almac

Evening all. Progress with this today and yesterday. This is, for me, a mixed bag with some problem areas with poor fit and excellent fit in other areas. The fit of the front and rear fuselage looks really good. I haven’t glued it yet but looks fine. The above picture shows the poor fit above the intakes which is much the same on both sides. Still nothing I can’t fix, probably. Cheers Allan

Hello everyone. I spent several hours today attaching the photoetch in the cockpit. As I previously mentioned this is a self adhesive set but that only applies to the larger pieces but smaller bits still need superglue to attach them. I got most of the Etch on but some were impossibly small and beyond my skills. It is certainly not perfect but it definitely improves the spartan kit cockpit. Apologies for the picture quality as I am using my old iPhone as my better half is using my iPad while she is isolating. Hopefully more progress tomorrow. Cheers Allan

Morning all. I’m pitching in with this kit which appears to be a popular choice with I think four others being built. For me this is a good thing as I’ll probably run into issues as I go (I always do) so I’ll follow the others and hopefully pick up some tips. This will be my first Tomcat build and I know very little about them just now so there will be errors along the way. I haven’t finished a model in a year the last one being a helicopter for a Group build on Britmodeller. This year I just seemed to lose my mojo for modelling and I missed a few GBs along the way. Now my interest has returned in time for this GB and it has coincided with 10 days COVID isolation as my wife and two of the kids have tested positive. So I’m off work for now, still negative for COVID currently, with time on my hands and my wife confined to the bedroom it gives me free reign for modelling. Last night I started on the cockpit and did the painting. I have an Eduard etch set for the cockpit which should improve the basic kit. Etch for me is usually a challenge but this set is self- adhesive so it should be easier. Here is where I’ve got to for now. More soon. Cheers Allan

Well it’s been over six weeks since I’ve done anything with this for various reasons, mostly a complete lack of mojo for modelling. It happens regularly and I’ve learned to accept it and wait for my interest to return. So with a little over two weeks to go I opened the box to see where I was with this. Close inspection showed several areas needing attention, scratches, seams etc. Having attended to those I’ve reprimed it and painted the white bits. Tomorrow I plan to mask the white off and paint the light gull grey. I may yet finish this by June 6th. The good thing is I enjoyed working on the kit so I’m hoping that continues. k Cheers Allan

Nice work on an old kit, turned out rather nice. Cheers, Allan

Very nice Tomcat. Excellent work. Cheers, Allan

Excellent work. Nice pair of Hellcats.

That is very nice indeed. Love the colour scheme. Can I ask what paints you used? Cheers, Allan

Excellent work on difficult kit. I did this one in 2008 having started it in 2006. I remember it to be challenging but it turned ok, for me anyway. Your’s looks much nicer though. Cheers, Allan

Excellent work. Very impressive. Cheers Allan

Well I attached the refuelling probe and sprayed Mr finishing surfacer 1500 for the primer. All was going well and then I broke the refuelling probe! I’ll keep it off till the end and hopefully it’ll go back on ok. I really like the Mr surfacer primer as it gives a nice smooth base for painting. Hopefully that can continue tomorrow. Cheers Allan

Well, one week later and not much progress. I spent some time correcting my savage attempts at rescribing. I am truly awful at this even though I attempt it on most of my builds. So for this one no more rescribing for me. Any way last night I painted up the kit seat and masked and glued the canopy on. Having let it set overnight it looks ok. Tonight I’ve been bodging a minor modification to the kit by making the semi-circular antenna on the tail. This was done drilling holes into the tail at the appropriate area, I think, and then supergluing the ends of paper clips into the holes. It sounded simple to me but was tricky but I’ve got them on. They probably will get knocked off and disappear into the ether at some point but I’ve got lots of paper clips should or when that happens.Anyway here are some pics of what I did. The first shows the holes I drilled next to my principal reference picture. Next up is how the kit looks for now. I may prime the model tonight as I’m not too tired yet. Cheers Allan

Very nice work. Most impressive. Cheers Allan

Looking good Dennis. Looking forward to the gallery pics. Cheers Allan

Just catching up with your build , I don’t know how I missed it. Excellent work so far on the alterations. The scheme will be very different. I recall seeing pics of a Kuwaiti A-4 years ago and it’s one maybe for the future. I think Fujimi did one in 1/72 but it’s very rare and usually expensive when one shows up. Mabel looks adorable. Labs are the best dogs. I plan to get a Golden Lab when I retire in two years,can’t wait. Cheers Allan

Nice progress with this one smudge. The Xtradecals are very nice, I’ve got the first sheet and built one a couple of years ago. I plan to do another for this GB if I can get my current one moving on and I can find the decal sheet. I looked for it the other day and it’s disappeared from my decal box. Cheers Allan

Coincidentally I just received these two in the post this afternoon. Like Chris in the above post I am looking forward to doing one of these in this GB. Which one I haven’t decided yet. Cheers Allan

Now that is very nice work indeed. Cheers Allan

Looking very smart looking with the decals on. Cheers Allan

Yet another set of fantastic Jugs, Jerzy. Cheers Allan

Another nice Jug Jerzy. Excellent work. CheersAllan

That’s looking really smart Dennis. Excellent work. Cheers Allan

Amazing work in three weeks. After three weeks I’d still be on the cockpit going through my usual anxiety of botching up another kit. Cheers Allan

That is one very well made FW. Lovely paintwork. Cheers Allan

Excellent work. I look forward to seeing the Spitfire Pengie. What decals will you use? Cheers Allan