Mick Drover

Just a quick update. and a few quick pics this morning after I took all the clamps and tape off and before heading off to work. Spent an hour or two last night getting the airframe and flying surfaces on. The gun fairing panels are only tacked on at the nose the moment; hence why they sit a bit proud of the surface. Mick

Gunze H54? Interior green. I'll double check when I get hone

Disclaimer... TL;DR moment....It was assembly only on the P-40 tonight. The cockpit, wing roots and fuselage have all been joined. Test fitting of the wing while the fuselage glue dried revealed some fit issues. Either the distance between the wing root on the fuselage is too small or the corresponding distance on the wing is too short. Opting for the lesser of two evils I cut the spar that makes the wing rigid rather than chop material off the wing panels. It allows some flex for the wing to fit in the gap. The other work was on the prop and spinner. The kit would have you capture the prop and it's hub between the front and rear of the spinner. I hacked off the blades which I'll later pin back on. This allows me to install just the hub and the fore and aft spinner parts, in turn allowing me to clean up the fit and the paint it before reattaching the props. That's it for now. Mick

Thanks Adam.

That's some nice detail you've added, particularly the face of the radio receiver. Keep going. Cheers, MD

Thanks Bruce. Not quite a heap of choc wedges, just a visit to the art store! I was working on the belts late on Saturday. I put everything down and went and had a good nights sleep before returning to them yesterday afternoon. Mick

G'day all. We had our annual show last weekend and as it happens every year, the motivation and enthusiasm was renewed after catching up with mates and seeing some fantastic models on the competition table and club displays. So of course I went home and started a model. I built the Airfix Defiant two years ago and had a great time building it so opted for the new(ish) 1/48 Airfix P-40B Tomahawak. I've picked up some extras over the last month so started on it last week. Yesterday was Father's Day here in Oz so I managed a few hours to myself amongst all of the carry on with my own kids, catch up with my dad and my wife's dad. Considering it's the kit cockpit, I'm happy with how it turned out. The only thing I'm not sure on is the amount of time spent on the HGW seatbelts, I don't think I'll bother with them again. Everything else is just detail painting, washes and some pigments. The instrument dials are kit decals with heaps of Microsol applied to get them to suck down onto the embossed dials. Followed by Tamiya X-22 for the instrument glass. The only thing missing are the gun breeches for the two nose mounted 50 cal guns. The fuselage goes together tonight. Cheers, Mick

Thanks Bruce. Thanks Pete. It's a bit different. Thanks, you've got some really nice decals there and with Cartograf printing them you can't go wrong with them. The plan was to put the anniversary 'Bye' + tail art on it however that's were it came unstuck. Two things happened. Firstly the pilot emblem tore in half, which resulted in a few expletives and secondly I realised that the decal needed to be cut to shape to fit around the horizontal stab. There is a cut out at the fuselage corner of the elevator to allow for left/right rudder travel however the art work sits partially above and below the horizontal stab. I realised that I should have measured and cut it prior to gluing them in position. They're going on a display at a show this weekend and I've got a few other projects on the go to finish so I didn't want to faff around trying to fit it. I'll most likely get to it after I've displayed it. On the other hand, if they'd been trimmed to shape then that's another story. Happy to chat about it offline. Mick Thanks Draken Thanks Richard. Thanks Harold.

Thanks Bruce. You wouldn't know it going by the photos but they're the same colour as the top side grey. Mick

This is the 48th scale Hobbyboss Tucano. Built as an EMB-312F serving with the French Air Force while based at Salon-de-provence AB in 2009. Extras are the fantastic @CaracalModelsdecals, Pavla ejection seats and Quick boost exhausts. It's now my favourite subject in the display cabinet. Cheers, Mick

Hi all. This is the 72nd scale F/A-18F built from the Hasegawa kit. It's dressed as A44-210 serving with 1 squadron with the Royal Australian Air Force while flying operational sorties in the Middle East. The extras are Quick boost seats, Attack Squadron ordnance and Ronin Decals. The tail art is for the 100th anniversary of 1 squadron, 1916-2016. Lovely model to build except the woefully shallow intakes and for the eagle eyed of you, the wing tip formation lights have been altered to represent a RAAF block jet. Hope you like it!

Nice work. That looks fantastic.

Well it's been a bit more than 'soon' as per @CaracalModels post previously! In my best Luke Skywalker voice while doing the trench run on the Death Star... "Almost...there...." I'd had the model primed in Tamiya Fine White primer for AGES but decided it was a bit too stark. So I made up a 50:50 mix of Tamiya XF-2 Flat White and Gunze H-338 Light Ghost Gray thinned with Tamiya lacquer thinner. Once applied and cured it was a few hours of masking and it was ready for the red. I'll put a caveat here, there are photos from my phone. No super sharp but I can assure you the delineation between the white and red is nice and neat...phew!! Cheers, Mick Followed by Tamiya LP-4 Pure Red from their lacquer paint range...followed by a few touch ups. Pardon the blurry phone pic. Tamiya X-22 gloss applied followed by neat lacquer thinner to make it nice and glassy. Caracal decals applied. I encountered a bit of a problem here. The original aircraft was going to bee the farewell scheme from their sheet however the pilot figure that adorns the fin/rudder needs to be cut to shape first before it is positioned above and below the horizontal stab. I'm trying to get this finished for a show this weekend so did away with the heartache of trying to cut decals to match; I might save it for another day. The great thing about the decals however was that they'reprinted by Cartograf and performed really well with Mocroset/sol. They slurped down into the detail without any issues. Hopefully the final assembly will happen tonight.

I like the Rafale and looks like you nailed. Good job Val. Mick

Nice one Avgas. I do like an aggressor flavoured Hornet. Very nice. Mick