geedubelyer

Fascinating stuff Peter. It's clear that what works for one medium does not work for another. Just thinking out loud now but, since you'd already designed the 3D version, is there any mileage in bringing it to market as planned whilst you get on top of the IM version? In the interim there might be an opportunity to provide the market with a popular subject even if it is a limited run offer?

Thanks guys, very much appreciate the kind words. I'm glad you like how the seat turned out. I may add a couple of blueish ankle straps either side of the pull handle before I've finished to bring a little colour into the darkness. I agree John, the throttle is woeful. It wouldn't have taken much extra tooling to include a separate part. As you point out, it's quite a large component. There is a semblance of the throttle molded onto the panel but it's pretty inadequate. This particular model is destined to sit with it's canopy closed. Additionally, I think I may need to dull the transparency a bit to better resemble the full sized bird so almost all of the cockpit below the canopy sill will be partially obscured. Looking at the builds by Rockie Yarwood and Madmax I think I should have a go at adding the canopy sills. If I am able to they will hide much of the cockpit panels from view. Your comment did remind me that Revell also missed another obvious component though.....the canopy ejection handle by the pilot's left knee. Thanks for the nudge. Cheers, Guy

Very neat and tidy work. How odd that the tailplanes fit so poorly.

Hello everyone. Hope you're all doing well. It's been a while but work has continued gently amidst life stuff. I got the seat painted and after studying @Madmax (Sean's) build I added more detail to the head box. I've aimed for a faded, dusty look. Next up is the cockpit. Revell have done a reasonable job on the tub for the most part but the detail is a little low relief. Nevertheless, since very little can be seen I just tried to pick out the molded in detail. Detail behind the seat is pretty good but it's virtually invisible once the fuselage encloses the tub. A couple of obvious features need adding though. Aft of the seat on the starboard side is a red wheel and cable mechanism that's strangely missing from the kit. On the port side there's quite a large cylinder and cables on a shelf alongside the back of the seat that are suggested in the kit but they need beefing up. I used Airscale instrument decals on the IP Not absolutely accurate but given what will be visible eventually, good enough. Control column and pedals next. Cheers, Guy

Whole heartedly agree. The base is enormously convincing.

Perhaps you could sculpt a crew helmet bag or kit bag for the front seat around a fishing weight? Any ordnance on the stub wings that you could load up with weight in it's nose?

I believe the first release included a poster for pre-orders? I may have dreamt it of course That recce Spit would sit nicely on the man cave wall. Edit* I took a peep at the Kotare site and the box art for the Spitfire Va is equally choice. Bravo Kotare. @Mark Robson and @rsanz..... go on, you know you want to

Excellent result Max.

Great attention to detail John You're doing a grand job Keep it up.

This photo from a thread on Britmodeller seems to show more of a blue/grey shade. I don't know if it's genuine WWII vintage or colourised though. There is another quite a familiar photo online here that supports it.

I like that. Beautiful box art. Reminiscent of John Young's work. Thanks for the heads up chaps

Good gravy! I mean, how? Are you sure this isn't 1/16th scale? That is some mighty splendid work Pete

Huge

You see, now you're confusing us Jay. Is that not simply another close up pic of your model? I can't tell.

Here's a thought. Use the masks the opposite way round. Let's take a roundel as an example. Paint your white base. Add red over a larger area than is needed. Place the central dot of masking in the correct position on the red. Spray the blue but again, larger than necessary. Finally add the blue area mask, seal the border between the two red and blue masks with masking fluid or masking tape and then finish off around the marking with the black or cammo colour coat. Would that alleviate the white borders?

Cripes a'mighty!! What an absolutely magnificent achievement Jay. She's a beaut and you should indeed be rightfully proud of your accomplishment. Bravo that man Before you get started on your next epic adventure I would dearly love to see some photos taken outdoors in the sunshine with a suitably uncluttered backdrop if at all possible. I'll wager your model will be utterly indistinguishable from the full sized aircraft.

Cor! I really wish I'd spotted this build before I began working on the seat for my own Hunter. Excellent work Sean and great for those of us searching for references. I shall be cribbing your ideas to spruce my kit's seat up if you don't mind? Cheers, Guy

Hi @Rockie Yarwood, how are things with you? Sorry for the thread revival but I was guided here from a thread that Sean (@Madmax) created. Neat work on your cockpit. Did this one ever make it to RFI? Hope you're doing ok. Cheers, Guy

TigerMoth....two for the price of one. Chipmunk (if we ever get a mainstream kit) Gnat (again, little likely hood) Jaguar. (C'mon Airfix, 1/24th it!) Mosquito.

Hi Thierry. You pose an excellent question that probably has many answers. Erwin has already mentioned cost. The 3D printed SR-71 family is going to be rather large when assembled. That obviously takes quite alot of printing and equally, quite alot of material. Anyone wanting one is likely to have to stump up quite alot of cash. How large is the market segment for such a model? A handful of well off modellers globally? Selling the files might actually be a better business model in that instance? The Mirage F-1 may have fallen foul of Dassault's copywrite policies? Certainly one 3D manufacturer with big plans was stymied by that before they even got the ball rolling. There may also be technical issues to overcome. One designer at least is struggling with the transparent parts and getting consistent results with vacu-forming the glazing for their multi-scale, multi-media helicopter offering. For others it may be overcoming inherent resolution results and the ever present spectre of layer lines. Certainly at least one company has been vilified for the layer lines on some of their 3D printed releases. So those may offer some explanations as to why it's less easy to produce than design and why we see so few 3D models make it to market. Thankfully it is possible and Airscale Pro is paving the way, albeit beyond the budget of some. However, we know Peter is working on ways to make his designs more accessible to more modellers and I'm confident that he'll succeed. Hopefully his success will spur on others to follow in his footsteps. Cheers, Guy

Many happy returne Steve. Have a great day

Wait....... Airscale make prop blade stencil decals? Now you tell me! Neat looking propeller

There is a grainy b+w image at the bottom of this thread but I'm not sure if it's even a P-51 . Could be a -A? Quite a few Mustang pics in this collection

Patient and skilled work.