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More progress has been made on the Dr.1. I built up the Spandau MGs using Master brass barrels and cooling jackets. The assemblies were given a primer coat of Tamiya’s Fine White Primer and then sprayed with Gunze Mr. Metal Dark Iron. The feed and empty cartridge chutes were painted with Alclad II dark aluminum and the ammunition, as before, with Gunze Mr. Metal Polished Brass. The belt itself is, again, a strip of Aviattic’s linen decal. The last steps included a black wash and applying MIG’s gunmetal powder by burnishing it in with an old paintbrush. I also decided I would paint the wing, cabane, landing gear struts, and engine cowling in their red colour. I mixed the red from Tamiya’s lacquer spray TS-8 Italian Red and TS-11 Maroon. I initially used Tamiya’s acrylic paint in the recommended ratios from the Dr.1 painting guide supplied in the WnWs instructions included in the Baron’s Albatross kits but didn’t care for the way they sprayed or covered. So it was back to my “never have failed me yet” Tamiya spray lacquers. The wings were also started. First a coat of Tamiya’s white primer and then a top coat of Tamiya’s TS-7 Racing White. It’s a beautiful creamy white and works perfectly as a base for Aviattic’s linen effect decals and it lays down wonderfully smooth and glossy. For those of us that don’t have access to MRP paints it’s a great alternative. Once completely dry i started applying Aviattic’s decals to the wing bottoms first. I constantly worked the water out from under the decals, first with a large paint brush, and then a moisten Q-Tip. In areas where the decals had to conform over the wing strut attachment points and the scalloped trailing edges I used Solvaset decal softener. A couple of small spots showed signs of slivering but poking the decal with the point of a new #11 blade and more Solvaset solved the problem. I found you have to careful not to work the decals too hard otherwise you can damage the opaqueness of the decal especially once the softener has started to do it’s thing. Nonetheless the finished product looks terrific. The lower wing spar was done with my diminishing supply of red oak decal film. Cheers, Wolf

Good evening guys and gals... Another Sunderland update for you, which has mainly involved filling, sanding and scribing. But from a good old fashioned vacform, who'd expect anything less? The rather unsightly joins at the wing roots have been taken care of over the course of this this week. The first and most challenging task was to eliminate the nasty step seen in the previous update where the wing profile didn't match that of the wing-mounted root. My go to filler for these sort of tasks, P38, soon made short work of that and after an initial sanding session, you can see the extent of the work having been done at the forward wing root: I've since spent a fair few hours finetuning the shape and profile of the roots, and also added the obliterated panel detail back. The wing and root profile now match perfectly, and I can confidently say, 'job done': The undersides still need some detailing but the join was fine here, and as you can see I've boxed in the bomb runners ready for further detailing in due course: I've also added the openings for the double-landing light set up on the port wing: It's starting to take shape quite nicely now... Next up is making something resembling Sunderland stabilisers from these: Until next time, Tom

Stickers! Well actually decals and masks. Dan

Here are some early shots. I have the Tru Details cockpit, some resin wheels and a metal pitot tube, plus some nice decals from the interwebs. Instrument dials are RAF jet instrument dials from AirScale. Still working on the bang seat and painting in additional button and switch detail for the front office. Haven't settled on ordinance, but discovered that Shapeways has some nice potential options. https://www.shapeways.com/product/554XSXSEE/rhodesian-450-kg-golf-bomb More to come, as they say!

'Pit now all spritzed up with RLM 66 (Tamiya XF-63). Once this dries overnight, I can begin detail painting, hopefully wrapping that up by Friday. This was the first time I'd airbrushed anything in ages, and it felt real good. I also sprayed both IPs, just in case. Higher shutter speed than normal, owing to the poor evening light; sorry.

Trying to build a plane after losing intrests in this subject en more in to cars at the moment. Here the progress off the great sws kit. Building starts with the engines Paints used are tamiya valejo and mrp. I have finnishd first one engine before i started the next one start with engine 2 And almost there with engine nr2 Next up will be the pit Mark

HH-43 in action: https://vva.vietnam.ttu.edu/repositories/2/digital_objects/81993 Jari

Thank you Dennis! I think it is working! I've been pretty consistent getting some modeling bench time the past few days. Thanks Bill! I appreciate you checking in! I'm not really sure about the tires, Kevin. DEF Model offers both treaded and smooth versions and I went with the treaded ones because they are more visually interesting. The kit tires, FWIW, are treaded as well. Since the wheel trolley is ejected after take-off, I am going under the assumption that any set of tires could be matched to any 163, increasing the chances that my tire choice COULD be plausible. Thanks so much Wolf! I hope that is the case but right now, I'm just happy that I'm moving forward on a project again. I was able to do some work on the Aires instrument panel. The first thing to do is to remove the photoetch panel faces from the sprue. I recommend doing this and cleaning up the sprue attachments now instead of painting the faces on the brass fret. This center panel has two separate instrument bezels that help to build up the 3D relief of the instrument panel face. I use Future as a glue to attach the bezels. With the attachment stubs filed off with a sanding stick, I place the photetch faces to the resin instrument panel to check fit. This particular panel is a bit more complicated than most in that the resin panel has raised features that poke through the brass panels. This aids in alignment but will make the placement of the acetate backing a little more complicated. The brass faces are removed and readied for paint. I've tacked them on to the sticky side of a yellow Post-It. I've elected to use Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 to prime the brass parts before painting them RLM 66 Dark Grey. While I let that dry overnight, I've repaired the whip antenna with a piece of wire attached to the end. I've also glued the wing attachment inserts onto the fuselage sides. There is detail molded onto these parts as it would be visible if the cannon covers were posed open. I've also started to assemble the retractable skid assembly.

S.M 79 Sparviero! 1:32... Is that too much to dream of?

It is a pleasure to present to you the radio configuration in 1/18 scale for my F4U-1A, Bu No 55995, with about 90% confidence that it is right. There is a total of seven individual units represented. All were made from simple plastic stock, all were a PITA. First, I have concluded the "mystery boxes" I showed a couple posts ago are indeed part of my radio configuration, only located differently. Here again are the mystery boxes from Dana Bell volume 8 (circled in red, and in front of the ATA/ARA unit): In my configuration, these boxes basically swap places with the ATA/ARA unit: And this drawing backs it up: Note also the grey microphone cord and the hand-held mic in its bracket on the side of the electrical console - the cord could be plugged into two or three jacks on several units. Now, I think I got carried away fretting about these radios, for some time now, and what for? Even the best Corsair modeling efforts I have seen, of the F4U-1A, show different radios than this. And nobody seems to question it. Not only that but who knows what got changed in the field... So let's just say I have a complete set of radios here and can move on! Sorry if I bored some of you with it. I am getting to the point where I can no longer continue building in the cockpit without assembling the fuselage halves together, and perhaps the bilge as well. Once there, the remainder of the cockpit build is going to be somewhat akin to building a ship in a bottle, clearances being so awful. But, in order to do all that assembly, the wing center section stuff has to be completed first - something I have been saying for months on end. So you will see maybe one more cockpit component (the flare pistol and its bracket), and that is probably it for a while. Then it is the landing gear bays, flap supports, etc, in the wing center section. Soon you will also see the second set of 3D print models and parts for the landing gear. Take care all of you!

Full piddle-packs were/are stored in a dedicated slot underneath the seat of the F-16. Pilots were “supposed” to bin them after the sortie, but would sometimes forget. I began checking for them during preflight after my bud “Creature” unloaded his jet to like -1.5g during a BFM sortie. Predictably, Someone’s old, full piddle-pack came flying up between his legs at mach2, hit the top of the canopy, and exploded in a shower of urine. Awesome. cheers pete

hi Red fox cockpit IP and consoles are amazing , you won't regret .........here is the D version set ....... in the contrary of Quinta , these parts are not decals but , I think are resin made , and perfectly fit to the kit cockpit parts Alain

Thanks so much Derek! I really appreciate it. It's posting this build on this forum that really has kept me going the whole time, and I'm so glad that I've been able to share it with you Thanks as always for chiming in Terry! I'm actually planning on attacking the main cabin entry ladder very soon and am looking forward to it; it'll certainly make the area directly opposite the door look a lot more complete especially under all the oxygen bottles. This is the "ladder" I was referring to in my previous post... I think a lot of modern flying examples have them so passengers can move around easier. I'm reasonably confident that Yankee Lady has one too, although I'll have to check my Oshkosh photos. Bottom line though, I'm pretty sure the wartime forts didn't have it, and it certainly doesn't feature in the D model E&M. Cheers, Craig

I believe that my pilot figure is done. Pretty much done exclusively with Vallejo acrylics, using a few tutorials I watched online. This is my first true figure, please let me know how I can approve. I know I need to improve on the face, but an attempt was made at it. Let me know what you think. Not sure why the photo of the boots came out so poor, it looks much better in real life. Matt

Thanks all for the kind encouragement! I hit this stuff with a gloss coat..a few placards and oil wash. The wash evens everything out a bunch. Flat coat next- first aid kit is from Live Resin. Red Cross decal from Werner Wings.. Fire extinguisher from the H-60 kit- cheers for now P

After careful examination of the "evidences" I chose a NMF underside except for the cowling. Rationale: 1) I'm pretty sure the lower poetion of the main landing gear doors are NMF 2) you can see the "A" reflecting on the tailwheel left door 3) These planes, originally all NMF, were painted on the field primarily to lower visibility while on the ground. Made sense not to paint the underside

i call here done after about 8 months I hope you like it Now going for the next build Mark

So we got a nice cooling when the sun went down, it was 75 outside when i walked the dogs. It was hotter in the garage but not unbearable. always a glutton for biting off more than i can chew, i am trying MRP paints on this build, AND just got a new AB, AND the masks for insignia means i really needed to plan ahead. i decided to make the invasion stripes the “brightest” white, since they were only on the plane about six weeks at this point, while the ID lettering and insignia was on for longer. A few photos show the stars and bars near the invasion stripes and you can see a difference in the black and white photo. so i scientifically decided to do one drop black to a half a paint cup of white for the invasion stripes, and two drops for the other markings. First try was far too dark on the stars and bars, they were grey. I redid those, and you cant really see the difference now, but i didnt want a cartoonish, exaggerated difference. so just the white is down at the point. I still need to place the masks near the painted areas and may need to add a bit of white, but i think i got it. Overall bottom, at this point the plane only had lower invasion markings close ups Heres the side view, this is the one where i am not sure the id markings will be covered by the white i had the excellent line drawings from the kit in front of me and counted panel lines, i think i got it but will have to make sure before i move on. top side and that cowl that gave me so much trouble i see a blemish on the cowl that i will take care of on my next session. I really like this MRP paint, i just wish i could source it locally. i will fix that and any other blems, then let this cure for a day before any masking, no sense in rushing it. I am going to try to cut some masks with my silhouette cutter for the invasion stripes, the kit decals came with stripe decals so i shouod be able to figure out how to turn that into masks. Anyway, the paint is super thin and isnt hiding any detail ( or blemishes!). thanks for looking, and more soon. Bill

Hey all Aft bulkhead about done- medical kit and a few odds and ends to go still- cheers Pete

https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/san-diego-air-space-museum-receives-rare-aircraft-from-nasa/ Here is a video link from a local news station. Dan

Your bag of tricks for the different types of hoses and lines is just GREAT! Wonderful update, Pete. Sincerely, Mark

Hi all, I've pre-rigged the two wings with 0.4 mm diameter blackened Brass tube, 'GasPatch 1:48th Type turnbuckles and 0.08 mm diameter mono-filament. A line is passed through a tube and turnbuckle then back through the tube and secured. The free end of the line is then passed through a hole in the wing and a tube and turnbuckle added. The end result if a free moving and double ended turnbuckle, which should self-align when the landing and wing warp lines are attached to the free end of the turnbuckles. The two V struts are also fitted with wing warp control cables fitted to the rear strut. Finally, I've added the tail plane control lever and cable to the fuselage underside. Now onto fitting the wings and support frame, Mike

Tonight i sprayed the cowl and tail red. I also discovered a decent sized flaw in the upper wing surface. Initially, i thought that i had just buggered the delicate paint when i was painting the undersides, so i dutifully sanded the area as best i could to avoid removing the adjacent surface detail, but i looked at it under a bright light and Houston, we have a problem. its right about where the right bars are on the stars and bars. I am debating refinishing the area and rescibing, versus of course leaving it. I am soliciting advice on that decision. On the one hand, i think i can fix it, certainly make it look a bit better. On the other, how bad will it look under camo. Its a warplane, not a Ferrari. Of course i will always know its there and it will bug me. anyway, on to the photos. For the red i started with Mission Models insignia red because i had a bottle. It was far too orange, and a tiny drop of black made it brown. so i fell back on Tamiya flat red, which is like a milkshake compared to the to the MRP stuff. In the photos even this unaltered Tamiya looks orange, but in person its a deep red. here is that damage, you can see the step where i tried to tape off the dzus fasteners, and the fasteners give some idea of the size of the imperfection. If you zoom in on the upper wing photo from before, you can see this too. so, fix or ignore? And is there a better way to fix this than just sand and restore the panel line and fasteners?

Thanks Matt, I forgot the mention that I dry brushed the breeches and the cocking mechanism with Mr. Metal Steel paint as well to highlight some of the details. Cheers, Wolf

Maybe this one: as it has similar insignia on the external tank as the one here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:390th_Tactical_Fighter_Squadron_F-4Cs_flying_over_Vietnam.jpg Jari

Nice upgrades, John! I do wonder if the treaded tyres are accurate for the Komet, though, as I've never noticed them in photos before. Most other options I've seen (admittedly in kits and aftermarket products) have featured smooth tyres, taken from late-war 109s. Kev

OK, all of the white metal bits (save one), has been added, so I'll be spritzing the 66 on tomorrow, or possibly tonight, not real sure. There's still one tiny lever that needs to be added port-side, but I need to check my references, as the instructions are really quite vague as to it's specific location. Sorry for the cheesy photo.

Maybe we need an (Insert Manufacturer of choice) wish list thread Richard

Thanks very much for checking in everyone! A couple of aftermarket items arrived in the mailbox yesterday. The weighted resin wheels are from DEF Model and include the little tail wheel. On initial inspection, it looks like the hole in the hub is too small for the kit axle... always a tricky proposition enlarging an existing hole in a resin hub. Here is the Aires resin cockpit sets for the Me163. As usual, the detail is excellent. After the parts are removed from their casting blocks and test-fitted to each other, I'll have to check the fit of the resin tub between the fuselage halves. It will not be a drop-in fit due to the amount of solid resin on the bottom of the tub. The Aires cockpit comes with a fret of phototetch stuff. The instrument panel features instrument dials printed on clear acetate. I much prefer this "older" technique than any of the pre-painted options currently available including the newer 3D stuff.

Thank you all for the kind encouragement. Progress is slow but steady: the empennage is on and the control wires in place, it now awaits the tail rigging wires before I tackle the wings. I've also yet to put some paint on the control horns. [Edit] Yes, the rudder is slightly off, the top attachment came adrift; it's been fixed.

Hey all- the raft-rider got a shot of Tamiya Buff primer. This will serve as a nice base coat for the Vallejo paints to follow- pretty happy with the way the LPU turned out. Looking forward to painting this guy. It’ll be an interesting challenge, because he’ll be soaking wet from landing in the water- cheers Pete

.. Hi guys! found some time yesterday and made some progress.. Revi gunsight glued in place, canopy inside masked and painted.. i have also drilled a hole on each sidewall to add some cable for the cockpit lights i have also managed to finish and install the main cable line on the landing gears.. . thanks foe watching!

Here we are with another update. I mainly spent my last hours with the kit trying to get the front end together. Brassin exhaust stubs and PE heat shields. After these photos, I fared in the supercharger intake with CA. Sanded it, and tested the result with some gray primer. But no photo for that. But... before I realized it, I had glued the cockpit halves together, and was dry fitting the clear parts. Unfortunately, my copy of the Barracuda upper cowl doesn't fit totally flush behind the oil cooler... So there will be filling, and my arch-enemy, re-scribing. (note red arrows) Happy modelling!

Spectacular work on a spectacular model, Tom! Excellent scribing, too. Kev

Looks like you'll be able to use it to commute once it's all done. Didn't realize how big the Sunderland was until I saw it on the sofa. Matt

Agreed - Sunderlands certainly have that boat-like construction and yes, not too dissimilar hull plates. The upper wing surfaces are now on - before joining upper and lower surfaces I reinforced the leading edges of the wings with thick left over sprues from the HobbyBoss 1/32nd B-24. This not only provides strength, but gives a much larger gluing surface. It's not neat and it's not pretty, but it does the job. The joining surfaces for the nacelles were done in the standard way using plastic card tabs: The fuselage to wing join is not great, especially on the left wing. Mind the gap! However, this will be easily dealt with using filler, but it's always a good idea to pack such large gaps with plastic card: I took a lot of time ensuring the trailing edges are level at the roots, as well as the upper surfaces being as level as possible without leaving any hard to deal with steps. However, the wing root moulded in the fuselage is actually a slightly different shape to the wing - this is not unusual with vacforms but it does leave an awkward step to deal with: This will be a job for my trusty P-38 car body filler... The size of this model is now really apparent - I told the wife we should have bought a bigger sofa! It'll now be a case of some filling and sanding - stay tuned! All the best, Tom

Hello, Our next figures are a US Navy pilot and RIO for the colourfull 81-89 era, with HGU-33 helmets and MBU-14 mask... they are equipped to fit a F-14, partialy an intruder (pilote only) or a corsair II if we do not look to close to the leg garters. We did 2 versions of each, visor up or down : and here is how they look in the Tamiya F-14 in 1/48 scale: Cheers Norbert

Just throwing my hat in the ring... Stand by for pictures/discussion, etc. Tim W

I seem to recall in some pilot's memoirs about being rather ticked when going inverted and a mechanic's wrench or some other tool going flying by his face...

I'm still debating whether to pull the trigger, or not. Sprue is not too far from here, so shipping should be cheap enough.

I’d hazard a guess and say more than likely that their birds were camouflaged by then. I’ll see if I can pulll some histories to see. Might take some time though. As an aside the 390th is alive and well as the squadron AF officers are assigned to at Whidbey before being farmed out to the Expeditionary Growler squadrons. Most definitely a rich squadron history! -Peter

Thanks Anthony, A doll's house eh? Not going to happen my friend as there's too much in the stash already and I have an Airfix 1/24th Hellcat coming. Good grief! When does the acquisition phase end? Cheers, Wolf

A productive painting session has the chassis and many of the items attached to it, in Mr. Primer Surfacer 1000. It's time now to start working on the cab.

Beautiful build, Warbird. Cheers, Damian

Hi all, The weathering has been applied and sealed. 'Flory Models' Dark Dirt and Grime fine clay washes. Now onto the pre-rigging before construction, Mike

There is definitely something cathartic about making a model exactly how and why you want. I've done a couple crazy what-ifs, and they were both very rewarding.

I'm back.... so knowing about the prop shaft length and having not dealt with it (because I forgot to earlier) I popped the prop out of the engine chucked the hub in my Dremel (oddly a perfect fit) and turned it down to the diameter that fits into the engine front, then cut off some length and refitted it to the engine. Now looking better. Hopefully that's all I need to amend. Thanks for bearing with me.

Thanks Kev, it's paint time, finally my first insignia paint with a mask, my fault didn't aligned it perfectly but it's ok lol, after you try there's no point back to decals ever.... Cheers

Getting the wings fitted today I had to do some grinding on the main wheel wells and the intake tunnels where they were making contact and not letting the wing seat to the fuselage properly. The front wing/fuselage joint will need a fair amount of filling and sanding. The rear joint isn't bad, but the raised fillet panel lines don't line up. I suck at scribing and re-riveting, but I'll give it my best shot. At least it on the bottom of the plane, and not on top for all to see. The wing roots don't look bad. In fact they look pretty decent. They will probably only need some Mr. Surfacer 1000 applied with a brush to fill what little gap there is.

In my eyes, surface detail of the Hobby Boss kit is pretty nice. The large parts also fit together pretty well. But shapewise, it's flawed. The biggest problem for me is the fuselage cross-section, especially at the canopy area, where it's very obvious. Therefore I started to think about a solution, using 3d printing, which ended up in a littel act of surgery. Here is the current status: Cheers Alex