bsalmon

Pretty good kit but the surface is very rough and needed lots of priming and sanding to smooth it out. The screws were also sanded to a more curved shape. The torpedoes are painted in Alclad Steel which looks like different colours depending on the angle of the light. This model represents Seehund U-5330 that was launched from Ijmuiden in the Netherlands and sunk British cable layer Alert (941 tons) on 24 Feb 1945 northeast of South Falls, Ramsgate. (Southernmost part of the Outer Banks fronting the Thames Estuary).

Great kit. All I really did to it was blank off the interior that you couldn't see through the wing slots with plastic card. Landing gear was replaced with scratchbuilt brass tube. Main colours are Alclad magnesium and the blue is a home-brew concoction.

A very toy-like kit. Fits well in places but not in others. Sooooo many things needed fixing. All rivets were sanded off as the real aircraft was flush riveted and panel lines rescribed. A tarp made from white Milliput was used to hide what isn't in the cockpit. Painted in standard Japanese camo colours then sprayed over with Tamiya acrylic white and then brushed with enamel white. This Jake is in surrender colours as prescribed at the time before being flown to the RNZAF base at Jacquinot Bay, New Britain in Sept 1945.

The multitude decals provided are intended only for the missile. Trumpeter has tried to help speed up the process by printing several decals as one however this can lead to big trouble when they extend both along the length and around the circumference of the missile body. I strongly suggest you cut the big ones into several parts to avoid problems. The decals are also quite thin and can fold over on themselves if you are not careful.

A quick OOB build. Inspiration taken from a photo I found on the interweb. The kit is mostly OK but required a whole lot more sanding than I really wanted to do due to the rough surface of the plastic.

The Tie Fighter is painted with Mr Hobby H338 Light Gray FS36495 The droid is made with left over parts (e.g. a bucket for the head) and some scrounged PE bits. The droid height was gauged by measuring its height against a man in the Star Wars films then to the man supplied with the kit.

Tie Fighter undergoing maintenance aboard the Death Star. Great kit. Well made and easy to put together. The support stand was very basic so I "Star Warsed" it up a bit and scratch built a droid.

Takom have simplified this kit. They would have needed at least another sprue to represent all the details accurately. Some of the inaccuracies / missing items include: The cylinder-shaped thing that hangs under the front end of the barrel close to the carriage and extends through to under the front end of the carriage is missing. The real wheel spokes have curved edges but Takom have molded them sharp. The spade at the rear end has the wrong proportions. The rearmost angled part should be short and forward part should be long. Takom have molded these lengths in reverse. The real thing is made from steel plate and Takom have missed molding many of the strengthening crosses that were pressed into the surface. The sighting instrument is overly simplified. Many other little bits and pieces aren't molded. I could go on...

That's a top quality build! May I suggest one thing.... Remove those black things on the underside of the rear fuselage as they don't exist on the real thing. This was an error made by Tamiya.

First I applied an all over wash with AK Enamel Wash for DAK Vehicles thinned 50/50 with turps. I let this dry for 24 hours then added other effects such as Streaking Grime, Rust Streaks, Dark Brown Wash, Light Rust Wash and Rain Marks. This was sealed in with a coat of matt varnish ready for the final weathering with pigments. The main pigments used were AK Dark Earth and Airfield Dust mixed with some dirt from the garden to beef it up a little. AK Pigment Fixer was used to fix the pigments in place. The wheel pads were painted separately with dark rust and left to dry before being attached to the wheels. I initially weathered them by sponging on some buff colour followed by dark earth. They were given a spray with matt varnish then finished up with various light and then dark dirt pigment combos. Lastly the whole model was given a light dusting with Airfield Dust to knock back the contrast and blend all the colours together a bit better.

The rifling is a PE part in the kit. A bit oversize but can be cut to perfect size easily.

Here's my latest Trundly. Loads of inaccuracies with the kit and poor fit of some parts but looks good once finished.