Mick Drover

TheWoohoo!!! Pretty happy with how this has turned out considering it's my first crack at a freehand scheme. I spent fifteen minutes on the metal fuselage panels around the rear of the exhaust. Tamiya X-1 Gloss Black followed by Alclad Stainless Steel and then Dark Aluminium. There's a few spots to touch up but otherwise I'm stoked. Mick

Thanks Draken!

Over the last few months I’ve managed to get three shelf sitters over the finish line so thought I’d continue my efforts into 2020. I started building this one when my son was 2, he’s about to turn 10. It’s the AFV Club RF-5E which I’m painting up to represent a TUDM (Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia or Royal Malaysian Air Force) aircraft. I’ve taken the FS numbers supplied in the instructions and pulled them out of my gunze paint stocks. Compared to some reference photos that I have they are a pretty close match. It’s also the first time I’ve tried by hand at a freehand camouflage scheme. However, beforehand I did pencil in the line-work with some water colour pencils that you can see in some of the photos. The FOD covers are from Royale resin and hide the ‘gutless’ interior. (Never thought I’d use that phrase in model building). I’ve progressed the painting a bit further than what you see here, but the underside shows the colour combination well. Cheers, Mick

Hi all. With the Spitfire complete, I've changed scale, era and propulsion method and have gone to the recent 1/72 Airfix FGR.2 Phantom with a few extras. It'll be built with kit decals of the white tailed aircraft while it was working out of RAF Mount Pleasant. I'll replace the kit lumps that are supposed to represent Sidewinders with the much nicer versions from Eduard. I love Adam Toobey's artwork. I've got a bit done on it already however I've hit a bit of an 'ugh' moment. The cockpit is fine out of the box as the cockpit will be closed however the intakes are annoying and fiddly. The left and right halves of each intake are okay, it's the outside fuselage shoulder piece that is frustrating. The ejector pin marks have been filled with talc and CA. You might be able to see in the image where I've removed some material to help it fit. It needs a little more but frustrating to do nonetheless. Has anyone else had problems with the fit in this area? The fiddly fit of the intake shoulder The lower wing section also has part of the forward lower fuselage which has an awkward seam that needs to be to cleaned up. This will have to be done after the intakes are installed. Sadly there's no swapping assembly steps here. I'm unsure if I'll get a resin replacement set for the burner exhausts as the sprue attachment points are smack bang in the middle of some nice rib detail.... Cheers, Mick

You can download colour instructions for most of their recent kits from the Kinetic website. http://uk.luckymodel.com/km/e03-165-48083.pdf

Thanks Greg. I'd love to do a Hurricane but I don't have one in the stash at the moment. I'll see what I can find out our big annual swap meet in a few months time.

Don't say that Robert! Use it for some inspiration perhaps? Glad you like it though.

Complete!

Cheers Calum. Almost as fast as the Wimpy???

That's a great result Christian. Thanks for the explanation of the painting technique too. Mick

Thanks Jason. Thanks Barbouille. Thanks Dunny. I'd happily build a second one of these. Go for it, great name by the way. Thanks Djordje. It didn't even complete it's first mission so the weathering has been kept fairly minimal. I'd love to get into a Spitfire that has some service use...lots of opportunities there. Thanks Kitchen. Thanks Joachim. There's no over ambitiousness here and I'm no Spitfire officianado either so it was built straight from the cardboard. The wires are on the camo plans so I'll leave them. I'm sure they do drop their flaps when parked but that isn't an option in the kit unless you want to go the AM route etc. which I had no intention of pursuing. Another time perhaps? Mick Thanks Keith! Thanks King. The seat belts come with the kit as well as a bunch of other etch parts including rudder bar straps, mesh grills, hinge plates and the triangular base for the wire on the antenna mast. Cheers Wulfman. Thanks Bill. Thanks Vinnie. Thanks RMCS.

The Spitfire is complete! This is the new tool 1/48 Tamiya Spitfire Mk. I. The first completion for 2020, let's hope I can keep up with this pace! Just over four weeks from start to finish. Some oils, exhaust stain and a few water colour pencil marks. I haven't enjoyed a build like this one in a long time. The weathering was kept to a minimum as N3200 only flew once due to it being shot down and crashing on a beach of which the photos are well known. It flies again nowadays. Hope you like it. Cheers, Mick ...and a moody one.

Back with the Spitfire. Not much done on it over the weekend except a panel wash. I mixed up a 50:50 mix of the Tamiya grey and black panel liner mixed with a similar amount of enamel thinner. I'd gone over the final paint with a satin lacquer that provided a good surface for the wash to work on. There's still a few spots around hatch hinges that needs to be cleaned up but I'm happy with the result. The white underside got the same as the top side however I added more of the lighter grey to the mix so I got a lighter grey on the black. There's still a few hours to with it. I've got the day off tomorrow so I'll try and finish it up then. The feathery looking edge around the access hatch is the white glue I used to tack the hatch and canopy in position. It's easily removed with a pair of tweezers. Cheers, Mick

Nice work so far Brad. I built this for my son a few years ago with AM decals from an F-84! Sadly, it now hangs from his bedroom ceiling with a few pieces missing while dive bombing his LEGO collection. QMHE perhaps? Cheers, Mick

That's looking really nice. I built the Mk.I a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed the build. I didn't rivet mine but it certainly adds some visual interest to an otherwise dark model. What tool/machine did you use to cut the stencils? The cameo seems to all of the rage at the moment. Cheers Mick