IvanP

Here are some pictures of my Tamiya Spitfire Mk XVI in 32nd scale. I've made the big mistake of using the Aires cockpit in this build, which just complicated things unnecessarily, as the improvement in detail is marginal. As a result, the model was put aside and sat in the "shelf of the doom" for about a year, until I've decided to continue building it. The kit's engine lacks many details, so since I was planning to keep the nose side panels removable, I've basically scratchbuilt all the cables and tubes that were missing forward from the firewall. A lot of time was sp

Hi, Andy. I’ve used Alclad Transparent Green applied with an airbrush directly from the bottle. It was the first time I’ve used it and, to be honest, it turned out a bit darker than I wanted to. I’m building a kit right now where I had to tint all transparencies. I’ve used the same product, but this time diluting it on a 1:3 ratio with Mr Color Levelling Thinner. After trying several ratios, including very high ones, this gave me the best result. Two or three passes with the airbrush, adjusted for low pressure, is enough to tint the transparency uniformly. The transperencies were dipped in Fut

Hi. I've used Microscale Liquid Film Decal, applied directly from the bottle with a flat brush. One layer of it was enough to protect the decals. Cheers, Ivan

I'm sorry, Werner, but I'm not familiar with the Revell kit. What I can say though about the Kitty Hawk Huey is that the kit builds without any major problems, except for the main rotor and the interior, which are a bit tricky to assemble. Cheers, Ivan

Many thanks for all your comments! They are really appreciated! Cheers, Ivan

Looks perfect to me! Congrats! Ivan

This is the 48th scale Kitty Hawk Huey, built as one of the SAR aircraft operated by the Brazilian Air Force in the 60's and 70's. The decals, except for the national insignias, were made in Corel Draw and printed using inkjet and laser printers. Masks for the transparencies were also made in Corel Draw and cut on a kabuki sheet using my trusty Silhouette Portrait. Model was painted with Alclad enamels. Cheers, Ivan

Fantastic build! Congrats! Ivan

This is the Airfix kit built out-of-the-box, except for some scratchbuilding to make the seat appropriate for the P-40s flown by the AVG (i.e. same as the British version) and the canopy rails. Painted with Gunze enamels, using camouflage masks made from frisket film, to replicate the hard edges between the topside colors. Decals came from an old Aeromaster sheet on the AVG. I had some fun fitting the sharmouth to the Airfix kit, as I believe the decals were designed to fit the Monogram or maybe the Hobbycraft kits. But it worked in the end. Cheers, Ivan

Hi Bill, Just to give you more details. At that time, I was flying gliders and our soaring club shared the same runway with Embraer, which was just opposite to us. The engine checks of the Tucano prototype were done in an area just beside where our gliders were parked. In one of those weekends that we were flying, there was a rumour that the Tucano was going to make some taxi runs and that we would have to stop flying while that was taking place. And that's exactly what happened. However, for everybody's surprise, they made a high speed taxi and left the ground, doing one or two c

Excellent build! I've particularly liked the squiggles on the camouflage. You need a really steady hand to get that result. Well done! Cheers, Ivan

Excellent build! I saw the first flight of the Tucano prototype back in the 80's. Congrats! Ivan

Thanks. I’ve watched this clip many many times during my build, to pick as many details as possible. Unfortunately, there’s no view in it of the starboard side of FB382. By the way, I think that the Mustang at 57 sec is another one (PK-C maybe?), as it lacks the number of missions on the nose, has a partial sky band on the fuselage and no serial number. But all those PK Mustangs look very similar, so based on pictures of them I’ve made an educated guess of what the camouflage of FB382 could be. Cheers, Ivan

Many thanks for all your comments. They are really appreciated! Regarding the invasion stripes: I first masked and painted them with Hataka enamels using an airbrush. Then retouched the edges with a paint brush, using slightly dilluted Hataka acrylics (blue line). It’s possible to notice on the few pictures available of thal plane that the white stripes closer to the wing roots and on the horizontal stabs had hard edges, probably because they were already in place by the time the D-day invasion stripes were painted. So, I’ve tried to replicate that. Next time, I w

Excellent build! Very inspiring! I'm working on the kit at present. Cheers, Ivan