Decoman

With the advent of photo-etched parts, I can hardly wait for there to be some improvement to how canopies are made with plastic kits. Could someone please share their knowledge about why better canopies are yet to be made with such plastic kits in 1:72, 1:48 scale etc? Presumably there are some issues related to how such parts are made, but it should be said that I know little about how plastic should be made. It seem obvious to me that those clear pieces of plastic that comes with a kit today are simply too thick, with poor transparency. Given that it is so easy to mess up a piece of transparent plastic, with the use of paint, glue or perhaps due to the plastic being scratched somehow, I would like to see the individual canopy parts come with at least a spare pieces in case something goes wrong.

The metal frame holding the pilot chair has lots of holes in it, but they are not perforations. Does anyone know if it would be realistic in drilling out these holes?

Q: Is the cockpit set a display piece or something that is supposed to fit inside the main Spitfire kit?

This apparent mock up model seem to be missing 'leading edge slats'. The material for the transparent canopy has abysmal transparency.The canopy part seem to be simply resting on the aircraft frame with no locks.

It looks like that other boat there has to be the model of "HMS Terror" or "HMS Erebus". Edit: On second thought, the model doesn't quite match up with photos on the internet, so I might be wrong.

The best Sunderland model I have ever seen Looks really nice imo. I suspect the photography skills here paid off as well.

Airfix has a spares departement?

Sweet. A pretty slick model.

The wash seem uneven and I guess you could add more, particulary on the top side of things. Not that I know how to apply a wash myself, haven't tried it yet. I hope a sealing coat isn't stricly necessary for applying a wash, else it will become too complicated for my taste as of present, since I will keep painting with a brush until I can buy myself a compressor for my airbrush. I am mesmerized by the photo of the spinning prop. Also, I am reminded of how I should refrain from gluing on the tiny parts on the underside of the wing until I get the round decals in place.

I guess one could call it a tinlet thought I have to admit I never heard of this term before. I should add that the matt black paint had been used alot so only 1/3 of the paint was left in my case. I bought unused paint tinlets for the Fine Molds Tie Fighter and I am happy with the result, having painted it now with the Humbrol 33 (matt black) and Humbrol 147 (light gray), without using thinner.

What is the Airfix kit number for this model? I probably saw the cover somewhere on this forum one time, but I forgot about it.

I liked this Airfix kit myself and I think I will buy another one to achieve a more suitable color scheme. I might not bother to look at the older 1/48 scale Airfix of the FSR.1 kit for a looong time.

I painted some propeller blades with the Humbrol Enamel 33 recently (matt black), but had to remove it with paper towel laced in thinner because the paint seemed to never dry and remained sticky. As I remember it, the humbrol paint bucket had been thinned with a mix of white spirit and humbrol thinner.

The reflective ground is a nice touch, offers some exciting contrast to the model visually.

I really liked the Flower corvette. Both the model and the kit. I hope that kit is still in sale somehow. The Revell 1/144 Type VIIC/41 sub is such a great model imo. Nice detailing and the shape of the uboat makes for such a great display piece imho. Edit: I see now that Revell has a Flower corvette in 1/72 scale (05061).

Someone, somewhere asked what a pair of blisters on the top of the wings were on a Spitfire kit model; and having modeled the Spitfire IX on a computer I knew for myself that the blisters were needed to allow the necessary room for the retracted landing gear. I read in some book somwhere (or in an article on the internets) that in some particular circumstance, the landing gear would not fully retract on a Spitfire. I don't remember what version or circumstance that was about, but I am confident that I read this somewhere.

Is that an antenna wire there behind the pilots chair? Seem to run diagonally and almost straight down from the top of the mast. Or perhaps the image is just abit fuzzy.

I have never seen anything like this before. Great stuff! Will have to keep an eye on this thread.

I thought I should consider using a spray can to perhaps put on a single nice layer of paint on a sci fi model kit, and I wonder if this is a good idea or not. The spray can in question would be one off the Tamiya line of products "Tamiya Color / for aircraft /100ml". The model in question is the millennium falcon 1/144 scale kit, with alot of details. It seem obvious that I can simply paint remaining areas with a brush if the paint off the spray can doesn't cover the model as expected. 1) Avoid runny paint. Seems like a good idea to try it out by painting some other kit, just to see how runny it becomes when doing more than one pass. 2) Avoid orange skin texture. Not sure if this could become an issue with a spray can. I imagine a wet-in-wet paint job would be helpful in avoiding such a rough surface texture after the paint settles down on the model. 3) Avoid pooling of paint around protruding details/parts. Any more pointers to this? I guess all I wanted to know, is if using a spray can is a bad idea or not.

Having fiddled with this product when working on a model recently, I have learned the following: 1) The substance in the bottle works nothing like the Microsol product from what I can tell, as I have not observed any event of self-deforming of the decal which otherwise would make decals fit better to irregular surfaces. 2) The decals might be more deformable when squeezed, but I am not really convinced of this. 3) The substance in the bottle crystalizes, making it look bad if simply left on the surface of the model. 4) The substance becomes sticky on the fingertips if allowed to dry for a minute or so, possibly leaving marks on the model if you touch it. 5) The substance probably acts as an adhesive to make the decals sit more firmly, so it probably works as advertised. 6) The only use I see of this, is to soak the decal sheet parts with the solvent before sliding the decal onto the dry surface. 7) It seem necessary to use a piece of cloth/paper to squeeze the decal in place and soak up the moisture. In my case, I had painted the model with matt paint without any clear coat, perhaps helping the substance to look abit messy as I had smeared the stuff on and around the decals after applying them. I guess I will have to track down a bottle of Microsol one day. I surmise that the Microset product is similar to the Decal Fix product from Humbrol. Edit: I think I will try using Humbrol Enamel Thinner to see if I can get the effect I am looking for. I think I read about using thinner for this somewhere. *shrugs*

How is the Eduard photo etched set for this kit? Can you say anything about it?

I don't want to come across as lazy here, but I really want to find this kit somewhere. So if anyone know where to order this kit online, I would very much like to learn about it. I have already modeled this airplane in 3d on a computer, so having a kit would be great. Edit: Ah, I did a search on this forum and that led me to hannants.co.uk which has several of those kits. I wonder which is the best one in 1/48 scale. http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ROD444 http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ROD443 <-- the sprues looked nice in a review for this kit This airplane is seen in the movies "Air America" and briefly in "Sky Fighters". Edit2: I bought the kit off Hannants.co.uk, since I saw there were only 3 left in stock. I have to be careful with all of my kit purchases lately, else I'll be eating noodles before I know it.

I feel your pain I bought a 1/72 scale ICM Mig-31B kit yesterday and found out that the parts on the sprues are not numbered (sprues with numbers are shown in the manual though) and a large canopy part in the manual looks nothing like the one in the kit. I surmise this kit of mine is an older ICM kit. The detailing is nice enough though, just wanted to say that. First kit ever in my experience, that large missiles has been molded whole with all the fins.

I realize now that the swastika figure is more of a simple shape, so that if one were to use an airbrush, perhaps it would look nice to make ones own painting masks. I wonder if airbrushed markings will look as crisp as decals and what kind of masking tape would be preferable. Will check out Hannants. Have bought a bunch of stuff from UK and Japan lately, so I think I should just go ordering some swastika decals now to just have it around beforehand. My Revell Heinkel 111 H-6 kit in 1/72 scale can wait. Edit: I have now ordered two sets of each referenced in a post above.

Thanks! I cannot afford buying a kit at the moment, but it is nice to know where to possibly find it for later.