Geo1966

A bit more done. Maybe it is me, but just about every join on this need’s attention with filler and or sanding. Saying that, it is building up nicely into something which looks very much like a Lightning! Managed to get the canopy masked up. And we now have wings! I think she is just about ready for an undercoat, so hopefully I will get that done at the weekend, fingers crossed. George

Just caught up with this one. Fantastic work John. Looks great in the gallery and enjoyed the informative WiP. George

A mini update. I have touched up the camo and done a bit of detail painting. Painted the gun barrel with gun metal, wing tip lights with Tamiya clear red/green and done the exhausts with some medium grey ready for an enamel rust wash at a later date. Getting there. Varnish and then decals next. Think i said that last time 🙄 George

Just caught up with this Mario. You have done some great work on this build, I appreciate you have had a couple of set backs, but it would be a real shame to give up on it. It is obvious to me you have the skill to finish this and it will be a very good model when you do. George

Hi Andrés, great looking cockpit and prop. I will be watching with interest as i am soon to start my Arma Mustang so it will be good to get some pointers/tips from your build. Keep up the great work! George

Getting close to making a start on these two, so here are some sprue shoots. The Airfix offering: The canopy parts look a bit misty, so will benefit from a dunk in some Gauzy agent. And the Arma offering: Although both are moulded in grey, fortunately there is a bit of a difference in the shade, so hopefully I won’t get muddled up with the parts. Not sure which scheme to choose on the Arma kit. Currently thinking i might do both versions with Teeth, tbc. George

Better photos in the gallery now. Thank you for your kind words @modelling minion, @81-er and @Col. much appreciated. Also thanks to everybody who has looked, liked and commented. George

A Tain “Torbeau”. Bristol Beaufighter Mk. VIC (ITF) 144 Sqn, Tain, April 1943. Hobby 2000 1/72 What a great GB! Massive thanks to @Enzo the Magnificent and @vppelt68. Also a big thanks to all who are contributing with their builds, comments and likes. Best get on with my Pe-2 now! George

Ak camouflage elastic putty. Good stuff and works for me. George

Great build of a smashing little car Cliff. George

A long overdue update. I am having work done on my house, so have been unable to get to my spray bay. Things are starting to progress (slowly), so I have managed to make a bit of room and get the airbrush going. I decided to spray the AK 3rd Gen AMT-12 Dark grey (using AK 3rd Gen thinner) first as I figured it would make the masking process easier for the third coat of camouflage. A couple of days later I got the AMT-4 Green (again AK 3rd Gen) on. I forgot to take a photo of the green after application, but you get the idea. And then the big reveal. Not too bad, a few touch ups required here and there which is normal with my masking. 🙄 Once i have done the touch ups i will look at getting some decals on. George

Not as yet, but hopefully early next week 🤞 George

Has it really been 3 weeks? To be honest my house is in complete upheaval as I am having building work done and a new kitchen installed at the same time. I am only just able to get to my desk (due to the room being filled with kitchen cabinets) and the spray bay is out of use for at least another couple of weeks. However I have managed to grab an hour here and then so made a bit of progress. Buttoned up the fuselage. A few gaps. The worse one being the belly area. I am guessing that different marks have a different belly profile hence Airfix supply the parts separately rather than moulded into the main fuselage? I was tempted to put the 2 bits together but, in the end, decided to fill the gap with some Plastic card. After a fair bit of sanding, we are getting there. I have also added the airbrakes (still need some filler) and the gun panels at the top front and the blanks at the bottom front. The wings went together reasonably well with only a couple of minimal gaps. I had previously sprayed the wheel wells with some AK 3rd gen Aluminium and then given them a wash with some “AK enamel wash for DAK vehicles”. So next up is attaching the canopy and doing the masking, me thinks......... George

Ha ha, thanks Chris. Very kind.

Bit of a place holder as I am at the painting stage of a Soviet PE-2 in the WW2 twins GB and am just starting to build an EE Lightning in the Baby Boomers GB. I have never made a Mustang before, but it is probably my favourite WW2 US fighter, although I do have a bit of a thing for the Hellcat....... Will hopefully make a start on these in the next couple of weeks. George

Managed to get the engine intake and exhaust together and made up and painted the cockpit. I’ve used some Tamiya masking tape to make up the harness and I employed a very fine black marker pen to assist with doing the black strips on the ejector seat handles. Still not advisable to zoom in, but it is 1/72 and looks acceptable, I think. So, I think I am ready to button up the fuselage next. George

So, the “Torbeau” as I have found out they were nicknamed, is up on her feet and finished. This one sort of sneaked to being finished while I was doing other builds, but I failed to take any photos of my final progress. Basically, I added some exhaust stains with oil paints, did a bit of paint chipping with a silver water colour pen and gave her a coat of VMS Matt varnish. I added the radio Ariel (first attempt at doing this) with some Ammo rigging. They claim this is easy to use, but I found it a bit tricky as it is basically a very thin rubbery cotton stuff. So, I found it keep curling up and didn’t want to go where I wanted it. Anyway, I got there in the end. Anyway, here she is: I have found this kit a pleasure to build. The fit has been great and the detail is good (apart from the cockpit). I enjoyed it that much I have the Mk.1 on my Wishlist, so hoping I can find one, as they seem to be in short supply. A few things I could have done better like adding the wing tip lights before getting to the painting stage. Also the radar canopy is not a great fit, so I should have test fitted at an earlier stage to correct it. Anyway it is only my 10th aircraft build since my return to the hobby after taking a 40 year break, so pretty happy and probably my best build so far. Will try and get some better photos in the gallery soon. George

It seemed to be a bit of a monster masking job on this one which took me a good couple of hours. Sort of therapeutic though with some good music on! I’ve now sprayed on a coat of AK 3rd Gen AMT-1 Light Brown, so next up will be the Green and then the Dark Grey. Or should that be the other way round………………maybe need to sleep on it as there are only 3 patches of grey? George

And we're off! Chucked some lead fishing weights in the nose and gave them a spash of PVA glue. I am in the middle of fitting a new kitchen so no idea where the scales are. Anyway, hopefully there is enough in there. Also cleaned up and sprayed the insides of the engine pipe things with some Tamiya Aluminium. A little whinge. There are some horrendous injector release marks on this kit. Much as the new Airfix tooling’s are good and far superior to their predecessors, a lot of the hobby is aimed at kids. My 10 year old self would be gutted when bits don’t fit due to big blobs of plastic being in the way. In those days I just wanted to build the kit in a few hours and slap some paint on. Rant over 🙄 George

Thanks Gents. Not massive progress, but progress all the same. I have never really got on with primers, so instead I use Tamiya XF as an undercoat. I find it adheres well and gives a good base for the following coats of paint. On this one I’ve sprayed a coat of Tamiya XF-66 light grey thinned with Tamiya Lacquer thinner (orange cap), which went on well as usual. I then gave the underside a coat of AK 3rd Gen AMT-7 light blue, thinned with 3rd Gen thinners. Next up I need to mask the underside ready for the 3-tone camouflage. George

A bit more progress. This is one of those kits where you need to attach the undercarriage before attaching the nacelles, shame but I can’t see anyway round it. Hopefully I can get them masked up ok and I manage not to break them going forward. More filling and sanding on the nacelles/engine cowlings where the fit was awful. Fortunately, the wings and tailplanes actually fitted pretty well and should be fine with a smear of PPP. The top of the fuselage split open when I was hold it a bit too tightly during sanding or filling, so I have had to re-glue and tidy that up again. So, I think I am ready to give Peshka an undercoat. George

Came out really nice Gerard, and looks great in the green. Well done. George

I generally build WW2 Allied aircraft, but I do have a bit of a thing for early British jets. So, I am going to go with an aircraft that amazed me in late 70’s at Duxford (I think) going pretty much straight up off the end of the runway. My dear old Dad used to drive me to quite a few airshows, so it might have been somewhere else. On reading up on the EE Lightning I discovered it was nicknamed the “Frightening”. I presumed this was to do with the rate of climb, the ceiling or more likely the speed. Some pilots said it was like being saddled to a skyrocket, but no…….. The Lightning was nicknamed “Frightening” because of its challenging crosswind landing characteristics. I would never have guessed that one! This is the 2013 tooling from Airfix. All the bits look pretty good. A little bit of flash here and there, but nothing bad. I did notice when I got the plastic out of the box how heavy it seems for 4 smallish sprues. I am planning on doing the green/aluminium scheme as I served in the Army in West Germany in the 80’s not long after these beasts! I've seen that @Enzo the Magnificent has beaten me to it on this one, so will keep a beady eye on his build for some tips 🙂 George

A couple from my small collection. Special Hobby 1/72 Meteor NF11. Built for the Meteor STGB last year. Hobby Boss 1/72 Seahawk. Built for the Fleet Air Arm GB last year. George

Time for a well overdue update. Had a bit of stuff going on in life recently so not got around to doing any updates, sorry. I have been managing a bit of work on this and even taken a couple of photos, so will try and get this up to date now. I have filled and sanded the underside and the 3rd crew member is in now in situ. I have used the Eduard canopy masks. So glad I had these, must have taken me a good couple of hours to attach them, so doing it “free hand” would have been a big job. Wings sanded and nacelles put together. Usually when parts don’t fit, I blame myself as with the fuselage (as in the last update). However, I am actually starting to think the fit of the parts on this one are not great. Just about every joint I have glued has needed attention i.e. filler. Maybe it is me, with my club fingers, but I don’t normally have this problem. I have actually given the sub-assemblies (fuselage, wings, nacelles, engine cowlings) an undercoat of Tamiya XF grey prior to further assembly, just to be on the safe side. I’ve attached the canopy with masking fluid as I still need to put in the machine gun later and the same for the lower dorsal gun. Not sure what is going on with Imgur, but really struggled to do my images tonight. Hopefully they sort there shi................... out. George