Roland

Hello and thank you very much to all who had answered. After some more comparizons with 1/1200 scale models I think they are 1/700. I took another photo that shows the two pipsqueaks in front of some of the models I bought last week. And if you compare with the box art the models are really similar resp. go together. Well, and finally - thanks to the basic tip from Dave and then the internet, I found out what it is and that it really is 1/700 : http://blog.livedoor.jp/irootoko_jr/archives/375586.html http://davidbilek.sweb.cz/subchaser.htm http://www.internetmodeler.com/1999/august/ships/subchaser.htm http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=61571 Thanks to all once more ! Regards, Roland

Hi, I´m new here and want to start with a question. I put it here because I didn´t find any other appropriate place. I bought some built 700th scale models and among them there were these two. They are quite tiny and I don´t know anything about them nor found anything. I doubt a bit whether they are 1/700 or not... Does anybody have an idea ? Thanks, Roland

Hi Mish, thanks for the quick reply. It's a pity but I had hoped to find a community of people with the same interest - 144th scale. As you wrote the goup is over. So I will continue searching. Would you please be so kind as to delete my account. ? Thank you very much. Kind regards, Roland

Hello, I´m new here and have a question. Although being German I had been a member of the British IPMS SIG 1/144th as long as it existed. It was a very interesting and helpful institution that covered almost every aspect of 144th scale modeling - from three-view- drawings via various pictures and and how - to building articles up to history. I was very pleased to find this 144th scale group build. But then I became a bit disappointed. Maybe I misunderstood : "All kits must be unstarted" - it is not allowed to show finished models here unless you start a build thread ? If yes - what a pity. In my opinion it is just as worthwile to show ones "gems" as to show the process how they came about. As long as the models were built from kits and not from prepainted snap-ons I don´t see anything that speaks against showing completed models. And "This is due to the fact that some kits only have a very limited number of parts in 144 scale." - Is there a limit that says how many parts a kit has to have to be defined as a kit worth being shown here ? I hope I simply misunderstood anything because I was looking forward to showing something here, too. Unfortunately it is not my passion to record each tiny step of what I´m doing just to be allowed to participate somewhere. Primarily I´m a modeler and enjoy modeling as much as seeing others´ works as well, and if I have a question I ask. Sorry for my mistake English - I hope it conveys my thoughts and feelings... Kind regards, Roland

Well another step is done. It may look like being done in a few minutes, but it took a few hours. First I cut and shaped the base plate of the rocket from 0.2 mm brass an soldered it to the rocket shaft. I didn´t want to glue it in place because the surface of the shaft is less than 1 mm dia. and thus the area, if being glued, won´t be a reliable joint. You see it on the second picture - not sharp but visible. The shaft of the real rocket engine is fastened and stabilized on this plate by triangular supports. On the model these supports are 0.8 mm high and 2 - 2,5 mm long in 144th scale. I cut them from 0.25 mm styrene sheet and had to glue them on the plate then, connecting tube and plate. My problem was the tininess of the space between the triangles - there are eight of them finally, four of them diagonal as to be seen on the first photo, the remaining four as twins on the two protruding "ears of the plate. Even my finest tweezers were too thick to place the pieces correctly without moving anyone of the previously placed ones. So I had to reshape a tweezer to get these ultra-thin tips. Then it worked. Thanks to my Dremel and the cutting discs... Each time when I decide to continue I don´t know yet what to do next. There are too many single parts on this engine and it´s an almost philosophical question how to go on. At the end, I suppose, this rocket engine will take most time...And when it will be on display no one will see it all Finally I give another thanks to some tiny ( 144th scale... ) amounts of Islay Single Malt that helped keep my nerves calm and my fingers steady Roland

I forgot to tell you that I had even been a member of the IPMS /UK, as long as the SIG 144 existed. Unfortunately this SIG died. And it is really hard to find "fellows in the 144th scale misery". I had found a forum where a lot of 144th scale modelers contributed. But after some time I realised that it was more a competition of "who builds best" and "who has most of..." than a friendly community aimed to show ones work and have some fun together. Well, I don´t mind competitions. But not in a forum where I take part to enjoy my hobby. I don´t like showmanship. As long I have made a mistake myself instead of misdoing with some bought, expensive superdetailing parts, I can be proud of what I´ve done - even the mistake. It´s mine... Otherwise I wouldn´t do things like converting the Su - 27 shown ahead from a too small model to an "only a bit too small" one ... : Roland

Hi there, many thanks for your welcome. As to future articles – I´m a slow builder because I have a very special modeling philosophy : Models are interesting as long as there is any – even tiny – challenge. This means for example I take a model out of its box, see a few inaccuracies and some things to be changed or added. I make a plan what to do and how and then I start building the model. Just in the moment all these planned things have been done I very often lose interest and the model gets back into its box… Although I know how to work with airbrushes etc and I think I´m able to do it, this is one of the things I´m not interested in anymore then…So there are a few models lying in their boxes, being started or finished building / converting or whatsoever, but not finished painting yet. For example the Me – 163 was started about ten years ago during a camping holiday on the French ( sorry ) Atlantic coast. Yes, I had a small selected equipment with me, even including a Proxxon minidrill…And I took that tiny resin model with me, being a challenge just by that tinyness. I hollowed the fuselage and cockpit through the cockpit area – there wasn´t any openinig yet as well – and when finished I put the model back into its box. Next I took Styrene sheet and started building the transporter. The holidays were over, we went back home and these two models laid in the box until a few weeks ago…Then I decided to complete them. But since the pure Me-163 model is a bit boring my idea was to cut the fuselage and build the rocket engine in. This is one of these “challenges”. It is much easier to take a normal injection molded model, detail the fuselage halves before assembling them and finish the model then. Here I first had to think about how to cut the plane in a way that I neither would lose a noticeable amount of material on the cut nor would have to reshape areas that might have been cut away during that step. Well, it worked as I wanted it to. The next step was to correct the inner shape of the fuselage ( I couldn´t see how it was hollowed when I did it on the complete model, of course ) to a certain and even thickness. Then I took a piece of 1 or 1.5 mm brass rod and turned the rocket engine from it, using two different needle files and a scalpel. And now everything is lying around again because I haven´t decided yet what to do next – finish the rocket engine or build and assemble a cockpit or detail the visible inside of the two fuselage parts… So I took out another one of these tiny resin kits from Jan Kopecky and actually I´m preparing everything to be changed, converted, added etc. there. Finally I have to praise the digital camera. This is one of my absolute favourites when preparing anything. First I take Photos of the basic models from all views – together with a scale of course – then I make my sketches what to be openend or built in or so, then I transfer my sketches onto a layer on the corresponding photo view, put it to the right scale and print it out . So I not only see in advance what it will look like but have really correct templates as well. This may take a bit longer but is worth it. I hope I didn´t bore you too much and my rusty English was understandable. Roland

Hi, I´m new here and want to show what I´m interested in. About twelve years ago I had switched from 72nd to 144th scale. The reason is simple - lack of space. I like huge planes such as B-52, Vulcan, M-50 and all the other ones - my private giantism... But when I had finished Contrail´s M-50 Bounder in 72nd scale I realized that I´d never be able to come even close to my dream. So I inquired about what was available in smaller scales and found out that there were a lot of big planes in 144th scale. Most of them vacuformed, but that was all the same to me. I´m a modeler... So I decided to sell my 72nd scale kit collection ( ca. 1200 kits ) and started with 144th scale. Meanwhile the new collection is too big for one life again, and I must say that it´s just the same fun to build those tiny planes as it was with 72nd scale - if anything, it is even better : The challenge is bigger. I prefer to make as much detail as possible myself. My point of view is to stay a pure modeler and I will do without details that I can´t make myself. There is enough to do nevertheless - improving, fine detailing, replacing, scratchbuilding etc. That doesn´t mean I won´t use tiny photetched parts - BUT : I etch them myself. And of course I also mould things myself from resin. But I will never buy them. A small result is to be seen on these rather old photos - they show my first attempts in 144th scale. The MiG- 3 was a resin kit from Jan Kopecky from Prague which I improved a little bit - hollowed out and detailed the cockpit, vacuformed the hood. The SU- 27 is form Dragon - smaller than 1/144th, so I enlarged it by cutting it into pieces and adding plastic where necessary to get an acceptable shape and size at least - even if not exactly 1/144th scale. The F- 15 was a semi built kit from a friend who lost the interest half way. I had split it into parts again, in fact to practise with the new scale before damaging a new, unbuilt kit. But then it proceeded, I took photos from a Hasegawa catalog that showed the F-15 in an similar pose in 32nd scale and I said to myself "why not trying sth. similar in 144th scale"? So I finished the plane, added some inner and outer detail, opened a few hatches, put on a ladder, converted a 1/120th (TT) scale railway man figure into a pilot entering the plane an added a few (bought, not selfmade...)resin vehicles. Another project on the table have been a Me- 163 and Scheuch - Schlepper for ca. six years now. The plane is resin, from Kopecky as well, hollwed out an cut into two pieces to show the rocket engine. The transport engine is scratch built. I´m not ready yet with it. Meanwhile another, absolute highly gifted 144th scale modeler from Germany has finished both in a more than stunning quality and detailing. Sort of a joke was to try making that steering wheel... You see, 144th scale can be as attractive and ambitious as all the bigger scales. Roland