mrodent

Thanks. Ointment. Fly. No surprise there then.

Not sure whether this is the right place for this question. I was on ScaleModels just seeing what the going price of the Tamiya 1/32 Mosquito (Mk VI) might be. Turns out to be £220 or so in the UK. But then I saw that it was much much cheaper in Japan, £115 (in Yen). I also looked at the HK Models 1/32 Lancaster: again, well over £100 cheaper and no indicators of shipping costs. So I went to this site, hlj.com, and did the whole buying process, getting to the point of being able to click "Buy"... the price does not mention anything about shipping costs. I did a jpg of this final page (with spoof CC details) but can't work out how to include this here... (later: OK online photo account ... don't have one currently...) Anyone have any experience of trying to do this?

Here's my experience so far as a newb (well, made 00s of models 40 years ago, like many). I was told you should always paint multiple layers... and thin, I also do not (yet) have an airbrush. So this is about HAND BRUSHING. I had a quite frustrating experience initially. This was using Colourcoats enamels, which are generally reckoned quite highly by the veterans here. I found that even after allowing the first thinned layer to dry for over a day, applying a second thinned layer starts dissolving the existing paint. This can then even lead to "patches" falling off, and a really horrible effect. If the paint is too thin it can also form "drops", i.e. slightly proud of the surface, which won't then dry out to produce a nice even effect, unfortunately. I researched a bit about primers, wondering whether painting directly on to the plastic might be part of the problem. But the consensus out there seems to be that primer is not really the answer for enamels: it should be perfectly OK to paint directly on to the plastic. I think Bigglesof266 above is right: you have to thin enamels very very sparingly, particularly when it comes to applying the second, third, fourth etc. layers on top of what you've already got. Elsewhere I saw suggestions to use just a tiny amount of thinner to help the paint to flow a bit more. With a high-quality enamel like Colourcoats I'm not even totally convinced this is necessary. But using a good quality brush, wide and soft, with very thin hairs, also seems important (i.e. to prevent brushstrokes showing).

I think the growling of the Merlins could be achieved by the modeller himself... after a few pints of strong cider, and then use the cider glass to achieve all that throaty loveliness. Can we have a recording please? I also hope that the engines will be upgraded one day so that the model not only taxis to the end of the runway... but also takes off (and then lands without damaging the kit of course).

Thanks very much for the offer. I'm not too sure how interested I am in the Hunter. Also I'm quite a low-level modeller: vacform is probably a little out of my league (although I'd have tried tackling it for the sake of that Lightning)...

"Echelon Vacuforms" ... Lightning "reboxed and re-released" ("full kit") in 2022?? (according to that Scalemates page). Is this some glitch? I googled "Echelon Vacuforms" and nothing came up which suggested a revival/re-issue of these kits. Also, all we see here is 2 aircraft: the Lightning and the Hunter. Did Echelon only produce 2 kits? The whole thing is quite mysterious.

I saw this for sale yesterday. It sold for £145! When I saw it was for sale I found this thread: Apparently the man behind Echelon was someone called Frank Brown. The poster there, Gunpowder 17, in his first post, talks about actually seeing, when a teenager (so maybe a few years ago?), what he thought was the "master for the kit". Anyone know whether Frank Brown is living? I tried searching but found nothing. There is no entry at all for Echelon kits in Wikipedia! Maybe that lacuna could/should be redressed by someone here? Whether he is still with us or not, what might happen to either the moulds or the master for such a creation? In the eventuality that either or both are available, I have no idea how practical it might be to produce a run of vacform sheets, but I'm just interested in this question of what happens to "old moulds".

Thanks for this. I couldn't see anything saying 30 ml, but obviously that changes everything. I'll edit my post accordingly.

Hi Trevor, I saw these photos when you put them up. Beautiful. You say you are making a 1/32 Mossie like me, so could you tell me where this thread of yours is? What colour scheme are you using on the outside of the plane? The colour scheme for the 1942 squadron concerned was apparently Ocean Grey (underneath), Medium Sea Grey and Dark Green (top). If you're using the same scheme, how are you achieving those three colours? I'm a bit confused on the subject of acrylics: enamels is what I always used half a century ago, and I've already ordered about 15 Humbrol 14 ml tins. Others have reported finding that acrylics don't adhere properly to plastic, etc.

Points taken, thanks. This Colourcoats Ocean Grey colour is the one thing blocking things now... how much better are the Colourcoats than the humble Humbrols? I'm tempted just to get cracking with the HU106. AAAh... gowaan. Maybe I'll hold off till Monday and give em a buzz. Nobody will despatch till then. By the way, Colourcoats includes vast numbers of greens, including (satin) Interior Grey-Green (RAF). Any views on this? (vs HU116)

Ah, in fact Sovereign Colourcoats Ocean Grey is out of stock. Can someone suggest a Humbrol (or other) colour for that?

Thanks. Your Day Fighter Scheme fits the Revell indications nicely. 1001 Hobbies have that HU116. But the other 2 are out of stock. It seems rare to find one shop with everything! HU090 is described as "Beige Green" in 1001 Hobbies. But as I say, it does look kind of greenish in that chart. However, Sovereign Colourcoats have come up trumps: with all 3 outside colours. Hurrah. As a general thing, where do you go to get information like this? Or is it the outcome of years of interest?

Actually I'm not a newb: I made hundreds of ww2 aircraft models half a century ago, blissfully unaware that the Humbrol colours I bought in their dozens may not have been totally spot on. So some time ago I bought a Revell 1/32 Mosquito and then I bought some paints based on the vague indications in the back. Colour "H", cockpit green, is meant to be an equal mix of 3 Revell colours, matt yellow + matt sea green + matt stone grey! Ludicrous. Humbrol HU078 seems good enough. Anxiety over paints meant that I shelved the project. Now I'm tackling it again, and one of the most useful things I've found from reading posts here and elsewhere seems to be British Aviation Colours of WW2 (downloaded the PDF). For the record, my target colour and markings scheme, as illustrated (not in colour!) in the Revell instructions, is a MkIV day operations in 1942, 105 Squadron, Marham. - on the last page of the British Aviation Colours PDF we see the chart of colours - on PDF p. 3 we see that 1942-43 is "pp 20-30" - PDF p. 24: under 3. Camouflage: "The temperate land scheme consists of dark green and dark earth" "The temperate sea scheme consists of dark slate grey and extra dark sea grey" --> NB it appears this scheme applies only to "Aircraft employed on air/sea rescue duties" (PDF p. 26) and various larger bombers (PDF p. 27). I presume the Mossie counts as a bomber for RAF WW2 purposes: - PDF p. 26: Day bombers at home: Upper surface: "Temperate land scheme"; Under surface: "Sky". (FWIW the Revell scheme wants me to use colours "Dark Green" and "Greyish Blue" upper surface, with underside "Medium Grey") (NB the ideal thing would be if someone has done a RAL classification of the colours on the last page here... is this the case? If so, then if Humbrol or Sovereign Colourcoats or whoever has done a RAL classification of their own colours that would be an excellent way out of the maze...) Assuming there is no such source of precision RAL-RAL matching, the next best thing would be if there is a source for the matching the colours on the last page of the British Aviation Colours PDF, e.g. with Humbrol, Tamiya, Hannants, Colourcoats or anyone's enamel paints. There are actually only 29 colours there. Strangely the "Sky" colour there looks suspiciously greeny-grey. Hmm. Or failing that, can someone give me the best Humbrol matt refs for "matt dark green" (HU30?), "matt dark earth" and "matt sky"? Thanks.

Thanks again, both. Whew, this is already becoming quite involved. Right, I think I've identified the interior Xtracolor (X010) ... slightly cheaper than Humbrol, which is nice. But, at hannants.co.uk P&P £6. Min. spend £7.98. Ah. Hmm. And also the Colourcoats: Colourcoats ACRN28 - RAF Interior Grey-Green... no doubt spends are similar at sovereignhobbies. So for this present model I think I shall revert to mixing colours, by eye (this concept is probably sacrilege here), and matt varnishing (details and big areas) and for the moment stick with the 10 or so Humbrols I've already got ... with a view to switching to another brand when I've identified a need to get quite a few things from one of these places (though Giorgio seems OK with Humbrol). Ha. Opinions. But it appears the next step search is to search on matt varnishes. Unless I can get this Humbrol 49 to work, for details at least. Winsor and Newton Galleria seems popular.

Thanks! That's really informative. But also sad: Humbrol not what they were? What is the world coming to? You say that 90% of these colours can be found here... so... where do I go looking for them? I just had a check to see if I could find anywhere and found this part of the forum (WWII aircraft) - and some of the questions do seem indeed to be about specific colours. But for something like the Mosquito is there a more specific part of this site where I can find the colours ... or do I just have to ask (and look at photos)? Also you don't say anything about trying to turn a gloss into a matt ... I assume that implies that I should just use a matt paint where a matt paint is needed and forget about matt sprays or varnishes.