Greg Baker I decided I wanted to do a warm-up project before tackling the B-17 and B-29, so trying to get four engines going in a B-24 seemed like the way to go.

Treehugger I wonder how long a flat 3V battery would last if powering four tiny motors. Maybe it is very very long. I think if I can justify the hassle of changing the battery every once in a long while, I might try that, and maybe not have an on off switch assuming there is some easy access to the battery itself.

Torsten Wendt Watching

Erik De Smet Greg, this seems to be a companion for the Me 262 ? @ treehugger : I have used a 3V button cell for my C130 motors : it lasted 15 min. With two alkaline 1.5V batteries the motors can run for hours. The main advantage of a 3 V supply is that you don't need resistors to protect the motors , as Greg does, because he uses a 5V power supply.
The drinking straw protection is a clever idea Greg

Greg Baker Thanks Erik! The straw protective casing had the added bonus of allowing me to swap out one extremely whiny motor on the fly. It's so snug it holds it in place very nicely without getting CA glue all over the drive shaft. The 3V batteries are nice, I use them for testing motors and LEDs so I don't have to fool around with resistors. However, both them and the 1.5V AAA batteries can be difficult to hide unless you plan to build an extensive base. Most of my builds are 1/144 with a base as small as can be (my Voir er Savoir project bases are actually wooden chopstick rests...), so using 5v USB connections made the most sense. Yes, you do have to put resistance into the circuit to protect the motors or LEDs, but that's not hard (and usually easier to hide than a battery). As I said, having a wired cord for each build soone got out of hand, but wiring in a micro USB plug (the same kind you plug into your cell phone) solved the problem nicely. On the shelf, there's no cord, but I can plug/unplug them very easily if I want to display them with power on. They're also portable because you can always plug them into a USB charging battery.

Greg Baker Oh, I forgot to mention... I got all four motors into the wings and spinning! Yay!

Brian Eberle Watching (and learning)

Greg Baker Scratched up a bit of a cockpit. Not sure how much will be visible as this is my first time building a B-24J. But better to be safe than sorry, I say.

Greg Baker All glued together and I drilled out some holes for the gun ports. Started to putty and sand... everyone's favourite part!

Greg Baker Pilots seated and ready to go. Is the section behind the nose gun turret really open to the elements on the real thing? Or is there some sort of internal barrier? I'm trying to figure out how best to represent that at 1/144 scale and "wide open" doesn't seem like the best idea to me.

Greg Baker I seem to be a glutton for punishment.

Torsten Wendt You do it , I'm in

Matthew A You made it look easy.

Spanjaard if somebody was going to pull this off... it had to be Greg

Greg Baker Ok.. back to the 262... everything that needed to be closed up is and putty has been applied. A surprising amount, I think, compared to what I expected from the fit before I started. Oh, well. Far from the worst.

Greg Baker As I was uploading the images, I just realized that the box cover has a Me262 attacking a B-24J... that's a total coincidence that I happen to be working on those exact same kits. Weird... karma.

Erik De Smet And I thought it was on purpose

Greg Baker Yeah... I remembered your comment. Now it makes more sense.

Greg Baker Urm... I think my builds are starting to blur for you, Peter. I assume you're talking about the Dhow, unless my Soviet helicopter anatomy is totally off... . If so, then no. I left the original rudder hole in the stern mainly because it'd take too much work to fill. If not, then no... but mainly because I have no idea what you're talking about. :.P

Peter Hardy You are correct. I am totally confused. You build so much so quickly it is all a blurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.........!!!!!

Spanjaard i am in

Alec K Me too

Łukasz Gliński Following, as I have the Gran's one waiting in the stash.

Greg Baker Hmm... it seems I might have to revive this build from the shelf of doom...

Alec K

Peter Hardy It will need a resuscitate!

Alex K You know we can't keep up in wishing you for any new project, at this rate, dont ya?

Greg Baker Hah! This one is a bit of a trick actually. I got started on this kit over six months ago and got as far as painting the cockpit and engine before I realized... I had the wrong kit. It was intended for a Leijiverse project but that one needs a F6F Hellcat. So I put this one back in the box for the future... but now that my first 3 Voir er Savoir projects are more or less done, I figured I should drag it back out and finish it off.

Greg Baker Scrolling through my pics looking for these pics reminded me I did the exact same thing mixing up a Fw190 and a Me109... so that one is likely to jump in here sooner rather than later.

Alex K Oh, and BTW, you still have to update / add the Voir et Savoir PLUS collection in SCM as well... just saying...

Erik De Smet An other project ? You build faster than I can scroll through scalemates.

Greg Baker Hahahaha... not quite. As I said, I had a big headscarf on this one...

Greg Baker A little progress, got the motor wired up and glued to the back of the engine. I've learned to let the CA jell off-gas for a while before shutting it inside the fuselage. The fumes find a way out... sometimes in the worst way.

Spanjaard

Alex K ... wait, wait, wait... there's still a crucial question left unanswered - how can you build a model (the A7M2) without it being specifically assigned to a particular Greg Baker collection / project?!

Greg Baker You made me laugh at my own quirk, Alex! Yeah... after a moment of crisis regarding the classification of the A7M2 in my project family, I simply decided to expand the concept of Voir et Savoir. There's a bunch of planes, such as the F4U Corsair for example, that Hergé tragically didn't include in the Voir er Savoir series. So, this way I can simply build whatever I fancy, however I feel like.

I updated my blog (strobez.ca/wp/index.php/voir..anded-1-144-scale-projects/) and put together a list of other planes that are more or less available in 1/144 scale to act as a bit of guideline. I'm still figuring out how to include a Caudron C.714 on that list though.

Alex K Both your "quirk" about proceeding within well-defined collections and projects AND the need to break the rules sound very familiar... Keep on doing your thing, Greg, and having fun - it's inspirational and spreads motivation and good vibes... PS.: I think... You're Gonna Need a Bigger showcase...

Greg Baker Getting close to done. Weathering and decals to come. They're all wired up and spinning like they should.

Greg Baker Famous last words. I got the decals on and just as I was putting the final touches on the A7M2, the support pole broke. While trying to get it to sit back inside the fuselage, I managed to snap one of the wires on the inside, next to the dc motor. So there was nothing to do but open up the patient and to a quick by-pass surgery. It was a terrifying game of "Operation"... don't touch the sides of the 1/144 scale fuselage, while soldering two tiny bits of wire together. Luckily, I was able to pull it off and the patient lived - albeit with a bit of a scar on the right side. At least that's the backside of the display pose.

I also managed to stick my fingers on the still wet base decal for the J2M2. What a stupid mistake! I spent 10 minutes carefully sliding the homemade decal in place, got it done and then put it aside to dry. Then, not ten seconds later! I grabbed it by the base and stuck my thumb right in the middle of it. A pain in the ass to reprint, but a mistake that's easily recovered from I guess. I will say I love my new 1/144 scale rigging thread. The radio antenna went on like a breeze and looks perfect.

Nathan Dempsey Love the camo on this one Greg.

Roland Gunslinger Yes, the camo is very cool. Especially at this scale. Great builds!

Greg Baker I think just me, generally. Don't worry though... I've got another kit and we're back in action!

Greg Baker A few lessons learned and hopefully a better result because of it. I knew exactly what to do, and what NOT to do... and we're almost caught back up to where we were before.

Spanjaard looking good

Greg Baker I'm much happier with this kit as a do-over.

Greg Baker No, I haven't forgotten to paint the pilot.I'm just saving him for last for some reason...

gorbygould Wow! I can't believe you've fitted a motor into something that I can barely see.
It's small in 1/48 but 1/144!!!!!!!

Greg Baker Heh. It did take me two cracks at it though. I really like these planes. I keep eying the Academy 1/48 boxing, so I'm glad I found one in a size that'll fit on my shelf.

bat-213 great job

Greg Baker Yeah. She recently said to me "I feel better about having two children, knowing that one of my sons at least has a decent job and earns a living..."

To which my 10-year old son replied "does this mean I have to go get a job?"

Donald Dickson II LMAO

Torsten Wendt Watching

Greg Baker I think this project is going to go up the priority ladder quite quickly. I think after I finish my current builds, this one and the B-24 are going on the bench.

Torsten Wendt

Dave Flitton Yes, watching!

Greg Baker Okay, that's it... in the interest of public safety in light of the growing crowd here, the management has decided to open up the tent and start the show early. C'mon inside - Voir er Savoir 43 - Me262 | Album by strobez (1:144)

Dave Flitton YAY!!

Greg Baker I re-watched this film on the weekend and realised two things: a) I somehow skipped it in my Studio Ghibli project list, and b) I can use the Zvezda medieval lifeboat yet again! yay!

wilky I love Studio Ghibli movies

Spanjaard i would like such a diagram for the Phantom!

Spanjaard Hahaha probable

Nils Steyaert i like what im seeing so far, i will most definatly follow this one.

Jeramy Boileau looks great, love some Area 88 subjects!

bughunter Greg - if people getting older the eyes getting more and more worse so they tend to go to bigger scale. But you move more and more to smaller scale, more and more in 144 ?!?
And damn, you are so fast building, painting and decaling - if I watch all that carefully (what I would really like), then no time to work on my projects is left over ... How do you do that?

Greg Baker Thanks Jeramy. You can count on my for Area 88 subjects, that's for sure. And funny you should mention that Bugsy... I think my eyes are getting worse, but I think that's part of the reason I like building in 1/144... there's always time to move on to bigger subjects later. The two other reasons though are a) I'm starting to run out of display space in my apartment and b) I really like the idea of "in action" pseudo-dioramas. I don't have the patience for a ton of background detailing, but I like the idea of breathing some life into my builds. I'm probably not going to be able to do that in the same hyper-detailing way you're famous for... so I rely on a bit of electronics and poses. That's harder to arrange at larger scales.

Martin Oostrom Explosions and crashes and flames on this one?

Greg Baker Urm... not exactly. Why do I think I'm getting a bit of a reputation....

Jay Dubya This model, with the Tempest looks a bit whiffy to me Greg - got something planned?

Greg Baker Heh... good catch. I started plotting out a bit of work for my "Voir et Savoir" collection - which is basically a crossover between my Tintin projects and real world WWII subjects. The Tempest is bound for this project : Tintin: Voir et Savoir 57 - Hawker "Tempest V" | Project by strobez (1:144) - so it is a bit WHIFFY. The Me262 is in the same boat, but I also have the better Trumpeter kit (earmarked for a Leijiverse collection project). However, yesterday I dropped my Hard Drive and killed it, wiping out months of work on a master decal template I was going to get printed. So some of those more intricate projects are on hold.

I still plan to fancy them up small motors for the props, so it should be fun. I just spent a few days retro-fitting all my 1/144 Area 88 builds with micro USB plugins, so I started to get some ideas. I originally wired them all up with USB plugs, but the wires started adding up and causing havoc - taking up shelf space and creating weird balance/stability issues that would see projects go flying off the shelf, dragged down by a USB anchor and chain. Now they all have the best of both worlds. You can plug them in with a USB cord when you want to see them in action, and remove the cords when not needed.

Matthew A My condolences on the death of your hard drive.