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Thanks. As shown above, my P-38L came out looking similar. Nice and shiny, but not as good as with no clear coat. February 22/21 I’ve been procrastinating on this build lately, mostly because the next step of attaching a zillion rivets to this model is going to be a big, slow and likely boring job. Time for a couple of experiments while I get my modeling Mojo spooled back up again. One thing that I’ve always wondered about is the exact color differences of many Alclad metallic paints. Like what the heck is “Duraluminum” and how does it compare to regular Aluminum, White Aluminum, Dark Aluminum, Polished Aluminum and Airframe Aluminum? I want to use different metallic shades on this model, so now is the time to do a little testing so that I know what I should be doing later. The first thing I did was to paint 13 clear plastic spoons with Tamiya gloss black lacquer, let them dry overnight, then paint them with 13 different shades of Alclad metallic paint. This is not a totally objective experiment, since the exact amount of paint I used was as variable as the age of the paint, some of which I’ve had for 8 years or more. In any case it’s better than nothing and the results are quite surprising to me. Spoiler Alert: Many of these paints look exactly the same and I can only detect about 7 distinct shades rather than 13. So here’s a pic of the first 11 shades of Alclad I had on hand, before I bought 2 more for comparison. These are arranged in roughly the lightest and shiniest on the left to the darkest on the right Now some close-ups. The Chrome and Chrome for Lexan are pretty much identical and should be, but so are the Polished Aluminum and White Aluminum. Duraluminum looks almost identical as well. Although there are some slight differences, they aren’t enough to own all 3 shades of paint. Aluminum and Dark Aluminum were also pretty close, while the Stainless Steel appears to be as well, but that’s mostly due to the limitations of my photography and lighting. The Stainless Steel does look a bit different to the naked eye. While Steel, Magnesium and Gunmetal are all clearly different and worth owning. Having said that, I find the Gunmetal to be too dark for guns and I often use Steel instead. I later bought a bottle of Airframe Aluminum and RAF High Speed Silver for comparison. The Airframe Aluminum is almost identical to Chrome, while the HS Silver isn’t much different than White Aluminum This paint is quite expensive, so there’s no use owning every color based upon what I can see, so I have made up the following suggestions: 1- Chrome, Chrome for Lexan or Airframe Aluminum 2- Polished Aluminum, White Aluminum, Duraluminum, or RAF High Speed Silver 3- Aluminum or Dark Aluminum 4- Stainless Steel 5- Steel 6- Magnesium 7- Gunmetal If you want to create different shades of the above, paint a white background or other color, rather than buy another bottle of paint. I also have many other Alclad paints, like Gold, Copper, Brass, Clear Blue, Clear Green, etc., but they are all very distinct and worth having around. Now another experiment with another clear coat over Chrome, in this case the relatively new Tamiya clear gloss lacquer LP-9. The thinking was that if any clear coat would be the best, it would also be the thinnest and nothing is thinner than lacquer, which I thinned even further with 50% Tamiya lacquer thinner. Another bust! Which brings me back to my theory indicated earlier. Any clear coat that covers Chrome or another High Shine finish will dull it, because the reflective surface is above the metallic paint, rather than directly on it. If I take one of the High Shine spoons and immerse it in water, they look a bit duller underwater than above it for the same reason. Class Dismissed! Cheers, Chuck

I have said it before and I was called names and had my sanity questioned. I will say it again: WNW can continue to operate with zero staff. Everything that is needed is done and ready to go. Whoever is looking after the Wingnuts portfolio (which goes beyond plastic kits) only needs to call the producers who make the plastic, boxes, instructions and decals and order a rerun then wait for the shipment to arrive. They can even make arrangements for the kits to go from the producer straight to distributors. There is no need for a giant team or a huge headquarters. You MUST keep in mind that the staff in Miramar, which was less than a dozen people, were only involved in design. Only one person was in charge of shipping and distribution. The creative staff was dismissed, which means no new products (for the time-being). The WNW website clearly says that they hope to resume selling soon. All they need is one person in charge of selling and distribution, and that person can be an existing staff member of the team looking after Wingnuts portfolio. I am not saying this to be a contrarian. I have been directly involved, as a plastic model kit designer, in the creation of plastic model kits for the last six years. Before that I have been involved as a member of various design teams, at various level, in the production of plastic model kits since 2010. I know precisely how this industry works. I cannot see any reason why WNW could not continue to operate. They say on their website that the disruptions are caused by Covid, and I have no reason disagree. Radu

Hi, Some details added on the D558.

Hello campaigners! A couple days ago I applied the first coat of RLM 65. Today it was the turn of the RLM 02 and RLM 71. I know...yer sayin': "WTF! should be 75/75/76". Well.... the early ones came out just as the colors were changing. And supposedly they were painted at the unit level. So this leaves a window to use a different scheme than the other two 190's in my stash will receive. Nobody knows fer sure. The RLM 65 and 71 are MRP undiluted so far. I prefer post-shading. so things will look different, later. The RLM 02 is a mixture of ever-changing shades of that color, mixed from other Tamiya paints. Here, I'm trying to use the 02 that appears a tad brown. There is a lot to do. I'll allow the color to dry for a day or so... and then I can apply the rib tapes on the control surfaces. Heh... I have tons of WNW rib tapes. Happy Modelling!

Wife is getting he itch to make the move to our "retirement" home on a lake. In the process she is jumping on a few projects around the home to prepare it to put on the market. Project #1 was to refinish the basement. New carpet and paint. Since we are doing industrial carpet squares, we can do a side at a time. She got one side done and then she had to move my stash to the other wall. Momma not happy! She told me to liquidate some. No way I'll ever build this many kits. Told her I'll die trying though! She might have a good point though. Do I really need 13 more Phantoms to build? Or 7 or 8 more F-16's? And just to put icing on the cake, I just did a pre-order for the Infinity Hell Diver... Might start collecting a few boxes to post up a few on the classifieds here soon. But here's what she had to move. Please excuse the mess, my workshop is through the door and is being used as storage room for now.

A 1/6 resin kit, a bit of a break from the usual. I deleted the "bat wings" and added a flowing/blowing cape type thing from offset printing press foil. A wood stir stick for the spear handle, annealed wire for the thumb rings and necklace. Painted with Vallejo acrylics, Tamiya acrylics, some oils and Alclad lacquer for the metal bits, my 6th figure build. Thanks for looking

If WNM do re-open and recommence production , that's going to make a LOT of ebay vendors Very unhappy !

Thanks guys! I probably won't go "next level" on those spring/bungee cords by replacing them with spring facsimiles but I'll try and paint them at least. I played around with a few things on the Tempest build. The resin wheels were cut from their casting blocks, cleaned up and leveled on the bottom. They are represented as weighted with a flat spot and slight bulge around the contact area. The kit tires are also weighted but the resin versions feature noticeably more detail on the sidewalls and hub. I wanted to see if the tail gear bay would give me any problems. It is a three-part affair that had given Chuck some fit issues. I used Tamiya Extra Thin cement to attach the pieces together thinking that I could pull them apart if I encountered any obstacles. The tail gear bay dropped into position without a hitch. I temporarily secured it with a blob of Blue Tack. Seems ok with the fuselage halves taped together. No issues here!

Hi all, This weekend is the first of New Zealand's two big airshows this year, Wings Over Wairarapa. The host airfield is home to The Vintage Aviator Limited's (Sir Peter Jackson) flying WW1 fleet. A few minutes ago this popped up on TVAL's Facebook page: I'm at the show on Saturday so I'll be taking photos and asking questions, fingers crossed they can shed some light on the future...or at least some hints!

A while back I stumbled across a YouTube channel by a guy who paints his model cars using spray cans from the local hardware store - specifically Rustoleum 2X brand. The results were amazingly good, so I decided to give it a try. Wanting to keep my experiment as inexpensive as possible, I grabbed this kit at our local Hobby Lobby - with the 40%-off coupon I was out the door for just over $16 US. A stop at the local Home Depot to source the paints for roughly $5 each and I was good to go. Having seen (...and HEARD, well more like felt) these Corvettes run at Laguna Seca, this one was an obvious choice. I took this photo in May 2015. The kit is by the US division of Revell, hence the scale 1/25. Revell Germany car kits are all 1/24, which seems to be the scale the rest of the planet uses for race car kits. Not a lot of parts, and there is some very nice detail. The decal sheet looks good on paper, but proved problematic due to transparency - the underlying paint colors showed through. When I do another one of these, I'll order a set of decals from Indycals. The trim on the clear piece comes pre-painted. Nice touch, although I'm pretty sure I could do a better job masking and painting it myself. It's very yellow - I cheated a little bit and used a can of Tamiya spray paint that I had left over from another project. The kit includes a nice interior and motor - it looks good to me right out of the box, but there is plenty of opportunity for super-detail work. Fit was actually pretty good to this point. Here you can see the yellow bleeding through the white decal on the door, and the red bleeding through on the rear wing, resulting in an unacceptable pink lettering instead of white. So back to Hobby Lobby with another 40%-off coupon, and a second kit was acquired. I then doubled up the decal and it looks much better now. As a bonus, I have a second kit that I will probably build as one of the Le Mans cars using the excellent Indycals decals. So here it is with all the stickers applied, and a panel-line oil wash. I'm done with it at this point, but may come back later and spray on a final gloss clear coat. Race cars are shiny, but not like your car in the garage. And they suffer a lot of wear and tear over the course of a racing season, so based on my own photographs from the track, the degree of shine on this one looks about right. A couple of warnings if you decide to build one - that pre-painted one-piece clear windshield bit does not fit into the body. It's not even close. In order to get it to fit I cut the rear window from the rest of the piece, filed and sanded, and was finally able to get the glass to line up. Second, the headlight glass doesn't fit either - I ended up cutting off and filing down the mounting pins on the inside of the bumper which then allowed for enough wiggle room to get them into position. It was a quick, fun build, let down somewhat by the transparency of the decals. However, those Rustoleum rattle cans are the real deal - I'll definitely be using them in my builds going forward.

I'm still not convinced WnW are "back" as we all most would like them to be, IE selling newly designed kits, or even selling newly molded kits of past designs. However, I truly hope someone at the NZ show gets some definitive answers one way or another.

www.deaddesignmodels.com Juraj

We are talking about what is literally happening right now: WNW advertised that they will be present at a show where they will be selling kits. WNW is alive and kicking. Radu

Now you see why some people want WNW to be "gone"? WNW kits are neither "rare" nor "hard to find". Thousands were made and they all sold out. Everyone here has at least one. In the scale model world, there are very few "rarities". The three "lost at sea" 1/32 Revell Hien, Raiden and George are "rare". Only so many were made and then production ceased, but even they are not "hard to find". In my own personal opinion, the only true "rarity" in the scale model world is a "first test shot". I will explain. When a model is designed and the mold is made, the first time plastic is pushed into the mold is called a "first test shot". Usually this is called TS1. Inevitably, TS1 contains errors, such as half-complete parts, missing detail, wrong detail, unpolished areas, etc. These issues are highlighted by the development team and the mold is corrected, then a new test shot is made, usually called TS2. Any eventual errors are corrected, a few times, leading to TS3, TS4 and so on. Some manufacturers go trough up to TS10, others manage to do it in three. TS1 usually goes only to the design team where the parts are put together to test fit. TS3 may sometimes make their way to the people who helped with data (these may be modellers or historians) and more of them are made, so they are not that unique. Reviewers who publish previews of models usually get a final TS, which is more or less the ready model. So, because the TS1 is made in very limited numbers (maybe just three or four sets) and they are usually assembled, it is highly unusual for TS1 runners (so-called "sprues") to survive intact. TS1 usually feature errors that would subsequently be corrected, thus making the TS1 an "Inverted Jenny". Furthermore, TS1 usually does not carry the "copyright" mark of the manufacturer and the year, because it is not intended for the "general public". If you have a TS1, of any kit, preferably complete on runners, you have a true rarity, a literal one-of-a-kind, possibly the only one in the world. So, in my own personal experience, the only WNW item that is rare is a TS1. Radu

Not only is the website still active and saying "we are not gone, watch this space", but the company Wingnut Wings is still registered as an on-going concern with the New Zealand Companies Register. I just checked and they submitted their last filing on 15 November 2020, a good few months after the speculation of their alleged "death" started haunting the internet. All the hard evidence indicates that the company has not closed. Radu

I'll gather what info I can and post here when I get back

Assuming it's like Marmite, I wouldn't recommend anything more than a light smear on the knife - for goodness sake don't put it on anything you are going to eat! On the subject of Man's food, I'm really looking forward to sitting in a pub, drinking pints with friends and eating: Pork Scratchings - Scare your doctor and your dentist with a single snack! Richard

Not sure Antonio but if some information pops up, I'd be glad to make that adjustment. Brown 4 will be a future subject for me! I've got the kit on the shelf and have already done an analysis just to test my theory about the curved "4" in that pic. Just some more minor work on the D-13 as we are back to work on Monday. Instead of just drilling two holes to mount the boarding ladder, I excavated the opening to show the recess that would be there when the ladder is extended.

I've been in commercial aircraft leasing for 30 plus years. An uncontained engine failure is extremely rare. The GE90 is a phenomenal engine flying millions of passengers all over the world for decades. The crew are doing there due diligence and did what was necessary to an uneventful landing. This is what they are paid to due along with the cabin crew and they executed their duties to the fullest. Well done.

Hi, this is the first time I will post on this forum and since I already posted it elsewhere was a bit hesitant of sharing it here, but I was encouraged to do so so here goes... I will start with the first part I posted before and then wil post the second part current later to catch up or my first post will be to long... I started working on the Lukgraph Hawker Nimrod MK I and this is actually my first 1/32 kit in decades and then a resin biplane as well. I actually started building 1/48 aircraft and now 1/32 because 1/72 was getting to small for my eyes… and then I found myself making tiny little bolts out of 0,5 mm alu tube with a length of the bolt of 0,3mm for the gun attachment.… and I lost a lot since I could not see them and lost them. For those interested, there are some shots of what I did in the cockpit till now, as I originally did not plan to do a WIP I did not document each phase. Still I made a couple of shots now and then to showed a friend and he asked if I would consider showing them, so here they are. There is some PE in the kit but I decided I wanted a busier office so a lot of scratch building was necessary. Actually, the only PE I used here is the instrument panel but I made the bezels out of Brass tube because photographs show them with bezels and the PE is a bit flat. Since I provided photographs to aid in the development of the kit I have good documentation to refer to. So as usual I started with the cockpit and had to replace 3 parts of the 3D printed cage that were not fully printed. Oh well, almost everything was either changed a bit or scratch build with different success. Still a lot to do, ammo chutes perhaps and some piece of the fuel tank behind the instrument panel... Just a note, the 3D printed parts show the ridges only when you put primer on them. That stuff is so hard that it is difficult to correct by sanding. The panel behind the pilot seat showed the ridges very clearly. Sanding sticks did not work as well as I hoped. When I put primer on it there were still ridges visible after an extended sanding session. In the end I used my Proxxon tool with a small grinder stone and I finally got a nice smooth surface after passing a last time with a sanding stick. You can still see the 3D effect in the surface of the seat. I did thin the edges of the seat with the grinder in the Proxxon tool. In general the 3D parts are a little rougher than what we are used to with resin but they offer the possibility to ad details in a kit we otherwise might not get. If you look at the 3D printed cage you can see ridges too but it will sit very low in the fuselage zo I doubt it will be visible. The instruments on the outside of the cage are les detailed since you cannot see them because they press against the sides. I will add the Sutton A harness of RB productions later. Not perfect but I hope you like it… in reality it looks better than on the photographs. Those are milimeters : 1,5mm

Being from the Denver area and seeing some of this firsthand, it was quite spectacular. While the pilots are most definitely trained to handle a situation like this, and run the scenario time and time again, there's always that little bit of question as to whether or not someone will be able to handle it when it matters most. Training often comes with the mental reality that it is indeed that, training. A static environment, not wrought with danger. The trick is training so many times that when the real world situation happens, the training kicks in and takes over, and the brain treats it like another training scenario. But, you often won't know if someone has the salt to do it until it actually happens. I've been in law enforcement for 12 years, and we operate on the same mental aptitude (logically speaking). We can train and train and train, but until you're put into a real life situation where the training matters, we have no idea how you will actually react under the real stress. Kudos to these pilots, they reacted well, stayed calm, and did an outstanding job doing their job. Now they know they can handle it. And so do all of the crew and passengers. And their supervisors at United. And all of us. - Dennis S. Thornton, CO USA

"Vegemite, the food of the gods!" I thought that the last noun was an anagram! Derek

Thanks for posting this info Chuck, a lot of interesting testing there! I've done a big reply here but some testing I have been doing maybe useful and interesting to you below. How old is your bottle of Polished Aluminium (PA)? I ask because these 'High-Shine' types 'go off' after a few years or less and spray less reflective and more granular. I've had to buy 2-3 bottles of PA these last years because of this problem, I find after a year or so they become useless for the highly reflective job. I'm not sure if it's a temp thing as I store my paints also outside in my garage in negative temps. I'm doing some testing for my own NMF TF-104 atm after your motivating work, where I'm not trying to get a mirror shine but a medium between the Hi-shine and normal Alclad range. Anyhow, here is a result of a fresh bottle of Alclad PA on the left, also on the right is AK Xtreme PA, both over Alclad's gloss black enamel. The surface was not prepped in the slightest and was kinda rough as I use it for testing things, I was just in fact testing durability over the enamel primer. The below pics aren't doing the PA justice tbh, it is very shiny. The reflection is pretty good even with no surface prep, I think, looking at your PA test spoon, it has the classic 'gone off' appearance where as you say, it becomes pretty much the same as white or standard aluminium. The AK, whilst certainly more durable than Alclad, doesn't have anything like the shine but it is maybe more scale for a more worn, used appearance. The grain is also noticeably larger than Alclad's. I prefer Alclad tbh. Reading your prior posts about any clear coat reducing the reflection simply by being present, I fully agree. I think also the interaction between any type of solvent clear does something to these Hi-shine Alclads, a kind of frosting happens as the lacquer thinner (say X-22/LP-9 or the like thinned with MLT) re-activates the surface ever so slightly, re-orientates and roughens the lay down of the metallic flakes and results in a rougher and slightly cloudy appearance reducing the reflection. I know you hate spraying Aqua gloss, I do also, but after some testing if you brush it on you get much better results imho, no orange peel and the appearance has the smallest change in anything I have tried. I tested it with some Winsor & Newton Flow Improver added to reduce brush strokes which helped but this was on a small test piece and brushing over a 1/32 model is just another story. Now another paint I've experimented with is this thinned with levelling thinner: I've found you can get two distinct results with it. Over a gloss black lacquer you get a decent Alclad Airframe Alu/Chrome type appearance, however it is not as good/reflective as you can see on the spoon. Apply it over standard Alclad shades such as 'Aluminium' and you get a type of polished aluminium that is not as shiney as Alclad PA but does give quite a nice middle ground shine, overall it is reflective but not as good as Alclad. The main reason I like it is you can mask it no problem, it doesn't come off and you can handle it. Downside, decal solutions still mark it and it needs a clear varnish unfortunately. However after testing X-22 over it, the difference in appearance is small and that is probably partly due to it not being as reflective as Alclad in the first place so the appearance reduction is less noticeable. If you want, I can get some pics of the test pieces to show my results. Two other clear varnishes I've experimented with are MRP 048 super clear and MRP-127 super clear matt. The gloss does not do so much to the shine due to it probably being the thinnest clear of them all, however as it is so thin it doesn't hide the decal edges either. The matt is pretty cool, maybe mixed with some clear, because you can vary the reflection of select panels where it doesn't change the metallic appearance of the standard Alclad paints whatsoever, impressed with it. Another curveball that might be something to thing about that has bitten me in the past. Depending on the decals, sometimes I've needed to add a clear varnish layer before and after decals. The difference in reflection between the decal film over no clear + a final clear over the top can highlight the clear film, the reflection coming through the decal film is different than the surrounding surface. 'Neutralising' the underlying decal surface by putting a clear varnish before decals has stopped this for me before a final sealing clear. This does depend on the decals however but is a sneaky thing that can happen. I'm not sure that there is so much difference between adding one and then a second clear varnish to the NMF, once it is compromised the further degradation is slight. Finally, a little thing I found is adding levelling thinner to the standard Alclads results in a smoother and more reflective finish. Not only this, you can really thin it and mottle various shades just like normal paint to give a varied appearance. It also can be added to the Hi-shine types, they spray better but I'm undecided if the overall refection results are better, it might make them more durable though due to the binding of the metallic pigment and the base lacquer primer the lacquer levelling thinner gives. Maybe some of that is helpful or useful IDK, anyhow a fascinating thread seeing someone who actually knows what they are doing coming up against some of the problems I'm having! Cheers, David edit...I ordered some of the Gauzy gloss also and will test it.

Not many products can actually add a phrase to the English language (over here anyway) as Marmite "you love it or hate it" has been used about people. As in "She's a bit Marmite" you lover her or hate her. What it has also done is produce some really funny ads in the UK along the "love it or hate it" idea. Just a couple:

Yeap, not much time left.... but I'm still on..... and here's my little update. Not a flush fit...? that's ok, I never encounter any Aires that does anyway...lol But nothing that some styrene can't fix.... Yeah, that's more like it. And with a little finising touch, it will be just fine. Meanwhile I decided to go on with the curtain system, since I'm pretty much certain I won't finish in time why not be fancy....lol.. Hope you like it and have fun. Dan.

Here is another photo of a couple of Lancasters in flight, don't know what happened to the roundels on the wing of the one in the foreground: Jari

The final result, after matte varnish. There are a few more little painting details to fix, but at this point I'm about ready to finally finish assembling this thing. I wish all kit makers could achieve the kind of wing-to-fuselage fit that Tamiya has done here. It has been extremely helpful to be able to paint the two sections separately.

Project 6. 1/32 Revell kit AMUR Erla cobversion set Eduard wheels, exhaust, HGW seat belts & wet transfers, Painiting mask homemade & Propeller 77, Barracuda decals, Aires cockpit, All colours MRP

The ground power is attached to a receptacle located on the aft fuselage on the port side - see photo below. Photo from the Duke Hawkins book with reference DH-011. I'm building a Trumpeter Harrier too and have opened this part open: Hope this helps!

If we spent as much time building kits from our stash as we do blowing hot air about what may or may not happen or why what is happening is happening we would get a lot more models built.

Never tried it but I really can only think of one thing when I hear Vegemite. I instantly get transported back to the 80s.......

As I read Radu's posts, I consider his conclusions about what is going on at WNW to be reasonably drawn based upon his considerable experience in the industry and worthy of respect.

"Design of models" and "production of models" are two separate and distinct aspects of model production. They must be understood as two distinct parts. Part 1: Design is software-based now. It can be done by any skilled designer from anywhere in the world. Design does not require a huge team. All it takes is information and skill. A skilled CAD designer with the right information can create the CAD artwork on his/her own. In fact, this is what I do and I have been doing that for the last six years. Many manufacturers prefer this instead of a "fixed in-house team" because it allows them to be flexible and choose and pick the best designers for their projects. When the CAD artwork is done, the artwork is sent to a tool shop where the moulds are made. Part 2: The tool shop cuts the steel using the CAD artwork. China seems to be the place where most molds are made these days due to their competitive prices. When the moulds are made, tested, adjusted and accepted, they can be hooked to an injection-mouding machine and then plastic models are made at a fast pace. This machine can be anywhere in the world, these days it tends to be in China again. That is what WNW did too. In as far as I know there are "brokers" in China who will look after the entire process, they will book a tool shop, book a factory where the plastic is injected, book a print shop where the boxes and instructions are printed, book a decal manufacturer (or receive decals made elsewhere, if that is the case) and put everything in boxes. After everything is in boxes, they can ship the boxes to wherever you want, to your own warehouse, or to a central distributor, or any numbers of distributors of your choice. I understand that WNW did the same: they received "ready-to-sell" kits from China, maybe they added the decals they had printed in Italy in every box, but nothing was actually fabricated in Miramar. This is all there is to it! The WNW design team (Part 1 above) was made redundant. WNW can continue to produce kits as described in Part 2. WNW can also commission "outside" designers in the future to create new models. My heart goes out to the WNW design team. I met them at shows, I had great chats with them and I can confirm to anyone that they are great people and among the best at what they do. But... they were dismissed when their work was done. It is unfair indeed, but WNW can continue without them. This seems to be what is happening now. Radu

This post comes from someone who spend an entire airline career training in flight simulators... Simulators are an invaluable training device. However, when "flying" them there is no consequence to a screw up, unlike real life. In the back of your mind you know that if you make a mistake, a simple reset is in order and the exercise is run again. Your heart rate doesn't jump in a simulator like it does in a comparable real life scenario. Trust me, I know, having had engine failures in real life as well as the simulator. Yes, this crew did a superb job having been trained to do so. However, (though I can't speak to the 777 sim specifically), they likely trained for an engine failure, not an engine failure with the resulting loss of the cowling assembly (which shouldn't happen). I am sure the aerodynamic forces (drag from loss of the cowling and vibration from the remaining engine components) on the aircraft were something for which they hadn't trained for. At the end of the day, the crew did a great job and should be commended for their skill. The problem with the press is that the public wants answers right now to aviation events. That is why the media interviews "experts" to get answers for a news hungry public. Any true professional would tell you to come back and interview after the report comes out and not jump to judgment. Sadly, that doesn't satisfy the publics lust for immediate answers. When the inevitable report comes out a year from now, no one will care as it won't be "newsworthy" anymore as some other event of the time will be in the limelight. Mark Proulx

@mpk i built the P-39 and it was quite a fun build. Im not an accuracy buff so i didint bother with the fuselage lenght concern. the only thing that got me was that trhe doors dont close, they need a little trimming and i dont test fit them so ended up displaying with both doors open. Adn TBH its a good thing, look cool plus its the only model ive built in i dont know how many years that i can actually see all the detail work that went into the cockpit. This is a huge plus for me

Vegemite recipe... # 1: Breakfast. Toast with Vegemite dunked in a glass of milk. # 2: Lunch. White bread and butter sandwich with Vegemite and cheddar cheese. #3. Aussie dinner. Quarted chicken covered in Vegemite, deep fried served with potatoes and garden salad. # 4: Midnight snack. Dry cracker with butter and Vegemite. Glass of milk. Repeat.

It all comes down to what the owner wants to do and that is the big unknown.

Never tried it - in fact never seen it... I think that if it ever made it to Scandinavia, the pickled herrings ate it...

I forged ahead and riveted the upper wings. The Dora has a lot of riveting on these wings so the drawing of the lines took quite a bit of time. The lines are drawn in pencil using a clear, flexible ruler. Using a rivet wheel (Galaxy Tools 1.00mm), the rivets are laid down row by row. The rivet tool punches small holes into the plastic but also creates a small mound of raised plastic around each hole. Some modelers stop here with the rivet process but I take an extra step to get rid of the mounds. Using a fine grade of sandpaper, I remove all of the raised plastic caused by the riveting, leaving just the hole. The goal here is to represent the rivets as small dots, not holes so I always use a pastel wash to fill the rivets as part of the post-painting weathering process. I do NOT want the rivets to appear as physical holes on the model as I believe this takes away from the overall presentation. The same applies to panel lines. I want them to appear as lines not grooves so all of the panel lines get filled on my builds. Some may not agree with this approach but it is intentional and I have very specific reasons for doing this. A dark pastel wash has been used to highlight the work. I'll usually rivet the wings in pairs so that I get symmetry in the lines. The riveting process cracked the wings in two places! A close-up of the rivet detail that was added to the wing. Quite a difference when you compare it to before. Prior to assembly, the wings will get scrubbed with a toothbrush and dish soap to remove as much of the sanding debris and wash from the rivets and panel lines.

My word there is some sensationalist 'reporting' used in that article - no wonder the Mail is known as the 'Daily Fail' by so many in the UK. 'The troubled history of the 777'... despite it being one of the safest airliners in service. Quick! Let's dig up every single 777-related incident to sensationalise this as much as we can and let everyone know how dangerous the 777 is! Don't fly on triple-sevens, folks! 'We started going down' - well of course you did - the pilots immediately started a return back which, believe it or not, means getting closer to the ground as one has to land. 'I looked out of the window and the engine was missing'. No it wasn't. The forward cowling had come away - which of course is far from ideal but the engine was very much there. If it was a fan blade or compressor failure then the cowl did exactly as it was supposed to and protected the aircraft from flying debris. Kudos to Pratt for the engine casing doing exactly what it was supposed to. 'We could feel the heat of the fire through the fuselage!' - Really? Travelling at 250mph+ with a hurricane-force slipstream and you felt the heat? I smell a rat! And as we've started, let's drag up every incident from the past about United and what a terrible airline they are - as well as highlight the serious flaws in airline safety as a whole! Absolutely pathetic. As others have said, well done to the crew who appeared to have managed the situation with total professionalism - very much the opposite of those who write articles such as this whose job it is to put such 'quotes' from those who were there into context. Tom

Incremental progress. Crude drawing of the planned squadron markings. While looking at the F-106 website and 87th markings there is a lot to consider. There are over 400 photos of just this squadron and over the 20 plus years that they flew Darts the markings changed, a lot. Mostly small details, like is the squadron badge on the tail or on the nose. ADC logo or TAC? Depends on the date. Even the size and details of the Bulls head change over time. With so many changes over the years it can be confusing. Lets just say that I will do the best I can to represent a "typical" jet. Lots of work getting the bottom seams all sorted out. A few shims, a small amount of Bondo, and just the slightest smear of putty. 3D printed "Y" bracket straddles the main gear well. Just a little putty. Things didn't really want to line up around the wells. Preliminary work on the splitter plates. Thats all, Dan

Thanks for posting your Alclad experiments, Chuck. I suspect there may be some batch-to-batch variation (or age effects, as you note) in Alclad's products. My bottle of Dark Aluminum is much darker than the reference shade (101 plain Aluminum) and does not shine well even over a very glossy black base coat. I have suspected that there may just be something wrong with my bottle of it, and your result reinforces that. Also, my bottle of Duraluminum is a markedly different shade than 101 plain Aluminum, and is also glossier - paint two side by side panels with the two of them and it's really visible. In this photo the little access hatches and the reinforcement around the horiz stab root are Duraluminum, the rest Aluminum. And the rudder is White Aluminum over flat gray primer (obviously the base coat makes a huge difference). With apologies for the brief hijack. I'm still trying to master the intricacies of Alclad, so appreciate your info and pictures. I'm looking forward to seeing how your rivets and scratched effects on the upper fuselage come out!

Into the endgame - starting to put the pieces together. As should be obvious, I finally got one of these nifty stands that many of you have. Immediately convenient. Still a few little painting things to do. Andy Carothers kindly pointed me to the fact that the dual dorsal antenna masts (which were unique to the VLR Mustangs) were actually made of *wood* (the US military still knew what expedient meant back then). The Tamiya instructions call for them to be painted black, but the photo Andy shared shows unpainted wood. I did not want to challenge my minimal hand-painting skills by attempting anything like the visible wood grain from the photo above, so I just re-sprayed them with a warm light gray, figuring that's the sort of color that wood would fade to under the tropical sun. This red marking (presumably a "step here only" guide) may be the last bit of painting I need to do (unless I mess something up and have to re-paint...)

Rick, first off, I would pound down the head offices' door and DEMAND an 0/400!! lol. After that I would get a D7 so I can do an Aviattic Stripdown like Mike did ( that doesn't sound right especially in this cold weather) and then a Roland D6 as I missed that one earlier. Regarss, Pete in RI

Eh No . never bought one , and probably never will , I admire the workmanship in these kits , and the skills needed to produce the finished models,. but WW1 doesn't interest me in the slightest , but each to his own , and it would be good to see WNM rise again if only to piss off the scalpers

Hi guys - about 80% better - strong antibiotics! Thanks again for all your support J

Story of my love life. 'Tap tap tap.....' "Dale, I want to see a movie." Okay, enjoy it. 'Tap tap...' "No, I mean with you." I'm practising. Tap tap... "Let's do something!" I'm practising. Tap tap..... Tap tap tap..... Tap tap... Where'd she go ?

The slow March continues... Managed to get one of the engine faces built up. Lots of discussions about how the intakes are wrong, but all I fixed was the inlet guide vanes. I didn't want resin because of the weight, and frankly you can't see anything once its tucked away. I forgot to take a photo before attaching it--because I broke this about 8 times prior to getting something solid enough to put in place. Here it is with the engine bay doors in place. BTW, If you look a few pages back where I posted the pic showing the belly, if you look, you can see 2 of those dang latches hanging open! If you're making a Prowler or an early Intruder, you'll have to sand off rhe armor plating on this forward door. You can see my heavy sanding here. Here's a pic of the belly. You can see the armor plate on the door on the left side of the pic. Need to make another engine face before attaching this door. Both wings are glued on now, so making some progress! She's incredibly stout now and quite sturdy, so happy I've taken the route I have. Next up, I'll attach the forward landing gear doors. On the Intruder, they were open when the gear was down. On the Prowler, they cycled close to reduce drag--the Intruder came back without its bomb loads, while the Prowler came back with at least 3K Lbs of those jamming pods (1K Lbs each), so anything that helped reduce drag and lesson the power requirements was a bonus while flying around the ship. The doors also have some funky fairings that aren't present on the Intruder, so those will get added too. More soon, -Peter

These two just showed up today. Unfortunately not in our scale but I want to add some classic heavys to the collection so these will have to do.

Thanks, Mustang! Here's the latest shagadelic update!