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This time the model is in NMF finish P-47D from Kinetic 1:24 scale If you decide on this model, remember that you need a lot of shelf space.

Today update.

Well folks. the end is dangerously close! This will likely be my last work in progress photo before she's complete. One wing is done, and the other will go under matte coat today. Weathering, little bits, and it'll be complete! She's looking like she'll be done for the IPMS Great Plains show on Saturday, Sept. 28th in Loveland, Colorado, USA. I'm looking forward to showing her off! If I am able to get her done this week, I will try to sneak into work next Monday to take some more professional photographs in our photography lab. 70887941_10103079334765662_8044854618812841984_o by Dennis SAuter, on Flickr Stay tuned! - Dennis S. Thornton, CO USA

Okay, here you go The Dakota. Anyway, back to the Buccaneer. Some more progress has been made The 1/48 Airfix kit helps to see if I'm on par with the general shape. Nose fold detail.

evening boys & girls ..time for a nose job... ..this is one of the two detatchable panels that sit on top of the engine.. ..step 1 was to prepare the surface so it's nice & smooth and to mark the centreline.. ..then a sheet of soft aluminium was prepared by adding the row of rivets that go along the seam where the two panels meet and the fastener positions that run along the centreline on each side... then this was taped to the centreline... ..you can see rivets along the bottom scrap edge where I ballsed this up once already.. ..then the sheet is burnished down to the cowling with balsa blocks and in some areas around the nose where the curves are most acute, with a ball pein hammer... ..masking tape is used to hold the panel taught where it should be as the surface is worked from the straight edge centreline, to the outer curves.. ..soon the panel is roughly done and the borders appear as raised edges.. ..the masking tape is removed to see whats what.. ..the panel is then trimmed & fixed with contact adhesive, using the centreline tape to as a hinge to keep it's relative position and the overlaps start to get filed / sanded away.. ..with both sides done and the surface sanded smooth to remove irregularities (like glue highspots), the rivet detail was gone over again.. ..with the fastener details defining the lateral rivet detail position, tamiya tape was laid out to set out the spacing - interestingly these rows of rivets are perpendicular to the A/C datum, not the cowling which is tilted slightly downwards... ...also the hatches had been let into the structure by taping them down and tracing the outline with a new scalpel blade with the waste later removed.. ..once complete another burnish to get everything nice & recessed and a wire wool clean up.. ..lower cowl next... TTFN Peter

A little progress in the cockpit area. Seat is painted. Small details and belts still to come. Canopy details. Deck behind seat. Still some wiring to be done. Dan

G'day everyone. Here's my rendition of ICM's I-153. Very nice build. Good detail, nice fit, but their soft, flexible plastic made for interesting alignment of the long thin wings. It's built almost out of the box, eduard etched seatbelts (I wasnt a fan, and will stick to HGWs belts in the future), and Quickboost exhausts. Painted with MRP paints and rigged with EZline. Denzil

And now ... we get to the GOOD story. Every now and then ... you come across one of those bargains ... Where the seller either doesn't know the value of what he/she has ... or really just doesn't give a rats. ... And for whatever reason - No-one else has seen it! Well ... every week or two I jump onto e-Bay and run a couple of searches ... Sometimes for kits or other stuff I'd like ... sometimes to see what some of my rarer kits will sell for ... other times looking for Classics books. For the last little while I've been monitoring several sellers with the Me.262 4 Volume set. Going rate is about $800-$1000 AUD plus postage. A couple have sold ... and a couple more sellers have listed theirs. Bear in mind ... these values are in AUD ... not USD. Then ... about 2 weeks ago I saw an auction lot on e-Bay ... The ad reads: "Assorted books on the Messerschmitt Me.262" The thumbnail picture shows a bundle of books - and there, buried at the bottom ... are the 4 Volumes of the Classics Pubs set!! No bids ... at opening $250 ... The seller is based near Sydney ... Listed as "Collection only" with less than 4 days to go ... I'm thinking ... it can't hurt to ask, right? ... So why is he not offering postage? ... Well - all of these books will add up to - like 9Kg - which will make postage costs HUGE! ... Calculated at about $36!!! Oh really? ... well ... If your prepared to pack 'em each individually in double bubble wrap and send a sturdy box to Perth ... I'm in for the cost. You only have to send the 4 Classics books too ... I was really hoping to move the lot though, he says ... no worries - What will you accept? Well if I can just get the starting bid I'll be happy! Tell you what, I said ... How about I give you $300 exact ... you can keep the additional books and resell if you want ... and if the postage costs you less than $50 by the time you've packed everything you've made more than your original $250 asking. Deal!! ... But I'm sending you the lot ... Well ... okay then ... if you must So today this arrived: And now ... they are happy sitting with the rest of the family Happily ever after ... Rog

hello all, dodgem37: lenght will be +- 1m77 thierry laurent: thanks for the info BTR-50 and T-55 Tirans wow, but I will keep it in WW2 time frame. Started on the 25 men balsa life rafts. styreen is evergreen n° 199 ; 6,3 x 6,3 mm the build is straight forward, not difficult to do, just styreen and etch, cutting and sanding the making of the wooden floor, I make it once, cast then 2 times. Tape 11 strips of 2mm width remove second, forth, sixth etc strip and tape it glue a strip over these strips, make sure everything is square repeat this 14 times just cut out and sand just to fill in some voids, and sand it it will look like this, a lot of detailing to do, all the etch which is visible through the squares must be removed enjoy, Rammstein

Ok so ... a couple more packages arrived during the last couple of weeks ... I was forced to abandon any real modelling work for about 3 years ... the stash room just became storage ... But now I'm gearing up again First I grabbed an airbrush spray booth ... and then this box arrived the next day ... Containing a new LED driven magnification lamp, with some interchangeable lenses 3, 5 and 8 diopter and optional wheel stand ... Along with a few tools ... I only bought this knife set because it was cheap and had the small Vernier ... I'll get a proper steel one later Then - a few days later - 3 packages arrive ... My new airbrush compressor with tank ... along with a couple of cheap airbrushes. I have a Paasche V/L ... so I want to see how these compare ... but basically I wanted separate airbrushes - a lightweight one with a 0.2mm needle, a versatile one with 0.3mm - 0.5mm and gun with 0.8mm ... I haven't got the gun type yet ... but the Paasche has an 0.8mm suction action and some big a$$ jars ... ready for a couple of 4 engined heavies. Rog

Hi friends Continue detailing the 3d printed nose-cone for mig-29 by a hand:

Howdy folks, I've just published my review of some neat Tornado decals from Fantasy Printshop: Fantasy Printshop Euro Decals ED-32120 Panavia Tornado GR.4/4A Part 2 Thanks to Fantasy Printshop for the review sample. Enjoy! Kev

So, some more work on the wing conversion this weekend, with the early 109's having longer wing slats and no guns in the wings some work is required, Alley Cat supply replacement resin slats and internal extension piece so a little sugery is required on the upper wing. Got to say the fit of the Alley Cat resin is excellent so far on this conversion, after studying many pictures of early 109's most had there wing slats retracted so I will be going this way on my build. Next up was to remove the upper wing gun hatch, decided to tape around and then sand off the reaised detail til I was remocing the tape as well, some panel line filling/ re rivetting needed but I will wait until the wing assembly is complete. Needing to start thinking about closing the wing halves together I decided to turn my attention to reworking the wheel wells to try and replicate the canvas side walls, after looking at several pictures I decided to use Tamiya masking tape and then add Archer resin decals to add the zip and stiching details, these where from there weld bead and fasteners sets. Not quite finished but nearly there, time consuming but hopefully it will look good under a coat of paint? Regards. Andy

Yep, as I said, I'm really not considering that the multiple restauration of this very aircraft alwasy used the perfect RAF colours. Let's face it it's been probably repainted in the england, the US and canada. So chances are that the colours are far from standard. Still what I'm used to seeing on spitfire models son't quite match what I see after having used the MRP colours, especially the ocean grey. Not saying MRP are thus wrong, I may have a bad impression as well. I guess the important trick is to trust your eyes against paint reference numbers, whenever you can. So I made a few rough test on a 1/24 spitfire fuselage I first painted half of it with the tamiya references: AS-32 & AS30 or XF-81 & XF82 Then painted the other half with what I am used to (made a lot of 1/48 spits with these colours) Gunze H75/H73 And when I compare these tests with the painted spitfire with MRP 110&115: My conclusion is: The MRP ocean grey is too dark to me, that confirms my initial feeling. IMHO it needs lightening. It's close to the tamiya XF-82 both tend towards the blue (which is probably right for a spitfire of WWII. The MRP is still darker than the tamiya. The gunze is way lighter (and that's the one better closing what I see on the restored warbird) The MRP green is not that bad. My initial impression about it being too khaki was probably wrong. It's very close to the Gunze H73, although a bit darker as well. The Tamiya XF-81 is a bit too yellow, IMHO

Thanks guys. I've made some more progress.

I'm a bit late to the party, and a first time GB participant. I've given myself just over 3 months to start and complete the Revel Tornado GR1 RAF boxing. I'm adding an unusual loadout from an image my dad caught when he was lucky enough to be on board an RAF tanker sortie. Sky shadow and Boz pods 4 Alarm drill rounds 4 x Storm Shadow drill rounds.

it should be available on E-day and HGW website on 28th of September looks like full meal deal jan

Thanks for the kind words friends! I've added the last few little details and spooled up the 331's to go do some ground attacks... Well, not really but, I am calling the project completed. A bit of weathering was also added here and there to finish up

It is impossible to assemble easily a Phantom kit with a resin pit but the problem is not coming from the aftermarket companies. The culprit is actually... Tamiya ! They cheated as they did not really detail the pit sides. The resin sets use the same dimensions than the kit tub BUT also add inserts to give the missing side details. Even if you sand the ridiculous molded 'detail' within the Tamiya fuselage, this cannot compensate the difference in thickness! This explains the major painful issue to insert resin pits (Aires or Blackbox-Avionix) in any Tamiya Phantom.

Some years of struggle with an old Vega airbrush and acrylics seem to pay off when switching to lacquers an my H&S Evolution Again there's not much spare time right now, so it's only baby-steps so far. I tackled the Spit's seat. The original was made of paper reinforced resin and there are plenty possibilties to paint the model seat. one single brownish colour - nope, ot for me a splotchy fnish using a sponge; comparable to the chipping technique and my favourite: brown colour and pencils! Warbird did the latter on his Tamiya Spitfire five years ago and I really liked the effect. And here's my take on it: So long Joachim

Hi Guys, More Mistel! Here's the port engine in its new colours: lots of masking but worth it. Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr Masking up to paint the areas under the slats. Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr With some White Aluminium plus Chrome from MMP. Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr The original holes to locate the struts: I had scaled them from the Dragon 1/48 model but like all things. it hadn't been researched properly and the points are in the middle of panels, not load bearing frames or spars. Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr And it just jarred on my nerves. So I re-drilled the holes, the front one just behind the cockpit rear bulkhead frame, the other two on the main frame just ahead of the undercarriage doors. The gear legs hang from this frame and the wings are bolted on top, so this is exactly the right place! Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr The original line up: Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr New line up: see how the code numbers are no longer aligned. Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr As it was: Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr And now. Note I've outlined the Yellow 3 with a black marker pen, only roughly as if hand painted by a 16 year old conscript. (My mental age!) Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr Hope you like it so far. Regards, Bruce Crosby

Yesterday I flew to the place where SL721 is based. I knew she wasn't in her hangar because of a local Airshow (Sanicole/KleineBrogel) over the week end where I expected her to be. But I timed my stop at that FBO with the best chance to see the spit coming back home, and sure enough it was a success She came in fast and low in the overhead and broke in the pattern for a nice and smooth landing. I was able to witness the full recovery, fueling and parking in the hangar, next to the Sea Fury I already built Needless to say, I took lots of picture I needed. She still have her temporary D-Day commemoration markings, but it's Indeed Sl721. Here's one for homemade decals i'll need to print On the return flight to my FBO, I heard the B-17 leaving the nearby airshow contacting the flight information service on its way back to Duxford. I wasn't very far from him but couldn't spot him visually unfortunately. There was a lot of such traffic on that late Sunday afternoon in the skies North East of Brussels. That was a nice way to join two hobbies on one Sunny Sunday afternoon

And the undersides. The black areas are primed for the Alclad Duraluminum. This view shows the dihedral angle correction better. More photos to follow in a day or so...

Working on the bang seat. I started with the basic seat from a Skyraider and have been modifying it. Dan

Hook assembly... Hook bay... Dan

Okay, so you asked, and here is an update. Flaps and flap wells ready for paint. Paint.... Dan

Flaps! Flaps with rivets!! Dan

Is there a thread for this? Just discovered these at WNW website. November releases. http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/product?productid=3208 http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/product?productid=3209

Greetings everyone! I have been around the site for quite some time following posts and WIPs so I thought it was about time for my first large project. The following WIP will be my first in the 32nd scale and the first one in Large Scale Planes! As the title shows I will be trying my luck on an F-14B, based on the Tamiya 1:32 kit. Initially I was thinking of representing aircraft 105 from VF-41 with full low visibility colors however I changed my mind during the summer after seeing some wonderful shots of an F-14B 1:32 scale with the VF-102 Diamondbacks decals form Fightertown Decals. The decal set was particularly difficult to track, as it is out of print, however I managed to find a copy in a Japanese online store and in perfect condition no less. The aircraft that will be represented, flew with Diamondbacks during the OEF campaign in Afganistan in 2002. I will be using the 2003 version of the Tamiya kit which includes some updates in comparison to the 1994 and the 1980 versions. Also the following after market sets will be used accordingly: -Teknics ΤΚ32012 F-14B Tomcat/Bombcat Cockpit Superset -Teknics TK32013 F-14B Airframe conversion set -GRU-7(A) ejection seats from Avionix cockpit set BLC32039 -Aires 2099 F-14B/D Tomcat exhaust nozzles -If it is possible to get my hands on the exhaust nozzles form the 1:32 Tamiya F-16 they will be used instead -Hadmodels 432003 F-14B/D Upgrade photoetched part set -Crossdelta CD32002 F-14 Step area & Stiffeners -Master Model AM-32-031 F-14 Alfa Probe & Angle Of Attack probe -True Details TDP32202 1/32 F-14D Tomcat Resin Wheel Set (Late) -Eduard 32144 F-14A Tomcat exterior photoetched part set -Fightertown Decals 32009 VF-102 F-14B "Diamondbacks" OEF -Armament from the kit or Tamiya's F-16 The construction began with some modifications to the airframe around the cockpit area and the nose. Tamiya's mold in general includes not only raised lines but some panels as well. Initially I thought it was a mistake however it seems that very early Tomcats did have those. I could not find photos form both sides however at least on the right it seems that the panel was raised for some reason. In later photos these areas are not raised, so they were sanded down. One thing that is weird is how Tamiya chose to represent the refueling panel. In the kit it is neither closed nor open so since I would not doing it open it was covered with epoxy putty and sanded down while afterwards the panel lines were rescribed. Next, a characteristic electronics panel behind the cockpit was rescribed adding a bit of detail. An area on the Tamiya kit that can be improved are the NACA vents. The kit provides the correct gun vents for a late Tomcat however they are provided as one piece with the airframe. Using a rotary tool the plastic behind each vent was removed, the thickness of the leading edges was reduced and Evergreen plasticard was used to restore them. Eduard's PE was used for the gun muzzle blast fairing. HAD models PE set provides a replacement for the grills beneath the aircraft's ladder so the kit's detail was removed using a rotary tool. After the PE was in place, the area was rescribed and epoxy putty was used to restore the raised detail. The gun gas exhausts are provided in a slightly wrong position by Tamiya and because HAD models provided PE parts for the re-enforcement plates around them I decided to change their position. The old exhausts were filled with CA and sanded down while on the new positions the kit's plastic was thinned from the inside and new ones were opened accordingly. Initially the PE parts for the re-enforcements were used however I could not get them to glue properly in place so off they went! Two new pieces were created by using Evergreen plasticard and glued in place. Also HAD provides two pieces for the grills that are found inside them which were used. Eduard's set provides some nice details for the ladder in order to be represented in open position so it was the next area I started working on. Unfortunately Eduard provides a simple improvement to the kit's piece so a few additions were deemed necessary to be included. I worked based on photos of the real aircraft while Kai Wolter's exceptional F-14 build has been of great assistance and inspiration as well. Eduard's guide was not followed. Instead the two main ladder parts (1 and 2 ) were used to sandwich a piece of Evergreen in order to increase the thickness of the ladder while the PE steps (parts 73) were not used. Evergreen was used to create the two steps and to add the various small details. Parts 12 and 13 were used to create the handle mechanism. So ... that's about it for this time. Thanks for your interest! Andreas

I bought this MANY years ago with the thought to do a vignette using this and a 1/32 warbird. $10 or best offer. Any interest, let me know. Shipping in CONUS only please. If this is in violation, delete please.

They did. The duelist boxing with the Felixstowe.

After some 69 years, I found the NCA DC3 model of the plane My dad took me on when I was two years old, and there was only one model in the World. It is being sent to my house along with an actual photo of the real plane. As we were boarding, a class of school children had come to see the plane, but I was more excited over the school bus.

Working on restock next week. Probably in two weeks for them to be available at Sprue.

Almost there. After ... several years of struggle, finally I can see the light. There were some difficult moments, when I removed the masking from the canopies... together with most of the paint from their framing. Did my best to make it look acceptable however, decided rather to avoid cleaning up all the work and starting it over again. Maybe it was a wrong decision but otherwise the project would probably have stalled for another year or so. Just some weathering and final touches ahead.

She's alive! Need probably just few hours to get her done, but how to find them? So many other kits started...

Yes, just like EZ Line, only IMHO a bit more consistent in profile than EZ Line as the thickness grows. I like the Uschi stuff very much, but if I need to color the thread, I almost invariably choose white EZ Line, then use some of the "fabric dye pens" you can buy on line for dying clothes, as the EZ Line takes wonderfully to dye, and you dont end up with any heavy or globed on looking paint.

i'm not sure i'm seeing a valid comparison with the outdoor warbird (and remember it is that), but fwiw i think the MRP colours are fine (I have them all), although I don't lay a flat colour over a light primer - I use the black basing / marbling technique and blend in other colours for depth and variation

Uschi Is flat in profile, more visible with thickness rising, even more when you paint it with grey or metal color.

Thanks to Brian Nicklas for helping us out with this one. Next! Kev

Sooo...another Batmobile, this time legendary one Of course seatbelts: ...and new gun barrels: Let's begin First upgrades on seats with metal net: Kit guns were more like a dampers without springs but thanks to my friend I have Academy Brownings: With Aber barrel it looks like...err...gun And here is finished cockpit: Now I'm waiting only for Joker figure and ammo belts from Eduard.

Indeed but look now at the edge close to the navigator...

Thanks guys. What Wally and I are finding is that despite the fact that Lockheed built over 10,000 P-38s, and that production spanned from before WWII started until the day it ended, and that the P-38 served in every theater of operations the US was involved in, and that three of the top ten highest scoring US aces flew it, a HUGE percentage of what's been written, both in the general aviation history literature and "technical" literature (ie: Detail & Scale, etc) about the Lighting is incomplete and/or just plain wrong. What I've discovered, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that all P-38s up through the P-38F-5-LO had the side-opening top canopy. I've heard and read that only the first few, or only the first 100 or so F's had it - factually not true. Photos prove it. All P-38Hs had the larger teardrop shaped supercharger intakes of the J/L/M. Literature is all over the map on this. Again, photos prove it. The P-38H-5-LO was a unique variant. The aft canopy section on the H-5-LO (and only the H-5-LO) was a one-piece seamless piece of plexiglass. I don't know why, but on subsequent batches of H's and on all J/L/M's, it was made in two halves (left/right) with a metal frame down the center. On earlier variants it was made up of three pieces in a forward, middle, and aft configuration. Again, photos prove it, and the literature is all in disagreement on this. Ditto on the ring & bead sight. Not mentioned anywhere, ever (that I can find) in any literature on the P-38.

Getting closer...

If and when they bump it up to 1/32, we’ll be ready!

BTW, here's what I have done so far. About this many more to go... We've got some hum-dingers!

I added some gray last night and removed the masking this morning. I'm kinda happy with it...

HI everyone, A small update as I blunder forward with this kit. Interestingly enough this kit doesn't have the nacelles in the standard two-halves set-up. Instead you have two halves and two large tops and bottoms. There are also small intakes to bore out with fine drill bits. The wheel well covers have generous attachment points and passable details. The AIMS conversion drag Chute. Dornier tried both drag chute and air brakes attempting to comply to the demand that every bomber can also be a diver bomber. With the drag chute, the fuselage becomes quite long. My knife is in front for size comparison. Finally all of the wings and engine dry-fitted. There was a bit of a shape difference between the rear fuselage and the rear of the upper wing piece. I've decided to shim the wing up a little at the back to avoid thinning the fuselage too much at the spine seam. The underwing seam looks very fine. The lower wing tucks into the upper wing. The MiG-25PD had the same type of setup... no split at the trailing edge. Same deal for the wing tip. No reason to accidentally sand off the large wingtip lights. Thanks for looking! Gaz

And a small pile of 1:48 stuff. Today was the first time that I ever recall buying stuff at a show, and still coming home with more cash than I left the house with.

Another small update today! I am nearing completion on the starboard wing. When I left you last, I was getting ready to apply decals. The decals have been applied, a matte coat applied overall (my photos show she wasn't particularly shiny at the end of the war), and I began the weathering process. I like to use an acrylic-based panel line wash, that I make up myself. I use a little acrylic artist's midnight black (black with a hint of blue) paint, about the size of a fingernail, mixed with about two tablespoons of warm/hot water and a few drops of dish soat. I slather it onto the kit, allow it to mostly dry, and the wipe the excess away using cotton pads soaked in warm water. It's really hard to tell in these photos, but I love the subtle look it gives on natural metal, plus the blue gives the metal that perfect hue of exposed aluminum. After that's applied and dried, I began exhaust streaks and heat staining around the hot zones using Tamiya weathering compounds. A mix of soot, mud, and snow gives the desired effect for exhaust staining. I didn't go too crazy on top of the wings and out of the backs of the cowlings, as she was a relatively new bird when she began her service with the 96th BG in January of 1945. The exhaust staining underneath the wings was typically heavier inboard on B-17's; they often used their inboard engines while taxiing around the air bases, especially after landing. I tried to reflect this with my exhaust staining. 70365787_10103061028586392_6385456491758878720_n by Dennis SAuter, on Flickr 69581124_10103061028406752_2774024839961247744_n by Dennis SAuter, on Flickr 69503594_10103061028466632_5897643215904833536_n by Dennis SAuter, on Flickr What's great about the Tamiya weathering compounds is that if you don't like what you've done, you can simply wipe it off with a damp cloth and start over. The wings will get a little bit more weathering once I have the entire air frame together and get a better sense of balancing all of the weathering on her. And, once she's complete, I will bring her to work and take some proper photos. I am a Crime Scene Investigator (CSI), so I can be pretty good with a camera when I want to be! These are just quick cell-phone snaps in some pretty poor lighting, but I don't have a photo booth set up at home and that's what I usually have handy. Hopefully within the month I will have better photos of her, if everything stays on schedule for her to be completed for a show on the 28th of this month. As usual, all comments and critiques are welcome! Thanks for stopping by! - Dennis S. Thornton, CO USA