Never a Pro

The kit The quality of this kit is quite good. The details are very good, cockpit detail is quite acceptable, it comes with photo-etch parts and indispensable paint masks (of excellent quality), and fittings are quite good, requiring just occasional fixes, and a minimal stress build. The major criticism I have is over the instructions, who are a little inaccurate on mask patterns, decal positions and numbers, and over the frail panel lines / rivets, which need to be enhanced or you can erase them by a primer layer. The build This is a very enjoyable kit to build, mostly due to how cute and chubby the R2 is, and how it starts to shape in. Most of the difficulty of this kit will derive from how small it is, in most ways smaller than average 1/72 kits. The biggest challenges will come from closing the fuselage with the cockpit inside, on smoothing the fuselage ribs to an acceptable height, and on wing rigging, which I prefer to use styrene instead of the provided metal parts. The red / white paint job is very unforgiving, so any masking mistakes or trapped dust will be hauting you forever, so don't stress too much on it, the overall result will always be stunning. Other than that, this kit looks great and it will be a very interesting addition to your collection, I recommend this kit if you are in the fence for it.

I read about that metal foil, it seems like it is a little more flexible but still behaves a little like kitchen foil I guess. With this gold leaf it looks like you can do stuff like put white glue on a landing gear struct, wrap leaf around it with, then brush out whatever didn't glue. I am still wondering if it's not used that much because it's not worth the hassle compared to aluminium foil and alclad paints.

maybe I should try on something easier than a tiny propeller, but it’s good to know that gold leaf can do the work where aluminium foil can be very challenging.

Hi. I am becoming increasingly interested in trying a natural metal finish with metal foil. I want to have a nice polished chrome look on a propeller, so I did a try with aluminium foil. It didn’t went well, as it was hard to properly burnish the foil to the propeller curves, and I scrapped the test. Today, I got into a store and saw some silver gold leafs (labelled as metal sheets, used normally for decoupages), and got intrigued. That thing is damn light and fragile, very hard to cut and handle, but it conforms beautifully. I tried on a propeller spinner, and it worked well, as long as you are gentle and don’t go hard on burnishing, because it will break easily, but you can always put more as the edges are almost impossible to see. I am wondering, sure, aluminium foil is likely easier to work and cut, you can even sand it and colour / discolour it, but I wonder if anyone did try gold leaf in your builds.

This is other-worldly impressive. Now I look at my kit stash and I look like a little kid using a bicycle with training wheels…

Interesting subject, looks great!

Thanks everyone for the kind words. No, I am not a better modeler than you, just maybe a little more stubborn and unwilling to accept defeat from plastic.

Hi, I finally finished the kit. You can have a look at him in another thread. Thanks, and dnl42, don't give up. 🤜

Video of the build: This was one of those kits that you wonder if the kit is very hard, or if the kit is just that bad. Either way, you end up wondering if you are not good enough for it, and makes you want to go back to a Tamiya/Eduard kit to prove yourself that you are not that bad. I appreciate Mikro-Mir's efforts in making a very detailed kit, but if they assembled it, they would understand the need to fix the moulds and release a new version. Lot of corrections, sanding, putting, fittings, etc in almost all steps. In this video above I list all the things you should be aware before giving a try on this one (I wish such video existed before). Anyway, at least the kit made me much better at rescribing and puttying. I also played with magnets, stress metal effect, some scratch build... the most enjoyment I got was from seeing this beautiful shape coming along, while putting out the decals. I hope you enjoy the pictures. All criticism is welcome. I know it is far from perfect, and I just want to improve for the next one.

Planning to come back from a 2 year break (got a kid) with this kit, as it has a simple paint job and no weathering / shading, can't afford to spend too much time as I wish. Will do the black magic, I guess you will do the grosvenor one...?

Hi, Any updates @dnl42 ? I will start my own Comet soon. Also, I should start another thread on it, correct?

I really appreciate it. While it’s not by all means impeccable, at least I hope I laid some groundwork so that someone can finally nail it. So I am not the only one, good to know. I will still try again in some spare parts with a nice shake and thinned. The texture it leaves sounds great for tanks, but useless for planes. Hawker Fury... such beautiful lines

I finally finished the Macchi, I feel 50kg lighter! Thank you all for all the messages and feedback! This was a ton of work, it is fun to scratch build and a lot of them went good, some went bad, but honestly, I wouldn't trade a good Tamiya kit for this. Too much work, but I admit, it was a rewarding experience. Here are some pictures and videos. Any questions, feel free to ask.

Italian Red coating is finished. This is turning out to be a nice outcome. Still need to repair some mask problems, and prepare a gloss coat. Anyone wants to give me tips on a proper Vallejo gloss coat?

Hi guys. Finally I had a weekend where I could spend a lot of time masking and painting. First, the vallejo black primer. I found it very sticky and thick, and I hated how it added thickness to the surface. I ended up removing it with alcohol and water, as I was afraid it will not give a smooth surface for the red. Here it is with Gold Leaf (Tamiya) and Aluminium (Vallejo), I really love the metal look in the prop. I guess it will take a lot of layers to disguise the black primer leftovers, so I will continue tomorrow. Anyone experienced with vallejo black primers, what did I do wrong? Bad mixture? I didn't thin it.

Agree, and this Macchi is just beautiful. I was also searching for a DH88, which is also so beautiful, but notng exists in plastic at 1:48.

And I guess yellow vest. I can work with that. Just an iPhone and iMovie, Shalako

Hi guys, I need your help here. Can you estimate what are the colors of Agello's clothes... ... and for his crew? Thanks.

Well, it should be thinner, too much work thinning the wings... maybe lining up copper wires would work, but it has to be someone else to try out...

Hi everyone. Here is the Part 2 of my Macchi MC 72 video. Things I really liked: - radiator wires look cool, hopefully will look cooler with paint - finding a way to engrave the pontoon circles - I am getting better at putty (not sure if the ribbons will like priming) Things I didn't like: - radiator wires could be better, they are not symmetrical - I should have probably search for a thinner mesh, the whole thinning the wing wasn't enough - Pontoon structs are weak, they will give me headaches Any comments are welcome. Thank you guys for watching and for all the feedback.

I created a new topic for my new kit, see you there.

Hello everyone, I want to share my initial work on the new kit I am working on, the Směr 1/48 Macchi Castoldi MC 72. I really appreciate all the energy and encouragement you guys game me on my last kit, so here it is to you.

Video editing... I just pick the good parts. It actually doesn´t help assembling and worrying if it´s on camera, and can´t use all angles and make sure the hands don´t block the kit. In the end, trust me, it is not that complicated, it just needs some patience.

It is my pleasure. I learnt a lot from pro videos, so it’s fair that I do the same for the next guy.

...and here it is, the final video of my Swordfish build. Thank you so much for all the feedback and support, really appreciate it!