BlackAck

I too am saddened to hear this as Codger's work inspired me to pick up a Pocher Rolls to build.

I'd love to enter with one from the stash

D'Accord, since I have another Heller Spitfire XVIE lowback to build, I assume I start a new thread? or do I just continue on here. Je suis confuse

Having caught up on the excellent modelling in this thread and the usual hijicks from the usual suspects, I wish Martian a speedy recovery and will wait patiently for the day when he returns to gluing his tentacles together - as well as sheet styrene - in pursuit of this fine hobby.

If anything goes wrong at this point in this build, progress will have been, dare I say, scuttled... I'll see myself out...

Heller Spitfire LF. MkXVIe painted as HT-L, SL727 of 601 (County of London) Squadron, RAF North Weald, 1949

And she's finished! I give you Spitfire LF. MkXVIe, HT-L, SL727 of 601 (County of London) Squadron, RAF North Weald, 1949 There are more photos in the GB Gallery. One more for the road...

This weekend's progress thus far: The Freightdog decals went on just fine. The undercarriage legs, wheels, and prop have been painted too. The spinner and plate need an airbrush squirt of red but it's raining cats, dogs, and hamsters today.

Thanks Dave. The modelling gods have indeed smiled on me this week, that and I have been stuck on some really long conference calls. This is my progress thus far: This is the first spitfire kit I've built in about 20 years, so I'd forgotten what a good looking aeroplane she is. This post-war silver and red RAuxAF scheme really makes her pop. Enough drooling, back to modelling. The only thing I've had to model is the headrest/canopy actuator behind the cockpit as the original piece was a first course for the carpet monster, so I used the kit part from my other XVIe as a template and built a new piece out of styrene.

So, 2020 hasn't been great for me on the modelling front, so I hope this group build will restore my mojo. I will endeavour to complete this build come heller or high water... So this build will essentially be OOB with the exception of some PE belts from the spare box and the excellent decal set from Freightdog covering the Weekend Warriors of the RAuxAF 1948-1953. If the modelling gods smile on me and keep the carpet monster docile, and gift me time, I will also attempt another Heller XVIE using the Xtradecal set (x721182), exact scheme TBD. Here is today's progress:

So, SWMBO decided to treat me to my first proper airbrush. It was a one of those relatively cheap starter sets by Master. I read the instructions and decided to go for it. Found a well-ventilated space, carefully measured thinned paint into the airbrush, pressed the little red power button. To my dismay, the green power light flicked on, the compressor functioned for maybe a second and then stopped. Now the power button won't respond either way. I had initially used a power strip to connect but a quick internet search said that was a no-no, so I switched to plugging it in directly to the outlet. No power light, nothing. Checked if the outlet was indeed working. Yup. Still no power. For those of the technical bent it's a MAS KIT-VC16. TL:DR Have I just completely ronnied my airbrush?

My attempt at the F-18A prototype, the first scale model I ever built

Thank you all for the comments.

So, it's been some time since I posted on this build. Here is my progress to date: The kit supplied instrument panel has been dressed up with some spare decals. The layout is wholly fictional, but it's an improvement over what was originally supplied. The kit supplied pilot dresses up quite nicely for a figure of this age. He looks like he would be the type of man to have a name like Vivian or Crispin, or Ernest.... And here's everything taped up. There's next to no space once the pilot is in, so I'm even less worried about internal details. Now for the bad news. I have been informed that I am moving house in three weeks, so I'm not sure that I'll get this built before the move, but there will be time after, I'll do the most I can.

Thanks Ted. The striking 60 squadron scheme isn't included in the kit. I think they chose it specifically to separate little boys & girls from their pocket money. A quick RAF serial search for the kit option 'C8740' reveals that it falls into the range of serials allotted to SE5a's. That's it.

I must confess, I've just purchased an early Jag boxing and the Wellington BIII. and am waiting for them from the post, so I'll keep my eye on this build. I noticed the exploding cottage on the Jag box art found it odd as well. To my knowledge, the Jaguar never dropped ordnance on English or Continental dwellings. I suppose it was to show how the 'cat would be used if the Russians poured across the wall. Either that or the Royal Engineers made an ill-fated attempt to supercharge a tea-urn and the hapless Jaguar rupert just happened to be zipping by... who knows

Thank you for the kind words. However, I have to confess that in the cold light of day, I found my efforts at pinstriping were not nearly as good as I had hoped. I was struck by inspiration on a work conference call with lawyers.. so after work today I set about fixing the hornet using strips of tamiya tape cut into 2mm wide sections and painted white. I am much happier with the result.

For my next trick, I will be rebuilding Lindberg's ancient SE5a in 1/48. This will be more of a 'traditional' model build, actually requiring glue, paint, decals... rigging 🥴 My original attempt at this kit ended up a gluey broken mess on the shelf of doom, so I hope to have better results this time around. I hope the fact that Lindberg didn't even rig the display model for the box top isn't some omen of bad fortune.

How's this for an update? The only real change I made was not using the '3' numeral stickers. The background blue is completely the wrong shade. So, I scrounged regular decals from my spares instead. I'd like to think my eight-year old self would be proud of this. It's actually a good little kit for someone starting out. A child could snap it together in a few minutes, slap the stickers on, and be ready to fly, while an older child, or returning modeller could embrace the challenge of painting it.

While the paint dries, I thought I'd wash the SE5 bits. I assume I'll need a new thread?

Welcome to the forum Darren, it's a friendly place. Are you building anything at the moment?

A nice entry to this gb. I'm almost positive I built this kit too when I was young.

Thanks for the support. Here's today's progress: With a better view of the red hydraulic warning edges, super fast progress considering. It's starting to look like an F-18, at least from a distance. The area around the exhausts needs touching up but the blue paint is wet, so I'm leaving it alone for the mo. For a Snap Tite kit, to paint the FSD blue scheme as seen on the demonstrator aircraft, it's surprisingly complex. Thank goodness for masking tape.

Today's progress: Since the Hornet is a Snap Tite kit, it feels a bit like cheating, but it's taken all afternoon to get to this point.

After some diligent searching in my mini aviation library this afternoon, I found the magazine the accompanied the two original kits. Very fitting for this forum that a British two-winged jobby is on the front cover. I am sure that rigging sadists - cough I mean enthusiasts will be able to identify it.