airscale

Hi all, Not been around much lately as I have a nasty shoulder injury that means I can't really do much, plus I am off to Thailand in a week so likely not back in the groove until early Feb ..that said, I do want to wish everyone Season's Greetings and thank you all for tuning in and contributing to my build log this year all the best everyone & enjoy tonight! Peter

Congratulations to the winners! This little lot is off to Mike (Sieran01) today All the best Peter

K2 I also have a prize to give in addition to our products... a 1/18 HpH Merlin I didn't end up using for my P51 - I did use one prop blade as a master so that has been modified a little, but it would still build up into a nice kit (and I don't want 70 Euros to go to waste...) Peter

count me in Kev - usual prize - one of everything airscale make in the scale of the winners choice Happy Christmas all Peter

I find this very interesting and had to go through my own interpretation of what is going on recently for my P51.. a few things seemed fixed - there was filler for the first 40% of the chord, the filler did not extend right up to the wingtips and there were access panels within the first 40% that were not filled.. ..the process in a resto, much the same as Juggernut's example is as good as can be determined for the way it was done in the factory - in this case Lopes Hope by Aircorps Aviation who also strive for 100% as it rolled out the factory replication (in infinate detail across the airframe, so much so it won Oshkosh Grand Champion) firstly filling - here it can be seen these seem to fill undulations as much as panel lines.. note also in this shot how the tip panels are dealt with, but it is only the first lateral panel line that is filled.. ..I think that is all the 'bondo' type heavy surface filler, then there seems to be a layer of paint primer filler.. ..and as can be seen on this photo the filling to 40% is not right to the tip - I actually misinterpreted this and thought the entire end panel was unfilled.. ..and to replicate it I actually made every panel that was behind the chord line and skinned where I thought it was filled with one large litho panel - this means no panel lines for me, but equally if I could have been bothered, I would far rather (and in fact started out) skinning the whole wing individually and then fill it after to get exactly the undulations, uneveness and lines that can be seen on the real thing.. ..certainly some could argue my interpretation is wrong, and I would likely agree with them, but sometimes we forget, this is my model, I will do whatever I can to make it accurate, but ultimately if I am happy, then my goal has been achieved ..for my money, the strains and stresses a wing would go through in life are highly likely to distort any fixed filler - if it was covered in bathroom sealant it would be fine, the flex would be absorbed in the material, but a hard filler & primer is highly likely to distort in any live environment over time and would not be glassy smooth with no sign of where panels are underneath my argument with my model will have to be that it represents it before it's first flight Peter

How do I have been hard at my P51 and a few years ago a good family friend who I grew up with in Singapore when my father was in Transport Command with her husband had asked me if I would make a model for him. Of all the aircraft he had flown, he had all but a Transmeridian Air Cargo CL44 Freighter. My dad and he both flew them after RAF service in a divergent list of airliners, exec jets & freighters. At the time I researched it and found Welsh Models make a 1/144 kit and 26 decals did the markings so I got hold of them both.. ..then it sat in a cupboard until this weekend - as I am waiting for masks for my P51 I was at a loose end, ans as it was due to be a Christmas present, I thought why not - surely it can't take long to make a simple desktop model.. ..here's the box.. ..and one-piece resin wings & a bag of other goodeies with the decals.. ..the fuselage is vacformed, so this was marked & cut out.. ..assembled, filled and with a mounting spigot being added for the wings.. ..it needed a fair bit of priming & sorting - partly due to my cavalier assembly, and partly due to raised doors and trench panel lines.. - the hinge blisters were also added.. ..I later added brass tubes for the exhaust pipes to the wings... ..main assembly complete.. it needed LOTS of filler to blend the flying & control surfaces.. ..a final prime of mr surfacer.. ..a coat of alclad chrome.. ..masking for the darker metal areas of the engine nacelles.. ..the nose tip was masked & painted, and the tips of the nacelles dipped in a lid of paint.. ..props painted and decal strips added for de-icers.. ..that was Saturday, this morning I added the decals and glosscoated the fuselage... ..and thats it - a model in a weekend and I also get to surprise some folks very close to me TTFN Peter

wow, this is going to be an adventure! I too had to google the aircraft - what an amazing bird - and massive in 1/32 I love your way of doing things Dan - quite fearless and carving your own path (literally...) Peter

evening boys & girls well Chuck, there isn't much to show - I only have a standard dremel with a flexi-drive and a small axminster C2/300 mini-lathe - I wish I had a pillar drill, a milling machine and a proper mans lathe, but alas not Thanks Chek - I haven't plans for a book, and I am not sure Kev would put himself through that again - poor guy had to go through 10k raw images to find the ones I had used in my build thread and do A LOT of editing! the time finally arrived to add paint... I am not a fan of the process and find it difficult (which is why I like NMF birds..), but I can't get away with it anymore so after getting the custom masks from Radu I thought I would try the MRP paint range (I used enamels on the Spit). I did some test runs to see how the paint adapts to going on unprimed aluminium and the results with the black for the tail was positive - it goes on really smooth and taked wire wooling without a problem so a start was made.. ..not too many in progress pics, but here is one of the insignia on the wings... ..I put a different black on the lower tail as there are painted over serials here that can still be made out, the idea being I put one black down, then mask the numbers and then the main black for the tail so there is a subtle difference in colour - also set out the rear stripe by setting down equal bits of tape to follow the line with more flexible tamiya white tape.. ..the MRP 'super matt black' is a wonderful colour and I am really happy with how it turned out - bit of a problem where some paintv lifted when lifting the serial masks, but I think I might leave it.. ..wire wooling the surface gives a really realistic sheen and naturally fills panel lines & rivets with lighter dust which makes for a nice weathered effect.. ..the rest are just glamour shots - the fuselage insignia had to be stripped off as the white lifted when I removed the masks, so Radu is doing me another set and I will do these with enamels - I also scaled the nose art name incorrectly so that is being done again too stuff like the prop, the gear and the 'sit' are not right as it's just jerry rigged for the photo's, but the finish line is edging closer... TTFN Peter

this is fabulous to watch, I love seeing consumate skill bringing the best out of a kit ..also I am doing one of these as my next build so the reference is very useful Peter

oh boy, he's back great subject too - I am not a fan of jets so this one is right up my street sitting back & watching the magician... Peter

howdy folks after that interesting interlude (thank you all as I now have a next project which is comforting, love that Fw190 too ) we return to some Mustang madness... ..it's all about getting ready for paint and getting details that need the model to be handled done, before I can flip it over and start mounting the gear, doors and finally start the tailwheel (been putting that off, don't know why...) Radu Brinzan is kindly doing some masks, and Torben did the nose art font for me many moons ago so I am grateful to him too so I should get paint on next time I post.. ...for now, I had to finish all the tailfeathers - mainly adding the tips to the stabilisers and fin and rivetting all the fillets. I did get some PE fasteners done for this, but there are about 60 to do and they are freakin tiny so I chose the lazy way out.. ..I cheated a bit as these are under paint and didn't do them in one piece, I used annealed metal for the fronts, but hte back of the tips where it is profiled to the stabiliser I just bent plain litho to keep the stiffness and maintain the shape.. ..I also painted the prop blades & exhausts - Steve at Model Monkey scaled up his amazing hollow 1/24 set for me and all I did was add weld beads from PVA.. ..the blades are not fixed yet, so excuse pitch or whatever please ..the last bit of airframe work was adding the MN20 loop fitting (I got some great help from the forums on identifying & getting drawings for this ) ..I started by laying down bare metal foil so I can work and things don't stick to the fuselage.. ..then I CA'd a disc of litho and the profile of the bottom mounting plate.. ..some P38 filler built up the shape and the whole thing was popped off and cleaned up.. you can also see here a sheet of annealed litho 'hinged' off the fuselage so I can start covering the shape to make the mounting plinth.. ..done, rivetted and drilled to accept the loop mounting plate.. ..the loop fitting itself was made from profiles & filler and a 1mm brass rod bent around a 10mm punch.. ..I think it's bronze green, so I went with that - it's not fixed yet, and nor are the bolts that hold it in place added.. ..thats all for now TTFN Peter

umm - I just pulled the trigger...

Steve - I think you nailed it I would love to do a late war 109 - it works on so many levels for me It's well documented, fits with my sort of theme of doing the main protagonists airframes in a Spitfire, P51 and a now a 109, is the Erla hood which I like (and means no struggling to vac form a blown canopy), and I think HpH do a 1/18 109G - it could be perfect I just need to check it is a legit NMF airframe so will need to hunt down that eagle editions JG300 book or find a pic online of red 8 Thanks a bunch, it's really got me thinking :) Peter

this is genuinely at another level - the mastery of observation and reproduction is so inspiring to see... it just makes me want to pay even more attention to what I am doing simply perfection Peter

Wow - thanks Fencer-1, that is a very, very helpful manual - that along with a drawing Christian uploaded on HS gives me absolutely everything I need really not sure about what's next - the same problem stands with the Firefly as it did when I stopped it - no accessible drawings for every component, and I never really was comfortable covering all the metalwork in paint... Hmmm - highly unlikely the F7F will ever get finished - shame as I have 18 months into it, but there are bits now I look at and think look pretty clumsy - especially the fuselage skinning (it was my first one..). I know it's not what you want to hear (you especially ) but it's just how I feel and I am just being honest I have been thinking about what comes after the P51 - but the rules I set myself are pretty limiting... it must be NMF, it must have a prop, should be a single engine and it must have accessible drawings- top of that list right now is this, but I really don't want to do another American bird.. if only a Fw190D could be found in NMF... I really don't know, but I think I only have a couple of months before this one is finished so better decide soon Peter