Stew Dapple

Could you vague that up a bit for me? I hate being bombarded with technical details So, what sort then? Cheers, Stew

And another vote for separate hubs please

I think I remember seeing that on t.v. - I'm sure it was called "Granny gets the point". In the film she said to the boy "If you can't decide which [model] you'd like I'd better get you both". Totally unrealistic, they had obviously never met either of my grannies Cheers, Stew

Happy Birthday Mr.T And a Happy Birthday to Dennis @spitfire too

Hello gents Here's my first completion of 2025, a Christmas present from my Dad, the Tamiya P-38F Lightning, representing White 33 of the 39th Fighter Squadron based at Port Moresby, New Guinea in late 1942: The kit has a bit of a reputation of being a lovely build and I'm pleased to say that reputation is well-deserved, there are some really nice engineering choices made so you get a nice easy build of a well-detailed kit. The majority of the parts fit just like Lego, things just click into place and if you are the sort of modeller who likes to get elbow-deep in putty and solve problems... well this may not be the kit for you There are various part options detailing the difference between the F and G variants and markings for a G are also included in the kit. I didn't quite go OOB on it; I bought the Eduard T-Face mask set for the canopy (becaused I like them) and the Eduard resin wheel set (because I don't like trying to hide the central seam on diamond-tread tyres, and the detail on the Eduard wheels is really nice). I painted the aicraft in Colourcoats US Olive Drab 41 over US Neutral Gray 43, with US Interior Green for the internals, US True Blue for the propeller spinners and AK Extreme Metal Matt Aluminium for the wheelbays, with the detail painting in various Vallejo and Citadel acrylics. I used the kit transfers, I feel that in a way they are the weak spot of the kit, being a bit thick (I know, pot, kettle, black) and some of them were frankly rather strange (yes all right) - like the ones used to represent the cooling holes in the .50 cal barrels... however when all was varnished with AK Ultra Matte they look fine. And finally, I got another outing for the Coastal Kits 'Japanese airfield' display background for the photos Thanks for your attention Cheers, Stew

Ed, apologies for butting in Duncan, air accident report is here Cheers, Stew

That's a beautiful display and two lovely models A little spooky too, I'm currently building the Airfix Vampire and planning to do the same scheme; I was talking to my Dad about it at the weekend - he was in Holywells Park at the time of the crash. I hope mine turns out as well as yours has Cheers, Stew

Smells nicer than sulphur, at least Glad you got some benchtime in mate, it's looking good, keep at it Cheers, Stew

How lovely to see you back mate, I am seriously chuffed, you have been missed Hard to believe a child so angelic in appearance could be on her way to becoming an ace already (Mis)fortunes notwithstanding, it's great to see you back at the bench and I wish you a satisfying and successful redemptive build... Cheers, Stew

Turned out a beauty Dennis, hope you have a nice relaxing Hasegawa New Year build Cheers, Stew

Brits can't help you here Dennis, it's Kiwi-talk, about equivalent to 'out in the boonies' perhaps for you or 'out in the sticks' for me Cheers, Stew

Nice work Volker, that's a very attractive scheme very nicely done indeed Cheers, Stew

Season's greetings gents Here's my output for 2024, nine completions in total, all aircraft and mostly 1/48 scale. Bit of a funny year really as I didn't have much that I wanted to build or much in the way of mojo with which to build it, but I wanted to keep building stuff because if you don't... well then you just stop and that can last ages. So, aside from the Mossie which I build for my Dad, I just picked kits that I liked the look of, or had a reputation for being nice to build, or had interesting paint schemes, or had easy paint schemes... and so here we are. First up was Revell's 1/32 Arado Ar196A-3: RFI is here Second in was Tamiya's 1/48 De Havilland Mosquito PR.IV: RFI is here Third was Tamiya's 1/48 Mitsubishi Ki-46-III 'Dinah': RFI is here Fourth was Tamiya's 1/48 Vought F4U-1D Corsair: RFI is here Fifth was Tamiya (again) with their 1/48 Bristol Beaufighter VI: RFI is here Which was followed by number six, the Airfix 1/48 Curtiss Tomahawk IIb: RFI is here Seventh was Airfix again, their 1/48 Boulton Paul Defiant: RFI is here Number eight was Eduard's lovely 1/48 Hawker Tempest II: RFI is here ... and finally, number nine is Hasegawa's 1/48 Bell P-400 Airacobra: RFI is here So on reflection not my most productive year but I'm pleased to have finished a handful of kits this year. If I had to play favourites I'd pick the Eduard Tempest, the paint job's a bit boring but it was a really nice kit to build, complex without being difficult. Anyway thanks for your time gents, hope you had a good year and have a happy and productive 2025 Cheers, Stew

Oops, sorry mate Hope I haven't put you off, it was a mostly pleasant build Cheers, Stew

Hello Gents, Here's my ninth and last completion of 2024, Hasegawa's Bell P-400 Airacobra in the markings of the 67th Fighter Squadron based at Henderson Field (and later at its satellite field known as the "Cow pasture" on Guadalcanal in 1942: The kit was fairly straightforward in the Hasegawa manner, I did't much like the representation of the wing and cowl guns - the former seemed too big and the latter too small, also the spinner gun looks more like a scaled-up .50cal than a 20mm Hispano; the 'car-doors' fit okay but kept popping ajar, resulting in some unlovely glue marks and the transfers - god, don't get me started on the transfers - didn't like hot water (broke up) didn't like cold water (broke up) and weren't all that keen on warm water (broke up). I spent ages mixing an off-white for the wingtips and spinner to match the white of the transfers on the sheet only to find the white was vaguely translucent and became darker and greyer when applied to the kit. However apart from that I enjoyed it, it was a nice relatively hassle-free build and it cost me a smidge over £20 delivered from Models for Sale. It may have been an original release and perhaps the age of the decals gives a bit of excuse for their poor performance, I used the Eduard mask set and Quickboost resin exhausts, apart from that it was OOB. I used Colourcoats US Equivalent colours for the outside - Du Pont Dark Green, Dark Earth and Sky which are distinctly different to the MAP colours but only if you put them next to each other. In fairness to Du Pont they made a better colour match of the RAF colours than some model paint companies I did the interior in Bronze Green and was going to use the same for the landing gear but after seeing some contemporary colour photos on the Asisbiz site I used Olive Drab for the landing gear. I finished with AK Ultra Matte varnish as a shiny plane on Guadalcanal felt like it might be wrong somehow. Thanks for your attention, Cheers, Stew