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The last couple of days I've been working on the interior wood. The task is to imitate the mahogany interior panels... I haven't done wood grain on a larger scale before. I had the idea of using Radu's stencils to give the large interior surfaces a basic wooden structure with acrylics. When dry, I continued with three different shades of oil colors... With this technique it does not take long before all the interior walls had become 'wooden'. The famous blue carpets of the Aeromarine's was done using several blue grey 'mixtures'. Masking tape is off... I think it resembles a wooden 'cigar box' a bit, but I'm quite happy with the result. Cheers: Kent

It's a bit cold here in Colorado and it's hard for me to run my exterior fan for my paint booth but I managed to get some primer down in a few areas. I use Alclad's primers mixed with a bit of leveling thinner. I love this stuff as it dries solid and sands perfectly. You get that nice feathered edge and the leveling thinner makes it go down smooth as butter. I was able to get the front canopy on with only a minimal gap that I was able to fill with a small amount of surfacer. I used a small, pointed Q-tip dipped in leveling thinner to clean the excess off. I tried to be very careful so the thinner didn't mess up the clear part since it's possible to seep under the tape. I'm fairly happy with the way the exhaust area came out but there are still a few adjustments to make. It's not perfect but the gap around the exhaust cans isn't nearly as big as before. I've heard the Sierra Hotel exhaust is the right size so I highly recommend those to anyone considering building this kit. My way works but it's a serious pain in the butt. If I had to do it all over again, I would have spent the extra money. Even though I already bought the Aires exhaust years ago, it would have been worth it to buy the SH exhaust. Plus I recently discovered that one of the burner cans is a bit warped. I'm really happy with they way the little exhaust vents came out. I wasn't going to attempt to fix them but it kept bothering me especially considering I'm fixing less obvious issues with the kit. I just wasn't sure how to do it but I looked up Chuck's phantom build and could see how he fixed his. I couldn't get the soda can aluminum to work for me so I uses thin styrene sheet. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. The only thing I would do different is removing the louvers in the vent and replacing them. I would have done that but I already glued the fuselage together making it difficult. There is a lot of panel line reworking going on here so I'm glad it came out okay. The front AC intake blended in well too. I'm happy with the way the reworked wing joint came out considering the earlier disaster. I'm so close to paint I can taste it or should I say smell it . Sure glad I have the big Pace Peach Keeper booth! This thing is huge! If there are any Phantom experts looking in, please let me know if there is anything that needs correcting. I think I've got the obvious stuff fixed but I can only figure out so much looking at photos. I have Gorman's great phantom book but I wish I had Jake's book too. Thanks for looking in fellas and your comments good or bad are always welcome... Bryan

I decided not to cut out the ailerons so I went on with the wings. I cut away the brackets at the rigging because these were more then 0.5mm thick which is way overscaled. I will replace these with 0.25mm styreen. Also the holes were filled en I will make smaller holes because Trumpeter made a mistake with the rigging. In the picture below you will see that Trumpeter wants you to place PE1, PE2 and PE3. In all my references I can't find these and Thomas Lund also warned me about this. I decided to glue the rightwings and leftwings but I'll glue these to the fuselage when everything is sprayed in color The handle for folding the wings is replaced with PE When you glue everything together (without the rigging that is) it looks like this A litlle putty is still needed. Upper center wing with some PE The fuselage after priming. The oilcooler is till dryfit. This wil also be glued after spraying. At last a dryfit because i want to place the rigging with everything in place. Just to prefent some misallignment. I also had a little setback. I wanted to make the torpedo but when I wanted to take the sprue out of the box I noticed there wasn't any sprue P. I looked very carefully, I searched my hole room but I couldn't find it. Bummer. I went to the LHS and told the problem. They will contact the importer to see if they can get a replacement sprue. I also contacted the customerservice of Trumpeter. I don't have high hopes but you never know. So, if you own this kit please check if sprue P is present before you are going to build it. I will check the net for measurements and will try to make a torpedo from scratch because i really want a torpedo under the plane. Thanks for watching

Okay, here is my entry. I am going to build the HK Lanc, the only aftermarket parts I am going to use is the Airscale instrument Panel. I will be using the "Dambuster Lancaster Book for reference, the Kitworld Decals for Phantom of the Rhur, another 100+ Lancaster. Going to start on the IP and go from there. I will post pics of progress of sub assemblies. See how it goes. The Kitsworld decals codes are a different color red than the kit decals. I don't know if that's a show stopper for those decals, but I am not happy about that. I may use the kit decals. I know that squadron codes changed during the life of the airplane. I have to do some research on this. I also have "Ton Up Lancs" with this aircraft featured.

Thx guys, the encouragement is very motivating! Thx Jaws, the flightline look is exactly what I am going for Well, she is done! Here are some preliminary pics, taken under poor lighting conditions. I plan on taking some better shots and Chuck has very kindly also offered to edit them a little more professionally, once I have those shots I will post them in the Ready for Inspection section. But here goes for now: And the double is officially complete: Thanks for looking! Marcel

Here's a pleasant update, I received the replacement parts in the mail from China today. Very happy with that, and I'm thankful for the manufacturer to be so quickly responsive. At least my kit is complete now; warts and all, I'm very pleased. I appreciate the passion for it being right, or wrong, etc. But to me is a big-ass model kit of a big-ass bird that I have dreamed about since since I firmly landed in 1/32 scale, many moons ago, along with B-17s, B-25's, and really? Lancasters? Life is good. . . Just thought I'd share a bright spot on a dreary day. Happy modeling all! Jimbo

Another Mustang project... This will be finished with the markings of "Old Crow"

Fieseler Fi 103 & Fi 103A-1 Reichenberg 1/32 Special Hobby All colours MRP Canopy mask MH Models

Well I put a good solid day in today and got a good chunk of the build complete. I’m happy with some of the progress but my rookie skills are starting to get exposed. I really struggled getting the engine and cowling on the fuselage. As you can see by the photos, I didn’t get it on even. I’m not sure how I can fix this at this stage.. The wings are now on and I glued the outers pretty tight to the inners- not sure if I was supposed to leave more of a gap where they fold? Well soon there will be paint covering some of these mistakes and hopefully that will help. All in all I’m enjoying the build and I’m looking forward to painting.

Engines and wings next. The engines are from Trumpeter kits. They were mated to the hasegawa wings. The leading edge slats are made from sheet aluminium. The engine to wing fairing is made of milliput One of the planes will have a missing engine. A new one to be fitted in its place. At last it all goes together, fuselages mated to wings. The stressed aluminium effect can be seen in this photo

A bit more work done on the kit. I've taken a different rout from the instructions and begun with building the landing gear, I'll add whatever pipes wires and hoses I can to busy it up a bit... the nose gear, white bits will simulate canon plugs and pipe fittings later on. US main gear Canadian main gear leg (shock inverted) being distracted with a very large jigsaw puzzle at the same time so work is slow on the Hornet

I don't want to spoil your post .. here is " Pluto "...I will follow your thread with interest , I remember it wasn't an "easy way " , I used "Gray matter " conversion Alain

This arrived in the mail today. I'll be popping off a review of it as soon as I'm able.

Had to add material to the kit supplied intake liners, for what ever reason they decided to leave them short of the fuselage sides, I also will have to add small fillets where they meet up to the fuselage sides. Got the fairing in front of the main fan, it's not quite as long as it should be, this goes back to dimensional errors, I had to cut about a 1/4" off the front of the engine(second molded in ring) in order to create a larger gap between the fan face and the back of the nose gear bay. I'm not sure where the error is, I don't have drawings, it may be in the overall length of the fuselage, the front landing gear seems to be in the proper place in relationship to the intakes, so I'm just going to go with smoke and mirrors from here out, I really like the way it's starting to look !!!

I will have some B24 AM available in a few weeks (with instruments of course...) Peter

It's the Airfix 1/24 scale bubble top Typhoon with the Yahu instrument panel, Xtracolor paints and Aviaeology decals.

Hellcat Pilots build log. Part: The Last (sculpting) Things have advanced since part 4 and the final set of smudgy snaps show the two pilots primed and awaiting their final checks before heading off to sunny Newport for the Welsh Wizard (and Tom) at MDP to perform their moulding and casting magic on them. The Fleet Air Arm pilot now has two fleet air arms and his parachute has been added, carried over his shoulder. There were no real problems with this stage of the process. The US Navy pilot (who looks rather grumpy!) had to have his legs altered ( possibly why he looks grumpy) and straps amended to match up with the strapping of the parachute that he is wearing. For both figures the extra additions were sculpted in Magic Sculp or Duro both from Sylmasta. Although it seems I am well on target for having both these pilots finished in time for the proposed May release of the Hellcat by Airfix, things will actually be tight. Moulding and casting has to be done. Boxart and photographing has to be completed and resin castings boxed ready to be dispatched. I'll keep all of you loyal readers (optimistic use of plural here) informed of how things are going.

Some updates on my Crusader (s) I have to admit that the Trumpeter panels lines are very accurate compare to the real thing. Nevertheless I modified a little bit the chamber vent for alternator turbine and environmental cooling system heat exchanger. Trumpeter has forgotten to represent the engine compartment cooling vents The black harrow shows the new location of the air scoop If the canopy is opened, the integral and center steps must be opened too. To make them more realistics, the kit engine compartment vents are removed to make anothers in styrene sheet Thanks for looking Eric

Not much progress to report I'm afraid... Work keeps getting in the way! The Vector cowl arrived and I'm impressed! the level of detail is incredible: I haven't decided how to tackle the removal of the existing ribs in the Tamiya cowl front piece... any advice would be greatly welcomed. I've made a start on the engine (another Tamiya work of art! I shot tamiya flat aluminium on the cylinder heads, painted the crank case grey and then gave the whole lot a black wash to pick out the fin detail... looks ok to me! I made a start at attempting to add the HT leads to the Vector part. I think this copper wire is a tad too think, but it's all I have. If I'm not happy with it, then I'll revert to the kit part. That's all for now... thanks for looking.

This, on the right, is one of the ZM mechanic figures marketed for the Ta152H-1, so German, compared with a Wings Cockpit figure Luftwaffe mechanic. The ZM American figures you've been looking at could well be better but I'd also have a good look at the Wings Cockpit figures range. You'll only find this on Facebook though, no website I'm afraid. A Wings Cockpit figure:

Hi all, I'm still looking out for a "long term" project in this GB. The more senior member will remember that I've build a lot of wooden Guillow's kits in the past. Maybe,this might be the one. . Or this ...

Tsk, tsk...

I do. My xacto knife.

I made this a couple of weeks back, I think it's pretty close? It should also be noted the floor mount is too high so if you correct the height of the armour plate it will hit the canopy. It is also too wide and too long. I did this from pictures, which is wrong inmost peoples opinions, but it looks far better than the kit supplied seat.. hell, the Airfix 1/72 seat is better!! Having done this I can also confirm the front of the seat is in the correct position in relation to the IP. I have used the kit supplied holes and moved the rear holes forward. Not that that matters much because I have now removed the seat floor platform and am replacing it wioth something a little more to scale.

Base finish - bare metal? 77? 76?

Started out today. Mostly cleaning up parts and just happened to assemble the engine. I plan to have the engine visible, so I'll try to add some details, wiring/plumbing mostly. Even though I've planned to use the kit decals, I noticed they're a bit yellowed, so I might switch them. I found a set in one of the Kagero books that looked nice. Just gotta order it! Håkan

Then installed Parts C9 & C14 and glued the gear well together. Next, I cut off the rectangular tabs on the sides of the gear leg and cut a groove in it’s place that would fit a small drill bit, being careful to keep the angle of the groove the same as the tab, which is about 15-20 degrees. I then cut one short drill bit for the bottom and a longer one for the upper pin with a Dremel tool with a cut-off wheel. Then after opening the bottom hole slightly, I slipped the bottom pin in place. This pin is necessarily shorter than the top pin, because it gets in the way of the bottom fuselage parts, which have a triangular tab at this very location. By cutting off the tab slightly, everything will fit later. Thankfully with the gun doors closed, the top pin can be any length, so I left it a bit longer for strength. Now the front gear leg can be glued to the pins at the end of the build, just like I plan for the main landing gear, so I can set the gear leg aside until I do the other two. Mission 2 accomplished. Next up is final installation of the cockpit and IP. Fingers crossed that this all goes well. Cheers, Chuck

intakes and engine Mark

The Tiger is primered and ready to get some colour. Tamiya's Grey primer was decanted, thinned with lacquer thinner, and shot through the airbrush. I had to modify the mountings for the side skirts as the raised pins on the hull sides were too short once the Zimmerit was applied. I drilled out the existing pins and added short lengths of styrene rod to the the side skirts so I could add the skirts easily over the Zimmerit. One of the jack support brackets disappeared in to Nirvana when it leapt out of my hands, bounced off my work bench, and was never seen again. I scratch built a new one but would have appreciated not having to take the time to do so. I also replaced the solid molded grab handles for the jack with copper wire. The kit supplied tow cable assemblies have heavy mold seams along their lengths. Cleaning them up resulted in misshappen cables and a loss of the twisted cable detail. I picked up two packages of twisted copper wire for just over two dollars each. Each packet has enough for two full lengths of tow cable so I'll have lots of spare. The kit tow cable assemblies were taped in position on the model and the rear cable clamps only were glued to the rear deck. Once they had completely dried I cut the cable from the clamps and drilled holes in each clamp to accommodate the new cable. Finally a last coat of primer was applied and she's now ready to go in the paint shop and get her camouflage. Comments and critique are always welcome especially considering I'm no real armour guy. Cheers, Wolf URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Wolfram/media/Tiger-12_zpsdp5vjup2.jpg.html][/URL]

I'm slowly plugging along. I've been working on the wing fold which has been a bit more work than I thought it would. I've got everything else fixed so this is one of the last few things I have to complete before I head to the paint barn. I've got one wing done and not being a big scratch builder, it took some time to get it looking half way decent. I can already tell the wing join is going to be a bit fragile. I made a wing fold brace based on some photos I've seen which will have the added advantage of strengthening it a bit...hopefully. All this turned out to be more work than just redoing the extended wings. Broken wing parts: Hopefully this will look better under a coat of paint! Working on the locking mechanism: I'm going to wait until the end of the build before I attach these, it will be easier to paint not to mention I will surely break them off if I don't Here is the exhaust joint I had to fix. It looks terrible but it should only need a few touch ups after I hit it with primer I've been adding a few more small details like the framing on the inside of the flap areas. Most of this won't be very visible but I like the way it brings out the details. I probably won't have too many more to add until I primer everything and make the inevitable touch ups. Thanks for looking in! Bryan

...And here is the F-35 with all its masking removed: I'm now in the process of gloss coats, polishing, another gloss coat etc. For gloss coat, I use alclad Aqua Gloss. For the Have Glass effect, I will use MRP Have Glass matt laquer. But being matt, that will have to be applied after decalling. To be continued! However, that will take some time, because I will be on a business trip the next couple of weeks. Cheers, Peter

Cheers everybody, it looks like I have found my next big project after finishing the big Viking - something pretty much out of my comfort zone. The CH-53E / MH-53E is a more than fascinating aircraft and among my all-time favourite helicopters. Based on a free nicely proportioned and correctly dimensioned Sketchup model I have found a few years ago, I have spent hours making the file printable on my newly acquired Creality CR-10S FDM printer. Over 100 hours of printing later, I have an almost complete CH-53E fuselage in 1/32nd scale: The fuselage was printed using PETG; my first trials with HIPS were not very successful as I've experienced enormous warping and bad layer adhesion, despite rather high temperature settings and the enclosure I've built for my printer. PETG does not sand as nicely as ABS or HIPS but is very easy to print and much easier to sand than PLA. The rotor will be more difficult as the CAD data is not complete - most of it will have to be scratchbuilt. There is no interior either, so all of this will have to be made from scratch as well. I have to admit I am not yet 100% sure if I will build a CH-53E or a MH-53E as both of them are impressive and important aircraft. The CH-53E will be easier to build as I have the sponsons and external fuel tanks; the MH-53E is a bit more tempting as it is even more special than the CH. Time will tell. In the meantime, if anyone has the 1/48th scale Academy MH-53E in his stash, I would be very interested in getting high-res scans of the instructions and the decal sheet. Would be great if someone could help me with that. What do you think - CH or MH? And no, Airforce versions are not an option and building both of them is not really an option either...

Thanks for the interest and video links - much appreciated! I've been working on detailing the extreme nose section lately, but progress has been slow due to work - books to mark takes up too much of my evening time! However, I'm hoping I'll be ale to post some pictures of my limited progress soon. I'm glad this GB will last the year otherwise I'd never get this completed! Tom

Where can I reserve ticket for first flight in this? Juraj

Looks good!

Someone a while back had asked about the IsraCast Kurnass conversion. Well, I finally had time to sit down with one and show what was included. First up is the adaptors for the Python 3 AA missiles. These are included in the current offering of the missiles. http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/isc32042.htm Next two pics feature the mount for the AIM 9 into one of the forward Sparrow sections. These are not currently available. The second pic also shows the refueling probe which is the same as the current offering. http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/isc32041.htm Next picture is of the short ALQ-119 which you can get from AMS resin albeit without decals. http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/ams32091.htm Here is a quick scan of the instructions. And finally, the included decals and reinforcement plates. Those plates would be super easy to make out of sheet plastic and a rivet punch. I hope this helps someone. I wish these were more available, but this goes to show you don't necessarily need it to make a Kurnass.

Coming along nicely, Wolf! Your jack handles look so much better than the molded on ones... So I'm gonna have to borrow that from you in future builds. Thanks! Gaz

I considered Japanese Sandman II, as I've never seen those decals in 1/32, but that's also the problem - I'd have to make them, or have them made. I'm assuming they have not been done already, correct?

Looking good! Håkan

Another overexposed footage, yet useful

yep...I will reload.

On to the gun bay And the painting begins All NMF painted with Testors metallizers using a brush. I found out that you get a better result and its less susceptible to coming off at the slightest touch. Sealed with future. And that's it, all closed up

The MH is differences derive from it’s mine sweeping mission. So all of the external differences you mentioned plus the sled and winch system, rear view mirrors so the pilots can see the sled in the water. There are triangular plates on the aft section of the fuel sponson where it meets the ramp area. The fuselage is identical, we had some CH’s that had the mounting points on the fuse side where the big fuel sonson of the MH would bolt on. Other differences that i’ll mention but would have no bearing on the model are upgraded engines and some nice avionics stuff. The engines had a more robust hot section to cope with the continuous high power settings needed for sled towing. The MH secondary mission after the Navy got rid of their CH’s was to haul cargo and personnel (a$$ and trash) long distance shore to ship. So they had some better navigation gear. The HSI I remember particularly because that wou;d have made life nicer in the CH. Both were Old Skool steam gauge, no autopilot but altitude hold and simple SAS (Stabilization Augmentation System), the MH just had some “newer steam gauges.” Hope that clears up things up a little... Timmy!

I hope I'm not too late, but the librarian at the Shuttleworth Trust was kind enough to pop down to the hangar for me and take some pictures of their Camel's fuselage rigging whilst it was undergoing restoration recently. I found them quite useful during the build of my model. The proviso put on their use was that the Trust should be attributed if they are, and they can't be used for commercial purposes. One small point to bear in mind is that the Trust's Camel is itself a replica built from the original drawings in the 1930s if I recall correctly. I hope they are of some use. They were to me.

And....we're off! Last year, I did a little bit of gluing and some cutting on this, but I think it was well below the 25% threshold, so this weekend I took a break from the Stuka to get down to biznass on this one, too. I forgot to mention this will be a "gear up" flight display. I chose to use the old Cutting Edge early conversion, even though I have the GMF/Rutman one, too, as much out of curiosity as anything. Since I forgot to take any pics before I started, here's a canned pic of the conversion set: Overall, the fit and quality appears to be decent, but for a few glaring problems I've already encountered. The instructions would have you replace the entire front of the engine nacelle, including the wing roots, but upon test fitting, I found that the conversion's wing roots did not match up with the kit wings very well, so I elected to cut them off the CE parts and leave the kit roots in place: Here's what I removed: This seemed to work rather well, and I've already blended them in and begun re-scribing the details. The supercharger conversion parts actually fit really well, so no issues there: The boom radiators were the toughest part by far. You have to cut out a big hunk of the boom on each side an replace it with a new piece, and then attach the new scoops over them. The infill pieces fit ok, but the scoops sucked. As you can see in the photo, I still have to cut one of them back off and make it larger (second from right) because it's smaller than the other three, but I didn't see that until I'd already puttied them in and begun blending them. Dangit. Anyway, that took a lot of my weekend, and that's all the farther I got, so you can see that this is not as easy as I'd hoped. A last one of the parts I've worked on thus far: And back to the Stuka and 3D printing stuff for a while. To much sanding make Tim a grumpy guy. Tim

I've just found this: Restoring Australia's only surviving B-24 Liberator I've instantly added it to my "Must see while in Australia" list. Some interesting pictures for reference there: and more... Juraj

The forward main gear doors are closed on the ground. The previously installed hinge was cut off to make the door fit: After priming with my favourite Revell 75 enamel mixed with thinner and white spirit. and after checking all the seams, and after masking the cockpit, wheelbays and weapon bays, finally the first colour could be sprayed on. For the light colour of the RAM panels, I used a 60:40 ratio of FS 36275 and FS 36170. The latter is available as an enamel from Colourcoats. For the first colour I used Humbrol 127. This was the result: Then, after 6 months on the SOD, I started masking. This is where I was at the beginningof the thread: Some more pictures of the work involved: And ofcourse, spraying FS 36170 took considerable less time! The big reveal after removing the masking will be in the next post. Cheers, Peter