Leaderboard

Well Kev, it’s time to hit the deck This auspicious date is perfect to announce what marks the start of the next journey for airscale. The Defiant kit is selling so the venture is a success in my eyes, meaning I will take a chance on another subject in what I dream will be a long line of new exclusively 1/32 kits The Typhoon, the brutish, powerful, hedgehopping, unrelenting powerhouse that didn't whisper death from above; it announced it with violence – especially after D-Day. I chose the car-door version, both because I think it is more atmospheric, but also because I thought the transparent parts would be easier to manufacture – bubbletops are hard and have seams…. that said, the centre section is modular so assuming there weren’t many/any other airframe changes it could be done afterwards Key with this kit is the partnership with Typhoon Legacy, where Ian Slater and team are restoring JP843 to fly. As mammoth a task as could be imagined so I wanted to help. A healthy % of the sale proceeds will go towards that. The kit will feature JP843 before her conversion to a bubbletop as one of the options. I am keen on suggestions for other options too, especially any that were in non-standard or interesting markings. I have also been working with Arthur Bentley whose drawings and CAD knowledge have really helped kick-start the project. So here is where we are at… the cockpit is virtually complete, the remaining structure about 90% done but not ‘kit ready’ and the surface detailing less than 50% ..and a few coarse test prints to check a few things.. I would anticipate another 4 -6 months of development / production and welcome any and all contributions to this thread so we, together can make this something to fill the gap in the market. We are off again Peter

And the finish

phew! busy days thank you all for the positive vibes well first thing it won't be the same price, it won't be cheap but it is a smaller aircraft and the way I do things in modular components it should have less parts than the Defiant so i am thinking less than £250 - still a lot I grant you, but I have limited resources, small purchasing power and am committed to giving Typhoon Legacy a healthy chunk of profit so it is what it is it is also obviously a calculated risk against other manufacturers - I have to say I am less worried about Special Hobby as their announcement was over 10 years ago - Kotare on the other hand - who knows? I still think it is viable, as I hope to get to market faster than anyone else and in my humble opinion my kits represent a different animal to an IM one anyway - we will see. I may get egg on my face, but at least there will be a choice for folk Interesting question that - undoubtedly it would be popular and it is certainly possible, but I can only do low volume. Will see how we go, but for now no, only the car-door is planned.. No, I plan for 500 - the first batch however will be 150 - 200 A fair way to go before that though thanks all Peter

Riding the momentum, I finished riveting the fuselage. This time I did things a little bit differently. I taped the fuselage together and drew the vertical rivet lines so that the rivet lines would meet at the seams. Again, the surfaces were sanded and a pastel wash was applied to check the work. There were some errant rivet lines that need to be filled and re-done but I can soon move on to fitting the cockpit into the fuselage and gluing the fuselage halves together. Just for fun, I taped the riveted components together and took some photos before the parts are cleaned off. By the way, the wing to fuselage fit at the wing root looks great doesn't it?

Hi, my name is Ani and my dad said I could show some pictures of the magic house we built together. It took 6 weeks to finish and my dad and I worked on the house every evening when he was not working somewhere not home. My dad showed me how to use different glue to glue parts together and he helped me to glue some of the harder parts. He also showed me how to use different kinds of sanding things to smooth the wood parts so they fit better. I was sad that my magic house did not have lights like some other houses that I saw but my dad said we could make our own and he helped me put little lights in the house and garden after he drilled some holes or made little spots on the wood to fit the lights. He showed me how to use a tool to make grooves in the wood for the electric lines and then we joined the lines from the lights to the little battery packs that my dad had in one of his model parts boxes, he really has a lot of those. I am happy that the magic house turned out so nice but I am happier that my dad helped me and we had a lot of fun together. I really love my dad and we like to make things or draw together and I hope you like the pictures of the magic house.

Just a brief update... things seem to be coming together quickly. The nose and tail section fitted extremely well with only a small amount of sanding required. To be fair, I did trial fit them as a semi-way to hold the fuselage halves together so I wasn't expecting any problems anyway. Where I did have a problem is with the wing joints. I knew Tolgar had the same issue and I couldn't find a way to remedy it... ... but they fill easily and won't be a problem. Again a similar issue with the tail... the fuselage interferes with the elevators. Not sure if this has now been corrected in the 1/32 kit but it is a simple job to drill out and file. I did wonder about the outer wing fit tolerance being too tight but with a small amount of sanding the wings slotted in perfectly. No messing around with dihedral... it is all just perfect - and having spend much of my time fussing around trying to get "classic" Airfix kits wings right I can only say that this kit is a dream! She has wings!!! Can't wait to see how it looks in black! Thanks for looking.

Here's the problem with the double row riveter out of the box. I want the two wheels to rotate in unison, so I took the tool apart and used CA glue to fuse the two wheels together. It was a surprisingly fiddly affair trying to get the points on the two wheels lined up. The photo is obviously BEFORE the modification. After that fix, I was able to get on with the riveting of the upper wings. The lines I had drawn a few days ago were traced over with either the single Galaxy Tool riveter or the new double line rivet tool. Here are the riveted wings after sanding and a liberal coat of brown pastel wash. A simple tip for those of you that have the Galaxy Tool rivet tool. After gouging countless lines into the model by accident, I finally modified the tool to help prevent this. Oh, and I added shims to the outboard ends of the flaps to eliminate the gaps.

This is my last completed kit, the 1/35 Zvezda T-62 Mod 1974/75. Sorry for the messy workspace. I need to work on getting a better background.

AJS37 Viggen, Tarangus 1/48 And another Viggen onna stick! This one is of the attacking persuasion and loaded with a camera pod and two Bk90 cluster boms. And as all ground movers it is in the famous Viggen splinter scheme. Had some small issues with silvering on the No 5 on the fit, I will try to remedy that later before delivery....yes it's another commission Anyways here are the pics Cheers!

So, me and the aviation widow, her indoors, are spending the first day of our holiday on the Greek island of Rhodes. cloudless skies - check beautiful hotel - check warm blue sea - check away from the madness of the day job - check what could put the cherry on top of the cake? An Airscale Typhoon announcement- Ahh, perfection 😎

JA37Di Viggen onna stick. Yet another commission build has reached fruition. I'm slowly working my way through all commission builds to do...but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm longing for an absurd build for myself. Still some to do before that. Well, this is another Tarangus build with all the usual ups and downs. Loaded it up with AMRAAMs and 'winders, it was a beast for it's time. Here are the much awaited pics Cheers!

I finally finished painting the interior and exterior of both the glider and the little things. Glossy varnish is in front.

Final touches

Thank you all, really appreciate the comments, they're helping keep me motivated! It's been slow work just finishing up the tiny remaining details. Everything has had a matte coat and all dials then received some gloss for the glass lenses. I repainted a couple of bits that were not the right colour (radio operator arm rest and some cabling and boxes on the starboard sidewall) and finally got the photoetch belts and parachute packs painted! Assembly has now begun, as you can see. The nose portion side walls are glued in here but the main cockpit sidewall parts in interior green are not yet. To anyone making this kit, do not glue the sidewalls in before attaching them to the floor - you will have a miserable time trying to fit the floor second. I simply placed the walls on the exterior parts to take these photos! Some of the parts still have a bit of shine to them but it's not as obvious in real life or when out of direct sunlight. Did I mention how much I hate photoetch belts? Theyre so hard to get to bend to realsitic shapes and hold their form or to get the right angles to fix them to the correct mounting points! In 32nd scale I also think they often end up looking too flat. Wish more manufacturers would go to the trouble of making good moulded-in belts such as the ones on the pilot seat in this kit. Had two attempts at painting the parachute packs as I wasn't happy with the first go so stripped them back to bar plastic and started again. Happy with them now though! Should have the fuselage closed up soon... Thanks for looking in, Will

Thanks Troy for your message. I’ve been wrapping up the final steps. I sprayed a coat of semi-matte varnish (super important, because MRP’s matte varnish is way too flat, not great for a plane on the European theatre), then used a light grey watercolor pencil to add some wear and tear around the engine cowl, the wing roots, and on the wings. I’ve gotten used to working with a light grey pencil (instead of silver or aluminum) because it just looks more realistic in the end. Once all those little pencil marks were in place, I sealed everything with another layer of semi-matte varnish. I took off the masks on the three canopies and wrapped it all up by making and gluing the pitot tube onto the tip of the left wing.

..and finally installed. The tailwheel is also ready for installation...

Installing the engine bearers. Still fiddling with the nose gun section in order to get the right angle. Almost there.

Wow, I've been away for some time, but at least I'm back to give you some more updates on the mighty Strike! For starters, my wife and I had a kid back in September, so due to constantly travelling back and forth for the birth, holidays and a couple of work trips to support the last few F-15QA's to their new home, I haven't really had much bench time. Now, with my wife's visa approved and the lil Crew Chimp being a dual citizen, I only have one more trip to bring them both home for good! I received my orders from both 3D Chute Expert (canopy rail/landing gear) and Kopecky (drop tanks, centerline and wing pylons.) The new gear are leaps and bounds ahead of what the kit offers, while the canopy rail had a bit of an accident on the way over here. Word of advice: do NOT overtighten the attaching screws! These gear fit in almost without even needing them. I replaced the kit-supplied mains with the new ones, and was happy to see the mains have that distinctive cant to them to make the wheels sit upright when resting on the ground. Happy with the gear, I added the ECS intake scoops that Tamiya has glaringly omitted from their kit (the story I heard is the jet they used to reference was powered by -220 engines, which doesn't require the scoops. All -229 and GE-powered F-15s do need the extra cooling provided by the scoops.) I also finished up the nav pod that will sit under the R/H intake. My last bit (for this update) was to dip the canopy and windscreen in AK Gauzy to add a protective clear coat, since my supply of Future was abandoned during our move in 2022. More updates will arrive shortly! As always, thanks for stopping by the hangar!

Managed to eBay off a few kits in time to fund the purchase. Just come home off night shift happy to find a Defiant Kit still available and pulled the trigger.

Not bad at all. With a little bit of tweaking we can have a decent Lavochkin 5FN. I wonder who had to Max meet at the crossroads in order to convince Peter to slip to the dark side. Oh wait.... anyway, this is an incredibly exciting news and I am so grateful to Peter for fulfilling my dream of having a presentable, 1/32 car door Typhoon

Thank you Alan! I make my own pastel washes using pastel chalk, water and a dab of dishwashing soap. Very easy and since it is water-based, you can use it over any paint. The engine cowling has been riveted. After the riveting process is complete, I will wash all of the parts with water to get as much material out of the rivets and panel lines as possible, in preparation for painting. The rivets especially are vulnerable to being clogged with sanding dust and dried pastel wash.

Main decals going on. National insignias are from Eagle Cals FAA Corsairs set.

Added the last bit of details like rigging wire around the observer scarff ring and did some touch ups. Need to finish the pictures, but a teaser for now 😄

Started out by painting the wing roots with Alclad Aluminum. I then masked around the area in which chipping is going to happen, to avoid getting the chipping medium in places where it can only serve to trip me up by having paint flake off where I don't want it to. Then sprayed the AK chipping fluid, diluted like 4:1 with AK thinner. This strong dilution allowed me to spray a nice uniform thin coat with no gloppy texture at all. The clever magnets that Tamiya supplies to fix the engine cowling pieces in place work well enough to hold them on against gravity, but only just. It was clear the first time I put them on that an airbrush would blow them straight off, and thus that I'd have to paint that part separate from the fuselage, and just make darn sure to line the camo pattern up. To make things a little easier I taped the forward cowling sections together from the inside, so I can at least paint it as a single unit. I decided to start the paintjob with the undersides, however. The thought is to take it through most of the weathering process so that once I flip the thing over and mask off the underside, I won't have much of anything left to do there. So I gave it a coat of MRP Azure Blue... I followed that with a coat of Tamiya X-22 clear gloss. When that's fully dry (tomorrow morning) I'll go over it with enamel panel liner to pick out all of the exquisite detail that Tamiya molded into these pieces, and maybe just a bit of oil paint dirt aft of the engine.

Hello, Few years ago I've made this 1/48 what if Lightning... which was sold and I've decided that I need larger one, same as 1/48. And here it is, brand new, with custom decals, resin seat and Master Pitot's boom. I won't leghten it but I'll shorten main gear legs.

Thank you Kagemusha. I live near Jurby, Isle of Man. 307 Squadron was based at Jurby operating their Defiant night fighters. I didn't know about that until you posted the stamp image. I have secured my Airscale Defiant kit today in the traditional Manx manner utilising spuds, kippers and, of course, casks of brandy.

Same for me. Without the Brexit I would not have hesitated a single second. But that high price combined with the import fees and EU VAT will kill most EU sales. I can get three Silver Wings/Lukgraph kits for that amount. And to me this is a pity as the kit looks marvelous and I really wanted to support Airscale.

Finished a couple of months ago. Quinta cockpit. Again, apologies for the lousy background.

The panels on the nose just did not work for me I am sure it's something I did but in the end glued it all up.The paint has started I laid 1500 grey,Tamiya Semi-black,some silver and started the yellow bands.The colors are all picked and no two from the same company

Happy days…….at last a Typhoon! Thanks Peter! Given your proximity to and association with Tangmere, one of the squadrons based there could be a contender possibly this one? Sqdn Ldr “Jacko” Holmes was a member: A small area of interest, the undercarriage doors were black with a white zig zag along the line of rivets, perhaps tape. It’s exact purpose isn’t known, perhaps anti-corrosion? And the “Z” identifier repeated on the wing leading edge is of interest. The pictures you’ve posted so far are very useful for my current build! And a reminder of an excellent recce day at Jet Age a couple of months ago:

Tried printing out the control surfaces. Didn't print out well, wavy surfaces and a little warped. So I made them out of sheet plastic. Vertical tails installed in last pic. Dan

Just announced, ETA 4 months. Very excited for this one! https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CGVmNQMKU/?mibextid=wwXIfr

After a short intermezzo during which I remodeled the modelling room I have made some more progress. The room interior was not that old but when I did it a few years back we just got the keys to our brand new home and a lot of work had to be done, and I did not put enough thought into the layout. A few weeks ago I purchased a 3D printer (Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16k, a resin printer) with a washing and curing station, and now was a good time to do it once more, but right. I apologize for my meager stash. Soon a Lukgraph J2F-5 and Thai Pham's A-1E will join it. I don't have the first clue about 3D printing or CAD designing, and if there is interest and the mods allow it I will start a thread in the 3D printing forum about my endeavors of treading slowly into this new (for me) but exciting field of modelling. I have decided to go with Fusion 360 for CAD software using the free Personal licence. Fusion 360 has the largest community on the net and there are a lot of tutorials / videos to be found explaining things. The flaps show a gap at the wingroot that is not there on the real plane. I shimmed them, and will file and sand them flush. I coated the vertical stabilizer in MRP gloss (again, see further down in this paragraph) , but the Humbrol Uniform Green did not like that at all this time around. I am going to have to repaint it for the third time. The first time around I painted it upside down because Italeri's painitng instructions show the bottom panel line pattern as the top one, and I didn't bother to double-check, and now this. Luckily the paint comes of very easily in an ethanol bath using a brush. I will use Humbrol gloss for coating the model from now on. A test on the nose section revealed that works well with both the Uniform Green and the MRP shades for the other three colors. Today I was able to paint the model in it's base colors. Some tweaks and correction need to be done here and there. I opted to paint the main gear bay and gun bay after painting the camouflage. It's much easier to mask those off in that order as it's all straight edges. Cheers, Leon

Getting there. Building up the fuselage one scrap of something at a time.

...Thanks Mal_Belford! Perhaps posting updates is one way to keep me going at a steady rate and keep that MOJO. Got the ol' airbrush going on some small parts...probably avoiding the big paint job in my own way. The drop tank got sprayed with craft acrylic. Why? The Folk Art brand matte colors airbrush well for me, as well as model paint. It also dries tight hiding no details as you'd expect from acrylic. I can brush on a coat of Future and it will be tough enough for some weathering. This thing will look well used. This color is a little lighter than Neutral Gray and I did that with the idea that this shows the drop tank came from a different government contractor...which is true. BTW, I got this Dove Gray paint for a Adam West Batman model that I will get to, one day... Also used some of this now extinct MM paint for the Eduard resin exhausts. Since it is precious, I spray in small quantity. My Grex has no color cup...so I airbrush "gangster style".

There ISN’T a Special Hobby Typhoon (and unlikely to be in my opinion) but there WILL be an Airscale one. Depends how much you want one I guess.

There's a pretty steep learning curve. I would suggest watching a lot of beginners videos first before buying anything. I like using chitubox to manipulate the objects orientation, supports and raft, then using the native slicer to slice it and send it to the printer. The programs are freeware unless you upgrade, so you can find some free objects to play with and support before putting any money in. Then start messing with CAD and designing your own parts. I think the cad part is the biggest learning curve. When you start to get a feel for what features you want/need, you can pick out a printer. There is a big range of quality both in hardware and interfaces. Everyone has preferences based on their own experience and others. Figuring out settings can be a big challenge when you're new and you have to deal with it every time you switch resins to get them dialed in. There are test tools to help but you have to learn to read them. The resin is generally toxic and cleaning the prints after printing takes special handling and 99% alcohol. There are water clean ones, but they don't print as well and you still have to be careful cleaning.. The resin can't go down the drain. Honestly, it's overwhelming and time consuming to figure out. I researched it for years off and on before I finally took the plunge. I just got my second printer about 6 months ago. One of your YouTube channels I like is geared toward fantasy/Warhammer/dnd minis, which have similar needs to scale model stuff. He gets a bit of a bad wrap sometimes but I've found his reviews and how to videos really good. His names Fauxhammer. He's very watchable and breaks things down well. Bottom line, it's a lot of new skills and stuff to learn. I don't want to put you off, I always just like going into something knowing it's gonna be a lot. It's not as simple as pour resin in and hit ctrl-p, like I think a lot of folks think.

I’m afraid it’s not as simple as you’d hope; the bubble top canopy also had a different design and size of windshield which had implications for the “cut out” shape of the top of the nose, not to mention the difference in structure of the aft cockpit area, armour plate, seat design etc, and the obvious car door, which shouldn’t be too much of a problem. But then at the tail end, the size of the whole empennage was increased with Sabre developments giving more power and four-bladed props, so that’s quite a major change. My present build is doing the reverse, converting a bubble top to car door so you may get some insights here.

Weathering the hull is uncharted territory My guidelines are: - I know I don't want to see much rust stains below the flotation line, which differs from the colour demarcation line - I need to find a way to discolour the hull under the flotation line. the flotation line weathering is remarkable - I would like to add a little bit of barnacles but really minimum. - I have seen different weathering on WWII pictures. Some boats are pristine, some are heavily weathered. I want to depict mine quite weathered but not like she stayed in a drydock for years. Here are some examples illustrating the above: Here's one pretty beat up above the floatation line, proving you can go overboard if you wish Discoloration of the hull below the floatation line is obvious in this dry dock picture, not an easy effect to achieve Discoloration also happens on the dark grey/blue above the floatation line as seen above This one is probably not representative because it's been out of the water for very long, but I found the moss interesting illustrating the barnacles effect I would be tempted to achieve (bit less though) I'll use only a few products for weathering the hull: Both the naval wash and steaking effect which is brown rather than grey will be used randomly together alongside the hull. Once a bit dry, it will be rubbed with a sponge for effect Salt streaks will be next. pulled vertically but more patchwork under the flotation line. These will probably disappear with further treatment, so basically just a first encounter with this product (which can be replaced with any paint well thinned or even oil paint; It's just more convenient I confess. The area just under the ballast gets a heavy grimeline which is then blended out The difference between weathered and unweathered is quite visible. I'm not too much concerned at this time because I knwo more treatment will be added later on and i'll correct what I don't like doing while testing new grounds. The model is huge but it's easy to work section by section Rust streaks are added above the flotation line with the oil brusher which is again just quite convenient. I also like to use any default in my work to simulate damage on the model. So here the plastic was scratched and I used that just like if the real boat was scratched at that same place. rather than fixing the damage it's a good way to have simulated damage random. The ongoing process rest streaks on the bow, rust paint is applied in dots, left to dry and then blended downwards with a thin bruxh controlled with more or less thinner happy with the result under the floatation line so far Next: discoloration under the floatation line and I have been thinking about how to do that for the whole week Thanks for following

Today's update

They announced one years ago, but there's been nary a peep about it since. This announcement will only serve to delay it even further (or kill it altogether). Kev

Looks really nice. Never was a huge fan of the car door version but it's growing on me. Will be nice to display that amazing cockpit with the open doors.

Very nice.. I was hoping that Special Hobby would make one as they made the Tempest but this is super nice.

Peter has already made the announcement and started a build thread here: Kev

That should be interesting, looking forward to this, a kit of the Typhoon in 1/32 is so long overdue (one that is up to modern standards, not the old Revell). MDC made a great one, but I believe it’s no longer in production? Paul

Not just a build for me. I travelled to Normandy (after touring Dieppe) in June of 2014 for the 70th anniversary. I collected sand from the beaches and made this for my desk and some more for close friends who helped with the woodworking. And of course, my Jug with D Day markings:

Mind boggling news, as Max has said already it's about time we had a decent Typhoon, like Max I am rather partial to Typhoon and Tempests and a car door one to boot. Got to thank Max for his latest build causing this to happen, I will have to build a Skua, Fulmar or Battle to spur Peter on. Cheers Dennis