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Hi gentlemen This is my last construction, something different today ... this is the Wessex HU 5 from Fly.... the kit is a "short term", the plastic is thick, the engraving is sometimes "soft", especially the multitude of small holes supposed to represent the rivets (they are raised on the real machine) but no matter that works, we have some nice resin parts ( cockpit consoles , rotor head , wheels etc ....)The decals are thin and nice , for 4 different colorful helos .. The instruction sheet is .....not clear , and I dare to say "messy" , ... But stop chatting, there is a complete review of the kit here....... Well, don’t expect a very detailed construction like "Shark 64 did it here some time ago, I’m nowhere near as skillful as he... My main improvement is in the cargo cabin. there is a lack of detail inside, and God knows this area is " occupied," so I scratch built it, and too bad if nothing will be seen afterwards..... I put some raised rivets here and there on some hatches, panels and so on, especially around the windscreen, for a more pleasing effect, I added some "pipes" along the fuselage on both sides , the rotor head needs more details , a good picture is very useful because of this complex area ........ what else ??, the paint scheme is not provided, but it's nothing, I just painted a big D on the fuselage, the decals are from the kit...... Is it perfect ???? no , but despite some issues , it was a cool trip ......so enjoy ....or not thanks for watching Alain some in progress pictures

Hello all of you shiny, happy people. I hope everyone is well. A little while ago Airfix released a large scale MkIX Spitfire in 1/24th scale. I was lucky enough to be at the launch event and was blown away by the look of the models on display. I resolved there and then to treat myself to one. I got the kit in December 2023 and began it shortly after unwrapping it on Christmas day. The kit is substantial and relatively easy to build although it gets a tad unwieldy due to it's size so care must be taken in the latter stages of the build. For a kit this size the detail is good. However, there are many aftermarket parts available that improve the look still more. I opted to enhance the cockpit by scratch building a few elements and treating myself to the beautiful Airscale cockpit upgrade. To my mind this is a must for this model. It takes patience to assemble but improves the face of the cockpit no end. The other bits of aftermarket that I'd recommend would be a set of wheels, an entry door and exhausts. There are a few wheel sets available. The ones I went for were by Eduard The detail is great and the wheels look the part but for some reason the subtle molded in flat spot doesn't sit flat on the ground when they are fitted so some judicious sanding is required. If you choose to use these be aware of this before glueing them in place. The door is by Buchon models and is a definite improvement over the somewhat chunky kit part. Lastly, one area where Airfix really dropped the ball is the exhaust stubs. What were they thinking? For a start these are molded in two parts but not where a seam line falls. If two parts are necessary why not make the join along an actual seam? Also, there is a huge hole in the underside of each stub that has to be filled. I can't help wondering if the designer was off the day these were created and the janitor had a go..... Fortunately Eduard come to the rescue with a beautiful 3D printed set. Another must for this build in my humble opinion. Airfix include a plethora of markings but for this build I turned to a combination of 1ManArmy masks and some custom masks kindly created for me by Mozart here on LSP. Many thanks Max I was hoping that painting the markings would give better results in this scale. All of the masks worked beautifully and the fidelity of the stencils needs to be seen to be believed. Add one more to the "must have" list for this build. The 1ManArmy set replicates the markings offered in the kit but my aircraft depicts an aircraft of 412 RCAF sqdn. This squadron was formed in 1941 at RAF Digby in Lincolnshire which is only a stone's throw from where I live. Thank you for your patience so far. Now after this pre-amble it's on to the RFI photos. Setting a couple of hiccups aside (I lost one of the Eduard exhaust stubs) I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. If I were to build another I'd definitely thin the aft lip of the ailerons. I'd also buy a set of turned brass cannons. Getting the two part plastic components round and filled was too much fuss. For a kit assembler like me this Airfix product is nigh on perfect. Plaudits to them for giving us a very good representation of one of the most popular marques of Spitfire. Thanks for your time. I hope you enjoyed this. If you'd like a more in depth article please have a look here for the WIP thread. Cheers, Guy

No rest for the wicked they say, so with the paint drying on my S6B it's time for a new project.. I built a Hobbyboss Sea Fury back in the day and added loads to it including a visible engine and I have always wanted to make a large scale one. The problem was (and is) it doesn't fit in my display cabinet. I remeasured it the other day and somehow got my sums wrong and thought it would fit so off I went and started researching.. Turns out I was right the first time, the airfame is a beast and won't fit so will need a home once complete (or I get a bigger cabinet..) My last one was the civil demonstrator G-AKRY, but now I just proved to myself I can paint an aeroplane, this one will be a service machine. Choosing one is harder than I thought - it's got to be RN, but to be honest, they were all painted the same for now I chose this one VX620.. I started with Jumpeii Temma's plans and checked these with Will at DBMK on the one they scanned - they were bang on, so I designed the parts for my cutter.. also made a 3D cowling.. ..the brass bar is to keep the keel rigid.. ..the keel was taped to a flat sheet of acrylic and all the formers added - I also 3D printed a wingroot section to help alignment.. ..I have had problems with plastic card cores flexing during construction so I clamped an ali bar and added the other side, moving the bar as I went.. ..very quickly the fuselage took shape - it is huge.. ..the floor is too high here and had to be chopped out and lowered - this is the problem with not having drawings ..having designed the cowling, I spent some time doing the prop, spinner and a basic engine front.. I think it came out pretty good - it defines the aeroplane so has to be right.. ..starting to look like the brute it is.. ..so thats it - off and running with a new build ..A plea for help - if anyone has any good interior pictures of the cockpit, seat, seat bulkhead, rollover structure, please drop them here or PM me also if there are more unique RN schemes out there I am definately open to a rethink TTFN Peter

Thanks Matt and Spyrosjzmichos for your messages, I hope you enjoy the sequel! Today, my red stars are under the wings. Well, not quite red, because they're red and white, as we'll see. The ICM instruction manual (from Ukraine) doesn't show the position of these red stars... Who knows why? So he's going to get the information from somewhere else. Step 1: cut the Oramask 810 masks with the Cameo. I had to do this several times because the masks were too big. Step 2: once cut, place the masks on Frisket (transparent vinyl with low adhesion). Step 3: Place the masks on the wings. This is the largest mask, which defines the outer limit of the star. Of course, I've drawn markers in pencil to ensure that the star branches are parallel to the wing. Step 4: Paint with white MRP paint, undiluted, at low air pressure and as perpendicular to the mask as possible. Step 5: I now need to mask the white paint, and this is really the most difficult part, as there's a thin red border on the outside of these stars. It's about 0.6mm and of course the final beauty of these stars depends on this border. It has to be even on each branch of the star and all the edging has to be identical. Now I have to thank MikeMaben who, some time ago, advised me to brush the model with water + washing-up liquid. That's what I did, and so I was able to move the mask slightly and "slide" it into a good position. And I let it dry for a few minutes. Thanks a lot Mike! Step 6: I paint with the red paint and remove the masks. The result is okay, but not perfect, especially on the star on the right with its red border, which isn't quite perfect, but I'm happy with it. And thanks also to Max, who previously gave me a lot of help and advice on using the Silhouette and cutting the masks. As you can see, it's extremely time-consuming to make, and very difficult to position correctly, but the final look of these stars more than makes up for the investment in time/patience/and other howls.

nearly finished - just flying wires to go.. TTFN Peter

my latest built :

Done after 3 months. While taking photos yesterday, I noticed that the undercarriage extension indicators were missing. My next project will be Curtiss P-40N Milkyway Wagon/Please Daddy.

Thank you folks - very kind I went to make a basic cockpit tub from 3D and once printed I needed to make some adjustments... while I was at it, I got a bit carried away.. still lots to do, but a great canvas, even if it is cheating a bit TTFN Peter

In my continuing different nations quest, I have come to Poland - this is IBG's sublime 1/32 PZL P-11c. I cannot say enough good about this kit, I wish they would do more... I used a mater brass gun barrels, and btw this is the only 6 gun P-11c... I accidentally dropped not one but two barrels into the wings when mounting them and they refused to come out. Replaced the gear brace PE with a thin piece of steel wire as I bent the PE numerous times handling the kit. Also added HGW seat belts from scaps from other kits. Painted with Hataka laquer paint BTW it is NOT an error that the wing upper surface national markings are not placed symmetrically. For some reason that was the way it was... On the morning of september 1st Wladyslaw Gnys shot down to german bombers for the first allied victories of WWII. However Gnys' flight leader had provided Luftwaffe their first victory just a few minutes before...

This is as far as I dare go with skinning the belly for now. The forward join and intakes will require some adjustment before I can skin over that portion- perhaps the oil-canning between the speedbrake wells is a little over done; but it is such a common characteristic of the T-38-I had to do it. Should look ok under paint..it’s just super reflective right now in bare aluminum. …so on to the top next I guess! P

March 27, 2024 Since I’m now trying to make sure my model is as accurate as possible for a Block 25 in every way possible, I found another change I need to make since this Thunderbirds kit is for a Block 32. Apparently Block 25’s only have 2 flare/chaff dispensers on either side at the rear, and don’t have the extra 2 added on the left hand side as shown below. Eliminating them was easy by gluing in the cover Part C16 plates, then filling the recesses with CA glue and sanding everything smooth. For the 2 dispensers at the back, however, this kit doesn’t have any since the Thunderbirds have cover plates on them. Thankfully I have a few spares from the Block 50 kit, which has 8 of them. This is confirmed by a pic I took of my subject in November 2022 at Nellis AFB. Note that the forward 2 dispensers are missing as they should be for a Block 25. Next, I decided to get into the ResKit F100 PW engine I bought for this build, but it doesn’t indicate if it’s the original 200 version, or the more modern 220 or 220E version. No matter, because this is the one I’m stuck with. This engine is super detailed like the ResKit J-79 engine I used on my CF-104 build, that turned out looking pretty good if I do say so myself….. Like the J-79 engine, unfortunately, the instructions just show you how to put the engine together, with absolutely no guide as to how it should fit with the kit parts. You are left to figure that out on your own, so I came up with a plan as you will see below. Like all ResKit resin, there are large casting blocks to cut off with a razor saw, which is tricky to do without damaging the fine details of the delicate parts. Here is the main nozzle part and the approximate location of the cut line on the instructions. The best way to smooth out the cut line is to rub it on a rough sponge sanding block to get off the biggest chunks. Unlike what the instructions call for, I’m sanding off the entire bottom of the nozzle, which removes a few millimeters of interior detail, in order to get a stronger fit with the kit parts as you'll see below. This small detail will not be missed once the engine assembly is assembled and painted. Here I’m using a flat sanding belt on a flat plastic holder, to keep the bottom of the nozzle as flat as possible. On the sponge sanding block, the rocking motion and flexible surface creates a rounded edge, which you don’t want for final sanding. The sanding is complete with a light buff with a 1000 grit sandpaper sponge. This is the main goal when the ResKit resin and kit parts are glued together. You want this fit to be as flat and flush as possible and it looks like the nozzle diameter is perfect. Here is the top of the flame-holder with the recess and notch, that the nozzle fits into. With the base of the nozzle sanded off, I sanded off this recess as well. In order to fit the KesKit flame-holder into the engine fairing, I glued into place a thin strip of 0.5 X 4mm styrene into the kit parts P10 and P11, which turned out to be perfect. And this is the reason for my departure from the ResKit instructions, in order to get a tight and very strong fit of the resin engine to the rear of the fuselage. With this wide and flat surface, the engine nozzle can be glued on at the end of the build easily, with no fuss with finicky recesses or notches in the resin parts, which are not as strong. Further, you can glue the “best side” of the nozzle upwards as you choose, without the need to lock it into a specific notch on the flame-holder. The last resin block I cut was across the very detailed circular grid at the front of the flame-holder. I dreaded doing this, because breaking the delicate parts seemed inevitable, but at least I had the kit Part P25 to fall back on if I made a mess. There are 4 tabs that are a bit longer than the rest that I marked with red dots, that fit into slots of the engine duct. The reason I noted the 4 longer tabs is because 3 out of the 4 broke off when I cut the assembly off the block, with the only remaining one marked with a red dot. I’m guessing it’s because they flexed more with the saw and due to the extra stress, broke more easily than the shorter tabs? At this point, I was fairly certain that I would be using Part P25 instead! Much to my surprise, I was able to cut off the extra backing from all of the tabs and glue the broken parts back on with CA glue, without any more drama. Using styrene cutters, the key to cutting the backing was to cut horizontally with the assembly to the base of the tab, which broke the vertical portion of the backing naturally, snapping it off. From there, a #11 knife was used to clean everything up. The repaired tabs are quite strong, with a fairly large amount of CA glue applied from the rear where it can’t be seen. Here it is dry fit into the base of the engine assembly. My kit came with a broken rim on this part, which isn’t a big deal because it will not be seen when fully assembled. There are 3 more brass parts that need to be added below the resin assembly. Final dry fit assembly, compared to the kit part. Pretty impressive engineering by ResKit! So now it was time to deal with how the front of the KesKit engine was going to fit into the fuselage. I had the same problem and solution with my CF-104 build, so I sort of knew already what to do. Using the front part of the kit engine that slides into a groove in the engine bay, I cut off about 1” of it and the front tabs. I then cut off two pin locks in the engine bay that normally hold the kit engine. Before I glued any engine parts together, it’s important to figure out which way is up and which way is down in the engine compartment. I looked at several pics of PW100 engine pics from the rear and came up with all sorts of angles that I found confusing, but most of them were for F-15’s which appear to have the engines installed a few degrees out from what I finally settled on, like the pic below from an actual F-16. Note the flat top to the heptagon with longer arms coming from the corners. So I set the “Top” accordingly and marked it with a pen, which coincides with the deepest tab of the resin assembly, which is no doubt there on purpose. The front portion of the kit engine I cut off was then glued to the base accordingly. The sub-assemblies indicating which portions go to the top. While the assembly on the right is glued together, the rest are only dry fit at this point. The groove at the top of the engine bay is quite long, thanks to it sharing the same part as the Block 50 kit, which has an entire engine that can be removed for display. This kit only uses the rear of the groove, which is all I need. The Engine sub-assemblies now just slide into place with ease, after trimming the side pins of the kit parts to allow clearance, while still remaining snug. This fit is solid, so once everything is glued into place, the engine will be very secure when bounced around. With fuselage Part B20 dry fit into place, the engine fairing fits fairly flush on the bottom. Same thing on the top, showing that the hole of the fairing lines up with the hole in the fuselage top perfectly. And the candle on this engine cake, the rear nozzle, which can be glued on at the end of the build with no fit issues later- and no gaps. So the current game plan is to paint and detail all of the engine parts, then install the engine with the kit fairing and other fuselage parts to ensure that everything is smooth and looks natural on the outside, which will take a little light sanding. From there, I’ll mask off the rear of the engine and attend to the other kit assemblies on the tail. One might ask why I worry so much about the interior of an engine that I'll rarely see again, even with a flashlight. The answer is, "It's Fun!", at least to me, which is a big part of what modeling is all about. Thanks for checking in. Cheers, Chuck

I thought that Special Hobby chosed new direction and kits quality will be now something different, I was wrong. Ok some parts are well detailed, surface riveted, but fuselage and wing halves not cooperate with interiors. Lots of dry-fitting, sanding needed. Scheme is from British occupation zone in Germany sometime about 1945-1946. Work In Progress

Trumpeter 1/32 model, Kagero decals, Reskin wheels set, Phoenix cockpit, All colors MRP

I've not been idle for the last 6 months or so: this has been on the bench, and now it's finished. Here are a few photos until I get out and do some "beauty shots". The model is Italeri's 1/32 GR4 in one of the box schemes, the Tornado retirement scheme for IX(B) Sqn. This squadron was the first RAF operational unit to be equipped with the Tornado GR1. IX Sqn flew several types in WWI, and was briefly disbanded in 1919. It reformed as a bomber unit in 1924 - hence the "(B)" in the title - and starting with the Vimy, flew Virginias, Heyfords, Wellingtons, Lancasters, Lincolns, Canberras and Vulcans, before reforming on the Tornado. Italeri's GR4 builds up quite well: it needs a little work to make it fit, but in the end it is a solid construction. I did use rather a lot of aftermarket, to whit: Eduard canopy masks; Bandit Resin Factory empty Sidewinder rails; HGW safety ("RBF") flags; Jet Passion 1500 litre tanks, exterior detail set (partly not used as not needed imo) and replacement back seat monitors (scrapped and reverted to kit parts for reasons I won't bore you with); Master pitot tube; Scale Model Developments (SMD) seats; Tradewind67 (eBay trader name) intake and Jet pipe covers, other covers, and back seat grab handles); and home-cut masks for the roundels and serials. And until I get what I call the "proper camera" out, here are a few quick post-finish bench shots. Thanks for looking.

Greetings all, An Easter holidays completion from me - Revell's 1/32nd scale Hawker Hunter FGA.9 more or less OOB, other than some aftermarket decals from AeroMaster and some home-made FOD guards. This kit is really under-rated in my humble opinion - it has lots of detail OOB and beautiful surface detailing from a time when Revell were at the top of their game. I had no issues whatsoever with the build - it's about as close as you can get to building Lego - and it went together in a few days. Paints were Xtracolur enamels with a splash of Humbrol Matt Cote to finish it off. Some light weathering was done with Mig pastels. All in all a very enjoyable build - and it only cost me a tenner under the table at a show! All the best, Tom Hawker Hunter FGA.9, XG207, 58 Squadron, RAF Wittering, mid-1970s.

Thanks Guy! I ordered some decal material that might work for those “No Push” stencils instead. I prefer decals to painting them, because if I don’t like them or screw up, I can just remove them. With paint, I’d have to repaint them all over again and I’m not doing that again! April 4/24 One of the interesting features of these PW100 engines is the color of the shroud around the engine just back of the nozzle, which I’ll just call the engine collar. The Pratt and Whitney collar is quite different than the GE110 collar, which is shallow and always dull titanium grey. The PW100 collar is fairly wide, irregularly shaped, shiny and is often blue, presumably due to heat. I say “often”, because it’s not always blue and the intensity of the blue color is all over the place. After looking at dozens of PW100 collars, here are some examples of what I'm talking about: Intense Blue and evenly colored, which is fairly rare. I think if I painted my model like this, it would look unrealistic, despite the fact it can be real. No blue at all. Again, sort of rare, but they exist. And a few examples of what I think is more common, which is more interesting to my eye. The blue is there, but it’s mottled due to weathering and other factors, like type of engine and maintenance. Note that some of the bands are not blue. Blue almost everywhere, but blotchy. I decided to paint the model engine collar right now for a bunch of reasons: - Since it’s metallic, I want a super smooth surface with no other paint underneath, like a regular primer or paint from adjacent areas. - This collar is situated in an area between the speed brakes that will be difficult to paint later - I just want to! The first step like I always do with Alclad metallic paint, is to start with a primer coat of Tamiya Gloss Black Lacquer from a rattle can decanted into a bottle. I’ve tried the relatively new LP line of Tamiya lacquers in a bottle like LP-1, but I don’t find it as glossy as good 'ol TS-14. The collar is predominantly a relatively shiny metallic color, so I started with Alclad Stainless Steel. Unlike the “High Shine” Alclad colors like Chrome, this one is tough and can be masked without lifting. To create a mottled look, I applied liquid mask with a sponge. Salt would work just as well, but it’s messy. I then sprayed Alclad Hotmetal Blue followed by more liquid mask and Alclad White Aluminum in an iterative sequence of light mist coats. 2 of the rings were masked off so that they would not pick up as much of the blue. Everything was then sealed with clear coat of Tamiya Semi-Gloss lacquer to knock down the shine a bit. The results. This is tough to photograph to see the real colors and relative shine. Parked on the model fuselage with the nozzle attached, it starts to look more natural and you can see that it's much shinier than the exhaust, as it should be. I used a screw at the top through the alignment holes to hold things in place, since this assembly isn’t glued in yet. The small gap between nozzle and collar will be much tighter with glue. Of course I had to show off the exhaust staining again. I’m pretty happy with how things turned out, because now I have the “blue look” of the collar, without it looking too pristine and unrealistic. With the engine collar now painted and sealed, I can then mask it off and assemble the entire engine as described earlier. It now just slides into place And is now securely glued to the fuselage. Last peek at the afterburner face before I fill this engine cavity with foam and mask it off. That’s it for now and thanks for your continued interest and “like” responses, which I appreciate very much. Cheers, Chuck

Thanks Max, that's a very nice compliment! Well, now it's time to complete the camouflage with the AMT12/MRP 20 Dark Grey. Looking at the photos, I can see that the separation between the AMT 12 and AMT 11 is a little blurred... ...but not too much... How to proceed? I've decided once again to use masks, but this time they'll be much more complex to draw and fit on the fuselage. They'll also need to be a little closer to the fuselage and wings to get the AMT 11/12 edge a little sharper and less blurred. So the technique I used on my FW 190 isn't really the right one. I managed to find a 1mm thick double-sided tape that should perfectly meet my expectations. Using a printer, I enlarged the camouflage patterns for the wings and horizontal stab to the size of my Yak 9. These are relatively flat parts, so I was able to cut them out of soft cardboard after running them through the printer. For the fuselage, however, it's a different story! As I'm a resourceful boy, I used transparent strips of rhodoid on the fuselage. Using a black felt-tip pen, I traced the contours of the camouflage. Then I cut out the strips of rhodoid and the cardboard for the wings. I placed the double-sided tape, and put some low-adhesion frisket on the paint side so as not to damage it when I peel off all these masks. I'll let you admire the result before painting - I know, it's scary to see! Well, now it's time to go! The MRP paint is still diluted to 30%, and we're taking it easy! The wings and rear of the wooden fuselage are still horizontal, to respect the BB'ing direction. I've also masked off the front of the fuselage, which can't be seen here. The 2 delimitations/2 masks for the Dark Grey strip just behind the spinner (at the level of the engine exhaust pipes) took me about 2 hours to trace, cut and place... These 2 masks were the transition between the wings and the fuselage, so they required extreme precision to make an invisible paint connection... Here's the result. Overall, I'm satisfied, even if there are a few minor paint touch-ups to be made here and there. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this camouflage. I still have to do the vertical stab and a blotch on the fuselage (where the number "60" will be), because in these 4 places, the AMT 12 is slightly darker (probably a paint touch-up).

April 9/24 Lots of small updates, but mostly an introduction to 7 different after-market items you might not be aware of for this and the Block 50 kit. First some housekeeping, to remove that panel line around the AOA probe on both sides of the nose cone. While it’s usually stained this way due to the protective cap that's placed over the probe when parked, it isn’t a real panel line, so I want to remove it. Same thing holds true for the Tamiya F-15 kits. This kit has a removable nose cone to show off the radar stuff like the Block 50 kit, but it doesn’t have the radar screen anyway, so it should be glued into place instead. The nose cone join isn’t very strong as a result, so to reinforce the join I glued Part F-35 to the nose cone first, then a styrene spacer from scrap that was sanded down to size to fill the gap behind it. I used thick CA glue to weld it to the metal weight at the front, which gives you about 5 minutes to wiggle it around to get the best fit from all sides and angles with ordinary Tamiya ETC applied around the margin. The nose cone join was then sanded down where needed, with eroded fastener detail restored with the usual tools to do so, like a Mega Tool for the big fasteners. For the AOA probes I cut off, I’m using Master brass replacements which I’ve used a few times before on my other jets. I think they really “kick them up a notch”. The other side. These probes fit into small holes that I drilled, so I can leave them off until the end of the build. Another addition to this build is Kopecky horizontal stabilizers, which I heard about from our friend Marcel about 18 months ago, so I ordered a set for this future model. The Kopecky resin I’ve used so far is excellent and probably on par with ResKit, which is saying a lot! The service is excellent and their website is here: Kopecky Website This set comes with nice subtle rivet detail, but if you want almost no rivets, they now make a smoother version (32028). Although most of these stabilizers are quite smooth, there are a few where you can clearly see the rivets like on Page 30 of Jake’s book, so I’m happy to stick with these instead. As usual, trying to photograph this snow-white plastic is a real struggle, but next to this dark resin, it’s even tougher. As you probably know, those moon craters next to the stab axle on the kit parts are way too deep, while the Kopecky rivets are at the surface where they should be. The Kopecky stabs also have really nice recessed hollow internal detail that is missing from the kit. Even if you don’t care for the resin stabs, you should buy this kit for the super fine brass static wicks that come with it, also made by Master. The kit one in the middle sure looks crude and chunky when set next to them. As an added bonus, there’s enough wicks for the vertical stabilizer and the rear tips of the wings. The little resin wick holders fit the kit parts perfectly. While we’re looking at the vertical stab, that top panel line at the front should be filled and rivet detail added, while a static wick should be added, right behind the top light assembly that will be added later. Kopecky also makes really nice LAU-129 missiles rails, which thankfully come in a set of 4, because you’ll need all of them. And a really detailed center-line pylon, which comes in two parts, just like the real deal. This will be added at the end of the build, along with the landing gear cover piece it attaches to, Part C27. It looks so good from the bottom, I may not add the fuel tank, so that you can see all the work I did in the landing gear bay unobstructed. I have struggled for years to find a decent ACMI pod, because up until recently, the only resin ones available were poorly made and it’s hard to keep up with all the new versions that seem to come out every second year. Here’s the one on my subject, which I took in 2022. Thanks to 3D printing, we now have a few good options, like Phase Hanger Resin (1 ordered) and a new aftermarket supplier I found in the UK, Bandit Resin Factory. This supplier doesn’t have a full website yet, but they do have a Facebook presence, where you can see some of their products and contact the owner below, who will send you his catalogue. Bandit Resin Factory (Facebook) Apparently the ACMI pod above is a “Type E”, so I ordered 2 of them so that I had a spare for the stash. This is the nicest ACMI pod I’ve ever seen and it even comes with decals. Highly recommended! I also bought a travel pod that I’ve never seen before, which is also excellent with a door that opens. I didn’t open it yet, because I’m not likely to use it on this particular jet. As mentioned before, the front flaps on F-16’s rest a few degrees in the upward position when parked for some reason. So I decided to cement mine in permanently now, just in case I struggled with the fit and angle later. With a microbrush holding up the flaps while the glue dried, they seem to be roughly correct. Rear flaps were attached as well, but these ones can still move up and down. The next aftermarket parts I used were the CrossDelta external reinforcement plates that I showed earlier, which for Block 25 and Block 32 Vipers have the “lawnmower blades” to reinforce the vertical stabilizer base and the big 5-piece plate at the wing root to reinforce the fuel tanks. Tamiya includes a decal set to replicate these plates, but they are too thin and the rivet detail won’t show, unless you leave them unpainted white. I thought these CrossDelta plates would be metalized plastic, but they are actually made from real metal and are self adhesive. Tough to see on the white plastic, but this is where they belong based upon the instructions and Jake’s book (P. 23). Since they are super glossy and metal, I scuffed them up a bit with 1000# sandpaper to help with paint adhesion, which isn’t too rough to leave scratch marks. I will need to use a metal primer as well if I want the paint to stick. Not in the CrossDelta instructions or in Jake’s book, Block 25’s like my subject have a small reinforcement strap just below the canopy hinge on both sides, so I cut up one of the bigger plates to create 2 of them. Since they are so small, I wicked a little thin CA glue underneath them to hold them securely, then cleaned up the edges with CA glue remover. On the starboard side, the strap is just aft of the panel hinge. I also opened up that tiny vent on the side, which I should have done earlier from behind before the top fuselage Part B28 was cemented into place. One thing that’s a little surprising to me with F-16’s is that there’s a small gap at the base of the vertical stabilizer, unlike other jets. This small gap is perfect for the very tight fitting kit stabilizer, which is friction fit, so you don’t really need to glue it on, so it can be painted and decaled off the fuselage for ease of handling. Note that the small air duct on the base was cut off, which Block 25’s don’t have. Well that’s it for now, but I thought I would throw out a question that I’ve always wondered about. If F-16’s have 16 static wicks trailing all the control surfaces, why don’t other fighter jets like F-15’s and F-18’s have them as well? Hmmmm……. Cheers, Chuck

hey guys bit more done... ..I felt bad when Jay asked about detailing the engine as I had done such a rudimentary job on it, so even though very little can be seen, I added what I could.. the fuselage formers were bulked out with hard foam and all the template outlines blacked out with a sharpie so I can see the sanding thresholds later.. also added some card formers to help shape the exhaust area around the nose.. I made up a 3D part to lock all the features of the wings together with the spars and dihedral on the outer wing panels and made up ribs from 2mm card.. ..and the wings & airframe start to take shape - it looks like an air racer without the last few ribs and the wingtips.. TTFN Peter

March 31, 2024 Painting of the engine is done, but it was a real struggle because I’m so picky. Painting a jet engine, inside and out, is challenging because of all the metallic and ceramic colors and no two engines are the same- but there are some similarities that you try to replicate. It’s also very artistic, which can be both fun and frustrating. I want all of my engines to add to the model, rather than be a liability where “good enough” is never really good enough. Starting with the base (front) of the engine, I painting everything as close to what I could find for reference pics. This is a combination of dull metal and a whitish ceramic look, which I enhanced with white pastels. It’s a bit of a shame that you won’t see much of this later, when it’s buried deep inside the fuselage. The flame tube was painted black at first, then I shot flat white paint through it from front to back, using a crude zig-zag mask that created irregular dark shadows within. Painting the outside petals of the nozzle was the hardest part, because I wasn’t happy with my first two attempts and had to strip everything down and start all over again. With 3 small pieces of masking tape and 15 petals, that’s 45 bits of tape that had to be applied 3 times! As I’ve done before, I used an ordinary piece of paper rolled into a tube to hold the nozzle for painting. Not only does it hold the nozzle, but it also shows where you painted and where you haven't against the white background. I looked at countless Pratt and Whitney F-16 engine nozzles as a reference and used this one the most. Note that the petals have 1 straight edge where the petals overlap, rather than 2 curved ones, which appears to be more common. This Reskit nozzle seems to be the same. A more common pattern of a curve on both edges of the petals. The end result, after finally settling on Alclad Durluminum for the main petal color and Alclad Magnesium for the overlap. I tried a lot of other colors but these two seemed to be the closest to the real deal. If you look at the nozzles above, they are fairly smooth as Pete pointed out and all that tiny rivet detail is not very obvious. Instead of filling it all in, I opted to just live with it, because doing so would likely harm the other fine detail that I want to keep. Note that the nozzles are not spotless and there is some wear and discoloration here and there. As I did with my CF-104 build, I decided to use some “Metal Liner” wash to dirty them up a bit. I went with “Dark”, because the lighter washes didn’t really show up on the light surface. I decided to go light on the wash to give the nozzles some stain, but not too much to overpower the metallic look, especially for small 1/32 scale. Painting the insides of the nozzles was also a struggle, because I tried a few new ideas and they all crashed and burned. What you want is a combination of black and white soot that has a fairly distinctive repetitive pattern, depending on which part of the nozzle petal it’s on. Make some mistakes, like I did, and you get a combination of white and black in a grey mess, so I had to start all over again and go with something that I know works quite well on these PW100 engines. Here’s a pic of what I used on the engines of my F-15C Eagle Aggressor 6 years ago. Small thin strips of styrene, taped to the base of the nozzle along an axis that usually has less white soot than on either side, provide a partial mask when flat white paint is sprayed from the base of the nozzle outward, just like on a real engine. The results can be pretty impressive, as shown on this pic I’ve shown at least 100 times here before, because I’m so proud of these nozzles. Long before ResKit and others created fantastic looking nozzles using 3D printing technology, I made these out of a resin Two Mikes base and 11 Eduard and kit parts per petal. 30 petals combined with the 6 main parts of the nozzles equal 336 parts! They took me forever to assemble, but I think they were worth it. So I did the same thing again, using 0.4 X 2.5MM styrene strips, which fit each petal axis perfectly, they sprayed flat white paint from the rear outward. The results, and this time I was very happy with the ending. Added to the flame tube. If you squint you might be able to see the dark shadow I created in the tube with that paper mask. All engine parts combined so that you can barely see the front of the engine face. This is really hard to photograph without a special macro-flash. Engine painting done! Now I’m scratching my head wondering if I’m going to add all those tiny “No Push” and “No Step” placards to the petals and how the heck I’m going to do it? Maybe tiny strips of decal film? Stay tuned…… Cheers, Chuck

hi all, here is my interpretation of the CR42 CN visible in a film from the time of the Luce institute, from which I started to create the beautiful ICM kit. apart from a few implemented/scratchbuilt details, the dedicated Eduard set 32979 and the installation of some nanoleds, it's OOTB, perfect in shape and fit. predominantly MRP colours. The forum build thread is here: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/99468-fiat-cr42-cn-132-icm/&do=findComment&comment=1455873 cheers, Paolo

That's crazy I know. My kids gave me that look when they saw that huge box. My wife didn't even bother to raise her beautiful eyes. Implicitly that meant keep that beast in your man's room and don't you dare store it outside - I am sure she is enjoying the struggle I will go through to enforce her rules Luckily she does not come in the garage. That's a commission build. and I welcome a break from things with wings - although I miss them already... The kit is huge: 140cm and feature internal details in 6 compartments: front torpedo room + crew quarters officer quarters conn rear crew quarters + kitchen diesel engine room electric room + rear torpedo compartment And about 40 figures to go along... Lighting is mandatory for viewing inside so A magic scale factory led kit will be added to the project. One hull side is transparent to see the details inside but I intend to paint it and cut it open rather than suffering the plexiglass effect. The tower surprisingly also feature a transparent side, but opposite to the hull ... The kit is rather simplistic and much detail will be necessary to bring this where I would like. I sourced all RCsubs PE but I will be short of many details for the inside to overcome the shortcut Trumpeter took by roughly making only half a boat internal. Luckily the new 3D printer will come to the rescue. Another aspect dearly missing is supplies. So lots of crates, hamacs, bottles, cans, vegetables will be added a little bit of everywhere. I guess this will be a long journey and I found myself intrigued by the infamous U-boot threat in the battle of the Atlantic. And there is much to read about it. I'll build this in stage, compartment by compartment and will probably work on the hull when I'm fed up with internal details. Let's dive into this.

A little more progress. Mostly bits and bots left ... Thanks guys...

Hi all Here my last built: a Trumpeter Skyrader built as a n AD-4 from GC 1/21 in Algeria in 1960 - 1961 Hope you lie it!

Made it to the main gear well with the aluminum will work the sheeting around the speed brakes area, then flip it over and start on the top/sides moving back to front. Cant yet go all the way with the aluminum to the fuselage split( behind the cockpit)..I’ll need to blend the joint between sections before I can cover that area.

..teaser... ..the primer was fine when applied over clean fine sanded surfaces and this model has had a LOT of masking so it needed to be getting some stainless steel flying wires etched and a mask for the serial - once thats done it's glamour shot time Now where did I put those Sea Fury drawings... Peter

Hi all, The Macchi M.5, Serial No.7242 as flown by Tenente di Vascello Federico Carlo Martinengo, Officer Commanding No.260a Squadriglia, operating from Saint Andrea Seaplane Station near Venice during 1918. As usual a detailed build log in PDF format can be viewed or downloaded from the 'Logs' page on my web site. Web site The forum build thread is here: Build thread Mike

Thanks guys, really appreciate it! Well I have actually been steady with progress, but with such things I didnt really have much to show until today A package arrived in the mail from Kerry! Somewhere in here is an FG.1 leg test print! I know that because I have seen this.... So I set about trimming and found this inside Now for those who cant remember, the reason for the completely new leg is because it is very different to a std Phantom NLG. Aside from the double extension with extra scissor link, the actual oleo itself is of a bigger dia and rakes rearward He nailed it.... a perfect fit! An overall shot showing the rearward rake, only done by eye, not actually glued in properly of course. I have started testing all the dimensions and so far so good! Also an area that needed attention was the aux air doors top and lower. Both sets needed scratchbuilding. First up are the lower ones, just basically layer upon layer of plasticard and raised rivet decals, followed by a layer of Mr Surfacer Raised rivets and extra details on the other side.... And a comparison on the other side with the kit ones. The kit ones are smaller and further back. Apologies for the lack of updates, had a bit going on. But still not stopped on this...she is still alive! Cheers guys and thanks for stopping by Anthony

True!! Every time I see a detonator box it reminds me of a face with bloodshot eyes. Peter - as you of anyone can attest, digital design and 3D printing opens up a new world to heavy lifting modelling where scratch building is used alot (in this case the whole model!). For this project, the Rhino program allows me to design tooling right along with the actual parts. I can fit and check clearances, and know that critical points or surfaces of the tool or fixture or jig are spot on relative to the parts or assemblies I want to use them for. It's so easy - building them is not a big deal. I used alot of jigs and tools on the Corsair too, as you might recall, and I could only have done it with Rhino or some other digital design program. Man - to do that R-2800 over again in Rhino and 3D print......maybe one day. Anyway - yes you have let your angst be known before about matching up complete skinned sub-assemblies. The concern of course is skin panel gaps at the interface. I share that concern, but for me I have to weigh that against skinning a much larger model later on, where there are more things to break. Skinning, after all, especially compound contoured stuff, is a heavy-handed undertaking. On the Corsair, I broke off landing gear doors umpteen times during that build - most of it due to skinning the wing after the doors were already installed. What were once beautifully done door hinges are now globs of CA. And, the landing gear were subjected to terrible risk and I am dam lucky they didn't break off. Those parts just didn't lend themselves to later installation, so I was left with decisions to make on sequencing of skinning operations. That's just one example. That said I will admit right here that skinning the engine cowl early on was less about that and more about being impatient to see what a blue-nose Mustang with "Cripes a Mighty" on the side looked like in the flesh. Now I live with the consequences. However, my point about the wonders of digital design and 3D printing - it all improves accuracy to the point where completing a sub-assembly and skinning it has a better chance of matching up well with another sub-assembly. Not an infinite amount of skill; just the advantages of latest tools. I added a strip of .01 x .03 plastic to the main jig front surface that is common to the aux nose jig. And that fixed the out-of-flat condition I described last post, after a fashion. That joint is just a bit flexy, and I hesitate to really torque down the two nuts that hold the two jigs together. They are plastic after all. I just have to make sure the two jigs are on a good flat surface as I monkey around with this skin joint. Anyway, that improved the gap between engine cowl and forward fuselage - take a look: I can sure live with that! Note I have finished off the skinning of the windshield surround panels. They now match up pretty darned well with the engine cowl. Skinning is so rewarding - here is one of the three panels just before bonding: Lousy picture.....sorry. So feast your eyes on the fully skinned gleaming natural metal windshield surround - next time you see it, it will be mostly blue: Now off to do electrical boxes and such. Then, that blue paint. Stay tuned.

Let's get up to date! There have been some issues, at least in my head, that needed to be resolved. One, the side windows. I don't like the ones I did myself. So I await the 3D printed transparencies from Shapeways - due in a week or so. It is my hope they turn out as nice as the Malcolm hood has. Two, blue paint that has been sitting for months - I feel I need to finish up the blue painting while the paint is still healthy. Because if it dries up, I will have great difficulty matching up a new batch. In the mean time, I have been working on the RH side of the cockpit wall where we find the radio gadgetry and some electrical equipment. Recall in previous posts that radio equipment for US ETO fighters was pretty simple especially for Mustangs with fuselage tanks, where the tank has used up alot of space where radio equipment went. Hence all they really had was the VHF SCR-522 equipment. Missing was IFF (identification friend or foe) equipment and low frequency radio equipment (the Detrola). The VHF SCR-522 consists of the following components: Transmitter-receiver - the big box behind the pilot's armor plate on the upper radio rack (to be done later) Dynamotor - a slightly smaller box also behind the pilot's armor plate on the upper radio rack (to be done later) Jack box - a version of this is included in the cockpit RH side stuff Radio control box - this item is included in the cockpit RH side Antenna mast - the familiar nasty looking spike antenna we see on all ETO fighters. Although this will be replaced by a whip antenna as part of the Malcolm hood modification. Here is the finished radio and electrical equipment on the cockpit RH sidewall: You see there in the forward-most bay the dominant black main switch box, below it the interior green radio junction box, and just aft of the radio junction box the fabric covered connector panel. The next bay aft has the SCR-522 radio control box with the red buttons, below it the jack box bracket, and below the jack box bracket the detonator box, and aft of the detonator box the silver mic adaptor box. I attempted to wire this equipment but the drawings are not very good - hope I got it close.... I may or may not include microphone cords. All this stuff except the fabric covered connector panel, and the red buttons, are 3D printed from my Rhino models, as usual for this build. You also see radio support brackets (3D printed), at least the one with a blank area where other radio equipment would go (IFF stuff), but is missing on this aircraft. Lastly another shout-out to Peter for the decals. They are marvelous. At this point, the sides of the cockpit area are pretty much complete. Here they are: Late additions are the flare gun stowage bag on the LH side (with the two brass buttons), and the map case on the RH side. The map case is just simple plastic sheet parts. I must mention - for those of you who followed the Corsair build, you may agree when I say the P-51 cockpit is much more simple than the Corsair cockpit. Mind you, I still have the floor to do, and some other stuff hanging off the IP panel, as well as the pilot's seat and armor plate. But there just is not nearly the amount of complexity. The Corsair cockpit was a nightmare! All right - I have been nervous about the blue paint. So what I have decided to do is to go ahead and paint the remainder of it on the windshield surround part - this: In order to do that, the rest of the skinning has to be done. And in order to do that, I have to fit this part to the already completed engine cowl, and tidy up the panel line between them. In order to do that, I feel I have to tool these parts up to one another. So I designed and built another jig: This new jig is part of a simpler plan than the one I laid out a couple posts ago. This way, I can still utilize the main jig (minus the firewall bulkhead). Construction and concept are similar to the main fuselage jig. That new bulkhead has a post on it that fits into the prop shaft hole in the nose of the engine cowl. Which will assure a proper orientation of the engine cowl to the forward fuselage both up/down, and sideways. The bulkhead can slide fore and aft in the center slot (the mounting holes are slotted), similar to the two end bulkheads on the main jig. This jig, or better an auxiliary jig, will bolt onto the existing fuselage jig that is working so well for me. Like so: Note that the firewall bulkhead has been removed. In its place is to be the actual firewall (actually a simplified version of it just for this exercise): Two parts - a top and a bottom - 3D printed. They fit onto or into the aft face of the engine cowl, which has just awakened from a months long winter hibernation. Note the firewall has the same four longeron posts that the jig bulkhead has. The beauty of digital design - the locations are identical to the zillionth of an inch. Much fiddling was required to get the firewall parts to fit perfectly into the big engine cowl part. Dimensional accuracy on 3D print parts is not quite perfect - parts grow just a bit, such that male and female parts when designed without any gaps often clash a bit with one another. That was the case here. Before using this new aux jig, I reloaded the fuselage side panels and windshield surround into the main jig, minus the firewall bulkhead, like so: The holes in the longerons are loud and proud in that picture - waiting to mate up with that new firewall. And here is the new aux jig in action with the engine cowl plus firewall loaded: f The jig is now about 13.5 inches long, and it is unwieldy to jockey around. Big model. The concept works great, but I got a bit of a surprise - tapering gaps at the firewall interface: Both sides. Not bad, but it makes me wonder if something is in error. I do notice that once the aux jig is clamped up and bolted to the main jig, despite my efforts to get it just right, its forward end has risen up a few hundredths of an inch above the flat desktop. That would cause that tapered gap, and maybe that's all there is to it. So I am going to shim between the jig surfaces to eliminate the condition, and hope that tapered gap disappears. Actually it matters little - when I skin the fuselage side panels, that gap will be hidden, and turn into a normal panel line. Still, I want that Mustang nose to be spot on relative to the rest of the model. Next steps - I believe I am going to adorn the windshield surround assembly with the electrical equipment that hangs off it - several boxes and a lamp. I don't want to do that work after I paint on the blue, because there will be alot of handling and that paint is a bit fragile. After that - then I will put the parts back into the jigs and skin the windshield surround, and then paint! You will see the results next up. Hope you like that aux jig - I sure do. Later folks.

Howdy, partners! I’ve put aside other jobs on the Stirling for the time being as I was really keen to get the new canopy to fit. I hate dealing with transparencies and cockpits in general so felt it would be good, psychologically, to get this part done, and then hopefully it’ll just be a drop fit towards the end of the build. As you saw in the previous post, the kit canopy was too big and incorrectly shaped. When I cut the fuselage ages ago, I used the kit transparency as a guide, not realising at the time how ‘out’ it was. As a result, I’ve had to build up the fuselage around the cockpit to match the new canopy - plastic card and Milliput white has done the job without issue, and it now drops in perfectly! A reminder of what I had in the kit: And after a few hours tinkering: That’ll do very nicely… Until next time, Tom

Thanks Guys! Thanks Mike, it's great to see you follow along again. Sorry to hear about your friend. That's brutal. Thankfully after lots of CT Scans and the like, I don't have anything sinister going on, but without going into too much detail, I do have lots of scar tissue due to multiple stomach surgeries after an ordinary appendix removal 3 years ago. Just bad luck I guess, so we'll see what the future holds for more trips. I liked your "work smarter, not harder" comment, which I used again at the end of this update. March 21/24 First a little housekeeping. I showed above that there are 3 blue hydraulic lines that stick out a bit at the front of the main landing gear, so I tried to create something that was close. It turns out I have a pic of them, so here they are below. Duane (chaos07) pointed out above some slight depressions near the canopy hinge, so here’s a pic of the one on the left. It has since been filled, along with the one on the right. Thanks Duane! The kit parts share many with the Block 50 kit, so some of them need to be modified. Although the blister removal on the wing roots is in the instructions, here they are again, since they are easily missed. Here’s a tip that helped me a lot. The instructions have you join the upper fuselage Part B28 to the rear upper fuselage Part A1 in Step 19 first, then glue the entire upper assembly to the lower fuselage in Step 20. While this kit is generally excellent, gluing such large mating surfaces all at once is asking for trouble in my mind. Instead, I glued the rear Part A1 to the lower fuselage first, got things sorted out, allowing the glue to dry and cleaned up, then glued the front Part B-28 to the rest later. This procedure allowed me to glue all the complicated fitments in a reasonable amount of time without being rushed. Gluing one big upper assembly to the lower assembly as instructed, would have been very hard to do cleanly. I find masking off cockpits and landing gear to be a real PITA, partly because its hard to do cleanly, but also because it must be done right if you want a successful outcome. There are no real shortcuts, but I have developed a procedure that I’m sure a lot of you guys use as well. Note that this model is now sitting on the same cardboard box I’ve used for at least 6 different models, using pipe insulation as a soft platform. The yellow paint is from my Harvard/Texan build 4 years ago, followed by my Special Hobby Tempest Mk V, Italeri CF-104 and my last build of the big 1/24 Airfix F6F-5 Hellcat, which all sat on this same box for much of their assembly and painting. More on that in a bit. I used a small block of foam to fill the cockpit cavity, then ordinary masking tape for the rest, followed by a liberal coat of liquid mask. The mask holds everything together strongly and covers small edges that tape won’t adhere to. When the liquid mask has dried, I apply a few pieces of masking tape, since the liquid mask is tacky and you don’t want it to stick to anything and come off. The landing gear bays were a lot harder to do, but I did have the advantage of having a central beam to attach masking materials to, since Part C27 will not be installed until the end of the build, right after the landing gear is installed. Again, the voids were filled with custom cut little pieces of foam, followed by masking tape. Everything was then toughened up with liquid mask, in this case “Mr Masking Sol neo”, made by Mr. Hobby in Japan. This is the very best liquid mask I have found, because it’s easy to apply but more importantly, easy to remove as well. You can’t say that about Micro Mask, which can be almost impossible to remove from small cavities after it dries. Again, cover tape to keep the gear bays from sticking to stuff, like my fingers, arms and elbows as I handle the model. As much as my cardboard modeling box has served me well for a long time, it was time to “upgrade to a new model”. This was created with a small acrylic storage container that was 6 ½” X 12”, cut down to 2 ½” high, then foam pipe insulation was added to the top, for a total cost of about $3. While I see that many of you use all sorts of contraptions to hold your models, I like this simple box a lot better. There are no pressure points to rub paint, I don’t have to adjust anything and I can carry my model around safely to and from my paint booth without fear of it falling off something. I just cover the box with a microfiber towel and paint away. You can flip the model around from top to bottom with ease, because there’s always a position somewhere that fits. One thing I’ve noticed in my pics above is that the leading edge flaps are usually up a bit when parked. According to Jake’s book, this is normal for parked Vipers, which are up about 2 degrees, so I will be gluing the flaps accordingly. Right now they are just dry fit. The other thing I found in Jake’s book and pointed out by Pete Fleischmann earlier, is that Block 25/30/32 jets have only 2 “fingers” that connect the flaps to the wing at the most inboard position. This kit has 3 fingers, just like the Block 50 kit, so it’s obviously a holdover not easily cut off like the blisters. If I filled the outboard finger it would be more accurate, but I’m not sure if this is “working smarter or harder”, since I kind of like the look of it, even if it’s wrong. I’ll think about it. Any thoughts? One thing that I did add was the so-called “ECS Exhaust”, which was basically missing from this kit. What prompted me to look for it, was because there was a small depression at this location, that I thought might be a flaw of the plastic. Checking my Block 50 kit, it’s much more pronounced, although quite small. There’s a great picture of it on Page 65 of Jake’s book with a half shroud forward from the hole in the fuselage, so I fashioned something similar out of styrene. So that’s about it for now. I still have lots to do and then there’s that super complicated paint job! I sure hope it turns out OK. Cheers, Chuck

Decalling I used Kits Worlds decals. National insignias are from an old CAM decals set.

Some progress; Painting of the upper surfaces

OK Troy: This is going to be a long journey.

Chopped out the channels for the speedbrake arms.. The gear wells have suffered some shop rash over the 14 years of construction and need some love. the printed speedbrakes from Timmy! Literally drop into place. genius. fabulous. P

let me present the 1/32 Tamiya mosquito, such a nice aircraft to build, also used were ICM ground figures. There is some much detail in this kit its hard as to where do I start, but wait, you cart see it, it’s all covered up, well at least I know it's there. the instruction book alone is a work of art, brilliant kit enjoy.

upper fuselage and wing camouflage almost completed thanks!

March 24, 2024 I’ve been doing some more research on what differences there are between my subject, a Block 25 and the other Viper block variants. One thing I found was that the so-called reinforcement plate (#7 of Cross Delta set above) around the radar blisters behind the nose cone are actually RAM panels (Radar Absorbent Material) instead, so I have edited my post accordingly. Apparently these items are being added to older Vipers, but they aren’t on the Ghost Scheme ones I have pics of so far, so I won’t be adding them. Another very small item I found was that Block 25’s have a small reinforcement plate which I’ll call a strap because it's long and thin, right behind the canopy hinge. I don’t have a great picture of this area on my subject, so the one below will have to do, but sure enough I can see that it’s there. The other Viper I have pics of above, 86-0299 which is a Block 32, doesn’t have them as expected. So I’ll be adding this small strap along with the other reinforcement plates to make my model as accurate as possible, which begs the question: “If you’re so worried about tiny accuracy, why not alter those 3 fingered front flap hinges to 2 like you should have all along!” Well, after this complicated modification was bugging me with all sorts of justifications for not doing so as described earlier, I finally caved and got on with it. Deep down I knew I would eventually, as maybe a few of you did as well. As they say, "No Guts no Glory"! After lots of thought about how to do this effectively but still allow the flaps to be left off for ease of painting later, this is what I did. First, the outboard finger was cut off very carefully with a #11 knife, to retain the surface detail of the flap, while also retaining a concave surface to the flap/wing boundary. The remnants of the “flaps down” tab that was cut off beside it on the right was retained, since it provides a good glue anchor join when the flaps are cemented into place. The “Flaps up” tab as I’m using is to the right of that again, are unaltered. After carefully cutting the finger off of the flap, I then filled the recess where it used to fit with CA glue. I prefer CA glue for almost all my filling, because it’s strong, dries almost immediately and I can sand and shape it quickly, in this case to conform to the adjacent contours of the wing/flap surface. A very iterative procedure of applying CA glue and accelerator was used to achieve the end result. The other side, which is a bit hard to see since the CA glue is clear. While the surface under the flap can look like almost anything as long as it doesn’t impede the fit of the flap, the top portion that you can see must be flush with the rest of the wing. The top fit is pretty darn good now, knowing that it will be even tighter after the application of glue when the flaps are glued into place permanently near the end of the build. The bottom of the wing/flap join was a bit trickier with all of the complex adjacent detail here, but I’m sure it will look fairly natural after a coat of paint. There, I finally caved on the flap hinge to make this Viper as close to a real Block 25 as possible. The exact lateral location of the 2 vs 3 fingered hinge is not clear, but based upon pics in Jake's Viper Guide, I think it looks close enough by just deleting the outboard finger. Now maybe I can finally sleep at night. Cheers, Chuck

Been too long, golf and gardening gets in the way, but: Just the yellow edges to the outer wing areas to do, that will see pretty much all of the painting done, weathering can then start.

Got some more markings on, Serial on tail is a stencil, others are Alps printed. Some ugly silvering , waiting for something in the mail. These pix look more green than IRL.. This one has better color ... Thanks for lookin' . p.s. the squadron badge (rooster) and the numeral 5 are from an Eaglecals decal (excellent decals)

All- I just got this little beauty in my hot little hands today, all the way from Russia via an intermediary from Romania I believe. I was able to order directly from KEP Models, and it took about three weeks to get here. Let's see what's in the box. Oodles and oodles of darker grey printed resin, and it is absolutely beautifully cast. The structures that support the larger pieces are quite impressive: The fuselage is molded into four main pieces; two tail halves with the horizontals already attached, and two almost complete fuselage halves. The fuselage and tail interiors have locating pins, which is a nice touch. They are quite large, and the fit is very tight. What's tricky is the break between the tail and the fuselage coes along side some beautifully cast stretched fabric, so care will be needed to maintain the texture and hide the seams. The interior is fairly basic, but the structure provided on the walls in the cockpit is very nice. Some bulkhead pieces are included as well, which are quite nice. But here's a real gem for the interior, the instrument panel with attached throttle quadrant, complete with some very delicate and detailed levers. Wings are each one-piece affairs, and they too have some nice molding on them with some subtle oil-canning: Engine nacelles are also molded as one piece: Speaking of the engine nacelles, the engines are absolutely exquisite. They feature some very fine details, especially on the crank case and piston heads: The most important piece not to get damaged was the canopy, and I was fortunate there: Two vacform canopies are included. Here we also see landing lights, and a sheet of protected acetate to make the side windows, complete with a sticker designed so you can cut out the windows from the sheet. The other stabilizer is loose in the box, along with some other small bits. Speaking of bits... Check out this fancy tail wheel, all one-piece: Other small bits included the landing gear pieces, optional skis, landing gear doors (not pictured, were lose in the box), and a really nicely molded machine gun for the top of the fuselage. Props, flaps, and bombs round out the bits: The bombs are beautifully cast as single pieces with separate bomb shackles. Decals are included for one option, with a color profile to aid in painting it properly. Instructions are two sheets, with clear pictures of the assembly sequence so that you don't have to worry about reading the Cyrillic. In it's trip from Russia, I only had one broken piece, which is a big surprise considering how brittle these 3D printed resin kits are: Fortunately for me, this means I get to navigate the fabric texture and a panel line three times, rather than two like the rest of you. That's what comes in the box, for roughly $106US shipped. I can highly recommend this kit, and anything else that KEP produces! This is a real gem. - Dennis S. Mount Juliet, TN USA

Some progress

April 11/24 Here is the problem that Niels has pointed out. Also, after looking at many pics I have of F-16’s, I couldn’t find one with these panels on any of them either. Although the lens is a bit too deep, the real fit culprit is the diameter, so I carefully sanded down the outside edge to get it to fit into the hole without removing the fastener detail, but also the depth quite a bit. These are position lights that are clearly red in Jake’s book (P 21), but the red color is almost at the surface. By making the lens thin and painting it red from behind, the red is shallow like it should be. There is also a tiny InfraRed Emitter light at the front of the light (left), which I will likely add later as a decal. Once the lights are cemented in and painted, you will only see red from the area covered with liquid mask on the right. Since I was on to lights, I decided to attack the little navigation lights on the wingtips as well, which are part of the launchers with rods holding them in place. As Pete mentioned earlier, the lenses are not tinted red and blue/green like those on the intake, but have a small bulb in each with those colors instead. To accomplish this, I usually just drill a small hole from behind, then place a dab of the corresponding paint color in the hole as a bulb replacement. Unfortunately with these lights that are almost directly on top of each other, a hole from the bottom interferes with the other light, so as a compromise I just drilled holes from above, filled them with paint, then sealed them with clear CA glue. Not very accurate if you want the bulb look, but a lot better than a painted lens. The Kopecky LAU-129 launchers need a notch cut out and holes drilled to fit the wingtip, so I used the kit parts as a guide for exact width and pin location. A view from the side, showing that the top light is always a bit offset to the rear. Not exactly the true bulb look, but this still looks better than painted lenses. More lights and more detailing options. The rear navigation light is red, but only at the very back with the side’s painted fuselage color. Here I painted just the insert that goes into the tail, which is slightly scratched from repeated insertion. I'll fix that later.... From the side, you won’t see any red when the tail is painted. But from the rear, like a fiber optic, you can clearly see red. Above that light is an oval recess for 4 more tiny InfraRed light emitters where Tamiya placed an outward oval instead, that many modelers just cut off. Here I dug a small recess and added outside fastener detail, where I will again add a small decal inside later to replicate the lights. The anti-collision strobe light for the top of the tail has a silver light housing for a white light bulb. After drilling a hole from behind to replicate this a bit, I just left a used drill bit in the hole and glued it in after trimming it for size. I then painted the insert silver so that you can see some of that from above, much like the rear navigation light. I had to be very careful about how deep I drilled the hole, because the lens at the top is tapered and very thin at the top. This about is about all I could do without risking ruining the part. Recall that I was looking for something to sort of replicate all those small “No Push” placards that are on the engine nozzle petals. What I found is a compromise of what I knew would work, but a bit too shiny for accuracy. Since you can’t read what the placard says on 80% of the P&W nozzles, even at 1/1 scale, I wasn’t too worried about 1/32 scale. I ruled out paint masks because you can’t fix flaws and paint bleed without making a mess, so I used some Aluminum ANYZ decal film that I’ve used many times before, but in other colors like black, red and yellow. While I was at it, I bought some new hose clamp film that will come in very handy with my next build, which is likely the 1/24 Airfix Spitfire Mk IX, if my new JetMads 1/32 AJ37 Viggin doesn’t call me to another jet! After carefully cutting the aluminum decal film, applying the “placards” and spraying a dull coat, this is what you get. Like I said, the placards are a bit too shiny and pronounced, but I think the overall look is still an improvement on overall accuracy. I’ll see if I can dull them up a bit without wrecking them, but at this stage I’m really getting tired of showing this nozzle time and time again, which is entirely self-induced! On to other things…. Cheers, Chuck

…got that left speed brake well surrounded by aluminum. can’t resist slapping the tail feathers up for a look- P

Thanks Everyone! Much appreciated. Thanks Peter. Here's one more pic of them to see the exhaust staining better from the rear. The staining turned out a bit better than my current exhaust, but after 3 attempts, I'm done! Similar angle and lighting... Cheers, Chuck

Not really sure where to put this as I've never reviewed a product before but the new book from Crecy on the Macchi 200, 202 and 205 fighters arrived yesterday and simply blew me out of my socks.I was deeply into building Italian aircraft in 1/72 scale back in the 70's and 80's when I could see that well and lately my interest in trying again in a larger scale has been growing so I went ahead and bought this book. We had nothing even remotely this good to go from and the Italian publications of the day suffered from poor photo reproduction and paper. I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of detailed information, drawings and best of all clear period photos that really show the design and construction of these beautiful 'planes .One thing I note in particular is that none of the paint applications are the same from 'plane to 'plane, even in the same scheme the motions of the human arm and hand are visible in the random application of the markings.A feast for the smoke ring aficionado.I am already searching for a better airbrush! Since losing a fifty year accumulation of books a few years ago I have been extremely picky about what I have replaced.This is certainly a book worth the modest price and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about these gorgeous aircraft. Best, Paul

Bench time today and, I think, all painting finished apart from the stencils: One or two areas to apply small touch-ups but over all I'm happy with things so far.

Well, I've just painted with MRP 18/AMT 7 with 1/3 thinner. The transparency of the MRP paint, further enhanced by the thinner, enabled me to modulate this rather strange BB'ing as I wished, to achieve a subtle but present effect. A few brown/tan highlights can be seen here and there, making the overall effect less "monobloc". I'm quite satisfied with the result, which is just what I wanted.