Aircraft Content

Thanks Roger, Tell your "friend" that I am open to all blame and culpability if it goes horribly wrong. Thanks Colin, It's a nice easy build. Cheers, Alistair

Thanks for all your words😀 Forgot to say that I used some Brassin parts (tail and main wheels, seat and cooling panel) this parts are high detailled, but I have to say the box parts are similar good as the 3D printet ons.

Challenging times with my little sopwith snipe. Have foiled the main front cowling and it was super hard to get the foil onto a compound curve. A few small "wrinkles" could not be avoided. Have tried to achieve the "dotted" turned finish to the cowling too, using flat clearcoat and a very small paintbrush for painting dots. Not sure about the result. Very shiny and metallic. But quite messy!

Thanks very much Murray - appreciate the kind words on both fronts You are most kind George - thank you!

The C-45 is looking splendid. I've got some NMF planes to do and think I'll have to get some of the AK paste.

@Enzo the Magnificent I don't know what sort of procedure they have with regards to changing the descriptions, but it wouldn't shock me if they had ignored your suggestion altogether. Frustrating I know, but not surprising from the company which still allows for sales of AI generated books.

Excellent build and finish all round, and the "with something else" pics are above and beyond. 👍👍 Many thanks mike

Nice to see her closed up, John, and the cockpit looks good. I'm sure you'll have the control sticks fixed in no time James

Always a joy to see progress on this. Trevor

@PeterR, facts are facts. I'm going to ignore the condescending history lesson.

There is but much of the stuff for sale is a bit too ephemeral for me or is way over priced. Decent stuff at a sensible price is very rare, hence the need to keep a constant look out for it. Martian 👽

Something I've been low-key obsessed with (see the second part of the title of the thread) is the surface detail of the FW-190. HGW rivets get mixed reviews, but I was eager to try them. They recommend using Mr Surfacer as a primer, and using Mr Mark Softer - but I'm using One Shot primer and I only have Tamiya's Mark Fit Super Strong. Will it work? The first attempt was with some straight rivet lines on the underside of the cowl. The decals go on like normal decals, but you let them dry for 4-8 hours (I did 7 yesterday) and then you peel off the film. The rivets are a metallic colour, and barely have any texture. In that same session I added the decals for the landing gear covers. Same procedure, but on black primer. With these I lost some of the rivets when I peeled away the film (the one on the left) but as the decal was drying I could already see a bit of air underneath in that section so hopefully that's a good lesson. This morning I added some paint. Yellow for the cowl - and the first big test is whether these rivets will even be visible under paint: Some RLM 76 on the doors: It looks very subtle. But it passes the first test: the rivets are visible under paint. The second big test will be whether the rivets can withstand masking. Fingers crossed...

€ 39.90 is cover price, I think in French a similar system as in Germany applies for printed matter like books, papers and mags (there is a hard fixed price that may not be discounted, unless that fixed price is not lifted by the publisher), so you will find it has the same price everywhere in France. As it is the same publisher as the Mermet 109 books, you may order both from the publisher, but tis may not be advantageous if they do not combine shipping (and their RoW shipping is not cheap). You may try Kenny's as they have a vast selection and very attractive shipping (to Europe at least), and I think also have a webshop for the US which may ship from the US. It's my privilege - I have been seduced to so many books here ( @JohnT and @Graham Boak excel in this), latest recommendation were the two Lightning books by Stewart Scott. Once you have climbed back to your chair after clicking on them, I can say I only paid a fraction for both together delivered of the absolutely sick price called for Vol. 1 on A. The three Cold War Shields also were not cheap, but are simply must haves if you have any interest in the RAF up to 1970. It's a cold hard fact that we are talking about niche products, and while there is a healthy 2nd hand market for many, most will never get reprinted. Consequently, prices will usually go up once OOP for a certain time. A very good example is the Classic range. I am shocked to see it's something like 7 or 8 years already, but back then e.g. the 190 and 262 titles were in print, and could be bought at various outlets for as little as 30 €. Have a look at your favourite platform what they go for now. Much the same with the most recent ones, e.g. Ju 88 Vol. 3, Ar 234, SM. 79 and Macchis. With some of them you will be fortunate to find them at all. For this reason, I have made it policy to buy any new Classic title when fresh. If I don't need it, it's at least a good investment.

You do need a bit of limited run experience, but I thought the High Planes kit was fine. I'd been about to embark on a conversion following the feature in one of the old run Airfix Magazines, but jumped at this when it came up for a few squids on Fleabay. Paul.

Lovely biplane!

Thanks for the continued comments! The main colour is MRP Light Gull Grey, although I used Mr Color 315 as well. The white is mostly Mr Color 69 highlighted with regular white. Cheers Jon

I'm affraid that this solution is just temporary. Old vacuform plastic contains Bromine, which will just keep yellowing over time. Best option is to copy using modern materials. Modern PET plastic (e.g. as used as front page for spiral binding) has a slight blue tint, to prevent yellowing.

Absolutely ybrbeautiful

I would say you are definitely on to something there. Overall it looks very effective, maybe a bit heavily done just behind the radome and on the edge of the fin but that is nit-picking. NMF on 1/72 scale is very difficult to do with any degree of realism but you have done a great job. I look forward to seeing what your technique looks like on your next one. Duncan B

The Harrow ended up at the back of the queue for a few months, but I’ve been pecking away at it again. Mr Alan Cobham, owner of the aircraft and founder of Cobham Defence, has been placed in the cabin, observing his crew at work. The remaining windows have been fabricated, and the aircraft has been partially assembled for paint. As she sits now: Progress is becoming sporadic, but it’s moving.

Yes. I built the Heller 1/100 Gazelle, and that also had guidelines moulded in for the civil scheme.

Good morning neil, A wonderful collection of my favourite aeroplane, bravo sir! Cheers, Nigel.

Lovely Vulcan and good backstory

Ooooooo you meanie😄 don't encourage him Roger😄 He'll get his Tea Towel antenna in a twist 😉😄 Chris

Howdy Fine Folk ...n welcome back. Always great seeing yah stopping by....Well i unmasked it and got the prop painted and a few other small things. Sum how it looks i did some battle damage too the nose under the exhaust...I got a home made Hun Hunter / Texas on a black arrow decal too put there. Also it looks i damaged the front edge of the wing where it rubbed the paint of too the black primer .....its the same rub edge marks on both port and starboard wing leading edge. I'm unsure if i should fix it or just call it weathering. Still gotta paint the gun barrel ends....i did paint the two front canopy mirrors just haven't put them on yet and the metal finish antenna...also the vents, flaps etc....its still work in progress. its a hot summer sunny day so i decided to take the photos outside....My final finished pix will hopefully be outside. Just gotta fine a better local. These pix are taken on my front porch. Anywho heres sum photos....and for the Build thread enthusiasts the Music is in the post a few above^. Well thats all i got for now....oh..and yes i did put a vignette on the photos....just playin around tryin out things....and i did remove the lower nose panel as putting in the exhaust the inner bits i didn't glue good enough...AK extra thin cement kinda sux...the exhaust pushed through so i opened the bottom panel to fix it...and forgot too put it back on for the photos. Cheers and Don't forget too tip your waitress -HH