BloorwestSiR

The IP needs to have some new details added to it. The stock kit one: And after I've mangled the removal of the unnecessary details. I used Mr Surfacer 1000 to try and smooth things out a bit. While I had the Mr Surfacer out, I started filling in the gun access hatches on the wing.

Me too! That was the one I was going to do originally until I found the Model Maker masks for BR416.

The conversion looks to be sold out but the decal sheet is still available. The box top one is in PRU Pink and is probably the easiest one to do. https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/AIMS32D025?result-token=OGTAZ

While the marker was drying, I started on the wings. I glued in the gear bays and spar in place. Since it's a PR IV, there's no wing guns so I skipped over that bit and added the upper wings. I also cut off the wingtips and attached the extended tips. Here's a comparison between the two. Now onto the second wingtip.

I finally started some paintwork. I painted the relevant parts of the cockpit sides, frames and floor in silver. I then tried something different and used the recently released AK paint markers for the RAF cockpit green. This was the first coat: After a couple more passes with the marker, things look much better. It's much faster than breaking out the airbrush and masking everything which had been my original plan.

One more set of bits needed for the conversion are the extended wingtips. I got these from my spares box. They're from the Tamiya Spitfire kit.

I really like the PR Spitfires for some reason. I've built a pair of Tamiya kits as an FR IX and a PR XI, started an LFD FR XIV and have a PCM XIV as a PR XIX mostly sorted.

I used to have a fair number of airsofts. I bought several of them in Japan and brought them back with me in 1993. Canada Customs did a cursory check and sent me on my way. Which made me regret not buying an M134 minigun airsoft. It had just come out while I was there so all the shops had them in stock. I didn't think it would get past Customs but they said it would've been fine. Carl

I have the Hasbro Nerf M41A pulse rifle from Aliens. Does that count? The colour isn't quite screen accurate though.

The Tamiya VIII kit has Grey Nurse decals in it. I have a spare set I'd be happy to send you if you want. Carl

I've built a bunch of Tamiya Spitfires but this will be my first Kotare one. First thing was to start on the cockpit shell. I needed to figure out what to mod and what to leave out for the conversion. Drilling out all the homes in the frames paid off I guess.

I've had the AIMS Spitfire PR 1G or PR IV conversion in the stash for a while. I even have the Revell Spitfire II recommended as the donor model along with a bunch of AM corrections. Then the Kotare Spitfire I kit came out and I was able to get one for a great price so I decided to use the conversion on it instead. The last piece of the puzzle fell into place when I found out Model Maker does a mask/decal set for Spitfire BR416. The colours there are off. It should be closer to a royal blue with very faded roundels. Good thing they're paint masks. The last, last part needed was an Aboukir filter. The AIMS set includes the Vokes one. Martin generously sent me a spare one that he had.

- Airfix 1/24 Typhoon bubble top - Tamiya Spitfire VIII - Trumpeter F6F-5 Hellcat - GWH Flying Tigers Curtiss Hawk 81-A2 - Zoukei Mura Mustang IV - Airfix 1/24 Spitfire VIII

I got a reply this morning from Andy's Canada. They apologized for the delay and said the kits should arrive in the next couple weeks. So hopefully they do. Carl

As.long as they're not shipped from China to the US and then onto Canada, tariffs shouldn't be the issue. I know some companies only have a single distributor for all of North America but I don't know if that's the case with Takom. I emailed them back in March when they showed up at Andy's USA. They told me then that the Canadian shipment was a bit delayed and would be arriving in April. So I'd been checking their site on a regular basis to see if they'd arrived and were no longer listed as a pre-order. Then when I checked yesterday, the listings were all gone. Carl

Interestingly, Andy's HHQ Canada has pulled the kit from their website. It no longer shows up. All three boxings were listed the day before but are now gone. Which is a bit disconcerting for those of us who pre-ordered it from them. I've emailed them to see what their response is and I'll let you know once I hear back. Carl

Sadly, I haven't. Lost interest in it. I glue the odd piece on from time to time but haven't had the interest to push it over the finish line for some reason. This is her current state:

Nice progress there. I think you're pretty much caught up to where my Sea Fury has been for the last year(?). It's still on my bench just hanging out.

Some fast and quality work there Tolga. I ran into the same issue on my Sea Fury. I used a couple spacers between the wing and fuselage to increase the depth to match the cowling. I used some pins to help hold things together and keep them aligned. The resulting gaps were filled with epoxy putty. It does increase the height of the wing fairing but I felt that was an acceptable compromise. Carl

It's an interesting question. Myself, I'm of Chinese descent and even though I was born in Canada, my first language was Mandarin. Not an easy language to stay fluent in as far as reading and writing goes. I've certainly lost much of both. I'm not entirely sure it's a language issue. Here in Toronto, there were several hobby shops that were owned and catered primarily to the large Chinese community. One Asian mall in fact had 3-4 hobby shops in it. Most were focused on Gundam and anime kits but certainly carried other subjects. Carl

They do indeed. Here's the link. https://aerocraftmodels.com/english-electric-lightning-replacement-canopy-set-for-132-echelon-vacform-kit-128-p.asp They also do one for the Trumpeter kit.

I got to cross off one of my Grail kits from my list today. I made to the LHS to pick up the Echelon Lightning kit that they've had in storage for the last few years. They finally got it priced last week and I promptly bought it. Everything looks to be in great shape. The canopy is a bit yellowed, no surprise but Aerocraft makes a replacement so that's my next stop. Looks like I can put the Trumpy kit out to pasture now. Carl

I guess this means it's getting closer to release.

I have a set of their belts for the F-4 Phantom but they are 1/48. They look ok to me.

Matt, it's a 1/6 scale scratch build. Here's a couple more pics of it.