After looking at photos of the Ethiopian Cessna 172s, all of them appear to have their glass windows tinted a clear green. This makes sense as they operate in a hot and sunny climate so the tinted windows will cut down on the glare and some heat. I decided to duplicate this by spraying the clear plastic windows with a dilute mix of Tamiya clear green. Here's the clear sprue before painting:



Here's the clear sprue after painting:



I am pretty happy with the way this looks, so the next step is to button the fuselage up (after installing the windows, of course)!
Have fun modeling!
Mike

That did work well. Tinted windows will definately be a nice addition to the model

I enjoyed this one so much, I am done. Maybe I will have to look in my stash and build another.

wow, beauty! first across the line, congratulations

lots to lookat there. tiny decals and antenae, and i see you did some chipping and oil stains around the engine cowlings. first class work.

by all means start another. we'll be here for a few months yet

I found the fugitive wheel. (fortunately tile floor monster is much weaker than your typical carpet monster) I'll get these bits painted tonight.

Hi All,

Looks like it's big planes for me this year. I'm in with this classic, apparently, I feel the need to work on my seam filling.

John

Kevin
Congrats on finishing your C-47. That is one great looking model! I especially like the weathering you did.
Have fun modeling!
Mike

Great C47 Kevin! Love to see what else you pull out of the box.

cheers
Michael

Curious, would a German WW2 Assault Glider or a CH-46 Helicopter qualify for this campaign?

Kevin, Sir, Both of those would be acceptable - they carry people and stuff, and they aren't themselves armed for combat.

Life has been very busy at the end of the last year and the begin of the new one. So looking at all these posts, there is a great progess with some really nice models!

Kevin: Your Dakota looks really fine! I like it very much. Congrats!

My Ju52 has not much improved. I removed all windows as there were some awful sink holes that I reckognized too late. So the window panels were dismounted, sanded, polished and got a wash of future.
Than I startet glueing the main parts together. The fit of this one is not nice.

So the last days ended up in applying putty and sanding for several times.
Additionally, the propellers of the kit were sanded as they appear to be too big (upper one in th photograph). In the literature I read, the original one looks to be much smaller (hopefully like the lower one in the photograph .


Oliver

Lovely C-47 Kevin !
And another Skytrain John! That was the kit i'd considered getting for the paratroop models which I could convert but I was kindly gifted a different kit and have decided to try and make my own.

I've been getting far too absorbed in the minute details....
Can I finish this in time ? Who knows !

[quote]
Can I finish this in time ? Who knows !

/quote]

Paul,
take Your time. The additional details look superb!

Oliver

Mike,
Nice work on the tinted windows.

Just a word of advice. Be careful with the side windows regarding handling of the model after they are glued in. Because the side windows glue from the inside, they can accidentally be pushed in after the fuselage half's are put together. This happened to me with the front passenger window. Fortunately, I have not glued the wing on so was able to re-glue the window in. I may try and keep the wing off during the whole painting process just in case.

Alan M.

Some very cool builds going on here, I'm glad I joined up! Probably time for me to share pics of my own.

The USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) was a sister ship of the Graf Zeppelin (LZ-127), and as a result the closest kit I could get for the ZR-3 was Hawk's 1/245 Graf Zeppelin. Most differences wouldn't be noticeable at this scale, but the gondolas did have some differences that I could work with. Firstly, the gondola would be moved about 13.5cm (in scale) to stern, making for a less pronounced curvature along the walls where they meet with the balloon. Panels from my spares box were cut into shape, followed by lots of putty and sanding (that will be a common theme in this build). Then I had to make a few adjustments to the windows. It seems that ZR-3 had more a utilitarian design compared to LZ-127. Since I don't have a before-pic (about 3 years ago), here's the run-down of my work.





The deck went together without issue. White walls, wooden doorframes, USN-blue sheets, and green fabric couches and chairs. Although the outside of the gondola looks plainer than LZ-127, the interior was still very much designed for luxury. Lucky sailors I do wish they had put more detail into the bridge, but whatever. Most of this won't be visible anyway.


The kit has materials to light up the gondola's interior. I struggled for a while if I wanted to wire the model or not, finally opted to glue it all into place, and then the wires separated. Perfect timing.


So now I'm trying to find a local friend who knows how to solder. If I can find one before I finish cleaning up the balloon, then I'll wire it all. If not, then I'll just close it all up and hide the wires. Speaking of the balloon, I glued these two pieces together, so the model is probably >75% complete now!

Well I have made a start on my entry. Fortunately, or not as you see, I have chosen 1/144 scale so no need to worry about the interior details.
First issue up is the fuselage halves. Front and rear are not a match made in heaven. Front being taller and thinner, rear of course is shorter and wider.

It's just about 1 mm each way, which means losing some details, especially the rear cargo doors.
While glue sets on that I thought I would try and give the engine cowlings some definition where they join the nacelle. probably not noticeable but know how it is, one you think of doing something its hard to let it go.


I will refine them a little more. Hopefully more if I can make the fuselage look like a single tube.

cheers
Michael

Solid resin castings I fear them more than vacuforms.

adding that step to the engine cowlings is a nice improvement.

[quote]


Thanks for the great advice Alan! I got a reminder of how fragile the window/fuselage joint is when I partially popped one out as I was dry fitting everything together before gluing the fuselage together. As the fuselage was not yet glued, I added a bit more 5 minute epoxy to the window joint. Now I just need to be more careful when I assemble and putty/sand the resulting joints!
Have fun modeling
Mike

@Robby - that is coming along nice, looking forward to seeing it done.

A quick update today. Added some extra weight to the cowling area. Just because there was room and to make sure its not a tail sitter.


I decided to fill the panel lines on all the wheel pants. They always looked like one piece to me anyway.


I don't like the way the nose gear fork sets in the nose wheel pant.


I decided to add some wire to the nose wheel and sand the top of the wheel so its sits higher inside the wheel pant.


Then drilled hole in the nose gear strut.


I think the wheel looks better this way.


That's it for now.

Ok, since I finished the first one so fast, here is a second one I am going to work on.

Excellent. We have a wonderful variety of subjects now, single engine Cessnas, four engine airliners, a huge dirigible, and now a glider, it'll make an amusing gallery!
I think I will be able to get painting done on my Electras this coming weekend.

Hi Alan

That is a lot of weight in the front of your Cessna. I was planning on adding a bit less but I may reconsider that move. I am getting close to assembling the fuselage so I'll be at the "how much weight to add" step shortly.

Nice work on the wheels and landing gear! My Cessna will not have the spats so it will be an interesting comparison with yours.
Have fun modeling!
Mike

My Cessna is starting to look like an aircraft now. I have the fuselage assembled and will work on the seams before adding the nose (and weight) and attaching the wing. This should make it a tad easier when sanding the small amount of seams on the fuselage.





Have fun modeling!
Mike

Robby: Wow, this is an awesome project.I never could handle this huge balloon in my small airbrush cabin!

Michael: Very nice motor improvement!

Alan: Fine progress. How do You fix the weight into the cowling. White Glue?

Mike: Nice progress on Your Cessna, too!

After a longer operation with putty and sand-paper most of the fitting-issues on my Ju 52 disappeared. But sanding corrugated sheet seems nearly impossible for me .

The Ju has been primed...

... and Tamiyas TS 17 was used as the base color. Than the black color was applied and the flag was spray onto the tailplane.



That´s for now!

Oliver