Quote from: zak on May 19, 2026, 09:09:14 AMHow long had the paint been lurking in the drawer?

Only about 45 years........
But it still sprayed beautifully............

Here is the Ju52 with the masking removed, and the amount of masking used! Only a few tiny spots of bleed onto the blue by the nose, so not bad.

Engines.
The three Bramo engines in the kit are okay, but lack the cooling inlets on the front faces. I have an Eduard set designed for the Ju52 airliner. These have the said faces in etch, so I had an idea to copy them using decal film.
I took a piece of decal film, placed it behind the etch parts and then sprayed Tamiya matt Black through them, acting as a stencil. The result is I have three decals that I can cut to size, place on the engine fronts and in this scale will look like the cooling vents missing.

Great tip.

I am impressed Kev. Lovely detail additions for interior and an obvious understanding of the Ju 52. I look forward to seeing it on the club runway.

10 out of 10 for ingenuity.

Thanks Guys for the comments.
Moving on, the airframe has been given two coats of Kleer. Once dry, I started adding the decals. Given the nature of the aircraft skinning I wondered how they would react and how much silvering might occur. Luckily not much did, but I did have to resort to some Daco 'strong' decal softner to help them along. There are still a couple of small bits that stubbornly refuse to seat, I will overpaint them in the appropriate colour to hide them, once varnished they should disappear. The engine fronts worked as I had hoped, looking like cooling vents.
The Swastika marking on the tail, despite being an xtradecals replacement was out of register with the white outline being more heavy in certain places. Again some delicate over painting with the appropriate colour will neaten and balance things up. 

Looking good Kevin.

Looks great and the decal tip is briiliant.

Here are the Fallschirmjager troops and their equipment containers ready to be painted. A careful approach and a steady hand meant they came away fairly cleanly, any small attachment points removed with a tip of a new scalpel blade.
Painting is going to interesting, which ones will have blue eyes.............?

It all looks great Kevin - now how can I use that decal film/spray trick on a zombie     

The detail of the figures look good.  Slowly does it Kevin.

3D printing shown to good effect with the handles on the equipment trailers. Plastic and 'normal' resin would have been way over scale.

They certainly are delicate.I hope my efforts at figure painting will do them justice. Have now mounted them on a strip of foamboard. I have used Kristal Klear as a glue to hold them in place. Once done I will place the feet in water and hopefully they will unglue and I can then just touch in the boots, well that's the theory.

Well that's certainly a change from mounting them in Blue Tack and painting the boots last as I've done in the past.

Quote from: cph64 on June 01, 2026, 07:45:58 AMWell that's certainly a change from mounting them in Blue Tack and painting the boots last as I've done in the past.

Yes, I normally use blue tackle or double sided tape to hold figures in place. But as the figures are so small with a very tiny foot print I think this is a better option, but I'll let you know.