Natter

There are lots of new mould Airfix Mossies appearing on the forum, but that model more than holds its own among them. Hard to believe it's the older mould as your build is so good.

Very nice.

Well done for persevering, that excellent model is just reward for your efforts.

Eeeeee... those were the days. Pull up a sand bag and swing the lamp. Great build Steve.

I really do love your models. It's a shame that Revell kits, no matter what box their in, are just so bad.

Like. A lot.

Very nice Mark. It's good to see you are back to building to your usual high standard.

A great model is the result of the builders skill, but from looking through your builds that Airfix kit looks like a really good kit to start with. How does it compare with the Tamiya model you're working on?

Ventura decals? Now that's brave. I have only used one set and they were very thick and impervious to Micro-Set/Sol. Those look great on your model though, and it never ceases to amaze me how good your brush painted finishes are.

From a rough metal finish to a finished gem. 'Magic our Maurice'.

The paper I use for a background was rolled the wrong way, and it creased a bit while I was trying to roll it back. These little creases have caused the 'clouds' in the background - a fortunate accident.

A.N.F Les Mureaux 117. Heller 1/72 kit. Paint - Mr Color RLM71 for the green and Vallejo Metal Color Aluminium for the... well, aluminium. Decals - Kit supplier, SMER serials and Model Art roundels. Aftermarket - Falcon vac-form transparencies with decal strip framework. WiP here:

Fini. The Les Mureaux 117 is as done as it is going to be in my hands. The kit is missing the additional struts between the wing struts and the underside of the wings, but I just had this feeling that it would all have gone horribly wrong if I had kept messing about; so I stopped. The decals have been the worst aspect of this build. The kit decals were really poor, and they were only used for the hatching egg on the sides and the rudder stripes. The rudder stripes were way too tall and far too narrow. The blue at the front had to be touched up with a home mixed match and the red at the trailing edge was a home mix of vallejo reds. The Propagteam underwing serials were OK but very brittle and have been touched in by hand. The wing roundels are Model-Art and although they're really thin they are also translucent. The pitots are scratch as the kit parts are as thick as baseball bats and very inaccurate. The photos in the Stratus 'French Wings 3' book show a mix of cranked pitots on the port and starboard wings, or cranked on the port wing and straight on the starboard wing; with most showing the cranked/straight mix. So that is what I did. The same book and the internet showed the rear machine gun was often stowed to starboard on the ground, so I did that too. The transparencies are by Falcon from their 'France Part 1' set, and the frames are decal strips (horrible job, but effective). I'll put some more photos in the Gallery soon. A huge thank you to everyone for voting for and articipating in this GB, and a big thank you to Cliff for hosting. I bought this kit for the first French Fancy GB, and thanks to this GB it is finally out of the stash and in to the cabinet; result.

Hi All, I have been pottering along with this in between other 'stuff'. The green is Mr Color RLM71 green and the metal is Vallejo Metal Color: The axle of the wheel goes right through the spat, leaving an unsightly stub sticking out. This will have to be rubbed down and the surface finish restored: The decals with the kit have no underwing serial numbers. These have come from the SMER Potez 540 kit, they're a Propagteam offering from 1999. The carrier film is very thin and the white is very well saturated, but unfortunately they were exceptionally brittle. There is some touch-up painting to be done. The kit roundels were poor, so these are from a Model-Art set. Oh dear. Like the Microscale decals I have used they are beautifully thin, but the colours are translucent. I have several of these Model-Art decal sheets, so it would seem that they will need to have some sort of backing if they go on to a dark background: More soon...

Same as you. Bok. I managed to use their 1940 Armee de l'Air acrylic colours on a P-36, but it took hours to get decent coverage as the paint dried almost instantly on the needle, even with their own thinners. Their lacquers get good reviews, and some modellers here swear by them, but as you noted these aren't for everyone. Your Piper is a little cracker, and I'm really glad you managed to recover from the Hataka 'problem'.