Terry1954

Good luck Bill. As a number of us said earlier in this thread, we are right behind you! Terry

Beautiful work. Marineflieger F-104's are my favourite of the type .............. must have been due to my miss-spent youth watching and being completely dumb struck by the Vikings F-104 duo at various air shows! Terry

Still awaiting the arrival of a resin Jupiter engine which, depending on how it looks, might involve me chopping off the white metal one. A decision to be made for sure. I may first try and see what the existing one looks like with the cylinders airbrushed and some dark pin wash on them. Might not look too bad and if that is the case, the replacement Jupiter can be used for another project! Meanwhile some clean up and further detail added There is some complex strut work to do as I have decided to go for the @TheBaronapproach and at least construct the Cabane struts from brass. I think these would not only look good but give some much needed inherent strength at the core of the upper wing/fuselage join. Time for very accurate measurements and some drawings I think. I also need to go firm on a colour scheme. There are a few colourful choices for RAF machines, and of course there is @Moa's subtle suggestion of a civil scheme......... More soon Terry

Very nice work in the "office" there Giorgio. Terry

Thanks! Definitely an uphill struggle but very enjoyable. Should have some update pics in a day or so. Terry

Joining this at the end it seems Roger, but a very nice interlude from aviation! Lovely if not unusual subject. I'm having an AFV break myself here with an AMX-13. It's always good to vary things I think. Nice work on this one. Terry

This is becoming like Triggers broom! I'm most impressed with your determination Bill. She'll look the biz when all done I know it. Terry

Hi Werner, I've just seen this and your earlier Leopard 1A3. They both look really superb. I especially like the subtle weathering, it suits modern tanks very well I think, but more realistic for me are the subtle touches like the occasional differing hub colours on this one and the slightly different panel shades on the side of the 1A3. Although I really like them both, this one, the 1A% is my absolute favourite. I am looking for a Meng 1A5 myself at the moment, but they seem very rare and thus very expensive. Thanks for sharing Terry

The seats look really good from inside and out. Excellent thread. Terry

You did indeed, although I hasten to add it never actually left Swanage station to make the journey up the hill to my house, so I only caught a glimpse when I passed by the station! I never realised that, interesting. I'll have to seek out said Xtracrylic and give that one a try. I should add that I rarely use pure black on models even for stuff that is supposed to be, like tyres or radomes, even whole airframes. Always mix a tad grey or brown in for good measure! Terry

Yes the original is just the same as the first one above, sitting below the keyboard, as opposed to the second one above, below that, sitting above the keyboard! Always like to bring clarity to a thread.

Looking very window like in a good way! By the way, the original which @CedB and I couldn't see is actually fine now, for me anyway. Very odd. Terry

It's not a bad kit Roger considering its age. Glad to have you on board! Thanks John. They are indeed worlds apart! I wonder if I can get the model to the point that people ask me if it's the Takom version at shows! 😜 Terry

I might consider that, although I'm pretty pleased with the colours as they are currently, when compared to the photographs I have. I am very much an advocate of some scale colour effects, so I'll do some experiments "off model"! Thanks Terry

So many takers for your resin parts Neil, we are on page 2 already! I think you are on to a winner here. Terry

Yes I see that also Ced. Terry

Thanks Stuart. Its a scheme I particularly like, and over time I plan an F-4 and and F-14 in the same scheme. I even believe the F-86's in Iranian service wore it towards the end. Terry

Thanks! It does seem very popular. I get lots of comments when seen at shows. Terry

But there may always be an exception, and Giorgio has found it! Terry

A quick further update. Engine area has been airbrushed first with Alclad Dark Aluminium, followed by a dusting of Alclad Transparent Smoke. Looking better now. The keen eyed should be able to see some vertical "rivet" lines which I added a while back with a pin wheel. I'm hoping they will show up tyowards the end with a subtle wash. Thanks for looking. More soon Terry

Make that three of us! Terry

I don't know how I missed this build. Excellent stuff all round. Will follow with much interest now. Terry

I like that stressed skin technique .............. a lot! Terry

Time for another AFV build. I have a couple of aircraft on the go (Gloster Gamecock and Northrop F-5E) as well as an Airfix Vosper MTB, but I like to have an AFV on the go also! I started this kit a while back after completing the Accurate Armour M41DK project which had been my first AFV build in over 30 years. For those interested in that, the RFI is here: So to the kit. I picked up a rather battered version of the Heller kit a few years ago at Euro militaire. I think I paid around £5 for it. This one comes with Swiss Army marking and also contains the fitting and missiles for an SS11 equipped vehicle. It's a typical Heller kit of it's time, but looked like it could be built into something decent with a bit of effort. I rather like the AMX-13 and always had a fascination for it in my youth, so since picking this one up I also acquired these two beautiful examples from Takom: I have plans for those in the future, they really are superb kits, and do tend to emphasise the Heller offerings age. However, I do like a challenge............... So I will be helped along the way by a track set I picked up also, to replace the Heller vinyl tracks. The rest will have to be improved by scratch detail and hard graft! I didn't start to record the build until quite recently, so here is where we are at the moment. Hull is largely complete, together with suspension components: I've coloured the inside of the vision blocks and plan to use some Clearfix to add the glass, which will then be masked out for painting. If the Clearfix idea fails, I'll just fill then in and paint to represent dark glass.......? The turret needed some internal bracing to hold it all together. In addition I decided to improve on the kit supplied gun/turret canvas seal by using a fair dose of Mulliput sculpted to blend in and represent what I have observed in a number of pictures. The close up view shows there is still a bit of smoothing/sanding to be done, but I'm pretty pleased with the effect. Before completing the basis hull, the right hand side requires the exhaust system to be assembled and installed. I wanted to try and show a bit of a rusted effect so after assembling the basis unit, I stippled it with Mr Surfacer plus some polystyrene cement and dabbed the surface to create a slightly pitted effect. This came out looking like this: Next came an airbrush coat of mixed brown/red, followed by some MIG rust pigment dust. Pretty please with the end result, not too rusty and corroded but fairly typical in service example I think. So as of this afternoon, this is where we are: A long way to go yet, but I'm fairly pleased with progress so far. I'd originally intended to do an IDF AMX from around the six day war, but I'm also tempted by a French Army version during the Suez crisis. More soon Terry

Further to @Shalako's comment on the colour, my main reference source (apart from the actual FS numbers quoted on the decal sheet I am using) came from the excellent book I mentioned above. The pictures below are taken from the book and are either the authors credits or IRIAF sources. I think you will agree the colours do look pretty close And a nice comparison shot with an IRIAF F-4E More soon Terry