Rob K.

Looks great Alan! Rgds, Rob

Well, I figured out if I do a WIP report there is a better chance of actually completing my models. It’s working thusfar 😉

Hi Igna, Good to hear from you. This is my first Mirage kit ever. Did read some posts about it. There is a good one from finescalemodeller concerning this kit. Rgds, Rob

Hi Elger, Nice project. Would like to tackle a 1/48 Lancaster myself ant one point. Either by HKM or the venerable Tamiya kit. Rgds, Rob

Hi @dov and @ruth, Great build going on here. Just out of curiosity and maybe too late to ask at this stage, but since the MiniArt multi part cowling appears to require a high level of concentration in order to get a good result, would any of the other one piece cowlings (Tamiya) with a little adjustment be a good replacement for the MiniArt kit? (i.e. kit bashing) Or is the detailing on the cowling of the miniart kit to such an extent that it would be a shame to use any other one piece cowling from either Tamiya or Dora? Keep up the good work, I am enjoying the posts. Rgds, Rob

Hi, When joining the 2 fuselage halves together, according to the instructions, the 2 intake trunks are joined together and locating pins of the port side hull, fit into the holes of the starboard side hull. However, in order to make the fuselage halves not too rigid, I omitted this step, so I could force the 2 bottom outer edges of the fuselages outward to closer meet the wing, thus reducing the space between them. I started gluing the 2 halves together starting at the tail and then slowly moving forward. After this I joined the wing to the fuselage meanwhile trying to reduce the space between them by applying pressure on top.All done with very thin and fast drying “Rocket” CA cement. Quite happy with the wing to fuselage joint, applied a little bit of a thin black CA mix for filling and additional strength. May do the rest with some Vallejo putty later using the moist cotton bud technique, since the gap is fairly small: The intake assembly cover pieces were joined last, so I could position them as best as possible, first dry fitting which showed that also near the wing root some material required sanding off from the bottom of both pieces port and starboard side. At the underside, I was left with some significant gaps where the wing piece meets the fuselage near the gear bay. These were filled with evergreen strips. Also the end of the gear bay piece sits too low and therefore a rectangular piece of plastic card was fitted at the back of the bay in order for it to be flush with the underside. The most challenging part was to mate the wing extensions which are part of the intakes (where the guns are moulded) and forcibly bend them to meet the rest of the intakes and cone plate whilst at the same time quickly fixing them with very quick drying CA. Aft end has a decent fit: Next up was to check if the wind shield has a drop fit, so it can be fitted at the end or whether it needs to be reworked in order for it to be blended in nicely with the fuselage. Unfortunately in my case, it didn’t quite fit and was left with some visible spaces between bottom windshield transparency part and fuselage. Therefore decided to cut off the leading part of the windshield which has a locating tab underneath and fit the windshield separately. (And re join the leading part later) A little daunting, getting it first time right. However, after some further sanding, dry fitting and sanding, the wind shield has a better fit: The leading part of the windscreen has since been re-fitted to the nose. Probably will start masking the transparent cockpit parts and temporarily fit them for cockpit protection when I will start applying my first primer coat to check where more filling, sanding, re-scribing etc is needed. That’s all, thanks for watching, Rgds, Rob

Hi, Attached the intakes and exhaust to the fuselage. The two halves appear to go together well when dry fitting as long as the small locating tabs are sanded flush: The intake halves with locating pins line up well: When I was researching prior to this build whether to buy an Eduard or a Kinetic Mirage, I did read in a post the problem of mating the wings to the fuselage of the Kinetic kit. Therefore I thought it might be a good idea, prior to cementing the two fuselage halves together, to first build the Delta wing: Upon dry fitting one fuselage halve to the wing, there is indeed a height difference: In order to try and address this, I have reduced the base of the fuselage by removing some material: Also the 2 positioning slots (see image where the sanding stick is resting) need deepening and widening. The benefit of not glueing the 2 halves together at this stage, is that from the inside of the fuselage, you also have an idea where material needs to be removed when dry-fitting, in order to achieve a good fit After adjustments the transition from fuselage to wing is a lot better: (Thank you James @franky boy for your comments) To be continued, Rgds, Rob

Hi, Here a W.I.P. Post regarding my newest build, the 1/48 Scale Mirage IIIe from Kinetic. Purchased some aftermarket items as per below image: The resin seats don’t fit in the tub, so I decide to use the kit seat and dress it up with the Eduard coloured photo etch. Tried to model the ejection seats to some examples I found online of the Martin Baker Mk4 seats. It appears there are some variations. Not sure why, but I always liked the look of the double handles of the face cover. The Eduard set I used came with a single handle, so used the kit parts and painted the black and yellow rings. Not as neat as the photo etch ones, but it will do. Did some work on the rest of the cockpit as well: Have to find a solution for the crinkled up radar screen and make that smooth. That’s all for now, thanks for watching, Rgds, Rob

Amazing result. Excellent.

Thanks, looking forward to your build 👍

Looks great👍

That’s a great looking NF-5 and I think indeed this is my favourite scheme. Very nice.

Thanks Tomcat101, yes I have only started using oils on this and the previous build. Starting to like it.

Impressed! That looks quite cool. Great presentation.

Very nice build. Nice scheme.

Hi, And here the “Ready for Inspection” link: Happy New Year and thanks for all the comments and feedback 👍 Rgds, Rob Thanks Dan and best wishes too!

Hi, Please find my latest completion a Dutch Fleet Air Arm Hawker Sea Fury in 1/48 scale. Barracuda resin engine, cowling and prop-spinner. Airbrushed with MRP colours and varnishes with kit decals. Slight weathering with Flory panel wash and Mr Weathering oil based agents. Warning: picture heavy Took a few liberties along the way to make this aerobatics demo Sea Fury a little more interesting to look at, hence the addition of 6 rockets on folded wings and a few other things which may or may not been …….entirely authentic. I have made a few corrections and additions to the model since my last WIP report, re positioned a misaligned rocket and added the Mr weathering agents. For anyone interested, below the WIP: That’s all, thanks for watching, Rgds, Rob

Thanks Mark

Thanks, noticed in your footnote your Sea Fury build. Had a look. Very nice work. Rob

Hi, Since everything was pretty much pre-painted, I was able to make some real progress this afternoon. The windshield is a surprisingly nice drop fit and can be left until last. (On all other previous images it was dry-fitted). Used some Tamiya wax to polish up the Canopy. Did have some trouble fitting the under carriage and had to force bend one strut back to prevent a tilt to starboard and then reinforce it once more with CA. The tail wheel assembly is surprisingly sturdy. Attaching the wings in the folding position went ok after some dry fitting and slight sanding of the small stubs which fit in the wing cross section. Slight misalignment of one of the rockets, perhaps I drilled slightly off in the pre marked holes in the wings. May address this, since it is bugging me a little every time I look at the images while I am writing this. Some further weathering touch ups to be done, especially near the exhaust area and underside but here is the result: As stated previously, I found this a very enjoyable build. Did use the Barracuda engine and cowling assembly, but I reckon with some adjustments, you could get a good result just by using the kit parts. The Sea Fury will fit nicely next to my MLD Sikorsky. That’s all, thanks for following and your comments and feedback along the way. Rgds, Rob

Thanks CC. I had salvaged a gunsight from the spare box, but misplaced it. Not too bothered about the gunsight though. This cockpit is so small and dark with opening so narrow, that to my mind it is hardly noticeable. I took a few liberties with this build. The wing walkway is supposed to be the grey decals instead of the black (black just looked better). Also the headrest is of a slightly different shape than what it should be. The 6 underwing rockets under the wings of an aircraft of the aerobatics team is also questionable and then with wings folded? Just thought it would look nice. Other than that it is a really nice kit to build. Rgds, Rob

Hi, Applied the Flory “Grime” wash: Once dried, I was curious to see how the model would look with “dry-wiping” it with kitchen towel. Was quite happy with the result. Only on the some more stubborn areas like the riveted tail did I have to use some moist towel to remove the worst. These machines were generally well kept and I believe the Sea Fury’s with the orange cowlings were part of a 4 ship demo team. If too dull, I can always do another clean up, this time with a wet kitchen towel. The result: Time to put the landing gear and wings on and finalise the build. Rgds, Rob

Hi, A little more progress. Painted and “decalled” the 3” rockets. It took some effort to incorporate the port and starboard nav lights into the wing. Had to sand and re spray the wing tips. For the underwing lights I may use a drop of KristalClear, Gauzy or similar. Auxiliary fuel tanks are ready to be glued to the underside: Only have lamp light, so the colours may be distorted somewhat, but everything is painted in MRP RAF Sky and RAF Extra Dark Sea Grey. The entire model has now been airbrushed in MRP Semi Matt, which is still rather shiny: Tomorrow I will apply a “Grime” wash from Flory, which will hopefully also slight dull things down a little. That’s all, thanks for watching, Rgds, Rob

Hi, Airbrushed the fuselage, propeller and wings with MRP gloss. This sprayed quite nicely, but was not getting a good gloss until at the end I airbrushed some pure Mr levelling thinner on top: The Airfix decals are great and conform quite nicely: Some generic stencil decals to go, after which I will seal everything with another coat of gloss. Little-bit of a discolouration on the gloss coat after applying some Mig decal solution on the fuselage, I hope this will disappear after the 2nd gloss and semi-gloss coats. So far the progress, Rgds, Rob

Thanks John @Biggles87 and merry Christmas