Model Kit Builder » Upcomming

Time to start again …

Klaus Weitzel — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:34:18 +0000

After some time off due to sickness and then offline due to change of ISP I am finally back online … and I have some good stuff comming up. I got a Glencoe “US Navy Seal” Kit in 1/8th scale which I started, a resin “All Terrain Scout Transport (AT-ST)” and some progress on the Schwimmwagen … I will start with posting images of the Schwimmwagen next.

cheers for now

Klaus

Tamiya Typ 166 “Schwimmwagen” in 1:35

Klaus Weitzel — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:54:16 +0000

On E-Bay I got this kit some time ago for about a third of it’s original price, completely unused. So I started building it.

The Schwimmwagen Type 128 was Ferdinand Porsche’s development based on the Type 82 “Kübelwagen”. It featured all wheel drive, a complete hull (!), a retractable propeller and was able to do 10km/h on water. Notable is, that the cars, although able to swim where rarely used in the water but where mainly used as ATVs.

For reference I used some internet sites around the Type 166 Schwimmwagen with lots of good pictures:

There are various images, starting from restored ones in use, museum ones (not in use) and restoration projects. I think nearly all the detail images erquried to make a nice model out of it are present.

I started this build by painting the lower hull, axles and wheels. Images do vary for the axles between bodycolour and gray or black. I opted for black in this case. next step is the interieur with the wooden floorboards and simple seats. Before mounting it into the floorboard it will be coated with matt varnish.

Decals for a Porsche 908/3

Klaus Weitzel — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:09:12 +0000

For the Porsche 908 Resin Kit I bought some parts quite a while ago. The only decal set I found was sold via “Jens Scale Racing” and was made by BvH. The Sheet is for the Gulf coloured 908/3 which was raced by the Werksteam in 1970. There are decals for two cars, the Targa Florio and the 1000km Nürburgring. I will try to make it the Targa Florio Version, which I also have in 1/32 by Fly (upgraded with Slot.it parts).

Together with the decal sheet I also got me some Colour, the Werksfarbe “Gulf Blau” (Gulf blue), and a technic kit for building a car compliant to the DSC rules. These kits are good value for money and you get everything you need to build a chassis ready to compete (remember, I have 2 of them).

Porsche 908/3 Gulf Decals

Technik Kit by Jens Scale racing

P-51B Mustang

Klaus Weitzel — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:46:54 +0000

Together with the Focke Wulf I found this P-51B Mustang, also in 1:72 scale by Revell. Like the FW 190 this kit was completly sealed in box and didn’t cost much. Having had a look at the parts it seems to me that the forms weren’t as much used when this kit was produced as the Focke Wulf, since I didn’t spot as much flush like on the FW kit.

Original box art

the sealed parts bag

Both kits are labelled as skill level 3 (for the intermediate modeller) and it looks like there is a bit room for customising. But the reviews I saw around suggest to me, that there is no need for it.

1 of 3 part sprues

2 of 3 part sprues

Over all the kit seems to be in the well known quality of Revell kits and can be built “out of the box”. But there are detailing parts available (e.g. by Eduard.cz]

3 of 3 Part sprues and the cockpit canopy

The decal and instruction sheets

T-80 B Soviet Main Battle Tank in 1:72

Klaus Weitzel — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:28:01 +0000

OK, here it is … I bought a tank kit during the car boot sales. I just couldn’t pass by a kit for 0,50€ … could you? The Kit is sold by Matchbox in 1:72 scale. The actual manufacturer of this kit is Revell.

Original box art

1 of 3 Parts Sprues

I am not entirely sure if I like the chains supplied with the kit, but I couldn’t yet find a replacement for them … Also 1 thing I do not like about this kit is the randomness in which the parts are distributed among the sprue, but most probably that is just “space saving” which I can understand as a rational thinking human …

2 of 3 Parts Sprues

3 of 3 Parts Sprues

Since I started building the kit you won’t have to wait for an update on this one for long.

Focke Wulf Fw 19 A-8 /R-11

Klaus Weitzel — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:55:16 +0000

It’s been a while since I have bought this Revell Kit of a 1/72 scale Focke Wulf Fw 190. It also has been a while that I built one … it was in my early teens.

This kit I bought again during one of our frequent visits to local car boot sales and, like usually, I didn’t pay much for it. Everything is completely packed and the parts are still sealed. The kit can be built to either represent a A-8 stationed in bad Aibling (south Germany) in 1945 or a A-8/R-11 stationed in Werneuchen (east Germany, around Berlin) in 1944. A profile of the 1944 A-8/R-11 from Werneuchen can be found here.

Original box art

Sealed bag with parts

The parts look reasonably good, but on some you can see clear signs, that the forms used have been around for quite a while, there is quite a lot of flush.

The wing parts

The main body parts

The decals are enough to create either of the two afore mentioned planes of the years 1944 or 1945. Depending on that choice you also make the choice of the paint job, since one requires a simple 2 tone while the other one is actually camouflaged.

Glas and accessorie parts

Instructions & Decals

MBB BK 117 “Space Ship” – Revell 1:72

Klaus Weitzel — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:27:54 +0000

One of today’s new arrivals is this Revell 1:72 scale model of the MBB BK 117 Helicopter dubbed “Space Ship” due to it’s striking colour scheme. As you can see the box is a bit “battered”, but I got it including a tube of glue for merely a single €.

Revell 1:72 Scale MBB BK 117 "Space Ship"

The Decalsheet

1 of 2 Part Sprues

2 of 2 Parts Spruce

Royal Naboo Cruiser by Fantastic Plastic

Klaus Weitzel — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:19:02 +0000

I wrote about this kit already when I was telling you about the foiling. A couple of weeks ago (yeah, told you, I was lazy!) it arrived and I am quite pleased with it. There will be a bit more work attached to this model, but I think it will be within acceptable reach.

Royal Naboo Cruiser Box Art

Royal Naboo Cruiser Parts

On the detailed images you can see, that the panel lines will need some scribing, especially if I want to finish the model in foil (which I plan to). I found a few bubble holes towards the outer edges of some of the parts, again nothing major I think.

Royal Naboo Cruiser Upper Body

Royal Naboo Cruiser Lower Body

Royal Naboo Cruiser Parts Bag

Royal Naboo Cruiser Base

Metal finish for model kits

Klaus Weitzel — Fri, 08 May 2009 20:57:30 +0000

In quite a lot of model kits you have to deal with a metal finish of one sort or the other. Now, what options are there for the finishes?

Paining with enamel
Painting with acrylic
Foiling

You most probably have done the first and maybe the second as well, but did you try the third yet? The advantage of foiling is that you can achieve loads of different finishes with the same material (e.g. aluminium wrap) just by sourcing it from different manufacturers and treating it differently. But be cautious, foiling is not for the beginner.

There are a couple of nice articles about this topic, for me notably:

I wanted some model with less detail to start with so for my first experiment I ordered the “Naboo Royal Cruiser” from Fantastic Plastic for this experiment.

Royal Naboo Cruiser by Fantastic Plastic

I am not sure yet what foil to use, but the shiny side of a simple household wrapper foil seems the right material for this. As alternative I have set my eyes on some specialised chrome foil for modeling purposes, but as you can imagine the price is comparably higher than for simple household alu foil. So, watch out for the model comming up.

Vintage Revell Corvette Stingray 1:32 slot car

Klaus Weitzel — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:10:53 +0000

Quite some time now I have this vintage Revell slot car sitting in between my stuff. A 1:32 scale Corvette StingRay from the 60s. I have never tried it, but it does look good enough, with most required to make it a running car. On the images you can see, that there are a couple of body work parts missing, mainly chrome parts. I actually went a step further and got myself two replacement bodies from the states.

Revell Corvette Stingray 1

Revell Corvette Stingray 2

So what is actually missing? As you can see in the pictures the wheel hubs, the guide blade, the left side sill and the front bumper I know, that the sill and bumper are on one of the replacement bodies, only the wheel hubs i don’t yet have. Over all the body has been built fairly well and won’t require lots of work except painting. But I will still need to disassemble the model to get the inside done. The chrome parts need to be chromed again and the mechanical parts to to be done.