I now know for sure my working in 1/350 scale is nearly over. My eyes, even with a head magnifier and plenty of light, just don’t seem to catch a lot of my errors and it’s really difficult for me to line things up - e.g. decals. Even more discouraging are my shakey hands. They’ll be fine until I am under a time constraint (like when lining up decals [:(]) then they start to shake uncontrollably. So, with that in mind, I’ll have to try to get some of my 1/350 ships done asap - before my hands and eyes gang up on me too badly.
This is an almost laughable finished model - even for me. But I did try my best. All I can say in my defense is that these parts seem to be growing smaller and smaller as I get older [:D].
I built this kit to go along with the other 1/350 ships I have in front of books in my bookcase on the main level of my condo. At a distance it’ll look OK.
I’m including a shot of the main gun on a penny and a shot of the completed boat next to one of my airbrushes.
Any helpful criticisms and/or shared techniques would be gratefully received by me.
Thanks. I wish I could figure out how to paint the limber holes on a 1/350 sub. I tried using the end of a toothpick - too large. I used fine wire but the black detailer wash still would not allow a small enough droplet to just get in the depression representing the holes. I even used detergent to try to get the droplets smaller - no luck. I was thinking about just filling the area and trying to wipe away the surface excess when the wash was dry but I chickened out. I got some of the holes to look OK but most of them were surrounded by more black wash that I couldn’t remove without removing the wash from within the “hole”. I suppose I could have tried to drill them out but I wasn’t sure I could accomplish that in a realistic way. Anyhow, it’s done. Any tips?
I’m now staring at the remains of the stringbag I trashed several months ago. It’s either redo that or start one of my 1/350 ships.
Yes Steve, I tried a regular straight pin (from a shirt - when it was new) but it wasn’t working. The drop was so much larger than the end of the pin and would gather itself a little above the fine point. Anyway, thanks.
BTW, I’m headed for the land of nod in a minute or so. It seems strange to me that Darwin is 1/2 hour different than Hobart, Canberra, and Sidney (the latter three being in the same time zone). Brisbane and Cairns are just exactly one hour behind the former cities but there’s also a 1/2 hour offset from Darwin and that time zone [*-)].
Mike, in all honesty I can not remember how I did those on mine, but most likely it was an enamel wash. That was before I was using oils, and I have never had much success with acrylic washes, so enamels were my go to choice.
You can see mine along with a Hobbyboss Type VIIA here
the whole of the east coast of aust. has daylight saving’s except , good ol queensland , you don’t want the curtain’s to fade do you , so adelaide , darwin , went from 1/2 behind us to , 1/2 ahead of us , till the end of march . politicians go figure .
Have you tried brushing on pastel dust, then brushing off the excess? It worked fine on mine when I built the same model. It also worked fine on my 1/400 U-Boats by Mirage.
Stik, your subs are fine looking specimens of this devilish 1/350 ilk. As much as I want to avoid enamels because of their more or less toxic emissions (and I do have my home made paint booth and a respirator), I may give them a try should I find I’m confronted with a similar set of circumstances in the course of building a kit.
Bill, If I ever attempt another sub in this scale I may try what you suggest.
Steve (Modelcrazy), Thanks for the compliment on this little guy.
Steve5 (from down under), Always a pleasure to watch your builds and I very much appreciate your having given me some suggestions.
Looks great to me as well…I know the fits the 1/350 Gato gave me, and it is a little bigger than your XII. It almost became the “flying fish” more than once.[;)]
I’m now looking over the remains of my trashed stringbag. I’d immediately, after having thrown it in the trash, ordered another kit. I’m going to study the pieces I saved and see if I can repair/redo the original attempt - I did order and do have a new set of wing sprues for the trashed kit - so that may help. If I ascertain that I won’t be able to salvage the kit, I’ll just build another someday and have a bunch of extra parts.
If I decide to put off working on the above mentioned aircraft for a while, my next project will be, as I mentioned earlier, another 1/350 ship. Next up - USS San Francisco CA-38 (1942).
Yes, at least the one I have is the 1/48 Tamiya. I recall you chimed in when I was building mine but I am not aware of other modelers having had problems with that kit. There are some tricky sections when one gets to attaching the wing sections and the wire braces - I flunked that part of the exercise but, someday, in the foreseeable future, I’ll attempt it again.
Both stikpusher and Mike’s is a fine job indeed. The only thing I could think of to try to get into those tiny holes is a needle like a burse ir a doc would use. They should be avalible at a drug store in diabedic supplies. It might or might not work but it’s a idea. Well best of luck to you both and keep up the good work. Happy modeling.
