desmojen

Those are good, thanks very much. I will start a build type thread once I get a bit more info and get more done Jen.

Hello everyone, I have just embarked on an extremely ambitious project to create a useful Tornado F3 conversion set in 1/32 scale. I am looking all over the place for some info and failing miserably so far, so I am going to ask you lot very nicely I know that the forward fuselage is lengthened by 1.36m but does anyone know how much the back end is lengthened by for the new engines? And what about the radome, how much longer is that? Another thing is photos. If anyone has any close ups of the radome and either of the stretched areas I'd love to see them. Links, copies - whatever you have. Come on Britmodeller massive, I know you know the answers Jen.

Very nice! I am especially liking the strings holding the intake bung in place - proper! Jen.

Do you know what, I'm not going to lie to you - I have no idea! I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it's wrong, so many things in modelling folklore turn out to be a load of rubbish I did look through all my books though and I could find no photos that clearly show the area in question with the engine in situ. There are a few photos of aircraft without their engines and they clearly don't have any wheelwell panels in place. It looks very much like Yellow 10 in the states doesn't have a bay roof, but it could have got lost easily enough in the time she was sat in a field. I can easily appreciate thay a lot of modellers wouldn't bother changing it, you can only see the difference if you turn the model over after all! Anyway, I digress. After a break for Christmas and a slight Blitzbuild I have done a bit more to the model. I said before that I didn't want to put decals on the model, reason being they always look so bright and solid. So I used the Aeromaster sheet to create masks for the national insignia. It's very easy to do since they are just crosses. Once I had cut out the masks I sprayed the black crosses using Tyre Black, and the white ones on the wings were sprayed in a blotchy sort of way. The Swastikas are Hobbydecal rub down ones which only leaves the numbers and a couple of stencils which are from the Aeromaster sheet. I have treated the model (apart from the new engine panels) to a light coat of flat varnish to blend the decals in, and this was polished before it was fully dry with a soft cloth just to relieve it from being unbearably dull. Time for some weathering now then, and I really ought to finish painting the cockpit and fit those shoulder straps! Jen.

I'll only come if we can do a loopa-loop Jen.

Thanks everyone I'm not sure how I find the time to be honest. I am a little bit obsessed I suppose, but then, I am also fairly obsessed with Halo3 Jen.

I've finished building for this year now, so here I present a selection of my builds for the year. I managed to finish a grand total of 39 models this year, and at the same time I managed to aquire 75 new kits! Taking into account commissions (which didn't come from the stash) and the fact that I sold or gave away 49 kits, my stash is now 2 kits smaller than it was this time last year Here is the list... 1/48 Beaufighter 1/35 Storch 1/48 Wildcat 1/48 Hurricane 1/35 20mm Flak 1/35 Panzer 38 1/10 Box (scratchbuilt fuel tank and pump house, a metre long!) 1/48 Spitfire IX 1/72 Jaguar T2 1/72 Aichi type 98 1/72 Bulldog 1/48 Gladiator 1/72 Me109E 1/72 F-16 1/72 Hurricane 1/48 Wildcat 1/72 Cant Z 506B 1/48 BF109F 1/48 FW190A-3 1/12 YZR M1 1/72 Lynx 1/48 Sea King HC.4 1/48 Mitsubishi F-1 1/72 FW-190 1/72 Lynx 1/72 B-26 Marauder 1/72 TA-152 1/24 Nissan GTR 1/48 F-15DJ 1/72 Mosquito 1/72 F-14 1/144 Canberra B2 1/72 Shorts S.23 C Class 1/10 Nissan R34 Skyline 1/32 F4U Corsair 1/32 Spitfire XVI 1/24 Mitsubishi Evo VII 1/72 Mirage 2000 1/72 Wyvern And because lists are boring, here are a selection of photos Here's to a happy, healthy and sunny 2009 chaps! Jen.

I'm going to call this one finished.... I added the rest of the pieces last night. Once I demasked the canopies and could see the s***e that had stuck to the insides again I kind of lost all enthusiasm for it I'm afraid It would have been nice to put something on the inner pylons. Every photo I've seen of one of these has a pair of those oddly shaped tanks on them, but the kit only provides a centreline tank. You do get a pair of rockets which look very Flash Gordon - in a bad way. Hence the bare pylons. I also forgot to add any nose weight, and when I say it only just sits on it's wheels I'm not joking. If you look at it sternly it will tip up So, there are a few aerials missing, and the odd bit of detail painting has been omitted but I don't want to put any more into it now. If it weren't for the canopy muck it would look quite nice, certainly it's very Mirage-ish. If anyone has any ideas on how to banish static induced dust magnet canopies I'd love to hear them. I also now have a hankering to do it properly, it's such a beautiful aeroplane after all To that end, if anyone has an Eduard 1/48 2000D/N they don't want, please let me know Jen.

Thankyou very much Big Kev, we all have different ideas on what a preshade ought to look like eh! I have had a monster sesh at the bench today putting paint on First on was the RLM82 or Light Green. Put on freehand with my Revolution and then faded shaded and blended. Next up was the RLM83. I often make up little scenarios when I build models, in this case, my Dora has had a new engine section fitted. So, I masked behind the engine area and put neat RLM83 onto that and then post shaded the panel lines. Once it was dry enough I masked it back off and lightened my RLM83 a bit before painting the rest of it. I White Tack masked the wing camo and freehanded the fuselage. Again it was shaded, faded and blended until it looked suitably well used. Last job with the 83 was to freehand the blotches on the sides and tail, and also to mottle the grey undercarriage doors. Nearly there then I had to mask off the fuselage gun cover so I could spray it with Alclad Aluminium, I also faded that because I didn't want a P-51 look! With all that done I finally painted the yellow chin panel and then glued on the tailplanes. The undercarriage is all just plugged in for the photos, to give it something to stand on. I'm pretty pleased with how it's come out, so pleased that I don't want to put decals on it! I'm debating making up some masks so I can spray the insignia on, that way it won't look so bright All the paints used were Gunze Sangyo acrylics by the way, thinned with IPA. Blimey, sounds like nothing doesn't it - that's just taken me all day! Jen.

I think I'm right in saying that it was actually MattBacon who came up with it originally. I love Blitzbauing though and have entered all of the ones we've done on UAMF. For the first one I held a poll and the UAMFers chose this Revell Vosper For the second one I decided to see if I could do the Tamiya Beaufighter I did it, but only just, and it hurt my head! For the last one we held I did two builds, both Luftwaffe. The first one was this ICM Me109 And the second this Tamiya 190 It's a great, fun, challenge. No-one expects a masterpiece but it's interesting to see just how far you can push yourself and what the end result turns out like. Jen.

Thankyou Deon Well I ended up redoing it, damn my AMS substitute I repainted the green areas and this time used, get this, Japanese Army Green of WWII vintage Doing that left me with a bit more overspray than I wanted so I then had to go back with the grey again..... The new green is more muted and a bit greyer looking, and as such matches my little photo a bit better. I also painted green over the black radome because the one in the photo is like that. This morning I managed to get up at a decent hour and spent some time putting all the decals on. Getting there now Jen.

Blimey! Shocked me a bit when I saw this, I know I was aware of New Years day being on thursday but I had sort of not realised at the same time! Better get on with that pesky Mirage then Jen.

Some very sweet builds there, very sweet indeed. My favourites are the Zero and the 190 though Jen.

No problem Phantom man Today I dealt with the filling and sanding, using superglue as usual. Once I had done all that I put some Tamiya Liquid Surface Primer on all the joins. This shows up any problems and also fills any fine marks and scratches. It dries very fast too so I was able to rub it all down after not long. After that I added some preshade to all the undersurface areas using Extra Dark Sea Grey (because I had it in the airbrush ok), leaving it looking like this.... You might be able to make out that I start to incorporate weathering right from this early stage. After that was all on, I painted the front areas of the underside in Gunze sangyo Aqueous RLM76, then masked that off where necessary and added the late war 'Sky' colour. For this I started off with Gunze sangyo Aqueous RAF Sky, but I added a little RLM79 to it to make it a bit yellower. In the few colour photos I have seen of the so called RLM84 it does look very yellow, much more so than pure Sky does. Anyway that's just my personal preference, I'm not saying it as gospel Next job will be masking and spraying the yellow cowl panels before the fun starts with the camo! Jen.

I started this the other week, somewhat inspired by Dswoofie and his Italeri one. I have insisted on making things hard for myself though by addressing the big error (or should I call it a fatal flaw ) in the Tamiya kit - the wheel well. I have had an MDC correction set for ages, destined for one of the Trimaster/Dragon/Revell/Italeri Doras in the stash. It is meant for the Tamiya kit though so I thought I'd pop it in. The instructions aren't great but it all goes together quite nicely once you figure it out. I have managed to split both of the inner wheel well roofs, partly because the resin is wafer thin, and partly because they get twisted and moved around every time you move the wing assembly. Today I wired it up and finished the cockpit so I could get on with the build. I have added belts to the cockpit. I had only got a pair of shoulder straps in etch kicking about, so I used some Reheat buckles and lead foil to make lap straps up. There are small gaps along the wing roots, something to do with the new wheel bay as they fitted before. Nothing to worry about though as it's an easy enough job to fill them. The new wheel bay with its partial engine, a massive improvement on the incorrect kit parts! Here is where I left it earlier, all buttoned up and ready for some sanding The wheels and drop tank are spares from my eduard kit. The tank is slightly nicer in detail and the wheels are the right size - the other 'fatal flaw' in the Tamiya kit is that the wheels are too small Jen.

I also should have said, it looks a great kit from what I saw of it and Karl did do a splendid job on it! I quite fancy one myself after seeing it Jen.

My secret formula? It's no secret! I started off with some pearl white basecoat which I got from Hiroboy. It's sold as a two part set including a plain white groundcoat and the pearl white overcoat (this stuff) . To that, I added some Alclad Aluminium and a tiny bit of Alclad Pale Burnt Metal. I have no idea how much of these I added because I didn't measure it, but it wasn't very much You could add more because we purposely went with a fairly light colour, but extensive research on Airliners.net shows that the colour seems to vary quite widely - although that in itself is a facet of pearl paint. So you paint your airliner with the plain white groundcoat, then with the special mixture, then laquer it in - easy peasy, and looks a treat in the sunlight too! Jen.

It is definitely a lot easier to use than Tamiya tape Rich. It can be a bit of a sod getting it off though.... I got a bit of time last night and I sprayed the green on freehand. I used RAF Dark green as recommended by the decal sheet. You can see the picture I am working to underneath the model (lower pic). I think I got the grey pretty good, but the green looks too green really. I have a few touch ups to do too, but for now I have given it a light coat of Klear to protect it. I think a bit of flat coat might dull the green off enough to look something like, I certainly don't fancy spraying it all again! Jen.

That looks properly poo-poo hot! Love it By the way, Gunze Aqueous works just as well if you thin it with IPA, except for really fine lines when a touch of Tamiya type thinner added works wonders. I only use cellulose thinners in the gloss ones. New photo set up is working well too Jen.

Sounds very generous, but I'm a little confused by the rules Do we need to buy a new kit now, can it be from any of the BM traders (shouldn't it be from Steve?) When does the GB actually start, and how long does it last for? I would have thought it would be of most benefit if we had to buy a fresh kit, but then, how could you prove you bought a new kit? Sorry if I'm being a bint, I'm just seeking clarification....... Jen.

Yep, it's a good way to practice. I'm still missing the lines a lot with it so far though! The canopy mask is gold Bare Metal Foil Rich Jen.

Today, my Christmas holiday officially started and KUTA is in full effect! Last night I rubbed down my primer and cleaned everything back up again. I then preshaded it with some Gunze Sangyo Tyre Black. Today I got the chance to start putting some colour on and there lies a problem, what on earth is Dark grey blue? I don't know I decided to use RLM74 (of all things) but when I opened it I decided it looked too green. So in the end I went for Extra Dark Sea Grey, lightened with a touch of RLM76, it may still be a bit dark but I think it looks ok. Jen.

May have been a hassle but it certainly looks the part now Den! I have a Paragon/Hasegawa XIV line up in the stash when I ever get around to it! With the Cammett back end we can do a low back XIV as well now too (if we can affordt it!) Jen.

Thankyou very much for all the niceness chaps To answer the couple of questions raised so far, the conversion is a complete solid resin rear fuselage, from the cockpit door back rather than an insert. The squadron badge decal was created by none other than dswoofie, as was the serial on the tail Jen.

I dunno, you just do - a bit Jen.