Calvin Gifford Good luck!

Marc Stecher Thanks Calvin. Still building up my skills so this one will stay in stash a while.

Martin Oostrom Blast from the past. I think I build this in the early 90's. If I remember correctly, you'll have to do some surgery to get three rear axles as the kit is originally meant for two. Not a kit for starters.

Marc Stecher Martin, about the skill I absolutely agree, and this is where it gets tricky since the previous owner was actually a starter. The extended frame (and the already glued on engine) are crappy built, but I hope to get it clean with some surgery.

Calvin Gifford Restoration trick I learned - put the model in the freezer before trying to take it apart.

Marc Stecher Sounds good, I´ll give it a try, thx Calvin!

Calvin Gifford

Marc Stecher Found an unstarted kit for a reasonable price at a fleamarket. Selling the started kit (engine and frame were built by the prepossesor) for small money.

Calvin Gifford I would certainly be interested but I would not be able to do anything about it for the next couple of months. If you still have it then let me know how much. I'm sure shipping would be a big factor.

Marc Stecher Calvin, thanks for your reply. I won´t put it on ebay or another sales portal, just put it on trade here at scalemates. So you might have a chance. Shipping to the US is around 40$, so yes, more than half of the price I want for the kit. I put it on trade for 70$, seems okay for a started one, but I´m open to price proposals.

Calvin Gifford Yeah, the shipping would put it out of range for me. But I'm sure you could find someone in Europe there that would want to take it off your hands for a good price!

Marc Stecher Yeah! Finally completed my collection of Revel 1:72 submarine kits. Now I only need the time to build them.

Holger Kranich Ja das alte Problem... Aber echt super Bausätze!

Marc Stecher Alleine die riesigen Schachteln sind ein riesen Hingucker.

Martin Oostrom You've got plans......

Marc Stecher Yes, definitely. Maybe I´ll collect the interior kits for them, too over the next years. But I actually don´t want to wait until pension to begin with.

Marc Stecher Good progress on the Beaufighter. But I am a little bit annoyed about Vallejo metallic colours. For the exhaust I wanted to use copper, came out that 3 colours from the metallic pack where spoiled. I had to throw away gold, brass and copper. So I decided to use metallic rust, wich also looks quite good, but, here came the next surprise: my Evolution airbrush with 0.4 needle kept on clogging, using my standard 20PSI. After extensive cleaning I tried more pressure, but didn´t work that well either. Finally, with the usage of Vallejo thinner, I was able to work with the colour. Seems to me as if those metallics are both, tricky to store and tricky to spray. Has anybody else had those experiences? Or, what setting do you use?

Thomas Bischoff are you using Model Air? I have also problems with Model Air metallic colours - they have a strong tendency to clog the airbrush. For me thinning with distilled water works best.

Marc Stecher Hi Thomas, yes, Model Air. So I am not he only one with clogging problems.
Using Vallejo Thinner helped, but i will try distilled water, too, since it´s much cheaper. Thanks for the hint!
I also ordered a bottle of Vallejo Flow Improver and will test that one also with those metallics.

Thomas Bischoff I have never used the Flow Improver and I am very interested in your experience.

Marc Stecher @Thomas, so far the Flow Improver works great with the regular colours. Clogging of the gun is prevented very good and the paint does not dry too fast. A good product. But, it didn´t resolve my problems with those darn metallic colours. Wanted to spray copper the other night and the gun clogged almost instantly. Tried it pure, with thinner and flow improver with a 0.4 and a 0.6 nozzle, nothing! All resulted in a heavy cleaning operation on the guns...I don´t know what I´m doing wrong here. Pressure is around 20psi, more pressure didn´t help either.
What I recognized is, when I opened the bottle to stir the paint (a last desperate try to make it work), it stuck to the stick like mud and strange blueish fluid was in the bottle, separated from the copper pigments...could that mean, that the paint is spoiled? If yes, very annoying, because it was a new metallic colour set and 3 of the bottles show this blue fluid.

Thomas Bischoff Marc: I think the blueish fluid is the thinner medium. I have Gold, Silver, Alu which also show the blueish colour. Unfortunately I do not have a proper solution for the clogging problem,. I have gone up with pressure to 30 psi which works a little bit better for me.
But what I use the Model Air Silver, Alu and Chrome paints most is with the brush! No kidding - works very well!
And I will get the flow improver and try it out!

Marc Stecher Preshading done...takes some time on a 1:32...excited about the mediterranian blue belly colour coming next.

Marc Stecher First coat of middle stone done. Long way to go as it needs more than one coat....

Marc Stecher Started applying the decals. Had to learn, that 1/32 models take a huge amount of paint and varnish.
I will stick to my 1/48 models in the future.

Clifford Keesler Nice project.

Marc Stecher Thanx Clifford!
Belly also finished, now the matte varnish and the last few steps like antennas and lights remain. My youngest one is already very excited about his new warbird.

Marc Stecher Just added the Cobra to this project. Old kit, but not much steps to do. Hopefully it will bring me back on track with fast efforts and will reignite the fire. I lost track a bit in the last few months and modelling lost priority. I guess the Actros project became to complicated and I therefore lost fun in modelling. Hopefully this one will bring it back.