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Showing content with the highest reputation on 30/06/16 in all areas

  1. Hi Everyone, I`m relieved to say that this one is finished, my attempt at Academy`s 1/48 scale F-4J kit Finished to represent an aircraft of: US Marines, VMFA 232, the `Red Devils`, based at Nam Phong RTAB, circa 1972 The aircraft itself is mostly what is in the box except for the rear view mirrors and some added seat belts but I added some different armament to fit the units mission and theatre of operation These being some Eduard Brassin` Zuni Rocket Pods and some Rockeye Cluster Bombs from the spares box . The decals came from Furball `USMC Rhinos` set 48-012 Hope you enjoy, thenks for looking Cheers Russ
    25 points
  2. Hi friends, today one of my latest models, the He-115 from Special Hobby wich was quit a dog. But thats "Short run" . Finally I am glad that I built this model. So feel free for any comments. Hope you like it! All the best Andy
    20 points
  3. Hi friends, today another model. The Fw-190 F-8 from Revell in 1/32. A lovely kit wich made a lot of fun! I added complete riveting and some parts from eduard, like undercarriage, gun bay, cockpit. Hope you like this 190! All the best Andy
    16 points
  4. Hi All, Here are a couple of AMK 1/48 Delfins. The Soviet one was built for myself and has added seat belts, Quickboost resin intakes and pitots and static wick dischargers made from Albion Alloys brass tubing. The Czech(oslovakian?) one was built as a commission for AMK and is straight from the box. Both finished with Mr Color paints (mainly 8 Silver) oversprayed with Pollyscale acrylic Semi-Gloss. A more complete build article can be found at https://jonbryon.com/amk-148-aero-l-29-delfin-maya/. Comments welcome Thanks for looking Jon
    14 points
  5. Hi all, I was sent one of these little beauties a while back to build for Airfix Model World and must say it was a real pleasure. I've built a lot of resin models now and must say that the mouldings here are probably the best resin I've come across with the representation of the fabric control surfaces sublime and attention to detail superb. The separately moulded engines and one piece wings made construction a breeze. Humbrol 3 Gloss Brunswick Green enamel was used to replicate that lovely scheme..... Brief history of G-ACSR The third Comet built, G-ACSR had been paid for by racing driver Bernard Rubin and was flown by Owen Cathcart-Jones and Ken Waller. They had to make a second unscheduled stop at Baghdad after they found that they had had a serious oil leak. They were forced to delay for repairs after which they caught up with the Mollisons at Karachi. They were the fourth aircraft to reach Melbourne in a time of 108h 13 min 45s. Cathcart-Jones and Waller promptly collected a film reel of the Australian stages of the race and set off to carry it back to Britain. Their return time of 13½ days set a new record. Following this G-ACSR was renamed Reine Astrid and flew the Christmas mail from Brussels to Leopoldville in the Belgian Congo in 1934. It was then sold to the French government as F-ANPY and set a Croydon to Le-bourget record of 52 minutes on 5 July 1935 subsequently making several Paris to Casablanca and Paris to Algiers high-speed proving flights. Sadly she was destroyed in a hangar fire at Istres in 1940. The only part of the build that required a bit of close attention was shoehorning all that lovely PE and resin cockpit detail into the super narrow fuselage. I decided to go for G-ACSR in her green scheme as everybody and their aunt seems to go for Grosvenor House and I think gloss dark green suits the style of this sleek racing machine ,(shades of early Aston Martins in their BRG). The only things I added were the counterbalances on the tail planes and fin as these were missing from the kit. Definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the subject...and who couldn't love those sexy lines ! Cheers all and thanks for looking... Melchie....
    13 points
  6. First up is the RAAF Museums (Point Cook) Tiger Moth and then a civvy version with ficticious rego. To be perfectly honest the scale was way too small for my eyes and fingers when it came to rigging but despite my modelling short-comings I'm calling them finished. The struts were very soft and hard for me to refine after cutting away the X-bracing that Messrs Airfix have deemed the ideal way to get perfect strut alignment. A couple of struts were eaten by the carpet monster. Now an enterprising soul should bring out some photo-etched struts for bumbling modellers such as myself.
    13 points
  7. 11 points
  8. This model has a long story. Actually years before the model, as a teenager in the 80's I kept a binder/scrapbook with every little tidbit about the Stealth Fighter. Folks my age and older will remember a time when the rumors of the Stealth Fighter program in the 70's and 80's was sort of like the rumors of the Loch Ness Monster, yet the rumors were everywhere, consistent and persistent. Once the F-117 was declassified in late 1988, the word was that, yes, photos had been taken of the Have Blue XST aircraft, and, no, they would NEVER be released to the public. I remember the wonderful day in the early 1990's when that changed. What an amazing aircraft it was to me. Love at first sight including that bizarre camouflage. I had just been in flight school and my ground school instructor had been a C-141 pilot on the program. Fast forward to Summer 1994. Saw an advertisement for an injected kit of the aircraft in FineScale Modeler through Squadron Mail Order. Not usually an impulse buyer, I was on the phone the moment I got home with the magazine to order mine! When it arrived I saw how much a handful it would be to make. And over many years I kept studying the kit wondering how to tackle it. Years turned to a decade. Then more than that. Finally officially started it in about 2012, 18 years after purchase. A block sander was the most perfect tool for the large facets of the undersides. Brass mesh for the intakes REALLY made a difference in the appearance. Testors/Italeri F-5E landing gear. Lost the canopy, but since it was so horribly molded anyway I was better off making it with clear plastic sheet that had been packaging for something-or-other. And over three years I struggled with the paint colors. Nothing seemed right. At long last I settled on the following: 36440, 30277, 35237 and black. The fact that the tails aren't tall enough aren't enough to make me want to redo them...comes a point where you're just glad it's over. So here she is, very not-perfect but patiently waiting 22 years for her unveiling, the Pegasus 1/72 XST (Experimental Stealth Tactical), Project Have Blue.
    11 points
  9. Hello, Here's my recently finished 1/72 Italeri YF-12A. It's completely OOB, painted with Tamiya paints mostly, and weathered with some pastel powder. Not the best kit in the world, but it looks alright from a few feet away. I hope you like it. Thanks for looking, Pete
    10 points
  10. First off, In case anyone was worried that Mrs. P has found out how much all the kits cost, or that Winston now exists only as a fine powder at the bottom of an ornate urn, worry no more. Mrs. P will never know, and Winston flourishes: Secondly, thank you all for your kind words. Sometimes in our lives, we make bad, ill-informed decisions that destroy things we hold dear. We can be stubborn and set the controls for the heart of the sun in this case, because doing anything else might be hard or unpopular, or we can admit a mistake has been made and change course. I'm speaking, of course, of giving up modelling. Your kind words have convinced me to remain in the hobby. I see no downside. (If you do, we have a spare room.) And this is a quick drive away!
    9 points
  11. The new Eduard 1/72 Spitfire is here. And it's fantastic ! As this is a kit that has been long awaited by many, I hope that this first look will be of interest. As soon as the kit was made available I ordered a few overtrees. These are sprues sold without decals, instructions and PE parts, useful for those who already have decals and other accessories. As I have plenty of decals I've decided to buy some. The actual value for money of overtrees is debated, in my case I paid the same I'd have paid for the Airfix kit at my local shop and while these overtrees come with no decal the quality of the plastic IMHO well compensates for that. Even if the overtrees are a "cheap" product, they all come in individual top opening cardboard boxes. And these boxes are big: Opening the box, a wealth of plastic appears: Overall there are 5 dark grey plastic sprues and one for clear parts. A quick look at the sprues shows that Eduard has already planned other variants. The main sprues carries the wing and fuselage parts. These are likely specific to this kit (that represents a late Mk.IXc). The wings are moulded with the gun bulges and therefore can't be used for an earlier Mk.IX with the wider bulges or for an E wing aircraft. The way the ailerons are cut also means that the wing is likely going to be replaced for the Mk.VIII. The undersides of the wing come with part of the carburettor air intake, meaning that an early Mk.IX will likely also have a new part here. The fuselage comes with the fixed tailwheel only. Again, the Mk.VIII will use new parts. At the same time different cowlings are included, hinting at other variants. Speaking of variants, how do I know that a Mk.VIII will be issued ? The short span ailerons of this variant are included in the sprue, together with a nice choice of wingtips: The presence of the Mk.V style elevators means that Eduard will also issue an early Mk.IX. Likely Eduard will mould a new wing with wider gun bulges for this subvariant. Mind, this is a deduction I'm making, not sure if things will be this way or not. The early carburettor intake for this variant is also included in the parts: Now here we have a choice of 3 different types of main landing gear, choice of 2 exhausts styles and different arrangements for the rear bulkhead. The 2 front bulkheads are for panels with or without moulded on instruments, the flat one being used with PE parts. There's also a choice of different wheel wells doors but these parts look completely identical... The abundance of options can also be seen in the next sprue: 3,4 and 5 spoke wheels and different gun fairings for the C and E wing. The cockpit sidewalls are separate, a choice with pros and cons: they allow much better detail but at the same time they result in some thick walls overall. In any case, the detail is very nice. The presence of the fairings for the E type wing of course means that this subvariant will appear, and will require a new wing. Not only a IXe will appear, but the clear parts show that one more variant will be issued: Yes, there's a bubble canopy in there ! So a Mk.XVI is sure to come. The engine cowling for this variant is included in the first sprue above. Surface detail must be seen to be believed, panel lines are great and the riveting very subtle. This is a kit that will reward well laid thin coats of paint, the rivets may disappear with a thick coat. I've tried to take a picture but IMHO does not show the detail well: The only minor criticism is that some parts may have looked even better if moulded in the harder plastic that japanese companies use. Really it's a very minor criticism as the level of detail overall is great. Since this kit didn't come with decals, I can't comment on them of course. I will look at accuracy in the next few days and may also compare the kit with other existing kits of the Spitfire IX. Or I may not, really any other kit would look bad compared to this one. Needless to say that this kit is now jumping on top of the stash and I'll start a thread in the WIP section here to show if it builds as well as it looks in the box
    8 points
  12. evening folks a little more to update on.. trying to get the U/C bay wheelwell walls done - you can see them here (another great shot from Tony) - there are three curved sheet parts, lots of rivets and they are angled from the surface into the bay (the angle hard to see here though) ..first up was making the angled parts at the beginning and end of each wall on the main rib - these are quite complex angles and took (like a lot of things on this build) many attempts.. ..then onto the walls themselves - quite a tricky thing to work out actually - here I am trying to do some rough makings out to get a start on a template shape.. the bottom of the walls where they meet the roof I had marked out but it turned out it was way too imprecise so I later stuck the plans down in there to get it more accurate.. the blue back of the litho made for a good surface for marking out... & the bits of tape are to make up for bits I should not have cut off to further refine the shapes after making several rough versions and a couple of good ones that I later realised were wrong (too mony rivets or in the wrong place) I ended up with a final part.. to mark out regular rivet spacings over different lengths / distances just have a sheet marked up with regular spaced patterns and vary the angle of the cut in the paper to make the number of intersections equal the number of spacings you want.. for example these are about 3mm apart, but if I cut at 45 degrees they become 6mm apart - just joggle it to fit your application.. the bigger panel was pretty difficult being curved and angled in many directions, again many templates later... ..there is a little door in the bogger panel - I made it by making the door from litho and the hinge from a bit of scored tube. To stick the tube to the thin edge of the sheet without making a mess I taped it to a bit of baremetal foil and applied the CA - the CA won't stick to it so I can peel it off afterwards ..they are just loose fits for now as I have not got enough 0.7mm rivets to finish the panels - I have ordered some but they come from the US so will be a while yet.. I am away to the sun for two weeks with the airscale family so will be back in a while .. TTFN Peter
    8 points
  13. Some pics from when i was working on it. I got the seatbelts to behave better where they are curling around the rod after these pics were taken - you can see them looking better on the finished build above. photo hosting
    7 points
  14. Hi all, although I am not a mainstream aircraft modeller (I normally make military and civil vehicles), I just had to make a Beverley. The reason is that as a youth, I was a member of 2121 Abingdon squadron, Air Training Corps, and RAF Abingdon was the home of the Beverley, there being 2 squadrons based there (47 and 53). This meant that the cadets had access to flying in the Bev, and I have clocked up a fair few hours in them, as well as Hastings, Argosy, Chipmunk, Anson and Varsity. The Bev was my favourite, and the best flights were the low level cross country (LLXC) trips. The first was in XB285 in August 1962, (gosh, was it really that long ago!). Normally when you went in a Bev, if there was no more than 2 of you, they let you on the flight deck. We had to sit on an equipment locker opposite the navigators position (no seat belts there, wouldn't happen today would it). If there were a few of you we had to go into the boom which was normally equipped with rear facing seats. On this occasion the navigator said to me, to stay in the freight bay, and I could join him in the position in the nose. He said that we would be flying as low as 100 ft. The pilot laughed and said, "you may well be at 100 ft down there, but we will not be, you had better call us and tell us what it is like"! I do not know how low we were but it was a fantastic view and we were very LOW at times. We flew out over towards East Anglia and crossed the coast near Lowestoft, out over the North Sea then returned inland back to Abingdon. At one point we flew over some boys fishing in a large pond and they actually ducked! I guess 162 ft. of wingspan roaring over you very low is an impressive sight. The Bev was after all the largest aircraft in the RAF until the Belfast came along. In August 1963 we took the RAF cricket team to Jersey in XB291, it was the largest thing that had been into Jersey and half the island came out to see it. We went on annual camp to RAF Kinloss, and our CO managed to get a Bev which was going to Leuchars, diverted and pick us up to fly home. I asked one of my friends if he had been in a Bev and he said no. I said to him he was bound sure to be sick as the boom was always a bit bouncy. Sure enough, he was fine and I was very airsick! Its not often I am right and I was wrong again. According to my log book I flew in 267 on 27th August 1963, and we did 1 hour and 30 minutes of continuation training (circuits and bumps) at Brize Norton, but I do not remember that one much. Happy days The model. This is the Mikro-Mir kit, and this is the first short run kit I have made, as well as the first one to have an aluminium finish. The kit is not easy to make as some parts do not fit very well and there are very few locating tabs or pins. However the decal sheet is superb. There are a couple of errors in the instructions, one did catch me out and it was too late to correct it. This is that the diagram shows the roundel on the fuselage in the wrong position, it should be 2 "port holes" further back towards the rear. I had applied them and given them a coat of Humbrol clear by the time I noticed. The other is that XB267 at the time it was at Abingdon and had day glow paint on it, was coded B and not T as stated. There are no decals to show the Abingdon coat of arms which was on the nose of all aircraft based there. It also requires an lot of weight in the nose. I am not very happy with the silver finish, I tried 3 different paints and ended up with Humbrol metalcote polished aluminium.The Beverley always has a problem with oil consumption and oil leaks over the wings. They were always either dirty, or very dirty. They used to say it was easy navigating a Bev, you navigated out and followed the oil slick back. I think I may make another at a later date, (I still have the Welsh Model vac-form kit which I never got round to attempting, so if anyone wants one! ), maybe I have learned some lessons with this, and will make the camouflaged one next. By the way, the Commer bus is from Oxford die casts and is very nice, and well worth the few quid it costs. Sorry for all the waffle, thanks for looking. Laurence Cassidy
    6 points
  15. This is my most recent project. The Hobby Boss Leopard 2A6M, depicted as a troop commander of Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) post Afghanistan. With a little Accurate Armour & Live Resin added, and an unknown commander from the spares box. The tanks came from the German army and featured better air con and more armoured stowage for the crew's kit. They were originally in the 3 colour NATO camouflage but are being repainted into standard Canadian green. The pictures don't show it to well but there is some tonal difference in the colours with some pre and post shading. The model was going to have all the slat armour attached but it really started to upset me so I gave up! Untitled by phil da greek, on Flickr Untitled by phil da greek, on Flickr Untitled by phil da greek, on Flickr Untitled by phil da greek, on Flickr Photos were taken on my Iphone & posted via Flickr. Any thoughts or comments are welcome.
    6 points
  16. *update 30/6/16* Hi everyone I’ve been hard at work over the last few weeks. Last time I showed you how I made the actuating mechanism for the wing dive brakes. This time around, it’s all about metal skinning. A major shortcoming of the kit is the fact that every rivet is recessed (this being basically a scale up / rip off of the old Accurate Miniatures 1/48 kit). You can get away with it in 1/48 - not so 1/18. Every panel was measured, riveted and cut from pewter sheet. Some were easier than others. I had to bear in mind at all times later stages in the construction - for example, the wings won’t be attached to the fuselage for some time, but I still had to make all the relevant panels ready to attach. Here are a few photos showing where I am up to - around 90% of the body is either metallized, or has panels ready to attach later: I’ve also been working on all the flaps, ailerons and moving surfaces…some pics: for the fabric surfaces, I thought long and hard about trying to replicate the excellent results achieved by Peter (Airscale) on his 1/18 Spitfire build using scratchbuilt frameworks covered in Solartex. In the end I decided I just don’t have the time (or frankly, the skill and inclination) to try that with this build. It’s already nearly 18 months in and I’m impatient! In the end I tried a different technique. I put a grinding bit in my dremel and let it ‘dance’ over the fabric surfaces on the flaps - this left random little nicks and gouges across the surface of the parts. After I’d polished them up using a polishing wheel (again in the dremel) the flaps had a high gloss shine, the harshest edges of the indentations were nicely burred out and it looked kind of cool. Time will tell if it has worked or not. Without the benefit of an undercoat, the effect kind of looks like wood grain as opposed to canvas…..but we’ll have to wait and see. Check it out: The plane is now slowly approaching the stage where I can attach the wings to the fuselage. However, before that happens I must first scratchbuild the actuating mechanism for the central dive brake…. and tackle the cockpit transparencies. For now though, here’s a mock up - as it is difficult to convey the sheer size, I roped in a rather handsome model to hold the plane for the cameras. One other thing I can’t really convey is the weight of this beast - which is going up considerably the more metal I add! more soon, but possibly not for several more weeks Rich
    6 points
  17. List from local forum: 2016: 09 - Royal Class Quatro Combo, 1x IXc Early, 1x IXc Late, 2x IXE. 11 - Mk.XVI Dual Combo Bubletop/Highback Limited Edition 12 - Mk.IXc Early ProfiPack 1st half of 2017. Aussie Eight Mk.VIII Limited Edition (with book) Mk.IXc Late Weekend Mk.IXE ProfiPack 2nd half of 2017: NAŠI SE VRACEJÍ Quatro Combo Limited edition (Czechoslovak, with book, august) Mk.XVI Bubbletop ProfiPack Mk.VIII Weekend The list is subject to change Brassins: engine weapons engine cover (09/2016)
    6 points
  18. I've built this box stock and not being a lover of multi-part bodies, after this I'm still not. The plastic is soft and sometimes doesn't like ordinary cement that comes in a bottle. The artwork does not show any of the various colours that the kit can be painted to go with four sets of decals. There is a comprehensive list of paints/colours to use but without artwork it's difficult to choose the variant. I went on Google search and found a real version of the one I've built that uses one set of decals (2). All doors come separate so can be mounted open or closed.
    5 points
  19. hello folks my last finish Airfix 1/48 scale spitfire MKVB "Malta defender " best regards Pascal .
    5 points
  20. Hi again, Here's an update of tonight's work. First, I checked how to install the PE rings inside the back canopy parts and the respective machine-guns. As shown in the picture below, the machine-gun is unable to pass through the openings in the PE ring and on the rotating circular window, due to the large size of the sight on top of the barrel and also due to the leather sleeve behind the barrel, which covered the opening on the rotating window: The kit's instructions show that the machine guns should first be installed on the circular windows (before glueing the windows to the canopy parts, their openings are open ended, making installation easier) and, then, the circular window/machine-gun sub-assemblies should be glued to the back canopy parts. This avoids the problem of passing the machine guns through the openings but complicates painting. Anyway, this is something to be aware of by those building the kit OOB. However, the PE instructions show that the gun barrels and sights will be replaced by PE parts: Therefore, by glueing the circular windows to the canopy parts, I didn't create more trouble than what I would have anyway. I will have to remove the barrels and cut the rest of the guns behind the leather sleeves, as these must be installed from the exterior, in order to cover the circular windows' openings completely. Then, I'll glue the PE barrels and sights. Installing the PE ammo belts, shown in the PE instructions, though, will be nightmarish, I think... On the other hand, the PE rings have a bend mark across the opening through which I was expecting to pass the gun barrels. This is shown on the ring on the left hand side of the picture below. After bending, we get the ring on the right hand side of the picture. Eduard's instructions don't mention this bend but doing this simplifies the installation of the guns, since now they are just supported on the semi-circle thus created, instead of having to pass through the openings. After all these tests and reflections on the best way to install the guns in the canopy, I test fitted the rings. As I had seen previously, they don't fit properly over the circular windows. Therefore, I tried to make more room by carefully removing plastic from the inner side walls of the canopy parts, on the areas that will have to be painted near the circular windows. This didn't completely solve the misalignments. So, I trimmed the outer edge of the PE rings in the sections that get in contact with the canopy's inner walls. The picture shows the ring on the right already trimmed. The ring on the left is still unchanged. Doing this, I managed to get a proper alignment of ring and circular window: The other ring was also trimmed and a proper alignment was also achieved. Here are both rings ready for painting and installation: With this matter solved, I cut the machine-guns off the runners (not sprues, as clarified by Ced ), cleaned all moulding lines and glued the parts to toothpicks, ready for priming and painting. From left to right we see the front facing canopy gun, and the two rear facing canopy guns: There's a fourth machine-gun, to be installed on the cockpit access hatch, located on the ventral gondola of the aircraft. It's a double-barrelled machine-gun (both barrels will be replaced by PE) and it is made up of two plastic parts: Here they are glued together. I had to do this because only the barrels will be removed and the plastic behind them will be kept but it was divided between the two parts: To finish with, here are all four machine-guns glued to toothpicks and ready for priming and painting: All this took me more than two hours (not including the time needed to resize and reshape the pictures, and writing this post). Thanks for looking. Cheers Jaime
    5 points
  21. Hmm.. So far, looks reasonably promising on the silvering front: Crisp
    5 points
  22. All detail added, final check before priming
    5 points
  23. Here's a couple of better photos of my FRADU Hawk T1 . John Green Nantwich , Cheshire
    4 points
  24. This is De Havilland 103 Hornet F1 PX252 of 65 Squadron flown by Squadron Leader Charlton "Wag" Haw in, it seems, 1946/47. She only wore these bold squadron markings briefly before, so the story goes, the markings were removed on the order of AOC 12 Group. This is the only known photo of her in these markings. It's from a late 1940s magazine and credit for this old photo goes to A.Fraser via Chris Thomas. Here is my representation of her using the old Frog Hornet F3 kit. The shape of the kit is pretty good except for thick wings and fin, the fin chord is a bit narrow at the top and it has square wing leading edges but there's very little detail. The changes to backdate the kit to an F1 that were removal of the fin fillet, reducing the span of the tailplanes and shortening the tailcone a tiny bit. Other changes I made: a bit of detail behind the seat to fill the big void, drilled out the cannon ports, a sliver of plastic card to make the reinforcing band round the fuselage, scribed in the flaps, added some fins in the radiator openings and also added some plastic card radiator exhaust flaps under the wings. The Frog canopy looks pretty bad - too narrow and totally the wrong profile. I moulded a replacement using a plug mould I made of the badly yellowed vac canopy in a Skybirds 86 Sea Hornet. The decals are from the Special Hobby kit and were sent to me a few years back by a fellow modeller whose name escapes me but to whom I am very grateful. I didn't weather it as it didn't wear this scheme for long and, I presume that, the CO's mount would have been kept pretty clean. The stand is the Frog Skybase that they put in kits in the mid-70s or so. If anybody has any to spare, I'd love to buy them from you, please. David
    4 points
  25. Some more done on the SEM............... The exhaust area spayed with Mr Metal Color Stainless Steel and buffed up ready for fitting into one side of the fuselage. The air intake trunking is fits together nicely so that the seams are in the corners, a couple of ejector pin marks in each side but I just left them as it'll be very dark in there and won't be seen. This is one half with the side wall and fan blade in place, trunking sprayed with AK Xtreme Metal Steel and the fan blade with Aluminium. The fuselage halfs have been joined together after adding the cockpit, front nose gear and main gear bay's and the inside of the airbrakes also go in at this stage. This is the main gear bay and both airbrake area's, sprayed with Ak Xtreme Metal Steal. There is a small step in the lower fuselage join which has needed some attention. I took care of the seam line on top of the fuselage with some Mr Surfacer but this was me being overly cautious, it was a good fit and probably didn't need much.
    4 points
  26. I got a bit done yesterday but it wasn't worth reporting. There are some ejector marks on the cockpit floor that need sorting. Why couldn't they put the one in the rear under the seat like in the front?? It was a right pain to clean up: I am starting to find that the fit of parts on this kit is rather poor. When I test fitted this part for the main gear wells there was this tapering gap in the roof of the bay, also the inboard length is shorter than the outboard: I fixed the length issue by packing the front with some 0.5mm card and then glued this piece in place with a best compromise fit to minimise the gap. There is also some 0.4mm card to pack a gap at the front edge: The instructions say to put that part in after closing up the fuselage but I think its definitely better done before that. The fuselage halves are warped but its not a big deal as they easily pull together: Mocking up the cockpit I found that the rear IP is way too tall, by more than a millimetre: I sorted that by re-profiling the top of the IP and then found that the front panel was also too tall so I removed quite a bit from the top of that as well as using my motor tool to remove some material from the underside of the coaming: The instruments are provided as decals, unfortunately these are just black printed on clear so no provision for the white dials. I removed them from the sheet, trimmed off their carrier film and shaped to the new dimensions and placed them upside down on some non-stick plastic to dry out. I will attempt to paint the instruments from behind - wish me luck with that one: Next I masked up the fuselage ready for some paint: By now I had got all the cockpit parts ready for some primer: The last job of the day was to get the priming done: I should get the top coats on tomorrow and then be able to close up the fuselage. That seems to have come round quickly. Bye for now, Nigel
    4 points
  27. HI gentlemen Neil .... sorry for the elapsed time betwen the each answers ..but of many professional obligation coupled with a very time consuming step ,my distanced of my "work surface" therefore of updates less numerous...butstill active I just finished this step and here are some steps first paint coat one of the masking steps another the first result without the weathering many small parts are separately painted the final result and in place on the richelieu it unlocks me of other stages .....I hope to put less time between each update best regard Nicolas
    4 points
  28. Indeed. My Father flew late model Spits (XVIs). When I quizzed him about the seats he insisted that every one he flew was fitted with a metal seat.
    4 points
  29. Hey Cooken. I didn't know the Tamiya kit had that much AM available for it.... I thought it was a work of art on its own, handed down from god himself. (if I had any photoshop skills, I'd take the famous sistine chapel scene between God and Adam and superimpose a tamiya kit... but I digress). I built a similar thing years ago, but for Hampton Grey's FAA Corsair. The Corsair in general is a good kit to mount on a base: its got a robust landing gear that makes it easier to mount and hold. The only problem I had was when people at my work tried picking it up by the plane, which could not hold the base as well, and it would break. C'est la vie. One thing you might consider is that eduard makes a premade PE deck section that you could place right onto the wooden base to give it a bit of texture. They go for about 30 dollars on ebay. Good luck though, its a great start.... I'm sure you'll make it look great no matter what.
    4 points
  30. Hello again, Well I got my Modeldecal 99 sheet and it has around 20 Wessex colour schemes on it. Sad that it then calls out for you to supply your own numbers and roundels, and only has one set of the "generic" markings (walkways and stencils), so although it is cheap (and I can see the justification) you need a full spares box to use it! So I bought the Xtradecal white letter sheets too (I already have some D type roundels). So my 99p kits have now cost £8.99 each so far. When I started looking at the decals, I realised that the Frog kit is an early HAS.1, with small, square windows, so I can't do most of the schemes because they have the later enlarged rectangular windows. I've gone back to doing the plain grey/blue scheme, of a pre-production model, supported by this picture. Which is pretty much exactly the scheme in the kit decals. Hey-ho... XM328 has an interesting history - it was one of the first pre-production aircraft used in trials, was later modified to serve as an HAS-3, and has now been restored by the Helicopter Museum in Weston-Super-Mare. With the agony of prototype choice over, my mojo was restored and I could resume modelling. You will recall the canopy was misshapen. Well, I glued my piece of Frog Blenheim turret in (this is a Frog build, after all!) whittled it down and stuck on a side frame. I'm pretty happy with the result, with and without side windows: I used Revell Contacta to join the two transparencies together, and then used superglue to add the frame piece after colouring the edge of the glass black with a sharpie. I seem to have got some clean joints with no "silvering" from internal reflections. Note that the picture of the trials aircraft above shows it with the side windows removed, which means I should have spent more time on my cockpit detailing! I also reviewed what detail I could see in the photo above and referred to on-line sprue shots of kits (the Fly 1/144 and Italeri 1/48), and started adding some scale-ish detail to the body to make it look a bit busier: This lunchtime I will visit the local Posh Supermarket to see if I can find any teabags with fine nylon netting for the grills. Thanks for looking, Adrian
    4 points
  31. Bottom side: A pretty lame attempt at using a backdrop (and some photoshop) Little Gene's detail: And finally, a family photo: Again, thanks to everybody who followed/participated into this buils, BM is definitely a great place! I hope you enjoy this, all comments welcome
    4 points
  32. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so: But I'll have to say a few words about this build, if you don't mind. It's my first completed kit of the year, and the build actually started back in December 2015. There is quite a lengthy and detailed WIP here, if anyone's interested in. It also explains the origins of this project, which I'm going to summarize here: it's a tribute to my friend Gene K (here on BM), who is the actual pilot of this very aircraft, and who donated the two kits I used for this build (Hasegawa 1/72 F-4J and Monogram 1/72 F-4C/D), plus some various other bits I'll mention later. The WIP thread has seen the participation of many others, among which I was very thrilled to have two other former pilots, like Fritag and Old Viper Tester, a former Phantom Phixer - DuncanB, and many others which offered their help, directions, advice and support. All in all, I learnt a bunch of things from this build (main reason why I do WIP threads, BTW ) The build: the idea was to use the HASEGAWA F-4J kit as a base, being it the best rendition of the mighty Phantom in this scale (the J because it's much easier to source it as opposed to the HASE C or D kits), and spice it up using some details from the MONOGRAM F-4C/D kit (unsurpassed details for a plastic injection kit this scale, IMHO), such as: - full cockpit - tail hook - air brakes - wing tanks - gun pod - pilots! In addition, I have used: - Aires exhaust nozzles - Eduard RBF tags - Airwaves PE detail set for the canopies and: - specific SANDY BAY-BEE decals (donated by Gene K) - Phantom stencils (donated by Phantom61) - resin MK82 bombs and TERs (donated by Gene K) The biggest task of the thing, though, was to try and use Gene's method for the seamless intakes (later for that, but in my WIP thread there's a very detailed SBS) Enough blah-blah, here are the pics (I'll break them down in two posts, since they're many) There was some scratch building involved too, such as the boarding ladder you can see in the above pic Tail area detail, showing the Monogram tail hook Some details added inside the canopies: canopy breaker tools, magnetic variations placards And here is a shot of the seamless intake: Some interior details An in progress shot of the cockpit Weathering details on the ailerons/wing area The AAR door was rescribed, as it's located differently on the J versions Wingtip lights: Stabilator weathering Airscoop detail: the kit ones were carved out, to give a more three-dimensional look. AoA probe is scrtach-built, too, using a brass rod Exhaust detail, sorry for the pic Next post for more details and the underside.
    3 points
  33. Hasegawa kit with Verlinden set, Aires cockpit, wheel bays and exhausts. Wheelinat wheels and full weapons set from Eduard Brassin. Markings for "Black Lion" from VF-213 Eagle Strike decals. Enjoy the pictures!
    3 points
  34. As I am waiting for some oil paint to dry on my Aerosan I have started on my next project. I bought this a couple of years ago at the Telford kit swap: It was originally released in 1988 by ESCI / Italeri, this is the AMT re-boxing which came out a year later. The Ka 52 is the two seat version of the Ka 50. There are three brown sprues which feature some nicely engraved panel lines: There is a very basic decal sheet and OKish clear parts which look like they would benefit from a polish up: The instructions offer only one scheme I have also ordered this PE set and this lovely decal sheet which provides all the missing stencils and plenty of scheme options. Bye for now, Nigel
    3 points
  35. Having had some problems uploading photos yesterday, I wasn't able to get this thread for my first vignette build started. My plan for this one is to basically use these: I built the IS-2 over in the Great Patriotic War GB and the WIP can be found here. My intention is to have a small scene with the tank out on a country road on it's way to Berlin - the base will possibly look something like this: The figures will either be on or around the tank - I haven't yet decided. This is the frame: I've got several of these and will be using at least two for this GB. .........and with the tank roughly in place on the frame: I'm currently building a 1/72 IS-2 also over in the GPW GB (in the same thread) and that will take up most of my time next weekend but I am hoping to get something done on this project too. Comments and suggestions welcome Kind regards, Stix
    3 points
  36. Kit - 1/12 Tamiya Ducati 1199 Panigale S. Paint - Tamiya, Vallejo Model Air, Zero Paints Basecoat and 1k Pre-Mixed Lacquer Decals - "Senna" from Blue-Stuff Upgrade Parts - Tamiya Front Suspension kit Good evening folks, that's me finally finished the Ducati 1199, my good wife brought me all the bits and bobs on a kitchen tray over the last couple of weeks to get it finished, as I'm still pretty immobile at the moment. Anyway I hope you like it. Cheers
    3 points
  37. I have been building this for 5 months on and off between other builds. 1967 vintage. I am calling it complete now, having dropped it twice and re rigged twice.
    3 points
  38. Turned out not too shabby for an old kit with all the usual problems of unclear instructions, vague placements and some parts which simply don't fit. Getting a good fit on the bonnet/hood was a challenge and despite my best efforts sits too high at the front. Thanks for looking, Cheers Steve
    3 points
  39. "I'm speaking, of course, of giving up modelling. Your kind words have convinced me to remain in the hobby"
    3 points
  40. Hello,Jason - You'll love my builds then!
    3 points
  41. Today the oil paint was completely dry so I got on with the finishing touches. First some Metal Cote "Polished Steel" on the shovel and then a coat of Klear on the props to gloss them up and to try to level the finish: When that was dry I masked up and did the detail painting, again Polished Steel on the hub and matt black on the spare's mounting bracket: Then I fixed on the shovel and props and added mounting straps using thin strips of white insulation tape (thanks milktrip): Next I applied a light coat of matt varnish, trying to preserve a bit of gloss on the props, and then I could unmask the windows: The final job was to glue a 2mm Little Cars lens on the headlight: With that I think I can call this finished. Its a bit dull for outside RFI photos so I might do those another day. Bye for now, Nigel
    3 points
  42. There's a lot of misinformation out in Internet land as to which Spits had the phenolic resin seats. For eg it is claimed that all Castle Bromwich built MkIIs onwards had them. Strange then that we have the wreckage of Screwball Beurling's Castle Bromwich built MkII in the FAWNAPS Museum (the aircraft was flying from the Central Gunnery School at RAF Sutton Bridge when it caught fire and crashed near here). When the parts came out of the ground it was apparent that it was fitted with a metal seat. We've even had 'spotter' come to the Museum and tell us we're wrong! Anyhow, on this particular seat, the leather seatback cover is black in colour.
    3 points
  43. 3 points
  44. I was delighted when this aircraft was retired from service. It was exceptionally difficult to work on, lacked payload over distance and deafened you if you were unfortunate to travel on it as a passenger. Naturally, the aircrew all had tears in their eyes on the day it was finally withdrawn from service. The ground crew and Movements personnel all cheered!
    3 points
  45. As others have said, the Ka-50 is a single-seater, with the Ka-52 being a side-by-side two seater. So your kit is totally ficticious - and might make a good WhIF...... However, the first prototype Ka-50 was painted up to look like a tandem two-seater - with a 'dummy' rear window..... Ken
    3 points
  46. Very nice indeed! I think now time for this early Aston Martin in BRG... Could be in larger scale, best in 1:1 Cheers J-W
    3 points
  47. Done! Quite pleased for my first attempt at a white wash. I thought i'd add a basic step by step guide for anyone interested. 1. Paint the entire model in the base colour. 2. Gloss and add decals. 3. Seal with flat coat and allow to dry overnight (i left off the accessories but you can add now if you wish) 4. cover entire model with a coat of hairspray (I used Wella) 5. Give a second light coat and allow to dry. 6. Spray white over desired areas. I went a bit lighter over the decals and engine grilles. 7. Fetch a toothbrush and have a bowl of water to hand. Dampen the brush and start scrubbing! it takes a while but it starts to go after a bit of work. 8. Once you have the desired effect, add your weathering. I added some rust to the weld line and plenty of soot around the engine grilles. 9. If you didn't add the accessories earlier, add now. 10. If adding loose snow/ice/frost, cover the model again in hairspray and add to the extent you wish. Once this is done, give a final coat of hairspray to hold it in place. Basic guide but did the job for me! More in the gallery and RFI here Thanks to all who commented/followed. Dave
    3 points
  48. I have now posted some photos of this finished 1/48 IS-2 in the Gallery - a couple of extra photos here: When I get chance I will post the full collection of photos in the AFV RFI section. My intention is to build a base for this tank in the Vignette GB - thread here. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix
    3 points
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