Chek

I like Citadel acrylics for detail brush painting. I've had pots that have been open and in use for 15+ years and still work fine without so much as a crust around the neck of the pot. Some colours like red, white and yellow have only had minute cocktail stick tip amounts of paint used for dotting in cockpit switches and the like. It also sprays well as I discovered when I painted a larger Zelda figurine for my daughter.

As well as their dominance of model hobby paints, in the UK at least, Humbrol also supply 'authentic' colours to the UK full sized warbirds and restorations market. One of my go-to formulations is still Humbrol enamel thinned with white spirit, add gloss polyurethane varnish then thinned again with cellulose thinners I copied the formula from a Peter Cooke Scale Models article where he discussed his initial LSP the 1/24 Spitfire XIV way back in the '70s, and it still works well. The only difference is these days I know to wear a mask.

The big Antonov 225 was certainly an iconic aircraft. I saw a video several years ago and the flight deck tasks and co-ordination of them were more akin to that to be seen on the bridge of an ocean going liner than something more familiar like a C-5 Galaxy or B747 or B-52.

Very commendable scheme by Special Hobby. I'm sorry a fine manufacturer like Zvezda is on the wrong side of the border in this war.

Hopefully not too off-topic as it was mentioned in passing. I've understood from some comment years ago that cuffed prop blades helped push more air through radial engines, for cooling. If so, why were they also used on inline engines such as the P-51?

I saw that Sunderland vac kit on eBay over the weekend, and have to say I'm mightily impressed at how you've transformed such a simplified set of shapes into the beauty we can see in your photos. Great work.

When the planes are new, they're probably very helpful. As familiarity with handling and maintenance by the squadrons increases, the need for any but the major ones decreases, I'd speculate.

Don't forget eBay. There are often incomplete or (usually poorly) partially built models offered for spares or repairs. A dip in oven cleaner, a light sanding and a buff with fine wire wool should take care of any existing paint and glue marks.

With the level of technology we have available to us in our world today, it'd be nice to think that all the precision that's been brought to bear on rendering this Lancaster, inside and out, could be a baseline for all models going forward. Of course it probably won't be. Not for another 15 or 20 years, anyway.

I wish I could find it now as I definitely saved it, but perhaps under the subject which I've now forgotten, of an aircraft so gray (with an 'a' for colourless) that it looked for all the world like a monochrome photo. Only a red warning panel indicated it was a colour photo.

I've had this experience with carriers in the UK when buying goods off eBay. The only way to get a satisfactory resolution is to get your seller - who hired the carrier - to make a complaint, or 'raise the issue' with the carrier. I've had goods in limbo for a week (according to the tracking reported via eBay) be successfully delivered next day by doing so.

If you check out Neville Wheeldon's Youtube channel, he's been video documenting the restoration of Lancaster VII NX611 Just Jane to airworthy condition, now into year 5 of a 10 year project. In order to keep Jane an operating crowd draw so that revenue can continue to be raised, the team at East Kirkby are also restoring a wing for a French Lancaster and the rear fuselage of another which was badly damaged when a hangar roof collapsed at BAe Woodford. The learning curve of those two side projects should speed Just Jane's restoration when the time comes to strip and rebuild those components on her. Lots of chat and explanations about structure and why things were built the way they were.

When you say "Maestro ", is that the same as "Master" the Polish brass parts company? We just need Yahu to do an instrument panel now.

First gen jet fighters didn't have a lot of puff left in them at 50-odd thousand feet. There's a passage in the book Ultimate Spitfires describing how easily PR XIXs could evade pursuing jets which were barely clinging on to the edges of their flight envelopes by their fingernails at very high altitudes. Also, RAF Canberras in the 50s had to reduce their operating ceiling from 60K feet to 50K to give the wargame exercise fighters even the slightest chance of an intercept.

It's an effect which has to be seen in real life. The video frame rate illusion of 'reversing wagon wheels' or any other rotation means it can't be experienced via optical media.

Never could figure out June wotsherface playing The Wife and her meek acceptance of a circuit or two of the field turning into a return trip to Alaska and back By prop plane. Presumably from bloody Carswell into the bargain. With nary a 'change of plan, honey' radio message. I guess women and USAF wives were expected to have zero agency in those halcyon rise-tinted, teeth-gritting 1950s. But great shooting capturing the planes revving up and trying to shake themselves apart.

All looking very good. I'll have to see how much is applicable to my KH 2000N, and steal where necessary.

This photo shows a good comparison with the previous heavyweight champ too.

I was sure that had been mentioned at some point in the past, but there was no sign of them in that German MBK unboxing video.

Apart from the Airscale instrument panels set, a set of Master brass .303 gun barrels, HGW belts and (probably) a Reskit set of Dunlop marked resin tyres I'm not sure there's a lot else to be added. Maybe some lamp lenses, but I make my own anyway.

One thing I've noticed on a few Chipmunk builds in the more modern scheme: the prop blade stripes should not be symmetrical, If the stripe at the root of one blade is white, its opposite companion should be black. The same applies to Tucanos in their pre-privatisation scheme.

Actually yes. I'm replacing the Revell F-14's borked nose with a Tamiya one, and my botched attempt at grinding out their F-15Bs exhaust grille aft of the canopy with a Tamiya F-15C nose. Both are 99% perfect fits.

Not when the Revell kit can be so easily adapted. Admittedly some won't be capable of adapting it, but what can you do?

Someone mentioned words to that effect when I was inquiring about adding a 109 E-4 canopy and losing the nose cowl intakes to get an F.

It's the Revell kit with a flat inner wing section, minus the G-6 or G-10 upper wing wheel fairings.