sunray

Cheers mate. I have painted the cockpit tub and seats also I have attached the seats as well. I have added a bit of colour just to lighten up the overall black of the tub and I have done a touch of dry brushing. I also painted the inside of the upper fuselage. I did another test fit to see how it looked just to make sure I haven't over done it. Now for the crew. I had a rethink about which crew figures I was going to use from the Revell NATO Pilot Set and I decided they might require a touch of surgery. First the rear seat. This figure was a better fit than the one I was going to use the only problem was the head that was to fit this body wasn't very good and it had the oxygen mask removed so I was going to remove the head from this one. Which I did with a razor saw. I cut it at a slight angle to try and keep the oxygen hose coming from the mask. I then drilled and pinned the head. Then it was just a case of drilling a hole in the main body and attaching the head. Also as the aircraft is going to be displayed flying slightly banking I can have the rear seat pilot/instructor looking to the right as well. Anyway thats the plan. Then I just attached the arms one giving the thumbs up. Then for the front seat I went back to plan "A" as I wanted to have the pilot looking straight ahead and I just glued the torso to the legs. For the arms I wanted he right arm of the stick and the left on the throttles. So for the right hand I used a right arm holding a book as the arm was in the right position and all I have to do was to cut out the book. For the left I used a left arm giving the thumbs up as this arm was roughly in the right position apart for the hand. So out came the saw again. The match is there to give you an idea of scale. All I did then as with the head was to drill, pin and glue. Here are the boys sitting in their seats chilling out waiting for the glue to go off. This what I am going to use to mount the plane. If you have seen any of my previous builds you will recognise the method I am going to use. I just drill a hole into the bottom of the fuselage and insert the bolt gluing it with a 2 part epoxy. I have added a strip of thick plasticard to give a touch more strength, give the bolt a flatter surface to bond to and increase the surface area for the glue.

Thanks everyone. I am glad to say the re-scribing is done and I actually enjoyed doing it. Never thought I would ever say that! The hardiest part of the re-scribing was the very last two pieces which were the upper wing tips. Scribing around the vortex generators was a bit of a pain. Anyway its done and I glued the halves of the tail fin, tail plane and wing tips together as well. Also the photo etch I was waiting for turned up. I was going just re-scribe the air-brakes but instead I decided to go down the photo etch route instead as these will be a lot sharper. I am not going to have the air-brakes deployed as I don't think they would last 5 minutes before the ping off to hide in the carpet, so I am just put them in their retracted position. This is how I did it. First I cut out the original air-brakes in the wings as per the photo etch instructions. Then I binned the instructions and I covered the newly cut holes with thin plasticard from inside the wing and sanded it down. As you can see from the photo the air-brake housings are a bit too deep. So I cut scrap bits of plasticard and glued them in position. These are to compensate for the angle of the wing. Then using the photo etch air-brake as a template I cut out a piece of plasticard to act as a filler piece and I glued it in position. I cut off the hinges on the photo etch air-brake and tried it for size. Next job was the undercarriage wells. The good thing about this kit is the undercarriage covers actually fit the wells which saves a bit of work. Then I did a bit of filling and sanded down. The air intakes were also easy to do and fit quite well. To workout how I was going to do the cockpit I needed the pilots which I got from Revell's 1/72 NATO Pilot Set. I required these to see what would fit and what wouldn't. What I find is the easiest to try the pilots is not to glue them together straight away but to drill and peg them so they can be adjusted into the position you want them, then I glue them together later on in the build. To get the pilots to fit in the cockpit tub I had to do a few alterations such as removing the rear and front rudder pedals. Also the front of the tub had to be removed to be replaced by photo etch from the cockpit set. The Airwaves photo etch set that I am using isn't for this kit as its for the Mk.9 so a few things require a touch of adjustment. One of the things I didn't like was the throttle from the etch set and because the T.3 had dual control and the Mk.9 didn't I had to make my own anyway. To start with I used a small piece of copper wire and a pair of flat nose pilers to make the throttle handles. I put the wire in the pliers and bent to shape. The good thing about doing it this way is that if you make a mistake just use the pilers to straighten the wire and have another go. When I was happy I cut to size with a pair of scissors. I then cut a piece of plastic tubing in half and glued everything together. As you can see I have started to add the photo etch. The glue I am using to attach the photo etch, etc, is Roket Card Glue. Its excellent stuff as cures really fast and dries clear. I normally use CA glue or Micro Kristal Klear for photo etch but now I am going to use this. On with more photo etch and one or two additions. I thought that I would add a touch of detail to the seats. So I drilled a few holes and using the shaft of a sanding bit I bent a piece of copper wire around the sanding bit to produce an open loop. I then gripped the wire with my flat pliers with the loop sticking out of the top and pushed gently the top of the loop in with my finger nail to produce a bent in the loop. Then it was just a case of cutting to size and I had an ejection seat pull. Now I glued it in position in the drilled holes using CA glue. Now its all starting to come together. A test fit in the upper fuselage just to check before I start painting.

Thank everyone for the kind comments. Thanks Badder as for the mud well this is the first time I have ever tried using weathering powders and I didn't want to over do it. I hope this helps. Thank Murfv. Thats why I got one of these kits. As a kid I always wanted one for Christmas or birthday but no, what did I get instead a "Chopper bike", or a TV, or a VCR and even a racing bike; brilliant! May be next year. So after decades of waiting I finally got one. Dave its an excellent kit and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Thanks lads. First here are some of the tools I use for re-scribing. The top two scriber's are my favourite and I use them most of the time. I think I ordered them from a company in the Czech Republic and cost around £14 each so they weren't cheap but they are the best I have used. I have got a Tamiya one knocking around somewhere as well. Templates and a flexible metal rule. 3M 471 Blue Fine Line Vinyl Masking Tape 3mm (£3.85 off ebay delivered) which is excellent stuff for guiding the scriber around fuselages. jet intakes, etc. I used to use Dymo tape but this stuff is a lot cheaper and the adhesive lasts a lot longer as well. Here is the lower fuselage before I started and there is a quite a bit to do but I find if I get bored or fed up with re-scribing, its best to go for a coffee or watch the TV but don't carry on and try to rush it takes when I make a mistake. Its one of those jobs that you have to take your time. I started sribing the panels first using the templates. Normally I would sand down the raised panel lines and then re-scribe them but this time I decided to use the raised panel lines around the panels to help postition the template and keep it in the right place. I scribed the new panels then I would sand them down to remove any ridges. I have left the dust in the new panels to make it easier to see in the photo. Also here is the 3M tape in action. On this line I sanded the raised line down first just enough so you can see the original line then I placed the 3M tape along the line. Now it just a case of running the scriber along the edge of the tape, not pushing down on the scriber just letting the weight of the scriber do the cutting. You may think it hasn't cut anything but it will have. Now do it again and again and you will see a bit of waste plastic starting to come up from the scriber. When you are happy remove the tape. Here is the completed lower fuselage. Now for the upper fuselage. I used the 3M tape again around the air intakes. Here is part of the tail fin. Before...... And after.... to be continued.

Thanks Paul I am looking forward to see how this one comes out. I know what you mean about the plastic. As I have been doing the re-scribing I have noticed the effects on the plastic which seems brittle under the surface. To stop it getting worse I give the newly scribed lines a touch of Tamiya Extra Thin and that looks like its doing the trick. Ian you are right about the Airwaves PE. I have used it before on a 1/72 Airfix Mosquito and I am not a fan. I am only going to use the bits for the cockpit and I will see how they come out.

Thanks Duncan for the advice on the "trickiest bits" I will definitely keep them in mind.

This is the one I am going to do next so as soon as I get off my PC I am off into the "Grumpy Old Man's Room" according to my kids or "The Shed of Peace and Happiness" as I like to call it, to start the 1/72 Airfix Gloster Javelin T3. Its an old kit as you might have guessed with raised panel lines, etc. I am waiting for some more photo etch to turn up and the kit doesn't have any pilots so I will have to find some of them. I think my first job will be a touch of re-scribing which looking at the fuselage halves might take a bit of time, but that's the fun of modelling.

Thanks everyone. The build is finished and the reveal thread is at http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235000201-172-airfix-curtiss-tomahawk-iib-takes-flight/#entry2315270

Here is my go at this kit. Here is a photo to give you an idea of the scale. The one on the ground is a 1/48 Tomahawk by Academy which I built a few years ago. The full build is at http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234998782-172-airfix-curtiss-tomahawk-iib/

Thanks for the photo's Bob. Well its on its base and finished and thanks to everyone for their kind comments and support during the build. The final reveals photo's are at http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235000197-132-airfix-crusader-mkiii/ but here are one or two to get you started.

Here is my go at this excellent old kit. If you want to see the build its at http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234998810-132-airfix-crusader-mkiii/

With the main fuselage painted I then painted the prop and wheel struts. Then I gave them both a few coats of Klear to seal the paint and then for the decals. The tail fin decals were a bit small on one side. The jaws were also a bit short. But the rest of the decals were problem free. To sort out the tail fin and jaw decals I just touched them up with a little paint. I also added a few more teeth in the air in-take (just a bit of artistic licence). With them done I used Micro Set and Sol to settle the decals down and left them overnight. Then I gave the kit another few coats of Klear to protect the decals from the weathering oil wash for the panel lines which I did next along with the exhaust and gun smoke. I gave it a coat of matt varnish to finish off and I removed the masks. To be continued......

Thanks chaps. The good news is its finished apart for making the oak stand but that will have to wait a few days as we due to the weather. Anyway I looked at the tank and I thought the tracks were a touch too clean in relation to the state of the rest of the tank. So I thought I would add a bit of dried mud to the tracks using some Vallejo weathering powders, a job I have never done before. Here is the result (sorry more photo's I'm afraid). I will have to get some more of these powders as I found it a relaxing job to do. The other jobs I did were to add a few stains around the turret ring, to give everything a final of matt varnish and to remove the mask off the searchlight. I hope you have enjoyed watching the build as I have doing it. As for the kit, well its just been added to my favourites list as I think its a gem that can be tidied up with a few pieces of brass, copper wire, etc. Anyway thanks to everyone for the support, kind comments and valuable advice during the build and to finish until I do the final reveal photo's, yes you have guessed, it more photo's. Sorry.

Thanks again Bob. My next task was to add the decals. There isn't a great deal to put on to be honest and they weren't as straight forward as I thought. The first one to go on were the regimental colours of the 17th/21st Lancers, which were the red and white stripped decals. To the kit instructions tell you to put one at the rear in front of the auxiliary fuel tank. The problem being the decal is too large so I cut it in half and problem solved. I then carried on with the rest of the decals until I came to do the regimental colours for the tank sides. The decals had to go on the side of storage bins on each side of the tank but no way could I get the decal to conform to the surface of the bin no matter what I used they didn't want to play. So I used the kit decals as a guide for the size and I masked off the area where they were to go and sprayed the colours. Problem two solved. The next problem was to do with the company and troop indicator, which is a yellow circle with a "3" in it. I had to slide one behind the shovel on the storage bin at the rear of the turret and also cut a bit out of the side of the decal to line it up correctly. The rest of the decals went on without any other problems. Now I made and attached the two antennas on the turret made from a small piece of brass tubing and two pieces of copper wire. I painted the antennas, track, etc with a base coat and I resprayed two pipes for the oil bath air cleaners as I painted them a rusty colour as the kit instructions. But they were incorrect and my mate Bob Gregory kept me on the right track. I then gave the whole tank a few coats of Klear to seal in the decals and paint. Now time for some weathering using Vallejo washes. Now for the turret..... There isn't much to do now just one or two jobs but for an Airfix kit from 1975 it doesn't look too bad.

Thanks Chaps for the kind comments and support. Cheers Bob for keeping me right. I painted the "rust" from the paint reference guide for the kit but after you pointed that they were wrong. I checked the few colour photo's I have and you are right so I have sprayed them again to tone them down a bit.

Thanks mate. Yes I did it freehand as I find its the easiest way to do it plus as its a desert camouflage I was hoping the camouflage would a bit sun bleached at the edges.

Thanks guys. Now for some paint. First I primed and pre-shaded and I left it to dry over night. Then I sprayed the underneath of the wings, etc. Then I did a little masking and painted the rest.

To make the paint on the upper surfaces have a slightly bleached appearance I added a tiny bit of Tamiya XF2 White to the XF52 Flat Earth in the cup of my airbrush and I thinned it down until it was really thin. Then I just turned down my air pressure quite low to allow me to spray really close to the surface of the tank. I then sprayed in say the centre of a hatch or panel keeping the airbrush moving all the time and ensuring I didn't spray too close to the edge of the hatch or panel. Every now and then I would stop to see how it would look. I also did the same on the top of the main gun barrel. Next I attached the ten track wheels and the front roller wheels but not the sprocket wheels as I am going to leave them off until I add the track. They went on without too much trouble and lined up easily. I then gave it a few coats of Klear to seal in and protect the paint. Before I added the tracks I primed them and gave them a coat of Vallejo Model Air Steel (I can't remember the reference number). This is so I have a metallic look on the inside of the track above the track wheels in case they can be seen. That done I first glued the sprocket wheels on using normal Tamiya glue and left to cure. Then I started to feed the track in from the sprocket wheel end but I found out that the join just wasn't strong enough to hold the sprocket wheel. So I had another go at gluing the sprocket wheels using CA glue this time and adding some sodium bicarb power to the CA glue on the sprocket wheel so in would bond instantly and it did. So I started to feed in the track again. Because I sanded down the mud guards earlier I had enough room between the sprocket wheel and the mud guards to allow the track to slide down to the opposite end. If I were to my another one of these tanks I think I would drill out the centre of the inside of the sprocket wheel and add a small metal axle to make it stronger when attaching to the tank hull. When I tried to join the ends of the track together I noticed the track was just to short. To get around this wasn't difficult as I just took out the track again and just slightly stretched it which did the trick and I reinserted the track and used thick CA glue to join the track halves together also gluing the track to the main track wheels. As you can see I have started to paint so detail on the tank.

Thanks guys. Today I managed to do some more work on the Crusader. The track comes in four pieces so I glued them together with thick CA glue, to make two track sets but I haven't made the track loop complete if you know what I mean. That will be done when the wheels, etc are on the tank. Once the glue had cured I gave the tracks a coat of primer. I also primed the hull, turret and wheels followed by a bit of pre-shading and then the base coat of Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth. For some reason the colour of the paint in the photo's looks a touch washed out on the tank but that is just because I forgot to turn off my table lamp when I was taking the pictures. The one of the wheels gives a better idea of the colour. I mentioned in my previous post regarding using CA glue to seal the smaller gauge copper wire I used to wrap around the towing cable and this is what I meant. Anyway I am off to bed now but for an old Airfix kit I think it tidies up quite well.

Thanks mate. This just a quick update to let you know how I am getting on. I added the storage boxes, shackles, drivers hatch, etc but I didn't like the look at the front headlight guards as to me they were one of those parts that would want to snap off, so I made my own which are just bent bits of copper wire and glued in place. I used the kit parts as a template. Also I used the steal helmet from the kit which came from the stores hanging on the rails on the side skirts. I am not going to use the rails but some of the bags on them I am going to add later on. To make it a bit more interesting I also added the fuel line and new bracket to the auxiliary fuel tank. First I made the bracket from a piece of brass from a sprue of old photo etch. I drilled a small hole the using a jewellers brogue to enlarge the hole to the right size as I didn't have the right size drill bit. Then I cut and then bent the bracket to shape. Here are the tools I used to bend the bracket. They are not as expensive as the Tamiya one in fact all of them combined were a lot cheaper than the Tamiya one and do the same job. I then glued a piece of copper wire to the fuel tank and the bracket to the hull and drilling a hole in the hull using the bracket as a guide. Now it was just a case of gluing the fuel tank assembly to the hull and passing the copper wire through the hole in the bracket and into the hull gluing with CA glue when done. Also the kit towing strop to be honest looked naff so I made my own from braiding two long pieces of copper wire. All I did was to put a nail in the jaws of my vice and tightened it up. Then I bent both pieces of copper wire in half and I put the looped end around the nail in the vice. Now I got hold of the four ends of wire and pulled them tight putting them in the jaw of a hand drill doing up the chunk, while keeping the wire tight. Now I just wound up the hand drill until I was happy and you get a nicely braided piece of copper wire. I then cut the wire to length and bent the ends to make the towing eyes. Using small gauge copper wire I wound it around the ends of the towing eyes and I ran CA glue over the top of the smaller gauge wire to seal it. Its not the best towing strop but its better and stronger than the kit one. Now I just added it to the hull using a copper shackle made again from copper wire and securing it again with CA glue. Not it just waiting for paint.

Excellent job. I had ago one these a few years ago and the thread is on here somewhere. I am surprised there are not more up here.

Excellent work. Fantastic build for the tank and the base just finishes it off. You really get the feel of a muddy field, the only thing thats missing is the rain and wind!

Thanks chaps. I have done a bit more work on the Crusader. First I replaced the plastic kit turret hatch handle with a stronger one made from copper wire and as the kit shows only one handle, so I checked some references which showed it had two so I added another. I made these by just bending the copper wire around flat nose pliers (the ones that has jaws that are smooth and flush fitting with no teeth). I then trimmed them to size and glued into place with CA glue. Because this is an old kit the fit isn't the best, so a little help from clamps, etc, is required to get the parts of the hull to stick where the should. Also there are a few gaps to fill as well but by taking my time and waiting for the glue to fully harden it has paid off. One of things I did notice was that the plastic on the mudguards and side skirts so I reduced them by using a needle file and sanding stick to give them a better look. First the front mudguards. Followed by the back mudguards. And finally the side skirts. By doing this it made them a better fit and they were easy to glue to the hull without too much trouble. I started to add one or two things to the turret like periscopes and vent until it was the turn of the search light. I hide a look at the light to see if I could improve it. The light comes in two parts the lens and the light main body which as you can see from the photo is made from normal plastic. First I thought I would see if I can make the lens glass by using a 4.5mm punch, a hammer and a scrap piece of flat clear plastic. If I could I would carry on but if I couldn't I would use the kit light as is. I placed the clear plastic on a small piece of MDF and hit the punch with the hammer on the plastic. Then I popped the new lens from the punch. Now using a Dremel and two cutting bits I removed the old non-clear lens from the lens frame. Then using the frame as a guide I also cut out the inside of the light to make the reflector. I cut the reflector slightly smaller diameter than the inside of the lens frame so the clear lens had a ledge to sit on. I glued the frame and the rear light assembly together, then painted the reflector with metallic aluminium paint. I did try using kitchen foil for the back of the reflector but to me it looked too shiny and out of scale so I went with paint. When the paint was dry I glued in the new lens with PVA. Lastly I tried the light on the turret to see if it looked ok. Then I drilled a small hole in the bottom of the light and the light bracket for a piece of copper wire to give it more strength and to act as electric cable for the light. Using CA glue and Tamiya glue I attached the light to the turret.

I have always wanted to build one of these since I was a kid and it was one of those presents you wanted but never got. So when I saw one in the show a few weeks ago I decided it had to come home. So off we go. My first job was to sort out the wheels. As the kit first come out in the 1970's you can guess there would be a bit of flash and there is. So I tidied up and assembled the wheels. Next came the suspension which again needed a bit of flash removal and they were glued to the lower chassis and then I test fitted a few wheels to see how they looked. The instructions indicate to assemble the lower chassis, wheels and tracks first but because the lower chassis and upper body are slightly out of shape, I decided to start gluing them together a bit at a time to get them lined up as best I can. So As I was waiting for the glue to cure I moved on to the turret. The kit barrel didn't look too inspiring so I thought it needs replacing. I could fine any after market parts so I would have to make my own. Luckily enough the barrel didn't look tapered so I thought I would get away using brass tubing. I had a look in my draw and I had some tubing the same diameter as the kit barrel. Basically its the same stuff I use to make the stands when I am making an in-flight display for an aircraft. I had a look at the gun mount to see how I was going to do it. The barrel stub on the mount has a slight taper on it so the stub would have to stay. But the problem was how would I attach the brass barrel to the stub barrel on the mount as they are both the same diameter? To get around this I used a slightly smaller diameter piece of brass tubing to act as a spigot to join the mount and the brass barrel. Then I had another problem. The brass tubing I had was imperial and my drill bits are metric. The diameter of the tubing was 3.25mm. So to get around this one I drilled a 3mm hole down the stub barrel on the mount. Then using a small pipe cutter I cut off a small piece of the 3.25mm tubing to act as a spigot. Now to reduce the diameter of one end of the spigot I put it into my trusty Dremel and use a needle file. Then I glued them together with CA glue. Now using the kit barrel as a template I proceeded to make the new barrel. For the brake at the end of the barrel I just used a larger piece of brass tubing cut to size. And I just glued the together with CA glue again. With that done I had a look at the machine gun. Again I thought I would have a go at making one of these as the kit one wasn't very strong. For the barrel I was going to use a syringe needle and I had to have a think how I was going to make the flash eliminator. I had some very small diameter brass tubing I had left over when I made the inside frame of my Piper Cub. So out came my trusty Dremel again and needle file and I managed to make a flash eliminator. The Tamiya paint pot is there to give you an idea of scale. I used CA glue to join the barrel and the eliminator. I then just cut off the plastic barrel off the gun, drilled a hole and attached the new barrel with CA glue. Then I brought them all together and attached them in the turret. Then I went back to sorting out the chassis.

As a kid I can remember building the original Airfix version of this kit. So here is my attempt of the new one. As it is going to be displayed wheels up I had to decide where I was going to put the bolt to attach to the stand. With this kit it was easy as I put it where the Airfix plastic stand would go. The main reason for this is that the head of the bolt I was going to use would be hidden by the cockpit floor. I normally mount a larger bolt but I was restricted by the shape of the lower fuselage so I found a smaller brass bolt. To attach the bolt I just drilled a hole and glued in place with CA glue. Then I just built the cockpit over the top. I proceeded to paint the cockpit and I applied a Vallejo wash. I didn't use the pilot from the kit because the moulding isn't very good which I think is the only thing that lets the new Airfix 1/72 kits down. I did use an Airfix pilot but from an older kit as the moulding was a lot sharper. The way I paint figures is that I spray them matt black which helps a lot with the shading later on, also if you make a mistake you just over spray again with black, as black obliterates any other colour. Then I paint the face first as its normally the lowest level. I would then paint say the shirt or neck scarf around the neck, then the jacket and trousers, etc. So I just paint lowest level first, then the next level and so on. When I am happy I then apply a few washes and this is how he turned out. As he was from a different kit he sat too low when I put him in the seat, so I just added a piece of scrap plastic to the seat to give him a bit of height. I snapped the kit control stick so I just made a replacement from a bent pin. Now I glued the fuselage halves together and attached the wings. Then the tail plane was added. For the guns on the cowling I drilled them out as well as the engine exhausts. For the pitot tube I made my own from brass tube and copper wire as the kit part was a part waiting to snap so I used it as a template for my home made one. The prop went together without any problems and on went the canopy and side windows. I cut off the plastic antenna as it was looking like one of parts that wants to snap off and made my own from a pin attached with CA glue.