jackroadkill

Why?!

That would be brilliant - I'll have to leave it to a real modeller to produce a diorama though!

Why is it a party if it didn't happen?

I'm liking this very much indeed. Initially I was tempted to ask something daft like "can I do a P-47 Thunderbolt and an A-10 Thunderbolt II?" but then I had an attack of common sense. Dennis, please add me to the list - I think a late-war Luftwaffe machine in German colours on one half and allied evaluation colours on the other will be my choice.

I'm still up for this one, definitely.

It was exactly the same for me - I had no idea people used acrylics and I had some (very!) old tins of Humbrol's finest in the loft, so when I came back to modelling that's what I used. I also used white spirit until I was advised against it. It was a case of not knowing there was a problem until I tried the alternatives - the paint just works better with a decent thinners.

I think this is coming on really well; I've just read the thread through from the start and I have to say that for a returnee and a novice, I think you and your boy have done a very good job indeed. I wish my first effort after a thirty-year layoff had been anywhere like as good as this. I'm assuming that as you're using white spirit as a thinner you're using enamel paints; as @Troy Smith mentioned above, white spirit isn't really your friend regarding thinning. I use Colourcoats thinner - it works very well and doesn't smell anything like as bad as white spirit. Keep up the good work and enjoy spending some modelling time with your son. Cheers, JRK

Why do I kid myself that this time the cockpit detail will look amazing and that I will be able to see it?

This is coming on very well indeed. If the rest of the airframe comes out this well you'll be laughing.

@falcon That's a fabulous set of builds. You can justifiably be very proud of your work there - I'd give my eye teeth to have the patience and skill to attempt a task like that.

Hello all, Having just finished my HobbyBoss Ta152C-11 and with the mojo flowing freely I decided to start on one of the newer additions to the stash: (Apologies to Scalemates; I thought I had my own picture but evidently not.) This kit will be painted in the colours of 112 Squadron RAF in the North African campaign of 1941. It's a bit of an easy target, I suppose (along with the also-ubiquitous Flying Tigers schemes which also proliferate). There's a vague plan to at some point build a P-40E in the scheme of Dennis Copping's aircraft that remained undiscovered in the desert for many years, and this may be a dummy run for that project. I've got seatbelts coming, courtesy of Eduard, and also have their Brassin wheel set. Quickboost exhausts, airscrew and air intake will complete the build. This afternoon I was able to do some basic assembly of cockpit parts and a bit of interior airbrushing. So far I've found a little more flash than I'd expect, although nothing too terrible to cope with. The detail looks pretty reasonable and although the plastic is very much of its time (soft!) I can't see it bringing any unpleasant issues. I agonised over the correct colour for the interior but in the end I used Colourcoats' US Interior Green: Usually I don't get too carried away with the cockpit interior as it irks me that you can put so much work into the least-visible area of the airframe, but on this build I think I'll have a tilt at giving it a reasonable amount of detailing. We shall see how much I can stick to this idea! Cheers, JRK

Thanks Werdna; I've corrected the undercarriage problems now. and things look much more "natural". As for the scheme, I've got an FW190D-9 that has a very similar scheme as one of the options and I'm tempted to choose that one when I build the kit. Thanks Roger; I like this scheme very much and the finish has been one of the nicer aspects of it. I think that using the Mr. Super Clear gloss coat made a big difference and will certainly be using it again.

I wanted a fun, quick and simple build and this was 90% the case with this kit. The aircraft itself is a classic late-war Luftwaffe "did it / didn't it?"; the C11 may or may not have existed and there is doubt as to whether any of them saw combat if indeed any actually made it to completion. With this in mind I decided early on in the build to only weather it very slightly, as if it had been flown a handful of times and no more. It's shown in a scheme which may be historically accurate... or maybe not. Photographic evidence is very thin on the ground, so there was more than an element of guesswork involved. The worst aspect of the kit was the main undercarriage; it's fit is very vague and I'm not sure how great the geometry of it is. If this bugs me enough I may go back and do something about it. Build thread is here: Pictures of the finished article: Thanks, JRK

Okay, she's done: RFI to follow. Thanks very much to everyone who has offered advice, commented on or read through the thread, it's very much appreciated. Cheers, JRK

Worse than that, they've been taking the pea!

Chucking it out of a helicopter doesn't count!

I assume you've not seen Wales in winter?! We have the opposite problem - damp, dark, miserable and never-ending!

Nor k, q, x or z. We have to make do with dd, ff, and ch etc instead. Still, it could be worse - why do they only have 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet?

Up to your usual high standards, Werdna. Fantastic, as normal!

@John Masters Just put it on a high shelf and he won't be able to reach it.

I'd love to see an Eduard fabric-winged mk1.

The end is well and truly in sight now; I've added some very basic weathering (enough to suggest a few flights and light combat), smeared a bit of muck around the airframe and am waiting for it all to dry in time for the matt coat. Obvioulsy there are still the aerials etc to fit but they'll be done immediately prior to RFI'ing the job. Cheers, JRK

This is coming along nicely; as mentioned by @fubar57 you've nailed that seat pretty convincingly.

That could well have been me, Chris, as I use CC's thinners on both their own paints and Humbrol's. It works a treat for me.

It's annoying when the colour calls give a less-than-accurate representation, but I reckon in this case a bot of dirtying-up will sort you out, or maybe a thin-ish coat of something a bit browner.