MRMRL

Thanks Jeff, and yes that was my understanding as well, in fact the US had serious issues with their torpedoes across the board, especially early in the war. The reliability of the carrier aircraft dropped torpedoes wasn't considered much better, to the point where they almost ditched torpedo bombers for carriers altogether. Thanks, the torpedo boat is about 7cm long in this scale, compared to just under 35cm for Amagiri. Yamato on the other hand measures closer to 75cm long, with a 12cm beam and turrets that are longer than the torpedo boat (about 9cm including the barrels).

Right, as mentioned above, there wasn't much left to complete in order to finish off this one, just decals and a trim of the rigging. I've got these last details ticked off now, so here's a few photos of part I of the triple build complete. Sadly, Amagiri was the easy bit, the other two might take a little longer. And PT109 to go alongside her Next up, Agano, hopefully I'll get started on her in the next week or so...

Hi All An update for a model that I finished working on last year that I didn't get round to posting. I actually built this kit a number of years ago, but as with a few in the collection, added some weathering last year as practice for newer builds and to make it look less obtrusive on the shelf with the others. Overall I'm happy with the result, better than some previous efforts, but still overdone the pigments a little. Enjoy, Matt

Hi All Here's some photos of possibly the oldest model that is still in my collection. My first encounter with photo-etch (only what was in the box though) and I think the last model that I brush painted rather than airbrushing. Over the years it's had a wooden deck, some railings and the rigging added as a guinea pig for later models where I've used those. With those added, it now looks OK, albeit lacking the detail that my other ships have.

Hi All Doing pretty well in 2023 so far, off to a bit of a flier. Here's number three for the year, Tamiya's 1/35 Panther G. I'm aware that this kit is a little dated, plus it had the worst rubber tracks I've had on a kit so far, but it's still a straightforward and fun build. I've mixed it up on previous builds by choosing to do a camo scheme for the first time in a number of years (on armour anyways) albeit that I chose the easiest looking option from the front of the box. I've also added an Eduard Zimmerit etch set as I fancied building it with the added texture provided by the paste, but didn't have the nerve to try and create my own. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the outcome, it looks pretty decent to me and looks good on the shelf next to its flat, single coloured German WW2 armour companions in the collection so far. The only thing I might revist at some point are the side skirts, which look a little too clean alongside the rest of the tank. Hope you enjoy...

That's impressive for a card model, the curves on the shuttle and boosters have come out really well.

Hi again I did manage another crack at Amigiri this weekend and I'm pleased to note that she is almost complete now (other than getting a 'haircut'). Hopefully I can post some interim completed pictures on this thread in a day or two. For now though.... Ships boats painted and attached: Next up - railings Slight overlap error on that last shot . They weren't the easiest to attach with just the little folded over bit on some of the legs. Anyway, with that achieved, on to rigging... So there we go - trim the excess rigging, add the small number of decals to the hull and we're all done. Enjoy Matt

That's great work as usual Rob, your little seascapes are always stunning 😃

A lot, I normally only add a small bit of thinner to Tamiya and Mr Hobby (topping up the jar they come in usually), Humbrol normally ends up about 50/50 or thereabouts, it's such variable thickness to begin with which doesn't help.

Alongside a progress report on the other "bigger" project, I've made some progress on Amagiri this week as well, a fair bit to be fair. Had a bit of a blitz last weekend on the smaller items on the bench and got through a good portion of the work needed for this ship. Starting off with preparing it to go in the base. For bigger ships I tend to use screws, but destroyers only need a couple of nails to hold them in place Then I got to work with the airbrush for the three main colours (Humbrol 100 for the hull - not accurate I know, but I'm addicted to using it for warships, Tamiya Sasebo grey and linoleum deck brown for the rest) And then detail painting begins, starting with the boring job of painting those lines across the deck.... Then the front funnel First torpedo launcher and the base of the rear funnel (I've varnished the front funnel and hull by this point, I'll capture that better in another photo later) More boring lines.... And the searchlight platform behind the funnels Now the top section of the rear funnel, including the double AA guns (quite light on AA even compared to other Japanese destroyers) Superstructure, starting with the lower end and then buttoned up with the roof and direction finders? All added to the deck... which starts getting some details Remaining torpedo launchers added Platform for 'Y'? turret and the minimal rear mast And then on to the main mast And adding the details to the rear deck Before finally adding the main guns And that's it for an epic entry. Another session like that one this weekend and maybe it'll be finished, fingers crossed See you again soon .....

Week 7: Actually done some work on the monster this week. Not that much, but enough to be happy with progress. It started off with starting to paint the remaining detail on the cockpit sections Putting me in a position to start putting all this section together.... And then to start painting the section behind it, not much going on here, but then I don't expect to be able to see a lot of it when it's all buttoned up anyway And that's it for this week, good progress albeit that it seems a little slow for me. Next up is finishing the painting of the rear interior section, then airbrushing the bottoms of these sections black for the bomb bays and starting on the interior detail of the fuselage sections.... Thanks for looking in

Thanks, I don't really have the space either 😉 Thanks, fair enough on the colour, I'll call it artistic license 😉

Week 6: Super fast update for this week, nothing to report I'm afraid. I've got too many models on the bench, so with the time I've had, I've been focussing on clearing some of the smaller, quicker builds. Should have them finished off over the weekend, so I can get my head back into this one. See you again soon 😉

I think the main issue is the two lengthwise chassis parts, they aren't as rugged as the trumpeter equivalents I've seen, and at least one warped slightly either before or during construction, so I was always fighting to bring the whole truck back into shape. I don't think you can make it out now it's finished, unless you look at it head on from a lower angle than the photo.

That's nice, the wespe looks great (dirtier than my taste, I feel someone should have written "clean me" on the side with a finger, done really well though), but the figures steal the show, really good.

I agree, there's a certain lunacy to the improvised gun trucks, makes them interesting to look at though.

Hi This was a two-stage project that I finished stage 2 of last year. I built this model a few years ago, with no weathering (factory fresh), but then added the weathering last year (except to the armour plates, I wanted them to look like they'd just been slapped on, plus I didn't want to overdo the effect). I remember the kit being a pig to build (chassis was wonky as I recall) and a few bits need re-attaching during the weathering process. Looks decent, but not my favorite completed model overall (even though I love the HEMTT series of trucks).

Hi All Another update for a last year completion that I didn't photograph or post at the time. This was a "quick win" completed in between a couple of bigger builds, but still pretty enjoyable. The only real flaw for me with the kit is that the wheels on the bogies are pretty flimsy, otherwise it was a fun build. A bit of artistic license taken in the painting (like the red mechanism wheels), but I tried to keep it fairly low-key, with a wash and a bit of pigment to complete the effect.

Hi All One from last year that I haven't posted yet, I completed this one September time 2022. A pretty smooth and painless build, weathered with a light wash and a bit of sand "mud" and pigments, plus a bit of rust pigment to age it a little. Another entrant in the ugly ducking category, but then I'm a sucker for those. Thanks for looking in

Ah yes, if I could build a kit in 12 minutes, I f have quite the collection. Not sure it would offer value for money though 😉. The border kit does look pretty spectacular, however I doubt I'd get much improvement over the HK with my skill level. Considering the relative prices I'm happy with my decision.

Thanks Keith, it's slow progress but good progress so far, pretty happy at the moment. A long way to go for this monster 😅 Matt

Week 4: It doesn't look like much but it's been a fair bit or work getting here, with one near disaster in the mix as well. Started off easy enough, white backgrounds for the instrument panel decals, dark grey for the panels themselves and started painting the cockpit details (just the black bits so far): Then we got the decals down, here's the main instrument panel decals - turns out the instrument displays are white anyway (rather than clear) so I didn't really need the white backgrounds, never mind, no harm other than wasted effort: Then I started with the engineers panel, as it looked the easiest one to make look good, and I'm pretty happy that it does: Then we get the near disaster, I laminated the instrument panel, acetate and front panel on the main instruments, then did a little painting and oh dear: The paint has bled under the photo-etch and covered the instruments in the middle, what a daft rookie error to make. Question is, are we under the etch or under the acetate? Well, I don't want to buy another and start again, or dismantle this for fear of doing more damage, so I put it away for a couple of days while I rage about it in my head and then go with a bit of thinner and a gentle scratch -> and behold, you can make out some of most the instruments, happy enough that with the visibility that will be had from outside the aircraft, this is good enough. I carry on layering: Finish painting, add the last decal, add the levers and we have a "finished" console: Two more instrument panels and continuation of painting for next week I hope....

That's a nice squadron coming together there. Love the phantom in Royal Navy getup. Sorry to hear it was a bit of a nightmare, but the end result looks awesome.

That's really nice work. I'm so bad at doing figures, I'd never attempt something like this (not a people person 😉), but you've done fine work to convey the expressions and emotions of the scene.

This, as has been said already, is fantastic modelling. The realism of the mud is perfect and all the little details draw you in more and more. Love the watering can in amongst the stowage, looks so real.