Miniart 1/35 Personenwagen Typ 170V Saloon

I picked this kit up a few weeks ago as the colour scheme on the box sold it immediately. I like the 1930's cars but all the chrome bits on them put me off as it's very difficult to replicate without it just looking like silver paint so seeing this vehicle in this particular scheme was irresistable;

 After finishing the two aircraft I decided to start the model so I will be posting the progress as it's not been that easy to assemble so far.
Starting with the chassis it is pretty well detailed plus you get a full engine, all that is missing are the HT leads from the distributor to the sparkplugs which I added using 5amp fuse wire;

The chassis required some clean up as there were prominent seam lines present although they cleaned up easily enough;

There are quite a few small and fiddly parts which made assembly 'fun' to say the least and just to add to it I wanted to turn the front wheels which required cutting off the axles, drilling holes in the steering posts and gluing in some 0.88m styrene rod, remembering to alter the track bar;

Miniart has made a very commendable job of the rear suspension springs but I decided to make my own using 15amp fuse wire coiled around a 2mm diameter drill bit;

The chassis is almost finished, the main bits to watch are the attachment of the exhaust as it is held onto the rear via two small strips of etched metal so it will be easily knocked off during handling and the front bumper as it just butt-joins to the front of the chassis and care is needed to make sure it does'nt droop to one side;

The brake lines were made from copper wire, the shape of which I guessed as the instructions are not very clear.
This is my first Miniart kit and so far I'm quite impressed with the model as the detail is very good and the parts layout is pretty sensible too compared to what I have read about their kits, especially their T-54.

Dragon Fokker E.V/ D.VIII finished

 I managed to finally finish this one at last, it's been ongoing for awhile but time to call it done;

I'm quite happy with it as it's the first ever WW1 aircraft in 1/48 that I have ever finished (The Eduard Albatros went to landfill earlier this year).
I've learned a LOT from this build which bodes well for future WW1 projects. The lozenge pattern camo came as a decal sheet from Aviattic and you need to take a lot of care handling this stuff as it does'nt adhere very well to the surface, in a couple of places where I had to drill holes out for struts, rigging etc the decal came away around the hole and immediately 'silvered' as air got underneath.
I have a couple of ideas to remedy this either putting them down over wet varnish OR thinned down white glue as they are fantastic decals with the way they capture the linen effect in the printing process. The only thing I did'nt like about them is the film the decals are printed on is very stretchy and very difficult to trim, even with a brand new blade.

Onto the Uschi Van Der Rosten wood grain decals and again these were great for replicating the plywood panels on the wing but again the adhesive quality needs addressing with either of the two methods mentioned above.
I used the Uschi rigging thread and again this was a learning curve as the thread tended to curl up when superglue was applied which made it tricky to fasten to such small areas such as aileron and rudder horns. The advantages of this thread though is with being elastic the tension stays unlike heat stretched sprue which can sag. I shall definitely be using it again but it would probably be easier feeding it through small holes, gluing into place, trimming the excess then putting a dab of paint over the hole.
The Spandau machine guns were supplied by Karaya and were VERY fiddly to assemble, especially as there were no instructions (I actually used an instruction sheet found online from ABER). Using after market guns threw up a problem regarding the holes for the ammuntion chutes as these need to be about 1mm or so further forward as the chutes don't match up with the breeches where the ammo is fed. It was far too late in the day to address this so I left them as is but if any readers are embarking on a similar build then this info will be useful.
I wanted to weather the model by applying thin strips of Tamiya masking tape to the fuselage sides where the fuselage framing would be then spraying Tamya X-19 Smoke in between the strips. Unfortunately the tape manage to rip one of the circular decals so I had to repaint the area and decided to leave the weathering. Normally varnish will seal the decals but at some point I used Vallejo gloss varnish and this stuff just lifted off the surface so another lesson learned.
On the whole this is another '4 footer' model like the S-3 Viking (in that it looks great from 4ft) but generally I'm fairly happy with it and has given me a bit more confidence to tackle other WW1 aircraft. These things are definitely not easy to do but it stretches the modelling skills (and patience) somewhat.

EDIT; I've just remembered to include these shots of the wing struts as Dragon got them wrong, the struts from the bottom edges of the fuselage should be blended into the struts from the top edge of the fuselage and not seperate and something I only noticed right at the end of the build;

Dragon Fokker E.V/ D.VIII

With the Viking finished and needing to while away the small hours I put the decals on this;

Once they have set I'll give it another coat of varnish to seal the decals in, a coat of matt varnish then try my hand at weathering a WW1 aircraft which should be a giggle. I'm hoping to get this finished soon-ish too.

S-3B Viking finally finished

It's been a long time coming but it's finally finished. I actually started this project back in 2006 but with the amount of work it was going to need I soon got bored and the project stalled until the middle of last year when I felt the need to finish it.
So here it is, my interpretation of  Lockheed S-3B Viking (BuNo159413) call sign 'Beefsteak Seven-zero-zero' from VS-21 'Fighting Redtails' onboard the USS Kittyhawk during it's 'WESTPAC 99' cruise;

The base is an old Verlinden US aircraft carrier one that I bought years ago and finally opened today :)
The model threw up some challenges during construction and finishing, the one thing I'm pleased about is the tail seeing that the decal broke apart and would'nt conform to the contours. There are a few mistakes on it such as the canopy overhanging on one side (I think the ejection seat was pushing it out) which I did'nt notice until the model had been painted, and some silvering on the decals is noticeable in a couple of places.
Other than that I'm quite happy with it!