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Showing content with the highest reputation on 16/10/19 in Posts

  1. Have been on a bit of a Corsair spree this year, building all three of Tamiya's stupendous 1/72 kits (and one FAA one too). This is my first attempt at a Birdcage, my least favorite aesthetically wise but I actually loved how this model came out, more than the others. The aircraft represents Gus's Gopher, flown by 1st Lt Wilbur J Thomas of VMF-213 at Guadalcanal. I used AK Real Colors for the M-485 blue' gray and M-495 light gray paints of early war USN aircraft. I think M-485 is too light, looks great for a faded aircraft though and since most aircraft faded considerably in the Pacific sun, I think it is spot on, but you probably will want to darken it up for a newly painted bird or for repainted patches. M-495 looks accurate too although this one is clearly unfaded. Decals are from a Skymodels decal set, with stencils from the kit's decals. No issues whatsoever with the kit, it is a joy to build. Weathering included a Humbrol panel wash, some oil streaking, pastels for exhaust stains, and some other oil paint for dirtying as well as the cowling oil stains. Thanks for looking!
    26 points
  2. Hi, everyone! I present you my next model. This is typical "shortrun" model, not easy to assembly.
    25 points
  3. hi all, After finishing my Mitsubishi F-2, i fancied something more simple, so i started the 1/48 Great Wall Hobby T-33 kit about three weeks ago. As you can see, it doesn't take a lot to get it finished, as the detail and fit of parts is excellent. Everything you see is straight from the box apart from Eduard steel seatbelts and decals from Platz. The only issues i had with the plastic were a gap on the top of the intakes and the nose cone being too narrow, both of which needed filler to correct. Unfortunately, the panel lines are so fine, they are easily eradicated, both by sanding and painting. Be warned, that you must follow the instructions numbering for the main undercarriage wheels as they are weighted and angled. The overall paint finish is Alclad White Aluminium, and MRP International Orange over yellow to match the orange dayglo seen in photos of the actual aircraft. I had huge issues with the paint being marked by Tamiya tape, even though i had used coats of Future to protect it. This happened throughout the build and i have no idea why, as everything was left to dry at least 24 hours, there were two types of tape, and different paints too. Anyway, it got there in the end and you can see it at Telford on the Asian Air Arms SIG table. thanks Andy
    21 points
  4. Recently finished project. Like the one offs and weird ones. Prototype Fw 190V18 High-Altitude fighter. Goes together easy peasy. Used AK's new Real colors RLM 02 and a few of their metal shades for the bare metal areas. Some discrepancy on the colours of certain panels of the Hirth turbo supercharger underneath from different sites but I just couldn't be bothered and left it in RLM 02. Additions: Rivets to the panels underneath cockpit as per pics of the real thing Ultracast Fw 190 A-F resin seat with seatbelts Fuse wire brake cables Albion Alloys Pitot tube Antenna wire still needs to be attached when I find the best position for the canopy as the real thing had a tensioning system. I know the photos aren't the best, will look into taking better shots so as to upload more of my adventures. Cheers, Enjoy This should be in my recently completed list under signature but its not showing even though I've updated it in my profile 🤔
    18 points
  5. Hopefully I'll get it right someday! I've had some computer issues lately, so I'll just briefly cover the progress of the last two nights. Escape hatch windows on, pigments in their final state: Replacement side windows masked: And painted. (Green goes on later.) Old side windows popped out: And that awful glue smear scraped out with a toothpick. Mid-upper dullcoated and unmasked: Gear doors on: Tyres painted Colourcoats Night Bomber Black on the hubs and Tamiya Tire Rubber black on the...tyre-y bits: Then dullcoated. Also, Winston made it through all of Star Wars on Monday, and found it monstrous fine. He called me "Han" for the rest of the day, and would only respond to "Luke".
    15 points
  6. As part of my club's "Hollywood" group build, I put together this Hornet to represent the aircraft flown by Capt Steven Hiller, played by Will Smith, in the movie "Independence Day'(1996). A great kit and I used aftermarket VMFA-314 decals, MRP paint, and Harpoon missiles from a Hasegawa weapons set. Also printed his name on decal paper. Thanks for looking!
    14 points
  7. I finished to set the decals. I spray the glanz varnish with a little part of mat varnish. It's also the time to unmask all parts protected THis time, I do the pics with white support and with a format slighty bigger
    13 points
  8. This is the ancient Airfix kit (1963) so pretty basic - but reasonably accurate in outline. It was from a 2008 boxing so the decals looked OK. However, I chose to use an Xtradecal set which included an 88 Squadron Boston based at RAF Hartford Bridge (Blackbushe) in and around D-Day. On D-Day itself, some of these Bostons were used to lay down smokescreens along the beach landing areas to try and hinder the German shore batteries. They were also used extensively before and after D-Day in the intensive bombing campaign waged against the German defenses and transport infrastructure. The colour scheme depicts an 88 Squadron machine a few weeks after D-Day, by which time some of the invasion stripes had been oversprayed and the aircraft were beginning to look a bit tired due to the intensity of operations in the preceding month.
    12 points
  9. I present my Zvezda A321 in the delightful Egyptair livery SU-GBT. It’s a simple, yet sophisticated looking livery that they adopted in 2008. The build was OOB, with the aftermarket decals supplied by Ray at 26Decals and Authentic Airliner Cockpit and Cabin Decals. One thing I do like with the Zvezda Airbus kits is that they have the correct scale for the winglets, which saves having to make your own or purchase some from Braz. As with my other Zvezda kits the fit is excellent and only minimal filling is required, it even comes with the clear windows which are ok, but are incredibly thin. It also, like the A320 kit, has the option to have the flaps/slats extended and also to have the L1 door open with a detailed internal FWD Galley area. There is also a detailed cockpit, but I opted for filling the windscreen and using the AA decals. Being an all over white fuselage and engine nacelles, this was achieved using Halfords White Rattle Can Primer and then brush painted using Humbrol Gloss White. The wings and horizontal stabilisers are Revell Aqua 371 and my own mix of lightened Revell Aqua 374 for the coroguard sections with Revell Aqua 99 leading edges. I initially used the ‘blacked’ out windows, and then went over them with the AA ones after falling in love with them while building my Qatar 787. Luckily they aligned ok over the old ones, to avoid damaging the ‘main’ decals trying to remove them. Hopefully I have managed to bring her to life a little. Right enough waffling on now, as always thank you for taking the time to read and have a look. Any constructive feedback and comments are always welcomed. Regards, Alistair
    12 points
  10. Hi Everyone, Glad so say I`ve finally finished my attempt at building a `Sonia` from Wingsy Kits 1/48 kit Finished to represent an aircraft of the 27th Hikosentai, Burma, 1942 ( Oh why did I chose _that scheme and _that armament ! ) Built almost entirely from the box contents, the only additions being the aerial wires I found the kit to be a bit of a struggle and, because of Wingsy`s `why make a part out of one piece when you can make it out of five` approach, a bit of a chore too The fit of the parts is great and the level of detail is very high......... ....but the plastic is very similar to Kitty Hawks `Twougar` kit and is hard to sand and doesn`t stick well ( I found Humbrol Liquid cement worked best ) The opening part of the pilots canopy isn`t a good fit either, it`s very thick and really needs a vac formed part. Still, got there in the end and am glad to have one in the collection. Hope you enjoy, thanks for looking Cheers Russ
    12 points
  11. Good evening to all This is my latest finished model. An A-10A Thunderbolt II during the Desert Storm It started for the Britmodellr 10th anniversary Group Build
    11 points
  12. Hello, I just have complete this nice kit, it was a short run made by Sword in 1/72. The kit is not to bad for a short run, picky model builders might say that an interior needs more detailing. Inside instruction, sheet you can find some minor mistakes in part for the interior assembly. Better is to crosscheck outside historical reference. The details on wings and fuselage are very good and accurate. That makes this kit so nice, but I added a resin engine because one form the kit didn't look like one. It was so nice that I couldn't force my self to covet it. That is why I made it open. The car is from Kora, it needed some upgrade. It was done a bit sloppy, railing and wheels were horrible and beyond repair. Arado was painted by AK Interaktive paints, the scheme is from Kreta. Enjoy.
    11 points
  13. Why men don’t make good agony aunts: Geoff: Dear Brian, I’m at a loss, I don’t what to do, I hope you can help me. Last Tuesday I set off to work as normal, I’d had only gone about a mile when the car spluttered and came to a stop and no matter what I tried I could not get it to start. I realised I had left my phone at home so I decided to walk back to my house to call into work and let them know. When I got into the house I heard giggling coming from upstairs. Thinking that was strange,I walked to the stairs and noticed a trail of clothing up the stairs. Very odd, so I followed them to the master bedroom. The door was closed but I could hear grunts and screams coming from inside. I slowly opened the door a bit and peered inside and there was my wife, all kitted out in her sexiest lingerie riding on top of my neighbour. I was devastated, I thought we were happily married, never any complaints, I thought she loved me, never a sign that anything was wrong until then. And the neighbour, I thought we were mates. I am distraught, I have no idea what to do, can you help, do you have any advice.? Cheers, Nigel
    11 points
  14. Hi friends, here you have my last build, a big project: the King Tiger from Takom. Tanks are not my preferred subject, but this one I think turns out quite well. I like specially the interior of the model. It's been difficult to me to ensemble the tracks, since this are separated and I don't know how to calculate how much of each goes for each side. I added some rifles and an MP40 in the interior and three used munitions. I'm think in sell this model... Thanks Ricardo https://flic.kr/s/aHsmHGoht5
    10 points
  15. Another build from the recent past. The Hobbyboss Easy Assembly kits are great for a quick mojo restorer or paint experimentation. This was made to test out my airbrush mottle and fading patterns. Unfortunately some visible decal film lets it down a bit. Decals were from the spares box, paint was Vallejo. Thanks for looking.
    10 points
  16. Hi there. This is my 20th model I have completed since the beginning of this year, after I restarted this hobby after putting it on hold all those years ago. And I've had a blast ever since. I've been building mostly cold war jets in 1/72 scale. So about the model: Model: Eduard MiG-21MF (Royal Class Combo, No. R0017) Scale: 1/72 Paints: Vallejo Model & Air Aftermarket: None (kit was supplied with resin & etch parts) Weathering: Vallejo Weathering Effects, Flory Models Wash Decals: Techmod TM72070 Eduard kit is simply but brilliant. Not a bad word I can say about it. Word of caution of the photography - I'm trying to get better photos but I'm not quite there yet. Especially the colours are bit off but anyway, I hope you can see enough. Comments & constructive criticism is welcomed.
    10 points
  17. The 1:72 Eduard kit of the early MiG-15 built in Czechoslovak markings using the kit decals. This kit was given to me second jand in a partially built state. No real issues encountered. Overall Tamiya XF-16 Aluminium. Kit decals used, They were ok until one of the wing walk decals moved and when I realized this, tried to move it and it started to break. MiG-15-53 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr MiG-15-54 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr MiG-15-55 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr MiG-15-56 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr MiG-15-57 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr MiG-15-58 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr MiG-15-59 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr
    10 points
  18. Does anyone else find they have a feeling of calmness and slowed time when reading Steve's updates? The sense of purpose and insight into the making of structure(s) here beguiles every time. I mean, I know this is page 124 and there are shorter novels but really. I mean to say. Quite zen.
    10 points
  19. It would be seem there has been sufficient momentum given to RAF Transport types after the announcement of the VC10 release and considering that BM members endorse my aircraft projects, I feel I have an obligation to provide them with their so called 'wish list', after all I would not be able stay in business if modellers here did not support me. So in the new year, I will set about work on the following: 1/72 RAF Voyager MRTT Airbus; 1/72 RAF Short Belfast and 1/72 RAF Tristar. I have the masters for the Voyager and Belfast but the Tristar will be a new project, altogether. For those of you who don't know me, I am not a fantasist like so many companies that make promises and can't keep them, I can deliver. I have the knowledge and determination to give modellers' what they want, along with the enthusiasm, which I put above profit and a fair price. I have been approached by many companies but I refused to become enslaved by them and instead my services would be better served by serving modellers, who have a better feel for their subjects and will appreciate my efforts. Stay tuned and remember, your heard it on BM first.
    9 points
  20. Hi all, I've had this kit in my stash for a while and I was really looking forward to building it. An aunt and uncle owned one of these back in the '70's / early '80's and we all just loved riding in it. They had bolted 2 custom made wooden chairs to the floor of the cargo area (yep, you could do that back then) and we went in through the back doors to ride along. For this project, I didn't make the chairs as I wanted to do a relatively quick out of box build. I did try to match the colour, I think it came out nicely. For the license plates I used the ones from Paris that came with the kit to give it that French touch. All paints are Vallejo, brush painted. Some chrome details with Molotow pen. I used satin varnish instead of gloss as I felt it suited the car better. In my memory this thing did definitely not shine. The kit comes together quite well, though some sprues are less crisply molded than others. The engine is quite nicely detailed, I did add some wires from reference pics to make the engine bay a little fuller. All in all I'm quite pleased with it, it's just a lovely little car. A nice thing about this kit is that it has "working" suspension. The axles are connected to the chassis in such a way, that when you push the car down it will bounce back up, creating a "springy" effect. It's a true Citroën! Some pics! I didn't take any pics during the build but I'd like to share a "Google translate doesn't always work in Japan" situation as I thought it was funny. Thanks for looking in and I would appreciate any feedback!
    9 points
  21. Westland - Aerospatiale WG.13 Lynx l'Aeronavale Prototype FZKCV (ex XX911) Merignac, France 1974 F256 Frog 1/72 by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr
    9 points
  22. Exactement mon frère. Dear boy that was the modelling equivalent of both a bag of grapes and Lucozade! 😁 Unable to locate the Laura Ashley fabrics Steve so had to make do with the folding lap table: We've had that yoke for years and yet I can't for the life of me recollect where we got it from; guess you reach that stage of life where posessions assume a life entirely their own. The paranoid mind of Phil K. Dick would no doubt have constructed a story of how it was in fact a lander probe from an alien civilization (No - not that one. Stand down Irrascible of Poole...) sent to study Homo Modellicus in plain sight. Cheers Keith. The kind words are I must confess a tonic as good as any medicine. I had to laugh at the unintentional humour of that sentence Simon - the Vertigo Lark sounds like a songbird that would periodically crash to the ground in dizziness after swooping around too fast! 😄 (Thanks for the kind sentiments) Thanks Benedikt. I know what you mean about images you'd like to reside in. Part of me (the antisocial introvert side 😄) would like to live for several months in this ghost city just outside of Tehran: Built with Chinese loans it's almost entirely uninhabited. A bit like those abandoned Soviet towns and bases in the polar regions, there's something silent and dreamlike and utterly compelling about them. As long as you had plenty of coffee of course ... Dammit Ian! You've now gone and made 'Martian's parsnip' a total earworm. (Watch out for this term becoming a standard unit of reference on the forum from this point onwards...) One has not been idle. One has been diligent and spent a couple of happy hours planning, filing and sanding the (mainly wing and tailplane) surfaces. Horrible quality tablet camera pictures for which apologies: Suprisingly I only knocked off two of the aileron hinges, both of which were safely recovered and stored away. Aside from a quantity of excess epoxy (where I'd been overly careful about gluing the talplanes firmly into place after them originally snapping off) you can see I removed a lot from the undersides of the wings. This had to be done due to the thick crust of Halfords primer in places that left several hard-to-correct pits across the surfaces where it had flaked away. Overall though she cleaned up rather nicely and after dabbing some PPP into a few strategic locations, we should be back on track to reprise those areas again. Thanks for looking in. Appreciate it. Tony
    9 points
  23. The initial photogerappery is in (post image) and available Badly lit, posed and executed but does at least show wheels and legs on As I mentioned there is tidying to do but I feel it's oke to relax now A bit... Need to lose some more of the Airfix white carrier round the thirty or more year old transfer but not too awkward And oh yes, the galloper is seated better than he did Makes him look too old I'm told, can't do much about it short of pasting a pic of Killian across his mush, so I won't
    9 points
  24. Thanks everyone! Are you ready for this? Drum roll.... The starboard side scuttles are all in place - the final 37 added this evening. ...and here is the whole side - it has to be taken from a fair distance away because (lest we forget) this is not a small model. Next up, to add the assorted ladders on this side. But also to move elsewhere! More soon Crisp
    9 points
  25. Leftenant Aluminium here with my Airfix 1/72 scale Harrier GR.3. The strength of this kit is, in my view, that it can be built by a comparative novice, who will obtain a good result, yet an expert will achieve a model of ‘museum’ quality — even without any of the extra additions available. See Enigmatic 1970s attack fighter on my web site. I am a comparatively rough-and-ready plastic modeller. I use a brush (several brushes really) not an airbrush. Maybe it is my computer programming background, but I have a heightened sense of doing too much work for too little gain, which is something I try to avoid in plastic modelling. In a nutshell, my models often don’t stand scrutiny with a magnifying glass or even, sometimes, a close examination with the mark one eyeball. This one has a variety of errors and omissions, but it looks fairly good sitting on a shelf among my other kits in this scale.
    8 points
  26. What the sub-title says really. The decals fought me to the bitter end. The cheat lines needed a bit of chopping about. This is fair enough as they are designed for the Italerii kit and I expected this and I made any shortfall up with assorted width of black decal strip. What really threw me though was that they steadfastly refused to react to any of five brands of solvent that I tried on them. I finally got somewhere by using the low setting on a hair dryer. I used some of the chrome sheet you get with the decals to do the natural metal rear of the collector rings and am pretty chuffed with how they came out. Next up is a small amount of touching up and I will get everything sealed in with a coat of clear. Incidentally, does any of our resident brainboxes know why the Western style serial has a hyphen and the Arabic not? It looks really odd to me but I keep checking and every picture shows it was the way it is depicted on the model and is indeed on the restored museum example. Just curious or is it that it offends my sense of symmetry?. Thanks for looking Martian 👽
    8 points
  27. I have also been known to use sun screen and moisturiser.............. ... And I never did, and still do not, know how the aeroplanes worked......
    8 points
  28. 1979 - Luftwaffe Tornado IDS, Holloman AFB 1/72 Revell kit, entirely OOB. Paints: Gunze.
    8 points
  29. So all the major sub assemblies done fantastic breakdown , will get the major components together tonight Am hoping the fit is good enough so I can leave the intakes off so I can chrome them with Alcald without any masking ??
    7 points
  30. New essential modelling aid, Barons for the use of...... Ikea Bed Tray £8 I'm sure that something more traditional - perhaps with a cushion stuck on the bottom of the tray and a nice floral tea towel - is also available. One exists only to serve one's fellow modellers in their time of need don't ya know
    7 points
  31. There are only three real certainties in this world, and they are sunrise, sunset and Southend Utd losing at home! John.
    7 points
  32. It was 'Bake Off' last night; so even when one has time to do modelling, one can't be expected to have done much modelling can one? But I did continue to flirt with disaster bringing the razor saw into intimate contact with the wings. One done. The fences are just test fitted at the mo. I think I'll prime them before gluing them in place. Probably with cyano. One marked up and initial cuts made. I've found that the danger time is always the second Hawk. A bit of complacency and carelessness sometimes slips in when I'm repeating steps...... After this there I've got to mutilate the wings some more to fit the wing leading edge breakaway strips (fitted I think to give an earlier stall warning). Haven't figured out how to do that yet.
    7 points
  33. Thanks guys - this scheme is quite popular and no wonder - blue on metallic silver - forget about it:) Thanks Christer:) As you know, the cockpit on P51's is quite big and open so well worth the time to spruce it up as much as possible I think - Chipping on the seat was all dry brushing and painted on chips - it's okay - I meant to hair spray it but forgot - most of the dodgy chipping will be covered by the seatbelts so I'm not too bothered Do it Thom - get that Mustang you won't regret it - I promise I have a wee update on work I did last night - just continuing with the cockpit. I did some detailing on the cockpit walls: I used a mix of some PE and the kit details - the PE contrasted quite starkly with the kit details so I painted the PE to try and blend it in a little more - honestly however, seeing it installed, I think next time I'll just use the kit detail and forego the PE completely - The PE is basically flat with painted on details - I think if I'd just used the kit details, it would have ended up being nicer - so one to learn from. The components where all painted with vallejo model colour - blends of black and different greys - I painted on some labels with a fine detail brush. Still more work to do on these but it's looking okay so far. I carried out the weathering on the cockpit floor using vellejo chipping medium - I neglected to clear coat the wood finish, which came back to sting me - as when I started the chipping process, some of the brown started coming away as well - so ended up doing 3 layer chipping - you can see some of the interior green - thankfully this only happened near the top, which will be covered by the pilots seat - so no biggie. I put the instrument panel together which looks quite nice I think - The kit version looked pretty good too so I wouldn't say this is a must have for the kit - but the PE version will do nicely. I painted the head rest also with vellejo red leather mixed with some brown. I'll add some shading to this later. The seat got some shading with some oils - greens and yellows though you can hardly see this in the photo - I'll add some more layers later too. The oil cooler and radiator got some PE grills glued into place - these will be painted aluminium - I'm wondering should I paint the intake corridors aluminum too? The kit instructions are not clear on this so some suggestions would be appreciated! So another dry fit: So it's coming along - I have a few more details to add and paint and I'll probably do some oil paint shading here and there, just add some more texture - not sure if it needs a wash per say - I'll leave this till last and make a call then. Thanks for dropping by... John
    7 points
  34. We don't present the F-15 eagle It is certainely a most know warplane in the world. This plane serve in many air force specialy in the JASDF The Japan acquire the licence to build the domestic version of this plane : the J It is normal that a major kit maker like Hasegawa to propose to the builder some box of this plane. At the 1/72 scale, Hasegawa has two molds. The firt mold was completed by a new one "new tools" in the late 80th. Hasegawa has many boxes and in japan when a plane receive a special scheme don't hesitate to commercialise a new box. Some of this special scheme are very attractive. For me one most beautifull is the "50th Anniversary" of the 305th squadron with "Fuji Mount" [ Although his age, the Hasegawa is always a fine kit. And for having a box of the GWH F-15i version, this kit does not have to blush. The engraved is very fine and details very crisp. Only the wheels bays have a lack of some details. But it is not very important for the scale and the fact that the door bays are in majority close on the ground. The build start with the cockpit. I use the decals for the instrument panel. A little dry brush and a paint of some buttons, give a fine cockpit The advice give no wheight for the nose when you don't use any weapons. But I prefere insert a 10 gramme wheigt. We can close now the cockpit. Now I concentrate my job on the fuselage. I prefer glue the air intake on the underside section and not on the topside The first compression stage of the reactor is very simple. But remember that this section is in majority not seen Now I can close the fuselage and add the cockpit on it. I do the same for wing. Fuselage and wings needs some filler. But not in great quantities. Now it's time to start the job paint This plane is normally paint in two grey scheme. But it receive a large part of white. Hasegawa give a special white. Like I haven't it, I prefere use my H11 gunze with a little portion of a whitegrey paint. (1 whitegrey for 10 white part) After the paint and a varnish I can pass to the challenge of this kit : the decals The hasegawa decals are very good. they are strong and fine. We can set them easily. I spent one complete day for setting it. I set one with the help of Micro Sol, wait an hour before set the next. In photos : And final result
    6 points
  35. I've been building a few Bf-109s to include a couple odd variants. This Buchon stood out and I really like it! Some might consider it ugly but something about it is attractive to me. Built OOB which included resin exhausts and wing cannons and finished with MRP paints. Nice kit but being "short-run", it does require a bit more attention while fitting parts. Probably got the positioning of the radiator flaps wrong...but thoroughly enjoyable build!
    6 points
  36. Tail assembly built while the cockpit is in the paint shop, this kit really is infectious Not going to drill out any detail for speed will use washes on this one Underside detail will want some highlighting in EDSG getting tempting to do a white underside A/C to pick up all that detail with a dark wash The airbrakes are a work of art in themselves vey solid assembly . Can we hazard how long it is before this gets upscaled to 48th ? and clicked into place
    6 points
  37. thanks Silenoz that's good advice on building the frame sidings rgds John The kit gives you the option of showing the engine covered or uncovered, this is fortunate for me as I’ll use the covered versions for the booms and an uncovered engine for the centre/fuselage one. I followed the Airfix instructions to build up the covered engines. Once again I wanted to get an idea of how everything looks… next I’ll be trying to fit the outer engine nacelles. until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins)
    6 points
  38. Remember, he was a pilot, NOT roughy toughy groundcrew
    6 points
  39. Funny isn't it how persons of our age group regularly have Blackadder and THGTTG as cultural touchstones. Almost like we're members of a cult . Life? Don't talk to me about life.... Oooh me gobberwarts! Ta Ced, Chris, Giorgio, Terry: it's merely awkward rather than dire but limits activity to a slow Victorian heroine set of gliding movements around the house. Hopefully only for a few days or I'll need to invest in a crinoline dress and fan...
    6 points
  40. Box art - ref. SH72360 - Armstrong Whitworth Meteor NF Mk.12 Source: https://www.facebook.com/specialhobby/photos/a.579303855843312/756982304742132/ V.P.
    6 points
  41. Is now a good moment to point out that there are (deliberately) actually two different sizes of scuttle involved? [God, I worry myself sometimes...] Special applause to anyone who can find all 19 of the smaller ones... The thing about this rivet / scuttle / whatever mania is that I never set out with that intention. In both cases, I reached a certain point in the build and compared what I had with what the real thing looked like... and wasn’t satisfied. In the Hasegawa Sea King case, to my eyes it looked unrealistically smooth; in Ark 3, Merit had missed an entire deck of openings out and put others in the wrong place... so it just looked... unsatisfactory. Even then, at first I thought I’d probably be able to replace / reposition a few and leave the originals to cover the rest. Ha! So much for that!
    6 points
  42. Surely seventy or eighty pages left to go yet Roland, chill man Lots of time to catch up...
    6 points
  43. 6 points
  44. General thought on panel lines, not necessarily related to this kit only: we often talk about overly deep panel lines when mentioning certain manufacturers or certain kits, but in reality the problem is not much the depth but rather the width of the panel lines... Ideally the best panel lines are indeed deep but are also narrow and sharply moulded. This allows surface detail to survive several layers of paint, possibly also some sanding during the assembly process, and still look good when the model is completed. Really what sets the "Japanese" style of recessed panel lines is their sharpness more than their depth (where the term Japanese is meant to indicate companies like Tamiya and others, but similar panel lines are also evident in kits from manufacturers outside Japan, think some of the Korean ones). Shallow panel lines do not necessarily look good, several short run kits have shallow panel lines that however are not sharply moulded and so look quite unrealistic. Then there are manufacturers that achieve panel lines that are both shallow and sharp, that can look great but can sometimes be obliterated easily during the construction of the model. What makes the surface detail of some Airfix and other kits looking "cheap" is therefore not much the excessive depth but more the excessive width and "softness" of the panel lines. Clearly an overly wide panel line will survive painting better however at the same time will look quite unrealistic. The worst part is that while an excessively deep panel line can be filled, there's little that can be done to an excessively wide panel lines. Even filling with thick paint or Mr. Surfacer or similar products will make the recesssed line a bit less wide and a bit less deep but will never give the line that sharpness that is the best recipe for a more realistic look. Generally sharply moulded surface detail is the result of manufacturing processes that also allow the reproduction of sharply moulded plastic parts in general, something that is of benefit to the overall detail level of a kit. It's great to have a lot of detail but if this is soft it can be quite unrealistic... this is something that can be seen in some Airfix kits: some great engineering ideas that could lead to some impressive detail ruined by a general "softness" of every part, that makes the same detail not as good looking as it could be, Now back to the MiG-17 shown here, after watching all pictures I'm myself convinced that this kit, while not state of the art for 2019, is indeed the best MiG-17 kit around... that tells a lot about how little consideration has been given by the modelling industry to what was afterall a very important Cold War type. This means that I will have to buy one or two, may not be perfect but it's the best around. This is because we're talking of a MiG-17, had this been say a MiG-15, I'd have kept buying the Eduard kit...
    6 points
  45. Hi again. I've just finished putting the final touches to this 2 year tweenie. This has been my first resin kit and it's been a bit of an experience, not all bad.....I mean, it's finished isn't it ! It's a three-footer, I had to do a bit of scratchbuilding and also raid the spares box for a couple of the decals. So, here's my interpretation of XR810 as it might have looked sometime in in the mid 90s. 810 was the first VC10 Major Servicing I worked on in '97. I hope you like it......I do. Cheers Gaz P.S. Come on Airfix, I've done my bit, it's your turn now. I'd still like to build ZA142 and ZA147. And finally....... can spot the VC10 ? If it quacks like a duck........
    6 points
  46. Slow progress here I'm afraid as real life is getting in the way... most of the work I've done has focused on the engines and getting them tidied up. The fit here isn't as good as the fuselage so I've used a combination of sand paper and filler to tidy seam lines across the top of the cowling and around the front. Doing this I've discovered a few things: tamiya sponge sandpaper is ace, use the razor saw to start off rescribing (i did a bit on top of the engines near the wing), rosie rivetting needs practice and finally, the mr surfacer and levelling thinner is like nectar from heaven for priming, I'll never touch the claggy Vallejo stuff I've been using before now again! The job I've done isn't perfect but good enough for me and last night I glued the wings on with a bit of masking tape help in getting the dihedral right. Fingers crossed I can make some more progress this weekend.
    6 points
  47. Hiya Folks,...... another short update,..... I`ve got the decals and fins on,.....although one of the tailplane parts fell off again during photography,....it is back on now!! ...... I did want to build V1767, V8-N `Now Or Never' but I couldn`t replicate the name as nose art,... so went for the kit option V1823, P5-S of 297 Sqn based at my old home at RAF Brize Norton as it is probably the most photographed Albemarle so reference was good and it towed a Horsa into Normandy during Operation Tonga in the early hours of 6th June 1944 as well as another Horsa that same evening during Operation Mallard; As an aside,.... I`m also building a few other models alongside this one and here is the 1/72nd Arma Hurricane Mk.I built in 85 Sqn markings from DK Decals,..... one of the perks of helping decal manufacturers with their research is that you can sometimes include options that you quite fancy modelling yourself!!; Cheers for now, Tony
    6 points
  48. Being a brand new kit I didn't expect it would need as much persuasion as this to hide the joins! The lower fuselage section was actually a bit of a pain in the bottom. I had to cut away some of the internal intake tubes just behind the splitter plates otherwise there was a massive step underneath (worst part is in photo 2, between the white elastic band & grey masking tape). I even checked whether I put the intakes in the correct way up (I had done) as it was such a poor fit. I found that the fuselage was a bit narrow so had to kind of squeeze it out in the middle to fit over the tabs on the upper part of the lower fuselage section. I think I've coaxed it into submission now, but it'll need a bit of filler. Similarly that extra spine along the top of the fuselage wasn't a perfect fit either, it took a bit of squeezing and manipulating to fit flush on both sides. I thought it was a good idea at first, but then realised I just have two join lines to fill instead of one!
    5 points
  49. Cheers. Thinking about this, it makes it look very different....
    5 points
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