Greta to see you undrway Tony. Nice choice of scheme. I take it the camera window is that round feature on the left side on the edge of the roundel.

Figured I'd share some rather meager updates. It's progress nonetheless.

First off, it was just the other day that I finally got time to try out my new airbrush. It's a finer needle than the standard Patriot which is quite nice for finer lines. The airflow adjustment needle under the color cup took some fiddling with to get used to it's effects. Overall I am quite pleased with the updated ergonomics and general performance. While practicing with some MM flat black I decided to go ahead and prime the PE seat and accompanying mounting bracket.

I attached the rather flimsy and delicate seat mounting bracket to the rear bulkhead. I had to add a piece of Evergreen styrene rod to the top of the bracket to complete the complete the bracket. This is the bar that the seatbelts go over and then mount to the rear of the seat area. Unfortunately, I primed it prior to taking a pic.

Here is the primed seat:

Thanks for tuning in.

Joe

My wife was working an evening shift and once I got the kids settled down and to bed I scored a bit of bench time and got some more work done on my ar234.

So once the base coat of flat black was dry I gave them a spray of Vallejo RLM66 schwarzgrau. This is my first time using Vallejo paints and I must say they were worth the money. Very good quality paint and I love the dropper style bottle, much easier than Tamiya or Testors paint jars.

I should probably had the flash on for this picture. In person it looks quite good.

This is also my first time using flat black as a base coat and using it as a form of shading, something I've seen done but have never tried. I'm pretty pleased with the result on this bulkhead. Do you think the depth of shading is a bit too much? It's the only thing I was curious about, overdoing it.

While those were drying I gave some other parts a coat of RLM02 that I mixed up from Tamiya XF-22, XF-49 & XF-24. Going off some research, the actual colour of RLM02 changed over the years and from factory to factory and I think this should just about match it.

Some light coats with a bit of the base coat shading on the fuselage ribs/formers.

This is a shot without the flash.

And by comparison this is one with the flash to get an idea of the colour. My photography skills could probably use some work.
I think I missed a bit on part of that wheel well but they will get glued together and I can touch it up then, so I'm not overly concerned.

While all of that was drying I glued one side of the wing together. Might as well get some major assemblies done while paint dries.

And now I wait.

Very solid and well done progress. It looks good, especially your shading effect. I too have recently begun using flat black as a base primer coat (see my previous post). I'm still trying to get the hang of applying my color coat in such a manner as to achieve a nice shadow effect. Nice work.

Nice progress on the 234.

Yeah, that's it's Bish, the circular aperture just there. Think it's straightforward enough to do.

Cheers

Tony

Joe, Colin: Those both look good to me. The shading probably won't look as intense when you've got a coat or two of matte sprayed over it. 

Tony: Yeah, I'd think you could probably get away with drilling a hole and putting a little Krystal Kleer or clear epoxy into it and then setting it outside down as it dries to get the right bulge. 

Here are some WIP pictures of the Waffentrager. Please pardon the recurring smudge in the lower right corner, I didn't notice it was there until I was uploading the pictures. 

I'm still a little nervous about how my filling will look on the finished piece, but you learn through mistakes I guess. 

I thionk your being a bit hard on yourself there Moff. From what i can see, its looking nice. And if the filling looks a bit rough, just put that down to a rushed job getting it built for the front line

Coming on nicely Colin. I hate taking pics of my builds, as often as not they reveal some flaw i missed or the pics are just terrible.

Looks pretty good to me so far Moff.

Great work Moff. Appears to be well on this side of outstanding.

Hi Bish!

I would like to attend this GB. Hope this one what I have in my mind fits here.

I have Revell 1:72 Tiger 1 E and I like to build it in Finnish markings.

The kit:

Parts:

I got photoetched zimmerits to this for free so I think I should use them:

Thats a nice idea Trabi. So is this a German tank passed on to the Finnish when the Germans introduced their new tanks, i like it.

Nice Trabi. What a cool subject. This will be very fun to watch you build. What can I say, got a love the fact that you are building in 1/72 scale. Especially armor, don't see that all to often.

Joe

Thanks guys!

Well this based on story what I heard several years ago from one guy. His deceased neighbour had told him, that he was working on cargo ship during ww2. Once they were commanded to go to get German military surplus from some Baltic country.

They arrived to huge depot where was rows of tanks etc. There was only few persons left and they asked from someone who was in charge, that what they can take. He said that they can take what ever they want, after they have left they will destroy the rest.

They found that there was Tiger also. They tryed to take it, but it didn´t fit in from any hatch and that ship wasn´t that big, that it wouldn´t fit on deck either. They spent hours to figure out how to fit it in, but in the end they had to leave it there.

Well that´s the story, but I can´t confirm it from anywhere. Not even year. I´ve been asking from people, but no one have ever heard anything like that before. Only me and my wife have heard that. And I have no idea who that guy was. We were talking with him when we were selling our stuff at fleemarket.

Nice story anyway. Even if it isn´t true. After all we had 59 Sturmgeschütz III tanks during -43-44. And negotiations to get Panthers were held. So it would be possible that we could have 1946 Tigers also.

1:72 scale is fine for me, because then I have more room for them.   Some details to add are bit p***a. Nowdays it have started to feel, that I need more microscope than glasses.

Because that kit have also older roadwheels I decided to built it as mid production Tiger. That would be more presumable version to have here, than late version.

Well, its a good story true or not. I am looking forward to it.

Sounds cool Trabi. I haven't built many 1/72nd armour kits but this one looks pretty nice esp with the Eduard zimmerit.  

Alright, I keep seeing all the awesome work in here, and it inspired me to get going on my jet.

This is Tamiya's 1/48 He-162 Salamander, or Spatz, which is cool since that's my mom's maiden name.

Anyway, this kit is typical Tamiya awesomeness, and the problems I've run into are entirely of my doing.

This plane was a sort of last-ditch effort that had a dorsal-mounted jet engine with a metal body and wooden wings. It also had an ejection seat (you had to eject PAST the jet intake!) It's small -- the wingspan is about 2/3 of a MiG-3, which is itself pretty small, and I think it is just a cool-looking airplane. Plus I got to see a surviving one at Planes of Fame a couple of months ago. I will be building this one with a fairly fresh paint job because many of them weren't fully painted in real life (bare metal and putty dominating). But I think if the war had continued, they would have been painting them.

Here is the fuselage. I installed the gear bay and most of the cockpit on one side before closing it up. Bay is Model Master RLM 02 and the pit is Tamiya German Grey.

Tamiya included the weight, which I always appreciate, and plastic tabs keep it in place so it doesn't roll around.

Here is the IP, which is a decal included in the kit. For the markings, I have a Kagero book with Cartograf-printed decals, which I'm looking forward to using.

This is really a quick-building kit. In the photo below, I have done some seam work, and masked for primer to verify they are ok. The rear end of the jet mount is actually visible, and I fortunately realized it before installing the engine. So the putty is drying as I type.

I sprayed primer and fixed theunderside seams. Tamiya has two duplicate prues in this kit, which is nice because I messed up the engine cover with some really bad seam work, so I was able to replace it. It also comes with two sets of gear doors, and each are one piece. So I was able to cut both sets apart and use the extra one as masks. The central (black) part is fixed, and the doors open outward. This just makes masking super easy, and as you see, I've got the spares off it, as the locator tabs prevent them from being installed in the closed position.

I'm hoping to get a final primer coat on it tonight and start painting this weekend.

-BD-

Really nice BD, great job on the pit. Look forward to seeing more.

I would not have wanted to fly one of these. The Germans had real issues with the glue they used for the wooden wings.

I'm waiting for a Voyager turned metal muzzle brake I ordered from Down Under, it's supposed to come before the end of the month. I'll be laying low until then, but I'll still be keeping tabs on the GB.

BTW, how's that Maus kit coming along? Please pardon, but I don't know name of the individual building it, I'm very bad with remembering names. 

Thanks, Bish. I didn't know that about the glue. Scary. There's a YouTube video somewhere out there with a pilot who flew one of these when he was something like 16. I think it's an hour long, and I will try to track it down and watch it before I finish it. Should be interesting.

-BD-

I think they did solve the glue problem, but still not something i would want to be worrying about. I have heard that despite the 162 being intended to be flown by Hitler Youth with very little flying tie, it was very tricky to fly and even experianced pilots found it tough to handle. If you can track that down, would be nice if you could post the link.

Moff

I'm waiting for a Voyager turned metal muzzle brake I ordered from Down Under, it's supposed to come before the end of the month. I'll be laying low until then, but I'll still be keeping tabs on the GB.

BTW, how's that Maus kit coming along? Please pardon, but I don't know name of the individual building it, I'm very bad with remembering names. 

 

 

Have you not ben able to track that barrel down closer to home, surprised you are having to get one from Oz.

tates is doing the Dragon 35th maus, is that the one you mean. I am hopeing we get to see some of that soon.

Bish

 

 

Moff

I'm waiting for a Voyager turned metal muzzle brake I ordered from Down Under, it's supposed to come before the end of the month. I'll be laying low until then, but I'll still be keeping tabs on the GB.

BTW, how's that Maus kit coming along? Please pardon, but I don't know name of the individual building it, I'm very bad with remembering names. 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you not ben able to track that barrel down closer to home, surprised you are having to get one from Oz.

tates is doing the Dragon 35th maus, is that the one you mean. I am hopeing we get to see some of that soon.

 

Well Brandon, you are simply a vital part of all the awesomeness going on here. Your Spatz looks excellent so far. Excited for more that's for sure.

And a bit of an update from me humble bench. Shot the black primer on the cockpit parts tonight and just might get the interior green on tomorrow. Also, I have got a few of the cockpit PE bits folded and ready for installation.

Thanks, Joe! Although I think there is a lot of great work that I'm seeing from a lot of modelers.

-BD-

Bish,

here is the video. I've watched about 20 minutes. He mentions the glue issues. Yikes!

http://youtu.be/xmJqjx9VVKM

Looks like a nice kit BD and the instrument panel looks perfect!

From what I'd read the Reich was getting right up to the dividing line between regular hardware and 'suicide weapons' with stuff like this.    

Thanks, Gamera. And yeah, desperation causes a lot of that, unfortunately.

In the video I linked above, the He-162 pilot talks about how there were 65 pilots in his unit in December of '44, and by sometime from March to May, there were only 5 left. And none had been lost to enemy action.

He mentions how the slave laborers who built them would file partway through a control cable, and under stress it would snap.

-BD-