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At last the rigging line and microtube can be put away.......rigging is finito!! Adding a few details now though, like brake lines. I'm using an Anyz connector and braided line, the latter is a bit on the thick side perhaps but I'll see how it looks: The Gladiator MIGHT, be finished tomorrow........ or perhaps not!

Hi everyone, A few elements to furnish the bottom of the cockpit. The joys of cleaning resin parts. We're going to have to get out the engraver's stalls. To make an old hydraulic pump. The broomstick with the toilets in Boyington. The rudders. See you soon, Sweety

Thanks Lothar, I probably will. More painting this evening. I keep thinking to myself that this color looks awfully light.....hopefully it's decently accurate! Comments or suggestions are welcome

Thanks Mike and Tom, glad that this stuff is useful, John is a devoted Mustang expert, cheers talking about seats, yesterday I decided to change the back cushion color in to yellow, also wanted to use the Barracuda decal for it cheers

Another milestone reached. I can now join the fuselage and wings once the cockpit is in. The stick (control column for the purists and training captains ) seemed thin compared to photos of the real thing , so I replaced it with a piece of plastic rod. I most likely spend too much time on the cockpit as not much can be seen once closed up. This kit is very good in some places, in other you ask what was Revell thinking. Nick

Getting ready to foil the wings and fuselage. With the paint on both it seemed a requirement to slip a few pieces together and get a look at what the end result may look like. One of my stars and bars will have to be redone. It lifted for some reason which is an oddity. Fortunately only the blue needs redone but I put it on the backside for the pic :-) while paint was drying I worked on a few other components. Got the mid-air refueling probe made up out of brass rod. That's probably the only piece worth showing :-) Slow progress the rest of this week as the kids are in the high school musical. Lots of fun for sure. I'll get to spend some time catching up on everyone's builds this week. Lots of hurry up and wait and pick-ups and drop-offs to do.

I always seem to lose my model mojo at the end of kits so i tend to not concentrate on the weapons as much as i should, so i decided to finish the 'load' before the plane. Next move is to fix and mask the canopy then its time to paint

Colin, I don't consider myself a elite builder. More of a " stone knives and bearskins" kind of builder. Sure I build some unique models but they don't hold a candle to many of the models you can find here on LSP. When I take my models to a show/contest I rarely bring home any awards. Side by side with other modelers my work doesn't hold up well. My biggest hurdle is always my paint work. However I can guarantee no one has more fun than I do building models. I remember building a 25 cent midget race car with my dad when I was 5, haven't really stopped since. And that was 60 years ago. I guess you learn a few tricks along the way. Dan

Thanks for the comment guys. On to the painting stage. I like using the black base method for light colours and metal, so I painted the entire under surface black using another excellent SMS product called Camo black. This paint gives a very smooth satin finish which is very hard wearing straight from the bottle. Thus was my mottled coat of the light grey, which will provide a base for subsequent light coats of the same colour. I extended the black base up over the rear fuselage and pre shaded the top surface. The start of the bare metal effect on the rear fuselage. I split the area up into 3 zones as can be seen. From the front I used Alclad Duraluminum, AK extreme metal Duraluminum and Alclad Gunmetal as the base colours. These were mottled over each area. I then used Alclad pale burnt metal thinned with MRP lacquer thinner and mottled it over each panel. This was followed by a further thinned mix of Alclad Gunmetal which gives selected areas a purple discoloured look. It moves around a bit depending on the light. I then started to sketch the different cam colours on the upper side. I build up each colour organically so that it doesn’t look too sterile. I used MRP paints. The rough shapes in place. I have further refined each shape since this pic was taken. An important part of the model is the scorched areas of paint on the rear fuselage. I don’t have any pics of 197 that show this area (although an ultra high res photo of it will show up the day after I finish it) so I have worked off a few pics of different aircraft to come up with a composite. I am leaving the two rear most panels alone and will apply the scorched effect to the front. I lightened the base colour and have sprayed the outer areas of the panel lines to represent the oxidised paint. Over the top of this will be applied the base colour. More to come later.

The tweak list mentions the fairing `scabbed' onto the fuselage either side of the exhaust section. It took me a while to work out what they were talking about, but once you see it, it makes sense. They are the two triangular protrusions at the aft end, as shown here. Notice that they are very thick. Here is the fairing from the side. To correctly depict the fairing, a new panel line needs to be scribed, which will clearly define this as a separate part which is bolted onto the fuselage. You can see the old panel line that I have filled and sanded. SMS Primer filler has been sprayed onto the modified area and sanded smooth. The next step was to thin the edges of each of the protrusions and I glued some rounded plastic card onto the inside. The completed modification. Each of the two D shaped divots behind the cockpit were hollowed out, and a new ramp was made from plastic card. Also visible is the 4 new scribed latches on the panel immediately forward of the panel with the divot. Took me a couple of goes to get them right hence the `shadow' of the failed attempts. The landing lights were a little too far back, so I filled these with thick disks of plastic card, and repositioned them a little further forward. I also made up some new gas purge vent pipes from brass tube as can be seen The area around the cannon ports was very simplified, so quite a few new panel lines were scibed in this area, as well as screw holes. Primed! Lots of little circles and squiggles that I have drawn on the model with a lead pencil to identify areas that needed to be fixed.

The last of the very light "weathering" is done and final satin coat of clear is dry. I think it's done...

thanks Tom, yes there were 2 type of seats used on the "D" model the Warren Mcarthur model and the Schick Johnson, I can quote some explanation from John Terrell himself written in the Mustang SIG forum time ago: The more I have looked at photos, the more it seems that the metal SJ seat only became prevalent, or at least more prevalent, in later D-models, past the D-15-NA era blocks. It seems that P-51D-5-NA's and D-10-NA's, if at least mostly, were fitted with WM seats. I don't recall seeing much, if any, photos showing WWII-era P-51B's or C's fitted with anything other than a WM seat, though a few of the P-51B/C's flying today are fitted with a metal SJ seat to the stock seat posts, while others have a WM seat (of which there are multiple types) installed to the stock seat posts. You really start to see metal-SJ seats on P-51D-20-NA's, D-25-NA's, and D-30-NA's, though I believe you can also find WM seats mounted to these blocks as well. If I were to model a P-51D-5 to D-15, I'd be more inclined to model it with a WM seat, and if I were to model a P-51D-20 to D-30, I'd be more inclined to model it with a SJ seat (without looking at actual photos of the individual aircraft before starting). and some reference pictures, first the Warren Mcarthur seat a view of a P-51 D-5NA cockpit with the WM seat Secondly the Schick Johnson seat SJ seat visible in the 339th FG D-20 picture

I started cleaning up the engine parts. Quite a bit of flash in some places. I think the engine looks pretty nice, and I'm considering adding some ignition cables and stuff. Then perhaps I can have the covers off. Just need to figure out how it should look. Have to google a bit! For some reason I continued to clean up parts. Might as well have it done. Just a few more things to do, then I can start painting engine parts and all parts that need to be in RLM02. Other parts to for that matter, but those I need first! Håkan

Then I felt these side-walls were a bit too bare, so I scratch-built some additional items using a variety of wires and - believe it or not - some paper. The LH-side of the cockpit houses a priming pump adjacent to the seat. I manufactured this out of some 2 and 0.5 mm coper wire. Slapping some paint on: The last two pictures show the effect of the synthaglass on the individual instruments a little more clearly. A bit out of focus - but so am I occasionally. Nothing wrong with that I took quit a number of pictures with the fuselage upside down to make sure the details were not hidden in the shadow (taken at night and I only use a table light to work by as this most effectively lights up the working space - all other light sources create too much of a shadow. So once I was happy with the paint-work I was ready to further ensure a proper fit between both fuselage halves and the cockpit floor.

Following are some close up shots of the build. Top of the engine with the blast guards in place. These turned out to be a lot easier to construct and place than I thought they would be. Undercarriage. It is a bit unstable, not surprising given the scale thinness of the supports, but I will handle this puppy with extreme care. Tail section. I added some splashes of mud/dirt to the bottom of the rudder and tailplane supports. You can see the control cable ( and that I did not get the ends perfectly cut off. Fortunately that is only apparent in macro photos. Macro of the front of the pit and the backs of the Spandaus, these Gaspatch MGs are real masterpieces and look the biz, though you can see the left one is just a bit canted. Again this is only apparent in a macro photo as very fortunately it is not apparent under normal viewing. Still a bit vexing. Extreme close up of the port engine cowling area. Seat cushion and HGW seatbelt. These turned out rather nice. And finally, one of the upper control cables photographed about as close as I can get. These were easier to install (I used EZ Line) then I thought they would be.

This is 1/32 Eduard P-40N Warhawk with the markings of “Joanne” from 89th Fighter Squadron, 80th Fighter Group, Karachi, India 1943 Paints are Gunze Sangyo acrylics. Some decals like skulls, numbers on the tail and figures on the wheels are custom made. Happy modelling.

Hi all, Here are the final reveal shots of the WW1 Austro-Hungarian Aviatik 'Berg' D.I fighter, operating with Flik 63J during 1918. 1:32 scale resin model from the Czech company 'HPH Models. Gaspatch turnbuckles, micro-tube and mono-filament used for the rigging. Laminated wood propeller from 'ProperPlane'. Figure from Grass mat for display base from 'Polak'. Paint used were 'Tamiya' acryics. Figure - ‘Copper State Models’ Austro-Hungarian flying ace (F32-032). My usual full and detailed PDF build log is available to download from gallery 2 on my site (link below). Mike

Torben, Thanks for the helpful info. While I will not be 100% accurate with the build I am hoping to make sure it at least is close. I don't have a lot of reference for the internal structures and what I do have is mostly modern in nature. Without a lot of detailed photos, I find it challenging to be able to vet the images for what is truly accurate. Case and point is the fuel tank. I have examples of this in red and green and so I was 50/50 on what colour to go with. The images I have of the plane during the war are in b/w and so that doesn't help since red and green show up about the same tonally. Thats why this forum is so helpful as I can adjust the colour if this was standard for wartime MKIID's. Again I appreciate the insight. I will also continue to look into getting the Airfix Merlin. Do you know if there are big differences between the Packard and the Rolls royce engines in reality? Gord

Thanks Brian for the comments and Chris for the vote of confidence! Ok......I've been throwing everything I've got at this one and it's been a lot of little things that all add up to the bigger picture. Engine bay is......finished!! And I've got everything done here except for some work on the hood, some R/T badges, windshield wiper install and custom exhaust tips.

Thank you. With this thread being from yesteryear I thought people had lost interest in it. Thanks for looking. Sincerely, Mark

I've uploaded 13 stills to my Flickr account, which you can find at https://www.flickr.com/photos/84346420@N05/albums/72157712677266647 They're at 1280 x 720 (DVD) resolution, which is slightly larger than the example below. Far from brand new, the XB-51 was getting on for 7 years old when the movie was made, as can be deduced from the tatty state of some of the visible stencils. And I'm sure Jennings would have some observations on the 'Gilbert XF-120' logo's choice of typefaces (fonts) too. Or perhaps the Gilbert Corporation thought all the ranch hands at the Pentagon would be taken by the hand lettered County Fair style chic. There are also a very helpful set of 92 USAF Museum hi-res photos at the web archive beginning at: (https://web.archive.org/web/20121016143638/http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=2663 ) Those show some good details, such as the very non standard font used for the serial numbers.

Happy with this:

Good evening, hope you had a great start into 2020! Besides family stuff (my mom suffered a stroke ... ) I actually found some time for modeling. I started the landing gear using resin replacements for the wheels ... I forgot which brand ... I somewhere read that in late war the quality of tires were really bad which made them to last for about 10 landings and take-offs. Well, the same could be said about the pilots and a/c, too. So they look a bit beaten up in my example of a tire set. Best wishes, 109er.

Hi Guys Here is a bumper set of new releases all in one go, available for ordering and shipping right now (well over the next few days) Basically a few stand alone decal sheets, to be used in conjunction with the kit decals, early F6F-5 fuselage windows, and a few F6F-5N conversion sets with decals. Before you all ask, yes I am working on the F6F-3 conversion, this will also be done with a few decal sheet options. Release date for the -3 ???????? next few months. Best to visit here to get all the information. https://aerocraftmodels.bigcartel.com/category/1-24th A few pictures for colour (or color for US friends)

Hi guys! Im a LSP modeller, but sometimes i try some different scale.. hope you enjoy.. cheers Shep

Yup, it's going to be big. 32 inches long with a 20 inch wingspan. And, no, I don't know where I will put it when it is finished. Dan

Ok just a small update. Here is the horizontal tail with the elevators cut out. Told you it was a small update. Dan

Thank you, Brothers. Finished up the Cockpit and Engine Mount Compartment. A couple of squashed solder balls as fasteners. Black electrical junction box, wire, and tape clasp. Added a switch and crank. Finished up the firewall and roughed in some piping. Empty slots will receive yellow and red wiring. Engine Mount to Firewall mounting connection made up. Another view. Luckily it fit. Another test fit. Vent hardware. Added cabling. It will go through the pulley in the next photo. Pulley. Drilled hole a top to thread the cable. Hole across from pulley is an ERROR, ERROR, ERROR, WILL ROBINSON! Or is it DANGER!? The other hole will accept the three wires from above. Center Engine Mount support structure. Bunch of rods and handle around the canopy crank. Fitted. Thanks for looking. Sincerely, Mark

Hey, welcome to LSP, and great to have you here! Yes the masters are with the (well known) caster waiting their time for production. I could make up a bit of a drawing on how to fix the upper wing, or the shape it should be if you like? In the meantime between my busy schedule, work continues most days. This was taken on the weekend. Here I am setting up all the datums and sorting all the firewall out. Both of the Paragon firewall fairings are now on and the 2 nacelle halves almost match up. Still a bit more shimming to do there. The rib you see in the photos next to the radiator is going as I am making a more detailed one out of plastic card Getting myself set up to detail this area... Checking alignment again (not been any issues) but also remind me what I am doing and try to see a bigger picture of where I am going! Sorry its not much of an update, I figured I should do a little one since I was replying. Nice to have you along! Cheers Anthony

After perusing the kit, I think the best way to get an accurate Hellcat is to buy the Airfix 1/24th scale kit!

Hi, A warning for the people considering the recent release of that True Details H7 seat based on a new 3D printed master: there is only ONE seat in the set! Go figure! As that specific seat was only used in a two-seater, I have yet to understand that. That release was not cheap and now I will need to purchase another one as the single part is useless. While the seat looks very nice, that business practice is debatable to say the least... Caveat emptor! Hth Thierry

Thanks Chek. Great stuff, especially the stills from the movie. I saw the movie many years ago but that was 15 years ago. Having the stills is a great reference tool. Dan

...it was a joke...

This photo purports to be the 2nd wave leaving Akagi. Blades look quite reflective. Sandbags look the same as above. The backside certainly looks quite dark, and the shadow seems to be from behind the aircraft. Gaz

Your new Silhouette cutter to the rescue!! You should be able to import that pin into the Silhouette software and make a cut pattern for it. For the white parts, if you have a "paint" type program it sometimes helps greatly to "fill" areas like the white. If you can fill by color, you can change the white to a darker color, and the Silhouette software will pick it up easier. Also, make sure you have the high pass filter off. I have found it sometimes really prevents you from getting the cut parts you need. You can use the low pass filter, but make sure you reduce the "scale" down to 1 to 4, and you can play with the "Threshold" slider to see what the software will pick up by how much you slide it in any direction. If worse comes to worse, you can cut out the decals and place them on a dark background, then re-scan them into the computer and the Silhouette software should pick up the white better. If you need any info or help LMK!

IP complete and I added a few extra pieces to the cockpit. I also added ribs in the wheel well. All the 1/48 models have them. I don’t know how Revell could have left them out. Nick

Among their new designs for boxes on FB: Juraj

Thanks for looking. Sincerely, Mark

Thanks Gazas, much appreciated cheers thanks Albert, it's all for the Mustang passion cheers jejej, gracias Tag, rock duro! Thanks Thor, glad you like it, kind words! Cheers Glad you like it Sepp, hopefully will keep it going ! cheers Progress from last session on the seat, printed some dashed lines on white decals and some barracuda leftovers also, hope you like it, until next, cheers Antonio

Hi all, Pilot's seat modified: Thickness of seat back reduced. Seat belt slots added. Seat back rolled edge added (0.4 mm lead wire. Mike

Nice! That looks really lovely! The weathering is superb Indeed they did.......................Tolga's got it right!

announced release February

Some more work. I didn't like the way that Trumpeter have the canopy hinged at the rear. Looking it at a few other builds online, it is obvious that this part of the model is left until last and probably suffers a bit from get-it-finished syndrome and is just tacked on as an afterthought. Here is the way it fits without modification to the fuselage. Notice that I have used the Aires canopy framing, which has been painted and glued in place using superglue. I like to make my canopies removable for transport if I can and needed to devise a method of doing so on this model. I removed the kit hinge points and drilled and inserted some brass tube into the resin canopy frame. I inserted a a short piece of small diameter brass rod into the tube to act as an alignment peg. I then filed a small groove into a larger piece of brass tube which fits nicely over the first part. Notice that I have ground away a fair bit of the rear edge of the resin part. I slightly compressed the aft end of the larger diameter brass tube to make the canopy a press fit and then superglued it into the fuselage. The new position of the canopy. Notice that it is significantly further back over the fuselage, as per my references. the rear lip of the canopy had to be thinned as per the edge of the resin canopy frame to allow this. I now have a very sturdily mounted canopy, easily removed for transport. Going through the excellent F-100 tweak list written by Ben Brown and Thierry Laurent, it is obvious that there is scope for many small improvements of the kit. Most of these are easy to do, and are actually quite alot of fun to try and find references for! Now that I have finished most of the bulky parts of the kit, it is time to refine it as much as possible, and using their list as a guide I am working out which ones I will do. Starting with the tanks. I am building a later version of the F-100 which carried longer tanks. The kit is equipped with 275-gallon drop tanks. The aircraft that I am depicting carried 335 gallon tanks which were 28 inches longer via a plug forward of the pylon. This equates to 22.23 mm longer. Here is the kit tank. In a later update, I will correct the forward fuel filler hole and add a new one in the aft section, as well as fix the fins. I made up a 22.23 mm plug from a buddy refuelling pod which was exactly the right diameter and which had just enough for 2 parallel section of that length. Inside this, I added some tabs from another small tank. I cut the kit tank at the major panel line aft of the fuel filler cap. The extra length is apparent in this pic. Missing from the kit is the small D shaped light which is there to illuminate the tip of the refuelling probe at night. I used a steel scribing template and a pin to deeply engrave its shape. Using a micro chisel, I then removed the inside of the engraving to leave the new hole, ready for a light and some clear sheet. It is possibly a bit too big, but once I have the clear part in place, I will make a smaller mask for it before painting.

No progress possible today, visitors! But this arrived in the post this morning: Absolutely superb castings I'll love building this one after the Bulldog!

Hi themongoose, I sanded down the resin until light shone through it and also thinned the inside of the wing surface down as well. Now that I have the OV-10 finished, I am able to move on with the F-100. I painted the equipment under the windshield, in preparation for installing the clear part. I was going to use the nice resin refuelling probe by Quickboost, but it hangs out too far for me to trust it not to be broken. I cut off the tip and the flange of the resin parts and made them fit some brass tube of appropriate diameter. To save the tube from kinking too much when it was bent, I inserted brass rod inside it. there is a small kink that I will fill and sand later. I glued some brass tube into the refueling point that the new probe fits into. I squeezed it slightly into an oblong shape so that it holds firmly onto the probe. Here is the new probe fitted. I can remove it for transport and now have much greater confidence if someones camera strap catches on it at a show.

This is becoming the slowest build ever, just no time at the bench at the moment The fuel tanks are complete, I'm just wondering if the should be a matt finish or maybe semi gloss??? I made a right mess of the exhaust can, terrible masking job, going to have to start again Happy new year fellows

yikes, rescuing this build from page 6, I'm not a big fan of Christmas (bah humbug) i seem to have less bench time. I'm jumping around a bit with this model, but progress is being made

Indeed! Kev