Steve Coombs

Vallejo Metal Color over gloss black primer works nicely for me (admittedly, I build planes rather than ground transport). Some Vallejo Model Varnish on top, and Bob's your uncle. I used the Metal Color to brush-paint some bits and pieces on a Warhammer 40K character not so long ago (a few drops in a dimpled palette, given a stir every now and then - the colour particles soon settle otherwise) and sealed the work with some Gunze varnish. That worked a treat too. I'll try to get my hands on some of the AK paints at a show this weekend and see how they work, but the Metal Color range works for me.

That looks very nice indeed. Did you make any changes to the nose cone?

I wondered if it were an F-94 Starfire.

Not just any old F-111. Isn't that an ill-fated B model to the left of the Phantoms and Crusaders?

Slow electrons, probably.

Do you mean this, perhaps? https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X48204

I would hope so. Then Revell might be encouraged to repop its GR 4 kit, which isn't in the current catalogue. This would also be an ideal opportunity to ensure the LRMTS glazing is on the transparent sprue from the start. We could also dream of a decent ordinance sprue (ironically, irrelevant for the OSD display birds) including usable Sidewinders.

Don't get me started on tanks. Some 40-odd years ago I had a phase of building Airfix ones (an absolute steal at 5p a pop from the local Post Office, no less), and all was well until Mum gave some of them to my three-year old cousin to play with, thinking they were some of the sturdy Dinky diecast metal kits I'd also built around that time. I haven't built a tank since.

Ah. Nankers (the Old Horse) was one of the stalwarts of BFBS Germany back in the day, and referred to most things as some variation or other of parts.

Laarparts? Do I detect the dulcet tones of Nankers there?

Argh! Don't throw the kit away, get a bottle of nail varnish remover, preferably without acetone, and swab the paint off to get back a nice clean surface. The stuff works a treat on acrylics.

You know it makes sense!

Well, if you've built a Jaguar, the Phantom has to be XV422, doesn't it?

I hope Hannants/Xtradecal is on the case!

Let's just tactfully say she didn't like the hobby.

Lovely build there. I built a 56 Sqn sharkmouth machine some 25 years back, using Modeldecals for the details. My ex managed to drop a vacuum cleaner on it (don't ask how).

Oh, yes! Those sheets are in the library, and there's a fresh Revell F-104G in the stash...

Perhaps I am an oddball, but I enjoy applying the small stuff. Nobody else probably gives a damn but I know it's there!

Nice work so far! I've got one of these on the go at the moment and have just wrestled the undercarriage into submission, having gone off-piste from the instructions by installing the cockpit first.

Whatever that picture is of on the first side of the instructions, it isn't a Tiger Moth!

Shiny! The old Airfix DH.88 was the first kit I ever built solo. No comparison!

It takes a little while for new Airfix goodies to get to my neck of the woods. With the release of the Phantom FGR2 and now this Hunter kit (for which I already have a suitable stash of Xtradecals), I imagine I will have to take a blue IKEA bag to the model exhibition in Zeiskam, which also tends to have goodies released just after the Nuremberg (Nämberch!) Toy Fair , in early March.

I anticipate I may make a similar error.

Please be careful with those mass balances. In my first attempt at this kit, I snapped the stem of one during clean-up and pinged the other one off into the Quantum Realm. The replacements, made of wire and built-up blobs of superglue, did the trick nicely.

Is the blade root plastic sufficiently thick to bore a hole for a thin length of wire as a pin to secure it? You might knock a blade again, but it would probably bend rather than break.