Dads203

Iwata Revolution will do you right mate

Villach .. beautiful part of Austria , I worked 18 months in klagenfurt for Nokia Siemens networks. Didn’t want to leave, met so many friendly amazing people. Welcome Gemini 8 to BM

I managed 3 ... 237 Sqn, 7 years... that must make you a spec trade or wobbly head poor you ... 7 years

Just to make you feel better, there was still some Chieftain Squadrons (MK 11’s) kicking about in my time In Germany

14 Sigs ?

I remember those days well, most of the track mileage was on German roads, the amber winkypots came in around 1991, I can remember going to the SQMS to sign for them, after that the REME sparkies were wiring them up from the rear light cluster. They were removed once we got into the exercise area and away from the public roads. I did see on exercise, we were playing enemy during a Divisional FTX ( Full Tac Exercise ) we had one road move as a convoy where we were going to pass a convoy of Chally tanks in a German village, the Chally Sqn was also our enemy. The exercise umpires deemed it not good sport for us to have a running gun fight whilst transiting through a small village, so we had to pass each other in a gentlemanly fashion. All good except the road wasn't wide enough to get a 432 and Challenger tanks down at the same time going in opposite directions. We slowed down only to watch the challengers just cruise right over garden fences, hedges , gates and almost a few family pets , you don't realise how wide a challenger 1 track is until you see the damage it does to a nice lawn. Reckon the Damcon teams worked very hard that day !! The price of freedom I'm afraid

Our IR filters were always fitted, that way all you needed to do was swap out the day scope and fit the AVII night scope in the drivers compartment. No messing

Very nice Roger, every build just gets better fella

The 432 is actually bigger than a M113, makes a change as US stuff is usually larger

Chally 1 from memory wasn’t coated with the Orange optics I think Roger, is this build going on a base fella ?

Roger, nice work indeed mate, the weathering is top notch and really looks the part. One small point if I may, the scopes would have an orange hue as they were treated with an anti laser coating Dan

I really wouldn’t put wet and dry anywhere near a needle, cheap brush or no, the only thing I would try would be a metal polish or a paint cutting compound, you want to make the needle as smooth and polished as possible without removing too much material. Micro mesh might be only thing that could work but only the finest grade if you are inclined to try that, again polishing the needle without bending the tip would be fun. Dan

I started with a Badger 200 single action brush when I was 14, not a bad brush and it certainly worked, it was reliable and never failed to work but it wasn’t quite upto the task of fine lines, I changed to a Badger 150 and used this for another 5 years or so, again it worked well and was reliable but not quite upto what I wanted. I changed to an Iwata TR1 and was blown away by the difference, it was like night and day, my airbrushing finishing improved considerably and overnight. A cheap airbrush will take you so far and then stop, as I said before Badgers are good airbrushes but not fantastic. They do what they say on the tin and they are reliable and relatively cheap. The cheap Chinese copies are not consistent, some people have had great results with them and others have been put off Airbrushing totally by them. Yeah they are cheap but precise they are not, I have heard that for every 5 you buy you might get one good one. The machining tolerances are just not there and you shouldn’t expect them to be and it adds to the adage of “buy cheap, buy twice” in most cases. I have used a few airbrushes in my time, I rapidly approaching 50 now so I have few years under my belt of using these tools and I would always choose a genuine Iwata. I own two Iwata brushes, the TR1 and Custom Micron, these are all I use on a regular basis, the TR1 is as good as it was the day I bought it over 10 years ago. Yeah I’ve replaced seals and bought a needle or two but it’s a quality item and never failed me. I’ve stayed away from Neo brushes and H&S as they have a few consistency/reliability issues and yes I’ve used both. The Neo brushes are not really Iwata brushes although they are branded by them. I can’t remember who actually makes them. With the prices of kits getting more expensive as the months go by I think £100 for a decent airbrush is a no brainer and using one that has a decent rep will take away most of your frustrations. Just my tuppence worth Dan

Buy an Iwata

Basic most simple way is to use tamiya nato black for the base colour and the use pure plack for shaddow, you can lighten the nato black with a few drops of buff for the highlights. Thats the basis basis of any black work i use, you can add to this with oils and play with the tones. HTH Dan