desmojen

Well that was a hell of a kick Ian! From two tanks in one year to finished in two weeks, all because of a little KUTA Great job anyway, I recently bought one of these and seeing this one done very much enthuses me to begin work on it! Jen.

Regardless of the aesthetic qualities of the original, that is a lovely job. Not an easy kit by any means but you sure pulled it off dude Looks a lot better with some more gloss on it doesn't it, well done! Jen.

I'm interested to see this Peter, as I have just been building a 21st Century toys Corsair. I look forward to seeing what the cockpit is like, knowing you I won't have to wait very long Jen.

I have made progress, KUTA is in full effect on the desmobench The Mirage has been rubbed down, I've painted the kit seats and fitted the kit canopies. They fit in the traditional Italeri manner and some delicate fettling will be required to make them look anything nice The Mig meanwhile has been having the rear fuselage and fin filled and sanded, the front end being essentially done already. I've just glued the two inserts into the forward fuselage so I will sand them before joining the two ends. I was going to leave them until after joining, but decided I preferred access for fitting the panels than access for fitting the engines. Not really worth any photos as of yet, despite the hours of work they basically look the same as they did before! Jen.

Excuse my French, but they're poo-poo hot! I tested some out on both flat and shiny paint and they worked a treat. There's no real need to gloss coat because there's no decal film, and they go down into surface detail really well. The only thing I would say is to be careful of accidentally rubbing adjacent markings onto the surface where you don't want them as they are airly hard to removve again. Jen.

Ok then, since you put it like that, I have a Grand Phoenix Seafire47. And I don't mind being number 29 Jen.

Come on Mike, it's an easy finish from there! I think you'll find with the Gunze laquers that your paint thinner ratio will be closer than 2:1 thinners to paint than the other way around. I use normal cellulose thinners in mine and mix it in the cup (no idea of actual ratio) but it is mostly thinners. The amazing thing with them is that even when they are that thinned they still cover really well, aprt from the stink they are easily the best model paint I've used. The forum will be nice and quiet this weekend, go lock yourself in the model room and get it done Jen.

This is the kind that always seem to end up in childrens play parks or garden centres, until now I didn't know what they were actually called. I climbed into one somewhere, can't remember where it was, but it was horrible inside, really pokey and claustrophobic and sharp edges everywhere. I can't imagine what being under fire in one would be like Some excellent progress (getting to the point) Snipes, I'd love it if you could do a step by step with the filters and pin wash thing - I've never gotten my head around that concept Jen.

Many thanks all for the good words of encouragement, and thanks to them, I am done! Apart from Grant that is, he's just being silly Drum roll please for a shining beacon of 1930's loveliness Yet again Dswoofie has produced a base to my specifications, and yet again my husband stayed late at work to paint it for me. Above and beyond from both of them imo. I picked out the logo Speedbirds in gold. I was going to do them silver but noticed that the brass tube looked pretty much like gold so they would match and look cool. I did do a little white lie in the title, she isn't 100% finished. I should add a complicated aerial array, and also actuators and cranks to the ailerons. Bearing in mind the fact that my main priority was to get the model to Telford in one piece I have decided to leave these until after the show. I might not fit them even then because I like how it looks without them. I ended up using a bottle and a half of Aclad Aluminium and about the same again of Klear. There's also half a gallon of Kristal Klear making up the windows, the larger of which are pushing the boundaries a bit. Trouble is, they are all different sizes and shapes (remember this kit is hand made) so I was not confident that the supplied resin windows would work out too well. The decals are beautiful and flawless in operation, mostly being virtually invisible now even over the silver finish. The thing that makes it for me though is having her flying. Thanks for the prod in the right direction Grant, the base and flying pose really make it for me. Overall then I've enjoyed this kit. It was very expensive but I do think it was worth the money, the single disappointment was the canopy which was pretty nasty. Other than that it's spot on. It was a bit of a baptism of fire for a first effort at a resin kit, and I feel it is a testament to CMR that it has come out so well. I have wanted a model of the Empire class flying boat for so long I can't even remember, and now I have one Jen.

Well, here she is all painted! I have all but completed work on the smaller bits too. I will complete the decalling tonight and then all I have to do is final assembly and put a new set of Kristal Klear windows in. I do believe we may be joining you at Telford! Jen.

Today I very nervously sprayed the fuselage. Although I have used Alclad quite a lot in the past, I've never used it on this scale before and I had a spectator! It all went pretty well though and I am now the proud mummy of a two thirds painted Empire boat To answer the question about how much Alclad, I have nearly used a whole jar so far so I don't think I'll much change out of two bottles by the time I'm done Jen.

Rumbling on. Today I rubbed down the primer. Tamiya Fine Surface Primer dries to a lovely finish, so not much rubbing is required. I checked carefully for any nicks or bits in the finish and flatted them out. The rest was gently sanded with a fine sanding pad. I have now put the first bits of Alclad on. I'm going to have to paint it section by section because it's so big! I have a few tiny repairs on the leading edges so I might paint the rest of the fuselage next to give the repairs time to dry thoroughly. Jen.

I just started using Deluxe Materials Accelerator and it's easily the best I've used yet. It gives you a couple of seconds grace to get things aligned if needs be and doesn't attack the plastic or the the paint, excellent stuff! http://www.modelsforsale.com/catalog/produ...ducts_id=395637 I also use their superglue which comes in many many flavours! Jen.

Fifteen minutes ago I primed the beast! Done out in the shed because using aerosol primer it gets everywhere and really stinks! This is the final coat of overall primer, in this instance Tamiya Fine Grey. It looks promising at first glance but of course I can't know for certain how close I am until it's dry and I can look at it properly. Regardless, any further priming will be spot priming via the airbrush. I had a devil of a job fairing the canopy in, and then trying to put the supplied window masks on right without any frame lines to guide me, what a headache! The second shot also shows to good advantge the mounting system with one brass tube fixed into the model and the second sliding into the fixed one. Jen.

My load was gleaned from a photo in that walkround site which was quoted in the refs section, right down to the colours. Jen.

Yay! And how long was that sitting for????? Well done dude, keep it up! Jen.

Here are some finished pics. I'm really sorry about the quality, it's half dark here today, and I struggle to get good pics of anything with white on it at the best of times. Added to that, the size of the model makes it hard to get shots without unwanted background creeping in So first, the Eagle Eagle, although I think it might be meant to be a Unicorn or something as it has horses heads on the fins. And now the stand If you'll indulge, I'd like to tell you the story behind all this... It all started when I saw the Two Bobs Shiro Ryu decal sheet way back in 2006, I promptly bought one despite not having an F-15 to put them on I then bought the Academy Eagle off ebay to put the decals on. Whilst browsing around the internet for pics I randomly found the Hasegawa kit and promptly bought that as well from HLJ (it would seem I'm a sucker for a gaudy paint job). The idea I had all that time ago was to pose them both in flight together, although I know that it isn't strictly accurate I thought it would look nice. So, the Dragon Eagle was finished in June 2006 (as an entrant in the ARC F-15 GB of that year) The second Eagle was started, but I got bored of rubbing out filler and it got shelved. And there it sat until this GB was thought up by Mike, providing me with a much needed KUTA to get it done! So, step up Dswoofie and take a bow for supplying me with yet another excellent custom made base, and step up my hubby Lee for spraying it beautifully, thanks to both I drilled it this morning and inserted some lengths of clear acrylic rod to pop the Eagles onto, and here it is, two and a half years in the making but worth it I think Whooooooooooooooosshhhhhhhhhhhhhh Thanks all for another great GB, I think we should do this one again sometime! Jen.

Thanks everyone, you are far too kind I'm glad you like them. I'm looking forward to getting them mounted up as I think they'll look well cool together. Jen.

Not really Ian, it's an easy enough assumption to make when there is no clear matt in the range otherwise - you went with it after all. It is as Andy suggest in fact a Matting agent rather than a flat coat in its own right. Add it to Tamiya gloss or to Klear. I use it with Klear and it is excellent. Add about 25% for a pretty matt finish. Jen.

Well I just finished the F-15 I admit it, I got worn down by the damn stencil decals, bloody faarsands of 'em! I finally got them all done on sunday while I sat and watched the final World Superbike race meeting of 2008 on telly. I then had to flat coat it, but only in places. My box top photo shows the graphics as being quite shiny, while the original paintwork is quite matt. So out with the Tamiya tape (again) and masking up for flat varnish and Klear as necessary. With that done, I put a wash on the grey bits, I used Phils old fashioned wash because I had some the right colour, and then final assembly Here's a quick preview. I will mount the pair of them tomorrow and provide proper photos then. And with the Dragon Eagle and base (again kindly supplied by Dswoofie, and painted by my hubby) Cheers for now, Jen.

'Bout time you got your butt in gear, I was starting to think I was going to have to administer a swift KUTA! Looking very sweet Karl, will be a babe with some paint on Jen.

Yay! It'll be nice to see it done after all this time Mike. I can thoroughly symapthise though, for such a well regarded kit is really is a bit of a dog. I found I had to fill and sand every single thing that I fitted to the bloody thing and it does get to you after a while. The thing is though, it's worth it because it's a fine looking model when you eventually get there. Also, a note of caution, the decal sheet looks amazing but they are absolutely horrible to use. If you can replace any of it from the spares box - do! Jen.

The proper advice is to buy the absolute best you can afford..... I got a set of 12 for about £3.99 from Inkspot (behind Woolworths) and they seem just fine to me Jen.

Here's a mojo elephant to help you along Nick Jen.

Nice scheme Jonners, I really like that one for some reason Talk about doing it the hard way though. The worst of it is done, unless you've only done one nacelle of course! Jen.