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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

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.

AND SOME MORE Thanks for looking!!

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

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!

June 18/19 Finally, I’m really painting. A first coat of paint reveals flaws and with gloss black, they are amplified at least 3 times over a flat finish. I always start painting on the bottom, just in case I have airbrush or paint issues, but in this case, Tamiya Gloss Black lacquer (TS-14) sprayed beautifully. This paint was decanted from the rattle can then thinned with about 40% of Tamiya lacquer thinner. I expected a few flaws underneath, because this is where the kit parts do not fit very well, but I did not expect to still see so many seam lines and other flaws. The rear, however, came out looking great. With that shiny coat of X-22 over the Archer rivets, it almost looks like metal already with the smooth reflection. Back to the drawing board….. And another coat of paint. Much better now. A close up to show that those seams lines are now filled and other flaws repaired. There are so many surfaces that from this angle, it almost looks wrinkled. In the background, I’ve been busy cleaning up, assembling and painting other parts that will be attached later for ease of handling. The landing gear, doors and hardware are ready for final assembly. And here’s my first shot at painting the exhausts, which have gone from this: To this, using Alclad Stainless Steel. For the inside, I used Alclad Steel, followed by a dusting of rust to replicate reference pics. Although I’m getting near the end of this build, I still have a lot to do. Missiles, the main fuel tank and dozens of tiny bits still need to be attended to. I’m a bit nervous about decaling, because I normally shoot a good sealing coat of X-22 over the decals to seal them in and reduce decal film edges. On this nice gloss black finish, X-22 might make the finish look too artificial. I guess time will tell! Cheers, Chuck

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

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.

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.

All parts dryfitted :

After last weekends Model expo in Melbourne, I thought I would start fresh on something to clear the palate and get a project on the go for one of the categories of the comp for next year. I have been chasing one of these kits for a fair while and when the opportunity came up to purchase one new at the show from Aeroworks at a very good price I took it. The kit does tick a few of my usual boxes; RAAF aircraft, Esoteric subject and resin kit. This will sit nicely in my RAAF collection, right next to my Demon from the same company which served along side it in the mid 30's. Firstly, a bit of history about the aircraft. It was famous for being the type in which Douglas Bader lost his legs in a crash during aerobatics during his early RAF service. In RAAF service, it existed in very small numbers and I have reproduced a brief history from the ADF serials site here: From 1921 the RAAF possessed three obsolete Sopwith Pups and two equally obsolete SE5a aircraft for use in the single seat fighter role. In 1928 a decision was made to replace those aircraft with a modern front line single seat fighter and the aircraft selected was the Bristol Bulldog Mk.II fitted with the 450 hp Jupiter VII radial engine. Six Mk.II Bulldogs were ordered on 17 June 1929 at a cost of 3,750 pounds each and two additional machines were ordered later that year with all eight aircraft being delivered to Melbourne on 14Mar30. From their introduction into RAAF service until 1935 the Bulldogs were considered almost sacrosanct and a pilot had to be of Instructor rating before being allowed to fly one. However, toward the end of the aircraft’s life the novelty had worn off and other pilots were permitted to fly the aircraft. Apart from fighter training the Bulldog’s spent a large amount of time training for and performing demonstrations around Australia and in cooperation with the Army and Navy during their annual exercises. Another activity was introduced when the Victorian Meteorological Department asked for daily flights to record weather data. These flights were carried in all weather extremes and from 1930 to 1939 the flights were conducted on approximately 333 days of each year with only one serious accident, a truly amazing feat. For a high performance aircraft most pilots reported that it was a delight to fly, very precise and forgiving and extremely easy to land. During its service career there were only two fatal crashes and they were both from pilot error: one where the pilot dived into the water doing gunnery practice and the other when the pilot misjudged his height when doing low level aerobatics. The only oddity the aircraft exhibited was during spin recovery but once pilots mastered this eccentricity the aircraft proved a delight in the air. Part of the training regime in the period 1930-5 included several annual long distance navigation exercises from Point Cook to Adelaide 1930, -31 and, Adelaide and Perth 1932, -33, -35. These exercises were quite a feat for the day as the aircraft had to be refueled every two hours and had no navigation equipment. Pilots were trained to perform minor maintenance and it is a reflection of the Bulldog’s reliability that only three failures caused forced landings in an era when forced landings were almost a daily occurrence for many aircraft. By the start of WWII only three aircraft remained in RAAF service. Two had been destroyed in crashes and three had been reduced to components, the last three were all converted to Instructional Training Aids in 1940 and finally scrapped sometime during the war years. Sadly no Bulldog airframes remain extant in Australia, a fate all too common for aircraft of that era. Onto the kit: The nicely presented Silverwings box. It allows two options to do the aircraft in RAF service, so I will have to come up with my own serials to depict it as a RAAF aircraft. The schemes are very similiar, although the RAAF examples were fairly boring, devoid of the bright squadron markings. Upon opening the box, the modeller is confronted with bags of loose resin parts, decal sheets and the large instruction manual which is a bit too big to fit in the box for my liking. It all looks a bit confusing to begin with. None of the parts are numbered and some interpretation of the instructions are required to work out which part is which although all of the parts are grouped in bags in sequence, so engine parts in one, cockpit parts in another etc. Lets start on the build. Please excuse the different coloured work spaces.... a sure sign that I am looking after the kids and squeezing a bit of build time in on the kitchen bench while the wife is out! The large casting block on the inside rear of the fuselage with the other side removed. I did this with cutters and scraped it flat with a blade. I guess this might have been why the fuselage wasn't taped together like Silverwings normally do. These kits are quite intricate, especially when they are of metal framed cockpits. I tack everything together on one side first without cleaning any of the seam lines off. I use thick superglue to do this. I then glue the other side on, one join at a time and then am left with a fairly strong structure. I drill each corner and insert thin brass rod to allow for me to bend it as required to correct some warping. Once happy, I give the frame a coat of primer. This allows me to identify the many seams present in the frame. The good thing about this method is that I now have a strong frame that I can sand and scrape to remove the seems without much fear of it breaking.

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 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

Well it’s finally finished! Overall a really enjoyable build. A great kit with some fit issues but excellent detail and brilliant value for money. I had to work quite hard on the scratch building and re scribing some panel details as I’m not a natural builder. Aftermarket was obviously the engine and also brass machine gun barrels. I should probably have used resin wheels. And I think Andy (monthebiff) mentioned seat belts and I regret not putting them in now but at the time I was pushing the build on and didn’t have any to hand and didn’t want to wait. What next? Well the airfix hellcat is only a week away! cheers Matt

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

More to come... Iain

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

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!

So, here we have the first "building block" of the cockpit. Instruments are a mix of my own design (MDC) and Airscale. Once applied over a gloss surface, they are brushed with Microsol and color details corrected, such as the colored instrument rims. It's not perfect but i think it will be OK. Once dry, each instrument is sealed with a drop of Tamiya clear mixed with Smoke and Yellow to give the correct hue for the white (instrument decals are always too white for the scale) I've assembled the rudder pedals and next job is to tackle the compass, then add the rudder cables and glue that asembly to the bulkhead assembly. Slowly getting there The pedals are offset since the rudder will be angled Et petit coucou aux masteriens adeptes de la pensee unique

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

Your absolutely right, many plans are as unreliable as you and I... If you have more sources available, it's always a good idea to check for consistency. But In this case, with the Air Corps plans, you can check if the measurements fit the drawing. One could argue that if the Air Corps manufacturing plans are off, all B-17's would look a lot more like the HK kit. It's not my intention to turn this thread into a discussion of what or who's right. As Brahman, I'm just trying to get closer to 'the look' of this 'iconic' aircraft. So, knowing this and being the lucky owner of this kit, what can be done? Well, maybe the best approach is to build it straight out of the box, not trying overcome it's flaws. You will have a finished build, looking like the real thing and be happy with it. If you are suffering from AMS, it looks like you are in for an almost impossible task, as almost all the parts of this kit will have been affected by this. In this build, I will however attempt to fix the major issues of the kit and not all of the minor ones. It will become a bumpy ride for sure, but I hope in the end, I will have a result looking a lot closer to the old Monogram B-17G kit. You are of course welcome to 'tackle along'. Cheers: Kent

And now for some 'undressed' shots! Iain

Cheers guys, thanks for the comments. i assembled the instrument panel. This is supposed to have an acetate sheet with the instruments printed on it sandwiched between the photo etch and resin, but I will use Airscale decals for the instruments. The instructions call for an all over slate grey interior, but I decided to paint the metal surfaces grey and the fabric surfaces a light tan colour with wood stringers. Virtually none of the fabric area is going to be visible anyway. The interior metal framing has been painted with my own custom mix of very dark grey. I usually would use MRP tyre rubber for this, but our one and only Australian distributor of this paint is being annoyingly slack in keeping stocks of it at the moment, so I had to invent my own. As I am quite fond of using SMS paints, I mixed in some white to the SMS Camo Black to make the dark grey and have now called it a Tyre black! A contrast of the new colour to its base colour of Camo black can be seen by the ammo container next to it. The good thing about this is that the required black colouring of the metal fittings and frames in the cockpit can be separated a bit to give them a bit of contrast between them instead of all being painted black.

The truck is coming along... Chassis assembled. Cab. The resin wheels are the really an improvement to the skinny rubber wheels of the kit. Thanks for looking in: Kent

worked a little bit on the upper struts today.

Just a brief update today. I was expecting to receive my order of styrene rod by now, so that I could resume work on the cockpit. Sadly, it didn't arrive, so I continued to focus on the prop. I started by removing the prop boss from its casting block: You can see the moulded-in slots for the blades to slide in to. They have sloping sides to lock the blades in place, and as far as I can tell, what you see in the photo above is the correct orientation to accept the blades, so that they produce a propeller that rotates to the right when seen from the cockpit. The instructions are unclear on this point, so please let me know if I've got it wrong! It's not too late to change it, even though I've already glued the blades in place. I mentioned in a previous post that the propeller blades needed to be rounded off to suit the aircraft I'm building. Rather than sweat getting them to look exactly like Hamilton Standard units, I just eyeballed it and gave them a few swipes with the sanding stick. The photo below shows a comparison with an unaltered blade: And finally, the full set, ready to be attached to the hub: How well the blades slot into their respective cut-outs in the hub is really down to how well you remove and clean up the casting blocks, as they go right over the top of this area on each blade. I ended up with a so-so fit, and a bit of filling to do around the area, but it has the potential to be better than I managed if you're more exacting than I was. OK, that's it for now! I did try to snap some photos of my photography set up, but they didn't turn out well at all (oh, the irony!), so I'll have to try again later. Kev

Thanks, Brian! The gloss that spilled did level out pretty well by itself and doesn't look too bad. I took a cloth polishing pad on my Dremel to it, and that seemed to smooth out the bad spots pretty well. It is, as they say, good enough for government work, and I'm calling it done! I'll try to take some better pictures for a RFI post later.

I'm back! More poodling around in the shed. I've added some more storage above the window - some old container thingymajigs I've had for years. I've pinned bits of AM onto the notice board above the painting area, added some LED lighting to the Hobbyzone units, and moved some stuff off the workbench and hooked it to the wall, to free up space. And added a noticeboard above the sofa. And added some hooks to the rafters. The storage above the windows will eventually house little bits and bobs, like AM machine guns, wheels, exhausts, etc. I find it's better not stored away in a box, put of sight & mind. Freed up some workbench space, and improved the lighting. Wonky shelf - it's only 6mm MDF, so it's going to bow in the middle. Better not put anything heavy in the middle. Ollie approves. I've put the drill jig & rotary tool on hooks on the wall, as I use them pretty infrequently, and I've stored modelling jigs I'm not using on one of the rafters. Pinned bits of AM to the cork boards, reminds me of what I've got and oddly enough is quite an efficient use of space. With all the lights blazing, there is plenty of light to work with - and no fuses have popped, even with the compressor and heater running as well!! From outside, it looks very cozy in there - and it actually is. I just need to get the coffee machine up & running and then that's pretty much it.

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

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.

The 'Ninak' Liberty Engine exhaust has been put straight into the mold I will need another four for the two Liberty Engines. The 'Ninak' Exhaust looks to be an almost exact match to the ones fitted on the Aeromarine... Cheers: Kent

during recent evenings I have been busy with paint! taking a step away from my usual 1:72 projects, I must say that the ejection seat and the pilot are already a project of their own. Here is some pictures. The pre-coloured PE worked quite well even though it was meant for the Trumpeter kit: time for a layer of matt varnish for everything and some gloss for the visor and I can think about closing up the cockpit!

I prefer my transport with 4 doors, 4 wheels, multiple airbags, seatbelts, wipers, a steering wheel, various crumple zones, comfy adjustable seat with a backrest & lumber support, climate control, electric windows, fancy stereo, cup holders, phone charger & the ability to eat, drink or chat whilst I drive. Yes, I'm very, very boring. Proudly boring. I send myself to sleep sometimes, I'm so boring. People cross the road to avoid my boringness. Even the local vicar is careful to avoid me. The Jehovah's Witnesses knock on every single door, bar mine, incase they feel the need to end it all after being in conversation with my boring self. When I get cold-called, after a while they hang up on me. The Samaritans have asked me to stop calling, as they can no longer get staff who can stay awake long enough to listen to me. Cold callers only ever knock my door once, and then pay me so they can leave. I never get served in a pub, as the staff don't have the stamina to listen to one of my famous, jaunty, little six-hour little stories, which always end badly. Even my dog falls asleep in my presence, rather than having to bear my utter boringness. I make plastic model aeroplanes, for goodness sake. What more can I say?

Back from work - here are the promised picture of the assembly: The fuselage went together quite quickly but fit wasn't perfect. The horizontal stabilizer needed little shims - 0.2mm on the upper side and 0.4mm on the lower one - to get a decent fit. The intersection at the rear (not a panel line) still needs some filler. The fit of the rear cockpit cover (without comments): Then there's some good news - the camera window recieved its clear part and so did the coverage regulator. Beforehand there was some filling (after the black guide coat) necessary and when the PVA glue from the clear parts is hard enough, the whole section will get polished. I'll spend the next days cleaning up all the joints and panel lines on the fuselage.

Replacement has arrived for the HK 'Dambuster'. Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress 'Late Production'... One of my top three airplanes, a 'must have' in my book. Although it will require a lot of work, I'm happy with this. Cheers: Kent

July 19/19 Well that didn’t take long. That seam flaw, among other small items was driving me crazy all day at work so as soon as I came home, I got right on it and had them fixed in about 1 ½ hours. First, here is the offending seam and why it’s such a pain to fill and create a smooth finish. This is probably the worst fit on the entire kit, and there are many! And after paint. Still there and since I’m doing surgery anyway, I may as well fix that sink mark in the LEX that I was going to leave alone since it’s on the bottom anyway. Fixing it after paint is not so easy, but after too much experience with this situation, here is what I did. First, I masked off the small detailed areas so that I could sand the seam without eroding them off. Note that the paint is attracting dust already! Since the CA glue is tough, especially after drying so long, I used fairly coarse 400# sandpaper until I had the black lines of the seam and sink hole revealed. I then added CA glue to these black marks, let it dry, then sanded it down again. I then used 1,000# sandpaper and smoothed out the sanded area and the paint on the fringe to eliminate any sharp edges. Once that was done, I masked off another area near the intakes for further repairs. This area was just sanded, along with other small flaws that I found later. Finally, everything was smoothed out with Mr. Laplos polishing cloths in 4,000# and I used compressed air to remove most of the dust. I am happy to report that the seam is now gone, along with the sink marks and other small flaws. There is still a small step at the junction of the intakes and the old seam, but that would take a huge effort that just isn’t worth it underneath a model that will never be seen. The funny thing is, almost all of this will be covered with the big fuel tank anyway, but I’m glad this annoyance is behind me. Next up when this dries, the top paint! Cheers, Chuck

Guess I will just put this here for a start... First off, I will not in any way be attempting to finish this within the GB time frame - But as it is a 'Multi-Engined' kit, here we go... The subject of this build, will be this very well known 'ship': Boeing B-17G-70-BO 43-37675 (VE-N) / 'Trudie’s Terror' / 'Patches' / 'Flak Magnet'. 532nd Bomb Squadron 381st Bomb Group, based at Ridgewell Airbase UK.

Hi Peter, the same process for this: The two handles (black arrows) on the trailing edge of the upper wing made with a master (red arrow) used to thermoform these parts (blue arrow). The hinges and bracket of the rudder are glued. After a couple of days (putty, sanding, primer) the join is smooth. Anti-skid strips added. Hinges for the flap allowing the folding of the wing and lot of drains have to be moulded using Milliput footprints and melted plactic.

I have been in touch with Kevin Bricknell and Noel Furber, both ex Mirage pilots that have been involved with previous projects of mine. They both have had a ride in the buggy and sent me pictures of the event. First up is a small video of Brick in the buggy. To me, this stuff is absolute gold and preserves the memory. click on the pic below to view. I moulded the first parts of the buggy today. This is my first draft of the resin parts so that I can check how they all fit together and see if it is going to work as a kit or not. First up was the boxing up of each part using lego like pieces. I constructed the casting blocks that the parts sit on using modelling clay. I vacuum degas my silicone to ensure that it is bubble free. Whilst it is quite possible to pour the silicone moulds without degassing, if you are going to pressure cure the resin using these moulds then you will need to degas to ensure the highest possible quality. Parts demoulded! the second best part. Examining fresh resin (the best part if it goes according to plan). Very pleased with the outcome. A test fit of the parts. These are the products that I have used. I have added a grey pigment to the resin as it looks alot better than its natural cream colour.

Iv'e been away from the building scene recently due to life in general and a new addition to the household which has taken my attention a little. As a result, my build of the Catalina in the multi engine GB has taken a massive hit. I know I have plenty of time until the end of the GB but I wanted it complete for Telford which I dont think will happen with something so complex. I do however have another distraction on the modelling front so thats two distractions in total. firstly A new to me 2014 Multistrada Pikes Peak to replace my current model in the middle. For a few Hours I had 3 Ducatis in the stable I was well happy. Now the Catalina has taken a back seat because THIS! This will now take over from the Catalina in the GB as I have made a promise that it will be at Telford in November. Happily I will have more that 5 weeks like the last one.

I am back on my RF-8G Only two pics today with the cameras of the Stations 3 and 4. Stay tuned Thanks for watching Eric

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

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!

Figured I'd join the wonderful group here since I've been browsing the forums for months gathering ideas, etc. I've been back into scale modeling for about a year now and having only built 1/32 scale aircraft. At least for the foreseeable future I'll only be doing 1/32 scale aircraft since that seems to be the only kits I buy and I already have a small pile of kits that need to be built. Also, I have my private pilots license so the aviation fascination is understandable. I do hope to do a large scale WWII ship or sub at some point though. Hopefully I should have my Tamiya mossie completed in the next week or two after about three months of work. I wish I could have gotten it done quicker but by the time I'm done with work and things around the house only an hour or two gets done but such is life. In any case I'll be posting that completed build when its done. I'm torn as to what to build next so any suggestions are appreciated. I'm between 1. ZM Ta-152 in Fritz Auffhammer 's Red/Orange scheme (probably leaning towards this) 2. WNW D.V albatross 3. Eduard P-40 warhawk What I love most about large kits is their sheer detail and parts counts forces you to take your time and finish each part perfectly to achieve the best end result. At this point I'm in now rush to finish kits so spending hours sanding every seam line, etc. is all worth it in the end.

IBG informed on their FB that release of PZL P-24 will be related with PZL P.11 selling numbers, I really encourage you to buy as many as you can guys! Here in Poland we need your help!

Wohoo! My 'Anniversary' order finally arrived yesterday. It's been 'en route' New Zealand - Denmark twice, Since customs didn't give any notice the first time, it was returned to NZ... So I'm quite happy the kits finally arrived. Especially since I needed the exhausts from the Ninak Liberty Engine for the Aeromarine build. Cheers: Kent

Her is the results of my research a few years back: Parts R us wheels are resin copies of the Revell F-15 kit wheel. The are to small in diameter and to narrow. RES-IM wheels are for a C/D. A/B wheels are different. Tires markings are to large and not accurate for the actual tires used. NorthStar F-15E wheel are much to large in profile and diameter and the wheel lightening holes are the wrong size. F-15 E's use two styles of wheels, one with small and one will large holes. GT Resin wheels are made from CAD drawings based on input from the manufacturers drawings and the actual wheels and tires. Both Michelin "Aviator" tires and Goodyear tires are available. Wheels, brakes, and tires are separate for ease of assembly and painting. You can also drill a hole in the brake drum and id a screw to attached them to the main gear just like the kit gear. They are a little more expensive, but the look is worth it even is I am a little biased. Chuck Sawyer used the GT Resin set on his F-15C build a year or so back. Several others have used them on their builds. the oval holes I the Wheels are designed to be easily removed so you get the realistic look of the brake drum behind it. Pics are courtesy of Chuck Sawyer form his build thread. Hope this helps.

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