SPA Modeler

Carlos,

You hit the nail on the head, buddy. “Just have fun”. BE FREE WITH IT. That’s where we’re hoping to get me. My hyper vigilance actually makes my OCD worse. Talk about a counter-intuitive thing, right there. Removing the rituals associated with the hyper vigilance, over time, makes me feel better, so far.

I’d enjoy modeling a whole lot more if I didn’t “strap the airplane to the jig” out of fear of dropping it, but rather “just used the jig as a useful tool”, which it is.

And you know, mistakes happen. Hell, look what happened with my last Emil. The clear coat issue. I took that in stride and fixed it, no problem. No mess. No fuss.

I think for me, modeling is 1/3 fun, 1/3 art therapy, 1/3 decompression. And I’m steering it toward 100% fun.

Anyway, thanks for listening, and for not telling me that I’m a complete whackadoodle. You guys are great.

portman wrote:

KennyX wrote:It ain’t gonna happen with that Hellcat either.

I'll send you one of my old Matchbox kits and you can do it to that!

HAHAHAAAA! Cheers Portman!!!

We are all a bunch of whackadoodles, if you think about it. Adult men obsessing over aircraft of a bygone era with little plastic replicas.

Not familiar with Trump's Stuka kit but it looks to be a big complicated kit... just what I love!

John,

Yes, we are grown men and we enjoy gluing pieces of plastic together My wife doesn’t see it as such. It’s her feeling that what each of us do is art. I of course feel that way too and always have, even when I was a little boy, building that badass Airwolf mode I was building.

Okay, so, to the build! Yes sir, it is big and complicated. But at the same time, it’s just a pleasure to build. In my opinion so far, they’ve done a good job both with engineering and the instructions. It’s very easy to get into a groove with this kit where assembly just flies by.

My on-call at work ended at 5AM and wouldn’t you know it, I get paged-out at 4. HAHA! So they woke me up to sign on and help with an issue. Took care of that, and then did all the stuff I normally handle when I sign on. This left me with a lot of free time later on in the morning before the meetings start. So I had some time to finish the engine, and get things primed. Let’s have a look!

Boy, this is really a nice engine. I like it a lot. Heh, after reviewing the instructions, I realized that I had accidentally left off part “C5”. It’s a small part. No problem. I just loosened the assembly that holds the plumbing with some Extra Thin, pried it off, added the part, and glued it back together.

Here’s the completed engine:





The photo-etch fret:



I like how they did this. The fret has a thin film on both sides, and the parts seem easier to cut out than Eduard’s do. What’s more, Mr. Surfacer seems to bite it really well.

Here’s some test fitting- the bomb trapeze to the firewall:



It was good to get those two fiddly bits which hold it in place correct on the first try.

And here’s the parts with their contact points masked, all ready for priming and painting:



I’d like to keep using the Extra Thin unless it’s an impossibility to do so. So I masked the contact points so that come assembly time I can use that instead of super glue, and instead of having to sand those tiny nubs.

And here we are, all primed and ready for paint:



I’m going to go bananas painting and detailing/weathering the engine, mounts, and firewall even though 98% of the work won’t be visible once the cowl is attached. It’s a lot of extra work, but it’ll be a lot of fun and it’ll be a good introduction to weathering engines in preparation for a later build, maybe even the SUPER EMIL, which will have an open cowling. What’s more, I’ll know I put the extra effort into it, and he photos I take of it will be posted here. I’m stoked about that. I’ll get started on painting that stuff either later this evening or tomorrow morning. And I’ll probably start on the assemblies for the cockpit and gunner’s office, and sodewalls later on depending on how busy the evening is.

Oh, and I was listening to Thulsa Doom. Great band:

The engine looks great!

Blackbasing an engine can really make wonders !

- Kari

KSaarni wrote:The engine looks great!

Blackbasing an engine can really make wonders !

- Kari

Kari,

This is my first-ever attempt at black-basing and weathering an aircraft engine. Here it is!



I’m very happy with the results!

I marbled it with heavily-thinned Tamiya German Grey. Then I blended it with heavily-thinned flat black.for the plumbing and stuff, the instructions called out “Steel”. I used Vallejo Oily Steel, and Natural Steel. Brushed those on there. After a flat coat, I mixed some orange, reddish brown, and dark brown pastel dust for the dirt and rust, and brushed that on there. I’m pleased with how it’s come out. Looks like a well-worn engine to me.

Very nice work

Excellent! I really like the small touches... masking of the glue contact points is very good and something I need to pay more attention to. Bravo... the engine looks great! The exhausts will make it really come to life!

jkim wrote:We are all a bunch of whackadoodles, if you think about it. Adult men obsessing over aircraft of a bygone era with little plastic replicas.

Not always of a bygone era...

I know there are more here besides myself who like some of the current modern machines... or the
ones we associated with in our younger years...

Portman and John.

Thank you very much! The only thing that sucks, about this, is the exhaust stacks attach after the cowl has gone on. It’s not made in such a way as they push through slots. So I won’t be able to see the engine with the exhaust stacks on while I button it up. Ah well. I do plan on using the same pastel dust formula for the stacks though, and the same paint method as well. I like the effect I ended up with.

Carlos,

Yep. Even I myself enjoy the looks of a nice A10, or a Hornet.