Luft46's Blog

The week started with a public holiday so I managed to get some Milliput down on the UFO at least and it’s ready for some PSR next week.

In Melbourne I’ve been to both Hearns and Metro Hobbies. Hearns continues its slow decline with buzzer controlled entry now needed. It’s not a good sign and yet again I bought nothing there.

Sunday saw me at Expo at 9.30am with half an hour spare to check out a few traders before    following the emptied long queue upstairs. I bought a few decal sheets and headed back downstairs to buy a few things and check out the entries.

On the whole there seemed more entries and traders compared to last year and more people there which is a good sign.

I’ll post a few pictures below of the entries below finishing with what I think will be best of show. I’ll post a few more in another post.

It’s been a quiet modelling week with more stuff on other fronts occupying my time.

The UFO got a fair bit of work in part due to the very vague instructions which caused me to put the main cockpit in the wrong place. It’s a typical short run kit with a bit of wrestling required to get it done.

Anyway that’s all done now and after it sets up overnight it will be onto putting both halves together as tomorrow is a Public holiday.

Also my gold plated decals for the Mystery Machine arrived quickly enough. I’ll look at these properly tomorrow.

Apart from making very little progress on the wheels the Ki61 is nearly paint ready. Unfortunately as the inner rims are poorly defined it’s proving troublesome. I may have to resort to wheel masks.

The bin got more primer and I gave another one I have a coat also as I’ll be using it as a test bed. I’m getting a brass mask to help with this from Ali Express to do the rust effect.

I’m also getting a few other items from them that will appear in later posts. I’m blaming this on a friend who has led me astray in discovering this company.

Last up is the new shiny thing being the Avrocar VZ9 from Fly. It’s limited run and includes resin for much of the interior details. I’ve started in detail painting after cutting out most of the resin. The engine exhaust vanes are tricky as they are easy to break off which I did on two of them having to replace with plastic card but this was pretty simple to do as they are just rectangles.

Last up is my latest attempt to airbrush. It’s closer but that’s next week’s problem.

Not really much done due to the weather, concrete floored garages are just not conducive in this sort of weather.

I’ve resprayed select bits on the Mine clearer and a little sanding on the bin. It’s now had a coat of primer that I’m not really happy with. Card is not a great material and seems to get furry if you sand it at all. I’ll have to do more spraying to see if I’m happier after that. I’ve definitely not sprayed it enough yet.

An indication of how cold it is is that the below hat is now being worn in addition to the winter jacket.

Apart from a 11km walk which was meant to be more like half that the week has consisted of a fair bit of modelling.

The Ki61 is still moving slowly forward with more small bits like the U/C being worked on. The aerial is looking better but will still need to be fitted and fettled when it’s closer to painting time.

The other mine clearer also got a coat of Dunkelgelb via the spray can and needs a little extra coat for a few missed bits.

An attempt was made to do some airbrushing practice but problems with using Xtracrylics has made me switch to Vallejo. Unfortunately even this didn’t work so a switch of airbrushes and a tear down will be needed next week as the mojo had run out yesterday.

Lastly was the skip bin which had a construction surge from one side to all four and some filler added to round out the weekend’s efforts.

Lastly I did order some stuff from BNA including a preorder for the 1.32 Hs 129 I want but who knows when it will arrive.

After a less than stellar week it was nice to get back to some modelling. It was mostly working on the Ki61. I have a couple of small issues to tidy up. The wing root join on the underside needed a two stage PSR cycle to get that sorted and a few small parts needed tidying up to get it nearly read for painting. Last up is the U/C area with the wheels needing finishing off still. Getting the hub/rubber interface to work is still ongoing. I think I’m up to at least my third coat on the rubber portion and the gear legs still.need sone painting. Lastly is the aerial which just doesn’t want to sit properly so another round of Milliput was needed. The last bit is eating up a bit of effort.

Nothing much else got done apart from listening to the Just Making Conversation podcast on Mojo.

Over the week I’ve been opening up some of my storage boxes and having a good kit fondle and discovering some gems, some started and some yet to be. More on this later.

And yes it’s cold, time for the winter jacket as I model in a garage.

A summary of this week’s modelling.

Not much modelling this week until today when I has a bit of a bonanza and worked on a few kits.

First up was the miniskip which I tried to get to glue a side on but was a mess, so back to the drawing board on that one. I may use some of the glue like properties of Milliput to help with this.

Next up was the three wheeled mine clearer that got a coat of primer which still needs a little clean-up on the coat that was applied. The wheels also got some Dunkelgelb on the rear parts.

Next up was the other mine clearer which got a quick inspection of the rattle can Dunkelgelb application a while back which whilst not perfect can be fixed up with the green airbrush camo when it is applied.

I’ve also sprayed my paint mule He177 in Dunkelgelb as an airbrushing practice piece.

Last up is the Tamiya Ki61 which had a few small parts worked on. The pitot tube is good but the aerial is proving troublesome. More work to be done on some other small parts also.

That’s all so I better duck off to bed.

Not really much this week as I was away at a friend’s place and picked up some stuff. Today was mostly real world stuff around the house so only a bit of modelling.

Next Tuesday is a public holiday so maybe some then.

I’ve done the next two PSR cycles on the dump bin with the Perfect Plastic putty I picked up on Thursday from Frontline and it seems to work fine.

The rest is stuff I picked up from my friend.

And lastly some swans on the water near where I stayed.

Modelling today played second fiddle to some 1:1 scale construction of a garden bed.

Yesterday was a little better with some progress.

First off is the Ki61 which has stalled a little with only some minor painting and work on the bomb racks done. I’m picking up the Tamiya silver hopefully next week so this will hopefully reignite the fire on this one.

Next up is the Krupp Raumer which finally got some paint again. I think the issue last time was spraying from too far away. I concentrated on just doing the top and it looks ok so far. I hope to do more before I go away.

The Minenraumer has been test fitted and the chains look ok. I’m not putting the front track section in till after the painting is finished as the parts are designed so that once you put it in it won’t be coming out again.

This is now up to bring ready to paint also as the etched parts have been added along with the lights.

Last up is a bit of a surprise. I had a little spare time yesterday so got out the card kit of the dump bin I ordered last year. I’ve got the two sides together with their stiffening frameworks and added some Milliput to the gap between the two parts on each side. This is very much an extra kit to fiddle with when I have time.