MakingModelsAgain

Best looking hunk of junk in the galaxy! Beautiful rendition, love it!

That is tremendous! Love the base too! Daisy, daisy....

Started this a long time ago... Anyway, decided that, given it was 80% done when I put it aside, to get it off the WiP shelf once and for all. I had originally weathered it the way I weather my aircraft - force of habit (pun fully intended) - so had to re-address this issue by going back and painting individual panels slightly different shades of grey and weathering each one accordingly. From my (extensive) research, I believe the Artoo unit is correct - white panels on a red dome - IF you go by the 1977 theatrical release, not the CGI-enhanced version where Red 2's Artoo appears to be an R2-D2 clone. Happy to be corrected! All the markings are painted as the decals were too thick.

Stunning!

Signing off on this one. Fairly happy with the end result although there are one or two little niggles - namely the nesting of the canopy sliding section over the rear fixed section is less than perfect and those flippin' landing flaps were a flippin' nightmare! You are looking at the third incarnation of them and the sixth fitting! Just one of the joys of scratch-building in 1/144! I also used Brengun's lovely little maintenance set to add a little, er, something-or-other to it and the radio antenna wires are hairs off the back of the dog. Black ones, so I didn't need to paint them! YT video to follow as usual. Anyway, here it is for what it's worth!

I'm in awe of anyone who takes on a vacform project, but a 1/32 four-engined bomber...?

Ok, one last update before RFI! After several failed attempts at creating the ignition lead manifold as a separate part, I was struck with the idea of drilling six holes with a 0.3mm drill and inserting into each two lengths of annealed copper wire of appropriate scale thickness thus ensuring a good solid anchor point to be able to shape them as the ignition leads. Then, simply glueing a length of styrene rod over them to represent the manifold!

Well, this is the last of the WiPs - if they could even have been called that - as, hopefully, the next you'll see of her, she'll be all finished and stuff. So, still to be done: Final canopy framing, undercarriage, radio box, landing flaps, additional detailing/weathering on the Merlin and the antenna mast.

Eduard's latest 1/144 dual combo kits are simply astounding - on par with Sweet I would say. Their level of detail, either in the kit, or as their own brand aftermarket is quite astonishing for this scale. However, Brengun's cockpit/detail sets are, IMHO, the best there is - again, for 1/144.

A wee update of one of those major moments in a kit's life - that breath-holding, frightened-to-look moment when you remove dozens of painstakingly placed strips of masking tape to find that..... IT'S OK! Mostly. There was one line that needs tidying, but given the amount of lines in total - I'll take that ratio! The line in question...

Got the port side engine bearers in place. There are one or two minor things I'm not happy with, but after painting, it's not as obvious as it was in the bare plastic. First was the flat section that comes out of the firewall that meets up with the exhausts. If seen from above, it tapers in slightly, which it shouldn't and the other is the exhausts themselves being slightly angled. But, hey ho! I thought about trying to prize them off, but I'll take half of the bearers with it, so I'll just have to put up with it! Looks better with a lick of paint, although there's a rough area behind the stubs that still needs attention. I'm using my 1/32 Tamiya Merlin from the Mk.IXc as my reference!

Looks spot-on!

Nice to see ML135 taking shape in another disguise! This is the scheme I'm doing in their 1/144 version, so I'll be taking some inspiration! Beautiful finish you have there!

Just good old strip styrene of various cross-sectional shapes and sizes and about 5 years off my sight. Got the engine in. I figured the best way to do it was to put the Merlin in place and then build the engine bearers around it. I'm only showing the port side in detail, so it shouldn't be too hard. Famous last words. Also got the fixed canopy sections on. Funny, isn't it, once those two pieces of clear plastic are in place, all of a sudden, it looks like a Spitfire!