Modeling during COVID

[chuck]

Yes, Gneisenau is the second photo.

Hood was supposed to go in for a refit to strengthen her armor but the war started a little too early.

The first edition of the post had captions on each model. I've been having issue with this web site in particular blowing away posting from basic mouse moves! ON a detailed post I compose it in another app and then copy and paste. I suspect the "magic" mouse is partially to blame as the more traditional mouse I use when the magic one is charging doesn't do this.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Ran across an unfinished one of my son's that was 1/48 and so it found its way into my shop to be completed.

[robert.]

Will you use it on your layout?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Will you use it on your layout?

On? No.

Above? Yes!

It's 1/48

[robert.]

What do you think my chances are to fix water damaged buildings? Wood craftsman kits. Assembled with tacky glue. Most of them are twisted or wavy. I got a call from my mother” this is your mom. My basement flooded “ what a mess. Her saving grace is it came in through theroof

[chuck]

Nice, are you going to try to rig it?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Nice, are you going to try to rig it?

No; calling it done and leaving it up in the "sky".

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[quote="robert."]What do you think my chances are to fix water damaged buildings? Wood craftsman kits. Assembled with tacky glue. Most of them are twisted or wavy.{/quote]

Close to none, but if you can get inside and add reinforcing using good carpenter's glue, not zero.

[robert.]

I’ll probably pull the metal details and pitch the rest. I have not looked into any of the plaster kits.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I’ll probably pull the metal details and pitch the rest.

Depends on age vs. actual usability - older castings tend to be a bit crude by today's standards, but these still might be a salvage job

I have not looked into any of the plaster kits.

Flooding and plaster goes together not so well.......

[healey36]

I have a DH-2 paper model here somewhere that came with line for the rigging. Assembling the model will be challenging enough, the rigging another step up in complexity. Would be fun to try it, however.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I have a DH-2 paper model here somewhere that came with line for the rigging. Assembling the model will be challenging enough, the rigging another step up in complexity. Would be fun to try it, however.

I thought about it for this plane but it seemed so fragile in my hands that I got to good enough for my purposes and stopped there. I have a model of a Bleriot IX hanging in my office space that I did the rigging, but that was long ago....and my patience with little fiddly bits on little fiddly models has decreased quite a lot.

[chuck]

1/48 scale B-25J. This is a Revell/Monogram kit that has been re-issued over the years in different variations of the plane. This kit is a late model version and can be built as a "bomber" or as a "strafer". The later removes the bombardier and in his place a crap load of 50 caliber machine guns are mounted in the nose and along the side of the front of the plane, below the cockpit. It was very effective gunship in the Pacific theater with some dramatic movie shots of the plane cutting a Japanese destroyer in half. I built it up as a bomber, specifically Yossarian's plane from Mike Nichols 1970 movie Catch 22.

There was a real B-25 named Dumbo with similar nose art that operated out of North Africa but it was a much earlier version, I think a "B" model. The model is built up as it looked like in the film, not in the war.

For some reason, the interior of the kit is quite detailed. It doesn't have a clear skin on one side so I have no idea why it was made this way. The cockpit screen is quite large and you can see a fair amount of the inside of the forward portion of the plane and the bomb bay is open so you can sort of see inside of there. Aft of the wing you can see very little. The two side gunners have nice "bay windows" but there is no light so you can't see anything. I assume it seemed like a good idea at the time.



The instructions for the kit are a little strange. Since you can built one of two versions you have to chose and then keep track of which instructions go with which versions. Since these instructions were issued after the "globalization" of the model kit world there are only symbols to act as guides. Too bad there aren't any universal symbols for most of this stuff like there are for bathroom gender, stairs, first aid.







That is a K-line "Jeep". There is supposed to be a film crew out front getting ready for the days shooting. I can't find the set available, even on E-Bay. I will try looking for the Woodland Scenics survey figures to see if I can kitbash a Panavision camera out of theodolite.

The propellors are just pressed onto the engine shaft as this model is too large for display. There was no place to put a steel plate in for mounting like the 727. The ideal place would have been the bomb bay but it actually has bombs in it. The model is so tail heavy I will have to have it balancing on a step stool under the rear crew access door on the belly of the plane. I tried using "egg" weights in the nose but two weren't heavy enough to balance out the plane but they were heavy enough to start to bow the front strut. The rear hatch door collapsed so I used one of my wife's crystal ornaments as a substitute.

I will be making a "holder" to protect the model out of scrap Amazon box material, sort of like the stand I made for decaling only this will be specific to this model. I am in an "Olive Drab" mood as I have three other kits I am working on with significant amounts of OD painting. One is an insane level. The 1/32 scale Atomic Canon. I bought this "used" back in 1978. Insanely huge kit but it is in three parts (front and rear tractors as well as the gun carriage itself). Turns out there were some important parts missing and I had to make replacements. I thought this was a re-pop as the figures are in rough shape. They looked like they forgot to duck and cover when the shells detonated. Nope, this is actually the original kit from the late 50's. The figures just look half melted. I'll model this one as a museum piece with no crew! The other two kits are Atlantis re-pops of the Aurora Cheyanne attack chopper and a Revell Nike Hercules surface to air missile.

[RBH29]

Chuck, what a great build! I have a Revell B-25J still in the box but after seeing the details you've shown I think I'll try something simpler first. I haven't built a model in decades.

Would a rare earth magnet on the front wheel and resting on a steel plate solve the balance issue? Did you send pictures to Max's Models?

Richard

[chuck]

I haven't built a model in decades.

It's easy. It's like falling off a bicycle, you never forget!!!!

Yes, I did send it in and it made the builders group build. I love Max's channel. That and Mike Machat's "Celebrating Aviation" are the two YouTube Channels I subscribe to and watch regularly.

I just looked at the lead "eggs" I tried to install in the tunnel. These came to 1 oz total. Model still tilted back. Nose gear strut was starting to distort. I guess I could have glued the bomb bay doors shut and put the steel strip in there and did an in flight model, aka just taking off. I will rig up something and I hope I can find the figures to build the "diorama" and still make it "storable".

The kit is actually pretty straight forward, study the instruction sheets and mark them up to identify which version you are building and cross out the stuff that doesn't apply. Most of the fit is pretty good. The scale is easier to work with than 1/72. It's actually a pretty nice kit for it's time. It holds up well.