Magua87

Fuselage closed and sanded. The exhausts have been fitted to the wings and filler has been applied. It's finally starting to take shape.

You've done a great job managing the changes in direction with this build. It's looking good. How easy do you find printing your own decals? I've got a Spitfire which needs a crest of the University of Auckland, but there's no way I'm going to find that at Hannant's.

Patrice, this is looking fantastic.

We reached a milestone tonight. Engine painted and installed. Fuselage closed.

I found some lead in my modelling supplies and placed it behind the cockpit for a dry run. No luck there, so I moved to the nose. After several dry fits to test the balance I ended up throwing lead at the area! I added some extra lead under the cockpit floor, just behind the nose wheel, and blanked off the area with some card. Hopefully it's sorted now. So much for the recommended three grams! I cut the canopy from the sprue and fitted it for a test. Despite all the dry brushing you can't see anything in the tub. I'll dip it in some clear and see if that makes a difference. It's shame that Squadron don't produce a vac-form canopy for the meteor.

Progress. I removed the primer from the underside of the wings with some thinners and a rag. I'm not sure what's wrong with the grey Tamiya primer I have, but this is the second time it's refused to cure. It was still sticky almost a month after application. Time to get rid of the bottle. I sprayed the prop and engine with some flat black and I covered the underside of the wing and the wheel-bay with Gunze Midnight Blue. I was only intending on spraying the wheel-bays, but decided to cover the whole underside of the wing to see if I'd left an uneven surface behind after removing the primer (looks good to me). The wheel bay is looking good with some paint on it. I'm now ready to close the fuselage, but first I'll give the paint a day to fully cure.

Still working away on this one. I've spent the evening struggling with PE and super glue. And I've closed the gap between the fuselage halves in the gear bay. Need to light a fire and get this thing going! Aim is to close the fuselage this week.

Nacelles painted and attached. Sanding has commenced. Will have to run a knife or a scribe around them to reinstate the join lines which are being obliterated by the sanding. I'm hunting for some lead as I'm ready to close the fuselage. I've also ordered some paint for the high speed silver. I've got some Citadel Runefang Steel on the way. Sounds like it's a finer paint than the Tamiya flat aluminium that I used for the wheel wells, interior, etc.

Cockpit floor attached to one side of the fuselage. Wings closed. Tomorrow's job is to add some paint to the inside of the front of nacelles (forgot to paint them when I had silver in the airbrush) and touch up the underside of the cockpit floor. I must have sat it in some super glue at some point as I've lost a big blog of silver. I'm going to need to find some lead somewhere.

First progress report. I'll be closing the wings tonight. I've painted the engine faces flat black and have given the raised features a dry brushing with Tamiya Flat Aluminium. I've used the same paint for the wheel wells and the inside of the engine nacelles. The cockpit was also painted flat black and given a flat aluminium dry brushing. There's also a speckle of flat aluminium over spray, but I think it all works to reduce the monolithic properties of a flat black cockpit.

Lookin' good. What did you use for the panel line wash?

I asked the seller of the Gnat if they could source me a new canopy. They went back to Airfix and instead of a canopy I received a whole new model, sent from Airfix to the seller, which they passed on to me. It's a shame I've come across three moulding errors in three consecutive purchases, however, I can't fault Airfix on their exemplary parts service.

Might need to do some more work to busy up the wheel wells where they meet the fuselage. I see a few wires, but it looks like you might be able to see straight through.

The wings have been glued together and I've added some interior green to the top side of the wing and the sides of the fuselage. The dry fitting above showed that I needed to do some more work to box in the area under the wings. I'll sand and saw the attached card tomorrow night. Won't be long now until I close the fuselage. Thanks for those, will. Haven't yet decided if I'll address the extra height on the tail of the Monogram kit. No one will ever know (except for anyone who reads this WIP)!

This is my entry for the group build. Perhaps optimistically I'm planning on building this alongside my Vietnam group build Monogram Bearcat. This will be OOB. I'm planning on building the Belgian Meteor, EG-47. The instructions call for the use of the full-size blown canopy. However, I reckon all the Belgian F.8s had the smaller canopy. http://www.belgian-wings.be/Webpages/Navigator/Photos/MilltaryPics/post_ww2/Gloster%20Meteor%20F.8/Gloster%20Meteor%20F.8%20Frontpage.html Here's EG-47, but with different markings on the fuselage. http://www.belgian-wings.be/Webpages/Navigator/Photos/MilltaryPics/post_ww2/Gloster%20Meteor%20F.8/Gloster%20Meteor%20F.8%20EG-047.html The canopy will be the last addition before painting, so I've got a while to make up my mind.

I've had trouble with canopies. Moulding problems leading to lines through canopies on the 1/72 F.2A lightning, Gnat, and a big bubble in a Buccaneer canopy. I haven't gone back to Airfix about the Lightning or Gnat yet, but I got a very fast response regarding the Buccaneer and the canopy was in New Zealand in a few days (very fast delivery). Let's see what happens when I ask for canopies for the other two.

Thanks, all for the compliments. It's been a good introduction to BM group builds. Tony, you're right. I couldn't make out what it was, so decided to give it a miss. I'm starting to wonder if that's an animal in the artwork. I see two front legs, a head and ear or antlers? Thoughts anyone?

Primed and no longer looking like licorice.

Looks like red licorice. The white paint is my attempt at priming the underside of the wings.

Excellent idea. Here's my attempt.

'My dear old "Hurricane" [OK1] that I flew throughout 1940 when commanding No.11 Fighter Group. She still does over 300 m.p.h. and remains a faithful "charger"'. "Park: The Biography of Air Chief Marshall Sir Keith Park" by Vincent Orange.

Finished! Pictures to follow in the gallery. Probably my best build to date. Nice little kit. The only problems I had with it were of my own creation.

I've started blanking off the wheel bays and removing the injection marks from the wings. Thin plastic card and a lot of manipulation. I'm using my paint mule for inspiration. A very old kit made by my father which has seen a lot of test coats of gloss and flat clears! Not looking too bad.

Very tidy. Nice job. There used to be a Mig-15UTI flying around NZ on the warbird circuit. I might have to add one of these to my collection.

I'm surprised how well my attempt to rebuild the spinner went. It required lots of filler, lots of sanding, and a bit of drilling. I I need to touch up the black paint tomorrow with some light brush work or perhaps another pass with the airbrush. Then that should wrap up this build! Pictures to follow when prop meets plane.