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Tim
NIce

Villiers de Vos
Steady progress. Did you light the stern?

Thomas Wirsching
Great job so far! I would love to get an explanation about how to do these LED lighting in detail as I have no idea about this.

Hang Li
Thanks Tim, Villiers, and Thomas. I did put a led for the trolled sonar bay back at the stern. It is apparently not bright enough to be really visible. Probably not noticeable after finished.

I prefer to use Led tape light as it has build in resistors so I don't need do calculation to figure out the resistor value. Once that is sorted, what left is just connect the led unit with a battery and a switch. I think it is better to ask a trained electrician as the circiut I built don't last long and I don't really know why.

Michael Kohl
I expect modelling of the highest quality from your bench. So far I am not disappointed. 🙂
Keep it up.

Treehugger
Hm, how long did it take to make the nice looking ocean surface? It certainly looks like a fun project.
I wish I knew how to make such ocean surfaces, as it really seem to complete a model with such a diorama.

I am no expert on led's but my impression is that one has to be careful that the voltage to the led's is controlled to specs, so they don't burn out shortly after and end up being un-repairable inside the model. Also, something about connecting led's in parallel, pattern iirc, to avoid one dead led blacking out all the rest of the leds in a serial connection, iirc.

Thomas Wirsching
Your build is already mindblowing; 漂亮]!

Tim
Your sea base is looking really nice.

Hang Li
Thanks Treehugger, THomas and Tim.
As for the sea base, you can check a YouTube channel called ''studio blue ocean'', I basically followed his videos. And treehugger did a pretty good summary for LEDs. The voltages is very important and it is always needed to put some resistors in series to potect the LEDs. The size of the resistors can be calculated with ohms' law. There are small circuit boards for LEDs which can be used to make everything easier.

Rui S
Impressive work 👍

Villiers de Vos
Fantastic work with all the photoetch parts. Your attention to detail shows.

Thomas Wirsching
Getting better and better; can you please show us a detail picture from the inside of the hangar? Did you build this from scratch?

Hang Li
Thanks, Rui and Villiers. I just masked the hangar as I am going to paint the outside. I will get better hangar photos once finish. The trumpster kit comes with the hangar and the ceiling is in good detail (I only add LEDs to the ceiling). Only the walls need additional work to add details, like handrails, supports etc.

Ingmar Stöhr
Wow! Fantastic detail work and great job on the weathering and the base!

Gary Victory
Really nice work Hang. Looking like a great build.

Villiers de Vos
Fantastic finish.

Ingmar Stöhr
@Hang Li: For the 'oil canning' effect. Did you have accurate plans for the frame spacing or how did you come up with the pattern you used? I have to say that is look really convincing after some more weathering effects are applied on top.

Hang Li
thanks Ingmar, Gary and Villiers. As for the 'oil canning' effect, I found some photos which are somewhat visible for this effect as reference for the pattern and I have to simplifie the pattern to make it practical. So it is not quite accurate. I got some pre-cutted masking paper in 1mm, 2mm, and 3mm and I just picked one that I believe is most suitable.

Ingmar Stöhr
Thank you for the explanation! It looks convincing to me! Keep up the great work!

Michael Kohl
That oil can effect worked really great.

Miguel Vaquero
Amazing build!! Did you use resin for the sea base? If so, how did you manage to make that rough sea surface? It looks amazing

Jörg Schäfer
Great job. 👍

Thomas Wirsching
astonishing build and breathtaking seascape. Hats off to your talent!

Guy Rump
Looking great, following. 👍

Ingmar Stöhr
Looking really convincing so far!

Hang Li
Thanks, everyone. As for the material used for the sea base, I normally use high-density insulation foam (blue sheet from my early photos) and clay. I think many people build diorama this way. I believe there are more sophisticated methods nowadays. I saw someone using CFD modeling to simulate the wave pattern and 3D printing the entiry sea base in Chinese formus.

Ingmar Stöhr
I tried the 3D printing method once, but only for something like 10x10cm, as that is the maximum for my printer and I did not see how I could glue several pieces together without visible seam. The seascape was generated in Blender and I have to say it looked stunning! BUT I feel a lot of the final effect and realism comes from painting and here you are doing a superb job! I will definitely take your work as my inspiration for my next take on displaying water!

Nathan Dempsey
That's a beautiful build! Excellent idea to create sagging on the kit supplied tires.

Pascal Van Acker
thx Nathan

Mid Franconian
I need to watch this!

Cuajete
Me 2!

J35J
I'm in!

Łukasz Gliński
Me 4, might be my reference in the future 👍

Robert Podkoński
High five!

Nicolas
Joining.

Marius
And I thought starting my third such kit from KP/RV Aircraft is self torture. The truth is, once you had finished one of them in the past, the frustration decreases with each new one.

Any idea how you will treat the taxiing lights?

Thomas Kolb
Marius, I honestly don't think this kit is so terrible. There are some fit issues for sure, but I have built much worse kits. I constantly keep reminding myself that I only do this for relaxation and fun, and not for a competition or as a profession.

Are you referring to the swiveling landing lights underneath the intakes?

Marius
Thomas, I share your opinion about the kit and hobby too actually. The kit is dreadful in a few areas, but overall more than decent. I finished two of these already and I must say, they really stand out my collection, despite the kit's reputation.

Yes, I was refering to those lights. If I remember it correctly, there are some transparent parts included in the kit, but the intakes are completely flat, where the lights should go. I made the mistake to install those lights in the closed position, instead of the more interesting setup, when they are deployed downwards. In any case, it's just a heads up, in case you might want to add some extra detailing.

Thomas Kolb
Yes, I see your point regarding those lights, but I will probably just stick to my usual middle road - easy to accomplish and still produces a cool result. 🙂

Martin von Schreckenstein
haha, love the topic and kit selection. you are definitely more meticulous than I was 🙂

Thomas Kolb
Martin, I saw your MiG-23 project - it is way more ambitious than mine! I am not so meticulous, just very, very slow, only having an hour or two to spend here and there.

Thomas Kolb
A bit of a setback here. I just realized that I had foolishly been following the assembly drawings and thus ended up with the wings upside down. Bottom side up and vice versa. It may not be something that is easily noticeable, but knowing myself, I would never be able to unsee it now. So I am backtracking my steps and need to change the way the wings are facing without ruining the fuselage. Mamma mia, what a noob mistake-a to make-a.

Łukasz Gliński
Great you found it out before it was too late. I see we used to watch the same TV series 😄
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Dave Flitton
Watching!

Thomas Kolb
Łukasz, yes, haha, you found the hint.

Finn
I'm in

Jiri Vybihal
good luck 😄

Guy Rump
I'm in too. 👍

Cuajete
Good job with the air intakes 👍

S M
I'm in! I'm also working on KP's MiG-23 and had the same issues with fitting and wings. Damn I didn't notice that the wings are upside down...

Cristian A
I'm taking a sit as well 🙂

Thomas Kolb
Thank you gentlemen for your encouraging words! 🙂 The twin seater assembly is done, and now I need to finish the single seater. I am now thinking about which individual aircraft to represent and which camo to use.

aetios
This is looking great. watching with interest!

Cuajete
I agree with @aetios 👍

Cristian A
Hi Thomas, nice progress. I think the Tamiya paints are my favourite so far. They apply well and they don't smell so strongly.

Thomas Kolb
Cristian, yes, they are mine too. They also react superbly well to the Mr Color Leveling thinner and level out to perfection. Too bad that the color range is a bit narrow, you need to mix almost everything.

Cristian A
Thanks for the tip Thomas, I recently discovered Tamiya paints. The hobby shop seller recommended "Aqueous Hobby Color Thinner" and using that works well also.

Mirko Römer
Respect! 🙂

Michael Kohl
Following

Thomas Kolb
Damit, ran out of white paint.... I decided to also order the Mr Paint Hungarian set to see if they are any good.

Łukasz Gliński
Mr Paint is grand, but more stinky than Tamiyas

Mr D
If l cut an item of the spru and it has a possibility of mix up, l up a little bit of making tape with part number on it to label it up, l do this as made this mistake before with wheel bay doors !! " Wanded when so much sanding needed!" 😆.
Every build has it's niggle...once it's been on shelf a month...soon forget, good work

Thomas Kolb
Mr D, yes, it's a good tip. But it doesn't help when the assembly drawing is wrong! The best is to constantly keep referring to real photos - sometimes even apex companies, such as Tamiya, Special Hobby or Eduard make silly mistakes.

Mr D
I know, I'm doing a Tamiya and they missed of colour required for 3 different parts!

Thomas Kolb
The masking of the standard single seater is a pretty relaxing task, but Iván The Terrible (no 20), with its blotchy, multi-color camo is proving a real challenge. I am trying to add the colors in the order as they were applied on the real aircraft to make the pattern realistic, but man, it is tricky!

Ekki
Following.

aetios
Hey Thomas I wonder how you got the camo masking so clean, mind sharing some insights?

Mr D
Looking good, are you doing them to match box art ? the one camo looks tricky.
👍

Thomas Kolb
Time is currently absolutely non-existent for modeling, but soon …

Aeitos, I am using Tamiya masking tape, cut to shape with a brand new blade. The original had have slightly soft lines, but I am totally unable to fix that to scale.

Mr D, no, for the single seater, it will be the standard Hungarian three color camo, but Ivan (the two-seater), will have that weird Soviet five-tone camo pattern.

Mr D
Thanks Thomas 👍
Office/ Blue tack masking gives a softener edge to camo edges... I think because of it sits higher the paint doesn't blow in the edge to hard.

Thomas Kolb
Mr D, thank you, yes I know, I have tried the masking putty method dozens of times but always ended up with an uneven pattern or too wide overspray for 1:72. I guess I am too fist-handed… 🙄

Dash Rendar
Beautiful Starbug build! Well done.

Dave Burgess
I was SURE I'd posted this YEARS ago (back in 2017 when I completed it), but I couldn't find it ANYWHERE, so here it is (again). I did manage to post it into the Plastic Model Builders Facebook page.