Tomas Enerdal

The new ICM kit seems to be very nice indeed. However, from looking at the kit instructions and reviews, it seems that some ammo items may be missing from the interior? -Rails for the tail guns kan be seen on the fuselage walls (parts F1 & F51). Ammo boxes themselves? -No ammo rails/chutes in the tail gun position itself. Quite visible under that glass.. -No ammo boxes or ammo chutes for the two lower fuselage guns. -No ammo chute between the nose ammo box and the nose gun itself. I suppose that the interior may end up looking less crowded and busy than it should. -Is there any good info of what it should look like? Printed references, walk arounds? The top turret interior is very visible under the very clear glass dome. Any detail that could/should be added? -Is there any (available) aftermarket hardware made that can be used to fill the areas up? I note that there is an older Eduard set for the Monogram kit (49 327) but I don't know if it is accurate?

I continue adding details to the airframe, but on time not spent at the modelling table per se, I keep thinking and planning ahead. I have started to approach the painting stage. This is ideas so far, in no specific order. I just think out loud, please feel free to chime in with comments and suggestions! -Undersides first, black/white, split down the middle, fuselage also. There is a port pic of VY-G before fin flash and yellow surround to the fuselage roundel, confirming no aluminium on fuselage. A-roundels under wings. There is also a starbord pic showing the underside white. It also shows some heavy oil stains on the wheel covers and radiator and the fact that the port undercarriage doors were light on the insides. I interpret this as silver. The white will be just a tad toned downed down with gray, the black will be softened a tad with buff. -Uppers in Dark Green/Dark Earth. Mr.Color paint. I will lighten the fabric portions of the wings as well as the stabilizators/elevators and top of fuselage fabric covering. Fin/rudder and fuselage sides will not be as lightened, neither the metal portions of the fuselage and wings. -Decals: Upper wing B-roundels will probably be some old MDC "faded" roundels. Im testing these with strong softeners as I write this, I don't want them to be too thick on the fabric surfaces. If I'm not pleased I will use masks and spray them on. Edit: There are some 49" roundels on an early set of Xtradecals XO28-48 that are pretty light too, an alternative? -The MSG VY-G serials come from the old Airfix kit, VERY kindly given to me by a generous donor here on BM! These are marvelous decals, I tested some scrap line from the decal sheet with a strong Tamiya softener. They turn out to be very thin indeed, the decal film more or less disappeared, the only that's remaining is a matte finish. -The fuselage A1-roundels, with a thin yellow surround, took me a long time to find! I had almost given up when I found a perfect pair on Xtradecals sheet X48144. On the decal instructions they look too large, but on the decal sheet they have the size I'm looking for, 35" A-roundels with a thin, approx. 2", yellow surround. -Spinner will be red. I'm pondering on what kind of red? Strong, post-office red, or the more brick-colored dull red? -Not especially worn propeller blades. -Stencilling? Not much can be seen in the pics of VY-G. -Yellow gas-warning squares on both wings. What have I missed?

A few notes about Archer rivets: During further handling I noticed that the rivets are a little susceptible and may loosen and get lost. Thinking and testing to find a method to protect them before getting covered by paint I came up with the following solution: I seal them with the following mix: 1 part future and 1 part water. This mix is then further diluted with a little Mr.COLOR Leveling Thinner (!) Surprising, isn't it? It turns out that this thinner consist of various alcohols so therefore works fine. The mix becomes very low viscous and brushes easily over the rivets. When dry the end result is extremely thin and cannot be detected at all. The protective effect is very good, however even if I recommend that they be still handled with some care.

Yes, he normally does.

I don't know how Pilot Replicas does its research or how they design their kits. Or where the tools are made and the kits are produced for that matter. But for sure they have not copied any one else's kits, even if it has been suggested that they should have looked at the Airfix Vampires. I have tried to see the pros and cons of the kit, bye.

What is difficult to understand and not a little sad, Is that PR has in the past designed very nice and very accurate kits. Of Swedish/Saab subjects. Why not this one? Looking at their J29 Tunnan (Flying barrel) kit it has so exquisitetly and beautifully captured some rather complex and compound curves on the upper nose (where the nose meets the windshield) and rear fuselage (where the fuselage splits up in the upper boom and the lower exhaust). Now there are quite prominent differences between the later F and the earlier A/B/C/E fuselage, yet PR seems to have capture both fantastically well. I see no lack of pride, or amateurishness for that matter, even if their head (Claes) started alone, and on his free time. I wonder if he has had no/very limited access to a real a/c? The Swedish Air Force museum has one, but it has not been available on display for many years? And there is one at Svedinos car- and a/c-museum, but they are only fully open in July/August. It is approx. 500 km from where he lives, you just don't pop in and check things. His conditions for a proper research must have been much more difficult.

Thank you!

I guess this one is meant: Quickboost QB32135 It looks similar to the seat in the Bf 109E, but taller. I cannot find any trace of it in any of my Bf109 references, however. Edit: I also found one in 1/48, QB48525, similar but without belts (meant for the very good Zvezda kit). No specific early seat for the 109F found in 1/72, but I suppose an 109E seat could be used? Lack of info in references is interesting, I wonder where the Quickboost researcher have got their info?

I can only agree, it's a very useful book for modelers. If it helps in your search for the book: Full title; Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire F Mk.22/24 Authors; Michal Ovčáčík, Karel Susa ISBN; 80-86637-03-4

Thanks! Yeah, as I said, I was not prepared for this, really. It looks surprisingly good!

This was fun, rewarding and a little surprising. Let me explain: for many years I've been something of an armchair modeller. That has led to that some modelling moments have, over the time, appeared to be "difficult". Out of practice, sure. But perhaps also a little on the mental side, lack of self-confidence? Now I'm retired and have all the time in the world for modelling! This surge of activity has raised my confidence no end. But yet: I have decided to equip my rag wing with a vac-form rear canopy. I simply want to display it open, and the kit canopy just cannot be displayed that way even if I separate the single-piece kit part, it's just too thick. You guessed it; "vac-form canopies are difficult".. Well, just get on with it. I do have an appropriate Falcon clear-Vax set, no.20, with a canopy for the Hasegawa kits. I tried to remember all I've read over the years: -Careful cutting in several passes, with a VERY sharp knife. A new scalpel blade; It worked. -The last finish with careful sanding. A sanding stick, it worked like a charm. -Will it fit? You bet, Falcon canopy designers obviously know what they've been doing. I removed the thin "rail" from under the position of the canopy hood, now it fits like a glove! (The small gap between the kit doghouse and the Ultracast resin part will be filled). To be continued,

I can only chime in regarding the Wingleader books. Unfortunately they have only covered Hurricane Mk.I so far.

Making progress, see Facebook. Mathieu is surprisingly fast, and he is very transparent about his work on FB. Take a look, nose and propeller are obviously finished, and on one of the earlier pics we could see the two rudders, radiators, etc. already in their printing cage. My advise is to keep your eyes open if you're in a hurry, the first batch tend to sell out in hours.

Sorry again if this has been asked earlier. I have made a search on the BM, and also in my references, but no luck. Well: I'm building a fabric covered wing Mk.1, probably NXXXX. VY-G of 85 Sq. Lille-Seclin May '40. I have reached the radiator stage. In maintenance pics and sketches gun heating tubes can be seen also in early fabric covered wings. But could these pipes be seen on the rear of a Mk.1 radiator?

You're too kind! I do have an advantage of a somewhat special kind; One of my eyes, the right one, is extremely shortsighted. It means that the easiest viewing distance for it, without glasses is approx 10 cm. This means that it's very easy for me to clearly look at small detail very close up, without any sighting aid, like optivisors or the like. The rivets are useful indeed! Each sheet may appear expensive, but as I normally only use them in special applications like this, the sheets I have will last me a lifetime. Each sheet contains a lot of rivets... I've seen examples where lots of rivet have been used to cover complete aircraft or helicopters, where such is appropriate, like Mi-24, SU-25, Hughes Cayuse and similar. The results can be simply stunning, see examples on their homepage. But as an example, also a row of rivets inside a main gear cover can bring enormous life to something that may be "under-detailed". Such detail can be important to "nit-pickers" like me, but they also tend to catch the viewers eye, and even can make a model look more detailed than it is. If you bear with me a little longer you will see what they look like under paint. I don't know if there is any specific UK importer as such, but I can see that Historex Agents have a few. Archer’s own shipping services are excellent, however, and they are normally sent within a day or two.

How to do fasteners on the ammo hatches? At first I was just going to use the reaming tool. But looking at pics of the real fasteners they stand just a little proud of the surface. I have therefore tried a combination of methods. First I'll make the ring with the beading tool. Then I'll add a very thin plasticard disk, punched out to a ø of 0.7 mm. Finally a small shallow hole in the middle, ø 0.2 mm Here a test on some scrap, and then I tried to make it clearer with a fine marker pen. (Neither of the pics show it well) To be continued,

Some Archer riveting. The Classic Airframes wings are a little plain when it comes to surface detailing. Inspired a lot by the new ARMA kit, I wanted to add some surface detailing to the inner wings, i.e. the parts that really are a part of the main fuselage structure. These are covered in metal on the real a/c, I wanted to somehow underscore the difference between the inner metal wing and the outer fabric covered ones. How? The American firm of Archertransfers.com, see here, do a lot of "3D surface decals" by printing thick resin onto decal film. I believe they were at first aimed for armor and train models but have many uses, aircraft as well. The results can become simply stunning. A problem in this case is to not overdo it. If adding as much as on the corresponding ARMA portion, this area would simply look "over detailed" compared to the rest of the a/c. And even if these rivets are very petite and sharp, they are perhaps not as small as the smallest ones on the ARMA kit. On the wings I used various rivets from the following sheets: -AR88009. Resin fastener heads (the medium size, ø 0.025") The eight on each side, above the fuel tank. -AR88014. Resin fastener heads ø 0.008" -AR88015. Resin Fastener Heads ø 0.011" -AR88024. N-scale Resin rivet heads ø 0.004" The decal film is marvelous in itself, it's ultra thin and works fantastically with Micro Set/Sol. You can detect is as a slightly gloss sheen, but nothing more. Just to break my own rule of not overdoing it, I added this line as well. Sorry, I just had to... I will add a few more, on the rear of the narrow sheet that covers the seam between the fuselage and the wings. and a few on the underside. See pic of the Finnish a/c in previous post above. To be continued,

The fact that UK has strong rules when it comes to sending ”dangerous” liquids, and Brexit consequenses, made it difficult for Colourcoats EU customers for a while. They now have excellent resellers within EU, however, see their homepage.

Tamiya’s colours can be mixed with Gunze Mr.Color. And also with the Hataka orange series (said to be laquers) and AK interaktive.

Isn’t there a XI conversion from AIMS already? https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/AIMS48P047?result-token=kuP4i

I have the Laminar Flow 1/32 conversion set, if this gets half as good, the 1/48 world is in for a marvelous treat! XIV high- and lowback, XIX. Congratulations!

Barracuda or Taurus canopy? Quicboost camera openings, with fuel pump bulges?

Mind, this is not necessary a drawback. There obviously was a variation IRL, if nothing else due to weathering. But the modeller needs to keep track and be in control, in order to avoid unwanted surprises.

I generally agree, the xtracolours are normally good, especially wrt brittish colours. However, I have had examples where the shade of a specific colour has not been fully consistent between batches and individual tins. I have three tins of extra dark sea gray and they all differ. The difference between the lightest and the darkest are such that it can offset the delikate contrast with dark slate gray. This is understandable, making exact mixes from batch to batch is said to be quite difficult. So the advice is; keep checking, where possible with known standards and references. I have a sort of ”library” where I have kept paint tests over the years. This also has an advantage inasmuch as I can compare and choose between various paints and brands when I search for some combination.

Dear Fukuryo, I recently was told that Aqueous paint could not be mixed with other water based acrylics like life-like or vallejo. The fact that it can be diluted with water perhaps doesn’t mean that it is a water-based acrylic, or compatible with them?