Andwil

Love the spelling of axle in the instructions The Havoc is a nice looking plane, this should be good. AW

Looking good James. The Airfix kit is certainly in another league to the Special Hobby kit I’m building. AW

Todays session was spent further fettling and dry fitting the parts. I taped up the fuselage and nose pieces (which have had the insides of the glazed sections masked) to check the fit. Not too bad I popped the top canopy part on to check the fit: Looks like I’ll be following @AdrianMF’s lead and cutting off the side panels. Actually, I’m going to have to anyway to replace them with the vacformed parts with the window “bubbles”. Lets turn it over and have a look at the underside: Yikes! I assembled and primed the cockpit parts ready for interior green snd detail painting. Onwards and upwards AW

Thanks Steve. The vichy stripes are certainly eye catching, but once is enough! AW

Happy New Year everyone. This will be my entry in the group build. It’s been in the stash since long before the Airfix kit was released. This is a good opportunity to build it! A quick look at the contents of the box: Three sprues of grey styrene, Some resin detail parts in two different colours. There is also a small PE fret with seat belts and instrument panels. I also have these after market goodies: The mask set is for the Airfix kit, but I’m hoping they’ll fit this one🤞 I was originally going to build the box top all black scheme, mainly to speed up the painting process but looking at the instructions this calls for the AI radar aerials to be made up from microscopic pieces of resin and wire. That’s not going to happen. Instead I’ll be doing this aircraft: Plate in the Osprey volume on Defiant, Blenheim and Havoc Aces. L9446 was used by Flg Off. Reg Peacock to down a Ju-87 on 18/8/40 for his fifth victory making him the only pilot to achieve ace status flying the Blenheim. This fits in well with my collection of aircraft of the aces. Decals for the codes and serials are on the way. A start has been made, all the parts have received a wash and I’ve commenced the process of carving and sanding more or less Blenheim shaped pieces out of the flash and blobs. Huge ejector pins have been ground off with the rotary tool. This very much a short run kit, no locating tabs or pins and some fairly crude moulding of the smaller parts. Dry fitting, to the extent it is possible, is not encouraging. Thanks for looking. AW

2023 was a very productive year for me with 14 completed builds, all but two built as part of group builds. All 1/72 scale. In completion order: Hobby Boss Mitsubishi A5M Claude Italeri Sea Harrier in Indian markings Italeri Fw-190D-9 Hasegawa Kawanishi N1K2-J George Modelsvit Mirage III O Hasegawa SAAB J-35 Draken Italeri Alenia C-27J Spartan RAAF markings Hasegawa Bf-109E Airfix Gladiator in Greek markings Airfix Sopwith Pup Italeri Fiat CR.32 Spanish Nationalist markings Airfix Tomahawk IIB SAAF markings Academy P-47 Hasegawa Dewoitine D.520 Thanks for looking AW

Well now, it seems that nearly every GB gets an extension these days, how about a “forward extension”? AW

This GB is a good opportunity to have a go at building this one: Some goodies on their way from Hannants, namely resin wheels and paint masks. Haven’t decided on a scheme yet, leaning toward doing the box top black one. AW

P-47M (without the fillet) Col. David Schilling CO 56th FG. Academy 1/72 kit, Lifelike Decals set 72-011. AW

All the sticky out bits attached and its done. I reduced the length of the main gear legs by a couple of mms which improved the sit, but still a bit stalky looking. I also added some actuators for the gear doors from plastic rod. Going to take a short break now this is finished and will return in the new year in the WWII Twins and Frog GBs. Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 🥳 AW

The prop, which I forgot to include in yesterday’s post. No fewer than 16 tiny decals, yellow base layer and black and white top layers. Looks better to the eye but I’m not convinced the two layers were really necessary. Thanks for looking AW

Very nice little figure Adrian, I especially like the cap. Mind you, he looks like he might have the hump about something, some tech problem with his plane maybe? AW ps the eyes are great. The biggest mistake people make with very small figures is to paint the whites of the eyes and spot in the pupils, results in a wild stare. You’ve nailed this one.

Decals on and canopy unmasked. The oversize insignia on the wing is correct. Like other 8th AF fighter groups, the 56th liked to strafe targets of opportunity and presumably the large marking was to lessen the chances of trigger happy fighter pilots diving down to attack it when down in the weeds strafing. The Lifelike decals mostly went on well, I like that the fuselage insignia come in three pieces to fit on and around the ducts. I didn’t like the two layer scoreboard and crew data markings. The kit almost went in the bin when the top (black) layer of the scoreboard, the very last decal to be applied, decided to fold up under itself. Luckily I was able to straighten it out in water and reapply it. Also the decal numbers on the sheet do not match the instruction chart which makes life interesting. Thanks for looking. AW

Great looking cockpit. AW

Soon. Did a bit of touching up of the paint and some detail painting, airbrushed the tyres (but forgot to take a photo) today, hopefully gloss coat in the morning and decals on Wednesday. AW

Some dark aluminium panels airbrushed this morning and all the masking removed this afternoon. The result: A few small touch ups required, but overall I’m happy with the outcome. Thanks for looking. AW

That’s a great tip! AW

Underside and wing leading edges airbrushed with Vallejo Duraluminium. Super shiny! Tailplanes: The hot areas will get dark aluminium and steel for variation. Thanks for looking. AW

How frustrating, now you’ll have to psyche yourself up for it all over again. I hope it doesn’t spoil your Christmas. AW

Thanks Cookie. Masked up for the dark green, shamelessly copying @Enzo the Magnificent’s blue tack worms and masking tape squares: I had to overlap the tape as the rubbishy cheap chinese masking tape refused to stay stuck to any curve, or even to itself. Burnish it down and after a few minutes the edges start to peel back. Only seems to stick to fingers. Unfortunately my usual suppliers are often out of stock of decent Tamiya tape. The result: A few small areas of overspray to address, despite the tape overlapping, but overall I’m happy. On to the NMF underside. Thanks for looking. AW

That’s a really helpful photo Adrian. Medium Sea Grey on the upper surfaces. Being only slightly lighter than my grey primer, a bit tricky to spray. Next will be to paint the green disruptive pattern. Thanks for looking. AW

All the best Steve 🤞 AW

Bit cooler today so I was able to get some colour on. Red 56th FG cowling ring and yellow 61st FS rudder. Thanks for looking. AW

Stynylrez Grey Primer sprayed today: Followed by YZC in the wheel wells and a white base coat for the yellow rudder. Looks like it’s going to be too hot here for painting tomorrow so I’ll have to find something else to do. Thanks for looking. AW

Fantastic little diorama, bravo! AW