Leaderboard

Built completely out of the box except EZ line and knitting in elastic rigging and scratch built seatbelt. All raised panel lines retained. All markings painted apart from small stencil and squadron logo. I love Willow Green! A couple of classic raised panel line, decades old kits built OOB

Hi Guys, It's me again. I must be crazy as a loon for starting two build logs at the same time, but I figured that hey, since I'm building both models at the same time, why not? Besides, I've been working on my USS Missouri since the fall of 2015 and I have a lot of catching up to do here. Luckily, I've been posting tons of pictures of my progress on my model warship forum so I'm able to pick out some of the more interesting ones to post here. After I sold my Scarab, I was itching to build another big boat. What I really wanted to do was to build a 1/4 scale model of a Chris-Craft barrel back and power it with a weed-eater gas engine. I still may do that someday - if I live long enough, but now I'd power it with an electric motor. They've come a long way in the past few years. But then I happened to run across Trumpeter's big model of this battleship, and when I started investigating and found that there was oodles of detail add-on's I was hooked. No, I didn't get enough for my Scarab to offset the cost of all this, but hey, as I told my wife, it keeps me out of the bars, right? So, after I ordered the ship itself, the Pontos Detail-Up set, the Pontos Advanced Detail set, the Eduard Big Ed set, and a set of 1:96 plans from the Floating Drydock, I had very close to a thousand bucks tied up in this model. And that doesn't include all the random miscellaneous stuff like paint at $4.75 for 1/2 oz, glue, tape, and so on. Damn well better take my time and do it right, huh? The box this monster came in is huge! 46 inches long and weighs about 15 pounds. And once you open it up it's overwhelming; 4 boxes marked A-D plus the hull and the larger superstructure pieces. The box says there are 1573 pieces, which I have no reason to doubt, plus 13 frets of photo-etch and a 44 page assembly manual. This is definitely NOT some kid's plastic toy boat! As you can see from the picture below, the front 8" of the hull are separate pieces that are glued on. I'm told that this is because of some limitation of the box length and it would have cost lots more to make it longer. The overall length of the ship is 53", or 1347mm for those of you who are smarter that us idiots here in the US! Why we still use a measuring system based on the length of some king's shoulder to the tip of his middle finger is beyond me! Now, if that isn't daunting enough, I opened the Pontos Detail-Up set for this ship and was blown away again. 18 frets of PE; 297 turned brass parts; adhesive backed actual wood decking for all deck surfaces, and 12 11x17" pages of instructions. Now, those of you who haven't had the pleasure of trying to figure out Pontos' instructions, let me tell you - they leave a LOT to be desired! Boy, this is like Christmas time, right? Next we have the Pontos Advanced Add-On set with even more goodies. The main reason I bought this additional kit was for the brass screws and also for the Veterans Models 40mm Quad Bofors gun platforms. They are so much more detailed that the ones that came with the ship that there simply is no comparison. Also, since I planned on making this ship as detailed as possible, the fire suppression valves also a nice addition. And, in addition to all this was 11 more sheets of PE from Eduard. A lot of this was duplicates, but the Eduard set did have quite a few pieces of PE that were not in the Pontos set, nor the PE with the ship itself. Once had all the goodies and had established a decent work space with a new light, a new Opto-visor (more$$$) and a new set of tweezers, I started to work. From the other modelers on the model warship site, I knew that the most boring and tedious job was making the 50 20mm Oerlikon AA guns, the 20 40mm Quad Bofors, and the 10 5" gun turrets. After these, the rest was fun - so they said! So, I started out making the 20mm Oerlikon AA guns, and they were right - it was boring. Each one of the 50 little bastards contained 11 brass parts and they all had to be assembled and painted individually. The picture below shows 25 of them and for comparison, I've placed a dime next to them. (A dime is about 18mm.) Let me tell ya, by the time I finished these little buggers, I was beginning to wonder whether I was cut out for this after all! But, after a break of a few days, I refilled my wine glass and set out to tackle the 20 40mm Quad Bofors platforms. These were even more intricate than the Oerlikons, with 7 resin pieces and 28 brass pieces in each one. With a lot of help from each other on the model warship forum, we finally finished them and after they were all completed, we sat back and said "Damn, those look nice!" And they do! Especially since they are located in such prominent places on the ship, their detail really sets the ship off. You can't see it from these pictures, but on top of each of the 4 cannons there is a magazine of 5 brass shells which have their tips painted red with 1 green (a tracer). OK, I think this is enough for now. The nest post will continue with more of the major sub-assemblies. Each one is like a little kit in itself. Take care, Gents, and thanks for looking! And Happy Father's Day to all you hard working Dads out there! Lar

As already mentioned, I will split the fuselage again to work on the interior! I would have preferred to keep the fuselage closed and to insert it from behind once finished, but I have to work on the inside walls of the fuselage and this would be virtually impossible with the fuselage closed. Thank you all for your kind comments - it's a huge beast indeed! During the weekend, I have managed to draw and print some footsteps on my Photon. The small ones are located on the fuselage, the big block with the wider ones is located on the RH side of the rotor housing. Big holes in big models require big tools! Footsteps installed and puttied. They will hopefully be perfectly flush with the surface after sanding.

Right - off to grab a small glass of vino - then back to looking at B-24 wings... Iain

Calling this done - although looking at the photots I need to dust her again! What is it about model photography and dust? Anyhow - build thread here. Based upon measurements of a TR. Mk IX fuselage in a jig, along with original Supermarine drawings, she's taken a lot longer than planned - but hopefully my client will like her. Markings are based upon a wartime 'Eagle Squadron' scheme as a tribute to a brave young American pilot with 133 Squadron, RAF, who lost his life days before the Squadron transferred to the USAAF: Gene P Neville Back in a mo with some more (and just noticed a panel line I need to sort). Iain

I was inspired by a photo that I recently found on Facebook that I felt would be a great thing to make in 1/32 scale. I have been looking for a project that would be something different to the usual aircraft model, without taking me too far away from my preferred genre. This ‘thing’ seemed to have been wheeled out for special occasions and was based at RAAF Butterworth in Malaysia whilst our Mirages were stationed there. Whilst not strictly an aeroplane as such, it was based upon the Mirage and saw a great deal of action from pilots who were celebrating particular milestones. I hope it is suitable for a build log in this part of the forum. Firstly, the pic that inspired me. (Copied from the ADF Serials Facebook page). I recalled that I had seen pictures of a couple of the pilots that I have done builds of recently with them sitting in this contraption, so I got in touch with Sean Trestrail and asked him if he had a pic. He sent me back this one, and I decided there and then that I was going to build a model of it, with him sitting inside it. This moment was captured after Sean’s 1000th Mirage hour. I haven’t used my 3D printer for ages, so I took the opportunity to get it back into action quickly printing out 2 x 44 gallon drums and a cone scaled to 1/32. Next up, I cut some wings and a tail out of plastic card. I then assembled the parts to see if the project was feasible. I hollowed out the ‘cockpit’ in the forward drum and made up a pilot out of a few different figures that I had laying around. By the time he is finished he will be mostly made up of superglue, as the original body of the pilot was standing and the arms and legs have had to be significantly modified. A quick dry fit to see how it fit together. I primed it with SMS primer filler, which once sanded down has smoothed the layers of the 3D printed fuselage and nose. I scratch built one of the small wheels and copied it to make the two main wheels, and also made up the front wheel in a slightly different pattern. I made up a higher tail and have been playing around with the pilots head and tweaking the posture to match the first of Sean’s pictures as above. As can be seen, there is virtually no evidence of 3D printing under the coat of Tamiya fine surface primer.

This is the 1/32 Roden O-2 kit with the following modifications and additions. Modified kit to a later version with larger pilots side window Added RB Productions seat belts Scratch built throttle quadrant Opened air vents on side of fuselage Thinned cowl flaps EZ line aerial wire Flattened tyres Strengthened and thinned the main undercarriage legs with brass sheet . Added scratchbuilt hoodlining Scribed many panel lines around main undercarriage legs and also oil filler access panels. Paint and Markings: Painted to represent aircraft flown by David Robson during the Vietnam war. AOA decals with custom masks made for the kangaroo/snoopy logos on the nose and tails.

I have assembled all the bits for the cockpit and cabin in the meanwhile. The Trumpeter design for these modules is very clever, and they attach to the fuselage sides on strong tabs that make the alignment simple. The Eduard IP is super neat and a worthwhile addition to the kit. Matching the colour with Tamiya acrylic was relatively simple - XF-2, X-14 and X-15 mixed in proportion till it looked right. The cabin blue/grey is done with straight XF-23. The added detail is hardly visible even without the fuselage in place, but wouldn't stop me from adding it just for the sake of knowing it is there. Time to glue some more stuff together... Sean

Hi folks Back with a little more... I tried skinning the bottom of the airscoop in one piece, pre-rivetted, but I couldn;t get a good fit.. you can see the gap between the bottom and adjacent panel here.. ..so I decided to try it in two halves, tring to lose the join line down the middle - here the first half starts to get persuaded into shape.. ..and both halves with the skin overlap in the middle.. ..after sanding the join out, the rear of the panel is cut to shape and the waste peeled off.. ..and with some rivet details added.. ..moving backwards, two panels have been added, including one around the oil cooler outlet and a further one is waiting to be stuck down - the intention is to get all the base metalwork down and then sand, shape & refine before cutting out panels for doors etc and riveting in situ.. ..looking to lose another couple of seams, an infill panel between two outboard ones is ready to be stuck down.. ..and now this area is ready to move on to the detail stage.. until next time TTFN Peter

More to come... Iain

Done! Had a last minute change of course. I needed to change how the Corsair was mounted. It was too unstable for me to give it to someone, it would have ended up crashing. Lesson learned on that one as it wanted to do a roll and dive in for an attack. Let's start with a realistic prop-blurr! An original Revel pilot...still looks a bit like a Russian nesting doll even after all teh surgery I did to him. And here's a video of the start-up of the radial engine with the lights and sound coming on in sequence. Click on these next 2 pics to see the videos. Here it is running full tilt... Ok that's it for this wonderful Father's Day! I have a few updates to make. You may have noticed the missing tail wheel. Originally the mounting rod left there, but with the change to keep it stable it looks rather empty. I may try and get it installed so it looks the part before I take it off to Akron tomorrow. If I do will include some updated pics in the RFI section. Speaking of which I will post pics up within the next couple days depending on how my schedule goes, and whether I tackle an update on this Corsair or not. Until then Happy Modeling all you Dads out there!

And now for some 'undressed' shots! Iain

A few shots I grabbed in a couple of hours at KSEA (SeaTac International) yesterday morning. It was scuddy early, but the sun broke through, and I ended up getting a sunburn - in Seattle! Whodathunkit? The last two (WN 737s) are from a great new spot I found at KPHX this morning. If anyone's contemplating a visit to KPHX, let me know and I'll give you the skinny on the locale. Korean Air’s 777-300ER from Seoul When’s the last time you saw an NG without winglets? Especially a straight -900 that wasn’t an ER? Apparently AS has three of them. United’s “Eco-Skies” airplane. It’s not really that “eco”, but it scores them PR points I guess… JAL’s daily 787-8 from Narita. ANA’s daily 787-8 was about ten minutes behind it, but it landed on the other runway. An increasingly rare sight - a 757. This one is a former Northwest 757-351, an even rarer breed. Virgin’s 787-9 G-VNYL “Penny Lane” in from Heathrow

rare bear air racer

I have masked and painted the secondary colors, again, not the best job of painting but with no decals for the scheme I wanted and a willingness to try, I did get fairly close to what I want in a retro color scheme and colour (the teal is home mixed Tamiya acrylics blues and greens until I got something I liked) I used a spare kit fuselage to trace out the shape and positioning of the markings (I had to use a spare because I forgot to do it with the one I'm working on...thank goodness for spare kits!) In any case, here's some images of the 182 as it sits tonight, the tail is still masked because it's up for paint tomorrow. "The plan" Teal colour going on; masking off Again, thanks to those who stop in for a look.

Tim aka Wunwinglow was so kind to print the sponsons on his Form2 for me - thank you very much, Tim! I have spent the last evening preparing the first sponson - the nonskid on the walkways was applied using Tamiya putty, rivets lost during sanding were replaced with Archer ones. The walkways are very rough on MH-53Es, hence the use of Tamiya Putty instead of Mr Surfacer. The center fuselage windows were closed and puttied as well.

Hey guys It's been a while since I last touched this but after numerous side projects (some successful some....not so much) I figure it was about time to get this going again and maybe even finish it this year - although being over half way through I doubt it. I'd just like to finish it all together really.. So, I have finished detailing the hangar bay and it is currently drying off the black base coat ready for the light strips to be attached. I am waiting on 2 new ones as I screwed up the first set by cutting it in the wrong place. I had the right number of LEDs for the amount of holes but the strip requires another 2 at the end for it to work properly, so the last 2 LEDs didn't light up. Good thing they're cheap! I'll have to black out the last 2 LEDs once I install the new set. As you can also see, there is a lot of artistic license going into this. None of this stuff is on the filming model but then I am building this for me and not a paying person so it's kind of irrelevant really The TIE hangar is installed and it actually works. Just need to tidy a few things up and then that's done. I had made a start on the side walls in Jan before I lost patience with it and they haven't moved since these pics were done I also painted (badly) the Blockade runner. This will need a lot of touching up before I'm happy with it Still a long way to go yet but hopefully I can keep up some momentum and get something done. I was looking at the photos I took of the Super Star destroyer and started to drool at the thought of starting it. Then I remembered it's resin and there is a fair amount of work to do on it and the drool dried up pretty quickly, but I will start it hopefully once this one's done - if I haven't over detailed myself out by then. Anyway, that's all I have for now but thanks for sticking around and having a look-see Cheers Si

Emirates 777-300ER arriving from Dubai. That’s a long freaking flight. Delta’s A330-300 coming from… uh… I can’t remember. Hainan Airlines 787-9 coming from somewhere in China A good old fashioned 767-300ER with stylish looking winglets coming from Amsterdam Asiana A350-900 from Seoul Incheon. This was my first A350 sighting. Still reminds me of a European locomotive more than an airplane. Si ce n'est pas Boeing, je ne vais pas. A couple of Southwest’s many 737s, a -700 and a -800, both getting airborne from KPHX’s runway 7R. The older Canyon Blue color scheme on the -700 is becoming increasingly rare. Sad to say

I don't think the "oil canning" is exaggerated. I saw the plastic parts at two different shows and the effect is actually quite subtle. Maybe it is just the lighting that makes it look too pronounced. Radu A quick Google reveals plenty of that effect, anyway. https://pin.it/yucshwapn4hgjz https://pin.it/ufprh6ejnqm3x4

OMIGAWD... it was real!!!

In the meantime, some more of the model I have basically completed painting the inside of the machine. Here are a couple of photo's before I close it up, and one can probably no longer see much of the interior! The decals in the cabin are from the Linden Hill airframe stencil data set. I think the extra depth to these cabin walls was worth the effort. And here the more fiddly bits. 1:35 seems a little delicate in comparison to 1:32... Cheers, Sean

I have had a thing for this machine for longer than i cam remember! I was planning to upgrade the old Revell kit when along came Dragon & AIMS. The AIMS set is an absolute dream to use. All the parts are designed to be "drop in" with no surgery is required, the parts needed to modify the 110 to a G4 just replace the kit parts. The Master turned brass aerials are included in the set along with a very extensive etched set. I didn't use the etched seat belts, instead I used a set from HGW. Initially the set came with a vac form rear canopy, but AIMS now do a clear resin part which is very nicely cast. I used Xtracolor RLM matched paints for the colour scheme. Thanks for looking, Angelo

Good evening everyone, I have joined recently, and browsed through so many inspirational builds. An Italeri Mirage IIIE/R is on the bench, and I'm in the process of doing some research, detailing and corrections for a SAAF Mirage IIIEZ. The Martin-Baker Mk.BRM4 ejection seat was actually done almost two years ago, and the kit seat was used as a basis for this. The two boxes on either side of the bulkhead were removed. The instrument panel is too round at the top, as well as the radar screen should be flat, and not have the little dome on the surface. The instrument cowl has also been stripped of detail, to replace with the correct goodies. https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img921/8389/wgoOys.jpg The exhaust nozzle was quite tricky. It was stripped of the inside details, and a soldering iron was used to melt the rectangular recesses on the outside of the petals. Styrene rods and plastic card was used to replace the inside detail. Another issue, is the vertical panel line in front of the intakes, which needs to be filled and rescribed. The intakes also seem to be a little bit too long, but i'll investigate this thoroughly before I start chopping away. Cheers!

Model Monkey has stated that he'll be producing a wheel well for the Airfix kit, and it will be available later this year. I'd like wheel wells for all of the other WWII Airfix 1/24 kits, as long as they look something like the actual wheel wells, and not just walls around the holes. Some sample pics of proper resin wheel wells for these subjects in smaller scales: Even simplified versions for people to detail themselves would be fine - as long as an accurate basic shape is there to work with. Just my .02. D

Got the 230 gallon tank from Harold, and it's awesome. I was thinking about digging some dents into it for realism, but that takes more bravery than I have One other thing I've found missing on the KH OV-10A (and also missing on the Academy 1/72 OV-10) is the rest of the radar warning system. The kits come with the forward RHAW antennas but not the rear antennas nor the cockpit controls and scope. In addition, the forward antennas in the KH kit are flat when they should be a half-sphere. I'm going to add this to my 3D printing to-do list, but it may take some time. The 3D printing system I have is not as plug-and-play as I'd hoped. There is a lot of trail-and-error involved in tweaking the settings. After 15 attempts at printing the B37K rack I still don't have a satisfying result. Close but not close enough. I was thinking of writing an article on it. Is anyone else interested in 3D printing (DLP type)?

Looks like I have found the photo I was looking for... folded rotor & open oil cooler compartment!

Yak-11 trainer. First as "Perestroika" The same plane, later called "Czech Mate" Another Yak-11, "Mr. Awesome" It later got a T-33 tail

Corsairs Super Corsair. Originally built with an R-2800. Got an R-4360 for racing. Crashed F2G

Hawker Sea Fury Dreadnaught, with a 4360 Critical Mass, returning to stock configuration September Fury

Hi guys, and thanks for the warm welcome It's been a rough week at work, and not much time to work on the IIIEZ. I did however research the intake length a bit, and it's probably around 0.7mm too long, and should be a very easy fix. Dan, it's a combination of the kit photo-etch, once-off photo-etched buckles and a segmented self adhesive lead tape, which I cannot recall who or where I got it from. But it's been laying in my toolbox for more than a decade, as you can see by it's condition...lol. I made a mold of the seat, because I'm not going to build one again, and in case I need more. I have two of these Mirage IIIE kits, and I'm rather tempted to use the one as a "guinea pig" to consider other Mirage III variants. There's other things in this kit that also don't add up, like the camera lenses for the Mirage IIIRZ, are not correct, and now corrected, it can be used for the IIIR2Z as well, although the R2Z has a different ejection seat, RWR and intakes like the Mirage 50's. The tail fin has some issues too... the brake chute and rudder actuator are no good, but an easy fix. Then there's the rudder, which I'll have to investigate further. Cheers, John

I got a bit carried away with this build when I should have been working on other things, and found myself all but finishing up the cockpit! Before that, though, I decided that I wasn't happy with the see-through look presented by the photo-etched radiator grille, so I fashioned a blanking plate out of styrene sheet: I then painted the entire area with Tamiya's Rubber Black (XF-85): And now I could finally attach this piece to the main nose assembly: I've already run some Mr. Surfacer 500 around the join, but it probably needs one more go. I use the "no sand" technique of using a cotton bud moistened with Mr. Color Thinner to remove the excess putty. It's a much neater and cleaner solution than sanding, but occasionally you'll remove too much, and have to reapply some. I'm operating on the assumption that the radiator grille in the chin intake was probably painted the underside colour; anybody know for sure? Next up we have the cockpit, and I want to add a disclaimer up front: most of what I've done here is discretionary fantasy. I started with the intention of creating an accurate rendition, but it turns out the kit's cockpit sidewalls are totally inaccurate for a Buchon, and the conversion set doesn't supply any replacements. Plus, most of the photos I could find show relatively modern restorations, so I just decided to make it look interesting, and leave it at that. If you want an accurate Buchon (or even Bf 109G) cockpit, don't follow my example below! The main cockpit insert is from the resin set, while the trim wheels, rudder pedals, and control column are from the kit: I originally placed the rudder pedals at too-steep an angle, where they interfered with the forward bulkhead that's still to be added. So I had to break them off and reattach them, only to discover that the starboard one is now a little crooked. Oh well. I'm still deciding whether to add foot straps to them or not. Cockpit side walls are the kit parts: Still shaking off the rust with my brush painting, so I tried to keep things simple. Not my best work, but should be adequate under a closed canopy. Instrument decals and placards are from airscale. The yellow fuel line shouldn't even be there for a Merlin engine! I just need to assemble and add the HGW lap belts to the seat pan before I can close up the back end of the fuselage. Lastly, a shot of the finished prop, sans spinner, given a nice even coat of Mr. Surfacer Black: Did the Buchons carry any kind of prop logo on the blades? Thanks as always for looking! Kev

AND SOME MORE Thanks for looking!!

I built this one a while back and have just had the opportunity to attend Eric G's lair where Eric and I spent a day photographing models (well Eric did while I watched!!). The kit is the Tamiya E which had the usual mods, removal of raised panels, re-scribing etc. I used Aires seats, Eduard interior etch, slime lights, engine internals, Sparrow missiles and wheels, GT cans (not as detailed as Aires or Eduard but the only available that are the correct diameter), Sierra Hotel seamless intakes, Zacto sidewinders, resin cluster bombs (can't remember who by) and Master pitot and AOA probes. The kit was painted freehand with MRP paints which are excellent. I spent around 12 months to complete her enough of my drivel, lets let the pictures do the talking! ENJOY!

Hi Graig, I've tried to take a closer look at the nose of the HK B-17G. Starting from scratch, outlining the Monogram B-17G fuselage part, scanning it and enlarging it by x 1,5. Superimposing this with the HK fuselage part, I get the same result as with the Air Corps drawing. HK fuselage and nose superimposed with the Monogram outline (in blue). I'm not sure but it looks like, if you move the nose part up by 3-4 mm's and would be able to bend or flatten the HK part at the top, where it connects to the fuselage, making it 3-4 mm's flatter on the top, it's almost perfectly aligned to the Monogram profile of the nose... Sketch showing the HK fuselage with a corrected nose cone (in red) The windows would also move up by 3-4 mm's? If you shorten the HK fuselage parts at the front, you would get closer to the length of both the Monogram fuselage and the Air Corps drawings. HK fuselage length: 63 cm/ Monogram fuselage length: 41,6 x 1,5 = 62,4 cm/ Air Corps Drawing: 62,5 cm You would also get closer to the correct tail fin outline. Hope this is of some use: Kent

Thanks Kev, really enjoying your Buchon progress by the way! Craig, I see you are also keen to get the shape of your models correct. Thanks for looking in. As the FAPLA forces got bogged down on the approach to Mavinga, their casualties mounted and supplies ran out. With the lines of communication stretched to the limit, the helicopter flights became critical, more regular and predictable. In the meantime the Impala crews had been training to do their deadly work on Puma helicopters, and they were ready to go. On the 27th of September, two Impalas took off from Rundu armed only with their 30mm cannons and carrying drop tanks. They flew at extremely low level all the way to the Lomba river in order to avoid radar detection, visually located and shot down a Mi-24 each. The Angolans had no idea why the helicopters failed to return to Cuito Cuanavale.

Oh, I think they are amazing. The redone Corsairs are particularly interesting. There just comes a time when you need to step away from camoflage and consider something different.

Most of the Champlin collection is now at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Didn't see any models except for a GIGANTIC collection of constant scale WWI and WWII scratch built models that ONE MAN built FROM SCRATCH representing one of EVERY SINGLE type (make and model) of aircraft that participated in both wars. Completely from scratch, and he averaged one model every 3 days. My jaw is still on the floor.

I've used the Ammo paints a couple times now. For me, I say they sprayed very nicely with the odd incident of tip drying. One nice thing was the easy clean up with windshield washer fluid. They also have very little smell. Here's a Dingo I just finished using Ammo paints. I didn't use an clear coat on it. You may want to also look at AK's Real Colors. They're very similar to Mr Color in terms of how they spray. Out of the bottle, they're a bit thicker.My LHS here in Toronto stocks them so they're easy to get for me. One interesting thing with Real Colors is the armour colours are dead flat while the aircraft ones have a satin finish. This is the Jagdpanther I'm currently working on. And my BF-110 from earlier this year Carl

So - as promised: The port side is pretty much okayish. The other side, well it's more work for sure That's the best I could achieve with spreading the lower part and adjusting the wing root. Maybe it's not appearent in the pictures but it was a lot of work to get the fuselage to the point shown above. From there on it will be sanding, filler and rescribing but luckily the putty stays in the drawer! I may have to add little shims to achieve a good fit with the wings but I'll try that later.

All parts dryfitted :

I'm just the reverse of Brian re: Tamiya paints. They are great to airbrush (I use Gunze Mr Leveling Thinner now - previously used Tamiya lacquer thinner), but I can never get a decent finish hand-brushing. I have a good supply of Vallejo for hand-brushing. I have not tried MRP yet due to the cost. I forgot the info I was going to include re: Neo's original question. I have never used the MIG acrylics, but I've used Vallejo Model Air and the no longer available Color of Eagles acrylics. To me, the pure acrylics have a fairly steep learning curve to figure out the thinning ratio and air pressures needed. I also recommend using the paint brand's thinner, and I found that priming was necessary for me to get a decent finish. Using other types of thinners and/or not priming resulted in splatters, runs, poor adhesion, etc.

Woohoo this ranks as one of my best ever! It’s a good thing to because Uncle Dennis is an artist and I’m putting pressure on myself to make it worthy i took 3600 grit sanding sponge across all the markings in the direction of airflow. That was just enough to knock down the edge that was created by the tape and give them just a touch of wear. Lastly a satin clear and here you go... I had nearly zero leakage under the Maketar masks so thrilled with that too. Tomorrow I want to do some exhaust staing, finish the canopy, and add the long pitot on the wing to finish it up. Then put some trim on the base and I’m ready for the model club show on Monday and presentation to my Uncle on Tuesday.

Trumpeter Su-27 1/32 finally finished... I tried to build heavy weathered Flanker based above polar circle with units called “ Guardians of the North”. I used Zacto intakes, nosecone, missiles and pylons. Aires Cockpit, wheel wells and exhausts. Armory resin wheels. Front windshield is a scratch build as kit part was really bad in shape. Colors - MRP paint including silver primer, transparent paints and metalizers. Tamiya panel liners and weathering Masters used.

Tail rotor almost done. Insert brass rod to secure it.

So I think my solution for making the wings will work out, thank goodness. I cut the basic shape out of balsa using a paper guide cut out from the scale drawings and made a sanding block for the upper and lower wing... I gave it a coat of Mr Surfacer 500, you can see it's still a little grainy from sanding..... Next, I put on a few thin coats of automobile Spot putty (Bondo) to smooth everything out.... Two coats of Mr Surfacer 500 and it's smooth as glass... Here it is on the scale plans, I'll need to refine the leading edge a bit but I think that will do it. This was about a days work on this wing. I'll spend some time on the rest of the wings over the next few weeks and should get them done relatively quickly...…. Thanks for looking in! Mark

2 days back and I have already pretty much finished the bridge and neck section. I'll run a light grey wash over it once everything has dried and sealed proper. There are still a couple of sections I need to hand brush to bring up to spec. I'll take some lit shots once I have connected the remaining fiber optics. That's it for now. I have to finish painting the big antenna in the middle as well as replace all the broken projections on the shield generators but I'll do that once the bridge is attached to the body As always, thanks for looking Si