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“Watch my form” P-40N-15 A29-572, 78 Sqn. RAAF - Completed


trickyrich

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Being first in I claim this STGB in the name of the Colonies! :tease:

 

I have been waiting a while for this one to come, a chance to reduce the stash by a miniscule (it’s about to be re-filled) and a chance to add another RAAF beast to the collection and finally to build something I haven’t built before.

 

So enter Eduard’s (Hasegawa) Limited Edition 1/32nd Warhawk P-40N……in a ridiculously huge box!!! There’s no photo’s of that as it was the first thing to go! 

 

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Now in a smaller box with all the non-required parts removed, takes up way less space. I must say it does look to be beautifully moulded with nice fine details…….

 

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……being a Eduard re-box it comes with some nice basic goodies……

 

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……plus a ridiculously huge decal sheet as well! Why not just do it in two sheets I don't know, it'd make storing them safely so much easier…..

 

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 …… and finally being a Limited Edition release it comes with these “extras”, a poster of the cover picture along with an embossed metal plate with raised detail in all the right places!!! :yikes:

 

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Is that it…..nup, it wouldn’t be a trickyrich build without some extras   :D  ……….

 

….Eduard’s love new Zoom series IP and Master Model Gun Barrel & Detail set.

 

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Finally the scheme, for me it couldn’t be anything else than a RAAF P-40, we used around 840 of them and they were an incredibly important aircraft for us during the war and played a critical role in some battles.

 

So I’ll be using a lovely set of Ventura Decals for a RAAF P-40N Kittyhawk Mk.VI. The actual aircraft is “Watch my form”, a 79 Squadron P-40N-15 A-29-572 off Noemfoor Island (a tiny island just of West Papua) around late 1944. 

 

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Here is an extract from the ADF Serials website for this particular aircraft;

 

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(this is from the decal sheet......... hmmm I wonder what the "Pink Highlights" are they're talking about!! :wicked: )

 

served with 80 Sqn and 78 Sqn; on 10/2/44 received by 80 Sqn from 15 ARDRP; on 13/6/44 received by 78 Sqn from 22 RSU where it had gone for an engine change from 80 Sqn; on 19/8/44 while dodging ack-ack fire over the target the starboard wing struck a tree with P/O Richard Roy Cowley (405834) flying it home without further incident; on 13/9/44 received back at 78 Sqn from 22 RSU; on 8/1/45 it crashed while W/O Geoffrey James Bellamy (432737)was taking off at Wama strip Morotai when it blew out the port tyre and at the time was coded HU-P and had inherited the nose art of "Watch My Form"; on 15/1/45 approval was given to convert to components.

 

I’m looking forward to this one, it should be a nice simple straightforward build for me for a change.

 

One final interesting fact, Flt. Lieutenant Clive Caldwell (formally Group Captain) RAAF was the highest scoring P-40 pilot form any air force, 22 victories, he finished the war on 28.5. 

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Ok a bit of a pre-start talk first. :D

 

I’ve been spending a bit of time finding out stuff about the particular aircraft I’m building. 

 

“Watch my from” was carried by a 3 different aircraft of 78 Squadron aircraft, one of them recording 140 missions.

 

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Most photographs of her are when she was on HU-P A29-572 flown by F. Sgt D. Smith.

 

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(note these photos are from 78 Sqn website and are allowed to be reproduced)

 

From what I have read the “Lucky 13” was roughly chalked in red indicating that this aircraft would be the last that day to dive bomb and enemy held village. The mission was recorded by an official photographer.

 

She later crashed on take off in March 45 and the cowling was then fitted to HU-N A29-558.

 

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I haven’t been able to find out the 3rdaircraft she flew on, will have to try and keep looking.

 

The finish on all these aircraft was quite good, fade and slightly miss matched paint (Foliage Green patched on factory Olive Drab), but generally clear and not too weathered.

 

Though there are a couple of photos showing the wings on one Kittyhawk looking the worst for wear due to the armorers hob-nailed boots!

 

I think I now have enough info to start her, am looking forward to this one.

 

 

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5 hours ago, GREG DESTEC said:

Nice!

 

I have been thinking about getting one of these 1/32 Hase P-40s for a while now so will be keen to see this one get underway.

 

Cheers Greg 👍

you should, she an absolute beauty!!! I have been very harsh in the past with Hasegawa models....their 1/48th F-14 is almost a basket case!! But this one is a beauty, it's like building a good Tamiya one and it goes together so quickly.

 

I have an update to do on her and will post in the morning.

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First up I’ll go in the record that I will almost forgive Hasegawa for that monstrosity called the 1/48th Tomcat all because of this beautiful model!! :wub:  It is so nicely moulded and the fit……it’s leaves some of the Tamiya ones to shame….just why couldn’t they have done the same with the F-14!!!

 

There are a couple of minor things that could have been done better but it is a must if you want a large scale P-40. I guess the other versions in this scale are very much the same and would really be worth tracking down, especially seeing the Trumpy version is a bit of a dog and just as expensive! Unfortunately the P-40N version is now almost unobtainable which is a huge shame.

 

Anyway back to the build, she literally falls together. The cockpit has it’s base coat already to be detailed. Curtiss decided for whatever reason to use their own version of Interior Green (not Zinc Chromate as listed in the instructions) which is from what I can gather a wee bit darker with a brown/grey tint to it??? Of course no one has the exact colour mix or paint available (from all the looking I’ve been doing), so the plan is to do all the shading and highlighting first then I mist over either a super thinned brown/grey to change the colour a bit. I don’t want to do any custom mixes in case I have to repair something or I’ve forgotten to paint it…that’s just too much trouble.

 

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I’m using Eduard’s new Zoom IP for this build, gee it’s nice and does look better than their PE ones. If you are lucky enough to have one of these models in the stash just be careful following the instructions for the different instrument panels. Eduard have got them about face for the 2 versions, the one they tell you to use for the P-40N-1 version is actually for the N-5 and later version, and visa versa! Remember to check your references.

 

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I’ve built up some of the other bits, Eduard has gotten the PE grill locations back to front for the 2 radiators, they need to be fitted on the opposite sides to that shown. The bomb has been give some texture with a thin coating of filler.

 

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The tail unit is a completely separate unit so it can be built up right away, only one join needs a wee bit of attention. Test fits show everything fits nicely together.

 

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Finally I’ve spent quite a bit of time going over the colour scheme, which is the standard Olive Drab over Neutral Grey. Any touch-up work done in the field was done using Foliage Green or Dark Sea Grey. So they could get quite patchy, but other than faded they weren’t left very dirty at all. The one difference with this aircraft was that the underside of the cowling wasn’t neutral Grey but Sky. This explains some of the tone variations that can be seen in the BW photos.

 

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Plus I’ve just noticed in the above photos the white over spray on the propeller blades!!

 

I’ve only be on the build for a day and I’m totally loving it, I’m very tempted to just keep working on her….. I could almost have her done by this time next week!!!

 

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Great start Rich!

 

Looks like a wonderful kit, but quite rare these days. I have the old Revell 1/32 E model in the stash but that will take a bit of time , effort and extra work to get anywhere near this standard.

 

Keep it it up.

Cheers Greg 👍

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Ok a fairly substantial update this time as I’ve done heaps, I really must slow down!

 

Ok first off there a couple of issues I had with the build nothing major and it still doesn’t affect the overall love of this model or the build. So lets get on with it…

 

……. The wheel wells were finished and fitted, not the best of fits as it can move around a bit. But it does give the wing strength and sets the dihedral correctly.

 

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With the painted U/C legs it does look good.

 

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Ok lots of time was spent on the cockpit, other than the PE bits the only other extra I added besides the IP was I replaced the moulded in rod behind the seat. The harness is actually meant to go over this, something it could originally. The whole unit looks great and nothing is hidden below that canopy!!

 

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With the wing together I could work on the gun inserts. The moulded in guns were replaced with Master brass versions, not the easiest of task at all. The instructions for the barrels tell you to use a 3mm drill and just drill them out. That is a recipe for disaster, it’s not that simple at all. I drilled a 1mm pilot hole then carefully opened up the hole with files. This gave me much more control and allowed them to fit perfectly, I’d really recommend this way.

 

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The black line is a bit of stretched sprue needed to fill a gap.

 

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They do look good sitting there, I’ll fit them permanently later. 

 

Now one of the issues, these gun barrel blocks don’t fit very well at all, even with careful prep work there were still nasty gaps to sort out. The good thing for me was I didn’t have any barrels in the way. This allowed me to get an absolute perfect fit and finish. These were not separate items or had panel lines on the real thing.

 

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Right it’s starting to get there.

 

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A little bit of jumping around here as I was doing multiple things at once. The cockpit tub and radiator were fitted and the fuselage joined up. I would REALLY recommend you only glue the cockpit tub to one side at the moment, will explain a bit further. Once it was completely dried I fitted the tail unit……and there’s the second nasty join on the model to sort out.

 

The instruction say to build the fuselage and tail units first and then join, other builds I’ve read have joined each tail to it’s fuselage first then joined the lot together. Either way you’ll have this join to sort out. I did it by the instructions and did lots of test fitting before gluing the tail on one section at a time (constantly checking everything was aligned).

 

I was quite worried at the time as there were quite noticeable steps and I thought I’d loose details correcting it. 

 

So to sort it all out, first no filler until the very end else there goes the detail! The panel lines were deepened a bit more as with the rivets, then it was carefully block sanded and polished, then the process repeated. After the 4 cycle a tiny bit of filler was required before a final sanding and polishing. The final results a near perfect join, I just need to touch up the rivets and it’s done.

 

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The same process was done on all the other joins.

 

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sorry about the blurry photo!

 

Right the next major task will be fitting the wings, test fitting showed there were issues, the wings sat a bit higher then the matching join on the fuselage and there was a rather large gap at this join as well.

 

To fix the height issues a small shim (0.010”) was made from plastic card and fitted to the lower part of the wing.

 

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This was all that was needed to correct the height issue.

 

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Next the gap, I knew this was going to be an issue early on from test fits and was the reason I only glued the cockpit tub to one side only. This then allowed me to fit spacers to widen the fuselage slightly where it needed it.

 

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The results, a tiny gaps to fill with a small bit of stretched sprue.

 

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A couple of other things, these lights (??) on either side need to be filled on N model P-40’s (maybe even as far back to K’s or L’s, check ref's), the instructions fail to mention this.

 

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Plus the sloping section behind the seat, the instructions tell you to paint this ZC primer or actually Curtiss Interior Green (as it's is here), but actually this should be painted Olive Drab on all N-5’s and later. On another build I was looking at they had provided an actual production drawing showing this. So I need to redo this.

 

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I’m really either going to have to slow down else I’ll have her finished by the end of the weekend. All the paint arrived today so there’s nothing really to stop me. Build wise she’s just falling together without any real issues at all, I just love this build!

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6 minutes ago, trickyrich said:

these lights (??) on either side need to be filled on N model P-40’s

 

Right, they're "station-keeping lights", and were in vogue for a relatively brief period.

 

You ARE flying right along, Rich!

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I like the way you've got the Master cannon barrels to fit. Its the part of the build which I'm not looking forward to.

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3 hours ago, Wentworth said:

I like the way you've got the Master cannon barrels to fit. Its the part of the build which I'm not looking forward to.

they do look really good, plus you'll notice how small the kit ones were.

 

They're not hard to fit, you just need to take your time. The way I did it is the easiest and has less chance of going wrong.....and I can usually find interesting ways to stuff things up!

 

The way I did it seemed the easiest, start by drilling a 1mm (or there about) pilot hole, then enlarge it a wee bit then use a nice fine round file to open it up. As you get closer to the size, then smooth off what's left of the old gun fairings, then continue on opening up the hole till the new barrel just fit. Then just glue in that section (it's not the easiest as it does fit a bit odd...well it did for me) and smooth it to fit the rest of the wing. The barrels will just slide in later, don't worry they won't fall in. 

 

I think just drilling it out to the 3mm is just a bit too risky, especially as the surface is curved.

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Right I'm trying to push this one along as I’d like to have her ready for a show/comp on this weekend……will see how we go!

 

The rear section behind the pilots seat is now the right colour OD. I’ve done the masks for the canopies, I had the redo the ones for the braces on the rear section of the canopy as they were too wide. On the real thing they are quite fine, plus the sides have been painted.

 

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The prop/spinner are all ready for painting. Still finding slight flaws in the joins, plus those bullets shaped fronts to the main gear were an absolute pain to sort out!!! 

 

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I’ve painted the prop/spinner, I had a wee attempt to wear/weather the spinner, but just not happy with how it looked/came out. It’s really hard from the photos to tell how worn the paintwork was here. One thing I did notice was the overspray on the prop blades. No real masking when they painted the spinner white. Now do I attempt to copy that or not, else everyone thinks I just did a poor masking job as I doubt any would have seen these photos!!

 

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Right after many more hours of sorting out small flaws I’m just about ready for painting. Bomb rack fitted, still not sure if I’ll fit it or not!

 

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Both canopies are fitted and what a pain they were! There is no join at the rear so I spent ages trying to remove/hide it, clear canopy plastic is much harder then the grey stuff! So it’s very easy to remove too much of one and not the other. I won’t know what it’ll be like until some paint.

 

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The front was even worse, I sort of stuffed it up as the canopy is a wee bit too wide. So I was concentrating on getting the rear half aligned and managed to get the front slightly off centre. By the time I found it, it was too late to correct! Not happy with this join at all!

 

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Wee bits of PE on the tail….I wonder how long they’ll last!

 

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The last time she’ll look like this! Depending I what I find after the primer coat I may start the painting this afternoon.  

 

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Not sure of the painting sequence yet and whether I’ll do an aluminium base coat first. Plus do I do the white bits first or do it more correctly and add them last….coverage maybe the issue there!  Guess will find out next update!

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…well the painting is not quite finished but the major stuff is done.

 

It took a couple of coats of primer with filling/sanding in between to get her ready. I really hate having to use filler, even leaving them to cure for a couple of days before sanding and it still shrinks! Plus using lacquer doesn’t help either. Anyway she looked more together with a coat of primer. 

 

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Right first painting decision was whether to give her a base coat of aluminium or not. Not doing so would mean I’d have a tough paint finish but would need to add “chips” later, doing so would mean realistic chipping but a fragile finish.

 

So for course I went for the hard way………. but again she does look good……..and shows up every flaw!! It’s almost as if I’d wasted all those hours trying to get those joins sorted!

 

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I used Master Models Metalizer Non-Buffing Aluminium paint and gave it a light buffing just to remove any loose paint dust. The Buffing version is really nice but nothing really wasn’t to stick to that stuff!,

 

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The one was whether to paint the white panels first or last, either way would require masking, so again the harder option….

 

So on they went, no messing around with inbetween photos……

 

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…and I’m really happy with the finish, a couple of minor touch-ups required (I had the paint and primer lift in one spot…really don’t know why it does it). I was a bit concerned about the coverage of the white over the main colours, but it came out exactly how I wanted it. I used Tamiya XF2 White super thinned and just gradually built up the colour to what I wanted.

 

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The cowling was painted LifeColor RAAF Sky Blue. They don’t mention why it was originally painted this colour and not Neutral Grey, it may have been a replacement from another aircraft. The cowling was later used on two different aircraft after this one was written-off! You can see the small area where the paint lifted off!

 

Finally the wing leading edges were done.

 

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With everything just sitting there she looks quite nice. There was a lot of measuring involved so that the got the demarcation line correct of the cowling as the “lady” needs to be in the right spot! Will find out when decaling time comes!

 

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Next job will be the insignia’s, these will be painted on, so more masking required. More work but they’ll look so much better, unfortunately I don’t have masks for the codes. I’ll redo the blue on the nose cone as well, those scratched don’t look right.  I really want to get a clear gloss coat on as soon as I can to help protect the finish, that Lifecolor almost falls off just looking at it! 

 

 

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thanks, she's changed a bit since that photo!

 

Will have my final update done either tonight of first up in the morning, she should all be done by this time tomorrow. Would have to be one of my fastest builds for something this size, just shows how nice this model really is to build!

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haha we'll see.......

 

well this will be the last update on this build and boy has it flown! A real testament to what a great model this is.

 

I had hoped to finish her today but a minor stuff up on my part means it probably won’t be done until tomorrow.

 

Right all the minor stuff has been done and is pretty much ready for fitting. I completely redid the wheels, I had to even pull them apart, they’re much better now and ready to by dirtied up. Fitted brake lines and made up tiny line support. The exhaust pipe look a bit dark in this photo, plus the gun barrels have had a soak in burnishing liquid.

 

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Right my stuff up!  The prop and spinner were all done then I realized you shouldn’t be able to see the joins!!  :doh:   I’ll have to carefully mask it up and sort it out. That overspray on the blades took a bit of effort to do right….when you don’t want overspray it’s really easy to do!

 

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The main decals what few there are, are on and boy those Ventura decals are awesome!! Really thin and compliant, you can barely see them, unlike the ones supplied buy Eduard!

 

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The painted insignia’s came out really well even if I did it a bit backward and made hard work of it. Normally I would paint the hole thing white first then add the various colours, but I have gotten fine white edges in the past and they really stand out on dark surfaces. This time I worked from the inside out masked off the white and painted. Then carefully covered it and painted the blue….sounds easy but really wasn’t. But the end results are perfect, again lacquer paint was used.

 

 

..........and no more photos until she’s done. :wicked:

 

 

So not a lot left to do, those Eduard decals are a bit annoying as they are quite thick and very shiny when on. I may only add a few of them, I'll think about it. But first up I’ll get the wash done, once I’ve made my mind up on the decals a coat of flat and then some weathering….but not too much. They were keep quite clean even though they were all very faded.

 

 

 

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Looking good Rich!

 

Can't wait for the big reveal 😬

 

My Master Gun barrels arrived yesterday and they are awesome looking. I see you have treated yours to burnishing liquid, er....what is that? And what does it do??

 

Cheers Greg 👍

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1 hour ago, GREG DESTEC said:

My Master Gun barrels arrived yesterday and they are awesome looking. I see you have treated yours to burnishing liquid, er....what is that? And what does it do??

They certainly are nice. The burnishing stuff I use is Uschi's Burnishing Agent for Brass, it does a nice job but the finish can be a bit fragile.

 

Just a sneak peek! You can see the barrels, the brass has a nice gun metal finish now,

 

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I just have the weathering to do and she'll be done, been busy day though, fixing the spinner was a pain, then those rotten kit decals decided to go silver on me after I'd clear flat coated everything!!!

 

But found a trick to fix it! Used a needle (old spray gun one) and pricked the surface of the decal where it had silvered and then applied some Mr Hobby "Mr Mark Softener" on them and left for a little bit. Then just cleaned up with a damp cloth and the problem was gone!

 

 

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Damn, those tyres/wheels look stunning!  Also really like the appearance of the guns/fairings- there seems to be just a bit of "metal" showing where you might expect to see some.  And is it just a coincidence, or did you manage to have something kinda visible through the holes aft of the spinner?

 

 

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3 hours ago, gingerbob said:

Damn, those tyres/wheels look stunning!  Also really like the appearance of the guns/fairings- there seems to be just a bit of "metal" showing where you might expect to see some.  And is it just a coincidence, or did you manage to have something kinda visible through the holes aft of the spinner?

 

 

thanks Bob, those wheels are actually a lot cleaner than the ones in the photos. They were part of the resin extra's that came with the model.

 

Those barrels as I mentioned to greg have only just been soaked in burnishing solution, only this time I left them in for quite a bit longer. They now have a nice gun metal finish, though if you rub them too hard they'll go back to a brass colour.

 

Arr I'm not too sure what you mean, but nothing in the background is intentional, more like I forgot it was there. If it's the blurred P-40, it's was one of the other choices in the Ventura decals set. After using them I just can't say enough nice things about them, the perfect decal is the best way to describe them and they're just so easy to use and very forgivable. During the panel washing I literary drowned then in thinners and they didn't react. I just wish they had done the decals for my Typhoon! I'm definitely going t get a 1/48th set for RAAF one for my Beaufighter! 

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