darson

Tim the front office is looking great, keep the updates coming

Now http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=HB-80332

Hi Graham, I am an IPMS member and have judged at local and national IPMS competitions and I can tell you that part of what you say is absolutely spot on, there isn't a judge around who is an expert on every subject so the judges must rely on strict set of rules to determine a winner. The winning models are determined by a points system, which takes into account the categories of: Construction (any seams or ejector pin marks) Attention to detail (engines wired, cannon barrels drilled out etc) Finish (paint job) Accuracy to reference (Make or break for a lot of models that I have judged) Realism (Is it toy like or does it look like a replica of the real thing) These categories are assessed for a maximum total of 100 points. Each model is always assessed by a minimum of two judges to ensure fairness. The one thing that an IPMS judge does not do is look at the brand of the model and determines whether it's a more accurate replica of Spitfire than another brand. Cheers and thanks for taking the time to post

The "Mr Hobby" range of Airbrushes marketed out of Lucky Model are Iwata re-badged Iwatas and are excellent. A lot of guys here in Aus from IPMS use theses airbrushes and are very pleased with the way they operate. Despite the ridiculous name they really are very good. Mark in answer to your original question about the screwfix brush without knowing anything about the AB I can't tell you if it's good for a novice or not, unfortunately the ad doesn't even tell me if it's double or single action. The Sparmax SPA DH103 listed above however is a gem (it's a re-badged Iwata HP-CS) and would suit a beginner down to the ground. One thing you should seriously think about with your AB is a compressor. The canned air that you can buy is rubbish as it's unregulated and will blow your model off the table and you'll go through it faster than water. Believe me save your dough and get yourself a little compressor to go with your new airbrush.

Thanks Andy I appreciate the feedback. Graham I have the Osprey book and know the photo you are taking about but when it comes to this model I plan on entering it into a series of comps so I'll be sticking to the references I have from the Victory Models Aces of the Empire sheet. I agree with you that it may or may not be 100% accurate but for a competition judge I need a color profile or a photo to back up any changes I make. Cheers

That's an interesting camo scheme for a 262 and very nicely implemented Ian, nice job

Great looking Spitfire and very nicley weathered too

Graham I'm doing T.L (EP706) in which Beurling scored a triple on Sept 25 1942 and a double on 10 October. This was his personal mount after he became an officer and according to the info I have says standard dark earth / mid stone over azure blue with the spinner in bright red. Cheers

Over the last little while I have dug out a kit that has been in my half completed pile for about two years. It's a Spitfire Mk.VB as flown by George "Buzz" Beurling the most successful Canadian fighter Ace of the war.The kit will be finished in a desert scheme for Malta in 1942 and will feature a Vokes filter and a Rotol wide chord metal prop Here's what I've managed so far, it's a Cutting Edge cockpit which is designed to drop in over the existing sidewall detail , but a lot of sanding and dry fitting was still required. Unfortunately for some reason the clear acetate with the instrument dials did not match up exactly with the resin IP meaning I now have a white hole in the bottom of the IP with no dials on it By the way I know this looks s***e in extreme closeup but to the naked eye it actually looks pretty cool. I'm currently detail painting the seat and harness so I'll post another update when it's done. Thanks for looking

err yes that was just me testing the paint (read being a tool) for a Spitfire seat

OK then I thought I had better get the camera out and demonstrate that I am actually building this kit rather than just talking about it. These photos were taken tonight following a wash or lamp Black and Raw Umber and the shine is due to the coat of Future I gave it yesterday to help the wash and to protect the paint. Tomorrow nights tasks will be wiping off the excess wash and flat coating the whole thing followed by the start of detail painting and PE. Thanks for looking

I certainly do like it, that's an awesome build of a not often modeled aircraft

Steve, IMHO the Tamiya Spitfire 1/48 Mk.I & MkVB are both excellent kits and come with loads of detail OOB. When building either of these I normally add the appropriate Eduard colored PE set as these sets really jazz up the front office. The Airfix Spitfire Mk.I/II is also nice but could do with the same Eduard set. In terms of a 1/48 Mk.IX you have 3 main options being the Hasegawa, ICM and Airfix kits. The Hasegawa kits fuselage is short by a couple of mm but it's really up to you the modeler to decide if it bothers you or not, other than that the kit is a gem. The ICM is a nice kit and builds up as a really good model although over engineering has made it is more of a challenge than the Hasegawa offering. The Airfix Mk.IX is another option but suffers from thick parts with somewhat agricultural detail. As usual add pre colored Eduard PE to taste. For all my 1/48 Spitfires I always replace the spinners, props and access doors with the beautiful resin items from Ultracast. When it comes to 1/32 scale the only kit that I have (so that I can talk about it) is the Pacific Coast Models Spitfire Mk.IXc and this kit is the ducks nuts and needs nothing other than a little additional detail to the spinner. By the way, there is no such thing as a perfectly accurate Spitfire model, all have their faults and foibles, it's up to you whether these issues are enough to make you look to another brand or are they liveable. Cheers

Mish as a work of advice on this one, take you time especially with the cockpit area, there are many little teeny weeny bits of styrene that need to be attached that really stretch your patience. Also, priming the pit is a really good idea as I discovered last night because the styrene is the exact color of the Gunze RLM 02 that I am using and it's almost impossible to see where you have painted and where you haven't when spraying. Cheers

Tim the Aussie Cent looks fantastic, I'll really ejoy watching this one come together By the way the best color match for Aussie OD that you can get is Gunze H303 Light Green as a base coat and then fade appropriatley. If you can't get Gunze then either Humbrol 117 or Tamiya XF-58 will do the job. IPMS Stokholm list the equivilant color for H303 as Tamiya XF-27, this is wrong as XF-27 is Black Green. Cheers

Gents I have deleted two posts from this thread as I was of the opinion that they added no constructive value and ran the risk of derailing Tim's build thread and have it turn into a slanging match. Now Tim, how about another update Cheers

Bearing in mind that I own neither kit, from what I have read around the traps I would lean towards the Italeri offering. However, check out the following reviews for both the Bronco and Italeri kits to make up your own mind. Also, here's a grab of the Tamiya Boxing of the Italeri kit and a review of it with its extra bit's and pieces. Cheers

Nice looking build Sean, she's a keeper for sure.

What can I say apart from simply stunning! A beautifully built model weathered to perfection and detailed to the max, congratulations Cheers

Hi there Patrick and welcome to the build mate and that's a great choice of markings you've chosen as well . As to your question, I'm afraid I don't quite understand what you mean. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the 72nd scale Tamiya offering (I build 48th), but are you asking about wing stiffeners or wheel well bracing? Cheers

Aaaahhh the memories of childhood modeling come flooding back . Oh and as for the sub type, the He 111-H is perfectly fine for the BoB. Cheers

Well Mish all that pain was well and truly worth it because the end result is a gem

Ian that's a stunning looking Mosquito, great job. Also, NATO Black is actually a very dark green rather than black but who would ever know.

Mummy.

Great looking model Nick, she's a keeper for sure. Cheers