ScanmanDan

Last bits before the work week makes building imposable, or at least unlikely. Decals are mostly spurious, but fill in the blanks and add a bit of colour. I'm only planning on some oil dot weathering and a couple of passes with some dust to tie it all together, Nothing like the battering I usually apply as I like the idea of these planes not being too long in the tooth before wars end. Need to paint the base and get a nameplate engraved but this one is well on the way to being finished. Thanks for looking in. Dan

Another experiment. The red cowl markings, didn't go quite as planed. I should have made the gaps, maybe 1.5 - 1.0mm instead of the 2mm I tried. I did do a practice one but thought it looked okay until I got it on the model itself. That's what being inpatient will do to you. I should have remembered to scribe the cowl latches too as well as some other bits I now wish I had done. Still and all I'm pretty pleased so far. I gave the lot a couple of thin coats of Mr Hobby 'Mr Super Clear' from a rattle can to get ready for the tiny decals. Getting there. Thanks for dropping by for a look. Dan

Morning progress; I am an impatient bugger and I don't want to wait for a couple of weeks for some decals to arrive from the USA so I thought I'd see if I could do the fuel triangles with stencils. I think they turned out okay. I need to do about five more and then add some black numbers( fudged from extra decal sheets) into the middle to look the part. Good enough and a nice proof of concept for later builds. I lined up the yellow inner triangles by eye, turns out it seems easier to do very thin borders rather than bigger ones. These are 4.2mm ( overall) on a side and I think you could go a bit smaller too. I think it is all down to the masking media as it is very forgiving and conforms very nicely. No doubt I'll get more done this weekend, I have some ideas for the red dashed walkways and the red circles on the cowls... Thanks for looking in. Dan

Thanks Mateo ! I'm a pretty happy camper. Got the Swastikas drawn, cut and applied all in a single night after work. They don't sux which I count a good days work Progress; \ I'll go away now and stop bothering everybody, but I will say that these Silhouette cutters are very cool bits of kit. I have now got to order some decals for this to steal the stencils from. But at least while I'm waiting I can get the finish a bit more tight and glossed. Dan

Thanks Michael - Glad you like the 262. I do like to add pilots as they add a bit of life to the model. Glynn - I am happy you like her so far. I'm almost up to decals and I'm not too good with them. The good and the bad... Went nuts after getting home from work tonight. I just had to see if I could get these painted. I had one good one, well it's okay. and one not so good one. I didn't get the second mask just right. Must try harder next time. I have been thinking about other ways to use the masks and I'll see how I go. I have now got to draw up the swastika and see if I can paint that on the tail without a mishap.

This cutter is so cool... Sorry but I just had to add this cause I'm happy dancing all over the place, Progress; White crosses on with very little fuss after I got my head around drawing in Silhouette design software. It's not especially hard I'm just very thick. I used the Hasegawa decals for reference but that opens a whole new can of worms as far as markings go. The crosses look okay so I'm going to roll with them as they are. I need to man up and draw the black and white crosses for the under wing next, Fingers crossed I do a decent job on them. Thanks for looking in.

Spent the morning tidying up the colour and then fired up the Silhouette cutter to try and make some numbers. I was thinking about a 4 but settled on a 3 as easier. I did find a website called Wordmark.it that lets you compare lots of fonts all at the same time. This made it easier to pick a font I liked, no it isn't accurate only close. Then it was a matter of sizing it to where I liked it and away I went. It came out pretty good but needs a rub down to knock off some ridging around the edges. Next time I'll try a coloured number with an outline. As this one was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. I'm next going to try and draw out the white crosses and see if I can stuff them up. The swastika might be a bridge too far... The yellow stripe, which on reflection is a touch wide, was made easier by using the Tamiya white vinyl tape for the outlying as it is very stretchy and conforms well to the curved fuselage shape. All up not a bad look so far, maybe not 100 percent accurate but looks okay to these tried eyes. Progress; Thanks for all the nice comments and support. Dan

Thank you to everybody who has left a response. It's nice to know that folks like your progress. Glynn - Nice to know I'm not the only heathen out there Progress?; Added some brown tones to the green and some grey tones to the blue and a fair few more blending coats to try and tie it all together. Finished up with a first semi gloss clear coat to try and homogenise the whole thing. I will look over the bird in the morning and see if I mess with it some more or go on to painting the markings. Though I'm pretty happy with this so far. Thanks for looking in. Dan

Thanks Thom, Glad you like her so far, she's destined for colour so lets make a start. I hope you like the results. I know it's heretical but I pre-shade, there, I admit it. I like Spanish school too so that makes me a double heathen heretic. But I can't get the results I like without using basic pre-shading overlaid with many multiple translucent coats of paint on top. Post shading and washes, inks and other assorted blasphemes abound. As everything I do tends to darken the finish I start with a over bright and light colour scheme and adjust as I go. Two new wrinkles I'm trying out here are adding a fair whack of Tamiya flat clear to the overpainting and rubbing out each successive layer with a Tamiya 3000 grit, foam backed, sanding pad. I'm just starting out so many miles to go before I'm anywhere near done. Progress? ; I've barely started the belly. So far so good but I'm far from where I want to get. I do like that the 3000 grit sanding seems to both keep the overspray roughness under control and buffs out the finish nicely. It also helps with the occasional oops She'll look less 'quilted' next time. Thanks for looking in.

A little mile stone reached. She's ready for masking and primer. ( Needs a good clean too ) The very rear most part of the canopy didn't fit well as it was too wide for the bustle and I had a high pucker factor moment of adding a wedge of sheet styrene to make the bustle wider. Lots of sanding and superglue 'putty' but it looks better now. Then it was just a lot of assembling all the sub-asseblies and a little bit of 'putty' followed by more sanding. Progress; So far so good and I should be able to get some paint on her soon. Thanks for stopping by for a look. Dan

I make no bones about the fact that painting and weathering models is the part I like best. So it is important to me that I get to painting something as a reward for all the hard slog of construction. I spent most of yesterday with brush in hand and bashed out this pilot ( Thanks Brian ) I think he'll fill in the cockpit nicely and truth is not too much can be seen once the canopy is on. Progress; The nacelles are scribed and I'm painting the internal bits now. Once I get the canopy sorted I should be close to primer stage. Trucking along nicely so far. I want to try my hand at cutting stencils for most of the markings so we'll see how that works out . Thanks for dropping in for a look. Dan

Colin - Thanks - The Hasegawa kits not too bad, just need a lot of TLC and sanding, lots and lots of sanding. Progress; One of the reasons I keep making 'rules' for my builds is that if I don't, I get so sidetracked and bogged down that I loose interest and wander off to do something else. ( The so called Squirrel syndrome ) I thought I'd just whack the rudder on today and be done with it but Noooooo I decided I didn't like the simple butt joint and wanted some gap between the rudder and the vertical stabiliser. Then I needed to add the hinge detail then I thought that the rear light need attention…. In the end I spent the whole afternoon to only get this done. I'm happy with the effect but not so happy with my slow progress. I'm off to polish the freakin' canopy some more as that little do dad is taking ages too. When will I get to do some painting? Thanks for looking in. Dan

Thanks Plasto and Blitz23 for your kind comments, it's nice to know I'm doing something right. Progress; Wings are on and scribed, I added wingtip lights and the second nacelle is built and both pods are ready for scribing. I have left them loose for now to make it easier to do the scribing. I have added some brass wire pins to the horizontal stabs to keep them level and true. I should be able to leave them loose to make painting easier. I have to tackle the heavy mouldings in the main canopy next, never fun to have to cut, sand and polish out canopies. All in all she's coming together okay. Thanks for looking in. Dan

Loving your build and enjoying all the details. I can't get enough of the 1/48 armour and soft skins as they are such a nice compromise of scale details, time to complete and cost. I hope to see more soon. Thanks for sharing. Dan

Progress; In keeping with the basic brief I used the kits bomb mounts. They fit well but could use some more details , I do what I can quickly and then move on. I would have loved to use the resin ones from RB but I'm trying for simple, quick and cheap. ( I might as well be describing my GOOD character traits ) You can also see the square brass tube I use to support my inflight builds. I'm not too fussed that you can see it as opposed to a clear acrylic rod. I prefer a good strong bond to the supporting peg ( super glued with added support of epoxy putty ) that I can use to hold the model during painting and finishing. I was itching to paint something so... I used the kits bombs with a added sway bracing from 0.05mm plastic rod. Not flash but will and once again fit the mounts perfectly. Next up is the pilot and sorting out the other wing. Thanks for dropping in for a look see. Dan

Progress; I'm pretty happy with the stance now. I have to get cracking on the other wing and finish up the scribing but not too shabby for two weeks work. Base needs to go into the spray booth for some basic black and I have to work on getting a pilot into the cockpit but everything's going to plan so far. Dan

I wish that my scribing was better than a 7 out of 10 but alas I'm still a fumble fingers, . I have spent the day dubiously scribing, then using superglue to fill my many mistakes and then re-scribing, again and again. Thankfully the superglue and accelerator combo works so well to cover mistakes that it is only the sheer madness of the task that stops you getting a perfect finish. At some stage you have to call it 'done' and move on, lest you go bonkers. I really want to get this sitting on it's base by close of play tomorrow. Here's where I'm at tonight. Still a bit rough around the edges but starting to look like something. ( I'm not sure what, but we'll give it time. ) More tomorrow with luck. Thanks for looking in. Dan

Still bashing away at the forge, but there is progress; I'm not too concerned about the gap at the wing root as the fuselage is sucked in there as I haven' yet installed the cockpit and it's integral bulkheads which should push out the sides nicely. The scribing is going slowly and I'm moving around doing other things so as to not burn myself out. Next major hurdle will be where to stick the support peg and what attitude to have the model 'flying' at. I'm leaning toward pitch up with just a touch of roll as if we are rolling over into the target. I'll know more once I start mocking everything up. Fun build so far but I'm not good at scribing and it gets a bit frustrating doing things eight times . Bar Side - I never could make miss fitting panels not look like sloppy assembly. But you are right the cowls only fit, approximately at best. Thanks to all for stoping in for a look. Dan

Well I'm back from playing with my little critters…. Truth is I probably wouldn't have started this kit if it weren't a birthday gift from my great boss a very good modeller in his own right. I think I would have waited for the Revell kit to come out as I have bad memories of building this kit ages ago when I was still in my teens. Nice box art. Wow, this kit is old school. Me thinks I will need some new decals or make some masks of my own. I have decided to build as much as I can stand OOB, no aftermarket and as little fuss as I can live with. I'll go wheels up and concentrate on fit and finish. The last time I built one of these both the wings and engine cowls kicked my backside so attention will be on smooth assembly and nice paint. The main fuselage parts are hammered together. I have sanded out much of the surface details and will re scribe as little as I can as these birds looked pretty sleek in their putty and paint. As expected the gear doors aren't the best fit but epoxy putty and superglue fit all( Oh, and sanding, lots and lots of sanding ) The parts all fit but EVERYTHING need a nice block sanding like working on an old car. Levelling out the shapes and fettling the joints. There isn't much flash but surfaces are wavy and everything fits better after a bit of TLC. Of corse this destroys and surface details and I cannot see how you could build this kit without re-scribing it. ( One reason this kit beat me up all those years ago.) The wingtips need a brass spar as the bend way up, mine is only partially successful but will have to do. I spent a lot of time working on assembling the cowl panels and getting the intake and exhaust sanded out. I worked out that I can assemble the whole nacelle as a single unit if I chop up the engine and separate the turbine parts for latter installation. Doing it this way lets me sand everything nice and flush, putty all the gaps in the exhaust outlet and sand it out. I cannot see how you do all the sanding if you assemble it as the kit would have you. A fair amount of work to get this far but now that I know what I'm doing the other wing/nacelle should go quickly. Thanks for stopping by for a look, anybody else remember smashing this old kit? Dan

Finished pics. Went with the rocky base in the end. Heaps of fun. The next of these on my list will be converting a Tiger II into a Jagdtiger! Thanks for looking in and I hope you try one of these just for grins. Dan

Thanks a bunch Andy, your comment really raised my spirits after a horrible week at work. Okay, I calling this one finished The basic black base is drying in the paint booth and yes I notice that I have to attach the hull MG but other than that I think I done. Nice kit and I will get some of the others. I am keen to try and convert the Tiger II into a Jagdtiger Thanks for all the great comments and I hope you give one of these little critters a try as they are good fun. Dan

Progress; More tweaks and pin washes, plus some more detail painting. Just about finished with this one, though I don't think I'll use the rocky base now as I don't think it looks right somehow. Maybe just a simple black base instead. Thanks for looking in. Dan

Thanks for the support and encouragement guys. I haven't stuffed up too badly yet. Progress? Just some colour washes on the tracks and a first pin wash and lots and lots of tidying up painting mistakes Much still to do but looking more the part. ( Just spent an interesting quarter of an hour converting all the pics in this topic to SmugMug pics. I don't see it as being impossible to repopulate your old topics with new links but it sure is dull work. But I'll be damned if I lot those icks at PB win.) Thanks for dropping by. Dan

Progress; It's a long and winding road but this is a start. So much I still want to do. Leaning how to use SmugMug after the PB fiasco. Pretty good though I'm still getting used to their interface. Nice to not have all the ads and everything is very swish and professional. More tomorrow if I get some time. Thanks for looking in. Dan

Progress?; Old Yeller. I've gone a bit brighter and lighter this time because my weathering colours have tended to make my builds very dark lately. I'll have to see how this one works out. Thanks for looking in. I hope everyone is ready for a bumpy ride Dan