Andy G

I’ve found a company called skytrex that do the Red Cross decals. I need them for my K2 as well. https://www.skytrex.com/20mm-176th-scale-decals/1027-ad83-british-red-cross-markings.html

Dennis, WIP, Seahawk, Thanks for your responses. I'm going to get hold of some of those Alley Cat exhausts. I'm using MRP paints and their OD comes in two forms pre and post 1943. I'm using post 1943 for the main body, perhaps I'll get a bottle of the earlier version for the control surfaces. As for the nose a paint patch is probably more likely than the neutral grey wrapping further up than usual. Now I've got guess at the colour of the patch. I'd guess that it would be a green, either some form of OD or RAF Dark Green. Cheers Andy

Hello, I'm currently building a representation of the original Kwicherbichen in July 1944. There are plenty of photos of the current Kwicherbichen but the only contemporary photo I can find is this one https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205211346 The border between neutral grey and olive drab varies from plane to plane, but Kwicherbichen's nose appears to be unique. Is that lighter colour the neutral grey wrapping up higher than elsewhere or is it a patch of a different colour? The rudder appears to be a different colour but is this due to a change of angle. The rudders of these Dakotas also appear a different colour - https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205211773 The Airfix kit doesn't cater for the porcupine section of the exhaust on Kwicherbichen. Does anybody know of a suitable source? Cheers Andy

Thank you Seahawk.

Does anybody know of a source for the yellow outlined codes in 72nd scale? I’m looking at doing Willy Tait’s plane from the third raid later this year.

Hi Martian, I’ve used MRP paint a few times and really like them. I used them straight from the bottle and with a low pressure, 10-15psi. I also used Mr.Hobby thinners for initial cleaning the airbrush out. They’re lacquer based so use in a well ventilated space. Also there have been odd reports of bottles breaking when people have shaken them so probably best to not be too vigorous with them. Anyway, give them a try and you’ll probably enjoy them. I’ll be using a few bottles later to hopefully touch up the black basing underside on the Wellington which is very, very slowly crawling towards transfer time. Andy

Looking forward to this, especially how you deal with the rear canopy, as I have plans to do the Grace spitfire albeit in 1:72.

Some of mine are nostalgia, certainly this one is and it may not have got this far if it wasn't, it's really not worth the effort with more recent kits available. It does depend upon your motive though, if you enjoy and are prepared to put the effort in then you probably get more bang for your buck with the older kits than with the latest hi-fidelity easy fit super kit. For example this cost me about £7 I think whereas the new Airfix was about £28 and the older one includes a crew, albeit some of them look like they may be relatives of Martian. I'm just waiting for the re-issue of the 88mm and half-track. I do wonder how many kits I must have built as a kid, I keep seeing people building older ones and thinking, "I had one of those, I'd forgotten all about it." I'd love to know what happened to them as well, I know one spitfire got flown into the wall - can't remember why, but have no recollection of binning any others. Very slow progress on the Wellington - the engine cowls have had the exhaust rings masked off (previously painted) and the tape sealed with klear ready for painting. I'll look forward to it. Andy

Thanks Martian. "quick stress busting build", think I've been building this about as long as you've been at that Albatross, which looks very nice by the way. Soon, soon but it will probably be a couple of weeks or so as I need to get some different blacks from the LHS to do the black! If only I could manage it at work! Thanks John. I've built two in the past, but have no idea where they went, nor any of the other models from my youth/childhood. Only a small amount done tonight but the brown has been extended downwards in the couple of places that were a bit short and a few other places touched up. Andy

Well it's been far too long since I updated this thread. My apologies but life caught up and it became difficult to get much modelling done never mind photograph it. The Wimpey has plodded on, only taking a backseat whilst I got a Mosquito and Do17 across the line and also did some test weathering on a paint mule - more practice required! Much of the work has unsurprisingly been fill, prime, sand, repeat, It's now reasonable and the time has come to put the top coats on. I'm having a go at black basing. I had a test of pre-shading but wasn't convinced by it, plus there's not exactly a lot of panels on the Wellington. Yesterday I marked out the camo outlines and applied the dark earth. Then before going out (Bohemmian Rhapsody is well recommended) I put the Mr.Hyde putty on - and applied some more black primer to cover the brown overspray. This morning I went for the dark green and the great unveiling I knew the putty would move overtime but didn't expect it to be overnight - rats! I've spent the rest of the day trying to rectify the black. Here she is with two coats of Klear It's been a lot more work than I was expecting. I think I'm happy with the black basing, but I'm probably going back to white tak worms rather than use the putty again. I'm too slow at masking to be able to rely on getting the masking and painting both done in a single evening. There's a bit of touching up to do on the sides of fuselage where I've not brought the colour down far enough and I need to apply the colour to the engines as well. I've gone back to using the kit engines rather than the Lancaster's mainly due to not being able to work out what to do with the exhausts. The Lancaster's were clearly different to the Wellington's but photos of a Mk.III's exhausts are hard to come by due to them being 'twixt engine and fuselage. I'll try and not take so long before putting up another update. Andy

Thanks guys. Not had chance to work on her this week and I’m off on a big bike ride tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll get some modelling done on Friday and catch up with you then. Andy

Thanks for linking my build Benedict. It will be interesting to see what features the old girl throws at you Eric. Mine seems worse than the samples I built in the 70s, but that could be rose tinted glasses. Andy

Firstly apologies for the radio silence over the last couple of weeks, I had a show to get ready for last weekend and this week I've had a very pleasant upturn in business which turned what was planned as a relaxing week into a busy one - can't complain though. There has been some steady progress this week. Firstly the crew are all painted. Basically followed Stew Dapple's process but haven't reached his standard yet The bomb aimer's window has had some dissolved putty applied to blend the rear corners into the body. The wings and the tail are on Putty has been applied to the engine nacelles and to the wing fuselage joints. The wing joints were quite wide even after inserting strips of microstrip into the top of the joint in an effort to fill some of it up. I think I've found a better way of using the Mr.Dissolved Putty. Previously I had been leaving it to go off for a bit before cleaning it up with a cotton bud and IPA (more wasted drink!). For the wings it was cleaned up almost as soon as it was applied and this seems a much cleaner way of working with it. Trying to line anything up on this plane is very tricky as everything is wonky I don't think it's a problem with wear as the two halves of the fuselage met reasonably well apart from the very front but if I get the top and bottom seams lined up vertically the bottom of the fuselage is far from flat. Hoh hum, not a lot I can do about it, nor want to with the new mould on its way. Further work this morning, not yet photo'd has seen the canopy and turrets kleared, the stabilisers fitted along with the pilots. I've tried to clean up the sprue damage on the cockpit but it hasn't been particularly successful which is annoying with it being smack in the front middle. The pilots each had booster cushions of 30 thou plasticard fitted and painted before being inserted into their office. The cockpit was then pva'd into place and is currently drying. The stabilisers were unsurprisingly odd. The starboard stab took 30 thou of plasticard glued under the tab before it touched the sides of the slot in the fuselage. The stabiliser was glued into place before attention turned to the port side which fitted well right from the start. Whilst the port side seemed to fit well it was subsequently found that whilst the starboard side elevator joint was roughly at 90 degrees to the fuselage the port side pointed backwards quite noticeably if viewed from above. Straightening the joint out produced a gap of about 4-5mm at the rear edge. I took the pragmatic view that I didn't really know what the underlying cause of the issue was and it wasn't that apparent unless looking directly down on the tail plane. It was therefore glued up sharpish. Next up will be blending the stabilisers and cockpit glass into the fuselage and then masking for an investigatory coat of primer, I can't see me getting away without some remedial work after the primer.

I'd like to follow along on this one, if that's ok? Thanks for the link to Flypast. If I remember correctly there's an account of the events in Hunter Boys.