desmojen

I can see this being rather smart - what scheme is it going to have? Jen.

Ta-152 has to be Aoshima, it has most of the detail of the Dragon kit (better surface detail actually) along with the ease of build you will get from the Revell one. Both the Dragon and the Aoshima are waaay better detailed than the Revell kit. Jen.

Cracking build that Jase, well done That whitening effect you've got is pretty much the norm with any flat coat that I've used. I love to know if there's one out there that doesn't do it! Jen.

You certainly can Pilgrim. I have the same base as Mike has pictured here, and I had a 1/32 Spitfire on it yesterday Jen.

That diamond four looks oh so sweet, nice one mate Jen.

Jen.

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've had my head down working hard to get this done in time. I only put the final touches on it half way through this afternoon even then! So it's finished and ready for display tomorrow at Yeovilton. Here are some pics I'd love to write lots of words saying what I did, but honestly, it was two and a half days of sticking bits on, painting bits, sticking bits on and painting So Karl turns up at lunchtime with a sort of nearly finished Condor, saying he was really sorry, but there's no way he can finish it in time I took a look at what needed doing and decided he was being a drama queen. So with a bit of this and a bit of this we got it done. I took a couple of pics for those of you that aren't going to the show. I'm sure Karl will fill in the words and put extra pics on later! So there you go, hope you like! Jen.

Black wheels sounds good, brings it up to date a bit! I've always said that if I ever end up affording a Porsche it would be Speed Yellow or Riviera Blue. I did once see a 964RS in a sort of Fuschia colour which looked really good on it, I think it was a proper Porsche colour as I've seen one or two in magazines since. No idea what its real name is though Either way, I'm looking forward to the result on this one Jen.

Is there any other colour than Riviera Blue? Jen.

Yeah, I'll admit that it is a bit of a shameless plug on the base. I only did it though because it is such a nice thing, and I really like it Thanks for the comments too folks, much appreciated Jen.

Someone did announce a 1/48 one, but I forget who it was. I'd like one Jen.

Next step was to add my clouds and get the various stencil decals on. When I looked at the few references I have been able to find showing similar schemes I realised that the serials were painted on top of the clouds and should have been left until afterwards Never mind eh I mixed up some RLM76 and started mottling, but it was very hard to see it as it was so similar a colour to the RLM65. I lightened the paint up a bit and went over what I had already done. It still isn't smack you in the chops obvious but I think that is probably a good thing. Once all clouds, mottles and little wiggles were added I reapplied my serial and cross masks and touched up the lettering. I also made a Swastika mask and popped those onto the fin. Here is what I have now, I have since added the stencilling, which mostly amounted to walkway lines, and have now glued the wings on. Given the limited time I have to finish off, I decided to list everything left to do to try and organise things - it's quite a long list Jen. P.S. Hannants delivery finally arrived yesterday so I now have some see through canopies.

I have just been asked to do a 1/48 Lightning for a friend at work who collects Corgi 1/72 Lightnings and wants a centrepiece for his collection. The kit he has is the Airfix F1/2 and we decided between ourselves that it ought to have all the good stuff chucked at it. Now, those of you that know stuff about Lightnings, what do you reckon the best parts to go for are? He wants metal undercarriage too, is that available? Thanks in advance, Jen.

Well that's you told Deezer! Actually Daz, Karl has been to the desmojen skool of Luftwaffe camo, where such schemes are known as either 'squiggles' or 'wiggles' Today I have been painting my fuselage, same colours and processes as the wings so nothing very exciting. Someone back there asked how to do the masks so I knocked up a quick tutorial for you. First off you need some masking material. I use Artool Ultramask, which I got from Cammett, but anything transparent and not too sticky will do the job. You could even use Tamiya tape if you wanted. A suitably sized piece is cut out ready... As you can see, you can almost see through it even with the backing paper on. I have in the past used it like this rested against the Lizard viv (viv standing in for a lightbox) and drawn the shapes onto the film before cutting. Since I wasn't bothered about wrecking the decal sheet, I just peeled it off the backing and stuck it straight to the decal sheet. Other ways around it include - photocopying the decal sheet and using the copy, sticking the mask sheet to some clear plastic and then tracing the decal that way or cutting out patterns from a photocopy and cutting around them. Next up, using a steel rule and a good sharp blade, cut out the letters. Of course, the steel rule is no good for letters with round bits on. These need to be done freehand. Once you've cut round the letters you can peel the mask back off the decal sheet and apply it to the model. Bear in mind that the letter mask can just as easily be used the other way around - ie. paint part of the model black, apply the letters and then apply the camo. This one though, is sprayed black through the letter spaces... Spray carefully so as not to build up edges or get bleed through on all the panel lines. Not a big problem on black, a different story with white, red or yellow though And there we go, one mask made and code sprayed in about ten minutes. It has a myriad of advantages over decalling, you can blend codes and markings in the same way you do your paint so that they look much more like a part of the finished job, and of course there is no need for gloss coats or any of that messing about! So anyway, my fuselage is basically painted and most of the markings are on. I need to check some pics to see what sort of Swastika it should have, if any. Also there are some stencil decals to put on, and then I can put the clouds on. Unfortunately my model doesn't get to have wiggles, I have to make do with clouds Here it is as I left it earlier with the wings just balanced on. Jen.

Well you know the ends come off the tubes right? Mine are stored inside a sealed jar of Plastic Magic,which is glue. If Plastic Magic was a bomb it'd be a Tallboy, it's strong stuff! The glue works to dissolve anything that does get into the end of the tube Jen.

I store the ends off mine in a jar of fresh Plastic Magic. That keeps them clear Jen.

I have spent a bit of time over the last couple of weeks building an FW-190 for SAM magazine, the new Tamiya F8 with included bomb trolley and men in fact. I decided to paint up a base I've had for a while to stand it on as I thought it would better show the display potential of the other bits in the kit. I'm not allowed to put the F8 up because it is only a short review, so I've substituted my recently finished Tamiya 190D because I wanted to show you the base (build thread) The base is one of the most excellent Mark58 range, available from www.modelsforsale.com. I painted it up using various browns and things, it's very easy to do because the base is so nice to start with. The bomb loader and the two black men are from the F8 kit, as is the bomb (if any of you are keen eyed enough to note the lack of bomb pylon on the Dora, please be so kind as to ignore it ) while the pilot figure is from the ICM German pilot and groundcrew set. I had a great time painting all the little bits and bobs up, and I'm super impressed with the Tamiya bomb loader which is almost a kit in its own right really. Figures aren't my strong suit but I'm quite pleased with how these came out, and they really bring the Dora to life Hope you like, Jen.

Thanks guys I got sent home from work early this afternoon because of the weather, which gave me a handy extra couple of hours. I used them well by putting the camo on the top of the wings. The colours are RLM72 and 73, which I don't have. I had bookmarked a Hyperscale article which suggested a recipe mixing Tamiya XF-18 Blue Grey into the Gunze RLM70 and 71 equivalents. I painted the props and spinners with the Black Green first as I had decided to mix the colours straight in the jars and then get a fresh jar of each at Yeovilton. The spinners in the picture give an idea of the difference in the colour. The Balkencruz was again sprayed on using a mask which was cut out using the decal sheet as a pattern. Jen.

While I'm STILL waiting for my vac form canopies - two weeks now, and I checked it was in stock before I ordered it - damn you Hannants! The fuselage is essentially ready for paint but I want the transparencies on first. I can't wait much longer though and if necessary I will temporarily use the kit parts just to get it to the show. In the meantime I decided to get on and paint the wings. I used a Tamiya aerosol of Luftwaffe blue to slap a coat on quickly as it's a quite a large area. This was then shaded and then over coated with Gunze Sangyo RLM65. I decided to use masks and paint the serials and crosses on the bottom, so using the decal sheet I made up some masks and duly painted the letters and crosses on with Gunze Tyre Black. They probably look quite stark in the photo, but I can assure you they are far less stark than the decals would have been! Lastly, I masked the wing and popped a bit of RLM02 into the wheel bays. Jen.

Thanks guys Ridiculously neat you say Seamus, not sure what I should make of that Here's is the result of the rest of last weekends labours, decals are on.... They were a little bit hard to use, quite thick and a bit crispy. With some effort I got them all on though and they look ok. The tail art was never going to go on in one piece so I had to cut it into two. I also removed the section that would have gone over the bumps on the fin and later touched it in with a fine brush and some black paint. With that done I touched up the flat coat and am now ready for weatherings to commence. How dirty to go, that is the question....! Jen.

I'm going to be 100% honest Spence. I am utterly flabbergasted that a small piece of plastic can look so much like well worn steel, bloody amazing work I am thinking about doing an armour project as one of my D-Day submissions and while I can but hope to get anywhere near what you acheive on yours I'd love to talk to you and get some advice on it. You going to be at Yeovilton? Jen.

And here we are with some dark grey on it. I used Xtracrylix for this and was reminded of how much I dislike the bloody stuff! Colour is FS35237 Blue Grey freehanded on following photos as best I could. On the real thing the colour is barely different, but it is much more obvious on the model I then masked up for the walkways, painted in RAF Light Aircraft Grey, chosen because I knew it would look different as it has no blueyness to it. As it turns out it is a pretty good match to my photos, so that's nice Finished up by putting a good solid flat coat on it to seal it all in and fade the colours off a bit. I will leave it overnight now before decalling and weathering fun tomorrow Jen.

Oh dear, another Mike I have to ignore Prowler painting has begun! First off, I put a couple of good coats of Gunze Sangyo Acrylic H308 (FS36375) on the whole model. This gives a good base to work on and provides coverage. Next up was the preshade. There's a very good reason for doing it this way. Preshading only works if you apply a relatively transparent layer of paint over it, so by default you aren't going to get proper coverage. This leaves you at risk of being able to see through the colour in places where you don't want to! This way, I am completely free to leave the preshade showing as much, or as little, as I want to without worrying about coverage. So another couple of coats of highly thinned H308 have gone on and now I wait for it to dry (being a semi gloss colour it takes a little longer) before I can add the darker grey. I usually add some highlights at this stage, but it seems to me that this scheme is all about the dirt so I will let the fading be taken care with by the flat coat alone. Jen.

And I would like to add a retrospective if I may? Jen.

Excellent, thanks for the ideas folks. I do have some anti static cleaner (meant for cars) that I use before paint, but it isn't overly effective. I will try some of the things you have all mentioned Thanks, Jen.