Luft46's Blog

I’ve got 50 minutes till I board so time for a quick post.

Helsinki

I also bought a saw set to replace my previous one that died in Covid times.

Also whilst there I visited an island in the harbour that had middle ages to 1900s era forts etc. In one of them they had mostly WW2 stuff. Not much unusual so below is a few selected photos.

Rovenamai just north of the Arctic circle and saw this jet

April 1 of course has passed and whilst I liked Airfix’s effort I particularly liked this one.

Lithuania

Near Vilnius is the Hill of Crosses which whilst mostly religious is also nationalistic as this area has been torn down multiple times by the Russians before the latest independence was achieved, each time people had risked their lives to show their wish for independence. Support of Ukraine is very high in these Baltic countries.

Various fighter squadrons have also added crosses etc whilst they have been stationed in this area especially in the last three years.

And lastly in Riga there is four assembly hangars for Zeppelins that are now repurposed as a market.

And when you’re feeling down remember you’re never as underappreciated as the poor people who design man hole covers and somehow manage to bring a little extra to looking down. I love them.

The last post was just a few days ago and I said it would be a while till the next one as I wasn’t doing anything hobby related.

My partner unintentionally booked our accommodation in Helsinki our first port of call about 150 metres from a hobby shop called Hobby Point. Whilst it is about 50% other stuff like knitting, decoupage etc the hobby section is surprisingly good.

It’s well stocked with plenty of models and lots of tools and accessories. In terms of tools etc it is in the league of the Melbourne shops. There are quite a few kits of local products especially WW2 aircraft.

After a good half hour of browsing I settled on some Mr Hobby White Putty which I’ll test when I get home.

And lastly the Putty

Till next time whenever that is.

I’m off on six weeks holidays to Europe so this blog will be fairly quiet in that time as I’m not visiting much that is military related for a change.

As the upstairs renovations continue my workbench is now closed.

During the last week or so I managed to work on the Tamiya (AMTech) 1.48 Ta 183. This is a nice little kit that’s fun to work on. I’m not even up to closing the fuselage together but have been occupied anyway. I’ve even tried a little weathering in the u/c and for the cockpit I’ve found a chalk in my stash that closely matches RLM 66 but matts down the paint surface. I’ll be using this again.

And lastly this is the repaint finished on the Hulk Hogan key chain for my brother in law.He hangs it from his car rear view mirror. He loves the old Hulk more so than the recent version.

Let’s start with my new model de jour. I’ve got 10 days till I leave on holidays and I’m still pretty busy with all the prep involved in getting upstairs moved downstairs so modelling is not the highest priority at the moment.

So I’m going to do some pleasant fiddling when I can. The challenge now is for you the reader to figure out what I’ve got on the bench. This morning I sprayed the relevant interior parts so not many clues in what this is. The answer is at the bottom of this post.

The mine clearer is now finished after some input from my artistic consultant who suggested a little more weathering. Hopefully you’ll agree with the finished product. Whilst it’s not perfect I have learned some lessons particularly with rattle can matt varnish and how much better the Vallejo masking fluid is than the old Humbrol Maskol, the tightness obtained is impressive.

Next up is I have joined up with all the cool kids on YouTube and now have black nitrile gloves. Why, well honestly I was in Bunnings ( Australian hardware store ) looking for new gloves as I had run out. The only gloves available were black so black it is.

My other project being a Delphin submarine in 1.35 has reached the tricky primer stage. This is where many of my projects stall so hopefully this will not be the case. I just do not want to be rushing to finish this and stuff it up so I’d rather wait and do this in its own good time.

There are no real gotchas with this kit from Mikromir so I’ll be happy to restart this later. It also has only two colours and no decals so I can’t see any real issues as I’ve already test fitted the brass and glass parts.

And lastly the answer to what I’m working on.

Are such a mixed blessing, on the one hand I will be getting a dedicated modelling room not subject to heat and cold extremes, on the other it just completely f$%#s with your mojo.

I have the mine clearer at about 97% complete and holding. I’ve had tradies at our place every day who’ve invaded the garage to a large extent and then there’s all the packing up and moving to be done so the painting and carpeting can be done.

I don’t have much on for the weekend so hopefully something might get done.

I also received the new airbrushing booth nozzle which I need to fit to replace this broken part.

Also in the mail was a modelling jig I ordered. This was pretty small and arrived with a broken part which I fixed but having got this I now hanker for something better. At around $25 this was just too cheap.

Clearing out my model cabinets so they can be moved has led to the farcical situation of models being temporarily stored in my spare back fridge and that’s not even my beer.

And lastly my BILs key ring that hangs from his rear view mirror. I’ve been commissioned to repaint it in yellow and red, every modellers favourite colours.

I’ve been working on the mine clearer a bit lately and it’s been going well…. until the matt varnish. Now this is my fault as I sprayed it on too thick, a mistake I hope to never repeat. This has caused a little white blooming. I’m currently trying to fix this without resorting to using weathering to cover it up.

Next up is the MikroMir Delphin mini sub in 1.35 scale. I had previously done on this kit before it got shelved so there was not a lot I needed to do to get it paint ready.

I’ve just finished the priming with Tamiya primer as usual but this photo was before the priming.

I’ve not been doing any serious modelling lately but have been assembling some FW190s in 1.48.

I bought a Eduard FW 190 kit that contains multiple bodies etc to make two full kits. I tried to sell it a few years back with no luck. Further research later showed that this kit had a reputation for bad fit and yes they are right.

As I need a few new paint mules with most of them more than five years old this seemed an ideal way to use them.

Once I’d done all these I went through the sprues and took off anything I thought I could use along with throwing the etched brass in the FW 189 box and the decals in my usual folder.

Not much actual done. I’ve been futzing around on the old Revell 1.32 Hawker Typhoon I last built 50 years ago but still working on the engine which needs a bit of work.

I also acquired this kit for the princely sum of $16 including postage. I’m planning on getting it to hover and the device to do that will cost over $70 but should look good.

Well I finished the last 0.2% on the TaGo today including the wooden prop kindly painted by a friend. Quite happy with the result. Yes there are a number of things that aren’t so good but fortunately most people won’t spot them.

The new year brings new projects which I’ll start tomorrow after the traditional desk cleanup(s).

Hint – one will be a kit I did 50 years ago and lost as I moved houses and  another is a secret silly project.

Yep I’m hopping on the end of year bandwagon.

This has been a good year from a modelling perspective with 2.98 models completed. I’m not going to get the TaGo over the line unfortunately but I will be counting it in the 2024 total.

I could possibly do it but rushing it will mean it is more likely to be messed up than completed. I’ve only got the tail skid and propeller to add.

The exhausts and one undercarriage strut need to set up overnight and a little touch up around these and the canopy will be needed tomorrow. I may add a little more weathering powder if warranted also.

Completed kits 2024

Wurzberg radar 1.144

Huma Fw Ta 283