A pair of Spitfire Mk. XIV's -- 1/72

[opus999]

Busy weekend, but somehow managed to get close to my goals.  I'd hoped to have the wings on both models, but in the end I only have one.  There's a lot of work on both of these kits -- the Academy because I butchered it (in a good way) and the Sword because it is a somewhat difficult kit. The Sword detail is very nice, but there have been a couple of fit problems that could've been resolved with better engineering (interference problems).  Also, I have to clean every part since there is a lip around the edge of almost every part.  Not quite flash, but definitely some sort of seam from the molds.  This takes a lot of time too.

 

I just realized I uploaded photos Thursday night, but didn't post them.  So I guess I'll start there!

 

I got the cockpits painted.  I drybrushed silver on the instrument panels, too.

 

Academy:

 

 

Sword:

 

 

I decided to use the Academy seat belt decals, even though my experience with their decals has been bad.  But the steel ones are expensive, so I'll go with decals if they're offered.  I wasn't disappointed, the decals were trash.  Still got them to work though!

 

 

 

The fit of the cockpit in the Academy was excellent.  Less so was the Sword.  In fact it was very frustrating since there were grooves to guide the rear bulkhead, but there were no positive stops so you could easily position the cockpit too high or too low.  There also was no groove or guide for the instrument panel.  In the end I had to glue the two fuselage halves together in conjunction with gluing the cockpit in.  Since there are no pegs on the fuselage halves I had to ensure that they were lined up correctly while trying to get the cockpit positioned correctly.  It made for a frustrating 40 minutes or so.  Unfortunately, there is an interference with the wing that looks unavoidable.  I positioned the cockpit with the canopy on, so it is as high as it can go:

 

 

But, the bottom of the back bulkhead pushes the bottom of the wing out by at least a couple of millimeters.  So I will have to grind it down.  Here's the offending part, not that you can tell it's a problem in this view:

 

 

I need to go back in time a bit.  Before the cockpit was inserted, I had to put the top part of the cowl on the Sword kit:

 

 

 

A lot of care had to be taken to ensure that the panels were all flush.  Also, I had to be careful with the part inside the cowl because if installed as shown in the instructions the exhaust stacks wouldn't fit in there.  Needless to say I'm not very impressed with the instructions.  And speaking of which...  to assemble the wing, you must first put a couple of landing gear bay pieces in.  The instructions aren't real clear where they go, so I had to work that out.  The instructions also show them as being 90 degrees to the wing surface.

 

 

This may be how they are in the real aircraft, I don't know, but the wing won't fit together if they are installed that way.  Luckily I've learned that with this kit I need to glue, then dry fit other pieces before the glue sets! This is how it ended up to fit in the wing:

 

 

 

Additionally, I had to cut about 4 mm off of one of the parts as they interfered with the other wing half. 🙄 Glad I checked.  All of this really doesn't matter anyway since these pieces are very difficult to see.

 

Most of today was spent sanding and filling to get the fuselage seams right.  I'm happy with those now.  I was able to get the Academy's wings and horizontal stabilizers on:

 

 

I've still got plenty of work to do on the wings.  I need to fill the outer MG holes in the wing and grind off the radiator intakes. Also, I will need to sand down this transition, which shows how much I took off the bottom of the cowl area:

 

 

Similarly, I need to work on the back of the wing piece because of the amount of plastic I took off the fuselage.  Luckily, the plastic is thin and soft. A couple of nights ago, I glued in a couple styrene tabs for it to attach to, and today I pressed and held the wing until the glue set and the transition at the seam isn't terrible:

 

 

Happily, the wing roots along the walkway are terrific, which is great because I find those the hardest to fix:

 

 

The front part of the wing root isn't so great, but I find those easier to fix:

 

 

As you can see, there is a step along the leading edge.  That is strange because there is no such step on the other wing.  So there is a lot of work left to do on the Academy wing before I can think of painting.  The Sword wing still needs to go on, and dry fitting shows that the wing root seam may not be great. 

 

 

 

[opus999]

I glued the wings on the Sword, and boy what an ordeal that has been!  First I had to take the Dremel tool to the bottom of the cockpit to get the bottom part of the wing to fit:

 

 

 

It took a lot of filing to get the wings to fit correctly because the body was too wide at the wing root.  I then had to file along the bottom of the body to try to eliminate a really bad step, but it wasn't possible to completely eliminate it:

 

 

 

The transition from the wing to the body in the back wasn't too bad

 

 

The front fit snugly, but as you can see toward the back there is pretty bad step.

 

 

 

You see the shims in that last picture... that was my surprise for today.  When I left it last night everything looked even.  I don't know what happened over night, but...

 

 

I don't know if you can see it, but the port wing sticks way up, the starboard wing was just right, but the port one was terrible.  So I had to break that join along the wing root (which was pretty exciting with a loud "CRACK!") and shim it so that it would be the right angle.

 

 

In the end it turned out OK.

 

 

But, the wing roots need a lot of help.  I sanded them down as much as I could and then applied putty.

 

 

I have a feeling that is going to be a rough task to get looking right.

 

I don't get it... I've seen some great builds of this Sword kit and have never heard any real complaints.  Is it just the nature of short run kits and everyone just expects these issues? (this is only my 3rd short-run kit).  Or am I just lucky? 🙄

 

On the Academy front, I jammed toothpicks in the MG holes and soaked them in CA.  I'll be able to sand them down tomorrow.

 

 

But on the bright side, they both look like Spitfires!

 

[opus999]

Spent most of the week sanding.  And filling.  and sanding. and... you get the picture.  The Sword needs sanding and filling because the parts aren't well designed.  The Academy because I messed with the shape and now I need to fix all the mis-matches that have resulted.  Still... I'm lurching slowly toward success.

 

The Sword is determined to fight me every step of the way.  I got the wings to where I was satisfied with them and all that was left was the radiator intakes and the intake under the nose (oil?).  The radiator intakes seemed straightforward so I figured they would be a quick job.  Ha. Ha.  Silly me.

 

First off, the instructions are completely mis-leading

 

 

Notice they show the radiator parts as having a right angle lip and that there are some raised guides in the wing.

 

um... nope.

 

 

I didn't get a picture, but there were no right angle lips on the radiator parts.  Plus, the edges were deliberately beveled, which I couldn't figure out the purpose for at all.  I sanded the bevels off so they would be square and then had to trim the sides because the radiators were too wide and wouldn't fit in the intakes.  Finally, all was snug and secure:

 

 

Later, I went to attach the intakes and found that they were still too wide and too deep!

 

 

And so I had to trim everything even more until they finally fit.

 

 

There were no grooves or pins and so I had to be very careful to get them aligned correctly. All of this turned a 5 minute task into a 40 minute job. 🙄

 

My next surprise was a thick glob of plastic in the under-nose intake:

 

 

That was a bear to clean out without damaging the intake, but I got there in the end.

 

 

I finished the day with putting the cannons in the wing.  I just need to sand the seam in the under-nose intake, add the canopy and I believe it will be ready for paint.  I'd hope to primer today, but alas....

 

On the Academy front, I got the wing leading edges all fixed up and smoothed out.  I also had to tend to the seams where the wing meets the fuselage along the bottom.  Once I was satisfied with those, I glued the under-nose intake on (oops, no pictures) and finished off the day with adding the Eduard cannons.

 

 

Same story here -- just need to sand the under-nose intake and add the canopy and then I can paint.

 

Speaking of canopies.  For those of you keeping score on the accuracy differences between Academy and Sword, check out how much wider the Academy cockpit is.   Here I put the Sword canopy on the Academy cockpit and made the left side flush -- look how much over lap there is on the right side!

 

 

That's incredible.  Sadly, it's something I'm not sure how to fix if you were so inclined.  I read this criticism of the Academy kit, but really had to experience it for myself.

[2996 Victor]

Good progress, although I'm sure it's more than a bit frustrating! I'm really looking forward to my Sword FR Mk.XIVe now (not! ) but you're certainly getting there! The differences between the two kits are astounding - it's hard to believe that they can be so far apart dimensionally.

 

BTW, the under-nose intake is for the carburettor, the oil cooler shares the port side under-wing fairing - it was in the tubular fairing on the early marks.

 

Looking forward to the next update!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[opus999]

3 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

I'm really looking forward to my Sword FR Mk.XIVe now

Yeah... this was a bit of a surprise. I didn't think it would be so bad.  I mean, it seems like they'd get the basic fit of the parts right.  I got out my Sword P-40K and did some extensive dry fitting last night and found that it is far superior to this kit.  So I wonder if this is an earlier attempt? (I just looked and the toolings are only a year apart.  Hmm.)

 

6 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

The differences between the two kits are astounding - it's hard to believe that they can be so far apart dimensionally.

The Academy is a huge disappointment because it is so readily available and the fit is actually quite good (if you don't go and sand a ton of plastic away, that is...).  But to get the basics so terribly wrong... wow!

 

7 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

BTW, the under-nose intake is for the carburettor, the oil cooler shares the port side under-wing fairing - it was in the tubular fairing on the early marks.

Ah... thanks for that!  I hadn't made time to look it up yet.

 

8 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

Looking forward to the next update!

Just finished masking one canopy and will do the other tomorrow.  With any luck I'll at least have primer on tomorrow!

[opus999]

Does anyone hate the daylight saving time change as much as I do?  I didn't get primer on yesterday, but everything is ready to go.  I thought I'd get to it today, but its amazing how a one hour time change can up-end your whole day! Now I wonder if I'll even get to the bench at all.  I just feel like I'm moving through molasses today....

[bigbadbadge]

Crikey these are putting up a fight, I built the Sword PR.IV and it went together well.

I remember the time going forward an hour when I was working nights which was a bonus,  but not when it went back an hour!!!

Great work getting these two to this stage.

Chris

[opus999]

7 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Crikey these are putting up a fight, I built the Sword PR.IV and it went together well.

I remember the time going forward an hour when I was working nights which was a bonus,  but not when it went back an hour!!!

Great work getting these two to this stage.

Chris

Thanks Chris! I'm kind of surprised that the Sword has been so much trouble since I've seen other builds of it that seemed to go just fine.  I'm either really lucky or really talented!

 

Well the day was a wash for everything (not just modeling) as I crashed and had a nap for a couple of hours.  In all fairness it's not just the time change... my wife and I got back a little late from seeing "Whose line is it anyway?" live in Yakima last night.

 

At any rate I can quickly catch up what I did yesterday and tonight:

 

Since the intakes were on the underside of the Sword, I could take some comparison photos to show how Academy didn't get it right.

 

 

Academy close up:

 

 

Sword close up:

 

 

Ordering new intakes was definitely a good idea.  I just hope they get here quickly!

 

Having taken the photos, It was time to lop off the offending Academy intakes.

 

 

Ta da!  A Dremel made short work of that and only one little ding to repair.

 

Since I'd already installed the canopy, I feared I would repeat my Mustang Mk. 1a mistake of getting "sawdust" in the cockpit so I removed the canopy, blew out the cockpit with the compressor and reinstalled the canopy.

 

Today I used Perfect Plastic Putty (which I was amazed to find on Saturday at the LHS!) around the canopy joins.  The Academy didn't really need much -- it fit very well -- but the Sword needed help.  After that I remembered I had to add a "painted over" recce window on the Academy as seen in this photo of the real aircraft:

 

https://www.belgian-wings.be/supermarine-spitfire-fr-14-part-3/sg-102

 

My attempt wasn't bad, but I think it's a little long.  I haven't decided if it bugs me enough to fix.

 

 

The photo of the original aircraft brings up an issue I don't think I can resolve.  The Belgian serial number was SG102 in small white letters and numbers, and the RAF serial number is still visible.  Aero master provides the Belgian serial number SG65 in RAF script. The SG65 I found at Belgian wings was an FR XIVe with codes GV-X. However, that page also shows that airframe did at one time carry the codes 3R-C.  So it looks like Aeromaster got confused.  Still, the FR XIVe SG65 still had small white serial numbers/letters so the script on the decals is all wrong.

 

Do I leave them off completely?  I don't want to put the wrong ones on, but at the same time I don't have the right size/color/script decals to do it right. Maybe I'll go looking on the internet to see if I can find something...

 

And so, after plugging up the holes in the underside of the Academy, here I am tonight:

 

[stevehnz]

3 hours ago, opus999 said:

 

Once seen it is hard to unsee. The first time I've seen this shown rather than discussed & I can understand why it has raised so much ire over the years. Definitely something to think about approaching one of these.

Steve.

[2996 Victor]

Great work with the radiators - looking at the head-on pic, it really grates doesn't it? Hope the replacements arrive soon.

 

Long shot, but for the tiny serials, perhaps you might find something in 1/144 scale that fits the bill? I've heard Aeromaster referred to as "Error-master", with some justification it seems

 

How was Who's Line? I'll bet it was a fantastic night out!

 

Cheers,

Mark 

[AdrianMF]

I admire your determination to get two Spitfires out of this collection of plastic bits! Sword have transformed out of all recognition with their newer kits, which are a joy to build.

 

I don't feel so bad about building the FROG version now. Although I've had to fiddle with fairings, gull wing, radiators, undercarriage and canopy, it builds up nicely.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[opus999]

On 3/13/2023 at 12:58 AM, 2996 Victor said:

looking at the head-on pic, it really grates doesn't it?

Heh -- yep.  You can't unsee it.  I'm so glad they're gone!

 

On 3/13/2023 at 12:58 AM, 2996 Victor said:

How was Who's Line? I'll bet it was a fantastic night out!

It was hilarious!  We were in stitches the whole time.  Plus we found a hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant beforehand that was fantastic.  It's really nice to have kids old enough to leave alone for a few hours!

 

On 3/13/2023 at 12:58 AM, 2996 Victor said:

Long shot, but for the tiny serials, perhaps you might find something in 1/144 scale that fits the bill?

 

Good idea.  I'll have  look. I found a roundel/serial number set in 1/72 made in Belgium, but strangely, they only have one set of numbers from 0-9, so in order to do the number 102, I'd need two sheets.  And there are no letters.  🙄

 

On 3/13/2023 at 1:42 AM, AdrianMF said:

I admire your determination to get two Spitfires out of this collection of plastic bits! Sword have transformed out of all recognition with their newer kits, which are a joy to build.

That's good to hear.  The dry fit of my Sword P-40K was very, very encouraging, so I think this kit is just an outlier...

On 3/13/2023 at 1:42 AM, AdrianMF said:

I don't feel so bad about building the FROG version now. Although I've had to fiddle with fairings, gull wing, radiators, undercarriage and canopy, it builds up nicely.

It sure does!

 

On Monday my intakes arrived, which was a week ahead of time.  While that was a pleasant surprise it didn't really change anything.

 

 

I eagerly cut them from the stubs and dry fit them and they fit beautifully.  I didn't install them, though because I need to keep the holes in the wings plugged to prevent paint dust from getting into the sealed cockpit.

 

Monday night saw the primer applied, as well as the Sky colored stripe on Lacey's a/c (Sword).

 

 

I masked over the stripe on Tuesday and painted the green.  The "undercoat" for Lacey's mount is more varied as I expect the paint to be more worn and beat up than on the Belgian post-war Spitfire (Academy).

 

 

Tuesday, I scanned, scaled and printed the instructions and created masks from them

 

 

Last night I was able to print both the grays on Lacey's a/c.  First I did some pre-coloring

 

 

I then painted the ocean gray and was really disappointed with how it turned out.  It was too uniform.  My marbling didn't work as well as normal.  So, I took some very dilute Dark Sea Gray and did a little post marbling and it looked much better:

 

 

After that I painted the underside and called it a day.

 

 

Right now I've applied my first gloss coat and will re-use the masks on the Belgian Spitfire and hopefully get the grays on today.

[2996 Victor]

Great progress on these two birds, camo is looking fab! Good to see the radiators have turned up, as well. You'll be wrapping these up in no time

 

Cheers,

Mark 

[Ventsislav Gramatski]

I missed a lot of work in this thread props on fixing the radiator shape and trimming a lot of the "fatness" from the Academy kit! 

 

Good decision not to use the option for an open canopy - not only is it oversized but the sidewalls are so thick it looks like an armored tub in a tank. Still irks me on mine...

 

Seeing how many issues the Sword one had during the building phase, I start to understand why people complain there's no definitive Spitfire Mk. IV kit in our favourite scale.

[AdrianMF]

Nice to see them progressing. The camouflage looks good.
 

Actually, in a parallel universe, you could try trimming off some of the fat from the Academy Spitfire fuselage and graft it on to the Academy Hurricane, which is a lovely kit marred by an incredibly thin fuselage...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[opus999]

Sorry I've been away for so long.  I had one of those "punch in the gut" events that threw me for a loop.  If you are disturbed by discussions of mental crises (not mine) then please go ahead to my next post....

 

 

 

 

 

 

My best friend (since the first month of high school) tried to take his own life in mid-March.  It was completely unexpected.  He'd been to counseling, and it sounded like it was going well.  We communicate a few times a week... email, text, in person... so when I hadn't heard from him for a couple of weeks I was getting concerned.  Especially since I kept pinging him with messages.  My wife and his wife have also been friends since high school, and when my wife mentioned she hadn't heard anything in a couple of weeks, I was really worried.  Then, suddenly, he texted me and asked if we could hang out.  That's when he told me what happened. It was one of those extremely lucky coincidences that led his wife to find him and get him to the emergency room.  A few days in the hospital and then a few more in another facility and he was sent home.

 

For a couple of weeks, I bounced between grieving like he'd succeeded, and being very happy, realizing he hadn't.  I finally got that leveled out, but just haven't felt like interacting socially -- both in-person and on-line.  I've been modelling though, as I've found it's really good for doing a lot of thinking.  Unfortunately doing a lot of thinking isn't really good for modelling, so I've had a few things to fix along the way.  I did remember to take pictures for you guys though... so that's something.

 

As for my friend... he's got a long road ahead, but he's doing pretty well considering.  He and I have started a modelling project that we've discussed for probably 10 years now.  He has a vintage 1978 Battlestar Galactica Cylon Raider model and I have one from 2013 that was the 35th anniversary re-release.  We've been working on them together in his garage on most Saturdays.  We've made pretty good progress, but it's slow going because we drink beer and shoot the bull a lot.

 

I feel kinda funny just throwing that story out there, but a lot of you guys have been so friendly and a lot of fun to interact with.  I felt like I should at least mention why I dropped off the face of the earth for two months. (Two months??? geez....)

[opus999]

So what have I accomplished in the last couple months?  Well, I finished the Sptifires... got the cans painted and installed on the MiG-29, made a Special Hobby Boomerang, and finished off a 1/2500 scale Star Trek Movie Starship set (Enterprise, Reliant and Klingon Battlecruiser).  So I'll have plenty of RFI catching up to do.

 

In the meantime, I'll bring you up to speed on the Spitfires.  When we last left our intrepid modeller, he was just putting gloss coat on.  Well, after that I painted the gray on the Belgian Spitfire and got both of them nice'n'glossy:

 

 

After some oil weathering--more on Lacey's Spitfire than on the Belgian--I applied dull coat:

 

 

It was time to finish off the propellers, and I noticed quite a difference between the two kits.  Academy on the right and Sword on the left:

 

 

I suspect Academy is wrong because when assembled, the prop looks kind of funny.  Anyway, I got them masked for yellow paint:

 

 

Once that was done it was time for assembly.  The Academy instructions say to "note direction and pitch of blades" but don't give any indication what the pitch should be!

 

 

Luckily I had the Sword prop to compare too, so that turned out OK.

 

Since I had converted the Academy from a "C" to an "E" wing, I had to paint on the shell ejection ports:

 

 

I think they turned out OK

 

 

I also installed the aftermarket intakes, so now those look correct!

 

 

Unfortunately, Academy had another thing up it's sleeve.  The wheels were keyed so that you would get the weighted tires on correctly.  Trouble is, they weren't keyed right so I ended up with this:

 

 

  Honestly.  This is why you always dry-fit... I'm glad I did!

 

At the last moment I realized I lost the Academy pitot tube, so I had to make a new one

 

 

In the end though, I was really happy with how these two turned out.

 

 

I was really pleased with how closely the Academy profile matches the Sword from the side.  All that sanding paid off.  Alas, though, the Academy still looks fat from the top as seen in these two comparison pictures:

 

 

I could've thinned it out behind the cockpit, but there wasn't anything I could do about the really wide cockpit and canopy.  Ugh.  I guess the Academy really is hopeless.  Still, I think I got it 85% of the way there!

 

I'll let you know when I get an RFI up.

 

[2996 Victor]

Hi, Opus, its great to hear from you!

 

It sounds like its been a really tough time, something that I honestly can't relate to although I know others who can. All I can say is thankfully your friend's wife found him in time and got him to the emergency room. And thankfully you've been there to help support him on his road to recovery - drinking beer and shooting the breeze sounds like a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and if a bit of modelling gets in the way, then so much the better! Good work, my friend!

 

And the Spitfires are looking awesome, if I make so bold - you've certainly worked some magic on the Academy one and no mistake! Two excellent models, the Griffon Spits have a powerful look that the Merlin marks don't have. Bizarre about the wheels, though.....

 

Cheers,

Mark

[AdrianMF]

Welcome back!

 

The two look great together. I am really taken with how good the small SEAC roundels look on the Spitfire, and the Belgian one looks very colourful.

 

I'm glad that you felt comfortable(ish) enough to tell us about your friend and the effects of his actions. It's good to share, and, for better or worse, a lot of our relationships and interactions are now online these days. I think this forum is a good deal more supportive and mature than many online spaces too. Mental health issues are often a lot harder to deal with than physical ones, and I'm happy to hear that you seem to be helping him move on with his life.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Dave Slowbuild]

Great to see you posting again Opus!
The spitfires are both looking grand, and I love Belgian roundels!

Sorry to hear of the difficult time you’ve had.  There are times when we all need a good friend to help us get through life, I’m sure your friend appreciates you being there for him.

[opus999]

6 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

Hi, Opus, its great to hear from you!

Thanks!  It's nice to be back and see what everyone else is up to.  I've got a lot of catching up to do.  I was starting to miss it, so I knew I'd been away too long.

 

6 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

It sounds like its been a really tough time, something that I honestly can't relate to although I know others who can. All I can say is thankfully your friend's wife found him in time and got him to the emergency room. And thankfully you've been there to help support him on his road to recovery - drinking beer and shooting the breeze sounds like a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and if a bit of modelling gets in the way, then so much the better! Good work, my friend!

Yeah... its been good for him and I think he's happier than he's been in a while.  Its funny -- ever since I've known him he's admitted he doesn't have the patience for modelling, but likes it in general, so there are a lot of 3/4 finished models in boxes at his house.  Surprisingly, he's really been into the nitty-gritty details on this one.  He seems to have the patience for this one.  Maybe it's because he's not working on it alone?

 

6 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

And the Spitfires are looking awesome, if I make so bold - you've certainly worked some magic on the Academy one and no mistake! Two excellent models, the Griffon Spits have a powerful look that the Merlin marks don't have.

Thanks! I'm so excited and happy to have those in the cabinet.  I've wanted to do a XIV for a long time now and just never got to it.

 

6 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

Bizarre about the wheels, though.....

Right? 🙄 I thought I had them on the wrong sides, but the part numbers matched and when I switched them they were just as bad.

 

4 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

The two look great together. I am really taken with how good the small SEAC roundels look on the Spitfire, and the Belgian one looks very colourful.

I know! I agree with both statements.  I'm particularly pleased with the Belgian one. It's really neat looking.

 

4 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

I'm glad that you felt comfortable(ish) enough to tell us about your friend and the effects of his actions. It's good to share, and, for better or worse, a lot of our relationships and interactions are now online these days. I think this forum is a good deal more supportive and mature than many online spaces too

I agree.  My wife and I have had a lot of discussion about mental health and social media lately and the one remark I had was that BM is a (sort of) social network where I come away feeling happier than when I came.

 

4 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Mental health issues are often a lot harder to deal with than physical ones, and I'm happy to hear that you seem to be helping him move on with his life.

I'm happy I can help him.  I just hope I am! We've been through a lot together since high school, and since I'm an only child and he's got only younger step-siblings, we're really like brothers more than anything.

 

3 hours ago, Dave Slowbuild said:

Great to see you posting again Opus!

Thanks!

 

3 hours ago, Dave Slowbuild said:

The spitfires are both looking grand, and I love Belgian roundels!

I totally agree!  I just couldn't resist making one of those!

 

3 hours ago, Dave Slowbuild said:

Sorry to hear of the difficult time you’ve had.  There are times when we all need a good friend to help us get through life, I’m sure your friend appreciates you being there for him.

I'm happy to help!

I realized I'm going to pull another disappearing act -- but only for a few days since it's Memorial Day weekend here in the US and we've got plans... so see you next week!

[opus999]

I started a new build that is scratching my Sci Fi itch... so if you like that kind of thing (or even if you don't) feel free to join me!

 

 

[Clio182]

Really good to see. They put up a bit of a fight and you beat them in to shape! And then some, paintwork is excellent and I really like both schemes.

 

Also very sorry to hear of the struggles your pal is having, I'm in that boat myself although not as bad as that, helps a lot having good people around.

[Johnson]

Very nice Spitfires. Came late to your build and read through it, great work and good results.

 

Glad that your friend is OK. Tough to deal with, for everyone.

 

Best wishes,

 

 

[opus999]

On 6/1/2023 at 8:26 AM, Clio182 said:

Really good to see. They put up a bit of a fight and you beat them in to shape! And then some, paintwork is excellent and I really like both schemes.

 

Also very sorry to hear of the struggles your pal is having, I'm in that boat myself although not as bad as that, helps a lot having good people around.

 

On 6/1/2023 at 1:49 PM, Johnson said:

Very nice Spitfires. Came late to your build and read through it, great work and good results.

 

Glad that your friend is OK. Tough to deal with, for everyone.

 

Best wishes,

 

 

Thanks!  The Spitfires turned out better than I'd hoped given the challenges.  My friend still continues to do well and we've got another modeling session with our Cylon Raiders tomorrow!