Leaderboard

Ok, after a small break I have made some progress. Here is the front trapeze. The real deal is actually more complicated, here I have glued in the trapeze, hopefully a little more detail to follow. Rear missile launchers. After the front trapeze was in place I was able to adjust these launchers to match the front. Genie missile. This is a scaled down version of my Scorpion Genie as it was too big to fit. Weapons bay doors. These have been a pain to assemble and to get both sides symmetrical. Main gear with doors. Nose gear. Slowly making progress.............. Dan

What a great pic Jari! I see rust-brown fastener detail on the engine cowlings in the future of this build! With the cockpit pretty much done, a few more glamour shots for the build archive. Unfortunately like most WWII fighters, a lot of this will be hard to see when I close up the fuselage- hence the lack of dark weathering. Note how the floor is open on both sides. I'm not sure how the wing root will fill this, but if it doesn't, I will add some strips to close it up. Cheers, Chuck

My latest cockpit of the 1/24 Airfix F6F-5 Hellcat, modified quite a bit with Airscale Instrument Panels (& decals) and Adriatic Models resin parts. Cheers, Chuck

Hi all, The engine assembly and its support frame are now completed. I've added representations of the pipes to and from the cockpit 'pulse meters', oil tank supply pipe, HT supply lead and carburettor control cable and lever. I've also added the fuel supply pipe from the upper wing fuel tank to the carburettor, but this can't be connected until the upper wing is fitted. I just wonder how companies like this expect modelers to be able to create the engine support frame from two pieces of wire and a rough drawing of the area, which is actually on the only 'instruction' sheet supplied. Hey-Ho - moving on - Next up is the fitting of the upper wing, Mike .

Hi Jennings, I don't see any "colors", other than black, white and grey. Is "grey" wrong? Also, since we're on the topic of cockpit accuracy, and while I am no expert on anything Hellcat, I have the Detail & Scale, F6F Hellcat book by Kinzey and Sakal, amongst many other pics of Hellcat cockpits, including the F6F Erection and Maintenance Manuel (I always snicker at that title). What I have found is that some of the changes from the 3 to the 5 were gradual and some late 3's have features of early 5's and early 5's have some features of late 3's. For instance, while all 3's had rear windows, some early 5's had them as well, so the rear headrest/armor plate had cutouts on either side. Instrumentation was quite variable, with certain displays that are distinctly for a 3, while other displays were for 5's only, but then there is are many instruments that came and went between the two versions. This made it a bit tricky when I was trying to figure out which instrument was which between the Airscale, Kit and Adriatic parts. I am certain that I got most of them right and I am also certain I have a few dead wrong, but then again, who cares if it looks cool? Cheers, Chuck

Working on the engine, and happy about it, unless a foot slips: Jari

Well, I sprayed the first coat of Mr Surfacer on tonight and the shapes are 'not too bad' but there is still more to do with them. At least now I can see what I am doing with the primer on now! Off to bed now Cheers Anthony

Hi guys been busy with this one (https://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/article.php?aid=3569). Many aftermarket parts but really only the undercarriage and cockpit was necessary. The rest was scratchbuilt. Really enjoyed this build. Let me know what you think. Suresh.

Big day for the Nieuport. The top wing is now mounted, and I believe I've shortened my own life by many years doing it. I can only assume that I messed up somewhere along the line, since the engineering of the rest of the kit has been spot on. Even though I dry-fit everything multiple times, when I went to glue it all together, it didn't want to work. Each time I've glue one strut in, a different one would pop out of its spot. Eventually though, I was able to make it work. Now just to hide the errant glue spots, paint in a few touch-ups, then rigging will commence. Also, got the wheels painted, weathered, and mounted. The pictures don't show it clearly, but I'm quite happy with the weathering on the wheels. Used tips I picked up from armor modelers on layers of earth weathering. Machine gun was replaced with a Gaspatch unit, much finer detail around the muzzle Dust and Earth weathering started off with a thinly sprayed coat of Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth. Some mud splatters from Ammo will finish it off. Wheels were done with the same XF-52 base, then weathered with Ammo Turned Dirt and Wet Ground, blended with very light odorless thinner. Please let me know what you think. Hopefully the next update will have it all rigged up. Matt

I’ll pop this in here, the monster ‘Flanker’ is still a work in progress owing to choosing the ridiculously labour intensive digital scheme. Here’s the office before the fuselage was sewn up, and the pilot was headless. And, here he is installed.

It is not really possible to take a 6-gun Mustang wing and turn it into a 4-gun wing by just changing the gun ports in the leading edge. The 6-gun wing has six spent ammunition ports, different ammunition doors and the 4-gun wing had a landing light in the leading edge of the port wing and a different wing root leading edge. The shape of the wheel well was slightly different. Unfortunately there is nothing in the ZM Mustang D that hints at a B. However, the President of ZM announced that they are planning a B at some stage in the future. HTH Radu

Latest update. It is getting really close to putting it all together, though, each time I look at it, I find something needing done or touched up. Tried something different on painting engine I'd never tried before. The seven cylinder Continental is pretty wide open between cylinders so after painting entire engine black, I masked around cylinder bases and stuffed tissue between cylinders and painted the crankcase. It isn't perfect in that it doesn't quite reach the actual cylinderbase flange, but I'm happy with it. Results are much better than hand painting. Of late, I am finding myself picking up an airbrush for many small parts rather than brush as I would have done in the past. The gravity feed Iwata is so much easier to clean and change colors than my old siphon type Badgers. This is my fourth model using it and it has made a huge difference. I am enjoying using it much more than the old Badger 175, which is still great for painting large areas. I'm really getting my mojo back for building.

Went on a primarily SciFi spree recently at HLJ. I picked up a couple Space Battleship Yamato kits. The namesake kit. Her supposed successor Some smaller scale kits. "You have 10 seconds to comply" Much better than the old Horizon kit. HLJ had the next two on sale so decided to add them to the stash. Now to find the time to build them, never mind what's already in the stash. Carl

It's supposed to be very dark grey to differentiate the ball in the artificial horizon- not sure what has happened but looks like I need a word with the printer Peter

I had intended to build this ICM kit for the ""Training Day" Group Build. Needless to say, I didn't. I airbrushed a few parts in one short session and stopped. Life got in the way. So, now I'm going to knock it out for the "In the Navy" build, despite my being an Army retiree... I am a bit of a Stearman junkie. I've already built the Roden PT-17. I have both Roden and ICM's PT-17/N2S-3 and PT-13/N2S-2 versions. I also have two Silver Wing PT-13 kits. I'm thinking one of the Silver wings will be next. But I build a cropduster conversion of the Roden kit next. The pictures represent two longish sessions. Aside from engine, all major subassemblies are done. Time to begin priming and painting...and determining paint scheme. It will likely be a simple all yellow without stripes...like first Stearman I restored with my dad and in which I ever flew. Here is my Roden I built last year.

Thanks for that, glad it is noticeable. I have looked at it so much I cant tell anymore LOL Thanks, that's good...they were a LOT of work, I thought they were going to finish me off in the end! That's awesome Chek! Thank you....never too much information when you end up this deep in! Well more sanding Another coat of Mr Surfacer. See as I start fine tuning the shapes the ;hump' starts to become visible? This has turned out a little more of a challenge than I first thought, but I am getting there. A bit more fine tuning and I might have it. One more sanding session 'might' have it. Black Mike is a great study in shapes and I am constantly referring to photos of her Thanks guys and I always love your input and suggestions Cheers Anthony

Picked up my kit today at my LHS. It will be on the bench for a quick look see tomorrow. I will not let the new get too close to my almost completed vac it I was pawing the other day. Could result in an almost matter-anti-matter reaction.

Hi all, The upper wing is now fitted. The ailerons as well as the tail unit have yet to be fitted. Now onto the rigging !! Mike

Tamiya one worked out well enough for me. I’ll accept its inaccuracies, i chucked a few AM bits to jazz it up rather than correct anything. I left the raised panel lines (laziness), gave it a snazzy paint job, and hey presto..... It looks close enough to a Tomcat for my shelves.

They've actually already announced that they're planning one, but nothing's been said about it for a little while. Kev

Moving on this time: Inbetween work, buying new kits and other hobbies the Wildcat recieved some interior paint. As fa as I got the early Wildcats were painted bronze green. Instead of searching for an "exact" match, I went with MRP's take on it. As usual there's some variation thanks to the black base. Painting the small stuff with a fine brush took like forever. The PE instrument panel was a special pain since the bezels aren't that high. I know why I usually prefer good plasitc or resin IPs... The control stick got two red knobs punched from styrene. I'm not a 100% happy with the blind flying panel but added an Anyz knob anyway Afterwards I shot an overall gloss coat - MRP this time, first try and already close to my beloved Tamiya X-22! It should be dry enough for a wash later today.

One's eyes are just naturally drawn to those intake vents. They dominate the upper fuselage. Really outstanding the effect they have! Well worth the effort!

It really is amazing - as you say a service life of 100 years is just phenomenal. I read a similar article and it used the comparison of the Sopwith Camel still being in frontline service in 2020. When you see that kind of perspective, it's even more impressive. I have been having a little play with the B-52's flaps of late, although bench-time has been limited due to work which has a habit of getting in the way. I thought I'd start with the easiest flap and therefore have made the left outboard flap first from plastic card. They're actually a lot more complex that I had first realised and there are numerous cut outs and panels present - I haven't tried to replicate every last detail but this will be a good starting point: When on the wing, this looks the part and once primed and in grey I think will do the job nicely: I'll complete the right outboard one next - this should be relatively easy as it's just a mirror image of this one - and then I'll need to tackle the more complex inboard flaps. Best regards to all, Tom

Primed and painted...my Iwata HP-Cwas acting up and spitting slightly. No water in trap, filter in place and Mr Surfacer 1000 thinned to milk-like viscosity. Ended up using the old Badger 175 Cresendo for yellow. It does a good job throwing lots of paint, as evidenced by my filter. Yellow was Model Master Chrome Yellow...a NOS/unopened bottle I bought no later than 2003 when I lived in San Antonio. I applied two mist coats letting each dry to touch prior to shooting a heavier final coat. I likely should have added a white base coat over the primer first, but opted not and just shot an extra coat. The 18+ year old $2.49 priced paint worked flawlessly...right up until I dropped an aileron. I'll have to clean it up and reshoot it. Maybe I'll spray it silver and leave it so it looks like a replaced aileron from a student's mild ground loop... Now on to assembling and painting engine and prop, landing gear, struts, etc. Frankly, I'm amazed I'm to this point this quickly...this kit is going together quickly. I'm also not adding much other than addition of homemade/PE seatbelts...then there's not that much to a Stearman in the first place...and most of it wouldn't be seen anyway.

This is 1/32 Hasegawa P-40L with the markings of “Duchess of Durham IV” (42-10436) Italy 1943. I have used Grey Matter Aviation conversion set. The base kit is Hasegawa s P-40M. Reference: Kagero Topdrawings Curtiss P-40 Modifications: - Eduard PE instrument panel and seatbelts. - Eduard wheels. - Zotz decal set - Master Model gunsight Paints: Gunze Sangyo acrylics Happy modelling

Hello all Finished this 109 some time ago but didn't have the time to took some pictures. Finished with Modell Master enamels and Valejo varnishes . Decals are from Eagle Calls. Added Eduard seatbelts, Quickboost gun bulges and Hasegawa 20mm gun pods Not my best but here it is anyway

There are cheaper options! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203161529195?hash=item2f4d5eeb6b:g:SDgAAOSwEwdfnXmj https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143969741397?hash=item218543ea55:g:pI4AAOSwkPlgQ08f Richard

Hi all, Some small progress in the last few weeks! I did work on the rear side of the Panther. The exhaust stacks and covers are not yet glued in position. The left Staukast is a Tamiya version, the right one is a Wecohe photo-etch part which I f*c&d up a few years ago (the X shaped ribs were on the inside!) but I could use it for this Panther. Yes, there is a difference in the sizes but I don't care that much, as a figure's legs will be hanging over it. And of course the p-e makes it possible for some damage. The latches and lid are a Shapeways offering. Another Hi-lite was the Rohrwisserstange behalter (or so!) This is also a Shapeways offering. And last week another 5 figures arrived, so my set is complete . So now I have to paint 16 figures, something I really not looking forward to! But when they are finished it will look really nice! With regards, Rob

Not sure if this info from Ron Downey's blog will be any help Anthony, but you can never have too much data, right? .Also, I can recommend Ali McLean's clear resin canopy set, which neatly avoids the seam clean-up and edge refraction problems of the way Tamiya designed the frames and transparencies with the need to glue them together.

I just receive a 1/32 Blackbox F-18D cockpit! Super hard to find I also received a academy uh-60L that i won in an action for 44cad shipped (thats probably 35usd!) I know the kitty hawk is better but this was hard to pass on. Im thinking i could do a black hawk down scene with humvee's and a crashed chopper

if I was you , (but , I am not) I would go to the the kit that needs the less of works , the kit with which most AM stuffs are provided . in any case , there is no " good" kit , and at the end all of them will look like an F 14 ... the main thing is to enjoy ...isn't it ? Alain

There is that...

Well I have a single 1/48 kit, and am not likely to buy another, so my Revell kit will be it, warts and all.

Really it's a case of "never say never" we dropped a lot of the low sellers off, but if the demand is there and we have the time really anything is possible. Bob

A recent purchase. Along with my other Dauntless references (I have several), this will help a lot with my big ol' Trumpeter kit; a splendid addition to my library.

port sidestarboard sidestarboardside top. hope this helps, regards, Bart.

I built the elderly Tamiya when it was the only game in town before the Trumpeter version appeared. Sure, there were some raised panel lines on the rear deck but some sandpaper and a re-scribe soon fixed that. AM cockpit and some Aires burner cans as I was doing a "B". No am intakes unlike the Trumpeter but a bit of card and filler had smooth intakes. A good guide is on the Narita Family website: http://www.naritafamily.com/howto/F14D/photo_thumb.htm It is what it is and yes it needs some modelling skills rather than expected perfection OOB. Mine: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/30336-f-14b-tomcat-vf-103-jolly-rogers/

Getting anxious to get after this build. I set it aside a couple of weeks ago as I was put off building the circuit breaker panel in between the Pilot and ECMO-1 ejection seats. That, and I was mulling over how to best do the figures. There was a post in the general discussion forum concerning 1/32 figures and I found some Master Details figures after reading that. Ordered a mix of them last night: 3 older USN style and 1 modern USAF type. The USN types come w/ the correct inflatable life preservers, but older helmets. The USAF one comes w/ newer helmets, but w/o the preserver. I figure I can fashion that out of some apoxie sculpt and figure out the helmets as I go. Stay tuned--hoping to have something worth posting by the end of the week at the latest. -Peter

At long last, the one remaining book I needed to complete this Arco series, a gift from a good pal.

I have the Revell kit. I'll start with that.

Yesssss! Just arrived. Dave/Ironman1945

My humble contribution, my first LSP as an adult, Hasegawa P47, currently running a wip thread.

Magnificent work as always Chuck! Cheers, Tom

I agree with Tolga. I found there are some gaps you are going to deal with. I showed some of this in my review of the set. Excellent job with it, Tolga! May I put it on the website?

There's a small fiber brush that seems to work rather well, sold by some online retailers. In lieu of that, a small brass wire brush from a Dremel should do the trick.

Great work Woody! I love the comparisons between the mask and decal... great summary of the advantages/disadvantages of each. It should be fairly easy clean up the slight overspray using inverse masks. I assume that you used the circular hole mask to spray the blue. You could use the interior parts of the mask to mask off the blue circle and touch up the blue-grey around that mask. The blue overspray on the white star can be touched up with masking tape since it is a straight edge. What is F-word?

Shape wise, the Tamiya Tomcat remains by far the best; the Trumpeter has major and hard to correct shape issues and the Revell kit is a nice and rather cheap base but has major nose and canopy shape issues (which can be corrected using Tamiya parts and a bit of elbow grease). As others have pointed out, what's more important for you? Good proportions yet low detail (=Tamiya), easy assembly and rather nice details yet totally flawed shape (= Trumpeter), low price yet low detail & flawed nose shape (=Revell). There are several really comprehensive threads discussing the differences between the kits here on LSP which are definitely worth a look.

LOL thanks Don, I am sure the plastic ones will hold...hopefully Not much to update except I have got the left intake shapes 'pretty right' I think, I am just doing some tidy up of edges and details and I can spray it with Mr Surfacer and see where I need to go after that. It has taken 2 days solid fine tuning this shoulder area, to the point I am dreaming Phantom intakes LOL Oh Kerry sent me a reprint of the 'tweaked' vari ramp, but when I get the protective masking off the intake I will test them. Cheers and thanks everybody Anthony

WHY EVERYTHING TAKES FOREVER AROUND HERE, Part 27 (Or the world’s longest canopy masking post) One of the most difficult things in model building is getting your mojo back after shelving your project for months. Combine that with one of my least favorite things to do, masking canopies and store-bought canopy masks apparently made from recycled inner tubes and another tale of woe will emerge. WEEK 1 The last canopy I masked was my Wildcat but with only two pieces and only painting the outside was pretty easy. I cut thin strips of Tamiya masking tape for that one so I figured I’d do the same on this build, just paint the outside. Here’s where I started and then I decided I’d use some pre-cut masks from a vendor who will remain nameless to do the inside. I didn’t like this at all. The pieces don’t really fit and this material doesn’t conform to compound surfaces. My first attempt doing the outside wasn’t exactly inspiring and my boxing glove hands didn’t help either. In order to get the inside pieces to even come close I cut it in half, but that wasn’t enough. The contour of the edges don’t fit very well so now I’m back to thinking I’ll just do the outside with my own masks traced from the store-bought sheet. Another problem I have with one-piece masks is that I can never seem to get all four sides lined up so to overcome that I cut my masks in half so I only have to deal with lining up two edges. That worked out pretty good, so I figured I’d tackle the inside too. But me being me I decided I’d make my own masks, kind of like a universal canopy masking sheet which actually didn’t turn out too bad. It’s just a bunch of little squares, some strips and triangular pieces, using Tamiya masking sheets. Start in the corners. Then some strips to finish the sides. Then fill in with more tape. It gets a little complicated on parts that don’t have square corners and that’s where the triangular pieces come into play. It may not look very elegant, but it’s something I can accomplish with my limited finger mobility. The clear parts are covered and the framework isn’t. Inside of the windscreen done. Everything appeared ready for paint. I never used the rubber tires that come in the kit so I figured I’d try it this time while I had all the paint stuff out. WEEK 2 I started on the inside and that went okay, or so I though. Then I did the outside but didn’t get any pictures. BUT THEN… I’m removing the masks and BOOM…. Much to my amazement I discovered that I forgot to mask one of the panels on one piece, and if that wasn’t bad enough I didn’t notice it when I was painting. So, instead of being done I had to fix this blunder. Using Mr. Color lacquer thinner and a cotton bud, I started washing off the paint…. …. re-masked and repainted. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! At this point I stopped taking photos, but the story doesn’t end here. I discovered that some of the thinner got on the outside and that had to be touched up, and when I pulled the masking off the inside I found that some of the thinner had gotten under the mask leaving a paint stain on one of the clear panels. I tried to clean that off with IPA (why?, I have no idea) only to discover that IPA removed the Future leaving an un-fixable mess, so I completely stripped everything off and repainted it again. (Insert foul language here.) In the end it worked out. Lessons learned: 1. You can use Mr. Color lacquer thinner to remove lacquer paint without damaging styrene. 2. IPA removes Future. 3. Painting the inside of canopies is a questionable practice for me. 4. It’s not easy posting here with a cat sleeping on your lap. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures.

Superb! That opening photo is sublime. Kev