Antb

Great quote, thanks for sharing. No idea where the spitfire will live once built but I will cross that bridge when it comes to it..... heres a link to the spit im planning if it's of interest to you: https://goo.gl/images/x4kJAF

No vb for me. Going for V-S a malta based grey/ azure blue spit for something a little different. Got some aftermarket ready to pimp her up a bit too. Just hope I can make a decent job of it

Now this has got to be worth looking forward to. No pressure mate 😂

Haven't visited the forum for some time but managed to get my vote in! Great to see we're a go guys. The next build for me me will be this one in June, looking forward to tackling the spit.

Thanks ed will take a look. Still haven't found the will to sort it out as yet....

Hi mate I will take some pictures of the bomb bay and doors shortly so you can see what they look like.

Good afternoon guys A quick update just to say that the Stirling has been finished with the exception of the inner bomb bay doors. Unfortunately the individual doors have caused me so many problems that I've ran out of patience with the build and have decided that I can live with it not having them on for now. The main ones on the outside of the bomb bay have been added to make it look a little more finished. The doors are a nightmare as single pieces and they just won't line up and then stick in place. It's a shame as the build is 99% there but I can't get motivated to fight with this last bit. Photos to follow as soon as but she's done. And she doesn't fit in the cabinet. Unbelievably her wingspan is too big.....

Good grief! That's one heck of a stash. The Heinkel looks like it could be an interesting WIP 😉

I know what you mean. It's easy to lose interest and motivation at times. Think after this one I'm going to take a break for a while myself and move onto something else for a bit. Will pick up again at some point but everyone has a limit, both in terms of shelf space and interest. I'm sure you will get it back and come back with another cracking build, or two! The stash and recent purchases sound interesting though.. ..

Thanks mate that's very nice of you to say so. Whats on your next to do list?

Thanks mate

Ok thanks Chris

I'm giving it a good go and trying to make it look semi decent. Cheers

Looks rather splendid john. I can't add anything of worth to the salt weathering but I like what you've done. Maybe some smaller bits would work but I've no idea. Following, watching and trying to learn. Trying. Sorry to hear you've not been well too but glad you appear to be on the mend.

Hi guys I've been doing little bits on the build since the last update. Haven't had a proper modelling session but have been grabbing half an hour here and there and I'm happy to say that were almost finished. A touch of weathering, bomb bay doors, props, and a couple of bits and bobs and were done. Should be done within the next week fingers crossed. So since the last update we have this Please excuse the picture it's a bit rubbish but you get the idea. First up were the engines. Nice and easy I thought. Hmmmm not so. These bits went together nice and easy as expected but I had an issue with getting paint to stick. Even undercpat didn't want to adhere properly so I found a can of silver spray paint and used it. It worked but then I encountered another problem. The wash wouldn't stick to the silver. It just ran off.... However I preserved and managed to get some wash to stick to add some detail to the actual engine internals. Here's the wash pooling. Weird. Once is resolved this little.problem it was a case of inserting the engines into the engine casings. Nice and easy once I'd figured that there were 3 grooves in 3 of the cylinders that lined up with the engine mounts. In they went. The insides of the engine casings were painted interior green and it was a simple task to attach these to the aircraft. Oh wait, no it wasn't. Turns out that the engine mounts the the engine don't want to be attached at the same time. The engine sits on the wings in a way that they push out of the engines casings. So they couldn't go on together. Had to resort to pulling them out and attaching so. Great nice and simple getting the casings on and lined up. Guess what.... nope not straight forward at all. Pushing pulling and swearing is required. Doesn't say that in the instructions! What an absolute nightmare! Eventually we got then to where they needed to be and no glue was used. The fit really is that tight. With that issue sorted it was time to add the air vents to the top of the engine. Nice and easy right. Cut off the sprue and attach along the fixing point? Erm.... How on earth has that happened? The instructions would have you fit these before the engine casings. Good job I decided not to! Out with the sanding stick and quite a bit had to come off. Times 4. All done and fitted. These have since been painted, exhausts added and glossed ready for some flory action. This mess is the rear turret after masking and being sprayed black. This is now drying. And that's where we are up to. To be fair most of these problems are probably my lack of modelling skills bit I got there in the end. Happy modelling!

Thanks Steve that's awfully kind of you! I never really know what makes a good WIP that's going to be interesting ad enjoyable for folk so glad you're enjoying it!

Thanks Celt

Thanks Phil. Thanks Johnny! Appreciate the comments very much

Good evening one and all Some serious progress last night and today has resulted in this Not the best picture but she has feet. And looks rather splendid if I don't say so myself! Engines next and then it's rear turret glazing, upper turret glazing some weathering of the black bomb bay doors and the bombs themselves and then we're done. Here's some pics of the works I've done to get her to this stage. First up is this This was the most frustrating and difficult part of the build so far. The great part you can see just wouldn't fit at all. In the end o had to cut away quite a lot of the wheel assembly which led to that coming loose which needed 're gluing but that just didn't want to stick. Once it had I then had to get the grey bit back in which didn't want to happen and this went on for ages. Eventually I just had to chop more from the wheel assembly and it went in. Not good but it's in, has been blended and painted. With that sorted it was on to that amazing undercarriage. Remember how I left this out from the initial build stages as I thought I could get it in once the wings were joined up. Well, you can but by jove it's not the easiest and some surgery is required. I had hoped that I could just squeeze the undercarriage enough to squeeze into the place holders at the top of the legs but this was not to be. Here's the number of parts that go together to make up one leg. One part of the leg and not all of it. This is the bit that the wheels attach to and what attaches to the frame seen above. There's no squeezing that at the top to get it to fit. So here's the surgery which I would come to regret slightly. The whole thing just wanted to twist and parts snapped I didn't want to. It did go in and I had to glue the snips back together. The ones that would go back together. The top one below the gap didn't sit back together at all! It's either a bad fit and never would sit properly or it's me. I'm going for the latter Here it is in position. Super glue to the rescue And the main frame It's an absolute brute of landing gear! Now we need some wheels to add onto that beautiful landing gear. Cut off, glued and clamped to within an inch of their plastic lives These things are huge but really nice. Painted and weathered And finally the landing gear with some paint on. They need some aluminium and steel adding but everything is drying overnight and she's on her feet bedding then in..... Mid upper turret glazing has been masked and painted. Going on tomorrow when dry And finally for this evening Ignore the lighter mark on the wheel.in the last picture. It got scratched when being attached the the leg and is in the process of being repaired Hope you enjoy this update. We're nearly there

They looked ok until washed and they do look a bit too much. Never mind the kit itself looks great and goes together well. In other news I've had 15 minutes tonight and given up. I've done a bit of work around the tail wheel adding in the "bar" section between the tail wheel and have seriously fallen out with it. Will.post some photos at some point but for now it's something with coke time.... need it after that brief session. The stirling nearly went for a flight.

Hi everyone Have hardly had any time since the last update but have done little bits. Hoping to get some bench time tonight and this weekend! First up the tail wheels. At first I wondered how on earth these were going to support the weight of the beast. But once the glue had set the wheels were actually quite sturdy and they should be ok. If they aren't then I don't know I'm going to do as you can really pin them with the way they sit in the fuselage. And a view from t'other side A touch of paint applied. Tamiya rubber and army painter silver woth a wash of games workship nuln oil. Here they are slotted into the wheel well. Stuck in with super glue in the hope that it's strong enough to support the weight. One more bit the sticky out bits at the end of the stabilisers. No idea what they're actually called! Bit if a weird bit to add on and not actually be moulded as part of the main stabiliser "fillet" bits. And that's it. Nothing more to see here. Hoping to get some work done in the next few days but I don't know if that's going to happen. Anyway, happy Friday! EDIT small mishap. The rudder is on too!

Great job guys! Now I need to hold off building my kit until we know whether it's a go or not. Fingers crossed.

This weekend has been very productive for the build. Stickers are on, wash has been applied and rubbed off. Good old Flory We're very picture heavy so I apologise in advance. First up we have a stirling with stickers! The decals settled really well Bit wrinkly these ones. I took the picture whilst still drying. They've since dried flat. Once the decals had settled and dried I applied gloss over the top. And then this happened. No idea why but an easy fix Flory was slapped on as you can see from the above And removed. This is where she sits until I can decide what's next to do. Matt coat will be done once everything has been added.

Have to agree Celt there's something about the look of a stirling. Thanks Michael. It is a massive shame that they didn't keep atkeast one. It certainly does seem a strange decision not have kept one example but needs must I suppose.

Good evening modellers Today has seen some major progress with the build. Please see the pictures below. First up we had dark earth. This took 3 thin coats to get a nice solid colour that I was happy with. Tamiya dark earth this one. Even though I brush painted the dark earth there was very little leakage under the tape which given the panel lines is impressive And a touch of missing paint. Here's another shot of the overall finish I should point out that I took this after taking off the tape rather than after I painted in the areas where the tape sat. RAF dark green next. The camo pattern isnt accurate but it will look OK i think. Its times like this i wished i had an airbrush as it would make things easier in terms of masking the pattern etc. The green looks a little.patchy here but it's been sorted. This dried over a few hours and then we had a gloss coat! I haven't glossed the entire black areas as I'm not planning on adding a wash etc but I have glossed the sides of the fuselage where the decals are to go. She looks rather splendid and I have to say that the kits great. Just after taking this picture I knocked her and broke off the front left gun from the turret. She's now drying. Stickers next. Happy days ahoy! Love getting stickers on they make a huge difference to the build progress.