Richard

Well this is my first completed kit in around 9 years. It is a Dragon 1/72 Tiger 1, Gruppe Fehrmann. Apparently it means it is a mix of early Tiger 1 features and late model steel road wheels. My colour scheme and marking are fiction. I built this out of the box without using references, the idea was a quick build (still took over two years). Quite a nicely detailed recent kit (2008) with some shocking fit issues. Looks good in the box with etched engine grills and a steel wire for the tow cable (which I didnt use). I bought it in Hong Kong for around US$8. Some serious work was needed to get the hull to fit and about 2mm needed to be shaved from the centre of the rear idler wheels to come even close to aligning correctly with the teeth on the tracks. The one piece tracks are one link too long to get them to sit right. I had to leave them quite loose around the rear idler to get them to look right elsewhere. The instructions ignore a few parts on the sprues and on the etched fret. I finished it with Humbrol and Xtracolour enamels, applied a clearcoat of finish and then weathered with turpenoid and oils. I applied a top coat of Model Master flat lacquer and thats where it all went wrong. It was a damp day and the top coat dried white. I brush applied a lacquer thinner wash which unfogged it but left it needing a flat topcoat. I reapplied a flat topcoat which turned slightly white again. Bah! I airbrushed lacquer thinner on and hand touched a few areas up. That will have to do. All that said the kit has lots of fine detail and looks good. Despite being too long the tracks look great. I would happily build another Dragon tank.

This afternoon a lovely large box arrived on my doorstep containing the Grand Phoenix boxing of the Airfix Seafire! I've been watching ebay for this kit for the last 2 years but it has always been too $$$ or vendors would not ship outside USA. It is a very very nice kit, unless you wanted to use the horrifically warped FR.46 wings! The resin is fantastic. Brett Green's review notes that he didn't have the decals in his advance copy. The decal instruction sheet shows the same side profile for both versions of VP492, even though the plan view shows only one had the invasion stripes. Has anyone determined the accuracy of these markings? Now to decide whether I use the awesome decals, references will decide. Now am I right that rockets would not be installed when the wings were folded? Note the FR.47 had hydraulic wingfold. Seafires are (I believe) one of the forgotten piston fighters. Any suggestions for decent references? I guess I better find the Aero Detail for the Griffon Spits to provide engine details. I would be a great pity to not expose this engine, it is so well cast (better than the Aires DB605 in my view). Richard

I've been mucking around with washes, not really having used them much for years. I've been using humbrol flat colours lately as that's the only enamels I can get locally (apart from Tamiya & Xtracolour). First test is a 1/24 car interior in black leather. I painted the seats and interior a dark gray with drybrushing in lighter shades to bring out the detail. I'd like a 100% black wash to further highlight the seats. The drybrushing is exaggerated compared to the real thing as it can only be seen through the thick plastic windows. I've used (old) Aeromaster thinners and normal mineral turps, both of which damaged the paint, even after 10 days cure. I have read about Turpenoid and it appears I can buy natural turpenoid locally so I'll try that next. I'd never heard of it before. The reason I have this in the tank section is because I have a 1/72 Dragon Tiger 1 all painted and drybrushed ready for a wash or two. After all of that I don't want to damage the Humbrol/Xtracolour enamel paint. Any reccomendations? Richard