opus999

That looks terrific! Nice job.

I think you did a great job! Brush painting offers its own challenges compared to airbrushing and I've seen some fantastic examples of brush painting here. When you get some good paints and pick up some of the neat tips I've seen people offer here, I think you'll be really pleased with your work. As long as you're having fun! Welcome back.

This is an absolutely realistic looking build! The diorama is superb too. Nice work! Did you use salt weathering for the paint effects?

Beautiful work. That interior is really great.

Yeah I think these are great looking planes too. I didn't think so at the time, but now I'm quite a fan. I really want to do a Raptor now too. Thank you very much! Thanks! I tried really hard to match what I saw in the photos.

Thanks Dennis! I agree -- I've really become a fan of the 190 in the last few years. My dad had only made a model of a 109, so I really didn't know a lot about the 190s growing up. I like the 190A's better than the 190D's, because the 'D's seem kind of lanky looking. They're growing on me though! Thank you Bill! I'd love to see what you can do with a Fw-190! No pressure though. Thank you! It is quite a challenge in 1/72 scale, for sure. Thanks! I really appreciate that! Thank you very much guys!

Thanks Dennis. A kamakaze zero would be an interesting subject! Thanks guys!

Thanks Ventsislav! I agree that the panel lines are not too bad with the dark colors. That's one reason I decided not to mess with them (such as fill them in and re-draw them). I will. I just don't know if I'll ever figure it out! 🤔 Oh, man, that's got to be true! I can't figure out any other explanation! Thanks Chris. there's actually a hole in the canopy behind the aerial (which I really don't know the purpose of) and I blew into it and nothing happened, so I guess its there to stay.

RFI is here

A6M2b Zero | Airfix | 1/72 Tsukuba Ku | March 1944 Finished this on 4/6/2024. It is the original Airfix boxing of their new-mold A6M2 from about 12-13 years ago. I read the article at the aviation of japan blog (http://www.aviationofjapan.com/2011/11/new-airfix-zero-partial-build-review.html) and was convinced by the evidence to make it with an orange-yellow bottom since it was a trainer. Airfix seemed to think it was a combat aircraft complete with the light gray bottom. Everything was out of box. I mixed my own aotake for the wheel wells and used Eduard masks for the canopy. WIP is here. Hope you like it! Comments, questions and constructive criticism always welcome.

RFI is here

Fw-190D | Tamiya | 1/72 Waldemar Wubke, pilot | JV44, Ainring Airfield | March 1945 Finished this on 3/17/2024. Not much to say about this one except it was a marvelous kit. It's interesting that Waldemar Wubke was the pilot, since I built his Bf-109E-3 from earlier in the war, also. I love the bright "don't shoot me down" colors on the bottom. For those who don't know, these 190's protected the Me-262 on take off and landing. Since the early jet engines took time to spool up and spool down, the Me 262s were vulnerable to attacks from prowling allied fighters and so these Fw-190s were there to fend off any allied fighters that appeared. The red bottom was to prevent the AA gunners from shooting down the defending fighters. WIP is here. Hope you like it! Comments, questions and constructive criticism always welcome.

RFI is here

YF-23 Black Widow II | Testors | 1/72 Finished this on 3/15/2024. I've had this in the stash for ages. This kit dates back to the mid- to late-90's and features raised panel lines and so-so detail in the cockpit. I sanded off the panel lines and rescribed them, which is a rarity for me. I felt that the scribed panel lines would show off the anti radar features of the panels better than pencil would, since I felt the pencil wouldn't be visible on the dark gray. The decals were typical 90's Testors with that milky gunk on them that would turn brown after a couple of months. Luckily for me, Caracal decals had a new run of their YF-23 decals back in December and so I used those instead. The kit seat wasn't too detailed, so I ordered an Aires resin ejection seat. Other than that kit was out of box. Fit wasn't terrific since the parts were warped and there were some really large gaps in some of the seams. I got it whipped into shape though. WIP is here. Hope you like it! Comments, questions and constructive criticism always welcome.

Wow! Yikes... I'd be really nervous the first time. Especially using a knife! I have a couple Eduard Bf-109 kits that surely have the new decals in them. I'll have to try it.

That AIrfix Tomcat looks fantastic! I like how you dealt with the nose gear bay -- that was a big turn off for me when I tried building this kit. It's really too bad about the primer. It interesting how much this build mirrors my experience. When I got back into the hobby, my first build was a double build of an Airfix Tomcat restoration (I'd originally built it in high school) and an new in box Airfix Tomcat from the '70s. I finished the Airfix, but I used Testors Acryl primer and had the exact same paint-pulling issues you have had. It drove me mad!! So I can really empathize with what you're going through. I never finished the Airfix Tomcat and it became a paint mule. I have some nice decals for it, though. Maybe I ought to clean it up and finish it off. Also, I wanted to mention for paint removal -- I've used Mr. levelling thinner and it takes paint of so quickly it will make your head spin, but it leaves the plastic untouched. So, that's a thought if you want to speed things up.

That is fantastic!

Both of those are really beautiful! Nice work.

Too bad about the panel line wash, but it seems that you've got it worked out. I'm always a fan of pencil for panel lines -- I've got quite a few builds where I've used it -- but it does take some getting used to in order to get the effect you want. Otherwise, it looks superb!

That's a nice finish on the Lightning! I've struggled with worn metal finishes... I can't get them to look realistic. I've used a lot of Alclad, some Mr. Color, Tamiya spray TS-30 Silver Leaf, AK's extreme metal. They all look nice and most are pretty tough, but I don't know the trick to make them look real (to my eye). I love the work you did on the cockpit!

This is turning out beautifully. I love that steel ring around the nose... that turned out great. This whole trend of removable carrier film decals is intriguing to me. I really like how they turned out on your Thud; they look amazingly real. I probably missed it, but how did you get the carrier film off? The only Thud I've seen up close was in the early '80's at the Fairchild AFB open house in Spokane, WA. It had a curious tan and reddish-brown camo. I saw something about that camo recently but forgot what the details were. I still have the pictures -- it could make for an interesting build one of these days.

I actually finished this on the 6th, but things have gotten really busy around here as of late, so I really haven't had any time to get on to BM at all (or do any modelling, which really bums me out because I've started a project I'm really excited about, and only got as far as cutting the cockpit pieces out this week. ). I did weathering with pastels, putting some cordite stains and some faint shadowing/dirt along the aileron and flap hinges. I assembled the undercarriage. One side went well, the other was a bit fiddly because it didn't want to fit. I also attached the drop tank -- You might remember I forgot to cut the slot for the drop tank out before assembling the wings. So, I cut the tab off the drop tank and glued it on using Micro Krystal Klear. I then removed the masking from the canopy and was really aggravated by some gunk inside that wasn't there when I masked it. I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but along the bottom of the horizontal bar in the canopy there is a gray/tan smudge running along 3 panes. Above the seat. I've had this happen before and I don't know the cause but it drives me nuts! My guess is that extremely fine paint dust gets in somehow and attaches to something on the surface. A good guess would be fingerprint smudges, except I never touch the inside of a canopy and I use a new, dry paper towel to clean off any dust from the inside. It doesn't happen every time, but often enough to be really aggravating. I have another streak just as bad on the other side. These are bad enough that I considered taking the canopy off to clean, except this is one of the best jobs I've done of puttying in the canopy. Since that would get totally ruined, plus I might have to do touch up paint. I've elected to not clean the inside. On the shelf I'll probably not notice, but it will likely show up in the RFI photos. I would love to figure out how this is happening and how to prevent it. Moving on. You'll notice that I attached the aerial mast. I don't remember if I mentioned that the kit mast snapped out of my tweezers when I was painting it and I never heard it land so it is lost to the ages. Luckily, the Tamiya A6M3 I just finished had several parts for different Zero variants, so I was able to get a mast from there. You'll also notice I attached the engine after having painted it black and using pencil lead on it to make it look steel-colored. So, after fitting the cowl on, installing the propeller and doing some light paint chipping around the cowl flaps and the wing leading edges it was finally done! I have to say I'm really happy with this one. It's a neat paint scheme. The kit was really nice, but I do have to complain a bit about the panel lines. Currently I have the RFI pictures of the Tamiya A6M3 as my computer desktop at work and I am absolutely amazed at how realistic it looks because the panel lines appear to be in scale! It really does make a difference between looking like a well-done model and looking like a real aircraft. As nice as this kit has been, its too bad that it will look like a model despite all my attempts at realism -- only because of the engraved panel lines. Now, will it be all that bad using human eyes when its on the shelf? Most likely not. So, in the end it will still be great. It's just that little extra that can make all the difference when photographed that's missing. I'll post when I have an RFI up. I'm running behind on RFIs again.

Decals and semi-gloss coat on this week: I also did some dirt in the wheel wells and some oil staining. Then I realized the oil staining will be covered up by the drop tank. I did a bunch of detail painting and touch up last night. I hope to finish it today.

Thank you!

"Geronimo" turned out really great. That chipping is really nice.