Jackson Duvalier

Hey, The Family Circus is still running! 😲 I wonder if filling in the appropriate wing panel lines on a modern Mustang kit wing is any less difficult than sanding off the appropriate raised panel lines. 🤔 In similar situations I'll usually use a cone of stretched sprue cut from the fatter portions near the ends. Push (or pull) it into the hole until it jams with the wide end on the outside, apply liquid cement as liberally as necessary, then trim and sand as needed once set. It's quick and dodges issues with sealing dissimilar materials. The invasion stripes look good! The Mustang is among the easiest of airplane shapes to apply them to, a good starting place for one's first D-Day model. She's going to look so good when the OD and Neutral Gray go on. Happy you've laid hands on a couple of Airfix Spitfire Vc kits! It's not perfect but it builds fast.

... And still AZ/KP missed a perfect chance to make a proper wheel bay. They made the wells a separate part from the underside wing, so the opportunity was there for the taking, but failed to extend them back to the main spar. Why? Just, why? It's the same sort of frustrating and easily avoidable, utterly obvious errors Academy are known for. I corrected one of the AZ well castings using plastic card with the idea of making resin copies, but happily it looks like that course of action is now unnecessary. If I were Arma, I'd release the A-36 first. Considering the available 1/72 Allison Mustang kits, it's the toughest nut to crack.

As an aside, Tamiya acrylics thinned with straight 90% isopropanol dry very very matte, almost chalky. Excellent for exhaust stains!

It's certainly the best-in-any-scale P-51B/C kit yet released. WRT the AZ/KP kit I think the relatively good wings and interior bits could be mated to the superior Hasegawa fuselage. It'd be reasonably accurate but not state of the art. I was in the process of doing such a mash-up when Arma announced their P-51B.

Just bashing it out. I'll probably take a few pictures as I go to share in the RFI post. I like the recent trend toward including a brief illustrated build report with the final photos. Saves time for the contributor and the reader. Not that there's anything wrong with a nice chatty WIP thread. 😎

The wheel wells look great, especially considering you had to wriggle it all in ship-in-a-bottle style. I'm hip deep in a freshly-arrived Arma P-51B ATM, and I am officially in love. 😍 It's actually even better than I was led to believe. Strictly OOTB for his first one to familiarise myself with it all, but the future builds will receive gobs of etch and resin and vac and foil and wire....

I tend to airbrush freehand. I'd prefer a less-risky alternative, but pastels have never given me the result I want. Tamiya Deck Tan works well to represent the whitish tetraethyl lead deposits from running the engine on a lean mix; the darker oily staining from running a rich mixture can vary from tan-ish to almost black. Both dark and light staining will typically be present, check references! Dunno what sort of airbrush you have, I use an Iwata and a very Iwata-esque Procon Boy. Both allow the removal of the very tip of the nozzle for very fine up-close spraying, which is handy considering the typical Hellcat exhaust staining pattern of pale lead deposits overall with distinct dark streaks forming behind each individual exhaust pipe. Admittedly this is straining at a gnat in 1/72, but it's a pretty cool effect if you can pull it off.

Beautiful as always, Libor. 😎

Lovely little bird, zegeye. I hope mine turn out as well! I arrived home from work 20 minutes ago to find a long-awaited package from Poland, if nobody hears from me for a while I'll be at the workbench!

Breathtaking modelwork, Audra. It appears Antanas Gustaitis designed ANBO-III as a challenge to the scratch modeller, there's nothing easy to replicate about it. Your replica is so incredibly clean and precise.

NOOOO! POST MOAR!!1! 🤩 This beast is going to look fabulous when you get done. Those Quinta decal/placard bits are amazing, wish somebody'd offer something similar in 1/72. How do you plan to tackle the exterior paint chipping?

Eduard offer many versions, including the late IXc. The moulds were designed so many marks could be built from the same trees; the different boxings include decals and instructions for whichever mark is depicted on the boxtop. The plastic is the same in all of them. Your build is coming along nicely, can't wait to see her all done.

On the bright side, you've now got reference marks literally attached to the model so just in case when the voices start telling you that you cannot live with that mismatched off blue, and it simply must be repainted to match the spinner, the necessary masking will be greatly simplified. 😊 At least I think that's how it'd go; I never have little voices telling me I got it all wrong. Never. 🙄 The difference between theory and practice is that in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.

Very interesting "Amerikanskiye Transportnie Samoliet" (whatever that is) you've got there, Bill. Looks like an American transport plane to me. 🙂 I'm intrigued by your modification techniques. I'm guessing the Zvezda C-130 stacks up favourably compared to other 1/72 kits or you'd've chosen a different starting point?

So you are planning to model this one! I wasn't sure from the OP whether this was pre-build research or simple curiosity. 😊 AFAIK, every B-24 kit that's ever been on the market is compromised in terms of detail and outfit. I can't imagine one could reasonably expect otherwise from a kit of an aircraft with so many different marks and production variations. The Haitch model B-24 is particularly underserved. This affords you the opportunity to do lots more research about 41-29433's production block and any Mod Center or field modifications and then perform necessary corrections to your chosen kit! What more could the Very Serious Modeller ask for? 😎

Hear hear. You mentioned earlier the purpose of this build was to practise your skills, and IMO that's the highest and best use for an Academy TBM. No need to agonise over accurate paint for an inherently inaccurate kit. It won't make a good model, but it makes a perfect paint mule! 😎 (In the interest of full disclosure I've two of these languishing in the stash waiting for the right novice builder to play with; they go together easily in spite of the detail flaws.)

One bite at a time, Dave. Endeavour to persevere! 😎

🤩 Very nice work, and with Tamiya decals, no less! I particularly like the shiny data stickers on the dull prop blades. The weathering isn't shocking. TBH I think you could have gone much heavier, considering how nasty the Mustangs in Korea could get.

Retro-futurism at its best! 😎 Thanks for sharing the in-progress shots.

Beautiful, Eugen! Can't wait to see this one scaled down to 1/72, I finally got my hands on your new 1/72 P-43 and am very impressed.

Bloody magnificent. Don't see enough of these, especially so well-finished.

Beautiful model, Hadzi. I presume the blue panels were pre-shading? IMO the worst thing about the Revell kit is the cowl flaps. It looks like they "could eat corn off the cob through a barb-wire fence," as the saying goes.

When I was a lad I had neighbour who'd been a test pilot at Patuxent River during the prop-to-jet transition era. One time he showed me his logbooks; he'd had a few hours in the AM, which I'd never even heard of at the time. As I recall he thought the AD was the better aircraft, but the Mauler always appealed to my taste for the obscure. Very cool model, and properly laden. The distance between the wing folds looks wider than a Skyhawk's wingspan.

I have a bit of a soft spot for the Revell P-51B, even if it is a pocket money kit. You've done a pretty good job, the metallic paint looks good.

Skybirds '86 kitted the MB5 as well. Don't ask me how my brain elected to retain that bit of trivia.