SPA Modeler

I've done two German planes and that'll be the end of that.

Well those are both great! You do good work.

Got some miscellaneous subassemblies done and painted. The wheels are still primer and I’ll be weathering them tonight, along with masking and attaching the clear parts. And I’ve been listening to Death In June and Boyd Rice all day:



And here’s a stylized representation of my work bench:



... I’ve already put in almost 60 hours this week, so I blew off work to go on a 15 mile bike adventure, then come home, drink beer, listen to music, talk to my mom on the phone for three hours, paint, and look at my current models and contemplate the next steps and how best to deal with them.

Also, here’s my bike, I call her “The War Machine”; she’s the foundation of my rigorous cardiovascular fitness regimen:

Cycling is a great way to unwind... I do that here

You’re absolutely right about that, Carlos. Cycling for me is a great quality of life booster, in that way. I love it.

Gun sight is installed:


Clear parts are installed:


Listening to Jim White (I love him):


Also- I painted the blue area for the kill marks with a brush. I had problems with figuring out how to properly mask that- either the tape pulled the yellow off, or the picture window cardboard didn’t work right with the countout of the rudder, so I pulled-out the brush:



Good day’s work! Will mask the canopy later. Time for a beer or seven.

Very nice Kenny!

Interesting approach, to first install/glue the canopy and only afterwards mask it!
Have never really even thought to do so, but might actually be pretty practical as you can grab the entire plane and keep it still more easier, than just grabbing the canopy piece... Hmmm, interesting!

With what glue did you use to attach the canopy ?

- Kari

I also like to mask the canopy before attaching them to the model.

Hey fellas, sorry it took so long to answer! Let me get to it-

Kari, I went with the Tamiya Extra Thin. Left it to sit overnight and you were right on the money- no fogging! And let me tell you, it was so much easier to get the masking in there when it was already attached to the plane on the jig. First time I tried it. For me, it’s a keeper for closed-canopy builds. Made it a lot easier for me to get in there and get the masks right.

Bruce- I attacked it first for two reasons:

1. It’s a closed canopy build, and I didn’t want to mess with gluing the canopy on with Extra Thin after painting. My OCD basically told me that I’d screw up the paint on the aircraft accidentally with the glue whilst attempting to put it on there.

2. I thought having it attached would make it easier for me to mask it.

Worked pretty good -so far.

Also- I didn’t know there was a movie! Thanks for mentioning that, I’m a huge Jim White fan, and I’ll check it out on your recommendation!

John- yessir! I like this method better than the way I used to do it. Way less stressful for me.

Okay onto the work:





I got the Mr. Surfacer on there -man I love how that stuff sprays, goes on like silk.

Also, I’ve started painting the cowl. Going slow. Building it up. Will finish that up, and do the red on the tabs tomorrow.

That’s it for today!