johnd

There are two photographs of black and white undersides on Defiants in the Camouflage and Markings book, both from 1939. John

You make it sound very easy. How many coats does it usually take? Thanks, John.

Lovely Tempest. Tips on brush painting silver like that would be appreciated. John.

Well, you won't lose it. John.

Revell Aqua is good but has a limited colour range. My personal favourite is Hataka. It's available in two forms, optimised for brush or airbrush. I find both are fine for hand brushing. John.

Excellent. Looking forward to seeing how you tackle the rear fuselage issue. John.

Good modelling there, and a fine choice of paint! John.

Graham Boak has a fix for that: a vertical cut downwards along the 'nose ring' panel line just in front of the exhausts, glue that forward part to preserve the circular section, wedge the cowling behind it until it's wide enough, fill the gap and smooth. John.

I believe without chopping it about, it can only be a mk.ii. They tried to vary the length by supplying separate Cowlings, but the difference is actually in the fuselage. The fuselage supplied is one for a Mk.II. John.

Don't give up on the Freightdog set. When stuff is out of stock it disappears from the website. It's worth dropping them a line to see if they have plans to restock. John.

think you dodged a bullet there, Elvington and Whitby would be far more rewarding. Hope the back sorts itself out tout suite... John.

Correct. Probably your best bet would be to use the Alley Cat metal wing on the fuselage from the Airfix rag wing kit. There's an example of a build here. John.

To my mind, capturing the basic shape, the "look and feel", is more important than the detail. It's not that the detail on other people's models isn't appreciated, it's just that it's of secondary importance to my eye. In other words, I'd rather an old Airfix Mk.I Spitfire over a Tamiya one because the former looks like a Spitfire and the latter falls short, even though it has lovely detail. John.

Thanks for all the replies on this, it's been a great read and I now have a list. Regarding the rumtopf, spouse has a pot for it but bought cheap, weak rum and as she's always reluctant to add the full amount of sugar to anything, the results weren't healthy. John.

Really? Where did that information come from, please? John.