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  1. Plm

    HPH Fw 189 Uhu

    Hello, Here is my last build, a very long one with a lot of sanding, test fitting and sometimes the help of boiling water to straighten parts.
    54 points
  2. Hello, all. If you've been following the build thread, you know that this project was nearing completion. Tonight, after taking the afternoon off, I finally crossed the finish line. As has been my modus operandi of late, I wanted to more or less recreate an historical photograph. For this project, I chose this photo: It's from a fairly well-circulated set of photos and film that were taken either for training purposes, propaganda, or the news reels. In some of the other shots from this series, there's a movie camera crew just out of frame to the right. So, there was something big going on. Also probably explains why the pilot's exiting the wrong side of the aircraft. Anyway, this photo was taken in July of 1943 on Espiritu Santo. The pilot here is one Lt. Virgil Ray, great uncle to our own @ARay87. He did a pretty great write up on Lt. Ray at the WW2 Aircraft forums, so I'll point you there for a great in depth look into the man. Sadly, Lt. Ray was lost in a storm on 13 October, 1943, just a few months after this photo set was taken. Rest in peace, Virgil. I wanted to do this particular aircraft because it had red insignia surrounds (and I've never done those before) some pretty (ahem) unusual weathering. It wasn't until a few weeks into the build that I really realized what I'd gotten myself into. A couple highlights: I sculpted the crew chief from the waist up, using only premade hands and head. I also had to modify his ankles so he would stand up straight on the wing. The base figure was the standing pilot figure included with the Corsair kit. I had to resculpt the pilot's lower legs because the Black Dog Resin figure was in ETO heavy gear. It's still not perfect, but it's a lot better than it was. I also had to resculpt the pilot's hands as the stock figure's hands were nowhere near where they needed to be. I had to build 2 palm trees from scratch. I used Luke Towan's method, but also wrapped the trunks in masking tape to give them a little more texture. Each tree has 38 fronds. I could fit 12 fronds on a sheet of paper in my cutter. Each sheet took 65 minutes. You do the math. I added a ton of wiring detail to the cockpit, engine, and landing gear bay So, in all it was a pretty challenging project and a lot of fun (except the palm fronds) that really pushed my limits, especially the sculpting parts. See the build thread for full details on the sculpting adventures. Aftermarket parts used were: Barracudacast plain tread wheels Anyz canopy frame Quinta studio cockpit interior and harnesses Black Dog Resin pilot figure Though my dio is not a perfect 1:1 recreation of the source image, I feel it captures the essence of the scene. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Tomorrow, I have to build new floating display shelves in the model cave as I have officially run out of display room. Sorry, no under belly shots. The plane is not attached to the base, but there's no good way to set or hold the a/c upside down with the figures in place. It looks nice, you'll just have to trust me.
    46 points
  3. More transparency work of late, this time huge steps have been taken with the canopy. The kit part was always suspect in my opinion - it just looked too big, windscreen shape was totally off and the sides too vertical: Something like this would really bug me, so I was thinking about making my own by either doing a master and vacforming it or alternatively doing the framing, much like the bomb aimer’s section, and dropping in the clear pieces using acetate. Then I had an idea… why not get in touch with one of the greatest model makers of our time, Peter at Airscale? And low and behold… And a comparison with the kit part: Here we now have a beautifully printed cockpit framing that will sit on top of a new vac canopy. As the pictures show I originally cut the fuselage to fit the kit part so some work is going to be needed here to get the fit right, but I’m delighted with Peter’s handy work! I’m currently working in finishing off the gear bays so the cockpit will have to wait for a while, but for once I can’t wait to get started on the cockpit and it’s interior - which is usually a job I hate! More when there’s more… Tom
    42 points
  4. 1/32 Trumpeter model, Aires cockpit, wheelbay, weapons, Eduard wheels & propeller, Lifelike decals, Mask homemade, All colors MRP
    35 points
  5. Just a quick post before I visit the land down unda'. I Rhino-designed two important cockpit items over the last few days - the engine quadrant and the oxygen regulator. They occupy similar regions right behind the instrument panel mounted to the upper longerons - the engine quadrant on the LH side; the O2 regulator on the RH side. Pictures: VERY TINY PARTS! 100% 3D printed. It shows what a good modern 3D printer can do. Also, for the umpteenth time, I am so thankful to Peter Castle for the decals. Just amazing. I will bond these components on later, to keep them out of harm's way as I continue to populate the cockpit sidewalls with stuff over the coming weeks (months?). Stick with me.
    34 points
  6. Hi everyone thank you for your kind comments, really encourages me to do better Hi both - for skinning I exclusively use Evo Stick contact adhesive, which is diluted with it's own brand cleaner to the consistency of single cream - this is then brushed on both surfaces and left for a minute or two to go off before application. Very occasionally, I use thin CA for an errant edge to hold it down.. I finished the floats and detailed the struts, all done with litho - this includes some very long, this one piece multi hundred rivet strips that run the length of each chine.. the struts were detailed as well.. ..next up the tailfeathers... the stabiliser seems to have overlapping panels, with the elevators a joggled but flush panel edge... ..the card formers I made had tiny brass 'L' sections added to the trailing edge and were filled with P38 - then the skinning started with the outer edges as the panels overlap in this direction.. ..tape and dymo tape guides used to make one piece wrap around panels.. ..the elevators were also done and interstingly have a sheet extension at the trailing edge so this was copied by leaving the brass sheet core exposed.. ..the rudder was a sheet brass core with plastic ribs, then covered with scored thin plastic sheet to represent linen - I can't see any evidence of rib tape, but there is a characteristic rib feature i need to add (perhaps this is tape?) ..after covering, I added the Flash Gordon style counter weights.. ..and while not fitted yet, the tail is virtually complete.. ..might do the prop next as it is starting to come together.. TTFN Peter
    33 points
  7. Thanks Guys! March 3/24 Well, I’m back already, mostly because I didn’t really go anywhere. To make a very long and painful story short, I experienced an intestinal blockage almost a month ago and spent 4 days in the hospital. When we left for our big trip I was feeling OK, but on the first leg of our flight all of the symptoms of a blockage came back, so we had to cancel the 16 hour flight to New Zealand and the 6 week cruise we had planned for 2 years to celebrate my new retirement. Huge bummer, but there are much worse things that could have happened I know, so my wife and I have re-booked a similar trip in a year and we soldier on. After a week of feeling sorry for myself and moping around, I finally picked up this model and got after the Aires main landing gear bay. Modeling is great therapy when you want to forget about things and I soon became totally engrossed in painting all the tiny details. This was fairly difficult to do, because I suck at brush painting and with all the tiny details hard to get at, it took a long time with lots of mistakes. After fixing most of them, here is where I am today. With the gear bay already cemented into the lower fuselage, I found it easier to handle than it might be otherwise. I tried to replicate many reference pics I found on the ‘net, and some great detailed pics in Jake’s Modern Viper Guide. The Aires resin is super detailed already, but I did add a few hoses and pipes here and there into holes I had pre-drilled earlier before paint. The 3 holes on either side at the top will be used for the hydraulic lines that will go into the gear doors when they are attached. The battery frame isn’t accurate for modern Vipers, but it looks so nicely detailed I retained it, partly because the kit has the perfect yellow decals that fit perfectly around the frame. I also added some decals to that silver Halon bottle to match a few pics, although the red band should be a bit darker. The central wall looks a bit rough because I had to sand it down, but it will eventually be covered by Part C27. Some of the hoses are only dry fit for now, because they will be in the way when I install the main landing gear. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of some of my plumbing, but I think it looks pretty close and makes the gear bay look a bit more busy. As always with these close-up pics, you can see a lot more mistakes than you can with your bare eyes! With the Aires cockpit and main gear bay now painted and detailed, the most difficult part of this build is now complete. Next steps will be to detail the front gear bay and landing gear. Thanks for looking in. Cheers, Chuck
    31 points
  8. While waiting for the Shapeways Malcolm hoods (I ordered two) to arrive, I got to work once again with Rhino. This time the control pedestal. After quite a few hours of work, I got this: I used quite a few excellent engineering drawings to model it up. Worry not about the featureless trim knobs on top - Airscale did some up for his Lope's Hope a couple years ago and I have his Rhino models of them. I will shamelessly plagiarize. The rest of the stuff - mine all mine. And then - The Malcolm hoods package showed up. Oh boy! Recall now what has transpired over the last few months with the Malcolm hood. My first couple of hoods were printed from a problematic clear resin where I got fairly close to an acceptable part, but not quite. The big issue was clarity and a slight brownish hue. My second set was from a more friendly clear resin, which gave me a nicer looking part, but alas I lost some dimensional control and they were too short causing a mismatch with the windshield frame. So what I was looking for from Shapeways was a more dimensionally accurate, and very clear part (after burnishing/polishing/Future). Here is one of the two parts fresh out of the box: Pretty rough, and I was a bit worried there would remain some cloudiness at the more curvy areas. First though, was a dimensional check for proper height. To my immense relief the parts appeared to be right on. That allowed me to print up nominal (current design) side rails without modification to account for height variation. Meanwhile, after many hours of sanding and burnishing and polishing and one Future dip, I got this: Front to back - the new part polished, the second unpolished part, and the burnishing molds. The molds were indispensable. What a difference. Thank you Shapeways! A $40 plus part right there. And to me, worth it. I will be proud for that part to sit atop Cripes A Mighty. That paved the way for another batch of 3D printed parts: Most of these parts are for the control pedestal. The tall slender parts are the Malcolm Hood side rails (two sets). Here is the new hood sporting those side rails, ready to snap onto the rollers: And (drum-roll please) fitted onto the fuselage: Fit to the windshield is nearly perfect. Whew. The Malcolm hood journey - it's been a long worrisome one. But I think the issue has been put to bed. This is going to work great. I now show you all my past and present efforts at Malcolm hood transparencies (the Shapeways polished part in front): It was a process....if you are sick and tired of the Malcolm hood, well you won't be seeing it for a while. It's going to gather dust. Next post I will be building up the control pedestal and also concentrating on addressing the reversed station 104 frames. Recall last post I put the LH set on the RH side, and vice versa, presenting a host of issues. A self-inflicted wound.... A sneak preview of the pedestal: Til next time. Thanks for looking in.
    31 points
  9. thank you chaps, you are all so very kind Well Jay, having just done the wings I do have pains from RSI - it will pass, but yes sometimes I just have to push through the pain Exactly Chuck, it is an adjustable trimming tab, but only on the ground - suits me, as it makes it easier to build So, lots has gone on the last few weeks... ..the propeller was made as a 3D print which I found very hard to do as it's a complex shape which has oblong roots and quite a twist.. - the spinner cap is machined from solid aluminium so it can be polished like the original.. ..I started the wings by filling the plastic frame with foam & filler - this was then refined many times and note they are complete with the ailerons in place so they can be cut out later... ..after a lot of finishing, the ailerons were removed... ..and so to the skinning... I drew out the plans that copied the layout of all the fastners that cover the entire surface.. by the time I finished I selected all objects in the drawing and for the four wing surfaces there were 8,962 rivets... that is bordering on the ridiculous and likely as many as I have done on entire airframes before.. ,,nothing to do but get started, so here is a typical panel - the small dots are one rivet depression, the big dots two, which was even more demoralising.. ..also seen is a template to score out a hatch with a pin in a pin vise.. ..after 3 days and a very sore set of muscles they were done... ..no time to rest though, and the ailerons were completed.. ..the wings were added using JB weld and given a day to set, then I could start the fillets - I have not done the front ones as they need to also cover the forward strut mount.. ..with the wings on, I could add the belly oil cooler assembly - as with the fuselage sides this was a 3D printed buck over which the metal sheet was fomed.. ..in two parts, it stretches all along the lower fuselage.. ..with so much skinning going on, I fancied a change and so started on the beaching trolley - well at least the wire wheels of the trolley.. I 3D printed a hub, a rim and a jig.. ..and then bent a lot of piano wire spokes and started to populate them ..and the finished wheels, along with some Pratts petrol cans I have seen in pictures with the airframe.. ..and so before the painting starts next week, some final shots in all her nakedness... ..time to start thinking about the finish... until next time TTFN Peter
    30 points
  10. Trumpeter 1/32 model, Kagero decals, Reskin wheels set, Phoenix cockpit, All colors MRP
    29 points
  11. Hi Everyone! These are the final photos taken of my recent completion from the Aces High group build hosted by LSP. The kit itself was sold to me by a fellow LSP'er and I'm glad to get it done. Yet these aren't the pictures I wanted. These are pictures saved from the recycle bin. I wanted pics with perfect lighting taken perfectly. Alas, the perfect lighting didn't present itself, and the model itself suffered a gravity related catastrophe and awaits repair. There are a lot of pics. I hope you like them. More to come...
    29 points
  12. Greetings all, Time for a long over-due update on this build. Various other projects have been getting attention and to be honest, sorting out the nose on this thing was very nearly a complete mojo-killer for the whole project and has taken a lot of time and effort. But, no pain... no gain. ID Models provide some very poorly shaped transparencies for the nose turret (this was more suitable for a MkI Halifax!) and the bomb aimer's windows, which sadly wouldn't be an accurate representation of the real deal. Luckily, when I inherited Cees' stalled project he threw in lots of HK Lancaster parts for the turrets, including all the internals and transparencies. Starting with the nose turret, as this would be the most tricky, I had the problem of the Lancaster turret being a lot wider than the Stirling nose. Whilst the internals are identical, the perspex was a different design but, with some gentle persuasion and some mods to the nose area, I was confident it could be made to fit. Therefore, my first task was to gently sand away all the raised framing seen on the Lancaster turret as the Stirling was devoid of any framework: I then set about polishing this back to clarity, using a nail buffing pad (don't spend a fortune on 'modelling' buffing pads and get the cheap ones from the make up section in a chemist or the like!) as well as some of Microscale's polishing compound: Turret internals are assembled here and checked for clarity: With the glazing good to go it was time to check now the Lancaster part would fit to the Stirling nose. The answer was: not very well.... I had suspected that the shape of the nose was a bit off - the section between the turret and the bomb aimer's panels is too blunt and flat on the kit, when in fact it should be rounded and follow the profile of the lower part of the turret. This was corrected by first making a plastic card shelf and then filling and shaping this area with Milliput: Once the nose was sanded to the correct shape, I began making the upper faring that wraps around the turret. I use card for this to make a template, which is a far cheaper option than wasting plastic card: At the same time, I also made the framing for the bomb aimer's window from Evergreen - the glazing will then be made and added at a later stage, by dropping them onto the frames: With majority of the hard work done, I then gave the nose section a coat of black to ensure none of the white plastic would show through to the turret or nose interior, and added the home-made turret faring - this time from plastic card. This was then filled with more Milliput, and the whole nose area blended to the correct shape with regular checking of photos and plans: To finish off, the lost panel lines were re-scribed and another coat of black was applied: I think I've just about got away with it... Next up will be the rear end... oh er Missus! Tom
    29 points
  13. Hi, everyone. I guess it's time to get my membership card to the Kotare Klub as there seem to be about a million of these in the WIP forum right now. Since finishing my Corsair diorama, which took months, I wanted a quick, straight forward build as something of a palate cleanser. My son said he thought it'd be neat if I did a Spitfire, I had the Kotare Mk Ia (mid) kit in the stash, I've never build a British aircraft before, and so, fate was decided. I departed from my usual MO of recreating an historical photograph and decided to just do a fictional, but feasible scene. I've wanted to depict battle damage on an aircraft since I was kid, but never really had the skills or practice till now. So, being that this kit has a low parts count and went together really nicely, I decided it would be a good platform to try my hand at damage. I thinned the interior plastic walls with a low rpm rotary tool, carefully punched and pried holes in the weakened area, then painted and streaked the area to look the part. Aside from the rigging wire (EZ-line), figures (Black Dog Resin, out of the box), and the base (el cheapo panel board), the kit is presented out of the box. I even used the decals in lieu of my usual gig of cutting masks and painting. This experience reminded me that I'm way out of practice working with large decals, but after a few minor scares, they turned out okay. This is a Spitfire Mk Ia of 610 Squadron sometime in the summer of 1940 before it was damaged beyond repair that August. "Bit of a rough go today, eh, chap?"
    28 points
  14. Hello everyone I recently started a new modeling project, a Brown B-2 race plane: I make the model from scratch using traditional polystyrene processing methods. Based on these drawings: I carved some elements from fragments of other models that I managed to fit. For example, I made wings from the upper wings of a Fiat CR.42 by Smer, in a scale of 1/50. In my plastic scrap I found an unused front from an alternative version of the 1/32 Williams Bross Firecracker, which I managed to fit to the Brown. I cut out various fragments from four halves of hulls from the Black Widow P-61, probably made by Monogram in 1/48 scale and glued them together slightly differently to create a base for the hull. I made a propeller cap from a 1/72 scale Corsair fuel tank. A wheel of unknown origin found in plastic scrap was used for the chassis. The rest was made of polystyrene plates of various thicknesses. Yes, this project can easily be considered modeling recycling. To connect all the elements of the model together, I made a special mounting base from cardboard. It allowed for the mutual adjustment of the position of individual elements relative to each other and maintaining the appropriate geometry of the whole. Then I cut off the engine cover to create a characteristic ventilation gap between the hull and the cover. I made the chassis legs from plastic reinforced with steel wire. I decided to open the top of the fuselage to show the internal structure in the model I would also like to show the engine because it looks interesting Since no company offers a miniature of this engine, I decided to make it myself. But to make it easier, I drew it as a 3D model. I also started modifying the engine cover. And I also started doing the inside of the fuselage To be continued
    28 points
  15. This is my recently finished 1/32 Great Wall Hobby's P-40B with TuAF markings . These Tomahawks were Ex-RAF Tomahawks from Mediterannean stocks. They were re-painted in Turkey by using RAF fighter paints. Cockpit modified by using Eduard instrument panels and RAF seatbelts. I found the RAF gunsight from an old Hasegawa Spitfire in my spare box and used it. Main wheels are from Barracudacast Paints are Gunze Sangyo acrylics. National insignias are painted by masking Star and Crescent on the rudder is from Turquoise decal "White 3" decal is from Customhobbydecals. Happy modelling
    28 points
  16. tomprobert

    1/32 Short Stirling

    I can certainly relate to the storage issues @Out2gtcha!!! I’ve done the rear turret fairing tonight which was a lot more straightforward than the front! I’ve once again utilised the HK Lancaster rear turret which will make things much simpler - all I needed to do was make a simple fairing from plastic card. More when there’s more… Tom
    28 points
  17. I will not repeat the historical or technical description of this beautiful aircraft. I will just focus on the build. This now out of pruduction PCM kit is of really good quality - as for a short run. Glossy hard plastic with recessed panel lines, very good resin parts, photo-etched fret plus decals. First of all - the kit is not difficult. As with any short run, of course, you need to clean the parts carefully and check the fit several times before gluing parts together. The wings trailing edges are quite thick and require some sanding. The propeller spinner also needed adjustments - the holes for the propeller blades were far too large. The shape of it should also be improved - but I decided to accept it. The entire model was riveted - thousands of "rivets" - especially on the wings. In fact, it turned out to be much easier than I thought - although for a few days "I saw rivets everywhere" ;-). A certain challenge was to make negative rivets on the wings and positive rivets on the fuselage. The solution is ridiculously simple - traces of riveting on the wings should be treated with very fine sandpaper and "painted" gently with Tamiya extra thin cement to clean them. Rivets on the fuselage - well... I just left them as they were after using Rosie the Riveter. I assumed that airbrushing them with Mr. Surfacer 1500 will give a good final result. And it worked. A very simple and efficient method. For the first time, I used black basing - I think the method is great. Uniform camouflage is always difficult - but here I managed to build subtle differences in shades, colors and depth. The model was painted entirely with MRP paints with partial use of Montex masks. Weathering was kept to minimum - those birds served just for several weeks. Entirely out of the box build with quite good - from my point of view - result. By the way - it was very hard to take good pictures - due to almost glossy finish, poor light and my very modest skills.
    27 points
  18. Good morning to all I would like to share with you my super detailed cutaway of the old Airfix 1:24 scale Ju87B. I just love this kit and decided that I wanted to do something a little different. I wanted to make a cutaway of the Starboard side plus the wing. After searching dear old Google for hours to get some sort of info I started. I built this many years ago and sold it on, so the photos are from way back! ....so apologies for the quality of them! I haven't been active on here for a long time as I have moved back to the UK from Bulgaria.. so I do hope I remember how to load the photos! Cheers...................... Thanks a lot for taking a look! Cheers Fozzy
    26 points
  19. Hello there, I haven't made a model kitset in ages so dusted off the Kotare Spitfire. Great kit, as has been often said. Seeing as my cat riddled my airbrush hose with toothmarks (furious) I've taken to brush painting. All those lovely little raised rivets on the fuselage cause havoc with my painting technique because I do a lot of sanding to keep the surface smooth. They all had to go. I found a lot of the panel lines quite indistinct and soft so had to re-scribe quite a lot of the fuselage aft of the cockpit. Paint is Atelier Free Flow artists acrylic mixed to approximate WWII colours. I went with close enough is good enough. All the weathering has been done with very watery Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils. Chipping is tiny dots of Vallejo silver paint. Really enjoying modelling again. I've been keenly watching all the fabulous builds on this site. Keep it up everyone! Cheers, Kels.
    26 points
  20. It's finished! The build thread is here
    26 points
  21. Good evening to all As promised, here is the beginning of the step-by-step of the Me 109 G6 flown by Gerhard BARKHORN. Some books and the box. Cockpit assembly : Point-by-point riveting of wings and fuselage : Compressor air intake assembly : Engine bonnet modifications : Assembling and painting exhaust pipes : Rudder and elevator : Assembly of Intrados radiators : Armoured windscreen : Scratch collimator : Scratch of the tailwheel : That's all for tonight, and I hope you enjoyed it. The step-by-step guide will continue soon Have a good night. Best Regards Gilles
    26 points
  22. Here she is, done! Thanks for the research support I've received for the build, especially from Jari. I seem to have lost my photographic skills, most of the pics are overexposed, in some the model appears a lot more patchy than she really is. I am really pleased with the way the hinge mechanism turned out, thanks again Severin. Here and there I used old-school detailing techniques, e.g. the fuel dump was done by squashing some brass tube in a vice to get the oval shape, then sawn off to correct length and worked into the trailing edge. Those Eduard photo-etch stencil masks are gems. Don't pay too much attention to the base, it's somewhat temporary since the end-game is to have this and an A-6B stand on a large Coral Sea base. Cheers, Marcel
    25 points
  23. The long slow march towards the front of the jet continues- cheers P
    24 points
  24. Tail position light. The master for these was turned on a lathe by Timmy! Years ago. I used the aluminum master to make clear resin copies for the wings and vertical tail.
    24 points
  25. Got the tail antenna up..still needs to be blended in. Also the tail beacons. Continuing to skin the belly-
    24 points
  26. Phew, almost at the finish line with this project. Here are some closer views of the load-out... all quick phone pics, so apologies for the poor pic quality. The inboard pylons are from Reskit, as are the TER's and Mk82's... excellent stuff from Reskit. Fuze wires on the Mk82's are made from 0.2mm lead wire. I'm aware that they should be sticking out 4 inches beyond the fuze but I inadvertently bent during assembly. The lead wire is so pliable it will about bend when breathing on it. The AIM-9D's are (from front to back): Reskit noses, 4mm styrene fuze section, rest is Zacto. I've noticed that most manufacturers do the AIM-9D's with window fuze sections ala AIM-9L/M, but this section seems to be smooth and metallic on the D. Almost there. A friend is printing the spine antennas, once those are on she'd done. I'm really please how the wing hinges turned out, it's pretty much a press-fit with just a tiny bit of white glue required. I'll be taking photos with a better camera once she is complete, I'll then also take more detail pics of for example the wing hinge mechanism. Cheers, Marcel
    24 points
  27. Here is my new project. This is not an innocent kit, but unfortunately it is the only option available. It needs a lot of corrections and upgradings for a good result. The necessary aftermarket sets are ready. Next is the mental preparation and it is nearly completed I hope to finish this project without screwing it up.
    23 points
  28. Ermmmmmm... I'l cross that bridge when the time comes! Final parts have been added on the B-52 as I'm hoping to get some paint on her when the Easter Holidays come around. The BUFF is festooned with a vide array of different aerials to these have all be fashioned and attached from plastic card: And some final glamour-shots before she gets some Gunship Grey... I would invite some of you good folks around for a spot of dinner, but as you can see the dining room table is otherwise engaged! I just need to make the small pylon for the targeting pod between the engines on the right wing and do some final scribing around the tail cone, and we're good to go! More when there's more, Tom
    23 points
  29. Bekim

    F-20 Tigershark

    Here a finished in Flight Model , build by a friend of mine Torben Weckeck
    23 points
  30. March 6/24 A little more progress on the Main Landing Gear (MLG). The last time I played around with fitting the MLG and other aftermarket parts to the kit parts was way back in December/22, so if you want to see how I got to this stage before paint, there’s quite a bit there which is roughly on Page 4. I hate metal landing gear of any kind, because it’s usually rough to begin with, you can’t screw holes into it for wiring and plumbing and paint doesn’t stick to it very well, making masking a risky procedure. On a few of my prior builds I used Mr. Metal Primer-R as a base with mixed results. It was better than no special primer, but not by much. Something that seems to work a bit better for me is to use ordinary Tamiya X-22 instead. It’s not perfect either, but I find it better than the other stuff and it’s a lot cheaper. Here are the results of lots of picky, picky work which is quite frankly on the top end of my abilities. I’m not sure if it’s my declining dexterity and eyesight, or I just don’t give a crap about some details that you’ll rarely see anymore. In any case, despite my struggles, I’m generally happy with the end result. Here’s some pics with labels of the highlights: Wheels are only dry fit and I will likely add a few more lines from the wheel to the leg when they are cemented in. I used ANYZ line connectors (AN016) to hold the wires, which required drilling them out using a #80 drill bit. My success in doing so was only about 1 in 3, so I used a lot of them! For reference pics I used mostly Jake’s Viper Guide and a few pics I’ve taken over the years at Nellis AFB. There are two main white hydraulic lines that go along the top of the main leg and one black electrical one that goes halfway down on the back. For some reason the hydraulic lines cross halfway down the leg. I used a thin wash to dirty up the MLG a bit to make them a bit more realistic and also hide the odd boo-boo. Scuffed paint is usually due to dry fitting in the gear well, which you won't see later. Here’s how everything now looks parked into the very crowded MLG Bay. I’m fairly proud of this assembly I’ve created, because now everything fits fairly well and can easily be cemented in at the very end of the build. As a matter of fact, the MLG just slides into place with a firm click and I won’t need any glue at all. A look from the rear showing that prominent black line. All of the new wires tuck into the middle of the MLG where they belong. Even the landing gear doors are now plug and play and just slide into place. Remember those 3 holes I drilled earlier? They hold 3 hydraulic lines that loop into the top of the main door actuator at the front. Although they don’t connect to the actuator in this exact way, it’s all I could do with such a fine detail at 1/32 scale. BTW, they are usually dark blue, so I used dark blue wire I had on hand. I'm leaving the doors clean for now, because I'll be painting the outside of them blue later, so I don't want masking tape to remove anything. When the gear doors are open, they hang down a bit and are exposed. I also added 2 small wires to the front control arms. I’m calling this MLG Bay Done! On to the front gear bay, which is much simpler, but still has a few things you need to be careful of. Cheers, Chuck
    23 points
  31. 23 points
  32. Having been a strictly airplane guy for the last 40 years this build is a big step....sideways. I have always liked the Y wing and have always wanted to build one. But a big one. The only IM kit is a Bandai 1:72. Nice but small. So while wandering one of the 3d print sites I saw some Y wing files for sale. $25. What a deal. The transaction was simple and 10 minutes later I had the files. In all of my research I came across a term that I was unfamiliar with, Studio scale. Essentially this is the scale that was used to produce the movie miniatures that were used in the movies. Or 1:24th scale. Cool. Nice and big. The downloaded files were in 1:18th scale. Even I am not this crazy. Well, at least not yet. So after doing some math I determined that if the files were reduced to 75% it would be 1:24th scale. So I reduced the size and began preparing the files in my slicer. However, many of the parts are way too big to fit my smallish resin printer. This necessitated printing the smaller parts on the resin Machine and the main body parts on my filament machine. Anyway here are the first parts. Both printed on my filament machine. Stay tuned. lots o fun ahead. Dan
    22 points
  33. March 14/24 This build marches on with quite a few updates. With the main landing gear bay pretty much finished, it was time to finish the front landing gear bay. While a lot smaller with less parts, there are still some important things you need to do in order to get the Aires resin to fit properly. Here’s a few pics of where I was about a year ago. The surface detail on the bottom of the intake needs to be sanded down, but so does the top of the resin part. The Aires resin doesn’t have a notch for the gear leg to fit into, which tilts it slightly forward like the kit parts. The fix is to cut a small notch and glue in a styrene block for the front paddle to slide into. The bottom of the metal leg or the diagonal struts need to be trimmed as well. This provides the correct angle and the ability to remove the gear leg until final assembly, much as I did with the main landing gear. Although the Aires “instructions” don’t mention it (no big surprise there), the actuator and control arms Part F2 and F3 must be trimmed and cut as shown. After painting and assembly with the other intake parts in Step 8, here’s how it looks with a little bit of grime added for contrast. Here’s how F2 and F3 should fit the resin gear bay. Much like the main landing gear, there are a lot of hydraulic and electrical lines that are attached to the front gear leg. I only added the front 2 hydraulic lines, because they are the most visible from the front. Again, I used blue lines like pics I have of the real deal. Before gluing the front intake assembly to the rear intake assembly above the main landing gear bay, I painted and glued the front fan Parts P1 and P24 to the rear of kit part B31, because it doesn’t fit the Aires resin at all. As shown earlier, I had to trim down the Aires resin quite a bit in order for this fan to fit at all. Here is the front intake glued to the rear intake and rear air duct. The big air duct ring Part C34 is not used or needed, but to close up the sides of the rear intake, I used strips of white styrene to close the gap and make it less obvious. You can’t really see this gap from the front unless you use a flashlight and peek inside, so I took the easy route for once and focused on what you can actually see, instead of trying to make this deep assembly seamless. On the bottom, I needed to sand down the central rib of the Aires gear bay a bit more…… …. so that Part C27 is a drop-in fit at the end of the build, after I install the main landing gear and other bits. This part was a bit too short for some reason, so I added a white styrene spacer to make it fit better. Aires supplies a resin replacement, but it's even shorter, so I don't know why they bothered. I finally got the Aires cockpit to fit the upper fuselage pretty good, so a revisit of what is involved is shown again below. The back of the kit cockpit wall needs to be cut out, which was a bit crude on my part, so I filled in my mistakes with CA glue and sanded them smooth. The fit is much better now. The front area around the coaming/glare shield is another matter, because the Aires parts don’t fit the kit parts at all. To be fair, not even the kit parts fit very well, which leave a very noticeable gap at the front that must somehow be filled. This is a shame, because on the F-16, there is no front windshield to hide all these flaws, so many modifications to this area need to be made if you want something that looks close to accurate. I closed the gap at the front with some strip styrene, but the sides are still a bit of a mess. More strip styrene to the rescue, among other tweaks here and there. Here is the end result after painting from a variety of angles. The black areas are not “weathered” yet, because I want to mask all of this off for painting, and weathering agents like pastels will reduce the adhesion of the tape. Even the back area looks pretty good, at least to my eyes. So how did I fill all those gaps without making a big mess with putty and paint? I finally gave a bottle of black CA glue a try, but it was very risky. I thought that if I applied the glue from the back, it would ooze into the gaps to close them and already be “painted” black, while gluing the cockpit into place solidly. What really made this work was the viscosity of the glue I had on hand, pictured below. It was a bit thick, maybe a touch more than medium viscosity, which allowed me to apply it with a micro-brush from below, working it into the gaps one small segment at a time, then flipping the fuselage over so that gravity wouldn’t let the glue move down too far. After it dried a bit and became relatively solid, maybe 3-4 minutes, I flipped it over and applied more glue to the gaps on either side in a sequential fashion, never letting wet glue move to the surface of the cockpit for very long- maybe less than 5 seconds. If this glue was super thin like the CA glues I usually use, it would have made a big mess and ruined everything. If it was too thick, it wouldn’t have filled the gaps very well and would have been lumpy when it dried. For once one of my little experiments worked, and I will always glue resin cockpits this way from now on. Since I’m using the Thunderbirds kit which is primarily a Block 32, it doesn’t come with a gun like the Block 50 kit. It even has a plug, Part Q5, which is supposed to be painted white. Since all Viper Aggressors have a gun and are battle ready, I just painted the inside of the gun area flat black, so that all you can see is something dark and maybe not notice the lack of gun barrels. Gun panels glued into place, since they will never come off. This kit calls for a side vent, Part C4 in Step 19, like this Block 32 Ghost scheme Viper, 86-299. All pics are mine at Nellis AFB. My subject, however, is 84-220, a Block 25 Viper with no vent on this side, amongst other small differences. I’m not really sure, but it looks like the rear window is clear and not tinted? Tinting variability of Viper canopy glass is all over the place and there are few hard and fast rules, which is why the kit comes with both clear and tinted glass parts. Still, I'd rather make my subject as "correct" as possible, so does anybody have a good pic of what this rear glass should look like? The front canopy is tinted for sure. As a result, I’m not drilling a hole or installing the vent as instructed. When I get to the rear vertical stabilizer, I won’t be added any vents either, as Pete Fleischmann so kindly guided me way back in December 2022, a few months after I started this build. 86-299 again (Block 32) 84-220 (Block 25) So that’s about it for now. With all the heavy lifting over, the rest of this build should go fairly smoothly from now on, right? Famous Last Words for sure! Cheers, Chuck
    22 points
  34. This is my Typhoon F-2000A in AMI (Italian Air Force) 4 Stormo colors, based in Grosseto-Italy. The model is built using the “old” Revell 1/32nd kit: this has details that are a mix between the pre-series Typhoons and the two-seater ones, not the best start to build an up-to-date single-seater Typhoon. Most of the panel lines has been rescribed and details added from scratch and using aftermarket sets too. Here is a list of the set: · Aires resin cockpit set · Aires resin exhaust nozzles · Aires resin wheel bay · Cold War Studios PE splitter plate · Cold War Studios PE canopy details · Two Mikes resin FOD intake covers · Wolf 3D Resin Parts external fuel tanks · Wolf 3D Resin Parts ESM-ECM pods · Wolf 3D Resin Parts antennas and exterior details · Wolf 3D Resin Parts APU & precooler outlet · Wolf 3D Resin Parts gun air vent · Wolf 3D Resin Parts flaperons & rudder · Wolf 3D Resin Parts wheel set · Wolf 3D Resin Parts MEL missile eject launchers It's a lot of resin sets and a bit of money... but they're worth it because they definitely help in quickly modifying the kit. The painting was done using airbrushed acrylics from Gunze and Tamiya. The metallic colors are Vallejo acrylics. For the brush details I used Vallejo colors. The decals are mostly from the Two Bobs sheet for the "Italian Typhoons": however, the Italian roundels and the 4 Stormo badge are incorrect in size and details. In this case I preferred to use the Tauro Models decals. In the end I'm satisfied with this model and I hope you like it! CIAO! Piero
    22 points
  35. Hi, This is my Bf-109F-4 Trop from 363 Squadriglia 150o Gruppo Autonomo at the Sciacca airfield in Sicily in June - July 1943, pilot - tenente Antonio Camaioni. Eduard's seatbelts and HGW wet transfers have been used plus some riveting. Finished with MRP paints.
    22 points
  36. Last post I described a rather serious mistake I made, installing a LH side fuselage frame on the RH side fuselage panel, and the RH side frame on the LH fuselage panel. The big problem being the frames are not shaped the same at all, and things attach to them. The frames are located just aft of the instrument panel, so components affected are the bomb salvo quadrant on the LH side, and the spare lamp stowage panel on the RH side. I am happy to announce though that after some modifications to the frames, all is going to be OK, and even the most astute P-51 expert will probably not notice. Here is the RH side with the spare lamp stowage panel and door: Almost like a frame on top of a frame.....That is how I restored the proper frame profile. I will show the LH side a bit further down the post. But first - Did any of you see something funny about the oval shaped skin cutout for the flare gun port I posted last time? Here is my model: And a real airplane: IT'S NOT IN THE RIGHT PLACE!!!! Oh gawd - another big gaffe. How did I do that and how can I fix it? It is too far forward by a good .4 inch. Well, it turns out that I put that hole and the flare gun port between two stub frames, instead of immediately aft of the aft stub frame. Why? Cannot explain. A senior moment perhaps. What should go there instead is a small electrical panel which controls those radiator doors (coolant and oil) under the wing. That turns out to be a good thing, because that panel can largely hide the ugly fix I had to do. Here is what it looks like after I dremmeled off the existing flare gun port, and re-installed a new one in the proper place: From the outside: Plugged: Do you think I was focused? Laser focused? I was. Also I was lucky. The electrical panel, as you will see below, does an effective job of covering up the old hole from the inside. And I will skin the outside in aluminum, completely hiding the offending hole. What a dummy I am. Hopefully that is the end of the big mistakes. Along with this fix effort, I actually moved the ball forward some with completion of the control pedestal, the radiator control electrical panel, the cable guard panel directly behind the control pedestal, and the bomb salvo panel and quadrant - all this stuff on the LH side of the cockpit: Many things I can comment on. With almost no exception, everything you see there is 3D printed and designed from the original engineering drawings. Note the bomb salvo quadrant and its support panel in front of the control pedestal, which completely cover the wrongly installed fuselage frame I mentioned at the beginning of this post. I am sooo happy I got away with it. Note also the area on that cable guard with paint scraped off - that is for the flare gun stowage bracket and bag. Components I need to figure out how to make.... Note also the fabulous decals all over the place. Once again - a huge shout-out to Peter Castle aka Airscale who provided me quite a while ago with copies of the Lope's Hope special decal set. They are being put to good use here, and lots of other places as this build progresses. Finally note that there is no sign of that mislocated flare gun hole - blocked by the electrical panel. Whew! Well just getting started with the cockpit. Like any thorough cockpit effort it is going to be very involved and take alot of time. Plenty of options what to do next: RH side radio equipment mounting structure Engine control quadrant LH side Flare gun stowage bag Electrical and fuel control panels under the IP. O2 control unit RH side And one of these days I have to tackle the Malcolm hood mod stuff - drive chains, crank handle, and other trinkets. I have no drawings to help me. Just photos. Lots of photos. OK, no more mistakes!! - Next week I visit Aussieland to see my daughter in Sydney for a week and some. Never been south of the equator before. Probably no post until after that trip. Take care!
    22 points
  37. Hi Here is an american F-16 pilot equiped with a HGU-55 helmet and the former MBU-12 mask, so a bit old style, and wearing only the seat harness and the G-suit : 80s - 2000s era, or later depending to the countries, squadrons and pilots. These gears were commonly used by several countries in the world. The type of pilot I could see in the "good old days" (was not always good, but I spend some good time on airfields...) cheers+ Norbert
    22 points
  38. Made some parts for the Bombardier/Navigator compartment, printed the bombardier's control panel and also the navigator's table. Pat
    22 points
  39. drt786

    1/35 Academy OH-58D

    Hi all, first post on these forums. Many thanks for all the tips and insights everyone on here has shared that have gone into my builds!
    21 points
  40. Haven't built a 48th bird in about 20 years, just wanted an Expeditor and I know I'll never see one in my scale so took this down from the shelf that had been sitting for the last 3 years and dove in, reworked the whole thing to get it where We are. hope you like it. Bill.
    21 points
  41. As Promised... Thank you for looking.
    21 points
  42. OK guys, time to right this ship and get it back on topic. We've been aware of Simon's conflict of interest with regard to Kotare and Richard Alexander for some time now, and normally we would treat this as their personal business to sort out between them. But it has spilled over into many threads here in the forums, and caused a certain amount of aggravation. Given that we've recently discovered that Simon had in fact been removed from the forums once before, I've taken the rather drastic decision to ban him. We don't normally discuss these decisions openly in the forums, but I think an additional level of transparency is required in this case. OK, back to Eduard's fantasy 1/32 release schedule! Kev
    21 points
  43. My George is slowly getting dressed in his new camouflage. I'll be done in two weeks!
    21 points
  44. Here I am showing my Williams Bros Gee Bee R-1 which I have just finished after several years on the shelf of delay. It depicts the 1932 Thompson Trophy winner and was flown by Jimmy Doolittle. It's made OOB except for the propeller hub, which I remade from aluminum. I did not include the thin black pinstripes separating the red and white colors as I could not think of a way to produce them in scale. The pilot figure is from Immense Miniatures.
    20 points
  45. Hi all, I started Special Hobby High Tech 2 kit Tempest MK V. Its a mix of nicely done details, not worse from mainstream kits with old-time imperfections bonded with their earlier short runs - for example cockpit collides with wheel bays, wheel bays with wing halves, gaps between fuselage and wings. I will skip adding engine, its a petty but this requires cutting and trimming plastic, lot of work basically. I found this scheme of Tempest from first years after war when RAF stationed in Germany. Fortunately Montex was producing mask for PCM containing W2-Y. Some details like bell and question mark was not provided. I will add Eduard PE with IP and some cockpit details. This is my idea on spinner correction, I glued plastic "core" from old droptank then poured few layers of two-component epoxy glue. When it cured I sanded and used Tamiya (thicker) and Gunze (thinner Surfacer 1200) for correcting small imperfections. Cockpit ready for paint, rear "wall" needs to be sanded to not expand fuselage.
    20 points
  46. Painting stage, all of "decorations" painted using mask or handpainted like bell-emblem on tail (not perfect but had no decals unfortunately). Im not a fan of black-basing rather like to brighten surface using surfacer as a base, then I modulated primary colors making efects of worn metal surface. I will use decal roundels i'm not patient enought to mask them :).
    20 points
  47. Thank you Test print of the engine: Initial fitting for the model: I'm making small details, now the control system: This is what it looks like at the moment: To be continued
    20 points
  48. The GR.3 fuselage is roughly 20 3/4" long while the FA.2 fuselage is 22 1/2" long.
    20 points
  49. vince14

    Alley Cat Hawker Fury

    I'm in with this - the 1/32 Alley Cat (ex. Montex) Hawker Fury, which covers both silver and 25 as I'll be making it in the markings of 25 Squadron. I have both the original Montex and this Alley Cat version. Whilst the latter has many improvements over the original, including the addition of a clear resin windscreen replacing the flat acertate sheet provided by Montex, it also has generaly less crisp castings and (I suspect) a poorer fit. We shall see if I regret this choice, and should instead have gone with the brand new Aviattic Pfalz D.VIII...! First step - checking the kit contents are all there and giving them a gentle wash.
    19 points
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