ProfSparks

Hi All One of the most important jobs on this mould is to remove the mould lines, otherwise madness ensues. This starts almost immediately with wing spars passing through the slots in the fuselage sides. If they don't just slide on, things will break. The rest of the interior goes together easily enough, even though not much of it will be seen. And even less of it on this aircraft, as it didn't have windows along the length. As I'm doing the bomb bay closed, the forward bulkhead was trimmed down so I could get locating shims in to help with the fit of the bomb bay doors The inside of the only cockpit window was Maskol'd, and parts given a coat of Vallejo 71.305 Interior Grey Green It's probably a bit light for this aircraft, but may look darker once the white surfaces are on. The inside of the windows are covered up, they'll be whitened on the outside. I should probably fill them in and smooth them over, but I'm not going to. Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All Another batch of XF-59 And some wheel action Not using the cutter for these (though it has beeen modded for my sausage fingers), just some Tamya tape, a fingernail, and the hooked blade The've not turned out too bad under a coat of Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black and a light grey drybrush I see more XF-59 in my future! Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All Been in a bit of a circular path with this of late; I was going to do A, but needed to do B before A, but then needed to do C before B, and of course needed to do A before C However, a step forward, the wing angle is as close to where it should be as it'll ever be. A couple of chunks of main sprue glued either side of the ends of the coffee stirrers Then the coffee stirrers are CA'd in That should hold them To ease the fitting of the wings once assembled, these lugs should also be removed from the fuselage sides Now that that's sorted, the top wing surface will need to be filed back slightly to keep the angle The wheel wells will now be looked into Hmmm, more circular contemplating on the horizon. Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All Cab sides sub assembled. There was a nasty seam down the lower front of the sides that was filled with CA and sanded smooth However, on closer inspection of the real thing, there actually was a real seam there 🤦‍♂️ Regardless, the chassis parts were collected Given a coat of Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow and a pin wash of Ammo Mig-1005 Dark Brown Wash for Green Vehicles And assembled I'm aiming to get the bulk of it together, then go over the external parts with a mist of a lighter shade to simulate fading. Let's see if that happens 🤪 Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All I think I may allow myself a quiet "huzzah!" Coffee stirrers glued at 5°, sandwiched between two lengths cut to fit between the fuselage locating walls for the top wing sections. I'll brace the arms with a couple more lengths, then trim them to fit snugly down the inside. I'm not going to have the gun hatches open so will just cut the gun barrels to length. Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All I've had a cunning plan... I'm only posting this as an incentive for myself to not let a niggle put the mockers on. Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All Hi Adrian, yeah, having slept on it, I may have a last stab at adjusting the spar angle slightly and moving the gun holes outward, and, if nothing miraculous happens, then it is what it is. At least the roof of the wheel wells will be flat Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All Been in a bit of a bind recently with regard to wing dihedral. Thanks to BM I've accessed a wing spar layout that corrects the non-existent angle, but I just can't seem to make it work. Not having a working printer, I enlarged my phone screen until the spar had the required length (10.7cm), I drew round it on masking tape, transferred the outline to a piece of card, and offered it up to the wing Parallax and adjusting the scale, one of many attempts However, when best case transferred to the wing If the scale is adjusted for the gun cutouts, the wing halves won't close. Going round a couple of times adjusting the enlargement up and down didn't sit right, so I'm afraid I might just "suck the bullet" (as opposed to "bite the bullet" ) and leave the wings as they are. As this is a GET IT BUILT build I'll aim for the wheel wells as the next hurdle to crash into. Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All I've had a lie down and everything is back to 'normal' The results of the errant wash have been mostly disguised with Flory Sand, but even so, don't look too closely I'm currently juggling the cab sides, floor, doors, wheel arches, everything that makes up the cab, to get best least worst fit. I may be some time. Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All Not much going on here at the moment. The scoop fairing has been smoothed in and everything got a final flash over of primer The upper surface of the scoop was sprayed a dark silver (MRP Steel, I think? Faking shadows and all that 🤷‍♂️), then cemented in position with the lower wing on to give it enough clearance She's a big old bird 🥳 (1/72 banana for reference 🤪) I'm undecided as to whether give everything up to now a quick coat of some shiny silver (possibly Tamiya XF-11) or wait and see how the rest of it comes together. Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All As an escape from filling and sanding, and as a retreat into "modern" (this century) moulds, I've dug out this Not much to say on the parts breakdown as there are plenty of other builds, and will probably wander through construction with only occasional progress posts, but here we are as a start. Single colour surfaces, what's not to like? Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All Two things. Thing One, used my lovely DSPIAE cutter to get some masks for the gun wheels Masks on the outer (slightly oversize, lapped over for a decent fit), BluTac for the inner. Thing Two. Why, oh Why, Oh WHY is this so low??? The rest of this machine exudes quality and a glorious "form following function", but this singular rotary is just Anyhoo, Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All Hi Bonkin, you've really pushed the boat out! I'd be very interested in how the Model Monkey parts fit, a bit expensive for my legacy build, but probably a "must have" for the original release when the moulds were crisp and fresh. Not envious at all 😇 Are you doing a WIP? For those who screamed "NO, DON'T DO IT!" at my last post, it's too late I remembered to paint, dry brush, and seal inside the scoop before I put the front on And it's now languishing under a coat of Dissolved Putty in amongst the various flaps and tail feathers I'm not having any of the surfaces moveable, so no need to fit those fiddly hinge pieces as the flaps are a decent fit in the wing recesses. And also, I've put some Tamiya brown wash on the seat harness, much better 😎 Little steps, I may look for a straight forward relaxing build 🤔 Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All Well, it's not being quite like that... Bed time 😐 Molded on chain now removed Side beams are added with scant location, so adding one of the previously built ammo cases helps align them 🤨 Some persuasion and staggered gluing later Note the clasps on the lockers are handed, same pieces on other side Let's see if I remember this when the time comes 😬 The winch at the forward end of the bed is a loose collection of rods and plates Dry "fitted", no-one's going to see it anyway... They do give you the option of a full or empty cable drum Even though the empty one is fuller than the full one 🤔 The four little ?buffer stops? are all different, and again location free Might leave that sink mark in as an impact crater 🤫 Anyhoo, the gun is being worked on with a wash; not my usual wash, and not my usual result, so there may be a respray on the cards. we shall see. Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi All One of my other self imposed, easier to paint sub assemblies are the rear canister carriers. These are made of eight parts each They're meant to be built on the flatbed, cans put in, then the lower pieces fitted. No location for the cross members, just glue and 🤞 I figured assemble them, paint them, put the pre-painted cans in later, jobs a good'un. However 😖 I'll do some surgery and I'm sure it'll be ok... Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve