Winenut

Very nice Roman. Clean and sharp. Top stuff. Cheers Bruce

Small update. Finally got the last bits of paint on the Huey fixing the crescent moons on the roo roundels. They're not perfect but they look better to my eye. I did it carefully by hand.....I didn't have any other amazing ideas! Probably a tad skinny for the blue roundel part on both sides of the boom I fixed (bit of overlap from my brush painted Olive Drab)...... but less obvious than the white strip I think. Would have been nice if the decals were correct in the first place It's noticeable now with the gloss (Future) and matt Olive Drab (touch up) but I reckon that will ultimately disappear with the finish steps Now that I'm done with the paint I will crack on with some sort of simple dusty, dirty wash and then the flat coat Thanks for looking Cheers Bruce

My mate gave me a $5 airbrush he bought on line from China and I hooked that to a big boy 25 ltr compressor I had in the shed. I practiced a bit on some cheaper kits and the results were enough to convince me to never use a brush again! I then bought a decent airbrush and later a nice little quiet compressor. The main thing is don't be afraid to give it a go. My best three tips would be really thin the paint keep the air pressure on the low side and build up your colour patiently using multiple thin coats I will say though I do still like using the brush on the small bits and on touch ups etc.....it is quick and easy and you don't have much to clean up! Have fun Cheers Bruce

Done superbly! Congratulations

I totally agree Dennis. I found it very hard to work with dark green plastic too. You can't see joins properly, mistakes and blemishes aren't as obvious etc etc. I too would have preferred if it was moulded in a more common standard grey plastic. Cheers Bruce

Nicely done. Looks great! I'd love to see some larger photos to appreciate even more of the detail. Cheers Bruce

Brilliant! Looks absolutely amazing One thing I did notice was it looks like the gear doors are not weathered in the same way as the underside of the aircraft? They are quite a clean stark white.... or is that just how the photos turned out? Cheers Bruce

Nice Cat indeed. Congrats

Geez Russ! That's just a bit "extra"....... as my teenager daughter would say! Looks fantastic. Love the colours and camo Beautiful finish...well done indeed Cheers Bruce

Top stuff. Really great builds and finishes. They certainly look like they've seen some action! Cheers Bruce

I don't know what number Humbrol that copperycolour is but man I reckon that went on a few kits I built as a kid! Nothing wrong at all with a fun build for pure enjoyment.....that's what it's all about isn't it Cheers Bruce

Yep option "b" did the job! Thanks Giorgio Ended up being a bit of 1.5mm Tamiya tape, some thinned paint and a steady hand Should be fine with final weathering and flats coats As for the rest of it... The rotor blade decal malfunction ended up looking a lot better with a bit of white and red and a very fine brush....I love hand painting it's quick easy! Here's the blade with the white part fixed first And full tidy up with red as well. The colour match was a bit of a miracle....I just used the only red and the only white I had but they worked a treat This tidy up is much better than just leaving it as the box supplied decals for the tail rotor......not a huge deal but it was simple to fix and looks heaps better I do have some tidy up work to do again though on the RAAF "Roo" roundel.... poor registrations again and it's both sides Not so easy to tidy this one up so without much choice it's just a freehand Olive Drab some time soon to get rid of that annoying little white crescent I'll do that tomorrow when I'm somewhat more "focused" and less "clumsy" after roast dinner and red wine at the outlaws for dinner Given I'll fix all that up I have this motley collection of bits to sort of finish.... And this is a cheats dry fit of the main and tail rotors to get an idea of what she's looking like Not too far to go....just some weathering , flat finishes, final assembly for a few bits and window masks to come off. Thanks heaps for looking Cheers Bruce

Very nice tidy up on that starboard wing root Giorgio Off to the expo in Milano hey....is that the big hospitality one this weekend? With all the time you spend modelling I didn't think you'd have time to work! Ciao

Thanks heaps for the response Giorgio. I'm starting to hate decals too but I reckon for me right now your option "b" looks very achievable so I'll give that a go. Cheers Bruce

Before I stumble off to bed here's just some progress shots....with a request for any ideas This is the main thing going on Photography's rubbish but we do our best The left had door decal went haywire but tamed with lashings of MicroSol and MicroSet To be honest getting any decal over the giant rivet detail from this original Italeri kit require lashings of MSol and MSet The rotor blade decals aren't big enough to fully wrap around so I put the "join" on the opposite side of the rotor and will tidy up with paint later. Found yellow decals for the main rotor blades while mucking around with this (I missed the decals in the earlier assembly instructions and ended up masking and spraying thinking the paint hadn't been called out!.....at least I'm consistently myopic) The largish RAAF decals went all silvery and gave me a mild cardiac arrest but came good in the end. The old school rivets are a real treat on the tail end......and everywhere else I suppose! (Check it out!) Bit of an Olive Drab tidy up required just below and forward of the rotor housing thingy My call for any thoughts is how to fix the registration on the tail flash on the opposite side .. There's a nasty white strip to the left of the blue part on the decal below.. Should I mask and carefully add some blue over the tiny strip of white?? Or is it probably easier to gently mask off the blue and paint that annoying skinny white strip with a bit of Olive Drab? (this is probably the go as it keeps the decal red white and blue in proportion) My concern is any masking over the decals might "pull" the decal off when I remove the mask! If I'd been anything like observant I would have picked it up "before" I even wet the decal and sliced the redundant white bit off carefully with a straight edge and super sharp blade!! (but that's what good modellers would do..) Back to reality..... I have tidied up the yellow band in the photo with a little masking and careful hand painting as it wasn't straight at either end and therefore........annoyed the heck out of me! I think it's better now and with a cup of tea and a lie down I'm sure I'll be fine too. More progress tomorrow hopefully Thanks for looking Cheers Bruce