RiotRolo

Hi everyone, I've been working through my stash and have finally got around to my Lib. I have just completed the interior and kept it pretty basic as I wont see much of it when its on my work in progress heavy bomber shelf and in any case have decided to focus more on the exterior finish now im happy with my progression regarding metal finish aircraft. Anyway... I am at the stage of filling gaps and decided to test fit my canopy and clear pieces and noticed that Revell have moulded the front and rear turrets in halves meaning there will be very obvious join marks on two quite noticeable areas of the model. Can anyone suggest a possible fix for this? After browsing the internet I have seen multiple 1/48 kits built up with turrets which look as though they are moulded as one. I am going to continue progression with the kit in the meantime but depending on the options I have, I may end up building the turrets as a cast and somehow attempt to recreate my own. (This is something I have not attempted before but if its the best option I might give it a go). Thanks in advance. Ryan

Hi, I have just finished the cockpit of an Me262 1b, I was about to go ahead and paint the gun bay, fuselage and wheel bay in RLM 02 as this is what I have always believed these areas on Luftwaffe to be. However whilst looking around on other builds and references there seems to be a lot of gun bays and fuselages painted a metal colour. Can anyone give me an idea on if I should go ahead and paint it in a metal colour or to go ahead with the RLM02? I dont really show my models off (mainly cause I only have a phone camera and I can never get the photos to do the model justice) and they tend to just sit on my shelf but if I found out I had done it wrong after painting I would still be disappointed. Thanks guys! Ryan

Thanks for all the replies, I might look at just getting decals for a J variant and build a D at a later date then.

Hi guys, Just picked up an old Monogram B24J off ebay and got it a bit cheaper as it had no decals. The decals that are interesting me follow the B24D variant and was wondering what the main differences were between the two, whether I could attempt to replicate a D from a J and also generally anything to watch out for with this kit? Thanks, Ryan

You can really tell a lot of time has gone into this, there are so many little details that make the build even better!

Hi guys, I know this isnt the correct area to post this however I rarely post to here and only use the site to read post's rather than posting my own and therefore do not have the content count to use the wanted area for this. I am currently in the decal process of this kit and had been taking a long time to get things right, a lot of the time I rush builds resulting in issues or not being happy enough to display it so I am slowly working on kits now to get the right finish on them. The issue I have is, the kit bought is from 1998 and the decals have sadly crumbled when I dipped them in water; ive considered stencilling the decals but have already used them so this makes things more difficult and the kit has some japanese writing which I dont think I can replicate. If anyone has any spare decals going for any type of b6n2 Tenzan going I would be very interested and would appreciate it massively. P.s. I have tried to message Hasegawa as they have a spare parts enquiry but have not received a reply. Thanks

Hasegawa Nakajima B6N2 Tenzan 'Jill' (1:48) Hi guys, so this will be my first work in progress build that I wanted to try and upload to the forum and felt this kit would be the best/ most interesting to do. The kit is relatively old but is amazingly detailed without an excessive part count which is what made me want to chose this from my stash; I have also never completed a Japanese World War Two aircraft, specifically an Imperial Japanese Navy one (I have a half built Zero which I need to finish at a later date) and so have a lot of ideas on how to weather it etc. I started this kit Friday evening and have just about finished the cockpit after a few more hours than intended over the weekend after deciding to take advantage of the busy cockpit which was conveniently moulded in three main parts. I wasnt too sure exactly what colour the cockpit was meant to be so tried to mix what I thought to be correct, however with all the kits I build I do not always go for 100% accuracy but more of an interpretation of the actual plane and feel this is the best balance when building a model for me. Here are a few photos of the cockpit just about finished, I'll be adding a few more photos at a checkpoint of the build: https://imgur.com/iS1IWuP https://imgur.com/DnNbVTe https://imgur.com/K3trXO7 https://imgur.com/URR0dm0

Hi guys, Whilst scrolling through some websites I came across a description of a plane which had a purpose I had never seen before. If you are interested in the Zveno 'mothership' check it out here: http://www.aviation-history.com/zveno/zveno.htm I thought it was quite interesting so thought I would share it with you all Ryan

sorry, didnt notice any replies, for some reason they did not come through. Cheers

Hi guys, I am working on a Revell Ta 154 and was enjoying the build until I realised the paint scheme might be somewhat challenging if I dont take the right approach (this was supposed to be a quick little build whilst im off work). Can anyone suggest the best method of painting the RLM 75 overtop of the RLM 76. I have thought about blu tack and also liquid mask but have had mixed results with the mask before. Blu tack seems to be the best option at the moment but want to check if there are any other methods before I go ahead with it. Thanks, Ryan

Hi, Quick question, I went to go onto the IPMScolour chart which I have saved http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_germany.htm and for some reason it is saying the site has been removed. Is anyone else able to access it, or has it actually been removed? Cheers

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