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CheshireGap

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  1. Told you I slow...this one is within an ace of the finish line now so this post will finish the WiP. We left it with the primer down and various shades of the light blue, time to follow up with the top colours: this is a RLM17/74 scheme, and not having the wings attached yet makes things a lot easier After dealing with some overspray, lightened versions of the colours were used to add variation, perhaps a bit too subtle as most of this seem to vanish after the gloss went down Decals were an issue, the larger ones proved too fragile to use, so I had to source the main insignia from other sheets; I just about got away with the codes and most of the stencils, but all the decals were somewhat too bright and would need toning down. Finally some main assembly, and there is indeed no gap to worry about - full marks Monogram! A wash follows and then some streaking and weathering A shot of the underside also shows nothing worth worrying about at the wing roots; more weathering and its nearly done There is a queue of finished models needing their pictures taken as Ready for Inspection, I will add this to the end and post a bundle when get time!
  2. I am big believer in keeping the learning curve simple; its hard enough getting paint mixes, air pressures, distance from the model and general technique right without also having to master the double action; I do recommend starting with a continuous double action brush, usually identified by a trigger, such as the Mr Hobby PS-275 Procon Boy. There are others like the Hansa 310 and the H&S Grafo series that use a conventional button but are still continuous double action. Personally I feel I am still grappling with paint and pressure even after all this time, so am still using my Hansa in preference to the H&S Infinity, and do not feel I am missing out at all.
  3. Those shots of the cockpit with its fictional seat finish it for me, I'm out!
  4. I can confirm that there is one option provided (option D) for the wheel wells to be open, with no cover; there are number of parts specific for this option, and the instructions cater for them with one major omission: whilst there is a step (13) for fitting the gun deck for options A, B, C, E, F, G & H, there is no equivalent stop for D, unlike all the other steps, so a bit of guesswork may be required. Given the covers have a couple of nasty ejector pin marks on the inside, this might be a good option; overall the kit looks good, what I am not so keen on is that, unlike say Eduard, Italeri do not provide plastic alternatives to some of the PE parts, e.g. the foot plates, so if you do not like using PE you may not enjoy this kit as much as you should.
  5. Those are some pretty chunky mounts for exhaust - there do appear to be a number of design details in common with the Hobbyboss 1/32 Vb, despite the difference in scale. Nice to see a decent amount of pipework provided though.
  6. Whilst I welcome the advent of Border into the aircraft space - who doesn't want more kits to choose from - the scale does put me off somewhat, though I have to say the shot of the wing undersides puts me off more: no ramps on the radiator, and those blisters do not look right to me. Seeing what their other kits retail for, I suspect the upcoming Kotare Vb will not be that much more expensive, albeit without an engine, and may prove more accurate.
  7. Its been a while since I did WiP, modelling mojo has been lacking so there has been little progress with the 4 kits I have at various stages, but one that is now heading for the paint shop is this old one from Revell-Monogram under their Pro-Modeller badge. It is very much showing its age, with some nice moulding in places First thing I noticed was damage: I have had this kit in the stash a long, long time, so this may have been caused by me sometime in the past, but I have no memory of doing it (or of a lot of things now it has to be said) There is some nice detail moulding, and even some slide moulding, innovative for the period (1997) However on the downside there are some chunky gates... ...and some dodgy spelling... ...which may be why they decided to do this: Seriously!?! even in 1997 this must have been an obviously bad idea, I know Revell did this a lot in the 60's & 70's, if they even thought about it now... Anyway, on with the show...the cockpit is the usual Monogram attempt to get as much as possible into a single piece, with varying results but here not bad, so addition were restricted to some wiring behind the instrument panel and the shoulder harnesses, that were missing even though lap belts were moulded in. Otherwise just carful painting and weathering. Main construction is not too hard, but everything needs a fettle and I decided to go to lengths to get the fit as good as possible in all areas, adding wedges where necessary to reduce steps and mismatches. Filling was mainly around the wing leading edges and the air intake to the side of the nacelles, 3M Red glazing putty was used as usual The repair to the damage on the nose underside is looking good, just the merest trave visible under a test coat of paint; again this was the 3M I wasn't going to rivet originally as I couldn't find any plans online, but in the end thought what the heck and made some up! its only light so won't show too much The nacelle & wing joints are looking quite good now Next up was the undercarriage; Monogram actually moulded the brake line in place, it isn't great but I decided to improve it rather than replace it, and do you know what it isn't bad! That big canopy is next, and it is as fiddly as it looks! there is some heavy internal framing moulded on the inside to paint, but the framing on the outside is a bit poorly defined making the masking tricky, and the undercut on the gunners windows means a multi-piece canopy that doesn't line up easily It is on, but there is a bit of a step between the two halves, which, thanks to the use of superglue, I ham going to have to live with. And we are up to painting stage; and yes wings and fuselage are not together yet! I believe that the wing to fuselage joint is good enough, at least on the top, to get away with painting them separately, which will make masking a whole lot easier. So far I have only got down a mix of Vallejo RML 84 and AK RML 76 version 2 over a coat of MRP Grey Primer TBH I am mixed about the AK Interactive 3rd generation; I have tried so far only their grey primer - it wipes off with light finger pressure making it completely useless and the bottle is going in the bin - which was frankly a waste of 8 quid, and this RLM 76 disagreed with my preferred thinner and retarder, I had to make several mixes with different brands before coming up with a version that looked half decent, and tbh that was probably only because I increased the proportion of Vallejo. I am unlikely to try them again for airbrushing but they do look like they would be good for brush painting detail, so I may try an interior colour or two. For airbrushing I am an MRP convert. Next up is a 74/75 camo, and there is a Hobbyboss 1/48 Me-262 waiting in the wings for a similar scheme. I did not take enough photos to really warrant a WiP for that, but here is a taster:
  8. Which I think I am right in saying is exactly what happened on the real thing! that is not an ordinary bit of frame down the centreline of the canopy, it is a hinge that allowed the front sides to flex inwards as the caopy moved backwards. Airfix have simply modelling the original mechanism (https://www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/focke-wulf-fw-190-a-8-in-detail-revisited/ third picture down)
  9. Not sure I get this? These photos of the A-8 at the Imperial War Museum, London, show the blunt fin root is real: https://www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/focke-wulf-fw-190-a-8-in-detail-revisited/ One photo is even captioned "A peculiar feature of the Fw 190 was the very thick base of the fin."
  10. That is some stunning airbrush skill there, and you do what you like with your flaps 😁! Especially if that is how they are provided in the kit - if its wrong blame Italeri! 😇
  11. I note that it has all the guns a IIB needs and in the correct alignment as well, so we needn't have worried
  12. I was assuming that including barrels to go into the flashed over holes would be part of the plan! What would be useful though is a view of the top wing to see if the panel lines for the access hatches are moulded in place. And that is a great picture of the world's cleanest gun bay! One for the reference library Agreed, it is not good marketing, I am just saying we shouldn't rush to judgement without the complete picture - or just a few dodgy ones!
  13. I for one will be buying this kit without any worries: - Radu has been on (cough) "another forum" to confirm the kit does indeed have the correct dihedral - there are clear panels in u/c roof, so that is actually a nice design touch - the extra guns could be just flashed over holes that need opening up, hardly pushing the limit of modelling skills - the test shot may be still using some 3D printed parts, and the moulds clearly hadn't been polished at that point, so the texture will disappear in the final version I am sure; remember the 3D printed test shots of the new Zoukei-Mura 109? Who would have bought that kit based on those? - as for the cockpit, chances are I will be buying a Barracuda seat and snapshot upgrade anyway, but I think it will be better than the test shot All in all its a new 1/32 Hurricane for barely £40 at the checkout...I am just sad that this, the Kotare & Airfix Spitfires and the Italeri Folgore did not make it in time for Telford, I think the traders missed not having a must-have kit or two to sell this year.
  14. Have to admit this is my most anticipated release of 2022 (sorry Border/Kotare/GWH etc!). Anyone able to say if November in fact means it will be available at Telford...?
  15. Count me in, and probably for the first limited edition dual combo...and the second...
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