Martin1962

Are you sure you didn't just go to the National Motorcycle Museum, take some photos and post them here? It's amazing.

Aren't the PS paints specifically formulated for polycarbonate bodies? I know they're popular in the RC world. What was putting me off this kit was getting the colour right, but now I know which one it is I may be tempted again.

Love it. Great build and very inspiring.

Wow! I've never seen anything quite like it. A really unusual subject. Very dramatic; excellent work.

Beautiful rendition and I love that colour too.It actually looks like a showroom bike, well done. Every time I see a Blackbird I decide I still want one, and if I did take the plunge it would be in blue. Now if only Tamiya (or anyone actually) would make a decent scale model of a VFR800FiX (and I don't mean that awful police spec version that crops up from time to time)then I'd have it like a shot and create it in yellow to match the one in my garage.

Thanks Nev. I used Alclad aluminium and stainless steel with some highlighting with their copper colour. All brushed over with ground up grey pastel.

Thanks so much for all the 'likes' and the kind comments. It was a very enjoyable build.

Here's my newly-finished lockdown project, the massive Tamiya 1/32 Phantom F4J. It's OOB and is a monster. There's been plenty said about the rights and wrongs of this kit - the battle damage repair panels, poorly made jet intakes, incorrect wing angles and so on, but it remains a great kit in my opinion. It's a straightforward build with less than 30 steps in the build process. The bulk of the work involves the weapons. There's so many of them and they were time-consuming with various left hand side and right hand side missiles and pylons so it was easy to get confused and mixed up, especially at my age. Painting this time was with Tamiya aerosols, which I'd previously used on my 1/12 Porsche, so I knew two things about them. First, they are expensive, and second, they give a great paint finish. I've been much happier with my masking abilities on this kit and I'm particularly pleased with the black nose section! I've never been a great one for detailed weathering, probably because I don't know how to do it properly, but also I do feel sometimes that if overdone the realism tails off. Anyway, I filled in some of the panel lines with a home made thinned down black paint then a dose of pastels applied with a brush. I got to a point I liked then stopped. I haven't got any pictures of the finished underside, and the ones here were taken before the final putting-together. There was a big problem with the decals, detailed in another thread, but thanks to the very very kind intervention of John here, the worst were rescued. Having just reviewed the photos there's a couple of tiny bits to tidy up, so a little bit more to do perhaps. Hope people like it! Oops. Tail not fully engaged. No prizes today then.

It's a beautiful aircraft and yours is a beautiful model. The paintwork is particularly impressive. Marvellous.

It really is a stunning piece of work.

That is a beautiful and superbly detailed rendition. Fantastic. The photographs are stunning. Excellent work

A public thank you to JohnT for sending me some replacement decals. I'm very grateful indeed.

You're a star. Many thanks

Absolutely amazing.

That's extremely helpful, thank you. Do we have a PM facility?