Fifer54

Welcome Straight Six! My most recent spill was thinned paint out of an open airbrush cup as I manoeuvered the A/B to get coverage- right onto my just-painted Revell 1/32 Hunter . . . I won't be using an open cup on the A/B in future . . .

Wow, thread resurrection! I'm working on the Academy F4U-1, using the kit option of Cdr. Tommy Blackburn's machine of VF-17 in the tri-colour scheme. I found this thread while looking for details of Vought's Salmon (aka Indian Red) primer colour. From IPMS Stockholm's helpful website I gathered that wheel wells should be in the underside colour, but it also stated there that the smaller "forward" section of the wheel well should be in salmon or Interior Green. Is this correct, or all of the well be white? It also states on that site that the interior surfaces of the engine cowling should be White(!) I have literally just put my brush into my brush cleaner jar after painting exactly that! D'Oh!

I built this in the original issue about 5 years ago, nice kit, goes together well, the wing struts can be awkward, I positioned a couple of the struts, then built a jig to support the wing in the right place while I added the others . . .

Well, I agree with bullbasket and Alex Gordon!

It may be worth mentioning here that on his ATF profile, Dancho describes himself as a "Professional Malcontent", which may explain his outlook . . .

Sorry, I've no experience of Vallejo varnishes, so I can't help you there, but I do like Vallejo Model Color paint! Definitely gloss for a decal base, then whatever is appropriate for finishing. Many people believe military subjects are always Matt finished, but that's not the case! Sorry for the delay in replying, I thought I'd replied yesterday, but I was interrupted while composing the message!

Humbrol Clear as a basis for decals, Winsor & Newton Galeria Gloss, Satin or Matt for finishing coats. I found MicroScale's MicroGloss & MicroFlat to be one of my biggest disappointments in modelling (apart from recognising my lack of skills!)

Thanks for sharing that! It looks light enough inside that ring to say it probably isn't black, but the old caveat about interpreting colour from a black'n'white photo remains. I'll go with interior green- that's RAF cockpit interior green, not the US green shade . . .

Thanks, Chris! You seem to have come to the same conclusion as me- it could be X, it could be Y- ah, well, if no-one knows, no-one can say my choice is wrong . . .

Does anyone know the correct colour to paint the interior surface of the Townend ring engine cowling on a Royal Navy Fairey Swordfish? I'm building the Matchbox Swordfish in the kit RN scheme as LS434 of 836 NAS in January 1945, if it makes a difference. I've googled, looked at walkround pics and searched on here. No relevant info has been found! Anyone know? The obvious answer would be Interior Green, but while it's an inside surface, it's not really "interior"!

I've found an answer AND learned a lesson here. The answer is that the lower wings should indeed be different to the upper. The lesson is don't just google the 'net with a query, search on Britmodeller. The answer was here all the time!

I am currently building a Matchbox Fairey Swordfish in 1/72 scale. It is from the period when Matchbox-branded kits were manufactured by Revell. The finishing options in the kit are a FAA machine (actually LS434) of B flight, 836 NAS from January 1945, or an all-black RAF Coastal Command kite (NF410) from February 1945. I intend to build LS434. The colour guide, in Revell's usual cryptic style, doesn't name any of the camouflage colours used, but suggests mixes of Revell's own brand paints to achieve the right colours. It's easy to work out White, Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey. However for the upper surfaces of the lower wing, they suggest mixes that seem to me to approximate to Dark Sea Grey and Medium (or Light) Slate Grey. Now, I understand the principle of shadow-shading as applied to biplane upper surfaces in the early days of the war, but I thought the practice had been discontinued long before January 1945. What do the Swordfish experts think? Should all the upper surfaces be in EDSG/DSlateG, or Fuselage and upper wing top surfaces only in those colours, with DSG/MSlateG on the lower wing tops? My own feeling is that by 1945, it should be EDSG/DSlateG only, although the other option might add a bit of interest to the model, but if it's obviously wrong, then it's a No-No . . .

I'm part-way through building one of these, and that's how I interpreted the instructions and it seemed to work OK:

That's what she said!

Thanks, Mike! I can see why it didn't embed the first time- that URL wasn't an image- but there's no "View Original" option when I go to the OneDrive website and call up that pic. Maybe because I already have the original? Village Photos will suffice for now at least (until they get greedy?) as long as I remember to resize pix before uploading.

Testing OneDrive to embed a piccie here: https://1drv.ms/i/s!AvWcMLNdx6gfhFgBtQFN6LjW_N8h The piccie hasn't showed. I wonder if the link works? I'll have to post this to find out, so here goes:- Yes, the link works, so we're halfway there! now, how to embed the pic . . .

I believe Airfix announced a couple of years ago via the "Kitstarter" forum on their website that the 1/48 Buccaneer mould had been "retired". It was one of the most requested kits on Kitstarter and they had to give an explanation of why it wasn't going to happen. The words they used went something like "due to insurmountable quality problems with the fuselage " the mould had been scrapped. Perhaps there'll be a new tooling eventually . . .

And on investigation, it turns out that my ISP (VirginMedia) discontinued their offer of webspace in April this year due to lack of uptake . . .

I've "only" got 1952 photos hosted on PB, but I wouldn't know where to start in migrating all the links to BM (and other fora) threads, and the thought of repeating it 1951 more times . . . so it seems that I must say byebye to several years of photos. Still, at least they're only my modelling work, so that's no great loss really! I did recently start using Village Photos 'cos of the slowness and ads on PB, so the most recent pix should be OK. Must investigate my ISP's webspace offer . . .

"This machine will never make a fighter!"- Ernst Udet Build thread is here. Here is the MPM 1/72 kit of the Bf109V1, the first prototype. Udet is reported to have said the above words on first seeing the Bf109V1, although he changed his mind when he flew it! Thanks to the hosts and the sponsors for a great GB, and to all those taking part for showing some great models!

Finished! More pix in the gallery soon!

After a second coat and a touch-up with the hairy stick (oo-er, Missus!), she looks like this: The next photos will probably be the finished model!

I do struggle with the airbrush, probably because I don't use it enough. and don't practise with it. I'm just too careless and impatient. So after panicking over paint thickness and high pressure on the A/B, I managed to get a (very wet) coat of Humbrol 40 "Gloss Pale Grey" (which is MPM's callout for the colour scheme) onto the model. She now looks like this: As can be seen, another coat is needed: that will be another day . . .

Some progress has been made on this, and the airframe is actually almost ready for paint, just the canopy to add then It's (shudders with fear) time to fire up the (gulp) airbrush There, I've said it. it's a single colour on the whole aircraft, so there's really no excuse, no reason not to spray it except my own fear of messing it up . . . I hope that next time you see it, it'll be a lovely smooth RLM Grey 63 . . .

Thanks, Bernd & George! I've done a couple of MPM's short-run kits before, so I'm prepared for some fitting and fettling, and, as predicted, it is necessary. Bernd, I don't know about brave, but I'm careless and impatient which shows in my models (the Ed Wood of plastic kits?) Construction has begun. I've abandoned the PE for the IP, I could not get all those layers properly lined up with CA glue to fix them!, so the normal plastic one was used instead! Much of the other PE has jumped off the bench several times and has now been eaten by my carpet monster, but the seat harness does enhance the 'pit! In other news, the fuselage has been closed up. The two halves fitted quite nicely, with only a little sanding and polishing needed to even up the join lines. The wing comes in one piece, which just needs a tidy up and flash removal. I'm sure you can imagine what comes next from the photo . . . I'm back at work tomorrow, and I'm also building a F-101B Voodoo for a Century series GB elsewhere, so there may be a few days before any more progress is reported.