Nyhetsstrøm

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!

Robert Podkoński
Fantastic job on this demanding kit. Chapeau bas!

BAT21
Thanks for your nice feedback 👍

Anatolii Smyshliaiev
Excellent work. And mine has been standing unpainted for several years. Only in the Mi-10PP version with a container of electronic interference.

BAT21
Yes, the Mi-10PP is still on my to-do list.

Guy Rump
Great job! 👍

Tibor Szilvai
Excellent! 👍

J35J
Impressive work! Congrats👍🏻

BAT21
Many thanks.

Villiers de Vos
Very realistic.

Simon Nagorsnik
Good work👍

Spanjaard
beautiful. great details, specially the rigging.

Björn Leichsenring
nice job. well done.

Lost_Erik
oh yeah!

Neuling
Very beautiful work! 👍👍

Thomas Bischoff
Wow - beautiful result.

Scott
Thank you all for the kind comments! This was a very challenging build for me to say the least!

Michael Kohl
You managed very well. It looks very convincing. All the detailling and the good paint job payed off.

Gary Victory
Lovely build Scott.

CaptGPF
Beautifully done and weathered - the rust are where they should be, and are done to scale. ❤️❤️❤️

gorby
Fantastic!

Marco Gallmann
Awesome job! Absolutley stunning 👍

Stefan Fraundorfer
Congratulations to this very nice model Jean-Michel!

Pietro De Angelis
Awesome work, congrats!

Neuling
Everyone above is right. So good! 👍👍

Rui S
Yap. Beautiful model 👍

Jean-Michel Tilquin
Thanks mates!

Christian Lehmann
Amazing!

Łukasz Gliński
Brilliant!

Landlubber Mike
Nicely done!

Michael Kohl
Very nice

Gary Victory
Very vice work work Jean-Michel. Love the figures giving some life to the model.

Gerald
Hello Welcome here 😉

Coen
Haha I've always been here. I just had to create a new account.
No idea what happened but the system wouldn't recognise my sign in info anymore.
But thanks Gerald. Most kind.

Gerald
👍

Gary Victory
Really nice build and finish Oliver. Would like to see more pictures if possible..? Wonderful work Sir.

Gerald
Hello Welcome here 😉

Gerald
Hello Welcome here 😉

Gerald
Hello Welcome here 😉

Gerald
Hello Welcome here 😉

Gerald
Hello Welcome here 😉

Doubtingmango
So I just finished this little Italian job. The decals came out with a lot of the edges showing, which then got a lot worse when I added some washes. I used Microset on the decals, and then sealed them with Tamiya semi-gloss before the washes, but it actually looks like the washes got under the decals. Any thoughts?

Bogicevic Vladimir
It looks like you haven't spray gloss coat before you applied decals. Or decals didn't set well. There are two solutions. One is lacquer thinner. Put the thinner with fine brush in dots over the place where you have silvering. Thinner should destroy the film. If it raises paint under, just leave it, it will settle back. Important thing here is that, once you applied thinner, you shouldn't touch decal for something like 20 minutes, at least. Second way is mix of sugar and water, half - half. You make a hole with a needle on the decal, than you put mix on the top. It should enter in the space between decal and paint and, when drayed, make a gloss film in between them which will act as a gloss under the decal. Wipe excess mix with wet cloath and you are done.

Mr James
How annoying. I've never heard of the sugar water trick from Bogicevic. I'll be interested if this works. If the thinner, sugar trick fails, what else can you do but use a scalpel to cut around them, since you've sealed it,

Mr James
Oh, nice paintjob by the way

Doubtingmango
Thanks mates! I believe Bogicevic is right. I think I did fail to gloss coat before the decals. I think I'll try the sugar water first

Bogicevic Vladimir
Ok. There are few small tings I should add then. Heat the water first, when hot it will disolve sugar beter and apply it while it's still warm, it will have more viscosity. Make small hole or slice with modeling knife, put few drops of mix on the top and let it dry. You will see emidiatly if it's penatrating. When dry, wipe carefully excess mix with moist cloth. Repeat where neaded. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it worked for me many times.

Doubtingmango
Thanks Bogicevic! I'll give it a shot. If it doesn't work I'll try the lacquer thinner technique. I love this site!

Mark Sherwood
Where the *uck's this been hiding. Very nice build Mr Mango and I hope the decal solution from Bogicevic work's out🤞

Doubtingmango
Thanks Mark! So I punched some holes in the decals and applied the warm sugar water, but unfortunately it did not seem to make a noticeable difference. I decided my best shot was to just grab the scalpel and remove the decals, which was very easy. Bogicevic said the solution would get under the decals! I have successfully applied new decals, and my little Italian job is now base-worthy. New pics to come.

Bogicevic Vladimir
Well, you find a solution, which is the most important thing. I can not know why something that worked for me many times does not work for you in this case. Maybe that what I think is silvering is residual glue from decal paper. Who knows... Anyway, good luck with your project.

Doubtingmango
Thanks Bogicevic! You were definitely part of the solution

John
All's well that ends well. 👍 Mango, your builds have me hankering to do some armor but I still have commitments to do a couple more a/c. When I do get a chance, part of me wants to start small with a Pz IV, but another part says go for broke and do a Maus!

gorby
Very nice work!

Neuling
Good result anyway!

Doubtingmango
Thanks guys!

Doubtingmango
As promised, new pics of the new decals have been added, along with pics of the work I have started on the base. Once again, thank you for the help Bogicevic!

John
Really cool base! 👍

Guy Rump
Great result on the tank, the base looks good too. 👍

Doubtingmango
Thanks John and Guy!

Doubtingmango
More work on the base. Just need to paint up the base and add foliage

Doubtingmango
And it's finished

Rui S
Great work allround 👍 Beautiful vignette

Doubtingmango
Thanks Rui! Always appreciate the feedback

Tcamp
Awesome work

Pietro De Angelis
Beautiful work, congrats!

M0rce
That's pretty cool 😎

Bobby Thumbs
hey man that palm tree is badass excellent work

Doubtingmango
Thank you all! The palm tree is badass, but I can only take credit for the placement. I got it off an Ebay seller from Thailand, Thannan Diorama Exporters. Not cheap, but I had to get one to see if they were as good as they look. They are! Also need to give a shout out to Value Gear for much of the stowage.

Landlubber Mike
Wow, this is fantastic!! The model and the base looks amazing, but that palm tree really pulls it all together in an extra special way. Well done!

Doubtingmango
Thanks Mike!

Spanjaard
great you resolved the decals issue, fantastic dio

Doubtingmango
Thanks Spanjaard! It was a nice save

Bobby Thumbs
aww man I thought you was a next level tree maker - i was gonna hit you up for hints

jaero
thats stunning!! the rocky terrain looks great, and so does the camo

Frank Morano
Un peut chère à 70 € 104.00 can
Plus shipping 28 € 42.00 can

J'ai payé hier pour le F4E Late 100.00 can plus 24.33 shipping.
C'est le nouveau kit.
L'échange aide pas de ce temps çi.
À 50€ plus 28 € je serais plus avantageux.
75.00 ca plus 42.00 can shipping je suis preneur.
Merçi pour ton approche.
Bonne fin journée.