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Es-haq Khosravi
Great job!

Rui S
Thx Es-haq.

Donald Medley
Nice details

Rui S
Thx again Donald... I always try to add some interest to old kit's...

Donald Medley
Well you sure did that!!

Kevin Johnson
Wow, looks great.

John Van Kooten
Very nice indeed! It definitely is interesting 👍 Great work 👍

Rui S
Hi Kevin, Thx for your words and reviving the this album 🙂
@ John Thx for your compliment words 🙂

Marko Paakkanen
Very nice diorama.. lot of details. that's give always realistic appearance.
Good job!

Rui S
Thx a lot for your nice comments, Marko and Michael, much appreciated 👍

Rui S
No oils, no washes, no filters, no pigments (except in panzer II, I think) no aftermarkets, no PE.
Just a badger 200, and lots of humbrol enamel. That was it. Off course the end result shows all that. 🙂

Clifford Keesler
Great job.

Rui S
Thx, Clifford.

Clifford Keesler
You are welcome sir. If it doesn't have wings or rotor blades, I don't have a clue. I just sent all of my armour to Hunter Cummings.

Rui S
HEHEHE I understand, mate.
For me is more, if it as wings it must be on ground with some vehicle around, LOL
is this a lyric??? (((😄)))
P.S. Lucky Hunter...

Neil Patrick
Love this. Reminds me that I:

1. Built these first in the 1970s (badly)
2. Tried correcting and superdetailing them in the 1980s (giving up after countless hours)
3. Bought more accurate, better detailed and much more complicated kits 1990- now (very few finished)

This reminds us that great results can be achieved with simple old kits. Just add skill. It what's in the modellers fingers and head is as much as what in the box that counts.

Brilliant work Rui!

Markus Yliaho
Well done! Nice Desert dio

Rui S
Thank you for your kind comments, mates. Sorry for the late reply.
In this case first I build the pz III, them the halftrack, them I think it was the pz II (built by my sun and painted by me), them I recover the jeep, built in another Century 😄 or vice versa, not sure 🤔 it was a dinamic evolutive Dio, mostly becouse I had the space to add more kits 😉

@Neil, I've to agree with you. Slowly I Will try my best with better and more e expensive kits that I've in my stash. Also looking forward to see what you Will do Next 😎

@Markus, I'm glad you like this enough to comment.

Alan G
Excellent dio and builds Rui. Weathering is perfect

Rui S
Thank you Alan, you are to kind, but I'm glad you like this One too 🙂

Bobisek Bowe
Excellent dio, excellent crew configuration on the Pz.III, 🙂

Rui S
Thank you Bobisek, yah I think they were nicely adapted, mainly the guy in the side hatch. This is an old Dio but thx for reminding me 😉

Clifford Keesler
Well done sir.

Rui S
Thank you Clifford.
Glad you like this one, mate

Daniel Klink
One can really taste the sand between the teeth and feel the Dust everywhere.
Great atmospheri result Mate.. Congrats Rui!!! 👍👍

Rui S
Thank you for your kind comment, Daniel. Really apreciated.
Yap, for me the desert means lot's of dust 😄
This is part of another álbum with more photos of this Dio:
Tunís | Album by mig (1:35)

Neil
Wow! Looks fantastic Rui 👍 I think Daniel summed it up well. You can indeed 'taste' the sand!

Rui S
Thank you Mate. I've learn a lot since, but I apreciate your kind words very much 🙂

Stefan Fraundorfer
A very convincingly built scenery Rui. I like it.

Rui S
Thank you Stefan, Nice of you to stop by and comment this old work. I'm glad you like it.

Alex Rodionov
Nice DAC-dio. 👍

Rui S
Thank you Alex, I apreciate your comment.

Kim Branders
Nice dio Rui.

Guillaume Blanchet
Superb!

Guy Rump
Great modelling, excellent dio, congrats 👍

Rui S
Thank you Mates. Very kind of you to comment. Apreciated. (You know how much I like your work too, so even more important to me).
I think I've evolve a lot since this One, but I sure enjoy a lot DAK scenes and in this case all this 4 kits.

Neil Patrick
Also reminds me Rui just how inspiring those early Tamiya boxarts were. 50 years on and they are still amongst my favourites. I don't know who painted them but he had an amazing style combining pinpoint accuracy of vehicles and people with an almost abstract use of colour. Try discerning a 'correct' RAL colour from them...

C Jackson
Great job, fantastic looking dio

Rui S
@ Neil, couldn't agree with you more. Even nowadays, you look to a pile of 1/35 tamiyas and even the sides are almost Impossible to resist.
@ C Jackson, Thank you for your kind comment, I'm glad you like this One. Apreciated.

Neil Patrick
I put together a Pinterest board with my favourite Tamiya box art illustrations Rui, including some rareties. Whilst the recent ones are okay, none beat those 1970s ones in my view.
pinterest.co.uk/newc..tamiya-best-box-art/

Neuling
I fully agree with Neil and Rui about the Tamiya box art which really was trend setting. I have collected the box tops.

Rui S
@Neil, Don't know why but the ones I like the most are the ones wth the subjects Over white
@Neuling, Over the years I've done that, as you know. And I've done a photoalbum:

My love for the Hobby | Album by mig

You could do One too?

Mina Ro
I am choking on dust and sand just looking at this, beautiful and very authentic!

Rui S
Hi Mina, Thank you very much for stoping by on this one. It was my 2nd dio (I Think).

when I finished the Pz III, I miscalculated the size of the base and then I added the halftrack, then the Pz II (made with my son), but there was still a lot of space left so, I ended up recovering the jeep (made n years before) to add it.

I'm glad you found it whorthy of your kind words. Apreciatted

gvizbi
Excellent dio Rui. I love how busy it looks. So many details, I could look at it for hours 🙂

Mr James
Very nice desert scene. There's a lot of hours in there. Bravo

David Taylor
Superb.

Rui S
@ gvizbi, thank you for stopping by and comment this oldy. I Know you also like Afrika Korps and your excellent examplar model's. Maybe that's why you like this one 😄
@ Mr James thank you. I'm glad you like it. This is one Dio that was evolving for years. The big initial base always left room for another addition 😉
@ David, thx. You are too kind, mate.

Mina Ro
One piece of advice, your painting of figures is great but one small thing to make them pop would be to buy a sheet of archer eye ball decals, I use them a lot but youll need to use a hole punch to cut them out.

James C
Very cool 👍

Clifford Keesler
Very nice.

Rui S
@ Mina, thank you for your advice, noticed, but this guy's where painted a longe time ago. I think I've made some nice progress in figure painting since them, (I like to believe) but I and others always consider that in this scale and to look from 50cm or more, I don't need to give such emphasis to the eye balls, normally I use only a bit of darker color. I'm sure your suggestion will achieve better results than that white big staring toyish eyes that to often we can see in faces. Also I avoid spend money on aftermarket
@ James and Clifford, thx for your comment apreciated

Randy Kriegel
Very good diorama, vehicles and figures are well done to.

Rui S
Thank you Randy for your nice comment on this oldie. I really enjoyed doing it, as I was adding models while I had space in the base that was intended just for the panzer III the figures and the halftrack. 😄
You can see more photos here:
Tunís | Album by MIG (1:35)
I don't remember anymore why I ended up making 2 albums at the time 🤔

Landlubber Mike
Amazing diorama! The ground texture looks fantastic, well done!

J35J
Great work & dio!👍🏻

Desert Marlin
Zehr Güt!!!

Neuling
Very good DAK dio indeed!

Clair Greenwood
Rui my friend, you're getting into Shep Payne territory here. Absolutely beautiful dio !!

Rui S
@Landlubber Mike, Thank you for your comment. Apreciated. If it were today I would do some parts in a completely different way.
@J35J, Thank you, its and old One but still I also enjoy having done it.
@Desert Marlin, Thx. Glad you like this One too.
@Neuling, Thx a lot for stoping bye and comment. Very much apreciated.
@Clair Greenwood, Thank you for your exaggerated praise, I glad you like it. But, I wish I could reach the heights of a master like Shep Payne. However, I can say that as soon as I came across his work in a magazine (there was no internet), It has always served as inspiration to me.
Thank you all for the likes, If you want you can find more in this Tunís | Album by MIG (1:35)

Lost_Erik
Nice growing collection.

Snake Plissken
But the B-50 is better 😎

Nicolas
Following

Łukasz Gliński
Me 2

Robert Podkoński
Me 3!

Finn
Joining

Ben M
amodel 🙂

Gergő Takács
Following

Ekki
Watching!

Guy Rump
Following too. 👍

DerMattes
Following 👍

Cuajete
Me 10!

Clement
Nice work, it looks very promising.

Cuajete
I agree with Clement 👍

Jan Janssen
#me too following, Going nicely

Agnius
Nice work! Following

Robert Podkoński
Looks great already. Keep it up!

Roland Sachsenhofer
These four pictures begin a project that should result in one of the largest models I have ever attempted. Not the biggest - the 1:32 Liberator holds my record here - but close!
However, the impressively large box contains surprisingly little and, also surprisingly, large components such as the fuselage, wings and tailplane are already assembled. Incidentally, these are made of fibreglass and require their own treatment.
These parts are also stable and clean. A bit of filling was required, as the traces of glue and filler on the seams are very rough and show air pockets. This will now be sanded, the cockpit sawn out and the windows drilled - well, modelling a little differently than usual! 🙂

Gergő Takács
This looks like a cool project! Following.

Treehugger
The panel lines look ok I guess. I mean, I would be happy with those panel lines.

Mr D
Like it , nice project.
I'm working on the Beriev Be-6 Armoured Flying boat,
Revisiting a kit after 33yrs.
All the best with yours...😃👍👍

Robert Podkoński
A true behemoth it is. I will surely follow this build with utmost interest!

gorby
Looking forward to seeing this take shape. 🙂
I believe the last Mars had it's final flight two weeks ago.
Youtube Video
Youtube Video

Nathan Dempsey
Oh my another giant. Following 👀

Robert Podkoński
BTW. Do we see the finished Fairchild in the background, Roland?

Roland Sachsenhofer
I am very happy about all your interest! In fact, I also started this project because of its topicality; the pictures of the last flight of Hawai Mars are always a heart-warming pleasure; this one in particular, thanks Gorby for posting it!

Today I drilled the openings for the windows in the fuselage; I determined the diameter of the holes from kit glass parts. They seem a bit big to me, but we'll see. As I'm not going to use the clear parts from the kit, but want to make them with Klearfix, I could reduce the diameter quite a bit.
The next steps will be to finish sanding the fuselage seams - now only the top side has to be done - and then to glue the wings and stabilisers to the fuselage. To do this, I'm cutting solid steel rods to length, which I'll glue in place with a two-component adhesive.
The Mars should be ready by mid-October: I want to take it to the Euromodel in Ried, Upper Austria.

And yes, In fact, the more or less finished Fairchild F.91 had to serve as a scale model in the background! 🙂

Thomas Mayer
Du bist echt eine Bau-Maschine, Roland! Und immer kommt etwas sehr schönes raus! 👍

Roland Sachsenhofer
Danke für die Einschätzung, Thomas! 🙂

Roland Sachsenhofer
The construction of Mars is progressing: I'll show you a few construction steps in a little 'time lapse'. Attaching the wings and tailplane with 2k glue worked well; the materials could be sanded smooth and fine afterwards. However, the brittleness of the fibreglass caused some difficulties; parts kept splintering off and had to be filled, sanded and re-engraved. As I always do the whole thing standing up, wearing a mask and under running water, this always turns into an almost athletic exercise 🙂 But now it seems to be over and the Mars is ready for its first encounter with colour... I took the two crew members under the cockpit canopy to make the proportions clear and to keep my options open for presenting the finished aircraft - who knows, maybe it will take off or fly?

gorby
It's a bit of a monster! 😮
Doesn't look like an easy build but you seem to be beating it into shape. 🙂

Robert Podkoński
You're the brave man, Roland, not me...

DerMattes
Das schau ich mir weiter an 🙂

Mr D
Looking good Roland 👌
Be a nice bird when she done, pilots look smart 👍👍

Cuajete
Wow... an unusual and gigant model... It seems like fiberglass is difficult to handle.
Great job so far, Roland!

Michael Kohl
Na, da hab ich doch auch nen Blick drauf

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you very much for your motivating feedback and your interest, mates!

Łukasz Gliński
I have to follow that behemoth 👍 I don't think I'll ever find enough space to build one myself 😄

Thomas Kolb
My goodness, your models are just getting bigger and bigger! I cannot wait to see it finished!

Finn
Looking interesting, I'm in

Ray Loch
Following as well. Just saw its retirement flyby and landing in Pat Bay, Its Huge.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Fortunately, the Martin Mars has reached the stage where the colouring and surface design will be the main thing; so far I've been 'plugging holes' again and again: the fibreglass surface proves to be quite brittle, damage is difficult to putty, and when re-engraving the lost panel lines it quickly happens that it cracks again under the carefully guided scalpel blade - and a new hole has already appeared. The new pictures show a few such construction sites, for example at the bow under the cockpit glazing or on the back of the fuselage between the wings.
But, all in all, in retrospect it's all half as bad, now I'm looking forward to the paintwork!

Thank you, mates, for your interest and feedback! Ray, I would have liked to have experienced that too!

Ben M
👀🤯

Cuajete
Roland, I was unaware of these problems with fiberglass and it is a shame that these kits are so expensive considering the quality of these materials. I think the worst is over. You can feel proud of the work done so far. The effort was worth it. Go on!

Roland Sachsenhofer
Those are encouraging responses, yes, Cuajete, I think so too. Thank you both for your interest and comments!

Mr D
How big is the model??
Is it cast in fiberglass because it's to big for injection molding??
Nice to see the update 😁👍👍
The vent in behind the cockpit done now.

Mirko Römer
That's what you call a project!👍

Nicolas
Cool project, following.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you friends! The Mars as a 72 model measures 84.5cm in wingspan and has a length of 48.5cm: huge, but not so huge that it couldn't have been made into an injection moulded model. The B-24 Liberator from Hobby Boss in 1:32 that I built this spring, for example, was significantly larger and yet still injection moulded.

What is now proving to be a challenging issue is that the acrylic paint I used does not seem to want to adhere properly to some parts of the resin fuselage and wing panels, even though I have meticulously and accurately cleaned the surfaces. And another thing: after I sprayed a first coat of white paint on the fuselage today, something became apparent that hadn't appeared before: the resin surfaces are covered with small air pockets, i.e. holes.... 'Much enemy, much honour' as they say in German! 🙂

Ben M
What are you using for primer? I almost always use tamiya spray primer as it usually adheres even to challenging surfaces. I have had trouble occasionally on some resin surfaces where I've resorted to krylon plastic compatible spray paint as a primer.

Roland Sachsenhofer
That's a good question, thanks for the tips: I used glossy black acrylic paint here as usual - it actually looked quite good until yesterday, after a few days drying time, I started to mask off the black areas on the undersides of the wings....
I think I'll just carry on with Gunze and Tamiya acrylic paints - and touch up where necessary.

Roland Sachsenhofer
Der aktuelle Zustand der Mars in Weiß hat noch nichts mit der finalen Oberseiten-Farbe zu tun, sondern bildet nur die Basis für das Rot der Unterseiten. Aktuell erstrahlt die Mars sogar in leuchtend Gelb: Dies sollte die Leucht- und Deckkraft des folgenden Rot noch weiter stärken. Der Aufwand wird allerdings dadaurch erhöht, dass immer wieder Spachtel- Schleif und Gravierbedarf auftaucht: die Resin Oberflächen sind äußerst uneben und voller kleiner Lufteinschlüsse, ein echter Jammer. Aber ich bin zuversichtlich, dass mit der steigenden Stärke der Lackschichten auch die raue Oberfläche etwas mehr Geschlossenheit zeigen wird!

Mr D
It's come along way 👌👍👍

Łukasz Gliński
Oh man, that is bigly yuge indeed 😄

Cuajete
You're doing very well, Roland. Don't be discouraged.
Kopf hoch! 👍

Roland Sachsenhofer
Sapperlot! I only wrote the text in German yesterday: here it is in English:
The current state of the Mars in white has nothing to do with the final upper side colour, but only forms the basis for the red of the undersides. At the moment, the Mars is even shining in bright yellow: this should further enhance the luminosity and opacity of the red colour to follow. However, the effort is increased by the fact that there is always a need for filling, sanding and engraving: the resin surfaces are extremely uneven and full of small air pockets, a real shame. But I'm confident that as the thickness of the paint layers increases, the rough surface will also show a little more unity!

Thank you very much for your encouragement and motivation! Yesterday I mentioned that Mars has now been coloured yellow as the last stage before the red - here are the pictures!

Cuajete
👌

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you Cuajete!
....and now in red! It's getting really exciting for me now. Not just the question of how I'll manage the masking for the white upper sides, but above all whether the colour under the adhesive strips will stay on them or - hopefully - on the model when I peel them off!

Cuajete
I'm sure it does, Roland. That Mars looks great and the red color looks great.
Is the stand underneath included in the kit?

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you! Yes, that's him. Doesn't necessarily look much, but is very useful when building

Mr D
Hi Roland 👋.
Is it heavy? Being fiberglass ?
I've read about the difficulty you had with Glass resin!
My dad used to make parts for race bikes ....and air bubbles very hard to avoid! Also cutting against the grain....tends to pull other strands.
Your getting to a better stage now and it's coming on nicely now...
I thought it was the Goose at first glance.. earlier in build.
Good luck with rest.👍👍

Arseny K.
I just love it! Respect

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you both! Somehow it is really comforting and above all interesting that I am not alone with the problems with the fibreglass surfaces! Yes, the construction is fairly heavy, but above all it needs enough 'air space' above the workbenches when it is swivelled to get everywhere with the airbrush! 🙂
Well, the 'Spruce Goose' is still a dream - but one with a chance of realisation!

Roland Sachsenhofer
The time has come! Now the layers of paint under the masking have to prove that they can adhere to the fibreglass surface and want.... prognoses say it will all be possible! In the meantime, the white has been applied to the surfaces, which definitely looks good on the Martin Mars.

Cuajete
Great, Roland! 👍

Roland Sachsenhofer
Thank you for encouragement!
I would like to show you the condition of the Martin Mars this morning: The red and white areas survived the masking quite well, only small areas had to be touched up with brush strokes, but the black areas on the undersides of the surfaces, on the other hand, remained generously on the adhesive tape. I masked them again straight away - I now trusted the red areas surrounding them - and sprayed over the black, applying a first coat of glossy clear varnish over everything in the same session. Now I have to break up the red and white edges on the fuselage with a cloth, well, the white always builds up beautifully... Maybe I can try out the decals tomorrow!

Agnius
Interesting project! Following