Tentacles

Now, that is going too far! 😜

I’ll second that - especially if you could integrate it with a smart-speaker system with Alexa or Siri for example.

Great build. I’m sorely tempted to get one of these, as it would look great next to G-FIRE, which I have in the stash.

To be fair, it does fulfil what - in my opinion - is an important function: Looking cool

Czech airforce already operates Gripens.

I've had fond memories of this place since visiting as a child, and I was delighted to go back there a few years ago. It's a lovely museum, thanks for posting these pictures. (Nice pub next door, also!)

Really beautiful build & photos. The Swiss have such cool paint schemes, don't they?

Thank you! Maybe, but... I'm not sure where I'd put them. Having said that, there are some of the old Airfix "Superkits" buried at the back of the stash. I usually do 1:72, so even 1:48 seems big to me. Thanks! This was actually a very quick build for me - I don't usually build to a deadline! I need to recover from the stress of this before I go into another GB 🤪 Merci beaucoup!

Revell 1:32 Mirage III E. Built OOB, painted with a mix of Tamiya acrylics and Humbrol enamels. Build thread is here.

Right, she's done. No progress photos I'm afraid, as it was all dull stuff I've been doing: Slapping decal solution onto the huge decals, fiddling the undercarriage into place, and adding all the fiddly little antennas and so on. I confess, some of these disappeared, either detaching themselves from the sprues, or escaping from the little tin I was keeping small bits in. It was kinda relief not to have to glue on so many, to be honest. I think I may have a cunning plan to prevent this from happening in the future. It's taken a while. I always find this fiddly stage of any build usually means I knock one tiny piece off for every one I glue on. Allow me to note a few take-aways I have from this build: - I've been finding it difficult to get decals down nicely. I realise this was because I'd somehow got into the habit of using cold water. Hot water works better. - A lot of time went into masking on this one. I was interested to find that masking fluid (I used Mr Masking Sol Neo) affects the masked paint more than masking tape. Perhaps the fluid reacts with the paint (Tamiya acrylic) in some way. I probably won't use this again to mask painted areas. - Humbrol Clear is not good for large areas. I sometimes use it to add shine to transparencies, and this seems to work well in 1:72. But I nearly runined this kit's large canopy. It looked awful once it had dried - kinda lumpy in appearance - and had to be carefully cleaned off with IPA. Finally, as this was my first group build here, or indeed anywhere, I'd like to say "thanks" for the experience. I don't post here much, but everyone's been really nice and the comments have been unfailingly positive. Thanks to everyone who looked in. I shall do this again. More pics will be in the gallery

This is looking great! The seat is incredible - what did you use for the belts? BTW, maybe you already knew, but this GB has been extended to the 11th of June:

@The Spadgent Thanks Johnny - do you recall which bit of it? There's a bit of a step under the windshield, on the side that'll be facing the wall. Ahem. The bigger bit's going to be posed open, so I didn't bother trying for a good fit as it's mainly there to act as a mask just now.

Thanks @Sam! Not so much to report this week - decals are on, and on the whole behaved excellently, but are benefitting from a second dose of Decalfix. While the decals wrinkle & curl, I've been getting on with the fiddly bits. Probably my least favourite part of any build. I had an exciting Saturday night: Revell tell you to cut 4.5mm out of the centre of the long supporting arm at the back. The resultant butt fit keeps snapping of course (including when I was putting it away after this photo! 🙃). I thinking I might strengthen it with a bandage made of narrow masking tape, sprayed an aluminium colour. We'll see - while Revell are very specific about the measurement, they give you no indication of the angle you should fit it at, so this bit may have to come apart again anyway. (I should've dryfitted more of course, but the main assembly was wet with decalfix). I hate undercarriages. As my LMS* had a sale a couple of weeks ago, I bought a set of airfix display stands. I might start building wheels up. But then I probably have to paint pilots, and that might be even worse. Decisions... Friday night was a bit more satisfying. This access ladder was super fiddly, and I managed to snap one part of it when I was separating it from the sprue a few days ago. It's fixed with a piece of plastic rod of near-enough size, butt-fitted with TET and left to cure for a couple of days. I was able to reinstate the bend where it joins the other leg by making a few very, very light passes with a razor saw at the point where it should bend, and then dabbing TET all around this bit. Then I slowly bent it gently with a pair of tweezers and held it for a few seconds. Give it a moment to settle, and then repeat the TET and bend process. In all, it took maybe half an hour, working very slowly and carefully. It's not perfect, but it'll do. Frankly, I'm surprised it worked at all, but I thought I might as well experiment. Joins are reinforced with sprue-glue. This'll now need painting along with a few other odds & ends I missed. Lastly, I didn't think I'd get away with this - the drilling was nervewracking, as I could've easily ruined these very delicate pieces that form the wing-tip navigation lights: The colours are humbrol enamels diluted right down into what was basically a wash; and then dripped in gradually using my smallest paint brush. Time to go out for my Sunday constitutional now. Thanks for looking. *It's actually an Online MS, and one of several. My former LMS is now a sex-shop. 🙄

D'oh! Of course that's how you prevent abrading your lovingly applied paint scheme while you're decalling. Why didn't I ever think of that? [Goes off to look for a sheet of foamy packaging]

I don't even like tanks particularly, but that was a cool video.

I'm sure someone more knowledgable will be along in a minute, but - for which theatre? And which base? Airfix used to do a kit of a WW2 RAF control tower, which I suppose might might be suitable for a some 8th AF bases?

Thanks for this. So what’s the new end date exactly?

This is going to look gorgeous when it's done!

Oof, I'm well overdue to update on this. So, without further ado... I've been doing a whole lot more masking. As this scheme includes some complicated shapes (for me, at least), I gave quite a lot of thought as to how best to achieve this. Mainly as a reminder for myself, this is how I went about it. It turns out that it's not that hard to create home-made masks: I measured the plane's length as it appeared in the painting guide. This was 248.5mm The actual size (accuately stated on the box) is 465mm So I need to upscale the plans - this link is very useful for the mathematically challenged: https://www.mnbigbirds.com/Resizing%20Plan.htm, From this, I learn I need to upscale by 187% I then scanned the painting instructions into my PC... ...and opened the image file using "paint.net". Although the instruction sheet was A4, the scanned image was slightly smaller. Lucky I checked. So: Image -> Resize -> Print size ->210*297mm. This gives me an A4 sized base to work from. And then: Image -> Resize -> By percentage -> 187%. I now have an actual size image to work with, but I can't print it as the software will want to print it on a piece of paper 187% larger (392*555mm!) This was issue that was the hardest for me to figure out, and so this is the solution that I want to be sure I remember for next time: Image -> Canvas Size -> Print size -> 210*297 I'm now looking at a section of the paint guide that I can print. But it's not necessarily the part I want Undo last edit -> drag the bit I want into the middle of the canvas and try step 8 again. This might take a few attempts to get what you want. To save toner, select what you need, delete the rest. Print. Print a spare too. Maybe even a spare spare. You may want to take an aspirin at this point. Save it! Just in case. I'm not doing all that again. But it gets much easier now. The rest is pure Blue Peter. Get a grown-up to help you with the next steps. From the print-out, cut out the shape you want using a scalpel or sharp scissors. I was able to do this freehand. This was easy in 1:32 (I want to see if I can do this in smaller scales as well). I stuck a section of 18mm kabuki tape onto a thin plastic document wallet. I then laid my printed shape over this, and secured it in place with some de-tacked masking tape scraps Using the paper as a template, I cut the shape into the tape. I wasn't able to do this in one motion - and it won't always work out first time - but I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked if I "nibbled" at the outline with a series of small cuts - maybe 5mm at a time Once this is done, gently peel pack the tape scraps and remove the paper template. Cut out the section of plastic upon which your mask sits. You now have a cut mask, which is attached to a backing which is easy to peel off when you're ready. I realise now that I could have used a pencil to softly score the panel lines from the scanned paper onto the masks. This could've helped me line them up on the model, rather than just eyeballing it. But I think it worked out ok. (I hope I'm not teaching anyone how to suck eggs, but this was a first for me. And I hope the steps are clear. Perhaps I should've taken photos & screenshots - but I was so pleased when it worked working, I just pushed on with masking the whole thing. It turned into a very late night). For example, I used this technique to create the "V' shaped mask below. Masked: And unmasked: The 2-tone metalics worked out reasonably well. I should've done a second pass of the initial aluminium colour, as the black base shows through somewhat. So the contrast is rather heavy, but I'm hoping that the clear-coats will tone this down. The black "V" on the spine was relatively simple, The nose was trickier. This is a crappy photo, but I'm very happy with how this section turned out, as this is the part that was always going to be the most difficult. Some touch-ups needed on the white blister, and the radome - altough I'm tempted to leave that, and call it paint chipping caused by slapdash radar techs. Of course, I've snapped off the end of the pitot. I'll try and glue it back on when I add the other greeblies at the end of the build. As you can see, I've unmasked now - this thing was wrapped up like a mummy, but I still managed to get some overspray. Which I didn't notice until I posted this pic, so it's probably staying now. Otherwise, I'm really pleased with how the colours on the underside turned out: Since then, I've gloss coated with Humbrol clear, and have started decalling. I reckon it'll take about a week to do them all. I'll post photos of this later - they're at the nasty, wrinkly stage just now, and I daren't touch the kit right at the moment. Thanks very much for looking.

Incredible - that finish is just stunning. It looks really cool.

I'm confused - surely you'll need a similar amount of space to display the builds? Unless SWMBO is ok with you hanging them all from the ceilings? I'm assuming you're an aircraft modeller, as this wouldn't work with cars. It could work with ships, if you wear a deep-sea diver's outfit all the time you're at home. I think it's time for my pills...

I've got a couple in the stash, so I'm game - depending on the timing.

I just came across this thread. Lovely looking build. I've never been brave enough to attempt any cross-kitting, but you make it look simple.

By which I mean grey, of course: This went on so nicely - it’s Tamiya acrylic on Tamiya acrylic - I decided to use it as a base coat elsewhere on the underside of the wing. I wanted to use up some enamels here, and I wasn’t sure how well that would work over Tamiya silver. Note copious use of masking tape. I sometimes use Tamiya tape for the edges and details, and then slap on loads of (much cheaper) decorator’s tape to cover large general areas. I hope I’ve de-tacked it enough. Then I sprayed the colours. These paints were incredibly gloopy, having been hardly used for years. I wasn’t sure they’d work at all. This is Humbrol insignia red and French blue, thinned to about 33%, and misted on at really low pressure, <10psi. Above is the first coat, below is the second, applied about 12 hours later: Seems to have worked out ok. I also added some Tamiya Matt white to the blister under the nose, as per the instructions. So it’s a red, white and blue bird now, which seems appropriate for the coronation weekend. Even though it’s German kit of a French aircraft.

Right, I was planning to update this thread rather sooner, but I've been masking the thing all week! Next time - if there is a next time - I do an NMF in 1:32, I'll probably just tint a few panels with some clear varnish with a few drops of colour in it. I hope it proves to have been worth it when I unmask. The anticipation... I think she looks quite good like this though: This is roughly where I am now. Next time: technicolour.