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Thanks for your various comments, fellas. It's very slow work at the moment, as I find myself making and remaking detail parts, and trying to figure out the best way forward without snookering myself. While I was making the seat, I also made a new control column, since the kit ones are a joke: Most of the rest of my time has been spent on detailing the cockpit, and it's a bit of a mess, really: Apart from some airscale photo-etched levers and a bezel piece, it's all scratch-built, and based on what I could glean from various photos. You can see that my decision to try to combine new detail with existing kit parts has resulted in a less-than satisfactory Frankenstein effect, but I'm hoping it'll pass muster under some paint. The perfectionist in me wants to rip it all out and start again, while the pragmatist in me knows it'll be all right on the night. In reality, most of the grungy bits won't be noticeable inside the painted cockpit, and it's all a learning experience anyway. Next step is to get some primer in there so I can see exactly what I'm dealing with, and if there are no glaring issues, it's on to the painting stage. I need to add a few more cable runs once the seat is in place, which will be tricky! Kev

Clear and then weathering.

Sorry Guy's I've been off the 'Dragon' for a while, working on other projects... I also had to find a proper blue for the fuselage, but it turned out not to be as easy as I thought. (Ordering paints and testing them, wrong color! Ordering new paints etc...) I finally settled for Vallejo Game Color 72.019 Night Blue. Not too green or violet, I think it's very close to the 'OY-DIN' blue. Next up will be painting the letters on the fuselage. So, I've started working on the vinyl masks. Kent

An area where the Matchbox/Revell Tiger Moth is totally lacking in detail is the base of the fuselage directly underneath the cockpit; reinforcing strips of wood, bolts but most noticeably a couple of devices for aileron control: Silver Wings is better, but still needs work. The slot where the aileron control horn pokes through is modelled but needs to be opened: and when it is, it lines up perfectly with the base of the joystick in the rear cockpit......10/10 Silver Wings!! So I fashioned an "L" shaped piece of PE strip which will be glued in position at a later date: Time to add those nuts and bolts!

The beginning of the end.....(back end LOL) Seems to be fit issues in this area on other peopled builds, I see what it is and can address it. A spacer in the back to line the lower piece up with the upper piece should do it. This is just sitting here, nothing glued

IMHO, there are a number of considerations to suggest that WNW won't rise like a phoenix; or certainly anytime soon for those who seem convinced he will sell on his creations for others to re-box. PJ does not 'need' the money and so entering into negotiations to sell may not, to his mind, be worth the hassle. Talented and creative people like PJ (often) have egos to match and combined with 1, I think personally he will say that this was 'his baby' and 'vision' and no-one else. In terms of his overall business portfolio, the WNW re-sale of moulds money would be absolute peanuts and so given he destroyed the (multi-million $ ) LOTR film scenery sets rather than sell them on, it shows that money isn't his main driver and the WNW moulds would represent a mere fraction of the return compared to the potential sales he could have enjoyed with selling the LOTR stuff. Don't forget, some WNW kits such as the Brisfit and J1 fro example were in production many years (10+ in some instances) and many for about 7+ years and so, those who were going to buy them will already have done so. Those buying now are simply 'panic' buys by kit builders or 'investment' purchases by kit speculators. As such, the market moving forward to make a new production run (say 2K+) to make it worthwhile must be wildly optimistic and ultimately impossible to reach. Also, some models - I understand the Felixstowe was a disappointment in terms of sales but was made simply because PJ 'wanted' it to be made - will have been very poor sellers right up to the end. Likewise, their new Gotha and UWD kits which you can still get today and even at less than retail price in some places appears to have no ready market even in the long term. Not all of the WNM kits will have the long term viability and sales market potential as stuff like the Alb DV/Dva, Camels, Pfalz DIIIa and DRVII's etc. There were a heck of a lot of 'esoteric' subjects in the range and think to yourself, how many of some in the range do you ever actually see built up at shows or on the internet or magazines as build articles...? Take the Salmson, the Rumpler and the Pfalz DXII for example. The looming and inevitable world recession makes 'luxury' products like this hard for any new model company buyer to make a profit (from scratch) and ensure long term viability of sales which recover any purchase costs of the tooling (and) make a profit. Sadly of course, whoever knocks them out will always be seen as an inferior product to 'the real deal' in a WNW box anyway....look no further than the comments on this thread with Meng Models boxing the DR1. Gary

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.

I wasn't too happy with the position nor length of the inner strip on the SW model so I sanded it off and added a longer strip, slightly inboard. However when I checked my reference pictures that I took of the Tiger Moths at Henstridge, I found differing patterns of bolts and lengths of strips on different planes, which given the fact that they were built 90 years ago, probably in different factories or parts of the world even, shouldn't surprise me! So I've done a kind of generic arrangement: The width of the PE access panel determined the position of the strips.

So I think this is a wrap for this model. I'll post the usual iPhone photo on messy bench for the record here, but I am going to try to do a better RFI. I ordered a cheap gray tablecloth from Amazon to use as a visually neutral backdrop, and I dug out and charged up my Cannon DSLR (which I don't think I've touched in 3 years). I'm going to try and make some better looking photos to document the completed model. Next up will be a Ki-86a IJAAF trainer (a license-built Bucker Bu131) over in the Training Day group build forum! I am excited to get started on that.

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.

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.

Ok folks, small update. Started a new job on Monday, which means a lot less travel. As such I managed a few hours at the bench the past week. Started planking in the nose section. You can see the graceful lines starting to come out. Not many would say that about a Prowler, but I'm here to tell you that girl had curves! Here's a real blurry pic to show the process. Didnt realize it was blurry till I'd uploaded it, and after I'd primed it... Here's the other side. You can see I kept the kit pieces that will allow my to use the kit's windscreen. Trying to make it easier on myself. The section of canopy I have left will be perfect for the aft cockpit. You can see the planking technique I used peaking through. Goal is to get these fuselage sides done and do the cockpit floors before attempting to make the section in the middle and finessing the canopies. After all that is done I'll piece together the wings to do a fit check to see if my plan for the hook works. Think I'm still good weight wise, but always worth checking a few times before I'm committing to something that won't work... Thanks for following along Peter

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!

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

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

Here comes trouble.... The canopy sections are around 5mm too wide at the base. Luckily a bit of treatment with a hairdryer sorts that out... I added some plastic card detail to the canopy. Tamiya tape used to mask. The canopy breaker is the little white part - it goes on the port side of the canopy. Here's a lovely little piece of art : In place, unpainted : V3Bs and launchers. Need to still paint the IR seeker heads : Looking like it means business....

If the mods shut every thread that wandered OT there'd be precious little on here to respond to, and virtually no threads longer than 4, no make that 2, pages. Actually I learned a lot that was interesting about how most kit makers do spec work, so I didn't mind a bit.

Each build step comes with a magazine and a small plastic bag of parts. It is okay, it can be built in this matter but it is not so great. It is meant to spread out the cost of an expensive kit as you can buy it over a subscription. It is also designed to create a kind of "excitement" so instead of a logical step by step you jump around in weird ways. For example a issue might come with a small sprue of parts. In one case there was a tiny circular part left on the sprue. I don't even remember what magazine it was from. Well that piece did not go on until the very last stage. It was one of the last pieces that went on the model. So you had to keep that tiny piece where you could find it until the model was completely done. Here are a sample of the magazines. As instructions go they are okay, however there are some inadequate bits. They tend to give you a small bag of screws in each issue. They could just give you one big bag of all the screws. Then you are not dealing with dozens of tiny bags of six screws. Also sometimes they just say use a screw to attach the part and it is not clear what kind. There are at least 5 different kinds of screw in the kit. Here is a shot of the recess ports for one of the Mandibles. I weathered them with various shades of pigment, some rust tones, some soot, maybe some earth.

The older I get, the more amusing I find threads like this. We all have subjects we'd love to see, but... We all want what we can't have We get excited when that which we previously can't have is announced We go into a slough of despond before that which we previously can't have is released, as someone 'spotted' something heinous with the test shots, drawings, or their tea-leaves We buy it anyway... We add it to the stash We crave for something new that we can't have And so the 'virtuous' circle of modelling continues, and it will ever be thus! So, after years many of pondering on the meaning of life, modelling and all that, I'm just going to ask for my current 'most wanted': Time - to build Enthusiasm - to build Space - to build Health and eyesight - to build Everything else is nice to have, but with a large stash, these are now my fundamental 'wants'. Happy collecting! Iain

@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.

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

Lukgraph's stunning Dragon Rapide/Dominie in the spotlight: In the topsy-turvy World we currently find ourselves in, this kit makes me happy! Have fun, Iain

I hope you enjoy this as much as I. Sincerely, Mark

I just want their Dambusters Lanc.

We don't lock threads because of topic drift. We might occasionally try and stick handle one back onto topic though.

Hi Max, no I haven't encountered any major issues, other than the resin being a bit 'rough' - Well now after four or five layers of paint, the surface has become quite smooth! I used a bit for the seams and to get a better fit for the windows, but the puttying on the 'belly' wasn't actually necessary, I forgot about the stiching Kent

Your guys actually mask tailwheels???? Wow. No wonder I've never won a contest.

Kent (kkarlson) asked in the Ready for Inspection post of the Hartmann Bf 109G-14 White 1 if I could elaborate on the weathering technique I used. So here goes. I first used this technique a ways back in the Tamiya Israeli P-51D thread, using it with enamel paint to weather the bombs. Seen here: And here: In these two images I airbrushed the bomb OD then mixed up equal amounts of OD and Black and using the end of a flat brush gently dipped into the mixture, removed the overage on a paper towel, and gently tapped the bristles about the bomb. I did the same with equal amounts of OD and White, then with Yellow, going from dark to light, and creating a physical texture of paint, as the enamel wasn't thinned, and a color texture of dots. For the Hartmann White 1 I used a Black Gouache (a water based paint) wash then stippled. Seen here: So, using my next build, a Hungarian Bf 109G-14, as an example, this is how I did the Hartmann White 1: I started with flat brushes. I used the top two. Made a wash so the end result would be constant. Used the white brush to put on randomly located washes. And used the end of the red brush to tap the wash, which absorbed the excess. And left little random dots from the bristle ends. Here I put a lot more wash on than needed, which is OK. Because after I finished stippling here, I simply continued to finish the rest of the wing with the excess which had capillaried up the bristles. This is the other wing. I use Gouache because if the results turn out badly I can remove it with water and try, try, again. There you have it, stippling with Gouache. Pretty darn easy. Thank you for your interest. Sincerely, Mark

Not to me buddy. Not at all. Just put that last comment out there as a warning to keep the peace. What is an innocent enough topic can quickly burst into a conversation about anthems, sport and US politics. Some young kid singing in front of a massive crowd and smashing it out is worth a doff of the hat. Matty

I think this thread be stopped and totally new ones made as this is NO LONGER about a Tamiya 109 G-6........... well that is just my thoughts:)

Pretty sure "their" Helldiver was a repop of the monogram/promodeller kit. https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/am/kit_am_480405.shtml

I should put that on a 10 hour loop on the computers at work and see who falls off their chairs...

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

A true giant in the world of jurisprudence, and a huge defender of human rights for all. May Justice Ginsburg's memory always be a blessing. Baruch Hashem.

Back to assembly of the disks. These actually went together really well. To reduce uniformity, I painted each panel individually. There is nothing uniform about this big ship so I painted the base off white on each separate panel sort of in batches. I would paint about 5 panels at a time. First is a shot of the frame going together. Each panel is later screw to the frame. I masked each individual colored panel once I had the basic assembly together. The gun port windows are aligned wrong in the kit. I scribed both out and aligned them to the correct orientation. Why the maker did not leave them as separate parts is a mystery to me since they were about the only parts affixed in place and predone. Most of the color panels were not done by the manufacturer, a few were present but most were not.

The quest is finally over! After a long search I managed to spot and scoop a Fisher's Ford, supposedly one of the few still available in the market. After a long journey from Japan, it landed safely to her new home in Rome. For those of you who may be interested, the seller, Keystone Models, has some Fisher Model items still in stock (https://www.keystone-models.com/airtoday-3224.htm). Pricing is fair (except for whopping custom & handling takes here ...) and customer service is impressive. My package has been disinfected inside out (complete with a certificate!) before shipping to prevent COVID potential contagion. Hashifume-san (mail@keystone-models.com), the shop owner, is indeed commendable for his customer care. If this raised some appetite, you may shop with confidence. I guess my Ford won't stay long in the shelf! Happy modelling! Stefano

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

And now I get to show you the biggest folly I have committed yet on the R-2800 project - the carburetor. Why did I spend two weeks on a component that is going to be practically unseen? Well - part of the reason is that when I finish this engine, I intend to display it on it's own for a while, as I do other things for the Corsair like the cockpit or the wings, or the cowl. And partly because R-2800's had big bad-a__ carburetors, and it would just be neat to do one. Pretty weak.... The R-2800 had many variations, and part of those variations were the carburetor. "A" and "B" series engines all had some version of the Bendix-Stromberg PT-13 carburetor. In the case of the F4U-1's and everything up until the F4U-4, it was the PT13-D4, which was an upside down (updraft) version: I have no idea why Vought wanted a carburetor on the bottom of the engine instead of on top like almost all other R-2800-equipped aircraft. Any of you know? That is the reason this work is such folly - it almost cannot be seen down there. Up until I found actual drawings of PT-13 carburetors and their components at AirCorps Library, I really had very little to go on to model it. Vought drawings of the engine compartment stuff showed outlines but no good details. My R-2800 book had some decent pictures: That helped some but I could not scale much of anything. Note that it looks like a great big single-lens-reflex camera. It has a throttle body, a regulator unit, and a control unit. Then I discovered that Aircorp Library had Fuel System information in their "components" section. Thank you, Thank you! Look: Amazing! And there were drawings of the components too (all three - body, regulator, controller, and more too). Only thing is - there was nothing on the updraft -D4 version. Only several versions of downdraft versions (right side up). But that's OK - the versions shared many components or very similar versions of those components - some opposite hand, some upside down, etc. That eliminated some of the guesswork. And sadly, the drawing pictures are not crisp enough - where most of the dimensions cannot be read. But I figured out a few though, which allowed me to scale everything else. And using some pictures I have of the actual F4U engine which include the carb, I was off to the races. Just using all types of EV plastic stock, and dozens of Meng nuts, I made the basic body (on the right) and the control unit and regulator unit (on the left): Finished: And temp placed on the (upside down) engine: These super-duper close-ups reveal things I'd rather not reveal! Looks much better from a foot or two away: OK, here are the engine components completed to date (after about 9 months of work): Next is the aft section which is two components: Good god - these are complicated. With any luck I will complete these before the election! Please stay tuned.

Entering into the foray of my first full resin kit build, I decided on the 189 as its an unusual subject very rarely modelled in any scale let alone gods own 1/32. I have to say, I really enjoyed putting this together and while I did have a few issues of my own doing, generally, if the clean up is done correctly, it goes together well with few fit issues. The problem areas i encountered were around the following areas. Where the booms attach to the underside of the wings, a gap needs to be dealt with. The glazing at the rear of the fuselage where the transition from square to round took me an age to deal with. its still not spot on but this was more likely a me issue rather than the kit itself. The section of upper fuselage was undersized and needed considerable shimming and re alignment to mate with the glazed areas. Again its not spot on but its good enough for government work as they say. First time with a HPH kit. The glazing was weird, being soft and maleable polypropelene (i Think) they gould be bent easily without cracking or other damage. There are other mistakes I have made but for anyone who is thinking of building this kit, do it, just ensure you take your time and dry fit multiple times before committing to glue. Anyhow, on with the show. Based VERY VERY loosely on this colour scheme, Here we go.

I just got my subscribers edition of my favorite mag, FlyPast I love the cover!

Not sure how you can put this one back on topic since there is no Tamiya 1/32 Bf-109G on the way. It’s just the standard Tamiya wishing thread.

For me f-16 and hs129 no brainer. The zero can be easily had around these prices from amazon and luckynodel. That f-16 for 60$ ive never seen it that low apart from the second hand market On a side note real sorry about your work disapearing. Hope air travel comes back soon and that you find something in the meantime to stay bussy

Apparently they're called pendulum vibration absorbers. I found an explanation on reddit "My understanding of them is that they simply passively flop up and down, out of phase (due to their weight/inertia) with the vibration of the rotor blades, and thus reduce the vibration of the blade." Jonesy was on the money with his intuition that it was a kind of dampner. Here's a link on the theory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuned_mass_damper This is a fascinating area of engineering. This is the most spectacular example I can think of that demonstrates why controlling vibration is essential. I forget when I cam across the need for helical vanes on cylindrical chimneys but now everytime I go past one I notice them and recall it as a critical feature. Even my kids know the concept now...lol One of those...hey look at the window at that. amazeballs huh?

We take a look at a new set of decals (two sheets) from Fantasy Printshop: Euro Decals ED-32101 Very Colourful Sabres Have fun! Iain

Thanks guys. Unfortunately, progress has been painfully slow, literally, as I've somehow hurt my left arm. The joys of getting older, I suppose, though it beats the alternative hands down... I'm typing this one handed, slowly . I'm still working on the spark plug wiring, which is proving difficult with only one functioning arm. Still, I've got one set of six in place and I'm working on the second, then it's just the top sets. I'm not using the kit pieces here as they're too fine to drill into for the wires, and I've broken a couple of pieces that I have made, so have to start again. I've also corrected one piece of detail in that these engines have a cooling gallery or pipe mounted just between the spark plug wire gallery and the exhausts. No pictures yet, but hopefully a better update soon. I'm still waiting on the decals I want to arrive too. This week, if the postal pixies smile on me?? Cheers, Michael

The world is a darker place without her. She was a true giant in the fights for equality. Losing both John Lewis and RBG in the same year has been pretty terrible. Matt

Academy also has some of the Accurate Miniatures molds. The only AM kits that haven't been brought back are the F3Fs and the early Mustangs. Matt

I also found this: F-4J-35-MC Phantom II/Bu. 155814 VMFA-232 as WT-15. 1970: VF-121. 9/14/1970: Crashed near San Diego, CA So was it with 232 or 121 when it crashed? Jari

The timeline has to be clocked with computer use and sophistication. AM made some great models.