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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

Some photos with where I'm at... Roundels are now sitting nicely - albeit with a few cracks that will need touching in on the fuselage roundels. Model loosely put together - with dry fitted undercarriage - and, for the first time - test piece canopies in place to test fit (these are not the final quality ones!). Excuse the dust on the model - will just wipe off! Have fun! Iain

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

Spotted Ass Ape (front ship) This ship had extra external lights so might be a good excuse for some fibre-optix/leds. Am being assembled, B17 brassin wheels, B17 armament set, HGW fabric belts. DN model mask set just ordered

Got the wings glued together, and per the A-2 Trop designation it used new weapon aiming systems, enlarged DB603M engines, and longer/ reinforced wings, I used the extented longer wingtips. I slipped the wings on to see where I was, and then busted out the G-Factor gear. I initially though I wasn't going to use them, as I thought I could just use the OOB fork and gear with my own oleo strut, but I definitely did NOT like the look of the smaller A-0 wheel and fork, and wanted to use the larger front tire of the B series Do-335. I really wanted to turn the front nose wheel to add some interest, but I quickly discovered that trying to bend or otherwise turn the G-Factor gear was not worth the risk. It was then, that I figured out that the G-Factor gear was for the B-2/6 and had the larger single sided fork for the larger front tire, so I decided to go with that. The stance looks pretty good here right out of the package, and in my eye will only get better once the larger MLG wheels are put on with the slightly smaller nose wheel. Fit of the wings is pretty good. The fit of the G-Factor gear is quite loose and the angles of all the gear here is really off as all 3 gear are just loosely setting in position: Next up, I took the wings back off, so I could get the landing light straightened out. It was not much of anything OOB, so I boxed in all three sides with plastic card, so all seems were hidden, then added a PE sheet for the back for two rounded lights (I didnt like the look of the normal square ones) and added two thing-a-ma-bobs from the watch bits I got off E-bay. The light fixture is canted a bit, so as to stay level with the ground, as apposed to level with the dihedral of the wings. Later I will add a center post and some glass for the lights using my UV gel "Bondic" pen: The beginnings of a first a spritz of MRP chrome: Again, seemingly MUCH better looking IRL than I can get in pics. More tonight, as Im working toward getting the MLG wheel wells buttoned up and decent without spending TOO much time on them, or going TOO crazy with them.

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

Tamiya Tiger 1 with homemade zimmerit

Takom King Tiger

Takom Canadian C2 Leopard

Dry fit in the front fuselage after some trimming, the IP fits perfectly. I will deal with the HUD later when I’m ready to install the front windscreen, which will protect it. Everything is starting to come together in the front office, including the sidewalls. My next update will have the cockpit finished and permanently installed. With the fit groundwork already achieved, this should be easy. (Fingers crossed). Cheers, Chuck

I weathered one pod this weekend, and started on the second. Since I'm doing winter bird, after it was fully weathered and a lacquer matte clear sprayed over it, I used white acrylic thinned down to white wash the front portion that was painted RLM 70, and then wear some of that off with a moist brush, and then some additional weathering. Not sure I'm totally happy with the result of the white part, but as I intend the bird to be very heavily worn, I think it will work. Hard to tell until I get it on a bigger surface. Also started on the main wing, which required a lot more sanding than I expected to feather in the long wingtips of the G-2. The parts fit was not as tight as I had hoped. Tim

Tamiya 8 ton half track with 88, I lost my sun so will try for better pics tomorrow)

Tamiya Bren Carrier

One pod down, one to go. Believe it or not, this took me about 8 hours to do in fits and starts, given my hamfists and all those incredibly fiddly parts. Lots of cuss words, glued fingers, and long breaks to recover my perspective. How I hate little PE parts! Tim

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

Well all good things must come to an end. This is the finished Hasegawa 1/32 P-40E. Let me recap. -Scratchbuilt interior minus seven kit parts, one resin engine, and one resin seat. -Scratchbuilt tail wheel assembly. -Scratchbuilt wing framing. -Scratchbuilt .50 cals. -After market decals. All told way to long to finish. But I will take it. Again the pictures are much too faded but this time I know why. There are some issues/omissions, glaring to me. The ones I did not fix are the ones that would require me to tear the build apart and start over. Thank you for looking in. All comments, critiques, and criticism are encouraged. Joe

I can join in on this one. My first LSP GB. Tamiya Mosquito. Some extras. HGW seatbelts, Eduard masks. Yahu instrument panel. Barracuda cockpit stencils and external decals as well as gun feed belts. Aviaeology decals. Will do either Hairless Joe or Black Rufe from 418 Sqn. RCAF.

Not negative at all - and a very valid point! I believe it will be pretty obvious - but I can only demonstrate once I've finished the work on the wings and the main spar. As I have two kits I'll be able to take some photos with the wing positioned on the fuselage - both as it comes in the kit and then as modified. It will then be up to you guys to decide if there's a noticeable difference - and if so, whether the work involved is worth it! But I can get a bit geeky about some things - please don't judge me too harshly!! Have to say though, one of the drivers to this was reading that the wing was 'impossible' to fix - to me that's like a red flag to a bull! Iain

Absolutely , Shep and Francis were absolutely influential on modellers around the world. Good memories indeed. Here is another one.

I recall being about 13 years old, 35 years ago, and learning about "assembly ships" from this piece built by Shep Paine. It was in his book on dioramas, which I still have.

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.

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.

Seems like a lot of WW11 propellers wore that way. I can think of several war era pics Ive seen with (more major) wear like that on the back only

I have now bought both kits I needed !! Many thanks guys..... all replies really helped ! Now to get modelling !

Thank you Shawn. I'm sorry, but I got carried away working on the vacuum formed superstructure... Plug is sanded and polished, ready for the Vacuum forming... Rear part with the cockpit. Forward part. 1mm thick styrene sheet. Cutout of the two parts... Fitting... Can't believe it went that well with the superstructure, no test runs just two vac forms, cutting, sanding and it fits. I guess it's all of the trial and error of the Arado V6 build I'm benefitting from now... But this was very fun doing it and it's a huge milestone in my head. I think there's only critical part of the conversion remaining, the wings. Thanks for looking in: Kent

First news of the year, this time 6 1/32 submunitions dispensers SUU-30 (CBU-54) B/B "early" with decals. Always old price 10 eu per packet.

Thanks Guys! January 21/19 A bit of an update, with a few caveats (excuses). I have painted the cockpit, but I still need to do a bit of wiring behind the seat and “weather” the rest, so that it doesn’t look as showroom clean as it does below. Also, as always, what I see with my naked eye is only about ½ of the detail of these macro pics, so all flaws are magnified. Now the sequence, because painting a resin cockpit can be a real picky and demanding experience. As I always do these days, I first paint everything with gloss black lacquer, to expose flaws and provide some shading depth to subsequent coats of paint. I then sprayed everything with some X-22 clear acrylic gloss coat, to protect the black from subsequent applications of solvent as I removed paint from where I want the color to remain black. Before: After masking off areas that I want to remain black, I sprayed FS36231 Dark Gull Gray to the interior and seat. Here you can see a bit of overspray on the throttle console, which is easily removed with solvent with the protective X-22 coat behind it. Normally only the headrest of the F-5 seat is black, but for my Aggressor, I found a very cool looking seat with Soviet red stars on the flanks of the headrest on a black background. There are no specific decals that I can find for this, so I ordered some Russian decals for a 1/72 SU-27 that should do the trick, all the way from Moscow! After several hours of painting tiny details, here’s what it looks like today before weathering. Not bad…. After: A bit of a “walkaround”. Too bad most of that detail behind the seat will be covered, like the brass colored ejection seat charge tube. With seat installed. I need a bit more wiring behind that seat. While detailed, the instrument panel is a bit rough. The idea is to carefully paint the gray areas between the gauges, then dry brush with silver the dials on the gauges. I tried that and didn’t like the look, but thankfully I have a boat load of Airscale instrument decals and placards from our very own Peter Castle who sent me a bunch a few years ago, when I was struggling with same on my P-38L build. Since then I have bought a few more sets, including the very useful 1/32 Modern Jets Cockpit Dataplate and Warning Decal set, which has lots of that yellow and black striped warning decals that you can cut to size, like around the red ejection button on the dash. For the other gauges, I used a variety of decals, both 1/32 and 1/48, from decals sets that looked either identical or similar. From US Navy jets, to Luftwaffe, RAF and even Soviet decal sets, I was able to find an instrument decals and cockpit placards that matched the real deal fairly closely. Since you can’t actually read any of them at this tiny scale, who cares?! The decals covered the raised relief behind with no real issues once they were placed in position and Microsol was applied. For the green radar screen in the middle, I used the kit IP decal and cut out this screen, then applied a mixture of Pledge/Future and clear green MM acrylic paint. For the other gauges, I used a small drop of clear P/F to form a glass-like surface. If you use these decals, here’s one tip: The decals react very slowly to Microsol, but they do react and settle down eventually. This allows you to move the decals around for several minutes, even with Microsol, which is critical on these tiny applications. This is the opposite of Barracuda decals which I love, but you really only get a few seconds to position the decal before it won’t move any more- and that’s with plain water. If you know this ahead of time, it’s not a big deal, but I prefer the much longer time windows of airscale. Here is the website for Airscale. Highly recommended for everything within a cockpit. airscale High Resolution Cockpit Enhancements Note that the upper and lower portions are not one unit, which helps with easy installation in the front fuselage.

Looks like I managed to get my Anycubic Photon set up correctly yesterday, and here's the test print. If you are able to zoom in, you may see that it is remarkably smooth, as I had hoped. Very impressed!! Tim

The forward fuselage has most of it's fasteners, still have to put some on the forward windscreen.

I adjusted the scale drawing to the best of my ability to reflect the upper top fuselage more accurately in regards to period photographs. Mark

Thanks all. I hear you, 'Moby Dick' comes to my mind! Sci-fi or not, just wait until I get the rudder done - It does not get much more 'ridiculous' than that thing... Cheers: Kent

I missed quite a few comments here. We have that in the works for the J too. So whoever might be interested, there will be a mask set about such aircraft.

Pretty standard - and pet peeve of mine - blades 'weather' far more on the rear as that's the side that's presented to any dust/dirt/material in the air as it rotates. Iain

Some update.. I have used Master Details Horizontal tail surfaces as usual on my Hasegawa s early Spitfires.

Welcome to LSP mate. Scratchbuilds are most welcome, anything that flies in 1/35 and above. You don't have to tell people what you are going to do ahead of time, but many of us do. We all like to read what others are planning. To participate in the Group Build (and be eligible for the raffle prizes at it's conclusion) you do require a thread where you document your progress in the build, but if you just wanted to show some pictures of your completed model(s), you are welcome to post your pictures in the 'Ready for Inspection' forum. If you wanted to document your build in a thread that is not part of the Group Build, you can start a post in the 'Works in Progress' forum. If you're not sure what large scale kits are available, the link below is to the sites kit database for all LSP's that have been produced. https://www.largescaleplanes.com/kitdb/list.php

Good morning. I'm afraid I'm new to all this -- new to LSP and to group builds in general and all this sharing of photos and information and such, so I have a couple of questions: Are scratchbuilds acceptable as long as it is the proper scale or am I required to build from a kit? Do I have to declare to the world what I am building ahead of time or can I just show up at the dance with what I brung? Are work in progress photos required/expected? At this point, I have no idea what I'd build other than it would be Navy, big and with more than one motor. Other than that, any suggestions or guidance from anyone more experienced than I would be appreciated.

Hi all, Time to rig the wings!! Mike

Thanks a lot guys for the nice words and motivation....much appreciated......been busy ....and today managed another update. the cockpit is moving along the panel. The finish is based on artistic impression....not painted to replicate a real panel. the tub, same here artistic impression... the shroud ...nicely detailed as oob a mock up....hope to finish the cockpit soon..... rgds and happy modelling brian

Dude! How on earth did I miss this build Tim? Great start my friend and I'm assuming this'll be seen in Chattanooga? Cheers, Wolf

Well all good things must come to an end. This is the finished Hasegawa 1/32 P-40E. Let me recap. -Scratchbuilt interior minus seven kit parts, one resin engine, and one resin seat. -Scratchbuilt tail wheel assembly. -Scratchbuilt wing framing. -Scratchbuilt .50 cals. -After market decals. All told way to long to finish. But I will take it. Again the pictures are much too faded but this time I know why. There are some issues/omissions, glaring to me. The ones I did not fix are the ones that would require me to tear the build apart and start over. Thank you for looking in. All comments, critiques, and criticism are encouraged. Joe

Yes very cool last one reminds me of a loft of wonder bread. Lol

I cut the ends off the original parts and shaped epoxy putty with a good set of reference photos.

Instrument panel for the Mossie is done. Combination of kit, Yahu and stencils from Barracuda. First radio receiver painted. More to come. Thanks for looking.

I'm off and....well, not quite running, but work has begun in earnest on the Hornet. I've managed to get the A version resin conversion parts cleaned up and begun some assembly. I'll attach a couple of pictures of the new (old) office and the reference book that is indispensable for building a detailed Hornet (more detailed than mine will be) The A version Black Box conversion with Canadian seat

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

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

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

The next step of the windscreen mod was fitting a small piece of plastic over top to complete the lip that the clear part sat in. I also filled along the top of the cowl toward the nose with plastic card to make this area straight. The windscreen needs to be pushed in to fit, hence the Xacto handle. Very happy with how this has turned out. I decided to replace the photo etch cowl flaps with some plastic card ones. The photo etch flaps did not fit very well, and I felt that I would be able to scratchbuild better ones from plastic card. I wanted to add the hinge fittings and these would be better off being in plastic card as well, the other benefit being that when they are all fitted to the model, I will be able to wick Tamiya extra thin into the parts of each seperate flap that are touching, making them stronger overall. Each flap was made from 4 parts, being the flap, two hinges and the small part that slides against adjoining flaps. I cut several long strips of different thicknesses of plastic card to make the parts out of. A dry fit of the basic flaps, without the hinges or the inner sliding parts. Each flap asssembled Final dry fit