desmojen

This is going to be a joint build thread for me and dswoofie as we have decided to build some big German planes concurrently. I am going to be building a Revell He-177, which was presented to me as a Christmas present by the aforementioned mr woofie. I have a long held fascination for the Greif as a marvellous piece of engineering ingenuity. I don't doubt that with time and resources the niggling problems could have been sorted and a fine aircraft would have resulted. I will be building the kit straight from the box as Revell intended, although I may add some seatbelts for the pilot. Karl is going to be building the Revell FW-200, also straight from the box, and the grand plan is to have both models ready in time for displaying on the Britmodeller table at the Yeovilton show next month. I am going to go and start mine after my tea and Neighbours - catch up with you later Jen.

Awesome job TD Jen.

After a somewhat unexpected and protracted fight with various seams I am finally nearing a point where I can apply some primer and start the fun bit - painting I have finished all the seams at last, and all have had a coat of Tamiya liquid filler with a further rub down. Tonight I put on the large vents behind the wing, having first drilled them out to enhance their appearance. I also fitted the main canopies and the refuelling probe. The canopies are not too bad, but a slight bit of filling and sanding needs doing on them once the Alligator glue is dry to bring them up to the standard of the rest of it. Jen.

That is completey beautiful. Go ahead and finish it off, there's hardly any more to do! Jen.

I have found that IPA gets Klear off quite happily, even when well dry. Jen.

I will throw an Xtrakit Spitfire XII in as a prize Jen. 1. Bexwh773 - Revell 1:72 Fairey Fulmar 2. Mish - Revell 1:72 Mi 24 Hind - D 'TIGERMEET' 3. smeds - Revell 1/144 An-124 4. Seamus- Cutting Edge 1/48 MiG-29A decals 5. GCN - Revell 1:72 Lancaster (M&S special) 6. desmojen - Xtrakit Spitfire XII

Hi Bootneck, I used the proper Xtracolours on mine. I still have what is left, and you are welcome to it if you like. Saves mucking around trying to find matching Humbrols? Jen.

Turned out nice! Good one dude Jen. (given up posting over there at the mo )

Your turd polishing skills are remarkable Karl, that is actually looking really cool now! One problem with Antoines decal suggestion is it looks like you would have to build a load more! Jen.

Well done to all, it was a great GB! Rich's F-104 is a beauty and a deserved winner Snipes is now the proud owner of two F-1's which are almost the same too If he doesn't pick it up before Yeovilton I'll bring it along, will bring the Eagles either way. Cheers all, Jen.

Me too, if not longer I developed a soft spot for them after working on and around so many of them in my trade training phase Jen.

Nice job Dave, like it a lot! I'm also interested in your thoughts on the scheme. I'm about to do the same kit, and while I am torn between this scheme and the Hungarian front one, at the moment this scheme is winning. I have a couple of B+W photos of the aircraft in question, but to me it looks really dark and very hard to tell where the green spots are? The winter scheme is possibly more hackneyed, but is infinitely easier to interpret from old photos! Jen.

Pretty much exactly what I was thinking Tony, thanks for putting it into words so succinctly. As for critcising the historical aspect - I just see someone writing what he thinks is true. I see people write things which they think are true, and I know not to be, all the time. I don't mock them though because it isn't a very nice thing to do. I'm a little disappointed to see so many of you jumping in on this Jen.

Thanks everyone! It does look quite a nice kit, and so far it is proving to be reasonable. I believe this is the same kit that Hasegawa now charge nearly £20 for, I wouldn't be over impressed with it at that price! As for the windows being tinted, thanks for the heads up Glenn, but as I said in the first post, this is a no frills quick and easy build for me so I am happy to overlook inaccuracies and omissions Ok, I eventually ironed out all of the fuselage seams, and then I fitted the exhausts and intakes - which gave me some more ironing to do I've used superglue as filler throughout, so it is a bit hard to see exactly where it is in photos, but there is a fair bit on there. I used some to build up the decking behind the rear canopy as that was a different shape to the canopy itself, and one of the intakes in particular is pretty well loaded. Before I fitted the radome I added a car wheel weight inside the front of the fuselage to counter any tail sitting tendencies the model may have had and then sanded that in as well. Eventually, I got everything smooth and rescribed and tonight I was finally able to fit the wings with a clear conscience The top surface of the wing joint is easily as perfect as the fuselage fit wasn't...... But you pay for that with a pretty sporty gap underneath. It is the same both sides and will require further ironing, which I will commence after the wings have had time to fully set. By the way, does anyone have any nice decals for a hi-vis scheme that I could buy or swap for? I'm not over keen on either of the options in the kit and I can't seem to find much online? Jen.

I would say keep it simple for a start. If you don't have a model shop then pick an online trader, I would recommend www.modelsforsale.com or www.relishmodels.co.uk Both are good value and offer excellent service. For the tools I would go for a scalpel, some liquid glue, some superglue and possibly accelerator, a set of sanding sticks and sponges, some basic putty (Tamiya putty is way better than Squadron green), Tamiya tape and some sprue snips. Add to this some cocktail sticks, cotton buds and Blu-Tack and you'll be able to deal with most things for a start. I use a Swann Morton scalpel and Tamiya sprue snippers, a bit more expensive than some, but you won't be buying them twice if you get them! Hope that helps, Jen.

Here's one from me, I picked this kit up for £4 at Telford last year. The box is a little worse for wear, but inside everything was sealed and as new. I don't know what it is about this kit, or this aircraft, but since I've had the kit it's been wanting me to build it. Today I finally gave in and thought I'd throw my hat into this GB with it while I'm at it I am doing it OOB, no frills at all, just for fun. First job then was to put the cockpit together and paint it. This did not take long because there isn't much to it. At all. So I decided to glue the fuselage together before I packed up for the evening. The two fuselage halves fitted almost perfectly on test fitting, until I introduced the underneath part that is. Once that was glued in it introduced a warp which made getting the halves together a merry little dance. I had to glue it bit by bit from tail to nose in the end, and have ended up with a reasonable seam throughout, with a couple of gnarly bits underneath. Notice the Old Skool instructions with useful photos and important messages at the side, like - "Never fail to put decals" You have been warned! Unlike Dswoofie and his fantasy Sukhoi diagrams, the seats in my jet are an exact representation of the drawing Jen.

Yep, nowt dodgy about any of those! I saw Chris with that Challenger at Telford, I couldn't stop staring at it and most of my sentences were interrupted by outbursts of the 'oooh, look at that bit!' kind. Awesome work mate Jen.

Well we're finished! After I had done all the post shading I used some Mig Productions Dark wash in the control surface panel lines, and in some of the opening panels and hinges. Being an enamel based wash it stuck rather well to the XDFF (enamel) flat coat I had used, leading to some slightly panicky rubbing off of the excess! I used the same wash to put some oil streakage around the engine. I left that to dry overnight and then this morning added some chipping using Alclad Aluminium and a teeny brush. The wheels were a bit fiddly as they had to be aligned in three axes - vertically, fore and aft and the flat spot. The muckying up was done with Mig weathering pigment and Tamiya weathering master. Some of the dust from this found its way onto the lower surface of the wing where it was brushed back for some bonus weathering streaks. The same pastels were used for some additional dirtying on the uppersurfaces too. Final assembly threw up no problems, as you might expect from a Tamiya kit. The canopies were polished and fitted with Gator glue, and I replaced the DF loop with one made from wire as the kit one is a bit square. Final touch ups and an aerial and I can chalk one up in 2009 I loved building this kit, it was a complete pleasure all the way through. I'm pretty pleased with the finish too - unfortunately some of the effect is pretty much lost in the photos so you'll have to take my word for it! Hope you like it, Jen.

No, you're not! Mine has all but one gun panel open for that reason, I have seen them built closed up so it must be possible. Persevere though, it's worth it in the end Jen.

Who needs weathering when clean looks as cool as that? Jen.

Looks like the 2009 SESP award is already wrapped up then! Nice work kicking that into shape, what a major pile of poo that kit is. Just goes to show - you actually can polish a turd Jen.

Hi all, thought you might like a look at this one, the last one I did for 2008 Built as part of Blitzbau IV on UAMF, this is a group build where you build can anything you like, as long as you build it within one 24hour period. I selected this Trumpeter 1/72 Wyvern, which has been in the stash since 2006 (it was actually one of the kits I received after winning the Trumpeter comp of that year). It was a real pleasure to build, an absolute jewel in fact. Far superior to the much more modern Sea Fury which I also have in the stash. Anyway, to the pics... The paint is all Gunze Sangyo acrylic, Extra Dark Sea Grey over Sky as you'd expect. Decals are from the kit and behaved flawlessly in every respect. I actually failed to meet the deadline by 48 minutes, mostly because I painted one of the wings the wrong way up so had to repaint it other than that it has all come out pretty ok, and was mostly a lot of fun! Jen.

I think I just found modelling's most stressful pastime - post shading I've long been a fan of the work of Chris Wauchop, I find the finishes he acheives incredibly believable, and have long desired to emulate them. I'm not really sure exactly how he does it, but I have been studying photos and decided that post shading is at least some of it With that thought firmly in mind I went up to the bench and mixed up some very thin blackish brown, took a deep breath, and started squirting it at my model. Mindful of some of the effects I see Spence and Turnerdad making, I used a post it note as a mask for some of the panels. If you look at the post it in the photo you can get an idea of just how thin the paint was, as that is the only one I used for the whole job! I then had a brainwave, and used the MAC valve to turn the pressure coming out of the airbrush down ludicrously low. This produces a sort of spatter effect. I used that on some areas around the engine and behind the wheels. Once I was happy with that, I thickened the mix with a bit more black and put the beginnings of some exhaust staining on. I think the effects are a bit more obvious underneath. My aim was to reduce the necessity for a panel line wash down to zero, or very close to it. I may still use some, but only in the control surfaces just to visually separate them a bit. I also want to add a bit of chipping and traffic wear, and then I'll finish the exhaust staining off. Jen.

Awesome stuff Td, can't wait to see the finished model Jen.

Mmmmmmmmmmm, nice seat Oh, and looking good Jen.