Luft46's Blog

This is a reference for older Australians. I went out today and arrived home to find the Ta 183 in two pieces. Seems the cleaner vacuumed my room and knocked the kit to the floor. I spent an hour trying to get it fixed up and started assembly at the nose.

Seems that it was weakened by the fall because a piece of plastic just popped up from the middle of the fuselage leaving a big hole. As repairs would be very problematic at best it with very little grab area left it headed off to the bin.

A very frustrating and wholly preventable experience. I’ve cleaned my desk and will take a few days break. I will not be letting this happen again! Sigh!

Just a quick update on this. I’m still yet to join the fuselage halves as I’m working on fit issues at the nose due to the new  resin nose intake from Quikboost. I’m sure it’s probably more a me issue although having to add extra weight to cover off the resin exhaust weight hasn’t helped.

I was going to put in new wingtip lights but after carving out one side it just looked too big to me, even in 1.48. So instead I’ve filled it all in and decided on a new course. I’m thinking that if this did make it into production that simplification imperatives would have led to Focke Wulf just recycling the FW190 wingtip lights rather than something so large so I’m going with that.

Another new thing was trying out the Mr Putty white putty. This is quite a curious product that goes on like a white version of the more usual hand made putty from sprue and glue. It definitely needs a reasonable drying time but is a good half way point between the Vallejo plastic putty and Milliput in terms of hardness and sticking power. I used this on the X-4s which famously for some reason have flat spots on the body between the fins. They’ve now had a spray with the last of my Tamiya grey primer so I’m off next week to Hobbyco to get more.

I’m now in my new model room.  This is across the hall from my garage, my old modelling room. I’m still taking the occasional item from the old room especially as my paints are still stored there. Additionally I’m using it to do any gluing with Tamiya Thin to keep the smell out of my new room.

Importantly I now have air-conditioning and a sparse but focused room now. I’m no longer sharing my space with storage, gardening tools, fridges etc.

So let’s start off with a quick tour.

As you enter on the left is a wall with framed drawings of the Dornier 335 by Alan Bentley. I actually had these as blueprints in a larger format way back in the late 70s but not as well presented and when I moved out of home these stayed behind.

Going round to the right you come to the back wall and this is where the four IKEA cupboards assembled by my eldest son are as well as bookshelves on the right.  

Going around to the right we come to more framed prints being Hs 129 on top and the R4M rocket on the bottom.

After that are my three IKEA display shelves.

Finally we come to the front of the room with two windows and a sit to stand desk which was again sourced by my eldest.

And lastly here is the garage desk. I’ve got two nearly finished kits out there that I hope to work on their painting in the future.

More work on the model room. I’ve now got all my books into the bookshelves including those I’m yet to read at the bottom. I’ve also got the display cabinets in and given them a clean.

Tomorrow’s job is to get all the other models back in the cabinets and move the desk in finally. Maybe even some tools and supplies.

The painters have finally left and now the serious work begins. My son has put together the IKEA cupboards and I’ve been cleaning the display cabinets and helping move some of the furniture.

As you come in the door off to the left is the back wall and the cupboards which I’m yet to put all the shelving up in and next to that is the bookshelves. I’ll be using the bottom shelf of the wardrobe for extra book storage if needed.

Around the other side opposite the door is where the three display cabinets will go. I’ve got two in so far but the glass shelving needs cleaning and the lights set up.

Around the right hand side of the door is the front of the room which is where the desk will go eventually but for now there is only the IKEA drawers.

I’ll post more as it progresses.

And lastly the truth especially after going to a model show.

It’s been just under four months since I last did any serious modelling. As explained earlier I’m waiting on my new modelling room to be completed so I can come in from the cold/heat extremes of my garage. The painter arrives on Monday to do his weeks work.

My son has assembled a new Ikea  set of drawers and also a set of cupboards in anticipation. He’s also sourced a sit to stand desk and I’ve got a new large cutting mat. I reckon it will take a few days to set this all up so the next update is probably at least ten days away.

Made it again to this event in Melbourne for the June long weekend. I was lucky enough to have six days there but only one day at Expo as I had other commitments.

I came via Mildura and this was at the airport.

What follows is a quick selection of the usual non Expo photos I took.

And on to Expo

This is more a recap of the last few weeks than anything else.

Below is the pile of military book purchases.

Next up is the total amount of books I bought overseas which according to my partner is at least 20 kgs.

Whilst I was away a parcel of paint bottles and a new stand for my desk also turned up.

The stand from Vallejo was about five minutes work to put together and is quite basic but hopefully useful. I’ve had indifferent results from this sort of thing in the past so this was chosen for its simplicity.

Because I’m getting older the enthusiasm to model in a cold messy garage is just not there any more especially with knowing a better indoor solution is ahead of me, admittedly further ahead than I would like.

For that reason I’ve dug out my older hobby that I gave up about 35 years ago and am having a flirtation with trying to get a stamp(s) from every country/political entity that has ever issued them including some of the micro nations and political movements. Getting three main albums and condensing them into a  rational order should occupy at least the time till my model room is complete.

On that note the skirting boards are now down in the room and I’m waiting on my son to clear his stuff out and the painter to come back and finish up.

The other thing I am going to do is continue to thoroughly list out the contents of my modelling boxes.

Next post will be on Model Expo next Sunday and not sure when the next will be after that.

I was going to write a longer post before I left to go back home BUT due to an issue with my plane getting out of London plus an unexpected two day layover in Helsinki I’m too tired to be bothered.

So here’s the quick version – went to the IWM and took more photos and bought another half dozen books mostly Ospreys on the Panzerfaust, Japanese and German lat war defence tactics and on some aircraft. Hopefully when I get back my luggage that I last saw nearly three days ago will join me and I can post images.

Meanwhile the renovations have gone ahead BUT these also have issues. Whilst the upstairs portion will be completed the new model room downstairs has not been painted and so the cupboards have been assembled but not joined together or to the walls pending painting.

I suspect this will be a delay of a few months so once I get the garage workbench area cleared I will recommence the Ta 183.

I’ll post some photos in a week or so once I have recovered.

Regular readers will know this blogs tends to eschew comments on politics, religion or sex. But on this occasion it’s relevant.

I currently feel a little sorry for American modellers. With the recently imposed tariffs on China Dragon, Takom, Border Models, Meng etc will now cost more than double their old prices. So any new kits are going to have hefty price tags. Hasegawa, Tamiya, Fujimi, Bandai etc being Japanese companies face a much lower tariff rate but will be still affected.

I haven’t seen much comment from American modellers on this but honestly as I am overseas this is not surprising.

I imagine that hard choices will need to be made by some or possibly many US modellers and I suspect more kits will be pulled from stashes than might have happened otherwise.

As the current US government position on tariffs seems to be whipsawing all over the place the above comments may be irrelevant within days. That’s my total comment on this but wiser readers can read between the lines.

I’m now in the Orkneys around Scapa Flow. I’ll see more of that tomorrow but have already seen the Churchill Barriers which are causeways between the main islands.

Back to Edinburgh last week and I visited Wonderland Models briefly. It’s a good shop that has a wide range of stuff including some older kits including the below photo of a kit I wasn’t aware of from Frog.

I went to the Scottish museum and saw this Fiesler Storch clone from the UK postwar.

And lastly the truth followed by a sort of Tardis –