jackroadkill

It seemed like such a good idea at the time - build a kit that I'd made in my younger days, using the same techniques, paints and tools... It turns out that brush-painting years-old Humbrol 30 enamel (un-thinned) is not only very difficult but also delivers a result remarkably similar to the one I achieved over thirty years ago: I started on the starboard wing, and it shows. This might need the pattern lines to be made a bit more flowing, but we'll see. I think (hope?) a gloss coat will hide a multitude of sins, although the stunningly off-piste "dark green" won't be one of them. Cheers, JRK

Unfortunately, yes!

Yeah, it's a bit wonky, isn't it? You can also see the poor fit of the radiator fairing. I see filling and sanding in my future... No, not what I was hoping for, I have to say. One day, one day, I will build a kit that falls together perfectly.

I've taken a better picture to show the poor alignment: 7 At the left-hand side of the image you'll easily see the misagligment, and it's the same on the right but here the flap fairing overlaps the nacelle.

I don't know why, but I seem to collect builds that finish up being 90% filler! Thanks for the encouragement (again!), Mark. Ideal, thanks Matt - I'll probably leave it as it is due to the work involved in making it all align, but I'll know for the next one (a Bf110F) that I might be able to cut the flap fairing off and move it before assembling everything. I'm sorry if I've triggered any previously buried filler-based trauma! Hopefully there's not too much in the way of filling and grinding left now.

Well, if that's the case I'm well happy! Thanks for the tip.

This sounds similar to the Matchbox Meteor NF14 that I'm building. Some serious Friday afternoon work went into that one.

Blimey, it must have been hard work if that's the case! Cracking save, sir.

Due to life getting in the way I haven't managed any kit-ruining for a couple of weeks, but yesterday I managed to crack out the airbrush and slap a bit of RLM 02 around on the Bf110. Unfortunately I seem to have missed the inner surfaces of the U/C doors, so I'll have to get those sprayed in the near future. It's not that much of a calamity as I tend to fit all of the bits I'm likely to knock off the airframe as late as I can possibly get away with in the build. The kit is still taking some wrangling, especially where the engine nacelles are concerned. They just did not want to fit, and much poking, bracing and jiggling was needed to make them conform. Unfortunately, as shown in the picture below, the nacelles don't meet up with the fairings on the underside of the flaps, which may require yet more filling and sanding. The overlap is 1.5 - 2mm, so it's not insignificant. The nacelles' poor fit has also led to needing filler adding at the leading edges and between the upper cowling panels and the rear fairings, which looks pretty ugly. Again, the gap is in the region of 1.5mm, which is disappointing for and Eduard kit; however, it's a relatively old kit now at 15 years old, so perhaps I shouldn't expect too much. You can see the ugly results of this poor fit here: It'll take some cleaning up, as will the starboard side, which I have butchered in order to show off the lovely Quickboost engine..... which doesn't fit well at all. We'll get to that in the future. However, as can be seen from this last picture, she is at least beginning to look like an aircraft. The tape on the front end it to protect the insanely finicky and very brittle nose guns whilst I mess around with the rest of the airframe. The radiator housings are now fitted and the next major job is to mask the cockpit canopy up, which, judging by the amount of pieces that make up said mask, might be a herculean effort! Before that though, I have to decide on which scheme I want to use and see if I can trace the Werknummer so that I can determine whether or not to fit bombs on the aircraft. Answers on the proverbial postcard to Roadkill Acres, please. Cheers, JRK

That's a fabulous model and a very intriguing backstory.

Still recruiting, folks.

Oh man, I'll be that's fabulous! What a cracking build (and how much patience must you have to check the performance of 200 LDR's?!).

Excellent - I'll add you to the list. Just be careful with that fuel!

This build had a decent coat of Mr Hobby's Mr Super Clear gloss sprayed on it prior to the application of decals: This picture shows it when it had been decalled and had a thin coat of Winsor and Newton's matt Galleria sprayed over the top. It went from as shiny as a new car to this in less than ten minutes. I find that a gloss coat helps (but I wouldn't say that it's essential) and have tried many different varieties before deciding on the Mr Super Clear.

Blimey, hope he makes a swift recovery.

Superb! Thanks RB, you're in!

Consider yourself counted, Wez! Thanks for joining us. The numbers are creeping slowly upward now.

I certainly will, sir!

The choice of champions! My brother makes the best version of that butty known to man. In the early 1990's it was christened the "H Custom Bap" and has gone by that name ever since.

Very cool indeed; who doesn't love a P-40 with nose art?

Somehow this build has been sidelined a bit of late; the P-40b that was nearly finished took a lot more finishing than I'd anticipated and a fiddlier-than-expected Eduard Bf110E has take up more of my time than I'd hoped. There were also paint issues that needed sorting, but we're there now. I've just applied what I hope will be the last thin coat of Ocean Grey (well, apart from a little more on the wing roots that is covered by masking tape at the moment) and next we'll see a bit of Dark Green on the upper sides too. I've realised that I've forgotten to paint the drop tanks, too, so I'll have to sort that out before too long. So far I'm enjoying the build but I've been forced to admit that there's an element of turd-polishing about it! I'm also learning just how much I like my airbrush... Cheers, JRK

Rather unusually for a (reasonably) recent Eduard kit, this one is taking a bit of engineering to make it behave. The wing root joints needed the male elements thinning (both length and width) to get them to mate up with the female parts and then the wing root joints needed quite a bit of filling, so much so that two goes were needed. I've also had to fill the joint between the rear gun mount / panel and the fuselage, as the insert was of a tighter radius than the fuselage. Still, it's coming together: As you can see, there's some grinding to be done but other than that she's looking good. Cheers, JRK