Hi guys,

thanks a lot for the info about that vacuforming tool! That´s amazing! I never thought that somebody sold this as a toy...


Well, I think I would have been very happy with that stuff!

@ Ray: Besten Dank!! Nice free hand brushed camo. I wish I could paint my Atlantic free hand with the airbrush, but the very thought about all those deicing mats and antenna bumps which want to be masked seperately... BTW: this RLM 75/76/81 (I think, but I can be wrong) camo is a nice inspiration for my next project, a Horten Go 229 in 1:72 from Revell. This plane is to be built during a Blitzbau next Friday/Saturday. I think I will document that in a seperate thread .

Servus,

Sebastian

hey Sebastian, you're close, 75/76/83... blitzbau on a Horten huh? I always think of the old department store in Bremerhaven when I hear that name... Good luck with that build, I'd like to see it when you're done. US and German WWII birds are my favorites.

As for the Vac-u-form stuff, pretty awesome! I can remember some dangerous toys like yard darts and Shrinky Dinks, but this is one that could have been useful to me on down the road... I still cook all my meals in an Easy Bake oven!

@Ray: Whoa, real good german there, mate! Some of your correct spelling you'd have a hard time to find on a german forum!!
They teach you that in Texas or you been on duty the motherland of beer?

@Middle_F: My man, COLOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never thought to see that happen anytime soon, did we?! Yipeeee!!
You DO know btw that I have a professional Vacform setup at work?!! We use that to fashion templates for Implants and stuff. Someday I'll be able to vacform new canopies for us!

Hey Rebilda, I had 3 years of classes in high school and then joined the Army when I was 17. After 14 weeks at Ft. Knox I was stationed at Garlstedt with 2AD. After my service I stayed in Germany and lived in Bremerhaven. Total time in Deutschland 14 years. bin auch Werder Fan!!!

Ray, I hadn't mentioned how good that camo turned out. Nice work! Also, what's the story behind those Balkan crosses with leaves in them?
thanks,
Sean.

Hey Sean, thanks so much man! I've been putting some effort into this build and developing my skills. I'm very pleased with it so far.

An explanation for the crosses:

First of all, it's very interesting that you called them "balkan crosses". The german spelling is Balkenkreuz, Kreuz meaning cross, and a balken is a beam, bar, or in some cases stripe. But in this case the word Balkan is absolutely fitting because the aircraft illustrated is one that served with the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia.

This particular bird was of course German built, it was used by Croatia, flown by a Slovak pilot, landed in Italy, captured by Americans, sold to Poles for 2 bottles of whiskey and finally served in the RAF with Brittish and Polish markings.


as captured...


as she ended up serving with the RAF.

Pretty cool plane! I'm sure I'll eventually build it as the Bf109 is one of my favorites!

Wow, what a stunner! I'm a big JASDF fan and I've never seen this C-46 before. Love it!

So I've finished the A-37B Dragonfly, originally for the Close Air Support Campaign, and I'm quite happy to have it done although it's far from perfect. The canopy alone is a bit buggered but it was my first time.

Anyway, the aircraft is wearing the markings of the Chilean Air Force.









A close up shot of the weapons loadout; one external fuel tank, two Mk. 82 bombs and a LAU-3 rocket pod.



I'll just track down the campaign gallery and pop in a few pictures.

Alcatraz ,
You did say that you were going to send that "Tweety Bird" to me for my birthday when you started your build "YES" I like it, the A37 is one of my favorite a/c.

Bob

Ah, that's the stuff! Excellent work, Vertigo!
Thanks for posting.
-Sean H.

another weekly bump here...
You know that half-built aircraft in the corner of your workroom? Here's the place to finish it and restore its pride! Still two months left in this campaign-- that's plenty! Go ahead and enlist. (Or begin if you enlisted last year and never got around to it yet. ) (Say, is that first emoticon a Viking or Mercury anyway?)
Cheers!
-Sean.

My build is coming along nicely. I've been dividing my time with other projects since I have a Tomcat that needs to be done by the end of August for another campaign, but the cockpit is sealed up and the canopy is done. I used a new method for the framing and it looks pretty decent. Landing struts are in place, and I've got a majority of the decals on. I'll try to post some pics tonight after work.

Here it is...

Hello all,

sorry for being a bit lazy with posting. Rebilda and I went through with our Blitzbau last Friday/Saturday... what a battle...

At least one thing to say... 24hrs can be very short! You can see the results of Rebilda´s Spitfire in the Total Tamiya Campaign thread. I started my report in a separate thread (here:
http://aeroscale.kitmaker.net/forums/179125#1504466)

That´s why I haven´t done anything with the Atlantic the last days, but I will change that.

@ Ray: Cool looking Me! I like that Reichsverteidigungs-Rumpfband!
BTW:


That´s very interesting. Although Bremerhaven was inmidst of the British sector, it was under American control. Due to the harbour I think? 2 AD was some kind of special division ("forward", whta does this mean??) says the German Wikipedia. But further talking would be here...

@ Vertigo: Nice A-37! I like it because it bears a very different camo compared to a lot of other models of this little attacker (although an A-37A in SEA is not less attractive)...

Servus,

Sebastian

You'll find some interesting camo schemes for the A-37B in South and Central America including some interesting desert schemes.

Your Atlantic is coming along nicely. I've always fancied some of the bigger aircraft but I haven't the space.

@WindySean: Nice work on the helicopter, the coast guard scheme is very attractive and striking but not easy to do I imagine.

Hi!

building the Atlantic is stagnating somehow... have to do some tedious work : look at the pic and guess...



End of campaign is coming closer. I hope I can make it, but I am not sure at the moment

Servus,

Sebastian

You're doing everything right. Just have to get over that hump.
(I've been putting off doing a wash and highlights on the interior of a plane I've got going at the Midway Campaign. If I would just get that done, I could close up the fuselage and get on with it. I'm just not comfortable with the wash process yet.)
Come back to it when you're going to enjoy it-- remember it's a hobby. Take another day or two.
thanks,
Sean H.

GRRR! Well I finished my F-14 for the Cats out of the Bag campaign and turned my attention to the 109... It's looking quite nice except the very last decals the underwing crosses will not lay down!!! I think I've ruined them now also, so it may turn into me having to mask and spray them myself... The Reichsverteidigungs Band also came as a decal, but I masked and sprayed that myself also because the decal wrinkled horribly! Something wrong with the black decals in this kit! On the other hand with some careful work I was able to get the prop spiral to lay down nicely which should save me from a very daunting mask job!

Update... More bad news!!! So I sanded the crosses smooth and masked them out. Hit them with the airbrush and... The fragging masks pulled up the under layer of paint!!! So, luckily the wings aren't glued to the fuselage yet. Took them off, more sanding, more cursing, rescribed some details and figured what the heck, after they're weathered any inconsistencies will just look natural... I hope! Just got off E-bay, snagged a bunch of late war crosses from Aeromaster, hope they lay down better than the sh!t€ kit ones... I swear I'm gonna finish this build on time!

Keep at it, Ray! Show it who's boss!
-Sean

Hi!

@ Ray: Ouch! Those are the moments... Well, at least Werder Bremen has won against Kaiserslautern last weekend 2:0. Does that cheer you up a little bit?

BTW... talking about modeling disasters:
I wanted to have flattened tires on my Atlantic. I am planning to hang the Atlantic on the ceiling, but as stupid as I am sometimes I wanted flattened tires. So I switched on the glass-ceramic cooktop panel in the kitchen to put the tires on it. Of course I overdid it with flattening... I remember I once hit a curbstone with my car´s tires at a reasonable speed and pffffft! I think you can imagine what the tire looked like!



So I asked Revell´s Dapartment X for replacement. And they sent me spare tires within 2 days !! The parts were for free.



THANKS REVELL!

@ Sean: thanks for your encouragement! I really need it at the moment. I have removed all surface blemishes and restored the most important panel lines. Now I am about to wash the fuselage and the wings to remove the sanding dust. But I am not sure whether I can make it in time

Servus,

Sebastian

MiddleFranconian-- great tenacity-- you'll do fine! This is my first time around as a campaign leader, but you've got another official month, plus some unofficial time after that I'm told.
Carry on!
-Sean.

Good for you Mid Frank. I just struck out on a similar request with Airfix/Hornsby.

The cub comes out of hibernation again
The basic paint scheme is on now, and of course the masking tape pulled up the paint in a few places.


The paint chipped as I was removing the masking on the windscreen. I think I may have left it to get too hard before unmasking.


And as I feared, I punched in one of the gunner's side windows while removing the masking. I'll have to pop the tail windows off and fish it out, reglue it and then reglue the tail windows back on. Luckily UCA doesn't have gunners so there's an excuse for the windows to look less than perfectly clear.


Now for some toutch-ups and it's on to the adventures of getting Roden decals to stick without tearing.

@ Jessie: That Cub is not the smallest model I think. Where do ypu put that when it is finished?

I have just checked the fit of the wings to fuselage again. With a little help of my dremel-like Aldi tool the fit is not that bad. I think I should complete the two wings and the fuselage seperately. It is easier for me to handle the whole thing then.