Stew Dapple

Sorry to hear about your brother Dennis, my commiserations. The plane's looking very nice now, transfers soon I guess? Cheers, Stew

We had snow in Dundee, a good couple of inches in a couple of hours on Saturday morning, wasn't on the BBC forecast at all. Great, however, because I didn't have to go anywhere Pretty severe frost again overnight so the snow's all frozen hard now. Cheers, Stew

Hi Bob, The short story is "and then it was moved to the Shelf of Doom". The longer version... well, I basically lost a lot of momentum when I was signed off work with a lung problem; I find it hard to believe now that I had two whole months of not working and I didn't do any modelling, but I wasn't feeling all that great and was on some quite "interesting" pain-killers which weren't really conducive to anything except sleeping or sitting slack-jawed on the sofa. When I eventually did get back to the bench I got to the stage of applying primer only to find that the majority of the seams I thought I had eliminated made a triumphant comeback. At that point I decided I simply couldn't be bothered with it any more "and then it was moved to the Shelf of Doom". It wasn't so much the seams as the amount of time I spent not building it, I have found if I don't keep plugging away at a kit my enthusiasm for it evaporates and once that happens then (shameful experience shows that) there's not much chance of my ever going back to it and finishing it. So my apologies gentlemen, but this one's been a bust for me. Cheers, Stew

Here's my latest completion, the Dragon 1/32 Bf110D-3 (or D-0 as listed in the gruppe paperwork), it is marked as one of the aircraft used by Erprobungsgruppe 210 in the summer of 1940. ... and a whitewall tyred tailwheel. I'm not sure if it was prototypical, there aren't many pictures of the original aircraft but it does look like there might be one and it was reasonably common: I used the same aftermarket as for my recent Bf110c-6 (apart from the AIMS conversion set obviously). Paints were Colourcoats ACLW12 - RLM Grau (RLM 02) for the interiors, ACLW03 - Hellblau (RLM 65) for the undersides and the top surface camo was ACLW11 - Dunkelgrun (RLM71) and ACLW12 - RLM Grau (RLM 02) - again it's hard to be sure from photographs but the D-0's of Epr.Gr.210 look to have quite a soft demarcation so may have been repainted at unit level. The blue on the prop spinners was a mix of Citadel acrylic blues mixed as close as I could to the blue on the aircraft code letter. Markings were a mixture of decals from the Revell re-pop of the kit and the squadron markings were from the Kagero Battle of Britain decal set kindly donated by our late forum-buddy Silver Fox. Thanks for dropping by Cheers, Stew

To be followed by a "The Duellists" set with King Kong Edit: Ah, damn my failing memory, it was the Empire State Building, wasn't it. That joke fell flat Cheers, Stew

There was definitely variation, I've built a C-6 from EprGr.210 and photographs of the aircraft show the fuselage recess for the gun and a semi-circular cutaway in the rearward pane of the gunner's canopy so that the gun could be used without opening up the rear canopy. It may only have been a 'field modification' at that stage but enough photo's exist of Bf110's in flight with the gun deployed (and the gunner's canopy closed) to suggest it was at least not that unusual The trough/recess was also faired over in some cases. HTH. Cheers, Stew

Talk softly and carry a big gun. Here's my latest completion, the Revell (ex-Dragon) Bf110C, with the AIMS conversion set used to modify it into the C-6 version with the 30mm MK.101 cannon and marked as one of the aircraft used by Erprobungsgruppe 210 in the summer of 1940. To the base kit and conversion were added the Quickboost exhausts, Red Fox Studios 3D instruments and radio gear fronts,the HGW seatbelts and interior/exterior mask set and LF models mask for the camouflage pattern. Revell re-jigged the Dragon instruction sheet which made it easier to follow but included quite a few errors, omissions and just-plain-headscratching assembly choices; I did my best with it and deviated where I thought it prudent and I pretty much got away with it I think. I found building the kit to be absorbing, at times a bit frustrating, but overall I enjoyed it to the extent that I have started on a second one, and now have a third in the stash (the Hobby 2000 Bf110D). Mistakes were made. Some of my work was down to its usual shonky standard and the camouflage pattern on the port side is just wrong, I made the mistake of thinking it would be possible to fit the wings right at the end and only realised then that I had obviously misplaced some of the camouflage masks. Still, in the end I got it finished and that's a long-awaited one off my 1/32 bucket list. Paints were Colourcoats ACLW12 - RLM Grau (RLM 02) for the interiors, ACLW03 - Hellblau (RLM 65) for the undersides and the top surface camo was ACLW02 – Schwarzgrun and ACLW11 - Dunkelgrun (RLM71). The blue on the prop spinners was a mix of Citadel acrylic blues mixed as close as I could to the blue on the aircraft code letter. Oh yes, one more for scale: Cheers, Stew

Thanks Rich, it is quite a substantial model I remembered to fit the joystick to the upper wing interior: ... before adding the fuselage to the wings: It's going to need a smear of filler along the wing-to-fuselage joins as well as the engine nacelles - but nothing too drastic I hope. Cheers, Stew

Thanks Max, I've used it before for the same purpose and got pretty good results Hopefully the same will apply this time Thanks John, to be honest I'm not sure, my stock of Alclad is running down so for some time I've been consolidating the remains of what was left in one bottle There's definitely some White Aluminium, some Dark Aluminium and some Stainless Steel, but I'm not sure they were the only ones, and what the proportions are now is anybody's guess... Thanks Alan, also good for oleo struts (if that is the correct terminology for the shiny part of the undercarriage leg) but it can be problematic getting it to conform to a tight curve; for the landing light backing there is no such issue of course Cleaning up the wings took a lot longer than I thought, the leading edges had seam lines that were stubbornly resistant to a cosmetic fix and demanded proper filling and sanding. My two least-favourite modelling things. However once that was done, I got the engine nacelles put together: Again, these needed some filling and sanding to eliminate (or at least hopefully eliminate) the seams. I used Aluminium for the gear bays as well, but if you follow the paint call-outs in the instructions you would do these Interior Grey-green, so that's up to you to decide After that I got the engine pods fitted to the wings: It's not really visible in the picture, but guess what? They're going to need some filling and sanding Cheers, Stew

Thanks very much gents It is, isn't it? A very advanced looking aircraft for the time too; if I didn't know better I could believe it was a late-war design So on to the wings, then, The internal structure of the radiators is well represented - I went for painted aluminium again rather than the cockpit green recommended in the instructions, I'm not sure that I'm right about it but it seems more in keeping with the time: From the back view you get a better impression of the eight-speaker sound system fitted in each wing that gave the Luftwaffe such a turn, with your drum'n'bass mix-tape on you could rattle the windows of the German dispersal huts in a single pass : I stuck some Aluminium tape on the inside of the upper wing to provide a nice shiny backing for the landing lights when they are fitted: The inside of the lower wing provides further interior detail: ... and the wing halves were joined, They'll need a bit of work on the leading edge outer sections, but otherwise fit well enough: I'll attend to that before adding the engine pods Cheers, Stew

Thanks for the suggestions gents; I found I had a section rather sturdy hard plastic tube, which fitted perfectly over the cannon barrels, so I fitted that and can remove and re-attach as necessary: I fitted the sliding hood to the canopy: ... and assembled the stabilisers/elevators and attached them: That's about as far as I can go with the fuselage at the moment (I'm not such a damned fool as to try attaching the inverted-L-shaped pitot to the tip of the tail just yet), so I'll make a start on the wings... Cheers, Stew

Thank you gents, yes it's nice to be able to get back to the bench even if it's mostly been tinkering for a half hour or so here and there There are a few parts to be added to the inside of the cockpit hood, I have to admit sticking plastic parts to clear parts is not my favourite thing in the whole world, but the back end of the hood support strut is fortunately covered by canopy framing - the two parts in the lower picture go each side of the rear of the hood; I'm not sure if the moulded recesses are meant to be actual holes but if they are neither Special Hobby nor I made them as such, I couldn't be bothered to drill them out so I just dripped some black wash in them: Those parts have since been fitted with some Gator's Grip glue so hopefully no traces of adhesive will show from the outside. I fitted the rudder, I deflected it slightly to port in an effort to disguise my shoddy join which was partially successful: I added the gunsight (you can't see it here) then added the front part of the canopy to protect the sight from accidental removal during handling. This commendable caution did not extend far enough to prevent me fitting the R/T mast, my excuse for this is that the attachment point is a tiny little hole that I feared I may never see again once the kit is primed and painted. At least if the mast is knocked off after that, there will be an unpainted spot to mark where to glue it back on Finally I added the nose cone (pretty good fit, not perfect) and the CMK resin cannons - these are a straight swap for the kit parts. There was a small amount of flash around the cannon apertures, in removing this I may have enlarged the openings rather more than I should have - to be honest I have not since dared to look at a picture of the front end of the Whirlwind because if I have over-enlarged the holes there isn't a lot I can do about it now. The CMK cannons are a little more delicate-looking and are an improvement on the kit parts but have given me an added level of fear of something else I might break off before I'm done. Still, we are where we are, as they say Cheers, Stew

Thanks very much gents, I've made a bit of progress on the Whirlwind (I'va actually made a bit more progress than the following picture suggests but need to take some more photos and update the thread properly)... I got round to sanding the seams on the fuselage halves, this was a longer job than expected as it needed work practically all the way round due to my poor alignment skills when joining the fuselage halves: I'm hoping with a coat of primer/microfiller that will prove sufficient Cheers, Stew

On the forum I try to write as I speak, but without all the effing and jeffing At work, I try to write as if I were speaking to a rather slow two-year old. But without all the effing and jeffing Got away with both so far Cheers, Stew

Nice to hear from you mate, and glad the family are thriving in their own manner Cheers, Stew