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And so my Hasegawa 1/32 Fw 190 D-9 is finished representing Red 1 of JV 44's protection flight and flown by the the Staffel Kapitan Lt. Heinz "Heino" Sachsenberg (104 victories). The models was finished in Mr Paint RLM colours which were a joy to use and the decals were by EagleCals. This model was supposed to be a straight from the box quick build a year ago - but instead became a money magnet! After market sets used were the following Quickboost props Quickboost Super-charger intake Quickboost exhausts Aires cockpit Aires main gear bay Barracuda wheels Eduard canopy mask Eduard Spiral mask Eduard landing flaps Master MG 131 and MG 151 gun barrels - and also pitot tube HGW seat belts and control surfaces EagleCals decals as mentioned above. Added to this list during construction were two of my own AIMS products - 32PE014 Fw 190 Hatches and Latches and 32D024 Fw 190 Oleo Leg markings (I just could not resist getting AIMS into the build somehow Three other after market products were bought and had to go in the bin but apart from those headaches I really enjoyed building this exotic bird of prey. The model finish was rather simple thankfully as Tamiya 2mm wide flexible tape seemed to fit the scale perfectly. And so with the Mr Paint White Primer masked off the RLM 23 was applied. Once this was masked off the RLM 76 and late war greens were applied free-hand using the many photos of Red 1 as best as possible. Hope you like the finish photos. Please note only the first two photos show the red lowered and locked landing gear indicators as I forgot all about them till after checking the photos. Best wishes and stay safe, John

Ruth Bader Ginsberg , United States Supreme Court Justice, passed away today at her home from complications associated with pancreatic cancer; she was 87 years old. Know of her or not, she was involved in most, if not all, Supreme Court decisions, some landmark decisions, in one way or another since 1993. It's a sad day in the US for any of us who even remotely follow US jurisprudence. I personally admired her for her tenacity and dedication to her profession. I never had an opportunity to meet the lady but we, in the United States, are better for having her on the Court.

Hello, well, I started another 109, the second plane ... now a 1/32 trumpeter too, but a K4 , straight out of the box without aftermarket ... some details improved by hand here and there no more ... I leave photos of the cabin. Regards

I've been a little delayed on this over last few weeks... Plan was to make resin copies of a few of the Aires parts, so that I could cut and shut/modify them to produces a reasonable F.Mk 3 cockpit. However - could I find the fresh batch of Rubber and Resin I ordered from Sylmaster in June? No. No I couldn't... House turned upside down... Garages turned upside down... Shed turned upside down... Followed by "must have taken to the office/studio" (50 miles away). Office turned upside down... Lots of muttering and about to order more this morning (not cheap) - but took a look upstairs at one of the wooden storage boxes we have - and, sure enough, there it sat. I *really* can't remember putting the box in there. I think it must be age... Anyway - means I can get back to the 'pit next week when I'm back in the office - as my vacuum chamber is 50 miles away - at work! Might do some simple stuff on the Revell parts tomorrow - just to make a little progress. Iain (the absent minded...)

Please keep politics out of this discussion, as in 100% out.

Google is your friend, especially when you hit the "Images" tab. Here is the search for your subject where you will find some chutes painted occasionally, but they are much later than the early 70's. VFMA-232 F-4 Phantom And here is a search of all versions of F-4 Phantoms, where you will find that most chute doors are painted, but most are also more recent pics like the ones I posted above. F-4 Phantom Having poked around for these pics, it comes to my mind that the chute door may be aluminum while the other panels forward of it are titanium, so over time they started to paint it for corrosion protection? It's also a bit different color than the other panels, making the determination of light grey paint vs bare metal tough to decide, especially with old grainy photographs. You also find some cool stuff like this VFMA-232 bird that had a bad day, but it appears the air crew survived by ejecting. First guy to say, "That will just buff out!", will lose a small and very important kit part to the carpet monster. Cheers, Chuck

Tonight was getting the gear finished up. I put a bit of a pre-shade on, followed by some MRP Khaki gray followed by some weathering including a small leak in one gear, and some oil and grease stains and an ovaerall wash of Tamiya brown. Nothing too fancy by ANY means, and not a ton of scratching in here, as I'm thoroughly enjoying doing this one generally OOB. The only thing Im really changing are the wheels/seat belts and gun barrels. ZM has made the upper and lower wing to fuselage fairing separate pieces, so the fit of everything before them needs to be exact. I went ahead and followed the instructions that indicate to attach the upper fairings to the upper wing parts prior to attaching the upper wing sections. Trial dry-fitting of the upper wing sections indicates if I glue them properly, the fit will be just as spectacular as the lower wing halves: The fairings themselves fit really well to the wing sections and make a nearly seamless joint with the tiniest bit of realistic overlap, just like the real fairing had: More really nice engineering from ZM, well done old man! Ive got the weekend planned for some modeling, so will be fitting up the upper wings and gear, then will move onto the empennage. Cheers!

Ok the "intermediate rear crankcase": Similar to the intermediate stage supercharger section already described, this piece started out as a lathe turning, and then a bunch of plastic add-ons. I don't have any early-on pictures as they are so similar to what I already described. But here are some pics of the basically finished part: The large white flat area is where the "rear crankcase" will be mounted. The round white flats are for mounting of the aux stage air exit ducts. Wahoo! And attached to the intermediate blower stage: See that weird looking circuitous rectangular section pipe running horizontally on the near side of the assembly? That is an oil passage pipe: Here is what the engine looks like so far: Coming right along. The last remaining section of the engine is the rear crankcase: This is also a lathe turning that starts out round: ...and then gets alot milled off: Until it looks like this: So much has to happen with this part! You will see that next post, so stay tuned!

Proof of life- actual work that pays money has gotten in the way of this build lately.. but when I’m home I usually am able to find some time everyday to run a few rows of rivets- about the only place I see any hint of carrier film is over the filler- cheers Pete

BTT! Hey all, the question above still stands, if anyone has the answer. Otherwise, minor updates as I’m kind of on pause while Woody does some work on the rivet set. Assembled the main gear, thanks to Synthetic Ordinance Works. The oleos look GREAT with the real metal showing. I thought I had a problem with the left gear leg, but it turns out that Trumpeter molded the opening in the gear bay on an angle, at least on mine. See below picture of the strange kick out of the wheel. Easy fix though. Also started painting up the propellor, using Alclad chrome for the spinner and aluminum for the hub. My yellow orange tips might be resprayed as they aren’t quite even. The overall airframe has been gloss coated and stands ready for rivets and black basing! Soon Close up shots aren’t nice! Definitely reworking the tips, now that I see that ridge at the bottom.

Onto her undercarriage. After the weathering I treated the model to a coat of Tamiya TS-80 matt clear decanted from the rattle can, slightly thinned with Tamiya lacquer thinner and then airbrushed on. The result is a noticeably lighter grey with a slight satin sheen. I'm happy as it is : Undercarriage took a whole hour to get in place : And with wing tanks on : The artificial light is messing with the photos. The closest colour in reality is what you see on the right wing in the image above. A nice faded grey. Now to tackle the windshield ....

Hi all! I scratch built the center control box as correcting the kit part seemed to be even more work! It is still a bit rough looking, but at least it is a sound base to add the rear and front seat plus the pedals and control column. Photos of Tiger Moth restorations are a lot of help! Also a bulkhead has its rectangular opening cut into the kit part. The bits taped in place: Continuing to the front seat... Alain

Hi guys, now that my exam and other social commitments are over I am about to commence building a Twogar for this GB. As this is my first resin kit I will take it slow, so no guarantees it will be finished by then. I may also ask a lot of questions relating to building techniques for this medium. Ok, so the version I am going for is the Twogar as stationed in NAS Atsugi, Japan - making Bu No 147413. Got the kit and using Naval Fighters number sixty-eight by Steve Ginter as main reference. Any AM and upgrades used will be discussed as I go along. Pictures to follow. slainte, L.H.

this was my side project during the summer I don't have any special interest in Bf 108 but the Eduard boxart caught my attention and I really liked the fact that it was released with all AM I have used only reference pics available on web Painted with MR Paint, weathered with different AMMO stuff thanks for looking jan

We take a look at the Sea Gladiator variant of the excellent ICM Gladiator kits. Blue skies! Iain

So I took your advice Albert and got back to work, as I had spent a long time on that heat shielded area and figuring out how to modify it. Just finishing off the back end before I cut it off. I posted this side because I am waiting for some superglue to dry on the other side to fix a panel line that shouldnt be there (looking at a drawing and not photo's). For those who know your Brit Phantoms, after seeing this will know which version I am now building Not much of an update....but progress is progress! Cheers guys Anthony

OK, I won't say it but that is another great weathering reference. Thanks Chuck.

Checking several photos, it appears that it is a timing thing, with early 70's having no paint on the chute door, while later examples, which are more numerable, have it painted. My apologies to ziggyfoos for the misdirection. Examples: 1971- No paint 1974- No paint 1977- painted, although who knows if this is actually correct 1989- painted Conclusion: If you want early 70's accuracy, go with the metallic look like ziggyfoos said. Cheers, Chuck

They are different, I meant to include only as general examples.

As you can see from the lack of updates, I stalled a bit because I messed up. More on that later The wing were attached: Sound easy but it was not but I'm glad that is done. Now something was itching me as I was working on the nose but I wasn'table to see it until the nose was glued on the model. Once it was attached and sanded I saw it immediately, it is too short and it misses something. All pieces felt into place and I knew that the itch that was bothering me was the nose sensors I reproduced not bieng glued at the right place on the nose: They are right under the nose tab and they should be placed more to the rear of the nose section Sure enough I forgot a nose section, clearly seen in the above picture in lighter yellow. It's about 12mm in 1/32 That was dumb

here's some from online, this is from 1971, clean looking then: in action in 1972:

As i recall these pieces have been painted. They are a mix of 50% mission models white and 50% insignia white. I did all the main color in Mission Model paint. The next phot shows the frame of the upper or lower hull. You screw together this big metal dish and then screw the individual hull panels to it. It comes with a plastic dish that helps you support the hull halves while you work on them. Very useful. Next are some shots of the internals. The inside cabin areas are very toy like with minimal detail. Either it all needs replaced with 3d parts or you need to detail it yourself. I used a few 3d enhancements, some of my own stuff and some scanvenged PE.

Our web is still in progress, will also be in English and will have e-shop. Please be patient.

A very minor update today because I've been in the garden (working!!!) all day, but it's funny how things go round in your mind! When I was learning to fly Tiger Moths I thought I recalled the lever for the leading edge slats being only in the rear cockpit on the starboard side, the one occupied when solo flying of course, so I checked this out. The kit instructions show a lever in both: but looking at the real thing: so: I said yesterday how good the fit is on the fuselage halves, you can see this above, but here's a quick "dry fit" look inside the port half:

Apologies for the delay fellas, but I'm finally back with another update - albeit a brief one. I've been slaving away over a replacement front seat, which in most Tiger Moths is radically different from what is supplied in the kit. I took my queue from both Max's and Chris's builds, but it turned out to be a much more difficult task than I had imagined, and it didn't help that I took probably the least clever path to get there. But get there I did, and after several days' work, this is what I was able to churn out: The heavily primered surface needs a bit of a polish, but it'll be ready for paint after that. I've included a bracket for the cockpit fire extinguisher, and new well for the control column. It looks a little rough, mainly because it is, but remember that the photo shows it at 2-3 times actual size, so it should look sufficient once painted, weathered, and in situ. Fire extinguisher and control column coming soon. Earlier, I'd also done some work on preparing the tail surfaces, and again basically just copied what Max had done. I started by thinning the relevant control horns: Thinned on the right, stock on the left. I separated the fin and rudder, too: Again, control horns thinned, blended in, and rigging holes pre-drilled. Contemplating adding attachment bolt heads for additional detail, but this stuff really tests my struggling eyesight! I also modified the horizontal tail surfaces in line with Max's work, drooping the elevators slightly: Control horns are suitably thinned, but still need some work to blend them in fully. More (hopefully) soon! Kev

Happy New Year everybody! It's about time to post the pics of my finished 1/32nd scale Viking. The background is not ideal as the photo booth is too small. No way to take photos of the diorama either - I'll have to wait for better weather to take these photos. Anyway, no need for a lot of text this time - for those interested in the building process, here's the link to the WIP: Comments, critique and questions are welcome as usual!

Something a little different. I've been working on this for a couple of years and I've only just got up to the stage of buildings and fine details. It's a bit hard to explain it all, but it's all N Scale Japanese stuff that I bought on the occasions when my wife and I were in Japan. Everything has been modified/repainted. Scenery is plaster, static grass, etc. I'm looking forward to getting into doing the details soon.

Another Zero finished. 1/32 Hasegawa kit, Eduard color cockpit & wheels, Yahu instrument panel, HGW wet transfers & seat belts, Aber gun barrels, All colours MRP test sample IJN

Hello gents, My name is Olivier from Belgium. I'm a long time lurker on LSP as I do mainly 1/32 models but never actually posted a model. I decided to post my first after completing my first Fisher model: the Sea Fury. I read a lot of topics on this very forum while building this so many thanks to all previous LSP Sea fury builders, it was very helpful. The model is mostly OOB save for minor modifications around the Hook bump and scrath of the engine innards as some cover behind the exhaust plates were omitted and I wanted to detail the inside. Paints used were acrylic gunze H71&H72 for the top surfaces and Vallejo azure blue for the undersurfaces. I traded the fisher decals for some hobbycraft's desert fighter. Thanks for looking, any critic more than welcome.

Just started this little gem of a kit. Fit is great so far, although I know there is trouble ahead with the intakes. Lots of dry fitting and fertling to ensure good results is in my future. From this.... To this... Having been vocal in the discussion about 3D printed cockpit decals (very in favour), I showed the above to my wife and she said "you don't need those 3D printed things, do you." I will love her forever. Next up, ejector seats. Enjoy Don

I/Ps, not perfect but; inside the cockpit, in scale, good enough! As usual Airscale dials and bezels, they really do make all the difference.

I strongly suspect that's just normal wear and tear.

@haveblue Whatever kits you choose, I hope you land on your feet. I know we don't know each other, but all of us here share a common camaraderie through a mutual love of the hobby. So, I wish you the best in these difficult times.

Ah, but you haven't seen the cockpit yet! I really went about detailing it with the wrong approach, and should have done what Alain is doing - follow his example, not mine! Instead, I tried to use the weird seat plinth piece from the kit and build around it. It would have been much better to do rip it all out and start completely from scratch like Alain did. Still, I think I'll mostly get away with it. Hopefully an update with photos soon. Kev

F-16 and the Hs-129! Why the HS-129? I've got their Ki-45 on my bench right now and the fit is every bit as good as any new gen Tamiya kit I've built (and that's saying something!). The HS-129 is as new as my Ki-45 and I suspect it has the same VERY good fit. That being said, cant go wrong with a Tam Viper!

I was just looking at mailing cost and it may be cost prohibitive but I would be happy to go to the Post Office and get an estimate. If it's not too bad I would just send it and not worry about it.

I don't know how long it would take for you to get the part from Tamiya to NZ but I may be able to help. When I started my F-4J project I was so paranoid about sanding off the raised panels on the fuselage and re-scribing and riveting that I bought a second fuselage from an eBay seller that I didn't use. It came with the exaust shielding piece or whatever you call it. I would be happy to send it to you to practice on or use as needed. Just need an address to send it to. It may take a long while to get to you too but it's an option.

It actually is 1/1 scale. It is kitted to the same size as the 32" studio model made for Empire Strikes Back. So technically it is considered 1/1 scale as it is supposed to replicate a studio prop. I think it actually more detailed than the prop though, for some reason when looking at good photos of the ESB prop the real prop's details look softer. Relative to a person it is somewhere in the field of 1/43 scale according to what I have read. However I just purchased two figures for it and those are scaled to 1/48 to fit the cockpit and the seats.

Alright, I have spent waaaay too much time analyzing these profiles. I am going to see if this helps.... Photo's purely for illustrative purposes: OK, now see the J/S profile Now see the K/M profile Now, in a hope to illustrate where I think the curves start and finish etc, I have highlighted the top row of fasteners in red, then tried to understand where the apex of the same curves go (in green) on both. Now I know this is not an exact science, but it's helping me to see where they all change etc. To me the curvature is mostly at the top and coming down deep over the tops of the cans, the rest looks much the same, if blended down. Hopefully my basic editing skills illustrates what I am seeing....? This seems to match everyone elses photo's posted here. Hopefully this shot of a US back end at this angle helps illustrate Oops, ment to add one of Iain's images here

I'm still waiting for some stuff to arrive in the post for this one, so have stalled a little bit. I need to get back to it and finish detailing the cockpit, but I'm not especially happy with my work so far. Still, it will look substantially better than the kit offering, so I'll take that. Kev

Believe what you may, that’s your prerogative, but (a) He was a contractor, not an employee (b) he is no longer under contract and (c) he wasn’t giving out vital company information, just mentioning that he was contracted to turn paper plans into digital drawings.

I went ahead and lightened up the panels above the titanium area and it does look better. I also went over the way too dark touch up looking paint top and bottom and it's now really subdued and just look like pre-shading in those areas. It's just enough to show a bit of a difference. Much better to my eye.

Right weapon bay instaled.... I made a set with Ho-5, Ho-103 guns and wheels.... more here:

I flew AH-1 Cobras, and OH-58’s in the Guard and UH-1H’s in flight school at Fort Rucker. Jet are for kids. You can’t really see what you need to kill at Flight level 3 whatever zero. Remember it was a flight of AH-64 ‘s that had to start Desert Storm for those air force gurls. When you need the job started or done well. Don’t call The AF. They were a part of the Army in 45 remember. Now we have to take the best to be Space Force. Too funny. . Remember those Navy boys are still seeing bugs inside their radar displays and so-so swear they are seeing UFO’s. Oh plz!,,, Army all the way. Good luck on your answer.

Thanks for your interest so far, fellas! I promised an actual modelling update, and here it is! With a conversion like this, the best approach is to make all your cuts and get all the major conversion parts fitting as well as possible. With that goal in mind, I followed the instructions and marked out the area of the fuselage that needed to come off: Once I had a straight edge to cut against, I used my JLC razor saw with a scribing motion to gradually form and deepen a cut line. Here's the result: Now, a cautionary tale: I got lazy and used some Tamiya tape left over from my previous project to mark my cut lines. This tape isn't really robust enough for this purpose, and the razor saw wandered a bit against the tape. This is nothing that a bit of putty won't fix when the time comes, but the cut on both sides of the fuselage is a little wobbly. I should have used Dymo tape, which is much more suitable for this task, and paid for my laziness! That said, the job is done, and it doesn't look too bad right now: I have a bit of work to do to optimise the fit of the resin parts, but the most difficult part of the entire build has to come next: cutting and fitting the vacuform canopy. Why? you might ask. Well, there's little-to-no margin for error with vacuform canopies, whereas I can fiddle and fettle with the plastic and resin all day long. So I need to know exactly where the rear of the vacuform canopy will be, so that I glue the forward portion of the new fuselage hump in exactly the right spot. No point finding out later that it's too far forward or back! That's it for now. My next few modelling hours will be devoted to perfecting the fit. Kev