NIK122

Apologies if I'm preaching to the converted but this sometimes happens with me when the air, then paint and back again action is rushed on the airbrush trigger. If you are thinking of buying a new airbrush I can recommend the Mr Hobby PS 289. I've got one myself and it's excellent value for money

Sweet! One of the coolest ships out there. IMHO

Good morning and bon dimanche. Finally I am ready for paint on the trailer although that's for the next post. I have been plugging away at detailing up the trailer with what little reference material there is out there and I've arrived at a point where I'm happy with it over all. It's most likely not completely historically correct but it's as close as I could get it. The winch, chain tensioners and tool box all needed attention to thin them to a point where they could be moved outward to create the channel for the towing cable as described in my last post. I've been lax with photos so apologies for not showing every step but hopefully you will get the idea. The sides of the winch housing have been thinned by 1mm overall and the top narrowed accordingly. The kit part had two chunky hinge or hasp parts above the two brackets which are incorrect and were removed and replaced with a single clamp. The two brackets were also removed and replaced with plastic card and rod for rivets. The rod is the crank shaft. The tool box was completely remade as you can see. It's an approximation. Sorry about the photos. The towing A frame was next. A resin replacement is provided with the Custom scale aftermarket but again the casting was, well........... Looking at the photos available the A frame was constructed from channeled section. Some shots show the flanges facing out and some in. The kit part has them facing in. One of the reasons for buying the aftermarket was the beautifully modelled handbrake and cable. After some consideration trying to tension fine wire between two delicate and brittle resin parts, this idea has been dropped. From what I can tell the later and simplified A frame had the flanges facing in and the handbrake deleted so it's the kit part I ended up using. The molded on handbrake was removed and the air line made from stretched sprue and Tamiya tape. The A frame with the rest of the missing details added. I did consider adding the more refined resin towing eye to the kit part but at this point I just wanted to get the kit done. The shovel is from the spares box, clamps from T-rex. And finally some shots of it all together. This thing is really busy with all the usable resin and scratch built parts added. Kid gloves are going to be needed for painting. The air hose is electrical wire sheathing and will need repeating for the connection to the Famo. If anyone has an image of this connection in situ it would be appreciated. I have the resin attachment so I get the idea but some reference would be great. The electrical cable for powering the trailer lights needs adding but I will attempt this when the trailer is attached and on the base. With the parts thinned and dry fitted the channel between the tool box and winch housing has been achieved. The major parts are still loose to help with the painting of all this. The plan is to prime and then paint the wooden deck using oils. Once this is dry, sealed and masked I will paint the rest of the trailer. I think masking will be easier this way. I know there are wooden deck decals available but I fancy the challenge of painting the wood. I still need to source suitable chain for the chain tensioners. I've no idea why they couldn't have been included in the kit? Well what I had hoped would be a quick build, became another marathon. Thanks for looking

It looks great. 100% for effort on the paint scheme. I've seen this built on 'Greg's models' on YouTube and the work that goes into all the masking is phenomenal. I think you have done it justice

I don't normally follow this part of the forum but couldn't resist as my dad worked for Westland all his life. The kit looks great and you are more than doing it justice. I'm now following with interest. Keep up the good work

This is great. Superb paint job

This is fantastic. Following with interest

Looking good. It's got a Warhammer 40k imperial army feel about it

Still some available according to the site

Thanks for the info. I agree about Ma.K kit prices! Jeez! It's only been about four years since I last bought a Wave kit and they have trebbled in price since. That being said after posting my 1/76 Nutwrecker and musing about building a 1/35 version, I have decided to go for it and picked up a Hasegawa 1/35 scale Nutcracker for €42 from Plaza Japan. Considering Ebay prices this is a steal. Granted there was €15 postage to add but it's still cheap. Stay posted. It's a build for this year

This is coming along nicely. Where do you source all of the donor kits Pete? I've bought kits in the past for parts but something on this scale could get expensive? Looking forward to seeing it painted

A great paint job on this. Subtle and you have really made the details pop

Thank you for all your comments guys

Hello again. Here is the 2nd Ma.K conversion that I built off the back of the raptor. The base model is a 'Nitto Nutrocker' that I got off Ebay. I wanted to build the model in 1/35 but at the time I couldn't stretch the budget. Maybe one for the future when I have a better spares box. The kit bashed parts are from a Corsair for the turret with the original models bits and bobs grafted on. The deck is from a Merkava kit and HI AB from a model railway truck. The figure is from Zvezda and the Kettenkrad from S model. Everything else was scratch built from spares. The paint scheme was inspired by a 2WW scheme on an Arado 234 Blitz bomber. Thanks for looking

Hi. This is a build from a few years back that I've had a request to share. The suit has been modified from the original kit with vac formed parts and the bed roll, gerry can, entrenching tool, AC unit, etc are scratch built. Thanks for looking

HI Pete. Thanks for your comments, they really help with keeping up the momentum with the build. I seem to have fallen in to the trap of never being able to build anything out of the box. Yes sure I will post my Ma.K builds in the sci-fi section. There are two if you are interested. Both conversions. A 1/20 Raptor and 1/76 Nutcracker converted to a Nut'wrecker'. I'll need to find the photo files on my computer or take some new shots so I will keep you posted. Thanks

Good evening. Some more of my modeling and musings. Thanks to everyone who comments and those of you who just take a look. So this time I've been tinkering with the trailer some more. The Das Werk kit and after market have thrown up some problems that after researching a little need working on. The lay out of the jack, winch, tool box and 'cable roller guides'? don't appear to be correct. Below is the kits layout and a photo of the real thing. As you can see the tool box is larger than the winch housing and both are slightly further back. There should also be a space between the tool box and winch to allow a cable to be run from the towing vehicle if equipped with one. The jack is mounted on the cross member of the trailer and not on the timber bed. There is a letterbox slot under it for a towing cable to pass through. Here you can see the channel between the boxes to the rollers. The winch on the trailer is manually operated with a crank handle so I can see the benefit of a powered winch on the towing vehicle. The rollers the cable runs through are provided with the kit but are in a rectangular housing when as you can see they are in between two triangular brackets. The 'Custom Scale' after market includes the roller housing in resin and a reworked winch. I mocked up these parts below and well........... The more I looked at this the more wildly over sized the winch and roller housing look. They are way too tall. There would be no clearance for a transported vehicle. The jack is missing in this shot but if it was fitted I'm going to hazard a guess that the top of the jack would be in between the height of the tool box and winch. I've decided to use the kit winch and modify the resin rollers. The modification was straight forward enough if not a little annoying after shelling out for the resin parts. Below the part marked up to be cut. The height will be reduced by 4mm. Cut down with the top saved to reattach. And dry fitted with the horizontal roller lowered. There is some bolt detail to add and a little refining but I'm happy that it looks more in proportion. The winch needs moving to the right. Reference for the mod. Thanks for looking

Awesome paint work on the engine. As above, what metallic paints are you using?

Hello and bon weekend. I've been plodding on so here are the results. The dash board binnacle has been rescued and installed. Below is a shot of the kit part and the Aber replacement. In hindsight I should have drilled out the binnacles and thinned the piece out but you live and learn. I've removed the raised detail and fixed it to the photo etch and sanded flat the kit piece. Installed on the dash with decals. I'll add gloss varnish to the dials or I think there is a product for this but I don't know what its called off hand. Switches picked out with enamel flat black. Of note is the beige strip between the bonnet and cab which on the real vehicle was made of canvas. I've had a change of heart with this project and decided to press on with building the trailer as compared with the Famo its a straight forward build. It means that I can size the base for the finished models and start to think about the display. The Das Werk kit is a mixed bag compared with the Tamiya Famo. The detail isn't great and there have been some minor fit issues. My biggest gripe is the shear number of sprue gates on every part which I think is excessive and requires a lot more clean up than I would like. This brings me onto the 'Custom Scale' upgrade set which is also a mixed bag. The set includes a raft of missing details for the trailer but half of the parts are badly cast with air bubbles spoiling some finely made and impossible to repair details. I have opted to use what I can and make remake the rest using the resin pieces as reference. Below is the assembled leaf spring front bogie, axel and missing compressed air tank parts and brake actuator. And assembled Next are the rear mud guards. Some fit issues here and I recommend that the vertical, inverted T shaped reinforcing rib is only glued at the top at first to help with alignment with the lower pieces. Some filling was needed afterwards. The mounts for the rear axel jacks. The resin parts are cast copies of the kit parts with bolt detail added. As air bubbles had resulted in some bolt detail not casting I opted to just add the detail to the kit parts. Another fit issue was the mud guard bracket (immediately to the left of the stub axel. This needs gluing on after the jack mount or the jack mount won't fit. The finished assembly with additional handle and bracket detail. Again the resin parts had missing detail due to air bubbles. Whether this is due to bad casting or that the detail is too fine I don't know. Finally a shot of the central frame assembled to give an idea of scale when compared with the Famo. As always thanks for looking

Is this a 'what if' creation? It's pretty cool either way

Very nice. Looking forward to more

Ah yes! I missed the out of stock bit. Sorry. There are 3Dprint alternatives available. Have you tried Flickr for your photos? It's pretty straightforward and if you have never used it before it won't cost you anything for a few years at least. Unless that's changed. It was 2000 photos before you got charged monthly when I started using it

I'm not sure what the general consensus is about photo etch but I find most of what's provided in sets unusable. It looks to be good in theory but is it really designed to be practical for the modeler? I persevere with it up to a point but find it can take a large portion of the pleasure out of the hobby. These are just my thoughts of course. If you don't mind the expense or the wait have you considered the 3D printed route? https://www.hlj.com/1-35-scale-ww-ii-british-army-british-army-antenna-base-set-no-9-4-versions-8-pcs-rcarcrp35029

A man after my own heart with all the additional details. They are all worth the time and add up to a much more interesting build. Keep up the good work

'Fortune favors the brave'. Following with interest. It's going to be great