Baldy

Beautiful paintwork, weathering and finish. Cheers Malcolm

Exquisite little model! Shame about the decal problem but the overall impression is quality. Cheers Malcolm

Thank you Bill - Not great pictures I admit but outside? Brrrrr! Cold and damp round here at the mo. Will try to get some better pictures soon. Cheers Malcolm

Here with my recently finished Italeri 1/32 F-104G - it was finished just in time for display at Telford. The kit went together reasonably well, with the usual Italeri foibles here and there. I found that the airbrakes and the ailerons were both undersize and were enlarged with plastic strips. I pored over numerous pictures regarding the upper surface colours, including some of my own, and asked Giorgio for his opinion. Unfortunately I struggled to spray the suggested Lifecolour paints. After much deliberation and test spraying, I settled on Humbrol Enamel Hu 156 for the grey and a mixture (Gunze H309 x8 plus H65 x1 plus Tamiya XF5 x1) for the green. For the underside I used mixture of Vallejo Metal Colour Aluminium and Tamiya XF-66. Again from photographs many of the AMI Starfighters looked to have a fairly gloss finish but some were not. I settled on a light sheen courtesy of AK varnishes. You may notice that the tanks are a slightly different colour of green - more of an olive green. Again this is from the study of many photographs. In fact, I originally messed up the painting of the tanks and had to start again, trashing the decals at the same time. I borrowed tank decals from another kit so if some kind soul has a spare set of tank stencil decals please let me know. The Orpheus pod is by Videoaviation.com and is excellent. I used mostly the kit decals which were excellent apart from some silvering on some of the minor stencilling. A couple of other problems with the decals. The Starfighter depicted is MM6581 in 1984 - problem is, it appears that this aircraft was written off in a collision in June 1969. Much of the stencilling is readable with magnification but the area of which is easily readable and very prominent is that on the nose cone in the anti dazzle area - unfortunately it reads "HANDDS OFF". Generally very pleased with the result - I hope you like her. Cheers Malcolm

Superb and enchanting little model (and models) Moa. Stunning detailing and lovely finish. The flying pictures look most realistic though I doubt that any of these graced Californian skies! Cheers Malcolm

Looks exquisite. lovely little model. Not seen that particular scheme before. Cheers Malcolm

Beautiful Mustangs Pete. Goes to show that the influx of much later Mustang kits on the market from Eduard et al doesn't make the older kits bad kits - the old Hasegawa kit brushes up very nicely indeed! Cheers Malcolm

Hello Mick If you are using the kit decals then there is no problem. Mentioned it because I fell foul of the Xtradecal sheet - I thought I would like to make a different model. Unfortunately, when I took a closer look I discovered that all was not well. Interestingly, the decal sheet instructions give an immediate clue when they mention that this particular "Tomahawk" had different exhausts and no arial mast. In the end I used the kit decals which were excellent. For the record, the Tomahawk IIA was the name given to the P-40B which used the Allison V-1710-33 engine and was referred to my the manufacturer as the Model 81. The Kittyhawk was the model 87 and the earlier ones, such as AK578 were the P-40D. This type had a quite different and much larger engine, the V-1710-39 which required a larger radiator and was in fact almost an entirely new aircraft - and looked entirely different! Cheers and happy modelling Malcolm

Hello Mick - looking really good so far. Just a quick question - are you using the kit decals? If not - beware Xtradecal sheet 48163 - AK578 was not a Tomahawk but a Kittyhawk! Cheers Malcolm

Nice build and paintwork - and what a cool looking scheme! Cheers Malcolm

Mice looking Mirage Werner - looks great in that scheme. Cheers Malcolm

F-86s of one kind or another are popular at the mo! I like your faded metal look on this one - it looks used. Cheers Malcolm

Very nicely done Rafale. And for a 4th ever build it is exceptional! The finish looks pretty good too especially when you have used basic acrylic paints - the only thing I would say is that it is a little too dark but that may be the photography. Very well done! Cheers Malcolm

Beautiful aircraft, beautiful model and particularly beautiful paintwork. Stunning! Cheers Malcolm

Very nice Ricardo - I like the neat build and paintwork, though the colours look a little too bold compared to the original. I too love the Mirage III and have built the E model: I wasn't entirely impressed with the kit but it looks great when finished. I have a C to build so I expect similar problems. Love the pictures with the supersonic tanks - that just may decide on which version to model. I wanted to do a natural metal one but I don't think my modelling skills will allow from this kit! Hope mine turns out as nicely as yours! Cheers Malcolm