Thanks Tanky. Glad you liked it.

Regards, Rick

wow that's a very nice build.

Ok heres some pics of my Bf-109E-4. It represents an aircraft from 9./JG.2 "Richtoven", flown by Ofw. Rudolf Rothenfelder in Sept. 1940.





I noticed after the pics were taken, of course, that I had forgot to tighten the anttena wire . That's what happens when you grow old & senile. It has now been corrected, but I didn't feel like setting up to reshoot the pics. Hope you enjoy it anyway.

Now, back to the Hurricane.

Regards, Rick

tho, thank you SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll get to work on that award right away. Anyway, I might move to Shady Pines anyway. I'mm getting a little bored with Happy Acres... hehehe

osher - good to hear! I've been looking forward to your Bf110... and yes, I was being nice about the weather there haha... I imagine it is as wet if not wetter than weather here the same time of year (my part of Texas, nothing but fog everymorning that turns into drizzle by afternoon, puncuated by sun here and there but it always comes back)

Thanks Aurora-7, Jboutin, and J.S. Harrison for the kind remarks.
I appreciate them all!

Now I can anticipate seeing all your cool builds now!
Plus building and finishing my little 1/144 Clipper for that group build too!

p.s.
Aurora-7, I am trying to finish up another Connie too. This one will be in the white/red scheme of a TWA liner. I had two builds going last summer. I finished 'Columbine III' and posted her on the IFIF's thread if you haven't seen it yet!

later,

Thanks for the rundown Tanky... guess what I found for ya? a set of decals for a Ju88... which would be "roughly" the size of the Do17.. at least for the 'no step' type decals... I'm sending you the whole lot... crosses, swastikas etc tommorrow... you could probably use the squadron codes if no one has a problem with that... a bit make believe but being you're in a tight spot and other suitable decals are not in production, on my part I say go for it!


what you do with the decals is your business!! Well... don't eat them.. Tweety was in the infirmary at Happy Acres for a whole week once with decal poisoning... it wasnt pretty at all!

Well, I apologize but the only pics I can post are when I'm done with the kit. On the bright side that should be very soon!! But I will give a brief rundown here. The cockpit detail exists, but barely. The pilot has a seat and a yoke on a simplified and very small floor piece. All around him the gunners sit on little seats that levitate in the middle of no where. Trough the numerous greenhouse canopies you can see staright to the bottom and back of the plane, making painfully obvious the deficiency in details. This problem is made worse by the fact that the kit supplied canopies are EXCELLENT. Once dipped in Future, these are the best clear pieces I have evr seen. However, this ensures you can see evry inch of the lack of detail. On the outside, most details are coverd but are simplified. I'm OK with this as most of the major things are covered. The fit of this kit is very very nice also. I forsee very little filling and sanding needed... only at where the wing mates with the fuselage. Not too many pieces included in this kit, making it quite a quick build. I could improve it quite a bit, but I do not have the time, because i'm putting a tremendous amount of serious effort (read tons of AM) into my MiG-29, which is meant to be a contest model. On the whole the revell kit is very nice, and you should pick one up if you ever have a chance.

QUOTE: Originally posted by tho9900 knowing what I hear about Fall/Winter in england they were a bit muddy as well...

...and I thought it was just the English who were masters of understatement! (BTW, yes, my bf-110 is slowly advancing forward, just that I needed to get my Churchill finished first for a model show last Sunday, which I missed anyway! I'm going to try and rebuild my part made Tamiya Spit, and have in it BoB colours, is it against the spirit/letter of the GB to include it?)

ACK!!! I let Tanky slip through the cracks!!! yeah Tanky.. even some 'in progress' pics are nice! I like to see them as I can see how someone else tackles a tough area and learn from it!


---edit---

I broke down today and did a little weathering after the fact... not much but some I feel would have been historically accurate. the only thing so far was to dry brush some mud color very lightly on the tires as the strips were most probably grass and knowing what I hear about Fall/Winter in england they were a bit muddy as well... put a few mud specks on the hubs with the same dry brush and some mud thrown up on the undersufraces behind the tires... it's hardly noticable at all but it made me feel a little better, knowing my aircraft wasn't new out of the box even though it was fairly fresh during those months...

Tanky, post some progress pics so we can all be awe struck . Seriously, I'm curious what the old kit looks like. I built one many years ago, but don't remember much about it.

Regards, Rick

wow! come home from work and there is SO much activity!

Sean - so what's the holdup? let's see some pics! I heard you and old Mr. Thunderblight got into it again... he might think he's awful healthy for 94 but you showed him what a young guy can do to and old body like his! Good going!

Jay - great news! nothing worse than something that doesnt work right.. good to hear you're back in business!

Bob - good luck looking for cameras... good rule of thumb is if worse comes to worse and you are confused, the same people that make 35mm cameras (Canon, Nikon etc...) make decent digitals as well... but check out the Kodak line.,. for a low to midrange cost camera it does good work!!

Jules - Me and the brigadier made up now, he has his glass eye back and loaned me his walking stick to poke old Fatty Larkins while he sleeps... the old soldier is a ball of fun under all that hard coating!

And a group thank you for the comments on my Martlett.. I really enjoyed it and it is definitely something I wouldn't have thought of as a British, might less a BoB aircraft a few months ago... gonna do the one for the N Afrika build with a bit more detail to it though!

I'm masking the canopy of the do-17. Planning on closing up the fuselage today and attaching the wings maybe. I should get some paint sprayed on it on the weekend...

Jay, glad you got the regulator problem squared away. I thought it must have been defective somehow, as the problem you described was most unusual.

Regards, Rick

Thanks guys for the comment on my pit, (way back on page 60 I think?) We sure are moving fast. I had some good progress on my Hurricane this weekend and after some minor sanding/filling maybe next week I'll get to painting it?

Rick, I think I solved my problem with the regulator, I had bought a bungled one so I took it back and the new one works fine.

Nice work Tom, Tweety and Nicodemus (I like the uniqueness of the Martlet). I hope my 'cane will come out even half as good. I've got a Typhoon I started like 8 years ago that I worked on this last weekend a bit and is now at about the same point as my 'cane so I'll be able to practice with different painting techniques on it first.

Sean, whether to weather is a personal choice thingie. I like them both ways, but prefer mine a bit more pristine.

Regards, Rick

Thanks for your comments on the 109 guys, I am humbled
Mind you, after slapping the flat coat on, she looks a bunch better now
She has just the right 'used grunge' look about it, and with a touch more smoke and some pastels..............................

Rick, I really wanna see your 109!
I don't like making models that are clean, for some reason I just can't let myself do it, But I love seeing other peoples kits in a nice clean finish, maybe with a touch of weathering.
I get too see the true lines of the a/c that I usually cover up, AND they make great research pics, whereas a weathered one IMHO only gives you one persons idea of how the craft looked.

Jules, I still have all my digits!!!, but if the missus catches me buying the Defiant, I wont have them for too long

Tom, FANTASTIC Martlet!!
I expect nothing less from you

And we don't have a plant room here, we have been lobbying for one, but they thought putting rails in the handicapped toilet was a better use of funds.
I disagree, takes some off the fun outta the bathroom trips IMO

Well, another 24 hours, and I can start applying the pastels, and making the oil stains underneath that 109's were notorius for.

Found the perfect wire for antenna, so have to use that, stretched sprue is a thing off the past

Tom-thanks for the info-looks like I might spend some time researching cameras-for the wife's Valentine present, of course....

QUOTE: Originally posted by Tankmaster7 thanks. I really need to design a special patch for you that says "Tankmaster7 award for Outstanding Generosity."

hmmm that would be swell... maybe a statue of Kremps with a name plate at the bottom kind of like the Oscars... except the human figure would be shaped more like a 2 liter soda bottle than what an Oscar looks like!

Bob - you can get a pretty good camera without spending a lot too... the Kodak Easyshare series does great work.. Saltydog here uses one for his pics and they all come out excellent! Make sure you get the 5 Megapixel one... any camera you get should be 5 Megapixel and the more optical zoom the better! Digital zoom tends to be very grainy unless you get one of the very high end cameras.. (edit: read - $1000 or more kind of high end camera) I know a little about what cameras are out there so when you go to get one if you have any questions feel free to ask me!

Next is a couple of reading lamps with those Reveal light bulbs that make everything look naturally colored and then you should be set! You can get those bulbs at any grocery store.

Oh yeah... some white or light colored paper too... I am going today to get me some posterboard and set me up a little backdrop with a base to sit the build on... that way the light is reflected back at the model...

QUOTE: Originally posted by tho9900 Bob - what kind of camera is it? I liked the job the masks did on my SBD, and might try them again on the He111 but for the average model (with practice) I am getting ok at the average canopy!

Tom-it is an Aiptex combination video camera (Target special)-inexpensive way for my son to get the digital video camera he wanted for Christmas-not bad pictures, need to work on the lighting and grab the tripod. A decent digital camera for the wife might be a good Valentines Day gift though.....btw-nice job on the Martlet. Another history lesson for the masses.

Sean-your bf109 is a work of art also. You guys are my heros..

Yeah, decals come & go pretty quick. Aeromaster never re-issues a sheet it seems, although they sometimes release old art as " Best Sellers" sheets.

No pics of my 109. Got all set up, but the battery in the Cam was running on empty. Takes 4 hours to recharge. Oh Well, tomorrow is another day.

Regards, Rick

TWEETS

Did i hear you right...................I mean read you right you lost a digit i was trying not to ask but now i have to...........Which one and how"croc" or "goanna"
BTW your 109 emil is looking sweet buddyBut of course i knew it would...

Tom my old Ward mate, you gotta hide in the plant room tonight, i heard the staff talking, they know it was you you stole the Brigadiers glass eye
Oh yeah love the Martlett very nice work indeed
Hey your gonna have to let me know what Wildcat your going to be building for the Pearl harbour GB because i want to do one from the same SQD................

Nicodemus, Man what a lovely looking HurricaneThats one to be proud of

QUOTE: Originally posted by darson Jules, no problems mate one Spitfire door on its way up, I'll chuck in some reference material as well that you may find useful. Mike, yeah no issues on the 1/72 Spit, but I had you down for a 1/48 Spit Mk.II as well, are you still doing that? Cheers Darren

Thanks Darren your a champI'll be putting it in my Spit MK 1 as soon as it gets here

Rick thanks for the Aeromasters sheet code Damn shame they don't make it anymoreOh well back to the drawing board

QUOTE: Originally posted by rjkplasticmod But they sure do come in handy when you decide to do a build & find out the decals are OOP. Regards, Rick

wow... ok that scares me because I am becoming that way... it all started when I wanted to build one certain B-26 but the decal sheet was OOP... this certain aircraft named "Cindy" just caught my eye.... I might try to do it on Testors decal paper if I can't find a sheet of the decals....

Now I just buy stuff because I might build it... or it looks good! going to Aztec models tomorrow and buying "Mayan Gods" decal sheet... all Mexican and South American P-47'd and P-51's... why? because I might not be able to next week haha

Tom, thanks much for the offer, but I have a Martlett decal sheet somewhere in my stash. I am a decal junkie, even buy decals for kits I haven't bought yet . But they sure do come in handy when you decide to do a build & find out the decals are OOP.

Regards, Rick

QUOTE: Originally posted by Tankmaster7 [bribe]chocolate chip cookie[/bribe]

I was thinking more in terms of foldable US currency with rather large numbers on the face. Just kidding, the F4 is a very nice build. Were proud of you, win or lose.

Regards, Rick

thanks. I really need to design a special patch for you that says "Tankmaster7 award for Outstanding Generosity."

thanks guys!

Aurora - somehow I happened on the story of the Martlets (F4F's bound for France before the Nazi's overran it is where the one I modeled came from, they were diverted to Britain when that happened) when looking for something "different" to build... I believe Darren might have mentioned something too... (that was a looooong time ago!) But yeah, it was the first American made aircraft to shoot down a German aircraft in WWII... about a year before we joined! (a Ju-88 shot down somewhere near Scapa Flow November, 1940)

I plan on building one more for the N African Group Build in desert colors to round out my shelf now...

Rick - thanks! if you decide to build one like you mentioned, you are welcome to the remaining two sets of decals unless someone else wants one then I can split them!

Tanky - yours was the F4??? I thought it was the convertable volkswagen so I voted for that one!!! haha kidding I voted for yours... outstanding job on that camo on it!

[bribe]chocolate chip cookie[/bribe]