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You and I must have attended the same modeling school. Just as you, my first lesson about "kitbashing" was that I'm better off building a model from scratch than trying to improve an imperfect commercial kit. Construction takes the same amount of time but the scratchbuilt results usually seem better. Besides, anyone can build a kit so I take more pride in something I design and construct from scratch, even it it has an imperfection. -- Russ

Poor Max. -- Russ

Then switch to acetone or lacquer thinner. Use a very small container, lots of ventilation and small brushes.  One of the tricks the people in my cabinet shop would do to a new employee was to give them a Styrofoam coffee cup and send them to the finish room for some lacquer thinner with the expected result.

@Bill

QuoteMy question was HOW does he do all that so perfectly? You answered WHY you do it all so perfectly (your goal is inspiring: "because it usually looks better") A bumbler like me studies your posts in awe because they are way beyond my capabilities.

Oh, I still owe you an answer!

A little back story:
I remember my first attempts with gauge 0 in 1988, when I wanted to improve a purchased freight wagon kit.
Unfortunately, the dimensions of the long beams of the chassis, for example, were anything but suitable. It looked somehow strange. The wall thicknesses of some of the plastic freight wagons were also far too thick - no doubt due to the production process.
So I bought U-profiles for the chassis from a supplier, which were slightly tapered at the legs and slightly rounded at the top edges. These were really modeled on the original (today you can buy such profiles from Mr. Hassler in Lichtenstein - of course at a significantly adjusted price: https://www.hassler-profile.li/product-page/u-profil-16-ungleichschenklig).

At some point, I started to build my own vehicles based on the originals, because some "bad improvements" often took just as long as building my own. It usually remained a compromise, which I liked less and less as time went on.
In the beginning, there were still a lot of questions to be answered and some tools were not available.
So I am grateful that I have been able to learn many things over the years with the help of several model building friends and expand my skills in many ways!

I often fall in love with a prototype and imagine recreating it in a smaller scale - a "scaled-down original".
For me, this also means not only counting the rivets, but also trying to get the distances and dimensions right.
The time involved is certainly immense, but I simply like the result better.

One answer:
By deciding to be a "rivet counter", I don't find it difficult to make my model realizations a little more perfect.... with room for improvement!
Over the years, I have added a number of my own projects, such as the old storage shed, the old weighbridge, the Münzel crane with bunker, the slewing transfer table with engine shed, the Demag ML 15, the Gmeinder 10-12, the Kemna Gigant 8 roller, the barge (ship for loading sand), the ballast wagon, various workshop facilities...

A second answer:
The joy of many small partial successes certainly plays a major role in keeping me going.
If I simply don't feel like rounding off the 492nd rivet, another project calls out to be continued. So there are always longer breaks in the individual projects.

On the other hand, I also expect myself not to stand still, but to keep improving where possible.

To summarize, things that I create with my own hands satisfy me and just keep me going.


After I received new 45° solid carbide engraving cutters, the outer window frame was milled again. This time the contours of the frame were milled in 0.1mm increments at 80mm feed/minute to save the tiny tip a little.
A 0.25mm thick polycarbonate pane and a 0.4mm thick inner nickel silver frame complete the window.

Alte Waage Lbg 94 (fspg2)


Alte Waage Lbg 95 (fspg2)


The four 1.0 mm holes in the corners are used for precise alignment.

Alte Waage Lbg 96 (fspg2)


Compared with the old version, I like this solution much better. The hinged window and the green paintwork are still missing.


I also made some progress with the lifting bridge.

I screwed and soldered the guide rails for the rollers of the moving part to the vertical inner sides of the portal using M1.0mm hexagon bolts and nuts.

To ensure that the assembly/disassembly of the 110cm long bridge section is possible without any problems, I had to slightly chamfer the running rails in the upper section beforehand.

Hauptbruecke_Montage_M (fspg2)


Hauptbruecke_Montage_N (fspg2)



Here too, a small Pertinax jig in the vice helped to ensure the correct alignment. A grinding wheel was used to machine the four individual parts.

Träger-Montage 88 (fspg2)



Träger-Montage 89 (fspg2)


As some of the nuts on the small screws could unfortunately not really be screwed tight, but slipped through in places, I also milled a "shoe" from an HPL remnant panel.
This allowed me to press the screw heads firmly against the guide rail when soldering.

Träger-Montage 90 (fspg2)


Träger-Montage 91 (fspg2)


Soldering was done with a resistance soldering iron, soldering water and short pieces of 0.5mm solder.

Träger-Montage 92 (fspg2)


Träger-Montage 93 (fspg2)


Träger-Montage 94 (fspg2)


Träger-Montage 95 (fspg2)



The first base for the four portal supports was also mounted and soldered... of course with the help of...

Träger-Montage 85 (fspg2)


Träger-Montage 86 (fspg2)


Träger-Montage 87 (fspg2)

Tried the MEK and it blew my mind big time Headache for 2 days - even with the additive to lesson the smell - stunk the house out + my workshop /office next to the bedroom  - windows open on a cold night - and my significant other half threatened me with divorce even Max went on a bender and the budgie "Captain Birds Eye" fell of his perch !!
But I must say It Sticks Great -Good for heavy duty work Outside only
So It looks like Tamiya or Revell When I Have come out of solitary confinement in the garage
Barney

I just received a message from our server:  Beginning at 5:00AM PST (13:00 UTC) on Friday February 14th, our Los Angeles data center will be offline to perform a data center migration. Due to the nature of this migration, we anticipate up to 24 hours of downtime to safely complete this work.

There should be no effect on the data or anything else when the site returns to service.

Oh, well, there hasn't been a lot of activity anyway ... and that includes work on my own models.

Russ

That tower is amazing. I imagine getting the double bends right must be quite tricky.

I like it!

Frithjof, You are right, the thinner window frame looks better.

My question was HOW does he do all that so perfectly? You answered WHY you do it all so perfectly (your goal is inspiring: "because it usually looks better") A bumbler like me studies your posts in awe because they are way beyond my capabilities.

Gentlemen, thanks a lot!

@Bill

Quote..."How does he do all that so perfectly!!!!

It's quite simple ...because it usually looks better

With all my projects, there are always delays because sometimes I'm not entirely satisfied with the results so far or I don't have a brilliant idea of how to turn something into a model.

Then I have to try... sometimes it works - sometimes not quite.

That's what happened to me with the window frame from the old weighing house.

When I looked at the pictures of the prototype again yesterday...

Alte_Waage_Lbg_002 (fspg2)


Alte_Waage_Lbg_005 (fspg2)


Alte_Waage_Lbg_006 (fspg2)



... and compared it with my previous design, I wasn't really happy.

Alte Waage Lbg 84 (fspg2)



The outer frame width appears much too thick!


Today I started an attempt to mill the window kit frame with a 45° V-milling cutter...

Alte Waage Lbg 89 (fspg2)


...during the last milling pass at the bottom left, the thin tip broke off  

... grrr....

I had selected a feed rate of 80mm/sec in the 1.0mm thick MS58 (hard brass) with a depth of 0.3mm per pass.

So I stopped the experiment here.


Alte Waage Lbg 90 (fspg2)


The result looks very promising by far... only now I had to order new milling cutters - so there's another little delay .... and time for another project