Marlin

Hi. The snow has finally stopped, and today the sun shines, and the temperature i -11C 🌞 I guess we've got around 30-40cm of snow the last three days. Not as bad as other parts of Sweden, but it's enough for me thank you very much. And I'm rather pleased I took this week of from work. 161 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Right now I'm waiting for the semi finals in the World Junior Championship in Ice Hockey later today. Sweden will meet Czechia in the first match, And USA will meet Finland in the second. And while I'm waiting I've been doing some work on my Flanker. The Brahmos cruise missile is done. 162 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And after demasking it looks like this. 163 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr The nosecone is painted FS36270 Medium Grey, the missile and the fin section on the booster is in FS36320 Dark Ghost Grey. The booster is in polished aluminium with the aft section of it in duraluminium. The straps that keeps the booster to the missile have been done in chrome. I've also started to mask of the metal panels on the engine nacelles. Topside is done. 164 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr But I still have a lot of work left on the belly. 165 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Hopefully I'll have this masked and painted Black Base by this evening. To be continued..... /Bosse

Thanks @Farmerboy The Arch light is fantastic, and with the addition of the two rechargeable side light I got the workspace flooded in a lovely 6.500 K. Daylight in my part of the world is a bit scares these days. /Bosse

Thanks Jeroen. Yes, this year we're actually having a proper winter. The first snow came late November, and we've had snow since them. A bit thawed of the days before Christmas, but it came back on Christmas Eve. I'm not so much for it, but it brightens up the place somewhat. It get's dark before 3 in the afternoon this time of the year. Back to masking, more will come during the week, so please stay tuned.... /Bosse

Hi, and welcome to mu first update for 2024. As stated in my yearbook thread I've decided to run this Mega Build thread until the end of 2026 to include the 100th Anniversary of the Swedish Air Force. This will give me time to complete what I showed in the start of 2023, and hopefully WASA as well. Today we're having a heavy snowfall here in Upplands Väsby But I don't care, I'm having the week of from work and I'm watching the Junior World Championship tournament in Ice Hockey on TV and building my aircrafts at the same time. Actually I think this is one of the best week of the year, great hockey combined with lost of bench time, it doesn't get any better than this. 414 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr The last few days I've been playing around with masking tapes of varying width and some Xtreme Metal shades on my Sk60. 415 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And when I demasked the Sk60 this was the result. The airframe is painted Matt Alu, the panels on the wings are Dur Alu, and the flying surfaces are Polished Alu. 416 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 417 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And I painted the bullet for the navigation light in Chrome. 418 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr This time I didn't get any tapemarks in the Matt Alu. I sprayed the airframe with gloss varnish before I started to mask of the panels, but I didn't respray in between masknings. But I did de-tack the masking tape a lot before I used it on the kit. Now I'll flip it over and see what panels I need to fix for the belly. And I also have to mask the two black band this aircraft has, as well as the black antiglare panel in the nose. Fun work this, even if it take for ever to mask. To be continued..... /Bosse

Gosh 20 in one year. My hat off too you Adrian. I really like the J35 Draken. /Bosse

Great ones all around Björn. /Bosse

NIce collection James. /Bosse

Thanks Gents. The paint rack is only 8cm deep so I've not lost that much work space having my paints on the bench. /Bosse

Thank you for your kind words @AliGauld /Bosse

Thanks @AdrianMF Yes I hope for a very productive 2024. /Bosse

Hi. It's time to close the books on 2023. And it was a meager year. We got our appratment back from the builders in mid November 2022 and it took some months to unpack everything. And then I lost my Mother to cancer in February. Cleaning out her appartment and getting the appartment sold also took a lot of my strenght. So for a modelling year 2023 hit's almost rock bottom with only three models finished. First one finished was the S31 Spitfire from my personal GB Sweden 500 years. The kit is Airfix Spitfire PR MkXIX in 1/48 337 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Sorry for the bad picture. The second one is also from my GB Sweden 500 years. It's Tarangus Sk50 in 1/48 397 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And the third one I actually finised on New Years Eve. It's Kinetics MQ-9 Reaper in 1/48, in RAF colours. 039 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr But besides modelling is the one thing that I'm most proud of is my new modelling bench. It started our as this in December 2022 080 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 082 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 086 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And grown in to this during spring. url=https://www.flickr.com/gp/156426495@N05/wB9Q30X0gT][/url]218 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 220 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 221 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And I've dressed it with this. 232 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 254 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 352 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 380 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 403 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And stocked it with an almost complete collection of AK Real Color and Xtreme Metals, and a few selected Mr Paint pots. 20231212_162843 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 20231219_173149 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 20231219_180819 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And today it looks like this. url=https://www.flickr.com/gp/156426495@N05/9pCn0276CG][/url]20231219_190434 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 20231219_190501 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 20231219_190507 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr I reckon it's around 65-70% done as I want it. I've decided to add a tier of Paint racks to my set up, so I'll have more room for the additional Mr Pain flask I'll be ordering when I need them. I'll also buy my self a proper spray booth, today I just use a moving box. I've been eyeing this one from Amazon. It's 97cm wide which will give me more that ample room for my collection of large Russian Aircrafts I've accumulated over the years. But for that to work I'll have to by one more MICKE desk from IKEA, my current painting table is only 80cm wide, but MICKE is 105, so that will be perfect. I'll also be adding two new display cabinets to my Livingroom. I've already purchased them, and hopefully they will be put together during this week. And my sons work bench will also be set up during the coming week. It'll be good to have a modelling buddy to spend some time with again. As for my plans for 2024. Firstly I've extended the time period for my own personal GB to stretch until the end of 2026. The Swedish Airforce will celebrate it's 100th Anniversary in 2026, so I'll try to finish all that I planned for 2023 in the same thread, but I've given myself a little more time. Also in the pipeline for 2024 is to participate in the GB's again. I've missed it this year, but for 2024 I'll be participating in; Nato, US Navy, South of the Rio Grande, Asia, F-35STGB and Made in the Ukraine. 2024 is also the 50th Anniversary of the F-16's first flight, so I'll be entering as many F-16's as I can in these GB's. Which nations I'll keep to myself for the moment. 2024 is also the 50th Anniversary of the first flight of the Tornado. I got two stalled build left from the Tornado STGB, that I'll also be working on during the coming year. So I guess that I'll be heading into an exciting 2024. /Bosse

Hi. This is my last build for 2023. I've built this in stealth mode and don't have a WIP thread here for it. It's Kinetics MQ-9 in 1/48, and I built it in RAF colours. 001 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr The kit was a real quickbuild and I had it all glue together during a full day at the bench. 005 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 007 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 008 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr I spent two days painting it. 010 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 017 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 018 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And later on some few hours with the decals. 024 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 025 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 026 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 027 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And tonight I did the final assemblies First the nose sensor, and some small pitot tubes in the wings. 029 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 030 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 031 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Undercarriage and wheels. 032 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 033 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Ordnance. 034 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 035 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And on with the propeller and she's done. 037 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 036 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 039 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And it's quite a large bird. Almost the same length as an F-16, but twice the wingspan. 040 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 041 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Well not quite done, I still have some touchup painting to do. But it'll be done with some hour left of 2023 during tomorrow. /Bosse

Hi. My plans for 2024 is to participate in a few GB's starting with Nato in April. And since it's also the 50th anniverity of the F-16's first flight in 2024 I've planned to enter F-16's in the following GB's. * Nato * US Navy * South of the Rio Grande * Asia Which nations and how many I'll keep to my self for the moment, but I think you'll like them. I'll also take part in the Made in Ukraine and the F-35 STGB. /Bosse

Hi. I've sprayed some metal colours around the gun port and panels. 160 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr I'm eager to see if this is what I wanted to try to recreate. And I guess I'll be spending lots of time during New Years with more masking tape and scalpel. To be continued..... /Bosse

Hi. My Christmas was excellent, and as I suspected I did have ample time to play with some maskingtape and scalpel. I've masked of some panels on my Sk60 and I'll give them some variations in colours according to some online photos I've found. 410 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 411 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 412 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 413 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr I really look forward to unmask this and see how it all went. To be continued..... /Bosse

I can only agree with the above, and I do enjoy the friendly atmosphere here on Britmodeller. And I also extend my whishes for a joyful and peaceful festive end of the Year to you all. /Bosse

Thanks @reini I did the same, but I still ended up with these tape marks on my Tsar Bomba. 059 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr But I got the tip to clear coat the metal paint before masking on it. So that is what I'll try on the SK60. /Bosse

Hi. Well I don't think I'm starting a business, I'm quite content with my regular day job. I've now tested Mr Paint Super Clear on top of Xtreme Metal, and it worked. I used it on my SK60 kit. The Aluminium colour was fully cured since it's been hibernating on my desk the last months. 408 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 409 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr I've only sprayed one layer of gloss on it, and I hope that will be sufficient for masking and not getting any tape residue on the aluminium. I've now sprayed it three coat and I've used up a quarter of the bottle. So I guess a bottle will last for 2-3 kits. Which means I'll have to plan ahead and see to it that I've got enough bottles home when starting a new project. And I guess I'll spend the Christmas Holiday with some maskingtape, scalpel and scissors. To be continued..... /Bosse

Hi again. I've now tested Mr Paint Super Clear Gloss. I didn't want to test it on my Flanker, so I'm using a 1/16 Queens Guard figure as a test dummy. Looks glossy after the first coat. 158 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And even better after the second coat. I let the first coat dry 30-40 minutes before I laid the second. 159 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Later today I'll mask the belt on the Guards Red coat and see if II get any reaction from the tape. I'll will also try it on something painted with Xtreme Metal colours. If this work I can then start doing the metal painting on the engine nacelles and exhaust. To be continued..... /Bosse

Thanks Jeroen. I don't think I actually bought all of them. But I broke the web shop at my local hobbyshop. They couldn't process the order because I'd put too many things in my basket. Took almost a whole day for them to process my order, and in the end they could see what I've ordered but I had to pay via a banktransfer instead of the usual card payment over the net. And the RC collection isn't complete yet, there are some 15-20 colours that was on backorder and I didn't order them this time. But they are mainly AFV or Japanese WWII aircraft colours and I don't need them right now, so I'll get them when my local hobby shop has them in stock. Now at least I think I have all the colours I'll be needing for 2024 GB season. I'll start mine in April with the Nato GB. /Bosse

Hi. Not much progress on the builds, but on the mancave part huge things has happened. I've purchased the whole collection of Real Colors and Xtreme Metal in two installments. First the missing colours from RC Air that I missed. 20231212_162843 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 20231212_172159 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 20231212_173215 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr This order took some time to get, so my local hobby shop appologiezed for the delay in form of a 15% discount on my next order. I hadn't planned to get the rest of the collection this year, but with a 15% discount the offer was too good to resists. So yesterday I took delivery of the next batch. A box absolutelly full with paint pots. 20231219_173149 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 20231219_174225 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 20231219_180323 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr The missing bottles from the Xtreme Metal range. 20231219_173603 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Thinners for Real Color and Xtreme Metal. 20231219_175612 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Four different clear varnish from Mr Paint. 20231219_175903 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr The rest of Real Colors. 20231219_180819 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And in place in their paint racks, well almost. One rack has too much paint on it, so I'll have to clean the slots a bit before I can fit the pots. And I'm also two racks short to fit the whole collection, but I'll rectify that come spring when it gets warm enough outside to spray paint the racks. 20231219_190434 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 20231219_190501 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 20231219_190507 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And from now on I hope I'll not have to pause my builds because lack of paint and varnish. To be continued..... /Bosse 🎄

Stunning build as usual @trickyrich /Bosse

Hi. I got some more progress done on my Flanker. I've come to the metal stage on the Flanker. First I've masked of the nose part for the black anti glare panel. 156 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And the section around the internal canon, and then sprayed it Xtreme Metal Black Base. 157 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr I might need a second layer of Black Base, if not I'll start some metal work this evening. And then it's time to mask the engines. To be continued..... /Bosse

Hi. I got some more progress done on my Flanker. The HUD and windscreen are in place. 148 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 149 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr I've also glued the IRIS housing in place. I had tu trim the masking tape a bit so the tape didn't get in the way. 151 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And then I used the kit provided canopy for a closed up cockpit as a mask for the cockpit. I'm not going to use it, I'll go with an open canopy on my Flanker. So the closed canopy was the best thing I had to mask of the cockpit. And it's only glued in place with Kristal Kleer, so I guess it'll come of after painting with out problems. 153 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr As can be seen the fit of the windscreen and the canopy lacks a perfect fit. I you want to have your canopy closed I guess some major work is needed to get them to fit flush against each other. 152 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr I used some tape to hold the closed canopy in place will the glue sets And now it's ready for primer and paint. 154 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Normally I should now take a break from building to get into the Festivities of Fake Christmas. But we've had too much snow the last few days here in my neck of the World, so we've decided not to go to the cottage this weekend, so instead we'll be celebrating Fake Christmas at home. And that means that I'll have a long weekend to enjoy the company of my family and I'm also able to continue work on my Flanker. To be continued..... /Bosse

Hi. I've still haven't received any clear varnish, nor any of my other RC paint pots. But I found something to do on my Flanker anyway. The horizontal stabilators has a metallic black spot on the underside that I've missed to maska and paint. So out with some masking tape and paint. 145 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And I also had time to put all the stencils on the Litening pod. 146 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 147 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr If thing slow down a bit at work, and if I don't have so much other things to fix I think I can start putting som primer on this Flanker during the week. To be continued..... /Bosse