Raven Morpheus

Use a McDonalds style straw, hold it against the nozzle and let the paint flow down it. It's nice and easy that way.

XF-70 Dark Green 2 might be the one - http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/60309zero/zero.htm Why not decant the paint from the spray can though?

Hey all I'm getting a little frustrated with my local posties, as they can't seem to deliver 1 small pot of Tamiya Gloss White (presumably the package is bigger than my letterbox but I don't seem to be around when the postie is), which I need primarily at the moment for my Porsche 917/10 build - the lack of it has halted the build as it's pretty much the only colour I have to put down before I start decaling... So, could I just get away with using matt white plus a gloss varnish layer (probably Klear) or will it look different to the gloss white plus gloss varnish? TIA

1/32 Airfix Porsche 917K - can't find any on evilbay, or anywhere else, for a reasonable price inc. shipping! Basically any decent Can-Am/LM24hr cars of the 70's to go with my 1/32 Porsche 917/10 would be nice.

Added some of the rear frame tubing and painted all the bits I've added with Tamiya Chrome Silver -

Couple of updated pics to show the rest of the framework I've added on the front end. Just need to tidy up the green stuff a little, and perhaps add a little here and there, and it should all be ready for painting, which will probably be a nightmare... My reference pics -

Ok so I had a go today at creating the framework in the front end, mostly using the overhead shot with the car minus the bodywork in the Speedhunters article and another picture taken from the front of the L&M car... It's not 100% accurate, and I'm not entirely convinced all the crossover/meeting points are dead in the middle, which they should be, but it's an approximation and as best as I can do given what I'm working with. Need to finish it off (mostly green stuff work at the joints to simulate welding and then paint), add some more at either side at the front also, and then I'll start on adding to the rear frame which I'm sure is missing a few tubes. Oh, and the front bodywork still fits! I'll also be closing up those two "luggage" compartments with flat slabs of styrene sheet, as on the real car that's where the doors are and the surfaces are flat. I don't like the way the driver figure sits though, his feet seem to be too high, I need to sand his back/bottom down a bit anyway as his head is a little too high. I might also have a go at making a pedal set but I'm not confident of doing it well. I may also put a couple of bits of styrene rod in the rest of the cockpit to approximate the parts of the tubular frame in there, but I'm not sure there's enough room now I've stuck the seats down...

Probably a bit late at this stage to be scratchbuilding stuff but I've found a more close up photo of the front framework, close enough that I can make out most of it and combined with the top down pic of the car without bodywork in the Speedhunters article I feel I can have a go at replicating that framework. As luck would have it I have some 1mm styrene rod which is the same diameter, or appears to be, as the rear tubular frame parts so it shouldn't look too out of scale (it is a bit bendy and flimsy though). I'll also try adding a couple of parts that are quite obviously missing from the rear frame also. I might be able to have the front body work removable...

Hey all So, beginning of this year, or a couple of months in, I bought a H&S Ultra. Having only ever bought el-cheapo Chinese airbrushes (including a slightly more expensive (at £25 instead of £12) Veda airbrush) I can safely say the H&S Ultra is like night and day and well worth the £60-£70 I paid for it. I've had no problems with it that I haven't been able to resolve so far with just normal cleaning. And that's more than can be said of my Chinese el-cheapo's which kept breaking down on me after 6 months or so, i.e. every other model or two... However, what I miss from the el-cheapo Chinese airbrushes is the needle stop function, the bit on the end you screw in so the needle only moves a certain distance, i.e. you can't pull the trigger all the way back. I know not many parts of the other H&S range are compatible with the Ultra but can I get say an Evolution back end with a needle stop on it and swap it? TIA

Body work is undercoated. Rather than use Vallejo Model Air Grey Surface Primer (which is what I have been using and not having good results with if I get the subsequent paint layers wrong and have to strip the model...) I used Vallejo Model Air Gris Claro, or Light Grey, #050. It worked fine for me on a 1/48 Huey and a couple of other models and it sprays lovely. Probably Vallejo's best paint for spraying straight from the bottle in the model air range. I have masked over the two intake grills on the rear, they'll get painted flat aluminium and gone over with a black ink wash, hopefully the detail is deep enough to take the paint layer and the ink wash... Need to do a little touch up on the top part of the bulkhead where I was holding it in my "helping hands" tool though. The top part of the wing (believe that might be called a Gurney flap?) needs removing from the runner. Minor things though. Now I just need to get a nice smooth even layer of Tamiya X-2 Gloss White, when it arrives, Royal Fail this morning failed to deliver it, will have to wait until Tuesday now unless I venture out in the heat to my local sorting office, grr...

More progress made this afternoon/evening - Yes, I left the Lesney/Matchbox stamp and the number on the seat showing, you won't see either of those once the bodywork is on. Wheels might not be straight, I think, as the wheel hubs don't seem to have gone on straight. Also ignore the wooden toothpick piece between the turbo intake manifolds, it's there to hold them apart while the glue sets in a couple of places.

This is the kit, the box art varies and it was also issued by AMT in the US with the actual L&M Penske livery, but this is the boxing I have - Ok, so first up this is not an all singing all dancing Tamiya =>1/24 kit or a MFH kit (oh how I wish I could afford one of those), but I bought it because I had one, along with an E Type of a similar scale, when I was about 15, some 24 years ago, and I made a mess of it. The kit itself is even older than that... This is the only car I've done since. So with that in mind, and the fact it's an old and not very detailed kit, please don't expect too much from it. I'm sure it's nowhere near the class of kit seen regularly on these pages, nor are my skills, but I bought it because I love the 60's/70's era Can Am and Le Mans cars, I had this as a kid, and wanted to make a half decent attempt of it seeing as I botched it first time around... Most of my source pictures come from this article on Speedhunters - http://www.speedhunters.com/2013/06/face-to-face-with-the-destroyer-porsche-917-10-canam/ I'll be using the kit decals, which I believe are fictional/erroneous for this car, being of a Martini Racing livery found on either a 917/20 or 917/30, driven by Herbert Muller, or based on the 1971 #3 Vic Elford Martini Racing 917K, winner of the Sebring 12hrs that year. Just in case the decals don't play ball (they are 30 odd years old) I will be keeping the main bodywork white, so that if I need to I can buy decals for the L&M livery and use those instead... Apologies for the blurriness and quality of the photos, they were only quick ones and not my best... The start (to the point where I needed to start painting stuff, the white piece of bodywork in the tub is not fixed in place) - Some time later (after some rudimentary airbrushing and hairy sticking) - Wheels (have a couple of stubbon pieces of blu tack to remove from the wheel hub on the bottom right) Rear frame (upside down) Engine (minus 2 parts that I need to paint/attach, you can see those in the first picture) Tub (needs more painting but the aluminium colour is done) Not sure I have the colouring right on the various bits of pipe work on the engine, but I'll see in proper light what it looks like, these photos were taken under a daylight bulb... It'll get a coat of matt varnish anyway to dull down the shininess. The Tamiya Flat Aluminium on the tub seems to be drying rather slowly at the front, or it's gone glossy, which is quite odd. It'll get a gloss coat anyhow. The chrome on the wheels and tubular frame has come out rather well, should look great when it's got a coat of gloss varnish on it, I'm quite pleased with how that's turned out although I can't help feeling I should have at least left the original kit "chrome" on the wheels... The tubular frame in the kit seems a bit lacking, or possibly even incorrect (even though I have a couple of parts still to add to it), so I would like to take some 1mm styrene rod (although that might be too thick) and create the part of the tubular frame that's in the front end of the tub, so that I can have the front body work loose as well as the back and perhaps also add some of the rear tubular frame that is missing, but I have no scale drawings of the framework and don't really know where to start, so I might not do that and just have the front bodywork glued on as per the kit instructions. Which is a real shame because this kit is crying out for a little bit more detail, especially in the front. I do plan on drilling out the two grey bits at the end of the pipe that connects to the central exhausts - they are what I assume are the turbo intakes on the real car. Can't believe they were moulded solid when the exhausts aren't!?!

That's what I suspected. I wonder why 1/32 has become almost a slot car only scale? Anyhow thanks for the tips guys I'll keep on looking. Think I'll have to go 1/24th though.

Hey all Just wondering, because I'm feeling like adding a couple of cars to my "wishlist" to go with my 1/32 Matchbox Porsche 917/10 that I started today, what's out there in 1/32 in terms of cars that would go with the aforementioned car? Kind of thinking other 1/32 Porsche race cars from the 70's/80's and/or 1/32 Can-Am cars or 1/32 Le Mans cars, of the same era (the 70's) as the 917/10. I've been googling with no luck, all I get is results about slot cars!?! Could it be that 1/32 is not a good scale for race cars, with only a handful of examples, by companies like Matchbox, decades ago?

At approximately 18:00 I had an Apache fly over the house I live at, circle round, fly over again, circle round, fly over again, rinse and repeat for 10 minutes. No idea what he/she/they were doing. It was probably no more than 100ft off the deck, certainly lower than those A-10's and at one point it was directly over my head. I could have had a video of it at the point it flew over if I'd have pressed record on my mobile. Doh!!! I can't work out what an Apache would have been doing circling over the area where the house I live at is though? Very odd. We're about 30 miles from Wattisham where they're based, and we're about 20 miles away from Stansted Airport - the only two big "points of interest" nearby that I know of.

Thanks guys Still not sure which to get, but I know I'll add one to my wish list. Still not keen on the T.11 (I just don't like the shape of the cockpit area due to it being a 2 seater) but it is the newer pop of all the kits. Knowing me though I'll probably end up getting a 1/48 Trumpeter FB.5 because it's cheap, doesn't have raised panel lines, isn't resin (I'm not confident of making a good fist of a resin kit - I managed to snap the end off a M134 barrel I used on my UH-1C whilst removing the waste block on the end of it, and had to "repair" it using green stuff) and 1/48 is more of a reasonable size for me.

I bought a cheap professional photography backdrop off of ebay. Don't have enough room to hang it all up though (it's about 10ft long by 3ft wide) and it's got folds in it, probably needs an iron going over it, seems to be made of some sort of still fabric and isn't all that easy to roll up. Does the job though. Although I could do better if I had room for proper lighting.

Yes, like a "green screen" background used in films/tv. Thought about getting a bright green cloth also. Might be going too far though, just want something better to use as a stand than a glass tumbler.

I was toying with the idea of a rod on a base (after a further think about this since posting the thread), that's how Polar Lights do their display stands for stuff like the USS Enterprise NCC 1701. But yeah it would leave a hole. I wonder if I could attach a magnet, hidden inside the model (using something like JB Weld), room allowing, and a magnet on top of the the rod (again using something like JB Weld)? Probably won't help with models I've already built though. But I could then when I build a new model just stick it on top of the rod as and when I want to photograph it. I've got a Polar Lights display base with my 1/1000 Enterprise Refit kit, and some strong neodymium magnets the size of a 5 pence piece that I can test that idea with, I even have a test kit I can use in the form of a 1/72 FW190 (by some obscure eastern european company). That sounds too easy though, I must be overlooking something...

Yes may have been those. All I saw were a pair of silver coloured twin boom jets in a very similar shape to the Vampire moving very fast (compared to what I normally see overhead) heading what I think was NNE over my house. North Weald makes sense though as I'm in NW Essex about an hour away on the A120/M11 according to Google Maps. Didn't have time to spot any markings, by the time I looked up and found out where they were in the sky (I heard them first) they'd almost gone.

Hey all I see a lot of photos where people have photographed their models in flight (and then subsequently removed from the photo whatever stand they were using). Currently I use whatever clear object I have to hand, usually a glass tumbler, it doesn't work so well I think. I know Airfix and other manufacturers do flying stands, but I'm wondering if there is a better option that I can use - also for painting purposes as well. Something removable so that I can hang the model from my ceiling and a kind of "one to rule them all" stand. What do you guys use? TIA

Just come across the Airfix FB5 on evilbay for about £13 shipped, nice and cheap... Are the panel lines engraved or raised - I can't seem to find via Google any reviews of it? Still looking though. Looking at the specs of the Vampire on Wikipedia it's about the same size (roughly) as a Spitfire so I'm wondering if I would be better off with a 1/48 one, 1/72 being slightly on the too small side for me (although easier to get decent paint coverage on). Doesn't seem to be much choice though, only come across Alley Cat (which I think is resin? And costs £40) or Trumpeter (which is available for about £15 but not quite the right shape). Probably by the time I get around to buying one anyhow they'll have all sold out - usually happens when I add stuff to my "wishlist"...

Thanks guys. I didn't spot that when I looked at the Wikipedia page, must have scrolled past it. Thanks. I can see the difference now. Obviously yes my search on Google, using DH Vampire, was bringing up the T.11, I did see a lot of images of the T.11 that the Airfix kit is based on. Really want to add a Vampire to my "wishlist", I saw what I think were a pair of them come over my house the other day and they have "inspired" me. Not sure I like the T.11 though so don't really want to buy an Airfix one. Not sure of the quality of other brands pops of a Vampire either, I think the only other viable options are Ravell and Dragon and neither are as good as the Airfix T.11 from what I've read so far. Might have to see what's available in 48th.

Hey all I'm looking at photos on google of the DH Vampire and the T.11 variant that the Airfix 1/72 kit represents and I've come to the conclusion that when it comes to the shape of the plane I can't tell the difference. Is there any? If so what? TIA

This might help. Helped me understand it. http://www.swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture.html With regards to the difference in colour once Klear is applied - it does happen, I've noticed it, but it doesn't always happen. And if you apply Klear all over the model it doesn't become so noticeable on the canopies. But I guess you only really want to do that if you want a gloss canopy frame, otherwise you'll need to apply another matt coat to the frame... One thing I've learnt not to do though is to spray Klear onto clear parts like canopies - apparently it's been the cause of frosting that I've had before (same thing happens with matt varnish also, not sprayed gloss varnish on a clear piece yet to find out, for obvious reasons). Eduard also recommend using Klear (or at least a gloss varnish layer) under their masking sets. The reason everyone swears by it is because you buy a large volume for a fraction of the cost of the same volume of something like Humbrol's clear or other model paint manufacturers clear varnishes. I've got the new formula, it seems a bit hit and miss, perhaps I'm not putting enough of it down at times. Another alternative that I've used recently (on my Academy 1/72 Phantom II (you can see it in the first set of pics, I used it to seal the paint before decalling) is Windsor and Newton Galeria gloss. I was directed to the W&N Galleria Matt by fellow members of this forum after having problems airbrushing Vallejo matt varnish, and the W&N Galeria gloss seems just as good for airbrushing (thinned by 20% with water). Although obviously nowhere near as cheap as Klear. My jury is still out on that though as it stayed tacky for days, but that could just be because of the humidity we've had recently. I had the same problem a year or so ago when painting a USN Sea King - the Vallejo White was still tacky a few days later... Klear seems to have an advantage in that area, it dried to the touch in 20ish minutes (as it's supposed to) on Sunday when I put the final gloss layer down on my Academy 1/72 Phantom II.