Ade H

You and me both! As you brought up washes and art thinners, though, I might as well mention that I started out with Winsor and Newton's low odour thinner, but was disappointed with very poor blending and a propensity to start damaging paint (even Vallejo, let alone Ammo, which is a lot weaker). I switched to AK thinner and cured both problems (although Ammo paint can still be a problem). John, sorry to jump in and sort of change the topic. I've not brushed enamels in a very long time, but advice elsewhere would certainly seem to concur with Panzer Vor's answer. It's often only worth changing something if you're not fully satisfied with it.

Thanks, chaps. For some reason, I didn't know that Studio 27 makes kits; I should look at Hiroboy's listings more closely. I think that I read something about the XJR decals on another site; and I had been wondering why I'd bookmarked some AM decals for it a long time ago!

Has anyone here built any of Hasegawa's Group C cars? Especially, the Jaguar XJR-8? Would do you think of them? I nearly bought the Toyota 88C in Denso colours until I saw one built and was disappointed with the wheels, which didn't seem right at all.

That may be an unplugged hole in the market, given how popular M1s are. Not into modern armour, I must admit, but I'd want this if I was. Anyway, I did some digging out of curiosity and found, as you probably have, that buying the relevant Tamiya or Trumpeter kits seems to be the only option. Not the best value for you.

Tom, I'm suprised that nobody replied to you. I suppose that you must have found an alternative solution or given up by now, but I would have suggesting asking the retailer to help you.

Welcome to the forum, Paul. The answer may depend to some extent upon what type and nationality of AFVs you like to build. It would also depend upon whom you ask, of course! I could give you a long list of specialist retailers which I like and trust, but it would comprise eBay sellers and small web traders. I don't know whether very many of them run shops as well, but I don't look. If I confined myself to supporting high street businesses trading online, I would likely have to pay more and would certainly have far less choice. That's the changing retail world coupled with my budget.

Thanks, Lloyd.

Which brand/type of hairspray did you use, Lloyd? Might not sell in the UK with the same name, but worth asking. I've used washable agent on a KV, but initial testing with hairspray failed me.

Tidy Bare-Metal Foil and straight tyre transfers: always a good sign! Your wiper blade has a gap, though. Perhaps a thin run of PVA would hold it down without being noticeable.

Google has failed me again. I have a set of Eduard's recent US Navy WWII steel PE harnesses (the best Eduard belts that I've yet seen, incidentally), half of which are green. They will be going into a 1945 F6F-5. I've never seen a WWII model built with green belts, so does anyone know when the US Navy started to use them? Was there a good reason to switch from the buff colour?

I can't compare P34s, so I can only compare their other output more generally. I wouldn't have stuck my oar in, but no-one else has yet. My first sample of Fujimi's F1 kits (a 126C2, circa 2007) has slightly disappointed me. From opening the box onwards, I've not had much love for it. Don't get me wrong: it's OK in the big picture of modelling, typical of Fujimi, and it will be OK when I'm done, but it is not a Tamiya. It doesn't feel quite as neat as what Tamiya could do in the '90s; the fit is not as good in a few key places, so it needed some good ol' fashioned modelling skills; and it has poor decals. However. You're looking at two kits with a big 35 year age gap; maybe this Fujimi effort is sharper with better decals. Some of them have some in-box reviews (not usually very insightful) listed at Scalemates, so I'll leave you to do some reading. https://www.scalemates.com/products/reviews.php?scale=1%3A20&topic=Tyrrell+P34 I've fought shy of coming down off the fence, though, because I can only answer for me. If I had the Tamiya kit and I was happy with my build, I'd keep my money for something else entirely for greater variety. Preferably with good decals! Hoping that this helps somewhat.

And a welcome from me, too. Funny what you mention about airbrushes. Like you, I had an earlier stint. I bought a cheap starter kit with pocket money, had no clue even that paint should be thinned, bent the needle, and gave up. Got pretty good at brushing by necessity! This time around, I took to airbrushing very easily, luckily. Point being: don't rule it out if your budget allows and you get to try one out, e.g. at a show demo or hobby shop (if you can find one of those!) Like the mafia. If you try to quit, someone threatens to come around and rearrange your sanding sticks.

I can't quite see from your photo, but is that the molded-in harness painted or did you remove that and add something after-market? I have the MP4/7 waiting for decals, a tyre template, and some wiring bits; but I was a bit disappointed to see the molded-in belt. I've seen someone remove them, but I wouldn't tackle it. On a Fujimi kit, I used Tamiya's adhesive belt set, which was fiddly but neat.

If this is still on, you can count me in, as I just doubled the number of Dragon British Shermans (for which spellcheck is suggesting Germans, ironically!) on the shelf. Jadlam just got the El Alamein in for £26. The two provisos are that I remember about this as far away as January, and that one of them remains unbuilt by then. Neither will be easy. The other's a Mk.III with Bison decals for the NZ 20th at Cassino in '44, and that will no doubt be done sooner than the GB.

Nah, I wouldn't have enough dexterity in a diving suit!

Thanks, Jack. No, these MiniArt pins are symmetrical unfortunately; both pins are straight and thin rather than, say, a tapered bump which would be much more robust. Maybe MA should get Meng to make its tracks! My next step before spending my way out of trouble is to try trimming one pin down slightly. Thanks for the tips about the other brand names to look for; I'll keep searching for them.

I didn't know that styrene sheet can also be clear. Thanks.

I have a Fujimi 126C2 in progress and it's not the most refined of kits. The windscreen, especially, is terribly thick and looks inaccurately shaped. I think that it must be possible to cut a replacement from some kind clear plastic sheet. But what sort of material should I be searching for? The only You Tube tutorial that I found wasn't specific about that crucial bit of info. Thanks, folks.

Thanks, Jack. That gets me a bit further. Can you suggest/recommend any particular manufacturers to search for? Since your reply, I've only found some Friulmodel T-34 tracks which may suit, but they cost more than the kit from a foreign eBay seller and I can't find a British stockist.

I use Alec seam scrapers (from Models R Go). Alec tools are not cheap, but I swear by them.

I was going to ask the same question as you, TBC. Let us know how you get on with what you bought, e.g. what proves to be most useful. I've a Tamiya MP4/7 at the top of the pile.

One of MiniArt's mostly very good SU-122s is sitting here half-finished, waiting for me to complete the interior and find some after-market tracks. I've given up on the kit tracks as bad engineering, as it's just impossible for me to get the second of each link's pins to click home without snapping them. I'm down to three spare links! I'd cement them, but there's not enough contact area. The trouble is that I can't find any AM tracks which refer specifically to the SU-122 (or even SU-85). As the running gear looks like it was shared with the T-34, were the tracks exactly the same? I've not found a definitive answer to that yet and a wrong assumption could be expensive. Ade.

Bearing in mind that I've not seen the Bronco part in question, only how it should look, I would try holding the edge of the part under a metal rod of the right sort of diameter and bending the part upward. Like using a folding tool if it had a round edge. I know how trying to do this kind of bend freehand is very difficult.

I don't have that particular set, James, though I have used several of its colours bought individually or in the other sets. I'm fussy about colour matches and spend more time than is entirely healthy cross-referencing as much web info as I can find, and I'm very satisified with almost all of Vallejo's specified matches which I've so far used for air and armour. Before you buy it, though, check that you won't be duplicating colours in your inventory. They are all available individually and many of them crop up in the other RAF/FAA sets. For instance, I just checked that set and found that I'm only missing one of the eight.

I've had the Eduard/Gavia Lysander sat half-finished for some while because I blindly trusted Eduard's research and built the rear cockpit as instructed apart from some scratchbuilt details. I was almost ready to close it up when I read a post here, I think, which mentioned the mods made to the SD unit's aircraft. It's too late to scratch them now, so before I resign myself to completing it as a standard version, do any smart chaps here know whether all of the SD planes were converted? If some were not, my vignette idea can go ahead, but I like to be as accurate as I can. Ade.