TeaWeasel

Yeah there's quite a gap there, I found it helpful to use the air intakes on top as a guide of sorts, make sure they're all even.

Thanks very much, I also picked up some Flory wash so looking forward to trying that out.

Rest of the camo was done with blu-tack sausages, overall really easy compared to the Lanc for some reason. Once that was done she was masked up for the black. Luckily the black border followed the panel lines for most of it which again made life easier. The only tricky bit was getting an even curve where the camo ends just in front of the tail. There's some nice variation in the black which is something of a happy accident.

Yeah the engines gave me quite a bit of grief. I found the mounting lugs had to be sanded a bit to get a good fit, the locating pins on the cylinder heads were pretty useless, it was mostly just trial and error. You've done a good job though, well done.

Very nice work. I used Milliput for the zimm on my King Tiger, I agree once you get the hang of it it's quite therapeutic.

Very nice little kit, surprising how well those old Tamiya sets have aged.

Nice work on the engines! Not sure if you're aware but the undercarriage does have to be glued into the lower wing before you join the halves. I almost cocked that up on my Mk3. If you're still not happy with the transparencies Italeri should be able to send out some replacements?

So the big surprise was a 1/35 Karl Gerat. I'm mainly hoping the techniques learned from these Tigers I can apply to that. With that in mind I had a look at weathering the running gear and tracks. This was something I wasn't particularly looking forward to as there's so much variation, so many techniques and so many things to go wrong. I picked up a few things at Hannants for this, and gave it a go on the Takom, which I preferred because I imagine the training ranges would just be dust and dirt roads, less intensive than in the field. So I used Ammo Light Soil applied rather heavily with an old brush, then I really flooded it with the thinners to blend it in. The tracks received a similar treatment. I then used Dry Steppe and splattered it on by scraping the brush and letting it fly in drops. Again that was blended in to add dust and a final layer of splats applied over the top. While that was drying I also applied the decals. The Takom instructions don't have any decals on this particular scheme, but I decided to use them anyway. Overall good quality, but would have been nice to have the same numbers but in white. I'm also wondering about adding the German cross to the turret as per the Tamiya Tiger. The Tamiya set does have a couple of spares but it might look a bit odd on its own. Thanks all, comments would be appreciated. Joe

Gorgeous orange finish, looks great 👍

Thanks very much guys. Lancaster masks from Top Notch arrived last week. I've used these before on my Dambuster, brilliant quality so I was hoping to use these on the Stirling with some mods to account for the larger wings. I've seen a couple of different camo layouts so just decided to use the masks as much as possible. Once they were applied I just used Tamiya XF-81 for RAF Green. Not sure why I used a different shade on the Lanc but oh well. All-in-all it's really not bad at all given the masks are for a different aircraft. I've left the masks on the fuselage and inner right wing, will need them to help blend the shapes into the fuselage. I do think however that the rest of the fuselage markings will have to be blu-tack sausages, the dimensions appear to really vary here. You'll also notice all 4 engines now have the right air-intakes. I spent a good few hours sculpting a replacement for engine 2 and was really happy with it until I found the original piece 😐 typical but to be expected. Was never able to get that ugly seam out of the fuselage. There's also a scuff just behind the canopy which I had to sand down, luckily the green will cover it. Thanks, Joe

Nope, it's not another Tiger but it is 1/35.

Apologies for the delay, but made a start on the bit I wasn't really looking forward to; the tracks. Well when I say tracks, I more mean the weathering and dirt that accumulates around the tracks and running gear. Since the Takom represents a training version, I figured it wouldn't be as dirty so decided to start with that one. Tracks were simply airbrushed NATO black then drybrushed with Ammo's Polished Metal, which came in a weathering set I got a while back. Overall they don't look too bad. They were a nightmare to attach together once I'd wrapped them around the gear but they really don't look too bad IMO. I picked up some various muds and shades at Hannants yesterday so will give them a go, I've seen other examples where they're applied mud all behind the gear but I doubt it'll be visible once the wheels are on. I also did a bit more chipping here and there, the grittiness on the wheels is a result which I may try to hide a bit with the various muds, etc. In the meantime I turn 30 next week so treated myself to something rather...big. Anyone want to take a guess? Cheers, Joe

Really good start and an interesting story, the fact that no-one was killed in the crash is nothing short of a miracle. To be honest when I started my Stirling I did pass over the Airfix one in favour of the Italeri, just wasn't a fan of the really really old toolings, but I'm rather impressed by some of the detail on that one, particularly the rivet detail in the wings. Great work, looking forward to more 👍

While various parts of the cockpit were drying I thought I'd move onto the wings. As expected you start with the undercarriage bay. Just four pieces, but the detail is surprisingly excellent with the individual rivets. The fit was even better. I think I'm still stuck in cynical-mode about Revell quality, this thing went together like a Tamiya set. Once the bay was dry it just slotted into the wing, wing halves together and then the nacelles just hook on. Again, excellent fit, that seam is the only sanding required and even that's not that bad, I think the camera's making it worse. Not sure what angle those air-scoops should be at so just left them half open. And that's it, very solid assembly and already beats the Italeri Stirling for practicality. In the cockpit I started attaching the seats and photoetch belts. I was also playing around with my phone trying to get some macro shots, might not be the best. Just need to finish the photoetch, add the nose extensions and then I can close her up. Thanks, Joe

Cheers guys 👍

Airfix gripe over, time to paint. I initially forgot which interior green I'd used for the Lanc and Stirling, after a quick bit of research I decided to settle with XF-71 Cockpit Green. While it sounds like the obvious choice I was hesitant at first, the initial shade looks very pastely, almost like a phlegm-green colour, which I imagined would be worse with the grey primer coat. Luckily enough though it came out darker than I thought and the result is a very nice overall shade. I didn't want to go too dark as less light would be reaching the cockpit than on the other bombers, so hoped to keep it a bit brighter to show off the interior. I then gave it a brief wash with Ammo's Dark Green enamels, sprayed the front half NATO Black and started applying the photoetch. Maybe it's a little grimer than I imagined but it might be ok once it's all closed up. One more query about the Eduard, the sprue holds a number of parts in bare metal, mainly those at the lower right. Should these be painted or are they intended to be bare metal? Cheers, Joe

Haha sorry about that, at least your English is better than my German.

I do have a general gripe with Airfix in that they seemed to have much more variety over the last 20 or so years than they do now. It seems they're slowly coming out of this trend with the new Gannet and Sea King kits, but for the last couple of years IMO it was just "here's another Spitfire with different decals" in an already saturated market, when their previous kits such as the 1/48 Lightnings and Sea Vixens are excellent kits, but OOP in a completely open market.

It's more the extra length of the Stirling, and the higher undercarriage; the nose raised up further tilts the rudder back further so it's effectively even longer. Thanks, really hoping Colin gets back to me soon on this one.

Thanks. They're definitely at the limit of what my cabinet can hold. The Stirling *just* fits, and I mean just. Luckily the Lanc and Halifax should fit fine.

Almost a year ago I received the Airfix Lanc for my birthday, and followed that up with the Italeri Stirling. Since then I've been on the lookout for a Halifax to complete the trio of RAF heavies. From what I've read the Revell copy is the best kit but the only ones I found online are going for scalper prices, around £80-90 for a kit which I assume was around £20 when released. However, I had a lucky find a couple of months ago: Found this on Facebook Marketplace for £15. Without wanting to generalise, I'm guessing the seller was getting rid of her boyfriend/husband's kits and didn't realise she had a real find here. Snapped it up in a heartbeat. I was thinking that there has to be a catch. Parts missing or broken, etc, but no it all appears to be there. The only damage was a bit of scuffing on the box you can see, and one of the props is broken which isn't an issue anyway. I also looked into getting the Eduard set, which was just as difficult. There were quite a few out there (mainly on the continent) but the shipping costs were monstrous; one seller in Greece had it for £10 but wanted £60 for shipping. Eventually I found one on a shop from Czechia for a much more reasonable price. It's only the cockpit dials, the set with the additional interior detail is much harder to find. Also planning to get the Freightdog upgrades as I understand this is a big issue with the kit. @Colin @ Freightdog Models I was planning on getting one of your sets at Telford in a couple of weeks but I won't be able to make it due to family issues, would you be able to set one aside for me? Please feel free to PM if you like. So while I wait on masks for the Stirling I cracked this open. Typical Revell side-opening box which is annoying but the quality is pretty unexpected. My last experience with Revell was a couple of decades ago and I had an impression of "bad quality, just cheap kits to get the kids into the hobby", but I'm pretty impressed with this one. Nice clean panel lines, good detail on the interior. Not perfect, but just as good as Airfix or Italeri. In fact given Airfix's current attitude of "take the old '60's toolings and rebox them", this is miles head of what they have to offer. Instructions are typical Revell though, with no indication on what parts need to be used for each variant. Nevertheless I started on the cockpit. Just a few parts fit neatly to make this box structure. Dials and rudder pedals have been sanded off for the Eduard upgrades. Any additional details I'm not too fussed about as little will be visible. I then gave it a dry-fit in the fuselage half. Again, very good fit. There's some stray Mr Surfacer that I need to clean up; quite a few ejector marks on the cockpit so a couple of blobs will hopefully fix that. Before anything's attached though I want to get the interior painted and add the photoetch. So altogether a good start. While it's not relevant now I'm very confused as the Halifax's marks and variants. This kit is a MkI/II/GRII. No idea what the main differences are, and a look over Wikipedia shows a lot more complex variants than the Mk I/II/III of the Stirlings. Any tips would be helpful. Thanks, any comments and feedback would be welcome. Joe

Exciting times, applying the first coats of paint I decided to go the same way with my Lanc build, so I started preshading the panel lines with plain black. The primer is just a grey rattle-can from Tamiya, which I've found to be a very effective primer. It's a good shade for preshading, levells itself very well and you get a surprising amount out of a small can. Followed up with a coat of Gunze Dark Earth. I may give it another quick coat, although I think the shading is more prominent in the photos. As I'm writing this I've noticed the fuselage seam is also still rather ugly despite my best efforts. I may just leave it, my sanding efforts were starting to remove the rivet detail, I think any more would just make it worse. With the camo, I'm thinking of using TopNotch's Lancaster set. I used these before and they're very good quality, and no-one makes a set for the Stirling, so the plan is to use these and extent them using tape to cover the larger wing area. Thanks, comments appreciated. Joe

Haha yeah it took me a while to find out. I also saw a couple of builds on here which had done the same.

Managed to fix the canopy issue. My main worries were ruining either the clear finish or the masking set, but found that Mr Paint Remover was perfect for the job. Last time I tried to clean a canopy I used Biostrip which just ruined it. This stuff however, absolutely brilliant. Despite the pic below, it's definitely green, not black. I don't think it exactly matches the cockpit shade but it's better than the grey that would have been visible. And I also finished the wing bomb bays. The doors were pretty fiddly to fit, having to file them down by a couple of mms but they're not bad. With that done, the lower half's now primed, and the undercoating can begin.

Thanks very much