jean

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT! JR

Hi Steve, the cockpit does indeed look great. Under a canopy it will look perfect once you have added some seat belts. Nowadays, with the zillions of after market decals, there is no need to stress any longer... unless you live where I live, of course. Enjoy the build. JR.

Hi everyone, I am back, after a break from the Beaufort plastic war. I was touched when Steve, aka @stevehnz offered to send me some after markets from Kiwiland for the Frog Beaufort. Well the postman delivered a small parcel with some Tasman goodies: a set of Beaufort Mk I engine cowlings and some Beaufort and Beaufighter wheels. I had never seen Tasman products: they actually do look good, but... they are in vacform... Of course, I have never in my life dealt with anything remotely vacformed. So, no pressure. Yesterday I decided to tackled the engine nacelles. After several deep breaths I went on trying to remove the excess plastic as carefully as possible. Surprise, I am not unhappy with the end result': In all fairness, the Tasman cowlings are a huge improvement on the original Frog parts (see photo above: the Frog part is on the right) The question mark is how to tackle the front opening in order to make it nice and circular. I can see CA glue and talcum powder coming into play, but it is likely to be slow work so as not to destroy the parts. After all, it would be terrible if, after surviving the vagaries of the African postal system, I ended up being the one destroying these goodies. So once more a big thank you to Steve. I am sure these nacelles will look great on the Beaufort. Thanks for watching. JR

Hi everyone, The P-51B is moving rather fast (for me...). I have lathered putty on the seams and sand papered the whole lot. Much nicer indeed. On the photo I was test fitting the windscreen, and the fit is pretty good: one worry less. So the primer stage is getting closer. Great. Enjoy your builds and thanks for watching. JR

It may not be new tool, but it is really nice and very well built. Congrats. JR

Please tell that to my wife! JR

Unlike many of you, I only ever built one Mustang: Tamiya 1/72 in the guise of Big Beautiful Doll. I am looking forward to add a second P-51!

Hi everyone, after a few hectic nights and days ambushing and capturing a group of poachers, I decided that criminal activities were not going to stop me finishing this kit as quickly as possible. So I did manage to glue the half fuselages, wings and tail surfaces, etc. Now, once I have worked on the joints, it will be time for the transparencies and the primer. I will even fit (or rather attempt to fit) an A.M. gunsight. A thoroughly useless gesture, but one which will give me a lot of pleasure. This hobby allows us to be weird... Here are two pictures of the Mustang: I really like this kit! Thanks for watching. JR

Hi, your cockpit looks first class. Is the seat an after market? Cheers JR

Hi everyone, I bluntly decided that I needed a kit completion, and quickly, in order to restore a slightly flagging mojo. So this P-51 is coming right on time. No re-scribing or other self-inflicted nasties. I hope to have it finished quickly, so I can go back to the three FROG kits that need taming down. Anyway, here is the cockpit, finished today. Hopefully by tomorrow the fuselage and wings will all be glued together. Thanks for watching. JR

Brilliant!!! Absolutely Beautiful. JR

an extremely precise and great looking build. Congrats! JR

Hi Fuad, this is an absolutely stunning model. All my congratulations. JR

A brilliant build! Congratulations!!! JR

Hi everyone, Despite being away quite a lot and being otherwise swamped with things I don't really want to do, lately I have managed to do a bit of work on the Typhoon. The Beaufort will have to wait a wee bit longer to move on. Well I am trying to finish the wings, before gluing them in place. I am quite peeved with myself, as after scratching the landing light from 3 mm thick plexiglass (because I had no idea where the 4 mm plexi had gone), I found the blasted 4 mm one. So one wing has the 3 mm, and the other one, the 4 mm. 4 mm is the correct width, but I will for once (!) cheat and finish both sides in 3 mm width. Again, who will know, beside all of you, of course. Here is a photo of both wings. The bottom one is the wing being worked on at the moment. Then add some structural details to the wheel wells, clean the re-scribing and glue the whole lot to the fuselage. Have fun! JR

Hi everyone, I have been too busy to spend much time modelling, but this kit has to be a quick build!!! Everything seems real good. So I started this morning to do a couple of little things. Glued the 3 part wings together. Glued as well the front and rear of each half fuselage. Thanks to Dennis @Corsairfoxfouruncle for his heads up, I reinforced the joint between both sections. This forced me to change the order advised on the notice, which asks us to glue both fronts and both rears together before joining them together. I don't like that order anyway at the best of time, so I was quite happy to follow Dennis's advice. I ended up with a microscopic step between front and rear (I must have have rushed it...), but that was easy enough to get rid of. A great little kit, really. JR

Great choice. I love the Swedish scheme... Decision, decision... Enjoy. JR

Hi, a great choice indeed. Re the checker decal behind the spinner, the best approach in my eyes, is to paint the yellow band (over a white base), and then cut the red squares on the decals before fitting the red decal squares, one at a time, over the yellow band. Neither painting the squares by hand nor trying to fit the kit's decal band are worth considering. Disaster would never be far away... Have fun! JR

Hi Pat, Doctor's orders: my next kit has to be OOB (or as close to it as my twisted mind allows). No re-scribing, no scratching, no nothing! Absolute bliss. And yes, all the parts are there. Rest assured that it is a one off. Cheers mate. JR

Hi again Pat, I seem to recall that the Heller P-51D is a very decent kit, when all has been said. The main cloud is the windscreen that is quite bad shape-wise. But I don't believe this will be a deal breaker as far as you are concerned. It will look splendid! JR

Excellent build. Congrats. JR

This kit look Yummy. I have never built an Eduard kit, and the more I see photos of them, the more I want one! That paint scheme is the one I have already chosen for my next P-51D kit. I love the Southern Cross on the rudder. Have fun. JR

Patrice, the day you see Pat even looking a an Airfix, Hasegawa or worse, a Tamiya kit, you will know the end of the world is nigh. Just keep feeding him pre-Middle Ages kits, and all will be well. Nod and smile at him. Easy! And as always, just make sure he keeps taking his pills. JR

Hi Pat, you missed the most important warning: "NOT FOR CHILDREN"... And you still want to try and build it? Is that a lollipop in the top right of the sachet or a wheel and undercarriage leg? And just for you to have more fun, I seem to see that butt joints reign supreme! All I can say, once more, is: Enjoy! Cheers mate. JR

As you can read by the profiles, this is likely to have been the only P-51B/Mustang III received by 450 Squadron for conversion training. The end of the war put a stop to any more Mustangs reaching the squadron. So the airframe I have chosen to build is not per se an operational aircraft, but as it is the only option i have, using fool-proof decals, I cannot be choosy. It will look good and sometimes it is so nice not to have the choice. No angst about which plane to build... Beautiful! Have fun! JR