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Howdy, partners… I’ve now completed the main bomb bay structure as well as the wing bomb cells on the Stirling. 250+ pieces of individually cut Evergreen has got the job done - quite tedious but the results are worth it. There will still be some more to add when the bomb load goes in such as racks and some piping, plus the doors of course. On the real aircraft the divider between the gear bays and the outermost bomb cell is actually open with the truss work exposed, but I’ve gone for strength over accuracy as beefy card is needed for the wheel bays and general wing structure to give it enough strength to support the model. I need to finish off the main gear bays but I’ve had enough if cutting plastic strip for the time being so will focus on something else! All the best, Tom

Hello, everyone. If you've been following along the build thread, you're well aware that I was nearing the finish line on Hong Kong Models' new A-20G Havoc kit after starting it the day it arrived in June. If you haven't been following the build thread, but want a painfully verbose treatise on the inner workings of this brand new kit, feel free to dive into it and its ~350 photos. If you'd just like to see the photos, here's the gallery. Anyhoo, as I've stated in a number of other threads, I'm fascinated by the SW Pacific campaigns in the early-mid war years. I'm also a fan of big twins in attack configurations. Thus, when I heard that HKM was coming out with an all new A-20G Havoc in gunship configuration, I was excited to say the least. Unfortunately for me, their boxing was strictly marked and built for the European theater. Not to be deterred, I decided to embark on a bit of a journey. For this build, I'd be doing several firsts. To make a Pacific bird, I'd have to scratch build wing bomb racks and teach myself the art of printing my own decals. I'd also push the idea of masking farther than I had ever done before, so that was fun too. In the end, I'm very happy with the results and they feel pretty close to the original. The photos turned out a little weird, unfortunately; I suspect that's due to my camera trying to compensate for the failing evening light. So, things like the speckling on the nacelles and the dust pigments on the wings are much more pronounced than they are in real life. I found a few close up pictures of A-20s with extensive oil spatter all along their fuselage and nacelles aft of the engine, so that was the inspiration there. Anyway, here's "STINKY" of the 3rd BG, 12th BS in New Guinea. According to Michael Claringbould in Pacific Profiles vol. 3, this aircraft survived hostilities and was scrapped in situ after the war. The photo below is one of two taken of her supposedly while she was in Sydney, Australia. The squadron insignia and serial number were the first decals I ever printed for myself. The nose art was done with a mask. I painted the dark drop shadow, then moved the mask to the 10 o'clock position and painted the yellow. Turned out pretty sharp. For grins, I got my SW Pacific fleet out for a photo op, largely because I wanted to see exactly how the B-25 and A-20 compare in size.

I needed to do a reality check on this ambitious dream I have here. To get a better idea what I am up against. How well did I model the engine cowl surfaces, including the "smiley face", that I have created so far? How well is the printer set up (exposure times, etc), and how well have I designed my supports and is my part orientation for printing acceptable. So I designed and created some test parts. Already I had a part defined for the cuffed propeller, done a couple years ago just for kicks: I could go on and on with this effort. It was a ton of fun. To make a long story short, Airscale Library has some Hamilton Standard data on prop blades including the one used for P-51's. Data is available for cross-section shapes at various prop stations from root to tip, and their twist angles. Create curves in Rhino of all these shapes, at the right angles, loft between them, do some tweaking, and you get what you see. Then I had to define other test parts using the cowl surfaces I created over the last few days, which I described last post. And also the spinner surface. Here: And after many hours of 3D printing I got these parts: Except for possibly the prop blades (they are practically perfect), these are merely test parts. Parts I make for the model will be much more detailed. So this was a test. What did I find? The printer is probably set up about as well as I can do it. No print failures, and part quality looks good. I certainly expected no less; I have already produced some parts for the Corsair. The "smiley face" part has excellent surface smoothness. no lumps, no ripples. What a victory! But it didn't print that great. More work to do on that score.... The cowl surface is actually pretty good. There is one seam between patches where I didn't do a good job of getting it smooth (I can fix that), and some edges are a bit ragged as can be seen on the smiley face part below. I hope I can fix that with a locally more dense array of supports on the 3D print file. I am a bit concerned about that. It could possibly be addressed with some putty though. Here: Fit between the two parts is pretty good, but I was expecting perfection. The 3D printing process is not yielding theoretically perfect results. Any imperfections will show up when trying to mate two parts together. And I do not like those ragged edges. Hope I can get that taken care of. I should say now that I intend to skin this model in aluminum litho sheet. So the final fuselage parts (wing too) will be under the defined surface by .005 inch to allow for the thickness of the litho sheet. And that will cover up some imperfections in the 3D printed parts. And speaking of imperfections: The spinner halves didn't fit together worth a sh_t. And edges are ragged similar to the cowl parts. The spinner will not be skinned so it has to be right on. Again - more supports locally should help with most of the shape problems. Also, the prop blades didn't fit in their holes at all. The holes need to be a few thousands of an inch larger, just like holes for a bolt need to be slightly larger than the bolt diameter. Instead of being exactly the same diameter. I am a dummy. Also, I am finding that 3D print parts might be just a tad expanded - so the prop blade roots might be a tad oversized, and the holes a tad undersized. On the bright side, these parts look very cool, and have the potential to be transformed into excellent ready-for-primetime parts. I will be doing some substantial redesign, and will probably make the prop blades and spinner my first effort at production parts. A stand-alone unit that will gather dust for a long time waiting to be installed on a complete fuselage. I combined test parts to see how it looks: I am both encouraged, and discouraged. It sure looks like a Mustang - that's great. But fit-up is going to be a challenge. This is not going to be as easy as I envisioned. But we all experience learning curves, and I hope to experience that here. Stay tuned - I will post progress on a greatly improved prop before long. Meanwhile I have alot of surfacing work to do on the computer.

Not the most exciting of updates but important progress nonetheless. I decided to tackle the distinctive oil coolers that hang under the nacelles on the Stirling MkIII onwards, having moved from the leading edge of the wing on the MkI. The kit parts were lacking somewhat, so I had a brainwave and decided to see what I could do with some spare 1/48th 500lb bombs, some old felt pen lids and a bit of filler! The bombs are actually an almost exact fit, in terms of the diameter, according to my plans so I threw caution to the wind and had a play to see if I could come up with something viable… I began by removing the fin section from each bomb and extreme nose, leaving the hollow shell of the bomb body. Rather than leaving them hollow, I trimmed the pen lids to give them some ‘guts’ and to represent the oil cooler itself. The forward section was then improved by adding some Evergreen tube of the correct diameter and everything was blended in. Finally, I used some thin Evergreen to add some external detail, and fashioned the mounts from plastic strip: Next, they were given a squirt of black as once installed on the nacelle it would be problematic getting the airbrush into the nooks and crannies: They were then glued to the correct position on each engine: Not perfect or totally accurate but they’ll do! All the best, Tom

Yeah, I know. There are other projects to be finished first... but the urge to finally have an ES-3A in my collection was too big. I need to do more research to finish the Vigilante (don't have enough photos and/or drawings of the ejection seats), so I decided to start yet another new project. I did a lot of research for my scratchbuilt Viking a few years ago which came in handy this time. The beginning does not look very spectacular. We need a top view, a side view and some formers to stretch the surfaces into the desired shape. The basic shape is almost complete. As you can see, quite a few sketches are needed to guide the surfaces between the formers in order to obtain the correct shape. The transition between fuselage and wings was an area which already caused me a massive headache building it the classic way, and doing it digitally was no different. It took many attempts and a lot of time to get this area more or less right. Once the general shape of the fuselage was done, I started adding surface detail. A very, very tedious process but it's the time a model comes alive. Looks bit like a Viking already, doesn't it?Stay tuned for more...

Thank you all for your comments and detailed information on the A-5/6. Great stuff! Just a reminder... I am not a 100% accuracy guy. Starting from the wing bottom gun covers, there are going to be some inaccuracies on this build. The issues that I can correct and WANT to correct, I will attempt. Otherwise... thank you for the info but I'm not going to do it. The length of the MG17 barrels should be easy to adjust but... one of the barrels already has a hairline crack in it from the drilling of the cooling holes. And I'll consider adding the little bumps... shouldn't be too hard. Back to the build... The headrest/armor part has been assembled and painted. Unlike the Dora, the Anton had a pulley system that kept the aerial line taut when the canopy was slid open. I thought I'd add the wire inside the canopy. New product! Being lazy and not wanting to mask the clear parts "manually" and lacking my go-to masks from Eduard, I thought I'd give this new company (new to me, anyway) a try. Mask material is similar to the Eduard stuff and yellow Tamiya tape. The masks pieces have numbers, which is a great idea as it prevents confusion over mask orientation. However, no instructions are included so you have to figure out placement yourself, which is not difficult on a simple canopy like the Fw 190. I found the fit of the masks to be superb with one small exception. The small cut-out for the aerial connection tab was a hair too small. The painted Revi 16B gun sight is now glued into place. The opening for the gun sight has been enlarged to fit the slightly longer Quickboost version. Some views of the cockpit before I cover it with the masked clear parts. The clear parts are secured into place using Tamiya Extra Thin cement. After a couple of dry-fitting attempts, I found that my decision to glue the inboard wing gun covers into place resulted in them sitting uniformly too low in relations to the fuselage. So I had to add a shim there. The wings are now glued onto the fuselage. The fit, with the exception of the aforementioned gun cover joint, was very good. With the major airframe components now secured with glue, I was curious to see how the engine cowling parts would fit. So I put them together using just tape. Again, the fit is excellent. Really impressive. I am not going to pose any of these panels open. I prefer to preserve the lines of the aircraft. But I am thinking about having at least one of the engine panels removable. Here are the MG17s in place and how the barrels might be too long. The wheels have been painted and weathered and the masking tape from the oleo section has been removed.

AIMS 1/32 PR/Tac R Hawker Hurricane build update. Hi all what madness have I been up to whilst trying to also start doing private orders again? Well thanks to Revell providing the world with a MK II Spitfire that had fuselage dimples instead of raised rivets I had the opportunity to express my detail compulsive modellers disorder (dcmd) by dropping in micro balls!!!! And now with their Hawker Hurricane Mk II it is a case of only providing a few raised rivets here and there - leaving the wings looking completely blank - might i dare to say - in comparison to the fantastic Amor Hobby Mk II C Hurricane - the Revell kit looks like a toy! It is obvious that one company cares about giving the modeller the right details - the other company wants to give the modeller 100s of hours of extra work and frustration! I had got myself a sheet made of close together small rivets with a few larger ones that i would need for the tail fillets etc. I also got a few packs of the Quita Studio's single row (with wider spacing than mine - product QRV-022. And a few packs of Archer offset double row product AR88196. These are great but there are only a few rows with the correct spacing - the rest are tighter than should be. I hope to use the correct ones on the upper surfaces and the tighter ones on the lower and hope I have enough as the upper and lower outer wing sections are just covered in raised staggered double row rivets. I have never considered myself a 'Rivet counter' as we normally reserve this turn of phrase for those we consider good at modelling but rather nit picking of other's efforts whilst praising their own. That is not me - I have valid complaints about a company's lack of effort in such a noticeable scale but I have said not one bad thing about the finished kits I have seen without the needed details. No my friends I am a 'Rivetlayer' - like a bricklayer only with more expensive products - making the whole build cost me a fortune! Anyway I have finished basically the fuselage and centre section and I need now to cover this with Future or spray gloss and let dry before I can move on to the outer wing sections. I did not put on the fuselage rear any primer as the amount of handling would have badly damaged the paint surface by now so slowly slowly bit by bit - i will get there eventually! hope you enjoyed my sermon!

AIMS 1/32 Hurricane PR I build - Cockpit painted. Really enjoyed doing this - nice way to take time off AIMS - making an AIMS conversion lol!!!. I wish I had got an after-market dash but I punched out the kits instruments instead and where the details were hopelessly wrong robbed the spares box. The HGW lap belts were great and you will see that I have not included the kits lower pilot armour but this means you need to do a little work to attach the lower brackets correctly so I drilled them out and will slot in pre-painted rod. The red/brown staining is due to the prevailing soil type in the area of my subject's operations. Regarding the white data plate on the right sidewall - I printed this out myself and liked how it turned out together with the grubby maps I stowed in the map box. Enjoy, thanks. John

He-219 A-0 Zoukei Mura 1:32 My experience with Zoukei Mura models is very bad. This set is also poor. Fitting is bad Details for a scale of 1:32 are poor I can't say anything good about this set.

Cheers mate! As you know, your 48th scale Shadow is a big inspiration for mine! Hey mate, not this time. My groove lines are much finer now and I have revised a few shapes. I have more references now than back in the day. Thank you, Rainer! Printed parts? Here you go! The Mighty 8K produces superb surfaces. I have upgraded it to 12K in the meantime and it's even more betterer now. Stay tuned - there's more to come...

Thanks Matt! Spent the day trying to wrap up the engine assembly. The gear reduction housing was glued into place next. After this, the ignition wiring was installed. The wiring is pre-cut lengths of lead wire that I had pre-painted and set aside. It was quite fiddly work as it was difficult to reach the attachment points on the rear cylinder heads. And CA glue never holds that well when the accepting holes have paint and pastel wash in them. I had some issues with the exhaust pipes. The longer end connecting to the front cylinders has a bend and with the tight space, I couldn't get the pins to seat correctly in the holes. Ended up scratching the paint off the exhausts and also breaking a couple of the thin connecting pipes at the ends of the pushrods. I resolved this by cutting off the pins on the longer pipes. The last piece to attach is the rear engine assembly. The engine is essentially complete. I may put a little bit more flat on certain areas and maybe dirty it up just a little. Pretty impressive little engine that Border has provided for the Fw 190! I'll get some better pics tomorrow.

Alright - these test parts are very important. This model is supposed to be primarily made from 3D print parts, so as to assure great accuracy of shape. But what I am finding is that my parts have inaccuracies if not outright flaws. Much of this was unexpected, and could be operator error. By that I mean I am not printing parts off as well as other real experts could - due to the resin I use, or the machine settings I have created (exposure time, lifting speeds, layer thickness, aliasing), or how I am orienting and supporting the part during the printing process. But it also could be I am expecting too much of the 3D printing process. I am asking for some serious exactness. Take a look at my prop spinner parts - I already learned from test parts, and have applied some lessons learned. Also Alain suggested I print the nose upside down, which I wanted to try. Recall the test parts: Terrible fit, wavy edges. Part of the terrible fit, BTW, are from some subsequently discovered small but nonetheless serious clashes with the prop roots. I fixed that for the "production" parts. Those wavy deformed edges are serious: If I do not get a handle on that, this whole project is going to be a no-go. Peter (Airscale) has been having similar issues with his 3D print work and is working on it in parallel. Somehow that has to be addressed - all my parts are going to have edges of course. The "production" parts: Note there are two nose halves and one aft half. The nose half to the right was supported in a traditional way, tilted about 45 deg with nose up, so that all the supports were on a portion of the aft edge. Compared to the test part which was supported the same way, I only increased the number of supports to try to get rid of the local waviness. It worked in that there is no waviness. You can see remnants of those supports along the edge. The other nose part was printed upside down at a slight tilt, where all the supports were on the nose surface itself. That ought to leave the aft edges pristine. You can see the little marks the supports made on the outside surface after snipping them off and sanding smooth, just off the "pointy end". The third part of course is the aft half of the spinner. To my great dismay, the traditionally supported nose half has a large deformity in the region where it was supported: No waviness, but a giant mismatch with the aft half of the spinner. This part goes in the trash can. Why oh why did this happen? Well, clearly it was stretched and deformed during the printing process. That corner was the first to be printed. And as more and more layers are then added, the part gets heavier and its weight is pulling on those first small layers. Also, after each layer is baked on, the build plate is lifted to allow resin to flow back underneath it so the next layer can be created. There is some stiction force associated with that motion, which also pulls on all the layers previously laid down. One or both of those phenomena might be causing this. Perhaps if I spun it 45 degrees so that the first layers are not coincident with the prop root cutout? Then the first layers should be more robust. I dunno... Or, maybe my exposure time (3.5 seconds per layer) is insufficient to give a good hard material? Again, dunno. That is the recommended exposure time for this stuff at 5 microns layer thickness. The aft half, which was oriented and supported in a similar manner, suffered the same fate although less severe. It is, however, a bit out-of-round as a result. That part will also go in the trash can. Then there is the other nose half, which was printed upside down: Now THAT'S what I am talking about. Thanks Alain - good idea! Good edges, decent match up with the aft half. That is a useable part. It has a bit of a rash from the supports: But some putty or CA will cover that up. So I think I am about 80% of the way there. A few more shots that seem to indicate a more hopeful situation: The prop blades are just laid in there loose for now. So, I have a useable spinner front half, and an un-usable aft half although quite close to being OK. Next post I hope to show a useable aft half which is perfectly round at its aft edge (currently it a bit off), and not wavy or deformed. And then I can declare victory and move on with some assurance that this 3D print process will actually work OK. Bear with me, some may find this a bit painful to follow. But it is here where I can determine whether or not this project will succeed. Stay tuned.

Basic painting done. Not sure how thrilled I am with the faded fabric, looks too light but it is what it is and now I’ll just have to match this much weathering down the line. I still want to tone down the panel line shading on the vertical and horizontal stabs, but otherwise I’m calling this stage done. I’ve never pushed my airbrushing this far. To fade the fabric, first I masked off the rib taping and only lightened the centers leaving the ends dark. Then I had this: I tried to get fancy by masking off the access panels. Lastly I blended it all together with very thinned color and got this. I did the same on the elevators and rudder. Empennage. I'll be toning down the panel line fading on these parts. My next step is going to try some salt fading, but I’m going to do some tests on the mule first. Last thing I want now is to screw this up after all the work I’ve got in it so far. Thanks for watching

I decided to display the kit with the entire cowling closed to show off the sleek lines of the Macchi. The amount of work done on the engine is not wasted as it’s still visible from the wheel bay. Testing the 10 parts fit. Mmmm… could be worse, really.

F-4C Phantom II Tamiya 1:32 I made the F-4 on an individual order. The contracting authority had two requirements. First, F-4C model cannot have the side number 829 and the second is to be an extremely weathered Phantom.

Thank you for the comments and great information. It's good to know that Border got the A-6 outer gun panels right. A little bit more to share on the Border build. The lower instrument panel received paint as well. I highlighted certain instruments with color with tape masks punched with holes. The smaller range of Airscale instrument decals were small enough to fit so I used them here instead of the kit decals. Not yet glued, I've placed the upper panel on top of the spacer fitted to the lower panel to show how they look together. Some of the engine components have been painted but not yet weathered.

Thank you for the photos! Here's the tail with the antenna mast thinned out. I think it makes the tail section look less fat. Thanks Matt! Not much alternative so I'm glad it worked out. The paint I used for the guns was Mr Metal Color Iron. An interesting, buffable paint. It sprays like flat charcoal but it can be buffed out to a lighter steel color. Thanks again for the correction... it should be an easy fix! I also thinned the trailing edges of the rudder and the tab. The instrument panel coaming has been cleaned up and painted. I also added small half hoops of bent wire as attachment points for the shoulder harnesses. I started painting the main gear legs. The shiny oleo part was given a gloss black base and then Alclad Chrome. The high shine Alclad finishes do not like clear coats of any kind so I'll let this dry 24 hours before I mask it off. This cockpit side of this bulkhead/firewall just ahead of the foot rests is left unpainted. It will not be visible at all from the outside. Here's what the inner wing gun components look like. This too will be left upainted with the exception of the bottom, which you'll get a glimpse of through the ejection ports on the wing bottom. The wheel well components have been painted. These have a base of Alclad Steel and hairspray was used to chip the outer RLM 02 Green Grey. Weathering was topped off with a pastel wash. After painting of the components, the wheel well area can start to be assembled. First is the rear wall, which also serves as a wing spar. The cover hiding the engine (which is absent on the many Doras I've built) and a few other components are glued in. Fit has been really, really good so far... impressed. Here's what wheel well looks like with the upper wings taped into place.

Hello all! Recently I purchased a 3D printer - Elegoo Saturn 2 - which has the potential to transform my modelling. Those of you who follow me know that my recently completed 1/18 scale build (F4U-1A Corsair) benefitted from a good bit of 3D printed parts almost all of which I designed myself but had printed by a capable fellow in the UK. Since then, I now have the means to do my own printing, if only I can get good enough at it. So my next project, if all goes well, is to create a very accurately shaped P-51 in 1/18 scale. At this point I am undecided whether to do a B/C variant (razorback) or a D variant (bubble canopy). My first choice would be a -B with a Malcolm hood modification, followed by a -D as a second choice. I would prefer not to do a straight up -B razorback (or maybe better known as a "greenhouse" canopy version), as Peter Castle (Airscale) has done his incredible Lopes Hope in 1/18 already, and I would prefer not to tread on that hallowed ground. The only available kit I know of a P-51 in 1/18 is from 21st Century toys or whatever it turned into over the years - a D model. They are long out of production but can be found on E-bay for inflated prices. I actually have one, but I will not be using it because it has too many inaccuracies. Years ago, though, I heavily modified just such an animal resulting in "Miss Velma": That satisfied my goals at the time, which was to take an existing large toy model and do my best to make it look real. Miss Velma, like many P-51 models in many scales, has shape inaccuracies, and can be greatly improved upon, and that is what I intend to do. So I have three important ingredients in which to do this: 1. Aircorps Library - they have a full set of engineering drawings for the P-51 variants, including "ordinate" drawings, which are tables of point coordinates that define the shapes of the outer surfaces of the aircraft (and even some inside shapes like throats of intakes). These ordinate drawings will allow me to create surface definition in any scale very accurately. 2. CAD modelling software - I have been using Rhino 7 for a couple years now, and it is indispensable for layouts, part definition, and 3D printing. I am no expert user, but I get by. 3. 3D Printing. This will be the first time I will have tried to make 3D printed parts the primary components of the build. Previously I have used it simply to augment an existing model. This is my weak link. I am a bit of a newbie when it comes to 3D printing. To start, I am in the process of converting point data, obtained from vintage engineering drawings, into Rhino surfaces - hopefully for the entire airframe. Here are examples of the point data vintage 1940's: There is also wing data that I have not shown. I can produce points in space from those tables, and connect them with curves in Rhino - like this: Very laborious and monotonous, I can say. Not too surprisingly, the Rhino model is showing what looks alot like a P-51. It better - the good folks at North American back in the '40's used the same data to build the tools used to manufacture the airframe. From there, and after some time-consuming schooling on primary surfacing, with classes available on YouTube, I used those curves to create a bunch of patches: Clearly I am not finished. Those patches can be combined to make a single compound-curved surface, or larger surfaces. I also have wing lofts, done a different way: P-51 wings have single curvature which is to say they are defined by straight line elements. Which is to say that you can have a contour at the inboard end, and a similar smaller contour at the outboard end, and you have fully defined the wing surfaces simply by lofting between them along straight line elements. That is what I did above. You see two lofts - the basic wing, and the inboard extended leading edge - a feature of the -D model, but not the -B model. That extended leading edge is also single curvature. Far and away the most difficult detail to surface so far has been the carb air intake below the prop spinner. After days of applying everything I learned in most of 14 classes I took on primary surfacing techniques, and episodes of tearing my hair out and occasionally walking off in a huff, I got this: It is not perfect, but any inaccuracies are measured in hundredths of an inch at full scale - which is infinitesimal at 1/18 scale. So, unlike a whole lot of P-51 models out there, this "smiley face" detail is deadly accurate. BTW - the Tamiya 1/32 P-51 has a very accurate smiley face, and I am convinced their designers had access to the point data that I have used. Next post you will see a test part of this detail, in 1/18 scale. I also have a complete surface for the prop spinner, done months ago: That was a breeze compared with the other surfacing efforts to date. Just a contour curve rotated around the thrust axis. In theory, if I can have a fully defined set of surfaces for the P-51, defined in Rhino in full scale, I can scale to 1/18 and create just about everything from them. A pretty exciting prospect, and easier said than done! Next post I will show the results of some test parts. I hope this build generates some interest; it's going to be a big challenge. P.S. - if any of you Mustang experts out there have any information on the Malcolm hood - like shapes and cross sections, well that would probably clear the way for me to do the B-model!

Thanks for the comments guys! Great pics, Mike! Probably enough variation to keep my gun colors as is. I've deviated from the kit instructions and have glued on the wing tops. The instructions would have you install the wing bottoms onto the fuselage and then the wing tops but I wanted to deal with the gun covers at the wing roots prior to attaching to the fuselage. Fit, again, is very good and I was able to clean up the seams with very little filler. And... the panel lines line up at the joint! The gun covers have been glued into place. A check to see if the clear parts fit ok. They do! The clear parts are given a soak in Future. I like to put them in a covered container to keep the dust off as the Future dries. The paper towel on the bottom helps wick away any excess Future. The cowling trailing edges at the exhausts are thick and need to be thinned down. I modified the prop attachment using sections of telescoping brass tubing. Instead of having to trap the prop axle at the front of the engine, the prop is now removable. The brass tubing gives the prop some lateral rigidity so that it doesn't sag in place.

AIMS 1/32 Hurricane PR I conversion update..... Hi everyone. Lots of little things to do if one wishes it so but the biggest issue for me is that I need any work to the surfaces to be signed and sealed before I start using my super expensive resin raised rivet decals as I will be unable to sand away problems latter. I will try to run through the jobs for you - obviously you can see i got a poor fit behind the upper engine cover and the resulting filler destroyed the kit details there which I have tried to fix. I had poor fit in many places, never mind. Leading edge - recessed rivets done before joining with fuselage, 3x retaining screws added to the doped over main gun battery covers, solid side sections of landing light framework hollowed out prior to wing assembly, landing light ready for spraying chrome and then latter black wiring will be added. Nav light housings have a little wire and junction boxes added prior to painting. Once the Nav lights and landing light interiors are finished I can get the clear parts on and make sure all is ok before painting a base coat ready for the rivet decals. Exhausts - I have already said in a previous post that I wish I had got an after-market dashboard and as I ended up doing a lot of work on the kits exhausts I wish I had purchased the Eduard set with their exhausts and pre-painted resin dash and thus solved both issues in one purchase! Glycol radiator housing - the retraction arms for the louver actually go into square plates not just holes in the floor - there are also some breather tube holes needing drilled in that area. The housing itself needs the front and rear section join line smoothed away as it is not a real join line - and a lower-upper seam line scribed in from the centre of the front opening. I drilled a small hole at the front also for the rod that is there - the fuse wire will be added and cut to size at the end of the build. Mid fuselage - when I do the rivet decals I will also add decal to some parts of the rear upper cockpit coaming but for now remember that if the stirrup is in the extended position then the hand hold is automatically in the open position so this has been drilled out and some card will be added latter. Tail - Jacking points drilled out, Rudder trim in neutral as rudder will be deflected (trim mass balance will be scratch build at a latter date) and finally my chosen decal option clearly shows in the photo of it that the tail wheel fork is the early style and so i have to either fabricate one from scratch or try to alter the kit's late style linked type. As for the camera belly fairing and camera set up - note that the rear F.24 is in the vertical position and the front F.24 is in the angled position. So that is all for now - hope it helps someone. best wishes, John.

A lot can be seen but IMO not the whole lot .

Thanks! Straight up, run of the mill countertop organizer. Like $12 at staples. Anyhoo... More progress. The squadron markings on the tail are done, and I've got half of the insignias in place too. I also added the "meh, why bother" camo color to the tail. Hopefully I can get the tail numbers and remaining insignias in place tomorrow, then work on printing the remaining decals.

Well hello again, I have come up with a new set... I had a poll, I took the pulse, I had many learned responses and I chose to ignore all of them..(for now). I wanted to try what the kit people do and bang out 'another 109' so I can feed my family too.. In the coming weeks I will be getting this ready for production and for now I just have the test shots, so many things don't fit as they should or print correctly, but nonetheless I thought I would share the general direction of travel.. As with the Devastator there will be a main stand alone set of PE & interior decals, with optional 3D 'kick up a notch' extras.. The cockpit has new bulkheads, trim wheels, correct floor, rudder pedals and options for a new seat with no moulded belts and a gubbins set with a new throttle, oxygen control and Revi gunsight.. ..there is also a full etched canopy etc with an option to mke your own glaxed centre section.. ..the wings (and chin) get new radiators, better detail covering a horrible gap and the fabric liners... ..new wheels (& tailwheel) - a number of options including for later G series.. ..new U/C door outer liners.. ..and finally hollow & accurate exhausts... so, that wraps it up - despite a few flaws this is a £32 Me109 kit that I think with some help can be really competitive Will share more as it develops and anyone who has built the kit or has any further suggestions I would love to hear from you TTFN Peter

Thanks guys! Appreciate the comments as always and reference photos are ALWAYS welcome! I don't even know where the radio control box is... yet!!! Thanks for the cockpit photos, Mathieu... very helpful! Very impressed with the work you put into this set! I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of future builds of the both the low-back and high-back XIVe soon! I decided to forge ahead and start the surgery on the kit fuselage. Here are the fuselage halves unaltered. The forward cut seems pretty straightforward but I'm nervous about the tail cut. I started with the forward removal. I like to make my cut just outside of the actual joint just to give me some wiggle room in case of a mistake. I've drawn guide lines in pencil. The fuselage halves after the cuts and some clean-up. I had to use some black CA to fill in a couple of notches from errant cuts. A preliminary dry-fit of the Griffon nose looks good.

I have tested a dry fit, which seems quite ok… This thing is about 60cm, without the pitot which is another 4-5cm, and I hope I can complete the build without dropping it. Safety goggles may also be required when handling this dart and avoid the eyes from that pointy nose Looking forward to post the build as it progresses and let’s see how it goes.… Thanks for looking…

1/32 AIMS Hurricane PR 1 Hi everyone I thought I would make a start on my AIMS Hurricane PR 1 conversion. I love Monotone finishes mostly because i loath masking but i feel that monotone finishes require a little help and so I try to open at least one hatch or panel. This in turn leads to more work obviously. The wing assemble / gear bay is together and ports filled in - there were a lot of sink holes and badly fitting leading edge parts to fill also. It is a crying shame that Revell produced smooth wings - it is the biggest let down of the kit and expensive to correct as a rivet wheel burring up the plastic surface a little just will not cut it - not in this scale. Pipework and panel locks are a must as a result of the panel being left off which made the Hurricane 'Inside and Out' book a must! Eyes of the Phoenix is also a must read for Hurricane recon operations in the far East and has more PR and Tac R Hurricane photos in it than any other book I am aware of. Finally I have no authority to say that where I have placed the Camera heater selector box is correct - is is purely deductive reasoning based on where the pilot can reach it and where the structure and a lack of other fittings allow. Enjoy John

Hi all, Here's the Hansa-Brandenburg W.12, Serial No.1184 (C3MG) as flown by Fl.Mt. Urban and Lt. Ehrhardt of C-Staffel, Zeebrugge, during December 1917. The detailed forum build log is here: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/97402-132nd-scale-hansa-brandenburg-w12/#comment-1418905 As usual, a fully detailed build log, which includes all materials, modifications, rigging etc for this build can be downloaded from the 'Logs' page on my site. https://mikesww1aircraftmodels.com/ Thanks for your comments and support throughout this build, Mike

Some shots of the engine and guns temporarily mounted in place... The detail provided by Border is incredible. However, there is a limitation to what Border, or any model manufacturer, can do in this area. The absence of any piping, ducting or wiring between the engine and firewall is conspicuous to me. In order to help hide this area, I am going to paint the interior surfaces of the lower engine compartment black or a very dark color. Also... the multiple panels that cover the engine fit very well. But they really need glue and I'm seeing signs that they will not sit flush unless they are glued into place.

Thank you Matt! It would take a large amount of plastic to represent the option so I can understand why Border didn't. I was just clueless to this entire issue until just now. Yes, the complex shape really dismayed me at first but I think I it's do-able. At least in a very superficial and not dimensionally accurate way. Prior to discovering the inner cover issue, I had glued on the horizontal stabilizers as well as the wing ailerons. Iterative applications of Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 to fill the multiple seams in this area. There are some subtle "ghost" seams that still need to be addressed but the majority of the fill work is done. At this time, I decided to try a mock-up of the inner gear door using brass sheet and Oramask 810 masking material. The drawings I showed in my previous post were used to create a mask of the door outline. The mask was placed on a sheet of brass and sprayed with Mr Primer Surfacer 1000. I now have an outline of the door and is easily cut to shape using a pair of scissors. The door is not a perfectly flat piece of metal either. In addition to the raised sections on the interior, the door features an abrupt curvature to accommodate the recess aft of the lower exhaust exit. You can see that curvature on the photo below... So I rolled the base edge of the brass door on a toothpick to approximate that curvature. The internal detail on the interior of the gear door was replicated in CAD and multiple masks of this pattern were printed out. I used two copies of the mask, exactly on top of one another to create the raised detail. The door was sprayed with Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 and then RLM 02 Green Grey. Here is the mock-up temporarily placed on the unmodified wheel well. This proves to me that I can make an acceptable door but I'm going to play around with this a bit. The brass prevents me from adding rivet detail to match the rest of the model so preferrably, I'd like to use sheet styrene.

Progress… AT LAST! Actually, the build has been progressing all the time, yet by small touches a little like mosquito bites on an elephant skin. Now, some quick pics. Gun panels on the wing are eradicated. Our series 3 Folgore didn’t have wing guns. The radiator is a delicate but nifty affair with 8 (!) layers of PE to complete the front and back meshes. I love the see-through look, not exactly realistic, but cool all the same. The radiator cover is adequately detailed as per the pics in Aero Detail #15. Lower front cowling has its vents suitably opened. HUGE CAVEAT! I thought I was smart to glue the spar to the lower wing first and add the landing gear afterwards. Just DON’T because you won’t be able to glue the gear legs in position. Pp The engine is dry-fitted to the firewall (again delicate and fiddly). Completed landing gear added. A worm view. Thankfully, the assembly method is foolproof and the geometry is spot-on. The disgracefully deflated tyres are repaired and pumped up with milliput. Wing is dry-fitted to fuselage. Very good fit and correct sit on first try. Upskirt view Obviously the fiddly part is now behind us. The critical (to me) facets of every aircraft model (dihedral, stance, geometry) passed the test in flying colours. Next time, we’ll close the panels and get ready for the general assembly. As usual, comments and questions are welcome… Until then, happy modelling! Cheers, Quang

One last look before CLOSING THE FUSELAGE. Last details added to the cockpit: pilot harness (I was amazed to find that the infamous linked chains suspended the seat from the bulkhead like a playground swing), San Gorgio type B gunsight (very fiddly), … I was glad to realize that the complete cabin was perfectly centered and adjusted at first try. The rather well-detailed tailwheel in situ. I kept the the kit part because it would be too difficult to convert it to the earlier sans-scissor version. I’m a coward, I know. Firewall/spar fits A-OK The only spot which requires putty I broke (and lost) the RH arch in front of the gun cover. So I decided to close it and repair afterwards. A thin plasticard shim is needed on both side to put the cover at level. The windscreen fits perfectly. The rib details are not as bad as some internet experts believe. I’d wait to see how they appear under the camouflage before taking a decision. And … the sharp-eyed may also have noticed that the Matchbox trenches have been replaced with ‘positive’ panel lines à la Monogram. Not exactly realist but … we’ll see! Thank you everybody for looking. Your questions and comments are welcome. Until next time, Cheers, Quang

Thank you Troy! The cylinder banks have been given a dark pastel wash and a flat coat. Same with the cooling fan and the exhaust waste collectors. Here are the completed pushrods. The PE seat harnesses that Border provides are very... funky. Strange pads in strange positions and reversed buckles. I looked into my spares box and found a set of 1/48 generic Luftwaffe harnesses that looked close enough in size to work. I annealed them with heat and introduced some random bends to simulate fabric... ruler straight PE harnesses don't look right to me. Since rough placement has been worked out, I can paint the seat parts separately.

Thanks to Tom, I was able to get my Silhouette Portrait working again. So it is time to paint some markings. The underwing crosses are first. When using multi-color masks, my default painting order is outside to inside. This is helps prevent seepage of unwanted colors on the outside of the markings. There are exceptions of course but this is a good general rule to follow. One tip that greatly eases the placement of these masks is to pre-apply strips of paper (in this case, Post-Its) to the edges of the mask. This "frame" allows you to slide the mask into position much easier than just the mask itself. And it gives you additional, adhesive-free masking. Try it! Once the outline mask is put into position, all of the paint edges of the mask are burnished down with a wood toothpick and the white is sprayed. To get a smooth edge, the paint layers should be thin but "dry". Avoid pooling of paint, especially at the mask edges as this will cause the paint to crack upon mask removal. The remaining internal mask components are taped to help hold them together. The idea is to place these components, connected as one piece into the painted area. The mask was pre-marked with a Sharpie for orientation purposes. Although the shape is symmetric, there may be very slight variations in how the mask was cut so keeping the orientation will ensure a better interlocking fit of the mask components. I use a sharp knife to help lift the pieces off the backing paper that want to separate. The internal mask components are then carefully placed back onto the mask outline. Make sure you give ample time for the paint to dry before putting a mask over it. Once the internal components are in position, the tape is removed, along with the internal cross shape that will be painted black. To ensure the black paint doesn't seep where it is not supposed to, I like to use liquid mask to seal those joints. The black is sprayed next. After the paint is dry, you can remove the masks. The liquid mask is not strong enough to keep the mask components together so you'll have to pull off the individual mask pieces one by one. If all goes well, you should have your completed markings. The used mask parts are kept handy in case any paint repairs need to be done but I don't think I'll need them for the bottom crosses.

Thanks everyone! I'm happy with how the doors turned out. Although the brass-only version of the inner doors was in-scale in terms of thickness, the main gear doors were not. I wanted the two sets of doors to match and hopefully, they look like a matched set. I've painted the landing gear covers... light hairspray chipping on both sides. The landing gear component are just about finished. I added some springs to the retracting rod links. I'll do some post-shading to the exterior surfaces of the covers especially at the base of the inner doors since they are in the path of the engine exhausts. Tony... the settings that I used on my Silhouette Portrait 2 to cut the inner gear door shapes from 0.010" sheet styrene were: Blade: 7 Passes: 2 Force: 20 Speed: 2 I've also added some salt fading effects on the prop blades. In preparation for the upcoming camo painting, I've filled the wheel wells with wet tissue paper. I'm planning on doing some light painting chipping via hairspray at the wing roots so this area has been given a base coat of Tamiya Silver AS-12. Next comes my customary pre-shading of the panel lines. I like to give the camo finish some tonal variation and to do this, I employ an inverse of black basing which is essentially a random mottle pattern of black on grey plastic. I use a piece of plastic scrubbing pad that is thinned to allow paint to be sprayed through it. Using this as a mask, I apply the mottle pattern over the entire model, except the chipping area, which I want to restrict to as few layers of paint as possible to better enable the hairspray chipping. Next will be Light Blue RLM 76.

Hi, This is my 1/32 Pacific Coast Models Fw 190 Ta 152C with the markings of CI-XM W.Nr. 11007 in the spring of 1945. Build OOB except for Barracudacast main wheels and Quickboost wing guns. Paints are Gunze acrylics and Alclad metalizers. Happy Modelling

Back from the dead! Or, well, I have more time now that summer is closing and I'm not renovating all of our landscaping! Not a big update, but sharing some progress. I'm still trundling along with the Wild Weasel, and as usual, it's slow for me. Below is the Aires front wheel bay that I've been on working on the past week. Painted, detailed, washed and flat coated. Hopefully somewhat representing a F-105G and how dirty it may have been on deployment to Korat during Vietnam. After this, I should be ready to button it up in the fuselage, along with the cockpit and front half of the engine. The fun part, this probably won't ever be seen once the 105 is done and on it's wheels....but at least I'll have these shots to prove it! Thanks to Bulldog 09 over on ARC (not sure if you're here too) for the detail shots I found they had taken and posted Feel free to critique.....macro shots are great for showing every flaw!

AIMS 1/32 PR/Tac R Hawker Hurricane build update Hi folks - I can hardly believe it but I am finished the upper wings! Helped immensely I have to say by a larger area of the front being flush riveted than i had ever realised! Absolute madness doing this! I do not like to say 'Never again' so I will say it twice instead 'never again' 'Never again!'

There was a lot of interest in this kit when it was announced and right up to its release. (Who can forget 'dihedral-gate?! ) Once it was available I thought we'd see a plethora of builds - but we've barely seen any.. I have no room to talk, as I bought two, started one but then got completely sidetracked with the dual Spitfire attack of the Airfix 1/24th Mk.IX and Kotare 1/32 Mk.I But, with both those two now completed, I thought I'd turn back to the Hurri - particularly after seeing Shuttleworth's beautiful Sea Hurricane performing at the 'Flying Proms' airshow last weekend. (To my mind, the most authentic and eye-catching of the growing number of airworthy Hurricanes extant.) Here's where I'm up to. Having just built the Kotare kit and amongst a number of others, lauded it for its innovate engineering, this model has somewhat gone under the radar. I thought the way the wings built up and then the fuselage slotted into the gap was really quite clever, if a little fiddly. Anyway, I now have something that looks vaguely like a Hurricane and I've enjoyed myself!

my latest built :

Thank you! On this build, I've primarily scraped away paint from any glue edges. Depending on the situation, I've also used Micro Mask and even cut custom masks to keep the glue surfaces free of paint. Thanks Andy and Matt! It's a very interesting kit and I am enjoying the build. I know it's a strange scale for most LSP enthusiasts but if you can get beyond that, a great kit awaits. I've been impressed by different aspects of this kit, most notably the fit of the parts and the crispness of the molded detail. Thank you Gaz! I do the wheels a little bit different from most builders. Instead of highlighting the recessed treads in a lighter, muddy color, I prefer to put the weathering on the tire's contact surfaces and leave the recessed treads darker. As was pointed out by some sharp-eyed LSPers, the A-5/A-6 featured a fuselage extension that affected the position of the MG17 gun barrel ends. They should not protrude as much as the Border kit shows, which is more in-line with an A-4. Also, there were small blisters at forward edge of the gun cowling on the A-5/A-6 to accommodate this lengthening. So... I have fashioned up some little blisters by cutting up the tips of some rockets from a 1/48 P-38 kit. Preliminary positioning of the blisters... I have to be careful if I want to trim the leading edge of this gun cowling because that edge seats on the part forward of it. The tips of the MG17 are sliced off, barrels shortened slightly, and then re-glued onto the barrels. Here's what the shortened MG17's look like, relative to the cowling openings and new blisters. Concurrent to this work, I've cleaning up the wing root joints with putty and/or black Ca glue. Although the kit instructions, unfortunately, do not show how the extended landing gear is installed, all of the necessary parts are supplied. I had missed the retraction motor/strut and the small downlock rod previously so I tracked them down on the sprues, added some wiring detail and painted them.

OK, so where was I? I seem to have been constantly revising and fine tuning the back end underneath, contours on the sides and the area immediately behind the cans on the 'hot area I think we were re contouring the sides when we last spoke Trying to get all the gaps perfect Underneath proved quite a challenge with all the odd curves, and there was a lot of templating to ensure both sides are the same. Actually I started adding the new surface details around the fuse in front of the cans and found (I am unsure how I let this get past me) I was 2.5mm longer on one lower edge than on the other. I got it all sorted after much muttering about how I missed this. I found it because I am using dividers and doing exact measurements. Turns out it was the angle off vertical that was out which led to a longer lower edge on one side. Anyhoo all fixed Just waiting on Kerrys 3D printed hinge sections to arrive in the mail now so I can graft them all in Here is a bunch of different hinges ready at Kerrys place, hopefully they will be here tomorrow. In the meantime I decided while I wait I should get to work detailing the u/c doors. Here is the nose front door with a few mods (ribs shape tweak on the lower edge etc) I have to flick some Mr Surfacer on it next and add Archer rivets And the front is all riveted but you cant see it at this angle and with no wash in them. I had a 'wonky hole'for the main lamp so I filled it with plastic rod and reamed it out to the correct position then found a lens in my spares which fitted perfectly. But of foil on the back and the new antenna came from some spare bits off a Tamiya F-15E I picked up at a swap meed several years ago. Still a little refining to do once I get Mr Surfacer sprayed on So here she sits......getting ready to put paint on as soon as I get those hinges grafted in.... Oh well, I guess there was something to report after all..... Cheers guys Anthony

The filter work is done now and will dry while I'm running errands today. The effect is, intentionally, very subtle, but I love how it helps tie everything together. Bonus points for being a stupid simple technique too. Super thin burnt umber oil paint brushes all over the model. Here the two elevators have been filtered, the rudder has not. Notice the depth and richness of the base coat brought out by the filter. Here, you can see the difference on the rudder after the filter. The overall look as the thinner dries. The decals are faded and tied together tonally. Another bonus is that it starts the very beginnings of a panel line wash too. I'll clean up any puddling with thinner later tonight, then do some weathering, dry pigments, and she's done. If all goes to plan, I'm hoping to wrap it up by Monday!

Internal area of the canopy more or less completed. Derek

This is 1/32 Trumpeter Thunderbolt with the markings of P-47D5 (42-8487) flown by Cpt Walker M. Mahurin 63rd FS, 56th FG Halesworth in March 1944. I have used Eduard PE cockpit set and Hasegawa's P-47 rudder pedals ( Trumpeter's rudder pedal are not suitable for the razorback version) I have used Quickboost's engine set with Trumpeter's magnetos Cowling flaps part backdated to D5 I have used Eduard Brassin wheel set. Paints are Gunze acrylics Decals: National insignias are from Barracuda decal set. Customized fuselage code letters were produced by customhobbydecal from Australia. You can see the full build story by using the following WIP link: Happy modelling

After continuing to fiddle with the last bits and waiting for the supplies on the scenic base to arrive, I will call the P.11c done for now. This is IBG's first 1/32 kit, and what a dynamic entry to the market from them. Absolutely stunning surface detail for the corrugated and raised riveted surface, and great detail all the way through. The kit was enhanced in a few areas with detail parts from Yahu (IP and radio panel), Master Model (gun barrels, gunsight, and venturi tube), and Bitzkrieg (cowling, headrest, cocking levels, control stick, oil cooler, wheels, propellor, tail skid, pilot). Archer rivets were used where needed to replace raised detail, mostly along seams. Paint came from Hataka for the camoflauge, and they performed beautifully with some additional thinning for the airbrush. Markings were a mix of airbrushing and Techmod decals. All comments and critiques are welcomed, especially if you spot something that I did incorrectly or can fix. Hope you all enjoy it

Chipping is done. Ended up using a brush exclusively as my silver pencil is a different color from the sponge chipping. Again, shooting for a subtler chipping result than some of my previous efforts.

Some progress; cockpit is finished I hope I didn't bore you with the cockpit details.

Good day at the bench. It doesn't look like I accomplished much, but I really did. In the end and after a lot of testing, I decided to mask the nose art. I found a font that was closer to the original than what Mr. Claringbould used in his drawing of this a/c. It's not perfect, but no font will recreate the hand drawn art of the original. First I masked and painted the drop shadow layer. Then move the mask to the 10 o'clock position of the drop shadow and painted the yellow. I couldn't be happier with the results. Here is where things stand right now. All airbrush painting is done. All insignias, the wing walk, the guns, the props. Next is decals, filtering, then on to weathering this beast. Admittedly, her right side is kinda boring. Insofar as I can tell, no photos exist of this side of the aircraft. Maybe some bomb markings, or somesuch like that would give it some interest. Hmmm.

A little more done on the cockpit, spent this afternoon adding a little detail to the bomb aimers position which can be seen down through the foward cockpit. I've added a a pretty basic sighting mount, cabling and padding Also added a radio rack frame ( basic but will do the job) for what will be seen bearing in mind nothing is supplied in the kit just the random bulkhead boxes which all mostly seem to be present in the real thing. Apart from the gunners ring assembly I'm almost there with the cockpit and close to some paint. Also need to go and find some suitable HGW belts of a suitably light colour for these early airframes. Regards. Andy

I also took the opportunity to paint the wheel wells using MRP yellow for the overall colour and acrylic paints for the details. All details were then highlighted with a black wash. Additional weathering is required as I plan to depict the dirt splatters from the wheels.