Luft46's Blog

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.

This week I managed to add the radiator with a fingerprint on it and do a few other painting tasks. It’s still got a way to go and I’ll be buying the Tamiya AS12 in two weeks at Frontline.

I’ve got tomorrow off so a little more will get done in the morning.

I’m back from holidays and managed a bit of modelling over the last few days.

First up I got the three 1/48 TA 183 upgrade parts from Quickboost from a company in Cyprus. I got them inside 10 days which was pretty quick.

I decided to remove the moulding stubs and do some basic clean up on the engine intake and exhaust. The intake on the kit is it’s biggest shortfall being too short. This “feature” is carefully ignored in many reviews by facing the kit away to avoid showing this.

I also started doing the clean up of the pebbly yellow paint on the Raumer S but due to the wet weather this will carry over to next week.

Lastly I managed to get more of the assembly of the Ki61 done. There’s still a little fettling to be done on this but this is an Easter holiday weekend so I’ll see what can be done.

I’m away from home on Sunday so the modelling week has ended early.

Just some more yellow on the Raumer S and that’s it for the week. This coat went on a little pebbly so may need a little gentle sanding in parts.

I’ve actually worked on three kits this week die to the weather today. I’ve done some more assembly on the Ki61 so the body and wings are together but not joined to each other yet. No issues on the apart from a little sanding after using some Ironlak chrome to look for any joint problems. I’m now up to adding in the rear spine part which along with the engine cover needs a little fettling. This may in part due to me painting the insides of these parts.

The Raumer S had some pre shading added with Ironlak black and just this arvo I did a quick spray if the Vallejo Dark Yellow. This seems to come out as quite a bit drier than Tamiya’s version and in a greater quantity but maybe that was me holding the can back a little further. More uses will straighten this out.

Lastly is the Ekranoplane. Because it’s so hot 45 minutes was all I could manage in the garage. On the plus side it’s all my own man cave but on the negative side there are some days that are too hot or cold to do anything. Today was such a day.

Given it is a kit of a not large number of large parts even in 1.144 I dragged this inside and sat on the lounge mostly watching Australian Survivor. Judge me if you want but at least it’s not MAFS or it’s ilk.

This was a snip and sand exercise but at least it’s started and I can do some assembly another day.

There are some smaller parts still to do another day from the A sprue.

Finally a bit of progress despite today being out most of the day. I’ve dug out the Minenraumer and finished off the last few details. I also did a little rattle can spraying this morning and got some Tamiya white primer on. I normally use the grey but this wasn’t available last time I bought some. It’s more of a flat white at least. For a change I am doing small light coats and this seems to be working better with another coat needed tomorrow. I’m happy so far.

In other news the Ki61 is going well. It’s been a long while since I’ve done a Tamiya kit and I’d forgotten how well they are engineered. The cockpit is done and the wings are together but need to be sanded. As the cockpit is designed to slide in from underneath the fuselage the next step will be to get that glued.

The Kaiten has unfortunately gone back in its box. I’ve managed to break off half of the horn on the front and lose a propeller blade. I’ve emailed the manufacturer in hope or failing that I’ll have to fabricate replacements but that’s for another day.

The Ki61 did get a little paint in the cockpit area so it’s advanced slightly but not enough to make it worth showing.

For a change I thought I’d drag out a kit from the nearly ready to paint shelf which consists of quite a few kits after all the Covid lockdown modelling.

The 1.72 Takom Krupp Raumer is mostly assembled so this arvo was adding exhausts and the turning mechanism. Just a few more parts and it will be ready for primer.

And lastly some shots of the workbench area while it’s still relatively tidy.

Not much modelling this week again. I’ve been rearranging things but haven’t finished yet as you will see below.

I’ve packed away a few kits and tidied the shelves under the second desk and in the process discovered a lovely colony of a dozen red backs one of which escaped. Stern measures are coming for him.

At the moment my main side is clean and clear with the mess to be tidied on the secondary desk. That is where my laptop is going as it has proved a distraction on too many occasions.

I’ve also added a small shelf to stop things disappearing off the back off the desk and reconnected up the British Airways neon sign so that it automatically goes on when I turn the rest of the lights on.

That should help the lighting a bit also. Last up is a memory jogger for all the biscuit lovers.

Whilst I got a bit done on Thursday I was unwell most of the weekend so very little done overall.

On the sub I’ve got the two control rods attached at the back end but only 4 of the supports on. I used superglue to attach the brass strips I hand cut and folded as support and guide for the control rods. Thinking myself smart I went back and added some Plastic Magic glue to strengthen the bond as the contact area is quite small.

Unfortunately this actually seems to have dissolved the bond on two of the supports so I have to redo these. But not today.

In the meantime I’ve done a little interior painting on the Ki61 for a bit of light modelling.

Hopefully this week will be a little more productive. And lastly a late night visitor.

Well the Miniart 1.35 Triebflugel cockpit has defeated me temporarily. The muse has left me on this.

I spent much of this arvo dragging out boxes of possible next kits. I’ve got tomorrow off so I’m going to have another go at the submarines propellers.

I also dug out a few part finished kis that mostly need painting and if the weather ever get a bit drier I might need to do some airbrushing. In the meantime I’ve dug out the Tamiya Ki61 and this does look nice as I have some Tamiya decals and a bomb to make a Kamikaze version.