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A little less than a year ago I built Nichimo’s 1/20 Cessna Skyhawk. A modeling friend saw the finished kit and asked me to build the one which had been in his stash for several years. completed model here: http://www.coldbasementmodels.com/?page_id=2175 The problem was that his kit was missing its engine. (The original owner had mysteriously absconded with both the engine and nose gear strut.) But guess who had made rubber molds of that engine during construction of that first airplane? As it happened, I had enough spare resin castings to cobble together a Lycoming O-320 to replace the missing components. Not as as good as the original metal components, but more than adequate. Patching holes in the floor plate. The original model dates to the early 1980’s and has a lot of weird “features”. We’ll be going with the dark blue interior on this one.

A job has been on and off for 2 months since June 2018. It's one of my satisfied work in my personal US Naval Air Force builds. I have added the smoke on the photos and called it Visual Diorama.

So fellas it's time for my contribution to the group build. I plan on doing Bf 110 in a North Africa livree. Initially I was headed for a "standard" ZG.26 bird but during my research I found some more interesting planes. Namely 5F+PK (https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Bf-110/AG14/pages/Messerschmitt-Bf-110E-Zerstorer-2.(H)14-(5F+PK)-North-Africa-01.html) and 5F+YK (https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Bf-110/AG14/pages/Messerschmitt-Bf-110E-Zerstorer-2.(H)14-(5F+YK)-WNr-2408-North-Africa-01.html and a highly intersting scheme: https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Bf-110/AG14/pages/Messerschmitt-Bf-110E3-Zerstorer-2.(H)14(Pz)-(5F+YK)-WNr-3454-North-Africa-03.html). Both 110s are E-3/trop types so a conversion will be necessary. Base kit will be the Dragon nighfighter kit, because I couldn't get one of the E-2/trop kits. The necessary trop parts were generously donated by @Shawn M and the camera will be sourced from AIMS. I got myself some reference material (hard to get too!) and the eduard masks to save work on the canopy. Additional AM will be the quickboost exhausts, HGW and enduard seatbelts and Master gunbarrels (bought for my Ar-196A). Stay tuned and enjoy the view. So long Joachim

Thanks Hakan! Worked on mocking up where the rear sand intake filter was going to set: More work and pictures to come, I spent tonight assembling the wings, and working on the landing gear. Man, with the longer wing tips on, this plane is BIG.

Just added the finishing touches to Airfix's 1/24th Hawker Typhoon MkIb this week: a project I've had on the bench for the last 6 months or so. Admittedly I've picked it up and put it down as and when I've felt like it, but regardless this kit is most definitely a long-term investment in regard to time and effort. I found it an absolute joy to build and thoroughly enjoyed every minute. Fit was exceptional but you must follow the instructions to the letter, especially where the engine and its piping is concerned, as tolerances are very tight. The only after-market was a set of Eduard seat belts - everything else was OOB. PIC 9 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 8 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 7 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 6 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 5 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 4 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 3 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 2 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 1 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 10 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr I opted for the post-war scheme so other than some tonal variation to the paint, I kept the weathering restrained. Paints were Xtracolour enamels with Humbrol flat as a top coat. Decals were from the kit and were excellent, bedding down well over the recessed/raised details without any problems. All in all, a fantastic kit - roll on the big Hellcat! Best regards, Tom

The model I made a long time ago, This is a model from the OLD SCHOOL category. Model Hawker Hunter Revell 1:32 Model straight from the box, and the other I try not to build.

evening ladies & thank you :) have been sorting out more of the basic structural elements so ultimately I have the airframe ready to skin in one (long) go, rather then the Spitfire where I did it bits at a time and had trouble protecting finished work as I did some pretty violent things like those I am doing now... starting with the tailwheel well - I started byu cutting just the doors out, but soon realised I could not detail the inside through the small aperture - I won't go mad in here, but I will replicate most of what I can see - here is the real (current) Lopes Hope.. ..I started by cutting out the section between two fuselage stations in between the whole structure and getting rid of all the solid foam inside - painted it black so none of this is seen... ..then from many scaled plan parts I assembled the main structure from litho, with brass strengthening where the wheel leg will mount... ..added some details and skinned the sides of it so it can drop in as a complete pod... ..this was then added and CA'd into position ready for the fuselage section to be added back & filling.. ..and after cleaning up, the basics are in there I can come back to later.. ..I also added the airscoop and got the shapes in this area where I was happy with them.. ..the next bit of surgery was around the wing fillets - they seem quite complex on a P51 with the top edge sitting over the flaps and a lower fairing cut away right back to the fuselage wall.. ..the moulded fillet is a bit ugly and will need quite a bit of work.. ..I made a slit in the fuselage and added a brass template from a scaled plan - I also faked a flap from bent litho so I could get the dimensions right... ..then lots of filling & shaping and trying hard to work around and not damage the skinned part of the airscoop... ..and finally after a shot of primer to see whats what, the basics seem to be coming together... ..the skin panels that have to go over that lot are quite distinctive so looking forward to that when the time comes :) TTFN Peter

Hour's of work later... The superstructure parts are coming together... Inside the nose. Detailing of the front cabin. Cockpit and rear cabin. Front superstructure in place. Spend a lot of time to find a way of making the roof of the front cabin detachable... It's getting there... Cheers: Kent

Thx Anthony, very much appreciate the encouraging words! Here's a better pic of the ACMI pods, since there was some discussion about it: Also, I did finish the Sniper pod. This is the Eduard version, which is nicely detailed and very tightly produced such that the gaps around the windows are kept to a minimum. However, the window and leds section seems very undersized. I initially tried using the front section of the Academy pod but the fit of the lens to the body isn't the best and I ended up making a hash of gluing that together. As you can see from those pics I am about finished with the model, next update will be the done deal! Cheers, Marcel

A fascinating subject for discussion. I’d like to contribute a little, if I may. If anyone has a copy of the Aeroplane Monthly magazine, April 2010, or the Classic Wings 2009 Voume 16, No.2 issue 70, both magazines have articles about the Paris based Memorial Flight Association immaculate restoration of the Musee de l’Air’s rare He 162. The article is more an interview with the program director Philippe Couderchon. This is perhaps one of the best preserved late war examples out there. (IMHO) The wings of this bird are painted in RLM 70 and 65. This also the same that was found on the NASM example W.Nr. 120230. A sub contractor obviously used old stock RLM 70/65 when painting these wooden wings. Then the BMW 003 cowling received the late war RLM 81/82 combination with the BMW inlet in RLM 02. The fuselage under four layers of paint was found to be the later war RLM 76 variant of the duck-egg grey-green color and yet the empanage again had the upper portions in RLM81/82 but this time the undersides were found to be in the mid war RLM 76 light blue grey. A fascinating read about his W.Nr 120015. Even the gear legs were different from one another on the same aircraft. The port leg was found to be from a Bf 109 and was painted in RLM 76 light blue while the original starboard leg in RLM 66 black grey. Three examples of the wings painted in RLM 70/65 and yet I have never seen any decal sheet mention these upper and lower wing colors. They only mentioned factory call outs in RLM 81 Brown Violet/ RLM 82 Dark Green. W.Nr. 120015, 120230 and 120076 that went to Farnborough. The first two were confirmed in RLM 70 Black Green under the BWM 003 engine fire wall. The tails of all the He 162 were easily swapped out with one another and this lead to a lot of confusion post war and the confusion over actual W.Nrs . You dont really realize the airframes were painted so many times after the war. The NASM example also had the outer wings sawn off at the inboard aileron section and the outboard wing tips were then hinged together to make it easy to transport around the USA. Good research is always key to making up your own mind. I would love to see someone’s collection of bits in their garage to make up my own conclusions. Great topic for discussion on LSP gent’s! Troy

didt more work on the rivets and more done on the pit not compleet happy but working on it just to give you a idee where im Mark

Thanks everyone for the welcomes and kind words. Thank you David for the detailed set of tips, much appreciated. I'm sure those will save me some hassle. I decided to go ahead and do the engine, what a shame to spend the time and yet it will be mostly hidden from view. In the end I figured it would at least be good practise for this newbie and after all, I guess I would always know that I had cut a corner had I left it incomplete.

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I spent the morning on the Silhouette Cameo drawing up the markings and codes for Peter Spoden's Stieglitz, I really enjoy doing this part of the build: Then starting to paint them:

Hi Craig, At present I don't think any additional spar will be needed. Forcing the shape change on the inner section of wing will have little effect on the outer section - which, by default, will stay in line with the nacelles, which I'm not changing the angle of at all. As you can see I'm leaving a lot of the moulded reinforcement in place towards the front of the wing. Kit spar will be used - subject to some modification. In further news - I mentioned a while back that I thought the root chord was out - have found new drawings that show the root chord measurement I was using is at the aircraft centreline - not where the wing meets the fuselage - so it's actually about right. Iain

Спасибо! I painted the inside frame of the windscreen and glued it into the fuselage. I am very happy with how this has turned out. Now it was onto the small details. Some of this stuff probably isn't needed, but all of them combined will make the model a little bit more realistic. There is a small panel line on the kit that represents the belly tank lift point. I hollowed it out with micro chisels and added a small piece of plastic card to represent the attachment point. The rudder trim tab has a small actuator fairing just forward of its leading edge, but no actuator. I slightly reshaped the tab and added the actuator rod, and brackets. The kit has a rectangular hole for a vent and its door is represented with a resin part. (notice in this pic I have drilled out the small formation light, ready to accept a clear blue part) I felt that the door was going to be a little slim, so I carved a rebate on the top and bottom edge that a larger door would fit into, according to my references. A new door was made from plastic card, with the actuator rod from brass. Lots of period photos show this door opened quite a way. I drilled out the small panel that represents the fuselage refueling point cover. My references show that this cover was left off in most photos of the aircraft serving in the combat zone and I wanted to represent it that way. I made up a fuel tank cap from plastic rod. Notice that I have also scribed a new panel line from the corner of the rear canopy to just in front of the horizontal stabilizer. Something visible in all of my pics of the aircraft but was missed in the kit. From a different angle. Could possibly go in a bit further, but at least that detail is now there. I made the cap removable at this stage so that I could paint it and install it after I have done the major painting stage. You can also notice in this pic that I have scribed a panel line behind the rear window and also above it, as this area was openable to gain access to the radio compartment on the real thing. As the vac formed clear part is very thin, I scribed the line into the the resin, just behind the join to prevent any #%^ ups.

Sorted the wheel wells Bevan And finished off the belts with a wash and fixed. Dry fitting all the main bits Added some shims to the fuse/wing joint. Yahu instrument panel in place Will add the gunsight later More dry fitting with the Barracuda exhausts

A few Korean shots ...

Cheers Ryan... More work ahead - but really confident of a working solution now! Wing tips: earlier in the thread I mentioned the tip thickness - and this is one of the reasons I'm doing so much work on the wings. Thickness of the kit wing at the tip panel line is 11.66mm Chord is 50.79mm Thickness/Chord ratio on Davis B-24 wing at tip - 9.3% So - 9.3% of 50.79mm = 4.72mm - not the 11.66mm measured!! Of course a picture is worth a thousand words (or 2 thousand of mine!), port wing tip: But the real givaway is looking at the tip cross section: I'll be removing about 6mm depth (about half the kit thickness) to make things look a whole lot better - removing the wing strengthening webs, as shown in my previous post, is just the start of that. Of course, the knock-on is the alierons and flaps are too thick and will need fixing too - but let's get the wings sorted first... Right - off to put more stickers on a certain Spitfire. Have fun! Iain

Back to the wings... Wing tips lopped off by cutting along the relevant panel line with a fresh scalpel blade - taking care and multiple passes, the plastic is pretty thick. We'll come back to the tips shortly and concentrate on the main body of the wing just now... Strengthening webs removed completely from the rear half of the lower starboard wing, using Tamiya side-cutters followed up with some coarse sanding boards: Comparison with port-side equivalent: And current gap at rear - this will grow as we still have more material to remove from the upper-surface moulding: But - wing root - shape pretty well sorted now! Note - none of the webs further along have been cut yet - so there is a twist in the wing - this will go as we move down the wing with formers. First image - as kit - with some material removed - behind former: Upper and Lower wing sections wrapped around former - rear upper surface of wing will be straighter once bonded: Better? Iain

First up, I finished the elbow rest for the Ruhrstahl X-4 control stick. Since no pics of the actual elbow rest exist (that I know of) and the fact that this is a later iteration of the X-4 this is what mine looks like. Its not perfect but looks the part IMHO. It actually swivels and locks out of the way, swinging back toward the console, but I have it locked in the extended position so people can see what its actually for: Next up it was time to make sure the fuselage was closed up. I got the fuselage closed up, and the spine graphed on. The fit on both was actually pretty good: Next up, I got the QB exhausts painted and installed. These were not rusted out, nor super weathered ,but I used Alclad jet exhaust, followed by some Alclad pale burnt metal, and then some flat clear with soot on the tips. All sounds complex, but the colors sort of blended more than I expected They actually look much better IRL than in pics: Then I took some time and got the engine covers installed. This took some doing, as the rear engine covers were a tight fit, and getting the trailing edge around the exhausts was a bit of a task. For this, I was in a quandary about how to mask all those exhausts stacks off. What I ended up doing, was some fancy dancy masking, by actually making a pocket of tape for the exhausts and attaching them to the panels before gluing in the engine cover panels, both front and rear. This seems a bit odd, but it resulted in a very tight mask around each exhaust set on each side. So far this has worked out better than I hoped, but the litmus test will be once the model is painted, as I will see if the tape comes off as easy as I hope it will. I made sure to attach the inner portion of the tape with minimal attachments to the inside surface of the engine covers, so when it does come time to remove the tape, there wont be a lot of tape holding things in place from the inside. I also could not resist putting the cowl, cowl flaps, rad front and both props on as a mock-up to see what things are going to look like: As you can see, I also cut down the port side exhaust intake shield, as I thought it looked odd extending so far beyond the rear of the exhausts: Both rear engine panels did fit, but they were tight, and will need a bit of finish sanding/tidying up: All in all, Im very please at how fast this one is going together, and how well its turning out: Tomorrow today (starting right now actually!) we are supposed to get 6 - 10" of the white stuff, and hit a low of -5F, so the boss just said to work from home. That means its Friday and Ill be working on work model stuff here. I think tomorrow I will be hitting the spares drawer to see what I can find in the way of louvers or scoops for some extra rear engine cooling for the A-2 Trop. I also got the Eduard exterior in, so am also going to try to get the rad screen painted and installed as well. As always cheers and thanks for dropping in on me!

This found it's way on to the bench last night but, may get bumped for a Revell He 111 H Some of the parts in the box...

Well, you know, somedays it's just one step forward and two steps back. While working out the arrangement of the center section I noticed that it was too far forward and the cockpit was too far back on the drawings when compared to the pictures of the real thing. So I had to do some internal rearranging of the supports. I feel confident that everything is in it's correct spot now (although I should have caught that much sooner). BTW, the sectioned off area on the starboard side of the center section was where the fuel tank was located. So if anything else, today was just a side step instead of a step ahead with my project although I did have time to make the top area for the front gun ring. Little by little, Mark

Yes Gaz, those cannons are really cool, now I must scratch a trolley for it Thanks 1to1scale, there is a lot of aftermarket and if you find the resin canopy you will spare a lot of time to rework the kit one Now it is time for new air-brakes : Also scratch the nozzle cover : Well, the main parts of the bird are done. We will continue with painting the cockpit and assemble the front part of the fuselage. Cheers guys

Hello, The main three details that are needed for a Korean War F-51 are the Zero length Rocket mounts. The Trumpeter mustangs have them, check eBay: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F292899281023 ). Uncuffed prop depending your reference pictures, both were used (The Quickboost are the nicer of the few aftermarket ones). Also the ARC-3 radio, for that you are on your own. The ARC-3 in the following picture is missing the cover plate for the dials and relay contacts.

Dennis is right Gaz, you need to use a piece of Oramask, obviously bigger than your mask, to "pick up" the mask from its backing sheet, this is then used to place the symbol in position then peeled carefully away. If you have multiple "layers", like on a roundel, the transfer mask can be re-applied to accurately position the next circle (which will have been retained on the mask initially). Hope this makes sense and is what you're asking about. I've found Mal Mayfield's instructions:

Not a huge amount done but I’ve been continuing with parts cleanup, and prepainting some engine parts. Jimbo

Has anyone yet mentioned the penalty for forgetting your password? It usually involves sending me a free kit. I'll get busy drawing up a list of possible donations.

Hi all, The twin rudder control lines with turnbuckles and the aileron control wire horns have been pre-rigged. The last bit of pre-rigging will be the elevator control wire horns. Mike

OK - photos time... Special parts delivery I mentioned earlier? Well, that was a box of 3D printed depth charges suitable for the maritime patrol Liberators, designed and printed by Tim Perry (wunwinglo), Flying Start Models - to an incredibly high standard. Two types - the Mk VIII and Mk XI: Look out for a review of these, and other items soon. These will be available from Tim's website in the near future. Back in a mo... Iain

Thanks i must be crazy that im going to do this all the rivets are in the model and not pozitive like the rael dael so out comes the putty and fill all those rivets afterwards i will replace them all with pozitive ones long way to go Mark

Here are some photos to show that I have been getting a little accomplished. I've also managed to lose several parts on this kit. First was the throttle console which flew off into oblivion when I was trying to bend the Eduard PE part to match its contours. I am working on my second scratch-built replacement. On this one, I think I will just use a paint marker to mark the grooves for the throttles, etc. Scribing the grooves didn't work very well the first time. I still have the Eduard PE pieces, but other than the levers, I am going to forego the PE for the throttle and use some Airscale placard decals and scratch-built details. The other part I lost was one of the MG17s. I have no idea what happened to it, but Shawn M (and Max, aka Mozart) offered to send me a replacement that he wasn't using. Sorry for the lousy photos. I have been having to use my phone to take the pictures because my good camera is on the fritz. My lighting is a little bad because one of my light stands is out of commission. Thankfully, I do not have a dead cat, as his chewing is what put the light stand out of commission. The seat harnesses are HGW, some from a set for a 2-seat Ar 234, and some from spares from other builds. I've also got the instrument panel done, but the photo is so out-of-focus that I'm not going to post it. Hope to have more to show soon. Bill

Hi everyone, Back in the late seventies I was a young boy with no money and little on his mind but models. One summer my father gave me this while I was visiting him on Summer vacation: Until that time, the only 109 I had known of was the Monogram 109 E Adolf Galland kit. Needless to say, it was the best gift I ever thought I was given before I became an adult. But the story was to take a bad turn. My father lived with a neat-freak on-and-off again girlfriend. I had set the kit to dry after adding the wings to the fuselage and was then shipped off to the grandparents for a few days. When I got back, the kit was gone. Nobody copped to it, not did anyone offer to replace it. Pretty much ruined summer vacation. Since I returned to modelling a few years ago, the kit had occasionally come across my memory and when I saw the box at the local big model show show, I grabbed it like a drowning man would grab a life preserver. I was going to recapture that stolen part of my childhood! After having the kit for 6 months, I got down to it. Old fashioned sprues and parts with hinges... I can tell that man y of the parts are a bit... shall we say... inaccurate. Because the decals are only a few years younger than me, I decided on a great profile by a great artist Claes Sundin. Did I mention I have a Silhouette Portrait? Image for discussion only. Painting the pilot was the first hurdle. A hurdle because my figure painting skills are pretty unskilled. No point in doing the boots... they'll disappear. He's pretty huge and completely blanks out the sides and bottom of the cockpit. This allowed me to dispense with doing more to the lower cockpit than a coat of RLM 66. What was supposed to be a simple exercise in thinning the trailing edges of the wings turned into opening the radiators and dropping the flaps turned into some major transplant surgery as a slip of the saw ruined one of the Revell Cooling flaps. The Trumpy ailerons were too narrow in chord as they neared the wing tip. So, no more gray parts. This was supposed to be OOB. The engine didn't deserve too much love as it wasn't going to show anyway and the IP wasn't even close, so I blackened the instrument faces and dry-brushed the indicators. It doesn't show so well but the pilot is so big, that I don't think it'll matter. The pilot was only painted with tube acrylic paints, so I covered him with the tip of a rubber glove for protection. I filled all of the hinges in with milliput and used white card to shim the cowl and wing-to-fuselage joint. You may have noticed hints of brass in the machine gun troughs. These are some Master Barrels MG 131's that also came with a brass Pitot tube. The Kit is inaccurate. I know that... but I've really enjoyed getting to this point. I've fabricated some small parts with card, and I have some scribing to do to add some details like the fuel hatch behind the canopy. Thanks for looking! Gaz

It's Tamiya kit I've built on Nov 2018.

I am looking for a Trumpeter 1/24 Spit MkV Trop and their 109G6 early version, but after months of searching on eBay, Amazon etc I really can't find any for sale in the UK or across the world. Trumpeter website says they are still in production but it would appear to me that these kits are not that available..... Is it me or do Trumpeter do runs on variations and sometimes there is a lull in supply ? Thanks Mike Love the LSP site by the way - some incredible model makers on here !

The majority of Ar 234 and Do 335 were painted 70/71 over 65. Some were painted in "late-war colours." The Smithsonian aircraft were not restored to their original colours, but rather they were painted in late-war colours in order to illustrate what they would have looked like in the closing days of the war. It was impossible to recover the original colour scheme of the Ar 234, and they tried hard. Kenneth Merrick was involved in the research and he provided the colour swatches for the current colour scheme. The colour details were mentioned in the Monogram books on the 234 and 335 and they mention the early war colours. However, in the recent time it became easier (or lazy?) for many profile illustrators, "researchers" or manufacturers to just forego all research and just conclude that ALL aircraft were painted 81/82. The Smithsonian Ar 234 wheels were filled with resin foam.They are in good shape. In the recent years it became clear that this is not a good idea in general. If the aircraft is moved, that causes damage to the rubber. For example, the wheels of the Ki-100 in Cosford, filled with resin, were damaged when the plane was moved. Hth, Radu

Anthony no worries, I've always got more to learn and truly I enjoy hearing how others would do it. Just the reason I threw it out there as I've been bit before with things showing up a month later LOL it's always funny later isn't it. Awesome pic, really shows the profile well. None of my pics seem to show it as clearly. I think you guys are right. There is some of the fairing built into the windscreen and the drawing does not come to the point that you see on the pics. I extended the point out thinking that they didn't show it for clarity but I think the lines on the drawing represent the total length. I redid it using the same piece. Once I had the top view cut I took the flexifile over it to take some of the hump off. Let me know what you think of this? I will add some putty in those corners by windscreen once everything is set in place. The piece was just so small I couldn't keep them on there. The width is being driven by the windscreen. It seems to make it wider than it is in the pics but I checked vs the drawing and the width matches up. Still has me a bit puzzled. Maybe it needs some primer on it now, so that everything is a consistent color, in order to tell if it needs any finer adjustment?

Been working away on the cockpit sub assemblies and now have them all painted and decalled ready for final assembly. All needs a final flat coat misting over but I'll do that when all together. Rear panel with radio fitted, gloss coat needed to seal the decals as well, I used Aviattic decal instead of the kit supplied decal as well. And bringing eveything together. Just need to add some HGW belts now, fitting that rear seat is a real, real pain and for anyone building this fit the seat before adding the radio will make your life so much easier as its nearly impossible to fit otherwise, it took so so many goes before I got it in. Regards. Andy

I'm not surprised. Steve

Since I got back into the hobby last year, I can't seem to concentrate on just one build. In addition to the Bf 110D-3 I'm working on for the group build, I just started this Trumpeter kit. I had never used a clear instrument panel before, so I was looking forward to seeing how this one turned out. Alas, it was not to be. I had the glass parts of the instruments masked with Vallejo masking fluid, and while I was prepping some other parts for priming, the IP vanished. I think it stuck to my arm or shirt and got carried to some other part of the house. I will probably find my 'problem' cat playing with it one day. Luckily, I had an Eduard Bf 109G-6 IP available. It has an extra panel (external armament controls?) below the main IP, but I figure a photo-recce 109 would have a similar panel for controlling the camera(s). Here is a pic with the Micro Kristal Clear not yet dry (and a couple of unknown things stuck to the IP): The kit didn't include the fuel flow inspection line on the starboard sidewall, so I made an attempt at adding one. Hopefully it will look the part after painting. That's it for now. Bill

What an amazingly beautiful pair of Vipers! You put in an enormous amount of effort into these birds! The detailing is spot on, looks like something I'm used to seeing on the flightline. The splinter camo on the AK Aggressor is beyond words can describe, I love it!

I probably need to explain a bit more. Originally the 16B was specified. When Hitler demanded that it should be built as Blitzbomber only - sometimes in summer 1944 if I remember correctly - they tested the 16D. The first Blitzbombers had only 2 MK 108 due to CG and landing gear weakness reasons. That’s why the Me 262 that the Russians captured was an early Blitzbomber that was fitted with the 16D for dropping bombs. However, they later (around late fall 44) changed the specification again to the 16B to be used in both the fighter and fighter bomber versions. At the same time they issued the manual how to drop bombs with the 16B. The EZ 42 came late. A few test installations were made around winter 44/45 but introduction into serial production only began in the last couple of weeks of the war. The EZ 42 could be used both as a fighter gunsight and with fixed mirrors as a bomber gunsight according to the manual. However, by the time it was introduced almost all Me 262 were used as fighters.

First coat of stain on the first three sets of wing ribs. Went with English Walnut - wanted something just a little dark so that the brass and aluminum work will pop.

New set out today: Luftwaffe Liberators in 32nd scale. Three options included. This should be a lot of fan for Luftwaffe fans. At least we hope so.

No worries at all! Thanks for taking the time to help, it's greatly appreciated. John

Hi friends and thanks for all kind words of yours Now continue with detailing of wing surface , flaps and elerons with some etched and aluminium parts: The main gear-covers from the kit were so wrong so I build the new once from Part set+polistirol: And wait a minute - WHAT, there is NO gun in the kit?????? So with a lot of scratch + Master barrels + etched parts - get ready for the "Triple Cannon": Cheers guys

It's all hangin' on the model now... the X looks like it does in Jakes's book, Jake's book is the last word and that's that Also note the finished little Elta jamming pod: Here's a look at the completed ACMI pod: Cheers, Marcel

I almost forgot the "other" thing..... I was going to order a set of the Northstar Models Revi gun sights, but the lowest I could find the later Revi 16 was $8 with $12 shipping.....NO way! So I went with the next best option, which was the 32nd Quickboots Revi sights: Hopefully the PE exterior set will be here tomorrow, so I can get a start on the wings.

Pit assembled Yahu panel After the simple assembly I filled the dials with clear varnish Pit painted. Added a few extra wires and cables Then a bit of weathering HGW belts Added to check for length Barracuda wing inserts glued and bays sprayed aluminium

Thanks for the feedback. Some more progress... The IP is finished. The Revi-Gunsight will be added later as I have the habit of breaking and losing small things during assembly WIP_Fw190F-8_012 by bastelnvormbalkon, auf Flickr The wheel-wells are a multiple part construction, but everything fits quite nicely and only a small amount of mr. surfacer was used. The details are convincing. Revells idea of glueing a solid plastic part with integrated wing-spar to the wing is really great as it provides stability (including for the connection points of the in-flight-stand) and guarantees the right dihedral of the wings... WIP_Fw190F-8_013 by bastelnvormbalkon, auf Flickr WIP_Fw190F-8_014 by bastelnvormbalkon, auf Flickr I decided to open up the side cowling panels. They are opened on the one pic (that I know of) of the specific plane that I try to recreate. WIP_Fw190F-8_015 by bastelnvormbalkon, auf Flickr Joining the fuselage halves. Fit is nice. Seams will be cleaned later... WIP_Fw190F-8_016 by bastelnvormbalkon, auf Flickr WIP_Fw190F-8_017 by bastelnvormbalkon, auf Flickr The cowling panels that I seperated are attached to the fuselage by a piano hinge. They fold to the wing and the interior will be quite visible. So I tried to recreate some structural details on the inside. It is by far not as sophisticated as so many other stuff on this forums. Learning by doing... Thinning the kit parts, rivet-tool, styrene strip, some leftover-PE and wire. WIP_Fw190F-8_018 by bastelnvormbalkon, auf Flickr Thanks for looking. Nico