Magua87

The tailplanes have been superglued to the fuselage. It's a pretty poor fit, so I made an attempt to blend them in with filler. However, the seams are going to need a little bit more work. I almost left them as is, but after all the work I've sunk into this airframe I knew I'd regret it. So there may be a bit of localised spraying to do, but hopefully with some careful sanding I can hand paint most of it. It should blend in with the gloss coats and flat coats to come. Also, I can't speak more highly of X-22 gloss. I left it a week to dry and it's rock solid. Most importantly there's zero cracking!

I'm still fiddling with the windows. Actually, I spend more time thinking about it than cutting (dreading it). I've been continuing with the wings. They've been glued and sanded. One wing needs a touch of Mr Surfacer along a leading edge to deal with a sink mark, but there's nothing too serious otherwise. She's a BIG bird in 1/72. Biggest by far in my cabinet. Out of focus photo of a dry fit to the fuselage. Underside

So, I've been working away on the Hasegawa A6M3 Type 22 in 1/72. I managed to grab one of the old school Eduard sets to detail the kit (72-130). It's nothing like a modern zoom kit! Takes a look of work, but looks the part when you get it right. Except, so far, the flaps. This is how the flaps are to be assembled according to the instructions. And these are the parts I have to work with. You're meant to fold one section of the flap and inset into the cut out in the wing. But even before you fold the flap there's a significant gap. I presume you're just meant to leave a section of the wing by the trailing edge with no detail? For reference, here's a more modern flap set by Eduard for a Zero. Any ideas? If I inset the parts in a different order I get a better fit (the gap is mostly due to perspective), but the flap is now a two part piece with a step where the two parts join. I'm baffled by this. Have Eduard just plain got this wrong or am I missing something very obvious?

I put my Swift on a stick (cardboard in the exhaust pipe) and sprayed the whole thing in one session. Definitely practice on an old kit. Gloss coats are not my forte and they take a bit of practice. I've been using Tamiya X22 with Tamiya's paint retarded to help put down a wet coat on the model.

You've got the correct colours. Looks like the Swifts were mostly flat or semi-gloss, but a nice glossy coat is needed for the decals.

Oh, and I'll need to mask and spray the end of the K on the underwing serials. Not a perfect fit as they're meant for the Airfix kit. I see I've missed a stencil from the underside, too. Looking forward to having this sitting next to my Meteors and Hunter!

All decals on except for the serials and those on the tailplanes and landing gear doors. From here I need to gloss those small parts and place a protective coat over the main aircraft. The fit of the tailplanes isn't perfect, so I think I'll mask up the area, fill, smooth and spray before I place the serials, as that's the area that needs the most work. I moved away from the Gunze gloss coat to Tamyia X-22. I've found that Gunze's gloss doesn't seem to cure. Not sure what the issue is. Not the first time I've had it happen either. Maybe I'm laying down the coats too fast? Anyway, X-22 came to the rescue and dries rock hard.

This is looking promising. I've stuck with Gunze for the gloss coat. No issues so far. Decals this weekend. Other projects get a look in while we wait for paint and gloss coats to dry.

H330 applied without any dramas. The only touchups I had to make were blending the windscreen in with a bit of Mr Surfacer. I've just given it a few coats of Gunze H30 clear and have left it in my cabinet to dry. We're basically back where we were in May! All going well I reckon I'll done by the end of October. Should be able to crack on with the decals this week.

Those decals look to be in good shape. Looking forward to seeing this come together.

I'm getting deja vu. Will report in when the green is on.

Progress is slow cutting out the windows, so I decided to move to the wings. The raised detail has largely been removed. There was some significant sink marks across the wings. This was most noticeable on the trailing edge and above the ailerons on both wings, and in the middle of the port wing, running between the leading and trailing edges. All filled now. You can see the remnants where the darker black is in front of the aileron inset (Mr Surfacer 1500). Looking forward to closing the fuselage. I just need to crack on with those windows.

Progressing again. Attempted some post-shading. Not captured well by this photo. H331 Dark Sea Gray applied. H330 green to follow this week hopefully.

I was quite happy with that, too! See post 15, it all fell apart with a gloss coat that cracked the underlying paint across the whole model. Does anyone have any shots of the underside of a Swift? I'm interested to see where it leaks oil and builds up grime. There's a great shot of XD907 in the Warpaint book, but I'm hoping to find some other shots to help.

I ended up buying an Airfix Swift. The plan is to buy the Alleycat conversion kit to build the air speed record setting F4. Thanks very much for the offer, but I think I should be good this time.

After some sanding where the cracking returned I managed to get a finish I was happy with. I left it a week and we were good to go with some new paint this morning. I think I'll try my hand at some post shading before I move onto the green and grey upper surfaces. Honestly, I'm surprised I've got this far. Guess I'm more patient than I thought.

Hrmm, I hope we see a vac formed canopy replacement. Having the top section of the transparency separate isn't going to look very clear. We'll also need another transparency option behind the cockpit.

Whoops. 1/72. I haven't seen any closed canopies for the Mk 1. Only some of the later canopies.

They look like nice canopies, but they're also in the open position.

Hi, gents. I'm building a Tamiya Spitfire Mk1. It's got some nice interior detailing, but unfortunately it's got a horrendous canopy which is distorted and thick. Are there any after market solutions? I've had a bit of a google, but so far the only option seems to be the squadron vacuum formed canopy which is already parted for displaying in the open position. I'd rather keep the canopy closed. Any advice appreciated. Cheers.

I went to add the fuselage windows tonight, but boy are they THICK! You can't see anything through them. I've got a sheet of clear acetate lying around which is nice and thin. Not a great photo, but you can see my paintbrush on my cutting board behind the window. Not sure how I'll glue these in without making a mess of it. Maybe a future dip and a touch of super glue. Or a thin wick of PVA and a toothpick to remove the inevitable over application. And one detail I forgot to show in my previous post. I've removed the frame from behind the front turret.

I was umming and ahhing over the paint on the Swift for a long time. Eventually I noticed some cracking on the underside of the fuselage and decided it was time to start again! I feel like I've been sanding for an eternity, but today I was finally able to lay down some paint. Tamiya X-1 as a base layer and I'll build up the camouflage over the top. I think I might have some sanding to do first to tidy up a few areas. Nothing major. Pretty happy with how it's turned out so far.

January since my last post. Wow. Next steps. Door and window on the rear fuselage. I laid some paper over the Hasegawa fuselage, used a pencil and shaded the door outline. I cut this out and used it as a template for cutting a plastic card door. I'm about ready to close the fuselage. The vast majority of the raised detail has been removed and I'm working on a few sink marks. Old moulds. Here I'm blanking the gap left from the removal of the turret fairing.

Thanks, all. And thanks to Scimitar for the great resource.

Hi, team. I'm interested in building an RAF transport command Britannia. I'm quite keen on a natural metal finish and came across this photo. https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.pinterest.com/amp/pin/569142471645013790 The C1 and C2 usually had a light grey coloured lower fuselage, but this particular aircraft had a natural metal finish. Can anyone recommend any sources or further pics? Secondly, is it possible to build one of these out of the box with the Roden kits? As far as I can see the 200 series / C1 / C2 were the same length as the 300 series which the Roden kits represent. Thanks, all.