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Vittorio Gentili
Very nice!

Nicolas M.
Thank you Vittorio, this is a nice model, but really small.

Alec K
Turned out superb 👍

Michael Muschalik
Outstanding! Many details, so tiny.

Miguel Vaquero
Probably, my most ambitous project yet. Im going to try and recreate a sinking of a submarine with depth charges, droped from a destroyer. Everything in 1/700 scale. For this, i bought the Battle of the Atlantic set, wich comes with a J-Claas destroyer, a type VII German submarine and a Short Sunderland amphibous plane.

gorby
Sounds like an interesting project, I'll tag along. 🙂

David Taylor
Yuup.

Jay Dubya
Permission to come aboard Captain Vaquero?

Landlubber Mike
Looking forward to following this one!

Miguel Vaquero
Welcome aboard guys!! Happy to have you along.

Of course Jay! There's always room in my ships😁😁

Miguel Vaquero
Sub already done! It was small but detailed. The PE parts were really a challenge. Some weathering it's all it's left.

Miguel Vaquero
Today i wanted to work on how i want my diorama to look. So i hoped on blender and downloded some free assets and placed them together to see how i want it to look. I think for the quantity of resin and the accuracy of the scene this is going to be more or less the final desing of my diorama.

Miguel Vaquero
Starting with the destroyer. Awesome detail too but a million tiny parts. Good challenge for sure

Miguel Vaquero
Destroyer assembly done! To the paint booth

Jay Dubya
RAAF 10 Squadron Flying Porcupine next please, Miguel ?!!?

Miguel Vaquero
Hey Jay! I've never heard of them. Could you indicate me to some references and I fo about them?

Kesa Tiho
I am in love
Fantastic build

Miguel Vaquero
Thanks Kesa!!

Miguel Vaquero
I don't know if I'm going to finish the Sunderland😞😞. The fitting between the fuselages is too bad and fragile, using putty is not going to do the trick this time cause it will hide a lot of the nice detail and I will not be satisfied. I'll think about how to do it but there's not much hope now😓

Miguel Vaquero
To get my mind of the plane. I decided to destroy the sub.it turned out perfect, as I intended

Jay Dubya
Not really where you are headed with your diorama, but this might give a bit of context to my 'historical' comment Miguel.

"A Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Sunderland (of No. 10 Squadron) made the type's first unassisted kill of a U-boat on 17 July 1940.[3]"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Sunderland

Flying Porcupine
"Two examples, in particular, stand out: on the 13th of April 1940, a Sunderland operating off the coast of Norway was attacked by six Ju-88C heavy fighters – the Sunderland shot down one JU-88, damaged another so seriously it had to quit the fight, and drove the rest away.

A 1943 encounter with JU-88 was even more savage when a Sunderland from 461 Sqn RAAF was attacked by eight JU-88C long-range fighters. Despite the Sunderland being heavily damaged with most of the crew wounded, the Sunderland downed three attackers, damaged and drove off the rest and made the 560-kilometre return journey to Britain where the heavily damaged aircraft was beached at Cornwall."
planehistoria.com/short-sunderland/

10Sqn RAAF Photos -
adf-serials.com.au/sunderland.htm

Keep up the great work on these tiny models.
Cheers

PS The nickname 'Flying Porcupine' was probably just a bit of allied propaganda as there's not a lot of evidence the Germans ever referred to a Sunderland as one. It's a lot like the Japanese with the Beaufighter and Whispering Death.

Miguel Vaquero
Thanks for all the info Jay! I really appreciate it. And they could fit very well with this diorama. They actually performed anti submarine operations from GB and they actually sunk 6 U-boats.

I'm sure if I'm able to fix my Sunderland, I'll paint it with their colours. I loved their history

Miguel Vaquero
The U-Boat has exploded!!💥💥

gorby
The explosion effect is very realistic.

Miguel Vaquero
Thanks Gorby!!

Miguel Vaquero
I've already glued the U-Boat to the acrylic sheet. As the background for the diorama states that the aft reserve torpedo exploded, to hide the cables I made some bubbles coming down from the exploded compartment. It's not the best but it's better than to have some cables seen.

Miguel Vaquero
The acrylic sheets mold is done. The ship is now lifted with nylon cord to place on to the resin without sinking. And the u-Boat is secured in the container.

Next step, the resin pouring. I've never been so nervous about a model.

gorby
Good luck with the resin Miguel.

Shar Dipree
following

Miguel Vaquero
Some bubbles formed. Not the best result, also they are positioned in places where some bubbles would be formed. Overall I think it turned out great.

Jay Dubya
Absolutely 'killed it' - well done Miguel!

Miguel Vaquero
Thanks Jay!

That bubble on the bow is killing me. It's right on the surface of the resin but I don't know how to get rid of it, and if I'll make it worse if I try something

talbot
wow, absolutely love this

David Taylor
Brill.

Łukasz Gliński
Good to see you back at the desk with another cool project 👍

Micky
Thank you my friend! Beatiful plane.

Lost_Erik
Good progress! 👍

Micky
Thank you Erik!

David Taylor
Watching.

Micky
Thanks David...it is finished

Łukasz Gliński
Very nice finish 👍

David Taylor
Brill.

Micky
Thanks Lukasz and David for your comments! Really appreciate!

David Taylor
Only thing I would add are that the wing inspection panels are a darker sea grey due to panels being sealed against sea water ingress.

Snake Plissken
Wow, chrome plated!

Ben M
Taking it on vacation with me to get it started.

Nathan Dempsey
Bearcats unite! Following 👀

Guy Rump
Following. 👍

Snake Plissken
Is it similar to a commemorative edition or just meant to replicate natural metal finish?

Ben M
It's aluminum plated to represent the actual nmf finish. I built a t-33 where I had some issues that I hope to improve upon.

Ben M
Did a lot of sanding areas that will be glued, masking, fitting parts to each other, and basic assembly while I'm on vacation. I got new decals from Siam decals as the originals are from 1968 and not in good shape. I'm not sure how old the Siam decals are but they are newer than '68. One thing that is apparent is the stripey tail decal doesn't fit at all. This is going to be a good challenge to resolve.

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat here.

Ben M
Decided to try to apply the 1960s decal for the cockpit, as I don't have an alternative. Had to soak it for about a minute in hot water to get it to release. As is typical for hawk kits the decal isn't the right size but you go to war with the decals you have. I got it to apply without shattering. Unsure if it will stick, very old decals like this often have to be glued in place.

Neil
Interesting 🤔 following also, looking good 👍

Ben M
I think the Siam Scale decals I'm using instead of the originals are about 20 years old but they're going on ok. A little thick, so not settling down into panel lines but I'll try some decal fluid once they set in place, hopefully they will on the aluminum surface! The roundels are two part so I will have to do a second layer…

Mr D
Smart little model.... unusual in the factory chrome 👍👍
Nice classic kit.
Bit of heat of hairdryer works with thick decals.... nice n steady.
Like it 😁👍

Ben M
That's a good idea, I may give it a try. First I'm going to upgrade from micro sol to mark fit.

Mr D
I use Mark fit ....but recently found the Vallejo one works amazing... Just used it on my in progress IAR-80.
Definitely my go to now.
The moon ships is great 👍👍

Nathan Dempsey
Wow Ben this one is turning into a colorful bird.

Ben M
An interesting detail I note while decaling. The panel lines on the fuselage are engraved. The panel lines on the wings are raised. Wtf.

Desert Marlin
I've been using Mr. Mark Softener and Mr. Mark Setter. They worked well on some Kitty Hawk decals which are pretty stubborn...

gorby
Nice work so far.

Ben M
The tamiya mark fit and some work with a needle solved the problems! Thanks for all the great ideas everyone. Onwards!

Ben M
Did a bunch of cut the decals into pieces to fit a different model than they were made for. Came out fairly well. Subassemblies are getting larger as the project comes together.

Dave
Looks great. Nice work

Desert Marlin
You seem to have forced the decals to cooperate!

Robert Podkoński
Great job, Ben!

Mr D
It's looking really good 👍
It's great that the kits can still be built after all these years.
The people in the factory's would have never believed the model they are packing wouldn't be built until 2024 🤔🤣.
Nice build to follow 😃

Ben M
Almost complete. Popped the main fuselage seam a bit 🙁 I had gone to a lot of work to hide it. For some reason even after carefully scraping the mating surfaces I just don't get good adhesion. Maybe next time I will try only using CA for assembly on my next plated kit.

Ben M
The decal sheet says 23rd squadron Kohkratiem AFB, but there's not much on the internets. Possibly a misspelling? The Royal Thai Air Force had F8F's from 1951 to 1963.

Thanks to Siam Scale for the decals, without which this project would be hopeless. The sheet number is 48003 if that helps anyone.

Desert Marlin
Looks great so far! Don't worry about the seam. It can be filled and perhaps painted, even though it's plated.

Desert Marlin
Or foil added if you have access to that...

Ben M
Complete! @desert marlin - I decided the seam on the bottom wasn't important enough to do a bunch of rework. It's an old 60's "chrome" plated model after all 🙂 I think it came out looking pretty good overall.

Mr D
Fantastic, Really nice kit , Looks 👍 great.
Sometimes it's nice for a vintage kit to look close to how it would be built originally.... Nostalgic.
Nice find....

Guy Rump
Great job! 👍

Nathan Dempsey
That's some nice work on that old kit Ben. Looks great!

Ben M
I have one more plated kit in my stash. Kind of tempted to get it out and keep going…

Mark Sherwood
Nice rendition of the F8. 👍🥸🤘

Robert Podkoński
Good job, Ben!

Ben M
Thanks everyone!

Desert Marlin
Oh yeah!!! Excellent outcome!!!

Cuajete
Very nice painting job 👍
Is it finished?

Kyriakos Vafiadis
Need to add a few details and then apply a clear coat