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Showing content with the highest reputation on 27/11/22 in all areas

  1. A-6A intruder, Finished this week , this is my 5th Build of this kit and its still enjoyable, hers 503 2nd time on this one, with slight differences in the paint scheme , paint's used were MRP paints, and Eduard MER's and Quinta studios cockpit details, everything else was out the box enjoy. Mike
    36 points
  2. Hello Fellow Modelers When I was in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm, I saw this fascinating machine and, to keep the memory alive, I decided to build one in my favorite scale. The only reasonable choice was the pricey Whirlybird model, offering a resin kit with all necessary features of the iconic CSAR Jolly Green Giant (The Revell kit is completely wrong). I have to be honest: Even after opening the box, which seems to provide an accurate rendition of the CH-3 with some nice PE parts, the Whirlybird kit is far from being easy to construct and is finally a true monstruous challenge! It is my first tentative in the helicopter world, obviously I didn't chose the easy way by starting with an artisanal full resin kit. It took me ages to modify, remove, scratch, add and create parts to finally obtain a far from "top of the range" result. From the tip of the AAR probe to the tail rotor, I almost change everything! I will not bother you with the (very) long list of what I did. The whole cargo bay (given completely empty!) and cockpit were redone, the hull shape corrected, rotor head, rotor blades, etc... The only positive point is that Whirlybird offers the option to represent all the five machines used during "desert Storm" in a nice decal sheet. I chose to build the only MH-3E equipped with flares boxes mounts (but the boxes were never used), with a modified color scheme post-DS. The https://www.dstorm.eu/pages/en/usa/mh-3e.html website provides some nice pictures. All MH-3E belong to the 71st SOS (AFRES), Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona based at Ras al Mishab, Saudi Arabia. Here are the photos: The real bird: removed read the pinned post in chat Mine: ...and as usual, a little dio to put the machine in situation: the truck is a USAF M35, Academy modified and the ladder is scratch built. As a conclusion, I will not recommend this kit if you look for easy modeling. Strange and sad that its "father" the SH-3 has been nicely covered by some model manufacturers like Cyberhobby.com but not the iconic Jolly Green Giant... Critics most welcome and thank you for looking!
    36 points
  3. Hi Friends, @Val_Ukraine , @Procopius My MiG is from IBG 72901 set "MiG-29 in Ukrainian Air Force". IBG reboxed Trumpeter's model with Foxbat decals (it is company from Ukriane). The set contains 3 different camouflage variants, in my opinion the most attractive one is with "tryzub" (harpoon). I added some extra goodies: Eduard's exhaust nozzles, Quinta cockpit and small but very usefull Eduard PE set designed for old Italeri kit. Instead of using digital cammo decal set I used additional masks produced by Foxbat too. I also added some wires, replaced probes and antennas. It was very relaxing build, took me only 3 months. Let's look a little closer: Important remark: I cut and shortened main landing gears. Without it model looks really bad - it's rear side is much too high, as you can see below. In my opinion best solution would be: to shorten all gear struts 1mm and add extra 1,5 mm for front gear. And some photos with Tonka which I finished recently too. She still waits for photo -session: Glory for free and independent Ukraine. Please, help and support brave Ukrainians, they are fighting not only for their own freedom. Thanks for watching and reading, hope you liked my Mig. Best regards, Michal.
    33 points
  4. Hi fellow modellers, this is no.13 in my IAF/IDF collection, this time rather nice and enjoyable Special Hobby kit. During the Six Day War, the Fougas were taken from the IAF Flying School in Hatzerim and deployed as ground attack planes armed with rockets and bombs. The SH kit offered one of them, the rockets pods came from CMK resin set. Cheers, Libor
    27 points
  5. Hello Everyone … I present to you my P-38J in the markings of Philip Goldstein’s “Jewboy”. There are links in the build thread to more info on Lieut. Goldstein. Ive wanted to do this plane since I first saw a photo. I was able to secure a sheet of decals made by Kagero through another member. This is the 1/48 Academy kit and Ive done my best to re-create the plane. If you would be interested I have added a link to the build thread. Please feel free to ask questions, post comments or add thoughts. Dennis
    27 points
  6. This is the latest addition to my IAC collection. When Airfix first announced the model a couple of years ago I knew then this would be a great addition to it. It really is a superb model. In my opinion probably one of Airfix's finest despite some reservations about the wing fabric representation. Personally, I agree that the surface texture looks somewhat overdone, but, when it's lightly rubbed over and paint is applied it looks fine to me. Anyway, detail throughout is amazing and because the glazing is crystal clear you're going to see everything. The only additions I made were some generic Eduard seatbelts and if you use the sloped canopy, you'll need some piping and cables to power the instruments as it's quite obvious through the glazing. With the later canopy the fuselage shroud hides them. And, also, some for the small set of 4 instruments on the radio operator's panel. As I particularly wanted to do a very early IAC aircraft, I needed to modify the ailerons by lengthening them inboard by 3ft (about 20mm) by cutting away the wing and part of the flap. I had initially thought of using a spare set from a Classic Airframes kit which comes with the longer ones as additional parts. I even managed to obtain a set from a very nice chap on here as for some obscure reason I could only find one of mine.... Anyway, it wasn't to be because despite the length being OK and looking good from above, the underneath was a different angle and just looked odd. The only option therefore was to modify the length of the kit ones. Not a difficult job and I think the end result looks OK. The markings (well actually only the 21) came from Max Decals. They do supply the green/white/orange as decals, but I think it looks better if they can be sprayed on and it was simple enough to do. Also, the green is my own mix but it seems to be showing darker than it really is in the photos. I used a combination of Humbrol 78 and 120. The aluminum is Tamiya LP38 and the cowlings are LP48 Sparkling silver So, that's it. I'm certainly looking forward to building another one ASAP but using the other canopy and different engine cowlings. A godsend too will be when Eduard release a set of glazing and turret masks...😵 Thanks for looking. My thanks to Joe Maxwell at Max Decals, Michael Whelan, Curator of the IAC Museum in Baldonnel and Luke Slaney at Airfix for providing extra 'information etc' and some photos that I hadn't got. Much appreciated. IMG_3066 IMG_3065 IMG_3067 IMG_3068 A5
    24 points
  7. I love you, Cookie. Just a bit. A long day today, bagging leaves, taking the children to get groceries (and being forced to utilize a now-deprecated teaching tool known as the "Montessori Grip" while swearing at Winston in the cereal aisle, not one of my finer moments), teaching the boys to clean toilets in the hopes it will improve their aims, and then foolishly taking a family walk to get more leaf bags, only to blunder into the middle of the "Winter Holiday Festival", featuring arts, crafts, and Michael Buble songs being blared at a volume loud enough to abrade flesh from bone five yards away from the craft table. I think I saw a bird explode when its flight path intersected one of the mighty pulses of festive cheer emanating from the faintly steaming speakers. We got home about ninety minutes after our fifteen minute errand was supposed to end, and the children went inside to watch Avatar. This was not my doing. Avatar is one of the worst movies ever made, and if you disagree, well, I hate it so much I can't even muster up the thin veneer of Hyacinth Bucketesque manners I normally wear like that guy in Silence of the Lambs wears plus-sized women. Unfortunately, I did not realize that Mrs P likes it unironically, because of her insane compulsion to like the stupidest crap our species can churn out*, and as usual when she's upset by something I've said, she went relentlessly on the offensive. I show the children war movies all the time, with dead bodies and blood. Yes. War movies. PG-rated war movies from the 1960s, Avatar is PG-13, features the finest impalements possible on an early-2000s budget larger than the GNP of Dubai, and the whole movie revolves around a guy betraying the whole human race because he found a blue cat alien sexy. This isn't implausible, per se, but it's also not exactly heroic in my book. I was told to take my colonialism elsewhere (and didn't help my case by interjecting that that's the whole idea of colonialism, yes), and that the children were going to enjoy a fun movie that she liked for once, and I could go downstairs if I liked. The thing about insisting a film is perfectly benign for children is that it pays to have rewatched it after you've actually had your children, or indeed, in the last decade. They didn't even make it twenty minutes in before Mrs P had second, and then third thoughts, and turned it off rather abruptly after the boys learned an exciting new combination of swears and, after she told Grant not to say it, he replied, cooly, "I'm saying it in my head, over and over." And we got pizza for dinner, so double win! Anyway, this evening, I finally got down to the grotto. I think, given the difficulty of sourcing F.3 parts for now, I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and do XN768/S, one of the F.2s from 92 Squadron. It's insanely frustrating to do all the research for the build, and then have it totally, radically derailed after it starts, especially because I feel like it's happened several times. as with that Fw190D-9 at the beginning of the year. Hopefully when Sword reissues the F.3 next year I can grab a few. So with that determination made, it was time to plunge onwards towards disaster and frustration. The kit radar bullet, plus the metal shock cone, is naturally designed to work with the Sword intake ring, which as you may recall was part of each fuselage half (criminal, but I assume Sword knew they couldn't reliably produce a single-piece intake ring separate to the fuselage halves that wouldn't look rotten), and which we cut away to use the metal ring I bought. The metal ring was intended for the Airfix kit, which has rather thinner plastic. Some sanding down of parts of the shock cone was needed: It more or less looks like it will work now, but the lower section will need work, and probably a shim in the fullness of time. I had sprayed the Reskit jet pipes with AK gloss black enamel, but I must not have cleaned them very well, for the paint sort of bubbled and failed to adhere in places. No problem, I dunked them in lacquer thinner, which should solve both the patchy paint issue, and napalm any remaining residue into carcinogenic oblivion. I also assembled and test-fitted the wings: Because the Sword Lightning is essentially a hollow tube with a few intermittent more or less free-floating parts that are placed according to the very vague instructions, and because the slots for the wings in the fuselage sides bear only a tangential relation to the tabs on the wings themselves, hard experience has taught me that the wings should be added before the fuselage halves are closed up, which in any case is going to be a hellish process requiring eight or nine long and thin tentacles to have a hope of getting everything properly in place. The cockpit tub has been sprayed Colourcoats Dark Admiralty Grey, so once it dries we can start with the etch. I'm beginning to feel a bit anxious about the build, as NMF combined with a roughish short-run kit can be a pretty bad time. Getting the jet pipes, front engine facing, radar bullet, and cockpit tub all into the fuselage and closed up properly is going to be stressful. * Why do you think she married me?
    19 points
  8. Hi all, After 4 months of on and off modelling, I've finally finished converting the Airfix Scout into a credible looking Wasp... This project initially started life as a Scout boxing; 4£ chance pickup at a toy fair with little intention to do anything other than sell the kit. A friend was kind enough to send me a White Metal Airwaves conversion set and I thought I'd try my hand at converting possibly one of the most sought after rotary subjects in 1/72.. Kits interior was spruced up using an Airwaves photo etch set I'd owned for years but the white metal set proved too fragile and fiddly with many pieces breaking. After some time on the "shelf of doom", alongside the Whirlybird Sikorsky S-61N, I rather begrudgingly forked out for the Air Graphics Wasp Conversion set at 28£ (+8£ postage...) which arrived about a month later. The set provided the absolute basics to enable an exterior modification of the airframe, no decals, engine or interior set which are all sold separately (expensive or what!) Air Graphics resin conversion set was quite unrefined with a substantial amount of flash to clean and some parts broken out the box. The decals were courtesy of Model Arts 72-016 set picked up on eBay for 2£ inc postage. The end result is a little rough, finished in Hataka's Orange Line RAF Blue-Grey representing the frame as she may have appeared in the Falklands Conflict, with reference taken from the superb Falklands: The Air War book. With some additional scratchbuilding and a more delicate hand, I'm sure this could've turned out better. It has certainly killed my modelling mojo for the time being. There are still a few bits to finish off, like tinting the upper canopy and I have the Air Graphics NORD SS.12 missile set/gun sight to add. Anyway, enough of the waffle! To the kit itself...
    17 points
  9. I managed to get hold of Revell's golden oldie, the Huey UH-1D As it was the "attack variant" it did not have the crew seating and I wanted to build it as a troop transport so I scratch built the seats with plastic rod & masking tape, I also scratch built the pilot's armoured seats from more rod & plastic card. Some more internal detail was added using plastic card, and i opened up the engine grills and placed etched mesh in the openings. After market was used for the seat belts, from Eduard, and for the instrument dials, from Airscale. Various bits were salvaged out of the spare's box, such as the M-60 machine guns and the decals. I used Tamiya acrylics, and Humbrol enamels to paint the Slick. Thanks for looking Angelo
    17 points
  10. Thanks Giorgio Now then, there's a thought! Not masking is not an option I guess Phil? I admire your patience Great to see you as well Ian. I won't be polishing - I'm after a sort of worn look… hopefully. Thanks Pete, you're a star! Well, modelling has been delayed again. Guess what I've been doing. As the weather turned cold the heating went on - as did the cardigan. Then the heating wasn't on. Rats. Called our heating engineer (who's really good) and he was, of course, busy but he diagnosed a faulty 'zone valve'. This I know from nothing. Not so now. I've had it apart and, sure enough, the gears have gone - they're not activating the microswitch: I didn't know but what happens is (skip this if you're not interested) the programmer doesn't control the boiler - it turns on the zone valve and THAT opens the water valve for that circuit AND then turns on the boiler by closing that switch. The motor and gears hold the valve open and springs close it when the programmer stops the current. Who knew? New valve purchased from Amazon and now fitted. That gave me some time to 'paste' the fuselage: I'll leave that overnight and take off the masking in the morning to see what sort of mess I've made.
    15 points
  11. Spotted a couple of AT-STs in the wild. The first looked fairly standard, however the rear hatches had some colour, so possibly a captured machine. The second AT-ST must be involved in Empire construction, although for the life of me I can’t think what you’d use it for. The tiny winch on the front looks a bit feeble. It does have a powerful light, but not well positioned. Maybe for the Foreman? As an aside, apologies for having to see my carpet. It started to rain just as I was set for some lovely outdoor photos. The Bandai models are so lovely to put together as well.
    15 points
  12. I really liked building this one, classic Matchbox Noorduyn Norseman (Revell boxing)
    15 points
  13. By no means the best model I've ever built and a fairly ropey vintage short-run injection moulded kit from a long defunct (1989) company called 12 Squared, this is the Northrop X-4 tail less research aircraft from the late 1940s, early 1950s. Two X-4s were built to research into the problems of stability etc in respect of tail less designs - much like the British de Havilland DH108 Swallow. Unlike the Swallow, the X-4 turned out to be a fairly benign machine and both aircraft survived their test programme and both are now preserved in the US.
    14 points
  14. With a few mods to look like the prototype, not perfect of course, nothing I build ever will be. The nastiness between the upper and lower cowl is Miro Crystal Clear used to hold the cowl on for painting and not yet cut away (I detailed the engine as well) As usual, striving to mediocrity. Thanks for looking
    13 points
  15. For many years I've been saying I've wanted a 1:48 Beaufort because for some reason I've always liked the look of this aircraft! Call me weird, but there something about this hump-backed beast that I like! So a couple of months ago I was astonisehd to discover that ICM had just released a kit! Thankfully the IPMS Abingdon show was a couple days later and I managed to get one! I also got the 3D instrument 'decals' from Kits-world, but I think its fair to say I won't be using them again as I can't honestly say I was that impressed. The build was interesting and had it challenges, particularly around the fitting of the engine cowlings! My advise is do NOT follow the sequence in the instructions, fitting the propellers to the engines, then fitting them to the wings and then trying to assemble the cowlings around them. I ended up having to chop off the props again and assemble the cowlings as a single piece and fit them. The joint is not easy to get right and is VERY visible on the finished model if not done right! Anyway the finished pic... I'm really pleased with how it came out in the end after almost ruining it at the varnish stage!!! Now I need to build a Beaufighter and a Blenheim...
    13 points
  16. Here is my build of the Sword 1.72 Lockheed T2V-1/T-1A advanced US Navy Trainer. The T2V-1 was improved TV-1, AKA T-33A to make it carrier capable. It was the first production aircraft to incorporate Boundary Layer Control (BLC) to improve low speed performance. However the BLC proved to be a disappointment and the T2V was replaced by the T-2 Buckeye after only a few years. This kit had all of the characteristics of a limited run kit; poor fit, vague instructions. But I have to say that it was a cut above the other recent Sword kits I have recently built. In addition to the plastic there was a nice Eduard color interior and resin seats, The decals were printed by Eduard and were the only disappointment. While they worked well with little silvering but, they had very poor color density on the white and so allowed the orange paint to show through. This could of been fixed by either; masking the white under where the decals had to go, cutting out blank white decals to go under the kit ones, or if I had 2 sets, to double them up. Attempts to do the first 2 have not been successful in the past and I didn't have two sets. Other then that I am happy with the results. Next up will be my last orange and white aircraft of the year, a F3D-2T/TF-10B. I am just not sure whether to do with the Sword or Matchbox kits. Enjoy
    12 points
  17. Hello all, Here's my just finished 1/48 Revell Strike Eagle. This kit took me about two and a half years to build, for various reasons, but now that it's done, I'm quite pleased with it. I used Phase Hangar intakes and pylons with missile launchers on it. The training GBU-15's are 3D printed by MPM Hobbies, with the fins cut off. They are not quite correct, the rear tapers too much, for instance, but they're close enough for me. It's painted with Mr. Hobby and Vallejo paints. Decals are from an Astra sheet. Inspiration came from this photo and I picked this specific jet because I have seen it a couple times. I know the landing lights are missing, I somehow misplaced the clear sprue. I'll see if I can find some replacements from the spare box. I also might do some more work on the exhaust interiors. Anyway, thanks for looking
    11 points
  18. So, after my piece was made and ablutions were performed. The mask was very gingerly peeled off. I'll take that. My huge thanks to @galgos for the help and encouragement. Thanks for looking, Cheers, Alistair
    11 points
  19. Back when the film was first on general release, I mentioned to a colleague that I'd seen it. "How was it?", she asked. "Terrible", I replied. "How so?" "The ship sinks". Followed by a swatting. Probably deserved.
    11 points
  20. Order of Service: I heard you say that in the same tone as it appears in Genesis' Supper's Ready.... Endless? No-ooooo00000000 - -0000OOOooooo...... Thanks Ian - you've made an old plumber very happy.... 😁 As is now the custom on this thread, we begin with a correction to- or perhaps stated less negatively - a better understanding of, previous work, in this case on the reduction gearbox slung below the rear of the Nimbus. As an area largely obscured from one side by the oil cooler and on the other by the gearbox details themselves, I'd built an essentially symmetrical structure with a free turbine governor on both sides (largely as blanking plate fittings in the front of the gearbox made it look that way): I'd grown more suspect about this arrangement due to hints of a different arrangement of features in unmounted Nimbii and because of the messy way this made the power train from the oil cooler punch into the side of that port governor at a 90 degree angle. Thankfully the Nimbus manual has a couple of explicitly annotated images of this region from that confirm there instead of a governor to port as well, there is a more truncated feature whose sole purpose appears to be providing power to the oil cooler fan like so: That now looks: a) more accurate b) a damn sight neater than my original attempt. Btw, that spigot-like think sticking out the top of that amended feature does appear to be tilted backwards on the real thing; there's a thin pipe which runs through it, the prupose of which I still have to discover. Also visible above is the way I've covered over the original bare front/plug arrangement of the turbine governor to stbd with a typical protective moulding used on operational aircraft: There are multiple close-ups of this feature on the web, some museum/display relics having no cover at all, some more recent airframes with slightly different version of the moulding: this just happens to be the version I prefer for the way the ripples in the fabtric suggest the rigid parts underneath. That blade-like brass feature is the speed selector lever for the governor's actuator peaking up above from isiode the engine deck: Even though a lot of that will be hidden by intervening structures and shadow on the model - as on the real thing - I'm more content with the accurate 'feel' which this gives that region now: I've probably become guilty by this stage of over-explaining a lot of the design-work on various small features - my excitement at actually starting to gain a *very* basic understanding of how this fantastical assemblage of parts is put together and controlled in order to dangle humans over deep waters is not necessarily the most rivetting of spectator sports however , so I'll dial back the discursive as much as possible... The next part of the oil system to sort out were the suiute of connections to and from the oil cooler. Frankly I had no idea the principle this cooler worked on but by following the plumbing you can see that it it essentially a cylinder with two sets of cooling loops built around it - a front set for the engine itself and rear set for the main rotor grearbox. Here are the connections for the engine ones in place: - and their corresponding junction with pipework from the engine: Over to stbd there's a correspondingly chunky 'breather union' pipe leading from the oil tank: I know the top of that feature looks like I made a right Hames of the bend but it really is that (tri)angular looking on the real thing! The other end of that disappears down into the bowels of the deck through a critical series of bends which keep it free of the ECU mounting: Directly back from that engine mount is another prominent feature of the deck - that perforated triangular tower onto which (I'm assuming due to shape and connections) is mounted an oil filter for the gearbox feed: With the original being made from thin metal sheet this simply has to be a PE part. There's no way to fold it from a single part however so the front face can be soldered on separately and the printed filter attached then from the rear: Pipework runs both forwards and inwards from this feature: Forwards via a loop beneath the ECU mount and in front of the breather pipe, to attach to the oil pump at the bottom of the MRGB: Inwards across the engine deck to attach to a rear loop on the oil cooler: In the above you can also see the other MRGB cooler pipe which runs along the port lip of the engine deck tray before bending upwards to plug into the MRGB halfway up the side: In summary then, this is the - still unfinished - state of the Nimbus' oil system so far seen from underneath: I'll need to catch my breath before studying the remaining runs which enter the engine at various points as well as features to the rear of the gearbox. Then I'll need to add a bit more to the top of the MRGB as there's oil pipes involved there too. Every now and again you have to remember to switch all the surounding features back on in order on to make sure that your pipework is in keeping with the surrounding features: Already it's getting very complex under there and I know in very short order this risks becoming a mass of detail which later causes major problems trying to subsequently which parts go where and so forth so I think before the next session, I'm going to start colour-coding up the different sections of pipework in order to remember what they are and how they're going to be printed as individual parts later on. I'll leave you today then with an un-narrated series of renders showing progress around engine and deck so far: Thanks for looking-in and take care until next time. Crocks of gold all round barman please: Tony
    11 points
  21. Supermarine Spitfire Mk I K9797, No 19 Squadron, RAF Duxford, Autumn 1938 K9797 was the 11th production Spitfire, It was delivered to 19 Squadron (the first RAF unit to be assigned Spitfires) on 7th October 1938. On 9th March of the following year, it was being flown as a target for cine gun practice by Sergeant Pilot George Irwin (later known throughout his service by the nickname "Grumpy") when the engine failed. Unwin deliberately crash landed the plane to avoid a children's playground. The airframe was damaged beyond repair, so was turned over to RAF Stradishall for ground instructional practice on 11th May. Less than a month later, on 8th June, it was struck off charge, having logged a little less than 89 hours in the air. And that was that! This has been my first 1/48 Spitfire, in fact it's been my first 1/48 anything after making the jump from 1/72 (eyesight isn't what it was!). Built from the excellent Eduard "Spitfire Mk I early" Profipack boxing, OOB apart from the Uschi thread for the antenna wire (and the little antenna on top of the tailfin that I scratch built, having snapped the original off). Brush painted with Humbrol and Revell enamels, and the odd bit of Vallejo acrylic here and there, underside aluminium Humbrol rattlecanned on. I've only applied very light weathering in the form of an enamel wash to pick out the panel lines and some light exhaust staining using weathering powder, partly because this was new aircraft when it served with 19 Sqn. and partly because I'm still learning weathering. I may add some oil stains to the underside at a later date. After a pretty grim year largely devoid of modelling it's been an absolute joy to build this one, a proper mojo finder, and while I still have a lot to learn I'm very pleased with how it looks on the shelf. Thanks for looking in, feedback welcome! Tony
    10 points
  22. Not the easiest kit to work on. Small, lots of flash and only an average fitment of the parts. But there are also a lot of positive points about it. The parts have nice and crisp panel lines, there is some cockpit details and a rudimentary engine which in this scale is sufficient. The decals are good, the droop of the blades is molded in and there is the choice between skids and floats. There are also 6 different boxes, each with 3 unique and often colorful paint options. Combine this with the 2 helicopters in each box and you can quickly get some special and colorful aircraft in your collection. Highly recommended if you are into 1/144 and not afraid of a bit of work. And to give a idea of the tiny size:
    10 points
  23. I stole my wife’s hairdryer: I did remember to turn the heat off. Trouble is, if it’s on strong enough to turn the propeller, even on the lowest setting it’s also strong enough to make everything wobble and move around!
    10 points
  24. It's just more modellers' gossip. Most of these Asian companies have crap and/or dead websites. Once they're established with trade relations and there's brand awareness on social media sites and forums their own website serves little purpose. Hey, I've learned about my own bankruptcy at least 3 times thanks to the internet! Good thing too because I wouldn't have realised I'd gone out of business otherwise! 🤣🤣🤣
    10 points
  25. They've really gone downhill, I remember when they used to be about the broth.
    10 points
  26. Almost. Cushions? That’s like several steps more advanced than bag i’n’t it? Now that assumes that Steve can even remember the elementary sculpting he’s done so far. The bag effort ended up being tweaked in each of the form, surface and solid environments. Which may or may not be the norm and/or good practice but probably matters not as I doubt that the methodology has embedded itself in my memory anyway. So. This is a bit better idea of how the F700 bag will look. Quick Flory wash. I’ll use oils on the ones I’ll actually fit.
    10 points
  27. Hello. I'm happy to present my newest project. It is the Scammell from Thunder Model with US Tractor D7 (dozer version) from Miniart. All in 1:35 scale. Cheers
    9 points
  28. Chess or checkers? It goes without saying that I'm happy to move on to other aspects of this build, but I said it anyway just for reinforcement. At the end of the day, the decals settled down nicely, even over the rudder actuator, and the cleanup with my trusty Gunze Mr. Brush Round 0/20 required little effort. I couldn't really figure out how to mask the front of the bullet fairing so I just winged it with the brush. I think you can see that Gunze H414 is an exceptional match to the red checks on the decal sheet. Lucky me, as I didn't want to screw around mixing up something. The rest of the stickers will take an hour maybe, instead of several days for the checks. I hope the yellow I chose when painting the tail matches the yellow in the squadron insignia - it looked pretty good when tested against the decal sheet. Against my better sense of what's right in the world, I used Testors Flat Yellow from one of those tiny bottles that I used to buy for 10 cents when I was, well, younger than I am now. I used Mr. Color Leveling Thinner with it, and didn't have too much of a problem with it clogging the airbrush. It still did, but it wasn't as bad. Anyway, I think she looks purty good. Onward... Cheers, Bill PS. Spent most of yesterday with the Christmas tree and associated decorations. Joy. Now I have to figure out how to get young Dexter, who we babysit four days a week and is 20 months old, not to eat it. The missus always insists on big trees, and this one reaches right up to the ceiling. To put the star on top would require cutting a hole in the sheetrock ceiling, but then you wouldn't be able to see it. So I just zip tied the star to the front of the tree's apex, and now it looks just like the star on an old Texaco gas pump. 'Tis the season for nostalgia.
    9 points
  29. Finagling on the windscreen continues, but I think it's getting pretty close to good enough. After trying to contour a couple of other windscreens with a sanding stick, I couldn't get any of them to a point where they had as good a shape as ol' chunky. The solution was to put chunky on a diet; one comprising of scraping, sanding and polishing. Which got me to here... In what turn out be fairly poor photos - sorry about that - I hope that the new fit, where the lower framing is sitting with the fuselage contour rather than atop it, is clear. When that's glued I think it'll sit even flusher and will do the job nicely. When it's painted I think it will look the part. It ai a pity it is so thick but I can't do anything about that without losing the framing. I could replace the frame with bare metal foil though, it's only two pieces, one at the bottom and one at the top... 🤔 I felt it was time to mix up some PRU Blue. I used a Hataka PRU Blue as a reference to get close to a base colour. Those that have followed my other builds know I tweak the shade as I go anyway, so at this point I just need a datum. I case you're curious, it's based on Sapphire Blue which I darkened with a touch of Carbon Black and then pushed towards grey with abut 10% Smoked Pearl. I mixed enough to complete this Spitfire (...and perhaps a PR.XI, too). Of course, it needed testing so I painted the spinner. Unweathered and neat except I did add a fade to the front 2/3. I added the fasteners with one of my new toys, a punch set. I like how they came out, too. The spinner will get a wash and some grime but for a base colour I'm happy with that. Not pictured is the glued fuselage which will need a little cleaning up but not much more than a swipe or two with a sanding stick. Then it's the wings (already assembled) and we'll be off to the paint shop in no time. That's where I got to over this weekend. Hope yours was/is a good one too. Cheers.
    9 points
  30. After a really bad day... I had an unexpected knock at the door around 18:30. Placed on the floor, was my Airfix/Hornby Hobbies parcel for which I had received no notification that it had even been despatched! Inside said parcel was an Avro Anson which cost me the princely sum of £3.95 all for the cost of delivery only! Those flying hours certainly added up this year It certainly cheered me up (My bad day consisted of having to spend time in the town centre, doing a few bits, which I don't like doing as I hate large crowds, and get very anxious as a result - its an autistic thing. And then on the way home, had some idiot pull out from a junction, causing me to slam on my brakes at 40mph.... He didn't like me beeping my horn, as further down the road, is a set of traffic lights, and the driver got out of the car, and started shouting at me as to why I beeped him, and what was the problem??? I ignored him, pointed to my dashcam- as I turned it towards him at my window- and said I was not engaging with him, or winding down my window, and he should just get back in his car. At this point the lights turned green, and I just pulled round his car and drove off, along with everyone else behind me. I think we had the last laugh, as he was still stuck at the lights getting back into his car. The incident was all on camera, and was reported to the police. I was still shaking an hour later whilst talking to 101 when reporting the incident. I was able to get a good description of the car, and of the person from the footage.)
    9 points
  31. Calling this one finished VW beetle built as a herbie for a local group build. First time weathering and doing some kind of diorama. Overall, happy with the build and how it all turned out
    8 points
  32. This is the 1/35 Academy M3A1 Stuart "Honey" in the correct 'Caunter' scheme (not the incorrect 'blue' scheme that Academy showed). Custom mixed Tamiya acrylics using Mike Starmer's formulas, RAC insignia painted, kit unit decals. Lots of small details added, all tie downs replaced with brass wire, latches and hinges added to stowage boxes, rack for water cans scratch built, tow cable from fine solder, etc. Last two photos are with Dragons Valentine tank, another Desert warrior. Thanks for looking, Colin
    8 points
  33. This is the Heller D-Day Sherman kit, which comes with the deep wading trunks. It's an excellent kit in and of itself and has many options such as different pattern road wheels, drive sprockets, transmission covers, etc. I chose to do a later production M-4 and I used the two hatch turret from the Italeri kit, which fit perfectly. I cut down the wading trunks as most pictures I have seen of British Shermans do not have the ones with the curved tops. The only other addition I made was the hull machine gun and main gun waterproof tarps and the stowage on the back deck. The seaweed is tissue soaked in white glue. I coated the bottom of the tank with Johnson's Kleer to make it look wet from just wading in and also put some on the shingle to simulate a 'water line'. The figures are the weakest part. I just can't master making these little guys look good.
    8 points
  34. Good evening you lot. Hope you’ve had a lovely week. Mine has been all over the place. But I won’t bore you with the details. One good thing is that I managed to sit at the bench this morning for the fist time in over a week. “Bliss” let’s start at the start shall we. Well the Flory had well and truly dried so I went at it with a light cloth and a cotton bud. Eventually leaving just the right amount of dark marks and variation. Everything then got collated for a top matte coat. Apart from the spinner that had a semi gloss coat. The matte toned everything back to how I like it. And top side. Happy with that next it was time to remove the masking. Always a twitchy moment. 🤞 The first few masks come off to reveal?? Well lord knows but it wasn’t good. 😩😩😩 I couldn’t quite tell but I knew drastic action was called for. Luckily I always pop the canopies on with GG these days so a few swiped with a fresh blade and some brass fellows and we go POP! Don’t ask me how but it looks like paint? Maybe some ingress from somewhere but luckily just on the clear part. That was cleaned as were the little specs and she was ready to go back in place. More GG applied. And we’re back in business. The rear clear parts had no issues which is super lucky as I’d faired them in. Wheels next you say. A little drilling of my printed chappie sand we’re on. 🤩 Then on the Aeroplane. Trusty tape to keep everything in place. Then the Ook! Yes I can here @giemme screaming at the last pic hoping that I hadn’t put masking tape over the decal. 🤦‍♂️ Too late. 😞 Will I never learn. Onward and upward. I managed to scalpel parts of the roundel away from the tape and set it back in place. That and the tail wheel can be seen in the next shot. I might touch up but if you didn’t know you might think it’s weathering so I’m going with that. 🥸 The landing light got unmasked and the vent covers I printed got glued on. It’s all hitting up now. 😎 The UC doors got added. Tail flaps. And young man flappage, together with the aerial and exhausts. Here’s a better pic of ze pipes. Wing lights next! And yes the spinner. 😍😍 She really did just pop together. A few glitches here and there but I guess we just deal with problems don’t we. It’s kind of our coping mechanism. 🤩 well the aerial wire needs fitting and the I think that’s it. In this last shot you can see the scratch rear mirror too. 🤩 I’ll sign off on the next post and get this and Dewey’s RFI done. I have quite a bit of holiday left so there might be a bit of bench action over the festive period. 🎄🎅 I wonder what will tickle my fancy? Hope you all are still enjoying the build and having a splendid Sunday. Take care and as always. Happy moddeling chums. Johnny.
    8 points
  35. Here's my ham-fisted build of the Airfix Sd.Kfz 234(ish) German Armoured Car The build thread is here /P
    8 points
  36. Some books dropped onto the front doorstep yesterday, Carrier Fighters by David Brown, A History of the RAF servicing Commandos by Kellet & Davies & the March 2002 SAM with Merlin Spitfires featured. I'm blaming the denizens residing here for each & everyone of them. That's what I told her anyway, aka The big boys made me do it. Steve.
    8 points
  37. Brush painting; experiment I Having a weekend away in the hills with native wildflowers, birds and lots of roos. Very peaceful. Brought my project with me. I laid a coat of primer onto a softdrink bottle, drew up and painted a facsimile Škoda camouflage pattern. Some observations: Scanned the web for info on brush painting acrylics. I'm comfortable brushing enamels, but have had limited success with acrylics in the past. There are some good brushing resources on this forum and across the web. I found @PlaStix posts and video particularly interesting, although the Škoda painting challenge is a little different, being an array of small splodges (scuse technical jargon). Following Stix's technique, I used a china plate as a palette (finest bone china from the op shop if you don't mind!). On this I was able to i) daub a working amount of paint and close the lid on the paint jar immediately (thereby keeping contents in A1 nick); ii) mix paint with a drop of retarder; iii) and by keeping it tilted, pool an amount of distilled water at the other end of the plate ready to mix with the paint for thinning, to stop it drying and to unload the brush of paint. Try flat and round head brushes. The acrylic paint retarder is from an artist supplies shop. No more than 10% by volume should be added to paint. It helps make a viscous solution, certainly slows down drying and seems to help with leveling. Best to leave the painted work overnight to dry when using this retarder. Some paint was still sticky 6 hours after application. Before applying a second coat, leave the work overnight. As you can see from the test piece, I spoiled the finish of the first coat in places by being impatient and applying a second coat before the first was fully dry. The drying time varied between different colours, probably because of insufficient paint mixing and varying the % of retarder. Tamiya colours XF-49 Khaki and XF-20 Medium Grey are almost indistinguishable. So far, she's looking very rough. Using a translucent plastic bottle allows light through from under the paint, highlighting every imperfection. Getting the painting right on this medium will virtually guarantee a good finish on the model. The way ahead: Apply second coat now work is fully dry. Try very fine rub back with 2500 wet and dry emery paper. Draw up and paint another patch of camouflage pattern for practice with brushwork and paint mixing. Substitute airbrush flow improver for retarder. Hope this is of some use to others attempting brush painting. Thanks for looking. ps: It's a treat exploring the nooks and crannies of the local artist supplies shop for my painting gubbins.
    8 points
  38. Thanks John. Well, I could keep it removable, or even prop it open. But, when I do that, I want to have something on display, and not just the engine. There would have to be detailing involved and for this one, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole. And I don't really want to prop it open because that would ruin those really nice lines the cab has. So the esthetics win for this build 🙂 It is, I can recommend it. I've built 2 ICM kits before and they both built up very nicely, and they're well priced. Thanks, although so far it has all been the kit. I'm looking forward to painting as well, I like the scheme with the white in it. Anyway, I was definitely in a "glue first, ask questions later" kind of mood today. I did front and drive axles. The front wheels could steer but I don't think the connections were really made for that so I glued them at a slight angle. Bogies. The "undercarriage" which had quite a few parts. The bogies are not glued yet, but I'll probably go ahead and do just that. Engine, radiator and front axle are attached to the chassis. The track arrangement not yet, but... I'll probably go ahead and do just that 🙂 ... And I will probably glue on the tracks as well because they consist of many parts, I'll have to glue them before paint anyway. So then I'll paint all this in one go, then get out the brushes and do the detail painting according to the WYSIWYP method (what you see is what you paint). There will be mud on the thing anyway!
    8 points
  39. Following my earlier post of Warspite (1937, on BM, on OTS blog), a series of images of Warspite (on OTS blog) after decommissioning and running aground at Prussia Cove. Finding new images is quite difficult and auction prices go up really quickly, but I hope to add more. In fact, I added a new one today. Nothing unseen or special; I nearly managed to get two unique shots and put in a bid... and... lost... If people would stop bidding on my photographs they could see them for free on my site! Anyway. While Warspite isn't even in my top three of next projects, I think the wrecked version is a superb diorama subject. Also, the Britmodeller editor is terrible. There's a small line running from the bridge towards A-turret carrying a marker (top left). Top right shows Warspite's (1937) main mast with the helm signals—a green ball for starboard and red cones for port—suspended by a single line running over a pair of large pulleys. When Warspite went to the breakers (bottom left, same images as above) the helm indicators were still present. After she beached herself the helm signals were gone; the two large pulleys are hanging fully vertically. Was the green starboard ball reused as a wreck marker? My Admiralty Navigation Manual (1938) has a small section of wreck buoys off the coasts of the British isles using green balls hoisted in sets of two or three: one set of two: pass on port hand one set of three: pass on starboard hand two sets of two: pass on either side. whereby the hand direction is with the main flood stream around the British isles; a small map pointing our that direction is even provided in the manual. It is pretty straightforward on what side to pass this particular wreck and while two buoys should have been raised should the above apply, if I had to guess this single buoy should be green. I always remove blemishes from scans and one may inadvertently remove something in error. In this case the postcard above was damaged at the precise location of the marker and I hadn't noticed the buoy on other images when I was cleaning this one; the line remains visible and the marker is still there/
    7 points
  40. Here is my newly finished Airfix Sabre in 1/48. It went together pretty well apart from some nasty sink marks on the bottom of the flaps which I filled and some less bad ones on the drop tanks, some of which I left, and the peculiar breakdown of parts around the fin fillet and fuselage spine. Perhaps some more careful dry fitting would have given me an easier ride here but I'm sure there must have been a better way to allow for a 'fillet-less' fin in later releases. I was pleased that I didn't manage to lose the small triangular leading edge piece that has to come off to allow the lower part of the gun bay to be displayed open and did manage to find a home for it on the step and even apply the stencil! Ah, the stencils - how the Americans love their stencils - but I persevered and (I think) only lost one. 'Sabre from the Cockpit' has some great photos and although I used them, it looks as though the small white stencils in front of the windscreen weren't applied to RAF Sabres. I've moaned about the lack of adhesion of Airfix decals in the past but after watching their 'How to' video on the Spitfire starter set discovered the technique has changed - no longer do you soak them in water until the decal loosens, you just dip them in water for a few seconds and let it work its magic. Presumably the old technique now washes the adhesive off the decal. It's a nice kit, perhaps not one of new Airfix's best but still very good. It's from the box apart from moving the drop tanks according to Sabrejet's posts and is brush painted with Humbrol enamels. Thanks for looking!
    7 points
  41. I've made the M2 Browning machine gun with the RB and Hauler photoetch. Cleaning the plastic part was probably the worst aspect of this stage: The interior section has been completed. Very little will be seen so I've kept it simple. I've had to significantly darken the footwell area to hide the fact that my driver doesn't have any legs. It was very noticeable if I had left it white. Construction is pretty much complete. The interior has been sealed in and the two halves joined. I'm hoping to add the rear side skirts though these will have to be painted separately and glued after the wheels have been painted and weathered. Lots of stowage still to go on. Next is painting the exterior.
    7 points
  42. While I was out in the garage some primer was flashed about. The canopy needs a blend at the front but the seams are good so a bit of rescribing and then some PRU Blue. I'll see if I can get that done before work but I'm not hopeful. Thanks for looking, Cheers, Alistair
    7 points
  43. First sanding and scribing session done:
    7 points
  44. Hello! Let's continue with the sea. I primed it and painted it. I won't describe this process in detail - most of my readers certainly know how to use an airbrush. And I can't give you catalogue numbers of paints, because, as usual, I picked colours by eye. And, to be honest, it's been over a year since I painted anything. So, any of you could paint this part as well as me. Anyway, it went like this: Next, I started to imitate the foam around the hull. The basic technique is to glue small pieces of synthetic wool to PVA. You could probably use cotton wool as well. First we glue in a few points and then soak in PVA. This effect is done in many layers and creates quite a believable foam. Now we glue the lowest layer. Let's coat it with clear acrylic glue. It should become transparent once it dries. Here it should be noted that a layer thicker than 3-4 mm risks never becoming transparent. So, on the one hand we want to give the surface a proper texture (I used a teaspoon and a stiff bristle brush for this), and on the other hand we want to avoid too thick a layer. Here's what happened. It will take about a week to dry, so let's be patient. While the sea is being leisurely made, I worked on the back. Anchorages in battleship are more convincing than in any cruiser, there is a place to turn around: We used chains from the Ukrainian company NorthStar. I got the hang of the chain with a 0.8mm link rather quickly. Only a couple of links became prey for a carpet monster. But 0.6 mm, which I used for stoppers, was a different kind of sport Some days the losses were as high as 30%! But the Russians don't give up! I didn't take advice from my experienced comrades on drinking before the fight, which is probably why it wasn't as cool as with @foeth And also. Since I haven't painted anything for a year, I wanted to paint something more interesting than a coaster. The stringbag and a couple of boats got their share of paint: patience and a dash of luck to all!
    7 points
  45. Final paint job on the bottom done. Started spraying the topside starting wth the tail . Got the wing tip sensors and pitot painted. Ran out of AK extra dark sea grey . I placed a order and will have it moddle to end of next week . I will work on various other parts will piant is shipped . The AK paints really spray nice just needs to be thinned a little more then usual and sprayed in thin coats . 65681406-9B3E-44C5-A4B5-126F4EAFAEC1 by b007scott, on Flickr 966480C7-37A5-4BA7-9C7D-302E3A562044 by b007scott, on Flickr 19A98C2B-E41F-4E00-B04A-392F66A56FFA by b007scott, on Flickr 7B30BCBB-8B78-4D35-AA21-8EB0DFF58F57 by b007scott, on Flickr 046F15EA-3541-4AF3-A79A-5F7419F961CB by b007scott, on Flickr D2D32F04-82D9-4647-9AA5-31363C01AC1C by b007scott, on Flickr 90D33D22-279E-431D-9559-9BE72B0EEE15 by b007scott, on Flickr 8284D3BA-3F4E-4AA0-938C-6B738BA53DD0 by b007scott, on Flickr Bria
    7 points
  46. Turkey day is over and my company has left, so back to the bench! I re-shaped the nose to make it appear less "blunt". Compare with the original (on the left) and tell me if it looks better? The nose really needs to be about 1/4-inch longer, but that's a bridge too far for this project! The filing and sanding removed about 0.5mm from the width of the forward fuselage (more near the nose). I didn't break through to my Apoxie Sculpt filler, but it came close . . . I filled in extraneous scribed lines that were incorrect and/or inappropriate. For example, the kit speed brakes are wrong shape. Also, Hawk thoughtfully engraved painting guides for the walkways. I believe I can get away without them! Just because I could, I chiseled an air outlet on the left side of the dorsal spine. There should also be a NACA inlet on the other side, but I don't own an NACA-shaped chisel, so choose not to add it. The little pointy bits on each side of the exhaust nozzle have taken a beating, so I added some plastic stock where they were damaged, and after the glue was set, filed them to shape: But, by far, my biggest accomplishment today was to add the resin inlet lips that I had earlier cloned from the Tamiya kit. Even after a lot of fettling, the fit isn't very good. But, why would one expect parts from a modern Tamiya kit to fit perfectly on this antique? That's why I have a monster-size tube of putty 🤪
    7 points
  47. thanks Giorgio. There can't be many if any, folks out there daft enough to try and modify this kit and turn it into something semi accurate. Not much of yer actual plastic worrying offenses were committed today. At least not enough to bother taking photos of. Most of my time today was spent on the digital modeling side of things to try and catch up on a lot of the interior stuff that up until yesterday I had conveniently forgotten about. Items such as the air vent transition piece. This fits onto the bulkhead behind the front seats and connects the airflow from the doors through the rear cabin. Now whether some of these pieces actually print successfully or not remains to be seen. If they can be printed, can they even be handled without a) breaking them, b) losing them, or c) pinging them off into oblivion with the tweezers. From left to right, top to bottom: Rear seat belt inertia reel, then seat belt sticky in latchy bit Front seat belt inertia reel, then seat belt feed through bracket Rear floor mounted heater vent, then seat belt catchy latchy bit that grabs the seat belt sticky in latchy bit Also making a grand appearance on screen today was the pop top roof vent. This will be a 3 piece affair with the two flanged components sandwiching the roof or at leadt having a brave attempt at doing so. The 3rd component, the vent cover was a semi opaque (or semi translucent?) plastic. It was almost white but not quite and you could almost see through it but not quite. That presents a problem in that I'm not really sure how to reproduce that effect in model scale. I did think of using the print as a vacuform buck and overheating some PETG which would discolor it towards that white I'd be looking for but I doubt I'd be able to capture the detail on that top cover. More thought required. I also printed out the interior panels today but made a booboo on the sliding doorp panel so I've made some modifications and will reprint that tomorrow, or maybe even overnight.
    7 points
  48. Hi all, I actually finished this one a while ago but only just got around to taking pictures. I might have to take some more/better ones, but here's my attempt at this particular machine. I tried to go for a bit more fading, grime and chipping than I'm normally comfortable with. Many thanks to @Magpie22 for helping me nail dow the camouflage and markings of this aircraft. Also special thanks to @amos brierley for donating the decals I was missing to complete it. And the reason I was so keen to have this particular machine, I flew TE308 with markings based on it:
    7 points
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