Icarus

So, first of all a dry test fit of the sub assemblies prior to starting painting, and with the nose painted black... Note the painting guide doesn't point out the black antiglare shield for the nose . Then with the initial layer of Tamiya white primer... Now, I have seen a lot of criticism of this kit online, but to be honest I don't agree. Sure, there appear to be a few labelling inaccuracies in the instructions, but nothing that a bit of common sense can't sort out. The only real problem with this kit has come from the shipping agent and the infamous "crazy paving" canopy. Now that Kitty Hawk has ceased trading, I will miss their output of esoteric but highly buildable subjects. Get them whilst you can I say... Thanks for looking, Icarus

Now, what a clever idea - a Union Jack flag. I will have a think. Or possibly a ETPS based flag...

Good evening. With the "Less then a Tenner" Fw-190 completed, I now have some time to work on this build. This is where I am this evening: As you can see, I have attached the canopies (the main ones temporarily) with white glue, then masked them with vinyl and decorator's tape. This has had the happy coincidence of covering up all the cracks in the crushed middle canopy. Unfortunately, this isn't a permanent solution! As you can also see, I have attached both the front and rear fuselage "modules" much earlier than the instructions suggest. I have scratched my head for some time, trying to work out why Kitty Hawk suggest doing this right at the end. I cannot see any reason not to do it now, and of course this will help enormously with the painting of the flamboyant scheme. We shall see if I live to regret this. Sadly, the same wasn't possible for the main undercarriage. I could not find a way of attaching this securely later in the build, so they have had to be added at the scheduled time. I did, however, find a work around for the front u/c, so at least these won't be snapped "in transit" during the build... Thank you for looking, Icarus

Good afternoon. I wasn't quite sure which version of this great looking kit to make, but I see the No.25 Sqn option is progressing smoothly through a build on this forum, so the all black one it is. Which is probably what I wanted anyway, as a primer for a whole flock of RAF WW2 night fighter builds that is rattling around in my imagination... Anyway, here we go for starters: Now, just the minor matter of completing the "Unarmed GB" Kittyhawk 1/48 ETPS Jaguar T2 and a commissioned 1/48 PZL P.23B first, so it may be a little while before I update this... Thanks for looking, Icarus

Kit: Tamiya 1/48 Focke-Wulf F190 D-9 "JV44" Markings: JV44 Würgerstaffel Red 1 Lt. Heinz Sachsenberg April 1945 Extras: Home made Tamiya tape canopy masks. Wing probe made from steel rod Paint: Vallejo acrylics Tamiya lacquers, Alclad metals and Semi-matt varnish. Weathering: Dilute Windsor and Newton Oils, artists' pastels Original build thread here: Thanks for looking, Icarus

Whoops. Forgot to the aerial wire and the (presumably Adolf Galland) figure that came with the kit. Now added/painted. Thanks for looking, Icarus

OK, well after some slow progress, the finishing straight for this build was actually pretty short. All done. The canopy isn't fixed as you can see in the photos. I'll put some decent photos in the Gallery. Thanks for all the helpful suggestions, Icarus

Good evening everyone. The upswing in the CoVID rates have meant work has been busy, but I did get a bit of time this weekend to add the decals, and I am now in the midst of the weathering process. These aircraft would not have been too weathered in use, so aiming to not overdo it, with a light oil pin wash and some pastels. The chipping reflects reference photos. As you can tell, the canopy has only been placed on in the top photo. Still need to add the intrepid pilot, who would been Lt Heinz Sachsenburg according to the instructions. I am also mid way through building the u/c. Will add the delicate bits, then a final Satin varnish before installing the Lt and ending with unmasking the canopies. Hoping to have this finished this week at some stage, so I can then focus fully on the T2 Jag in the Unarmed GB. Thanks for looking, Icarus

So, a bit of a delay whilst I awaited delivery of the 2mm tape. Happily this arrived this morning, so I had a chance to replicate the somewhat flamboyant lower surface camouflage.. So far, so conventional, although the strips of removed masking tape on the cutting mat are a bit of a giveaway... Ahem... A few minor touch ups needed, but overall I think the masking approach looks to have been a success. Thanks for looking, Icarus

So, after starting to glue this kit, it is immediately obvious that the engineering design is excellent, but the execution leaves a bit more to be desired. There are multiple significant stubs tabs on the plastic, often at mating surfaces, and the soft and often warped plastic components are a real nightmare. However, the engraved detail is exquisite. So an example of the "good"... (built entirely from kit components, including supplied PE instruments, consoles and seat belts) Followed by an example of the "challenging". Even with all that compression, the front fuselage halves are barely approximated. The even more warped upper rear fuselage frame will need to be glued together later.. One thing's for sure - my original plan to build the fuselage halves then combine them to try and avoid gaps has gone out of the window! Oh well - if it was easy everyone would do it, as my old flying instructor used to say. Stay safe and thank you for looking, Icarus

Thanks Brad - not that I can find.... Anyway, did a bit of work on this last night and this morning. I am not really going to follow the Kittyhawk instructions, especially as they insist on building the nose and main fuselage components as complete subassemblies, before bringing them together at the end. Ignoring the obvious risks of misalignment, that would make painting the "Raspberry Ripple" scheme a bit of a nightmare. Anyway, initial gluing of the rather nice PE to the cockpit components: And post painting this morning. As usual I have slightly over-emphasised the red and yellow details, as otherwise they will get lost in the gloom of the dark cockpits: Hoping to have the cockpits built up this evening, before starting on my own version of the fuselage construction. Thanks for looking, Icarus

Hi all. With the completion of the "splinter scheme" Belgian AF Alpha Jet earlier in this GB, and business travel to Moscow still not looking like it will get going again any time soon, I actually think I might be able to attempt a second build for this GB. I am going to attempt to build this "slightly worse for wear" Jaguar T.2 If you look closely at the first picture, you can see what appear to be 4 extra aerials on the rear dorsal spine of the box illustration. These actually represent the parts of the box where sprue components were forced through, due to crushing of the box in transit. I have spent much of the last 6 months trying to get this refunded by the Chinese seller, but no avail. The main victim of this trauma was the middle canopy, which arrived shattered into several bits. As Kittyhawk appears to have no aftermarket care, I have not been able to replace this item, so have had to try and glue the bits together as best I can. The result is shown below: I am hoping that the vibrancy of the ETPS "Raspberry Ripple" scheme, plus the fact that the canopies will be mounted open, will help to distract from the obvious flaws in this transparency. We shall see... Thanks for looking, Icarus

So, change of plan here. Having gone to the trouble of laying down a layer of white primer on the lower layer (and then having to the touch up the white specks that seemed to migrate to the upper surfaces of the wings) I am going with plan #1 - masking then adding the red layer, rather than use the kit decals. I was also swayed by the 1:1 painting plans mentioned above - this will make placement of the relevant tape masks much easier. Just waiting for some Tamiya 2mm "tape for curves" to arrive now... Icarus

Morning all. Just a few progress piccies here. First, as this is a Tamiya kit, they supply 1:1 scale colour plans that mean you can generate paper masks via print offs of scanned copies: This is where we are this morning. I have just clicked the wings and tail planes into the fuselage to see if there are any ghastly errors. I can see already that I will need to add a bit more RLM 83 to the tail plane roots, for example. Scuff marks at the wing roots are done by the standard Alclad Airframe Aluminium/Maskol/paint/"stiff brush abrasion" method. This looks a bit stark at the moment, but after the oil pin wash/pastel weathering later on, it will blend in more. Next step - industrial quantities of kabuki tape masking, ready for the red/white stripe lower colours! I will be going with the kit decals for the stripes, so this means painting the red on the sub assemblies, then gluing the wings and tail planes on, before then adding the decal stripes to ensure correct alignment. Should be fun! Thanks for looking, Icarus

Kit: Italeri 1/48 Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet E. Old ESCI moulds! Markings: Force Aerienne Belge, "35 Years of Alpha Jet", 2014 Commerative scheme. Extras: Pavla resin ejector seats. Home made Tamiya tape canopy and splinter scheme masks. Paint: Vallejo acrylics Tamiya lacquers, Alclad metals and Semi-matt varnish. Weathering: Dilute Windsor and Newton Oils, artists' pastels Original build thread here: Thanks for looking, Icarus

Oops - forgot the canopy decals, plus the fin aerials. Now on! Again, thanks for looking. The rest of the latest photos will be going with this one to the Gallery. Icarus

OK - all done now. I will post photos in the Gallery later. Thank you for all the helpful comments, Icarus

So, decaling is now complete. Impressively tough decals, which were amenable to manoeuvring but reacted well to setting solutions. Next steps are some very modest weathering (the original aircraft looks pretty pristine in reference photos) then a satin varnish, before removal of masks. Finally I'll add the delicate/dangly things, and we're done. Thanks for looking, Icarus

Thank you for the comments everyone. Adrian - I'm inclined to do the same with this build, to be honest. Anyway, being a Tamiya kit, this just clicks together. This is where I was this evening, just before laying down the primer. The only parts of this held together with glue are the fuselage halves, the seam of which has been sanded and polished. I will glue the components together later. Thanks for looking, Icarus

OK, with the pre-decal varnish now laid on the "Unarmed GB" Splinter Alpha Jet, I have a 24h window to work on this build. I am going to have the pilot figure in-situ, so no need to add any harnesses. This is where things are this morning, after painting and weathering the pilot and cockpit. The lovely weather means photographing is a bit of a challenge with the high background light! Thanks for looking, Icarus

So, this is the final outcome this morning. Wings have just been placed in their slots to check how well lined up the elements are! A few inevitable touch ups are needed, as I forgot to burnish the final layer of masks before putting on the the sea grey, with the consequential leaks around a few of the raised panel lines. Not too bad though - you can see I have already been working on them with a toothpick, so just a few dabs of the relevant greys needed now. I shall probably wait until I've glued the wings on, as there may need to be a few more touch ups after this. I also need to fill in those redundant wing pylon holes! Next stage will then be a gloss varnish, followed by decals. Thanks for looking, Icarus

So this is the first stage of masking yesterday... Note the "anti-idiot" labels - this splinter pattern is pretty complicated! Now after laying the second paint layer - XF-19 looks to be a pretty good match for the mid grey, looking at photos... Next step is to make the masks for the mid grey. This is all a new experience for me, and a great learning experience. Thanks for looking, Icarus

So, here is the fuselage this afternoon following some filling, sanding and polishing sessions.... This is later this evening, after the first light grey layer/primer was down. Next step - a lot of masking for the splinter camouflage... Thanks for looking, Icarus

Model: Airfix 1/48 English Electric Canberra B.20, RAAF, No.1 (Bomber) Sqn Extras: Built out of the box Paints: Tamiya lacquers, Tamiya white primer for white colours. Weathering: Windsor and Newton oils, ground artists pastels Build thread here: Thanks for looking, Icarus

So, getting on with this. The base kit is very old (raised panel lines etc), with a pretty poor fit. I have bought, and now painted, two resin ejection seats to provide a bit more detail to the cockpit. The canopy will remain closed in this one, so I am hoping this will suffice. And this is where things are this morning. Starting to sand down the chasms in the build fuselage. The wings and ejection seats are just tacked in for the photo. Thanks for looking, Icarus