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Not being able to let the German floatplanes go, I'm preparing for the release of Lukgraph's Friedrichshafen FF.33 L within the next couple of weeks. Friedrichshafen FF.33's at Zeebrügge. One of the characteristic features of the German Navy at Zeebrügge are the distinctive Rail Cars for transporting the planes and I've been thinking of scratch building one of those for some time now. This means I've started this project backwards trying to figure out how those 'Trolleys' would have been put together. Miniart has released a set of Railway wheels, they come in handy. ' It hasn't been easy, but long story short, the Trolley is beginning to come together... Now I'm waiting for some more Evergreen styrene profiles to be able to continue the build of the Trolley. Cheers: Kent

100%. Honestly I have no clue where all the scepticism on this kit is coming from. Not only do I personally know two people with a Sky Streak kit from them, but there was even one built right here on LSP. As was stated the major companies with a CRAP ton of money have delays worse than this ALL the time yet I rarely ever here anyone say that it wasn't going to come to fruition. From the get go myself, I have felt this kit will 100% come to fruition. I guess I just don't get it..... There is all of ZERO evidence this is a scam, yet an abundance of evidence it's just like everything else, delayed by the pandemic. Having seen one of their kits up close, I got even a better feeling about the kit. Also, as far as "very few of them out there" goes, there are exactly as many Sky Streaks out there as there should be considering they sold the run out; 500. Considering you hardly see some mainstream kits being built that have many thousands of copies made, not seeing a kit being built with only 500 out there is right about on par.

"No. 428 Squadron flew the RCAF’s first Canadian built Lancaster Mk. X operation on 14 June 1944. Percentage of Canadian RCAF aircrew was 73.20% and ground crew was 91.91%.” “[Sugar's Blues artist] Sgt. Thomas Walton served as a wireless/air gunner on a No. 428 [Ghost] squadron Lancaster KB864. In 1945 he was promoted to the RCAF rank of Pilot Officer. Tom was the nose artist who decorated both sides of his bomber with impressive paintings completed on request of his American pilot Latumer and his favorite 1931 Jazz song “Sugar Blues.” Pilot Officer Latumer was known as Capt. “Overshoot” after he had crash landed two Canadian Lancaster bombers, KB766 [3 December 1944] and KB795 [7 April 1945].” https://clarencesimonsen.wordpress.com/category/tom-walton/ I've been working on the less glamorous but critical aspects of finishing up the surfaces prior to painting: priming with Tamiya AS-12, spotting flaws, filling, sanding, restoring rivets and panel lines, repriming, lather, rinse, repeat...finally she is at a stage that I am ready to start painting! First steps, a fine polish of all primed surfaces and prepping the canopy. First I applied the interior canopy masks from DN Models: I then used a thick coat of Tamiya Rubber Black for the interior: I carefully removed the masks, not wanting issues with adhesive with the warmer temperatures of spring in Tucson Arizona and to make sure the edges were sharp. After this I applied the Eduard outer masks: HK Models actually molded some of the canopy frames more flush with the surface, and happily it is these that Sugar's Blues had as interior panes. I then masked over them and will be painting with MRP RAF Dark Green. Once the canopy is painted, some of them will be dark green and the interior frames will be black, which I will then cover with Archers rivets. That's the plan anyway! On another front, yesterday I received a revelation from this website: https://clarencesimonsen.wordpress.com/2017/05/ If you scroll down halfway the author identifies Sugar's Blues artist, which I've shared in the quote above. In addition, photos I've never seen before: Here you see her on June 8 1945 when she landed with the first group of nine Lancasters in Gander Newfoundland upon 428 Squadron's return from Europe. If you've been reading my entire build log you'll know that's where my Uncle died in the Liberator crash two years earlier. And the revelation, a starboard photo of Sugar's Blues, with artwork I've never seen: And a close-up: It's a ghost dropping a bomb, with "Ghost SQD'N" enscribed. My challenge will be reproducing this! Until next time (which hopefully will include paint results)... Cheers, Tom

Been working on small details in the last few days........... Inside of the canopy. Front landing gear door. One side of the weapons bay doors. Kind of tricky as the gap between the doors increases as you go forward. Area behind the seat. That's it, Dan

Hi Alan, 1. Not all Turks are Muslim. 2. Not all Muslim Turks are religiously observant. 3. There is, generally speaking, no prohibition against working during Ramadan, though many observant (and non-observant) people of the faith do take some time off from work during the celebration of Eid, which begins in mid-May. There’s no reason to think that this delay is caused by anything other than some Jetmads staff contracting a potentially life-threatening disease. I hope they get well and get back to the work they enjoy. “Be patient” is wise counsel. Cheers, Adam

I should note that the nose ends at the aft surface of STA-0. The extra length is just there to prevent the curve that occurs where the vacform bends around the front from ending up as part of the nose.

My fist LSP engine as an adult. Stock Hasegawa R 2800, crazy wrong magnetos, lead wire for sparkerators lines, and some HGW stencils. Soon to be all but invisible.

Good Morning all. I would like to introduce myself. I tried once before on these forms, but the project stalled indefinitely, and I'm not much for posting WIP threads. I have been following along builds here for many years, and I think LSP is my favorite modeling forum by far. You folks are some of the kindest and most talented modelers out there. A little about me, I grew up in my dads local hobby store and have been building for most of my life. I have always done 1/48 scale models, and felt it was time to jump into something a little bigger. I bought this kit when it fist came out and started assy, but frankly I got intimidated by it and it sat on the SOD for years. I decided this year to finish up any SOD kits and this was the last one. So here it is. Now that summer is coming quickly my building will slow considerably, but I'm thinking for the fall/winter season a trumpeter avenger in the FAA livery would be a very nice compliment to this kit. All in all, I found it to be a bit of a difficult build. However, it put me out of my comfort level in a wonderful way and am quite pleased with the result. I chose the FAA scheme simply because I haven't seen it done anywhere on this kit before. I used mostly vallejo air and tamiya colors. The build is strictly out of the box. Hope you all enjoy it. Thanks for looking. PS, please excuse my photos. I'm far from a pro photographer.

As a happy owner of two Skystreaks I did not for a moment and do not also now think that they will fail. What I like most from the start about these guys is their open, frank and sincere communication. Covid is a trouble to us all humans and it is only natural they got it too, and in fact they avoided it even further than I expected. They let us all know they now have that trouble and I can see their dismay in their message. So I think, given the work and effort they put in so far, they deserve our support if some more waiting is how we give it. There's no way of knowing their team setup and financials, but there's one thing you forget: In addition to the Viggen, they sold out the Skystreak too. I do not think they are financiallly troubled because their reservation confirmation for the Learjet said they will accept preorders only after start shipping the Viggens. And second run of the Viggen does not replace the Learjet. I've reserved two new Viggens fron the second run and the confirmation email said the new Viggens will be produced in parallel with the Learjet. All in all, I think we are facing a manufacturer with sincere act and good intentions. Airllines and big corporations are either struggling financially or collapsing structurally; Jetmads people are just saying they need this time to shake the disease to restart their production and they are frankly letting us know, that's it.

Here's the main rotor head of my MH-60L special operations helicopter. (It is driven by the engines), does that count??? Tim

Sprayed the black (actually very dark gray, as I find that pure black always looks artificial/toylike on scale models). Here it is with all the tape removed to show the white and red as well, although you can't really see the distinction between white tape and white paint on the wings. As I mentioned before, I'm going to need to overpaint all three colors with a layer of clear flat (or more precisely clear nearly-flat - I'll probably go 1/3 gloss and 2/3 flat as a mix). As should be visible above, the three colors differ in their sheen significantly (white > red > black) so I need to unify them before re-exposing the "metal" parts. Unfortunately, the masking fluid I used (quite successfully) to seal gaps between pieces of tape when masking off the narrow white stripes on the wings has hung around stuck to the tape and laying over the area I need to clear coat. That's not red paint on top of the white, just red-painted gummy stuff stuck to the tape. I was afraid to smear red around if I tried to remove the gum, so I just pulled the bordering strip of tape entirely. Which nicely shows the final look of the stripes, but also means I'm going to have to re-tape the edges before the clear coat. Fortunately since it is going to be just a thin layer of clear I don't need the same micro-fine precision as if I was re-masking for another color coat. Before doing that I touched up a few tiny chips in the white bands that happened where I was forcing the tape down around the edges of the big stiffening rib in the wing, and applied a few decals that need to go on the painted areas: Once that's all dried overnight, I'll deal with re-masking the wings and shooting clear tomorrow. Then we'll see what it looks like with all the tape removed. I've now got *almost* all the other pieces made and painted (probably an hour's work left if that), so it's possible, if I don't need to do much in the way of Alclad touch-ups, that I can do all the final assembly this weekend.

Getting readied for a mission to Libya back in 2011, a GBU-16, Phimat and extra countermeasures: Jari

This all seems valueless speculation to me. The kits will either come out, or they won’t. Until it happens definitively, we won’t know either way. I will say that no one here knows much about JETMADS, and speculation on production costs seems mostly on what it would cost someone to do something similar based on the business model of their choosing. How you think it works could be wrong. Maybe it’s really a small group of guys who have real jobs and only do this part time and as a labor of love, so that there are no wages. Maybe one of them has a job with free access to CAD software. Maybe one of them has a business that prints 3D parts, so the printers are already bought and paid for, so that the only “cost” is their (free) time and the resin. And, who knows what the taxes are like in Turkey. When someone says that the math doesn’t work out for 94000 dollars, all that means is that they personally can’t get it to work for that amount, not that someone else can’t.

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Here is its twin...get it. Honestly just happy they look like the same guy painted both of them, onto the push rods and other accessories.

Same with the dark green and the light brown

I know Matt, he still has a really good printer. Just a quick teaser of the test print offered up as I am running late for work.... Some tweaks to be made but pretty close for a first go! Cheers Anthony

I'm looking forward to this show Soon (after receiving the PE) we start shipping. Everything else is ready. Greetings Lukas

I paused this job as I wasn’t sure where I’d put it when done. I’m still not, but it’s been calling me from under my desk for months, so it’s back on again. Work has included fitting the Magic scale Modelling motors and continuation of the interior. Lots and lots of complex sub assemblies for turrets etc and an investigative dry fit to check for any howlers. Can’t see any so far but it’s fairly standard for me that everything looks like it’ll fall together dry but the second I introduce the substance “glue” all the parts whisper to each other to simultaneously change shape such that nothing fits any more! Anyway lots of more detailing, weathering/correcting needed for the insides but I’m happy I can see now what will be visible & worth going overboard on. someone on a previous post pointed out the insides of later model B17s were unpainted. I thought I wasn’t bothered at the time but I think a lighter inside will make the interior more visible so I’ve resprayed it aluminium. I had my heart set on the aluminium D-Day Doll scheme but I can’t get hold of the Zotz discontinued decals anywhere. I don’t like any of the available aluminium schemes so I’m going with an OD bird, which I intend to look very shabby. If this was going to be a static build I’d be thinking 60% done now, but I’ve got all the wiring to do! Thankfully MSM have done their best instructions so far on this, so I’m not going to have to work it all out myself like I did on the B-25!

It will come, I haven’t given it a second thought it won’t. Put it this way, it gives me more time to finish the current build.

Pencil works very well over a flat paint job, just be sure where you want it as there is no erasing it. Washes suck for many reasons, this being one of them.

It takes a lot of capital to develop a product like this, perhaps the cash just isn't there just yet? I don't think we should hold our breaths until we start seeing some tangible evidence of activity in the future. Ambition is one thing, sadly, the harsh reality of business is quite another as many have found out!

Thanks for all the kind words. There is such a high level of work on this forum so they mean a lot. I have one more in the stash which I was planning on building up with AML's PeilG conversion. But honestly the nose was such a fight it's definitely going to be put on the back burner for a bit. After looking at the Alley Cat stuff I may see if I can snag a E-1 overtree and build a Swiss 109D and just sell/trade my E-4. I've been trying to find a copy of the e-3 boxing but they seem rare as hen's teeth. The captured RAF markings in that version make me weak in the knees. Thanks for catching that one. I had entirely the wrong canopy in place. The only other 109s I've built were G's so I think I must have grabbed that style. I hate canopy masking so having to re-mask and paint the other version will hopefully teach me to pay attention. (Sorry cell photos) (Also sorry, Canadian apologize too much) Thanks again for looking. Jeff

I decided to do one side thru to the end to see how it would go. I used way too much Basswood filler which only increased the amount of time it took to sand it all down. Its fortunate that the belt sander is long enough to span STA-1 thru STA-4 and from STA-4 to STA-8. Had it not been long enough, It probably would have been difficult to keep countours consistent dictating a return to the long block and hand sanding. Close attention to thickness removal is needed constantly. The most delicate part of the operation (if you can believe delicate with a belt sander) occurs at the aft surface of STA-4. At that point, the fuselage begins to taper into the tail cone. Its a sharp change with no blend. The aft surface of the STA-4 former was purposely aligned with the break in contour leaving the .250 inch forward of the break to act as a solid stop. The belt sander made it mso much easier.

Still not decided to make a US Navy TA-4J or an Australian Navy (RAN) TA-4G. Looking at the cockpit I have a couple of questions: (1) ESCAPAC seat... A nice info link on LSP about the ESCAPAC seat is seen here: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/24882-escapac-seats/&tab=comments#comment-206951 Here a few drawings from manuals and particularly at the upper section/ head rest some differences are seen: =========== What seat did the RAN TA-4G use? Was it the old ESCAPAC 1C-3 seat? Or were these aircraft upgraded later on after delivery and got the 1G-3 or even get the 1F-3 (which would be very similar to the 1G-3...) ? It seems that the AVIONIX resin cockpit set is a copy of the Black Box set, reviewed here on LSP: https://www.largescaleplanes.com/reviews/review.php?rid=1541 Unfortunately I only have a single instruction page in my AVIONIX set with only a few photos (so no further details...) Here a few photos of my AVIONIX set: The 2 seats in this set are much better and are now separate parts (they appear to be the ESCAPAC 1C-3 : Any suggestion for the RAN TA-4G seats? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (2) instrument panels: The 2 AVIONIX resin instrument panel parts are a "copy" of the Hasegawa kit parts... Are these usable for a RAN TA-4G? I believe I saw some photos of instrument panels that had more couple of CRT rectangular screens (or where these also an upgrade retrofit?). A photo of both RAN TA-4G forward and rear panel would be great.... Suggestions welcome!

I think there may be pandamic involved delays here boys....... I would suspect that as the world comes out of this, schedules may start to come back on track. Except for the Devastator....... Sorry Matt

Here ya go Pete. This helo guy will always take care of ya! It's a MH-6M Walkaround. Hope it helps. http://aeroscale.kitmaker.net//features/4186 Tim

I still want my TBD Devastator Trumpeter promised 14 years ago. Matt

thanks chaps ..just a quick one I cut away the under fuselage to allow mating of the rad structure - the roof of the rad intake at the front seems also to have some sort of slat arrangement, but I only have a couple of oblique photos to work from so imagineered this bit.. ..also the flat panel in front of it was let in by using a template glued on to cut away the skinning and then some work to flatten the underlying structure before adding a more detailed panel.. TTFN Peter

Hello all- all of this so far with Vallejo colors- the seat harness in black and then dry brushed. I use a small chisel tip brush to accurately (as possible) do the dry brush steps- The helmet visors start out black, then get a coat of Tamiya clear green, and then a few coats of Future Here you can see the slight difference between the figure on the right which has received an overall wash/filter, and the one on the left which has not- thanks for checking in! cheers Pete

Black and white added, plus web gear started- Then a very thin overall wash-

Hey all- been farting around with this new project. The Kitty Hawk MH-6M Little Bird. What pushed me over the edge were the outstanding figures that Yaroslav at Live Resin created for this kit. Six figures total; 2 stick actuators and four SF riders. but more than anything, it was this particular figure right here. I love this pose..Holding on to the fast rope cage and outrigger platform- perfect for an inflight display so I’ll use all six figures for this one- first things first- I needed to open up the crew compartment door area- Here you can see the modification to the right side (top)..both sides get wider openings- more to follow! cheers Pete

I was just wondering.....how about those Thunderstreak and Flashes, how have these progressed................

MDC Cockpit is a must for a 1/32 P-47D. It has great detail and includes both corrugated and regular floor of the cockpit. I very highly recommend to make a "shelf" from 1-2mm plastic sheets in the fuselage to make the installation easier.

I do not think that has anything to with Ramadan. They would just say they do not work in Ramadan and we would respect it. But all Muslims I know work in this month. it is about fasting, not working. so it is totally irrelevant. If you were someone who had no intention of delivering a kit, would you design 15 decal options on two A4 sheets after you already cashed all the money in and then make Cartograf print them? My nose gets no bad smell at all and I take they are after their word. I would like to build the Viggen as soon as possible but after waiting all the big fish all those years in vain, there is not so much of an issue if I'll wait a few months more. At least I know someone is making it, sooner or later. Jetmads people, I hope you all get well soon and give us your lovely Viggen.

Thanks Dennis! Your support and collaborative build have definitely propelled me through the project! Looking forward to seeing your work as well. Cheers, Tom

. . . and no sign of the crew names relative to their positions as seen in previous photos ?? Looking forward to seeing some paint Ian PS Just read that link concerning the story of Lancasters arrived in Canada after the war , bloody marvellous and such a great record of the artwork !!!

Yes an overtree is mighty cheap, but I think that with a little care about wing armament you could use the E-4 as well. Maybe the canopy is a problem - check if it has the rounded canopy... else you need the E-1 overtree of cause I had great fun with my AlleyCat conversions - they are really really good. Hopy you dont find that I hijack your thread

Actually it looks like Covid has caught up with Jetmads as well: Covid has finally hit us. Some of our production crew, production manager and general manager are under medication since last week. They are all doing well now and have been prescribed full day rest for several weeks. A decision we were very reluctantly but inevitably forced to make, please be informed that we now have to pause all production activities until the end of May, when hopefully everyone will fully have recovered and be back to their work. We will be pleased to inform you when the production resumes… and please have no doubt that it will. Our communication stays open, please feel free to send any queries but be noted that responses may be delayed. Kind Regards, JETMADS Team

The base and formers were cut from .250" Birch Plywood using a small bandsaw. A little extra material was left on each for matching, then the formers were placed on each base plate respectively. The edges of the baseplate and formers were then hand sanded to shape while on the base plate with a long block wrapped in 180 paper. Trying to sand each former to shape individualy would give too much opportunity for size and shape discrepensies to creap in. Plywood is hard to sand so it took quite a lot of time to sand and match. The hard plywood edges also serve as a good stop once the basswood filler is put between them.

Greetings All, A bit of progress on the Ryan. While there are lots of photos on the web of ST-As, finding detail information is proving problematic but it will show up someplace eventually. I decided to start with the fuselage. Being of monocoque construction, there isnt much on the inside to support the center section of the model. I was concencernd that it would be too weak to support itself. Hence, I thought it best to vacform the whole thing. I wasnt having any success finding a supplier of vacform services until Johm Wilkes jumped in and saved the day. So work is going forward on the fuselage plug. I had the drawings reduced accordingly(or as close as the printer could provide) to allow for material thickness. Much time was spent by carefully cutting the formers out of the reduced drawing, and laminating them down to a piece of .030 card. It then dawned on me that I only need three given that from STA-1 thru STA-4 is constant. From STA-4 to STA-8 is also a constant taper. STA-0 to STA-1 forms the nose.

Up next is the Stearman PT-17, Going to add a bit of AM to it just to help it look wee bit better. It is not the ICM ,Bought this before it was released and am not displeased with the kit at all.. So off we go.

I was going to post this link: DVIDS - Images - LITTLE YET FIERCE (dvidshub.net) but realized it's the one Tim just posted. Posted it anyway if you want to register and download a higer rez pic. But DVIDs is your friend--the repository for all the PA photos from DoD. While I normally search through individual service's webpages for PA photos, DVIDs is sometimes better as it's a conglomeration of ALL the photos, including the ones that don't get 'published' or released. A good resource if you're looking for photos of things from the last decade or so. Totally a rabbit hole, but for me researching a project is half the fun! Boogz

Thank you Andy and yes I'm now far happier with it and looking forward to getting some paint on it, just finishing off the sanding and re polishing. Hi Troy it will be finished off as LR*R, L1909, 56 Squadron at North Weald, this is the only photo that I have found, it is in the old Ducimus Camouflage and Markings book which I have found to be a very useful reference. Thank you Max, I must admit that I have heard of Brian Fawcetts stuff but have never fully investigated it, I will have to have a look. Hopefully I have got past the Bad and Ugly stage now and can start on the good bits. Cheers Dennis

I have taken a break from machining of wheels and tires. In the mean time, I am exploring the possibility of creating them from 3D print, something I have not done yet. It has the potential for adding more detail and more exactness than I can provide with machined parts. We shall see. It also has the potential of saving me from more failure and heartbreak! And, I went back to work on the cockpit. Recall the LH side is as done as it can be for now. So now it's the RH side. The RH side cockpit is as busy as the LH side, and is dominated by the big electrical console, and the radio units. Other stuff for sure, but those are the biggies. Similar to the LH side, I decided to use the aux (side) instrument panel as the anchor, and go aft from there. This laser etched part was provided to me along with the main instrument panel by none other than Peter (Airscale), special order. Here it is painted, with decals, and ready to go: A few comments. Decals are from Peter's Lope's Hope 1/18 Mustang effort. This is a laminate of sorts - a metal back plate, where the decals are applied, a metal front plate with holes, and a clear plastic plate between. You see a blank large hole - it was supposed to receive a rounds counter, and I had no idea what it looked like. So I left it out! It would hide in the shadows anyway, so this aircraft will have no rounds counter. Installed on its larger aux panel, it looks like this: The white part with the paint scraped off is for the front end of the big electrical console. You see the yellow O2 bottle that I worked on a couple months ago - still with no inspection tag! No worries; it will get one Wolf. Note there is some stuff in front of the aux panel, and some new bracketry below and aft of it. See the next picture, labelled: That cluster of heating system valves is going to be orphaned - it gets a bunch of hydraulic lines that will never be seen, MOF the valves will never be seen. A waste of time. The fuel pressure regulator cannister is also largely unseen, except its red knobbed turn handle which can fairly easily be seen, and if one looks through the unfilled hole in the aux instrument panel (where the rounds counter would ordinarily be), one can see the top of the cannister! So there it is. It didn't get a max effort... The hydraulic valve assembly will also be a bit hard to see, but 10 (ten!) hydraulic lines emanate from it, 8 or 9 of which I will try to represent because they are more visible. There are a couple more little brackets I will fab and install, then it is on to the big electrical panel, its wire bundles, and the battery. That will get a max effort! And you will see at least some of that next post. Take care, hope you are having a nice spring. I am.

To me, the main purpose of a jig is to allow the modeller to adjust the geometry of an aeroplane constituents: dihedral, angle of incidence, raking angles of the UC, etc. A real jig would at the very least allow you to check the symmetry of a build. Another interesting feature of the JH jigs (and the likes) is that you can safely and securely affix the model to the jig by a simple system of rubber bands. The model cannot be knocked off nor its paint damaged as it cannot move while on the jig. I find the JH jig especially handy when I have to move my in-progress build around without even having to touch my model. How safer can that be?

Well I was gonna say there was already a hole there... “Butt” less work for me to do it this way- the boot would be more humane, but then I’d have to clean up the hole- the bottom of the boot will show for sure- sometimes sacrifices must be made in the name of modeling! cheers Pete

Started with the two pilots. assembly- gaps filled with either JB Weld or Apoxie Sculpt Then a shot of Tamiya deck Tan then a dry brush of a lighter version of deck tan More multicam camo. First the light green. Also, I find it easier to paint the black cable on top of the helmet first, and then come in right next to it with the overall helmet color- much easier than trying to pick out a skinny cable with a small brush after the helmet is painted- then dry brush the light green more to follow-

Great work thus far. I had a similar issue with the flight crew I had to cant mine over as well in order to get a good fit, Another fit you might want to check is that of the bomb aimer. When I did mine, he was quite a tight squeeze into the front compartment filling the window. Also dont bother with a figure in the ball turret. I did, wish i hadnt!