Sorry all, forgot to do the sprue picture, so here's the box top:



Here's my first progress pics of my Sword 1/48 Auster Mk III. Interior nearly finished and main componants ready to go:



So far no problems with the build, details are a bit chunky otherwise fine.

Nice one Oz, a very different subject.

Welcome to the GB. Nice subject.

I'll be watching this one Oz, never seen one of these modelled before.

keep up the good work!

Theres one of these which flies pretty regular around here

Ok, Interior is done, nice and simple. The seat comes as one bench seat, I cut this into two seats as I think this is more accurate.

I have discovered that the MkIII had only the two seats, the Mk IV onwards had an additional seat in the back. Also the radio gear was behind the pilot (hmmm not to useful that!) later models had it either next to the pilot or the radio op sat in the back with it. I made some radio gear from the spares box and stashed it behind the pilots seats along with some batteries.

Seat belts are tamiya prepainted, I just love these, I kow its cheating a bit, but what the hell....

Up to your usual high standard so far Oz

All ready for painting

Quick update

Had a bit of a disaster removing the masking!!

Fixable, but still a pain!

Bummer! Doesn't look like a write-off. Nice paint job btw!

No, that's a good piece of work
Ed

Fixable Oz and is looking spot on!

I sure hope you can fix it. Looking good so far.

nice faded paint job.
cant wait to see it fixed and decaled

Been away with work, so not had much time to work on my projects.

Managed to get this fixed today, will prep for decals tonight:

Aced it Oz, what a save, this is going to look great . Cheers Jim

OK, here's the final shots, decaled just a bit of weathering and were done.







And the base

Before



After

Just picked up the end of this thread from your finished build article... VERY impressed with that diorama base. Care to share the bits in between the before & after?

Thanks for the compliments Mike

Sorry forgot to take any pics between the two!

The base is a chopping board, bought years ago while serving in Germany, they seem to love these things, they are ten a penny (Euro now!!)

The black PSP plating is cut from the Eduard base, with some individual bits cut out. The Brass PSP is Aeroclubs etch set that I originally planned to use for the whole thing but it was just toooo fidilly!

I pained it overall Dark earth, high lighted and weathered the PSP with green, gun metal etc and some of Phils magic stuff. I've used quite a lot of PSP, 1/1 scale, in my time and know it goes white before it goes to the metal, I think it has a heavy duty undercoat in white under the green, I tried to replicate this here.

Then used Citidel Sand (with lumps in it!) and then grass, from the same, all stuck down with PVA glue, quick and easy!!

Hope that helps

Looks great. Good presentation too.

Here's some more pictures of the compelted build

Hi Oz,

luvvvvly build!

Can you tell me how you did the chocks? They have a great looking concrete effect....

Keef

Hi Oz,
That is a fantastic finished model and display. I have one in my loft and it's nice to see one all built up and looking so good. The base sets it off a treat. The paintwork is just superb!
Great job my friend
Regards
Andy

Concrete!! they are supposed to be wood!

They are made of balsa wood, cut and sanded to the correct size and shape (they look huge on the Auster but are about right against most aircraft, I do have pictures of the Auster with chocks of this size though!) I drilled a hole thourgh the chock and added a bit of chain, I think a broken neclace off of one of my daughters. A wash of tan and a little rust, job done...

Oooops. Sorry !!!

I thought it'd be a bit of a handful to move concrete chocks of that size (although we used to use concrete tie down blocks of that size, but tended to move them as little as possible!) - I spent a long time staring at the largest pic of the chocks you posted & managed to convince myself that the sides of them had a very nice rough cast concrete effect. I knew my eyesight isn't what it was, but.....

Thanks for the reply anyway Oz, & I'm sure I'll be able to use that technique to replicate concrete.....

Keef

Very nice.

superb OzH!!!
I really love your style of models, your artistic flair shows through on all of them, and this one is no exception.
the base is great too. Very well done fella