Patrick Hagelstein Thanks Maciej! Same to you!

Clifford Keesler Merry Christmas Patrick, hope you have a happy and safe vacation.

Spanjaard prettig Kerstdagen en gelukkig nieuwe 2020!!

Patrick Hagelstein Thanks guys! A merry Christmas to you too èn een goed uiteinde!

Roland Gunslinger Ah, I see: You still have a head start

Patrick Hagelstein Not for long when I'm not building much and when I build on other projects instead.

Clifford Keesler Welcome back.

Patrick Hagelstein Thanks Clifford! Sadly I won't be touching any model (kit) until I get back from a business trip this Friday. I still need to exert some patience...

Patrick Hagelstein Youtube Video

Mark Norfolk Thanks

Patrick Hagelstein

Brian Y This project came out nicely!. I'd like to see more detail about your canopy masking method. The photo showing the raw masking tape was impressive.

Patrick Hagelstein Hi Brian! Glad you like it! I took it to my modeling club yesterday and put it in the display cabinet over there before I could take some pictures of the finished build. I'll take some more pictures over there next Friday.

Patrick Hagelstein With a well defined canopy frame, masking is actually quite easy. Cut a piece of Tamiya tape just a tad bigger than the window pane and line one side up to the edge of the frame. Burnish the rest down and hold the canopy into the light. With a fresh and sharp blade lightly trace the frame and make one clean cut per side. You'll see that the tape pulls off fine and leaves the window pane covered. Just burnish it down to be sure and spray ahead in light coats.

Brian Y I never trust my blade handling skills (or the sharpness of the edge) to make that single cut on clear plastic. I know I've tried it before. It makes my skin crinkle just thinking of it, now.

Patrick Hagelstein Hi Brian, it's all in being light handed. If you use a new blade, you'll see that you don't need to exert a lot of force. The weight of the blade is enough to slice through Tamiya tape. As long as the frame is well defined and as long as you check your cut against a strong light, you'll see that the blade will just line up against the frame without 'hacking' into the clear plastic. Just practice a bit on an old/unused part until you feel comfortable.

Martin o Hello Slavo, I have to chime in as well. from what you have said it seems you should look into VF-154 TPS jets. Like this: [img1]

Patrick Hagelstein Dirrrrteh!!!

Patrick Hagelstein @ Michael, totally forgot about that one! By the looks of their 1/72 scale Tomcats, that should just be da bomb! They pretty much took over the 1/72 Tomcat competition in terms of detail and options. Their manuals might need some help but the engineering is spot on!

Slavo Hazucha Woohoo, that's a lot of Tomcat backstage insights, thanks a lot! Looks like I'll have to plan for three, Tamiya, AMK & GWH...

Working on the GWH Super-Flanker now, it's a kind of a Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde kit - surface & detail on every part is amazing, but some part sub-divisions are absolutely unnecessary & in cases outright sadistic...

@ Daniel that's exactly the way the journey should go!

Jos Jansen Watching Patrick...!

Patrick Hagelstein Welcome Jos!

Dave Flitton Watching with much interest

Patrick Hagelstein Welcome Dave! I hope to have this one wing ready and noted all the paints and finishes I'm going to use before I have to leave it while traveling for business.

Patrick Hagelstein Welcome Roland! I was rummaging through my parents' attick when I came across this one. I'll bring it back home but don't know yet when to build it. My plan though, is to build it in flight, possibly with a mountain top as base for it.

Patrick Hagelstein Whoosha!!! I'm sold!

Patrick Hagelstein Same boxart though.

Patrick Hagelstein Thanks Roland! I recently rediscovered that decal set and now it got me pondering about what kit to use for it. There is a dedicated Special Hobby IIIRS announced and there is a Modelsvit IIIRD in the works. Choices, choices, choices......

Patrick Hagelstein If not, I have a cool idea of a Mirage III crossing a street.

Patrick Hagelstein Yeah! I saw it too!

Patrick Hagelstein academy.co.kr/6q/board_news_..de=12082&pCategory=NEWS1

Patrick Hagelstein I've seen pictures of a VF-51 decal option somewhere but it doesn't show in Academy's announcement.

Federico Burchianti Is it confirmed that the sprues contain pieces for the later versions? I would like to build it as a F-14B.

Patrick Hagelstein A through D, all in there!

Federico Burchianti That's perfect! Any idea where we can buy it online (best price/release date)? Rarely I have bought an Academy kit newly released and still not imported in EU.

Patrick Hagelstein I sent an email to my favorite model shop in Aachen if they will receive it. Haven't heard back yet.

Federico Burchianti The Korean ebay shops have started to sell it.

Lost_Erik Patrick, I enjoy watching this build of yours. Thanks.

Patrick Hagelstein Erik, you're not lost. You're right at home here!

Erik Leijdens Looking great Patrick! I'm working on a submarine too at the moment.

Patrick Hagelstein Nice to have you onboard Erik! What sub are you building then?

Lost_Erik Congratulations on second at your club's meeting! I like the colour tones you blended.

Patrick Hagelstein Thank you and thank you!

Patrick Hagelstein Thank you Roland! I was intending to bring it to next week's club meeting but thought I could finish it for yesterday's meeting as well. Took some elbow grease and cursing in the process but finished it after a couple of hiccups. Which reminds me that I do this for relaxing not for speed.

Patrick Hagelstein Thanks Hans, much appreciated! So, Character Flesh (2) is your favorite too when it comes to hard cold steel objects? But seriously, I really love the GX 114 as a flat coat! Too weird it acted up on me yesterday though...

@ Treehugger and Kerry, I didn't have time to come in with some refined touches with oils and pigments and now it's residing in the Norman Hobby Town shop until next week's meeting with the other of two modeling clubs I'm in. After I take it home again, I might put a smidgen of oils and pigments in selective spots to lend it just that extra touch of character before I put in my living room display.

Łukasz Gliński That's why I wrote "AFAIK" Been many times up there, but never rode a bike, maybe that's the reason Great link Alex

Spanjaard I would love to see something like that when I go biking to the office (used to se the airlines landing in Schiphol but it is not the same.... )

Patrick Hagelstein Guys, thank you so much for this treasure chest of valuable information! Great stuff to read upon! I definitely want to portray this Bug crossing a road, so I might need to extend my groundwork to include the barrier in order to point out that it's actually a traffic road.

Andy Ball do the cyclists have the right of way over the F/A-18? [joke...]

Patrick Hagelstein Always!!! I'm Dutch and in the Netherlands cyclists have ALWAYS right of way! Whether they have or not is just semantics.

Spanjaard many certainly believe that!

Slavo Hazucha Please do a road a road crossing dio with crew poses as on the final pic!

Patrick Hagelstein I will definitely going to include that in my planning for this project!

Mark TAURONE I wonder if you can post a pdf of the instruction sheet?

Patrick Hagelstein Sure! I can get a scan in on Tuesday (after Veterans Day). Do you need the scan for the Hawk or the decals?

Mark TAURONE both would be great. I bought one on eBay, advertised as new, but mold and water damage to all paper

Mark TAURONE Thanks.

Patrick Hagelstein Mark, I have to apologize to you... When moving to my current stationing, I took a bunch of kits with me and left a bunch of kits back home. I left this kit back home, hence the 'On hold' status. I can therefore not provide you with the promised instructions. I saw you were looking into different Red Arrows Hawks though, just one thing I can say for now: Go with the Revell one! It's by far the most detailled of the bunch and builds into a very nice model. I'm building the Airfix one as a prototype to test my envisioned stand and smoke trail because the Airfix one is good enough for that.

Mark TAURONE Thanks. I have the Nishimi version but the paper items in the kit are water damaged, decal are ruined, instructions moldy. I'll make it work somehow.

Patrick Hagelstein Nishimi???

Mark TAURONE Fujimi sorry, tired brain.

Patrick Hagelstein Gotcha! I never built the Fujimi version but it looks to be a decent early model Hawk.

Patrick Hagelstein Too bad!.... I would love to test these intakes....

Stephan Ryll Ah one of the „Queens own" very nice idea Patrick

Patrick Hagelstein Thanks Stephan! I forgot that I ordered the sheet with Danny Coremans but had no plans for an F-15 yet. I found the GWH F-15J on eBay for a decent price, so will have a go at it a bit later. I was looking into a couple of AeroMasks and added the F-15C as well. It might become a 'thing' later on.

Jos Jansen Definitely a project to follow....you know lately I finished my Slobberin Wolfhound 1/48...so I am in!

Patrick Hagelstein Thanks! I have a club build to finish first but then a couple of orange birds will have my attention again.

Patrick Hagelstein

Tzonglin Wu I think I find the difference that you told me in the 11th photo of this album. This F-16AM owns a very beautiful color scheme. I Look forward to your progress.

Patrick Hagelstein Yep, that was when I was still frustrated about the Kasl Hobby plug and didn't realize that Kasl was right....for a Block 20. This one is shelved but often smiles at me from where it sits in my modeling room. I really need to restart this one!

bughunter Very careful and clean work On your first picture you have only MRP-207, but this is only the bright color. I miss the MRP-206, as on this picture:
[img1]

Patrick Hagelstein Hi Bughunter, in the meantime I acquired the MRP-206 as well but I doubt if I have a use for it as this is the color for the lion rampant and that one is covered in the excellent Syhart decal set. I might only need it for some touch ups but then it's having my fingers crossed that the decals and MRP-206 exactly match. The other 'mistake' is the Eduard F100-229 engine set as this bird flies with an F100-220(E). The only external (for modelbuilding purposes) difference is the different spray ring but I highly doubt it will be that visible inside that burner can. Two reactions to this build in just a couple of hours.... I really need reconsidering this build and move it up in my building queu.

Patrick Hagelstein Thanks for this tip Hans!

Patrick Hagelstein https://cybermodeler.com/aircraft/f-16/f-16_all.shtml

Patrick Hagelstein Welcome too Harry!

Konrad Limmer Well is there any space left maybe in the second row !
Watching too!

Patrick Hagelstein Always! I'll just remove some more seat covers.

Clifford Keesler Count me in please.

Patrick Hagelstein Sure!

Patrick Hagelstein I noticed this kit has a more blueish grey plastic compared to the more common greenish grey Academy usually uses. Somehow this plastic is a tad harder and less susceptible to accidental cuts and gauches. And it could be me but the parts seem to have very small protrusions on inside surfaces as a matter of fact helping aligning the parts. Did Academy update the molds???

Donald Dickson II Another one to watch.

Patrick Hagelstein More than welcome Donald!

Markus Antonius lol.. probably some cheap ripp off

Patrick Hagelstein I'm afraid you're right.... Either way, that Hasegawa Leopard is actually not that bad! For a very early Leopard 2 it is very accurate in spite of the oversimplified running gear.

Markus Antonius i totally agree! it makes up for a nice represantation of the leo2... and much easier to get than the dragon kit.
btw. if you like leopards, try artitecs 1/87 scale resin kits.

Murad ÖZER who sent me here?

Jos Jansen As an ex Dutch tanker, I am not a fan of this version of the Leopard 2A6 NL ... I know the history how this decision came about. Aside from who made this misguided decision to paint a battle tank in orange, it will be a challenge for a model to copy this ...

Patrick Hagelstein Well Jos, I'm with you on some aspects. Back then I used to work not far away from our Leopard engineering office and they had this huge poster hanging in their office and it intrigued me to some extend. When I saw this vehicle (weren't there actually two vehicles? I see different license plates and different text fonts...) parked in The Hague for Veterans Day, I took pictures from a modeler's perspective for future reference. (No Leopard 2A6 project I was working on back then, only a 2A4 was in the works) Recently I was given a Tamiya 2A6 by a modelclub member and I wanted to do something 'extra' to it. At first I wanted to do a Hohenfels 2A5, all muddied up but when I saw this picture in my references, it reminded me of that orange tank. Being the only Dutch guy in my group and doing something 'extra', it sparked my interest. I agree with you that this isn't a prime example of how well our other tanks were kept back in those days but this is more of a 'shock and awe' experiment in my club. Back then in The Hague it was a rainy day and the water-soluble paint started to wear off already. In my pictures (which I will upload quite soon) you can see the paint running off already and it gave the vehicle a shabby look already. Especially because the front side skirts were folded down and stowed it gave the vehicle a haphazard look. Either way, looking into the references, it needed some more work than the Tamiya kit could offer and having the Border Models BT-002 coming in this weekend, I decided to go all out and portray it as it was that Saturday morning in June 2008. The Border Models kit is unbelievable when it comes to details but I still have to use parts of the Revell kit for the Dutch radio setup and the Dutch smoke dischargers. Other than that, I agree with you that this will be a challenge! The devil is in the details and the more I look, the more differences I see compared to the German kit versions....

Spanjaard low viz

Spanjaard zeker, on Koningsdag (Koninginnedag in 88 )

Patrick Hagelstein Ècht wèl!

Chris Greathouse How many tubes of glue to put that model together? Ha, thanks for the share. cool reference pics.

Patrick Hagelstein Chris, in the pictures you can still see the remnats of the duct tape they used.
Hans, that must have been some experience! I remember watching the games on a big screen in a Portuguese market square with my colleagues while attending an exercise in 2014. Too bad the German participants decided to paint four stars on their helicopters....

Daniel Klink Very nice Pics Patrick Never knew there was a Low Visibilty Version of the 2A4

Jos Jansen Hans and Spanjaard, this miserable version (my personal opinion) of this powerful MBT was during the air force days in Leeuwarden in 2008 ... this A6 came from my Battalion (there is quite a story attached to it)...

@Patrick ... no hard feelings mate , it will be a challenge to copy this ... it is not duct tape, but velcro which was used for placing own troops' identification marks.
https://flickr.com/photos/124222809@N05/15984793776/

Patrick Hagelstein I know Jos! In the close ups (picture 23) you can actually notice the velcro. And no hard feelings for sure! When I saw the gimmick on TV I thought it was funny, seeing the real deal up close and personal, I was less thrilled as well... Looking at the pictures you can see that on that rainy day the paint was already wearing off and dripping off the tank. It looks rather scruffy and this beauty/beast deserves better! I will portray my build as earlier on that day with the paint still 'intact' with only some minor scuffing in some places. I chose the Border Models Leopard 2A6 because it comes with an empty engine deck, which comes in handy because this particular vehicle was devoid of any tooling or hoses apart from the rearranged towing cables. As a matter of fact, may I ask you a question as a subject matter expert? I know our 2A4s had the big non-skid patches with the circular patch on the air intakes (I need to alter that on my upcoming 2A4NO build), did the 2A5s and 2A6s still have those large patches or were the patches reapplied during the depot visit to rebuild the 2A4s to 2A5/6s?

Andy Ball I love subtle weathering... great balance and restraint on top of a superb paint job!

Patrick Hagelstein Thanks Andy! If you need any tips, just holler Urban.

Urban Gardini Yes, I'll do so if there's something that arises in my mind...

Guy Rump Great weathering and a lovely model all round

Patrick Hagelstein Thanks Guy!

Łukasz Gliński Well done

Alec K Looks great Patrick. I will have to refer to your salt technique when I build mine

Patrick Hagelstein Glad to be of help!