Major Flannel

I respect your choice of tools. I really don't want this thread causing division: this world we inhabit has that in spades already. Let's change tack a little -- how would one best utilise a, say, a Tamiya acrylic paint on a, say, single 72nd scale Avro Vulcan wing, with a good sized chisel brush, assuming one Halford's Grey primed it aforehand? It needs to adhere reasonably well and can accept further acrylics over the top of it. Best wishes.

OT You reminded me. Vajjelo so-called 'filler/putty'. It has no bite either and is very cheap to buy, no guessing as to why. First and last time with that specific company.

The very acrylic product that peels away from the SAAB 91 I made last month, like it was an artist's watercolour paint. AK 'fluorescent' orange, 3rd gen. Great colour, no staying power. With respect, pointless. Waste of money. Hello Humbrol! (but I notice they're getting faddish too with weathering powders and such beguiling things). Hm.

Agreed. Some folk love their acrylic paints and I wish them well. I do not intend to malign either their favourite tools or them as creative modellers. Part of it, I am sure, are certain companies selling a fad where a 'greasy sausage fat acrylic number 99' weathering technique and the rest of it outshine the original model's appeal. I won't buy into that. Rather, AK, Jellyvo and you others please try make your paints more durable and consistently useable. And the Good Lord help those with just a few paintbrushes available.

Yes, Hataka Orange series(?) can easily be acquired from modelhobby.pl. The future does seem to be with acrylics, but they don't paint well. Incredible why they're so popular.

Yes. I like lacquers a lot but no range of colour to speak of. Tamiya's are quite good.

Oh, rattle cans such as Halford's or similar. All fail to get acrylics to do their alleged job; to wit, cover a surface wuthout falling off. Best wishes.

'Spangled Fritillary' should be x-rated, it's so heavily impregnated with rapture and the unbridled human spirit. Their Harold Budd collaboration was similar: 'The Ghost...' makes me blub like a baby; who knew that simply enunciating the letter 's' inside a song could make a grown man cry? Mods! Plastic WW1 pilots! They're exquisite, ideal for the Hansa and available.

Going to get going with this Sh-2 tonight, all things going well. I located and bought that incredible box of ww1 polyethylene pilots that can be modified here and for my Hansa Brandenburg; they are exquisitely done. N.b the fourth image, bottom row, N/A.

It may or may not be of interest but there's a nice build regarding the Zefir: https://www.modellversium.de/galerie/18-flugzeuge-zivil/10874-szd-19-zefir-2a-.html Once one gets into gliders I suspect the draw increases exponentially. Best wishes to you.

* not medical allergies. Spiritual allergies... Hello there. I have been slapping enamels, oils and lacquers at models for decades and its the only way I know. Through choice. Why? Imagine this scenario: The project is say, a 72nd scale Bell chopper. The colour call out suggests, say, AK acrylic neon orange. I murmer "sure" and detox the finished build with rubbing alcohol or soapy warm water. So far, so excellent. I apply said AK orange as asked over a white primer. I allow the acrylic 24 hours to dry. I watch angrily as I scrape off the acrylic just with a fingernail or by accidental touch only. The acrylic paint has no bite whatsoever into the plastic. I re-do the whole lot in enamels or lacquers. It bites. Happiness ensues. Acrylic paints are popular so it must be my fault. What am I doing so badly wrong? Thank you!

Yak 9 canopies always look vertically squashed in model form, but they were such in real life. Their brothers 1, 3 and 7 seemed to have more expansive greenhouses, all arriving from the beautiful I - 26 prototype, such as they were. Nice to see modern Yak renditions that do not have overscaled spinners, unlike those of ten years ago. Nicely done. She's a beauty.

Not the first time their music has bewitched the unwary. You know how chatty, soul-destroying and banal office work is, of course -we all do (did). So Victorialand is the one that provides the most beneficial medicine; I played this in an office once or twice on the quite good CD player and lo! a very quiet, subdued office. One lady seemed very tearful. That's the magic right there. 'Garlands' less so : D Anyway, surely the mods are donning their boxing gloves even now with a view to demanding we discuss plastic and wire instead of revelling in luxury. Top and bottom view of a 'typical' D.1. Another mount of Britmodeller's favourite Austria-Hungarian pilot: Erwin Funk, 65.68. Incidentally, the gun 'coffin' on the top wing must be borrowed from a Lloyd C.V as the one included looks like some strangled species of one legged turtle such as it came in the box.

Tiny Dynamine is music from another universe. As is Victorialand and Bluebell. Sheer hyperbole never does the band justice, it would seem. So, here's to Elisabeth, Robin, Simon and Will Heggie. And Feldwebel Erwin "Cherry Coloured" Funk. Best wishes.

But it has a fully realised Stalin figure included!... I recall Gabriel Stern writing in his usual droll satirical manner about him and baby Bleriot, also included. Your Nie. IV build was what got me ordering small stuff engines and embracing the early pioneer aircraft. I thank you for it. : )

Martian, pre-WW1 and WW1 subjects are a treat aren't they, in any scale? My favourite kit happens to be the somewhat foreshortened Amodel Nieuport IV, even with its flaws. I get to drool over its pioneer looks and heritage time and again. The Nie. II is superficially close (Anzani 2 cylinder) but no kit ever produced. Just look at her: French mechanic M. Lefevre tries to add his not inconsiderable weight so as to dispel rumours of tail-sitting. General Melchett was of Blackadder?, no connexion to that masterpiece of comedy at all. Best wishes.

Not seen worse in a long while and that's with Roden's W4 seaplane in mind (good grief) even if we note the EASTERN EXPRESS logo on the box... uh... Not Toko, then, I apologise for the shameful slur. Well spotted. Although it's cleaned up, even the sprues stil look like former target practice and we must include the shorted rudder to its woes. Never fear, cleaning up takes 1 hour of our lives now and again. Yes, the decals are pleasant with some recognisable personal machines among them. Nicely matt and thin. Incidentally, this was part of the recent Hannants' Eastern Express invasion with the whole catalogue of WW1 subjects for sale included plus the LaGG etc. I still won't be tempted by the Bleriot XI, whether Toko, Frog, Novo or EE but I bagged a Salamander. Who wouldn't? Best wishes to you. Edit: Where are our model Bleriots, Deperdussins and Antoinettes? Is it sensible to suggest we are hard done by, not having these pioneer aircraft available to savour? Choroszy do their best of course but plastic injected equivalents are very very thin on the ground. Even the Nie. 11 "Bebe' is invisible except via old stock. Remarkable!

I salute your exquisite taste, Stew. No Pink Orange and Red schemes for the Hansa, but squint tightly and its imagined quite clearly. That song was composed 36 years ago. Makes you wonder...

There's a Starstrutter waiting in the sky... Tacky wood decal but acceptable horseshoe print. This Hansa Brandenburg D. I was equipped with TWO types of horizontal empennage simultaneously. I paint engines real quick. That's the contents shorn of 45mm of flash on every major part, except the engine cover which won't be used, then. The flying surfaces have those typical scallops which were more 'fun' than anyone might deem possible. Be thankful you didn't have to do it. /grumble. As you can see there is a problem at the empennage, the rectangular elevator is the correct shape, the rounder far cooler-looking, a bit Albatros-ey, but needs fixing. It is a very simple, boxy, K.u.k aircraft envisaged well by... Eastern Expresses Toko's minions, flash not withstanding. TBC. Best wishes.

In tandem with my ...slowboat... Shavrov Sh-2 build here on BritModeller, this marvellous example of Flash engineering hiding a Hansa Brandenburg aircraft within must be revealed as precisely what happens when your moulds become "cream-crackered". EE certainly knew the problem well, evidently, as does Roden. I have, then, for your reading pleasure, started this thing without due praise and/or reward because the H-B D.I was an interesting plane in its own light and the kit is becoming rarer now, most probably because nobody but me wishes to spend all day cutting through whole acres of flash. Hannants has a few left at the time of posting, iirc. The aircraft: Our HB D.I wil be: from Flik 16D, Serial: 28.30 flown by one Erwin Funk, a brilliant name that anyone would give their left Schwarzlose to possess. Here's a profile: (The angled gun is a typical Flik 16D modification as well as the enlarged windscreen, allegedly). I like the simple cherry coloured band on 28.30 because it ties in rather absurdly with a song from my favouritest indie popsters and, well, it gives me a go at smothering raw ochre oil paints over feeble acrylic undercoats; always time well spent in the life of a modern day artisan with his (or her) moustaches, fan brush and paisley cravat. TBC with pics ... and Best Wishes to you.

Now I have just the image resources to forward a Rareplane Fulmar vac up the build chain. Thank you for giving it a leg up, so to speak. Your build looks superb. Best wishes.

The A5M was surely one of the sassiest looking Japanese rides in its day: another beautiful thing in the world of aviation for sure. Will you be going for that elusive golden-pearl-ivory overall colour? In this scale gloss ivory can look convincing. Anything larger, probably not. Best wishes.

Fascinating. I have two gliders waiting to go but they're Polish gliders, both in 72nd. SZD's 'Gil' and 'Zefir', I believe 2 of the 6 offered by PS models, the Gil being a single specific machine IRL. Both need just that little bit extra inside the fuselage so am really interested in your techniques. Well played.

RL interferes with the serious modelling habit this week and it can't be helped. But I found an image online that shows you the skii attachments (on L-737 no less). The tensioning is forward of the wheel tracks and ends just where that small bulbous 'fairing' exists beside the portside cockpit. No idea what it is, but I am sure some of you experts do. N.b., the cabane struts entering the cockpit itself. In one image above, the rear canopy fairing was placed in situ, but not going to use it. L-737 must be my guide. A bientot etc. Note there is no trim tab depicted, as is present on some Shavrovs.

Off to a start, you see a Pavla S-11 engine and Po-2 prop with some sort of resin fairing that came off the block quite poorly. The engine needs pushrods made and bayonet type exhausts so typical of it. The limo is going back in its box - no distractions, like the Nieuport 27 just out of shot. Oleg looks frightened, but onwards we must go. Some thin brass wire for pushrods from AK Interactive, those that offer their very good acrylics. Perhaps too hefty, we shall see presently.