Dandie Dinmont

This looks like it’s coming together nicely Alistair. What glue do you use to get the canopy together? Craig.

Wow, he's a cutie! Is this you starting to collect cats, the same way you collect kits? From personal experience, I can assure you that this can only lead to madness. How's Daisy coping with the new arrival? Craig.

Steady work on this Alistair. Is this and the Storch part of a continuing theme? Craig.

I can see Drem’s hangers from the end of my road so I have a particular interest in this. Looking forward to seeing how it all goes together! Craig.

Thanks Chris. This was the cunning plan I alluded to in my previous post but... (Gazes myopically at decal sheet) Well I’ll be... you are absolutely right Jackson. It’s there in all it’s non-too-obvious glory and to make things worse, it’s even called out in the instructions. Clearly my unfamiliarity with the Tamiya symbology let me down. Thanks a lot Jackson, you have saved my from disaster, or at least from spending money I didn’t need to which, for an Aberdonian, amounts to pretty much the same thing. Stand down chaps, I clearly don’t know what I’m talking about. Craig.

Ah, the old “but I’ve had that for years dear” ploy. Cunning! Craig.

Nice spot Mark! I also see that Hannants stock a matching Yahu cockpit details set with seat belts and the like. Of course you then have to add something else to the order to reach the minimum value and before you know it, you’re having to plot how to intercept the courier at the end of the road so you can smuggle the large package (fnarr fnarr) into the house. I tried marking out the dials with a really sharp white pencil and my optiviser set to scanning electron microscope mode earlier today but it did not go well. I have another idea in the back of my mind which I may give a try before committing to further expenditure. . Quite. I had been lead to believe that this kit would practically build itself so finding out that I would have to bring my non-existent artistic skills into play was a bit of a shock. Craig.

Ooh, mysterious! Nice acquisition. Lot harder to hide than a 1/72 Hurricane or Mustang though. I hope you know what you’re doing. Craig.

See, being a sensitive and easily slighted soul, I’m beginning to feel a little upset now. My boxing of this kit doesn’t actually include an instrument panel decal (though it does include decal seat belts). This is something I was intending ranting about when I finally get around to presenting some evidence of actual modelling having taken place but now I’m just puzzled. Miffed of East Lothian.

Hi Far North, welcome to the forum from another ex-space cadet but from the Deep South. Aberdeen originally and now living in East Lothian. For details of Air Cadet glider models, you cannot do better than look at @Terry1954 ‘s epic build: I have very fond memories of doing my gliding proficiency at Kinloss in machines like these! Hope this is of some help. Craig.

Mark, Alistair, of course you may follow along! It’s only thanks to the encouragement from the pair of you that the Mustang made it over the line so I’m relying on you providing the same service for this build! Glad to have you along Chris! Though I fear all you’re likely to learn from this build is how not to do it. Ah David, maybe you can provide reassurance on something that’s been worrying me a little since I got this kit. How good are the Tamiya decals? Are they thick enough to provide good coverage over the deep blue paint or do they need assistance? Mind you, I’ve no idea how I might approach this. Craig.

I’m really sorry to hear about you and your family’s recent troubles and hope things are looking brighter for you all soon. I am however delighted to see you back providing the highly entertaining prose that played a large part in luring me into BM’s embrace. Congratulations on your sartorial elegance in the video. It’s not everyone who can carry off a solar topee but you manage it with aplomb. Craig.

How did I miss this until now? You do excel in finding unusual ways to torture yourself but you seem to be bringing this beast under control nicely. Craig.

I used Xtracrylix Red Arrows Red and that’s definitely not the hue to go for. Signal red might be a good option. I’ve got another of these in the stash so I’ll be interested to see what you end up using. Craig.

Well, not long after submitting my last report, my mojo bladder suffered a major decompression and work on the Pony was suspended in favour of gazing slack-jawed out of the window, and attempting to become the finest Ukulele player in the country. My wife's complaints about the puddles of drool on the soft furnishings, and a petition from the neighbours finally convinced me of the futility of both activities and so I dragged myself up the stairs to the mancave to put the finishing touches to the P51. Most of the remaining parts were attached including the undercarriage. At the start of this build all those years ago, Chris ( @dogsbody ) asked me if my undercarriage legs were warped. I replied that they seemed fine but on further inspection: it became clear that though the starboard leg was just about ok, the angle of dangle of the port leg was way off. Gluing the wheel to the door sorted things out to my satisfaction at least. Further evidence of the decrepit condition of the model moulds was given by the last part to be attached, the radio antenna: It's the part numbered 19 and I assume that's not the way it's supposed to look. Miracles of miracles, it came off the runner in one piece but disintegrated when I tried to tidy it up. It was replaced with some stretched and whittled sprue. Finally, the airbrush was charged with Xtracrylics finest matt varnish and directed towards the airframe. The canopy masking was removed, leaving Percy blinking in the unaccustomed light. To my great displeasure, I immediately noted that I had apparently missed a bit when I was painting the top of his seat but I'm unhappy enough with the fit of the canopy as it is so there's no way I'm prising it off again. We'll call it wear and tear or something. And so I'm calling the pony done! Some pictures: Inspecting the finished article, it's immediately clear that I need to be considerably more careful about removing detritus and especially cat hairs from my efforts before applying any paint. Overall though, I'm not too displeased with the final outcome and have learned a lot, especially about thinning Xtracrylic paints, which was the whole point of the exercise in the first place. My thanks to all of you who have chipped in with advice, encouragement and tales of your moggies. If you want more of the same, please proceed in an orderly manner to A build which is all Mark's fault! Thanks for reading, Craig.

I want to make it clear right from the outset that this is the fault of Mark (@2996 Victor). In his excellent thread (by the way, whatever happened to this Mark? ) He extolled the virtues of Tamiya as a kit manufacturer and the delights to be experienced when constructing one of their kits. Shame faced, I have to confess that I have never built a Tamiya kit, not since my return to the hobby, and certainly not in my formative modelling years when they would have been regarded as foreign exotica well out of my price range. So when I paid a celebratory post-lockdown visit to my local model shop and my eyes fell upon this: how could I resist? I'll be buildng it OOB using the box art colour scheme which looks gorgeous to my jaded eye. So far, I have only got as far as getting the bits out of the box and puzzling over the lack of malformed, short shot and heavily seamed bits which my experience of building Airfix kits has led me to believe is an intrinsic part of the hobby. Please follow along if you're interested, and all words of advice and advanced warnings of pitfalls are both solicited and welcome. More soon hopefully! Craig.

Very nice start especially the cockpit. I’m sure I’m teaching my granny to suck eggs here but be careful in your selection of an alternative red. Get it wrong and the Central Flying School decals with the red background will stick out like a sore thumb. Guess how I know this Craig.

Hi, I’m afraid I don’t know pros and cons of a membrane compressor versus a piston one but if the TC610H, you mention is the compressor made by Sparmax, then I’m pretty sure it’s a piston compressor, not a membrane one. For what it’s worth, I have a TC610H Plus compressor (different case I think) and an H&S Evolution Silverline 2 in 1 airbrush and as a newbie airbrusher, I’m very happy with both. Hope this is of some help, Craig.

Room for another one? I’ve been doing some research on the Hellcat recently and somehow the Eduard weekend (ha!) 1/72 version of the F6F-5 ended up in my grubby paws. Then I noticed this gb was about to kick off... It’ll be a straightforward OOB build but it’s my first attempt at an Eduard kit so I’ll be interested to see how it goes together, especially in comparison to the Tamiya F4U (am I allowed to mention that here?) that I’ll be building at the same time. Craig.

Hi Mark and Alistair, I don’t envy you having to glue the blisters to the side of the canopy but I look forward to reading about your builds when you can fit them into your busy schedules. Craig.

What a great project this is! I’m amazed you have any time to get actual modelling done, given all the complexities of working out which kits, parts from those kits and markings you need. Craig.

@wombat raises an interesting point. Are you going to carry out major surgery on the wings so that you can have the slats and flaps in realistic positions, or are you going to raise your eyes to the heavens, whistle tunelessly and ignore the whole issue? (I would not blame you in the slightest for following this course) Craig.

Nice start Alistair. What glue did you use for attaching the etch? Craig.

Oh I absolutely agree. I firmly believe that all the entertaining, non-modelling bit that appear in Britmodeller threads are what gives the site its unique charm. I didn’t want Alistair to be disappointed if he went to page 1 and expected 18 closely written pages of Lysander building tips! Craig.

Salted caramel. Best of both worlds. I don't know if you've come across this: There's quite a lot of non-modelling related stuff to wade through but you might pick up some helpful pointers for the kit and if nothing else, it'll serve as a reminder to keep the work-in-progress out of reach of your offspring. Craig.