Oh, No, Back to Ship Models... But Wait!

Well, we shall start with something different, which I haven't tried before:

Mini book nook - the Study
Front on, you get the full wood panelled, leather and walnut, whiskey and cigars effect.
A slight angle shows off the tabletop items better, and the depth of the model scene too
The side panels are all very neatly detailed, from this decorative cut-out on the top to the window cut out and print on the sides (which you can see best in the first photo)

This was a mini book nook kit from Thalia, a German bookshop chain that has evidently branched out into all things literary (I saw a debossing stamp for book lovers and all sorts in their stores!) and which I wandered through in Berlin post-Fanfest.

It was a quick build, there weren't very many pieces at all compared to even a simple Piececool-style metal model. They were harder to get out of the panels too, but the material was surprisingly thick and well-printed for a 10 euro model!

Assembly was relatively easy, but the added friction from the rougher material made all the press-fits quite nerve wracking at times and definitely a slow-and-steady kind of work as opposed to a bish-bash-bosh approach.

There was only one breakage and that was due to a stubborn tab on a piece that decided it'd rather snap than fit where it was meant to!

It wasn't even one of the multiple pieces that had spares provided to account for breakages, I was slightly miffed that it had to be one of the 'normal' pieces and not the fragile, everyone breaks at least one of these pieces.

Still, nice, exactly my aesthetic, comes with a stick on magnet in case you want to put it on the fridge or something, and it was a diverting little build for a sunny afternoon in the garden.

Having built this in an hour or so sat out in the garden, and faced with an unplanned week off work during some very sunny weather the month after the nook, I felt the urge to build more models. Rather than go back to either of the ones I already had started, or even opened, I grabbed box number 3 in the pile instead.

Behold - another ship! I told you, didn't I?

The Black Pearl, fridge magnet edition - Piececool - isn't it lovely?!
If you look far too closely, stop that right now, you can see where I really struggled to get the hull right. I wish PC would be more obliging with letting you know which other pieces have the right curve so you don't have to guess so much!
The rear has all the same tiny details as the full size Pearl ship models - the lanterns, the hanging angels off the rear cabin, all present and accounted for.
Here's a WIP shot, taken at the garden table of course, notice the line of tiny little cannon, the top decks made as a complete sub-assembly just like the hull below, all to be wrangled into alignment with each other later for final joins.

Having entered and then promptly cleared this beauty off my to-do list, I moved back up to model 2.

Another black model from Piececool, I am delighted to introduce:

The Blackbird! Lockheed's SR-71 aircraft, I've previously done the Metal Earth version but it isn't a patch on this marvel of metalwork.
Still has that sleek, stealthy profile even as a kit-built model, amazing
The paint job on this kit is stunning, and the detailing is fantastic, look at those finned engine cowls!
I mentioned the paint job, right? Admire it some more, please.
The undercarriage also benefits from a lot of detail, considering it's underneath the damn plane out of sight.
WIP - the model is built as two complete sub-assemblies: Undercarriage and landing gear then fuselage and engines. Getting every last tab and slot pair aligned simultaneously at the end for joined up is not easy!
In case I was too subtle, here's a WIP shot of those tiny little engine cowl pieces, the one holding the fins which are all snipped off the sprue, folded into shape, and joined onto a band as individual bits. So. Fiddly. So. Worth it.

This model had only a few more pieces than the much-smaller Black Pearl. The complexity of the Pearl came from its small size and detailed little bends and tight connections.

The 'bird is complex due to having such a high proportion of curved pieces, many of which need to match or align precisely with other curved pieces. The supplementary toolkit from PC helped a lot with repeatable curves, as did an empty Güterman thread spool. Even then, there was a great deal of time spent working from a wide-radius to a much smaller radius curve for several pieces, and some cursing and grumbling over having to get tabs into slots on tight bends, or without losing the proper curvature in the process.

The Submarine - Long Overdue, and just Long
It a long boy. Mostly on account of that two-piece top-deck, the upper piece here is actually just the internals as seen through the cut-away side panels.
Here's the top and insides, laid out mid-build in my also-mid-build portable workstation. I need to devise a sort of fold-out tool tray and sheet holder but it's very functional already! Makes moving to the garden table and back, or the dining table to/from the upstairs workbench much easier.

This baby still needs its glamour shots taken, as does at least one other model completed after it, but these rough shots already showcase the step up in complexity from the approx. 80 piece models of the Pearl and the 'bird, to the 120-odd pieces and the layered internals etc, that go into this particular seacraft.

It's a model of, I believe, an American submarine, but I am not certain which precise class, nor do I care.

I bought the model purely because I thought it looked cool as fuck, and boy was I right. The use of gold contrast pieces and the cut-away side make it a real eyecatcher. It was well worth the pain of, again, guesstimating the curvature of the side pieces for the hull and inevitably correcting those halfway through installation.

It was even worth the tiny, fiddly, fragile little antennae pieces that I accidentally bent out of shape several times whilst fitting other pieces later and was forever bending back into shape.

My worktop photos do it no justice, please believe me when I say it's stunning! It even sits real nice in its stand too, every other PC/Metal Earth model should take notes.

This was actually an early-June build but I never got around to photographing it until I was snapping pics of the Black Pearl and Blackbird. Another Piececool creation, it's a touch too heavy and the slides that allow it to fan out and close up a tad too stiff in places to be functional, but damn it does look pretty.

It's a relatively simple build as each blade of the fan has the same structure, the challenge in this model is all from keeping the flat panes, well, flat, and then getting a tight fit on the two sides of each blade, then nailing a good angle on the tiny tab bits that let it slide out and back.

I have one other model which was a one day build, it's a new brand (to me) and I've really enjoyed it - the manufacturer has gone straight up on my list of best metal model kit makers. I still love Piececool, but as I think you'll see when I take some photos another day and add them here, MU certainly know their business. The model was very straightforward to build, too, they make it somehow easier, mostly due to giving you guides in the model via other pieces etc., as to what curve or bend you need and so on. It was a really smooth building experience despite being tiny and 60-odd pieces, and took me a lot less time than the approx. 80 piece models above.

Pics of that (and the sub) incoming. Please look forward to it™️.

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