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First time posting an Work In Progress, ever!!! For this bird I'm using PE fret from Eduard for the interior. The quadrants control levers are made from melted cooper wire. The Instrument panel is from EDUARD PE fret. To reshape the control surfaces are not so a wise decision, they need some more refinements. Hope yoi like it and soon I'll come back with more pictures

April 4/22 A small amount of progress, but still important to get the engine area looking mostly correct for a Hellcat undergoing engine maintenance. Here’s where I am today with cowling parts installed and yes, I finally took off the cockpit and canopy masks as well. The front nose cowling and top rear cowling were glued into place, along with the 5 cross beam parts, M1- M5. I also added fastener holes to the central engine ring, Part J-22, that these beams are attached to, which according to references have a slightly wider spacing that most of the other fasteners. With the styrene strips I installed and all the holes drilled, this looks much more accurate than if the kit parts were left as is. Note subtle chipping was applied to the cowlings here and there. The bottom two beams, M4 & M5, should be dry fit and trimmed before painting, because they are too large at the front to fit into the nose cowling recesses. Every modeler grimaces as they remove the mask from the cockpit and windscreen, because this is where there could be trouble with a small gap in the mask, allowing paint to enter. Thankfully all is well and other than removing lots of liquid mask bits from behind the seat, everything went to plan, including a crystal clear windscreen. Every few models or so, I show a pic like this, which shows what I use to get my canopies and windscreens as clear and flaw free as much as possible without using Future/Pledge. All clear plastic is polished with Tamiya Coarse, followed by Fine and Finish polishing compounds, then I apply a coat of Plexus, which is made specifically for clear plastic on real aircraft. After painting, the plastic is still clear and the masks remove easily with no residue. Here's a pic of what these products did on my F-15C, just 'cause... A sneak peak at the cockpit, which I will show in much more detail once this model hits the RFI Forum in a couple of weeks. I was a little concerned that those decals on the cockpit sill would come off with the masking tape I used, but a clear coat of X-22 over them to seal them in before dull coat, made them stay put. That’s it for now. Not a big update, but a happy ending to the cockpit masking that I wanted to share. Whew! Cheers, Chuck

Some photos from the show, which was held on March 27. I didn't expect to win anything but it was fun to enter and talk LSPs with others. I'll get some proper RFI photos once I get a spot set up. And the pilot which I was quite happy with. It's the AIMS FAA pilot converted to an RCAF pilot from the 1950s. More finished photos soon. Richard

Welcome back ye traveler At this point in the building sequence, let’s take a pause and talk about the subject of this build: converting the AVG Flying Tigers plane into a British Tomahawk IIB. As you already know, my aim is to convert this Flying Tigers plane into a Tomahawk of the No.112 squadron RAF. The No.112 sqn was reportedly famous for introducing the shark mouth design on their machines and creating a trend for the many P-40s which followed including the much more publicized Flying Tigers. The main source for my conversion is a 1941 British Pathe newsreel . The plane I chose to model is a Tomahawk singled-coded C in early temperate camouflage and sporting a red Indian head insignia below the cockpit. Screenshots from the video The conversion is fairly easy considering that the AVG and the RAF planes were basically the same machine with the same camouflage. The only difference being the national insignia and the codes which can be easily reproduced with paint. More difficult is… the shark mouth which will have to be painted since no decal exists for the plane I’m modelling. Note that these early shark mouths were one-offs and differed from one another unlike the Flying Tigers/AVG design which used templates. Also on the few first mouths (like in this case), the brushworks were often crude and by no way mirror- imaged (left side NOT obligatory identical to right side). Add to that the fact that these original documents didn’t possess the super clarity we’re accustomed to in our digital age, so a certain degree of interpretation and artistic license is mandatory. With these caveats in mind, LET’S ROLL. First, we’d have to create the masks for airbrushing. Since I don’t have access to the Silhouette system, I’ll do it the hard (manual) way. In them old days, we used frisket film for airbrush to make the masks. Since it’s not generally available anymore, I tried using Tamiya masking film. Not the best material for it since it’s not transparent. The film is applied to the nose and the contours of the mouth roughly defined. The shape of the mouth is cut off and the inside removed. Red paint applied Next the red parts are masked and black mouth contour applied. Sorry I forgot to take picture! Masks for teeth cut out. To make a long story short, this is what we should have in the end. I reckon this first try is far from perfect. Yet we can learn much from it. What I’ll be looking for next time: avoid overspray, more precise cut, keeping lines parallel , … Let’s also say that the Tamiya tape is not ideal for this job. Maybe it’s best that I find a more suitable material before going on. In the mean time, let’s call it a day. See ya all next time on this long and winding road. Cheers, Quang

Hi, Some progress on the upper surfaces. I have used Gunze Dark Earth(RAF) with some drops of yellow,white,red and brown to simulate Dupont Dark earth.. "Mother do you think it s the right tone?"

To all I truly appreciate you input regarding the letter I sent out regarding the situation in Ukraine. I especially appreciate you input on the model companies. This is a fluid situation so if there are any that should be on the list or any that shouldn't, please let me know. I've updated the list per your comments and will post as soon as I figure out how to cut and past in this forum! Dave Lockhart IPMS/USA President

Hmmm, not a lot to show for today's work, but thinking and planning ahead (essential) has led to some solutions! I'm working towards an acceptable fit for the main cowl - it was way out when I started but I'm getting there: The intake had to come off to facilitate sanding! Still some way to go, especially at the front end: This mismatch of upper and lower cowls is an acknowledged error by PJ, he was sent the wrong information about the diameter by "a museum". The lower diameter is correct when measured against the spinner so the upper needs a spacer/spreader. I've also been pondering how to show the engine gauge dials; AIMS suggests using the kit "windows" in a reversed position to simulate the later triangular window, but fortunately I've got a couple of spare gauges from an earlier build, so the plan is to fix them inside the cowl shortly, mask, then after all the painting is done, glaze with Micro-Klear. Hey-ho....happy days!

Here's my meagre contribution to this awesome thread: Grand Phoenix cockpit for the old Hasegawa P-51D. Only loosely test-fitted into the fuselage in the photo above. Finished more for effect than accuracy. Kev

The modeling community is all abuzz in Las Vegas because a new shop opened up today, Hobby Island. Today is their "soft opening", and they'll have a grand opening later in the month. Hobby shops have a hard time in Las Vegas. Many have bit the dust over the years. I went to the soft opening today to support the new business and came away with a kit. I have a habit of buying large kits even though I have no place to put them. I built a 1/32 scale F-86 when I was a teen, painted up like my father's F-86F that he flew at Soesterberg. This one will be the same. It's not in the build queue yet. -- Dave

Howdy folks, Our server has been asking for a reboot for some time now, and I've decided that today is the day! So at around 4pm my time, which is roughly 4 hours from now as I type this, the server (and the website and forums) will be down briefly while I carry out the reboot, and any associated updates it's waiting for. Hopefully it'll all go quickly and smoothly, and I'll be back here soon after saying as much! Kev

I have assembled the main fuselage parts. This is where I am at after 2 rounds of sanding and priming. Not perfect but............. Final intake configuration printing as I type this, fingers crossed........... Dan

Evening all With paint job completed it was time to start adding some oils for a subtle weathered look and after completing the underside which took two evenings the kit was put on it's wheels for the 1st time to start the topside oils job Also included are two pictures of the side project of a Martlet 3 with its paint job completed awaiting some decals from the spares box.

I started building up the panels on the nacelle this afternoon......to get this far took a couple of hours! The difficulty is that each panel fit depends on the correct position of the others, if one is out, they're all likely to be out. So getting the overall fit means shaving small amounts off in several places. I want this all to be as clean as possible so the panels are being held in place by substantial plastic card tabs inside, just as well I'm not planning to fit the engines! I did a quick untrimmed trial fit of the main nacelle cover, I think with a little work it will fit well.

Hallo gentlemans, I would like introduce my latest finished model on this excelent forum and at the same time the first one here. It is limited Eduard (Hasegawa) kit with extra Brassin and PE parts in box. Besides that I use HGW seatbelts a some my scratch Painting with MRP for interior and insignia, MR.Color for exterior, .502 oils and metalic pencils. I hope you will like it BR Tomas

All of those handles are too fine to represent properly in injected plastic due to tooling limitations. It is very likely they will be done in photo-etch by the “usual suspects”. Radu

I honestly can’t tell if you guys are being serious or are poking fun at the naysayers and detail freaks.

Painted the niche. It remains to bring some little things and can be pasted into the wing.

OK, it looks like that was indeed fast and painless! Kev

So a show, Heritagecon in Hamilton, Ontario at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, finally convinced me to finish this project after five years. It was a race to the finish as it was a last minute decision to enter. The major stumbling block was drilling the hole in the canopy for the antenna wire, which caused me all kinds of problems. I was hesitant to do it after all the work to get it clear, but in the end it was fine. The next step was to create the roller mechanism inside the canopy, one of the two types on the Mustang. The wire itself is beading wire, which can be bought at Michael's. It's very flexible but not stretchy if that makes sense. It consists of extremely fine wire braided and covered with clear plastic, and looks very authentic. The insulators were made from beads of white glue. In the end it wasn't all that bad, but the fear of ruining the canopy made me hesitate...for months. The two types of roller mechanisms/pulleys, for those that might find it interesting. 9253 had the second type (figure 6): How it all turned out: And the final addition was the spike antenna under the starboard wing: RIchard

A HUGE shoutout of thanks to Peter a.k.a. "AIRSCALE", not only for his inspiring builds , he has also sent me some of his custom printed cockpit placard decals that were made for his P-51 "Lopes Hope" build !!! The decals are beautiful and such a great help to my build !!! THANK YOU AGAIN !!! I wanted to post this photo of the radiator control box located on the left side cockpit wall to show the detail of Peter's decals, I made the box from styrene,painted it added switches and applied the placard decals, the box is only about a 1/4"-6mm wide... Here are some views of the cockpit walls with some placard decals in place, the flare pistol port is a 3D printed part from "MODEL MONKEY"... I finished detailing the inside of the windshield frame and the instrument panel shroud , put in the clear windshield panels and started to put the aluminum around it... I finally got around to finish covering the radiator intake and bottom of the areas behind it...

Hi again Painting started. First step is lower surfaces. I have used a combination of Tamiya XF20, XF12 and white.

And the nose: In the beginning everything looks great, fitting was flawless. But then I heard a melody: "Knock, knock knocking on Murpy's door" Murphy was here....Or was it my incompetence? Although everything went well, the left nose piece did not fit properly. There is a half-mm gap left at the bottom. And this caused a half mm elevation difference in the left connection side. I continued unscathed and placed a thin plastic sheet on the part with the level difference, leveling it up and sending Murphy back to where he belonged. I think I can go on like this.

Hey everyone I have just finished my HB Alaska after quiet a 3 month stint away from the pressures of the WIP thread and I must say, I really enjoyed it. The kit itself is fantastic and it's got what all ship kit makers should include in every kit - a decent array of PE. The only AM parts I bought were the metal gun barrels from Infinity Models and the Toms Model Works Mk8 Fire Control array ( I thoroughly mucked up the kit part) I've always thought the Alaska was a sleek and aggressive looking ship and when I saw the Black ship on World of Warships, I knew what I was going to do. I swapped out the white highlights for red and used Nato Black and Flat black for the rest. I wanted the camo to look used and crappy - but in reality, it was all an illusion - suckering destroyers into thinking she's almost dead in the water, drawing them in closer then letting rip all 12x16" goodness that were those awesome main batteries I need to apologise for the dust that has made its way onto the deck. We are having renovations done and there is a lot of plaster dust still hanging around, despite my best efforts to keep it clean and a brush off before the shoot, its still found time to settle at the worst possible time. This is my 4th and only surviving 1/350 ship kit, so be gentle. I am painfully aware of the not so good build quality in places. That's enough photos I think. I am pretty happy with it regardless of the faults. The camera makes them look worse (its my excuse and I'm stickin' to it!) As always, thanks for looking Si

The problem with this profile is the tactical number s not known. The loss record on this A-8/R2 W.Nr. 680718 was lost on 18 July, 1944 flown by Fw. Otfried Baisch. One of his previous Fws was a standard 190A-8 with Sturm equipment that was mounted with the Krebsgerät rocket with the the tactical number of "Yellow 3". There are two known photos of this a/c taken at Barth ,Germany in May, 1944. Cheeers, Jerry

Thanks And another thank you for accompanying my attribution Pudding was great

Just received a Facebook message from the fine folks at ICM this morning, that they are back to work making lovely models. Great news for us! Hopefully they can stay that way, and don't have to go into hiding for safety again. - Dennis S. Thornton, CO USA

Thank you, Vincent, I won a bet! First of all, the radio switches are not mounted on the "floor", but, surely, as someone who knows the Bf 109 so well, you know that already. In fact, the radio controls are mounted on a raised plate that covers the elevator control rod. If anyone cares, the radio switches can be separated from the plate and placed at an angle, it is a five-minute job. There is no MW 50 pressure gauge in the kit. Aftermarket guys will surely oblige. Radu

Yep it absolutely does! Too little moisture in the air and the paint dries quicker in the air, too much moisture and it gets pulled into the paint stream and fogs your clear coat(that’s where you really see the effect of moisture). You can mess with pressure and distance from the model to clear that up but the Mr Color Leveling Thinner is the ultimate “cheat code” in my book! Takes all the guesswork out of things. I thin my MCW acrylic lacquer with it 25-50%. It changes some with color as well. Dark blues and reds that are a bit translucent like something close to 25% and they will stop spider webbing but still cover well. Any more and they don’t cover. Grays i can dilute up to 50% with no illmeffects.

The problem with the nose is that Fly made the nose slightly short and the "intake hole" 3 mm too wide. By cutting of the nose ring and replacing it with the resin "nose/intake part" will solve this issue. The other error that I've found with this kit is that the main gear wells opening are slightly to large. This is however a very easy fix since all you have to do is to add a small strip of plasticard on the upper edge. This strip should be 1,6 mm wide. It may sound little but it's very noticable. Other things I'm thinking of doing is new main wheels. The are not bad in the kit but I have scanned them just in case. What do you think? Should I make them as well? This is how they look in the kit: And in real life: I'm hoping to be able to start selling the nose parts in about two weeks. Andreas

Thanks Jeroen - most of the grey/white Wildcats were FM-2s (or at least I thought so) and we're still waiting for a LSP one.. Just a short update today. The insignia are completely painted and I unmasked the underside and oh boy that turned out way better than I expected: I started with the ANA621 grey yesterday and went with Gunze H57 which was recommended somewhere on the web. Buuuuuut it's way too light compared to the b/w pictures I saw. Photos will be taken later today and maybe repainting as well.

With a little sun in the garden this afternoon, an opportunity to do the rebates for the stainless reinforcement rods in the rear wing sections. Front and rear wing sections are now bonded together - with 2mm thick spars between leading and trailing sections. Just dry fitted to fuselage at the moment - and minus the stainless steel rods that will run from root to tip for added strength. Quick and dirty images on my mobile phone: Happy to report that I think the wings will be plenty strong enough! They'll be left somewhere warm for a couple of weeks so that the Revell Contacta glue can fully dry out/harden - then I'll bond the stainless steel rods in place with Epoxy - and make a start on sanding the wings. The 3D sorcerer, Tim, did tell his apprentice that, having started on the 3D Printing adventure, he could make anything - I've taken him at his word - and this test piece seems to be coming together!! Have FUN! Iain

I think it's ready to be painted

Ok folks, FINALLY done. 20 months give or take, with some down time thrown in to work on other builds. Happy to have my own, personalized version of the other woman in my life. She'll be at Nats if you make it and you can see her in person. She won't win anything, but I doubt anyone else will have a 1/32 scale Prowler, let alone one suspended by its hook. In no particular order, some halfway decent pics... Thanks to everyone for following along. Truly appreciate all the comments and encouragement over the years! -Peter

Terrific progress, Dan! Kev

Thank you very much Kev

Thanks Kev! It was a bit of a struggle to upload photos, but I'm here :-)

How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat? Loooking sharp! The subtle weathering underneath really caught my eye. The dark earth has that same look to it. This is really looking nice! You can have your pudding

Perfect reference as well, thanks for this Andreas!

You’ll find lots info on the Skyraider and other USN planes on Tommy Thomason’s Tailhook Topics site. HERE HTH Quang

Sadly I don't specifically recall them Max, although the term doesn't surprise me and it raised a chuckle . I was never that into motorbikes; a number of my friends were, and seemed to spend as much time fixing them as actually riding them.

Thanks Iain. Time spent on Dragon Bf110 kits is always rewarding in my opinion; it’s a really good kit of a beautiful aeroplane! You’d think, as this is the third one that I’ve made, and the second involving an AIMS conversion, that it would be a breeze, wouldn’t you Andy!? But you and I know that’s just not so…..always be prepared for the curved ball!

Ah, that explains a lot…..bit of an impostor then Mike! Still very pretty though. (Do you remember Bitsa motorbikes? Bits ‘a this, bits ‘a that!!)

Look here for one of the best sources of Italian air force books: https://www.bancaero.it/en/books-and-magazine

Dry fitting the cowling tonight. Still haven't decided on the cowl flaps- opened or closed. 1st part of this model I found to be a little bit "fiddly". Andy

Meagre? Looks pretty good from where I'm sitting! Cheers Bevan

Congrats on getting the build finished, Richard! It has turned out amazingly well, and you should be justifiably proud of your results, prize-winner or not! Kev

The A-20G was taken on by HGW, and now it's with Infinity, so there will only be one kit released.

And an opportunity to dig 'Connie' out again for a quick comparison: As my 'test piece' I'm learning important skills with the Poseidon that will be used to create the engines/cowlings/nacelles etc. on the Connie - she's not been forgotten about!! Blue skies... Iain

GUNSIGHT BLUES Long ago I test fitted, test fitted and adjusted the IP comb so the photoetch gunsight would fit and not touch the windscreen. After applying the HUD film the fit was a fail as the windscreen touched the gunsight. Have no idea what happened. That said, I had to carefully remove the HUD film and re-work the IP, IP comb and other angst causing adjustments. Finally got the fit correct. Mask inside/outside windscreen paint then glue windscreen and hopefully begin painting. Using the Eduard film as a template, I cut the HUD "reflector glass" film to fit the PE. HUD film secured with Future. The "lens" was created before attaching the HUD film. A silver decal cut to match the circumfrence on the pe part is positioned. After cure, acrylic glue was carefully placed over the silver decal and cured with UV light. Dryfit along with IP and Baker Bang Seat. Pardon the dust. With windscreen dryfit.

Good news everyone A small parcel from China arrived yesterday and inside were two new clear sprues: One is a direct replacement from the F4F-4 and one from the F4F-3 kit. I'll use the latter since the -4 canopy is scratched once again: Not gonna risk cracking another one The Wildcat recieved its black base which revealed some imperfections around the wing root. A little sanding and rescribing resolved the problem. The same applies for the underside with a little hickup on the fuselages's center seam. Next up will be cutting the masks for the insignia. But this will have to wait until Jennings has his new decal sheet and instructions ready.