Luft46's Blog

Apart from a 11km walk which was meant to be more like half that the week has consisted of a fair bit of modelling.

The Ki61 is still moving slowly forward with more small bits like the U/C being worked on. The aerial is looking better but will still need to be fitted and fettled when it’s closer to painting time.

The other mine clearer also got a coat of Dunkelgelb via the spray can and needs a little extra coat for a few missed bits.

An attempt was made to do some airbrushing practice but problems with using Xtracrylics has made me switch to Vallejo. Unfortunately even this didn’t work so a switch of airbrushes and a tear down will be needed next week as the mojo had run out yesterday.

Lastly was the skip bin which had a construction surge from one side to all four and some filler added to round out the weekend’s efforts.

Lastly I did order some stuff from BNA including a preorder for the 1.32 Hs 129 I want but who knows when it will arrive.

After a less than stellar week it was nice to get back to some modelling. It was mostly working on the Ki61. I have a couple of small issues to tidy up. The wing root join on the underside needed a two stage PSR cycle to get that sorted and a few small parts needed tidying up to get it nearly read for painting. Last up is the U/C area with the wheels needing finishing off still. Getting the hub/rubber interface to work is still ongoing. I think I’m up to at least my third coat on the rubber portion and the gear legs still.need sone painting. Lastly is the aerial which just doesn’t want to sit properly so another round of Milliput was needed. The last bit is eating up a bit of effort.

Nothing much else got done apart from listening to the Just Making Conversation podcast on Mojo.

Over the week I’ve been opening up some of my storage boxes and having a good kit fondle and discovering some gems, some started and some yet to be. More on this later.

And yes it’s cold, time for the winter jacket as I model in a garage.

A summary of this week’s modelling.

Not much modelling this week until today when I has a bit of a bonanza and worked on a few kits.

First up was the miniskip which I tried to get to glue a side on but was a mess, so back to the drawing board on that one. I may use some of the glue like properties of Milliput to help with this.

Next up was the three wheeled mine clearer that got a coat of primer which still needs a little clean-up on the coat that was applied. The wheels also got some Dunkelgelb on the rear parts.

Next up was the other mine clearer which got a quick inspection of the rattle can Dunkelgelb application a while back which whilst not perfect can be fixed up with the green airbrush camo when it is applied.

I’ve also sprayed my paint mule He177 in Dunkelgelb as an airbrushing practice piece.

Last up is the Tamiya Ki61 which had a few small parts worked on. The pitot tube is good but the aerial is proving troublesome. More work to be done on some other small parts also.

That’s all so I better duck off to bed.

Not really much this week as I was away at a friend’s place and picked up some stuff. Today was mostly real world stuff around the house so only a bit of modelling.

Next Tuesday is a public holiday so maybe some then.

I’ve done the next two PSR cycles on the dump bin with the Perfect Plastic putty I picked up on Thursday from Frontline and it seems to work fine.

The rest is stuff I picked up from my friend.

And lastly some swans on the water near where I stayed.

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.