Jessica

A fish? As usual, reality disappoints. They did a boring generic tundra. They ought to have done Denali at least...

Learn something new every day But now of course, I'm thrown into uncertainty about my plans to do the Eduard kit as Ray Collishaw's first "Black Maria". I thought that it had the early style tailplanes...

My memories from the early '70s tell me that it was a deep cream/pale yellow colour. This photo displays it best.

You can't get more "Trans World" than by flying in space? The artist was having an "out of this world" experience? They were flying to Florida? I don't know. It was the early '80s and Hasegawa's artists did that sort of thing. Look at the DC-10. What connection does it have with some pioneers driving a covered waggon through a desert? I can get a photo up after work this afternoon.

I've always had the impression that only the 6 experimental tripehounds armed with 2 guns had the short "Camel" style tailplanes, and all the rest had the longer Pup type. Are you doing one of those 6?

That'll never be mistaken for a Harvard, but it certainly looks good. I love the weathering.

Stripped airplane in a family newsgroup! For shame! Now tell us where you found the DH-2 being restored and how you got those pictures with the gigantic match boxes holding up the wingtips.

There is only one edition of Star Wars. It came out in 1977. Anything else is merely a figment of George Lucas' imagination. P.S. Han shot first.

When it's sitting alone it looks quite small. It's only when it's sitting beside the Draken that its real size becomes apparent. That's a lovely job on a model few of us will ever see, let alone build

"Moored", dear lad, Moored. You don't "park" a ship Grumblemuttermumble these aviation types anyway. Must be the lack of oxygen they get up there which affects them mumblemuttergrumble.

Are those all parked facing aft in that photo? Would that be due to facing into a prevailing wind, or just the Flight Deck Officer's perverse whims?

I keep hoping to see Transair Cargo one of these days...

Going strictly on the ease of building, I recommend the Superjet. It's a pleasure to put together which the Revell can't even come close to. Zvezda also do an A320 which if you can find it is far superior to the Revell kit, but I find Zvezda's decals to be a trifle difficult to work with. They're very thin and temperamental. I prefer to use aftermarket markings on my Zvezda kits if I have the option.

Perhaps you can carve/file/sand some sprue to an airfoil shape and then stretch it to the proper size?

If you thin it properly, and use a good brush, it can turn out pretty nicely. Thin nail polish with lacquer thinner (and don't forget to keep your work area well ventilated). Practise on a scrap model first.

If that doesn't work, you can also get them from HaHen.

Pale blue and dusty tan colours are good for weathering Sea Blue. There's an amazing build of an SB2C Helldiver elsewhere on the interwebs by a gentleman named Chuck Wojtkiewicz. The thread title was "Helldiver, all out build!" He used pale blue wash in the panel lines and dusty tan washes in the crevices. Later on he also used oil paint filters on the major panels.

I am deeply conflicted. On the one hand, I never want this build to end given the continual flow of marvels appearing from your work bench, but on the other hand I desperately need to see what it's going to look like when it's finished. On the gripping hand, we've all had an extremely wonderful treat to be able to watch this masterpiece take shape, and we can take comfort knowing that the Tigercat still isn't done yet. Nudge, nudge.

It might work, if the paint store can do pearlescent colours. You'd also need to be careful to get a true-colour rendering of the Etihad colour, and that may be difficult. You might also check out the car spray section in your local Halfords. They may have a pearlescent Ivory colour which might work for you.

Mike stopped making the sets for the Monogram kit after the Roden was issued. The only thing left in his catalogue is the cockpit set, because that'll fit either kit. Your best bet is to trawl evil-bay to find someone selling an old set, if you can find one

He should get sandpaper or sanding sticks. As a handy hint, you can get varying grades of nail files from the cosmetics section of your Drugstore/Chemist's for much cheaper than the equivalents in the hobby shop He'll also need a tube of putty to fill in the inevitable dings and gaps. Automotive glazing putty is again cheaper than the hobby putty sold in the hobby shop, but it has the disadvantage of being toxic. Vallejo Plastic Putty is spoken well of hereabouts and it has the bonus of being water soluble which means cleaning it up is easy. Tweezers to pick up the small bits are a also helpful. There are all sorts of guides to the essential tools spread around the internet. Here's one example.

Now all you need to do is to take it apart and make vacuform moulds from it

Paint a test patch and then compare it to numerous photos of Aeroflot aircraft. Remember that painted surfaces look different in differing lighting, and also that paint changes over time due to the effects of weather (airliners don't generally get to come in out of the rain) so your particular aircraft may indeed look like Lufthansa blue to you. Also, you can blend in varying amounts of white to lighten, or black to darken your Lufthansa blue to better match the colour of Aeroflot blue you see.

I can't tell you that, because Revell paints don't live on this side of the Atlantic. I used Testors spray silver and Humbrol # 15 on mine. It looks good enough for me. Remember, you're the final judge of your models. If you like them, that's the only opinion which counts.