Johnny Tip

Just a short one - the NCO has taken command. So the little quintet os ready to go wherever it's headed. Now I can get on with the car... but I can already say this one was fun, with all the Kameraden to place and fit together. See you soon, Johnny Tip

don't they have a left one?

Lo! the dead are alive and whole again! Sometimes about 90 minutes is all you need... including choosing a new head for Fritz in the middle who's leaning to his right and saying something to his Kamerad. Probably some stuff about Limburger cheese, a french girl or Hitler alledgedly eating another carpet. Fritz got his head from a Trumpeter US Army man, but who cares about that. He never liked that single chin strap anyway, and out in the field he had no trouble switching the strap for a canvas one with some sort of sewn "cup"for the chin. (I learned that while getting my "Meisterbrief": you might produce a lot of balls -if you can tell a convincing explanation, you will get away with it ... most times.) Heinrich Jonas, jr. enjoys his time in the driving seat... I did not get started with the NCO yet. Once again, that's all, enjoy the upcoming weekend, Johnny PS thanks @PeteH1969 - I only know the first one with the guns, and it's been at least 10 years.

and the FN function grants some special abilities while pressing combinations like P, 9 and 0 or F, A and L...

Thanks Pete! Now that you say it... maybe it is Indiana Jones in his upcoming adventure - we might find out.

No Progress on the vehicle (apart from the window - clear parts, glue and clamps did the job easily), but I am piling more and more mutilated bodies of Master Box jerries in there... the Co-driver's legs might be needed elsewhere... but the others really do fit. Only thing is the body parts: there are so many optional arms, and somehow they don't all fit as intended. Reminds me of MB's set "one more grenade" - great figs, but the arms do not look as on the package, I saw no way how that one trooper was supposed to hold or open a door... On the other hand... it's more fun when you have to (and can) mix up the limbs for the wanted positions of the figs. They will rather sooner than later get a heads up, and their Feldwebel will occupy the shotgun seat. Then the vehicle will get some progress of its own again! So much for now, Obergefreiter a.D. Johnny

Looks great Cklasse! Miles ahead of my old reworked Revell version... even the crew that disappear in the dark fuselage look better than mine😂

thank you very much @stevehnz and @Keeff! I keep considering posting my pics with more space around the model... always those close-ups.

Guten Tag, now vis a seme more fitting to my neshonellity: ze Audi 108! (god I hate Audis and a lot of their drivers; what a relief it is still a Horch) I have done most of the work on this nice little car, and this once I wanted to crew the vehicle. Having picked up and built most of the kit on vacation in the Netherlands, I thought of an old tip I read about years ago when, after moving to Gent, Belgium for another two days, we all hab a coté d'or chocotoff toffee on our pillows. (to keep my identity safe, I deleted my employer's name, otherwise they might fnd me out and be very cross with me for reusing their old materials ) I dressed the seat cushions in toffee paper and am very happy with the outcome, especially on my first try. The only unhappiness was sparked by those g(&t=Z§3rUf0i! front seats which just WOULDN'T stay together, not even for the kid. We won, me and my superglue. Almost a shame I want to cover the leather with jerry bums. Showcasing the interior... more showcase. the Driver was an offspring of sleepy hollow's hessian... There, he is with his head. Tamiya's Citroen driver. And his Masterbox guests after a direct hit from kayusha fire. As a matter of fact, I feel really just like showing off my seats. But some time or another, I will get back to work on that thing, and will show progress (I must before the hot summer, gor desert plans for that). BTW, anyone else had a problem with that front window pane? It folds nicely, but it isn't square...it bends in all three planes. Goodbyeee, Johnny

Hello everybody, here I am again with my rendition of a VF-27 F6F-3 Hellcat. It has been done to death by others, but not by me It's the older kit, but I picked it up for a very good price and found no big problems with it. In fact, I used the F6F-5 fuselage halves to build another plane, one that has been used as spares donor and now awaits its final fate... I tried my hand at weathering the plane... ...partly because I didn't have a blue color dark enough for my uses... ...so I did some black washes (nothing to do with Highland Regiments). To create a diversion, I kept the right elevator lighter, maybe after a repair. Of course, I prepainted the ailerons upside down, and couldn't repaint it fully satisfactorily -at least on the port side. As always, the cell phone pic looks better - but I was okay with the seatbelt decals. and the frog belly. I am not an aftermarket man, but I keep everything, even PE sprues -they came in handy for the exterior fuel tank. the brush dance about exhaust stains. blast, forgot that little antenna on the back... The guns are trained ahead pretty well, it is an optical illusion within the (phone) camera that the port wing shoots at the viewer. It is easy to see that the fuel tank wasnt always the most fun part -as almost always the case with PE parts- because two of the straps twanged off and took a great deal of searching and letting hope go before reacquired. According to Eduard, this was one of the survivors of the sinking of USS Princeton. I cannot remember how often I crashed into that carrier myself 35 years ago in "wings of fury" - back when I didn't think much about machine-gunning japanese soldiers who screamed out as they got hit... good old Amiga times? Anyway, enough on this, as always I hope you had fun with the pics. Sincerely up yours, Johnny

I love anything resembling a Hurricane, but she's quite the beaut! Great work Chris!

thanks for the heads up, will study. that's my kind of modelling, in about 30 years of modelling altogether (dang, I'm getting old) I can count my aftermarket sets on two hands. The cutting back of the cowlings, that is what I fear most. I already (sort of) scratchbuilt me some desert wheels from the kit rim and the Chevy wheels... audiologists have the needed tools and materials in their repair corner😂 Once I get going - it must be hot for that - I must think of posting pics.

Seems I missed a lot of dioramas being RFI'ed... I love it. Great composition as the Ford was still used after the arrival of the chevies... and I have the exact same kit in my stash with the exact same plan to build it. Any hints?

I saw, and I found some of the tankers (yep, those are the ones), but I can't say that I understood all the references😔 I might be too young after all, and too german.

sometimes a bit of scalpel scratching will work wonders (and the sound will irritate my wife)... but after all I of course agree that there are too few choices for commonwealth troops. If the model kits would represent actual numbers of army strengths, you'd all be speaking/writing to me in german. (hats off to Miniart for producing hungarian or finnish tank crews...) good luck PS there is a british tank crew in winter uniforms... but overalls of course.

ICM have one set of 1986 civilians, but that's not contemporary (any more). Miniart"s British officers have some colder outfits... and if one finds a set of germans in very late uniforms and coats, the reworking should be minimal. All depending on how close you look at the details, of course.

Great scot! Hope you turn the corner on this one.

I like all of em, but the tuscan chapel appeals to me most. (no bandwagoning intended)

I still don't really get the big trouble about Crystal Skull. Was it worse than Last Crusade? Sure. Hard to top that. Were aliens a different way from the other films? of course. But why do people hate this and a lead-lined fridge, still happily sit through movies that include spooky religious artifacts, a plot in which the hero doesn't actually affect the outcome, a jump from a plane in a rubber raft which everybody survives unharmed, and an effing bag strap that somehow gets caught over a wrecked cannon barrel, then somehow gets un-caught again? I love the third and first ones, think the fourth's okay, and tolerate much of the second one. I thought it great that Crystal Skull never even tried to hide that almost 20 years had passed since Crusade. After the last 15years, I fear what this new 5th movie might bring. Might be good, might be "Mary Poppins in space" with time-traveling commie-nazis and "oh, he was never really there".

*cough cough* lots of dust gathered here... if of any interest, I scratched one from Revell's E555 kit. I realified the plane, with retractable landing gear and the loading/bomb bay...

Splendid Mustang! I especially like the slightly lowered main gear doors👍🏼 Also grand family shots!

Great model! Spot of colour in the drab or grey collection... Like many others obviously, I too confere with my wife about some schemes... and one of the first I remember was a 72 TBD which I also did in prewar paint and love it.

Hello lads, finally I've come round to presenting another of my models (covid had finally got me, and forced me to take a timeout after a lot of changes and ruckus at work), a sort of mash-up. I had gotten two cheap Albatrosses III from RevEduardell, and the kit paint schemes were very much alike. So I decided to look for something more interesting... and ended up with the scheme for one of Ernst Udet's kites (which he later crashed). Later on, I realized that the plane in question was a Va - oh well... Anyway, here goes. I could actually use the decals for the tailplane black stripes as they were too for Jasta 37. Of course there are terrible things to see (as always), like the big bumps - hang on! You'll see them yourself. And if not - better for the model Aaaaaand noooow (drumroll) I felt very artistic (now that my wife has taken up painting - and selling her art) and tried my hand at lozenge -no, but something vaguely similar. For the first try, I'm rather satisfied. And as always, while inserting the pics I see some things I should have done better, like some places where I forgot the paint... Especially happy with my rigging. I leave the finer details to the masters here, but the threads are still taut, and my newfound method of painting them with a black marker before rigging is satifactory to me. (the white markings not so much) I was too afraid to completely cut off the big bumps of glue on the opposite sides of the wiring... AAH! I've said it! Hot potato, orchestra stalls... Engine (blurry when magnified) and muzzles. And more rigging. Btw I had used up my mojo before I could tackle the steering cables for the elevator... best viewed on small display (looks awful on my new BIG pc screen) Final views... the decals for the seatbelts worked surprisingly well. and from about ground level. Hope you had fun, love to read comments and opinions, Johnny Tip proud father of a Spitfire fangirl aged 4 3/4

Spectacular! Looks like it's built for A Splendid Little War... That cockpit is absolutely stunning.

Looks to me as if only the flares - parts C - will be needed. maybe. The other parts are probably on the sprues for other versions of the stringbag (not really a need for extra fuel tanks during the channel dash, I guess). A new "spares" box is needed😂