SPA Modeler

Nice work! Those wheel wells look fantastic.
Friend of mine has been having some pretty good luck surf fishing and out on OB pier.

Glad you're back in action here John. I hear you on the side distractions. If it aint work it's me getting our sons truck ready for the road. This weekend's task will be replacing all of the front braking components and ALOT of the suspension. I do want to go fishing though and there's plenty of places to do that here in the Coastal Bend.

Wow, even being away, you are doing more than I am! Great progress and beautiful work on the wings and wheel wells.

Thanks guys! I fished a small private pond this past Friday to satisfy the fishing urge.

I am inching along on this build. The small window on the fuselage was glued into place after I placed some rivets on the clear piece.


It took two tries to get the hairspray chipping on the prop blades right. I wanted very subtle chipping, mainly on the leading edge of the blades.


I also did some hairspray chipping on the spinner and backplate. This was a bit of small test to see what could possibly done on the main fuselage. As for the dark green color, I decided NOT to use the Mr Hobby Kawanishi Green that I specifically ordered for this build. Instead, for the spinner, I used a mixture of two AK Real Color shades: IJN D2 Green Black (RC305) and Luftwaffe RLM 83 Blue (RC327) mixed at a 3:1 ratio.


The prop components were also treated to a round of salt fading


Here is the completed prop mounted on the engine, posed in my light box. The salt fading, if desired, can be dialed back after application by gently rubbing micromesh on it.

The prop and spinner are outstanding! I'm going to try salt fading for the first time on the Dora prop but first I'm going to experiment on a unused prop from the spares bin. Also noticed you said RLM 83 blue I just ran into that when I opened my new jar of AK Real Colors and was expecting dark green. I've tried to understand that but for now will just continue on believing that RLM 83 is Green untill proven otherwise.

Ya see.....this is another area where I need to improve. I've chipped my props and spinners in the past but they sure don't come out like this. I'm going to have to do some searching for a video on this salt chipping method. Man that looks great.

Put a frame around this! It is a piece of art, to be sure.

I still would love to see videos of these builds and painting.

That’s beautiful work on that engine Jon. Very nice!

Hey guys! It's been a while since I've posted so I wanted to pop in and say hello. No modeling update though. Summer/fall is usually fishing time for me and when I'm not fishing, I'm thinking about fishing or tinkering with fishing stuff. I've been getting my gear ready for a 3-day offshore trip coming up in October and also doing some reel tune-ups for friends. Right now I'm in the middle of a tuning upgrade for a Shimano Calcutta 400. Due to corrosion, a fused bearing needed to be removed (hence the hammer). Once this one's done, I should be able to clean off the desktop of fishing stuff and get back to modeling.



Thanks for comments on the Shiden Kai build. I promise to jump back on it soon. Most realistically after the October trip but maybe sooner.

I hope everyone is well! It's good see some new builds going and the return of some old faces.

Looking forward to some fish pictures! Hammers are so useful!