Newsfeed

Rui S
Beautiful work and presentation 👍

Cliff Kidd Autor
USS Nimitz update....amazingly awarded 'Best in Show' at IPMS Scotland Nationals at the weekend!

Michael Kohl
I am in.

Matteo Pescarin
looks interesting already! nice challenge

Rui S
I'm in 😎

Yngve N
I'm here too. "It is expected to be a pure assembly with little modification" 🤔 whatever it means when you're building 😉

Martin Oostrom
Sure, oob. That would be ams for me.

Matteo Pescarin
oh that's really cool work you did with the aluminum rod, what did you use as a chisel?

Adam Gudynowski
Following

Felix
Following

Villiers de Vos
Very nice detailed paint work.

John
Very impressive

Adam Gudynowski
Great job painting pilots!

Ben M Autor
Hmm. I realize now I should have painted the deck first. It's my first ship.

gorby
Good grief this kit is older than me. I thought it was just dinosaurs which are older than me. 😄
Interested to see what you can do with it.

Martin Oostrom
And people actually crossed oceans in these oversized bathtubs

Ben M Autor
Yeah this kit is one of the oldest I've built. Still, going to try to make it look good.

Robert Podkoński
Cool!

Jan Peters
It looks quite toy like, but it is a cool subject.
Will follow this 👀

Ben M Autor
This is a very helpful reference: Youtube Video

gorby
The video was fascinating, thanks for posting.

Jennifer Franklin
I'm excited, this looks to be a bigger project. Do you know how many pieces there are?

Ben M Autor
Hi Jennifer, not that many. It's an old kit from the 50s.

Jennifer Franklin
Well, 100% for the character.

Naram
following

Troy Campbell
Oooh nice Ben!!
Grabing a chair and popcorn!

Ben M Autor
Major colors now blocked out. Need to do next round of masking and painting after the blue dries.

Ben M Autor
Painted after masking and did some detail painting. Will have to mask and paint the hull two more times I think.

ScaleModelAndCoffee
Nice, a shipyard! Following.

Rui S
Great work 👍

Björn Leichsenring
Looks very well.

Rui S
Very Nice work 👍

Dimko Pimko Autor
@Rui S

Thank you for your feedback! I am very pleased!

Skyhiker Autor
Starting a very rare bird. (I am getting bored with the other 9 builds I have still in progress).

Cuajete
I didn't know about this oddity.
Following!

Robert Podkoński
Interesting - watching!

Ben M
👁️👁️ I have this problem of starting too many things also

Cuajete
A lot of work ahead...

Skyhiker Autor
One step closer today.

Neil
Following, looks good 👍

Skyhiker Autor
Working on the fuselage today

Cuajete
Well done so far 👍

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

Thomas Kolb
Coming along nicely!

Skyhiker Autor
Rescribing and re-riveting the fuselage today.

Dave
This looks interesting. Let me find a chair.

Mr D
Nice project Skyhiker 👍👍 you build alot of Soviet stuff, don't see to many of these... nice choice 😃👍

Skyhiker Autor
I finally got the riveting done.

Skyhiker Autor
Got the wings on today.

Dave
The riveting looks good.

Skyhiker Autor
Thanks Dave. It took me a while to get the riveting done. Hopefully after priming I won't have to do it again.

Thomas Kolb
Very straight riveting. What a difference it makes!

Carlo
Looks like a rare Soviet bird and kit.

Skyhiker Autor
Yes, it's definitely not something you see very often.

Jennifer Franklin
Oh fun, late to the party but following.

Skyhiker Autor
A little more progress today

Skyhiker Autor
Fixing the canopy issues.

Dave
That's a nice fix

Ben M
Alternatively you could have coated the entire fuselage with putty, building it up to the required size.

Jennifer Franklin
Love the edging on the canopy.

Skyhiker Autor
Ben, I may have actually done that if the plane were to be painted with a camo but since this will be bare metal finish I decided to avoid putty as much as possible. I'm not 100 convinced with my solution but it will do for now. If I hate it after painting I'll take it off and have a rethink.

Ben M
You could carve a new fuselage out of a block of putty. 🤔

gorby
The quality of the kit looks almost as good as Starfix. 😄
Excellent work so far.

Christian W Autor
I got this Trans Am of my brother. It was painted by brush and I tried to get it apart. Luckily it worked good. After stripping the paint off, The result was pretty good. Sadly some small pieces broke of so I had to repair it.
My grand child (6) was looking, what I was doing and showed interesst so I decided, to let him chose, which color the interior should have. He chose a dark red - what I was happy with.
After airbrushing that, He get a lesson in handling with the airbrush and did very well (no, I painted teh interior at the end). With some training, he could do that nexttime by himself.
When I did some detaillig, he found "steal grey" in my stash so that was another good choice for the body color. Good! I was thinking on a silver because I always wanted one Trans Am in silver. I painted the body with rattle cans including three layers of clear cote.

So far, the moste work is done. When this Trans Am is done, he will get it a s his first "full kit". He got his first experiences in modelling with two snapkits (Corvette C5 and Ford GT by Revell) so this will be his first full kit.

Schwarzadler
Clean your car, it's a bit dusty!👍🏻

Bogicevic Vladimir Autor
😁👍

Neuling
It´s the dust, stupid ! 🙂

Robert Podkoński
Nice start. Following!

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

Michael Kohl
Me too

ScaleModelAndCoffee Autor
Thank you all. Will upload more tomorrow !

Rui S
Excellent work 👍

Thomas K.
Very impressive 👍

Ben M
Must have been hot…

ScaleModelAndCoffee Autor
Thank you all!

Neuling
Top notch! Looks like a bigger scale build.

Michael Kohl
Following

István Szücs
Beautiful paintjob! What color or paint did you use for the body?

Denis Dogadov Autor
Hello, Istvan!
I used this paint- Mr.Color 313
Yellow FS33531
[img1]

scaleffect
Excellent work so far

István Szücs
Thank you, Denis!

Chris Reimann
Looks great!

Neuling
Very nice presentation of this beautiful model!

Neuling
Congrats for #7 !

Rui S
Great work 👍

Chris Reimann
Very nice and clean build!

Simon O'Gorman
Stunning!

Lex Jassies
Nice and shiny! 👍

Neuling
Charming. Very well done!

Rui S
Very nice model 👍

Chris Reimann
Great job, looks awesome!

Thorsten Höse
Nice one 🙂

Neuling
Clean and careful. 👍

Neuling
Impressive model of this giant!

Zbynek Honzik
Very nice and clean job! I like it very much. 👍

Rui S
I like it too. Very well done 👍

Mark K
Excellent!

Gary Victory
Really nice build and finish Daniel. Top job Sir.

scalemates
checking

scalemates
fixed 👍

scalemates
👍 merged

scalemates
👍

Yngve N
I'm in for this one 🙋🏽‍♂️

István Szücs
Great start, I'm curious!

Christian W Autor
Thanks, mates! Hope to get my hands on it soon.

Christian W Autor
Basically all parts are painted and the body is fillered and wet sanded. The color isn't decided yet and I'm thinking about the chromed rims. I think, I will paint them silver too because on my point of view, this kind of chrome doesn't match with a modern car well. Particullarly at this one.

Christian W Autor
I painted the body black to get a better result for the final color. My experinces the last month told me, that somehow the edges and "panel lines" came through the paint and stayed brownish. To avoid that I decided to paint the whole car black. As you see, the edges and panel lines are well painted too. But .... after two days of drying, I have some scratches on the drivers side and the hood. Great. Love it like pest....

Christian W Autor
Stripping of the color didn't work on the first shot. Only the black paint was gone, not the primer. On top, the primer was week and sticky. So I decided to change Dowanol (the fluid, which is a paint stripper) because it can be, that it is to old. I thought. And was right. I never changed it since a hand full of years. I can't even remember, that I changed it anyway.
So I have to report, that the primer is gone and I can start with painting again.

István Szücs
You have no luck with the black paint... Heads up, I'm sure, another beauty is borning!

Christian W Autor
Thank you. Meanwhile I think it is just the Dodge. Maybe you remember the same issue with the 1973 Dodge Charger (1973 Dodge Charger - wip | Album by christian-w (1:25)). Same material, even the same rattle cans caused the same problem. I repainted that thing 😉 with enamel by Revell. That worked out.

But - and now the big but: around Christmas I painted a C5 Corvette the same way. Same filler, same black out of the same rattle cans and nothing happened! The only different was the producer of the kits: both Dodge are made by MPC and AMT/ERTL (in the 1970s and 1990s) and the Corvette by Revell. I don't think, that MPC / AMT/ERTL used the same plastics 20 years long. I think this is totally impossible. I don't get it.

So I'll repaint this Dodge Stealth again but not the black. I'll throw this bottle into the farest corner and will only use it for small parts.

Nigel Chapman
The curse of the black paint strikes again.
So what colour now?

Christian W Autor
I will tackle the challenge and will beat the system *lol* I'll paint it black again but with enamel of Revell. Then the decided color. What worked on the Charger lately should work here on the second try too.

Martin Oostrom
Very Nice paint Job. That black is shiny!

Christian W Autor
Thank you! I'm aming for a layer of clear cote or a second layer of black after wetsamding. There are some dust and blunt spots. The roof is not theat shiny like the sides for example.

Greg Baker Autor
So here's an interesting Tintin project I've been working on for a while now. The hardest part was getting the electronics to work. After beating an ESP32 microcontroller into submission I was finally able to get my tiny screen to display the video/audio clip I trimmed from the Tintin animated series. With that success, I moved on to 3D design of the awesome Professor Calculus invention, The Supercolor-Tryphonar (as seen in the Castafiore Emerald album). Next up... 3D printing and assembly.

In the meantime, here's the proof-of-concept video...

youtube.com/shorts/U..?si=u-ootNYEMdGWY8cm

Alec K
Man, your electronics skills are master level! Taking a seat 👍

Robert Podkoński
That's a terrific job!

gorby
Amazing stuff Greg!

Thomas Espe
👀

Cuajete
Wow... I have no words to express that I can't miss this wit!

Greg Baker Autor
Thanks guys! First batch of files just came off the 3D printer. Will need to make a couple of adjustments to the screen size, but it's looking good so far. Also, I knew the steel bar supports were going to be too small to print properly (they warp while they dry), but I've got a bit of metal screen that I can cut into strips. Hopefully will look better and actually support the thing.

Greg Baker Autor
Ok, so all the main pieces are off the 3D printer and I've cut the metal sheet into the straightest strips I could manage. It was quite difficult to bend it tightly along a single line. Much thicker than a regular PE part, but hopefully will look the part.

I had a lot of difficulty getting the electronics to work. I followed another maker's project (there are several versions of the ESP32 Mini TV projects on YouTube), but it was both a hardware problem because none of them seemed to wire up the screen's backlight, but until I did, I had not even a flicker. It was also a software problem because the library code was out of date, so I needed to go backwards to make it compatible, which led to other problems. Anyway, I vowed to use my Easter long weekend to either solve it for good, or give up forever (yeah, right!). After sourcing each of the issues one by one, I finally got it to work. Next is the assembly!

Ben M
👁️👁️

Lorraine Lin
watching...
[img1]

walaroo Autor
So here are two Hobby Boss 1/48 kits; F8F-1 and F8F-1B. They both have the Eduard cockpit PE set for the Hobbycraft kit, which took some cutting to make fit. Like most Hobby Boss kits that I have experience with, there are a larrge number of inaccuracies and oversimplifications. Still, they will look like Bearcats when completed. The fit is very good, the panel line look like they will take a wash well, and there is an option to fold the wings! I decided I want to do a US Navy with folded wings, and a silver Thai Air Force...

Ben M
👁️👁️

Marcel Klemmer
👀

Rebecca Hayley Polachek
Amazing detail and very clean work for such a tiny aeroplane

MarSeif Autor
Thank you!

Cosiek
That cockpit looks great. Are these decals?

MarSeif Autor
Thank you and yes that are decals.

Robert Podkoński
Good job!

Bozzer
Here we go again!
You're gonna run out of kits, at this pace?

Bozzer
There's a couple more, for you to seek out 😉

Qwertzel Autor
Thanks Boozer. But I think I will build my Unimog first before building this truck. So I won't run out of kits. I always wanted to buy the recovery truck and convert it to a German one, simply changing the cab to a Mercedes Benz Actros or MAN TGM.

Andre Louis
I also got that kit recently! Looking forward to your modifications. My one will be probably just out of the box

Esoteric Surgeon
I seem to remember KFS used to offer a off-road conversion kit for MAN trucks. I'm pretty sure it at least included the bumper which might be hard to scratch build if you can't print it. Can't find the kit anymore tho

Qwertzel Autor
I searched on the internet for this kit but I couldn't find it either. We will see how this trick turns out

Esoteric Surgeon
Just realized the bumper out of the box is accurate for offroad already since it's a 4x4, and the same as in your pictures. I had started working on a similar project but with the older MAN TGA kit from Revell as a basis and that required heavy modifications all around. I'm glad you're moving towards more custom projects because they are a lot of fun to get into, and watch other people get into...

Goldman
Nice stocking up and scratch building... Should be a very interesting build.
Actually, I never saw this concept of fire truck with a rear lift and wheeled equipment carts. Can see the benefits of this when a lot of equipment needed to be moved fast (at least until hitting the first step...).

Qwertzel Autor
Thanks Goldman. There is another reason why these trucks make sense: You can carry different stuff which is normally loaded by special vehicles. So you don't need different vehicles just this one and the equipment carts and you are ready for nearly everything

Goldman
The headlights guard looks very good to me. Did you use plastic or metal rods? I don't think you can get any thinner with plastic

Qwertzel Autor
Thank you Goldman! I used cables. I bended them to the right shape. The outer and inner parts are from the same cable just with and without isolation

Goldman
The tires looks great. Much better than those in the kit. Well worth the investment

Esoteric Surgeon
I have had some success printing thin parts for the kind of headlight detail you are working on. They are very fragile and I've never tried painting them but I think there's a lot of potential for this kind of application. I uploaded a picture here: FDM 3D Printer experiments | Album by Ecko

Qwertzel Autor
Currently I don't have a 3D printer but I think of buying a resin printer for such purposes. It would help me a lot with scratch building. Lets see wat the future brings

Andre Louis
Just make sure that you are aware of potential hazards that come along with resin printing.

Esoteric Surgeon
Yes handling resin and post processing it takes a lot of extra work to do properly. And space too. I can't do it at home because I live in a flat with my cat and I have found a filament 3d printer can unlock many possibilities to enhance scratch builds without the hassle and hazards of resin.

Bozzer
I've gotta admit, I had fun with my entry level filament printer, but I now own 3 resin printers too, and they're never turned off. Yes, they do have to be taken care of, especially with regards to the resin, but it's worth it.
At this point I'd better add, all mine are in my purpose built mancave, however I did run them in the house kitchen, for a while.
Each one has it's own personality, kinda like a cat or a car? But once you hone into it, you can create almost anything? The details are immense and your own imagination, is your limit!
I've literally just printed a 1/14 truck, with all the bells and whistles, and I'm happy with the results. It's taken me around 2 weeks, but I did use 6 bottles of High Speed Resin, which without, probably would've taken me another 3-4 weeks?
For you guys in the know, Standard resin prints at roughly 4 layers a minute. High Speed Resin is around 12 layers a minute.
My love for the printers, is because I can print models, that we can't buy?
I love scratchbuilding, but now I can flick my finger and the cab, hood and sleeper are printing, while I'm building the chassis? It's definitely been a game changer in my life, without a doubt.
You definitely need to be aware of the dangers though. Plenty of ventilation, gloves, mask and goggles. I also have mini air purifiers in each printer, and heaters.
And whatever you do, don't smoke near the 99% alcohol!
And most importantly, don't drink it!

Qwertzel Autor
Thank you Bozzer for your information and opinion. I will see what the future brings and if it's time to by a printer, I will definitely research and inform myself about it a little more and maybe come back to you guys, because you know the terms of 3D printers definitely better than I.

And don't worry, I do not smoke or drink alcohol. So this won't be a problem 🙂

Goldman
One tough looking rolling chassis 🙂

Adam Gudynowski
Following

gorby
Thanks for taking the time to post the photos. I enjoyed looking though them. 👍

Rui S
So many beautiful Dios and Vignettes. Thanks for sharing 👍

Lebloge
The level is high... thanks for sharing 🤝

Rui S
Another big one 😉 Joining 😎

Desert Marlin Autor
It's a beast!!!

Desert Marlin Autor
I suppose it will be a week or two before all the parts are here...

Cristian A
Booking my spot 🫡

Desert Marlin Autor
I'm still waiting on the correct seats and cockpit details... Looks like I have to scratch build details for the wheel wells!

Desert Marlin Autor
Just got the IAF F-15I Ra'am decals from Cartograph!!! Things are coming together!!!

Sun Cooperation
А что купил откуда какие дополнения?

Desert Marlin Autor
Мне пришлось купить декали, катапультные кресла и антенные конвертеры F-15I. Детали F-15I были куплены в IsraDecal.

Sun Cooperation
если есть дача можно самим производить без всякого оборудования

Desert Marlin Autor
Just a couple more items to go!

Desert Marlin Autor
Well... It's time to begin. I believe I have all the parts now!!!

bughunter
👀

Desert Marlin Autor
Okay, I have to wait as it's time for my wedding anniversary with my wife this weekend! But in a few days, I will actually be able to start!

Rui S
Congratulations. How many years?

Desert Marlin Autor
This is 10. Been an amazing time!

Rui S
👍

DuperScale
Thats gonna be a Big Bird

Villiers de Vos
Booking my seat.

Davide Vitali
Guys, save me a seat. Popcorns are on me!

Oh, and happy anniversary! 🙂

Desert Marlin Autor
Thanks very much!

Desert Marlin Autor
Today is prepping the ResKit wheels and the ejection seats!

Desert Marlin Autor
I'm kinda bummed about the ResKit wheels. ResKit tires are Good Year which is a fine guess but the F-15I uses Michelin tires. Oddly, the Tamiya kit (from Japan) uses rubber tires for the kit that are in fact Michelin. Sooo... It looks like I am relegated to using the kit wheels instead of the ResKit. This does simplify mounting of course. But the flattened surface of the ResKit tires gets left out. Man, I never thought this was going to be a complicated addition to the build. Sadly, here we are!

KyMustang
You can achieve flattening on the rubber tyres, particularly in this scale. Just carefully drill a hole and then use a flat-crowned screw straight into the tire tread and into the hub until you get the desired flat spot. The flat crown of the screw hides it.

Desert Marlin Autor
Thanks! may give that a try! The kit is going to be pretty heavy when it's done so sounds like something I can try at the end!

Desert Marlin Autor
I used the Eduard Zoom panels for the Control Panels. However, they start out in the normal FS36320 base color which conflicts with the F-15I cockpits which are in a dark or black gray color. So, I need to adjust the paint on the panels before assembly. The rear panel is nearly done. (needs weathering).

gorby
Amazing result on both of them!

Neuling
I agree!

Erik Leijdens
A fantastic duo John! They look awesome. Very well build and beautiful weathering.

John
Love the shark teeth!

Guy Rump
Very impressive duo, congrats! 👍

KyMustang
Very impressive. I'd pay good money to take a master class from you on how you did the OD one! Struggling along with an OD Mustang right now.

Randy Soule Autor
Thanks Ben.

Ben M
I heard my local hobby shop can't get gunpla anymore. I don't build that but you know how it is first they come for the gunpla modelers, then they'll go after the gundam modelers and eventually they'll ban model ships.

Lorraine Lin
The packages worth less than US$800 be taxed now?

Ben M
I think the problem is the uncertainty. If a distributor or a shop owner has ordered goods, they are unsure what the resulting costs can be. So sometimes if the tariffs are too high they do not pick up the package from customs or the container from port.

Then the sender is informed they have to ship the product back to the point of origin which results in a huge financial loss. This has apparently become a common problem so some senders are just refusing to ship to the us rather than take the risk that the buyer won't pay the (fairly unpredictable) tax

Patrick Hagelstein
Never thought that global politics would have such an impact on my little hobby room in the confines of my home.

Lorraine Lin
Would you consider ordering directly from Chinese online stores? This could cut out some distributor markups, and the final landed price might not be much different. Personally, I've ordered many model kits from different countries(US, Europe and Japan)—not for cheaper prices, but for rare kits and editions.

Ben M
I have ordered direct from China before but if shippers in China have returns due to people not paying the tariffs once the item arrives in the US, and have to pay to have the goods shipped back to China, then they will stop shipping to the US. Currently many containers of goods are being returned to China from the US because US companies do not have the cash on hand to get their items out of the container port.

Lorraine Lin
Suddenly became so chaotic, hope it doesn't last too long.

bossy122
Good thing I already have too much in the stash anyway. But now, without fail, a MFH Lotus 94 will pop up somewhere outside Mrica. Thanks, donny.