Simon in Wales

Thank you @Andy Dyck, @Dric, @kapam and @Wulfman. It was fun, I'm my own worst critic!!

Thanks @Farmerboy, I do enjoy a good WIP, ideal place to steal other people's ideas learn new techniques. Thanks @Bertie Psmith. Very kind of you.

Thanks to @keith in the uk @IanC @bigbadbadge and @Abandoned Project for your kind comments. Sometime between my first go at building aeroplanes in my teens and returning to this someone invented sanding sticks specifically for the eradication of gluey fingerprints (and all other detail for the overly enthusiastic).

Hello all, Look time lurker and I stand in awe of the quality that I see on here. I make no claims to be a high class modeller but I enjoy myself leaving gluey fingerprints on bits of plastic and crawling around on the floor looking for that the teeny tiny bit of plastic that pinged out of the tweezers. So here goes, Sword 1/72 Spitfire Mk XIVc. Out of the box apart from some Eduard seat belts which are now hidden and the whip aerial (which may or not be right, the painting instructions show it, the box cover doesn't) made from a decorating paintbrush bristle. Painted with Vallejo Model Air. I had a bit of fight with this one, I couldn't get the front cowling right, its been taken apart and put back together with a variety of plasticard tabs and as a result one set of exhausts sits out further than the other. I didn't deal with the flash on the intake properly and ended up filling it with sprue gloop and drilling it out. Oh, and the tail wheel covers hide the bodge where I broke the tail wheel off trying to stick it into a hole that was too small. Apart from that it was a breeze. Learnt quite a lot about building Sword Spitfires doing this which is fortunate as there's another two in the box... Also noticed that I need to touch up one of the prop blades. There's no hiding with the photos, is there? It really doesn't look as rough from the other side of the room😁. Quite please with it, its a mean looking beastie. Simon

I built the ancient ICM Tu2 and the decals were horrible thick things (the kit was a pig too and currently resides on the shelf of doom) but I've recently finished their Spitfire VII and the decals were fine, lovely and thin and conformed nicely with a bit of care, certainly no worse to use than Techmod or even Hobbyboss/Trumpeter.

That's looking really good. One thing I found when I did mine was the fit of the engine cowling wasn't very clever. I ended up it cutting it in half down the centre so that the guns lined up with the gun troughs and then filled the resulting gap in the middle. I hope that makes sense. Cheers

The 190 came very close to the bin on more than one occasion!! Not sure if its a new set because I've had it a while but its one of their Model Air 8 paint sets, Luftwaffe Colors 1941 to End-War. When I decided my elderly Humbrol enamels were beyond hope I switched to acrylics and the sets made sense even if I do have rather a lot of RLM 66 now...

Hello, First of all Airfix's Bf109-E4 finished in the markings of Franz von Werra, the only Luftwaffe POW to escape back to Germany. Finished with a hairy stick and Vallejo Model Air, OOB apart from the Xtradecals swastika and EZ-line for the aerial which at some point I will get round to putting right. Read lots of stuff about what colour von Werra's cowling should be but painted it RLM76 to make it lighter than the rest of the underside. This was actually finished last September but I've only just twigged that I couldn't post it because I had it set to private on Flickr...duh. Next is Airfix's Fw190-A8 which had been languishing on the shelf of doom for a couple of years and survived a separation and subsequent house move and the build has generally been a bit of a saga. If I remember correctly I had to cut the gun cowling in half and fill the gap to get it to fit properly, one of the cannons on the wing broke off and was replaced first with some brass wire which didn't look right and then with a spare cannon from an AZ Bf109, the step was eaten and regurgitated by the carpet monster. I managed to put the Balkankreuz on the fuselage in the wrong place but didn't realise until I did the other side and discovered the balkankreuz didn't line up the with the first aid sign. By this point the snake was on the other side so it all got left as it was. Additions were the DF loop underneath (also from an AZ Bf109 kit) which all the pictures I looked at showed but not included by Airfix, EZ-line aerial and Xtradecals swastika. Thanks for looking.

Thank you all for your kind words. Much appreciated. I hadn't thought of the lighting having the effect of the African sun...

Hello, Having been a long time lurker I thought I would take the plunge and post some of my efforts. They are nowhere near as good as some of the masterpieces that appear on here but I enjoy building them and each one is a little bit better than the last (or a I buy something which means I can do something that I couldn't previously!) First up is the AZ Models Bf109-G2, finished as Hans-Joachim Marseille's 'Yellow 14'. OOB apart from the aerial wire which is EZ-line. Paints were Vallejo Model Air applied with a brush over a white primer. Photography at my desk after dark with my Huawei P8 lite which I'm still getting the hang of.

Hello from west of Swansea, First time posting here but I've been a long time lurker admiring the quality of the work on here. Back in the day I built 1/72 Airfix planes and hung them from my bedroom ceiling. Most were built with the undercart up as I had an amazing talent from knocking bits off and then losing them! I also had an OO gauge model railway that was exhibited a couple of times. That was twenty something years ago. I stopped building models when I went to university and then got married, had children and all the rest of it. Started again a few years back. Model railways were stupidly expensive and involved electrics and other things I don't understand (my father always did the wiring). I also found that all the ready-to-plant buildings and everything else thats now available took a lot of the interest and fun out of it. I wanted to build things. So I've returned to the aeroplanes, 1/72 and 1/48, and started some 1/35 armour and figures. Really enjoying getting back into it even if it is frustrating at times but everything I build I learn something new, or at least I hope I do. Simon