Neil

Plenty of usefull pics in there, including a load of my cockpit pics taken at Coltishall. (Own trumpet-blowing time .... ).

Like this 'un? Should be off to the Tamiya shop on Monday, will see if they have anything like it.

The conversion is correct for making a T2 (not a T4 though, but it does not take much to make it into a T4). Thinking about it, it must be over 10 yrs since I did that conversion set? Doesn't time fly ....

Thanks again folks . Got a 1/48 Hasegawa Me 109 I may have a go at, very tempted to go out and buy another one of those 1/24 Tamiya cars though to be honest!

Good one Gary, coming along nicely . Couple of minor critiques (not slagging it off by the way!!) there is only one gun vent tube, behind the underfuselage cannon bulges, the 'blank' gun bay does not have one (it still has the cannon bulge though!). There are also two vents, one either side of the rear spine, on the upper fuselage just behind the heat exchanger inlet position. There are also two small intakes, one either side of the rear fuselage, above the 'Fire' access points just in front of the exhaust cans. I'll take my 'anorak' off now ....

I'm only joking I hope you realise !!

Looks good in that scheme, nice one. We have a forum member here who used to fly XX725.

Hmmm, I must build me one of those ....

Thought of another one (not a fault as such). Remove the recessed heat exchanger inlet piece, on top of the spine, and glue a piece of plasticard in it's place from underneath before fitting the lower rear fuselage. Saves trying to clean up an almost impossible to get at seam.

. Fortunately most of the points memtioned are easily put right. I can also recommend Ed Granthams intake hinge decals, if anybody fills the aux. intake doors. Saves trying to rescribe the hinges on them.

Dont worry, you have done nothing wrong. The panel lines etc do not line up on the upper and lower kit wing panel lines. You will have to do a bit of filling/sanding on that bit. They are all like that, Guv ....

Some issues have already been mentioned, off the top of my head also (1/48): Underfuselage cannon bulges and vents are missing (just in front of the main u/c doors). Four vent tubes on underside of rear fuselage, between ventral fins, missing. Underwing pylons wrong size and shape (got moulds somewhere for correct ones .... if I can find them again). Auxilliary side intake doors are moulded open (only open if engines are running). Small intakes/vents on upper rear fuselage surface and fuselage sides, just ahead of the exhaust cans, are missing. Instrument panel is not for the later GR3. Horizontal vent on right hand side of forward spine (near the tiny single blade aerial) is missing. Wheels dont look like Jag wheels. 'Kink' in tailplanes need sharpening, as do the trailing edges. Internal corners of intakes are very 'sharp', and right angled, they should have a radius to them. There are probably a few more things here and there, if I think of them I will get back to you. The list may seem longish, but most of the above can be sorted out fairly easily without too much of a problem.

Ta peeps. Credit where credit is due, I think what really makes it look the part are the decals; they really do fit quite nicely and snuggle down ok, and they are also very well printed, the one on top of the bonnet is particularly impressive when you see it close up.

If they are any use, I took these interior shots at Marham about a year ago. (I know bugger all about Lynx's, so it is probably the wrong variant. I would assume some bits and pieces would be the same though?).

And finally finished, I really do like that livery scheme now it's all together . "Beautiful plumage ...."

Ah, but it is a relaxing build, most ejoyable I have to say. What has really speeded things up is using those aerosol cans for all of the main 'block' colours, I could get used to spraying things that way!!

Could be tempted, depends how much free time I can find when it comes around.

Ta Karl, makes a nice change from building those dashed-fangled flying machines. All major sub assemblies are now finished and all decals are on. Had visions of the decals being a nightmare to put on, but was very surprised and pleased at how smoothly it all went, and they all line up with each other very accurately, well done Tamiya. There were a few areas that need the odd slit with a scalpel blade to get them to sit down snugly, but that was to be expected really. Before the decals were applied to the transparent window parts, I whipped on a coat of clear laquer first because decals never stick down properly to bare plastic, once they were all on I gave it another coat of laquer on top to seal them in (the body parts also had a few coats too for the same reason). The large intake gap area in the front of the bumper/spoiler has also been covered with a section of fine plastic mesh, which is supplied with the kit. All 'stickered' up ....

Was going to, but decided to throw in the suitcase at the last minute, bit of an impulse thing (men cannot help acting on Impulse .... ). Can always get another one . Most of the chassis bits and internals are all together, I really do like that semi-gloss rattle can black, so easy to use. Rubbed down the mould lines on all of the rubber tyres using a fairly rough grade wet 'n dry paper and plenty of water too to stop it 'picking up' as I smoothed them down. As I mentioned above, painting the engine bay was a waste of time because it cannot be seen once everything is together. You can probably make out the Mercedes three-pointed bonnet badge in the foreground, it must be the tiniest photo-etched fret that I have yet come across, being just one item! Anyway, three wheels on my wagon ....

Bit of progress on the current laid back holiday build, which is the 1/24 Tamiya Merc. CLK DTM in Original -Tiele livery. Not done any shopping for model paints etc as yet, so am mainly using aerosol cans for most of the colours at the mo. Hope to grab some Humbrol or Tamiya paint over the next few days. Body shell is assembled and a coat of aerosol grey primer has been applied. Glued a piece of scrap sprue to the inside of the roof as a hand hold, makes life much easier. The decal sheet, plenty on there to keep me busy .... Body shell and bonnet with a coat of aerosol gloss white, and front lower bumper/spoiler sprayed blue (the blue is actually in Gunze Mr Colour, not acrylic but from their laquer paint range, which I found by accident in a local hardware shop! Never used the laquer stuff before, but it is very good). Also sprayed the very forward part of the wings with a touch of blue; there are blue decals for these areas but the chances of the decals laying flat on the compound curves are about nil, so the blue is there to hide any gaps once the decals are layed on top and a few slits made in them to help them conform to the surface. The black on the front of the grill/bonnet area is for the same reason, no way on this earth that the black decals will lay flat on that area!! Window masks are also layed on the inside of the one piece clear section. Rear light lenses were masked and sprayed with 'clear' red. Interior bits and chassis parts sprayed up, mainly in semi-gloss black and silver, again using aerosols. Detail painting using the Gunze laquers again. To be honest I do not know why I bothered to paint and decal the engine components, they cannot be seen once the body shell is fitted; probably did them out of force of habit more than anything. Note the ultra high-tech use of attaching small bits to cocktail sticks, at least it makes holding them to paint a whole lot easier.

Didn't know there was a Motorsport build, is it on here? Really building it as a laid-back holiday build, so to be honest don't really want to get too wrapped in it, just an out of the box thing. Probably end up spraying it aerosol white now. Yup, pretty much all decals, be interesting to see if they all fit properly. Body has to sprayed white then put the grey decal 'internal body parts' on top. Blue front bumper section below the headlights has to be sprayed on, though the blue sections on the forward/side of the front wings are decals too (bet they dont fit the compound curves too briliantly!!). The exposed engine bit is also decal, and is very good, well printed.

Oooo .... I feel another Jag build coming up over the horizon sometime.

I hear what you are saying, but it is definately white. I did wonder if it was slightly metalic/pearlescent though because of the AS/TS Tamiya colours. Looking at pics today, it is a slightly 'off' white compared to the stickers/words on the rest of the car. I think they also ran those CLK's in silver, white, black, blue etc. Linky to a few pics of Dumbreck's CLK: http://www.dumbreck.co.uk/peter.htm I suppose in truth a pure white would not look too out of place, especially once all the bucket load of grey decals are put on it.

Okey-doke, thanks Richard. I will try and time it accordingly.

Ok, cheers Ian. It's Insignia White then and not a 'pure' White, looking at the name on the chart. I best get the correct colour then! (Or add a touch of grey to some normal White). Ta.