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Thanks Guy's - Today's the fourth of May and it's 74 years ago Ulrich Planck landed at 'Fliegerhorst Grove' with his Arado Ar 234 8H+BH. At Bernard Montgomery's headquarters in the Netherlands, Wehrmacht forces in northwestern Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark surrendered to the Allies, effective at 8:00 a.m. on May 5. The Germans Surrender to Montgomery on Lüneburg Heath, 4th May 1945 Well I wasn't able to complete this diorama for this anniversary, still want to add some extras. But I'm pretty sure it will be all done, next year for the 75th anniversary. Cheers: Kent

Hi Here is 1/32 Hasegawa P-40K Warhawk with the markings of “Miss Wanna II” from 25th FS 51st FG (Summer 1943) . Modifications: Eduard interior set, Master model pitot tube and gunsight set Decals: Superscale decal set #320261 Paints: Gunze Sangyo acrylics

Today update. Great praise for HGW and J. Bobek for their work. Everything fits perfectly.

A giant leap forward with the Aeromarine. After painting the fuselage with several thin layers of white and sealing it off with future, it was time to start the masking process.. I decided not to use a complete black paint, rather a rubber like tone. The bottom of the hull. Masking for a second time for the windows. Finally the tape is off. It's beginning to look like an Aeromarine... Cheers: Kent

The rectangular hatch on the port side is not quite the right shape. The kit represents as a right rectangle but on the K-4, the bottom edge is not parallel to the top edge. To make this change, I need to remove the existing bottom panel line. I'm removing the circular hatch bolts as well since their position will change slightly. I am using black CA glue to fill. Black CA glue is rubberized so it is easier to sand than regular CA glue. It also leaves a nice black record of your filled area. The new panel line is drawn in pencil. To scribe a straight line, you need a guide. I like to use Dymo label tape. It is thick plastic, which makes a nice guide for the scriber blade and it is adhesive backed so it stays securely in position during the scribing. I use a scriber (by UMM-USA, not pictured) to cut a line but not all the way to the corners since the hatch has rounded corners. 2-3 passes are enough to scribe a line deep enough to remove the Dymo tape. A metal template is used to scribe the rounded corners. You can't fit a scriber's cutting blade into these templates so a sewing needle chucked into a pin-vise is used instead. A needle is not a true cutting instrument and will simply gouge a trough in the plastic. So it takes a few iterations of scribing and sanding to get a clean panel line. It's difficult to gauge the results so I spray a light coat of Mr Surfacer 1200 to check the new line. After this dries, I will put new circular bolts in the corners.

Tamiya is great, no doubt. But if they aren’t making the kits we want, it doesn’t really matter how great they are. If we have to go to other companies to get our 1/32 fix, then that’s how it is. Besides, saying one company is “better” than another depends of the criteria. Tamiya may have the best fit and engineering, but as far as putting out new kits, they aren’t the “best” and there are other kits that have detail at least as good as Tamiya, and sometimes better.

Hi All @Thunnus, about colours, I'm thinking this video recently posted by Brett through Hyperscale forum, can be of a good inspiration for such a build: (look at the seat colours)

Hmmmm, ...... wonder what would be of interest to that particular demographic?

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement so far....the more I get into this kit I think I’m going to need all the encouragement I can get! The fuselage is now together and I’m struggling to get all the nose glazing on but I’m sure I’ll get there in the end. As a distraction I spent some time on the engine and firewall. I thought everything was going great and had the engine together when I realised the exhaust stacks were way too far inboard of the nacelle and that there is actually quite large boxy structures either side of the block which set the exhausts further outboard. Well out came the knife and after a couple of hours of hacking and grafting on of evergreen rod I finally had something reasonable. It’s not perfect but will pass muster to the casual observer I hope.....I guess these teething troubles were inevitable as the engine is from a bf109 after all! Anyway onwards and upwards and I had better get back to trying not to break the canopy. cheers Matt

Today update. First is complete. Second in progress.

Initial paintwork on the main cockpit components completed this morning. Time for some detail painting and getting those HGW belts together now. Regards. Andy

There is a V in the pipeline but I do not know if it is a B or C wing, nor do I have the slightest idea when it will be out. My hope is that the 109 G-2/4 (the "best" of the kit series) and the P-51s with filet will come in 2020. While the mass of investment under the new ownership is more or less unchanged the emphasis is clearly heading to the toy sector and in consequence to the disadvantage of the modelling sector. This instantly causes heavy impact not only to the production management but also to the surrounding industries (design, tooling etc.). This shock can be (limited) absorbed by this or that variant which is still in reserve and by implementing kits from other brands (ICM etc.). Comment: The strategic outlook of the new owners is not to make the modelling world happy but to resell the brand with a good profit. Changing to new product lines gives good chance to improve the performance (over certain initial distance) of the brand. The fate of the modelling sector does not count in this strategy. It is my fear that after reselling the brand to some interested side the hindsight that the modelling sector was the stabile core might be too late.

One quick shot from the bench: I put the cockpit placards into place. They're all from MDC. The ones on the radio equipment are in 1/48, since there was no way to get the 1/32 ones in place. The Mr. Mark Softer will hopefully do it's magic work and all the decals wills ttle properly without silvering. I'm considering to put the MDC instrument dials on the IP because I'm really not happy with my painting. What do you guays think?

F/A-18 Not as an excuse, just an explanation. The change of the tool shop was just an economic decision due to the massive increase of parts against the earlier estimation. The designer made several hundred (literally) amendments after the first ts. Only some were followed, new mistakes introduced. After two years of delay, more than half a dozen not satisfying ts´ and a lot of extra costs the alternative of cancellation had driven away. My personal hope is that this kit will be torn oop asap. Regards Andreas Beck

My first post on this subject was December of 2016, back when this thing was supposed to be a razorback P-47D. Now two and a half years later I finally have a finished 1/18 scale bubbletop P-47D, the aircraft that my uncle's wartime CO flew for a time (Glen Eagleston). So this is my last "work in progress" post on this long project. The remaining tasks were to finish the RH bomb pylon, apply the wing decals, and fabricate a pitot mast: Here is the RH bomb pylon. Looks like the LH pylon: Now finally, the underside of this beast looks like a war machine. The pitot mast was much easier than I thought. The basic mast is just .06 diameter plastic rod, and the front portion I just cut out of .03 thick plastic sheet: This part, along with the radio antenna, the sway brace bolts, and the cowl flaps, and the wing flaps combine to make this a very fragile model. Moving it around risks breaking something off. Here you see the wing decals - a P-47 doesn't look like a P-47 without the numbers over the guns: I will show a few pictures of the finished model, and then post something in the "ready for inspection" section: I had alot of fun with this although at times I didn't think so (like the engine cylinder work). The Aircorps library drawings enabled me to make some pretty cool scratch built stuff, and get this toy to look more like a real P-47. Thanks again for those of you who stuck with this from the beginning - we all got older! And thanks for the relative newcomers too! All of you helped me persevere and offered great ideas. One day I will start in on my 1/18 Corsair. Happy modelling!

HGW revit-set and result looking is super great!!! Its a bomb!!!

It remains to put some little things (antenna wire, pitot tube etc...), draw exhaust and ... and enough

Spare me the condescending. That’s not what I meant and you know it.

Yeah but you guys had these things for years at $50 in the original Dragon boxings, whilst here in europe they were always closer to £100 / €100... you had had your chance

Hi all, The fuselage rear decking panel fitted. Now to cross brace the bottom fuselage frames, then it's onto the tail skid assembly, Mike

Get ‘em out Brian! Despite not posting for a bit, I have been beavering away, just that there hasn’t been much obvious progress. The more you get into the kit, the more convoluted it seems to become. I’ve been making wings, flaps and ailerons and a myriad other bits and bobs. Turning my attention to the engine, the wiring hasn’t been as straightforward as I was hoping. The ignition ring on the later version engine seems to be much thinner than the earlier one - and there’s no chance to drill into the ring to provide a solid fixing point for the individual wires, so I’ve had to resort to epoxying the wires to the lower side which isn’t very robust and isn’t as neat as I’d like. It does make you realise though, just how good the detailing is on Thunnus and Wolf’s builds. I think I’ll just have to reluctantly accept that mine isn’t going to be as good! Ready for painting. Here’s where I’m at: Guy

I can do that! Vincent is correct. The tan seat is just a base for chipping purposes after it is painted RLM66. Here is the seat after the RLM66 was applied and then after it has been chipped. Going through the Tweak List and performing some corrections. The bulges above and below the horizontal stabilizer bases were not present on the K-4 and need to be removed. These were carefully removed by saw and knife.

Looks like LSB’s.

I often wonder about this too. Read somewhere that the average Tamiya customer is a 40-year old Japanese male. Maybe just different interests or possibly due to much smaller living spaces, 32nd planes take up too much real estate in the home?? Sad, no one does LSP’s better....

Thank you Mike ! You're going to love those stencils ! Last days, I'v been working on the tail stiffeners that are the same as seen on CF-188 and various export countries Hornets. Butterfly patches: and the lightning patches ( i'm just seing on my ref pics that a bit more recessed rivetting needs adding on them ) bye Fanch

Test printing the late dihedral tailplanes this weekend!

For as much as I am in the same boat as most (REALLY wanting a new tool Tamiya LSP) I think that is probably accurate. Most of the time, getting a new tool LSP from Tamiya is like looking for love.................it ONLY seems to happen when you are really not looking for it. Id say we might want to start the new-tool-Tamiya-LSP-wish-list talk up again in 2020, as I feel that may be the next time we see one.

Finish soon

Hi all, Rigging has started now. Difficult to make out some of the rigging as I had to tie back the flight control lines as they were getting in the way. So far: Double bracing across the top of the fuel tank. Double bracing across the underside of the cockpit floor (2 sets). Double bracing across the frame bays adjacent to the pilot's seat. Double bracing across the rear of the pilot's seat support frame. Double bracing across each vertical fuselage frame. Done with 0.08 mm Mono-filament, 0.4 mm Nickel-Silver tube and 1:48th scale turnbuckles ('Gaspatch'). The same needs to done on each of the frame bays on each side of the fuselage as well as those under and on top of the fuselage. Mike

Painting and adding grass to the 'Grove' base... The corner with the 'Rasensteine'. I had to put glue into every single hole to add the grass to the grass concrete slabs... Detail of the concrete surface. Some stains and 'shadows' to enhance the texture. The rainwater drain alongside the runway. Detail of the drain. This wasn't too bad after all, quite fun doing actually! Cheers: Kent

D version is closer, expected to be releases in May 2019 http://www.hobbyboss.com/index.php?g=home&m=article&a=show&id=135&l=en jan

Hi gents, This guy has been on and off my shelf of doom for several years so it could be subtitled "Glutton for Punishment". One fine day in the somewhat distant past I came to the realization that over the years I had built all the Monogram (and Revell) 1/48th big bombers, except one: any version of the B-24. Well, gotta fix that! I kinda sorta knew that it would not be a "shake-n-bake" kit but little did I realize just how much work it would turn out to to be! Thus the time-outs on the SOD. I gathered some AM for the kit and ended up using some of it - the wheel wells and engines are CMK, good additions and not too terrible to make up although the wheel wells are a little fiddly to build up. They do look much better than the kit wells though. I thought long and hard between the engines versus the engine/1 piece cowl set and finally decided I couldn't justify the cost difference. Please, please - learn from my mistake! The kit molds the nacelles and cowls as top and bottom halves with the wing. Lots and lots of sanding, filling and re-scribing. I think each nacelle got its own trip to the SOD!. I got the Squadron vac-formed canopy and nose but it was damaged in shipping (big dent in the nose) but after looking at the molding I thought they were not as good as the kit pieces so ended up not using them. Finally the decals are Kits World. Kind of a letdown because the US insignia on the real thing is unique but are not included with the decal set. I tried to find just the insignia with no luck and had no intention of masking and painting them so finally just used the kit insignia. Eduard interior - just the instrument panel but you cant see any of it anyway and brass gear rounded out the AM pieces. As for the rest, paint is a custom mix from True North (figured I'd give them a try since my go-to MM is becoming scarce). Jury still out on the paint. Weathering was just a wash to accent the highlights. Here we go: More to come, Cheers, Mark

Lets play nice please and Thx

Now there’s a year of modeling in a box if I ever saw one!

There is one specific part to the ejector port for the 30mm shells I don’t understand, especially with the fact in mind that the previous G-models kept the 20mm shells inside. The designer tried to improve the aerodynamic of the plane to improve the max speed and this was most noticeable around the engine/gun area. They pretty much used Erla’s design for the G-10 for the K-4. With all these streamlining in mind I can’t imagine why they would add a ‘hole’ in the bottom of the plane for the 30mm shells. The ejector port for the 13mm are already quite large and we are talking now about a shell more than twice the size. That doesn’t really make sense to me. I am still wondering if JaPo was correct with their statement (previously posted) that the shells were kept inside.

Apologies for the essay-like link. I just copy and paste Tony

This can't be the only option! Please check the following previously posted photo again and let me know your thoughts. I need to apologise. I found a second picture in the book identifying the machine as a Bf 109 G-10/U4 White 24. This will rule out the photo-evidence for the left side (from the pilots point of view perspective) ejector port for the MK 108. I will update my previous posts accordingly.

amazing video, crispy HD is CRISP, look at all the tonal differences going on. no wonder late-war RLM colors are such a can of worms... thanks for posting, rafju!

We'll all getting much older waiting I wish HKM well, but I've decided not to buy any new 1/32 kits until if and when the Kitty Hawk Jaguar, HKM F-4K Phantom and Tan Model Su-33 come out. Tony

Superb!

Excellent work as always, Tolga! Kev

Looking great, but the wooden seats were painted RLM 66 also. Cheers, Jerry

Yay!

Another update on the surprisingly difficult and involved bomb pylons. The aft halves are proving very difficult, as I am having to custom make each skin panel to match up with variations that have made their way into the build-ups. There are four skins (two per pylon) and so far I have had to scrap two or three each to finally get one I can use. Also, that aft fitting I mentioned in a previous post was small and difficult. The aft end of the pylons are dominated by a hinged arm assembly that is normally stowed, but extended and used to further stabilize the Lockheed (quite large) 150 gallon fuel tank when used. That and the structure to mount it. A cartoon picture from the combat tanks & bombs drawing (93X10101): You can see that arm pretty clearly hanging down and making contact with the top of the tank. Here is a picture from the pylon installation drawing 93C78130, showing that arm assembly: The arm assembly is shown stowed, and also extended in phantom lines. Note the aft fitting that is attached to the wing by three bolts (shown in the top view). That fitting provides the hinge point for the arm, and also an adjustable overtravel stop bolt and jam nut. Note also the forward end of the arm is latched in place by a spring loaded mechanism on the bottom of the aft pylon fairing. I find this all very curious - all just to be able to use the Lockheed aux tank. Now that fitting. It has a very complicated shape and is made from a very complicated casting. Look at the machined part drawing (93C07202): The Dottie Mae resto project never even tried to reproduce this part. They just fashioned some sheet metal equivalent: Here is my effort on this very pesky part: From there, I proceeded to make a framework of sorts for the aft triangle of the pylon: This provided decent support for the triangular skin panel (this one here is the 4th try after three misfits): Note that part has to form the bottom sharp edge of the fairing aft of the aft sway brace, the flat for the arm assembly to be stowed in, an interface with the aft fitting, an interface with the wing lower surface, and an interface with the pylon forward skin. All that made the part shape very tricky. The arm assembly itself is defined on drawing 93C78236: It has a hinge hole on the left, an attach point for a spring in the middle, and a wing of sorts on the left (the "wing" contacts the aft region of the Lockheed tank to provide more stability. You will see mine below. Here is the finished LH pylon, painted and with decals: A close-up of the arm assembly: And the pylon final installed onto the wing: Whew! Now, the RH pylon is a couple days behind. Then it is on to the pitot mast. And then all the various wing decals. At that point, I will post progress and that will be the last I post in this two and a half year long "work in progress" string. I thank all of you who stuck with this so long!

Agreed...... Drop those poles and pick up the CA!

And "Miss Wanna II" has landed

She's on FIYA! Sincerely, Mark

I notice that Meng managed one piece turrets...