Putty Animal

I don't say this to everyone darling, but...

Truly superb. It's such a pleasure to follow this along!

Fantastic progress! I'm a little late to the party perhaps, but I can recommend Scotch "Magic tape" as a more manageable alternative to Dymo for scribing. You can use it much the same way but it is much easier to cut and get around complex airframes. Spreading it out and sticking down two or three laminated layers can give you a thicker edge too if required. Its also very useful to give the airframe a very good coat of primer and rub it back slightly to ensure you are not scribing through dissimilar materials. If you scribe lightly by dragging the scribing tool (a sharpened needle in a pin vise works for me) backwards across the surface, you get smooth lines without tearing. Scribing at 90 degrees seems to cause a lot of chatter. Below is a photo of a different Battle which I'm working on, albeit in a smaller scale. The panel lines are done with scotch tape and a needle, over a coat of Tamiya primer that has had plenty of time to cure. I find that it works quite well.

Can't wait to see what you do next! I think I saw some pictures of the Blackburn collection posted on Kampfgruppe144's forum. I had exactly the same feeling. Congratulations to him on such a superb effort.

Well done and terrific work. There can't be too many people about who can boast having one of those in their collection. Truly unique.

Wow! Some people build kits but you bought it flowers, and took it out for dinner and a show. Followed by some slow dancing, a limo home and a breathless invitation to come upstairs...

Wonderful! I just got mine the other day and really can’t wait for your Miles Master too. I heard a rumor that there is an early 109 on the way too!? Amazing times to be into 1/144.

I love it. I think it’s the best CR.42 that I have seen in any scale. Very inspiring!

1/144 is very much my thing, so I do hope I can find some of these. The Amercom Halifax, Wellington, Whitley and Stirling are very good efforts and lend themselves well to repainting and extra detailing. I missed out on the Maryland last time these kits were released, so hopefully I can snag one this time around!

Hi limeypilot, you're totally right about the breakaway panel. It was only removed during certain maintenance or in a hasty exit. I'm hoping to make an accumulator trolley and several other airfield objects to go with the Hurri later. Not so much for a diorama, but more for a small composition on a smooth, polished base.

Hi ajmm, that looks fantastic! I especially admire the work you did on the panel shading. Particularly when comparing it to the photographs of the real thing. They look just right.

Wow, thank you everybody for all the encouragement! I'm pretty happy with the little guy, and it's now sitting happily in a tiny cabinet alongside my other 1/144 projects. I think I got really lucky there. I'm a bit of a duffer with decals and I normally use Tamiya Mark Fit when placing the decals on. Just the day before however, I bought the Mr Hobby Mr Mark Softer and put this over each marking before rubbing them down into the surface. I was amazed how well they bedded down and the carrier film was all but invisible. Hi Sam, I made the sliding hood by plug moulding a piece of clear plastic. I used .5mm acrylic as it can be very easily sanded and polished, unlike petg and acetate etc. I never use the existing canopy as a master at this scale though, as it makes the new one look overscale. I always carve a new one from a laminated chunk of styrene and take into account the thickness of the acrylic. The windscreen is actually the front part of the original kit canopy. I cut this off and thinned it down from the inside with the tip of a scalpel and various little improvised scrapers that I made from bits of metal and old broken drill bits. Once it was thinned down sufficiently, I made tiny little sanding blocks (wet & dry paper superglued to strips of styrene) and smoothed things out. I polished the interior as thoroughly as I could, then placed a single drop of thinned down Gunze acrylic clear gloss into it. I was careful not to let the clear varnish run out onto the outside of the canopy however, as that was already pristine out of the box. Once the clear varnish had sat for twenty seconds or so I wicked off the excess and put the windscreen aside for a couple of days to harden up. I've done this a few times now for different projects where the external canopy is fine but just needs some thinning. It sounds scary, but with some practice and good magnification it is actually very enjoyable I agree! Sweet did a great job in capturing the shape though. The panel lines aren't too overscale either compared to other 1/144 scale models on the market, and it makes the airframe look a lot more natural. Here's a shot taken while I was spraying the exhaust stains. Note my mighty 3x paw! Only the bits that were strictly necessary. Life's too short to go modelling bits you wont be able to see! I did spend a lot of time thinning the sides of the cockpit down though. I got it to the point where a pencil line on the inside was plainly visible from the outside. The only bummer was that the coaming around the breakaway panel and the lip of the cockpit make the plastic look almost three times thicker than it actually is....

Looks great to me! Never met an Airfix Spitfire I didn’t like.

Just finished today. This is the 1/144 scale Hurricane Mk I by Sweet. Finished as YB-J of 17 Squadron during the summer of 1940. The cockpit was dressed up a fair bit and a new canopy was made. I also whittled down the propeller blades and moved the elevators. These aircraft by Sweet are great little kits and come two in a box. If you ever get the chance, I definitely urge you to have a go!

Wow, I'm hugely impressed. I'm especially interested in British submarines, so I'll be keeping an eye of this.

Lovely work so far, keep at it! I was going to mention that I have the Mushroom publication on the Gamecock and Grebe on the way from Poland, and that I'd post any cockpit information that I found. However the book arrived today and it turns out they've sent me a secondhand book on the Gladiator instead.... Grrr!

Beautiful!

I reckon you need to have a crack at rigging it too. I can recommend this company for ultra fine wire: https://www.wireandstuff.co.uk/products/Superfine-Wire---Long-Lengths-for-Coil-Builders-1-p1.html I bought some of their .025, 0.05 and 0.07mm wire and it works beautifully. Just make sure you do not get the stainless steel as it is too hard to straighten. Get the nichrome/nickel ones and you will be good to go. ;)

Wonderful stuff! So nice to see the Battle get the attention it deserves.

Well done! I do love the HP.42, there's nothing else quite like it. As a dedicated 1/144 builder I've been after one of those Airfix kits for decades but they've always eluded me one of these days I'll manage to snag one. I just hope it will come out as nice as that!

Magnificent. I have no words!

Hi ajmm, F_IV here. I just joined up too! Lovely work on the pair of them. I especially like the P-39. Very inspiring! Nice to see you too Miguel. Hope to see you spreading the 144-gospel soon.

What is this, a Taube for ants!!??!

Really doing justice to the machine and its crews. Well done!

Looking good! I don't know if its too late, but I just bought some old copies of Scale Models magazine from the 1970's and one of them had a nice set of drawings on the Gamecock, I think by Harry Woodman. I've made a 1200dpi scan of them and attached below in the hope they might be useful.