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Thanks Johnie and John! While I'm working on the cowling joints (which will be a long and iterative process), I'm adding a few details to the wheel well. I cut this piece off of the Trumpeter kit fuel tank connection and added some wiring for hydraulic lines. Stuck it in place on on forward bay spar. With the landing gear temporarily in place, I mounted some hydraulic lines from those three holes on the wheel bay bulkhead that I noted previously. The terminals on the landing gear side are free-hanging for now and will be locked down after the wings are assembled.

Thanks Rockie! I'm enjoying this one too! Here's what the nose looks like after a couple of rounds of filing and sanding. The primary filler has been Mr Surfacer 1000. On some of the deeper gaps, I used black CA glue first to provide some structural stiffness and then Mr Surfacer over that to blend into the plastic. A few more rounds and I should be ready to re-scribe. While working on the nose, I thought I should go ahead and glue the cockpit tub into place. It should be protected from the fuselage sides and would provide some stiffness to the fuselage assembly which might prevent some of the seam work in the nose from cracking. Since the wheel well bay is now permanent, I can secure the ends of the yellow electrical wiring bundles and also add some of the actuator pieces. With the wing temporarily in place, you can see how the view into the wheel bay is limited and hopefully no dangling wiring ends are now visible.

Ok, quick update before bed... I am really pleased at how the intakes have shaped up internally. I have the intake lip sorted, but still prob 1mm too deep, but I can live with that. I have the opening width correct from the lip to the closed vari ramp at 14mm. I shortened the intake and tweaked the length of the rearmost part of the ramp to get the proportions more accurate. Anyway, I hope you guys are happy with the look of the new intake opening and geometry, please give me your feedback on areas I might have overlooked? The outside contours will be a whole new story The middle section of vari ramp needs modifying as the intake length is slightly shorter, but this area needed addressing anyway. Notice also the contour leading edge shape change on the top, this matches photo's See below the new intake opening, I think it looks like a Spey one now....well to my eye it does, only about 1.25mm wider but noticeably different. And here is the back of the ramp piece modified a little I photographed it on the grey plastic wings as you couldnt see it on the white background So tomorrow I shall spray Mr Surfacer on the internal trunking areas and fix any blemishes etc. Then on to doing the right side intake. Are my mods doing the trick? I dont know, I guess time and photography will tell, if I got the 'look' correct, but it's the best I can do. Thanks for looking in as always

Last update here. The landing gears are done... mybe one of the most difficult part of the kit to put together... and a lot of details were added too. The a resin SJU-5/6 ejection seat finished with Vallejo colors. For the end the canopy... again, a lot of details were added inside the frame. TA-DAAA!!! All pieces went together and so my big USN F/A-18C Hornet of VFA-22 is now finished... On the RFI forum section soon. CIAO! Piero

A huge milestone on this build has been reached... The Rumpler is up on it's floats. You never really know if the build is going to succeed before stages like this has been accomplished. The main struts have been soldered together to add som stiffness to the structure (not my cup of tea, but it does the job) The floats have only been dry fitted, amazingly there are still some 8 struts to fit... Cheers: Kent

Ok all sorted, I will make Ben a set of clear parts this week all being well, and then will make up a complete set with the frames etc. hope all goes well, when I have a result I shall inform you all.

shes arrived!!

Thanks for the link. It certainly makes for some pertinent and interesting reading, and will give me some direction on this project. And said direction seems to have been lacking so far as I've spent many hours flipping back and forth through the instructions deciding on the best method to tackle this. But that's largely stopped now, brain is in gear and a little progress made. I like to paint all the interior parts at the same time, so some work has gone into preparing them for that. I have started on the interior, with the sides glued to the fuselage rather than the floor as suggested by the instructions, the instrument panel is under way, as is the seat mounting frame. The seat mount has been glued to the relative frame, and photo etch attached to the sides, then the lightening holes were drilled. There's still a little more work to do here before attaching it to the floor. All the lightening holes have been drilled on this and all other frames. I've also spent some time on the fuselage sides, drilling more holes, painting and drilling holes for cables etc to be added later. Here's the left side: And the right side: From here, I can start adding more details. Next is the instrument panel. As mentioned, I have some Eduard etch kits to add to this model, but on looking at other's work lately, I decided to have a go at the kit parts, rather than use the etch pieces. While nice and easy to assemble and get a good finish, there's a bit more of a challenge with the kit parts, so here goes. After painting, and picking out some of the panel in paint, I added the decals to the clear pieces then glued them into place when the decals had dried. The flight instruments were built in the same way, but the panel itself is a steel etch part provided by Tamiya. Here's the results so far: Main panel: Flight instruments: The panel is now mounted in place, onto the panel frame/firewall assembly: There's still some more work to do on the panel, but it's getting there. I'm not entirely happy with the compass either, which is OOB with some Micro Kristal Klear added to make a glass face that matches the gauges on the IP, and may yet use the Eduard part for this. So that's it for now. I'll be continuing on the instrument panel assembly so I hope there will be another update shortly with that part of the model finished. Cheers, Michael

Did manage to finish the build, concern over the gear being strong enough is unfounded. I used the kit decals, they are a little thick, but applied nicely, conformed. Have to say, this is a really tiny build, looks like a 1/48 beside other 1/32 builds.

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. I have been very unwell myself and not able to do much but the with constant nausea I have needed to concentrate on something and so I have been slowly doing some decal options have been in the planning stage only for about 1 year. Well as you know I have a number of products in the pipeline, once I have successfully brought them to market I will be releasing a JG 54 1/32 decal sheet. I hope you like the options - I certainly enjoyed making them between running to the toilet haha. My grateful thanks to my good friend Delmar Davis for helping with selecting many of the options. Enjoy this 'work in Progress' and thanks for looking.

The model is of Lieutenant Bill Atkinson's aircraft that he flew the night he shot down three Aichi B7A “Grace” torpedo planes making him the second Canadian “Naval Ace” of the Pacific war. As indicated it's the Airfix kit with Eduard and Airscale aftermarket detail parts added to the cockpit.

This year from me will be a couple of books as separate prizes. 1. 2.

Thank you Sir! I’m afraid compared to most talented master-modellers on this great forum my work fades, but I am learning and get better in time. Meanwhile I created a new tubular structure for the float stub, this time made from stretched sprue and leftover PE bits from KH’s F-86K which I used as mounting plates (A real nice kit BTW). I thin the new one is far better than the first.

Stolen from Tommy Thomason's blog here Points to note are the shallower angle of the lower intake spill duct profile, and the different pattern of the intake suction bleed holes. I've thought about using a grayscale printed decal for those, but haven't actually researched which setting would give the best dot pattern.

Hi everyone. It has been a while, but I have been working on the model for the past days. So, here are the pictures. First of all the top turret. A And I;ve also been working on the fuselage interior. Tail compartment done And finally the fuselage was put together. And I also managed to detail one of the engines. That;s all for now folks. Greetings Luc

Thanks Anthony and Rick. I have a Tamika kit, in BITS AND PIECES, from when I was going to do the K/M conversion, and canopies are still good to be used as masters. I will do a set of clear canopy only parts for STARFIGHTER if he wants them, after that I will assemble and cast with the frames, so he best be fairly quick. PM on the way Rick, regards other items discussing

What would you guys prefer, just the clear parts recast in clear resin that being parts D5 and D6 or them assembled onto B52 and B53? Also would you want the screen doing as well? I cannot see any reason to do the frame D3 between front and rear but do let me know otherwise. Starfighter :- I think you would prefer just the clear parts without the frames, am I correct? I could make you a set of those fairly quickly all being well, BUT with the holidays and everything they may take 2-3 weeks from now to arrive?? Please send me a PM if you would like me to do this for you, or if you want the option proposed below. Going forward I propose then to make a 3 part set, screen, and the 2 assembled open sections (glass and frames) as that would make production casting easier to do, would that suite most people? I think I would fill the ‘V’ groove at the bottom of the canopy rails as that would help all round and would be more accurate, would that be agreed? Cheers Ali

Hello! Due to fiasco of 1/28 Revell Dr1 (sink marks on every part including M-G's and unavailable AM sets) and because my wife just loves red Fokker I'm going through terra incognita (building more-than-one-wing airplanes) again. This time with new Fokker. Now I'm trying to paint plywood with oils on piece of styrene. I'll begin with Fokker ASAP.

1/32 HK Models kit HGW seat belts Eduard wheels & exhaust Yahu instrument panel All colours MRP painting mask homemade & Propeller 77

Last lot: 1/32 Hasegawa N1K2-J ShidenKai. Box is a bit rough, contents are near mint.

All- I was perusing the "future releases" on Hannants and noticed a few interesting entries dur early next year... EDD32007 "Die alten Kanonen" (decals intended for the Meng kit) I presume this guy is for the Meng Dr.1 And following it is EDD32008 "Flying Circus JG 1, which is listed as decals for a Kitty Hawk kit. So... anyone know what Kitty Hawk is releasing? They sure don't have any WWI aircraft out currently. Typo? Rebox of the Meng? Who knows... And.... speculate! - Dennis S. Thornton, CO USA

I am trying to research the Temperate Sea Scheme that was supposedly applied to some Kingfishers in RN service, after delivery in Intermediate Blue / Gray. Finding info turns out to be a hard nut to crack. No clear images seem to exist of Kingfischers in TSS. With the help of some fellow modellers over on HS I managed to find these. In the B&W photos one might observe that the main float stubs are all-light colored. If this aircraft were to be in Intermediate Blue / Grey one would expect a demarcation line three-quarter up. Could it be sky? Could the very faint lines in the paint here and there be EDSG/Dark Slate Gray demarcations? Hard to Tell..

I enjoy making things, but as far as modelling goes, I think it's mostly the model. I tend to build only planes from the 30's and 40's, maybe into the early 50's. In this period, aviation evolved faster than at any other time. We went from canvas and wood biplanes to jets than could get to the speed of sound. All metal piston powered monoplanes were developed, then were superseded within 10 years by the first jets. So that's what floats my boat when it comes to models. Cheers, Michael

I found out what this mystery luminescent plastic is. Plastruct fluorescent acrylic rod, which is available in a multitude of sizes and colors.

The painted exhaust parts had a day to dry, so I felt comfortable giving the insides a wash. I used a very friendly, water based clay pigment wash from Flory Models. Worked great. A little time was spent removing and blending the wash with a mostly dry but slightly damp brush. The effect is noticeable but subtle, very much like a filter where blended and of course, darker in the recesses. The exterior of the exhausts, painted with Tamiya XF-1 flat black, were much easier to finish. I sanded the paint, starting with the most aggressive grit on my Flexifile sander/polisher, exposing much of the resin underneath. The white side of the polisher was used to smooth out any broken paint edges, pictured below: Now, the pieces were ready for the application of some Ammo of Mig gunmetal pigment. I used a Q-tip to "paint" the outer leaves, working to keep the pigment out of the grooves in between. I put on a rubber glove and burnished the areas with my finger. The black paint and grey resin show through the polished pigment layer giving a varied look underneath. The way that the reflective metal sheen shifts with the viewing angle is very pleasing and realistic to my eye.

No,he didn´t help, He designed it!

Today I finished readying the sub-assembles for the auxiliary floats. I drilled small holes in the struts and put wire in because the moulded minuscule pin connection seemed very weak. The float assembly is now strong and sturdy. I gave them a coat of MRP primer. There is some attachment to the aft float-stub, on both sides. KH instructions say to use part 16 and 21 from the supplied PE fret. Well, there is no part 21. Highest part count is 20, and only 16, so just one, is provided. I decided to make two new ones from evergreen. On the right the KH PE part. In place they look like this. Good enough for me.

The Hunter has been a bit of a Cinderella whilst the Tiger Moth struggle has been in progress, but she's now back in vogue! Currently getting the undercarriage covers sorted.

Not a terribly glamorous start to a build but, apparently, quite a critical one. The Alley Cat instructions are, shall we say, enigmatically interesting but sparse on detail. As mentioned previously there is a build log on Hyperscale that I'm following, it's more user-friendly. It states that this first part, which is assembling the three sections of the upper wing and getting the dihedral right is quote: "the most important as it sets the entire geometry of the wings and fuselage". A 3mm "spacer jig" is provided to help with this, so the wing is assembled and tomorrow's job is to test the cabane strut/wing/fuselage fit. It's then suggested that the white metal cabane struts are then fixed to the fuselage halves at this early stage....... We'll see!

I never build a model just for the model itself, I always have some sort of historical association with it - sometimes very strong and direct, sometimes more tenuous but it gives me the motivation and incentive to make the aeroplane. I enjoy the research as much as the modelling, it’s an intrinsic part of the whole project.

Thanks Derek, you are so correct about eating Elephants mate. And you know what you guys here have been awesome sharing your information! I was hoping this could be an area we could drag everyone's research together after all these years and make it a good Brit Toom Ref thread. Thanks buddy, glad you are still here! OK, so I have had my moments this week with this kit, I cant hide that fact. Been on the SOD 2x this past week! But I just cant stop here with all the help and interest you guys have invested in me This week an enormous amount of data has come to light, some PM's with scans of the kit against cross sections etc. Thanks guys, you rock and have kept me going, even though you were the reason for it nearly going in the bin!! So the intakes turn out to be a bug bear and painful to get my head around. Anyway, I easily can over complicate things in my head but I think, bottom line is that it's not that bad. Tamiya's kit is almost a hybrid FG.1 in some respects, which is great. The 'shoulder sits too high making it ideal to represent a Brit Toom, the intakes are too tall (only a couple of mm) which throws off the thrust line for the Spey intake. A slice taken out of the intake corner taking at least 1mm out goes an enormous way toward fixing this height and correctingsetting up the thrust line. Thus setting up well for the enlarged shoulders and slightly wider engine intakes. But we will deal with that after the inners and dimensions have been sorted. The bleed air louvers on the top and bottom of the intakes are at different angles and wider at the base (this is where the intakes were widened on the actual airframe as I can tell. See the change of angle here compared to the kit/US one Also the corresponding lower one is a different shape and depth, see Dereks photo below And I changed the angle and widened it here also Also note the shimmed out Real Model intake trunk....my fault and caused me to stay tp to 2am one morning! Oh I took it out of the bin when I woke up LOL These shims are still very slightly oversized as I study exactly where they need to me on the airframe. I also shortened the intake length by 1.2 mm at the rear edge, this sits the intake length the correct dist down the fuse. It had to come from here as the leading edge of the wing to intake lip is still the same on Brit ones. You can see below I am now sorting the intake trunk inner surfaces to box them and get them all smooth. The vari ramp section in the intake was lengthened, but I will explain that later on Anyway, inner sections are getting there... Thanks for looking in chaps, love having you here! Cheers Anthony

Both kits build up to very nice models. I built the Trumpeter single-seater last year. It did take some work to get the nose panels to fit on this build including the use of shims... I am currently building the Revell version of the two-seater. Unfortunately, the nose panel fit is not perfect on the Revell either but perhaps a little better than the Trumpeter. Based on my experience (factoring in that I am not quite halfway through the Revell build), I would recommend the Revell kit over the Trumpeter. The riveting on Trumpeter kits is heavy-handed and the cockpit assembly has four large attachment tabs that are clearly visible from the wheel well. No rivets and the Revell cockpit is very well done using their included decals for the instrument and side panels. Nicely molded plastic tires too versus the vinyl tires in the Trumpeter kit.

Some more work. The cockpit access doors are softly moulded and could do with some definition. I was tempted to cut these out and position them open but resisted. i scribed down each side of the doors to define them a little better. The cowl needed a bit of work to smooth it out and get the panel lines consistent. I sanded off the original fasteners to assist with this and then replaced them with some raised surface detail decals from Archer. Once the model was primed, I painted it with Tamiya AS-12 straight from the rattle can to represent the high speed silver finish. I then painted the cowl and wheel pant extension areas with SMS Jet Black which gave a smooth gloss black surface. I then used a thinned mix of Alclad High Shine Aluminium and applied it in multiple layers to give a fairly shiny metallic surface. I will give these areas multiple coats of gloss clear and polish between coats. A sleek little aeroplane. Pretty happy with progress so far.

Thanks for the input guys! Moving along on several different fronts. The shiny metal bits on the landing gear have been painted. This is Alclad Chrome over a gloss black base. It's best to let this dry a complete day before masking. It's finally time to glue the forward cowling pieces into place. First the gun bay cover. It's not a drop-in-and-forget-about-it fit. It takes some pushing and pinching to get good cement contact along all of the edges. This is where Tamiya Extra Thin cement really shines, allowing for spot control of glue application on pieces that are already in place. The known gap on the rear edge of the starboard side has been filled with a piece of stretched sprue fused into place with Tamiya Extra Thin. I let that dry for about four hours before gluing in the next piece. I didn't want to push gun bay cover out of place. The next piece didn't fit quite as well as the gun cowling with some noticeable overhangs and steps as if the part was just a little too big for the space it occupies. Not perfect but I can deal with that. The main thing is that I get a good glue connection all the way around so that the joints will stand up to the puttying/sanding/re-scribing/riveting that will come. The nose cap presents some issues. The base for the nose-mounted radar antenna is supposed to be glued in place before the nose cap and would result in two bits sticking out from the nose. I'd like to clean up the joint all the way around the nose cap and those two prongs would undoubtedly get in the way. Playing around with some Albion Slide Fit brass tubing, I thought I could create an antenna base that could provide the correct geometry and be attachable from the outside. I cut the plastic antenna base, keeping the locating tabs in place. Brass tubing was used as the central (female) mount. Smaller brass tubing were attached to the plastic antenna mount pieces. When this was fit into place, it was apparent that spacer under the central mount would be needed. A spacer was made from a sheet of styrene. The central mount brass tubing is glued onto the spacer and now I have an antenna that can be mounted from the outside with the nose cap in place.

After several hours in some Simple Green Heavy Duty grill cleaner and a periodic stiff brushing with an old tooth brush. Most of the old paint and decals are away from the molded in stitching. I imagine some work with some sanding medium and it will be good to go.

Thank you for the kind reply:) We are all learning I guess..that’s why we are here I suppose- to learn from each other..so much of what I do was gifted to me from others kind enough to share..and I am truly grateful for that. best Pete

Hello all- got the first colors down on the exhaust. More to do, but enough for tonight. cheers Pete

Thanks Peter, the stringers are 0.15 styrene sheet cut into strips and glued on. Really no sorcery involved The Naval Hex is transparent decals over a light blue base color. It had a light 'dusting' with a blue grey. It took me forever to fit the forward engine panels, there's very little to work with on the the shortened cowling. Dry fitting the lower wings. The top wing has been assembled, ready to paint I think... Cheers: Kent

Finally some progress on the Rumpler conversion... The topside of the fuselage had stringers added. Work on the the struts for the floats, 0.8mm brass rod cast into resin. Parts for the fuselage assembly. The enlarged rudder of the Seaplane version scratched from styrene. Mercedes engine + MG installed. Next up, fitting the floats... Cheers: Kent

1/32 Hasegawa Real Model 2020 conversion set Eagle Cockpit set & wooden flaps Barracuda Wheels HGW riveting set, wet transfers, seat belts All colours MRP All painting mask homemade

And a little more done with the bomb load and 6 x SC50' so painted, weathered and fitted. Only a few more bits to add now! Regards. Andy

Nope, I used most of the Tamiya fuselage including intakes although widened by 3 mm. The tail however was replaced by the Revell parts. The Revell intakes are wider than the Tamiya kit but didn’t like them. I did use the Revell mainwings with Tamiya outerwings. A real Frankentoom.

As I mentioned, the kit has a "shelf" at the top of the cockpit opening. This shelf stands "proud" of the fuselage (but it is also slightly "sunken" into the fuselage). On the real thing this housed the jettison mechanism for the canopies. You can see it in the photos of the night fighter I linked above. The trainer did not have this canopy jettison mechanism, so the canopies were connected to the fuselage. The top of the cockpit, with the two openings for the cockpit, should be flush and the same level from the front edge of the windscreen part to the back, at the same level as the existing "shelf" for the windscreen. The problem is not as much with the "shelf" itself but with the canopy... The canopy will be missing a chunk at the bottom. As you can see in the photos, the canopies of the night-fighter have a portion removed at the bottoms in order to make room for that jettison mechanism. The solution may be to cut the canopies at the horizontal frames and make new lower clear panels out of the clear plastic (a CD box, for example) - they are flat anyway. HTH Radu

It'll just be a typo, the Kinetic 1/24 P-47D is listed as 1/32. Nobody's perfect.

Hardware. Sorry, mobile not very flattering in close up mode! Makes the build lines look dreadful, but honest, you can't even feel them!

more work on the tail one almost done Mark

Some more progress on the 129 this week working on getting all of the last small parts painted ready for final assembly. Exhausts fitted and then ETC Bomb racks fitted. Getting there now, maybe even done for Christmas! Regards. Andy

December 9/20 This model is fighting me already, but I’ll call it a draw so far. As mentioned earlier, the panel lines are way too wide and the rivet/fastener detail is all over the place for placement and quality. Reviewing the DACO book and several reference photos, I decided to modify many things. To go over every fix is almost impossible, but I thought I would document from now on the major things I have altered for your future reference. I will do this numerically in several pics as follows with my “Chuck Wash” of Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color applied to show up these details. Other than the changes below, all parts were sanded smooth, every panel line re-scribed and every fastener that I kept was re-punched. Unfortunately, this Italeri plastic is harder than almost any model I have ever worked with, so this was bit harder to do than usual. Port Side #1 There should be a hole drilled beneath the canopy release handle #2 The recess for the AOA vane and circular panel above it have fasteners all around them which are rivets that aren’t really that noticable. I filled them all in, then added 4 interior fasteners to the panel and 4 external fasteners to the AOA recess. #3 There’s a small rectangular panel right beside the stuff above, so I added it while I was in the neighborhood. #4 This is a big one. The gun doors don’t really fit to anything and they have large irregular gaps around them. To fix this, I added strips of styrene on the inside, glued them in place, then filled the outside gaps with CA glue and re-scribed the panel lines. All of the big fasteners on the front door were re-punched with my Mega Tool, creating circular fastener detail. Not easy. #5 That little bulge on the rear door has a flaw on the top and bottom of it. It should be totally smooth, so I sanded it accordingly. #6 The forward fuel pump door should have fastener detail within the panel and not around it. It’s too small anyway, so I filled the panel line and moved it outside of the existing fasteners. #7 The main fuel cap is a mess of fasteners around an oval with no detail on the cap. I carefully cut a circular recess where the oval was and glued a spare brass fuel cap within so that it was flush. Fastener detail was then added around it according to references in a somewhat complex pattern. #8 The outside of the intakes on both sides is quite lumpy and should be sanded smooth. This pic indicates that I still have some work to do! #9 If you glue the air brakes closed, they don’t fit very well and have gaps around them. Like the gun doors, I filled the gaps with CA glue and re-scribed the panel lines. Again, tricky to do cleanly. Starboard Side #10 Same as #9. It's too bad I don't have a "Before" pic, because the fit of these brakes is quite bad. #12 (#11 deleted) As shown earlier, the navigation light on the starboard side has a ring around it that is way off center. I filled it in and then created a new one with a template. #13 Same as the port side, another fuel pump door with the panel line on the wrong side of the fasteners. Panel line was moved to the outside. #14 For the fasteners on the electronics bay door, I re-punched every one with my Mega Tool to create more circular fasteners. #15 Unlike the AOA vane on the port side, the one on the starboard side is quite a bit more forward and has correct fastener detail, so I added a few more. This is a better pic of the fasteners I created on the electronic bay door on the left. OK, that’s it for fuselage modifications for now, but I’m glad I have most of it behind me before I play with resin cockpit fit, which is always a trim and dry fit do-loop struggle. Stay tuned…… Cheers, Chuck

Today some pictures from the nose section. Hope you like it. Any comments are welcome of course. Luc

Some pictures of the cockpit.