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The wing roots have been set up for hairspray paint chipping but it didn't work out as well as expected. I should have learned from my Bf109G-14 build that mottle camo patterns and hairspray aren't a good match. You really need a uniform paint layer on top or else the chipping will just propagate around the areas where the paint is thinnest. I stopped after I started to notice this pattern. Wing crosses have been masked and painted. The fuselage crosses and tail swastikas were painted next. I'll let

Hi all, There were two fuel lines between the fuel tank in the upper wing and the engine bay. Some ‘Balilla’ aircraft had these fuel pipes exposed, however, this particular aircraft being modelled had the fuel pipes covered with a fairing. This was made from 1.0 mm thick plastic card, cut and shaped to fit between the underside of the upper wing and engine cowl. The edges were rounded and indications of fasteners added. It was then covered with the 'Aviattic' CDL decal and secured in position under the fuel tank in the upper wing. Mike

The wolf is back on the bench. Jeroen kindly sent me his spare WnW decals and they arrived yesterday and put to work last night and this morning. Thanks very much Jeroen. They work really well with Mr Mark Softer, especially around the nose where some vents and access panels are located. I cut the clear film surrounding the W off to reduce the chance of any silvery later. Just waiting for the leather to dry around the cockpit and then put the rest of the checkers on followed by the Wolf insignias, this afternoon. Standby for a furth

Thanks guys! Doing the mottle, after reverting to a more casual technique, was quite fun! A new set of masks were prepared to fix the port side red "10". It is exposing only the red portion of the numeral and masking the white border. As you can tell by the paint splatter, the red was mixed a bit thicker than normal to try to help fill in the void left by the lifted paint. Ideally, I would have used some micromesh to shave down the edges. The "10" after repair. There is still a faint edge around the repair spot but I think subsequent c

Left side stuff- that’s enough for today! cheers Pete

I am doing the 747-400 Kev, did I post 757 at one point I'll start a thread once I start the kit. My Miliput is as hard as a rock so I need to go to the LHS this weekend.

Need a Gatorade bottle for that in a dynamic environment. Awesome work, Pete. Keep it up!

Better yet, just Google it and get hits for the other 15,000 times that same question has been asked & answered on ARC and elsewhere. D

If you had someone into Jazz, and they go into a record store specialising in Grunge, and asked for recommendations by Miles Davis, they'd probably get strange looks, and not many responses. If the same person went into a Jazz record store and asked the same question, they'd get a more informed response. A few days later that person returns to the Grunge store and asks for recommendations by John Coltrane. A few days after that, there again asking about Courtney Pine. We get people asking from time to time why something like a 1/48 B-52 isn't considered a

OK folks, moving ahead. Went back to working on the empennage and fuselage, vice the wings. You'll understand why as I walk through it... If you look at the photos I posted above, you'll see I've got one heck of a moment arm going on. Unfortunately, it's at the exact spot where Trumpeter gives you the options of opening the speed brakes and the birdcage. Almost 2/3 of the circumference is missing, making it a natural weak point and it was flexing waaaay too much for my liking. It was a problem on my 1/24th scratch build as well, so I decided to bite the bullet and get

Thank you guys! i went for something funny, the external fuel tank PTB-1500... I never saw a fuel tank such "ugly" but at the same time is irresistible for me! So, the shape of the plastic parts are ok but I want to add more details. First job is to build the APU "hole" that goes through the rear part of the tank. Than I've added the welding lines along the fuel tank. Some other details like tubes, valves and access panels has been added too. After that a good layer of flat black has been sprayed overall, fo

Thanks Matt! There will be a bit of detail painting and some additional weathering to be performed on the drop tanks but I am done with the hairspray chipping on the tanks. I decided to start the mottling today. Mr Hobby Aqueous RLM 76 and White at a 2:1 ratio will be the paint mix. There is no clear photo of the mottle pattern on top of the wings so I just started freehanding it, trying to consciously create mottle shapes with the dark background. My the time I got to the port engine nacelle's I started to loosen up a bit and not be so pre-deterministic about the

My buddy just informed me that the Eastern Express L-1011 is actually OK. I don't know why I had a different idea.

Hasegawa for 1/48 even though they're fiddly, Special Hobby by a large margin in 1/72. If people don't like threads, no need to read and respond. Someone asked a question, they deserve helpful answers. Matt

No, I just assumed that when you mentioned you'd bought the decals, they were for one of the 757s. I'm looking forward to seeing what the V1 decals for "Book of Souls" are like. I have the Revell boxing of the kit that provides them in the box: Kev

Looking good, Pete! Kev

I've circled back to this one to start my window-filling experiments, and thought I'd post my progress. For this build, I decided to try a method I read about a long time ago, but have never actually tried before. The basic idea is to cut out the entire strip of windows, and replace them with solid styrene. That way, you're filling like with like, and should have no seam ghosting or issues with filler. That's the theory, anyway! I started by removing all the plastic between the window holes, to create long letterbox holes in the fuselage halves: I used a Dr

Greetings - Part Deux. For this I will be building the "inferior" Trumpeter kit .....although with a decent fit and parts count , PE, etc seems ok to me and it comes with a Priller scheme -BTW this comment is not an invitiation to explain how 3 rivets are in the wrong place please .... I'm having fun , don't suck the joy out of it for me ! Two LSP's in one year as opposed to one a year .... hmmmm am I turning to the dark side ... .? Why is that Pz Mark IV looking at me strangely from the shelf ..? So ...enough of my yacking ....rocking on....references

cant they just pee in an empt water bottle? Or are those reserved for dip spit? or pee out the crew door? slings. yep- cheers P

From Tamiya USA newsletter today: New Product Announcements Coming Soon! We have some exciting NEW product announcements coming. On January 25th we will begin unveiling what some of those new products are! Please make sure to follow us on our social media outlets for sneak peaks as well as announcements on our website news blog and newsletters.

Overheard on the ICS: Pilot to crew, "EASY ON THE WATER BROS, WE'RE NOT MAKING EXTRA LANDINGS!" Looking great! So close...still need slings on those weapons tho.

The Revell one. It has all the windows molded open but no glass other than the wind screen.

Hi all, When I test fitted the propeller to the model, it seemed to me that the propeller looked as though its diameter was a bit small. When I scaled a photograph of the model and its propeller to the illustration in the data file, it seemed to bear this out. Also photographs of the aircraft indicate that the propeller tips were more or less aligned with the landing gear axle (propeller vertical). Anyway right or wrong, I decide to modify the propeller. I cut off the two blades, then used 1.0 mm diameter rod to re-join them to the hub, but with a 4 mm gap in each. This g

All of the remaining bits needed to install the engine and button up the fuselage. At various points in the prime/paint process. Doing this is a royal PITA and I'm having to take breaks in between doing the individual hoses. Cutting and wrapping 0.3 mm strips of masking tape is challenging my vision and dexterity to the max. But the effect is much better than I could hope to achieve with freehand painting. Still a bunch more fiddly masking and painting to go before I'm ready to start test-fitting and assembling. We h

with careful painting the cockpit is really good the wheel bays are nice much more detail but from what I have gathered they are a real pita to fit ditto the cockpit the wheels are fine as is the burner see above. I did a back date to a block 40 so I added the scab plates and had to find a different hud. I love aftermarket but sometimes it just complicates a fine model and takes away from the enjoyment of building and painting it often time it is not worth the effort just my 2 cents

Alex, below is a photo of a Hasegawa 1/48 Mustang that I built as a testbed for this very purpose: I used Alclad Airframe Aluminium on the fuselage, and Tamiya AS-12 on the wings and tailplanes. Both have been covered in at least one coat of clear gloss varnish, which lowered the contrast between them markedly, but still provides for a nice effect. Here's what it looked like before the gloss coat: HTH, Kev

Well I have skipped a few build processes and posted the finished Mosquito MK39. I've never changed a graceful swan into an ugly duckling! This started life as the 1/24 Airfix MKVI. So had to change it to a MKIVX with the longer engines, bomber canopy and bulged bomb bay, 4 bladed props together with correcting the kit omissions and ejector pin indents etc.. Then for the MK 39, scratch built the nose and central rear turret together with other oddities that this MK had fitted. Now it's finished and I can see the full size of this, I'm glad I designed it with removable wings! https:

Since the original post concerned an aircraft and modeling it is more relevant to the theme of LSP than a lot of what is posted in the General Discussion. Also consider that the most likely source of new large scale modelers is someone who is already engaged in some aspect of modeling. Perhaps positive responses would help in recruiting new converts from the smaller scales.

Hi all, Upper wing fitted. The kit has two exposed fuel pipes between the underside of the fuel tank in the upper wing and the top of the rear engine cowl panel. However, this particular aircraft, like many 'Balilla's', had these pipes covered by a fairing. So, before starting the final rigging I'll need to make this pipe fairing. Mike

Another feature unique to Iwo Jima planes were the sway braces made on-site (out of plywood) to prevent excessive motion of the 110-gal. metal drop tanks that were required to provide the range the Mustang needed to reach the Japanese mainland and return. Unlike the other details specific to the IJ planes, these custom braces are not represented in the Tamiya "Pacific Theater" kit version. But they should be straightforward to make. Note also the apparent fabric boot on the top of the main gear leg. I need to look into this more. In addition to all this research, I

I’ve got those 233s’. I’ll post up some photo’s.

Did he signal left before departing?

The best 1/72 scale P-40s, from the E-N are the Special Hobby kits by far. Accurate shapes, beautiful surface details, nicely detailed cockpit out-of-the-box, and the fit is good too. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/special-hobby-sh72338-p-40e-claws-and-teeth--1225567#

Personally, I am very fond of the ZM 1/32 HS 129. Radu

1. Lukgraph Dragon Rapide (its De Havilland and I never thought I’d see that this lifetime. 2. IBG PZL 11c. (The surface finish is technically jaw dropping). 3. ICM Gladiator.... gotta love a Gladie! note: nada from major manufacturers last year that excited anyone so far. Oh how the world turns...

Well - a bit of a milestone. The very complicated side console (LH side) is done, as well as the LH side auxiliary instrument panel. Many many "doo-dads" had to be created. Nothing too fancy; just using rod and strip, measuring, trimming, filing, sanding, drilling, painting - all under heavy magnification. An example (two gun charging cylinders, a landing gear control quadrant, and a hydraulic valve that mounts underneath the side console: Here is the LH side aux instrument panel which will soon be installed. I have identified the features:

Well guys, Its actually now come down to two areas of final distress on this build; the landing gear and something I forgot........the engine exhausts! HpH gives you the exhaust stubs in resin form of course, with open ends and after cleanup, looked fairly decent (this was from my review of the kit prior to any cleanup): However, after looking at the HpH instructions, I discovered yet another bummer...........the instructions clearly show that the exhaust tubes dont even actually reach all the way to the back of the engine:

Yes indeedie. I found 3 photos. You Sir, are correct. I will use the engine only to hold the propeller. I am enjoying this build so much I am getting a Mk. II. I will go into more detail on my next hurricane. The only extras on this is a pe i.p. and decals. I am using this as a confidence builder. The spitfire will get more love. Thanks guys.

Sorry but I just have to laugh! I was initially typing a response like Troy's, saying that I was ok with the color and didn't feel a need to match the wood color that a restoration team came up with. But Matt's reply made me think that it would be an easy thing to tint the wood a little darker with a light spray of clear red. Which I've since done... But I agree with Troy that we really don't know what the wood flaps looked like on the operational D-13. Vincent K even suggested that they may have been covered by some sort of anti-fungal primer or linen.

Thanks guys - starting to get a little MoJo restoration with this build... More progress on the flying surfaces - joints prepped. I do like the fine surface detail on these: Tail surfaces - will replace the pivots with brass rod: Wings - with outer pylon pivots filled with stretched sprue - and tip lights fitted. Outboard pylon pivot shows just a little darker - but surface now perfect: The tip lights are the kit parts, with the rear faces coloured with permanent marker, before super

Ooo, Ooo I forgot about the PT -17 kits and the I-16. And the amazing Dragon Rapide! Life is good!

Andy from Andys hhq posted a video yesterday that the lacquer paints are inbound. Sounds like we might get those in the US in the next few weeks.

Guess I’d have to go with the Kitty Hawk HH-60G P

January 18/21 Before I seal up the main fuselage, the navigation lights need to be installed from behind. These were painted in clear red and blue, then a backing of chrome for reflectivity and depth. The reference pics I have show the starboard light to be blue rather than greenish blue, which is more normal, although my F-5E had blue lights as well. The other thing I wanted to check is the wing fit. I’ve read a few build logs of this kit that noted that the wings fit sloppy and needed shims on the inside of the fuselage and as a re

January 14/21 With the cockpit, avionics bay, most of the landing gear and the engine done, it’s time to glue everything into the fuselage and seal it up. This is going to be very tricky, since the many resin parts need to be glued with CA glue while the fuselage halves will be glued with ordinary Tamiya thin cement- and all at generally the same time. I have a method to do this that has worked for me in the past, so I will show how to do it later. Before I glue anything together, I want to glue the engine intakes onto the fuselage halves for ease of handling and befo

Thank you chaps little bit more done... ..I wanted to check the cabane strut alignment against the little spigots I included on the brass tube 'core' at the heart of the model. These are quite complicated in as much as they angle forwards and outwards, plus obviously define the position (and strength) of the upper wing.. ..I translated some specific drawings on the plans into some card templates and added dummy tube struts to see where I was at.. ..after some fettling and small bends on the spigots, I got it good enough for now..

Thanks for the nice comments guys. For Pete, the tail is SMS PL06 Green and the wings are Mr Colour #312 FS34227 as per the Jasta 5 instructions from WnW. The red is Mr Colour #327 Red FS11136. I think any reasonable red would do.