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Thank you all for the kind words! So many great modelers here- great friends as well. heres some more. Really; it’s not that bad to do- and oddly relaxing. Who knew? Started on the opposite side of the tail, and as before, moving forward towards the cabin, I find this side a little easier as I am left handed. cheers Pete

Thank you guys for the compliments. I wish I could answer to each of you, but I am up to my neck at work and by the time I get home I am running on fumes. I manage to get rid of Some annoying seams in the intake and wing root area: Also, I did a gloss black coat on the bottom, since the scheme I am doing has a camouflaged top and NM in the bottom. Hopefully, something like this: So far: Again, thank you guys!

Fokker Dr.I 187/17 photo comments; -The bottom wing "white" cross field is simply unpainted translucent bleached linen. -The upper surface camouflage staining and streaking is translucent. This is why sunlight can be seen shining through both surfaces. -The light blue used on the underside is opaque. -Fokker Dr.I wings were reinforced with (opaque) plywood back to the box spar. This is why sunlight is not shining through the front of the bleached linen cross field or light blue areas. This is also why it is impossible that the light blue on the undersides was also used on the upper surface camouflage as some suggest.

I apologize for jumping around not really getting into the meat of the build. I'm still waiting for the cockpit paint and rivet tools to arrive so I've just been doing small jobs not requiring paint. I've spent some time looking at the Brengun detail set and have specifically highlighted the non-cockpit items so that I don't overlook anything. The spring end of the landing gear actuation arm has no attachment point... it's just floating in space. You can also see how I've scrubbed the paint off the wheel hubs and added the PE bits to them. Brengun supplies a PE attachment point. A small but nice touch and Brengun has thoughtfully added an attachment pin to the part so connection is more positive. Brengun also offers a replacement for the oil cooler exit flap. I was especially proud of my efforts to match the curvature of the kit part... .sometimes this kind of thing gives me trouble. The interior side of the flap has some nice detail. But you really aren't going to see that detail unless you show the flap fully open. And if you do that, you'd be given a view into where the oil cooler assembly is supposed to be. But there is nothing to show. So... unless I want to add an oil cooler, it will be easier not to use the enhanced flap and just use the kit parts showing the flap closed. This PE part is not an addition but just a convenient way to cover up some ejector pin marks. Again, a thoughtful addition to the Brengun set. I punched a piece of brass sheet to create some more detail on the drop tank. I got a set of brass 20mm cannon barrels from a company called RB Models. I don't think it is related to Radu's company, RB Productions. And finally, another photo to show some of the additional staining I've put on the tires.

Small progress, tackled the wooden parts of the interior which isn’t something I’d done before and I wasn’t looking forward to it. I bought some of the lovely looking uschi wooden interior decals, but was put off using them by the precision I reckoned I’d need in cutting trimming and settling them so I tried doing it myself and I’m quite pleased how it turned out. I used the method of tamiya deck tan topped with varnish then burnt sienna and raw umber streaked over the top and worked till I was happy. I’ve left quite a lot on and hopefully it will dry at some e point so I can continue

Not a lot of time to work on the kit yesterday. I added the missing brake line on the LG legs: And here's the plastic plate I mentioned yesterday. I forgot posting that picture earlier. This also showed that, as I mentioned earlier, all the elements intended to secure the LG legs have been removed to be able to position correctly the resin LG wells. This closed the jack point holes and will be right against the false floor of the cockpit to give rigidity to the fuselage/wing assembly: As you can see I also started working on the radiator... but this will be for a next episode as some elements have yet to be recreated.

And now for something completely different! Revell's 1/72nd scale Shackleton MR3 is a lovely kit. Very well engineered. No fit problems at all! Surface detail is very fine and nicely done. Has the option of a Phase 2 or 3 variant, with the Viper jet engines. I don't usually do 72nd, but this kit was an absolute joy to build. Painted with Tamiya acrylics. Thanks for looking Angelo.

It is speculation based on that the original fabric and aluminum pieces that remain in museums from the crashed 425/17 have been closely examined and found to have a non-standard finish in that none of the typical factory applied dark green streaking or paint is present under the red on these parts as would be expected. This suggests the possibility 425/17 was a special build for von R from Fokker that was predominantly painted red at the factory similar to the later Goering DVII being painted white. An alternative could be that major sections of the aircraft were re-covered with new fabric and aluminum at the squadron or depot level perhaps due to damage and never saw the green factory paint, only red. It would seem maybe a little odd that the top ace of the German air force would be assigned a aircraft that had suffered that level of damage and repair but who knows? Or heck maybe the fabric and metal in the museums are excellent forgeries that have fooled the museums and WW1 Aviation historians for many many years.

Well, everything is in the cockpit tub and a first fit in the fuselage. Looks like it needs some work. There is a piece at the top of the rear instrument panel that will need some work. Either filing in the plastic fuselage halves, or removal and relocation a bit lower, or perhaps AWOL . There are some other locations that need some adapting in the fuselage sections. And of course, there's a whole lot of other items that have to fit before final closing up. So far, I like what I've got.

Go with the pictures, not the profiles Richard MORE. Let me refine that. You and the profile makers are doing the same thing, starting with those pictures and making an interpretation. Now, it may be that the profile makers have access to better copies of the pictures (not prints of prints of prints) on which the serial numbers can be made out You are choosing to do your own research, the same as the profile drawers - so it's the pictures for you. Maybe you'll reach the same conclusion as the profile drawers

So, the modeller... if doing this particular bird ....would have to do the faux lighting around the back half of the lower wing kreuzen. Another neat variation to go with the presumably black and white Prussian fuselage band.

I think that was just a rumor due to no more distribution internationally outside of the US and Canada. From FineScale Modeler: "We followed up on this rumor and here is the statement from Vincent Pierri, public relations for Rust Oleum, the parent company of Testors: "Rust Oleum is no longer selling the Testors brand internationally, through distributors, but continues sales and distribution in the United States and Canada without interruption." And further, here is their website with a full product line: Testors Model Master Enamels Cheers, Chuck

Awesome!

Hi all, haven't been on much. Even modeling has slowed down.. or it had till the long weekend here in Canada. A good friend of mine invited me to join the IPMS Ottawa blitz build.. the idea was to grab a kit from your stash and build it from 6pm local Friday to midnight Monday. No prizes, just the fun of bashing it out like we did when we were kids. I had no idea at first of how I was going to do it or even what look I was going for but ended up going for a sun blasted, worn operational look. The kit itself is not bad.. and with some serious kitbashing could be a show stopper. All I did extra was stripped the chrome parts, added center track guides cribbed from a Russian tank I had laying around. I added ribs to the figures.. all you get is the back ribs... I used stretched sprue and super glue... looks much better I think. The wood tray in Rommel's compartment is just Tamyia wood brushed on leaving streaks.. then clear yellow & orange coats and a dull coat over it... came out pretty good.

Ok gang...... This is my first real out of box build. I had been working on a Pro Stock Maverick for around 5 months and needed a break from it to just get something completed. I've been wanting to build this car for the last few years and figured that now might be a good time to break it out. There's not much in the way of AM for this kit so it was the perfect one to do an OOB build on. The only things that were added was an "AC Delco" decal on the oil filter, a Hot Rod Magazine in the passengers from seat with a picture of an older T/A on the cover and I robbed the dual outlet exhaust pipes from the Revell 2000 Camaro SS kit. Just couldn't build this car with the single outlet exhaust system like it came from the factory with. The kit wasn't too bad but there were several fit issues with it starting with the chassis to body assembly. For some reason the glue adhesion didn't set up right at the rear of the car resulting in a slight twist. I made some bracing that went from the body down to the chassis and glued that in place to suck the chassis up on the side that got the lower part of the twist. Flash and mold lines were TERRIBLE on this thing. I spent ALOT of time getting rid of those and still didn't get them all. The front and rear facias fit great during the test fit and didn't want to cooperate at all during the assembly process. I got them as close as I could without disassembling the whole friggin' car to straighten everything out. Once I got the chassis sucked up in the back on the drivers side to where it was supposed to be I noticed that now there was a gap between the engine throttle body and the molded in intake duct on the body. I ended up cutting a piece of plastic and carving it to fit the gap there. The only other thing that I did with this car that needed to be done was that I lowered it about a scale inch or so all the way around to give it a more aggressive stance. Anyways....here are the finished shots...….and now....back to the Maverick!!!

Spectacular build!

Hello Not a LSP, but a large model. I wanted to build a Caravelle for a long time. But not just any Caravelle. This particular one, msn 12, F-BHRF christen Auvergne This one was exposed for many years at the entrance of the airport of my home town. As a kid, I always was fascinated by the "huge" (Huge is a matter of perspective... but as a kid, it was hude to me) plane parked there, on the side of the road. Then when, as a teen, I started flying gliders there, we use to spend some evening on board with the friends from the flying club. Some even slept on its wings... It was unfortunatly scrapped in 2006. Anyway, enough with the nostalgia.... All Caravelle kits are quite old and they all have their issues, some worse than others. Mach2 is a French short run brand. It is known for producing subjects that are definitely not mainstream. It is also known for the "limited" quality of its kit. I knew the Mach 2 kit would be a challenge but having built several fonderie miniature kits (another French short run brand known for its bad moulding and hard fitting) , I was not afraid..... Well.... I was in for an adventure... It is probably the worse kit I ever built... I had already decided not to use the "clear" parts, which are clear only by name. This turned out to be a great decision. Then I got rid of all the interior stuff... anyway there is nothing to see because ref previous line... The wheels: directly in the bin as well. The two parts of the mould were not aligned, I let you imagine the shape of the wheels... I replaced them with 1/48 Mirage F1 wheels for the MLGs and 1/48 NLG wheels from an F-100 for the NLG. Not the most accurate but who cares, it cannot be worse than the kit "things". I also replaced the engine exhaust by Whirlybird resin exhaust initially planned for the DH Comet. Now the funny part: wing to fuselage assembly. I quickly realised that this would be an adventure in itself: the wing sweep between the upper and lower parts was not the same by a significant margin. Sometimes on some kits, you need a bit of surgey to assemble parts. Here it was butchery. I reworked the complete wing root with a dremel and a miller (not sure of the english term, it is not a drill, it is the tool used to machine metal parts if you see what I mean) I think I never had to remove so much plastic to fit parts. Then, a truckload of putty here and there and I could finaly start painting. Humbrol 147 for the lower fuselage and the wing/horizontal stabilizer walk ways hu metal cote for the rest of the wing For the white on upper fuselage, I sprayed Tamyia true white TS-26. I could not imagine all this white area with an handbrush. Orange and dayglow for the wingtips. The decals: another adventure. I ordered them from F-Decals, a french brand producing a wide range of airliners decals. I must say that was a bumpy road as it took him 4 months to send them. And having exchanged with others on French forum, that's not only due to the covid mess and lock down. No answer to the numerous reminders. the only two emails I received were to tell me the decal sheets would be sent the next monday, which never happened. I ended up opening a claim with paypal. and then by miracle, 3 days after I received the decal sheets, but not excuse, no message, nothing which is a realy shame because those decals are real nice and good quality. I also used windows and windshiled decal sheet from Authentic airliners. I think they add a touch of realism compared to the usual grey windows we see on mist airliner kits. Here is the result:

Love the casting numbers. Did you use a number set, or shave some from a sprue? That thing is gonna be huge!

I appreciate you showing the prep work for the new landing gear legs. Great effort!

Don't get the Eduard 109. Unless you want to refer to it as Quasimodo.... or Igor:

Good day, friends! Allow me to present my finished model. It's SH Morane Saulnier type N on Russian service. This is plane of russian WWI ace pilot Ivan Smirnov. That was difficult to built. I've used a lot of scratch build detals in cocpit. Also I used some detales from WnW Sopwith Pup. I used AK paints and some Tamiya. Decals from Begemot. Finished with Gunze oils. Thank you! Regards, Sergey Budyansky.

That underside is really taking shape, Ernest. On my 109's I have been trying to master oil streaking coming back from the lower cowling. But helpful pics are so hard t find. This Ungarnische 109 hints at it: While this Emil which has the misfortune to be wearing roundels may be a bit too extreme...perhaps a Luftwaffe ground crew would wipe away some streaking occasionally : But unfortunately my skills have yet to produce a good outcome. My hands aren't steady enough to paint straight streaks. Keep up the great work!

O Canada, I'm just one of your ignorant neighbors from down South so I'm not sure exactly how you celebrate but I assume adult beverages and burning meat over open flames is involved. If you set off some fireworks, it's even better. Seriously, Enjoy your day!!!! Rob

Happy Canada Day to all fellow Canucks - and a Festive Forth to all south of the border (I'll be away from the internet on Saturday, so send my best today). 31 C degrees here in sunny Toronto (that's 88F to those still mired in the old English system) - perfect weather for celebrations, even though the damned Covid pandemic has pretty well quashed any mass gatherings. Ah well, flip the beef and pass the suds.

Thank you very much Mike! I have your build bookmarked as a reference for quite some time but must have scrolled past the pylons. Well, I've already ordered the pylons today morning along with the intake covers which will provide a nice contrast to the bluegrey.

Thanks Greg, glad you enjoyed it, sorry about the photobucket pics, I will eventually replace them with Imageshack ones. LOL, I saw all your likes come through and figured you were making your way through the whole build thread! No didn't annoy me at all buddy. Just hope you got something out of it like I do with other peoples posts. LSP is a great place for learning, I wouldnt be able to do half what I do or attempt without the ideas and encouragement from the community here. Cheers Anthony

The instructor had no need of a morse transmitter Quang, he was merely monitoring the students’ progress. Pencil and paper is all that’s needed plus a clipboard! My students are going to be standing outside the plane, their headphones are in their bags! Thanks Thierry, got it this time and agreed with the scheme apart from possibly the underwing numbers, these were probably superseded by the large fuselage numbers.

Typical weather here on the wet coast - but yes - meat ready for the smoker and rest of the food in slow cook mode all day! at least we have reruns of hockey to keep us entertained Happy Canada Day!

Burning meat, wobbly pops, etc, definitely on the agenda today! Thanks so much, and happy Canada Day, everyone!

One of the most interesting airplanes for people who like strong weathering. F-4E Phantom II Hellenic Air Force Tamiya 1:32, model made of course straight from the box so it may not be an ideal reproduction of the F-4E HAF. The Tamiya set is probably well known to everyone. In short it's realy good set. Greek planes can be very heavily exploited, which makes them a great material for modelers.

Here's a quick look at the first and probably only model I have finished in 2020, Academy's excellent 1/35th scale AH-1Z Viper. Probably the best kit I have ever built - excellent surface detail (raised rivets!!), perfect fit. The cockpit is a bit of a letdown detail wise, but nothing that can't be fixed with a bit of effort. Clear parts are a bit of a disappointment as well. The model was published in issue 6/2020 of German magazine ModellFan, so I can just post a minimum of photos at the moment. I am working on a little diorama which I'll show you once it's finished. Just a quick summary of the materials used: Blade fold & blade fold rack by Legend Productions, some PE from Eduard's AH-1W set, Master Model gun, Flying Leathernecks decals, Werner's Wings stencils. MSR/SAIP pod, ground handling wheels, Sidewinder seeker head cover and FMV pods on the tail boom designed & printed by myself. If you have comments, critique or questions, please do not hesitate!

Yes if it's on the website its available but I think only cast a few at a time so you can have a little bit of a lead time between order and receiving your order. Regards. Andy

July 1, 2020 Happy Canada Day! Not that happy these days? Either am I, but we all truck on, don’t we? Steps 13 to 16 on Page 6 of the instructions are all a blur of assembling the resin seat, adding HGW fabric seatbelts and getting the entire cockpit assembled into one unit before installing it into the front fuselage halves. Here are Steps 13-15: Before I did anything, however, I dry fit the resin seat to the cockpit cage, since seat supports I59 and I71 have variable angles, so it’s better to glue them to the seat installed than after the fact. I found this fit to be a struggle, since the lower seat support I79 didn’t fit the seat very well. After many dry fit attempts, I wound up gluing the seat from the bottom, despite the poor fit. Despite this, it looks OK. But you can see that the seat was glued a bit higher than the tabs on the sides, exposing them slightly on the bottom. I then painted and detailed the seat according to a few references, then added the HGW fabric seatbelts. The top of the seat was painted the same canvas color as the belts, the cord at the top was picked out with brush paint and the seat was heavily worn by dry brushing brown paint over a black base. The seat belts were also heavily worn, by wrinkling them and adding oil stain pastels to add staining. The belts included in my kit were a bit of a mixed bag. While I appreciated the fact that they were already pre-cut, which is a big bonus to other HGW belts I have used, the stitching on them was almost nonexistent. These belts are almost identical to the “Late Spitfire” belts I used on my last build of a NA Harvard, so I already had instructions to compliment the kit ones. I recommend you find these instructions on-line before attempting assembly, which was done entirely with CA glue. I posed the shoulder harnesses a bit high to separate them from the bottom, since they can be pushed upward over the seat back on the real deal. Excuse some of the belt "fuzz" that has since been removed. I recommend you don’t glue the “towel bars”, Parts I67 and I70 into place before you add the belts, because the clearance behind the bars is barely enough to allow the seat belt hardware to pass through. The end of the shoulder harness should be glued to the inside of the upper seat support, I71. Seat glued into place, which is quite a complicated feat with all the other parts of the cockpit cage fit and glued at the same. For wiring, I added only one line from left throttle to the rear. Only one! First of all, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of super obvious electrical and hydraulic lines visible in the references I have, as found on a Spitfire. Most of the cables are tucked underneath. Second, as you will soon see below, you won’t be able to see much of it anyway, so why bother? Step 16 has you add the instrument decals, which I’ve already done. But I also added the Mk II Gyro Gunsight, mounted on Part J21, used on a Mk II Tempest. 2 Holes were drilled at the top of the instrument panel to accept the gunsight mount. For the gunsight, I used the kit resin one, but the glass and overhead shade were sourced from my last Tamiya Spitfire build, because they were more solid than the kit PE and thin acetate glass. Decals for the gunsight were sourced from Barracuda for this same kit. Here’s a bit of a walkaround. The main reason I added the gunsight now, rather than in Step 40 as per the instructions, was to ensure that the gunsight would fit under the windscreen. It does, but barely, so make sure you mount the gunsight at the very front of the mount. The windscreen also fits poorly and isn’t molded very well, so it will need a lot of work to get it installed and glued cleanly. Now a bit of a disappointment. With all the work I did in the cockpit, you can barely see any of it from the top with the fuselage halves together. At least the Spitfire has a big door that is left open to peek inside, but from the top, this is all you see, which is very hard to photograph. Oh well, at least I know it’s all in there, which is why I didn’t bother with a lot of wiring that will never be seen, especially from the top angle. On to Steps 17 to 27, which includes the new Barracuda nose assembly. Cheers, Chuck

The detail on the kits pitot is quite soft. Plus, it's extremely fragile. I replaced it with some Albion Alloys telescoping tube.

Hmm, must be out of production, They used to do these A 488 Mossie would be awesome. Maybe a forum member has one of these sets for sale?? Edit: just found they did a XII/XIII as well Cheers Anthony

This could start a very long thread. Which colours do you consider "accurate"? The roundel blue and red are definitely wrong. I really don't think you can infer anything from any other colour in this photo. I would argue that the flesh tones are too healthy for this period of the war (poor diet, probably working extended shifts with little natural light, etc.). The colouring is nicely done, but forget it as a reference of any kind, in terms of colour.

Revell's all new P51 D is a lovely, straightforward kit with no vices. I added a set of etched seat belts, and the rest was out of the box. Painted with Humbrol enamels. Thanks for looking Angelo.

The following shots show the build after matt coating. I used Alclad II matt for this, spraying it in four very light coats. I was after a slight sheen, instead of dead flat which I managed to get with the exception of the cowling which looks very flat. The mottling blended very nicely and I am satisfied with the final look. Tomorrow I will post some shots of the bottom; I forgot to take any while documenting; stupid I know! Port side, decals and mottling are well blended and (fortunately) zero silvering; which I did not expect of the wet transfers at any rate. Not all the decal are wet transfers as I did not have enough of the stenciling markings in just wet transfers - heck I did not have everything in normal decals either, but one makes do I suppose. Above rear view nothing special to see. Starboard side, you can see that the mottling now looks slightly faded. Close up of that 3 again. I left off the marking for the external electrical connection because I thought it spoiled the look of the 3; a bit of artistic license on my part i admit. Compare how the mottling looks in this close up shot to the first one I posted. Finally, the JG27 crest, I think it looks pretty nice. Ernest

Muffler guards now get some additional work, including (bogus) casting numbers on the second guard. Continuing the process of adding mild casting texture. I really like the look of this.

....you spend hours trying to create something from scratch and after multiple failed attempts, suddenly remember there's an easier way? Let me 'splain. I've been slowly plodding along building a diorama for a friend, of an F6F-3 Hellcat on a carrier deck. I chose to scratch build my own deck so I could create the angle I wanted. In a nutshell, the aircraft has just reached the flight deck via elevator, wings still folded, tow motor and crew standing by to hook up. I purchased photo etch tie down strips, but decided I wanted real depth, so I built the channels up with styrene, marked the center and started to remove material. After I chewed enough of them up terribly, I pulled them and resigned myself to trying again. Then it hit me. All this creative energy going in to making channel strips for my tie downs and EVERGREEN MAKES STYRENE CHANNEL!!!!!!! Oof. So off to the hobby shop I go.....

I've finally had the opportunity today to add a splash of colour to the flap bays. Trouble is, this beast is a little too large to fit in a spray booth: IMG_0277 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Equally, finding a place for it to dry off is equally problematic: IMG_0280 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Anyway, size issues aside, Xtracolor's Zinc Chromate has brought this area to life: IMG_0285 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr I've also given the out-rigger bays another spraying as I felt the Humbrol Chromate Yellow was too brownish: IMG_0282 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr IMG_0283 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr IMG_0288 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr IMG_0290 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Pretty happy with the outcome Regards to all, Tom

Superb! Loved this one with the skis. What a great choice.

Hey all- I needed to build something that would protect my crew chiefs arm while I riveted the opposite side of the fuselage. I tack glued it into the slot that the main gear fits into. It also serves as a stand of sorts- My plan is to rivet the other side up to the cabin like here..then fix the cockpit doors, windows, and windscreen in place, then do the fuselage sides around the cockpit, then finish up riveting the belly- cheers Pete

If your question is whether photos of the real thing or some artist's interpretation of the aircraft is more accurate....

DML hands down

Hey all I won’t torture you with every rivet picture- but this part took me so long I felt like I had to photograph it! cheers Pete

So after having the kit smudged by Tibetan Monks and getting my attitude straightened out a bit with the CF 188...I have decided to try revisiting the cursed Kinetic Kit. I first dealt with the splitting seams which (knock on wood) have, as yet not re-appeared. Then since I had a dozen sheets of foil that I had originally planned on using on a HK B-17 (which ultimately received Alclad and was the better for it) or building an aluminum canoe...I figure I'll stick it all over this kit and kill to birds with one stone. The saga continues; Thanks for looking

Very nicely done!

I fancied doing a bit of work on the BUFF last night... IMG_0179[1] by Thomas Probert, on Flickr The wife took this unbeknown to me as apparently she wanted to show her girly pals how big my... model is

Here is a bit of an "oldy" I made last year for your review. This is a representation of F-4E 68-0393 when it was stationed at Ramstein Germany for “Tactical Air Meet” in 1980, or “TAM80” as it was called. I chose this subject because I wanted SEA camo paint, leading edge slats and a shark mouth, so this post-Vietnam bird fit the bill on all counts. Yes, I know that the inboard slats are usually down in the parked position, but they weren’t all the time and I even have some pics to prove it! I threw everything but the kitchen sink at this project as well and did a lot of scratch building, especially in the cockpit, front gun and drag chute areas. Aftermarket parts and accessories included: • DMold 32001 Seamless Intakes. • Eduard Photo-Etch Everything, including: 1. 32079 (X2) Ejection Seat. 2. 32511 (X2) Ejection Seat. 3. 32080 Exhaust. 4. 32503 Interior. 5. 32509 Placards. 6. 32531 Formation Light. 7. 32073 Exterior. • Burner nozzles from “Fox3tornado” on ebay (Joe Lortie), heavily modified with the Eduard etch kit above • AirDoc decals and stencils. Early USAF F-4’s in Germany • Hobbydecal dry transfer stencils • Hobbydecal pitot tube and AOA probe • Cutting Edge CEC32024 slatted wing conversion set • Nautilus Models belly strap • Plastic World Modeling NBR 3211, F-104 bomb dispensers (2), converted into SUU-21 bomb dispensers • Isradecal AVQ-23 Pave Spike pod • Avionix F-4E Cockpit, AV32019 • Quickboost F-4 seats, QB 32 069 • 1/32 Tamiya F-4EJ Phantom #60314 Kit. This is the same kit as the regular F-4E, but it has both regular plastic and clear plastic for the nose section. For all my re-scribing and rivet work, the regular plastic option is a must. If this Phantom looks familiar, this build was featured in Fine Scale Modeler magazine in the November and December 2012 issues and it's at the top of their web site right now. Almost all the pics in the magazines are of in-progress shots, so here's bunch that never made it into the article. Also, any shine you see is due to the strong overhead lighting I used. The finish is all flat dullcoat, but it's also smooth, so any focused light reflects a bit too strongly. The close-up pics show the look of the real finish, which attempts to replicate a bit of a tired F-4E just before full retirement.