Dr Jimbo

Might look flashy but only cost £20

Retail therapy Gotta have weighted wheels. The magnifying lens are a must have for anyone as blind as me and can be worn with glasses. Make a massive difference to close up work. Planning to drink some claret and have a curry, so shed out of bounds until tomorrow. James

Just the port side. Bit odd really. James.

Thanks Troy, really appreciate the photos. They clearly show the demarcation between colours. Time and fiddliness are not an issue for me and trying new techniques is all part of the fun. In the past I’ve just masked with tape, giving a hard line so this time I’m going to try to get a slightly softer line by using white tac. What can go wrong!? James

And here

Actually the lines look pretty sharp to me.

Worked it out how to do it on iPad! Finished the pre-shading. Still not happy with the airbrushing, lots of splatter and overspray. After fiddling with the pressure and thinning the paint more, ended up with this. I think I was using 20psi and 60:40 thinner to paint. Looks good from far away, less as you get closer. I’m hoping this is just a white paint issue (thanks John), and I’m sure the top camp coats will go on much easier. I was thinking about doing the camo free style without masking, but having struggled to get the airbrush working properly for close up work, I’m going to play safe and mask it. Not sure which method. I don’t have the patience to research too much, but not sure how sharp the lines are between the 2 camo colours on the mk1. Thinking about white tac sausages for softer lines or Tamiya tape cut to shape for sharp lines, just not sure which yet. Might try to find some pics... Or I might just go to sleep. James.

I use OneDrive to save my pics then copy the url blah blah on a laptop. Does anyone know if you use an iPad to do the same thing, or do you have to use a PC? James

Just thinking, my shed isn't heated and the weather has been cold. When I was painting yesterday, the temp was only 5C. Do you think that is effecting the way the paint behaves? Anyone have any experience? James

Did a bit of pre-shading with plain white. Gave up after one wing as I wasn't happy with how it was coming out. I feel a noob and feel as if I've forgotten how to use an airbrush. If you look closely there is a bit of spatter and over spray. I'm using 20 psi and 50:50 tamiya to thinner and not sure what I'm doing wrong. I'll give the airbrush a good clean tomorrow and read up on technique then try again. I'll probably do an experiment on a blank sheet to see what I'm doing wrong. Any thoughts welcome. James.

Gone.

Thanks for spotting that Bob. Missed it in the destructions. Will be gone tomorrow. James

I guess so. Without the recess the canopy wouldn't fit. The kit allows you to chose if you want the canopy open or closed, so the recess would be obvious if canopy closed. Looking at images of the real aircraft, there is no recess. Well spotted. PS the open canopy will sit lower when finished. There is a lump of tape and maskol underneath. James.

After lots of fiddling and sanding, some minor rescribing along the fuselage, I painted in satin black in preparation for some inverse preshading. There's probably a term for it, but I don't know what it is. In the past I've always primed with grey tamiya primer (decanted then airbrushed) then preshaded with black. This time I thought I'd do it the other way round to see what difference it makes, using white instead of grey for the panel centres. Looks awesome in black. Will do the white shading later... Keep going, James

Glued the canopies in place. Going to have an open cockpit, so fiddled about with tamiya tape and maskol and covered it all up. Then put the wings and tail on, filled any gaps with tamiya cement and did some minor sanding. Then sprayed with primer just to show up imperfections, of which their were only a few, mainly due to the quality of the kit rather than any skill on my part. I then dropped it while drunk and broke one wing tip, one tail bit and the small pylon on the tail! Too embarrassed to take pics. Took a week off. Decided to lock the shed when drunk. Glued bits back on. Pylon lost forever, I'm going to have to improvise later.

Been lazy at posting. Got a fair bit done. Lockdown has few advantages, but this is one. Masked the canopy parts. The masks that came with the kit went on well enough. Can only tell when unmasked at the end. Got a bit puzzled by the shape at the top of the reinforced glass bit that fits over the front of front canopy. Did some research and found some images of the same aircraft. It's a rear view mirror. Most of you may have known that, but I didn't!

Making slow progress over the Christmas period, snatching 10 mins here and there between stuffing my face and playing family games, which frankly I've had enough of by now! The harnesses were tricky. Being metal, then don't fall naturally like a real harness might, so needed to be bent into the right shape before gluing in place. Used tamiya normal cement and wished I hadn't as it has made a bit of a mess of the top of the seat. Thought I'd paint the harness and seat before gluing them together but the paint chipped when fiddling about and the glue messed up the paint on the seat, so next time will glue first then paint as best I can when in position. I used a couple of coats of Klear before applying the wash, then a coat of Alclad semi-matte varnish to seal it all. Next time I might hand paint different sheens of varnish onto different areas to vary the finish as it all looks a bit uniform (eg Klear on leather seat and glass instrument dials, and matte varnish on cloth harness). Having said all that, I'm pretty pleased with how it has come out. The photos show up all the imperfections, but to the naked eye it looks just about right. Being super critical, I think I might have over weathered it, mainly being a bit heavy handed with the MIG dark wash. Wasn't sure how to get it off once applied. I know the technique of using a cotton bud dipped in thinners the remove the excess, but having had a nightmare with the PE harnesses, I didn't want to get any fluff caught in the fiddly bits. A small bit of sponge on a cocktail stick might have been OK, but too late now. Next job is to build/paint the wheel wells and think about what to do with the canopy. Going to be open. I am worried about masking the canopy properly and having made a mess so many times in the past, I need to get it right first time. I hate masking canopies... Happy New Year, James.

Holy cow! That’s serious work. The result is awesome. I’ll stick with decals for the time being! James

Looks great. You have made it look as if the preshading has shown through the decals. How did you manage that? James

Wow Remi, it looks amazing. I am a few steps behind you, still working on the cockpit. I never thought to preshade the interior, but the effect is great. Have you used a light wash as well, or just preshaded? I particularly like the seat and the faded effect on the leather. Please can you tell me how you did it and what colours? I am colourblind, so can't really tell what colours you have used! Thanks, James

Thanks for the comments. Of all the kits I have made, this is probably the best made. Excited to use the PE and see if the canopy masks actually fit well. James

Here is the cockpit so far. Happy with dry brushing, not so happy with the wash. Used MIG dark wash which has comeout a bit grainy, probably because it has been sitting untouched in the garage for 7 years. Will try oil wash next time, just oil paint (?burnt umber) thinned with cellulose thinners and see if it comes out with smoother finish. I would be interested to know what other people use to weather inside cockpits. Might try and clean this up a bit with cotton bud and little bit of thinner. Then start on the rest of the cockpit... Thanks, James.

This is the new kit, with the PE and canopy masks, which I can’t remember being in the old kit. I’m using Tamiya acrylics and an old airbrush. I’ve made a start on the cockpit. I’ve got to work out how to post pictures now...

Right, here we go. I’ve not done any modelling for several years now, but lockdown has made me clear out the garage and make some space. I thought I’d start with something simple, straight out of the box and try to relearn all the techniques I used to think I knew. I’m using this thread as a log as much as anything else, but may post questions if I get stuck and see what you think. Happy to take constructive critisism. I want learn from people with more experience than me, just no trolling! Thanks, James.