cruiz

Relevant indeed, I hope it gets solved soon 🤞

Thank you all for your responses. I’m enjoying to learn different points of view. Is interesting to see how DRM is an issue for most of us; in my case, one of the factors that encourage me to switch to electronic versions was the availability of those books through cloud services, like Amazon and Google drive, this gave me some assurance that even if can have the files in multiple devices, my library still would be safe in the case of some catastrophic event like a stolen tablet or disk failure; regarding the obsolescence of the hardware, cloud services seems to diminish its effects, I’ve been through a couple of PC’s, some smartphones (including a pair of BlackBerrys) and could read my e-books on all of them. Of course, there is the risk of losing, or not being able to access, any information that is stored in digital format, I’m betting on companies like Amazon or Google to exist in the long term future and I have the feeling that they would find a way to make a profit even after the zombie apocalypse. I’m on the same boat with many of you, the sensation of reading a printed book is more rewarding (and sometimes more practical) than reading from a screen; for me, the advantages of an e-book comes before (it’s easier, faster and cheaper to get one) and after reading it (it doesn’t take physical space or sits on a shelve gathering dust). In any case, I see the options of printed and electronic books not as mutually exclusive but complementary, in the case of a publisher having both could only add to sales; this, of course, is only speculation on my part, but it intrigued me the lack of digital versions of such books. Please keep sharing your thoughts. Carlos

Being a hobby and not my way of make a living I'm not counting lack of free time as a stall; having said that, the main reasons for me to stall a build are AMS related: Can't find this or that reference I need to detail, paint or modify the model. Can't figure out how to make some extra detail or modification, I don't mind to try and fail; the problem is not to have any idea to start with. Ill-fitting resin parts. Any drawback related to painting. In all the cases, past some time, either I find a way out or forget about it and move ahead. Carlos

Thank you for your responses. dnl42 That’s a good point, didn’t knew anything about DRM but, now that you mentioned it, I did a little research on the topic, yes it could be a real concern, only one of my e-books was purchased via iTunes, I’m not an Apple user but do have access to an iPad and it was the only format available, it really disappointed me that I can only read it through an Apple device, technically the book is mine, but they limit me; it was the first and probably the last I’ll buy from them. Fortunately, that’s not the case with the other formats I use, (Kindle, E-pub and PDF). Regarding music, I only recently stopped buying CDs. Mstor Let’s hope that more publishers join in, I always thought that doing a digital version of a new book would be easy, or not too tricky at least, because most of the work to edit one for printing is done in digital mediums, someone working in the industry could clarify this maybe. Bruce I started with the Kindle but now only use it for books with little or no illustrations, for the ones with pictures or diagrams I use an Android tablet and the PC monitor, right this moment I’m on my PC reading the Kindle version of D&S Crusader book, I can zoom in the pictures and the level of detail is impressive, sure there are also some e-books that are more or less a scanned image of the printed version and didn’t have the same quality. And yes DRM is an issue.

Hello fellow modelers I’ll like to know your opinion about books vs. e-books regarding our hobby, either aviation related or modeling focused. Which one you prefer and why? Do you think it seems to be so few options of e-books even for books just recently published? If this is the case, why? What do you think about this? Let me share my point of view, I’ll start by saying “I love to read and also love books” in that order so I somehow can understand the sensitive or emotional part of owning and reading a printed book, despite that and for practical reasons years ago I’ve decided from that point on I’ll only buy the digital version of the books when possible, not only I can read whenever I want at any place but also there are also more tittle options, and generally the price is lower. Being a subscriber from a woodworking magazine I also switched to the digital version of it, after getting only half of the issues and sometimes weeks after they were available in the newsstand I’ve made the switch, I’ve to admit that is more pleasant to read the printed magazine than from a tablet but at least I have all the issues I’ve paid for, and also the price is lower. Regarding our hobby, one of the most important “tools” I use when building a model are the references, books have been more useful for me than the regular Google search (while looking for precise information, sometimes a paragraph is worth a thousand images); but in my experience, the more interested I’m in a particular book, the more difficult is to get a copy from, either the book is long ago out of print, or there isn´t a digital version. When Detail & Scale started to publish the digital versións of their books it was great news for me, I already got three of them and in my opinion the books are among the bests both in terms of the information provided from a modeling point of view and in the way the digital edition is formatted, on the other hand, they seem to be more the exception than the rule. So this brings me back to the subject of this post, my logic says that there should be more digital editions of this kind of books, the “esoteric” nature of the topics can make more expensive to publish in a physical form thus reducing the number of possible buyers and also, because of shipping costs, making worldwide sales less likely. Does the typical buyer prefer the printed version? It’s more expensive or demanding to convert to a digital format? Is the revenue share of the standard services (Amazon, Apple) unfair? Is there a technical reason? Is the risk of illegal digital copies hurting sales too high? Thank you for reading all this verbosity, and I’ll be looking forward to your opinion. Carlos

Genre: Multi-seat military aviation (if there's such a thing). Scale: Die hard 1:48 Manufacturer: Monogram, can't give any solid argument on why, I just love them. Kit: Monogram Prowler, Two on the stash but never build one, go figure. Carlos

Hello all First, thank you Mr. Happy, Joel and Peter for your kind comments A long time has passed, life became exciting for me since the last update but here is a small one. Tamiya’s attachment points for the flaps are meant to be sturdy but doesn’t resemble even remotely what the real ones are. To make a more close representation some work is needed, the curved nature of the Corsair wing just add a level of difficulty to this task. The inaccurate tabs of the flaps were removed. Also, some detailing was added to the sides using plastic card or by merely carving the original parts. You can see the reworked parts alongside the original ones, note that the trailing edge corners have been repaired, but they will be shaped at the end of the build to avoid further damage. One concern is how to maintain the extended flaps firmly in place using only the original attachments points. For this, I’ll take advantage of all the connections on the real plane even if they are not intended as such, for example, there is a rod connected to the leading edge of the flap that operates the mechanism for the flap doors at the bottom of the wing. The little white rods you can see protruding from the flaps are an experiment to make a sturdy attachment point, it consisted of a metal wire inside a plastic tube from evergreen, a simply used the stretched sprue technique to shrink the tube around the wire. In theory this will make a flexible but robust attachment point that could be secured using regular plastic glue, right now it seems to be working since the flaps can be dry fitted securely in place. There is a blank space on the fuselage where the inner flap aligns, this was closed using plastic card; in the real plane, there is an arm on the flap that goes inside the fuselage through an opening, since I’ll use all the attachment points available, this will be represented too. Here you can see the first attempt at such detail, but during test fitting, the flap doesn’t align correctly with it, I realized that the opening need to be a little more to the bottom. At the back of the wing you can see the kit’s attachment points covered with plastic strips, the separation lines between the flaps covers were filled and re-scribed at the correct angle, holes to attach the flaps were drilled where the hinges would be. Another characteristic that needs attention are the intakes on the wing, Tamiya part is fine but it could be better since they are an interesting feature on the real plane. Before cutting anything I make sure I could improve this part, first I build the section of intake vanes for both sides, the one on the left is only dry fitted; for the round oil filter I’ll use photoetched mesh that is close enough in shape. This is all for now, thank you for looking and, as always, comments and critiques are welcomed Carlos

Hello again and thank you all for your kind comments, really appreciate them. Slow progress those past weeks. The reasons for separating the flaps was to detail the notch that exposes the actuator linkage and to better represent them as a separate part without depending on washes. While looking for reference pics of the linkage, I also found that the actuators for the aileron’s trim and balance tabs have interesting details. Here is my attempt at it. Let’s say the details are inspired on the real thing rather than being an accurate representation. Source of frustration and time lost were the resin wells, every time I manipulate the wing's center section to dry fit other pieces, they just pop out, glued them back just to came loose time after; this happened several times until I tried something I saw in the forums, mixing acrylic nail powder and super glue. So far the joint is still firmly in place, this mix also worked great to attach photoetched parts and as a filler. The first time I knew of this technique with was in Paul Budzik's youtube channel, the idea of using acrylic nail powder came from the forums. To me is similar to using epoxy resin but without the exothermic reaction that can harm the plastic. Carlos

During childhood there where only two "national" brands for scale models readily available in supermarkets and drugstores; one that repackaged a mix of Revell, Airfix and Heller mostly in 1/72 and some interesting subjects in 1/32, and the other one that was devoted to Monogram mainly in 1/48; the difference in the level of detail (Oh the innocence!) got me hooked to 1/48. Even to this day, I have a soft spot for Monogram models in 1/48. Carlos

Moving forward to the fuselage, the central section along with the wing root is going to receive a lot of attention; the original plan was to add detail to the main wheel wells from scratch, ultimately decided to use the ones from Aires, here is the preparation to fit them in the kit. Testing the fit of the parts, the left well match nicely but the one of the right not, I tried to fix it by bending it using hot water until I break it without even getting close to make it fit. A new set was ordered, and while it arrived the build moved to the exhaust area mainly the one where the exhaust pipes go through the fuselage; after thinking for a while finally decided that the best way to replicate it was gluing a bit chunk of plastic and carve the passage of the pipes. Once the new Aires set arrived, I discovered that the fit was a little better but not as good as the left side. The problem is that if the rear section of the well is aligned, then the front area is misaligned, not by much, but the base for the gear is way off center, and this could be a potential problem later on. In the end, I think that the best solution was to remove the front area to align it independently, in the picture you can see the part together with the one from the set I broke early, will see which one fits better. Another feature worth of improving is the cooling vent under the fuselage (or whatever it is), in the real thing there is a folding mechanism that Tamiya omitted so, I took care of it with some plastic card; the ribbing detail inside the vent was carved directly over the kit’s part. Evergreen's 2 mm plastic rod was used to replicate the exhaust tubes, I didn´t procure a firm attaching point for them, so I predict a headache in the future.

Maybe you can fill in with Testor's clear cement or similar PVA glue to make a thin film and once is dry add some more to adjust the thickness, this way you also get curved corners if it doesn't work you can wash it off and try what WDW suggest. Carlos

Hello Captain Like a lot the work you are doing, I'd been following this build from the beginning; regarding the seat, I like the clay handles more than the vinyl ones. Carlos

Here are pictures of the current state of things; ten years later most of the pieces are ok with only a few delicate parts broken due to plastic becoming brittle. In the process of cutting off the elevator, the detail that represents the fabric covered ribbing was damaged, my attempt at repair end up with an irregular surface. As an alternative, the CMK control surfaces are prepared, but they also required modifications to fit in the kit’s tailplane that is already attached, is worth noting that the CMK parts are a little short in length compared to kit’s ones. For this build, the elevators will be placed in the dropped position. Reference pictures show how the longer actuators move the balance tabs, so they stay parallel to the tailplane. Here are both, CMK and kit’s elevators, it will be decided which ones to use once they are painted. The actuator rods are made from stretched sprue, the arms of the tabs from photo-etch fret leftovers, a drop of Gator glue simulate the joint. The rudder and trim tab got a similar treatment.

At this time the free version of Sketchup (https://www.sketchup.com/) also Autodesk 123d not long ago but it's discontinued now; Autodesk now offers Thinker CAD and Fusion 360 as alternatives for 123d (https://www.autodesk.com/solutions/123d-apps).

Thank you, Captain, I'm glad you liked it. I'm always learning and get inspiration from the work of others on the forum, so this is my way to give something back; maybe not with an example of modeling skills but at least sharing the information I got along the way. Carlos