It is an aerobonus resin pilot. It’s a beautiful figure. The stick actually fits perfectly in his hand. I think if I worked at it some I could get it all to line up. As it is, I cut the stick and ran it down between the folds in his coat as where it joins would be invisible.
That’s really the best my camera will do. It does a 4x zoom with the lens. The digital zoom leaves a lot to be desired. I wish I could zoom in more just to show the wood texture as I’m very pleased with how it came out. The other details - well, there isn’t much. I stressed a bit about that little control panel with the 4 switches on the right. It’s offered either in plastic, or as a PE part with separate PE switches. I chose the latter. It’s pretty flimsy. Closing the fuselage up even without the pilot tells me it’s even then barely visible.
So she’s ready to close up now. I’m pondering pre-painting part of the front fuselage as I’m not sure how to mask the engine. If I mask the engine before I close it up I wonder if I’ll be able to get the masking out. If I pre-paint I’m wondering how I’ll get a smooth consistent finish with the rest of the paint.
Wow! Great work, everyone! Sorry for missing the recent posts until now - for some reason I’m not getting notifications, so I thought it was all quiet in the thread!
I’ve only got a small update of my own to add. It’s been one of those two steps forwards, one step back periods, with a bunch of accidents happening to slow things down. The Gustav even tried testing its wings the other day when some things fell off a shelf onto the workbench and sent it flying! (While it flew well, the landing wasn’t a pretty sight…)
Anyway, following some repairs today, it’s finally standing on its legs:
Just like my Hellcat Mk. II JZ796 last month, Rowan. After the crash landing I sent the pilot back to flying school and my Black Men worked the night through for the repairs …
The red legs and wheel hubs were to make it easy to identify that the aircraft required high octane C3 fuel. I still need to paint the filler cap as n/m - maybe it was a replacement part, but it might have been done as a final reminder on this particular G-6/AS to use the correct fuel.
With my Gustav nearing completion (touch wood - see my previous post… ), it’s time to think about what to build next.
I’m committed to a big review build that’s likely to arrive soon, so I’ve decided not to risk starting the Dornier Do 17Z, because the last thing I want is to end up not being able to finish it by the campaign deadline. So, I’ll save that to build when the clock isn’t ticking.
Instead, I’ll try to complete a couple of less ambitious projects - both of them subjects that I think Steffen would have liked.
Among the list of many firsts for me with this build is oil weathering. I used oils for panel fading and exhaust smoke. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be and would definitely use it in my future builds as well.
I’m fairly pleased with how my plan actually worked. I prepainted the red cowls before assembling because I couldn’t figure out how to mask the engine around it. So, the fuselage is assembled and painted, with johannes in his seat:
You may notice a bit of white overspray on the dark blue on the starboard side. I’ll have to go back over that. The dark blue seems a little uneven all over the fuselage. I haven’t decided whether to make it even or leave it a little uneven. It seems like I try to get an uneven finish on most solid things, so maybe this is what I’m after?
I’ve painted the wings also, but I’m going to do add some unevenness on the underside to bring out the rib a little more. I’m not sure what the rib detail would look like on such a solid dark blue surface on top, so will probably just leave that.
Johannes’ marking was a big white square under the cockpit. It seems a little strange, but is nicely done with masking rather than a decal.
I would leave the blue on the fuselage slightly uneven.
As for the wings: Let the raised part over the ribs be slightly lighter in colour than the lower parts between them.
My opinions only, the relative value of which can be debated
If it’s okay with you, I am finally jumping in with the old Tamiya Ki-84. I started it for this campaign but don’t recall posting any pre-assembly pix. Before tonight, I started the cockpit, glued the wings together, and then used them as a test bed for some new paints.
Sorry for missing the recent posts until now - for some reason I’m not getting notifications, so I thought it was all quiet in the thread!
), it’s time to think about what to build next.
