Luke Piewalker

Are you going for the original factory fresh look or the more worn look as it currently is in the museum? Have you interlaced the spokes? Are you going to model the tieing and soldering? Are the Quick Releases modelled (I can't see them in the picture). The hubs look a bit 'modern' but certainly a vast improvement on those supplied wheels. Sorry for being all questiony and picky... it's just I really, really like bicycles...

Fausto Coppi?

Maybe the camera phone isn't the best for these pictures... The body was just dry fitted to see how it looked. My plan is to get it up to rolling chassis level and then concentrate on the bodywork.

I always think colours like red, black and white are a bit too '80's' for an LP400.

Managed to get the 'zorsts on. Just hoping they are all pointing in the right direction...

Thought I would throw my work in progress up. An 80's vintage kit that was given to me. Painting instructions a bit vague and unhelpful in places so I have had to use pictures and a bit of guesswork in parts. It'll meet my usual standards of 'ok from a distance' Biggest issue so far has been white paint... I got the 'body' done but thought I would try a spray can for the fairing. I am now stripping the paint off the fairing...

Yellow, Lime Green, Orange, Red. Bright and glossy, definitely not a metallic.

I'm happy that it meets my 'from a distance' standards... I brush paint and am not entirely happy with the silver but after 'ok from a distance' I go for, stop before you make it even worse... I've been wanting to do an all silver bird for a while. Given the amount of nose weight I would have preferred a more solid connection between the main wheels and the undercarriage legs as the pin didn't really go into the hub as such. In retrospect I also would have happily used slightly less weight and put it right forward, rather than behind the cockpit bulkhead as in the instructions. I'm guessing this is carried over from the bomber version with the glazed nose where it would be visible. I might even have considered leaving out a lot of the internals in the nose area, as unless you are very talented with a torch and microscope you can't see them anyway! I spent an awful lot of time lovingly painting my second crewman and you can't even see him...

Ah yes... I forgot to complain about that bit... no amount of decal softener worked on those bad boys... I the end I just cut slits in them with a knife, settled them down around the sides as best I could, and crudely touched it up with some paint...

Here is my Airfix 1/48 Canberra PR9 After building this one all I can say is I am glad it was cheap... The cockpit/nose area was a nightmare, the instructions were somewhat vague for many of the version specific bits and pieces and the illustration for the decals, while lovely, was a bit confusing. The decal sheet was a bit confusing too... Most unhelpful was that the panel lines on the aeroplane bore no relation to those on the picture so there was a modicum of guesswork and judgement involved. Ultimately quite happy with how it turned out though.

Here is a Challenger 1 I did a while back. Pictures not great I'm afraid. chal1 by Luke Piewalker, on Flickr chal2 by Luke Piewalker, on Flickr chal3 by Luke Piewalker, on Flickr chal4 by Luke Piewalker, on Flickr chal5 by Luke Piewalker, on Flickr

It was a fairly straightforward build. Quite a lot of clear plastic to be attached with all the windows. I would say the hardest part was attaching the engine nacelles and rear support assembly as with the weight distribution and shape it was hard to clamp without risk of sagging. I found the instructions to be slightly vague in places, and a few bits where it would tell you to paint something, then tell you you could stick decal on it... which meant you have to make a few quick decisions. Also, there was getting to the end and finding one such decal that went under firmly attached bits. It is ripe for the lighting too, lots of space inside for batteries, bulbs and wiring. I just mixed the main colour as per the instructions, which is a bit of a trial as I always find it hard to accurately measure the paints and they don't give you a colour swatch to refer to.

I did quite like the effect of the blue glow from the television I was most happy that I didn't run out of the paint I had mixed for the main colour...

Thought I would throw up some pictures of my Enterprise which I recently finished (Revell Kit). I found the instructions a bit vague in places and I hate having to mix colours, but I'm happy that the finished result looks Enterprisey enough. ent4 by Luke Piewalker, on Flickr ent3 by Luke Piewalker, on Flickr ent2 by Luke Piewalker, on Flickr ent1 by Luke Piewalker, on Flickr

Don't get me started on the aggressive internet strategy of the all pervasive tea and kittens Anyhoo... back to the topic. That was quite impressive. Slightly insane. But impressive.

I refuse to follow daily mail links. Political and ideological issues aside, I object to their aggressive all pervasive web strategy.

Do we have a non-Daily Fail link?

I wonder if there's someone excitedly showing his latest 1:1 scratchbuilt creation on Iranmodeller.com....

It's nice that all the markings are in English. Have Hannants sent any packages their way recently?

I've been lied to by cartoons and old futuristic tv shows! I should be flying one of those to work...

Nice. Did you use primer or paint straight onto the plastic? Biggest revelation of my comeback to modelling was acrylic paints and primering... Ken 8~)

Whenever I've been tempted I've looked at that vast expanse of white paint and run away screaming...

I'm currently ruining one in grey and I can heartily recommend not painting them grey... booo... down with modern gray paint schemes....

Ooh... I do like Whirlwinds...

Right... next time I'm doing one with the wheels up...