desmojen

And we already know that my completed F-1 is up for grabs Jen.

Nice one keith! Damn it's good to see one of the stash massive built! Jen.

I think it looks cool. I also think you are a chicken! Jen.

Nice idea Grant, I might just do that The retail price is £125 I believe............ Latest progress then. I'm pleased to report that I have got the fuselage halves together I used a two part epoxy adhesive to put it together with, along with lashings of Tamiya tape and several clamps. I found the fit to be very acceptable for the most part. The dodgiest part was the flat fuselage upper surface. The parts had a little warping and bowing here and there. This meant that, despite the many bulkheads, the joint ended up with steps in both directions along it's length. it wasn't overly hard to deal with though. I used superglue as the filler in order to help with joint strength. I found that the epoxy overspill was adequate to fill the rest of the fuselage, very little extra filling needed. You might just be able to make out a lot of dark spots sprinkled around, those are pinholes which I've dug out. Visible as dark shadows in the casting, I've dug them out with a scalpel to avoid any possible problems where they may have shown when the paint is put on. I will fill them all with superglue. I was a little wary of the amount of rescribing I had to do on the top, the panel lines are a bit like brickwork with long parallel lines all the way along the fuselage. As it happened it was pretty easy. The superglue filler has a similar texture to the resin, so it caused less problems than it normally does (anyone who's ever rescribed a plastic kit with superglue filler will know what I'm on about). I've spent a little time starting to fettle the tail feathers ready to fit, it's all going pretty well so far I think Jen.

You need to contact whoever is donating the prizes you have won, me being one of them Jen.

Wow! And is that one of Tamiyas giant motorcycle kit assembly screwdrivers I see it resting on? I might have to try one of these on my next bike Jen.

Jen.

Flight deck is now essentially done. It's quite nicely detailed, not ridiculously so but perfectly adequate nonetheless. I have a load of throttle levers to add in theory but not sure if I'm bothered I will add a floor behind the flight deck parts to stop light shining through from all the portholes and then I can get the fuselage halves together Jen.

Thankyou everyone The F-1 decalling is now complete! I managed to cock up again in the process of doing the panel line wash I was watching Phil in action the other day and he mentioned that if your wash didn't want to brush on nicely you can add a little detergent. Well my wash doesn't like brushing on nicely, so I did. next thing, when I tried to use it it had gone funny and wouldn't work properly I mailed Phil and he called me back. Being the true gent he is, he said he would send me some more in todays post. In the mean time lads, don't put Fairy Aloe and Cucumber detergent in your Flory wash! The only way I could get it to work was to plop it on really thick and not brush it about at all. As a result the lines are a bit darker than I normally like, but it looks ok Next step, flat coat. Lets see what I can cock up on that Jen.

As title suggests. Has everyone got their prize/s or at least exchanged details? I'd like to get this GB closed and moved to the finsihed GB section, but I'd like to know that all is dealt with first Jen.

The latest progress see's the Eagle relegated to the edge of the bench while I continued with the F-1. After the successful and trouble free camo painting session soemone must have put a curse on me. The last few sessions on the model have seen me making mistakes and cocking things up like you wouldn't believe! First, when I masked up for the Alclad work at the hot end, I got Alclad overspray everywhere. I didn't do anything differently than normal, but I got loads of overspray all up the fin Then, when it was on, I fitted the tailplanes so I could see what it looked like (like you do) and proceeded to take several large chunks out of my Alclad. Anger took hold of me at that point and I left before I did any more damage. I spent a lot of today putting those mistakes right, then I masked up for the red band around the tail. This is thoughtfully supplied by Fujimi as a decal but I didn't think that would work so decided to spray it. Well I got red overspray all over the place and ended up retouching again I had to go away and leave it again because it was nearly out the window at that point. In fact, I rang Karl and had a chat. Felt much better after he'd told me what a beee-atch his SeaHawk is being! So tonight I managed to successfully touch up the wheel wells without spraying anything I shouldn't. I used a 50:50 mix of Tamiya X-2 with XF-2 to give a nice satin finish. I have set it aside to dry thoroughly before I do anything else. I don't trust my luck any more with this build I can tell you! Decalling is 75% complete. I was a little dubious about the sheet as it had yellowed a bit and this is an old kit. A couple of days in the window sorted the yellowing out and in fact they have gone on super well on the whole. Just a few more stencils to go and that part is done, luckily for me it has few stencils. If it was like the Eagle I'd never make it! I have been debating the idea of offering the completed model as a prize in the end of GB celebrations. I don't know if I'm way wide of the mark or not - I mean, we're all modellers so why would anyone want an already built kit??? I'd appreciate any thoughts on that from the rest of you. Jen.

Bingo! Thanks Bert, you are now my hero for this week. That's a seriously nice model too isn't it, hope I can get somewhere near. Mine will be simpler mind, I've got to fold both wings and do three of them! Jen.

Hi Bert, Thanks for that. I have the same diagram in a book. I can zoom in on this one though which might help. I could do with a view from the rear or underneath really. Jen.

Actually, while I'm here, I need another kit as well. So if anyone has a Revell or Heller issue Ar-196 they can bear to part with........ Jen.

Hi all, Just wondering if anyone has any pictures/diagrams/links/ideas on how the Arado wing fold works? I have one photo and one disgram, both from the same angle and am finding it a bit hard to figure out how it worked. It'll be a bit hard to do the conversion if I can't get my head around how it works! Can anyone help? Jen.

I prefer the Djibouti one myself. I'll be interested to see what colours you use..... Jen.

TMI Ian, TMI....... Jen.

Thanks Mike and Nev It's not going on its legs Mike, my Eagle is going to be soaring through the air, like every Eagle wants to Today I was mainly painting... The Mitsi now wears a coat of many colours. Well four anyway! I used the recommended Gunze Acrylic H319, 320 and 321 for the camo and I used (ahem) Light Aircraft Grey for the underside. The camo was masked using the blue tack sausages method, mainly to make shading easier. I think you could get away with freehanding it if you wanted to. There are a couple of minor touch ups to do where I've gone too far with the masking sausage and primer is smiling through. I will touch those up freehand, I still have undercarriage doors and tailplanes to paint anyhow. Jen.

Oh yesss, we likess this one precioussss Is that a spider on the side pod Nev? Jen.

Yeah! Go Karl! (nearest thing I could find to a cheerleader smiley ) Grab a bit of tube for the exhaust mate, or roll some thin plastic card up. Much easier than trying to sand that join Jen.

Ok, latest progress on the F-15.... I've painted the brown bit on the windscreen, done a few touch ups and painted the wing leading edges gold. The gold part is included on the feathers decal, but I wasn't happy with the way it was looking when fitted. So I cut the gold bits off (peeled off the one that was already on) and very carefully masked and sprayed the gold back on. I've done a fair bit of decalling, I'd like to say most of it, but this baby has about seventytwotyhundred stencils! The nose and top of the fuselage is done, the wings and underside not yet started. I think it's starting to look quite cool Progress on the Mitsi is limited to making the decision to pose the canopy open! Jen.

Ok gents, we have our winners! Step up to the podium please Skii, Neil and Sean The full finishers list is as follows:- 1st, Skii with 11 votes for the Ayrton Senna Maclaren. 2nd, Neil with 8 votes for his Suzuki GP Bike. 3rd, SeanRGB with 6 votes each for his Ferrari 330 and rally Escort. 4th, Doc Fester with 5 votes for his Melandri Spiderman Yamaha. 4th, Diesel Donkey with 5 votes for his Mercedes Truck. 5th, Mish with 4 votes for the Subaru. 6th, Jezz with 2 votes for the RC211V. 6th, Keefr with 2 votes for his porsche 911. 7th, Grant with 1 vote for his Williams BMW. 7th, Doc Fester with 1 vote for his Stoner RC211 Myself and Dswoofie have spent some time mulling over allocation of prizes, and have decided upon the following:- 1st - Plaque from Mike along with Mikes kit pledge and the 1/20 Ferrari donated by PhilB 2nd - Neils choice of Tamiya bike or car kit from me, and the 1/24 Ferrari Enzo donated by Shiloh 3rd - Three aircraft kits donated by Mish and the 1/24 Ferrari 360 donated by Shiloh 4th - (Doc Fester) Tamiya Williams FW13 from Dswoofie and two signed photos from Rallychef 4th - (Diesel Donkey) 1/25 Cobra from live steamer and a Revell Lightning from our glorious leader (Mike) So there we have it. An excellent effort all round I think! Could the prize winners please PM their respective donatees etc. If there are any problems please PM myself or Karl. Thanks everyone. Jen.

I like your thinking Tim, and to some extent I agree with you (Parks A/C). I have to say though, that whenever anyone puts colour photo's up and says something is whatever colour, I almost never agree! Maybe I'm colour blind and didn't know it As for why would Park want to paint his Spitfire in a 'Navy' scheme - why shouldn't he? Perhaps he liked the scheme Several personal Spitfire and hacks were painted in all sorts of non standard schemes and colours after all. Jen.

Top notch stuff Neil, great attention to detail and a lovely finish Jen.

Double update today! First off, progress on the Mitsi. As you can see, all primed. I've used Mr Base White for the initial primer coat. I have now rubbed it down where necessary and fitted a HUD glass and the windscreen. The fit of the windscreen is less than grand, but a whole lot better than the fit of the main canopy which is absolutely horrendous! I didn't want the canopy open, not least becuase the interior detail isn't great. Seeing this though makes me think I might have to Progress on the F-15 is slightly more gladdening. I sprayed the two tone greys where necessary using Gunze acrylic H307 and 308 as detailed in the instructions. I then set about masking up for the black and white areas. It was at about this point that I was glad I bought several rolls of Tamiya tape for £1 each from HLJ last time! In these photos the white is already on and I have masked for the black. Almost all of this is actually on the decal sheet but you do have to paint some of it. I thought it might be easier and give a more consistent result if I just painted all of it. Took a really long time to mask it all though and some of it was a bit tricky I'm leaving that to set up nicely before a couple of coats of Klear to seal it all together ready for some decalling. Of course, there is a ton of other stuff that will need painting up as well like tailfins and tailplanes, main canopy, pylons, fuel tanks - all sorts! Jen.