Silver Fox

AS promised some photos. the first shows the filling and the fit of the top half of the wing. Now a birds eye view of the model. the fit of the wings is very very good, I'd say this is the best fitting Special Hobby kit I've done(7 others). You can see the area that have had a little Vallejo putty applied. The seams all need sanding. Sadly the vigourous sanding of the fuselage loosened a seats and instrument panel. Both are now firmly in place. Discussions with NZ modelling friends seem to indicate that the colour scheme for NZ1222 is incorrect and the cowlings were red. So thats how I'm going to do her.

Ok not much progress to photograph since Thursday, but I have filled and sanded the step and it looks ok now. I have dry fitted the wings and they fit very nicely so I don't think i screwed up the fuselage. Just be wary if you build the kit. Photos tomorrow.

Love the exhaust staining/burning.

Looks really nice so far. I built mine by assembling the fore and aft fuselage halves then joining the two complete halves together, so I'll be interested to see if your way works better.

Looks great to me, come on get this one home by Christmas!

Looking good Bill, that one will be home for Christmas.

Most were sold for scrap, for as little as $NZ140 in 1957 terms. I believe two were saved and are still flying as warbirds.

these are just fabulous figures, I have a few of the Black Tree range and trust me I know how hard it is get these looking so good.

Yes, the RNZAF formed Territorial Air Force Squadrons at 4 major cities; Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. They were aircraft delivered in 1945 but weren't used until the early fifties. I've built machines from 2, 3 and 4 Squadrons so this is a gap filler.

If 1/48th scale is a must just about any of the Tamiya tanks would be a good start. I'd go for one with the fewest possible road wheels, the Cromwell has been mentioned but the Crusader or T-34 are good starting points.

Good to see a 609 Squadron machine, maybe the grey is a little too light but that might be the effect of the flash?

I believe he was meaning that it was a pity there was no Waikato TAF Squadron( hence the reference to Red, Black and Yellow) rather than a lack of knowledge about the other three TAF Squadrons.

A truely inspiring model. I can't believe she is only in 1/700 scale!

Excellent work, I've had problems with the etch stuff in the past so it is now either knitting in elastic or thin steel wire for me.

Both fuselage halves are together and taped. So the next step was to build the wheel bays. Once done the one piece lower wing was offered up to the fuselage. So now I found the first real problem the under fuselage fairing which on the real thing includes the bomb bay is narrower than the fuselage. Some filling and sanding will be needed. The fairing is too solidly moulded to push out with a spacer and I honestly thought I'd got the fuselage assembled correctly but it could easily be my error.

This is the Interior all straight from the box. All fits nicely and matches the preserved on at Dairy Flat, NZ. I masked the canopy using the kit supplied masks. The interior is now in place in the fuselage half. My plan to use the kit decals for NZ1222 has it a couple of snags. Firstly Special Hobby provide dark grey serials when the real thing had white ones, and the instructions tell you the cowling are polished metal but photos show them to be painted. The issue is the colour. It is not either Dark green or Dark Earth camouflage, they could be Red or Yellow so more research is needed on my part. If I can crack the cowling conundrum the serials are easily replaced. More tomorrow I hope.

More fabulous models and a nice realistic setting.

They have brought the kit to the local club a few times during it's gestation and it is truely is a thing of beauty

Not a lot of progress, the interior is painted though so I'm hoping to get a good chunk of modelling in tomorrow so I'll hopefully be posting progress pictures Friday.

I'm using the Tamiya 1/48th F-51D to build a 1 Squadron Territorial Air Force machine. Obligatory boxtop follows I'm adding a selection of extras as well I'm alternating this with a Special Hobby Oxford so progress will be slow. Thanks for looking

Thank you for the very consise lesson in winter camouflage. It is great when excellent modellers like yourself show us how it is done. I'm inspired by your work.

Great job as is normal for you.

I really like 1/48th for armour and that is one of the best examples I've ever seen.

She looks super alright. I always like the look of the two seater over her single seater sister.

Fabulous work, definately don't bin it.