I was on a short holiday.

... But still I found the time to do some paper model stuff.
We of course did some cycling and visited a couple of interesting villages in the neighbourhood but I also found the time to actually do some stuff with paper. Here's what I did on two sunny and very hot days at the camping site in Hummelo in the very pretty Achterhoek region in the Netherlands this week.

Sitting at an outdoors pick-nick table, I first built a small fun stubby rocket (in a recolour of my own design) and after that, I took out another Zio creation, one of his Supermarine Spitfires. I love that plane and especially the sound of the engine and the wing shape.
This particular version was a little messy designed, because the numbering of some parts was misplaced over the parts themselves. I used my pencils to 'correct' the mistakes, giving the Spit a more dirty underside in the process.

As usual, I cannot emphasize enough how much of a fan I am of the late Fabrizio Prudenziati's models. They are so much fun to build and they look so good when finished. When I am somewhere else and I know I have time for a little modeling, I take one or two of Zio's models along to make.

BEsides building the spitfire I also kept an eye on all the birds in the trees around us. I saw a lot of nice Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a Mockingbird, a pair of rare black Kites, Blackcaps, Garden Warblers and of course lots of Blackbirds and Song Thrushes.

Zil 4906 [11] - Suspension and corresponding pending ponderings

PK is the master of suspension. No. That was Alfred Hitchcock. But I did master the suspension on the Zil 4906. The first of the six, that is. And kind of, too. I think.

This set of parts is quite complex and the drawing in the accompanying build scheme is just showing it from one side, leaving a lot open for interpretation. And in this case, to be honest, the black and white isn’t of much help, having just the smallest amount of contrast.
So, I have asked Maxim for help and he sent me all the pictures he had of the Zil. thanks again, Maxim, they were helpful. However, the parts and the assembly still were quite tricky.

Here’s the end result, below it you’ll see the build-up. Perhaps these photos also can be of help for future builders of this vehicle.

Note: This was after I realised it would be easier getting all the wheels aligned if I would leave it off at first, adding the wheel later. Hence the paper rips at the wheel attachment points.

Du Doch Nicht!! - an inbetweenie

The First World War was an interesting war in the sense that a whole lot of novelties were introduced in the battle theatre. It was the era in which a new kind of warrior rose: the flying ace. Every country involved had their own. When having downed five or more aircraft, you could consider yourself an ace, although others were to call you that. the term occurred in 1915, at the same time as aircraft started their dogfights in the airspace above the trenches.

The most famous ace of them all, of course, is Manfred von Richthofen, better known as The Red Baron. But there were dozens of them. Some of them had aerial manoeuvres called after them, like Max Immelmann. Others had a tennis court named after them. (Yes, Roland Garros.)

According to Wikipedia the French started using the term Ace, while British pilots earned themselves the term Star Turns and the Germans called theirs Überkanonen (literally top Gun!). In the end the term Ace remained and lasted.

Now hobbywise, the late Fabrizio Prudenziati left us paper modelers a heritage of fantastic little aircraft, amongst them a lot of WW1 planes. I have made a couple of them last year and they really are thoroughly enjoyable to make. Get them while you can via the Wayback Machine here.
I got the idea to do a lot of the planes of the big aces of WW1, to eventually suspend them all in a large mobile in an everlasting big dogfight in a future house, hopefully having a high ceiling..

Here's an addition to the flying circus, Ernst Udet's Fokker D.VII. Story goes on below.

Fokker D.VII flown by Ernst Udet, model by Fabrizio Prudenziati, recolour by yours truly.

Intense weeks, indeed!

April the 25th we got a call we had to take over an assignment gone wrong. We had to make a 30 minute documentary film in a month's time. That turned out to be two weeks eventually, while there were some things that had to be sorted out considering the other party involved.
We had to write a new storyline, find new protagonists and we did that within a week. After that, we had to shoot and edit the film in two weeks time. Usually we get about nine months all together to do so.
Anyway, it was intense and hard work, we haven't enjoyed any weekend or time off the last weeks but the film is ready and, might I say, enjoyable too.
The creativity I had all went into this production and there was no time left to work on models, unfortunately.
Good thing is that now I do have time again and I am looking forward to pick up construction on the Zil.
So, hopefully, soon a new fresh update on the blue sixwheeler.
See you soon!
--PK

UPDATE: We finished the film on time, and we had the release last Wednesday. Lots of good reactions and with a last minute arrival of a much bigger screen and projector also a good quality viewing. After some rest, we'll get on with the next film in the series.