Leaderboard

Hi All, Here are a few photos of my 1/32 scale Tamiya F-16C Block 25 (Thunderbirds box). This machine is based at Nellis. Overall, it's a kit that builds well but requires some effort here and there. The pylons, missiles/pod, nozzle, seat, and landing gear are resin/3D printed, with a Quinta Studio set in the cockpit. Twobobs decals and some painted markings. Cheers, Tristan

When I lived in Miami I met and befriended a gentleman who flew Corsairs during WWII and Korea. Lt. James Wilkins was assigned to VMF 225 and this is my tribute to his service. Incidentally, he flew Corsairs with VMF 312 in Korea where he unwittingly participated in another aviator being awarded the Metal of Honor. Google his name for the whole story. Of course, built out of the box with the exception of HGW belts and Barracuda cockpit decals. Paint is Gunze Mr. Color and AK Real Color lacquers, hairspray chipping, pastels, watercolor wash and oils for weathering. I also made my own data stencils (Tamiya got it wrong) and national insignia decals so I could fade the colors. You can see the build over in WIP, here. I'll be 80 in December, '26 and I do intend to keep building, but simple things for fun. I started this back in 2022 but had a couple health issues that put my life on hold for an over a year and a half. Thanks to some great doctors I'm doing well, but age is playing havoc with my hands so I'll keep building as long as I can. I love this hobby - I'm an addict.

Pilot from Master Details. Rest is OOB Cheers Collin

Its been more than a while, but with me being one of Wolverhampton's finest 😉 I thought I would post some images of one of Wolverhampton's second finest, My rendition of the beautiful Airscale Defiant. Depicted as the night-fighter variant I chose to go a little off piste from the kit and marked her up in 307 Squadron (Polish) markings. The kit itself is a robust, fully 3 d printed affair with superb fit and very few visible print lines such is the resolution that Peter has achieved, Thats not to say there aren't any but what are there are easily dealt with by judicious light sanding and a little fine primer and are all but invisible although the camera has picked some up during the photo session. Any that are present will easily stand up to the 3 ft rule! I also broke off and lost two of the barrel flash hiders so I replaced the kit parts with metal items from Master, an easy switch out for those that want to but the kit barrels are more than beautifully printed it was my ham fisted ness that contributed to their loss, likewise one of the turret frame supports. Anyhow, please excuse the photography but here she is. I'm quite pleased with the outcome.

hey, hey My first Magazine cover as a manufacturer - @Haggis incredible build made me hit the big time i feel all fuzzy inside Peter

howdy folks ..another milestone day for this kit - i have the wonderful box art from Antonis Karydis using the kit stl file as the basis - stunning work as usual and I know he spent a LOT of time and effort creating this scene, wanting to make use of the details in the kit - the hardest he has ever done he tells me - a fact I am not proud of The art work however, i am extremeIy proud of - love it as if that wasn't enough excitement, I started printing one - using all the space in my printer I managed to get all the kit parts done. Some of the geometry is a bit pissed, but I should be able to make a pretty good test version for my club's show at Tangmere at the end of the month ..the 3D printed clear parts are pretty rubbish so I will likely leave them off and to the side - it will certainly do until I get a test shot.. exciting times Peter

So what do we have here? I am honoured to have been asked by Peter, he of Airscale, to build a test shot of the cockpit, the open and closed engines of the forthcoming DO17. To that end I received three boxes of immaculately printed resin parts for the aforementioned assemblies which Peter had kindly removed from the printing supports, a huge relief as it cant be understated the resolution and intricacy of the parts and the detail depicted, even down to the cabling and pipework where relevant, may be a little like diffusing unexploded ordinance if the proper level of care is not taken. Do not let this put you off, bear with me. Below are a few images of the cockpit components, the detail of which should be absorbed while preparing the items. Anyhow you get the idea, The detail is superlative. Fitting of the parts is by way of positive "keys" and indents which are pretty logical as there is only one way round the relevant parts can go all of which makes assembly straightforward. There were a couple of areas that needed some adjustment which I have fed back to Peter for possible revisions. The final assembly of the cockpit parts produce a highly detailed resin tub which is designed to slot straight into the injection moulded fuselage sides similar to a resin upgrade set as used on many many other kits. Please note, I have primed and loosely taped the cockpit parts together and also omitted the nav and gunners seats as I intend to disassemble and paint the cockpit tub for a more accurate representation. Anyhow, after assembly this is what is produced by the parts. Next up engine parts.

Hello all. I present for inspection my 1/24 P-51D Mustang kit No. A14001V, built from the re-release of the 1970's mould. I'd like to say it was enjoyable but it has really tested me. When I purchased it somebody made rather derogatory remarks about the kit being just a pile of plastic waiting for the trash bin... and quite honestly it nearly went that way a few times. Nevertheless I persevered and I'm happy to have finished it. There are a number of things I wish I had done better, the engine side cowls in particular. Modifications made along the way include: lowering the flaps adding a wingspar and undercarriage bay thinning and polishing the life out of the canopy cutting out the front air scoop, plus adding in the internal "flu" between the radiator and the vent constructing undercarriage doors (inners and outers) detailing the bomb racks replacing the guns with aluminium tubing, and remodelling the undercarriage with a combination of plastic and metal parts I also used the following aftermarket parts: Airscale Harness Airscale Cockpit instruments and placards Airscale Pro P51 Parts Set Model Monkey Upper Cowling Model Monkey Wheel Well Model Monkey Rudder Pedals Scale Aircraft Conversions Metal Landing Gear (designed to be used with Trumpeter kits) Thanks for looking.

I can officially call my speedy silver cigar done! The Miles M.52 was a proposed British attempt to break the sound barrier more than 3 years before the Bell X-1 would accomplish the feat. The project was canceled in 1946, and Miles was directed to share their research and data with Bell, who would apply it to their own barrier breaker in 1947. This kit was Aerocraft's first full kit, as well as my first full 3D printed kit. Bit of a learning curve, to be sure, but a great kit to put together. The only challenge was in the surface finish, since the surface to be basically glass smooth. Numerous applications of Mr. Surfacer and careful polishing were the order of the day, but eventually, it was smooth enough for the gloss black and Alclad finish. Strong coats of Gunze GX2 Black set the stage, and then Alclad High Speed Silver coated the airframe. Select panels were picked out in Stainless Steel, Aluminium, Airframe Aluminium, and Polished Aluminium until I was satisfied with the finish. The roundel decals were replaced with Eduard units with peelable carrier film, while the serial number, prototype logo, and fin flash were all trimmed to eliminate any extra carrier film. Aerocraft was nice enough to include printed trestles for the plane to help alleviate strain on the landing gear, and I dealt with one main leg breaking under load. That side is also missing a gear door in certain photos, that was removed to give camera access to the engine bay. Please let me know what you think of it. Matt

I'm pleased to report that the model is almost finished now, and this should be the last update before it is. I'm planning to take it to the Melbourne Model Expo this coming weekend, so the next update after this one will probably be after that. So, on with the photos! The first thing to do in the process of wrapping things up was to get the tail wheel, associated doors, and arrestor hook installed. Easy enough: You can really see just how good the stencil decals are in this photo. Turning my attention to the main landing gear, it was evident in a couple of photos of this aircraft that the main gear doors had the numerals "00" painted on them. These are not shown in the painting guide, or supplied on the decal sheet, so I cut my own masks for them instead: In the end, they turned out a little rough, and the positioning isn't quite right either, but they'll have to do: More worrying, however—and one of the concerns I've had ever since screwing up the installation of the mounting points—was the initial test install of the legs themselves: It turns out that, for whatever reason, the little mounting nubs on the retraction arms were pushing the legs outwards: So these were clipped and each leg cemented into place. The starboard leg was fine, but I couldn't get the one on the port side to seat all the way down, and this, sadly, was the best I could manage: I suspect that the brass reinforcing rod is being fouled somewhere inside the mounting hole, but I've already reinforced the join with copious amounts of CA, and am reluctant to mess with it further. I'm sure this alone is enough to take it out of contention for any awards, but I don't really have the time (or the will) to fix it. Such is modelling! Mustn't forget this little antenna! Again with those stencils. And with the pitot tube installed and the prop and sliding canopy dry-fitted, we can get in one last glamour shot: Just a few fiddly bits left, and we're done! Kev

Hello everyone, here is my latest completion, ICM's lovely I-153, my first "modern" ICM kit (I built the 1:72 Bf-109E when it cam out Donkey's years ago)! I used Eduard's seat harness, AIMS rigging set, Quickboost exhausts and bomb racks, and a Vector resin front end replacement. This is beautifully detailed but it's too bit so the cowlings don't fit, I ended up just using the propeller and oil cooler from the set which is a bit of a shame. Paint is Tamiya, XF-23 with a touch of Medium Sea Grey for the underside AMT-7, a 40/40/20 mix of XF-67 NATO Green, XF-81 RAF Dark Green and XF-4 Yellow Green for the AMT-4 Green, the AMT-6 Black was straight XF-69 NATO Black. All markings were sprayed, no stencils for this one! Weathering was my usual paint fading during base coat application, then a heavy filter of complimentary tones, dust and grime using oils. I must say, that if you've ever fancied a bi-plane but have been intimidated by the rigging and complicated airframe, then this is a great first step. I built the airframe entirely then painted it rather painting in sub assemblies, and the rigging is not too much and very straight forward, if you drill the holes as outlined in the AIMS instructions using the steel etched set is a breeze. And in 1:32 it's not too fiddly.

Thanks guys! Ok... I'm getting ready to get the fuselage halves together but there is a lot to coordinate here. I need some weight to prevent the model from tail-sitting. The kit recommends 45 grams in the nose and behind the cockpit so I've got an assortment of lead fishing weights to hit that threshold. The first interior bits to be glued into the fuselage halves are the cannon barrels. These were cut from brass tubing and I've secured them into place using Milliput putty. This keeps the barrels in place but gives me time to make sure the barrels are aligned correctly. I'll set these aside until the putty completely cures. The cockpit parts are completed so I can start gluing the components into place. I've started out with the sidewalls. The pencil marks that I made are still there and they serve as a guide to placement but sidewall placement needs to be confirmed with the dry-fitting of the cockpit tub. Since the cockpit tub is almost ready to be glued into place, I've secured the nose wheel parts with glue. Lots of detail here but much of it will get closed up within the fuselage. The cockpit tub is held into place with Blue Tack putty while I close the fuselage halves and check for fit, especially to confirm that the nose gear strut is straight. At this stage, I can now finalize the instrument panel hood. I've had to resort to the kit plastic foot pedals since they are slimmer than the aftermarket PE pedals that I tried before. This is the only way I can get the pedals to fit. Thankfully, they will be barely visible one the hood is placed into position. The Revi 16B gun sight is from the Aires Cockpit and Wheel Bay set and I've added some copper wiring. After checking the fit, the hood assembly is painted and the instrument panel is glued into place, completing the assembly. The sidewallk placement has been confirmed and I've beefed up the glue connection by seeping in more CA glue along the edges. I've also filled in the visible gap between the resin sidewalls and kit plastic using White Milliput. The fuselage halves are taped together to make sure the IP hood fits into place. I also confirmed that the clear parts fit. Since the rear-opening canopy is secured in place with friction, I may leave this part unglued so that I can pose it either in the open or closed position. The PE part around the circular hatch opening is from the Aires Cockpit Set and held in place with Future. Hopefully, it will remain secured when I re-dip the entire canopy in future prior to masking.

Hello, Since one two-seater Harrier in my collection wasn't enough, here's a Royal Air Force Harrier T.10 in service with 1(F) Squadron in 1997. The T.10 was the operation two-seater of the second-generation Harrier GR.7: unlike its American cousin TAV-8B, the British T.10 had a complete avionics and armament complement capable of carrying out operational missions as well as training ones: · MB.12 ejection seats; · 2 MFD for each cockpit; · FLIR for night and adverse weather missions; · ARBS bombing sensor · 9 wings and ventral pylons for weapons and fuel tanks · Complete active ECM/RWR/MAWS suite and chaff&flare ventral boxes. To make this two-seater version there is no conversion available on the market today in this scale, so I had to make a lot scratch-build using styrene sheets and various pieces from the spare parts left over from other kits: · Extend the front section of the fuselage to accommodate the two cockpits; · Extend and enlarge the vertical tail; · Extend the rear tail boom; · Mould the clear parts to obtain the canopies; · Create the fairing behind the rear cockpit. In addition I used some detail sets as follows: · Resin front undercarriage bay from Aires; · Resin exhaust nozzles from Aires; · 3D Resin wheels from ResKit; · Resin ejection seats from modified Mk.10 ResKit; · 3D decals for cockpit instrument panels from Quinta Studios; · 3D HUD from Flying Leathernecks; · 3D resin underwing and ventral pylons from Flying Leathernecks; · 3D resin fuel tanks from ResKit; · 3D resin pitot, AOA and temperature probes from Flying Leathernecks · 3D resin rocket pod from a far-east company; · 3D resin travel pod from Jet Passion. As for all of my Harriers made using the Trumpeter kits a lot of corrections and modifications are required to fix many of the problem of this kits: · New resin nose; · Undercarriage legs and doors; · Wings profile; · ECM/RWR bulges; · Wings vortex generators; · Extended ventral LIDs; · All the panel lines and rivets; · … · … · … The level of modifications and improvements is up to the limit of the modeler's patience... For the camouflage I chose the original variant used by the RAF Harriers, the “Two Tone Green” with NATO Green shade for the upper surfaces and a Lichen Green for the lower surfaces. As usual I used Gunze and Tamiya acrylic colors applied with an airbrush and Vallejo colors applied with brush for the small parts. This particular T.10, assigned to the 1(F) RAF squadron, has panels where the squadron markings are placed, replaced with new ones or covered with splash of paint applied in the field, plus the “light” marks left by rivets removed during maintenance operations on the various access panels. The decals come from several sheets, especially by Airframe for RAF Harrier Retirements, various Xtradecals and some spare decal sheets. Some RBF tags give another splash of colors to the model. I hope you like this model and enjoy the photos… CIAO! Piero

I finished building the Gothaforce Fokker DVII "Rudolf Stark" kit a few weeks ago. The kit was a first for me in a couple of areas. It was my first nearly all-resin build and it was the first kit that I have ever pre-ordered. I won't bore you all with a detailed description of the build; there is an extensive build thread in the "Works in Progress" section of the forum for any of you interested in looking through it. I built the kit entirely oob with the only add-on being the very nice resin figure that was gifted to me for me to paint by my friend Jim Barry. Some background on the actual aircraft and pilot. The model represents the Fokker DVII flown by Rudolf Stark when he commanded Jadgstaffel 35b, a Bavarian unit, during the summer and early fall of 1918. Stark was originally a cavalryman serving in the 2nd Bavaria Royal Uhlans before switching to the Air Service at the fairly late date of 15 November 1917. Stark finished the war with 11 confirmed and 5 unconfirmed victories and was also somewhat of an artist, painting several pictures of air combat while serving at the front. He also wrote a book about his experiences while serving as a pilot and staffel commander during WW1 entitled, "Wings of War: an Airman's Diary of the Last Year of World War One". He donated a few items of his DVII and a couple of his paintings to the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt which can still be seen at the museum today. Stark remained in his native Bavaria after returning from duty in WW1 passing away at 85 years of age in 1982. First up some all around view shots. I kept the weathering restrained as the aircraft had a short service period that was during mostly times of good weather. As you can see from the close up photos the parts look very nice and the fit is quite good overall. The 3D printed figure is a very accurate likeness for Stark. The pose replicates one that was captured in a photo of Stark with this aircraft in 1918. The kit prop is resin. I used a combination of artist's pencils, a burnt umber oil wash and Tamiya transparent orange to simulate wood. Ernest

Thanks guys! I did use a hammer to pound the lead weights into usable shapes so thanks for that great tip, Gaz! The tail plane assembly has been glued together. I"m not going to glue the tail plane on just yet but fit looks to be good. The wings have been glued together also. A test fit of the wings and tail plane, along with the engine nacelle. I've mentioned that I was going to consider trying to make the closed engine nacelle (kit) and the open nacelle (CMK) interchangeable using magnets. Looking at the CMK assembly, I'm doubting that I'll get the open nacelle idea to work but just in case, I've added some small magnets to the closed option. The swappable idea requires that the closed engine nacelle be removable. So I'm going to attempt to glue together the closed engine nacelle WITHOUT gluing the nacelle/fuselage connection on the bottom edge. This is a bit tricky since that bottom joint forms the base of the connection. But I've checked the fit and its good enough where I should have enough contact surfaces along all of the other edges that I should be able to do this. First, I tape together the engine cowlings together using tape. This will be permanent since I won't have access to this area once I'm done. With the exposed engine in place, I drop the engine cowling around the engine and carefully align all of the contact edges. I then carefully fuse together the top seam and the front and back joints without getting glue on the bottom joint. I'll let that dry. Afterwards, I should be able to pop the closed nacelle off. At that time, I'll reinforce the blue seams a bit from the inside.

Thank you Michael! It is a very tight office with the pilot supposed to put his feet alongside the big hump that accommodates the retracted nose gear. This is causing an issue on the build as my preliminary test fits of the foot rests seem to indicate a lack of room. They are suspended on vertical rods attached to the instrument panel so I can't really do a definitive test fit until the cockpit components are attached to the fuselage. The port sidewall has been painted. This featured decals from the kit as well as from my spared box. The painted port sidewall is posed onto the cockpit tub for a photo. Oh and I almost forgot a few small details that were added to the starboard sidewall. I sourced a gun from a Tamiya 1/35 weapons set to pose as a flare gun. Also a single instrument was added above the oxygen regulator that came with the Aires set. With the wheel bays and cockpit sub-assemblies finished, I can move on to getting those components into place and getting the fuselage halves together. But first, a paint test to see how some small markings would look. I've used an old Hasegawa K-4 wing as a paint mule with a variety of colors that may be used for the He 162. Thse colors include the late variation of RLM 76 (eyeball mixture of Mr Hobby Aqueous H74 Sky Duck Egg Green + H336 Hemp + H1 White), RLM 81 (AK Real Color RC 325 RLM 81 Ver 3), RLM 82 (Mr Hobby Aqueous H422 RLM 82 Light Green), RLM 65 (Mr Hobby Aqueous H67 RLM 65 Light Blue), RLM 70 (Mr Hobby Aqueous H65 RLM 70 Black Green) and standard RLM 76 (Mr Hobby Aqueous H417 Light Blue). The problematic masks are the small serial number and the thin outline swastika, both on the tail. These were created using the decal sheets(Cutting Edge and kit) scanned into AutoCAD and cut from Oramask 810 using the Silhouette Portrait 2 cutter. THe masks were placed in their entirety onto the mule. The bits of tape help keep all of the mask components together. Both these markings will be white on a RLM 81 background so I carefully remove the appropriate parts of the mask that will be white. Keeping the mask whole and removing parts afterward will keep the free-floating components in alignment such as on the 0's and 8's. The masks are now ready for paint. I find certain colors to create more overspray issues than others and white is on the top of the list so the surrounding areas are masked off. The white is then sprayed. I prefer flats over glosses when painting masks, finding them to be quicker to dry and also results in cleaner edges. Paint mix is important when using masks. You don't want the mix too thick or you will get a grainy finish. Too watery a mix and the paint will pool, creating sloppy edges. The perfect mix sprays smooth but still on the "dry" side. It looks like the swastika and serial number are good to go. I also created an arrow mask for the nose and tested it for fit.

Hello, Here is my 1/32 scale TAV-8B, the two-seater version of the second-generation Harrier built using the single-seater Trumpeter AV-8B kit. The TAV-8B has been used for training of the pilots by the USMC, the Italian Navy and the Spanish Navy: Italian e Spanish navy still use this iconic jets, while the USMC has just withdrawn them from operational service. To make this two-seater version there is no conversion available on the market today in this scale, so I had to make a lot scratch-build using styrene sheets and various pieces from the spare parts left over from other kits: · Extend the front section of the fuselage to accommodate the two cockpits; · Extend and enlarge the vertical tail; · Mould the clear parts to obtain the canopies; · Make the fairings under the wings instead of the inner pylons; · Create the fairing behind the rear cockpit; · Remove the ventral chaff&flare boxes; · FOD for the main engine air intakes. In addition I used some detail sets as follows: · Resin front undercarriage bay from Aires · Resin exhaust nozzles from Aires · 3D Resin wheels from ResKit · Resin ejection seats from Aires · 3D decals for cockpit instrument panels from Quinta Studios · 3D HUD from Flying Leathernecks · 3D resin underwing pylons from Flying Leathernecks · 3D resin TER from ResKit · 3D resin pitot, AOA and temperature probes from Flying Leathernecks · 3D resin practice bombs from Flying Leathernecks As for all of my Harriers made using the Trumpeter kits a lot of corrections and modifications are required to fix many of the problem of this kits: · Nose’s profile; · Undercarriage legs and doors; · Wings profile; · ECM/RWR bulges; · Wings vortex generators; · Extended ventral LIDs; · All the panel lines and rivets; · … · … · … The level of modifications and improvements is up to the limit of the modeler's patience... For the camouflage I chose the latest variant used by the Marines, the “Dark Harriers” with a very dark grey shade for the upper surfaces and a lighter, bluish grey for the lower surfaces. As usual I used Gunze and Tamiya acrylic colors applied with an airbrush and Vallejo colors applied with a brush for the small parts. This particular TAV-8B, assigned to the USMC squadron VMA-223 “Bulldogs”, appears in several photos with a very worn and weathered color scheme with different color patches applied here and there on the different panels or to cancel previous markings and codes of other squadrons. Another interesting point of this camouflage is the use of very light grey stencils in contrast with the dark grey. The decals come from several sheets, especially by Flying Leathernecks and Phoenix Decals sheets for the USMC AV-8Bs. Some RBF tags and a couple of red FOD blankets give another splash of colors to the model. I hope you like this model and enjoy the photos… CIAO! Piero

Thank you Alan and Martin! The painting of the late war RLM 76 is finished.

Thanks guys! I appreciate the comments and am happy that my posts are informative. Just trying to give back in the same way that I have received. The work on the Volksjager is continuing as I am getting closer to the painting stage. A few bits are attached to the masked clear parts before they are glued into place. I can now pose all of the major parts of the He 162. Doing things slightly different than normal, I am going to paint the main components separately: wings, tail, engine, fuselage. Since the real aircraft was built, painted and assembled in a similar way, I thought this would be a good way to approach painting. It makes the painting a little easier but there will be additional work to make sure the attachment areas are cleaned up afterwards. The wings, engine and tail assemblies were given their customary mottle pre-shading using a piece of kitching scrubbing pad.

Fellow Modelers, Below are photos of RevellAG’s 1/32 scale Heinkel’s HE-111 H3 German WW2 Medium Bomber built in 2018. The He-111 has always been one of my favorite aircraft and I decided to model it after a BoB (Battle of Britain) machine. The subject selected was an “H-3” aircraft (Work Number 3340) that participated in the BoB during the summer of 1940, specifically on September 15, 1940, now remembered as “Battle of Britain Day”. Several aftermarket sets were used to make the conversion from a “P-1” to “H-3” version of the aircraft. The aftermarket sets included: Eduard canopy mask set, Eduard cockpit photo-etched set, CMK engine nacelle conversion set, HK seatbelt set, and decals. This He-111 H-3 (side code A1+BT) was assigned to KG53/III/9 or the 9th Squadron of the 3rd Group of the 53 Bomber Wing and was based out of Lille, France. Although bomber attacks took place all day on September 15th, 3340 participated in the mid-afternoon attack which totaled 114 bombers. The primary targets for this group were the West India Docks, Royal Victoria Docks and Surrey Commercial Dock warehouses. After crossing the Channel and reaching the vicinity of Gravesend, England (northwest of London) this armada came under attack from Spitfire fighters from 66, 72 and 229 Squadrons. The British fighters were above and in front of the Luftwaffe bombers when they began their diving attacks. During these attacks (lead by 66 Squadron) 3340 was hit multiple times, suffering heavy damage and wounding two non-commissioned officers. The damage was significant enough to force a return to base. 3340 was able to re-cross the Channel and enter France, making a forced (probably wheels up) landing in Armentieres, France about 10 miles short of the airfield in Lille. Luftwaffe records record 3340 suffered “40% damage” as a result of the action that day but it is unknown if the aircraft was repaired and returned to service or written off. The last two photos are of the actual aircraft before being shot down. I hope you enjoy the photos. Phillip1

Thanks guys! I appreciate the postive comments, as always. After drilling the holes, most of the resultant work is done with an x-acto blade, either cutting or scraping the blade across the surface. And the corners are typically cut square with an x-acto blade. Always a pair of cuts with the second cut meeting in the corner where the first cut ended, if that makes sense. The cockpit tub has been painted. I've also completed painting of the right sidewall. It was dressed up with some spare decals. Here's a view of the cockpit tub with painted seated inserted and the right sidewall taped into place.

Oh...and here's some photos from the build and NASM Cheers Iggy

Thanks once again for your comments, fellas - they're much appreciated! While I executed a few tidy-ups to seam lines between coats of LP-11, I decided to push forward with the landing gear legs, starting with drilling out the holes in the small flap piece on each leg: I also decided that they really needed brake lines, which will be my one major deviation from a strict OOB build: The connectors are from ANYZ, and while a little oversized for the job, were the smallest I had to hand. I also fixed these nasty little gaps and seams around the wing intakes: I'll see if I can get an 'after' photo later. And then it was time for a second coat of LP-11 on the airframe: Just the red bits to go now, and the paint job is finished. Kev

Good evening, Nicolas provided me with a box of his brand-new kit, and here are a few photos of it. The thin cardboard box is nicely illustrated. The back provides some information, such as the number of pieces (72) and the dimensions. An overview of the kit is presented: The gray 3D-printed parts are distributed across 4 cages. The large fuselage parts and the blades are supplied off the sprue. A view of the large cage: Some close-up photos. The turbine and the rotor mast are truly very well detailed: The fuselage: After a few quick file strokes, the fit seems good: The front bubble is supplied as a vaccuformed part, on its mold: The plastic is quite transparent. It remains to be seen if polishing will still be necessary? The door windows are supplied as cut-out plastic. They will need to be sandwiched between the internal and external door parts. I find the manual to be very well thought out. Color drawings and photos will help with painting: The decals look very thin, and their opacity will need to be checked during application. The base model can be completed with additional sets to make a Viviane Hot version, or one with a door-mounted Gatling gun. A crew will also be offered. The figures benefit from a convincing sculpt, and like the rest of the kit, they are very well printed. Same for the Gatling: From my point of view, Hacheckaprints offers us THE Gazelle kit that has been missing for decades. Not being an expert on this machine, I did not detect any shape issues. However, the level of detail is truly impressive. And the print quality is excellent. However I did notice a few small points for improvement. Like rinsing residues in two places, printing defects at the tip of the blades, and one part (the stabilizers) with print steps that were a bit too visible to me. I have shared this with Nicolas, who will look into it more closely. Finally, as beautiful as this kit is, it might not be for a beginner. 3D resin remains quite fragile and delicate to remove from the "sprue". In that regard, I recently acquired an ultrasonic cutter, and it changes your life! See you soon! Romain Links: https://www.hacheckaprints.com/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555651894702

Order placed!

And the finish

Getting closer to closing the fuselage. Now test-fitting both the cockpit tub and main gear well with Blue Tack putty. Once those components are verified to be correctly positioned, they are fused permanently into place by seeping CA glue onto the points of contact. To ensure a good bond, I apply a lot of CA glue, first the thin stuff and then followed by thicker CA glue. To further bolster the cockpit tub into place, the lead weights are buttressed up against the tub with more CA glue. Weights are also placed into the small open space in the nose. And finally, after all of the dry-fitting and preparation, the fuselage halves are glued together. This is rushing forward a bit since the landing gear leg is a bit spindly without any glue but we can get a glimpse of the Volksjager on its own legs. Next up are the wings and the tail assemblies.

Thanks Ton! I'm going to dial back some of the light-colored stains on the tires but other than that, I think the landing gear components are finished. I'm now working on painting of the interior components including the cockpit tub and landing gear bays. Lots of details on the Aires resin so careful painting is required. So far, the seat has been completed. The Aires instrument panel has also been painted. The sandwich approach using unpainted photo etch and black dial details painted onto clear acetate is old-school but I prefer this method above some of the newer stuff like the 3D-printed decals from Quinta and also the pre-painted panels from Eduard. I like how the dial faces are naturally shiny without additional work.

Hi everyone, Today I’m happy to show you my Kitty Hawk P-39. I decided to go with a pretty colorful paint scheme, depicting a VVS P-39 flown by Colonel Sobolev of the 21st Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (21 GIAP) in May 1943. This Kitty Hawk kit is definitely not the easiest one to build. I had to stay really focused throughout the assembly to avoid mistakes, and even then I almost got caught out by the nose landing gear. All the paints are from MRP. The six red-and-black stars and the serial number were painted using masks that I designed and cut with my Silhouette Cameo. A huge thank you to my friends Gilles Peysson, Jean-Marc "Jimvit," and Alexandre "AlexGRD" for all their help, especially with the decals, masks, and additional reference photos of this aircraft. Special thanks as well to @LSP_Kevin for his fantastic WIP thread, which was a tremendous help during the build. And I can’t forget @Thunnus, who was a huge inspiration with his salt weathering technique, as well as the detailed explanations he takes the time to share about this rather tricky process. I hope you’ll enjoy my P-39, and I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts and comments on this rather unusual warbird. And here’s the link to my P-39 WIP thread. And now, on to the photos!

So, it seems I'm fairly active around here: No wonder I don't get many models built! (50,001 now) Kev

Thanks guys! Appreciate the feedback! I gave the wings and tail planes the salt weathering treatment. I sprinkle fine rock salt onto the wetted surface. If the water beads, simply a little drop of dishwashing soap into the water. After the salt dries completely, I spray a very diluted coat of a contrasting color (in this case, Tamiya Deck Tan XF55) over the salt. When you remove the salt, you should get some sort of staining effect. What I got this time was too heavy for my tastes so the effect was dialed back by carefully rubbing down with wet Micromesh. In some areas, I lightly re-sprayed the camo color to further reduce the effect. Here are the results of some of the reduction work... While working on that, I also gave the fuselage a matte coat (Mr Hoby GX114) to seal the pastel wash. Since all of the components are being weathered separately, it's good to put the parts together to see how the weathering fits together. I'm still dialing in the salt staining effects and will add some post-shading and oil work as well.

The clear parts have been dipped in Future. I've seen lots of online arguments of polishing vs dipping in Future, which I think is pretty silly. It's not one or the other as each has its pros/cons and benefits/drawbacks. I typically top off all of my clear parts work with a dip in Future as it adds a noticeable amount of shine and clarity, even to polished parts. You can see that I cannot get the canopy to sit flush so I'm opting to glue the clear parts shut. The good thing is that visibility into the cockpit is still good. Once that decision is made, I finally glue the instrument panel hood, with the attached foot rests and Revi gun sight, into place. Let's say hello and good-bye to the He 162 cockpit as I'm going to now cover this with the masked clear parts. Note that the outer edge of the cockpit opening has been carefully scraped of its RLM66 to prepare for the cement application.

I purchased this in 2012. Started it and totally lost my mojo on this. Nothing fit, warped issues, canopy was unusable. This sat in the SOD for over 10 years. Riveted entire a/c with Rosie The Riveter wheels. Swapped out many components: HGW Textile Belts MDC wheels Hasegawa Fw190D9 prop blades HAsegawa Fw190D9 Canopy as Planet vac was unusable (both of them) Eduard Brassin Fw190 Landing Gear as the Hssegawa oleo was too long 1Man Army for walkway masks Maketar masks for national insignia Codes and stencils are decals from the kit and my spares Gunze paints for interior MRP paints throughout and for Dark Aluminum, White Aluminum and Duraluminum MRP Super Clear Semi Matt ALCLAD for Magnesium This build was challenging a best. Lots of CA glue, Epoxy, putty, sand, repeat. WIP link Overall NMF with RLM76 for control surfaces. Warts and all not 100% accurate. But close enough. Finally I did a compar photoshoot using Fw190 Volume One, Classic #18, J Richard Smith/Eddie J Creek. All black and White photos of actual Fw190C top with my build bottom. This was kinda fun exercise to do.

hey guys So, finally built my first ever 'big rig' kit and it was a nice change! I did contemplate adding lights to it etc, but I just couldn't be bothered in the end, just a bit too much for my current patience levels. It went together well enough. A bit fiddly here and there. I completely Fk'd up the engine and glued the turbo manifold on upside down, so even though I spent ages making all the pipe work look nice, it was all wasted by that one stupid error, so no engine pics. It looks cool though, and you can sort of see the underside of it in the pics. Really bright fluro yellow block, with oil stains etc. I know its not like the real thing, but its my build, and I thought it looked pretty .... Speaking of paint, the scheme is made up by me. I haven't seen any other 378 painted like this, but I also didn't look too hard either. Painted in Zero paints Mclaren Meteor Grey and Graphite Grey with red stripe courtesy of a decal sheet from a site in Germany (wish I could remember) Wheels in SMS Light Bronze and the red trim in Candy Red (Zero paints) Interior was done using Mr Color Velvet Red and NATO Black OOB - with exception to the bullbars - got them from somewhere here in Aus - again, wish I could remember these things. They seem to have a good name in the truck resin corner. I only have 3 pictures to show but that's enough to convey the idea. I know some of those red pipes aren't meant to be red. I kinda only really found out after I'd already painted them in what I thought were cool looking colors only to find out their actual use at construction time. Don't worry, I'm already shaking my head in shame.... Other than that, yeah it was fun and a nice break from ships and cars. As always, thanks for stopping in Si

This is the test build of new DBMK's Hawker Sea Fury Mk.11 with the markings of VW127 127/K Royal Australian Navy No 805 sqn in April 1949 I have built it OOB except for the UKscalemodeller mask set. Paints are Gunze Sangyo and Tamiya acrylics. Happy Modelling

Thanks for the comments guys! Love the photo of the captured 162 with the someone sitting in the seat. It not only shows the dimunitive size of the aircraft to good effect, it is a very high quality pic and I see some interesting details like the metal color of the engine cowlings. Interesting lighter color on the upper wings too... I would've guessed natural metal but I thought the wings were made of wood. Thank you Troy for that information! Based on my available pics of White 3, I would say no scallops on the leading edges... Time to paint the fuselage markings. The fuselage is sealed with a gloss coat (Alclad Aqua Gloss) and then the decals are applied. I used mostly the Revell kit decals but the yellow eagle insignia came from the Cutting Edge sheet. I printed the black border for the 3 on my laser printer. Once the fuselage markings are done, the decals are sealed with another gloss coat and I start the pastel wash process. I make my own pastel washes using shavings from pastel chalks and water. A few different shades were made for this build including a grey for the lighter fuselage colors.

Images of the airframe decaled with the Archer rivet decal sheet. Quite a steep learning curve on this - the instructions on how to apply are very detailed, but there is still a lot of trial and error (on my part at least) until you get comfortable with the process. I made the mistake at the beginning when I was doing the control surfaces in reaching for my bottle of Micro-Sol (not Set) and paid the price as it was a little too aggressive - however I managed to save them, they look fine under a bit of primer. Micr0-Set is what is called for, and it works great!! The instructions call for a LOT of decal fluid or water, and the decals need them! If you think the surface is wet enough, add a bit more! If not, once you pop them on they'll not be able to move into position. Very important to leave a bit of backing sheet as a handle in order to pull the backing sheet out under the decal. The decal film is incredibly thin, and will fold up under itself if you give it a chance, you have to be very precise when applying the decals. I did manage to mess it up a few times, but adding a lot more water under the errant part managed to float them enough if order that I could flip it back the correct way. The best thing about these are the fact that the film is lacquer - once they've dried you shoot some MLT at them and it will melt the film onto the surface, conforms wonderfully to the surface detail! It's quite an extended process though - you have decide which sections to decal first, get them down, then spray those decals with MLT. Once dry, next section, etc. I found that if you tried to do two adjoining panels at once, the decal solution would tend to lift the neighboring decal. These decals are meant to be applied over the painted model, but as I'm not a fan of too-prominent rivets, I thought that black rivets would look too stark over the last coat of paint. So another option, which I chose, was to apply them over the primer (with a coat of Mr Paint GX112 GLoss). I'll then paint it up, and gently sand back the paint to reveal the rivets in areas I want them to be seen. I am not sure how masking is going to work, I think I might end up using decals on this bird. I certainly don't want to mask, then have the masks rip up the rivet detail (although I don't think it will as everything is lacquer, but better safe than sorry) I have national insignia left over from a previous build (way thinner than the Revell decals), but some of the decals will have to come from the Revell sheet for aircraft-specific markings (esp the Saukopf on the cowling). Paint next!!

Here's a look of the painted components so far. I have some 1ManArmy stencil masks from a previous build and decided to use them for the control surface tab warnings. These are laser-cut paint masks and are incredibly fine. Now I can move on to the fuselage painting. After the red paint on the nose is dry, the masks for the arrows are applied. Let's establish the pre-shade layer. I've adjusted the late war RLM 76 variation a bit to bring out the greenish tinge a bit more. I don't have the exact ratios but this color is an eye-ball mix of Mr Hobby Aqueous Sky (Duck Egg Gree) H74, Mr Hobby Aqueous Hemp H336 and Mr Hobby Aqueous White H1. Using a heavily-thinned mix, this color is built up slowly, modulating the pre-shade effects.

Thank you Bill! I also enjoy the painting stage very much! Since it is time for painting, I thought I'd go over some of my color choices on this build. I don't know much about the He 162 and I'm having to rely on the limited references that I have access to. One of them is "Heinkel He 162: from Drawing Board to Destruction: The Volksjager" by Forsyth and Creek. I will be modeling White 3 (Serial No. 120028), which was photographed in the famous surrender line-up of He 162's at Leck in 1945. There are a couple of photos of White 3 in this book showing some helpful insights such as the Diving Eagle squadron emblem on only the port side of the aircraft, darkened gun troughs and the earlier style (black and white) fuselage crosses. There is also a color profile with the note, "Another early production machine built by Heinkel Rostock, which was also captured captured at Leck in May 1945. The aircraft was later moved to Kassel where it was probably scrapped. The camouflage is the same as seen on "White 1" on the opposite page and other early aircraft. The diving eagle was only painted on the port side of the fuselage. Early style Balkenkreuze were applied on the fuselage sides." The color profile notes for "White 1" reads, "The fuselage was painted in RLM 76 variation that appeared more cream than blue. The area behind the cockpit was painted in RLM 82 with the wings in 70/65. This was unusual, but it also appeared on other early Heinkel Rostock production aircraft." I've also got this color profile from the Hobby 2000 re-boxing the Revell He 162 kit, which corresponds in parts to the Forsyth and Creek book. For example, both profiles show the engine nacelle to be a uniform RLM 81 Brown and the fuselage to be the late war RLM 76 variation, which I'll follow. Based on these two references, I will be painting both wing uppers in RLM 70 Dark Green and wing lowers in RLM 65. The tail, which may have been assembled and painted at a different sub-factory, will be painted in the RLM-specified pattern of RLM 81/82 on the upper side and RLM 76 underneath. Painting begins with the wing undersides in RLM 65 Light Blue (Mr Hobby Aqueous H67). The engine assembly, with the rear black portion masked off, is painted in RLM 81 Brown (AK Real Colors RC325). In order to allow the pre-shading work to show up, I'm spraying thin mixes of the camo colors, working up the color in multiple layers. My supply of my normal RLM 76 Light Blue (Mr Hobby Aqueous H417)was very low so I searched my paint collection and decided to replace it with the AK Real Color version (RC321). After the first round of painting, here are what the components look like... Taking advantage of the convenience of separated components, masking of the wing and tail markings is very easy. Concurrently, the fuselage is being prepared for camo painting. First the clear part area is sprayed with the interior color, RLM 66 and then black to ensure opacity. Red is sprayed onto the nose area for the arrow.

Thank you Denis! Everything is NOT glued together yet. I've kept them as separate components so that I can be able to paint them first and assemble them afterwards. Thank you Gaz! The foil was just some random stuff I got from a bottle of wine. As far as I can tell, it's a very nice kit. Fit is really good and I haven't run into any issues besides the aftermarket stuff, which is par for that course. Thank you! Pretty easy adjustments and not too frustrating! I know Aires gets a bad rap but my experience with them has been mostly positive. Thank you Gilles! I hope I can keep you entertained! I really should be painting the interior components so that I can button up the fuselage but I keep getting drawn away toward other things. First, I wanted to test the use of custom-printed decals for aircraft numerals with a thin border. These are usually very difficult to pull off with masks only so I thought a combination of painted markings using masks and supplying the thin border with a decal might work out better. Looks good and is much easier to boot. The pitot tube and loop antenna have been modified using brass tubing and thin section cut from a Coke can. Brake lines, fashioned from copper wire, have been glued onto the landing gear struts. I've also started to paint and assemble the kit engine. The landing gear doors have a curved edge, which was actually straight so I've added a thin strip of sheet styrene to the edge to straighten it off. The fuselage section that butts up against those curved doors were straightened by subtraction instead of addition. A coat of primer to check my mod work. I've decided to add rivets to the metal portions of the aircraft. This includes the engine nacelles. I understand that the He 162 was puttied and probably quite smooth in reality but I wanted to break up the smooth surface with some subtle detail and decided to add the rivets. The effect you see below is quite exaggerated and I'll use a less contrasting wash color later on. This is just to check the rivet and panel line work.

Well... the kit sells as a G-14. But it has all of the parts necessary to build an early G6. A late G6... Or a few different renditions of the G14... short tail, no Galland hood. Tall tail with Galland hood... Or a G6 upgraded with the Galland hood. I know... not called Galland Hood... but it's a phrase I learned years ago, and it's easier than trying to recall its proper name. Here is the kit box. As soon as ZM released the non-special-issue kit, I bought two. It has some nice decal options... but I am making my own. So, let's start with the engine... No, it's not the Revell kit's DB 605. It's just my minimalist approach to building things that won't be seen. There's a lot of spare parts still attached to the sprues... but that's OK. A few cockpit shots... I used hair spray chipping to add a little wear to the cockpit. I didn't bother with washes to add detail... RLM 66 is so dark that it just swallows up anything used to add depth. I used HGW fabric belts, and it looks like they need to be mashed deeper into the pilot's seat. I reckon it is easier to just raise some edges with a little chipping. ZM gives you nice decals to dress up the interior. I'm not quite certain why they chose to represent the chain attached to the trim wheel with rods... But that throttle quadrant sure looks better with that colorful decal on it. Speaking of decals... here is the IP. I can't seem to get a decent picture of it. Not with phone, nor with my wife's Canon Olympus. But the decals are nice. And the bezels look sweet tricked out with some clear UV resin. There is a figure in the works... and he's almost ready to be seen. Thank you.

Thanks yet again, fellas. I've just returned home from the show (which, for those of you who are not aware, is a 3-day event). I still need to catch this thread up with the final stages of the build, but in the interim, I'll leave you with this image: (For the record, my little Minicraft 1/144 DC-4 in Qantas livery also scored a Commended in the Airliners category.) Kev

Georges Jaspis was a belgian fighter pilot flying with the RAF after having flown the May 1940 campaign with the Belgian military aviation. After escaping to England he was assigned to 609th Squadron and flew the Typhoon during two tours. His second tour started just after D-Day and he deployed to the Dusty Normandy fields. He flew a variety of Tyhoons during that time and thanks to the National Archives of UK and part of his log, We gathered many detailled information about the serial and corresponding aircraft features for building this model. At the end of the war, Georges Jaspis transitionned to transport aircrfat and after the war he joined the SABENA where he flew until retirement. He's always been a very modest and humble person and passed in 2007 aged 91. A friend of mine and also a ex Sabena pilot had the pleasure to present Mr Jaspis a 1/48 typhoon I built a long time ago on a commemorative plate. This 1/24 model was built in his honour and will proudly stand in the collection with a special history. The aircraft chosen is Typhoon Mk1b PR-W MN868. Flow by Georges Jaspis August 8, 1944 in Normandy. It's a late typhoon, large tail and 4 blades propeller. The airfix model offers plenty of inside details, but I wanted the aircraft to be smooth and completely closed up looking like an airplane and not a mechanical bench. Closing all panels seems daunting but the instructions are very well made and guide us very well in that goal. Some after markets were used: - Barracuda seat - Yahu Intrument panel - Aerocraft landing gear - Master RP rockets (of course I selected the wrong ones and I had to convert them to the right double heavy rails as I found out in the build that the lightweight rails were probably used later than my chosen timeframe - Eduard PE (mostly for the cockit) - I also designed the Cuckoo filter and doors in 3D and downloaded and scaled up a bomb trolley I sourced on Cults 3D - No decals were used, but custom masks were created. - Painted with MRPs 110/115 & 112 the Masters RP rockets are gorgeous My version of the Cuckoo filter. Airfix provides the door but not the filter itself, so you end up with something clearly missing. So idesigned the filter and new doors. The door structure mounts were done with beaten PE strips. Belly weathering in progress I tried to weather the model with the famous Normandy dust in mind. The 3D bomb trolley. It was designed in 1/32 scale and I upscaled it to 1/24. the bombs are from the kit. You could also load RP rockets perpendicular to the bombs but since the kit's rockets are so poor compared to Master's I decided against it. It's a massive model - Thanks for looking

Main rotor is making progress! Still need to do wiring, washes, matt coat, weathering, but the main bits are largely there now. Project will go on pause for a few weeks as I am travelling to the US, but that also means I can now collect some orders from CAVU, Flying Leathernecks, Black Ops 3D etc for future helo builds!

Thanks for the positive vibes everyone! Appreciate the comments! The baffles are manually punched from thin sheet styrene. To guide the punches, I made up simple sketch in AutoCAD and printed it out as a decal. Not sure if sharing an AutoCAD drawing file would be useful but PM me if you want it. Painting continues on the He 162. The RLM 82 Light Green (Mr Hobby Aqueous H422) areas behind the cockpit are established. I didn't want to use masking so I switched to my Iwata HP-B+ for a finer demarcation. The gun troughs are masked off and painted black. I am fully embracing the likelihood of late war mismatched colors. The tail unit will feature standard RLM 76 (AK Real Colors RC 321). It's hard to tell but it looks like the RLM 82 stops at the wings and there is a strip of black aft of the engine exhausts. I've elected to hard mask this area. The arrow masks are removed from the nose. The arrow is extra shiny because I put a coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss prior to masking to help protect it from the tape adhesive. Sometimes I get some adverse reactions masking over primary gloss colors like red, blue and yellow. The gun barrels are masked off and painted in Mr Metal Color Iron (MC212). This is a buffable paint and after application, a soft brush was used to add a metallic shine to the barrels. I considered the top edge of the fuselage above the wing joint as part of the engine cowling so this was masked off and painted in RLM 81 Brown (AK RC325). Not done yet but we are at a good point to put all of the components in place to see how the funky color mismatches look like.

Here is DBMK's 1/32 Hawker Sea Fury kit. Few months ago Will Packard from DBMK sent me this kit for test building. ( It was very difficult for me to get the kit due to the new customs regulations.) I would like to thank him for giving me this opportunity. Here you will find a summarized and in zipped -as pill form- WIP thread. Hope you like it.

Yes, but they have a minimum order as there are so many complex and large moulds - I will have more than 100 kits in plastic, the limitation is further production. I never said there would only ever be 100, just 100 at launch as pre-orders, after that I anticipate further batches over timer as they are neededand if they are needed So I successfully built the printed test shot The clear parts are printed too and are very poor, the IM parts will be perfect. It was a valuable exercise as I found 30 design changes to improve fit and finish and it also helps to see it ‘in the flesh’ When I get the moulded test shot parts in September, I will build a proper test shot – this one has a lot of geometric flaws from trying to print such large thin parts, and the rivets & panel lines are half arsed but it still looks the part ..a valuable excercise before production - hope you like it Peter

I've decided to do things a tad different on this build. CANOPY Will have a regular canopy as the vacuform canopies with the "pressurized frames" (2 supplied) were unusable with plenty of imperfections. Let's say the pressurized cockpit has yet to be fitted. 🤔 FINISH I'm going NMF with RLM76 surface controls. Visually, I never liked the cobbled wings and fuselage colors. That's just me and I'm all about creative license these days. Cowling, canopy and landing gear covers get a shot of MRP 008 Duraluminium. Control surfaces painted MRP66 RLM76 and masked. MRP146 Dark Aluminum overall. After paint cure I'll pick out a few panels in different shades. National insignias masks and painted with MRP99 US Navy White. I'll have to use the kit decals for the codes as I do not have masks for Luftwaffe codes. Various panels picked out with MRP08 Duraluminum and MRP09 White Aluminum.

I'm still chipping away at this one, but progress has slowed a bit. I've also ordered a copy of the Tony Buttler book that features several photos of the actual aircraft I'm building, even though I have seen them already. Still, there's plenty to update you with! The left aileron in my kit had a couple of very small moulding flaws: So it was out with my customary CA and talc mix: And the result after some sanding: I've lost a few raised rivets, but I don't really have any way of restoring them, and they're so subtle anyway that I'm pretty sure they won't be missed. While I had the CA/talc mix out, I turned my attention to the join seam running through the wing root fairings: They're looking better after some sanding and some Mr. Surfacer 500, but will probably need some more work before painting: Now onto the wingtip lights, and DBMK has the lamps moulded as little plastic nubs inside a cut-out in each wing: Despite the prominent mould seam, the 'bulb' is actually moulded as part of the lower (IIRC) wing part, and you could easily cut it out and replace it with a piece of clear sprue. I elected to work with what the kit provides, so the first task was to clean up the mould seam as best I could, and apply a gloss black base coat: This was followed by a coat of silver (Xtreme Metal Polished Aluminum in this case): And then the bulbs were brush-painted with clear green and red respectively: Clear lens covers are obviously provided in the kit, but I haven't test-fitted them yet. I don't really have any concerns about them, but fixing them isn't difficult if the fit is off. And lastly for today's update, I masked up the windscreen with Bare Metal Foil, painted the exterior of the frames black, and attached it to the airframe using AMMO's acrylic glue diluted with water (mine's thickening up): Prior to installation, I ran an AK Interactive flat black paint marker around the rear-facing edge of the part, which was easier than trying to brush-paint it, and safer than trusting to my masking for airbrushing! I also had to cut down my home-made gunsight glass, as it was too tall, and interfered with the fit of the windscreen. I'm sure the pre-printed acetate part supplied in the production kit will be fine. I'm currently working on the sliding canopy, and edging ever closer to the paint job... Stay tuned! Kev