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Hello there BritModeller Community! It is with great pleasure to present to you my second take on building this classic Monogram kit. So much has happened since it was delivered to me after purchasing on eBay 24 years ago. I gained a ton of weight, lost a ton of weight, got married, bought a house, raised two kids, both of whom are in college and have rekindled my passion for this hobby. My first attempt at this kit was back in the late 70's; I was a wee lad with more enthusiasm than skill. I hurriedly built the aircraft, rushing to start that unique Lemon Yellow paint job on the wings. I "completed" the model but believe me it was a true example of enthusiasm over skill by a pre-teen. Brush strokes abound, broken parts, not a page of reference material and lots of nasty Testers glue marks all over it, I was proud to say it was done. Then of course, I blew it up with some well placed fireworks. Fast forward to 2000 and I am starting to dip my toe in the water around restarting this hobby. Naturally, the first kit that came to mind to try was that Monogram Devastator kit. A quick search on eBay uncovered the kit new in the box and a few days later I started in on it. Then life happened. I met my lovely bride and all my spare time was spent chasing her. I got as far as masking the canopies before putting it down to start that new chapter of my life. Last year I posted my first build after that very long hiatus and went back to working on the Devastator. How times have changed. There are tons of tutorials available on YouTube, some money in my pocket to by some aftermarket decals or resin torpedo kit I happily plowed forward until finally it's done. I've joined my local chapter of the IPMS and brought it to our last meeting. I immediately see ALL those flaws that I will fix on my next project but for now, this is a best I could do. More importantly, I LEARNED so many new techniques and got to try all them on this build. As you go through the photos, it'll become very apparent that BritModeller's very own @dnl42 provided MASSIVE amounts of inspiration, information and just plain guidance as I puzzled my way through the build while referencing theirs. Let me know what you think and I look forward to posting images of my next build., Tamiya's 1/72 Messerschmitt BF-109E 4/7 Trop. Cheers!

This has nothing to do with new kit news/dreams/nightmares, but I really don't know where else to post. If it's in the wrong place then please feel free to move it. I was watching a video on YouTube posted by Andy Klein on his Andy's Hobby Headquarters channel. In it he says that he has been informed by Tamiya that they are expecting a worldwide shortage of their paint products shortly due to demand and production issues. Maybe this would be a good time for members to check their paint stash and stock up if required. Gerry

Hello anyone.. Looking for a mix to do PRU Blue or New Zealand Blue Sea Grey ? They're supposedly similar in color. I know that USN Non spec blue is supposed to be close but looks a bit to grey for me. The color in my minds eye for should gravitate towards blue ever so slightly purple. I know the description seems weird but thats what I see when I see PRU Blue. Dennis

Today, as I wanted to do some spraying over the weekend so, I decided it would be easier to transfer the Tamiya Paint from their jars into a couple of Vallejo eye dropper bottles.....it was no problem, straight forward, but, I was shocked when I emptied the new Tamiya Paint into Vallejo bottles!!!! On completion I checked contents of bottles.....there was hardly anything in their!!! I have NEVER considered contents of bottles before, just need a colour and bought it, just so happened it was Tamiya Paint this time. Tamiya Paint comes in a Jar and the contents are 10ml............................Vallejo comes in an eye dropper bottle 17ml................, both are roughly the same price, give or take a few pence, many of the paints can be thinned, by the time I checked Vallejo bottle against the recently transfered Tamiya Paint, I could not believe it, you more or less get twice the paint in a Vallejo with an option to thin(making more)......although I more or less have all Vallejo paint, seems I will be favouring ANY paint in dropper bottles more closely. I often wondered why instict always made me buy 2 jars of Tamiya Paint as opposed to 1................

I'm not sure if anyone will be interested in this but… A couple of years ago I noticed that colours/shades on the Tamiya lids and paint charts didn't match the actual paint. So I used strips of plastic card to spray each colour to get an accurate swatch. It was a long BORING job, but it was well worth, it as I refer to it on almost every build I do. Out of interest, yesterday I superimposed the colour shown on a Tamiya paint chart, with a scan of my colour swatch. Admittedly, my monitor is not colour calibrated, but the differences shown, match my experiences of matching the paint lids with the colour on the model. As you can see, the only exact matches are black, white and XF-12. Some are quite close, but the majority are well off. Does anyone know why this is the case?