Luft46's Blog

I’m off to Model Expo on Sunday.

The cold weather has really set in so it’s the season for thick jackets and fan heaters in my garage. The other half of the garage is now storage for my departing son to the UK and my other son moving back in.

I’m seriously considering a part time move upstairs to my study for much of the next few months. It’s not as well equipped  but some modelling is better than none.

There has been a slight rearrangement of the desk area to hopefully make it a little less messy and stop me losing stuff.

The second Biber trailer turned up yesterday to help with the broken parts but I’m still on the Hase Wirbelwind I opened up to fill in the time waiting.

I’ve gone a bit AMS on this as I had the Eduard Zimmerit brass set and I’ve also got some Schatton Modelbau brass barrels. They are still a  fair but thinner than the plastic ones and look much better.

The other issue is that of the rubber band tracks needing sagging which Hase have tried to compensate for by putting small lugs on the track topside to provide this sagging. I’d prefer to have this done by the same method as I used for the KV2s ie piano wire shoved through the tracks on top. The brass Zimmerit may prove an issue in doing this.

I’m having to plan the assembly a fair bit to allow for the Zimmerit to ensure I don’t back myself into a corner where I need to trim the brass to get things to fit.

Below are a few shots of where I’m at.

And lastly some fungi.

I’ve had about 10 days off from actual modelling after I lost part 25 from the trailer. The damn thing pinged off into nowhere and despite a frantic look over two days I couldn’t find it.

In despair as this was a crucial almost impossible to duplicate part I decided to actually taking a break and packed the two kits away.

I decided that a clean up was in order. This resulted in chucking out a whole lot of Xtracrylic paints which meant I could move a whole lot of paint off my modelling bench and improve the drawers with better signage on the inside. I also did similar to my tools and paint brushes. It’s amazing how much had built up since the last time I did this.

Apart from the paint drawers the set of general drawers got a going over with some stuff I wasn’t using also getting the chop.

Most of the way through this process I found the missing part a long way away from the other end of the bench where it went missing. Maybe all that activity forced the carpet/concrete monster to cough up the part.

My desk is now considerably tidier as shown below. On the minus side whilst reassembling a airbrush I managed to completely bend the needle on it. Bugger!

I’m away for a few days and apart from restarting the trailer I want to get back into doing some airbrushing practice preparatory to spraying the Huma FW Ta 283 top side.

Part 25 the offending item – I still can’t work out how it disappeared.

I’m now up to the second PSR stage on the main body of the sub after closing it up. I added in a pipe for a little extra detail visible from the open hatch, probably more for my benefit than anyone else. I’ve also started on refining the casting lines on the trailer covers and have already snapped the first one, fit as usual was in part the cause and some hamfistedness on my part.

And a visitor from a while back.

More work has been done on the Biber recently. The kit definitely shows its short run nature in how much fettling is needed. Nothing fits together without work.

It’s been nearly a month since I finished the Wurzberg and I haven’t been entirely idle though various personal stuff has interfered with modelling time although this also includes hot steamy weather.

I’ve started on these two kits in 1.72 from Special Hobby/Special Navy. Both are limited run so need more than the usual amount of fettling. So far things are going well. The sub is nearly ready to close up but the seat and instrument panel both needed trimming.

I am going with doing this as a diorama based on a photo I have from the book Suicide Squads by Richard O’Neil one of my all time favourite military books.

I’ve finished the 1.144 Wurzberg in the paint scheme requested by my wife.

I’ve gotta say this was a difficult kit mostly caused by its size. It’s just too small to comfortably work on. There are a couple of very small parts that are missing and one construction piece that was amended so that it looks ok. I don’t think very many people could tell this. I think this is just too complex a model to render in such a small scale.

Once I’m back working a new job my present to myself will be the new 1.35 version that came out late last year. Now that I am looking forward to.

I finished this last Friday and the modelling mojo has definitely vanished. I had a go at the Takom V2 Meillerwagen kit on the weekend but managed to make a couple of stupid mistakes so that’s gone back to the box for another day.

I’m off to Hobbyco in the city today so maybe I’ll get some inspiration or at least a kit there.

Like many Australians I model in a shed or garage which is subject to the effects of our climate. At the moment that’s meant many days are not suitable for modelling.

I’ve managed some more work on the 1.144 radar but with small parts it’s been a bit of a slog. My wife wanted the brass to be left unpainted so I’ve complimented that with gun metal for the resin parts.

That’s unfortunately highlighted a few sanding errors so it will take a little longer while that gets sorted and yes I broke off one of the support arms also.

The FW Ta 183 is stalled in this weather awaiting a Goldilocks day when I can paint.

And lastly the scene of Antageddon is now restored.I managed to break my big perspex sheet which has been replaced by two smaller sheets that will allow more storage space.

Regular readers will know I spent last year doing a regular weekly Sunday night update which will not continue this year.

About a week ago I had a massive ant infestation that covered many of my old models in both ants and their eggs which was truly horrible. I’ve nuked them and below are the results – this was towards the end of the destruction when the eggs were gone and so were many of the ants –

And some of the dead –

In between time I have gone back to doing some of the 1/144 Wurzberg radar – I now have a sanctioned colour scheme of the resin parts in gunmetal grey and the brass to be left in brass.

Like most brass kits it’s just a matter of following the instructions carefully and taking your time. It’s quite small as you can see below. The other thing is to use a sharp new blade and change it regularly.

And lastly the primer plus Italian late war grey is now on the FwTa 283. The only problem is that the Tamiya primer I put down first is VERY close in colour to the Vallejo version of this grey. I’m sure I’ve sprayed it all and any colour variation will just have to stay.

I was intending to airbrush the upper green on today but it’s way too moist for that after the rain which hasn’t left yet.

I’ve been following a number of recent posts on various parts of the Interwebs about Modelling and it’s mental health benefits of which I soundly agree with. I’ve even seen a post pointing out some of the potential mental health issues around excessive competitiveness, anger management (think models hitting walls etc) and stashes leading to hoarding etc.

One thing that I haven’t seen directly mentioned is that how you feel when you sit down to a modelling session. For me this is often indicative of my mental health. If I can’t relax enough to even start something then I’m probably not in a good place. I can sometimes get around this by choosing something simple like a bit of sanding to get me into a more zen like state but sometimes even that is not possible.

I try not to force it and go and do something else and come back another day and sometimes this can go on for a while. Clearing the desk and starting something new can help but the feeling of failure as another kit goes to the Shelf of Doom can be counter productive. As my partner says “Remember it’s a hobby” and then she laughs as it’s not always just that.

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WordPress sent me a summary for the year a week back telling me how many people looked at this mess occasionally – in my case the below was not my reaction – it was around 15 which was higher than I thought it would be.