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Hello there Britmodeller. This is my first model posted on here. I finished up the big Airfix Typhoon, and wanted to see what you all think about it. The only things I added to it were the Airscale Instrument decals, Barracuda Wheels, and Maketar masks for all of the markings. I've always wanted to build a shark mouth Typhoon, and the opportunity finally presented itself with this marvelous kit. Hard to say something that hasn't been said about it, it's a beautiful piece of plastic once you get past all of the seam clean-up on the parts. I'm sure some people may have seen this over on LSP or Aeroscale, but wanted to post it here for you guys as well. Let me know what you think about it please so I can improve. All comments and critiques are welcome. The weathering was all accomplished with a mix of airbrush, oil paint filtering, and AK Interactive weathering products. Matt

Hi all, well known Hasegawa kit powered by Eduard photo etchet parts, CMK wheels, Vector resin R-2600 engines, Quickboost propellers and cowls, Loon Models Gunship nose. Decal - from Eagle Strike. Enjoy

Hello Chaps, This was the 7th model that I built since starting modeling in January 2014. I completed this on April 27th, 2014. This was my first Tamiya kit and I really loved the build, it went together so well and some great looking details included such as the bomb bay with fuel cells, the cockpit and the undercarriage. This was the kit that got me turned on to loving Tamiya kits and just happens to be my favorite British Fighter Bomber Aircraft. There are plenty of after-market enhancements available for this kit, but, this was built out of the box. If you haven't built this kit before and you're a lover of the "Mossie", I highly recommend this kit, it's a joy to build and looks great when completed. I used the kits decals for the instrument panel and seat belts, because at the time, I wasn't happy with my dry-brushing skills to attempt painting them. I also left the canopy unglued so that I could remove it to see inside the cockpit area, and, also the front machine guns access panel was left unglued. I just wanted to share this with you guys, as presently, I haven't touched styrene for two weeks due to being actively searching for a new home to buy with my wife. One that has a nice big spare room to accommodate my hobby with capacity to display at least 12 new models a year for the next....hmm.....however many more years I live and am capable of modeling! I hope you enjoy my build, and, I'm always open to constructive criticism, as complacency doesn't exist in my vocabulary. I'm never totally happy with my last build, I'm my own worst critic and try to push myself further with each new build...... If you'd like to see my "Final Reveal" YouTube video for this build, here is the link to that...it has a couple of good sound tracks to accompany the build! https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=3tpAeOSnKY8 Thanks in advance for taking a look and for any comments you make! Cheers, Martin

Only a few bits now. Unfortunately I gave the decal sheet away for forgot I would need prop logo's so I'll have to pinch some from something else. Managed to put some oil staining on the No.3 using Tamiya Smoke. Should have it in the FRI in the next few days.

Today's update is late as tonight was club night. The first thing I did today was to get a coat of Aqua Gloss on the main aircraft, prop blades and two of the undercarriage doors - basically anything that needed decals applying. The national insignia on the underside straddles RHS main gear bay and needed pre-cutting before application, I did this with a brand new scalpel blade: Here it is cut into five pieces and applied: The decals reacted well to Micro Sol and Set and bedded down nicely. However, when it came to applying the upper insignia I found these decals were actually very brittle, it lost a couple of areas just sliding it off the paper: While those were hardening up I applied the decals on the prop blades: Although Hasegawa provide them, on the real machine there were no manufactures logos on the RH prop blades for some reason. This was just as well as one of them disintegrated on me so it was nice to have a ready replacement. One of the white diamonds fragmented as well but I will sort that out later. My initial thinking to repair the damaged areas was to mix up some paint but then I thought about using a patch of decal from a Hasegawa sheet from the spares box - I then spotted that the original sheet had a little bit of white here: I applied the (microscopic) patches, it looked OK on the blade but I had to mix up some paint for the star after all: The rest of the decals went on without any problems. Next I applied a Flory black wash to the undercarriage parts: With all the decals set, I applied a second coat of Aqua Gloss to seal them in and then applied an oil wash of Payne's Grey: I was pretty sure most of the panels lines were too fine to hold a wash but gave them a chance. After it was wiped off there was not much left as expected but I think it has definitely enhanced the prop hubs and control surfaces as well as some of the fine rivet details: Well, that's as far as I have got so far. Next job is to paint the tyres and then the undercarriage can be assembled. Nearly at the finish line. Bye for now, Nigel

Greetings everyone. Let me introduce my recent work in armour modelling. It is a well-known soviet tank T-55A. It was painted and weathered, showing surface of a tank, that was frequently used by army in different conditions. The weathering is sand, earth effects, mud and oil stains and a few chips and dents. If you have any questions - I will be glad to give answers.

Hi folks, Sometimes one just has to build something crazy. I found Revells Arado 555E 'Amerikabomber' on a sale. I liked the shape of this never to fly aircraft and decided to make a change in history. When the East German Air Force was founded they needed a bomber so Junkes in Dessau developed the Arado blueprints delivering their Ju 555 just in time for May 1st 1950. As mentioned I used the Revell kit, just added the Russian bomber look to it with a bare metal fuselage and added some special paint using Aclad II and Gunze. The major change are the fuselage mounted engines. In stead of humping a six engine pack on the back she now has a scratchbuilt ‘Avro Vulcan look’. Just for the fun of modelling Cheers! /Fred

I'm running a little behind on this one; too many irons in the fire. I know many modellers dislike grey schemes, and I completely understand that stance, but my favorite Phantom scheme is the final RAF grey one. When I was young, I came across a National Geographic article about the Falkland Islands, and it included pics of 1435 Flt Phantoms, and I was hooked. My plan is to build a Fujimi FGR2 in the grey scheme of 92 Sqn with a blue tail using a Modeldecal set. Then it can fly around the living room, I mean sit respectfully on a shelf, next to the blue-tailed 92 Sqn Lightning I built in the Lightning STGB. Full circle! Hockeyboy and 3rd Placer have been building the same kit, and I am going to copy them as best I can. No really, I've been taking copious notes. Note #1 - Invent amusing names for the pilots. Let's see... Flt Lt's B.L. "Blight" Youtale and R.E. Heat. Note #2 - Post a pic of the box and decals. Oh, already did that one. This is going well.

Greetings! Let me start posting with latest Sci-Fi project - deep conversion of an old MPC/ERTL kit of iconic Star Destroyer form Star Wars. This project took me a lot of time. To be honest, I was working on this model for 5 years. Of course, it wasn't "clean" time, but there was a lot of trouble and challenges while building. First of all - very poor quality and detailing of the kit, lighting, using optic wire and LEDs.... I cannot say, I'm totally satisfied by this model. I wish I could make it better, but - this is a result, and I'm proud, that I can place on the shelve and not have some plastic inside the box... Hope, you will like this impressive ship.

SS-23 Spider OTR-23 Oka HobbyBoss 1/35 Managed to finish the big Spider today (still trying to find space for it in the display cabinet). Built pretty much OOB with a few subtle enhancements here and there. It's a nice kit although Hobbyboss have simplified a few details and the interior is far from accurate but you can't see that much of it with the missile in place. Lots and lots of fiddly PE which made the purchase of a hold & fold essential. Finished in Slovak colours which makes a nice change from Russian green. The WIP is here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234977804-ss-23-spider-hobby-boss-135/ Hope you enjoy the shots Thanks for looking Andy

One of the airfix black friday deals Junkers JU-87 Stuka.

I started working on the cockpit PE and thought I would share a photo of the front instrument panel. The instrument panel is a two-piece affair, with a backing piece that contains the instrument faces, and a top piece that represents the bezel. Alternately, you can use pre-printed film for the backing piece. I chose the latter, since it minimizes the overall thickness (one piece of PE plus the film versus two pieces of PE) and, quite frankly, the printing is nicer on the film. To use the film, you first have to paint the back side of it white so the dial faces show up better, and then you have to carefully cut it out. It's the same shape and size as the PE top piece. Once the film and the PE are glued together and aligned, the resulting assembly can be glued to the panel. Lastly, a separate PE part is added that represents the large lens at the center top (shown in green - maybe it's a radar screen?). Here is what I ended up with: As it always seems for 1:72 scale details, it looks much better in real life than it does magnified in these close-up photos. OK, back to work as there is a lot more PE to add to this pit. Cheers for now, Bill

hi all, I've finally finished the Roden 1/48 T-28B in JASDF markings. It's been a long battle over the last six months with this reasonable kit made worse by fitting a Black Box cockpit, Aires wheel wells, Quickboost engine, air brake and other doors as well as using some Eduard etch. The figures are from Aerobonus. All the resin bits are excellent but take some work in getting fitted properly especially the wheel wells. The wings end up paper thin and in my case, too thin! At the end of it all, i found out that the main undercarriage legs are too long by about 4mm (which is a huge amount when you saw how nose down the plane was) , so i ended up with some SAC parts too. These are highly recommended in this case as they are far stronger than the kits items. The markings are from my spares folder with a few hand painted adjustments and the paint is Alclad sanded down with 12000 grit micromesh. Hope you like it and let me know if you have any questions, cheers Andy

Ok, here goes my second attempt at posting! Here, folks, is the first model i've completed this year, and the first i,ve posted at BM. Most of you will be familiar with this on by now as i've seen plenty of nice examples posted already. Hopefully you have time for one more! I think this is one of Airfix's nicest 1/72 kits so far, and built up very easily. The only "snag" i had was lining up the fuselage halves, which produced a little step at the nose end. Other than that it was a very enjoyable build.The model is finished in brush painted Humbrol acrylics, and weathered with Humbrol powders. Decals are from Hannants Xtradecal sheet for the Defiant and depicts a machine from the RCAF based at Drem in 1941. Hope you like!

Finally got this mess finished, a mostly OOB build. Hope you liked it. The kit has good quality material but with major fitting and design issues. It is a step backward from their F-35B release. Expect lots of sanding and filling. Notice how the canopy does not fit . But meh I'm done with it.

Finished & pretty much a joy to build. The VIII is my favourite mark of Spitfire with it's clean lines & I hope I've done it justice. However, although it shouldn't be possible to screw up a kit like this I nearly managed. In particular I haven't done very well with the cowlings which include magnets along with poly caps for things like swapping over the lower cowling for the interior of the carburettor intake. The lower & upper cowlings are glued in place, leaving just the side panels removable but very sloppy when in place. Markings are Montex masks for the national & unit markings & serial for "Mary Anne" of Squadron Leader R W R Day of 67 squadron Maunghnama Burma 1944. The engine & cockpit were built as per instructions with a heavy wash of burnt umber oils for the engine & a lighter one for the cockpit. Then some more oils & a dusting to try & replicate the kind of state that such a machine would acheive in that environment. Some highly annoying silvering of the decals occured AFTER the matt coat

You're a genius G N. It made such perfect sense that I even tho' I haven't had any real time to give to man's favourite hobby recently - I thought I'd give that a go: The next time the gods see fit to grant me time to model - it ain't gonna be wasted on that stupid wheel A long way around to a really simple technique - but ain't that part of the fun?

Hi all just a quick shot of the first decals in place and really difficult job I,ve had I am going to give the airframe a coat of clear as soon as I get some before I attempt any more as the Vallejo I use on this occasion just is,nt doing the trick.

Then complacency sets in. Then they strike.

thanks for the color suggestions - now I just need to source a Testors equivalent. Continuing with the never-ending theme of stupidity bordering on utter insanity.... I continued working on the undercarriage, in particular, the steps on the swingarm. I took a look at the kit part - for those wondering what the steps look like - the kit part is the rather-insipid-looking-vaguely-lightning-bolt-shaped-thingy on the runner pictured below - and this looks nothing like the actual steps! Way to go Italeri! Initially, I tried drilling the kit part to see if it would look any better... surprisingly... it didn't. That meant.... oh, lemme see..... oh! I have to scratch the steps now... oh goody! My first attempt was using thin styrene but I found that the holes kept tearing and I couldn't get a neat edge so I rattled off a quick trial in the old aluminum can fall back material. See the squiggly bit of ally can sitting on the swingarm - it looked like it could be a path forward (... well, with a bit more care that is) While the idea was good, it still (in my mind) had a couple of drawbacks. (1) I couldn't get a sharp bend like you can with etch, (2) bending it more than once tended to snap it, and (3) It's aluminum - that means superglue, and I just know in my heart of hearts, that they would get knocked off too easily. Now, rather than jump in as is my usual want, I decided to think this one through a bit first. I liked the idea of the steps made from can metal, but we're back the other etch problem - no thickness! The steps are actually pretty solid things - they have to bear the weight of those aircrew and big lumpy groundcrew jumping up and down on them. What if I laminated some aluminum can and a thin sheet of styrene to give a bit of thickness ? (see - thinking ahead!) - the styrene will also give a much better bond to the swingarm and help it stay in position much better than just plain old aluminum (well, that's the theory!) So, here's the plan..... well, Plan A... Drill a wad of holes in the aluminum first - then laminate it with styrene. That means I can use the holes in the aluminum as pilot holes and the lamination should hopefully hold the styrene together. Sounds reasonable, no? Plan A: Attempt number one..... ( the first "proof of concept" is extreme left and next to it is the second one where I tried to take a bit more care) In case you were wondering - the three hole sections are for the horizontal bar, and the two hole sections are for the vertical upstand. Slightly better view of the laminated/drilled aluminum... Then, what seemed about an hour later, mainly due to my eyes not working, and the darned thing pinging off twice, I had these two parts. I mean, c'mon.... is this really worth all that effort ??? Seriously though, is it ? People have been committed for less, I am sure. Next step - glue the two parts together - styrene to styrene. Also making sure that the vertical part is slightly higher than the horizontal part as I'm pretty sure I remember these things having a stop at the end to prevent wayward feet slipping off and the owners taking a tumble. Here's the first part just resting in position... It still needs a little trimming - here's another view At this point, I am on the fence. I'm not sure if it looks any better than the plain aluminum can version. It does have the benefit of having styrene there to assist in the gluing process though. Is it too large ? I dunno. I doubt if I can make them any smaller than this though. Well, I have plenty of time to think about it - at this rate it's going to take me until next week to get all 4 steps completed.

I wanted to depict R7192 PETERBOROUGH AND DISTRICT a presentation Spitfire delivered to No 92 Squadron (QJ) and favoured by Wing Commander A. G. ‘Sailor’ Malan, consequently flying fewer missions. Due to a lack of information I've probably got lots wrong in terms of accuracy, but in 8 years not a lot has emerged and how long can it sit in the stash, looking out longingly to be built

Thanks Rob and Stew! All masked up and just waiting for the rain to stop so I can get out to the garage with the Halford's primer: That second shot is for anyone who hasn't used Humbrol Maskol before; this is before it dries. Great stuff for this sort of thing as long as you dob it on with the brush (I keep a cheap old pointy one especially for this) and don't brush it out, just push it into the corners. Add another dob* if you need to. This shows up how badly I've fitted the windows so Future Builders be Warned! Test fitting one of the windows in all the holes does not guarantee that they'll fit flush with the outside once you've stuck 'em in. Good question. Answer: Nearly fell off the step ladder getting that shot. The wingspan is almost exactly the same as the Lancaster - now that is big. * Technical term. More than a drop but less than a gert big dollop.

They were dropped behind enemy lines before D-Day along with Airfix,s original defiant kit to break German moral.

Whoa, how did that happen? Well, it wasn't too hard, actually. I added the seat for second aircraft, and put in the control columns. Amazingly, this has gone reasonably smoothly so far -- I literally knocked wood as I typed that -- and two aircraft are much more manageable than eight. Perhaps I AM learning something in my dotage. I did some more beveling, this time on the undersides of the fuselage fairings where they meet with the wings, and on the top of the lower fuselage portion that's integral to the lower wing. It made a definite difference, because I didn't do it quite as much on the first aircraft, and had to employ some CA glue. Now I need to add the gunsights, close up the cockpits, and add the radiators,oil coolers, and the tailplanes. Oh, and the Vokes filters. So far this is going okay. I'm trying to manage my enthusiasm, because when excited I tend to rush and make mistakes. The Sword Spitfire Vc is a kit that rewards taking a bit of care.

Thanks guys for nice comments As i said earlier, this is so great kit (so is their IX). The kit goes together SO well and fast, i keep thinking "what did i forgot to do??!".. So well, i m going to open one gun bay (i had one bras-in gun bay in stash) - the gun bay was made for Mk.IX, so it did not fit exactly, but it ll do the job So the fuselage and wings are set together, the doors are just glued by tac-it (it ll be there only for painting purposes, to protect the cockpit - the kit has more doors in case you would like to build opened doors, like i do). Also i started to work on 1/144 Eduard´s Spitfire, just for fun And some work on the exhaust stacks (i have some problems with enough light for photos, the shots are else too dark or too pale... :/ ) Hope i ll be able to add more progress tomorrow

Revell 1/32 Arado AR196A-3 Seaplane "FINAL REVEAL!!": Hello Guys, Following on from my "Build Update #6" posting, I assembled the canopy onto the fuselage, attached an EZ-Line antenna, glued all the light lenses into their locations, glued the pitot tube and counter-balance weights onto the underside of the wings, along with door handles on the canopy frame sections, and, fitted the engine cowlings and engine bay doors in their open positions to complete her!! So, here are the "Final Reveal" images of my completed Arado AR196A-3...I hope you enjoy the views as much as I enjoyed building her! And, forgive me for the number of photos that I have posted, I couldn't make my mind up which ones to select and it was taking me too long to choose, so in the end, I just uploaded all of the photos. Well, there she is. I hope you enjoyed the views as much as I enjoyed building this fabulous kit, which I must say, is fabulous value for money! Now, I have to start designing and planning part two of this build, which will be the diorama to set this plane into. I have 4 ideas presently "floating" around my head (no pun intended), but first, I need to sketch them all out and calculate my material requirements and costs before deciding which design idea I go with. I'm a little anxious as I've never built a diorama before and have no clue where to start, so, I guess watching some fellow modelers "How To" vids are my next step! If you didn't see my "Build Thread" for this model, here is the link to it: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234980467-revell-132-arado-ar196a-3-seaplane-my-first-post/ In the mean-time, if you'd like to watch my "Final Reveal" YouTube video for this plane build, here is the link to it: https://youtu.be/ZRKU-k-M-BE And, on my YouTube channel you can find my "In-Box-Review" and "Build Update" Videos, for this build, too: "In-Box-Review" video link: https://youtu.be/MxfUpfYJDyU "Build Update #1" video link: https://youtu.be/nJ4rEbxFcv8 "Build Update #2" video link: https://youtu.be/Z_NoWew9Qus "Build Update #3" video link: https://youtu.be/AUQsz__kKyE "Build Update #4" video link: https://youtu.be/FpnxQFUASbU "Build Update #5" video link: https://youtu.be/iyCPzT-H_wU Thanks again to everyone that has followed this build thread, and, for the kind and encouraging comments that you have left me, they are all greatly appreciated and keep me motivated to continue! Happy modeling guys! Have Fun! Cheers!! Martin

Hello everyone! As you can see it's my first post on this Forum so I'd like to say hello to everyone who visit my topic. For this model I used Bicentennial Eduard kit. I won't write about this kit, because I think everyone knows it. I'd like to ask you what do you think about my Phantom? And please be honest! Thanks for watching!

Something new photos + + photo

Recondite? Had to look that up! WHAT! What am I going to do with all that rigging then? Guess I'll have to pull it off* Just kidding. All filled up ready for masking and then the primer, I think. And you thought the Brigand was big. Right, better do some business. * Pirate Dbl-E score 10, fnaar fnaar

Little progress, made last night during and after Juventus-Real Madrid match ... I finally glued the cockpit into the fuselage: Now I have to figure out how to reproduce the bar going from the top of the bulkhead to the rear frame ... The very last part missing to complete the interiors: gun sight. I removed the original top screen, as it seemed too bulky, and used a piece of transparent sheet (the kind you use for overhead projectors); also made a little of a supporting structure again from hammered copper wire That's it for now Ciao

Must be the fumes, that's why I prefer recondite One wing Ced? It's a monoplane, it's only got one wing - crack on while you have time mate, and we'll wait for you when you are busy... though I don't guarantee that there will be no further talk of toilets and the like... Cheers, Stew

Hendie, I can't quite decide whether you are a modelling genius or a total lunatic. It's entirely possible, of course, that you are both...

Now I feel bad for denying them the opportunity. I'm excited to hear how your project turns out Simon. It's pretty much plug-and-play. I ended up sanding a little less than a mm off the trailing edge of the Academy wings for them to match up. Here are the new and improved pilots that I found in a couple Airfix Mustang kits. Now with a little more paint on them. And, as ready as they'll ever be alongside a partially masked canopy. I'm no Stew Dapple, but I can't run as fast as Usain Bolt either. I just have to finish masking the canopies, and I can finally get these in the paint shop.

Better? Allow for parallax. (Photo bucket's doing that annoying 'can't save the image' thing again. If it can't save an edited image, what's the point of it? Grrrr) OK, after the 'fix' here's a picture of the position of the struts on the top surface (I'll clean up the glue later). Note that the bottom of the shortened strut is now ON the seam line. The parts (7 and 9) look exactly the same except that one side have locating holes ON the seam line and the other has a hole BETWEEN the seam lines. A good way of telling which way up they go? I thought so from the instructions: Clear from here, I thought, that the parts with the hole between the seams goes on the top. Or is it just me? Well it's not very often I'm wrong and I was right again. Not smug, just careful, and I get really cross when others (like Valom in this case) don't bother. Also note that the top strut (or is it?) only fits if you chop a bit off the bottom. Perhaps the fins are not straight - they look OK to me but frankly I don't care now, it's done. Future builders beware! It looks like the instructions may guide you to build the tailplane upside down. Either take great care to make sure you note the numbers of the parts VERY carefully (they're mirror images) OR try dry fitting the struts with the tailplane that has the hole ON the seam at the top and see if the instructions are misleading - too late for me, sadly.

So, I was on holiday down in Warmwell in Dorset, fully aware that it was a Battle of Britain airfield. I was cycling past the the local church, and spotted some war graves so thought I'd stop to have a quick look. Located in the cemetary of the Holy Trinity church are the graves of 21 RAF personel and 1 Army. 7 of the RAF graves are of BoB pilots. This one for me stands out.. Older than all the others, S/L Terence Gunion Lovell-Gregg was a New Zealander who came to England paid his own way to England aged 18 to join the RAF. At 18:00 on 15th August he led 87 Sqn into action against 120 enemy aircraft over Portland. He was hit by fire from a Bf110 and though he could have bailed out he tried to return to Warmwell but crashed near Abbotsbury. So my subject will be Airfix's new Hurricane Mk.1, P3215 in the colours of 87 Sqn. My intention is it will be complete on 15th August.

Hello dear readers , thanks again for following this topic ! Here we are : transplantation DONE ! Short summary : top left : before surgery top right : the "Graal" bottom left/right : after transplantation ( with cockpit sides sanded/polished/primed/painted ). There is (again) some putty requested to finalize the air intakes ... but I'm globally VERY satisfied ! Cheers !

Hi Sean. Thank you for the advice - I tried thinned PVA wood glue and it seemed to do the trick. First I added a couple of layers of 'sand' (not actually sure what this stuff is but it seems okay): Then some trees added: And finally, so far, some greenery added in the form of some left over tufts from previous projects: I've got some German troops in the paint shop at the moment which I hope to have finished soon. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

I am jumping in to build this: I took this picture back in 1988/89 when I worked on these classics I will be using the Formaplane BAC 1-11-500 kit which will have to be cut down to a -200. The kit I have is minus landing gear, so I am thinking about scratch building it if I can get an Airfix kit gear for reference or a good walkaround. I would really love to build it with doors and airstairs open but I think I am getting ahead of myself hear. Picture of the plastic to follow soon.

That's it. WIP is here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234979955-148-trumpeter-сухой-су-9-fishpot-b/ V.P.

And now all you have to do (before they come and take you away) is reproduce the jubilee clips to hold the steps in place. Seriously, they look good enough for me. The trick will be getting the angle right when fitting them to the leg. I'd trial fit the legs, wheels etc first. And we're not forgetting the folding step on the uprights?

Fascinating scheme PC. I also can't wait to see the Mk II LR. Ced - your fear of running out of likes is well founded. I've done so, and feel like a cowboy showing up to a shootout without his six-guns.

Looking very good Ced, but I can't help but feel you missed a smaller/further away gag opportunity there... Cheers, Stew

That must be quite... thought-provoking - actually I've just realised why I don't get targeted advertising, I use Adblock Plus which largely eliminates my exposure to advertisements Welcome to Britmodeller, where we resist everything except temptation Good man Ced Cheers, Stew

I've had my fill of Bristols for a while. Er, lol. My targeted ads seem to be about covering funeral costs - talk about making me feel old! I have though been tempted by all your Spits AND the Airfix VE Day offer and so have two Spitfires and a Defiant (finally succumbed) on the way.

Hi Mark, yes I am suffering the same thing; I know it's their job to make us buy extra transfers but... - I'm not really complaining, I can put up with an embarrassment of riches The 602 Squadron aircraft is an early one, L1027 but portrayed later in the battle when they were at Westhampnett, it's LOoA with the flying toilet nose art, there is a fine photo of the artwork in Douglas McRoberts' book "Lions Rampant"; Ellis Aries flew it to shoot down a Do17 and Nigel Rose was shot down by a Bf110 in it, though it was later repaired so I think it must have been a crash-landing rather than 'shot down' in the way I imagine the term to mean. Thanks PC - the same thing happened to 1 Squadron RCAF on their first combat flight; they attacked a couple of Coastal Command Blenheims, I think they got them both too. Apparently from certain angles the Blenheim very strongly resembles the Ju88. The book looks interesting, I had no idea he had written one. And me too, thanks PC Dammit, that must be targetted advertising and I am clearly not the target for that; I had to google her instead... good lord suddenly I feel quite old Anyway; I have my Spitfires... And as Procopius noted in his build thread this very morning, one minute you are just drifting, cleaning up parts, test-fitting, lollygagging, and suddenly: They emerge fully formed, like Athena from the forehead of Zeus Well almost fully formed anyway, and rather beautifully so; in your face Kate Upton! So some bits and bobs to fit, and hopefully the post will bring the Eduard masks I ordered, or else a brief hiatus might be in order... otherwise there will be primer... Cheers, Stew

Hello. I think it will be last post in this topic. This build is 99% ready. The only thing to do is filling hedlamps but I'm still waiting for postmen. I'm thinking about tracks as well chaing it on Bronco ones or not.... This kit was real fun to do and I recomendit to evryone. Thanks for help and attention. Cheers Pawel

Thanks everybody - this one's been a bit of a chore. Stew - Yes, I think Spitfires always bring good luck. You built three and got two job offers within the week! I wonder what your next three will bring. Giemme - I wonder if the Force could fix seams. (That is why I fail.) Rich - I've got two spare Academy P-51 fuselages, and the thought of a Merlin powered P-38 has definitely crossed my mind. John - The yellow zinc chromate is Model Master acrylic. I'm planning on using the same priming method on this, that I did on the Aleutian Tiger P-40: brush/buff metalizer on portions I want to chip, and Testor's enamel yellow zinc chromate for the rest. OT - I ran out of likes, so I owe you one. Thanks for the encouragement. PC - Why yes, there has been some progress: Filled the nose up with weight and blu-tack and balanced it on a couple blocks to make sure the Cg is forward enough. It is, barely. Just a little more clean up, and she'll be ready for primer. I got the tail surfaces on the goodluck Spitfire.

Hi everybody; long WE, so lots of photos to show. Where were we? Oh yes, harness: here's a small sequence of the making. I've cut out some Post-It notes strips and glued them together with CA. The buckles are made with copper wire, hammered to become flat and refined with a sharp blade (some Tamiya tape also involved); holes made using a prescription needle: Here I tried to reproduce the holding system of the harness, going back into the fuselage; this time I used some welding wire, again hammered flat and cut to a triangular shape. I used a pointy tool to reproduce bolts Some twisted copper wires to emulate the steel cables going backwards, everything glued with CA The harness has been then painted with Tamiya Deck Tan (by brush - awful ) and weathered with a grey/brown, very thinned wash. Here a couple of pics, in the final position: This is obviously a very rough approximation of the real thing, but as the whole build is turning into a big experiment (also considering the shape issues of the kit), I preferred to remain with my initial idea of not using any aftermarkets. Any PE harness set would have been way better than this stuff ... Next are, as promised earlier, a few pics of the interiors, taken with a proper camera: After gluing the fuselage halves, starboard sidewall has been touched up, to reduce the stainy look of the panel wash More of the completed cockpit: Talking about experiments: it was time to decide what to do with the back portion of the canopy, so I once more dry fitted the cockpit interiors and the transparents: I'm definitely not using the kit part, so went on thermoforming a new one. Now, this is totally new to me, and I didn't do it using vacuum. I spare you from the description of some unsuccessful attempts (needless to say, during one of those I managed to break the kit part - Stix, you were so right, it's really that fragile!); I eventually resorted to cut a strip from an old tin box, shape it accordingly to the canopy back part, and using it to form over a piece of clear packaging plastic - previously heated on a hair dryer. Here it is, after cutting with a sharp blade and some sanding: I then tried to reproduce the canopy frame using small strips of plastic (yogurt cup, again) but to no avail; I just couldn't stick them in place without using CA, and that was leaving a lot of residual on the clear part. So I ended up using some aluminium tape strips, secured with Tamiya green cap and a coat of Future (sorry, poor pic): Some touch up needed, but if I screw up I can now reproduce as many as I want .... Any comments welcome, as usual Ciao

Hi Tony, As discussed, I'm going to change them to black as per a photo of a black bellied nose, whilst in B&W, it does appear to be black. Hi Richard, I'm going to change it, suspect that Tony is right, with a rather large 'B' on the tail, the coloued gear doors would be pretty pointless! Thanks I didn't Dave unfortunately. The Eduard kit had some included but the antenna on the nose looks oversize in the set, so I used kit parts and made the fuselage ones from brass rod. Got a few pictures taken earlier with the props dry fitted...