Magua87

I like your restrained weathering. Very nice models.

No photos. Your links are dead.

Looks fantastic. Great job with the insignia. I'll take that tip for Mr Surfacer and Mr Levelling Thinner.

Been a busy few weeks with family staying and moving house, but we're progressing slowly. Fuselage, booms, and fuel tanks, all glued together. In time-honoured hamfisted tradition, I broke the ejection handle off a seat while I was reducing the seat to make it fit. That's been fixed with some stretched sprue and painted.

I love that scheme. Great job. I was planning on building my Avenger as Fred Ladd's "Plonky", but a post-war target tug would certainly add some colour to the cabinet (NZ2504 perhaps).

Nice work on the cockpit scratch-building. That's always good fun. I've got a Dragon/Cyberhobby kit stashed away with this aircraft in mind. These references are going to be very useful.

Beautiful work and a lovely scheme. Fudge must have very high standards not to be impressed.

I've made a start. The cockpit pieces have all been painted, including a few off-screen. I'm particularly pleased with how the seats have come up. I realise this is an awkward angle, but the lap belts look great too. I might follow up with another photo in the next update. Tomorrow I hope to have the cockpit assembled. As noted, the seats might need some surgery to fit. It feels good to be cracking on with a build after having not built anything over several months of moving house, renovating (which never really ends, right?), and starting a new job. I'm looking forward to having more high speed silver in the cabinet.

I do love the overall silver scheme. It seems like the last Mosquito out of restoration at Ardmore had more tonal variation to its silver scheme than the MOTAT Mossie, with some panels / components in different shades. Some artistic license to that last Ardmore scheme, perhaps? Looking forward to this progressing.

Welcome all. Am hoping to get the airbrush out tomorrow evening to paint the cockpit. Will probably be brush painting the intakes and engine compressor/impeller. I've got some putty en route too, but hopefully I won't need much. I picked up some of the new (to me) Vallejo metal colour series. I will be substituting my usual Tamiya AS-12 for Vallejo's White Aluminium. Having moved house, I don't have anywhere to use my Lacquers yet. I once tried to spray some in my apartment and oh boy, that was a one-time affair. I've also remembered I had these seats with another T.11 I've got in the stash. I see from another build thread that some surgery might be needed to get them to sit at the right height. I'll get the base coat of paint on these tomorrow too.

Kia ora koutou. I've decided to throw my hat in the ring. I can't let a group build about my country go by without a contribution! I'll be building an RNZAF de Havilland Vampire T.11. This is the Airfix gift set, which includes RNZAF decals for NZ5710. I saw 5710 on a recent trip to the Air Force Museum in Christchurch. You can read about the aircraft here. I'm undecided if I'll use the black bars (Squadron flash, badge?) next to the roundels on the tail booms or if I'll pinch the other style of bar (red and orange) from an Xtradecal sheet I have for a single seat RNZAF Vampire. I think I'll also be pinching stencils from my other Airfix T.11 for this build. This won't be a fast build and I might need all the time allowed. But I'm looking forward to this. Some parts off the sprue, but nothing painted or glued. Decals. The style of bar on 5710 at the Air Force Museum (my photo).

I've been trying to think of what I could whip up quickly from my collection of unbuilt kits. Potentially an Airfix Vampire T.11. I'm time-poor, but feel like I need to make a contribution to this GB.

The Academy kit also has anhedral on the inboard sections of the wings. Not a difficult fix, but a problem regardless.

Not sure if it's been mentioned already, but the tail wheel is on backwards.

Looking forward to this build, Patrice. I've got two of the low back MkXIVs which I'll get to eventually.

Do you mind if I ask what primer you were using?

Canberra PR3, please 😉

Lockdown progress. First; two steps forward, one step back. Having been following the Lancaster STGB I've seen a few comments about the angle of the outboard engines (for various kits). I decided to check my engines and ... oh my. So off came the outboard engines and plastic card was added, along with super glue, milliput and brushed on primer. Much better. Meanwhile, the scribing continues on the fuselage. And most importantly, paint! Finally! Note to self, use a grey primer or paint over the white plastic card and filler before trying to overspray with a different shade of white. I've got some touch ups to do and some more paint to buy. The scribing looks good and there's not too much to fix up. Might be a wee while before I can get the airbrush out again, but I'm happy with the progress.

This is fantastic, Tony. I love when old kits get shown some love. They may have been superseded by newer kits, but they sure look the part with a bit of attention and detail work.

With all this time on my hands during lockdown, I committed to some more improvements to the Lancaster wings. Having improved the wheel bays, the radiator(?) flap up front of the nacelle looked out of place. It's not even a flap on the Airfix kit. Out came the masking tape and drill, some plastic card, Tamiya Extra Thin, and the super glue. On went the paint. And some flaps were cut from plastic card and glue and sanded to fit. I also noticed that the engine exhausts needed a bit of work to look a bit more authentic. Before After And painted with a test fit with my exhausts. Looking much better. We're getting there. I don't think I'm going to bother cutting out slots in the wing tips for clear lights (but who knows, this may bug me until I bite the bullet). Hoping to fettle the wing joins so they're a snug (or snugger) fit to the fuselage and get some paint on the wings this weekend.

I've got far too much on the go to join in. But then again, that Spitfire Mk.22 is just dying to be built... and I am stuck at home.

Good idea, but unfortunately not. We're on full lock-down here in NZ. Essential businesses open only.

Well, the lock-down is helping with the Lancaster's progression. First off, some surgery to the nose transparency led to this. The Lanc' I'm building didn't have a floor window, so this has been glued into place, the gaps super glued, and sanded back. Having been following the Lancaster STGB I'd noticed how empty the wheel wells are in the Airfix kit. Beyond the blanks I had placed forward and aft, there's only a bit of sidewall detail. This was rectified with plastic card. I've also whipped up some oil tanks that will sit below the blank I've added at the front of the wheel well. I'll dull these down a bit with a wash of some sort soon. I was tempted to start spraying the wells tomorrow, but I don't really have the right paint. I think I'll wait until this is over, when I can visit my LHS and get the paint I need (rubber black).

Actually, some of the panel lines slant up towards the rear of the aircraft from the window 5th back from the end of the fuselage (panels in red note where the convergence begins). Or just forward of the turret in the instructions image above. I assume the panels slant from the vertical panel line (marked in orange) on the Airfix kit?

More progress. Probably because this build has stretched out over four years, I've lost some of my transparencies. Specifically, the glass windows in the roof. My improvised solution was to cut larger holes in the Lanc's roof, and to roughly cut to shape some plastic from an old plastic CD case. These were super glued in place and have been sanded smooth. Once we come out of our lockdown in NZ, I'll grab some Tamiya polishing compound to sort them out. They look too large now, but will be masked to the correct diameter when it's time to paint. A query for anyone with the new tool Airfix Lancaster (or the Revell I suppose). I've been using some Airfix instructions from Scalemates to see which panel lines I should be cutting into the fuselage. I can then look at my Hasegawa Lancaster, which is noted for having too many panel lines, and can copy over only the ones I need. The panels at the rear of the Hasegawa Lancaster sort of converge towards the tail section from the vertical panel line before the third to last fuselage window (see below). However, looking at the Airfix instructions, I can't tell if the panel lines do the same. I've marked the lines I'm interested in with red lines on the second image below. Can anyone take a look at their new tool Lanc and confirm? Maybe snap a photo?