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Where did I leave just before? Ah, yes - painting grey sprues in 70ies Matchbox colours... But as it happened, I never stumbled across one of those Revell reboxes since then, or they put it off the market - I don't know. But I found something different; I had a Tamiya 1/72 BF109 E4/7 in my stash which I once bought for some testmuling on vacuform canopies which never happened. But some idea started to unfold and raise it's little wings; what if I paint not some grey original sprues, but more modern one, even do a bit of drybrushing and washing, and have some metallic paint at the right places, and it evolved more and more. So I build this Tamiya BF109, which is pure joy, btw, and painted it – well, whatever I wanted to. Of course I started, you might already have guessed, with the basic scheme of Matchbox PK017, Bf 109 of the Purple Range. But I thought, I could paint the wheel struts in some dark metallic (Vallejo Metallic Black in this case), and a bit of washing. But the exhaust could do in some dark rust (Vallejo again, they have a Metallic rust, which might turn into a secret weapon. Tires are black, of course (Revell Teer Schwar/Tar Black) and so on. No strict rule or plan, just what I felt would fit the (vague) idea. Maybe the idea of a model of a real plane painted after the model – something obscure like this! But, no rules or strict guidelines, just a tad bit of fun – like I did as a kid. And, man, that’s what it was – pure, unspoiled, simple fun, unbothered by any thoughts of historical accuracy, showing off some modelling skills or super detailling – nothing! And it worked! That seems to be a recipe to get the old Mojo back, once it ran astray! But, here’s some pictures! Sorry for the mediocre quality, but I for whatever reason took the battery of my camera to the office, and took this with my smartphone.

Thanks Keith. I didn't know , but I'll give it a try on the next decalling session . Gary .

Because I didn't do a WIP post I thought I'd add a few pictures to show how it was done... Early days in the build but it shows the basis of the machine. And then filler and rubbing down happened. The crew are just normal Pilots with typical Star Wars breathing filters bodged in place. They can barely be seen in there anyway!

i just saw the decal sheet, most impressive. I’ve never used their decals, how are they? I’m definitely ordering a few of those sheets.

Yes, but I realy like York so I think I will do her in 1/350. I'm waiting for a good opportunity to build a larger model of her.

Sorry, guys, that's not all, but just before posting the pictures I thought I could add just THE ONE final detail - give me a sec (or how long some CA and additional paint needs to cure...) 🥴

Slowly coming together. I have added the lower wing/fuselage part. I had noticed during dry fits that one of the front edges would not align properly and this I traced to the fwd bulkhead that is fitted to the cockpit part. It was ever so slightly askew so that it had not gone into the slot that was made for it fully. I did manage to push it back a little, but not fully. So I partially glued the lower wing/fuselage part and when this was dry I then with super glue, baking soda and a bit of persuassion got this area to fit (see last photo). I have also glued the spine panel, fin plus the intakes. The latter again required a bit of pressure to make sure that they fitted correctly, even loosely fitting the inboard upper wing parts and still there are some gaps that requuire filling.

Coming along nicely Gary! Decals look very good. Don't know if you alredy do so, but I find a drop or two of Fairy Liquid (other dishwashing liquids are available 🤣) in the decal water helps limpet like decals to move a bit. Keith

Thank you! I didn't, it's all feehand (with guide lines drawn first in pencil).

You can edit that bit out now, as it’s in the right place.

Great work. Hoping to get my hands on one of these soon.

A spot of weathering and painting of the base before a spray of matt varnish and this will be done I think!

I now have the single seat to the same stage as the twin. Again the wing to fuselage fit was not great, although to be honest the fit in general has been something of a challenge so far. It is probably a combination of age, sitting in the stash for so long (potentially a bit if crushing 😳), and my usual hamfistedness. Still, it is starting to look like a Typhoon.

Two E- types today, entirely seperately. Black coupe on a -J this morning, white roadster on a -G this afternoon. And a cream Morris traveller. Matt

Oh, for sure! 🤣 I don't want to use spare parts from ship-specific sets until they're actually spare. I'll muddle through. Meanwhile... That's better. 🙂 Started highlighting details on superstructure - I'm thinking that shading with a wash would overpower everything, but curiosity might well get the better of me... Go on - pick a ship, any ship...😇

I had a very careful look at my kit, the wheel hubs of which are already painted and could not see anything to worry about. If I look very hard I can just about persuade myself there is a difference but it looks fairly minor - maybe Mr Swindell got a particularly poor example. I can't see any significant evidence on my sprue trees of misalignment. There is a little clean up work ro be down on the main gear legs but well within what I view as normal for injection mould limitations. Rather as Dave - 'Rabbit Leader' - said, given the level of minor clangers I will no doubt make and the challenge of getting good neat canopy lines, I doubt I'd ever have noticed this before reading this trail ! I think a wee swipe or two with a file will sort the issue for me. Would be nice if the mould was perfect, but that's life. Gives me something to tweak. The kit including two sets of vertical tails, with short and long trim tabs was most interesting. (Took me a while to spot the difference.) Does that suggest other variants in future issues? So good to see a new B-24 moulding, even if there are some wee awkwardnesses to overcome. Very few kits are 'perfect' (what does that even mean?) Having built a few modern newly issued kits from other manufacturers recently, I can't think of many which have not required some 'wrangling' to get right. And I haule dout an old mould for another build last mnonth. It reminded me of what the 'bad old days' really were like in (say) the Seventies. A kit I thought fine then - ouch !

Painting the Panther tracks for the turret .. followed the Nightshift YouTube video

Clearly Trumpeter has molded the wing with that protrusion to keep the lower wing part from getting too thin at the forward most edge of the hole for the wheel. It’s disappointing, but not surprising, they did that instead of developing a more imaginative and accurate solution. Still, if that’s the only issue with the kit then it won’t be too difficult to fix - and it should be fixed because it looks silly.

@TheyJammedKenny! I see what you mean. I guess it'll need cutting off, some sort of ring glued in place then the nose section refitted, and built up a bit from the look of it.

Remus Play Kits repack of the FROG Bf109F: XtraDecal JG5 markings. Pitot tube. John

Hi @Dave Fleming Thank you very very much for your post on the website. Those additional photos will be of much help to us as well as your suggestion about the colours. I just bought one kit from Hannants to represent this aircraft. We will have a new display cabinet so adding this will not be a problem at least for the next couple of years. Thanks @Graham Boak. You are correct. The Me109 which appears on the site is also interesting. Cheers Santiago

Time to actually start a thread about this one, otherwise it’s likely to be finished before I do! It’s actually been ticking along in the background for the last month, partly because I had more Axis than Allied builds on the go, and partly because it gives me something eligible for the club’s D-Day themed meeting in June. So this will be built as the boxart aircraft. I started with a box and sprues I think many of us are already familiar with, along with a Yahu IP as the only AM being used: The interior was painted up without going too wild, as I’m well aware that almost none of it will be visible after it’s closed up: The Yahu IP is very nice: The fuselage is now closed up: And the wings have been assembled: Which brings us up to where things sit at the moment. James

I really like the effect you've got with the wings, I'll have to try that myself when I get to a NMF Mustang James

Calling this done: Humbrol enamels throughout. Pitot tube from Microrod. JG5 decals from XtraDecal. John

Thanks, I will have a look for these