antonowski

So during lunch today I've managed to get some of the painting done. I first gave the whole model a coat of AK Interactive's "Xtreme Metal" Aluminium. I was pondering whether to give the model a coat of primer then gloss varnish first but to be honest this paint is top notch, and will only really be visible through the damaged/worn areas of the plane. So, no primer and a couple of coats. The paint sticks really well to the plastic - I just made sure I gave the model a wipe down with airbrush cleaner last night and left it at least 12 hours for everything to evaporate. After this had dried I applied a generous coat of AK's "Worn Effects" chipping medium and let that dry. I then used Vallejo's Model Air "Hellblau" for the underside of the plane. It looks quite saturated in the image but is much more subtle IRL under normal lighting. I do remember seeing the JU87b at Hendon museum when I was a wee laddy about 30 years ago, and distinctly remember how blue the underside of that and the Heinkel HE111 was. I'm sure with a gloss varnish it will saturate even more but for now it's looking quite good. That's it for this update folks, I'll likely be tackling the top side of the plane tomorrow and masking for the splinter camo - as well as painting/masking for the engine cowling parts. Cheers, Ant

So not a huge amount done to be since the last update, though all of the little greebles underneath the wings have been attached as well as the bombs. Got the propeller built, painted and attached to the engine, next steps will be priming the whole plane and getting some paint on the underside of the fuselage and wings. Cheers, Ant

Hi everyone, I've managed to make a bit of progress with the Stuka, but wanted to show some of the weathering I've applied to it prior to painting. It's managed to cause a few....discussions.....on Facebook but to be honest all I was after with this technique was something cool to break up the model surfaces a bit. I'll be taking some of the advice like thinning the plastic underneath worn areas to make it look like shet metal etc. To be honest though, it's all a bit of fun isn't it! Anyway, here's some images of what I've got up to: Hopefully I'll be able to get the rest of the little fiddly bits attached so I can start getting some paint down this weekend. Cheers, Ant

Cheers for that! I've just looked through your thread and it looks like I've got a fair bit of work ahead of me! Going to be a bit different to the Tamiya MKVb I've just completed I'm sure

Hi all, So as mentioned in my Stuka WIP thread, I've got a few aircraft on the go at the moment. I've decided to build this Spit alongside the Stuka as I'll be creating dioramas for both of them and figured I could jump between the 2. I've not started building the MK.IX yet but I have taken a couple of unboxing photos of sprues and whatnot this time around so everyone can get an idea of what you get for your £13. I can say that so far I'm very impressed with what ICM are offering. The RAF pilots and groundcrew on their own cost around £8-9 so for an extra couple of quid you get a Spitfire thrown in....bargain! This is my first ICM build so I'm not sure on the quality of fit etc, but I will be displaying it as if it's being serviced (much like the Stuka), so some fitment issues around the engine cowling that might have been a problem I shouldn't experience. Anyway, on with the pictures! So here's the box art for the Spit. Looks very cool and period-like in how it's drawn. On opening the box you're presented with all the usual stuff: Instructions, decals, then the impressive amount of sprues. No space wasted in this package! (Listen up Tamiya and Airfix!) Here's all of the sprues that come with this package. Looks like lots of options and potential! Details wise, it appears that it's kind of comparable with Tamiya's Spitfire offerings, but obviously the quality and consistency of these probably varies more than Tamiya where QC is concerned given the price. Doesn't appear to be too much flash, and the plastic - whilst a little softer than Airfix or Tamiya - doesn't appear to be brittle or warped in any way. I guess time will tell once the build gets underway. I'll also be using the Eduard MKVb interior photoetch set for this (I know, inaccuracies, sue me!) Hope to get some pictures of the initial build stages up soon....stay tuned! Cheers, Ant

Thanks Houston! Appreciate the kind words. I've managed to get a little painting done on the engine during lunch today, so here's where I'm currently at: The fuselage has been glued together and attached to the wings. The fitment around the root isn't impressively good, but it's good enough to work with. This is going to be a very distressed Stuka example so I don't mind if it's a little rough around the edges. And here's where I'm up to with the engine so far: Going to start sanding and filling the main body of the Stuka tonight and finish attaching the photo etch parts. Cheers, Ant

Hi all, Got a few aircraft on the go at the minute, but thought I'd share my progress on the Stuka as I'm pretty much at the start with this one. Always wanted to build a Stuka so thought the BoB edition from Italeri was a relatively inexpensive way into the 1:48 category. The kit itself looks like it has some decent details, and there's even a little photo etch kit in the box that provides some extra detailing on the wings and within the cockpit. Nice! First step (not sure if it's the first in the instructions) was to build the engine. I'm going to be displaying the engine as the aircraft is serviced, and luckily I've found reference where all of the engine cowling is removed...so that should quell any ill fitting panel issues that I may have found later down the line. I may however have to add some scratch built detail around the engine as the kit does seem to be lacking in some details. Reference: So here's the built engine: The piping that comes with the kit is a nice touch, though the steps in the assembly aren't amazingly clear as to where they go until most of the building is complete....making it quite fiddly to attach. Luckily it's pretty easy to see where they will eventually attach, so I did this before the steps got to that point. I also completed the cockpit assembly and married the upper wings to the lower, and included the photo etch parts. I have to say that I do prefer the look of the aftermarket photo etch parts that you can buy for the 1/8 Stuka, but as these were included in the kit I used these (works out cheaper as well for a first Stuka build!) I also attempted to fit the 2 fuselage halves together after painting the cockpit. This is where the instructions aren't very clear. There are 2 "channels" where it looks as though the tabs for the instrument panel sit. However, it appears that this means the panel hood sits in the fuselage and so the halves will not close. I had to ask others how this actually works and it turns out the instrument panel hood sits above the walls of the cockpit itself. I fixed this and now the fuselage is connected it's a pretty good fit. There is a section that fits over the rear of the cockpit that is a reaaaaaaally bad fit, I'm not sure if that's due to the same moulding being used for multiple variants and this was just overlooked but I'll get a pic for the next update. As this is a build thread and not a review, I may pick another of these kits up after I've completed it just to go through all of the inbox stuff in detail. Next is getting the fuselage and wings attached, I've heard some issues with gaps at the wing root but hopefully nothing that can't be fixed! Cheers, Ant

Lovely build. The Lancaster, along with the HE-111 are still very much on my model bucket list.

WOW, that is one seriously nice page for ref. Those photos are incredible. Thanks for sharing, I've still got an F variant in the stash so I'll be sure to put those pictures to good use.

That's really interesting, I never knew that! Do you happen to have any good reference of that at all? I've not been able to find a good enough picture online of the top of the fuselage.

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I'll absolutely take on board (no pun intended) what you mentioned about the matte tyres @jean, it's definitely something I must have overlooked so I'll make sure that gets corrected. Also the point about the prestige of the pilot flying the plane; you're absolutely correct. In all honesty, having just gotten into the hobby properly I'm eager to try out some weathering/painting/modelling techniques so this was a nice test bed for some of those. Having said that, this is still planned to be part of a nice little diorama so I expect I'll revisit some aspects of the model to even things out once the dio is assembled. Just waiting on another Tamiya kit to arrive before I start work on that, alongside the 2 other projects I have going on at the moment! >_< Thanks again chaps, appreciate the replies! Ant

Hi all, For my first post I'd like to share my recently built Messerschmitt BF109e in 1/48 scale. Being my 2nd WW2 fighter (I've also recently built a 1/72 Spitfire Mk1a), I've still got a fair amount to learn about the process. Had a lot of fun building this however, and I am in the process of creating a diorama to surround it so some details are still absent such as the rigging and red markings behind the wings and horizontal stabilisers. Comments always welcome. Hope you enjoy the pictures! Cheers, Ant