Beggsy

The decals behave pretty well. I applied them a little forward of where they need to go, then pulled them aft until the tail-end was in the right place. This helped to keep the main stripe straight. After that, I nudged the forward wider sections into place. If you haven't done so already, I'd glue the engine mount to the nose before the decals, but put the cowling on afterwards. That way the fuselage stripes can overhang or underhang a little at the front, and the cowling will cover that up and look just right. Here's a photo from my build to show what I mean. Note that the propeller is just posed in place, before anyone asks how on earth I got the cowling on

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This one is a lovely little kit. I just finished building it myself as part of this weekend's Blitzbuild. IT went together really well. I needed a bit of filler around the fuselage seams, but there's not much detail in the area so it can be sanded back very easily. That said, make sure not to sand off the two faint raised areas on the underside that will indicate where the landing gear attachments go.

Photos are in the gallery. Here are the ones that didn't make the top 5, but I still thought they looked nice enough to post. This was a relaxed and enjoyable blitzbuild. Happy modelling to all of you still going!

Here's my Special Hobby / MPM Lockheed Vega, in 1:72 scale. It's Amelia Earhart's plane, as it looked when she flew the Atlantic. Not only is the most famous of her flights in the airplane, but it also wore the simplest paint scheme of it's career at that time, which was great for quick building. The kit went together remarkably well, despite the lack of location features. Looking forward to the next blitzbuild!

Looking great! I built the weird export version a year ago in a Blitzbuild. It went together pretty well in the end, despite some warnings. The most time consuming part was the myriad of stencil decals to be applied. I think I ended up skipping some 🤫

Uh, not quite done at the time I posted that! 3 hours and 17 minutes later though, I'm happy to call this one done. Total elapsed time was 15 hours and 17 minutes. I'll take some better photos and stick them in the gallery tomorrow. Goodnight everyone!

It shouldn't be much longer now! For once I'll have this done before midnight and have time to check out some of the other builds. Hmm, maybe. Only one window on each side is going to be transparent, so don't hold your breath! The Mr. Hobby "Shine Red" is a really good colour, very bright. Here she is exactly 12 hours in. They've been pretty relaxed hours as far as blitzbuilds go.

What a lovely evening to be outside spray painting! There's also the sound of steam-locomotive whistles in the air, with the nearby heritage depot seemingly give an exemption to the lockdown for some sort of steam-up. It's a great place to live, here! Now to let that cure for a bit before the red paint. Oh, and don't worry, I did the engine cowling too, it's just not in the photo.

It did for a bit! Then I covered it in putty. The resin vertical tail left quite a gap at the front. It took a lot of putty to fill. While that dried, I enjoyed this steak sandwich from a local cafe (who thankfully do deliveries). After lunch I got the sanding done and attached the landing gear Just 2 exhaust pipes, 2 wheels and a propeller left. It's spray-primer time, which means going outside. Thus, the birds have to go into the cage for naptime (can't have them escaping out the door).

Looks like a tasty breakfast!

3 hours in and the interior is all painted Some of it looks a bit rough there, but it got a lot better once put together Now to start making it airplane-shaped!

Update time! I sanded off the ridges around the windows, which looked unrealistic. This would have been doubly so on "Old Bessie" given that many of the windows were blanked out. Next came some construction on the interior. I used some of the windows to cut masking tape to the right size and saved it for later. And then all the windows were installed And now it's painting time!

Kickoff! Everyone's having a healthy breakfast here

Do I detect a clue about building the Airfix Gnat in the Hot Shots marking scheme?

I'm in! So glad we have 3 of these per year, they double my completed-model output for the year

Hello everyone! For the second time this year, I find myself in a complete lock-down during a blitzbuild when I had planned to be away. A small comfort I guess, having originally thought I'd miss them both. Anyway, here we are, nothing to be done about COVID other than staying home, finishing models and getting my first vaccine shot next Wednesday So for this build, I wanted something simple. Unfortunately, nothing in my current stash fits that bill as they're all multi-colour complex jobs with aftermarket. So, one virtual trip to the hobby shop and express shipping later, I find myself with this: Don't worry @Hockeyboy76, I got myself some pink primer at the same time Here's what's in the box, all ready to go for tomorrow: It should be pretty straight forward (famous last words?). The decals should take a lot less time than they did in my last blitzbuild, as I'll only be using 12 of them. I'm planning to build the airplane as it looked when Amelia Earhart flew it across the Atlantic ocean. For that flight, it didn't have the registration number or manufacturer's logo on the wings and tail. I also confirmed that it has the shorter exhaust pipes, and the instructions say to use the tailskid rather than the tailwheel. With that, it's bedtime here. See you all at the kickoff tomorrow. Maybe. Actually, a lot of you will probably still be asleep thanks to timezones. See you later in the day!

I guess it's sort of a diorama. There's nothing permanent about it though, all the bits were just blue-tacked to my balcony because the lighting was better outside Be forewarned: The HPM set is not for the faint-hearted. I had a few major fit issues, and the 3D printed parts are very brittle. I ended up with a lot of damage around the edges of the gear bays. Thankfully the gear doors kind of draw the eye away from the missing chunks. Thanks for all your kind comments everyone!

It's done! Actually not quite, I haven't painted that door as I didn't want to get the airbush out just for such a small part. I'll be getting the Foliage Green out again soon enough and I'll do it then. Conveniently, the door is invisible when open on the real airplane, so there's nothing wrong with leaving it off for now. Here's a link to the RFI:

Hello all! I'm posting this on the 80th anniversary of the first flight of a Beaufort Mk.V. This was also the first airplane assembled on the site where I now work. The plan had been to get some photos in the original factory (which is still standing but full of Boeing 787 flaps), but COVID had other ideas here in Melbourne. Here are some details Kit: Airfix Beaufort Mk.I Aftermarket: - HPM Early Beaufort conversion set (minus the extended-chord vertical fin) - Eduard Brassin wheels - Eduard Photoetch set - Eduard masking set Paint: - Topside 1: Gunze H-302 (approx. RAAF Foliage Green) - Topside 2: 10 parts Vallejo 71.323 to 1 part Vallejo 71.105 (approx. RAAF Earth Brown) - Underside: 1 part Vallejo 77.701 to 1 part Gunze H-1 (aluminium dope) - Interior: Tamiya XF-71 (cockpit green) Decals: From the Airfix kit other than T9540 serial (from the HPM set) and black arrow at the port wing root (from the spares box) Other modifications: - Relocated one aerial to the belly - removed gun from rear turret (the first aircraft was unarmed at rollout) - Drilled out bulbs in the wingtip lights - Added EZ-line aerial wire - Added 1940s aerial photo of Fishermens Bend Airfield to the navigator's table And now, photos! I posed a few RAF vehicles and figures around it for a few photos. I wasn't able to take photos in the factory, but some of these are being featured in the local newsletter at work next week and I wanted them to still have an interesting background. I know they're not prototypical! Here's the real thing rolling out of the factory. I tried to match the angles of the propellers. Finally, here's the WIP for those interested. Now, on to finishing the first Aussie Beaufighter!

Same here! I'm leaving the wing off of my 1:72 Catalina until the latest point possible and still having that problem.

Wow. If not for the title, I would have assumed that it was a much more modern kit. You've done a fatastic job with it!

Minor update time. First of all, here are the completed propellers, and the airplane on its wheels. I haven't attached the props yet as I scuffed some paint where the incorrect camera mount was. It's a lot easier to access and fix without a prop in the way. In the below photo I've fixed the green but still need to do the aluminium. I've had no luck with finding the access hatch, so I partook in the dark art of "Scratch-Building" for the first time. It went better than I expected!

The gunk in the panel lines wasn't intentional. Most of them are clean, but I had some sort of paint issue with the black undercoat. I had to re-paint one area of green entirely after black seeped through and took on the pattern of the masking tape, and then it also came through the brown on a few panels. Most of them look like removable panels, so I ended up deciding not to fight it further. As for the different shades of panels, it's pretty subtle, and I can confirm that even on brand new airliner parts, you can sometimes see different sheens on different panels.

This sentence has aged well. This sentence has not aged well. Good thing I never filled the hole, but I did sand off the raised feature around it. Oh well, too late to fix now! Maybe I'll build T9540 again and get that detail right when the ICM 1:48 Beaufort comes out......