RiotRolo

Yeah, really easy no excess parts. Just where it was needed and used virtually no filler on it. The decals are quite thick though, so painted on what I could

Hi, Here is my finished Accurate Miniatures MK1-A Mustang, a model produced back in 1991 but stills has a lot of detail. I would like to note that when I bought the kit, it came with an aftermarket Allison Engine which although having a lot of detail, was a nightmare to cut out as the plastic was so thin. This is the recognisance fighter and so a gun camera and armed with 20mm cannons finished in D-Day stripes and has been one of my more enjoyable builds only taking two weeks to complete. This is also the first kit in a while where I haven't mucked up the canopy due to silly mistakes and made sure to invest in Swann and Morton blades which made it 10x easier. Although I always note this when I do a ready for inspection, I take photos on my smart phone but for some reason the best part of the kit it picks up is the dust rather than focusing the camera properly; hence why I have been put a blank sheet behind it to try and focus the camera more. Hope you enjoy! Ryan

Cheers, I just used liquid mask with a sponge, I had never tried it before and felt I got the result I was looking looking for. Only issue was I noticed there was still some left under the paint which is why some areas of the paint look mottled.

This is my finished F6F Hellcat by Eduard, it was possibly my favourite aircraft I have built so far and everything went together with ease. I would like to note, although it has been six months or so since I made my first 1/48th model and taking my time to do so, as you will tell, I always make a few mistakes with my kits so since I now feel my techniques are close to how I want them to be to get a semi- realistic kit. I let alot of them down with silly mistakes like glue on the canopy etc. and so will be working on making the finished result less flawed. I would like to apologise for the photos, I am yet to figure out how to get the lighting right and do the model justice, I am also sorry for how dirty the desk is with overspray but it was the best I could do with what I had. Hopefully for the next build I will take the time to use a proper camera to try and get some better photo's. Anyway, here it is:

Thanks, I will try and get the book online and give it a read.

Hi, I bought a Tamiya 1/48 Zero as it looks to be a quick build however the colour I thought it was meant to be is XF-14, J.A. Green; which is also what is suggested here: http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_japan.htm However on Tamiya's instructions and box art, also on a lot of the photos the Zero's appear a lot more white. Tamiya suggests painting it light grey which is quite a contrast to the J.A. Green, which should it be? As it is an early Zero I am not sure whether the colour may have changed later in the war. Thanks, Ryan

Yeah, I have seen some good kits and bought a few via PM through here. I always go for kits that have extras in the box, to be honest though; one of my favourite parts about building the kits are the challenges and figuring out how to fix them rather than just gluing bits together as you get to put more of your own mark on them. I totally agree about the research, I had read about the flaws of the kit but one thing I didn't read was the poor fit of the fuselage;I also enjoy the pre build process, for most of my stash I have a pinterest board full of diagrams etc. of the plane. I will take a look at that page now

Thanks, I enjoy hearing ways to improve the kits and how I showcase them. Under most circumstances I will try and use natural light as it shows the kit off better however by the time I get home from work it is pitch black For my next build I will try and incorporate these tips, again I really appreciate the feedback Cheers

Thanks Ian, I found the fuselage halfs fit to be very poor, I would have either had either 5mm gap on the top side or 5mm gap on the underside of the kit depending on how I fixed it together. In the end, as you can kind of see in the bomb bay photo; I sanded down the sides which helped the topside fit with minimal filler and the underside having to be filled with putty to hide the 5mm gap. With a 1/48th kit, 5mm is quite substantial too! Thanks again

Yeah, there are a variety of issues with the kit, I would have much preferred to work on the Tamiya version but as always, I buy my kits cheap off ebay and not many tamiya kits come up too often for a good price. The engine nacelles are especially bad, I used a lot of putty and did a lot of sanding to get it even close to what it should look like. Thanks

Thanks, Its the old revell kit with eduard interior

Revell Mosquito Mk IV. Finally got round to finishing my Revell Mosquito after a lot of time and issues and am quite happy with the result. Although the kit had major fit issues they are almost completely hidden with a lot of filler ( and mess in the process after one of my tubes exploded at the other end ), I still really enjoyed building the kit. Ever since I was a kid I was fascinated by the Mosquito and its roles in the Second World War and finally got a chance to build one so its fair to say this has been my favourite build in 1/48th scale. I am still learning methods etc. for building model kits and have been doing it less than a year so still have a lot more to learn, but I think I am getting to a stage where I am happy with the results of the builds enough to post them, my only issue is the fact I am using a phone camera which doesn't highlight parts you see in a more natural light so may have to borrow my sisters DSLR next time and get her to show me a tutorial on how to use it.... At a later date, I plan on buying a vacuform canopy and bomb sight as this is the main issue I had after building the kit, and delayed me finishing the kit. I also had to make my own window on the port side out of a plastic bottle as I managed to lose it but feel this didnt turn out too bad in the end. I also plan on building a base for this kit, such as a summer time airfield and paint up the ladder to make a mini diorama but that can be a post x-mas project. P.S. I still have no clue how to make the images smaller, but at least they are no longer links... Hope you all enjoy, Ryan

Hi, I have a jar of Hobby Color Aqueous H304 'Olive Drab' in my stash bought when I bought a B25 Mitchell. I also have a A-20J Havoc and a Huey. My confusion is that on the jar of H304 it states A-10A etc. which is not a second world war aircraft and looks different to what the B-25 should be which is a more green mix of Olive Drab. The A20J is a D-Day one so later in the war and the Huey is post WW2; is there a specific 'Olive Drab' I should be going to for each kit or will they all be the same H304. To further confuse me, Tamiya have an XF 62 and an XF 74 version of olive drab which look a different shade. So... Shall I go ahead and use the H304 on my A 20J Havoc and Mitchell or will this be wrong? Thanks

Both these are good ideas. I have emailed revell so will wait for a reply from them until i continue and buy a new canopy. Thanks

Hi, I have put about two months of work into my Revell 1/48th Mosquito and am very happy with the result. As it stands the model is built, weathered and had a semi gloss coat testing out Klear or Future whichever you prefer to call it. I dipped my canopy in it, allowed it to dry, along with all the other clear parts but for some reason it has not taken very well. By this I mean my canopy is patchy with fog, my attempts to rectify this have made it 10x worse. Whats more is that I have lost a clear part also. Therefore if anyone has a Mosquito build that they got part way through and gave up on and have the clear sprue I would be interested in it. Again this is a long shot, im not sure how many people have pieces of a kit lying around but I would like to buy it off you. The only other option I can think of is to acquire it from Revell Germany which takes weeks to arrive. Anyway if you do, let me know. The canopy is passed fixing and would be useless without the small bomber nose window that I lost. It might be at the bottom of the bottle of future but that is more hassle than its worth. I guess I have learnt a lesson from this which is rushing a kit is never a good idea, I wanted to get it done for Sunday as I am starting a new job so wont have time to make models all that often but instead have majorly delayed the process. Ryan