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Hello everbody I'm new here. My friend Miloslav persuaded me to register ... MiG-15 BIS 1/32 HPH First Fighter Regiment, Planá Air Force Base, Lt. Kotrsal, First Squadron, 1954 Photos: Miloslav (thank you) More photos here: https://www.leteckemuzeumliborezy.cz/mig-15/

Here are some pictures of my recently finished Kittyhawk F-5E in Swiss markings. Despite the shortcomings that have been mentioned about the kit, I enjoyed the build and would call it a good kit overall. I will be building more of Kittyhawk's F-5's in the future. The model was build straight from the box, with LED's added to the landing lights and Swiss decals and masks that I drew using the Matterhorn Circle 1/48 F-5 decals as a guide. Thanks for looking!

Some more pics...

Hi everybody, Really happy to show you my last built, the famous WNW Fokker DVII, with HGW seat belt and Aviattics decals. Paint with Gunze and weathering with oil paints. Have nice building for 2019 !! X15

Hi! Here are some pics of a model that a finished several years ago. Although Revell`s mould has been around since 1985, with some TLC it delivers a very interesting and imposing result! Hope you loke it! Cheers! José Pedro Pires

Hi to all I present my new MWP (metal work panels) project based on the Italeri Mirage IIIc 1/32 scale model kit: I chose the version (optional) ECT02 / 02 Côte D'or Dijon-Longvic 1970 (NMF finished) Aftermarkets: Eduard BigEd: part 1 & 2 Eduard Brassin: Wheels resin parts Scale Aircraft Conversions: landing gears Master (Air): Pitot tube & adapter for Italeri kit Berna Decals: for version ECT02 / 02 In this first session of work: I assembled, detailed and modified the cockpit: Test to fit on the mock up (1) : test :ok - please note the light wash (mix oil & resin) over the aircraft surface: preliminary step of the MWP procedure for reveal all the informations on the panels. MWP: the self-adhesive metal tape (aluminum) belowe the model: The instrument panels: Final test to fit (2): I tested the Chameleon colors on the SNECMA Atar 9c which I then placed on its support : note the variation of the colors ( different combustion temperature) Final assembling SNECMA Atar 9c & support: That is all for the moment. more pics & info: http://www.adventurephotomodels.com Thanks for the attention George

Hi guys, Well, here she (he?) is! I picked up the kit in Tokyo right after they were available and, uncharacteristically for me, I decided I just had to build it. I gotta say, what a fantastic kit! The engineering, molding, detail and fit is superb. I only had two areas that, due to operator error (me ) I had to trim a little for fit, otherwise it falls together with no fuss, no drama. The kit comes with duplicate parts trees for the fuselage, wing and nacelle components in both clear and gray plastic. I opted to use the gray - supposedly by buying a few extra sprues another aircraft could be built from the leftover parts but I'm not going there in this post. I only found one boo-boo - the wingtip nav light lenses in the clear sprue are molded frosted, whereas I think they probably should have been clear (I know, that obviously renders the kit unbuildable but I pressed on and - voila! ). Disclaimer: that was a joke . I did a little interwebs research before applying paint for the interior/cockpit color and found every opinion under the sun! The range seemed to narrow from light brown or khaki through various shades of green to black. Well, that narrowed it down! Of course I'm trying to lock down the color researching on my phone while I'm standing in front of the paint rack at the hobby store (where all the paints are labeled in Japanese!), but there seemed to be a favored consensus of Khaki Green. Hey, there's a bottle right there! (Mr. Color 54). Of course, right next to it is Khaki and I didn't discover until I got home that I liked khaki better. Darn. Not really interested in a return 2 hour train ride, so I just used the KG. There's another Nick being built in the WIP section and you can really see the difference. I should have used Khaki, but too late now! The rest of the paint is a mix of Tamiya and Mr. Color, the exterior undersides are an eyeball approximation mixed starting from IJN Gray and the topsides are IJN gray shaded with RLM02, The green is RLM83. I did some subtle weathering but as usual, my photography can't seem to show that very well. Decals are from the kit, and a note here. The kit offers two build/marking options. I wanted the early version with separate exhausts and open rear cockpit but the color scheme for that one is overall dark green. I wanted the camo (lizard? salamander? Gorn? Godzilla?) scheme, so I went ahead and did that. Okay, enough talking, on the the pics: More images to follow, Cheers, Mark san

Here is my recently completed 1/32 Hasegawa Fw 190D-9 build of the JV44 Dora flown by Heinz Sachsenberg known as "Red 1". In addition to the kit parts, I've added the following aftermarket items to the build: 1. Aires 190D-9 resin cockpit set 2. Eduard 190D-9 brass flaps 3. Quickboost 190A gun barrels 4. Eagle Editions 190A/190D-9 Early resin tail wheel 5. Henri Daehne VS111 resin prop 6. HGW 1/32 Luftwaffe seat belts 7. Montex Masks 8. Eagle Cal decals

Thanks to all of you ....I wish I knew what to tell you, but it is impossible to say what we'll end up doing or when. My insurance company has paid out 75 % of our policy and is not in any hurry to pay out the rest, it will be a test of wills I guess. I understand they are a business, and they must profit to survive, but it is hard to swallow how many millions of dollars they spend to tell us they are "on our side" on the television and then try to screw us out of what we've been paying for over all these years. The cost to rebuild my workshop and equip it as it was before the fire is far beyond what we can afford if we hope to rebuild or buy a home, so change is the order of the day. Any manufacturing , such as production casting will have to be farmed out to someone already equipped and fully up to speed on such work.I have been talking informally with a company in Europe who are very well equipped and whose work I respect about future casting and even finishing of my stuff. This would allow me to do new kits, as well as open up a new opportunity for those who collect finished , cased display pieces, a market I have not participated in before. I don't need a big shop to create masters, but I do need to really think about what new kits to do, and what old products to try and bring back.Many of my 1/32 kits will be very expensive to re-tool, re-print decals and photo etch for, so I have to be realistic about how fast I can move and how far.It's been extremely disorienting to have my entire little world simply vanish overnight and I will be the first to tell you I have not been myself since the fire. I don't mean to ignore emails, I just don't know what to say in reply other than thanks, and this will take time. Without your support this would be infinitely worse than it has been. As soon as plans become more sharply defined, you'll read it here! Until then, build models, enjoy your friends and family and pizza.Pizza is good. Paul

Here is the Italeri (T)F104-G trainer kit. The build was pretty straightforward, with a clear instruction booklet and easy-to-follow sub-assemblies handled more or less logically. The only issues were fit (it's an Italeri kit), and some poorly-realized components. The wingtip and under-wing fuel tanks have bad seams, and will require some careful filling and sanding, especially as the filler caps are right on the seams, yet must be glued from the inside at the time the tank halves are assembled. The fuselage has only one tricky fit issue: two PE "rings" that set off the rear portion and the stabilizer fin that simply don't mesh well. I dropped it out and the parts went together without a hitch (you can't see the internal support frame they're supposed to recreate unless the engine is removed). I resisted my usual inclination to add every bit of after-market stuff around, and only replaced three items: the exhaust nozzle (undersized and has oversimplified details), swapped for the Eduard resin one from the early, American-supplied GE J79 engine with scooped-out blade ends. The kit's Martin Baker ejection seats are undersized, again with simplified details. So I replaced them with two AMS resin versions. That saved wrangling with photo etch seat belts and other rigamarole. Finally, I added a Master Models pitot tube for the front, since part of it was bare metal on the actual aircraft.

Ki-84 from suicide unit. Luckily for pilot, mission wasn't sucessfull (maybe he wasn't "brave" enought...). Hasegawa kit plus few modifications like cables here and there, strengthened flaps, pitot tube from needle, hollowed exhausts, whole plane riveted. Montex masks, Yahu IP, Eduard seatbelts used.

ahoy shipmates wow, what a response, thank you all very much - I am humbled... Thanks Antonio - I think if I had known this before I painted them then yes, likely I would have, but it's too late now - I am just hoping either painted or unpainted is right Ah - I am now lost as despite their success, I have never seen a Harry Potter film! I do however have your exquisite 1/18 P51 exhausts which will be fitted at some point so thanks for doing those Many thanks Troy, I appreciate that you appreciate my doing a build log - that said, it is no chore for me - I love sharing things I learn and getting feedback on what I am doing right or wrong had a bit of time this weekend, so lets press on... ..first up some landing gear torque assembly fittings - seen here, it's the green bracket & bellcranks and a torque tube.. these seem to sit the deepest under the fuel selector so had to be done next.. ..first I made the housings from plastic card... ..then made up all the belcranks and any bits that go in either bay - primed white as I have run out of mr surfacer... .. ..then all these were painted.. ..and assembled, including tiny banjo fittings where small rods come off the cranks to various bits... ..and added to the airframe - the lower roof height in the model is making placing & spacing some of this stuff challenging... ..next this bit - the fuel shut-off valve - it's quite a distinctive and complicated little assembly... ..no build pics for this bit, but here it is completed... ..also added the hydraulic accumulator.... and then spent many hours plumbing the fuel selector valve - there is still one pipe to go between it and the fuel shut off valve, but there are some gubbins I need to add before doing that... ..still lots of bits to do, but feel like its a bit of progress to get that done.. TTFN Peter

This time the model with insignia of the Chinese Air Force, is my first in a lifetime model of a jet stationed in this country. The model is the Trumpeter Su-30MKK 1:32 scale, definitely the model is not the best model of this aircraft. This is Su-27UB with changed displays in the cabin. The model is easy to build and does not cause problems. Model made straight from the box.

The decals were a bit of a composite: many of the stencils are from the nice Cartograf-printed sheet supplied with the kit, but a number were taken from Danny Coremans' DACO Products complete F-104G set. Its five sheets perfectly compliment his superb reference work on the German Starfighter which I used every step of the way. The decal instruction booklet has camouflage schemes, unit badges, "zappings" (temporary markings popular with Luftwaffe units), and fuselage codes for every singular regular unit. But it also has the alternate naval colors and markings, so I chose a set from an actual aircraft that flew with MFG1 (Marineflieger Geschwader 1. The unit was active from 1959-1993, flew 132,000 hours in F-104Gs, and lost eleven pilots to fatal accidents. The eagle in the unit coat of arms was borrowed from the WW2 Luftwaffe unit Kampfgeschwader 30, likely because KG30 had extensive naval engagements on several fronts. My decision to build the aircraft with the canopies closed arose from my struggle attempting to wrestle a build of the single-seat version into shape. That build sports all the AM stuff I could find, and after much cutting, sanding, filling and filing (none of which has yet produced an end point), I just wanted to keep things clean and easy. It's a decision I don't regret. The photo below shows some of the additional "plumbing" I added with wire, including brake lines.

Now the intakes present a much bigger problem, because they don’t exist at all and so far, there are no after-market ones available. Phase Hanger Resin is making some, but after at least 10 attempts to contact them and get a real date for delivery, I gave up and for the first time, tried to make some of my own. With small engine intakes and a fairly straight forward trajectory, I found some 5/8” OD/1/2” ID PVC pipe and gave it a whirl. Let’s call these “Econo-Intakes”, because they are nowhere near as good as resin ones, but they are better than nothing- and waiting for some to show up one day (or not). I started with a few tools to shape and bend the plastic pipe. The pliers on the right give an intake opening similar to the kit plastic and the awl-like gizmo on the left (it’s really a wine stopper) should spread the pipe enough to get it around the engines. After a lot of trial and error using a heat gun, I found that the pipe will become very flexible when heated and you can shape it. The pipe also has a bit of shape memory, so by re-heating the pipe, you can get it to go back close to where it started before heating. So here is Proto-type Econo-Intake #7, which worked out quite well. In order to get the intake to fit over the gear well, you need to sand down both the bottom and top so that it will clear. This was done using a sanding wheel on a Dremel tool, which made quick work of the plastic. Other parts were heated and shaped accordingly, but you have to be careful to let the pipe cool before it touches the kit plastic. While the outside of the pipe is quite rough, the inside remains very smooth. The fronts are a bit rough right now and everything is still only dry fit. After the top fuselage has been cemented to the bottom, I will sand and shape them super thin so that they are one smooth unit with no gaps. When the front portion of the intake is installed, it will be tough to see this join anyway. This front piece has lots of issues to deal with anyway, so I plan on making everything smooth as one unit and, well, seamless! From the front you can see the intake fan, which is really hard to photograph. I’m leaving these intakes white, so no need to paint them. That’s it for now boys. Next up will be clean-up of the “Econo-Intakes”. Cheers, Chuck

Just for laughs, I put on the canopy to see how it would fit. Almost perfect! Very surprising, since a canopy closed option is not available without extensive modifications, that are not described in the instructions. The fit is so good, that I think I will be using the canopy to seal the cockpit, using masking solution as the “glue”. Next up, the engines. I have a few surprises that I think you will like, but like everything in my builds, this will take a while! Cheers, Chuck

Ki-61 Hasegawa plus Alley Cats conversion, colors Gunze C, Interier photoetched Brengun. The big problem is the different length of hull halves

Some more work. After much thought, I decided to go with A46-217, with the nose art “Hep Cat” instead of the one in my first post. I liked the cat painted on this Boomerang as he looks like a cool sort of character, not sure what ‘Hep’ is short for but he looks like he gets up to some pretty dodgy stuff in his spare time. There are no decals for the serials, squadron codes or the nose art so I was going to have to paint all of them. First up, the picture that inspired me to do this one. Made up some masks for the roundels and painted these on first. I found a good clear photo of the QE squadron code and traced around the letters, I also turned the Q into a G to make the individual aircraft letter.. Using the period photo as above, I traced the “Hep Cat” writing I then used the same photograph to rough out the cat. I was going to use a reasonably clear profile drawing of 217 from the Boomerang book but found it to be fairly innacuarate compared to the photo of the real thing. This is the two masks ready to cut. The cat. There are quite a few elements to this to allow me to spray the three colours. Mask on, ready to spray one down, one to go. all done! I will be toning down the paint chipping a little bit. Also, the cat will need some more detail that I will hand paint.

Guys, i'm back! This time not with something in 1/48 or smaller. That thing... It's the Trumpeter kit, my second 1/32 scale model, and it's quite huge It's so ever slightly bigger than the F-15 in lenght and even in wingspan, which impressed me a bit. Alright, let's do it. I plan a rather slow and longer build. Some may know very well the quality and what's in the box, but i'm gonna make a thorough review these days whatsoever. Here is just a quick glimpse: And of course, i'll take advantage of the AFV Club's tinted canopy, cause i think it's absolutely necessary for a good looking F-117. I cannot tint such a huge canopy by myself and not leave any trace of dust, etc. In 1/48 or less - it's ok because the little imperfections are almost invisible, but this one is one, enormous and two, with perfectly flat straight sides. I'll also use the GTR Wheel set that i didn't use in my F-15E. The kit tires are from very hard rubber and quite small in size. I have the original dimensions of the plane's tires and did the quick measurements. The GTR tyres are perfect. Only the front tyre is a bit smaller in diameter so i might still use the kit's rubber tyre for the nose wheel. And on the other hand, i know that the F-117 had just about the same avionics as the F-18 and just about the same landing gear as the F-15, so that's the perfect moment to use the gorgeous GTR tyres and wheels. And finally, the extra PE screen for the FLIR and DLIR. This is obligatory as well, because the provisions for these sensors are huge. I did a little mistake though by getting the 4x6 screen mesh in believing that the holes are rombs. Yeah, they are rectangulars... i couldn't notice that on the photos and this is my firt time using such a PE screen. Nevertheless, i think i can place the screen at an angle so they can look as rombs. I plan to start from the landing gear and make everything moveable again, for "2 models in 1" - in a parked and in-flight mode. The canopy, the gear, all the control surfaces and the bomb bays will close/open. As for the airframe - i have no idea yeat, but i think it will be one of the early Nighthawks, something Desert Storm-related in a full stealth mode with all the lights and antennas retracted and without the two RCS enhancers on the sides. Quite weathered as well. I'm only looking for a pilot figure and if i cannot find any, i plan to get the F-16 resin figure+seat set by Aires. But i'll wait on that one yet. Nighthawk!

Hi folks been busy working on an Airfix test kit to bring you a cockpit upgrade for when the new F6F is released.. ..will be a nickel silver photo-etch set with bespoke colour instrument & placard decals should get a PE test shot next week so hopefully have something to show then TTFN Peter

Inspired by Shark64 ! Thank you so much ! Hello from Viet Nam ! Finally... after 2 years on and off I've managed to finish this. The kit is Academy MH-60S, this is a rebox of UH-60 by Academy hreleased years ago. There are new sprues and decal for the MH-60s. The new sprure carry nice details but the old sprures suffered from old mold. Due to the large dimension of the rotor, I decided to fold the blade and the tails ( I always have a thing for fold wings anyway). All folding details are scratchbuild from plastic and styren rod with many good preferences found on the internet. The most challenge is the 2 brace hold 4 rotor blades. Styrene rod aren’t strong enough to hold the weight of the blades. I ended up soldering paper clips to create the braces. I enhanced the model with Big Ed set from Eduard and Live resin mini gun. Both set are highly recommended for this model. On a separate note, the fit of the kit is not Tamiya or Hasegawa quality, hence lots of sanding, re-scribing lost details, riveting... Mr. Hobby paint was used, all photo taken under sunlight with black and white background. Hope you enjoy my article .

I have a few on the go at the moment and am using this model as a break from my primary model that I am working on, the Boomerang. With the Australian International air show about to start, it will provide me with many photos of our new F-35’s in action. So I will put those into good use here. I started this model when it first came out and quickly put it aside when I realised that there was a bit of work to be done on the exhaust, as it was way too small fitted to the fuselage. After a bit of a think, Here is how I fixed it. Here is the exhaust how Italeri intended, like throwing a sausage roll down a hallway. I decided to fix this two ways. Firstly, I cut a line in between every second exhaust petal, about halfway down the front (where it meets the fuselage) of the part. I then forced lengths of plastic card into the lines, spreading the front of the exhaust apart. This increased the diameter of the exhaust by approx 2 mm but kept the exit of the exhaust the same. There is still a bit of sanding and tidying up to do here but you can see the white plastic card to give you an idea of how I have executed this. Next, I removed a wedge shaped piece from the rear of the fuselage where the exhaust fits into. I removed the centre point and half of each point next to it. Terminating the wedge close to the front of that part. I glued and clamped the part together, shrinking it. I made up a new point with some plastic card. The lost raised detail was masked and built up again using spray primer. fixed! Compared to the first pic, this area is way better.

a very old kit but i like this : [/URL

A little assembly.

Hi all, This is the first model I've completed in about two years, Wingnut Wings Hansa-Brandenburg W.12 Early. I Used Aviattic's WW1 German Naval Hex decals instead of the kit ones. Top wing crosses are masked and airbrushed after I had an incident with the decals, and had to scrap them.I hope to put this in a water diorama later on, just have to get the products and find the time to do it. All comments and critiques welcome, Thanks for looking, Cheer's, Jeff.

Now that all the hard work has been done I primed the model and went over it with a fine toothed comb, fixing a few small flaws here and there and ensuring that the painting stage would be as hassle free as possible. I painted some areas with Alclad Duralumin and then used some masking fluid to simulate chipping over the airframe. I sprayed a heavy pre shade over the model with some patchy areas around places that would see a lot of wear and tear. This was followed by a thin coat of SMS Foliage Green, allowing most of the pre shade to still be seen. I then highlighted and mottled over the model using a lightened and thinned mixture of the base colour. A highly thinned mix of the original Foliage Green was then sprayed over the model to blend everything together. Some of the masking fluid removed to check how the effect looks. I used Tamiya white flexible tape to mask off the demarcation of the white tail. I then used the Tamiya masking tape that has plastic sheeting attached to it to protect the rest of the model and sprayed the white. The Boomerang is starting to look the part.

Well after about a year I have finally (ish) put this one to bed, the kit is typical Hasegawa, great fit and a pleasure to build, the paint used was Sovereign Colourcoats, Xtracolor and Humbrol, markings are painted using Makatar paint masks, some cockpit parts are Aires, I did not use the complete cockpit to save time (it didn't). I also am not keen on lowered flaps so I modelled mine raised after seeing a build on HS in which the builder had raised his. I also used a couple of builds on LSP as guides as well. I am really pleased with this one, the topside paint is Sovereign Colourcoats ARJ01 (same as ACJ22) which matches IJAAF#7 Ohryoku nana go shoku (I don't know either), at first I was disappointed that it was matt but it airbrushed beautifully and gave me a great finish. With handling the finish was matt with satin patches and looked great, it a shame that I could not replicate it at the end but a Satin varnish coat (Xtracolor) to me looks great, rather than a dead matt finish. As I know next to nothing about Japanese subjects I contacted Nick Millman (Aviation of Japan) for advice and he very kindly answered all my detail questions on colours and model paint, he did the same when I built my Ki 27 Nate. I did go off track with a couple of colours though so just in case any of you experts notice anything wrong any mistakes are mine not Nick's I am useless at weathering so I tend to just fade the paint on my builds and dirty them up a bit. I finally cracked the undercarriage hydraulic lines bit thanks to some good advice, but I still am not keen on Aerial wires the one on the build took me two attempts and it is still not anything to write home about. So on with the photos, all taken with my phone, looking at them the prop is too clean it needs dirtying up but it is only pushed on so I can still sort it out.

Hello , It's a longer time now since I have postet my last build here. But finally I have made some pictures of my latest Wingnut build and would like to share it with you for discussion. Maybe it is not one of my best ones but it was a lot of fun to build. It was the first time for me to work with "wood decails" and I must say the quality of those included in the kit was really great. Hope you like the result , if not please let me know your recommendation for making it better next time :). Peter

Hello everybody! Today I want to show you a RF-4E Phantom, which I made from the 32er Revell kit. 35 + 49, AG 51 "Immelmann" Seats: Quickboost (modified) Intake covers: AMS Resin Travelpods: wing tanks of a F-5E Decals: Airdoc, Revell and homemade The kit has some flaws, but see and decide for yourself ..... Colours : Gunze This scheme is called "Norm 83 A"

I'm back at bench after one week and slowly finishing Toryu have used several AMMO washes to get best effect out of it. I have combined darker panel lines with light rivets added pigments - light dust and airfield dust stuff used for weathering canopy parts attached wheels weathered and attached and few more overall pics and dry fit of engine covers thanks for looking jan

Glad you like it Bill. I have used the Gunze masking fluid, applied with a toothpick. I trace the codes and artwork using a mouse. I define points and then manipulate the lines rather than drawing around each shape. I am onto the finishing touches now. An important part of each build is the stance of the model. I epoxied the undercarriage legs legs into place to make sure that everything still lined up. I also attached the cowl flaps. Almost done. Still lots of small details and tidying up to do.

Final pics: In conclusion, this was a very enjoyable build! It helped reset my modeling mojo after the Fly Hurricane. Now I think I will tackle the SH F-80! Cheers, Mark

At the front on either side of the gear well are gun vent doors that are molded open. They should be closed and another molding flaw fixed. To close the gun vents, I trimmed the back of the vent doors, deepened the hinge with a scriber, then bent them flat. They also need to be shortened about 10% and the corners rounded before you install them. Two more areas fixed and the panel lines are now straight. There is a lot of trimming and dry fitting to get any of these pieces to fit together. Almost every join was modified in order to do so. Kind of a pain, but kind of fun too. With the styrene spacer used at the front of the windscreen, the join is now fairly flush and the top center piece fits perfectly. Before I fit and glue the gun doors closed, I need to install the guns and modify the parts so that I can install the gun barrels at the end of the build. Here I have cut the gun breaches back to fit my modifications and used minimal gun parts. The key is to just get an anchor point to slip the gun barrel into later. The openings at the front of the gun compartment were widened slightly and the base of each gun barrel was narrowed, so they now just slip in from the front with minimal effort. The gun door fit? Not so good. This kit is made for doors to always be opened with no parts made for closed doors. As a result, the fasteners are molded open and the closed fit is crappy. Time for some more “fun” I guess…. Later boys and thanks for your input. Cheers, Chuck

Afternoon, folks Not a huge amount of progress of late due to work commitments, but I've gradually been adding the interior structure of the forward bow section. My measurements have only been approximate and don't look at this as an example of accuracy, I am just hoping to fill out the interior and make it representative of the real thing. First up has been the forward flooring and ladder up to the flightdeck: IMG_0759 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr The raised pierced flooring for the tapered front section is yet to be made - I'm trying to come up with a plan to avoid drilling hundreds of holes... I've added some detail to the areas of the sidewalls that will be visible: IMG_0765 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr IMG_0766 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr The door on the rear bulkhead is, as far as I can tell, not present on the real aircraft and it's an open doorway, but as I'm not going to detailing the room behind I hope the Sunderland aficionados can forgive me..? It looks as if a fair bit will be visible through the forward door, so lots more detail to add in due course: IMG_0768 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Until next time, Tom

I want to thank those who shared in this build with me. I took the photos shortly after sun down as an experiment and decided I liked them enough to use them in this RFI. I really enjoyed this build despite the inaccuracies of this ancient kit. AFAIK, there are only two photos of the bird out there. So, I've extrapolated a bit and borrowed from others to reach this point. My goal when mixing colors is more about the relationship between the colors than it is about being faithful to a paint chip. The larger markings are all masks, some of which were given to me by another LSP'er. The stencils were all from a Trumpeter donor kit and behaved well. As with all models, there is always more that could be done, but then there is a time to move on. Thanks for looking! Gaz

I glued up all of the flying surfaces and roughly sanded them to shape to make sure they all fit. Then I shot some RLM 02 inside the main gear wells after detailing them a bit with some sheet styrene with riveting for strengthening plates, and some Eduard PE for the inside of the main spare. Im not done adding wiring to this yet, but got most all the weathering done, with some stains, grease and some leaks with a lot of dust. Im not going too crazy with these on this build, as from what I can see of the real deal, there was not a ton of exposed wiring, and this is all about the look and the exterior paint on this build anyway: I also got the leading edge landing light fared in, smoothed over and the glass polished. This looks a tad rougher than it will end up being, as I will need to paint a black boarder around it, because some of the inside paint wore off before gluing it in, and I didnt notice. I think painting a boarder around it will be fine for this purpose: Lastly for this update, thanks to a generous LSPer I now have the tentative plan to add the extra cooling needed for the A-2 Trop version to effectively operate in the African theater....... "The ducting for these scoops actually intrudes into the space the main center fuel tank occupies, and exits through ducting connected to the radiator exit tunnel and flows the air around the engine out the same ducts.The Luftwaffe high command did extensive testing and found that even though the modified main fuel tank was smaller to accommodate the new ducting for the rear engine and the scoops created a bit of extra drag, they found this really did not effect performance at all in the African heat, as the extra cooling lead to increased rear engine efficiency, leading to better fuel range, which effectively off-set the smaller capacity of the modified A-2 Trop fuel tank." This is just an initial mock-up, and I have a lot of smoothing of the scoops themselves as well as refining the fit to the fuse, but its getting there. These are just temporarily held on with some blue-tac: All for now gents, Im off to take care of some business, them Im likely back on the Do-335 today and tonight. I'm on a roll, and havin fun!

and mounting the engines and overall thanks for looking jan

Hasegawa Ki-61 1/32 Alley Cats conversion cockpit photoetche Brengun exhaust Quickbost colors Gunze C

Evening all, Just thought I’d share the latest off the bench... Wingnut Wings Haberstadt with: Gaspatch Anemometer / Spandau / Parabellum / One end Turnbuckles / Anchor points (both resin) Aviattic Lozenge HGW Seat Belts Lovely kit, but I had issues with the decals - never had that before with Wingnut’s. Thanks for looking... Guy

crikey thanks guys - I am very grateful for your kind compliments and it is you guys I consider my primary judges who I must do my best to please not much of an update, but it is still a fair few hours work.. I added the main pipes that go in the front of the weel bay roof - these are aluminium tube with insulating tape for the black bits and foil tape for the clamps.. I also made up the uplocks which are tiny parts made from scaled plans and also the gear door sequencing assemblies that are another set of tiny parts with connecting rods.. they are the bits in and around the square holes in the bay roof.. ..and the other side.. Good point Don - it is difficult to grasp the size of these parts so here it is with a 5 amp fuse.. ..starting to look busy.. electrical wiring next, then I think most of what I wanted to do here is done and I can close it all up and protect it and start work on the fuselage structure around the back of the canopy which is entirely absent at the moment... TTFN Peter

Finally......Republic P-47D-28RA Thunderbolt "Dottie Mae" is completely finished. Today i did some final work on the ground work regarding making the snow covered landscape. Also, in the past few day's i painted Dottie in all her glory, sadly i have to say i once could paint a real dame but that was a long time ago. Still i tried to give her the look's she deserved. I tried to take some photo's to do the P-47D justice, just like Dottie as well. Hope you guy's and girl's like her. I chose to represent the whole model like on the cartoon. I know, it's unrealistic due to the scarce clothing of Dottie and the very low temperatures, but i liked the setting, so........ For the snow i use simply Micro Balloons. First i sprayed a wood glue-water mixture onto the base plate, then i covered it with micro balloons and as last i used some hair spray to fix all that. Dottie herself is a 3D-printed figure. She was painted with Vallejo Model Color and Model Air. Regards Danny

Cheers guys. Moving on to some of the smaller details. I added these before I painted the model but forgot to post an update. A small drain and vent were added to the area between the wheel bays. I opened up the panel that covers the ground power receptacle (bottom left of the Q) most of the pics that I have of these aircraft in theatre show it as being left off. I drilled a small hole in the spinner, I guess this is to allow access to a grease nipple on the prop hub. I had dry fitted the exhaust and found that it looked as if something was missing compared to photos. There is a small duct that comes off the rear of the exhaust and enters the fuselage. This was missed in the kit and I felt that it would look good to include it. The exhaust as I had it, ready to install. I made a duct from some plastic rod, heated and bent to shape. Also visible here is a small oval panel below and to the left of the exhaust which was missed in the kit that I scribed when I was working in that area. (There is a stencil data decal provided for it though) The modified and now complete exhaust ready to install. There will be lots of exhaust staining in this area as well as some burnt off paint on the panel around the exhaust, so it is only dry fitted at this stage. Glad I did this little mod.

still some red overspray to correct. one stencil decal is applied. they work good (this means the F4U-5N decals will be availible - they are at the printer) man, black planes are hard to photogtaph.. 92 by karl holubar, auf Flickr 93 by karl holubar, auf Flickr

evening folks still plugging away on the wheel bay... wanted to make the big spar attatchement seen here (the long black thing on the left with loads of bolts in it) scaled the drawing and started drilling lots of holes in a square tube of brass of the same size...(always drill any hole in anything first, before doing anything else...) ..put a template each side and ground away the waste... ..and added small lengths of wire & micro nuts... ..andf fitted to the spar... ..also made the gear retraction unit from a bit of perspex acrylic - filed & sanded to the shape with a disc added to the front face but allowing for the slide on gear legs to come later... ..finished all the ribs... ..and sprayed everything with Xtracolour zinc chromate - nothing is assembled yet, just placed for the photos ..thats it for now - back soon TTFN Peter

I was in Fort Meyers, FL....right? It was "crappy" weather, rain and low temps....right? Visited Bob in Cape Coral... right? Yesterday we were about to "raid" a mall for clothes and such....right?(weather was improving, blue skies....) Oh.....all of a sudden my son dragged me to Page Field, for "something misterious" and on arriving at the airfield we saw a B-17, B-24 and......a TF-51D.......... Well...i got to roll and loop that aircraft.....AWESOME!!!!!!!.....THE TOULOUSE NUTS Collingsfoundation TF-51D!! believe me, that "shrunken head" below that laaaarge canopy is me..

I succeeded in finding something else to work on, postponing the inevitable... The petrol tanks of the F-5-L are not round like the ones one the F.2a, I guess the extra foot of distance between the spars was used to increase the size of the tanks. The horizontal tank... To get the right shape of the tanks, a 'core' was made from sheet styrene. The outer skin is made from thick aluminium sheeting. The new tanks ready to be installed, with some subtle 'denting' of the tanks... A larger wooden 'bridge' was also scratched. Now I have to become a little creative. I have to figure out how to arrange the fuel piping on the Aeromarine, since the cockpit is sitting right on top of the tanks... Cheers: Kent

Howdy folks just a little update today.. I needed to sort out the landing light - just like this one... ..started by cutting the section from the wing.. ..the lamp itself has a rounded rim so I made up a vacform tool and vacformed it from black plastic so I don't need to paint near the glass.. ..made a chrome dome reflector from ali and glazed it, also made up the mounting bracket from plans... ..mounted it all and spent some time trying to heat form the leading edge from PETG in boiling water - it's the blue thing at the bottom, still in it's protective wrap ..hard to photograph it mounted, but it's all in place - the whole unit had to be virtually airtight so as not to let any dust in while it was faired in - a coat of matt black means the metal won't show when I skin it.. ..also installed the gun ports by adding ali tube and lining it all up allowing for the vertical offset of the barrel tubes.. ..not finished, but the grunt work is done.. ..having done most of the big bits on the airframe, I thought I would move into the wheel bays - I decided to cut the skin back to the mainspar to give some working room and realised the hard foam had crept in and needed cleaning out... ..made up some 'T' stringers from PE and strips of plastic card - I actually made another version to be folded up but it didn't work as I forgot to etch a scoreline into the top fold - these will work just fine though.. ..the best place to start was with the central rib, so I made up a laminate from plastic & ali and scaled the real one's layout - mine is shallower as I have brass sheet in the wheelbay roof to support the leg mounts... ..the main details & openings were transposed from the plans and added... ..and then the rib itself was detailed - I will only add what is painted Yellow Zinc Chromate (I think - anyone know the right colour?) - so I can spray the complete bay before adding all the gubbins.. ..and the rib in place with the rear spar faces which are next.. ..you can also see I had to cut a hole in the well roof as I found a big opening with loads of bobbins & pipes coming through from the engine bay.. ..rear spar wall is next and then the stringers - after that it's all the ribs with cut-outs for the gear legs etc.. ..I could be in here for some time... TTFN Peter

I am not particularly knowledgeable about Lufwaffe subjects so could not comment on the accuracy issues, other more knowledgeable people have identified the problems with the kit but I just used it as a fun build and did not try to correct anything. At the end of the day I ended up with (to my eyes) a most impressive model and enjoyed months of fun building it all for a very reasonable cost and no lost sleep worrying about it. Cheers Dennis