Łukasz Gliński Interesting. Is this the of of the flying aircraft carriers?

Ben M Yes - what an odd idea!

Łukasz Gliński Indeed it iwas
I meant "the one of the flying aircraft carriers" of course
Are the airplanes included?

Ben M No, there are no airplanes. But the door on the bottom is a separate part - I wonder if anyone makes airplanes for it?

Ben M So, your post inspired me to look on shapeways - looks like some folks do make tiny 3-d printed 1:520 Curtiss F9C fighters! I ordered some ... maybe I should make the hangar door open on the bottom of the dirigible, and have a hook holding one??

[img1]

Łukasz Gliński That would be more than cool IMHO

Alex K Cool indeed! Great idea to look on shapeways for aftermaket - and you did well to order the little Curtiss!

Black Baron Hovering along

Łukasz Gliński Wow, the Sparrowhawks are soooo tiny

Black Baron Don't forget the rigging

Anna-Elizabeth My favorite mail-order is Sprue Brothers - https://store.spruebrothers.com

I have been shopping there for more than 10 years.

Ben M Thank you! They seem to have great prices.

Anna-Elizabeth You're welcome. They are good people.

Alex K Interesting! - And I also like the fact that you tackle subjects from various fields...

Ben M Thanks Alex. So much to build .. and who knows how much time we have left?

Alex K I hear you, Ben... Seems that the only prescription (apart from more cowbell) is: staying home and building more models...

Ben M Derek, it appears they did - good thing, as it means I have all the parts!

Ben M Overall impressions... the plastic is pretty hard. The little dude is well sculpted but hipster thin. Hope he enjoys his usn blue grey slacks and Milwaukee brown shoes. I'm in love with the molotow pens. The seat has a deep depression where the guy sits wtf. The body has thin engraved panel lines, hopefully they are deep enough to hold a wash. The gates are very thick and there's very little sprue. There was a spare wheel hub so of course I lost one.

ANDREW STRAUSS Looking good so far. And I'm pretty sure we all love Molotow pens!

Ben M Well the gunze light green is interesting. It has the consistency of snot and it does not contain much pigment. I shot it mixed with Vallejo thinner. It is a bit thin in some places I need to shoot another coat. Hopefully it won't be too orangepeely. Still not bad since the last gloss coat I think I did was a Lindberg thunderceptor brush painted Testors metallic red. I'd love to build that kit again. I mentioned no pigment, I had painted the tires nato black and molotow silver while I waited for the gunze to arrive. To cover the black I think I am on coat 17 and much touch up will need to be done. This stuff covers like a wash with a goo-like consistency. It is quite amazing.

Munkyslut I love this! Something really special about building a proper vintage kit, I'm quite jealous
Whitewalls & raised white letters on tyres can be a real pain in the arse.
If the tyre is moulded nicely & the band or letters are prominent enough I gently press the tyre on to a thin coat of paint on the work surface.
Sometimes the band is recessed & a steady hand & a toothpick dipped in paint can do it easily.
Any overpaint can be sanded off on a flat surface

Ben M Orangepeeled it a second time. Stripped it for a 2nd time I had to order new paint -- and the ship time is 2.5 weeks, who knows if it will ever get here in the age of coronavirus. The dark brown is polly scale and not made anymore, and I don't have much left of that either.

fj55mike FYI, it's not a 1953. The fender vents in front of the doors appeared in November of 1951, and the kit doesn't appear to have them. In fact, the shape of the kit looks more like an early alloy-bodied car (1948-1950), which has a rounder shape to the rear. Good luck with the build!

Ben M Cool thanks! I'm going to put it on hold for a while because it's not giving me joy. Learning how to get a nice smooth gloss coat with these gunze paints is rough.

Matthew A Don't use "Mr. Hobby" myself. But 91% isopropyl alcohol seems to be what gets recommended for "Aqueous Hobby Color". I am told "Mr. Colour Thinners" and "Mr. Paint Remover" will damage the plastic. I've used "Strip Magic" on Vallejo primer but you can't leave it on too long and you have to wash it with alcohol. I am looking forward to trying "Clean Slate rmvr 2.0" in the future.

Ben M Saving the 91% iso alcohol at this point for other purposes. I ended up finding a partly used expired can of DOT 4 brake fluid in the garage. I tried soaking some sprue in it, and it didn't soften, so I dunked the car in it, let it sit for an hour, and used a nylon brush to scrub off the paint. I washed it thoroughly with soap and water and after it dries, I'll try shooting paint on it again.

Ben M For future reference as well, Tamiya panel line accent dissolves Mr. Hobby, which is what started the disaster!

Wim van der Luijt They only ever sent the prototype over to Indonesia, Fokkers where reserved for the home front

Ben M Yep. FD-322 is the prototype.

Ben M Used similarly sized Dutch decals orange triangles from do.215 to replace faded kit triangles

Ben M I accidentally deleted my album, attempting to delete just one photo. Fitting the canopy to the fuselage, and doing detail work like the radio mast on the tail.

Wim van der Luijt Crap on a cracker.....but you can up load them again??

Ben M Nope. Made a new one here: ML-KNIL Brewster Buffalo | Album by uhrwerk (1:72)

Ben M Complete!

Wim van der Luijt Turned out great despite all your set backs along the way

Ben M Thank you! Not quite what I'd hoped for, but pretty good. Learned some lessons.

Alex K Thumbs up for the completed Buffalo - and bring on the next ML-KNIL project! - oh, I see you already have!!!

Ben M There is so much putty on this bird... I feel like I carved it out of perfect plastic putty

Alex K Keep up the good work, Ben!

Ben M I keep getting funny flashbacks to the 70s while building this. I pushed the tires into the struts to test fit them, then went to pull them off to glue them and the strut broke. I suddenly remembered this happened the first time I built it too and the wheels fit so tight there is no need for glue. I'm going to skip the resin wheels, they aren't any better than the kit wheels.

Ben M Oil dot wash. Unhappy with the Tamiya acrylic gloss coat I used under this. It orangepeeled just like future always does for me. Unfortunately oil washes strip it off as well. I was able to salvage some of the kit decals by coating with a decal film fluid and lots and lots of Microsol. I had used Tamiya markfit before and it doesn't seem too strong and it leaves white stains on the model When it dries. I did cut one decal in two by accident yay craftsmanship. The old decals looked horrible until the 4th or 5th coat of microsol the stuff is magic.

Wim van der Luijt This build is a bit of a bumby ride for....hang in there the result will be worth it as well as the lesson learned along the way.

Ben M I think I accidentally deleted this album?

Łukasz Gliński Oh no! Have you tried turning it of and on again? Ekhm, clicking 'Undo' I mean...

Ben M Seems not. I made a new one here: ML-KNIL Brewster Buffalo | Album by uhrwerk (1:72)

Bob Hall Liquid Decal Film (Microscale MI-12, No)

Ben M Thanks Bob, I had no idea this product existed. Just ordered some!

Bob Hall I ran into your same problem, and some one helped me with this. Works Great !

Bob Hall One thing that was told to me that was very important. Brush it on and let set BEFORE you cut them out or they will not release from backing paper.

Alec K If the old decals are yellow, you can expose them to UV light to remove the yellow. Common method involves taping the decal to an interior window pane facing out for several weeks, checking on progress frequently.

Ben M It's more that they've started to peel off the paper. I think they've been damp and then dried out.

Francky In my experience, there is no wisdom in attempting to recover old brittle yellow decals. Buy new ones! it will do the time you have spent in building and painting your model more justice than ruining it with poor decals.

Kerry COX You can actually put it through an air brush, diluted with a small amount of water.

Ben M Thank you everyone. The fluid, the sunlight, and the advice that it's better to go with new are all good tips. I have improvised some out of new decals for other aircraft to start. Not totally sure how I will do it but I will improvise proper knil Buffalo markings somehow

Bob Hall And of course if your going for a weathered look on your project, they may work to your advantage.

Maksim Rossomakhin Be careful with track links — very tiny

Ben M Thanks. I know that I need to build up my skills before I try this one... but I wanted to purchase it while it was still on the market, how much KNIL armor is there out there....

Ben M https://flic.kr/p/pEUAps

Ben M Complete!

Ben M This kit sure goes together fast. I'm going to use it to learn how to do chipping (on the cart) and a soft edge between two colors (top green and bottom grey-blue, which I've already shot). Maybe should have tried preshading also, but gotta leave something to learn on the next kit

Ben M Weathered the cart with a titanium white and turpentine wash which also took off some of the paint on the tires, will have to touch up, followed by my first attempt at chipping I used burnt umber.

Ben M My first attempts at "muffin top masking" with blu-tack went well, have a nice soft transition between green and grey.

Ben M Did some paint touch up and replaced the prop blade I broke off and that inevitably flew away when I tried to pick it up with my tweezers. I used a bit of brass sheet leftover from some photoetch.

Alex K Nice to see this coming to completion - thumbs up!

Arne Greve I must be crazy, as I sold this kit at ebay . Yours looks really fine!!

Ben M Pilots, windscreens, and panel line wash added

Ben M Exhaust pipes made out of brass tube. Took me a couple hours to make them. Overscale, but less so than the original parts.

Ben M Done!

Alex K

Erik Leijdens Looking fantastic! And a KNIL subject is always good.

JOHN THOMAS Very cool

Ben M I have a rebox of this kit that isn't in the database. I need to learn how to add it to the database. Also I want to learn how to do rigging and how to do a wash to enhance panel lines as part of this project.

Ben M Resources for this project:
https://kw.jonkerweb.net/ind..p;limitstart=&Itemid=557

goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/ryan-stm/ryan-stm.htm

https://flickr.com/photos/146437514@N04/37692145816

https://flickr.com/photos/mdschilling/8419496358/

Youtube Video

Ben M Youtube Video

Ben M Dear mates, if anyone has a small 1:48 or large 1:72 aircooled engine cylinder in the spare parts bin, I could use it to go inside the cowling. Also I would swap one of the 1:48 pilot figures for a different one so I don't have two identical twins in my trainer.

Ben M Nope... I cut open the nose to open up the air intakes so now I need something to put in there. I bet I can scratch something out of my junk drawer, maybe alternating sized washers on a small bolt.

Ben M I've moved in enough in my new place to where I can have some fun. The two identical pilots were going to look kind of weird, so I tried a resin pilot, but the resin pilot has a comparatively huge head which made the original pilot look microcephalic. So I decapitated one of the original pilots and rotated and tilted his head a bit.

Ben M I've moved in enough in my new place to where I can have some fun. The two identical pilots were going to look kind of weird, so I tried a resin pilot, but the resin pilot has a comparatively huge head which made the original pilot look microcephalic. So I decapitated one of the original pilots and rotated and tilted his head a bit.

Ben M All done!

Robert Podkoński Hi Ben, I could find it for you here in Poland for few dollars but I am afraid that postal fee would be five times the price of the kit or more. The quality of the kit is not very good, I would suggest Special Hobby instead.

Ben M Thank you, Robert!

Łukasz Gliński Built it few weeks ago (KP boxing), don't expect too much Ben. I'd have a look for Pavla's canopy.

Ben M Because why not... it was in the clearance bin at colpar hobbies.

Ben M I thought I'd do a nice simple build while waiting for paint & glue to dry on my Ryan STM-S2. When I opened this one up I discovered it had a full interior and photoetched parts - maybe not so simple after all. But it's not a huge model, so what the heck. So I find myself building miniature ammo cans this morning with photo etch handles!

Ben M I'm 1 for 3 on PE parts - the first two handles I tried to put on ammo cans vanished... and I tipped over my bottle of thin CA. But still, it's fun for some reason I can't really explain.

Ben M This model is a great joke. PE, full interior, needlessly complex and totally imaginary but presented as real, even with fake blueprints. It even has a little propeller on the back, it purports to be amphibious. I just updated the decal list on the kit with the three imaginary units they provide decals for.

Marc Butler Sounds like the Versailles palace of rabbit holes.

Nathan Dempsey Is that a very large rocket I see at the top? May I add that it is perfect that it sits in a Bud Light box. 'Merica!!

Ben M Yes! Exactly. There are some really, really large rockets elsewhere in the garage. I just moved and I'm trying to get organized.

Nathan Dempsey I've got a few of them hanging around too. Awaiting the little one to get big enough to enjoy launching them.