Leaderboard

aeroscale.kitmaker.net - PZL P.11c Test Build Looks like their first venture into the large scale. Nice! Juraj

January 17/20 Following Max’s (Mozart) build of his Rhodesian Harvard, he fixed the big ribs on the rudder and elevator using Archer rivets. Thanks for the tip Max. First, this is what they look like unaltered. Way too high... Let’s look at a few pics of a real elevator and rudder. Note the fasteners behind the fabric, with what looks like fabric tape covering them as reinforcement. Also note that the trim tabs on both have fairly large gaps on either side. So like Max, I sanded down the ribs until they were barely visible and added the Archer rivets, which are from the AR 88014 “Various Scales” set. Fortunately, by cutting each row of rivets in the center, the resultant width is just about perfect to cover each remaining rib. I also opened up the trim tabs with a razor saw. After adding Archer rivets, I normally spray the rivets with Tamiya clear acrylic X-22 to both seal in the rivets, but also to hide the decal film, which always seems to be present no matter how much Microsol you use. Here’s an example from my last build of the Kitty Hawk F-5E, which has no raised rivets over the engine area, which is a characteristic feature of this jet. From decal film… To a few coats of X-22….. Then painted. Decal film edges are 90% gone. Now back to my Harvard. Since there really is a tape-like covering over the fasteners, I just sprayed a light coat of X-22 to seal in the rivets and make them tougher, but not enough to remove the decal film edges. Here’s the top, with every rivet mark repunched and every panel line re-scribed after sanding, like the rest of the model. That curved light colored smiley on the right came like that right off the sprue, but it doesn't appear to be raised so that it will show up again after paint. And the mirror image bottom. I’m going to leave all this stuff off the fuselage until I get main wings glued on, because I can tell that I will be flipping this model over and over to make everything fit and I don’t want any more junk getting in the way. Next up the wings, with revised landing gear position and full brass Eduard landing flaps to add some interesting detail to the back. Cheers, Chuck

The dampers are just sitting there Brian, I guess they should be "clamped" onto the bracing but too difficult at this scale. Anyhow, apart from the aerial and a little bit of tidying up...........she's finished!! A few rough and ready pictures but RFI in a few days time. I was looking at my Bulldog last night..........daunting!

There isn't much to see at the moment. Filling, sanding, more sanding, filling again, priming, more sanding... I have some problem with (re-)appearing cracks. As you can see on the previously posted pics, the fuselage is made of many small printed parts, so there are many sources for cracks. Anyway, I will persevere and hope to finally succeed... Luckily, that's not a crack behind the cockpit - this is where the rear cockpit bulkhead will be inserted later on.

Back at the bench with an oldy but goody...We are taking two Hasegawa Hellcats and attempting to entitle them. Have been collecting AM for a long time ,some just recently traded for with a good modeling friend. Mating Trumpter wings to the Has fuselage x2,want a F6F-3 and a F6F-5. Will attempt to rescribe and enhance all the surface detail..new cockpits,detailed engines, etc. Have line drawings and references in place and a head full of ideas..All that's left is a bit of time and some luck sorting out how to do it.LOL. Cheers Bill. Got my hands on this nice base from Australia ...quite lovely it is

Can you see the progress? Slow grind continues! cheers Pete

This is tle page 10 of ICM 2020 catalogue!

A spare 3 hours worth of cutting, filing, cursing, and bonded fingertips. I dug into the flight path box to build the 'disco light'. I need to find a suitable material to fill in the gaps, but that ain't gonna happen today. My eyes have crossed over, and I'm a babbling wreck.

Thanks for the encouragement...it sure helps! Thanks Alain11 I forgot to add that image! Tim you can help, you build the B-17 ok? All kidding aside, I've spent an enjoyable few hours building the 109 (It's kind of an odd kit in my experience) Revell give you many options to build this model. Besides wheels up/ down movable control surfaces posable split flaps etc. I went with ailerons deflected to give me one wing low, flaps up, split flaps closed, slats in (avoiding the slat debate) and the wheels of course, will be up. I never really realized how clean the lines of this aircraft were, as every one I've ever built was wheels down, flaps down, slats out and canopy open. I knocked the pilots head off a couple of times and ended up giving him a bit of a different tilt (for now) unless/ until I knock his melon off again. Strangely, I haven't broken the tail antenna attachment point (yet) Painting should or, could possibly begin tomorrow. Thank you for looking

Thanks Brian! I added a bit of light grey today, just to see.....and yep, that makes me feel much better about the color. Also, painted the fabric areas on the upper side of the wings. Getting further and further...….

So somehow I managed to ruin my faithful Badger 200 airbrush that I've had for over 20 years. While waiting for a replacement I've been doing some small stuff (mainly adding some wiring to the main landing gear bays and weathering them). Got my airbrush in yesterday and am back in business. First off, here are the MLG bays. I've still got to add more wiring but I wanted to get the weathering mostly completed first. Weathering consisted of various washes of black and dark brown, chipping with both a silver artists pencil and bit of dark silver paint (regular silver seems too bright for this task) and then a heavy application of black pastels. Still more to do in this area as well. I figured the wheel wells on this aircraft would have been absolutely filthy. Even on well maintained aircraft, these areas attracted a lot of oil stains, grime and dirt. Next up is the upper cowling. My subject has the later flat black glareshield. Many pics of Korean F-51's show this area to have some decent chipping so I went with the hairspray technique. I never used this method until recently and it's very good tool in my weathering box of tricks. Not for every application but nothing replicates chipped paint better than this approach. I applied it over Model Master flat aluminum. I used a couple of shades of black to try to replicate faded paint. Note that a few areas on the edge need to be touched up, I'll be doing that once I start painting the entire fuselage. Anyway, that's it for now. Hope to be able to start making a bit more progress now that I have a new airbrush. Thanks for looking!

Wing stuff.... Here is my first go round for the interior wing support. I have super-glued the 2 wooden supports to the keel. They are separated by the thickness of the metal wing plate. If all lines up right the metal plate will slide through a slot cut into the fuselage and slide into the space between the the 2 pieces of wood. I will be incorporating magnets into the wooden supports that will "grab" the metal plate and hold it firmly in place. When I have all of the supports correctly glued in place I will further strengthen the whole structure by drilling a hole through the wood and inserting nuts and bolts to really lock it place. Easy As Pie!!! Dan

Thank you, thank you, thank you., and thank you! I really appreciate your good words. Details from yesteryear: Thank you for looking and liking. Sincerely, Mark

Both wings inserted into their internal support structures.Much fussing and alignment to go but...... The difficulty now becomes getting both sides to be symmetrical. When doing a vac this is a real issue. There are no factory designed supports, no down to the mm measurements from a cad design. It will come down to me fiddling with this until it looks right. I will have the same challenge with the engine pods. Dan

Thanks for looking and liking. Sincerely, Mark

Nice to see other manufacturers joining in the party! I think 1/32 scale is catching on here!!!! It's an interesting subject and long overdue in our scale IMHO. Let's hope if it sells well they'll produce some more 'on the edge' subjects in the future. ICM may have started something with their future 30's aircraft announcements, there's a big gap in the monoplane market alone with plenty to choose from. IBG could well be the next main provider if all goes well. Exciting times!

I think the people at ICM are among the first to be surprised by the popularity of the Gladiator. IMO the success of the kit owes much to the no-nonsense, thoughtful design of the kit and the overall excellence of the production i.e. the realistic simulation of the cloth-covered areas. If the new Fiat Cr.42 is in the same vein, it could open a new niche and introduce many modellers to the colourful and much-neglected inter-war period.

We were talking about this last night at the club, it’s a canny move by ICM because of course resin, ie all Silver Wings kits, is not to everybody’s liking.

For me, the really good thing about taking in progress photos, is finding boo boo's before the model gets to the contest table. Apparently the headrest gizmo has uneven bottoms, so gave a distinct list to the starboard side. I have now corrected this. Before: After:

A light coat of grey to check the filled panel lines. So far so good. Using masks cut with a Silhouette Portrait cutter, I can mark the locations of the new hatches and ports. The brass template for the large 4-sided access panel are temporarily glued into place with CA glue. Black paint is used to mark the locations for the smaller ports upon which I can use a standard scribing template. This is where I started running into trouble. I had hoped that the panel lines that I had filled with sprue goo would give me a consistent material over which I could run a scriber but this was not the case. The filled areas were much softer than the plastic and it was difficult to track a consistently straight light through any area that had been filled. The filled areas, being softer, clung to any excess pushed up by the scriber, making it more difficult to clean up the lines that had been scribed. And white putty on black putty is not the easiest color combination to worth with since it is hard to distinguish between the putty and sanding dust. Another shot of grey paint removes the visual clutter of the filled lines. But it also reveals the imperfections from the scriber getting bogged down by the softer sprue goo. So frustrating... I was really disappointed at this stage and was compelled to put down my work and go do something else. When I came back, I didn't think the results were THAT bad. Most of the shapes seemed workable. Re-tracing the shapes using the templates cleaned up some of the slop. The worst spots were filled with Black CA and re-scribed. So now I am in micro-cleanup mode, using dabs of Mr Surfacer to repair scratches and make the lines more uniform. Getting there...

All closed up and now I need to do some painting. First problem is the greens used by JG54. Every profile and model seem to have their own interpretation. I used one of Claes Sunden's profiles to mix a color from Tamiya enamel. I still need to mix the darker color. I also decided to do reverse masking on the yellow and do that first, The crosses were done on the Sillouette Cutter and sprayed onto the yellow. I will now mask all the yellow areas and the complete the model as usual. Nick

I wasn't sure I'd start a thread on this or not... I may never finish it. Not the 109 but the severely damaged B-17 that goes with it I'm hoping to (someday) realize a model Vignette similar to the book cover "A Higher Call" I have begun with the Revell 109 G-6 because it's the only 109 in 1/32 scale (that I know of) that can be modelled with the wheels up. I have crews to fill both aircraft involved, the ones that can be seen anyway, and decals...all I need is time...years of it! So after a week or two of tinkering with the 109, here's where I'm at. (Feel free to tell me I'm nuts and not to do it, then I have an excuse to stop) Having never really been a fan of "prop blur" props, I filled the prop cutouts in the spinner and sanded it all smooth, trying to give the impression of an invisible prop at high RPM Off to the nut house now...

I picked this kit up from a very good friend of mine at a great price the other day and it got the better of me and had to be built! I have the Aerotech MC 72 almost ready for primer but have sidelined it again because I need to rework the wings. I need a civil aircraft build for the shows that I attend throughout the year and thought this would fit the bill nicely. The sturdy box. Not much in the way of artwork, the artwork is inside the box! Full of white metal, resin and photo etch. Fairly basic but perfectly adequate instructions, colour chart and certificate (a nice touch) A quick paw through the parts. These are very basic kits but make for stunning replicas once finished provided that a bit of extra tweaking is carried out. This kit seems to be a little smoother than previous releases. I primed the interior with Tamiya fine surface primer, and then sprayed SMS Primer Surfacer to allow for a bit of sanding to smooth out the cockpit a bit. I sprayed the cockpit with SMS Pilbara, and used a dark wash around the details. Not much if this is going to be seen so I haven’t spent too much time detailing it. The wings of this kit are very thin and I have a couple of resin kits built in the past that have had the wings start to droop in my display cabinet. I don’t trust any kit to not do the same thing so I now insert brass rod into everything. The following method works well. It is not for the faint of heart, especially on an almost $300AUD kit. I have done this to all 4 parts of the wings, and took pics of different wings during the process. I use the other end of an appropriately sized drill bit to cut a deep trench into the resin, down along a straight edge ruler. I embed brass rod into the wing, glued in place with superglue and the resulting top of the trench is filled with a superglue/talc mix and sanded smooth. A check coat of SMS Primer Surfacer which is then sanded smooth. Most of the area of each wing is covered by photo etch surface radiators, so the worked area will be covered. I made the rod pass through the major join in the top wings to give this area a lot more strength. I drilled and inserted rod into the horizontal stabilisers. Not quite as drastic a measure this time. The rod has extends as far into the part as the drill bit shows, and has been positioned through the tab to give the join some strength as well. All major parts complete. The floats and struts have been dry fitted. The refinement can now begin.

Hi, Our latest decal sheet, Henschel Hs 129 B-2 in Romanian Service, is now ready. This is a decal sheet featuring eight aircraft flown by Aeronautica Regală Română on on the Eastern Front and on the Western Front. The decals are available in the following scales: 1/32: http://www.radubstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_65&products_id=767 These decals are suitable for the 1/32 Hs 129 model kit from Zoukei Mura. 1/48: http://www.radubstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_66&products_id=768 1/72: http://www.radubstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_67&products_id=769 Thank you for your support! Radu

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.

This week I received the latest release from Mushroom Model Publications: Blackburn Shark by Matthew Willis. I must admit that at first glance I'm really impressed: lots of sharp and fairly large photos, 1/72 scale drawings featuring rivet rows represented where appropriate, and several nice colour profiles. The factory photos revealing numerous construction details are of particular interest. The main text covers the Shark's background, development, service in FAA, RAF, RCAF and PNAS, and colours & markings. Basic technical data and a listing of units using these aircraft are also included. To my knowledge, this book is the most complete reference on the Blackburn Shark available, recommended! Kit manufacturers, take note too! Some sample images:

Oh boy, some hobby goodies arrived today, specifically some items to help with a 1:32 A6M2 that I’m currently working on.

Maybe that is my strategy, reduce the competition by keeping them off of the table. Dan

while I will take both releases of Cr.42, I"m really looking forward to the upocming releases of Gladiator Mk.II and Sea Gladiator and the Pt-13 and Pt-17 are must have for me. jan

This is going to be a good one, please document how the wings mate to the Hasegawa fuselage. I have a pair of these that I wanted to do.

Thanks for the comments Gazzas but after posting the photo I saw a few small bits I had to touch up. I now looks better. I painted the wings and should have the fuselage painted by tomorrow. I am not sure of the cammo pattern on the JG54 aircraft as like the colors there are numerous interpretations. I do not know if there was anything like a standard pattern. The best I could come op with on the net was a Russion forum on the Second World War. It depicts some of JG54 pilots eating and a FW 190 in the background facing away. I drew the pattern from this as best I could and used it as a reference. At least the port side of the fuselage I can do according to Claes's profile and it matches the wing pattern where it joins the fuselage. Thanks for looking Nick

ICM are definitely excellent in marketing research, product and design management. Their surface quality (I have a few of the 48 Ju 88's and He 111's) is indeed impressive. It's so convincing, that I've just ordered the newly released Bü131D with Cadet figures, and I will definitely get their CR42 once released - I have a passion for Italian interwar and WWII aircraft designs and camouflage and markings. I guess they have thought of me when they decided for the CR.42 Lothar

I masked up the wings and tail surfaces first for paint. Gunze RLM 74 and 75 used and airbrushed freehand.

Hi Guys, I saw this model last night in the flesh and its a beauty! Max's rigging and painting is first class, a nice touch being the home made markings from masks he made on his Silhouette cutter. I was well impressed. Regards, Bruce Crosby

The H-0, being pre-production, only occasionally had wooden tails. The wooden tail became standard on the H-1, but there were still metal tails on some of those, too. HTH, D

I think this is the best way to depict a fighter at full throttle..you can't see the prop...Like it.

At least this biplane has nice solid struts holding the wings apart, helping to reduce rigging

Tim....if you haven't found a set yet.. I have a set you can have gratis. Moskit

The Hs.129B-2 Finally arrived at one of my local (Australian) hobby stores ... So ... having it sent, along with a couple of other ZM kits they held back for me - It arrived at the post office a day or two ago. I'd like to say that I'm now up to date with the entire 1/32 ZM collection ... except they sneakily tucked another couple of Skyraider kits in before the first of the Hs.129 kits. Never mind ... as soon as those rock up to one of my other suppliers ... I'll be sorted ... Rog

Admit it; you're just afraid of tackling those camo schemes. Deep inside you know you want this.

What a great build Max! This is one gem for sure, and as good as any for a poster for ICM and their new tool kits! Well done man

Here is an update covering some of the work that I've been doing on the Ta152 over the past few days. A view of the cockpit encased within the fuselage. This was before I realized that the instrument panel hood would place the IP too far back. So I've popped off the IP and will be adding an additional spacer to push it out closer to the pilot. A preliminary view of the engine parts. As usual, I don't think I will be leaving any fuselage hatches/covers in an open position so engine will most likely be hidden from view. So I've decided to paint the kit parts but not add anything extra. The panels on the wing bottom need to be changed so the first step is to fill in the conflicting panel lines. I'm going to use my newly concocted batch of sprue goo for the fill operation. Hopefully, this plastic material will provide a uniform base for the scribing of new panel lines. The goo is given ample time (24 hours) to cure before sanding. The engine cowling, previously filled with Mr Surfacer, is also smoothed out at this stage.

Many Tiffy modellers seem to have serious problems with the airbrake. Yes, you have to sand it a bit flat, but for me it really fits like a glove. Maybe I was just lucky with the kit? But that's a good thing, because I don't want to glue the part.

Looks like nothing but was quite fiddely I confess:

Brake lines and connectors completed, fiddly but fairly effective I think: I've also added the "dampers" for the main bracing wires: For future Gladiator builders I made them 30mm long from 0.88mm plastic rod.

hi that looks an ambitious project , but , for people ( like me) that doesn't know the book " higher call " , we would want to know what your diorama will look like Alain humm ! sorry , I just found ( Goggle is useful ) ..indeed that is an ambitious project !!!!!!!! (if you allow )

Hi all, my last model in this year. Model Tamiya 1/32 A6M5 fuselage & A6M2 wings Aires cockpit HGW seat belts Wheels bay & wheels CMK Painting mask homemade All colours MRP - prototype IJN set

Thanks chaps! It was worth taking a few liberties with 56 squadron’s eye catching markings, silver is lovely but those red and white chequers are something else. When my father was a trainee pilot in S Rhodesia in 1943 there were Tiger Moths buzzing all over the sky from several neighbouring EFTSs. So it was decided to paint a chequerboard band on the rear fuselage of Dad’s EFTS (No. 28) because one of their mechanics was ex-56 squadron!

Looks like a full meal deal for two! Always fun watching builds loaded with aftermarket goodies! Can be much more informational than online reviews so this could be a valuable reference for many builders!