Chuck1945

I was thinking ‘why bother when there is a perfectly good Academy kit’ when I saw the topic heading but opened this anyway out of curiosity. Focusing one the recce versions certainly makes sense. I’ve got literally hundreds of kits in my stash I’ll never build and I’m pushing 80, but this one might be added to the pile anyway.

Very nice. I built a vac version at least 35 years ago - like yours better 👍

I’ve always liked the Whirlwind based on its sleek, and with a four cannon nose, powerful appearance. I’ve got the original Airfix, the later Airfix, and at least two SH kits, but never did any of them. Will be fun watching yours progress

From the little I have read and seen regarding the white F.III aircraft, the only markings showing were the roundels/fin flash and individual aircraft ID letter on the front nose wheel door, everything else was overpainted with the white. After thinking about this and the limited handling involved to just apply roundel decals, I’m going to attach the gear and see if I can avoid it being a tail sitter before doing decals. If it works, I won’t need to start over and if it doesn’t I will have saved the decals (Barracuda did a replacement set of roundels since Dragon’s really missed on the roundel colors) for the redo kit.

I have a truckload of FM 109 kits and swore I was going to pass on Eduard editions beyond just getting one to see what the excitement was all about. I know have each of their 109 dual combo issues as well as a couple of overtrees! I’ve claimed I’m happy with the Airfix P-51D kit, especially since Red Roo has done replacement parts for the easy to break stick, dorsal antennae and mlg legs so why get excited about this one. Knowing me though, I may be able to resist the RC release but I’ll end up with a DC, and some overtrees in spite of previous claims not withstanding😂

Back to it. I also have a second Dragon Meteor F.III kit I know Ill never build so I ended up scrounging the nose gear from it to fix the F.I As I showed earlier I had epoxied some weights both immediately behind the cockpit and in the front of the wing enter section but it turned out to be not enough Oops! Before making a crutch to keep the tail up, I wanted to try some 'liquid gravity' i purchased last year and got some into the nose gear bay. I'll paint it flat black so it wont be quite as obvious, but ... it worked! The pitot, aerials, nose gear doors all need to be added yet. I'm anticipating attaching the vac part for the open canopy section to be the trickiest part since the isn't much of a surface for gluing. The F.III is painted, not yet with decals but I'm in a quandary regarding it since has essentially the same weight built-in as did the F.I so I am expecting it to be a tail-sitter as well. Do I finish it and hope the 'liquid gravity' works or use the extra F.III kit with the small parts from this one?

Sorry for the long delay but I had a couple of mojo killing experiences. Work on the F.I continued since the last photo posted, the painting and decal applications stages went ok, no photos since I thought I was on a roll and would have it done by the end of February. I did continue with the F.III, Anyway, back to the F.I, main landing gear went on without trouble but disaster struck with the nose wheel. The gear assembly has a plug that goes into a corresponding hole in the bay part. Gear bay Gear assembly After fitting the gear into the bay and applying glue, I realized the gear leg was canted to one side and attempted to straighten it. Disaster struck with the pin, softened by glue, breaking off. Not to worry I thought, Ill drill a holes and use a brass pin. Drilling out the bay part was no problem, but I was off center on the leg part . After putzing around with rod and tube looking for a solution, I ended up taking a several week break (Although I did finish painting the F.III) Completely unrelated, I need to figure how to post smaller images

Probably better in the WWII section, not many Tempest V in WWI 😏

Great progress, I last checked in Friday and now the bloody thing is half done!

Another satisfied user. As decals they behave just fine and the multitude of subjects on each sheet can keep you going for quite a while if you build to the theme

Orange peel on a paint finish is a function of how you sprayed the paint, not the paint itself. If your paint is properly thinned and applied, no orange peel. Likewise if you spray heavy coats of paint you might obscure surface detail but essentially any paint designed for model use, properly applied won’t normally hide surface details

I’m starting to use Vallejo some for cockpits and have used Tamiya X/XF series paints for year airbrushing using Tamiya’s X-20A thinner. While I have the Tamiya LP and Mr Color clear paints as well, most often I end up using Tamiya XF-86 Clear Flat and X-22 Clear Gloss.

I like to use chrome on the oleo section of landing gear legs and as the reflector for lights. In 1/72, the area s involved are too small to attempt to spray so I’ve always used a brush. For me, even paint billed as chrome didn’t give a chrome (bright and shiney) look. Long way around to say the Molotow pen with the 1mm tip has worked wonders

I have a X-Acto razor saw I probably bought around 1967 when I got back into modeling, a set of those little multi shaped hold in your finger tip blades and the UMM razor saw. Trying to justify this one now… I suspect I’m a modeling tool junkie

Can’t help on the a/c ID letter or number but if I’m reading your post correctly MD109 was taken on charge 5 April 1945 but crash landed 20 January 1945?

Am understanding the teeth are breaking off if you trying to cut into a surface instead of an edge? I went back to the review this morning so I could copy the link to post here, then went to the store and actually had one in my cart but backed out

The name intrigued me so I did a search and found this article from 2015.

I don’t have that particular brush, but I do have the PS770 with a 0.18 nozzle as well as two H&S brushes with 0.2 nozzles and have no trouble with Tamiya acrylics (both X/XF & LP). Only tried Vallejo Model Air once but it worked too.

I’ve both the Airfix Mk I and II kits and at various times each had been slotted as the ‘next’ project just to be bumped down in favor of something else so I’ll tag along to watch you actually do one.

Reminded me of the days of cannon armed wooden sailing ships, the wood splinters could cause more damage to the crew than the cannonball

I think of the Mr Hobby Aqueous paint as being similar to the Tamiya X/XF series, While water based, it isn’t just water, so are not compatible with purely water based such as Vallejo.

The B-17 originally had a heavily framed top turret, it was relatively low. The Martin turret in the B-24, B-26, and Baltimore wasn’t much, if any, taller but it was pretty much frame free. By the time the B-17G was in service it had what was called a ‘high hat’ turret that was also frame free and taller than either the framed or Martin 250E turret

Hannants is showing the Revell A-1 as available https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/RV4972

There are now water soluble oil paints; https://www.winsornewton.com/na/paint/oil/artisan-water-mixable-oil/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwh4-wBhB3EiwAeJsppO5XRHdw2Cqxn0hvIBbCRt_i2hEnfxEcCSfJDelVEaqwLcq60eeTihoCA0cQAvD_BwE Also water based paints such as Vallejo can be thinned and used as washes too

Great solution. I’ve always fancied a car-door Tiffie and also have the Brengun kit as well as the Airfix kit. Assuming I get through my current and planned projects, I’ll use your plan and just use the car-door relevant parts from Brengun.