2996 Victor

Beautiful! I just love that camouflage scheme. Strange that the MMP paints have stayed so fragile, I guess I won't be using mine any time soon! Come on Arma, get your P-51D/K released!!! Cheers, Mark

Great progress on these two birds, camo is looking fab! Good to see the radiators have turned up, as well. You'll be wrapping these up in no time Cheers, Mark

Thank you!

Thank you, Alistair, you're too kind to my bumbling efforts! Cheers, Mark

A couple of crappy photos - I was trying to catch the light to reveal the filled panel lines: The port fuselage half hasn't been sanded/polished yet, and you can clearly see where the panel lines are due to the texture of the PPP being different to the surrounding plastic. Its quite a good effect, I think, but whether it will perpetuate through to final colour coat seems unlikely. There are a few flaws/missed bits to deal with as well...... Wing panels: Gun access panels for the inboard pairs of Brownings retained as per the IWM photo, and I need to scribe a spanwise line between them for the camera access panel. The various inspection panels have been retained as I reckoned they'd be considered essential for airframe maintenance. Anyways, next job is to detail and paint the cockpit, and given that these were early airframes I'm going to go with the non-"standard" Supermarine Interior Green (that rhymes!). More soon with a bit of luck..... Cheers, Mark

Coming along very nicely indeed! I spy some PRU blue in the radiator areas..... Cheers, Mark

Their range of Polish aircraft have been tempting me for quite a while, so I can foresee a few more of their kits ending up in my stash! The PZL P-24 kit I've got is for the Greek scheme, possibly for the Southern Europe Group Build later this year. I quite fancy an FW.190D as well..... Oh, dear! Your build is really coming along - the cockpit looks fantastic in the closed-up fuselage. What do the long etched brass strips represent - strengthening plates of some sort? I'm looking forward to seeing the colour go on. What paint will you be using? All the best, Mark

Thanks, Alistair, I've gone over to using a scraper to try and keep the PPP level with the surface - a dusting of paint has shown a few small scratches where I've scraped a little too enthusiastically! All in all, though, its coming along and my next job on this is a bit of cockpit detail. Once that's done, I can get the fuselage together and the wings on, and then I can think again about the joint and panel lines! Cheers, Mark

Hi Casey, thank you so much for this, its hugely appreciated: the two Tamiya mixes are the most "accessible" from my perspective, so those are the ones I'll be going to for my projects. Many thanks once again and kind regards, Mark

Hi Paul, many thanks once again for your reply, its greatly appreciated. Interesting and perfectly understandable. I believe that Vallejo colours are sometimes not a great match for their named colour, but are often perfect for other applications (I've been using IDF green for Grey-green until recently, for instance). However, I'm curious how the graphic artists know which shades are appropriate to which applications - presumably they have recourse to the FS or Methuen standards and cross-reference to the Vallejo catalogue. Thank you for the update on FS24542/FS24524, and the Methuen codes of course. I do realise that a magic "straight-out-of-the-bottle" paint match for such an obscure colour is a virtual impossibility - after so long a period of time even well-documented shades are open for discussion/interpretation, and the degradation of remaining original samples adds another factor to the "mix" as it were. I've had a look at the e-paint website as you suggested, and indeed two samples come up. What surprised me was how grey the shade appears, even allowing for the digital image/digital screen factor. I wonder where the whole "apple green" myth has come from..... (oh no, another can of worms!). Thank you once again for all your help and guidance on this, its enormously appreciated. Kind regards, Mark

Hi Kriss, it looks like you made a good start on the cockpit area! I'll be following as I've yet to build an IBG kit and I've got their PZL P-24 in my stash. I'm looking forward to your next instalment! Cheers, Mark

Hi Paul, I've unearthed a copy of the May 2018 SAM with the "Grey Green 1924-1945" article - very interesting reading, thank you. The schematic drawing of the Spitfire/Seafire cockpit makes reference to two Vallejo Model Air colours with 71.302 Sky Type S (plus a yellow tint) for the light grey green. This really surprised me as, from the bottle, it's quite a beige shade and not particularly "greeny" and certainly not "appley" - I was expecting a much greener shade! As an aside, as per @Dave Wilko's posts, I mixed Sky Type S and Grey-green 2:1 and added it to the bottom of my "test" card: Usual caveats, of course, digital photo on a digital monitor etc etc In reality, the mix appears very similar in tone to the Vallejo 71.302 Sky Type S, if a little greener. Still not as "green" as I was expecting, though. I may try a spot of yellow in the Vallejo Sky and see where that takes me. Thanks for your help and kind regards, Mark

Well now, I think this might have some mileage in it: That's about five minutes' worth. The cotton bud was dampened at one end only, the damp end used to soften the PPP and the dry end used to rub off the excess, working at 45 degrees at all times so that I was never going "with" the panel lines. A little re-working will be needed, I'm sure, but that will wait until after assembly. I wonder if some slightly thinned PPP, so that its a sort of thick slurry, would work as well with a slop-on-wipe-off process (SLOWO!). Thanks for looking in Cheers, Mark

Very nice!

Yeah, I can imagine.....I'm very lucky that I can hide myself away in my own little den. Years ago I was subject to interrogation by my ex over a nasty smell in the kitchen - I'd been painting an exhaust manifold with VHT paint and used the oven to cure it..... Anyway, Carr's Metal Black for brass (there's also one for steel/whitemetal). My bottle must be 30 years old but I used some recently for the bicycle chain landing gear on my Arma Wildcat. Cheers, Mark