jackroadkill

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

In my case it was because I got said manoeuvrer very badly wrong, bounced off the front of another car and came to rest in a ditch after punching through a chevron sign and a farmer's hedge. The folly of youth, eh? I thought I was invincible....

RWD is fun on ice and snow. I used to do handbrake flick-turns on roundabouts back when I were a youngun That's not big or clever.... I wish I'd known that at the time, as I did exactly the same!

That looks fabulous! What a cracking job.

Quibble away, Bertie - you're very welcome!

This has been a joy to follow; thanks very much for having us along for the ride. What an inspirational build - I wish I had a hundredth of your skill.

I'm in agreement with @trickyrich; it's about the power source, really.

I Bertie, I'll have a word with @trickyrich and we'll get back to you. Hi Bob, thanks for signing up - you're on the list!

Am painfully aware that I haven't done much on this over the week but real life has proved busier than I thought it would. That said, I have managed to get a few bits done, primarily finishing off the cockpit, closing the fuselage and doing some fairly drastic (for me) remodelling of the starboard wing and cowling to make the Quickboost engine fit. The engine itself needed some fairly robust sanding and hacking to make it fit, and there'll be a good bit of tidying up to do before I've finished with it. I think the next job will be spraying the RLM02 on the interior parts. I have an unexpected day off tomorrow, so you never know... NB - the engine isn't fixed yet! Cheers, JRK