Scargsy

I have a KP kit in the stash, will be following along with some interest!

So I'll be joining the GB with this oldie from Tamiya... Unfortunately I paid slightly more than the original purchase price from Beatties on a popular online auction site (that's inflation for you). I've no idea when this particular plastic was minted but given Beatties shut up shop in 2001 I think, so I guess before then. The moulds go back to 1979 but this is the more 'recent' 1980 version (motorised). I won't be including the motor, batteries or wheel guide as I have no intention of trashing my paintwork against the nearest skirting board! The decals seem to have had a hard time of it, though I've got a replacement set, but I'm not sure it includes all of them, or parts need painting with it? In terms of plastic, there's nothing that looks too taxing (other than the paint work}... Hopefully it'll build up well, it's an interesting looking Le Mans car!

Nice to see some instructions, I've only ever tried a vacuform canopy once and I had a bit of a disaster trying to trim it!

It'll be interesting to see what these flexible tracks are like, tracks always seem to be the bane of doing an armour build to me (be it rubber band, link and length, resin sections or individual plastic/metal links). Looks like the kit is going together well - I wasn't aware Airfix are now doing new armour mouldings!

Looking forward to following this one as I have it in my stash somewhere, I did build one many decades ago as a nipper!

My second build will be something more 'armoury' but without much armour! Based on the UK Army's military version of the Land Rover, the WMIK (Weapons Mount Installation Kit) is designed for use in recon and fire support. The kit seems pretty detailed, 3 large sprues (including some nice padding included in the packaging). Two smaller sprues, a set of tyres and the clear parts. A small PE fret and some decals complete the kit. Instructions are a black and white booklet with a colour paint chart - which is fairly redundant (it's either an all yellow/brown desert or all green scheme). I'll be building it OOB, I'm not sure which colour yet - I may add some figures (I think I have a set somewhere).

My first build will be this ICM kit - I do love a twin boomer! Not too many parts in the kit, though they do look quite nicely moulded (lots on fine detail) Scalemates reckons it's a fairly recent moulding (2016), let's hope it all fits together well. The instructions seem clear enough and the decals should hopefully be fine (look a bit thick but not too many of them). I have a couple of aftermarket bits - some window masks to make my life easy with all that glazing and so PE to make my life hard! I'll be doing one of the in-box schemes, not sure which yet.

I'd be happy for this - they were designed as such and used for recon in Desert Storm.

Welcome to the Reconnaissance and Scouting group build. The build will be open for business soon from 25 February to 18 Jun 2023. Subject matter is any vehicle or personnel devoted to reconnaissance, scouting or observation - visual, sonar, electronic. I think we'll limit this to military uses (no civilian search and rescue). e.g. Air - aircraft (fixed and rotary wing) U2, SR-71 Blackbirds, photo-recon Spitfires, FAC Broncos and Cessnas, drones, FW-189 Uhu, etc. Maybe even early biplanes in WWI. Land - recon AFVs and light tanks, mobile radar stations, observation vehicles, forward observation and target spotting, etc. Sea based - not too sure.., but patrol boats, submarines? and naval patrol aircraft. Space - spy satellites (if anyone knows what they look like). People - recon units / scouts, etc. The usual GB rules apply, basically: Models must be no more than 25% complete when entered. Participants must establish and maintain a 'Work in Progress' thread throughout their build, complete with photographs. Participants are encouraged to post photographs of their completed build(s), in the GB Gallery A Poll (open to all members) will be held at the end of the GB, based on the photographs posted in the gallery, The GB threads should not be used for the purposes of buying or selling anything. In case of doubt please ask the hosts before posting your thread (that would be myself and @Col. for this GB). The most important part is of course to have fun!

Sorry for the late response - Jungle Scout would work, or the L-4.

Nearing the finish line for the GB and hopefully I can sneak this one through! Engine parts were built up - I painted them in various shades of AK Xtreme Metal but they are all very similar (I reckon it's just a difference between the amount of black pigment that differentiates a lot of the metallics)... The kit comes with some rubber tubing to use for the radiator hoses, I decided to take the plunge and also try some ignition wires - after a lot of faffing around I got something that seems reasonable (even though it won't really be visible) I decided to pick out the callipers in red, since otherwise it would all look very metallic. The interior is to be painted white, according to the instructions but I've gone with flat aluminium for the cabin - I reckon for a race car they wouldn't add extra weight where it's not needed, the firewall (still to fit) I will do in white.

I'm not sure if this one will make the cutoff date for the GB. I did manage to get the windows masked and painted but unfortunately I ended up with this: Looks like the glue from the masks has stuck to the window - anyone know what I could use to remove it - I'm hesitant to try IPA or Acetone as it will probably react with the paint and cause it to run (so would need to go carefully). Oil based stuff would possibly react with the clear plastic. I've tried some other masking tape and soaking it in soapy / vinegary water with no success.

So I bit the bullet and went for the 2k clear - not as painful a process as I'd imagined (I worried about it chemically hardening in the airbrush and cleaning out clear is like mending the emperor's new clothes). Yes I agree that it looks very glossy and 'toy like' I'm planning on flatting it back a bit (well there's a few dust specks in the roof for example that I'll need to micro-mesh out), adding some panel lining (probably with some washable clay stuff) and then I may give it a coat of semi-gloss to finally seal it all. I made a start on the interior, however I've since discovered / worked out that the instructions call for the cabin interior to be black but I've done it in white - too late to change it now though so a bit of artistic license (should make everything a bit more visible though as otherwise it would be a riot of black components). There is a fair amount of detail for the interior in this kit - even the electrical shutoff key (red bit just in front of the gear level) is a separate component and that black box in front of that panel is a separate piece (no idea what it is but it won't be visible when the dash is installed). I noticed there are some decals which don't have instructions for placement (there are some Recaro ones which I assume should be on the seat headrests so I've attached them) there is also what appears to be a spare Unipart one which I may attach to the battery. As for detail the part behind the battery is I assume the ECU (appears to have moulded heat sink lines on it). In terms of reference material I found one of the sister works cars is currently listed for sale (if anyone has a spare 1/4 million lying around)... 1985 MG Works Metro 6R4 (carandclassic.com)

PBY would be eligible (ASW and the PB is 'Patrol Bomber'). E-2C Hawkeye - yes. I'd say civilian use is probably where we need to draw a line, much as I like to hate to exclude builds and make things inclusive.

Hmmm I'm not overly sure - maritime patrol (which I guess includes search and rescue duty) would but not fire engines! What did you have in mind?

A small update: - Given the complex shapes around the front wind break (if that's what it's called) and the rear side 'wings' behind the cabin I decided to risk masking them off and airbrushing black rather than trying to get the decals to conform around the angles (and that air intake on the front). This made life a lot easier as I could just snip off the log details and attach as needed. Hopefully the masking around the front light cells lines up nicely too once the glass is in. Some of the photo reference shows them being what appears to be black in some cases and white in other, there's also other images with the tops halves looking like they've been taped over, I decided the black would look best. I've been slowly adding decals when I get a small amount of time here and there. Given the age they seem to have surviced well (though are somewhat reluctant to leave the backing sheet, needing a bit of soaking) - I presume as they were in a sealed bag that's helped them. Getting the rear wing decal on was going to be a pain, since I'd glued the wing in place and it's a single decal to cover the entire surface (front and back), I had visions of it crumpling/folding up on itself, etc. So I decided to cut it down into a section just larger than the top piece to start with, that way I'd only need to content with getting enough to cover the top and front edge initially. It was actually slightly wider than needed so I ended up needing to trim the edge on one side which made a bit of a mess so I trimmed some of the remaining orangey red panel to make a slither to give a nice edge. The underside I then cut into smaller sections and attached, unfortuantely it's not 100% coverage there but it's not going to be overly visible. Getting the duct decals in place was also a bit of a faff as it's a single orange/red piece that runs from the front wheel arch and into duct, unfortuantely it seems slightly too small and there are some gaps visible (where the black line parts, attached to the rear section decal) don't quite meet. I'm not sure if I should leave it or attempt to mix up an approximate colour and touch up the areas. There are a few points where the black masked section didn't quite go far enough but I'll just snip some slithers of the provided black decals to fill those tiny gaps. Then I need to worry about clear-coating it!

So a small update - the builds have been kind of going slow due to work/redundancy/finding a new job but I figured I'd best get it moving forward! I managed to get the decals attached... I was a bit hesitant attaching them (especially that long arm on the CV logo) but they went down beautifully (probably because they're not a 20+ year old set like my other build). The door number decals I used some artistic license and moved forward slightly to cover some small overspray where the masking wasn't great near the front of the door/wing. There is a tiny bit of bleed/overspray by the filler caps but since there is some PE fillers to add later hopefully that won't be noticable. I had a few small issues with the decals : The small 'infill' part at the corner of the CV on the bonnet (it fills the gap on the left at the intake) didn't really sit well and was a pain to get aligned. The 'Monte Carlo Rally' decal on the bonnet is a bit too transparent (easy to see the blue through it, which is weird as the other white decals, e.g. the CV logos are nice and thick.) Aligning up all the split 'Mobil' parts on the front grill is a bit fiddly, best to start with the second 'row' (top of the grill, not the top part on the bonnet) as this is full width and has a cut out/alignment point around the MG logo. This might have been easier if I'd done that first before attaching the grill. The next job will be clear coating it - do I go for 2k as never used it before and I'm worried that the ambient temps might be less than ideal or something else?

Not that I'm aware of, what's the usual process? Some kind soul with some graphic design skills knocks one up?

Sorry Bertie - I got the wrong end of the stick there. Yeah the OP variant would be acceptable, according to wikipedia:

I think I stipulated anything attached to a recon or observation unit before so yes. Yes the OV-1 Bronco, Cessna O-1 or O-2, not sure how far I'd go with the more fighter jet FACs listed on Wikipedia (F-100, F-4 Phantom) unless there was some provenance (e.g. markings for a FAC role).

Hi all sorry for the delay in response of late, just found out I'm being made redundant at work! Luckily it seems my skills are in demand though, so I've had lots of dealing with interviews / job agents, etc. Thanks to all who voted and got this over the finish line! I'd say armoured cars qualify as lightly armoured / armed. Recce units will be fine! Once the GB opens it will be open for all, provided the subject matter fits - Spitfire PR fits the bill, Phonix D.I. I'm not overly familiar with (more of a fighter, though the wiki page suggests that some were later converted with cameras for recce).

Hi Pat, haven't managed to make a start yet - but looks like there's going to be some reorginisation at my work so I might end up with a lot more spare time - yikes! (Still plenty of time to do some modelling.)

It's been a while so thought I'd best try finish this before the deadline! The figure parts didn't fit together brilliantly, so I decided to glue and fill them before painting (which is annoying since they break down the arm/head/tank top parts where they will be painted different colours. A coat of grey primer then I started on the colours - some thinned coats of Citadel flesh tones to start with and some Vallejo air colours for the jeans. It's all quite thin but I prefer to build it up in layers. For the car I fitted the window then whilst the glue was still fairly wet the interior to help line it up, though there were only a couple of locator points on the rear shelf area, so I decided to put the chassis part in too, ensuring everything was lined up whilst the glue was drying. That all went together fairly well without much faff, however I then hit a snag. With the body/chassis parts together I couldn't fit the engine block in! The solution was to (as neatly as I could manage) chop out the gearbox/transmission support, place the engine in, then reattach the support. It was a bit of a faff, holding it all together and lining it all up but it came out OK in the end. Not my best work - that seam down the block/oil pan, I can see the radiator isn't straight either and I needed to chop a bit off the front of that lower sub-frame to fit it in, but the support is in. Here's the start of the engine from above, I removed the bonnet/hood (hopefully I can get it back in without scratching the paint too much, but it didn't open up enough to do any engine bay surgery). I put the disk brakes on then just about managed to squeeze the wheels on under the arches. Almost there, a few more decals to add in the engine bay etc. The figure has had a few more coats on the skin - some dry-brushing of a light colour followed by a reddish flesh wash which left him looking a bit blotchy, especially on the top of his head, so I dry brushed over that again with some of the original flesh tone. The jeans have had a couple of coats of lighter blue too. I've no idea if my hand will be steady enough to attempt to do some eyes on him! The tank top has had one coat of Vallejo white primer, which is a bit thin and washy still.

I've added you to the list, though I think it doesn't really matter as we're in the bunfight poll - if it makes it through anyone is free to join, provided the usual rules are met (less than 25% finished and a subject that fit's the brief).

Wow this is going well in the polling, no idea what happens if we get into the final list, do I need to host it, how does that work? I've got plenty of stuff in my stash though so it will be a difficult choice: Lockheed SR-71, FW 189, Cessna O-2A maybe even a Spitfire in PRU pink?