Luft46's Blog

Some changes after a fair bit of modelling. I’ve put the kit trolley back in the spares box and dug out the trolley for the Ar E377 from the Dragon.

As I’ve already done most of the filling and sanding already this seems the better option. Again this was from the spares box.

see below

Last year was disappointing for the known reasons and I didn’t get any models finished but I now have a pile of 9 ready to paint kits.

I’m going to do some more airbrush practice on Wednesday so maybe I will be able do some real painting this month.

In the meantime I  have dug out the PM Lippisch P13a kit. It’s a reasonably well known kit but not necessarily in a good way. It’s a simple kit in terms of parts count but otherwise has lots of fit issues and parts that are just too simple in their detail level.

There is a good review on Modelling Madness which summarises the issues well – canopy does not fit and the cockpit needs better details, intake needs  replacement with a metal tube as does the rocket at the rear, a blanking plate in the middle, the trolley wheels are too simple and shitty decals.

As I go along you’ll see what I have done.

Intake in after some Dremeling (RHS) and lots of Milliput .I’m going to keep the fin portion apart for a while until I fix up the cockpit and canopy area and then fit it.

I did find two diagrams of roughly what the cockpit area should look like at least.

The pilot sits up surprisingly high according to these diagrams.

This is a quick update on this kit from Takom in 1.72

Its certainly well detailed and the Hanomag doesn’t seem to have some of the issues Special Hobbies one did. The Meillerwagen is lots of pieces stuck together with a bit of a tendency when trying to add some parts for other bits to be knocked off. Adding the jacks to raise and lower the cradle has been a bit of a struggle at times.

I’m taking a weeks break so no real modelling will be done but maybe some magazines might get read.

Well both these L46 resin kits have drained my mojo at the canopy stage. Both kits have all the parts cut out and trimmed up but fitting the canopies has dragged on and I have stopped for now.

I intend to do some airbrush practice over the long weekend and a brief clean of the desktop. I will probably start on something else for the moment.

Some Archer transfers decals arrived today also with some of the creature eyes already packed up to give to a friend.

Currently I’m working on both the Heinkel Wespe and the Fw Triebflugel. The Wespe is on its 6th or 7th PSR cycle for fitting the damned canopy ( bottom left) and the Triebflugel is moving along except for the wings, cutting these out and getting them straight along the edge is proving problematic but that’s tomorrows job. The cockpit is painted ( bottom right ) but needs some fettling to fit.

I’m still yet to cut out the nine engine pieces and the four tailplanes but again a job for tomorrow as its a day off.

Below is some of the Triebflugel (sadly this word comes up as an option after only 3 letters ) parts. Top left is the bottom of the body which I’ve already cut the moulding plug off. Some of the other parts are marked in black to indicate how much resin will be carved off. The moulding is very good quality with nice panel lines and rivet marks.

I’ve just test fitted the canopy and whilst it’s fine on the front and back the sides have gaps which explains the Milliput you see below.

I can do a couple of other things tonight but this will need to get sorted tomorrow for any other progress to occur. Cutting out the Triebflugel parts may be a backup exercise tomorrow.

Firstly I’ve got to report that the Delphin sub is now at paint ready stage so it’s back in its box in the ready to paint shelf.

I had the other day off and when I was about to commence looking for something new a parcel arrived. Unexpectedly the two resin kits I had ordered from ABK in the Czech Republic after just a week. Quite amazing especially in these times.

Taking a leaf out of Earl Martells book the kit boxes were broken down so that they could fit in the smallest space possible to save on postage.

As one of the kits was a Triebflugel – of which I already have a completed Huma kit I felt that the Heinkel Wespe should be first. It really is a nice kit, nice parts including a single piece canopy. Yes you will need to do clean up but the moulding is done so that if possible the cutting will be through a thin section of resin. The instructions are quite clear and the 3 parts of the circular ducting are numbered on the sprue via little dots so that it is clear which is which. I used a marker pen to indicate this for after the moulding stubs were removed.

A lot of thought has gone into this kit and whilst it isn’t cheap I would thoroughly recommend it on what I have seen so far

So far this Mikro Mir limited run kit has been relatively easy with no major issues UNTIL you get to fitting the torpedo fins. The channel each fin is meant to go into is undersized in both depth, length and width. The first two are not great but I’ve just eyeballed the remaining two and they are much worse. The end result is that the back portion of the torpedo is split and will need regluing but I’m waiting till all four go on before doing that as each fin requires custom fitting and will need Milliput to fill the unfortunate gaps that this process has caused. Its almost a show stopper but as there are so few parts to go I intend to soldier in so that it can go back into the box as ready to paint.