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September 23/20 I skipped Step 28 earlier, so here it is. This is a navigation light of some kind on the bottom of the right wing. The instructions are a little confusing, so here are my modifications as follows: 1- Trim and dry fit the light (K6) within the wing, because it fits poorly. You don’t want to be fiddling with this part after painting. 2- Using clear acrylic red and green paint, paint the back of the lights as instructed with a brush, but only to the first recess, not the second. 3- When dry, paint the back of each light with silver or aluminum paint to the second recess. This covers the red/green, but also fills in the light surround. Let dry. 4- Apply the two circular masks to the back of the light and cover the front with tape, saving the front mask for later. 5- Paint the rear with Interior Grey-Green like the cockpit. 6- Remove the front tape but leave the circular masks in place. I see no reason to remove them and if you do, you risk pulling up the silver backing to each light 7- Install and glue into bottom wing 8- Apply outside mask for future painting. Here is Part K6 with just the red and green paint applied from behind. The silver paint is applied from behind to the second recess, the circular masks are applied, the front is covered with tape and the back of the part is painted Interior Green After the green paint dries, pull off the front tape and voila! Red and Green lights with metallic surround detail, encased in a green background, just like the real deal. Considering this light is on the bottom and rarely seen, this is a bit of detail overkill, but nonetheless pretty cool. Speaking of detail overkill, I used to always add significant wiring and hydraulic line detail to my main landing gear wells (LGW), but once the model was finished and photographed, I rarely ever saw it again, if ever, so why bother? As a result, my last 4 models of a Spitfire, F-15C Eagle, F-5E and Harvard/Texan have none of it. These decisions were fairly easy, because you can’t see much of it on a Spitfire, the gear doors on the F-15C are mostly closed when parked and the F-5E and Harvard had some decent wiring molded into the plastic, giving me clear a clear pass to be lazy and skip this step completely. Having said that, you can see a lot of this detail that I applied to my P-51 Mustang and A-10C Warthog, so I’m glad I did it, so where does this Tempest fit into this picture? Checking many photographs of the LGW’s, which are really hard to find from every angle, this model should have quite a bit of this detail, so I begrudgingly added the key electrical conduits, wiring and a few hydraulic lines with a variety of widths of lead wire. I didn’t do every wire of course, but the main ones you might remember after looking at the LGW for maybe 10 seconds or so. It’s not perfectly accurate either, but pretty close to what I see with my eyes. I didn’t add any wiring brackets and other fine couplers either, because everything is painted Interior Green, which hides the color contrast between line and bracket, making it a waste of time in my mind. Before I did any of that, we have Step 30, which adds a variety of kit parts to the LGW’s. Few of these parts fit very well and they all have strong seam lines on them, so there’s lots of clean-up and trimming required. Parts H41 and H42, which are identical, open and close the inner LGW doors, but after installation the piston rod protrudes beyond the wing bottom, guaranteeing breakage later. The easy fix for this, which I always do on any piston parts, it to remove the rod, drill a hole and replace the rod with a steel pin which you don’t need to paint and can be removed for later installation. Here are the parts cleaned up slightly on the left and fresh off the sprue on the right. And the beginning of my wiring and a really good tip: If you are going to add wiring, drill out all the holes in the sides before you assemble the LDW’s, because it’s really difficult to do so after, like I did. I didn’t because I thought I wouldn’t be adding any wiring, but of course that all changed once I checked some pics of the real deal. The larger lead wires try to replicate fairly thick conduit pipes, which are noticeable on both the front and rear of the LGW’s. These and many other lines enter a junction box, Part H17, which is fairly shallow, so drilling holes in the sides for the wires is almost impossible. Thinking about how to do it, I decided to cut Part H17 roughly into thirds, removing the center section for the wiring and gluing the outside pieces in place. I discovered something kind of cool, noting that Parts I46 and H30 have notches that can hold wiring in place similar to the real deal, so I added some accordingly, while covering Part H17 with brass PE cover plates to finish them off. Now a bit of a walk-around, so that you can see where I put wiring and where the junction holes should be. The kit parts had most of these junctions, but I added a few more. Again, nothing is perfectly accurate, but overall I think I got the quasi-accurate and busy look I was hoping for. With the bottom wing dry fitted, you can see the wiring on the bottom (top of wing) mostly shows, while the wires on the top (bottom of wing) barely do, but are still visible. This shot shows why the piston on Parts H42/H42 should be removed and installed later when the gear doors are glued on at the end of the build. That gap at the top of the LGW’s from this angle, will close when it is glued into place. Next step is painting and weathering, which should make the wiring really pop and look more realistic. So that’s it for a while boys, because I’m having Carpal Tunnel surgery on my left wrist tomorrow and I’m not sure how long it will take to get back into game shape. I have it really bad on both wrists, no doubt caused in no small part by this hobby of ours and 66 years of breathing above ground level. I will need my right wrist done sometime after that, so the progress of this build could be bumpier and slower than usual, but it will get finished! Cheers, Chuck

Well, the big Trumpy Avenger is done. For those that have followed this build it has been an adventure. Her she is in her glory, warts and all...

Hey, I have finished all of the major body work. I have sprayed some gloss white as the base for some colorful squadron markings. When the white was cured I masked it and have applied the first "dust" coat of gloss black. I am sure that I will find flaws and sanding marks. Next, after a day or so to cure, I will need to sand out any remaining problem areas before a heavy wet coat of gloss black. Thats all, Dan

Last year my wife bought Wemo wireless light controls for our house for my birthday. I installed four in the house and one outside. They are all controlled by an App on your iphone and worked well. We've had them for about a year then they quit working. The Wifi app wants us to sign up for an account with full personal information before they will let them work again, no options. WTF? No reason given, no idea why? not happening. The alarm bells started with it being an app that stops working when they make a change and want you to sign up with all your personal info yet the product is paid for and installed in your house. I'm taking them all out. Wemo is a solid thumbs down. Just a warning, there is no reason for them to require an account with very personal info just to turn on and off your lights unless someone want's more info than you know your giving. I am not even going to start on Alexis....

just stuck together with the pins and some tape, this is a pretty big airplane

Has anyone ever noticed having a conversation about a product and then noticed adverts appear on your phone? I have. Graham

Unexpected alright, I didnt see that shape change coming either LOL I have spent waaaaaaay too many hours just on this corner of the heat shield area. So after bulging this area out with plastic card I have been slowly building up the shape with CA. I have stared at so many Phantom back-end photos, I am seeing them in my dreams now! I wont know if I have it right until I get some Mr Surfacer on there and see if I can get a 'true feel' on the shape...hopefully before I go to bed tonight. Phew!

This may be old news to some, but I thought I would share. The Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow has digitized and made available hundreds of documents, photos, log books and printed material. There are notes and manuals of Polish aircraft and interests of course, but there is also material on French, British, German, Russian and Czech aircraft amongst others. As an example, I've included a link to a number of manuals/pilot's notes for German aircraft. Thought they might prove useful to some. If you click on each of the photos of the folders, there are manuals for different versions for each aircraft. https://muzeumlotnictwa.pl/digitalizacja/index.php?/category/64 If you go to this main page, you can click on the "Nowa strona" (transl. "new page") to go to a resource that has material more or less catalogued in folders: Ksiazki - Books, Albumy - Albums, Personalia - Personal collections, Dokumenty - Documents, Czasopisma - Journals/Magazines, Instrukcje - Manuals, MLP - Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego, Inne - Miscellaneous. On the bar that says "Stara strona" (transl. "old page") there is an enormous list of digitized material of all kinds. http://muzeumlotnictwa.pl/muzeum/pl/biblioteka/ I spent a fun afternoon just poking around, and found amongst other things, more 303 Squadron Mustang photos and pilot's notes for the Spad 61 c1! Hopefully this will help someone. Richard

Thanks for the kind words Anthony. Final tranche of piccies : Complex arrangement of the lower Cheetah E nose : Canopy removed to show seat detail :

Thank you Albert. Just a mini-update: Completed the rest of the canopy framework and now that I have some protection around it, added the gunsight. Fun Fact: Despite "Ace Maker" gyroscopic gunsights being pretty common at this point of the war, these Mosquitoes were still equipped with the older Mk III fixed-reticle sights. Supposedly these were more accurate for air to ground strafing and rocket attacks. Mk III installed. Tamiya provides a nice little PE sun shield to with this. Looks like I need to do a bit of touchup on the framework. Just an overall shot of my Mossie at this stage of the build. Did I mention that she's a big bird? That's it for now. Thanks for checking in!

That's just crazy talk.... BTW, put some clothes on man, what's wrong with you???

plasticcard for the floor of the pit and some old resin seats from verlinden. these are for an F-4 and seem to be MB Mk 5s, so they would work EDIT: they dont

Getting there....this shape is surprisingly tricky. I am showing you guys this as I try and figure it out as I go. Allowing you to see how rough it is under the primer. More refining to go and then the other side and replace surface details. Half of this will be removed and grafted into the piece AlbertD has sent me. Cheers guys Anthony

Even though my PC monitor doesn't have a camera, I still think I'm being watched.

I have a distrust of computerized electronics as well...furnace, A/C lighting garage door etc. If your car can be hacked why not a house?

OK folks, a quick mea culpa. I almost dismissed him outright, but Ben might be right. I'm not 100% sold yet--still doing some digging. But it's looking like he's correct. Short story--reached out to a bunch of folks from the community--everything from old Sailors to the head tech rep that worked on her from day one. I got ALL sorts of answers from yes they're the same, to not sure, to who the heck cares?! As I said earlier, the two windscreen panels are the same. They even had the same part number in the supply system. Supposed only difference between the 2 aircraft was where they got drilled to accept the screws that held them in place on the canopy bow (I'm not that big of a rivet counter...) It's the curved side ones that are looking different. It was bothering me, as I couldn't remember any difference and what I've built thus far lined up with my drawings and the rather poor drawings from the manuals (cause we all know how drawings work). Here's some pics I used to illustrate where the difference is. I grabbed 2 pics from seaforces.org and then superimposed them. Here's a Prowler: Here's the Intruder: You can see they're taken from nearly the same spot, so the perspective is good (close enough for my SWAG). Here I made the Intruder transparent and overlaid it on the Prowler. To check that they're the same size, I lined up the splitter on the intake. The forward gear doors and the nose gear are also lined up... Finally, I lined up the windscreen to take a look at the side sections. You can see for yourself that the lighter section (Intruder) is indeed bigger than the Prowlers. Not by much mind you, but definitely bigger. Again a SWAG on my part, but I'm guessing it's around 3 inches max. Even had a comment that it wouldn't be noticeable in this scale. YMMV, but 3 inches equates to around 2mm in 1/32... enough to be noticeable and that I'll account for it. Will mull it over before I decide how to tackle it--on the plus side I'm going from bigger to smaller, so I could actually sand of some of it to account for the difference. Easier than trying to make my own clear parts (which I'll still have to do for the canopy...and don't ask about the gold coating, cause I'm dreading that!!!!) So in short...do your homework. And don't count on those of us that spent a lifetime in and around a particular airplane (tank, ship, whatever) to remember, or even know. Just my .02 worth! Thanks for following along and the comments! -Peter

A flight of A-4s from the same squadron heading into harm's way with a load of Mk-36 Destructors, of note different intake warning markings, one doesn't have any numbers on the wing, only one has the anti glare on it's nose and not to mention a couple of them need a good wash: Jari

The Master metal pitot probe is gold

Apart from the obvious patch work paint finish, I kept her clean i.e. no oil leaks. The SAAF really maintained their aircraft in good condition :

Yesterday the port side recieved its touch ups. Unfortunately photographing them with artificial light didn't work out as planned. The contrast between the touch ups and the base paint is a little bit higher than in the pictures. Clos up from the tail. Inspired by 27+79 and the starboard side of "my" zipper 27+81. The upper and front fuselage is made up from a combination of 27+79 and some artistic license. In the next step the radome recieved its colour: ADC grey and this time the AK real color seems to be spot on. I couldn't resist to pull the masks from the demarcation line and to put on the wingtip tanks. Finally I can see where this is heading and the tendency to bin/SoD the thingy has vanished. I'll pull the masks later today and hopefully all markings are sound.

Yep, happens more than you know!!! Tim

Hi all, Just finished this, lovely kit - but the Meng additions are average - Instructions/ Decals. The wings were bent, but easily reformed. Work in Progress here: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=11486.0 Guy

We don't mind about your pyjamas...but all those plastic kits??? We will put you in the "deviant" category. Big Brother inc.

Another one finished. Final bits added included the emergency canopy release handles - made from thin wire and painted red, with small pieces of clear plastic for the windows - single pitot probe ahead of windshield, drag chute cone and another blade antenna on the spine. The refuelling probe is loose fitted with a brass rod for strength. Canopy also left loose. Nav lights also painted green/red. I'm very happy with how it looks - she wears that grey suit well : I really like those intake pylons and bombs Photos of exhausts show them to be rather silver and shiny :

This is the stage when I am impatient to see some results, so it was off with the masks, just one small paint job to do. In the begining I painted the fuselage sides white and applied the white bordered Hinomaru mask in it's entirety, so now I need to remove the red section of mask and airbrush the red, for this I take no chances and thorough mask everything off. And then rip off all the take and masks to reveal this. Which I am very pleased with, just got a couple of places to touch up and I can start adding all the bits and bobs. Cheers Dennis

Hi Albert, Your Phantom project is coming along great! One advantage of the Aires seats, with their separate belts and harnesses is that it give the modeler an opportunity to pose the latter more realistically. The shoulder harnesses in particular were under tension from inertial reels and therefore gathered upward. Quickboost (and others) seemed to have portrayed them as seen in pictures of removed seats that are undergoing maintenance. Typical pose... Less typical for an operational seat...

Havoc no but a IM and resin version of the DC3 now THAT would get my monies!!!!

Thanks for those words of wisdom buddy! Coming from a master patternmaker and scratchbuilder like you, that means a lot! Good to know I am not the only one who makes stuff up as he goes LOL. I am off to bed now, I have the other side all cut, shimmed and filled with CA, That can all cure whilst I sleep Thanks again Anthony

i started to modify the front fuselage for the cockpit floors. front and back seats are staggered in height. the inside of the 3D part is hollow with just some thin strings of material present, so after cutting through the surface it pretty easy to make room. i used a mini cutoff wheel and stanley knife for this.

Well in our house the CEO is always watching murder mystery stuff, so god only knows what they think is going on in here oh and did I mention the Crystal Meth lab (we’re watching Breaking Bad at the mo).

look here http://infinitymodels.cz/2020/09/24/aichi-d3a-val-132/

some news http://infinitymodels.cz/2020/09/24/aichi-d3a-val-132/

I think they're second-rate for airbrushing, compared to what you're used to - especially MRP. They're usable with a bit of work, but only if you can't get the others you've mentioned. Vallejo is my go-to range for brush painting, though. Kev

Awesome! I was looking at this exact same file yesterday, the same designer makes a 1/64 Super Etendard that was tempting to scale up as well. My 3d printers are starting to hate me for all these projects LOL

Ok guys, I need an honest opinion on the seats. These are the Quickboost seats with molded in seatbelts. I still have the Aires seats and PE belts that I can still paint up and use. Also have a set of Eduards painted PE belts I could use with the Aires seats.

OK, I'm "moth'd out" for today!! The two halves ready for joining apart from the front IP in the starboard half, of which more later. With hindsight I'm not sure fitting some bits in one half and others in t'other was the most brilliant idea because trial dry fits were difficult to the point of impossible, the key factor being the exhaust pipe, so I eased it off for fitting later. Things then became much easier and the top join is acceptable at this point: though I wasn't happy with the front IP which was a bit skewed......so I took it out......hmmmm! I intend altering the profile of it slightly so that it seats better in the fuselage, though whether I'll ever get it back in again is another matter. Sunshine and golf tomorrow!!

Big update.. Wingfold has lots of PE.. Techmod masks for outside, insides were done using the carrier as a template MRP paint was used... Jig required to set wheels plus brake lines added to gear: Techmod decals were used, some finesse was required for the port side insignia to fit over the air vent scoop as solvaset had zero effect on the decals. Walkways were done using ammo paste. Getting close to done... Now please go to the Ready For Inspection forum section for the final reveal....

ah ok, thanks Mike

Thank you! Well, I think, that this is quite awesome product. These decals is like Yahu products. And now Quinta start to produce interior decals in 1/32 for F-16 and Su-25/25SM. Regards, Sergey.

And some final shots with the umbrella. The umbrella turned out well, but it sort of spoils the pretty (IMHO) lines of the aircraft a bit: Thanks to one and all who followed along and gave encouragement and support along with way. This one was way fun, Im now on to faster and more pointy things! One of my favorite pics that came out for one last final glamour shot............ Cheers all!

Im calling this one FIN! This one was a lot of fun and the fit was excellent. Keeping in mind the scheme is complete fiction of my own design, and that the weathering is a bit heavier than I would normally make it, but the situation seemed right for it, so here we are. Also bear in mind the lights in my photo booth have already been confirmed to make the RLM 79 quite a bit lighter looking than it actually is. This one is a bit pic heavy, so stay with me! Without further stalling for time here is Marseille's Do-335 A-2/Trop - Yellow 14: MORE.....................

Thanks all! I've got to go out and change out the front pads on the disks of my Jeep, but the big Fraulein is complete: I'll post the glamor shots when the brakes are done on the Jeep. Cheers to all for the encouragement along the way!

I'm also working on the Trumpeter 1/16 Panther G. I am building a late war (Feb 45) version with the early version kit, since the late version only comes with the steel wheels. To do this, I am adding the following from the late version kit: —crew heater (added after Oct 44) —flame dampener exhausts —late idlers (only the Daimler Benz Panthers kept the early idlers late war) —one set of steel wheels Fortunately the early version includes the chin mantlet option (introduced Sept 44) already. Now, I did mess up when I contacted Trumpeter's customer service by ordering only one sprue of the late idlers, so I have only one! I'm hoping that I can order another from them, but if not I will get two of the Heng Long version on E-bay. For references I have "Achtung Panzer 4" which has some really nice drawings, and various web sources. My emphasis will be the exterior, but I won't completely ignore the inside, so I've purchased some Archer stencils and Tamiya Fine Red Primer. Late war there are some really eye-catching (at least for me) schemes to choose from: the brown diagonal bands with dunkelbelb stripes over a green base painted on some MNH Panthers, the brown splotches over a green base painted on some MAN Panthers, or the tight elaborate brown and dunkelgelb splotches over a green base on some MAN and Daimler Benz Panthers. The latter is what I am selecting, a last steel wheel version built by the MAN factory: (shown for reference purposes only) So far I have built the suspension, the transmission, and the engine. The detail is amazing, and so far I've only added the shield that protects the radio operator from the shock absorber. Note that for late war Panthers the rear two shock absorbers were removed, and the hole left in the bulkhead on the right side is replaced by a steel plate. Since I am building a Feb 45 version, the interior hull will be painted with red primer only (starting October 44 the complete interior was painted this color until February 45 when the turret interior was again white, allegedly due to complaints from crew members about visibility). Here's where I'm at so far: Cheers, Tom

This is fantastic, invasion of Panthers !!! It's quite a show. Cheer up Tom !!

He was not landing, he was towing the carrier

Oh to have a decent -4/5 Corsair!

Those seats have come out really well Albert, especially the colours. Some useful advice has been offered. For me though, matting them down a bit more would help them look a little less 'shiny' in areas, so look a little better for the scale (I used to work on these seat types, so am fully aware that the real things were far from a matt finish, but it can sometimes look a little unrealistic on a scale model). Still, looking great Albert, well done Derek

Earlier this year a mate asked me by text if I'd buy something for him as I have Amazon Prime, at checkout I was asked if I wanted to send it to his address, which I didn't have!

If so, might be worth spraying a layer of Tamiya fine white under the paint, then you could spray any paint you like.

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....