Marcello Rosa

I have proved myself unable to plan in advance which model I will do next. My plan changes almost daily …

I for one would have been happy to pay a little bit more for Cartograph quality decals. I suspect that once you buy bulk it would add less than $5 to the price, in comparison to us having to pay at least 15 (plus postage to Australia, in my case…)

In addition to what TallBlond John said, benefits include getting extensive sympathy from others who do understand what you went through, and the bragging rights that come from getting great results from materials that defeat other modellers.

Great result. The shape and colours give this plane a sci-fi vibe, you could almost imagine it as a much larger space combat vessel.

Thanks for the comments. For the B-36 I did get an aftermarket set, because the originals looked awful from the moment I saw them. These ones looked ok initially, and in fact you could use them if you were prepared to ignore the inaccuracies of the line thicknesses. Except for the yellow outlines for which the only solution is really to paint.

Welcome to the Roden club. Our motto is patimur pro arte keep in mind, it’s like hotel California. You can never leave.

Looks great. You would not think that there was a problem with the decals. What was the issue?

Thanks for the encouragement. I also have a kit of the C-133 with the Thor ICBM that will hopefully not be long in the queue. Yes, Roden have been quite smart in differentiating themselves from other brands in terms of the content they offer, and I am thankful for this. So, I tend to overlook the faults in their kits. I hope that they will keep improving (particularly the decals...)

It is plain for all to see that my misadventures building the B-36 were not sufficient to keep me away from Roden kits. I think his Ukranian manufacturer found an excellent market niche, providing reasonably accurate, reasonably priced kits of difficult-to-find subjects. I continue to be victim of their charms. The C-135 family of planes has been flying since the 1950's, and continue to look great after all these years. When I heard that Roden was going to release a newly tooled kit of the "Rivet Joint" (RC-135V/W, a heavily upgraded signals intelligence platform) I felt that it would be a challenging, and somewhat unique modelling subject. I mean, look at all those antennas! This is the first model I have ever built of something that does not carry weapons. I have a more comprehensive build review with construction pictures here, so this is just a summary. On the positive side: the shape appears accurate to me, and the parts fit shows some improvement relative to the B-36 kit, which was released just a couple of years earlier. This suggests that Roden is on a path to improvement. The kit has recessed panel lines. Like many 1/144 kits, these appear a bit too deep and wide for the scale, but this is easily fixed by sanding. Better to have them and tone down, than not to have. The main negative: the decals continue to be truly awful. Here I used what I could from the kit, combined with bits from the spares box. Specially bad were the yellow outlines for the doors and portside instrument bay, which broke into bits and/ or had a mottled appearance even after multiple applications of Sol and Set. In the end, I painted them over with Tamiya XF-3 yellow. Other lines (like the black trim separating the white and grey parts of the fuselage, and details in the engine cowlings) were too thick, so I used bits from the spare box instead. There is a suggestion of improvement in that the colours in the insignias were less misaligned than in the B-36D kit (which still takes the cake as the worst-ever I have tried, including decals that had been kept in a box for >40 years). Oh, and the decal placement instructions also had several errors. Fortunately, there are plenty of good pictures of Rivet Joints online, so references are not a problem. Surprising no one, all of these antennas were a big pain in the backside during the construction, but given that this is what the plane is all about, I made a reasonable effort to get them "right". The long ones in the wingtips and top of the vertical stabilisers broke off multiple times. I took the opportunity to correct their length (too short as provided). Many of the fin-shaped ones on the dorsal and ventral parts of the fuselage also broke off. In the end I substituted all of them with bits of spare photoetch, cut to size. This also gave me the opportunity to add several antennas that should exist according to reference pictures, but were not provided in the kit. Most notably, the tiny little ones (e.g., along the midline at the level of the "cheeks" were all additions. Rigging the dorsal aerial used a human hair. Having decided to represent the plane in flight, I also recruited an old Airfix stand into a new mission. The panel lines were pre-shaded by running a lead pencil over them. I then used airbrushed SMS white for the dorsal fuselage, Tamiya X-1 for the nose radome, and XF-1 for the antiglare panel. The grey colour of the ventral fuselage, wings and horizontal stabilisers was gradually built up with thin layers of AK ADC Grey, Mr Color Greyish Blue, Mr Color RLM78 Light Blue, and Vallejo Flanker Light Grey (sometimes focused on specific panels, to add variety in order to suggest weathering). All covered with SMS clear gloss, before and after decal applications. The photos got suggest that the grey surface is quite reflective, so I resisted the temptation of a final flat clear coat. Anyway, here is my tiny model of a great plane! (flying with another Roden 1/144 in the picture above).

I for one would like to see more boats and ships from you. I really liked it.

Nice one. what is the story of this one? Why one day?

Some photos are like being at the dock, looking at the real ship. Just fantastic.

Hi all I am giving AK 3rd gen acrylics a go for the first time, mostly because they have a colour named exactly what I need (ADC Grey). However I am having a terrible time getting it to spray properly. I am using the paint from the bottle diluted in equal amount of the AK 3rd gen thinner (AK-11500). However it sprays very strangely in comparison with other brands I have used. It looks worryingly splattered initially (but then gradually spreads and does not look too bad in the end). But certainly not a worry-free airbrushing like I get from Mr.Colour lacquers, or SMS. Also, the paint in the mixing jar separates quickly from the thinner, like it never got actually thinned just shaken together (if you know what I mean). If you have experience with AK 3G, can you please share the thinners you know to work, and the dilution rate. I have basically every thinner you can think of at home, so if you think it dilutes and sprays better with X-20, X-20A, Mr Color, MLT, Hakata, Mission Models, Premium auto acrylic thinner, Colourcoats, etc. just let me know!

Are you sure this is 1/72? Puts my 1/48 to shame...

Congratulations, this is really stunning.

You are correct. My point is that there are endless possibilities, as long as you have a reference picture to justify your choices…

Not a ship to win any beauty contests, but they certainly got the job done. Your model is fantastic.

Check this image which appeared in one of my favourite blogs https://laststandonzombieisland.com/2023/09/29/cobra-color-four-pack/

Wow, it is as close to seeing the real ship that one can be. I lack words.

Excellent! Congratulations.

She's really looking like had a hard work life. Which is obviously the truth! Congratulations on the excellent result.

I was not even aware this kit existed. Very good looking plane.

How visible do you want this thing to be? YESSS!!! Joke apart, it is a great looking model.

A little addendum: could not resist adding a customised sea base to this one...

Man, take this thing to a car wash! Seriously, great result you got here.