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Hi Guy's - After finishing the 'skeletal' Fokker Dr.I - I've been working on a Fokker 'dreidekker' triple... Three of Jagdstaffel 11 (Richthofen's) 'triplanes' - They will later become part of a diorama counterpart for the '74th Squadron' S.e.5a. Fokker Dr.I's 477/17 - 502/17 - 588/17. I've taken some 'artistic' liberty's in displaying all three 'Fokker's with early German Crosses. A little list of what was done to 'fix' the Roden Fokker Triplanes... External corrections: Tailplane contur corrected Depression in stabilzer's removed Front decking corrrected with filler holes Gun blast protection plates Fuel tank and filler caps Engine push rods and spark plugs and wire Engine access hatch - scratched Inspection window in upper wing moved Viewable ZAK stamp and Werk nr. Axle wing corrected Wheel openings detailed Rib tape added to all wings Internal corrections: Machine gun boxes scratched Fuselage plywood sections scratched Pilots seat reworked with seat cushion Bulkhead reworked with string Linen cover for shoulder belts Machine gun and throttle cables Map case scratched Internal rigging Magneto + instruments Fuel pump Aftermarket parts: Aviattic rudder Aviattic cowling Eduard photo etch set Eduard Linen stiching Rigging: Monofilament fishing line for the rigging Infini Black Aero Rigging for control cables 0,12 mm steel wire for eyelets 0,5 mm brass tube Painting: Fokker bleached linen (homebrew) Fokker Turquoise Tamiya XF-23 Streaking camouflage: Windsor & Newton Oil. Raw Umber Green shade. Richthofen 'red' - Vallejo Cavalry Brown. Cheers: Kent

Cockpit assembly and painting completed this afternoon. Pretty happy with how things turned out but with some of the added extras its going to be a bit of a careful squeeze getting the three sub assemblies together. Regards. Andy

Ooooh-hoooo I've somehow ended up with a good bit of aftermarket for this build! That's what brought it to the forefront for my next project. I've just found individual pieces for it cheap over the years and so I decided to go ahead and get the rest that's available for it. Check out the treasure chest I've amassed - From Eduard I've got the self-adhesive placards, slats, air brake, undercarriage, and wheel well sets. For cockpit choice I've got both the Verlinden and the Aires sets to work from. The Aires set I picked up at Nationals a few years ago. last day, last hour and they had the whole table 50% off. Couldn't pass it up. The aires set has canopy and wheel well upgrades in addition to the engine details. It looks pretty good. Honestly I don't know which cockpit tub I'll go with as they both look crisp. Will have to check accuracy for my bird and make a decision. Thats a master Pitot tube in there along with the Zacto nose enhancement for a facelift. Then lastly I was looking at all the Eduard pieces and just didn't like the fuselage PE they had. It all sticks off the surface too much. That's when I remembered seeing an email about Archer Fine Transfers announcing a new sheet. I used their hatches, hinges, and other resin bits on my T-38A and now they have redone the sheet at 1/2 the thickness of the original. This should do perfectly for the access hatches, fuel doors and the like on this AC. I'll post details up on this as soon as possible. I don't think I've seen a review on them yet. There's been alot of these Huns done and I think I have every one of them on a separate tab on my ipad for review as I get going. Given that, I plan to post fewer mid-term updates as most people have seen it all on these. I'll try sticking to the finished assemblies and just post up some details on the new stuff, like the Archer panels and the foiling, especially the Titanium tail and the archetypical bluing and burnt metal look they have!

I have a good mate of mine I usually chat about 1:32 scale modeling almost daily. We live on opposite side of our lovely planet but we enjoy discussing the up-coming WWII interests today and I thought for a moment I need to make a list. I’m not one to jump into endless rants on the new WNW because 95% of the subject matter slightly make it interest me. A French Spad would debunk this however. Not interested in four engine bombers of any sort. No disrespect here. The American and British four engine bombers also come into the category of not in my interest group. Just too big to display and not interested. Don’t get me wrong, I totally enjoy the bomber and WWI progress reports but they just aren’t in my interest group. Sorry! Then the jets. Oh man. Im sorry again. So not into jets either. There are truly some seriously decadent awesome Jet builds going on LSP but an F-16 does zero for me. Maybe seeing the Singaporean F-15’s and 16 everyday makes it boring for me? Now that my disclaimer is out of the way! Lol I'm so excited about the following: 1. SWS P-51B. Man I can’t wait for this one. 2. SWS Hs 129. I have pictures of myself sitting in the cockpit of the sole surviving Hs 129 cockpit in northern IL in the early 80’s. Love this tiny aircraft. 3. ICM. The Gladiator Im so ready for. The I-16, I-153 are both great kits. Built them both and can’t wait for the Gladiator! 4. Back to SWS the Ki-45. I can’t believe I don’t have this one yet. 5. The Tamiya Mossie and Corsair. Still don’t have these kits and I went to a Tamiya exclusive model shop in Osaka and didn’t buy either kit. 6. Special Hobby. I have a soft spot for everything they offer. No one would do a Japanese Kate. Im serious looking forward to the Whirlwind. Man what a kit this should be. 7. Revel Me 262. Both examples. I even want to find the Spit Mk-IX. 8. Something anything Russian! Looking for a La 5, Lagg 3, 9. Im also waiting for a Kikka, Maybe L.E.M? 10. Some one is doing the early FW 190A’s! SWS! 11. Russian WWII Po-2, anything Russian please. 12. Pa pa P-38????? Lol Just a casual observation. We live in great 1 32 scale times. Looking forward to the above. Troy

I'll be at the show on the HMH Publications stand, in Hall 3 I think. We'll bring our brand new book on the C-130 ! Very happy about this one, the first copies were delivered at my office just an hour ago. And I'll bring a Me-262 and Fw-190 A8/R11 in 1/32 for the stand. Feel free to come say hello! Nic

DB lacquers and gaspatch

Hi everyone, Thx for the kind emails of support. I dropped the GT Resin forum as its original intention was as a reference tool for new/existing customers and to contribute to enhancing large scale modeling. That is still my driving goal to make the things Large Scale Modelers want. Much of the info was in the pictures, which were hosted by Photobucket. Everyone know they went to a fee based hosting structure a few years back, and I gladly paid their small fee. However, because their huge increase in those fees continuing to use them became prohibitive. PB Closed non-pay hosting accounts thereby removing all pics from our posts. That and our realignment of the product line made the forum out of date and confusing. So we asked for it to be closed. Our Current product line can. be seen and purchased At Sprue Brothers: https://store.spruebrothers.com/category_s/2703.htm Please feel free to pm or email me if you have a question, need help, and as always suggestions are very welcome. I will continue to post New products on the Vendor forum. thx so much for all of the business and support and look forward to a bright future. Gary

Some new releases. ACCESS PANELS: Scale thickness. 115 total pieces. Resin on clear decal film. Due to their generic nature they can be used for many different applications on various scales and subjects. 1/32: CLICK HERE 1/24: CLICK HERE SCAB PATCHES: Suitable for 1/32 and 1/24 aircraft, but due to their generic nature they can be used for many different applications on various scales and subjects. Available in two styles - recessed rivets and raised. Scale thickness. Resin on clear decal film. 115 pieces on each sheet. Recessed rivets: CLICK HERE Raised rivets: CLICK HERE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLICK HERE for our complete list of Surface Details for aircraft. CLICK HERE for our complete list of dry transfers for aircraft: Thank you!

Sorry! I didn’t mention Silverwings! I always look forward to their new offerings. I need to pick up the Yak 9!

I am not, never have been and never will be an AFV modeller.......but I do enjoy adding the odd clanky-related thing to my dioramas, as with this (Z-M) starter trolley. Now you're going to say to me, quite correctly of course, that the Stieglitz didn't need a starter since it was swung by hand but for the sake of appearances and using a bit of artistic licence.......? Next up is.........

I picked up the ZM Ta 152H-0 in Osaka within the last year. I think I have two H-1’s and the H-0. Whomever is asking for one, contact me at the end of the year. For those interested in the tactical operations check out the No 29 Luftwaffe IM FOCUS. A great article on the day to day operations of the Ta 152 in action in the final months of the war. In addition there are some color fantastic photos of Mistel 2 in color! Sorry! Slightly drifting off topic here. Go Ta 152’s go!

The thread is regards a BoB Hurricane, which could only have been a Mk.I.

Ira Kepford's F4u is always a good study in weathering. I don't think those lava rock runways helped the paint out!

Well, I hope this "reference pictures" wave won't stop you from working on the model... Here are my pictures made in Cosford, 2 years ago: There are more pictures in the album: flickr - RAF Museum Cosford I'm looking forward to some pictures from your bench. Cheers. Juraj

Hi All, The 'Aviattic' CDL decals have been applied to the under surfaces. Weathering still needs to be applied, Mike

Hello my friends, I have been quietly sitting in the background working away on my Sopwith Tripe. Well, today, she is complete (is a model ever complete?) and sitting in the case. I have this one image for now, but more will follow. I've been super busy of late and finding spare time to think, let alone modelling, is a blessing! More pics soooooon. Cheers, Von Buckles

I have built several of both and love both kits, probably 2 of the best kits out there. Can't go wrong with either IMO. However the mustang is slightly easier to do just because of the corsairs wingfold set up and even that isn't bad. I would flip a coin on the build and go with it.

These are the traveling tools. Yes Brian, a bit different but at least I can see all the tools on the workbench The other difficulty is doing everything from the IPad. Hi Marcel The question on the tailfin. When the Tamiya kit was released a modeling friend gave me a box with two Hasegawa kits in spares. I will use some of these part except the gear doors. The tailpipe parts for the Thunderbird kit are great and fit very well. AM products are difficult for us. I have been waiting since March for books from Belgium. Cheers Nick

A few years ago when I moved, I managed to lose all three of my beloved 1:6 scale vinyl Horizon figure kits, and have been intending to eventually replace all three. To that end, I just snatched this off feebay, for the princely sum of $10 plus shipping. I’m a very happy guy. Just two more to go now.

Hind looks great, Carl! But shocked to hear about your heart attack and surgery, and glad to know that you're on the mend. Take care of yourself, and do what the medicos tell you! Kev

This is correct! I was forced to figure out how to get a good gloss coat while restoring a car. Had to repair a small part that had been scratched up. Took a couple tries, but learned some things. What worked was to thin the paint heavily, work from one side to the other, keeping the leading edge wet the entire time. Also, if you are using lacquer thinner, wear a mask! I thought using an airbrush it would be too little paint/thinner to worry about: I was wrong. Filled the entire garage with fumes; made me loopy.

Thanks everyone! It took much longer than. I expected to finish this build. Part of that was having to order a replacement pitot tube. That arrived about a month ago. I was then into a different build and got that finished before the Hind would make a return visit. Unfortunately two weeks ago I had a heart attack while dropping my boys off at school. That led to triple bypass surgery a week ago. I've been home since Sat and finally ventured down to the bench. The pitot is on as well as the chin gun and before I stress out any further, I think I'm going to call this one done. I know there's still the wipers and a step to add so maybe one day I'll get to those.

It actually fits quite well and true if care is used when assembling. Hurri Mk II by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Hurri Mk II by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr

Hi guys, Oooh, more than two and a half months after the last update... Well I had to build something for our IPMS NL region display, for the forthcoming Euro Scale Modelling on 23 November in Houten, The Netherlands. It is Large Scale, but not a plane...or is it? All will be revealed in the Non-LSP Works section after the ESM. Anyway, back to the F-35. I added grey decal strips on the inside edges of the inner weapon bay doors: A very tedious job, so I decided to leave the other doors alone. The inner faces of the inner doors are most visible, so the effort was worthwhile. The sensor under the nose was added. A little scraping on the edges was needed to make a drop fit and secure it with a little Kristal Kleer: Its transparent cover is blurred in the background of the picture. This cover followed, also glued with Kristal Kleer. Its mating edge was touched up with some paint. I forgot to take a picture. The boarding ladder and its door were next. They were easy to put in with the model upside down. A picture follows later in this post. Next it was time for the wheels. They were painted according to the pictures from the walkaround on the IPMS NL website: And then it was time to mount them on their legs. Ofcourse, there is always something with aftermarket. Spot the difference. The kit wheel in place: The aftermarket wheel in place: See? It is further away from the wheel strut. Not good. The offending small bush was grinded away: And all was well! There is a wash to dirty-up the brakes, but apparently not visible on the picture. The wheels were fitted with Araldite and the model turned over on its wheels to ensure that the flat spots are at the right position while the glue hardens. The F-35 is on its feet! And here is the promised crappy picture of the boarding ladder and its door: That's all for now. To be continued. Cheers, Peter

I also made these half circle tabs (in white) to aid in locating the cage to the sidewalls. Hurri Mk II by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr

I had one of those! Long gone. If you can find one of those original kits, and aren't planning on displaying any interior detail, it would be a quick and dirty build. For a full on detail build, I would still go with the Fly kit, or PCM kit if you can find one.

Trying to get the tail struts done... Again, they have to be scratched, none of kit struts are of the correct size, so I had to come up with a solution, adding some strength to the struts... Here are the different stages, brass rod on the left, some added styrene to the right. Cheers: Kent

You just have to be careful, how much of that is original weathering and how much of that is hanger rash from storage or just paint deterioration. The BF 109G here, although mostly in original paint has had to have some restoration and repainting done to some panels as the paint was literally falling off in places. I know, as I stood right next to it when it was in storage many years ago.

So have managed to get the basic colours on the fuselage sub assemblies followed by a gloss coat in readiness for decals and weathering. As well as the wheel well sub assemblies Difficult to interpret colours from b/w pictures and so have had a best guess as well as cross referencing with other colour cockpit pictures. Regards. Andy

I personally can't stand those things and don't think the detail they provide is worth the time/annoyance of making them. I think most folks here would disagree with me however. One tip is to keep the buckles, etc., on the photo etch sprue while you are threading the seatbelts through them, then cut them off the sprue later.

Hi everyone, just finished applying decals to an ICM model. The decals were very thin, and every time I applied one, it wanted to curl under the thick decal paper. Inevitably, some were ruined, and some went on in pieces... and will require creative weathering to make them less odious to look at. Sliding the decal from the backing, I tried the old fingertip, paint brush, tweezers, and even Q-tips. It was the worst decal session ever. Yet, I have more ICM kits in my stash. The larger decals I can replace with masks I can print. But the little decals, the stencils and such still have to be used. Anyone got a method that works on these super-thin, flimsy decals? Thanks for your thoughts. Gaz

I'd like to see some tips as well. The I-16 I built recently had a bunch of those turds.

I think Thor broke his wrist. looks painful Bummer

Oh no, that's no good mate, I hope you're feeling better! Hind looks super, I will add to the gallery!

I think the answer here is more a function of airbrush and technique, rather than paint. I would definitely go to a larger needle size so that you are putting more volume out of the airbrush. I understand you are doing delicate, fine camouflage work, but you can achieve that with a bigger needle/tip and going closer to the subject. Also, move slowly if you can.

I love it nice work you have done with here have he same kit and masks one day it will be build Mark

Great start! Interesting to work on models away from your own bench

An excellent kit! Watching this build with interest... have fun with it!

It was that.

You already have some great reference pics of the engine, but I'll toss up some pics the I have taken in case something helps out. Westland Lysander IIIA; Udvar-Hazy 2015 Westland Lysander III; RAF Museum London 2008 - Westland Lysander IIIA; Imperial War Museum Duxford 2008 Hope these are of some assistance... (had to re-load after my original website changed domains to www.447bg.org))

Thank you for the compliments! I followed this method for the broken glass: https://www.scalemodellingnow.com/tbconstruction-broken-glass-effects Worked like a champ and was pretty easy.

A brief update, but an update nonetheless! While waiting for parts associated with the front FN5 turret to dry, I continued work on the cockpit, and began mods to the FN-20 rear turret. HK molded the rear turret floor as a flat piece, which is inaccurate. The rear turret had a bowl at the bottom of the turret where the gunner could put his feet, which also contained several other boxes and such associated with the operation of the turret: eecf65b4efb148f9944920ace109e851 by Dennis SAuter, on Flickr Wingnut Wings appears to be molding this correctly on their soon to be released kit: 32044 1_32 Avro Lancaster B.Mk.III Type 464 (Provisioning) CAD render (FN.20 rear turret) by Dennis SAuter, on Flickr I started modifying the kit part: 73546232_537993106992717_3587851615622660096_n by Dennis SAuter, on Flickr The hole right now is square, and once more of the internals are fit and I get a sense of the size and dimensions, I will round out the cutout. You can start getting the idea here: 74569032_814196029011923_1386552684533776384_n by Dennis SAuter, on Flickr Moving to the cockpit, the pilot's pedestal has been reattached, 3mm lower than before: 75233644_493736614547576_2356345648451682304_n by Dennis SAuter, on Flickr The bracing on the port side will be recreated, as well as the pulley system under the pedestal floor that is visible from the nose glazing. That's all for now folks! As always, comments and critiques are most welcome. - Dennis S. Thornton, CO USA

Stellar. Don't forget the lug nuts. I would hate for the wheels to fall off. Sincerely, Mark

yeah I saw that, thanks i effing hate scribing lines at the best of times, and only saw it after I had put the wings on, so the omission will stay on this one I'm afraid anyway, some additional 109 construction notes which may help people... I chose to go quite off piste from the instructions once more with the wing construction, and attached the top half of the wings to the main spar and the fuselage just on their own. The reason behind this was to focus on the wing root join, which I did not want to have to re-visit after gluing. Sadly I forgot to take a pic of just the top halves in place, but it worked out fine and was actually very easy. I also painted and weathered the wheel wells as it seems easier this way. The flaps require a small area to be cut out if you want to show them dropped (which I do); see pics for this. Finally, I also painted the grills and inside of the radiators before fixing in place. kit barrels chopped off and drilled out to accept Master MG FFs which will be inserted right at the end covers in place and most of surrounding painting done when it comes to priming and painting the rest of the kit, these areas will be avoided i will add the small brace at the opening after main painting is done, as filling this area with masking sponge / tissue paper etc will risk snapping them off even if i replace with brass rod (which i intend to do) that's all for now

Not presumptuous at all Mike, we're all here to share and learn! I did pretty much what Mike said, especially after I launched a PE piece off my tweezers and spent an hour searching for it. Definitely easier and more controlled to keep them on the fret and thread the belts that way. I'm not sure if I balled up the belts enough to really give them that fabric look, as they're still a bit stiff. I also used gel CA in tiny amounts, applied with a tooth pick. Doesn't seem to have had any adverse effect so far, though I have seen many more mentions of white glue used. Here's how they look currently after an oil wash with raw umber.

Two more goodies for the Airfix 1/24 Hellcat: Aerocraft brass undercarriage set and resin tyres.

That's what she said.

As mentioned in the previous post, the main landing gear was installed. Remember that the instructions wanted you to put in the main gear in an early stage. Putting it in later could be troublesome. Well, indeed, withhout modification it would not be possible. The trick was to enlarge the holes a little bit and make the top surface of the pin above the main gear strut angled instead of 90 degrees by filing it skewed. I hope this makes sense, I forgot to take a picture of it. This way you can swing the main gear leg into position by rotating it around the side stay in the vertical gear bay wall. The gear legs will then click into position. By adding the drag brace (the forward strut) and the retraction jack, the gear will be secured in place. Here are the results: Then, work started on the stores: the GBU-31 JDAMs and the AIM120 AMRAAMs: The photo-etch parts on the JDAM's was fiddly to bend. In hindsight, I should have annealed these parts first. Painted and decalled, the weapons look like this: The AMRAAMS: The JDAMs without pylons: And here the JDAMs with pylons: And here are the weapons installed in the weapon bays: To be continued! Cheers, Peter

Sorted! Anyway, where were we... ah, yes! After making the canopy frame, I attached the hinges to almost all the doors and gave their interiors an additional layer of white: The small doors were put into the outer weapon and the main gear legs were painted :bay doors Deviating from the instructions, I installed the large inner weapon bay doors first: Followed by the small inner weapon bay doors: This way, they were much easier to install than toe other way around, as suggested by the instructions. Adding the pylons for the AMRAAMs was very fiddly. what I should have done was putting their mounting plates to the hinges of the small inner doors, before mounting them to the fuselage. This acually WAS suggested by the instructions! Now I had to remove small alignment pins in order to make them fit. Here are the results: The outer weapon bay doors were easier to install, but nevertheless fiddly due to the large amount of hinges: On the picture, the main landing gear is already installed. To be continued in the next post... Cheers, Peter