Novità

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. 👍

Ricardo Reis
Following!

DuperScale
Following with interest

Guy Rump
Following. 👍

Mr James
Very well done. The weathering is just right. Looks larger than 1/72

Guy Rump
Very impressive. 👍

Łukasz Gliński
Great job, very cool and rare scheme 👍 the props are just cherry on the cake 👍

Lochsa River
love the Catalina.....here is another floatplane in Argentinian livery....Airfix Supermarine Walrus Mk.I | Album by Lochsa_River (1:48)

Mr D
Brilliant 👌 like it 👍👍

Mr James
Brilliant colour scheme, excellent bare metal paintwork and the subtle weathering is spot on. Those props are really cool looking. Great build

Guy Rump
Great colour scheme. 👍

Steven Van Dyck
The frame is constructed in the first building step. It's a bit complicated to analyse, but you have to get through this to get all the components ready to fit between the profiles.

Lenny Li
Looks fun with all those PE sheets!

Neuling
Looking forward here ..........

Steven Van Dyck
All welcome, I now assembled the front and 4th axles. All are movable in a steering position, but as usual you have to decide and then fix everything. Also I found that one set of wheels is not parallel, so I cut the steering arm and added a millimeter of sprue roundel. Does this not appear if they test-fit these kits, or did I make a build error?

Steven Van Dyck
All 4 axles are now added to the frame, together with the shock absorbers that I had to shorten a bit at the front axle. The torsion bars are fixed at one side so I can remove the air bellows for painting.

Steven Van Dyck
The fuel tank hoops and steps are now replaced with PE. The steps are quite hard to bend in the right order and no dimensions or angles are given to mount them.

Steven Van Dyck
The radiator is now detailed with the Voyager silver mesh. You only see the front side now, it's on both sides. When it was assembled I realised that the air horns also need a PE part. There is some warping in the sump and the top cover, I hope it isn't evident looking through the front grille later on. The air tanks must be stripped like the fuel tanks, but you get equal lengths of PE strips to attach two kinds of tank. Therefore I clipped 4 of them and redrilled the hole on the end. The assembly with the 2 tanks and the container is suspended on a single PE part that I had first bent the wrong direction, I hope it doesn't get fatigued.

Steven Van Dyck
I started the interior with some colored PE from Eduard. The Black Dog figures are assembled and also a Maim figure and two Legend armament sets were added to the project. But the Maim gunner appeared to have a large backpack, so I don't know he's feasible.

Steven Van Dyck
Continuing the interior with the seats. Also the fenders are completed, it's very important to align the bent beams that sometimes are replaced woth Voyager assemblies. It's preferable to use that, the replacements are sturdier than the originals.

Steven Van Dyck
The cabin exterior is done using some original kit PE and clearparts, but both have problems. The clearparts are not calibrated and have distortion because of this. I will be replacing the large parts with plexiglass. The kit PE is wobbly because it's not thick enough., I even had to hammer it quite a while. Then I found out Voyager does replace half of the protection kit, but not the large parts behind the doors. At least half of the creases are removed then. But Voyager messed up at the hood closing strip, providing two identical parts in stead of mirrored ones. This could be remedied with some re-riveting.

Steven Van Dyck
The pVoyager photo etch cabin roof is constructed with all its nightmarish embossing deformities corrected, the badly fitting airco module that was mosly bent the wrong way around so it broke at one instance. I replaced the 3 largest clearparts with a piece of Trumpeter 1/350 airplane set transparent box cover, that has the right thickness to be able to sand the corner roundings in it. The air purifier system is not installed completely, because that would impede the clearpart masking. So now it's down to interior painting.

gorby
Looks amazing so far!
I'm also amazed at the number of projects you have on the go and still manage to achieve such remarkable results.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks Gorby, this was now put to wait for the Essex carriers, but as these are awaiting some last details it can go ahead now. The NATO green interior is painted after the appliance of the Eduard masking set. This replaces the kit masking set and has a cool black film, but still needs some trimming on the outside masks of the smaller windows.

Steven Van Dyck
The truck cabin is now finished with the Eduard safety straps. While fixing the roof I noticed that a small strip should pass over the rear to make the internal frame fit to the rivets in the PE.

Steven Van Dyck
The hood is dry-fit on the frame and it seemed that one fender had to be rearranged. I prepared the PE for the rear view mirrors that are quite complicated. I also built the Gecko Models pallet truck as a dio element. It's a very fine kit, there is only one pallet contrary to the image with the 4 pallets on the truck.

Steven Van Dyck
I added the Italeri 20ft container to the project as one of these is clearly visible on the Tankograd pictures. I got it from the store next door. I might cjt up the container to get a better composition on the dio and like that I can get 2 out of 1.

Guy Rump
Following. 👍

Ray Loch
Well done on the details, very nice.

Mr D
Nice Chris 👌👍

Mr James
Lovely work.

Guy Rump
Very nice job! 👍

Jv
Impressive

Ben M
Holy cow

Villiers de Vos
Masterful.

Greg Baker
Insane. As usual.

Robert Podkoński
Awesome work!

Jv
I see you only work whed 1/144
Is that cos you haven't got much paint lol

William Adair
Oh, I never run out of paint! 😄

Lochsa River
outrageous

General Fail
Wow, how it's possible 😯

Dietmar Bogatzki
A Masterpiece, F_IV 👍

David R. Meizoso
I'm not worthy

Piers Lawson-Brown
Stunning work, very impressive and inspirational.

Vincent
This is amazing can't believe it's in 1/144 scale.

Neuling
Wow!!

Robin (WhiteGlint)
👀!!
Impressive

Spanjaard
Jaw dropping!

Łukasz Gliński
144th? Wow, that would make me blind for sure (as if don't qualify yet 😉)

Michael Kohl
absolutely fantastic. The jig is a project in itself. I am interested in more information about the build. How did you do wings and fuselage?

David Taylor
Oh my.

Dietmar Bogatzki
Fantastic 👍 👍

Bart Goesaert
Splendid and fine work... that's a tiny bugger in this scale...

William Adair
Thanks chaps 🙏
@Michael Kohl, sorry for the late reply! The wings are made from acrylic sheet so they stay flat. The nacelle is a piece of styrene bent into a U-shape for the main body, with a plug moulded nose piece stuck onto the end. 👍

Thomas Espe
👀

Mike Grant
Seriously? That's just ridiculously good 👍

Neil
This is indeed MAGNIFICENT! I struggle to see my builds at 1/48 - seriously... Just massive admiration, that rigging too in 1/144 👍

Bruce Huxtable
"stuck onto the end" Clearly you are the master of the understatement too! Blown away by your modelling skills.....

William Adair
Pic of a handmade Lewis drum added. My eyes!!! 😭

Bart Goesaert
WOW!!!! Will this be used as a master for resin?

David R. Meizoso
How on Earth did you produce this drum!? 😄

Spanjaard
My jaw!? Where did it go?? Holy molly that is tiny! You did the circular part in the lathe and then manually carved the lines??????

Villiers de Vos
A very masterful effort.

Rui S
Excellent 👍

Mike Szwarc
Beautiful tiny work!!! 👍 👍 👍

Bernhard Schrock
Top notch! Absolutely clean and sharp build!

Bruce Huxtable
Astonishing skills for sure - even weighted tyres, for goodness sake!

Guy Rump
Great job! 👍

Nathan Dempsey
The next project is up and running. This one will likely get a slow start as there's another hurricane headed my way…

Nathan Dempsey
Well we survived that darn hurricane and had power restored yesterday by some fine Canadian fellows from Nova Scotia. The project continues with some progress to the fuselage.

Clifford Keesler
Watching. Glad you weathered the hurricane ok. Did not know you were in Florida. I am a transplanted Florida guy. I am from Panama City. Was down there the end of August, first time I had been back since 2001. Hurricane Michael sure messed up the place, but they have rebuilt a lot. The house I lived in from 1995-2001 no longer exist, hurricane Michael leveled it.

Nathan Dempsey
We were part of mandatory evac. I sent the family away and stayed since my parents are next door in a 100 year old frame home. We were lucky and had minimal damage. We just lost large oaks and our entire cow field was a shallow lake. Power was out for a while but I'm used to living simple during such times. Yeah Michael was a monster.

The plastic in this kit is quite fragile. Getting parts off the tree cleanly is quite difficult. Very happy with the ResKit parts! They are very clean and easy to prepare.

Nathan Dempsey
More work today included adding etched parts to the rear fuselage and filling large holes intended for oversized antennas. Will be replacing all antennas with etched parts or thin plastic sheet.

Clifford Keesler
Looking good Nathan. Glad you only had minor damage, and all is well.

Clifford Keesler
I have 2 ESCI Mirage 2000's wonder if they are the same as the Heller kit?

Nathan Dempsey
Thank you sir! The Heller kit is the same as the Eduard kit. I believe the ESCI kit is now the Italeri kit.

Clifford Keesler
OK, thanks. Any way I have 2, hope they are good.

Nathan Dempsey
Work continues. Today I added some etched hydraulic lines to the rear landing gear. Preparation begins for the ResKit wheel set.

Clifford Keesler
Looking very nice sir.

Desert Marlin
Excellent work!!!

Dutch
Nathan, I love checking in from time to time, (super busy with Hurricane Helene and Milton recovery at the house and the rented house.). Anyway, glad to see you start this project. Did you ever build the Monogram Mirage 2000 and ESCI Jaguar I sold you? K/r, Dutch

Nathan Dempsey
Thanks Clifford & Desert!

Dutch: Same here. Still cutting downed trees and burning it all. Too much to place by the streets. The Mirage waits in the stash and the Jag was built as a close copy of my Kosovo build and given to a friend.

Nathan Dempsey
Added some photos of continuing work which includes more paint work on the landing gear and exhaust, the addition of the painted ejection seat to the cockpit & the completed external fuel tank.

Clifford Keesler
Beautiful work.

Desert Marlin
Looks great! I suppose you are aware that the Mirage 2000 series aircraft have the option of an arresting hook or a parachute for landing? I believe either can be installed but only one of the two depending on airfields and conditions. Referring to photo #5.

Nathan Dempsey
Thanks Clifford & thanks for the catch on that parachute housing Desert!

I found a good picture of a '91 Mirage 2000 with the bigger chaff dispenser replacing the back of that housing. I'll need to go back and file that off and change the position of all the chaff dispensers. I'll add some pictures this evening.

Laurent VILLANUEVA HELLER ForEver
je vais suivre = 2000 et daguet !

Laurent VILLANUEVA HELLER ForEver
color pit = humbrol 27
radome = 64 ,
grey 127
blue = 144 with white...

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

Mike Goodman
I'll bet you had fun putting that together. I would have! Which took longer, the truck or the dragster?

Curtis Caden
They are both very different models. The truck has a lot of cab detail but not much to the hauler part which only required paint and decals. The hood didn't set right, and I made a support piece which worked out pretty well. The funny car dragster had way too much chrome which required a lot of scraping, and the instructions specified that many of the chrome pieces were to be painted. Instructions were unclear about some of the parts, and a few had to be relocated to make it all work. Why can't they show us what it looks like after the parts are attached? I am a visual person and that would be more helpful than an arrow pointing at some spot. I don't actually track my time on the models, so it is hard to say which actually took longer, but the complexity of the purple body with yellow fins and painting of the chrome framework on the Mad Magazine car certainly made it feel like it took longer! LOL

Mike Goodman
Yeah, Curtis. I can relate to your observations and conclusions. Some kits I've built give the courtesy of a picture of assemblies after the part is in place, but it is all too rare! As for chrome parts, just yesterday I took apart a chrome sprue to keep some of it chrome, but to treat the rest with oven cleaner for de-chroming. It's actually a snow plow, with the same cab as your auto hauler. I might post the build on this site after it's complete.

Cristian A
Taking a seat and popcorn 🍿

Skyhiker
Welcome Cristian A.

Dave Flitton
Watching

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat too!

Skyhiker
Welcome gentlemen

Ben M
It is like a duck

Skyhiker
Yeah, it's a bit like the Su-34, just a little less flat.

DerMattes
Watching 👍

Skyhiker
Hi, DerMattes, welcome.

Guy Rump
Following. 👍

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍