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Showing posts from 2018

Corvette C5-R Compuware (part 18)

The closer I get to the end of this build, the more things seem to go wrong (and the longer it takes for me to work on this one). When cleaning the body, the grille of one of the vents popped out. No problem I thought, just glue it back in. I put the grille on some blu tack, applied a small amount of super glue and slid the grille back in. That was the plan at least. Somehow I managed to brush against the body leaving a nice glue mark on it and to top it all off, the glue had somehow reached the blu tack, dissolving/glueing it to the body/grille. Leaving me with a(nother) fine mess... Nice. In the end I was able to repair this without problems, so everything should be fine. Next up was the rear window. I decided to darken the rear window (using Tamiya X-19 Smoke) although it isn't required in the instructions. In my reference images it apears as if the window on the real car is darkened too. Added bonus is that this will slightly hide the not so stellar detail in the back

In-depth analysis of that first print

As promised I will present a more in-depth analysis of my first experience with the Anycubic Photon 3D printer. Of course I'd intended this post to follow close on the heels of my previous post, but for some reason it seems 24 hours in a day just isn't enough... First I'd like to talk about the print settings. Anycubic provides a dedicated program to position your parts in and to set the printing settings. Upon opening the program it shows you the boundaries of the printing area, some buttons to the left to manipulate the model(s) and the print settings to the right (showing the last used settings). Positioning of the parts starts with opening a suitable STL file. The part is than positioned onto the bottom grid. With the help of the buttons to the left it is possible to rotate and/or move the part(s) to the desired location. When the parts have the desired position it is now time to decide upon the support structure (to prevent sagging of the part during pr

My first...

...3D printed parts. Way back in 2015 I posted an entry about 3D modelling and printing , a post started because of the need for special wheels for a(nother) project. Fast forward almost three years and it has finally happened. My first 3D printed parts. In this case being the rear wheels of the no. 71 Ferrari F458GT2 that was raced at the 2013 edition of the Le Mans 24 hours race, with (amongst others) Kamui Kobayashi at the wheel. But things have changed a bit. For one, I switched CAD programs. The first version was drawn in SolidWorks. But the final version has been drawn in OnShape (an on-line 3D CAD program). And I haven't used any third party sevice like Shapeways but "just" bought my own 3D printer... But let's start at the beginning: The 3D model. The first model which I made in SolidWorks was rather crude. After upgrading my PC (I'm talking 2016 here), I didn't bother reinstalling SolidWorks and went with OnShape instead. The differences a

KMK Scaleworld 2018

As promised in my previous post this post will be about the KMK Scaleworld modelling event. As with the previous editions, the event was once again held at the Technisch Instituut St. Paulus in Mol (Belgium). And as ever, the event was great with a lot of vendors and clubs present and a lot of fantastic models in the competition area. But not only there, as there were great works of art on show at the club stands too. For me a bit of a first as my daughter (9 yrs. old) insisted that she wanted to go there too. At first I was a bit reluctant as I feared that she might get bored after let's say 15 minutes or so... No such thing. She was very patient (which is rather unique for a woman of any age...) and inquisitive. Which was great. We had a great time there. For some reason though she was extremely interested in tanks. Strange as that's the one type of kit that I haven't lying around here. Or maybe it is just because of that. One vendor was kind enough to hand her

What is going on here? (apart from not much at all...)

Yes, I'm still here. Shame on me for not posting for such a long time. The long silence is not without reason of course, as I haven't been very active modelling-wise. Not that there aren't enough projects on my mind (or started kits on my workbench for that matter). Just haven't really felt the drive to build something, especially after the clear paint job on my Ferrari went down the drain in the worst kind of way... The long and hot summer didn't help either with the temperatures on the attic rising to inhuman levels. Just sitting at my PC had me breaking a sweat, without moving even the tiniest muscle... Anyway. After changing jobs recently I happen to have some more spare time on my hands courtesy of shorter travel time and better work hours. This gives me some welcome extra time and actually makes me feel more relaxed. To the point that I actually am getting a little fired up to start building and painting again. After visiting KMK Scaleworld (a pos

Leuchtfeuer/Funkfeuer dio (part 5 - start of the Einheitsdiesel Kfz. 61))

Another key element of the Leuchtfeuer/Funkfeuer dio will be the Einheitsdiesel Kfz. 61 from IBG Models. Upon opening the box 4 sprues of grey styrene, one sprue of clear parts and a small decal sheet greeted me. In total there are a whopping 256 parts on the sprues of which 6 won't be needed for this build. The instructions cover the building of this truck in 29 steps, laid out in clear pictures, obviously taken from a 3D model. A quick overview of the sprues shows a good level of detail with some very delicate and well executed parts on display. What is quite evident from the beginning is that the sprue attachment points are quite heavy and they require careful trimming from the trees so as not to damage the parts. The frame of the truck is depicted in great detail. Shame that all of this won't be visible once the model is finished. One of the peculiar details I noticed in the instructions is that the clear parts should already be mounted in the first

Alenia C-27J Spartan - 98° Gruppo (Italeri 1/72) - Part 2

As I mentioned in the previous post I've started building this kit already. The first few steps of the building instructions went without a problem. Not surprisingly these steps concern the interior of the plane. I assembled the interior as far as I deemed smart without compromising the possibility to detail paint the smaller stuff. I actually like the plastic Italeri uses. It's not too hard and not too soft. It can be sanded easily. Apart from assembling the interior I've also been test fitting some of the larger sub assemblies. Test fitting the fuselage halves showed some minor seams, but nothing too dramatic. The fit of some of the parts though seems extremely tight. Especially the tail planes come to mind in this regard. These need to fit in a slot in the outer AND inner fuselage. It is extremely important to get everything aligned correctly. Test fitting (in this instance) the left tail plane showed the fitment to be very tight and it was quite hard t