BomberGruppe GB - 2007 (Luftwaffe Bombers)

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know my wife's surgery was this morning.  It all went pretty well, and the plastic surgeon had everything sewed up in a jiffy.  The whole process took about 4 hours.  The actual procedures were very short, it was the testing and examining the removed skin which took so long.  We got lucky, the spot the dermatologist removed was about the size of a jellybean, which made it a snap to patch up.  I've got my wife on the couch relaxing right now and am going to take care of her. 

Well things seam to be rolling along now, managed to get the to coat of rlm 83 on the 234B and the splinter pattern of rlm 81 on the 234C.  I plan to future the 234C tonight and decal tomorrow.  Maybe even do the splinter on the 234B tonight too if the kids go to bed on time (ya right).

Just a couple of progress pics.  The 234B has been sealed up and ready for paint so I thought I would take some photos of the putty before I start painting so that you guys can see the issues with these kits.  The first pic shows the camera compartment cover.  I probably should have removed it and shimmed it up a bit to reduce the amount of putty.

The next one show the poor fit of the canopy to the fuselage.  Don't think there was anything I could do with this.  I did try to file down the fuse so that it would sit better but if you do too much then the front canopy piece won't sit properly.

I have already painted the gray for the canopy and hope to get the underside on tonight and the top rlm 83 tomorrow.

Cardshark, good to hear that I am not the only one sprinting to the finish.  Finally got some rlm 81 on my trip to Reno to finish the camo on the 234C.  I just have to finish masking the front canopy piece and then the 234B will be ready for paint too.

The trip down to Reno was quite the adventure!   Did I mention I hate air travel?  The flight from Seattle to Reno got redirected to Portland due to mechanical trouble, from there we had to fly to SanFransco where we sat on the Tarmac for 30min. waiting for a gate to become available and then had to literally run to the other side of the terminal to make our next flight only to be shunted into hold in the extra security line because we switched airlines, there we waited another 20 minutes until they felt like dealing with us.   Thankfully we still made the flight because they held it for us.  However it meant we spent 14 hours in airports or planes and got to our hotel at like 1:30am. 

Mucker, and all:

I'm still in the running, though it may be a bit of a sprint at the end  Over the weekend I got some more time and got all the scribing done.  Hopefully tonight I can start painting the cockpit and closing up the fuselage halves.  I'll post pictures after I'm done for the day.

Take care y'all!

Ok, Gruppe:

How are we all doing? Two weeks and counting... 

Most of you are close to being done, and a few may not have started yet....It's getting down to crunch time! (Not the "crunch" associated with when you step on a plastic windscreen).

Let's see how large we can make this fleet!! 

Looking good Dave. If it will help out with time, I can send you what I have left in my RLM 81 bottle...

From your post, I take it these Dragon kits are no shake'n'bake kits. Still, what you've posted looks great. Great stuff so far.

After a few weeks of back tracking I am finally back to where I was a month ago.  The bad news is I havn't had a good excuse to make the 45 minute drive down to the nearest LHS that carries the RLM 81 that I need to finish the camo.  I will be making a trip to the states next week and hope to pick it up then.  In the meantime I will concentrate on getting the 234B up to the same point so that I can do both when I get back.  Hope to have these two close to finished by the deadline.  My other two 234's will have to wait for awhile as I need a break from these Dragon kits.

Oh man...that is why I, and no one else as well, should not be allowed to do ANYTHING whilst having mono.  I just went over all of ESCI's raised panel lines.  Thinking and mono are complete opposites I suppose...Oh well, good catch, and thanks for telling me...Its an easy fix, and I don't know when I would have caught it...oh well...Actually, its kind of good news because it drastically reduces the amount of rescribing I have to do.  

Once again, thanks for the catch, and the kind words!  

cardshark:

The re-scribe work looks great so far...except for the last picture. I don't like to be the bearer of bad news, but the control surfaces on the wings are fabric, and they are molded to show the stretched fabric over the metal frame underneath. I don't believe they have recessed "panel lines".

Again, I don't mean to be the rain in the parade, but wanted to politely bring it up.

Other than that, you did a great job recovering form "The Tenax Incident"!

Mucker, your wish is my command.

The good, the bad, and the ugly...

The Good - my first modification to a kit...since this is the AMTech version, it includes optional unspatted landing gear that need the mounting holes changed a bit.  This turned out fairly well.

The Bad - The Tenax disaster shortly thereafter...it looks like the plastic is burnt, but its actually the ink from my cutting mats that the Tenax dissolved, along with everything else...

The Ugly - Step 3 in my newly copyrighted, trademarked, and registered scribing technique...

The Good, Part II  - A before and after shot of the lower wing scribing, its not done, but its close...

More on my cobbled together, but highly effective scribing technique will be in Techniques later...

More updates and pictures to come soon as well. Take care y'all, and though its probably too soon for any comments yet, anything you've got is more'n welcome.

Ouch, cardshark! I've spilled Tenax all over a model before, too, but with much worse results...consider yourself lucky that you can still salvage the build.

You know when all is said and done, the experience you'll have gained from a re-scrive will be very fulfilling. at least it would for me...I've yet to do major re-scribing.

Post some pics of your re-scribe work. 

Scott, I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. I will keep you and your wife in my thoughts.

Dave, your 234s sound like they are going to be an excellent addition to our bomber fleet, keep plugging, you'll get there...and the result will be spectacular.

As for myself, I'm starting to wonder... I've been fighting mono for the past few weeks. I made it all the way through college without catching it, but I guess I'm not lucky enough to have given it a miss forever... Anyways, I'm starting to feel better, but this Henschel is bedeviling me at every step of the way. I just hope it manages to avoid heavy antiaircraft fire in the form of a hammer... It was going real well until a few weeks ago, the night I came down with mono. I was gluing the lower wing together when disaster struck. I spilled a whole bloody bottle of Tenax on the fuselage halves and other assorted pieces. After cleaning up, I decided that what with the mono and all I felt pretty bad, boxed everything up, and went to bed.

A few days later, I took it back out to assess the damage. Not really all that bad, but about 1/16" coat of glue over the front half of the fuselage. This being the old ESCI kit, it of course it had raised panel lines, so I had to make a decision. After I sand the glue off, do I try to replace the raised detail with stretched sprue, or do I bite the bullet and attempt to rescribe the whole thing?  Stretching that much sprue didn't sound like all that much fun, but rescribing was something I had never tried...deadline?  What deadline?  Surely rescribing will only take a few days, no biggie right??  Wrong!  Oh boy was I wrong.  

After a bunch of research and asking stupid questions on how to rescribe, un-rescribe, re-rescribe, and a million and one other things, I am now almost done with a fuselage half, half the lower wing, and all the miscellaneous little bits. I've also got most of the resin cockpit assembled and ready for paint.  

I'm going to go do a bit of testing in the test forum to figure out posting pictures, then post my progress.

You're right Scott, getting old does suck!

Things for me are starting to settle down a bit, managed to find a new car for the wife (I get stuck with the old van ) and work has slowed down so I've been able to get back to the bench.  The first Ar 234 is almost back together after scratching the two pieces that I lost.  I just need to re-attach the canopies and touch up some seams.  The second Ar 234 just needs the canopy masked and attached and it'll be ready for paint too.  It's Canadain Thanksgiving this weekend so I hope to get a good jump on the paint provided the guests don't stay too long.

Thanks Marc, I appreciate it. 

And to add insult to injury I went in to my doctor yesterday.  I go in October 17th to have a biopsy on a patch of skin they're going to remove on my temple.  Hopefully it's nothing to worry about, but believe me my friends, if you notice something on yourself or your significant other that suddenly appears, changes colors, gets red or anything else out of the ordinary on your skin get it looked at ASAP!  The sooner you catch these things the better!

It sucks getting old my friends.....

I'll eventually be able to get back to work on the JU88.  What little time I have for modeling is now going towards finishing up my Tiger I and Elefant (tanks?!?  perish the thought!  )

The equivalent of the Two Minute Warning has been sounded...we are in the final month...

Macht Scnell, Komeraden!

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the moral support.  We're hanging in there as best we can right now.  My wife and I have been really busy with our jobs lately, which is a good thing.... helps keep our minds occupied so we have less time to dwell on the bad things.  I'm hoping to spend some time at my work bench this weekend, it's very theraputic for me. 

I just wish my wife's surgery was sooner (Oct.23) as I know it's weighing heavily on her mind.  Hopefully it's still in just the one spot and they can catch it before it's had a chance to spread.

espins1 wrote:

Sorry guys, I haven't had much time for modeling the past month.  We have some health issues with the family that are taking up a lot of our time and energy which I recently mentioned in the Kursk GB thread.  My wife's father had 6 way by-pass surgery is not doing well, my wife's sister is undergoing radiation treatment as part of her ongoing battle with cancer (3rd time she's battling it) and my wife was diagnosed with skin cancer, she goes in for surgery next month, so things have been a bit stressful in the Espin household lately.  I don't think I'll be able to get my JU88 finished anywhere near the deadline for this GB....

Scott:

Given the circumstances, you have an open-ended due date for the GB. Regardless of when you complete it, you've earned your wings.

 Obviously your number one priority is to be there for your family.  In my prayers will be a swift recovery and healing for You and your family. Stay strong and believe.

Thanks John, I appreciate it.  It's been a tough year, we seemed to have gotten smacked upside the head with a lot of things in the past month or two. 

How's everyone else been doing?

Jason? Scott? Carlos?

Keep the faith, Dave! It will all turn out right in the end!

hey guys,

whats going on.

been real buisy lately with work and family.

been working long hours....yuck!

anyway......im going to try to get the condor done hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

need to paint the props,spinners,and the rest of the glass.

will post some pics soon.

the builds are looking great guys!

jason.