Fil d'information

Steven Van Dyck
This weekend both Essex and Hancock kits were started. You can compare these two on my garden table, Essex being a short hull version and Hancock one of the later long hull types. Therefore Hancock has the Ticonderoga Pontos set. I threw in a dozen of airplane sets and pillaged the Ion Model figures stock for about 420 seamen to take the stations. While making the requested change to the rear elevator (see shipmodels.info/mws_..pontos+essex#p919517 ) an error was discovered in PE part 605 and this can only be solved by completely scratching it. Also, I'll open up one rear elevator so I have to adapt the deck edge to that. The Hancock kit got some travel damage to the hangar deck, so that will have to be repaired too. But I think this is a good start to the project.

Steven Van Dyck
The hangar doors present a compomise that I can't accept, showing some inside detail but with all gates closed down and an exaggerated thickness. I decided to remove all of them, beginning with the Hancock sprue. You can compare with the original Essex sprue. To replace the partially closed doors, I can choose between Evergreen grated plates (subtler paneling though one-faced) or the same metal foil as used earlier.

Steven Van Dyck
The walls of the Hancock are now built. I found out that there are not enough Pontos PE doors of one design to replace all plastic ones, so Hancock and Essex will be getting a different type. A drawback to the hangar walls is the absence of locator holes. I made some pins myself. The plane cockpits were not in stock and will arrive later.

Rando
Read a lot about the Essex-class carriers, really interesting history and very interested to see how your ships turn out 🙂

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Rando. Today the second ship's hangar was closed off. In the Essex model I didn't need to remove a part of the hangar deck, so now there's a minute difference in the distance of the rear deck to the island structure. The fault should be in the Hancock bow section. I closed down some of Essex hangar doors, but I kept a peeping hole for the elevator shaft that I moved to the right like in Hancock.

Gary Victory
This is some project Steven. These are not exactly small models (i have one myself - CV-13 USS Franklin)....and so much extra detail you are adding. Watching in admiration. Great work so far.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Gary. The first PE parts are bent for the stern and the boat cranes of Hancock, after the hangar wall seams are removed with Tamiya filler. One part of the wall is badly fitting and needs to be shortened.

Steven Van Dyck
Lots of PE particles are now assembled to giant deck support structures. I accidentally used the Essex front deck instead of the Hancock one, so I had to remove the PE plate causing half of the ribs to jump of again and restore this to the Hancock deck. Now I'm about to begin the same again for Essex, that has a slighty larger hollow under the flight deck.

Gary Victory
Nice progress Steven. Shame about the mix up but we all human, im sure at one point we have all used a wrong part or miss assembled.
Keep up the good work....and enjoy your build time.

gorby
Looks like another remarkable project in the making.

Jörg Schäfer
I'll join in then.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks for the acclaim, now Essex is also loaded with PE parts under the front deck. I also removed the rear lift floor in the hangar deck, because it will be visible through the side doors. The deck edges are getting PE plating with the correct catwalk acces doors and fire station hatches, but I'm still thinking about methods to remove the space behind these PE parts. Drilling is not enough.

Gary Victory
Very impressive work Steven. Loving the progress.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks Gary. The update today shows the reshaping of the Hancock bow. The angle of the kit bow is too shallow, so I cut out a wedge in the side and plied it back. The bottom part was split and clamped shut tighter, using sprue "rivets" to hold it closed. A lot of sanding followed, even after I had installed the port 40mm hubs on the hull. Another problem were the 18 doors that needed to be removed from the island structure, so I used my Proxxon for that. An extra is the comparison between 5inch/38 mounts from the kit, Flyhawk (yellow) and Pontos (Brown). Pontos is more detailed, Flyhawk has PE details and the kit is built up from different parts.

Pietro De Angelis
Impressive work, congrats!

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Pietro. The islands now both have all watertight doors, and Hancock's island is already a bit further down the line sporting ladders, a PE walkway, the pri-fly cabin and a almost fully equipped smoke stack. For a movie about choosing the right watertight door in your model, see Youtube Video . I did find the correct type on some detail pictures in my books.

Steven Van Dyck
A 45 picture update about Hancock's island. I made changes to the building plan where I saw the reference pictures didn't follow them. Loudspeakers were added. A cutout in the bridge deck was removed. The venturis on the different levels were added, but some don't extend far enough. Some of the PE hatches on the director towers needed to be scrounged from the ABSD project remains. All kinds of radar antennas are added, some I didn't find or identify yet, like the "stovepipe" antenna encircled on one reference picture. The SC-2 radar needed to be put on the platform for the side SK radar position. I did make the rear mast for the smokestack position, but removed it again because there is no trace of it in the reference. It might still be used on Essex.

Christian Lehmann
👍

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks Christian. Again a large update with changes to the Essex island. The front structure is made identical to Hancock and some scratched galleries are added. I decided to move Essex to the march 1945 scheme. Pontos has some parts for 1944 Hornet that are useful here, like the bridge walkway. Some areas like the stern will have to be adapted too. The same radar antennas are used, but some of them on different positions. I now added more airplane PE to the inventory, some of these should be finished to be able to close down the hangars.

Steven Van Dyck
The Avengers are now getting their PE cockpits, and the interior of the hangar is painted white.

gorby
Remarkable level of detail!

David Taylor
Nice detail.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, the airwing continues with the Helldivers, the Hellcats and the Corsairs, that had the hardest fit, so it's a good thing I had only six of them. I still have the same amount of planes not getting a cockpit.

Steven Van Dyck
Detailing of the port air outlet, the catwalk and starboard galleries of Essex. For Hancock it's only the outlets that were repeated. At first I was cutting small mesh parts, but it's better to cut them as a whole and add a PE crosshair. In the Trumpeter planes there is a tendency in the wing base to be cast offset (see color image) resulting in a skewed wing position when the fuselage halves are assembled. I'll often have to correct the angle. All plane fuselages have been fixed now and in the Helldivers and Avengers the seams are already filled and sanded.

Steven Van Dyck
The Helldivers are first to be completed with PE parts. The Pontos airbrakes are an improvement over the kit ones, and they can both be used for stretched wings or retracted ones. I drilled open the wheel wells. In the Hellcats, the cowling is incorrectly cast with one lower opening, so I shoved a node in each one and sanded it flat. A new opening is drilled and an oil cooler vent is then cut out under that. Takes quite a while.

Steven Van Dyck
The Hellcats are now all having a revised cowling and they also have a brass tube for the new prop position. The wheel wells are all drilled out and I made 10 scratch pairs because I only have 32 Pontos pairs for 42 Hellcats. For the Corsairs the wheel wells are rectangular which is a real pain to scrape out. The Avengers are still to be detailed, beginning with the tail wheels.

Lode Schildermans
That are quite a lot of planes you're doing.Defintely will complete the build

Steven Van Dyck
I think so, Lode. Don't you fancy a carrier build yourself? You probably have a Yorktown 1/200. Today the painting of the airplanes was started. The wings are painted white but this I might have to redo in grey, they're too coarse. The planes are in grey now. I cut out the propellers and I needed extas for the Hellcats, so I changed the 6 optional 4-bladed Corsair props into 8 3-bladed ones.

Spanjaard
ton of little airplanes will certainly make a great flight deck, picture 359 seems an MC Escher design 😉

Steven Van Dyck
Currently these planes are enveloped with gum to spray the camo on them. This is extremely tedious because the gum is not always adhering well and it must be sculpted exactly the same on each plane. I now painted the hangar floor in Lifecolor Deck Blue 20b (don't mind the overspray) and I also built the side elevators. This is a very nice fit from Pontos, but the netting supports are erroneously numbered 36 and this part is not abounding, nor does it fit the purpose. In stead of it should be used part 10, that was left in just the right numbers. The repair of the 5 inch/38 resin housings was first done with putty but then I wanted the outline to be improved and I made impressions with a knife flat and a drop of CA. Then break off the knife and a straight edge will result.

Steven Van Dyck
The 5 inch guns are now all detailed according to reference pictures of the ships. Essex was different than Hancock, it had no blastbags nor ladders. But in the end I noticed I used the wrong type of ladder, so maybe those will be removed. For the single guns one double gun barrel was wrongly shipped, so I lengthened that one with a 1mm Albion tube. Also some small parts are not provided in the needed quantity, or the option of placing PE steps was not shown in the manual.

Steven Van Dyck
The long range antenna pylons of Essex are according to the Pontos manual, but they copied this for Ticonderoga and that's incorrect. The 3d pylon should be left out for long hulls and so I can drop a 10th pylon for Hancock. One of the ladders for that can be used to complete the double 5 inch housings. Because of much unclarity in the manual I made many wrong folds on the catwalks and had to reassemble lots of parts with stress cracks. Also the deck edge elevator has a chain lift system that is now constructed out of a very fiddly frame that also breaks easily. But the end result is sturdy enough.

Pietro De Angelis
😲

Steven Van Dyck
All planes are now in sea blue and ready for the last camo paint. The prop tips are painted in yellow. Some wings were stripped, others were overpainted in light grey.

Steven Van Dyck
Midnight Blue is almost completely added on all planes, only the Avengers still need the tail completed. Some of the wings had orange peel and were redone.

Gary Victory
One hell of a production line with the Air Wing.....Nice work Steven.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks Gary! It went on with the elevator shafts, the Avenger tail colors, the propellers that were masked with a metal roundel (after 2 hours I now have painted about half of them black - on two sides!) and then finally the cockpit set arrived and I soon had some new Helldiver and Hellcat cockpits. I wanted the Dragon Avengers to have a PE cockpit too, but this was a very tight fit even afer milling as far as I could in the fuselage interior.

David Taylor
bad enough doing brass on 48.Brilliant.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, David. Now it's decal time. 196 roundels on the wings, as many on the tails and again for the callsigns on the tailplanes. Essex has a horizontal white line that was trimmed with scissors and Hancock has a horseshoe. Still some more are coming, but for the numbers some research will be necessary. All decals were treated with Daco Sol. Plane interiors ar painted Vallejo Interior Green. Hellcat propellers are also painted.

Rando
#461 is art

gorby
Wow, the number of aircraft you are building is incredible!

Pietro De Angelis
Mamma mia, what an assembly line!

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks for the comments! Today most of the canopies are cut up, ground thinner and applied to the fuselages. I'm left with the Hellcat open canopies, these just don't look the part and I will probably have to remove part of the tail to fit these.

Steven Van Dyck
I found a hack for making the perfect 1/350 Hellcat open canopy. Use 1/700 two-bar railing cut to four stanchions and bend this over the middle. By now I have placed all clearparts on the airwing. I now started t add the number decals on the Helldivers. You shouldn't follow the Pontos Hancock tailfin indications, these appear wrong as the number is always below the omega sign.

gorby
The open canopies look very effective.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Gorby. All crates now are sealed with Pledge and the props are installed. For the Helldivers I needed to scratch prop spinners out of clipped spheric node ends.

Steven Van Dyck
Tamiya grey panelliner wash is used on the top side of the airwing. I will be using a different shade for the bottom.

Steven Van Dyck
A brown wash was done on the grey undersides of the planes. The also got rigged, each of them with a scrap PE antenna mast. The Avengers got guns in the turret and now I will paint all the canopies on the outside.

Steven Van Dyck
All surfaces got a matt cote with Vallejo Polyurethane varnish, for the other side I avoided the gum because it removed some of the decals. Then all the wings could be fixed with a little drop of CA glue. There are no fitting locks for the stowed position of the wings, so all of them had to be manipulated in exactly the same position.

Skyhiker
My God, what a lot of work. Geeze...

Steven Van Dyck
And more still to come. The update shows the closing down of the hull bottom with a waterline plate, that needs to be filled in with a lot of CA to get a smooth fit at the bow. The anchor deck is painted and the anchor chains are added (1 set was sufficient for both). The rear elevator shaft of Essex got a trompe-l'oeuil bottom part because the extreme right side is visible from the outside through the hangar hatches. The bow portholes are deformed because of the modling and are all replaced with Pontos portholes, of wich you get enough to complete the hull.

Steven Van Dyck
The decks are closed down after sanding the bottom. Some of the Pontos PE is interfering with itself, so that's clipped. I have some overview pictures for you, with the island and main guns in dry-fit. Now the catwalks can be added.

gorby
Remarkable work!
I still can't get over that you are building two 1/350 carriers at the same time. Madness I tell you. 😉

Steven Van Dyck
There is reason in it. For example the catwalk supports you see in this update, in stead of stopping at assembling 75 for one ship, you can do another batch for the second one, in stead of finding yourself a few years later in front of that task with the memory of those first 75 ones and having to do that all over again. I even found errors in one Pontos instruction that could be corrected with the other one.

Further in this update: fixing a sag in the deck caused by tensions in the connectors, just saw through the connectors after the deck is fixed to the hull. Also the ladder booms and a lot of Pontos steps that are either not present where expected to not fall off the ship, or that are mentioned in the manual but not used on the pictures. I also fixed the antennas to the catwalks.

Steven Van Dyck
There is enough material to build 25 quadruple 40mm Bofors, so I made them. Nevertheless you only need about 8 per ship. Now I'll start on the 130 single Oerlikon 20mm guns. Here the margin is much less, but the fit of the stands is bad so they have to be clipped a bit.

Steven Van Dyck
It seems that in 1944 Essex' gunshields were modified, so I had to remove a part from them. For the Hancock model this is not necessary. Every step in the 20mm guns is repeated 125 times, so that takes a toll.

gorby
Every time I see this I'm blown away by the effort you are devoting to it. You certainly have a lot more patience than I have.

Steven Van Dyck
With these little guns it's tested daily, Gorby. But now they are all done and painting can almost begin. The Hancock 20mm guns were finished when the handwheels were added, but the Essex guns are like on the reference pic and needed an Evergreen Mk.14 visor and a piece of scratch PE for the air feed pump.

Steven Van Dyck
In this update I scratched the fuel lines on the hulls, covered the deck ends with sheet metal, made the directors, added all Carley floats and placed the HF-antennas and some missing stuff on the islands.

Steven Van Dyck
The floater net baskets are made while the Deck Blue parts are masked on both ships. I tried out the excellent Eduard searchlight sets and used this on both, they outshine the Veryfire ones I used on Hancock first. Now back to the tedious masking of Hancock.

bossy122
I never thought I would say this......they're "bulkheads", not "walls". Forgive a former carrier mariner, but some of the lingo they jammed into my brain stuck. I also can't stand movies with officers wearing their lids indoors. : ) Your PE work is inspiring!

Pietro De Angelis
Impressive amount of photoetches and details, my head is spinning, admiration and respect!

Steven Van Dyck
If my work attracts the real carrier operators, I feel as humble as a pollywog. Thanks for the replies, today you can see the finishing of the masking phase and the Gunze primer coating. I used cardboard to close up the hangar hatches, I made it fit well enough to not need any glue. The next coat will be a complete cover of all parts with Lifecolor pale grey.

Steven Van Dyck
The hulls are at last painted black and can be unmasked. Some overspray was inevitable and can be removed with post-shade. The deck is first tainted with Gunze Midnight Blue and then faded with a light sand primer. Transverse girders are marked with an Aqualiner. To Hancock I added a paravane guide to the bow. The deck fit of Essex was perfect, now let's check out the other one. When the island is dry-fitted, it seems to have the right look from the pictures.

gorby
Camo looks amazing!

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks Gorby! Now both decks are applied, some setbacks needed to be resolved. In both ships the deck edge elevator was not fitting between the PE constructions to the outside of the hull. I should have corrected this before painting all. I did succeed in removing and reattaching the PE without all too much paint and PE damage, it might not be visible after the repair job. Hancock got the elevator level with the hangar deck and Essex got it stowed in vertical position. This is only possible with retracted safety netting, so that too was moved. I also made a schematic walkthrough showing how I needed to remove the front internal hangar bulkhead of the Hancock model, that seemed to have some badly fitting extra parts to the Essex original sprues. This didn't sit flush with the front elevator edge, so the wooden floor wouldn't fit below the well. It seemed impossible to resolve without opening up the front deck part, but there was another option. I sawed a large hole in the bottom plate and milled through a support plate and the extended hangar floor to be able to push the bulkhead out of the hangar. I then fixed it flush with the well and puttied the floor taht was left a bit mangled by the milling tool. A large part of this will be covered by the wooden floor.

Steven Van Dyck
The deck PE particles are pre-painted after being primered grey. Even with this primer they scratch easily. The wooden decks of Hancock and in larger measures Essex must be cut out where the PE parts come. Some of these aren't even pre-cut and must be traced form the parts, like the barriers. I know that laser lines must not overlap, so they wanted to avoid drawing the near-vertical lines over the planking. Because of that, it's better to do the barriers first and then the expansion joints. The gutters around the deck are added with Hancock and will now be completed on Essex.

Steven Van Dyck
A bad day at the wharf, the deck markings of Essex were botched because of a bad primer on the PE parts and bleeding of the white paint under the tape. The chipped PE I can handle, but I don't know if the wood can be cleaned up to have the same blue as it was doped in. I'll try to overpaint with the Lifecolor Deck Blue and then again some light sand brown for the weathering. You also see a correction that was needed for the deck edge elevator floor. This is extended too far out in the models if you want the elevator in the down position. I could saw it out in Essex, but in Hancock the hull apparently was not flush with the wood deck safety railing PE part. I just added a new front for the elevator. I also made a new better fitting third elevator edge for Essex, you see the earlier attempt at the top and the badly etched Pontos one on the right. Now I'll go and repaint that deck.

Ben M
Good luck on the fixes!

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Ben, it's fixed now and I added foot markings to essex and srubbed off deck numbers to Hancock. The islands got their deck blue surfaces painted on, so they were now fixed to the hull. I started also to clip a new Tori Factory gunnery crew and compared this to Ion Models figures. These are a bit smaller but easier to clip.

gorby
Excellent work with the repairs.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Gorby, that's all done now. On the new pictures you see about 500 crew for the two ships. Most of them are Ion Models figures from 6 and a half sets of carrier personnel + pilots and navy figures on leisure. I also corrected errors in the build. The 5 inch platforms closest to the bridge of both ships had to be reversed, which went quite smothly because of the paint layer between the CA glue and the PE. I then added the railings but when I arrived at the Essex port sponson, I found out that it had been revised in 1944. It was made identical to what is seen on Hancock. So I yanked it off and scratched something even better, with some Pontos PE parts meant for the bridge in it. And then I thought of the number of elevators I had built in lowered state, all of those need a total of 70cm safety railing of which I had none. So I'm now clipping some ordinary PE railing so it becomes 1 bar railing. Only two elevators to go and then some painting again!

Steven Van Dyck
I scratched, painted and applied the safety railing for the elevators from the generic L'Arsenal railing set. Then I found out that Trumpeter should not have included the Essex center deck section. The port deck edge has a completely different shape. Because all was already finished, this lead to some rigorous action with a circular saw, holding the PE parts out of the way with a pencil and then repurposing the walkways removed for the 20mm gun gallery that was relocated further aft. Hancock now got 3 out of 4 guns, one needs to be repainted.

Rando
Gonna shift gears with a more straightforward Tamiya build. I wanted to make the all-black night fighter option, but thought the color scheme was too simple and I also wanted to try some camo painting. So I got decals for a night intruder option, which is the best of both worlds, and the camo with black underneath just looks really cool.

J35J
Mossie! I'm in👍🏻

Markus Antonius
There is nothing more complicated, to replicate a all-black aircraft not making it look too dull, in my opinion

Ludvík Kružík
Interesting choice. Both when choosing a machine and when choosing a kit manufacturer. Compared to the Crusader, we go back in time by choosing the aircraft, but it's a big step forward in kit quality.
I wish you a lot of fun and as little trouble as possible building this kit. And of course I will be happy to follow it 👀

Jennifer Franklin
Following 👀, 'm excited to see how this turns out.

Rando
Welcome friends! Yes Ludvik this is a "palate cleanser," I wanted to see how a nice Tamiya goes together, it's also the second kit I got so it's been sitting in my stash awhile. I'm already messing with ejector pin marks, we'll see how much trouble I create for myself 🙂 and Markus--yeah I figured the topside camo would add a lot more visual interest.

Desert Marlin
And so it begins!!! You have earned the right for a break from raised panel lines!!!

Rando
🤣 I guess I have! The Monogram Voodoo lurks around the corner. The Mosquito's fit sure is mostly nice so far

Rando
Wings and nacelles are glued together and been painting the many cockpit components. Drilled out the gun barrels on the .303 Brownings too, I like the look

Markus Antonius
Is that Tom Servo in you profile picture, btw? 😄

Rando
Oh yeah! Been an MST nerd since forever

Rando
Did some detail painting, and been pounding the instrument panel decal with micro sol. It's slowly conforming to the raised dials, but I have solvaset and mark softer on order since Tamiya decals are apparently known for this…

Gerald
👍

Rando
I improved the cartoony decal seatbelts by applying them to foil, cutting them out, and painting the black edges a similar color. Idea thanks to an old IPMS Stockholm article.

Desert Marlin
I have the FB and NF versions… I need to finish my P-8 and get started on a Mossy…

Desert Marlin
The belts look great!!!

Rando
Thanks Marlin! Definitely my favorite part of the build so far. Actually just threw the whole thing together today, now that the cockpit has been all worked out. It's not exactly intentional, but because this NF version I chose doesn't have the radar features, I've been breezing through construction since it also doesn't use the FB rockets/bombs/bomb bay. Next I need to get the canopy on ASAP since I keep breaking off gunsight 🤬 the only construction left is the landing gear, props, and the crew hatch and boarding ladder. Looking forward to painting

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Excellent work on the model. Looks great. 👍

I'm sure you're not the only one who breaks off small parts of the model. I have the same problem. All it takes is one very brief moment of inattention and one careless move and that's it. Although I try to handle the model as carefully as possible, for example, I have broken off the antenna on the bottom of the Gripen four times. 😭

Aman S.
Following...looks great

Rando
Thank you all, and glad to have you here Guy and Aman! No more breaking off the gunsight for me now Ludvik, the green strip decals are on the inside of the canopy and masks are on. Just gotta mask off the guns and then it's time for surfacer

Desert Marlin
Nice! I just finished the cockpit on the P-8 so, I really appreciate this step you have accomplished!!! Cheers!

Rando
Guess I'm onto the painting phase! I already painted the propeller caps ocean grey, then decided to hit the bottom side with matte black. Also getting the undercarriage painted and assembled too.

Desert Marlin
Love this stage! Looks great!!!

Rando
Thanks Marlin! I got it ready to paint the dark green. IDK what others do for camo like this, but to make a "hard edge" camo I used Tamiya curved tape to make the lines, and then used regular masking tape and paper towels to mask off the rest. Excited to see the finished paint job

Neil
It's looking good Rando! 👍

Rando
Thank you Neil! At first I was thinking the ocean grey looked too dark, but with the dark green I find it contrasts well. Just got to fix some overspray and touch up some areas and it's on to decals

Desert Marlin
Excellent work! The scheme is coming along nicely!!!

Rando
Decals are on with a gloss coat over them…maybe some weathering today?!

Desert Marlin
Oh yes!!! Great Saturdays provide the opportunity to focus on all those little details seen in the mind's eye!

Rando
Hell yes Marlin especially a rainy one like this! Working on the landing gear while giving the gloss time to cure

Jos Jansen
Iam in Rando.

Rando
Hell yeah bro! Finish line is near!

Desert Marlin
The MLG look great! Where are you that it is raining?

Ludvík Kružík
Marlin, it looks like Rando was visiting the Czech Republic today. It's been raining here all afternoon 😄

Rando, that chassis looks fantastic. Didn't you put pictures of the real chassis here by any chance 🙂

Desert Marlin
😆👍

Rando
If only Ludvik, I'd love to come out that way. Would have come by to say hello and see your workbench! Been a pretty nasty day here in eastern Massachusetts too. Was also a good day to bring the kids to a model train show, fun look at an adjacent hobby.

Here's hoping the chassis fit into the nacelles without too many swear words 😉

Desert Marlin
I spent the day painting here in Nevada.

Ludvík Kružík
Rando, I believe it would be a pleasant meeting. I'm sure we'd have a lot to talk about. And of course I would love to show you my desk 🙂

Rando
Indeed Ludvik we sure would, I'd be thrilled to meet you Marlin and all my modeling friends on here someday.

Mosquito is like 99% done! Landing gear went in surprisingly easy and now just some wingtip lights to install, finish painting the crew hatch, and attempt to rig the antenna mast. Pics soon!

Definitely looking forward to seeing painted the P-8 Marlin!

Desert Marlin
I'm starting gloss for markings…

Rando
So I have to say I'm disappointed with how the canopy looks. I used Eduard masks and they were a struggle to get on as they didn't fit great. In hindsight I should probably de-tacked them too, like I do with Tamiya tape, since it seems like they left adhesive residue. They left some rough paint edges. Not sure how to improve it, I've done some careful scraping with toothpicks and Leveling Thinner, which improved it some, but considering popping the whole thing off and repainting it.

Desert Marlin
Using a 000 brush, put a couple of coats of thinned out black along the bottom of the canopy glass then a similar thinned coat of color over the black. That would firm up the window frames. The rest of the frames look pretty good to me!

Rando
Thanks Marlin, so would that help with that weird splotchy white color, especially noticeable on the frames in back?

Desert Marlin
Those should be dressed with a thinner brushed on in very small quantities until the streaks relent. I had thought those were aluminum chipping which would also be valid!

Desert Marlin
The Mr. Color Leveling thinner with a stiff hobby swab would help clean the edges. The Mr. Color thinner doesn't seem to harm clear plastic…

Rando
LOL, amazing that my mistake looked like something good! Shoulda just rolled with it. I do have a stiff kind of swab, I'll give it a try

Rando
I actually got Leveling Thinner after you recommended it on my Crusader build and it's all I've been using lately. Good stuff, I like that it can leave a smoother finish

Ludvík Kružík
I can confirm. I have the same experience, Mr. Color Leveling thinner will not damage clear plastic.

Rando
I think I've improved the framing a good deal already, both with paint and the thinner. Now just gotta glue on some nylon thread for the mast rigging, which I've never done before. So far I managed to attach it to the mast with some gel super glue.

John
Get some EZ Line, you won't regret it. Nice Mossie too! 👍

Rando
Hey cool, how do you attach it John? And thanks getting close to final pics!

John
You use super glue, it just stretches nicely without putting a lot of pressure (i.e. bending) on antenna masts. So you can anchor one point and then stretch it easily so there is no sag when you attach the other end.

Rando
Got it! I'll order some. I've already had trouble with the mast popping off once.

John
The antenna on my Buffalo build is EZ Line, it's also handy for those annoying multi-wire antennas.

Rando
I see did you use thick or fine?

John
Definitely get the fine size. 👍

Rando
Basically done! Aside from the rigging wire, which I will attach when it gets in. After that I'll upload the beauty shots. Now to clean up my very messy workbench and get the next project going!

Desert Marlin
Bravo! 👏

Rando
So I decided to finally upload the glamor shots for this Mosquito. These were taken months ago but I was dissatisfied with how the photos looked at the time since it was difficult getting the plane to fit in the frame without ugly background. Looking closer though, I thought they actually turned out fine, and pretty nice actually with some cropping and brightening adjustments. So belatedly, here she is completed, the Mosquito night intruder. Great kit, most difficulties I had were my own doing. Eduard masks are not their best. Eagle Strike decals are great. If you have this one in your stash, pick out a cool scheme and build it!

bughunter
I'm in!

J35J
In too!

Martin von Schreckenstein
started on too many things at once. it is very difficult to prioritise with such amount of really interesting details. after the nose gear I will try to focus on the cockpit

Skyhiker
My... Those resin pieces really are phenomenal.

Sergej I
top stuff, following with interest 👍

Rolf Rolf
Beautiful detail painting

Alex Rakhimgulov
Crazy detailing! Awesome!

Patrick Hagelstein
Ooh! Following along! 👍🏼