Head Scratches Please

 

Audrey

 

Ship Modeling

 

Foot

 

Parrots have two toes in front in front, and two facing back. They all work like thumbs for gripping and manipulation.

Academy Me-163B/S Komet

After a few Wingnuts Wings I wanted to do something less nutty.

This kit is an interesting subject, has only slightly more than three parts and no detail to speak of.

Spray painted, mostly, with brushed highlights and details...

It's a good kit, everything fits, and enough details to make a nice looking model without months of work. The worst problem was the decals, which are old and probably weren't that good to begin with.

Album here, and more scale modeling projects here.

Wingnut Wings Jeannine Stahltaube (1914). Part 2

This is part 2 of my Wingnut Wings Jeannine Stahltaube project. Find part one here.

Here we have the assembly of the fuselage with the engine in place. I had a small issue with this and as a result there is a coolant pipe missing. It would have been an easy part to make, but it wouldn't really add anything. If you place the side covers on you can't even see the most of engine.

The steel of the nose I hand painted. This effect is better achieved with an airbrush I suppose, but it looks OK.

Wheels on!

The kit came with photo-etched wheels for more detailed spokes. I opted for the plastic ones since the flat brass would have only been slightly better I feel. And it would have been only a bit more work over the PE to remove the plastic spokes and put in real wire (like the Pocher) anyway. By this point I was ready to get this thing done, so plastic wheels it is.

The rigging on this aircraft is pretty crazy. It is used both for strength and to flex the flight surfaces as the plane has no fins.

There's a lot of rigging...

What made all this especially difficult is that the model itself is insanely fragile. It had to be handled with extreme care.

I did not put turnbuckle anyplace. After carefully examining all the period photos I could fine, it was clear that there weren't many. And, if any, it was hard to tell were they were.

Many of these cables are actually control lines that wrap the wings during flight. They actually, on the real place, seem to pass fully through the wings and back to the cockpit. That might have been a good approach, but I did the upper and lower lines separately.

Again, there's a lot of lines. It was important to spend significant time studying the rigging diagram to plan a sequence for the work. It took forever.

This is a fairly large model. it's hard to photograph in a way that shows both its size and detail.

I did a little better with the painted wood grain and finish this time on the propeller.

The paint on the body is a light primer, this a spray for the base color, then layers of hand brushed acrylics and a little water color.

This color does not perfectly match what's called out in the Wingnut Wings documentation. But one thing about WWI aircraft, and Wingnut Wings says this, is that in most cases the exact colors used are not known.

It is, as usual, very hard to see all that work in the cockpit.

Wingnut Wings Jeannine Stahltaube was a challenge to built.And it is one you definitely need a case to protect.

Another way to do this kit which would make it easier to handle would be to assemble and display it with the wings off. The plane was designed so that the wings could be easily removed. And the kit includes details in the wings and main body where they assemble.

Wingnut Wings kits are amazing. The level of detail and authenticity is completely without compromise. If I have any criticism at all, it is that they seem to not be interested in allowing for any metal, or wood for that matter, parts. This model in particular would greatly benefit in ease of built with a few metal rods.

The entire album for this project is here. 

More Wingnuts Wings here. And scale modeling general posts are here.

Stay tuned for more scale model projects. I do have more Wingnut Wings to come

2020

 

Harlan Does Like Her Chard

 

IPA