81-er

Another great result John, and they make a nice group with the AT-RT too. Speaking of speeders, have you seen the speeders used by the Nikto gang in The Book of Boba Fett yet? I rather like the "Easy Rider" custom style of them James

I think RLM 24 is a far closer match James

Thanks Pete. I'm not sure if "brave" is the right term, maybe "foolhardy" or "certifiable" would be more appropriate? I still need to decide on a paint job, however I have a bottle of Tamiya X-15 light green that I've been dying to try out on something... It's certainly proving to be an "interesting" build. I believe @Navy Bird is well versed in building models that are more filler than styrene as well judging by his Privateer build (which was well worth your heroic efforts Bill). James

That base was well worth the effort, a very good result. James

Nice to see your terrain experiments there, bases are something I've not attempted before James

Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? With the Hellcat stalled while I waited for a suitable window to get it painted, it was Dora’s turn to shine again. Strap in, it’s a long one (or TL/DR – a lot’s been going on). Coming back to this build after so long has meant reassessing a few things, the biggest of which being the use of the aftermarket bits. I could do the work to remove the moulded in rear of the cockpit and replace it with the Pavla vac canopy and the Eduard PE on a plasticard base, but if I’m being honest the Pavla cockpit requires a serious amount of work to be paint-worthy and given how little is likely to be seen anyway, I just don’t think it’s worth the bother. This is a basically a bad dad joke in styrene, not a potential show winner after all. I’m also trying to clear some of the “in progress” builds before this year’s group builds kick off in order to retain domestic harmony. I’ve grouped the photos together by area, otherwise there’d be an awful lot of jumping around. Picking back off where we left, the floats. These have now had all the sink marks and seams dealt with, and should be good for some primer once I’ve worked out the alterations for attaching them: Moving on to the cockpit, the pilot’s “ledge” had a couple of ejector marks and flash, so that was cleaned up and given a few coats of interior green with a hairy stick. Yes, I know it would have been RLM 66 in reality, but this is a whiff of a restored machine. I also slapped some matt black on a wedge of plasticard I’ve cut to cover over the seam on what laughable passes as the IP: I’ve also whacked some interior green on the fuselage interior as well. Like the seat, it’s a little patchy, but as I’ve now got an airbrush I’ll see if I can even that up a bit at some point: Moving outside the fuselage, I’ve stuck the end of the air intake on. As is becoming the norm with this kit, there were some fitment issues and much filler was required: I did take the time to drill out the opening, which will get some black paint before close-up: I’ve also done a fit check of the nose gun cowling, which as this photo shows will just click into place without the need for glue or filler: One very much for another day! Wings next. As mentioned at the start of the project, there was some pretty serious flash on the wingtip & pitot, or so I thought. In reality there was flash around the pitot and the issue on the wingtip was actually the lower wing being longer than the upper section: The pitot was removed, and I’ve drilled a hole to take a brass replacement later. I’ve done the same with the wing root cannon and the nose guns. Might as well have them for show, peacetime bird or not. The wingtip was reshaped with a quick bit of sanding action. Gluing the upper and lower wings together it became pretty clear that I was going to be dealing with panel trenches rather than panel lines. Things weren’t much better when I dropped the retracted gear in: My thought is to have the landing gear completely plated over and smooth, somewhat like the treatment seen on the front of Mustang wings. Many rounds of filler (using both PPP & liquid green stuff) and the wings currently sit here: I think they’ll need another round or two over the gear locations, plus some rescribing of the control surface hinges. I’m tempted to try sanding off the oval access panels and rescribing them as well, purely as a test of the new Hasegawa template set I’ve got. The front edges had some pretty bad joints as well, which have now been taken care of: The prop/spinner have similarly required many rounds of filling & sanding, with the odd bit of primer thrown in to check on the progress. I think I’ve finally got it dealt with now, but another coat of primer will confirm or deny that: The final bit for now is the drop tank, which I figured would be used for journey’s around the wilderness. Again, absolutely stellar fit on this one, though the filler has come to my rescue again (I swear I need to buy shares in filler makers): For anyone still here and still awake, well done! Until next time James

As alluded to in my last post, progress has been slower than I hoped, mainly down to limited painting opportunities. However, between Xmas and new year I did manage to get the primer on: When I started this project, I had no airbrush, and the plan was to use Tamiya rattle cans to tackle the paintwork. A couple of posts back you’ll see I struck lucky and bagged one for a bargain price. Santa very kindly brought me a compressor to go with it, so last night was my first time to give it all a try. While I had one of those Humbrol mini spray guns as a teenager, it’s got to be over 20 years since I last sprayed a model with anything other than a can and I’ve never used a double action one before. And this is primarily red all over. Nothing could possibly go wrong here… As ominous as that last part sounds, the reality wasn’t that bad. Not perfect, but I’d say a pretty respectable result: Photographing under artificial light really hosed the red balance, so here’s a daylight picture on the window cill for a better representation of the colour: I’ve used Tamiya XF-7 red for this even though the actual plane was finished in gloss from the photos I’ve been able to find, easily fixed with a gloss coat before the decals. Plus I don’t have any gloss red in stock (yet). A few more pictures to show the overall coverage, which so far is the underside and as much of the flanks as I could sensibly cover with the airframe upside down. There’s some nasty bits on the starboard side, but I’ll fixe those before I paint the top surface: Some more shots of the smaller bits & bobs. I’ve painted two canopies as I struggled to get the “closed” canopy on prior to priming, so I’ve done both and will make a call on open or closed at final assembly: There’s some paint runs on the cowl that I need to sort: Finally, a close up of the smaller gear doors, pitot, radio mast, and finally the wheels (which got a coat of Tamiya XF-85 rubber black): I think I’m most happy with the wheels of all of this, probably because black is much easier to work with than red! Until next time James

Hi Col, I have indeed, I've just not posted an update. Life and the weather meant I didn't make the end of the year deadline I was hoping for, but it's currently all in white primer. With any luck I might be able to start getting some colour on it tonight. Lack of opportunity to paint this has meant that the Fw-190 on floats has seen a lot of attention, so that one's due an update as well. James

Nice progress John James

Pulling up a pew for this one as well John, looking forward to seeing these go together James

Thanks Col

Leading on from you comment on prototypes being allowed, what's your stance on ground attack planes that didn't get off the drawing board? After a slight Xmas slip* I've got two more of these winging their way to me to add to the one I already had in the stash. Just in case the Hercules doesn't eat up all the GB time I'd wondered if one of them might be eligable? https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-04335-blohm-and-voss-p194--155934 James *Slip as in I slipped out of the room so the mrs didn't see me hitting the "buy it now" button

Missed the build of this, but that's a nice result. I liked the way you painted the figure. I've got a fair few wargaming friends who rave about the Citadel contrast paints. Not tried them myself (yet, though I want to), but they give you the base colour, shade, and highlight all in one go https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling?N=3815391097+3891072176&Nr=AND(sku.siteId%3AGB_gw%2Cproduct.locale%3Aen_GB_gw)&Nrs=collection()%2Frecord[product.startDate+<%3D+1641298260000+and+product.endDate+>%3D+1641298260000] James

Fantastic end result Bill, especially given what you started with. Hat well and truly doff'd in your direction James

Echoing what everyone else is saying, that weathering is absolutely beautiful James