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Hi Don, sorry for the delayed response. Yes, it was indeed at Aberfoyle.

You should be able to find a casting service that will take your masters in resin and do lost wax for you. I found one such service in Toronto and they cast the upper wing rigging braces in brass for my WnW Harry Tate for about $25. All I provided them was the kit part.

Yeah, shooting against a white backdrop is a bit of a challenge with this subject. If I want to have the dark green exposed properly then the light grey of the rotors gets blown out and blends in with the background.

The latest off the bench is the 1/35 Miniart Fl 282 V6 Kolibri. It's pretty much out of the box except for the HGW seat harness and spark plug wires added to the engine. A fiddly build overall with lots & lots seam scraping, but everything fit near flawlessly. Questions and constructive criticism welcome!

Thanks! I've been using oils over acrylics for wood tones for some time now and I'm happy with my dark (e.g. mahogany) and light (birch) shades, but never seem to get a medium shade that I like. The best I've been able to come up with is this I'll be trying your colour combos. Thanks again, Tony

Love it. The Ninak one of the few WnW kits I really want but don't have in he stash. Seeing yours makes me want to pull the trigger and get one. If I may ask, what colours did you use for the struts? I've been struggling to get a nice warm medium wood shade.

In the context of modelling, the expression in French for a wash is "jus," the literal translation of which is "juice"

Outstanding! I'll be saving those wheel well shots for when I do my big 'Stang. Just a quick note about the prop, the cuffs were actually made of rubber so of course they wouldn't be chipped up.

Apologies for the delayed reply, guys - I thought this thread was long buried! Thanks again for the kind words. The engineering of the canopy is one of the kit's weaker points, IMO. There really is no need to have the frame a separate piece and it just complicates things. I painted the edges of the clear piece black using a Gunze paint marker and then tacked it to the frame with a few small dabs of superglue. I then dunked the entire assembly in Future, which acted as both glue and polish.

No vote from me too. Nothing against it, I won't be picking up the KH Kingfisher either.

I'd love to see them do a Sopwith Dolphin and a SPAD VII.

A few weeks ago I had completed and posted my Meng Me 163B Komet (RFI here), which I had finished all buttoned up. During construction, and despite the fact that it would never be seen again once I closed the fuselage, I nonetheless painted and assembled the nifty little rocket engine: As you can see, it builds up into an impressive little model in its own right, so I contacted Meng to see if I could get another motor to display along side the finished model. For the price of the postage, they kindly provided me with the relevant sprues. This time I decided to add a bunch of extra detail from brass rod, solder wire, and nuts and washers punched from sheet styrene, for example: And here's the final result: Just for fun, a stereogram. Cross your eyes such that your left eye is looking at the right hand image and vice-versa, and then try to bring it into focus. Cheers, Tony

Hi Danny, Looking very nice indeed. Looks like I'll have to pick up some translucent oxide yellow; it makes for a really nice blonde wood colour. I finished my Harry Tate a while back (in fact it was published last year in Military Illustrated Modeller magazine), and one thing I would have done differently would be to be even more careful with the fit of the lower wing. It was just a teeny bit off, but it ended up causing a cascade of alignment issues affecting the horizontal tail, the vertical stab & rudder, plus the exhaust stacks and their stays. I managed to sort it all out in the end, but it would have been a whole lot simpler had I just spent a few more minutes fitting that lower wing. Cheers, Tony

Outstanding. I really like the fact that you didn't do the over emphasized shading on the rib tapes as seems to be all the rage lately. Did you use wood grain decal on the prop, or is that all paint? Cheers, Tony

Very nice. I really like the understated weathering.

Hi Brad, The final clear coat was Aclad ALC-311 Klear Kote Light Sheen, although I had siphoned odd a couple of ounces of the clear gloss carrier before shaking the bottle. It's probably closer to ALC-312 Klear Kote Semi-Matte. Cheers, Tony

Thanks all, for the kind words! It was one of those builds that, while quite enjoyable, I'm glad is done and on the shelf. Hi Kev, I'd love for you to post it on LSP, but please hold off for a while. I'm writing it up for Military Illustrated Modeller magazine and would prefer it not go up on LSP until after it has been published. I'll be submitting all new photos with the article so the ones in my RFI post will still belong to me, and which I will gladly let you use. Hi Tim, The markings on the oval hatches are kit stencils: Unfortunately the kit does not come with a pilot figure. Thanks! The secret is to thin the Gunze Aqueous paints with pure rubbing alcohol at about 9 parts alcohol to 1 or 2 parts paint and build each mottle up gradually. It's time consuming, but the degree of control is very good. Hi David, I used Rob de Bie's site as my main reference for the paint scheme and I agree, it was probably more likely painted in greens however I decided to go with RLM 74/75/76 for purely aesthetic reasons. The fact that it's shown in 74/75/76 in "Me 163 Rocket Interceptor Volume Two" by Ransom and Cammann was enough to allow me to rationalize my choice! Cheers, Tony

All done! RFI post here: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=56147 Cheers, Tony

After over a year on and off the bench I've finally managed to finish my Meng Me 163B Komet. It was a bit of a mixed bag, with very nice detail but overly ambitious engineering. A fiddly build to say the least. WIP here: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=50501&hl=meng The only aftermarket bits used were BarracudaCast wheels (a must-have, IMHO) and the HGW microtextile seat harness (not a must-have, but a big improvement nonetheless.) All insignia and aircraft specific markings were masked and painted, while the wee stencils are kit decals. The RLM 74/75/76 are Gunze, with a mishmash of Alclad, Tamiya, Vallejo, Humbrol and Citadel paints for everything else. Questions and constructive criticism are more than welcome. Cheers, Tony

Hi Padraic, This is going to sound more complicated than it actually is, but here goes: 1) Starting with all of the "11" mask still on the backing sheet, I weeded out the yellow bits and set them aside. It's important to be able to recall the relative position and orientation of each piece with the rest of the mask, as they will be placed back in their original positions on the model later. 2) I then placed a small piece of clear frisket film over the remaining mask so that I could lift it off the backing sheet without stretching or distorting it. 3) I then lifted the mask from the sheet and placed it on the model. At this point the mask on the model consists of the overall outline mask, plus the mask covering the thin black outline. The area to be painted yellow is a void. 4) After carefully removing the small piece of clear frisket film, I painted the yellow; an undercoat of Tamiya flat white, followed by the yellow (Tamiya XF3 Yellow, plus a touch of XF7 Red). 5) Once the yellow had dried I then put back the pieces of mask that I had removed in Step 1, being careful to put them back in the exact same position and orientation. Theoretically this shouldn't be a concern, but in practice there will be subtle asymmetries that can throw things off. I worked under magnification to ensure that these pieces weren't placed slightly off. This is the most critical step, so patience really pays off here. 6) Next I weeded out the part of the masks covering the fine black outline. No need to preserve their shape as they have done their job at this point. 7) Finally, I sprayed the black (Tamiya XF85 Rubber Black) and removed all of the remaining masks to reveal the completed "11" I thinned all the paints about 60% with Gunze Mr. Color Levelling thinner and sprayed them in light mist coats to avoid any heavy buildup. Hope this helps! Cheers, Tony

I've started in with a bit of weathering now. After a light gloss coat of Tamiya X22 clear gloss, I appled MiG "Neutral Wash" (now my favourite pre-mixed wash) to the panel lines. The nice thing about this stuff is that it can be tidied up with paper towel and/or cotton buds, eithr dry or moistened with enamel thinner. Next was airbrushing a highly (and I mean highly) diluted mix of Tamiya Rubber Black and NATO Brown along the panel lines. This consists of about 9 parts pure rubbing alcohol and 1 part paint. A coat of Alclad clear flat, followed by chipping with a silver coloured pencil was next. The next stages will include dulling down the chips with more Alclad clear flat, followed by more coloured pencil chipping, and then some fluids leaking and seeping on the lower fuselage. I stall also have to do a bunch of fiddly things like painting the inside of the canopy frame, paint abrasion on the landing skid, muck and dirt on the wheels, etc. etc. As always, any suggestions and/or constructive criticism would be most welcome, especially at this stage when I can do something about it! Cheers, Tony

Well, it's been almost a year since I made any progress on this one, but it is finally back on the bench. Primed and painted, now it's time for the airframe stencils and weathering: I decided to do W Nr 191454 "Yellow 11" of JG400, which was captured by the British and displayed in Hyde Park, London after the war in September 1945. As in most late war Luftwaffe camouflage colour discussions, there is no definitive answer as to the precise colours. Some have interpreted this particular airframe as being in RLM 74/75/75, while others peg it as 81/82/76. I chose the former simply due to aesthetic appeal. All the major markings are painted on using stencils cut with my Silhouette Portrait cutter, based on the decals that came with Meng Air Modeller magazine issue #53.The 74/75/76 are Gunze, with the other colours being Tamiya mixes. Cheers, Tony

Would Tamiya tape be the right thickness and texture for the rib tapes? If so, I may have an idea for you...

Beautiful work, Guy. Would you mind sharing the base/oils colour combinations you used for the various wood tones?

...and a few shots of the cockpit before paint to illustrate the bits & pieces I added. I also textured the rubber fuel bladders by stippling them with liquid cement. It's subtle, but discernible. ...and the instrument panel Cheers, Tony