Unkempt

Never seen this before, what are the colours on it?

Does anyone know when we can expect the Defiant to reach the US? Does Airfix have overseas release dates anywhere, or is it just a question of 'it'll get there when it gets there'? Really want one of these...

Hey, you guys carry on. This is exactly the sort of thong I love about this site! Already got plenty of ideas for future builds, but the more obscure, the better.

I've been wondering, possibly with a view to building them, how many RAF fighter types had the dark green/dark earth/sky scheme? Obviously, there's -Spitfire -Hurricane -Defiant -Whirlwind ... and I'm sure I'm missing a few. Mosquito maybe? Were there any Curtiss Hawks? What else have I forgotten?

Thanks for that, interesting stuff. I'm actually having a few fit problems with this now, but I'm honestly not sure if it's the kit or me. One thing I will say - the instructions have the centre windscreen piece being put in after the fuselage halves are together; this is physically impossible without some serious fettling. I'd recommend putting it in one half before they go together. Also, if anyone manages to get all of the seat framing pieces off the sprue without breaking them, they're some kind of god. I managed one unbroken frame out of six.

Got mine today. Overall impression are good, with some nice detail and crisp mouldings with no flash. Instructions are good and detailed: The decals look to me to be very slightly out of register? Not positive though: Hard to see in that picture but I think the yellow around the French roundels is off a tiny amount. Not really a massive problem though. Sprue shots are above, but my fuselage sprue looks like this: All the aerials are moulded with the fuselage halves, and on mine the two thin ones are bent and the teardrop (radar?) has actually broken off one half. I've no idea why these weren't separate parts. Fixable, though. Also, in the interior: The three rectangular windows are moulded in one piece, but the place where it sits has ejector pin marks that'll need to be got rid of. Not sure why they did it that way. Apart from those little oddities it looks pretty good. Cant really speak for the overall shape accuracy or the rivet count but it certainly looks like a Beech 18 to me.

Nice effects on that exhaust there.

Thanks guys. The undercarriage - I don't know what's wrong with me, I did exactly the same thing on the 1/48th Seafire 47 I built a couple of years back. I've got some sort of left-right blindness, I swear. Spare parts - I'm in the US at the moment, is this a worldwide thing? Masking - paper cutouts held on by masking tape: Seemed to work pretty well.

I finally bought myself an airbrush after many decades of being a brush-only kind of guy. And what do we get when we're trying something new? A 1/72nd Airfix Spitfire, of course. Which ended up like this: Quite happy with the result (apart from losing the tailwheel somewhere along the way. Oops.)

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.modellbau-universe.de/produkt%3Bbeechcraft-c45f-uc45f-icm%3Bicm~48181%3B11%3B1%3B1%3B1.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dicm%2Bbeechcraft%26biw%3D1546%26bih%3D842 'Announced for November'.

Thanks, guys. Huh, I don't have a stand either. To be honest, I haven't decided yet whether to build it or stick it on EBay. I just found it at random and it'd be nice if someone who really wants it gets it.

I was lucky enough to find a Revell Convair 990 Coronado for a ludicrously low price in a second hand shop, but when I got it home I noticed there were no transparencies. But, looking at the instructions, it looks like there weren't supposed to be any in the kit? Does anyone know whether there were any transparent parts in this kit? I've tried googling but can't find anything about it. It's a beautiful aircraft, by the way.

I'm just finishing up K5054 in 1/48th and have the equivalent decal set, it comes with the registration in white and slightly smaller black so you lay the white down first with the black on top to create the effect. It works quite well. Better than my attempt at those effin exhausts, anyway. I should have just made those out of decals like wellsprop did, that looks pretty good.

Oops, I wasn't being very clear last night - what I found the cat playing with was the 'missing' part 47. God knows how he got it into the bedroom. I won't have any time to carry on tonight, but hopefully I'll get it done within the week.

No, it's gone. You can even see it's gone in the sprue shot I posted up there, and I've checked the bag and the box. At least I'll get to see how good Airfix's spare parts guys are. Edit: well, guess what I just found the cat playing with... typical.

... and on top of that, I've just noticed that I'm missing part 47, the port engine bulge. I'll carry on with some bits I can do without it, but no finish this weekend. Probably a bit optimistic anyway. Ho hum.

Right, cracking on. Prop bits and UC almost ready to go: Fuselage together, wings together and a test of my EDSG: - a bit streaky but I think the colours about right. I'll clean that off and remix. Yeah. I've looked at the decals and there do appear to be about a million of them. On top of that, the wife's pulled a sickie and is threatening to make me go grocery shopping...

Well, couple of little hitches. First, 6 prop blades, each with its own little sink mark: That's sorted with a bit of filler. A bit more annoying is that I went to the shop and they didn't have extra dark sea grey. After some humming and hawing, I went for Revell 69, 'Granite Grey'. Well, I just opened it and... ... it's blue! What sort of granite do they have in Germany? It doesn't match the colour on the lid at all. Not sure what to do about this - I'll try some mixing experiments.

I know I said OOB, but I couldn't resist knocking up some (probably inaccurate and overscale) belts. Tamiya tape + scraps from the spares box.

Well, that's what I'm aiming for, anyway. The wife's working this weekend and I've got an Airfix 1/48th Seafire FR47, so why not? I've been starting too many kits and not finishing them lately so let's see what I can do. This'll be entirely OOB and (except primer from a can) brush painted, so don't expect any masterpiece. Box contents: I've heard this is a nice kit, and it certainly looks it. Right, first things first. Cockpit bits: Bit of flash on the seat, there: I opened up the top of the control column too, which was moulded solid for some reason. Next, a couple of squirts of 'primer' - in my case, Humbrol spray silver. I usually use their aluminium, but I've run out; I'll pick some up later, as I need to buy some Sky and EDSG too. I like using this for primer because it covers really well, dries very quickly and can help with weathering/paint chipping if wanted. I also filled a rather obvious ejector pin mark on the bulkhead behind the seat, which is drying while I write this. Can I get it finished? Who knows. I'll give it a shot, though.

Oh, nice - I've had a half-finished one of these sitting in its box for, um, a few months now. Really need to do something about that. Anyway, while I was doing it I found this page http://www.airminded.../neamlaird.html - which has a lot of nice photos, including the cockpit. Could be useful.

Thanks for all the kind words, guys. There's room on the diorama for another car on the other side of the tree and I've got the Triumph TR4 lined up next; it looks even worse than the Escort, so that'll be fun. I guess it'll end up being some sort of magnetic car-eating tree...

Well, this isn't quite up to the standards of some of the stuff in here, but I had a lot of fun with it. 1:32nd Airfix Ford Escort Mk1. This is a terrible kit that must date from the 60s or so. It deserves everything I did to it.

Don't know how 'realistic' it is, but that finish looks fantastic. I think this one was Matchbox originally? Pretty sure I had one about 30 years ago.

No, still haven't found anything for the domes yet. I know those gumball machine things but I think they're a bit too big. I might end up trying the plunge moulding thing, which I've never done before but looks a lot of fun (naked flames and plastic! What could go wrong?) Not a massive amount of progress this week as real life intervened, but I've got the bottom half pretty much finished: ... and a basic top to build on. Still lots to do, hopefully get a bit more done next week.