclaimer. This chassis will be a flight of fancy...arguably no better than the pan provided with the kit. I found some photos of a post-war Standard 14 chassis. While the Beavertte Mk.III has a shortened wheelbase, my assumption is the chassis looked somewhat like this, with the front-end largely intact and surgery aft of the transmission. Compariing Tamiya's 1/48 Tilly chassis to the Beavertte hull, that doesn't appear too unreasonable. With that, I drew a template based on some imagined measuremets. Your comments are most welcome.

I somehow put hand-grabs where they didn't belong. I removed them, repaired the damage, and went looking for what I should have done. Looking more carefully at photos showed there were tow rings(?) front and rear, which I added. Some small lights were collateral damage in the repair; I replaced them with disks punched from Evergreen strip. I also had to correct the turret mounting. The instructions had me laminate 2 doublers and then mount them to the underside of the roof. Despite my best efforts, the turret didn't mount well. To fix this, I removed the doublers and sperately filed the roof and middle doubler to ensure the turret fit into the aperatures. I then glued the middle doubler to the roof and ensured the turret continued to fit properly. With that verified I was able to mount the bottom doubler, which supported the turret. Now back to that chassis

A 1/48 M8? I wonder if Tamiya will release 1/48 M3s and M5s now.

The POSCA pens are very nice!

I still suggest you go to Andy's or an art store to try out the Iwata CS. It's important that it feels good in your hand. I had a Badger 360 before the Iwatas. It was a nice tool but I prefer the Iwatas. I've read good things about Gunze Procon airbrushes. I don't observe any of the cited issues with my Iwata tankless. It's quiet enought I can hold a conversation with my wife at normal speaking levels if she comes to the garage while I'm painting. IIRC it has somewhere between a 33% to 50% duty cycle when running at 15 PSI (1 atmosphere). I previously used a portable tool compressor with a tank that was way too loud--it's now reserved for its intended use, light pneumatic tools. Here's my compressor and airbrushes. The quick-disconnect makes it easy to switch between airbrushes.

Thanks! I must admit that I find working with metal very satisfying! I have a steam jones, and I suppose working with metal is tapping into that. Funny, my wife thinks I like trains, it's really steam trains, or steam anything. A friend has 3 Nichcols & Shepherd traction engines. The near one is apparently the only remaining 'return flue' Nichols & Shepherd engine; the next two are both 25 HP models. He routinely runs the middle one, with the canopy, the 1st and 3rd are being worked on. I'm itching to drive the RV to MN to help him play with his toys.

The hull is essentially done. The turret is built from a ring and top. I formed the ring around some dowels, bent the turret top, and then married the two with CA. Fortunately the top had an inset that correctly positions the ring. Easy to describe but it took a couple of hours to get it all done. Next up were the radiator louvers. Contrary to the instructions, I bent the louvers before I attached the panel to the hull. Getting the 1st louver bent with a #11 blade was quite a challenge given the part's small size. After that, though, bending each louver was easy with a small flat-blade screwdriver. I'll need to put a backing plate behind the louvers. The viewport doors needed some effort to attach as they have a very small overlap with the openings. I ended up putting a 6 mil alum backing plate behind each opening to help. PE grab handles were replaced with 0.5mm brass wire. Hatches, &etc. were the last to fit. I'll add some Archer Fine Transers weld lines and rivets before painting. Next up is a new chassis.