[1/24 bf109e-4 Airfix (11/24 Markings started)]

What a way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Made a one part mold of the rubber main wheels. Something in the rubber that Airfix uses inhibits the setting of the Pinkysil mold material I use. This leaves the tyre detail soft and mushy. I'll add some mud and grass to the wheel edges and you shouldn't be able to tell.

I dearly wish some body would come out with replacements for those stupid rubber tyres that Airfix uses .

Dan

[1/24 bf109e-4 Airfix (11/24 Markings started)]

Progress;

I wanted to have canvas covers for the wheel wells as Airfix left them as big gaping holes with no detail at all. Used hardware store two part epoxy putty to block out the shape and then some bits and bobs to fake a bit of detail. Better than a big old hole I hope .

Airfix did a credible job on the shapes for this kit. It's a nice starting point to add details to. Engrave a bit here, add a bit of styrene for some missing bolt details there and before you know it the whole thing just pops. It's going to be great fun to detail paint!

Ian-- Thanks for your support. The rivet detail was pressed in with a beading tool I bought on the internet.

I just followed the raised pattern on the kit and then lightly sanded the area. I did have to go back in and reinstate some of the rivets that the sanding partially removed but it wasn't too much work. The beading tool set I got has a range of tips that allow a wide range of different sized rivets to be produced. The number 10 tip matched the Airfix raised rivets perfectly. A bit boring to do but I took breaks every half and hour or so and didn't find the task too taxing. Very much improves the look of the kit as the pictures of the real thing so a very smooth surface finish. I think the German workers early in the war put a lot of effort in getting the finish nice and smooth. IHTH.

Thanks to everyone for stopping in for a look.

Dan

[1/24 bf109e-4 Airfix (11/24 Markings started)]

Progress;

I have wrestled the fuselage together, much clamping and glueing.

Belly finished off with cowl vents and more little bits.

Rudder got some cables.

Started to tart up the prop and landing gear.

I'm riveting the wings right now and beginning work on boxing in the gear wells. I want to do canvas wheel well liners.

I hope you like the pictures.

Thanks for stopping in for a look.

Dan

[1/24 bf109e-4 Airfix (11/24 Markings started)]

Ben-- Yeah I just wanted something a bit more deailed. I used a Trumpeter 1mm micro chisel to cut in a slot and filled it with a bit of 1mm wide strip with a bit of detail pressed in. a tiny bit of 0.5mm rod finished off the deception. I think it will look okay under some paint and pop a bit once I wash it with some oil paint.

Modelfan-- Thanks!

Andy-- That cowl took a few hours of scraping and sanding and checking to get to fit halfway decent. I took a fair bit off both sides of the bulkhead that the cowl guns sit on and thinned down the cowl at the mating edges. I have riveted the whole fuselage with a beading tool and lightly sanded the lot to get rid of a wavy texture. No doubt I'll need to do some more tweeking once I glue the whole assemble together.

Dan

[1/24 bf109e-4 Airfix (11/24 Markings started)]

A little progress;

Messed about a fair bit doing the little teardrop blisters for the belly. They are too big but will have to do.

Started working on the tail planes, lots of flash needed sanding down.

Going to put in Radu's seatbelt set tonight and that usually takes a couple of hours so that's it for the weekend.

Thanks for looking in.

Dan

[1/24 bf109e-4 Airfix (11/24 Markings started)]

Just doodling about with this great old kit. Making some progress;

Cockpit

Started to work on some surface details on the fuselage.

I hope you enjoy.

Dan

[1/28 Revell Camel]

Progress?;

I was pretty sure early in the build that if I didn't get some kind of jig going then I'd never get the top wing on straight. After looking about on the net I plunked some cash down for the JH Models jig no 4803 from UMM USA. I have spent the last week of nights after work putting it together and adding a bit of paint/lacquer. ( Note: I don't advise assembling touch dry parts ( Clear lacquer from a spray can) or you might just find you've glued the whole blinking lot together ) Fun project that now has to earn it's keep. So far so good! All is straight and square and I'm really happy but there is just one teachy problem. I can't get enough forward stagger on the top wing. I've pushed the jig to it's maximum and the leading edge of the top wing is still about 5mm behind the firewall. That front centre strut needs to be straight up and down and a present it leans backwards.

Has anyone out there modified one of these jigs to give more stagger? Failing that, does anyone have any ideas as to how I can modify the jig? It's a pity to have to bash the jig as it's so nicely pre cut and has a neat set of reference marks to make setting it up evenly a breeze. I've a couple of crazy things going through my brain but I'd hate to hack this tool to bits in a bone headed plan to 'improve' it. Thanks for any assistance you can offer.

Dan

[1/28 Revell Camel]

Progress on a surprisingly wet Melbourne summer night;

Been a'paintin'

Didn't rush this time and got reasonable results. No runs,lifts and only tiny little touch ups to do. Alclad went on well but need to do better prep to get a good shiny finish, okay for a hard working frontline aircraft.

Tried out some rib shading but it's too stark but okay for a first go, moving along. ( Note to self- thiner tape stupid and could you get the bits straight and even. Sheesh, tough to get good help these days ) Used a heavily thinned (lacquer thinners) mix of 50-50 flat and gloss Tamiya clear mixed with some Vallejo sepia wash and black wash with a touch of Tamiya clear orange for the underside shading. Need to work out the bugs but it came out much better than I had any hope to achieve. I usually stuff that kind of ultra thin post shading but had pretty good control with the above mix.

I'll let this lot setup for a couple days and then spray the roundels and markings. All those struts need painting as does the tail and top wing. I've a biplane jig on order so I should be able to get the top wing on now.

Maltadefender& Nobby--Thanks!

Don-- As my wife always reminds me when I'm turning the air blue in the bungalow after one of my many stuff ups. "Remember, you do that for FUN."

Matthew-- Thanks so much for the details of how to get the top wing on. After mucking about quite a bit I have opted to buy a proper Biplane jig and set it up much as you have so carefully described. I do feel much more positive that I can get the top wing on pretty straight now and that is a super comfort. Many, many thanks.

Thanks for lookin'

Dan

[1/28 Revell Camel]

Progress;

 

 

 

I might have made a mistake in doing the woodgrain first but I was worried that the Alclad silver would lift under masking tape.  I have two coats of Future over the oils and I'll leave it now for a week or so to dry off well.  Plenty to do while I wait.

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Dan

[1/28 Revell Camel]

Thanks gentlemen.  

 

On advise I have taken to sandpapering off most of the hills and valleys on the upper and lower surfaces of the wings.  The wings look much better now.  Shot some primer & tan paint and had a go at blocking in the wood grain around the cockpit.  Mucked about filling in all the trenches in the underside of the top wing.  Spent a bit of time this morning thinking and mocking up some kind of jig to set the top wing on.  The jig will be required because 6mm need hacking out of the carbine shuts and as I have cut all the struts lose there is no structure to set the top wing.  Kind of scary stuff as if I get this wrong the whole kit goes in the bin.

 

Any good feed back on jigs that work?  After messing about this morning I convinced that I have to be millimetre perfect in my jig or it will end up looking Kack.

 

Dan

[1/28 Revell Camel]

Progress;

 

New IP, painted and installed,

 

 

Got the rest of the nose panels on and primed, used that white plastic putty from Vallejo to fill the seem between the wing and the fuselage as well as around the oval engine panels.  I'm told it's something like marble dust mixed into a acrylic paste.  Goes on like toothpaste that you can wipe it off with a damp cloth or cotton bud.  Takes a couple of goes but worked pretty well and there was no sanding or loss of detail.

 

 

While I has putting in the rigging anchors I realised that the twin wires go through the wing in a hole/slot, also had them too far back.  Tried something differ on the anchors I used the cut off ends of fine gauge fishing hooks for the loops.  I hand looped the ones I used on my Tiger Moth and that was a pain.  This was much easier.  I used the smallest size that was available in my local Kmart ( which turned out a touch finer than the ones I did by hand.)  I think you could get finer ones at a proper tackle store.  ( Yeah! Roadtrip!)  Worked on this most the afternoon.  Bit over scale but I didn't go crazy-mad and it was faster than the last time I did the same operation on the Tiger Moth. 

 

 

I would like to get this finished primed tonight so I can paint the ply fuselage panels in oil tomorrow.( Back to work on Monday, boo--hiss.)

 

Bouncing back and forth between this and my Pak 36 and it seems to be working out okay.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping in.

 

Dan

[1/28 Revell Camel]

Progress;

 

Played about with some Alclad II paint on the cowl, came out okay.  Primered and polished it out more than I usually do and it worked better.  A gloss primer would have helped the orange peal.

 

 

Most of the day spent working on the fuselage seams and getting the lower wing on.  Both needed seams needed a lot of work to get em looking okay.  Top could use some more work but I'm moving on.

 

 

 

 

Primers on now so I can let it set overnight.

 

Worked a bit on the guns and other subassemblies.  I've misplaced the IP somewhere and now have to work out how I can make another, sigh.

 

I must work out some kind of jig to get the top wing on straight as I'm cutting up all the struts.  I'm a little concerned that the lower wing doesn't have much dihedral.  I know the top wing needs to be straight but the bottom needs some dihedral.  I'll work something out in the end.

 

Trying out some different paints to pick a shade for CDL and PC10.  Not too sure which I'll go for.

 

Michaelvk-- Thanks, you are too kind.  Still a long way to go and many pit fall to cross before she's done.

 

Colin & John-- Thanks guys.   The information I have is that the holds for the Camel date to around 1960.  Which makes this kit just slightly older than me.  I much prefer this scale 1/28 to 1/32 for WWI subjects as they are a nice size to work on without being fiddly.  Then again I tend to like bigger 1/24 scale kits.

 

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Dan

[1/28 Revell Camel]

Just over four years ago while working on my 1/28 Revell SPAD I bought and started working on the sister Camel kit.  Never got that far.  ( Oh look! Butterfly.)  Like lots of kits I have it sat in it's project box through two house moves.   The other day while cleaning and sorting out my bungalow/workroom I had to find a place to put the project box.  This led to a great deal of poking about and time wasting, looking at old kits and magazines I thought I'd got rid of.  While messing about trying to find a safe place to put it for another four years I though that I'd take a crack at pushing it along.  

 

The engine was in good shape and just got a bit more paint;

 

 

Seat was done but needed some paint fixing, the fuel tanks got scratched and painted and the a bit of paint was splashed about;

 

 

 

Prop got a trip to the paint shop too ( Too lazy to do a laminated prop-- Hey, I don't want this to take another 4 years  )

 

 

Lots more work being done to this bird in the background.  All the struts are getting chopped off and the trenches filled in.  Carbine struts need shortening by 6mm I think.  Heaps of sanding an fettling to get the straight but old kit into shape.  At some stage I thought it would be a good idea to replace all the sticking with fine lead wire...( One likes to know who was messing with ones medication at the time...) 

 

Well there you go.  What with this and the 1/6 scale Pak 36 going I don't know what will happen but I enjoyed getting the Tiger Moth done so much I think I can push through with this now.

 

Thanks for dropping it to view the madness.

 

Dan

[Trumpeter 1/24 Me-109 K4]

Took a sideways jab and decided to cast up some wheels. Three and a half hours from sitting down I got these;

I must say I love this Pinkysil casting mix. Works great and it's fast.

Some days life is good

Dan

[Trumpeter 1/24 Me-109 K4]

Thanks Parabat. I used 5 minute epoxy cause I was lazy and it's quick but I couldn't let those blinking bubbles stay. Fearful of rising AMS I thought I'd whack in some 2.5mm acrylic I had in the parts bin. Thankfully my better half bought me a Trumpy G10 for my birthday so I had another headrest to butcher. After about five goes here's where I'm at, done, finished...

Not perfect as there are just too many angles to get it to sit just right and five tries is enough, but no silly bubbles either.

I'm off to mess with the prop and spinner now.

Spirals, sudder...

Dan

[Trumpeter 1/24 Me-109 K4]

Thanks Radleigh for the intel on the slats. I went with the slats pushed back as I liked the look better. Gear built and awaiting paint as is the prop. Had to do something with the panzer armour. It's a solid piece on the kit. Why couldn't it have been on the clear sprue?

Cut out thinned down and then put some 5 minute epoxy in for glass, bubbles and all. Not great but looks better than the kit part, just.

Really close to painting time final once over tomorrow and then off to the paint booth!

Dan

[Trumpeter 1/24 Me-109 K4]

Been a bit under the weather lately and my other builds were getting me down so I thought I'd do something to cheer myself up.

Set myself a bit of a challenge. No aftermarket stuff, only Radus' neato seat belts, and no mucking about straight from the box.

After one week I'm about here.

The kits gone to gather very nicely. No putty and only a few shims of styrene with a touch of superglue. Almost ready for paint.

Need to know from the 109 experts. Do I have to have the slats extended if the bird is on the ground?

Thanks for looking in.

Dan

[1/24 Airfix Stuka]

I got my Pinkysil at a local casting supply house where I live in Melbourne, Australia. Barnes Products supplies. HTH

[1:24 Airfix Spitfire renovation project!]

Can't wait to see how you get along with this one.

Go, man go!

Dan

[1/24 Airfix Stuka]

Merlin--Thanks! I'm glad you like the work I've done so far.

For reference I've got a fair few books ,mostly in russian, that I've picked up on the net over the years. And a few pics that folks have shared here and there. Not much on the b as most stuff seems to be for the G.

Bolts are done one of two ways. Either thin slices of Evergreen rod or hex rod made by Plastruct of different sizes glued on with ultra thin Tamiya cement. Or one of a bunch of sets of photo etched bolts and washers I've picked up over the years.

Yellow winding is very thin yellow tape, like Tamiya. Available already thin sliced in different widths, I have .08mm and 1mm. Once in place a thin coating of superglue seals it in.

Thin styrene will crack with some cements but I use real cheap thin super glue without problems. Helps to precurl the styrene by running it over the edge of the bench before glueing it on.

Almost all of the piping is either different sizes of lead wire or plain solder. Solder cones in all kinds of sizes you just have to look around, electrical, plumbing and hardware sections of stores.

Some of the black tubing is the insulation from different site wires but I also use different sizes of black micro tubing available from fishing supply stores specialising in fly tieing (much neato stuff there!) Don't miss out on all the different sized coated wires that are available to the scale auto detailers.

Thanks for the picture links! HTH.

Georgie--Thanks mate! Glad you liked the Stuka enough to decloak and make a first post. Nice bunch around here post some of your work and you'll be surprised by the amount of knowledgeable help that is on offer. Always build to suit yourself. I've gone way too far on this Stuka and had to take a break with both a FW-190 with I promptly put too much detail in and a Me-109 which I'm speed building just to get my head right again. I'm humbled to think I could be inspiring, thanks.

buttoncup, Alexandre & Will Vale-- Thanks guys!

Radleigh--Just jump in the waters fine

[Airfix 1/24 Hurricane]

Keep plugging away at it Paul. Your roundels look quite good. (Hard to get em all lined up isn't it?) I never get such good results with Frisket Film, too much overspray, I've gone to using strips of the wide Tamiya yellow tape. You can use a pencil on it to make reference marks like a cross to help line up all those blinking circles.

Great looking bird.

Dan

[Decals done, masking off! - Airfix 1/24th scale Mosquito]

Looking smashing. Can't wait to see what you do with the interior.

Dan

[2009 display hawk]

Outstanding!

Love it, such a striking scheme.

Dan

[1/24 Airfix Fw 190 A?]

Thanks Steve,

I've been superglueing short lengths of .03 brass tube on a thin wire core. I used little bits of paper as spacers to get even gaps between the tubes. Works okay but I made them over long. they should stop short at the front. Sigh, always the way. I bother to look at the reference photos AFTER I add the details...

[1/24 Airfix Fw 190 A?]

Bashed a bit more on poor Anton.

Cowl is now glued together . I had to add a big strip of styrene to get it all to work. Hope it will all look okay in the end. Started to mess with the landing gear but running into problems getting all the angles right and the wheel tracking straight.

Worked a bit on the canopy putting in some internal detail and starting to put some paint on. Here's where I'm at now.

Dan