Leaderboard

Hey all, these Pavehawks working downrange are pretty filthy..the dust gets everywhere. So many of my reference photos show helicopters, gear, and crew so covered in dust that it’s uncomfortable! AK Interactive makes an enamel-based dust wash that does a great job of replicating that ever-present Afghan dust. Thin it like crazy with mineral spirits and watch it dry..it will change as it dries and I frequently pull it back with pure mineral spirits as it sets up- modeling 101 reminder: oil based wash over acrylics! cheers Pete

OK, last one guys, I swear. This is my COVID-19 quarantine build and I'm pretty happy with the way this one turned out. As with the previous three, no real weathering to speak of and built mostly OOB with exception of HGW seatbelts in addition to the Vickers and double Lewis guns courtesy of Eduard Brassin. Sorry I didn't get any pics of the underside - I'm too damn scared to flip it upside down! As I mentioned in the introduction for the Junkers D.1 build I posted earlier, I'm really not at the point where I build for historical accuracy so this bird has features that were not included on the "IF" scheme outlined in the manual (wheel covers and double Lewis guns). These recent WNW builds are all going into the display case for basically only me to look at so I decided I can live with it because I like the way it looks! I think I told myself when I was building it that I would build the next one to a much higher historical standard (and actually do a WIP!) but that was before recent developments... Anyway, on to the pictures. OK, I swear I'm done now... Anyone have any ideas how I get these safely from NYC to California?

People are going to be trading toilet paper rolls for Wingnut kits in the next few weeks. Matt

All done. National markings are from the Eagle Strike MiG 17 sheet, so they actually fit and are very nice to use. The numbers come from another Trumpeter MiG 21 kit. They are slightly out of register, but at this point, they will do. I weathered it with a chalk wash and some paint chipping in the areas shown by the photo above. Overall this is not a great kit and only really recommended if you really have to have a 1/32 MiG 17.

I got the late Halberstadt from Hannants last week, traded it for a 24 pack of Andrex' finest. Hannants also list their future releases as available in 20??, so they obviously know something and are refusing to say, no doubt that's the real reason they're not answering phone calls. I'm sure 5G's got something to do with it, but waiting for next door's cat to get back to me, after she's had a word with Dave the Squirrel, who was once an extra on The Hobbit.

Hi all, my first Ki-61. 1/32 Hasegawa model Wolpack conversion set Aires cockpit, oil cooler, landing gear cover & pylons Dead Design Models painting mask All colours MRP

Thanks for the comments everyone! Excellent suggestion Mark! I'll try that next time as I do have some of that blue Micromask stuff on hand. For this stage, I used Blu-Tack but I noticed that it did not stick very well to the shiny side of the cast resin. Great game plan! I'll be doing something similar but probably without the use of masks. I'll probably play around with a paint mule to see what kind of wear effects I can utilize. Another great tip for temporary attachment of resin parts! Thank you! Makes sense that the Germans would use temp white paint that would allow them to revert to normal camo colors once winter was over. Further futzing with the MDC resin cockpit. I just noticed something during dry-fitting. A notch in the kit fuselage that seems to correspond exactly with a tab on the resin cockpit. It's not mentioned in the instructions but could it be a designed locating aid? One way to find out. A couple of snips and cuts and it appears that this is something that MDC planned although not specifically documented. It's hard to keep the resin tub in place without glue but it seems to butt up nicely once that notch was cut away. With the luxury of some extra sidewalls, I've cut away a rib on the bottom edge of the sidewalls to see if it would improve fit. This would press the sidewalls closer to the fuselage walls and make the opening from the bottom wider, hopefully making it easier to fit the cockpit tub into position from the bottom. I temporarily secured the sidewalls using bits of Blu-Tack and then pushed the cockpit tub into place from the bottom opening. Success... at least partially. Not the cleanest fit but I was able to squeeze both sidewalls with the cockpit tub AND was able to tape the two fuselage sides together. Some more trimming is required but I think I'm getting there. The delicate resin experienced the first breakage... the small pin to hold the trim wheels on the port side of the seat broke away. I recovered the tiny piece and may attempt to reattach it at a later stage. Some clean up work on the fuselage was performed. Don't need those little bumps on port side (they hold the umbrella on 109's based in the desert) and too many fuel fillers on the starboard side. The bumps are cut away and the fuel ports filled with Black CA glue.

So a little more dine adding Spandau's and other small bits and pieces in readiness for fitting the upper wing. Needs some touch ups here and there but getting there now. Regards. Andy

Exceptional and beautiful work on display. The instrument lighting is a very cool touch. Here are some of mine for your viewing pleasure:

another kit finished this afternoon :

my last built , enjoy : voila voila

Good evening, just airbrushed the upper surfaces in the dark green variation of RLM 82. That´s it ... next will be black lower surfaces. Bye :-)

voila, a shorter intake. keep in mind this is just stuck together with no glue

Whatever the cause it's just a terrible shame. Some amazingly talented people working for a company that created astonishing model kits. Their kits created endless excitement and enjoyment in our hobby/work. It'd be great if things could be turned around and they stayed in business. Truly gifted and visionary people are worth keeping. Matty

hi Derek B, thanks for your compliment, appreciate it! SO now I have finally finished this project. Took nearly a year but it was worth the effort. Can't wait for the -F to come in October! anyway here is the last in progress pic of the carrier deck, everything put together now: more pics will follow, lets see if I can make some photo's from my back garden in the sunlight tomorrow. Thanks for hanging in with me, it was an amazing adventure! Now, where is that Strike Eagle that I only half finished last year?

Got another one for the gallery! I built this one a couple of months ago when I was in a little bit of a modeling funk so the goal was to build it cleanly and quickly (as a result, I decided not to fix the dreaded "gap" in the upper wing). Painted with Tamiya paints according to the WNW call outs. Only AM were the HGW seatbelts and the Master Models brass barrel for the LMG 14/17.

Couple Spit Pits...not even close to how cluttered and complex they were. and we did fix the compass position.

Folks, Wanted to pass along some pictures of my recently completed early D.VII. This one gave me a little more trouble than the other WNW kits I've completed. Not sure why but I'm happy with the way it ultimately turned out. The only additions were the HGW seatbelts and the Master Models brass barrels. Hope you guys like it.

I actually went and quickly deepened some of the chin rivets with a micro-drill because they weren't taking the wash well. I'm pretty happy with how this looks now: And yes, that missing machine gun is going to be replaced! If I could go back I would have ignored the instructions and not installed them when I closed up the wings. I'm still unhappy with the uneven nature of the detail over these decals. I need to go in and carefully poke/scribe it in a bit more positively and then try the wash over. This kind of fooling around is what makes me wish I had the skills to paint all insignia and stop messing with decals, at least for things this large.

And we have a painted engine! Treated the engine with a black oil paint wash, details picked out with Model Master enamels. Still requires a final clear lacquer, but I am happy with it...... Now working on cleanup of all of the kit’s remaining small parts. This seems to be the step I tend to stall out on with most builds lately. But, we will get her there in the end. Have a few other projects I want to get back to, like my P-51B air racer, an AH-1Z Viper, and my 1/18th Dora project.......So many projects, so little time! Thanks for checking in on me..... THOR

A SBD after a rough landing: note the rivet pattern on the wing. Found here: http://images.google.com/hosted/life/5a42ecad62631ef8.html Jari

Brief update (more to come very soon): I fitted the Academy parapack parts to the Tamiya rudder base without difficulties, and was impressed with the fit: I scratchbuilt the sensor on the port side. Looking forward to finishing this up and painting! Cheers, Tom

My take is that there should be far more lamenting over the Lancaster being hurled into oblivion than over an Albatross or Fokker showing up on Ebay for a gazillion dollars... I was winded when reading the fist report. Feels like losing a close friend to a terrible accident. Yes I wanted one very badly.

Civil thread Tom and what a great hreat idea as I'm sure most of us have finished plenty of cockpits but not the rest if the plane it sits in!. So here a a few if mine over the years. Hs-129 Fokker E.I Bf-110 G4 Ju-87 R2 Ju-88 G10 Regards. Andy

Pics show another variant of warhead used. Still debating whether to have weathered empty launchers, loaded launchers, one loaded/one empty...also shows the grime and dirt they accumulated, especially the inner surfaces of the gear doors. have found pics that show the doors and legs almost black from grime, guessing the pace of usage determines maintenance. I too enjoy the painting part, makes or breaks the build. This one was a lot of work, ended up with a ball of masking tape a foot wide, worth it in the end. Have most of the color on it, will apply the black and Corogard today. Don

then front and rear part were glued together again, some rivets will neve to be added i front of the panel line modified part on the left, kit part on the right

next i shortened the underlying airdeflectors (is that what they are called) the proper amount:

This was the whole underside of the plane with the panel line liquid applied. I only did a few rivets on one of the decals as an experiment, just to be sure there was not some untoward effect. I have been giving it 2-3 hours to dry between application and removal. And after wiping all that mess off: I have found that trying to use a Q-tip (cotton bud ex-US) to remove the excess tends to be too efficient at scouring it out of the recessed detail. I'm using Kim-Wipes (lint-free lab wipes that you can buy from Amazon) folded into a little pad, ever so lightly moistened with odorless spirit, and dragged gently across the surface. I'm finding it helpful to dab an area lightly to soften the dried enamel, wait a few seconds, then come back and wipe. Seems to be the best way to clean the surface while leaving stuff in the details. Nothing bad happened to the decals where I tested, so I went ahead and applied wash over them, and touched up a few other spots where I had over-removed the first round.

Had a break from scribing and opening up holes with a bit of painting today (still work in progress of course!):

Hi guys, in addition to dedicating a fair amount of bench time to WWI aircraft this year, I also wanted to work on some naval subjects. As I have a lot more bench time - in addition to yard work time - on my hands right now then normal I opted to try my hand at a new technique for me; a ship set in a dynamic seascape. Previously I have only built one water scene; a Type IIA Uboot taking on supplies at a pier in Kiel. Though I modeled the water, it was a static harbor scene and simulating the rippled surface was not that hard. I researched the topic of wave motion caused by a ship underway and that turned out to be very complex topic indeed. I learned a lot and attempted to use what I learned on this build. The ship is Trumpeter's 1/350 scale USS San Francisco as she looked in 1942. I built the ship OOB and the only change I made to it was to simulate the damage the San Francisco suffered when she was struck by a burning Betty bomber on the afternoon of 12 November 1942. I also did not weather the ship as the scene I wanted to simulate shows the San Francisco during the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal during the early morning hours of 13 November 1942. The diorama captures the moment just before she opened fire on the IJN Hiei that was sailing on an opposite course off her starboard bow some 2200-2400 yards away - pointblank range for the big guns of heavy cruisers and battleships - and just as she was illuminated by the searchlights of the Hiei. The San Francisco was the Task Force Commander's, Rear Admiral Daniel Callaghan, flagship and the thread title comes from part of the last command he gave; right before the San Francisco was hit by the first fusillade of what were eventually 46 hits of various calibers. Rear Admiral Callaghan and his staff were killed only moments after he gave the command to "Get The Big One First!" when the flag bridge was struck by two 6" shells. In addition to the technical challenge of simulating ocean waters - enclosed as the were in Iron Bottom Sound - with a ship underway on their surface, I had to come up with a way to simulate a ship at night being illuminated by a searchlight. I used a technique I saw the excellent German modeller, Guido Hopp, use to simulate the water. It turned out alright for a first time though I think I could have done a better job on the bow and transverse waves, as well as the wake. But overall I am satisfied for a first run through. I did not make the water super glossy as the scene is set at night. As you can see in the photos, there are two distinct shades to the water. The port side of the ship is darker, while most of the starboard side is lighter to simulate the reflection of the searchlight. Overall, the effect turned out ok and looks the part. The ship itself is also two distinct shades for the same reason. I mentioned above that I did not do any weathering, or varied the tone of the paint on the ship. Though I have never seen a warship illuminated by a searchlight I have seen my share of terrain under flares during my career in the U.S. Army. Direct lighting like flares, and I am sure searchlights as well, create stark contrasts between lights and shadows, and the harsh light leeches small details from the object being illuminated. The transition between light and darkness is also very abrupt. So I used different shades of paint to attempt to show a nighttime scene in broad daylight - as it would have looked at night. I'll let you all decide how successful I was at that! To begin, some overall photos: And now some close ups: This last close up shows where the Betty hit the San Francisco during the afternoon of 12 Nov. The impact damaged Battle II, the aft 8" director, destroyed two 20mm AA guns and some of the light armor around the platform. It also killed 22 sailors and wounded 22 more. Most of the damage to Battle II and the aft director was repaired before the battle. I did my best to accurately replicate the damage from the Betty using photos. Below is my attempt to use some lighting tricks while photographing to better simulate the San Francisco caught in the glare of the Hiei's searchlights. I hope you have enjoyed the photos, and please feel free to critique! Ernest

That message only says they suspended temporarily sales because of the Covid crisis... I'm still waiting for a clear statement that the company is closing definitely the doors.

My precious!

It isnt out yet, so since Im not sure it ever will be, Im not sure if I get to count it.................

This "landed" on my doorstep this morning, flew all the way over from Germany courtesy of Lothar - he really is a very lovely gentleman!! It's 1/48th of course and therefore can't be included in my LSP Lightning build, though you "might" just spot it in the background (assuming that I get to an RFI stage wit the Echelon Lightning!): And the colour scheme is absolutely perfect: The whole kit looks to be very well and crisply moulded, with good detail, some of which will be helpful to me with the big boy....interesting size comparison: I'll be building it 100% OOB, I have no doubt that it will be great fun and I hope for a reasonable result, especially with the metallic paint finish!

Hey folks, I built this kit a few months ago and am just now getting around to posting some images of the finished product (no decent place to take pictures these days so my apologies for the poor quality images). As with all WNW kits that I know of, this one falls together and was a blast to build. This one was a completely OOB build with some minor detailing on the engine. As with a lot of my other builds, I'm not too strict about historical accuracy.

Tamiya’s famous 1/32 Mosquito. I don’t think I need to say anything about the kit. It’s simply brilliant. Almost ruined it with Humbrol acrylic Matt varnish. The horrible stuff left white marks all over the place. Fortunately many hours of careful sanding with micromesh removed the worst of it

the splitter plates where shortened next:

Test... Can everyone see this? I have just signed up with Imageshack….

Seems to me that was one of the points of the X-3 program, get data for future designs.

I suspect it's a little of both; panic buying and speculation.

The diorama base is sloooowly coming along... Here is o couple of pictures of it's status.... Just poured the resin for some puddles on the road and the 'swampy' area with the cobble walkway. Kent

Worked on some more interior, added addition jumps seats to the radio compartment along with thermoses and a paper cup holder to the bomb bay door which the early fortresses had. Some more work on the flight deck including the throttle quadrant and painting the seats. Also painted the tires, so bulbous and nondescript, they remind me of the Bugs Bunny cartoon with the Gremlin...

Progress are slow on this one and it is a bit of a grind to build, paint and weather 30 snakeyes (I will only use 28). I have build the Eduard MER. I need only one but build all six of them. There there was a little problem: I realised they were too short So I decided to sacrifice one of the 6 MER and cut 8mm section to extend the other 5, then careful blending and sending, trying to avoid losing as much detail as possible. I cut each MER at a place where the cut will be mostly hidden by the bombs so even if I lose some details not biggie, it is more important to get the length right. I made some progress on the kit itself but nothing picture worthy yet but soon. Cheers, David

Now starts, the nightmare, working with the color black, it is not easy to get a nice look, and even worse is to photograph it, but to me it looks ok, i did some test on the tail, and at the second attempt i think a got it right

Decals on. I'll give 'em a few hours to fully dry, then obsessively poke each rivet with a pin before Micro-Sol-ing them to get them good and snugged down.

Hey all, got just about all of the clutter positioned on the back bulkhead- now I can start moving towards the front of the cabin- I realize that that these photos tend to all look the same..the progress is slow but steady. Much of my time at the bench is spent thinking..and moving bits of gear around until the arrangement looks believable. cheers Pete

Good morning, finished the fuselage mottling by adding more RLM 81 and RLM 82 (with a drop of black added).

Thanks again for following along guys. Yesterday I finished the base and it's sunny out today so i grabbed a few bright pics. Nothing better than natural sunlight to show the true colors! A little frost on the ground on the Eastern Front as the pilots get ready for the next sortie...

Hi Karl Scheme of missile configuration was: matra r530 on fuselage center, r550 magic on wings xtreme. 1700lt fuel tank on wing middle. Shaffir dont used. Saludos!! Pd. The logo on tail was... Pay attention.. the other logo on decal sheet was used like conmemorated war.. year later