Sepp

Yes, an Anson would be great!

Go on then, as we're in full-on wish list mode ... please let it be a C.202

The various red white and blue Birdseed liveries didn't use the entire Union flag, only a representation of a bit of it. I like it.

Ye, TRS is very much a Marmite thing. I'm a total geek for it, lol! Enjoy the show

thanks, Kev! I have to be honest, the original does very little for me, but I thought the re-imagined series was excellent... well, until the show runner changed; the new bod didn't believe in it or Caprica and they both withered and died. Admittedly, the studio fire that destroyed many of the BSG sets didn't help! One of the things I particularly liked about BSG TRS is that the Cylons weren't just "the enemy" who had no point of view. After the show concluded, a DVD was released that shows many of the scenes from their perspective. I think it says a lot for the show's copyright holders that they not only permitted, but actively supported, a fan-driven spin off, Blood and Chrome, which was extremely well produced. Contrast that with certain other studios and their treatment of fans' use of copyright emblems, etc.

Right then - off we go... Before committing scalpel to plastic, I mentioned above that the kit is not without it's problems. Whilst the various bits do actually fit together after a fashion, whoever cut the mould seems to have used a hacksaw, chisel and dressmaker's tape measure in doing so. The gates are huge. ... and that ain't the smallest example, by far. Note, too that the spue tree is misaligned.. that's not two sprues in the pic! Fit can, for the main part, be kindly described as "loose" warpage abounds and alignment pins are scarce. Fortunately, I made myself a curry last night, so I popped the left fuselage half on top of the rice pan as it was steaming and after a few mins on a med/high heat, the plastic softened enough to coax back into reasonable shape. At least the highly visible panel lines that run around the fuselage, and which are a major feature of the ship, line up reasonably well - this is a good thing, as the belly pan is also a loose fit; it can move around 1mm fore/aft, and is very vague in "yaw". Only one tab, no locating pins. The huge slot will receive the locating tab on the nose landing gear leg. The fun and games contunue on the belly pan itself. If you study the pic below very, very carefully you might just be able to spot the very subtle stand locating slot... and the superbly placed copyright mark. Yes, let's put that on the outside - well done, everyone! Modellers who suffer with consistantly producing mirror-finish paint jobs and struggle getting that elusive perfect orange peel effect need not worry with this kit. If you squint a bit you can also make out that the entire external surface has been treated to a fine, soft, textured finish. Lovely. What surface detail there is, is quite soft - for example, the open bays on each side of the fuselage: ... and with that, I'd better start. First up, that stand slot. Card backing, Vallejo putty and Mr. Surfacer 1000, and slot-b-gone. Copyright notice is also no more. Cockpit tub built up and most of the surface detail scrubbed off ready for PE. The panel face wasn't a bad fit and just needed a smear of putty. The rendition of the seat is pretty wooden. I may yet chop it out and replace it with a resin one - which reminds me, I need some belts, too. I don't know why the rear wall of the tub is shaped as it is - it bears no resemblance at all to the shape of the fuselage inner surface. You could drive a truck through the gap. (Tub, walls and rear plate just dry fitted here). The instructions would have you assemble the cockpit tub sides to the tray, but doing so would make pacing various decals difficult, and given the approximate fit of the parts so far, I decided to glue them to the fuselage halves, fill the gaps, and then sandwich the tray between them. More woeful fit issues, mahoosive gaps and thoughtfully placed ejector pin marks to fill. However... good news! Once attached, and with a small roll of Blutac behind it to brace it in position while it sets up, the joint between the cockpit wall and tray is impressively tight and disappears completely when the fuselage halves are joined. With that, the sun is out, it's lunchtime and I have a cold beer to hand. More later, Sepp

I use ImageShack too; I like the albums, and creating links is simple.

Yep, PVA.

Well, I'm up for one, anyway - and if it turns out to be half as nice as the first pics look, two or three more.

Ahoy! My son and I are both great fans of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series, so to get one of my Viper kits off the shelf I'm doing this as a present for him. Various extras will be used, as in the pic below - I'm not sure which engine set I'll use, and I might augment the cockpit set with one or two Airscale bezels. Ship, serial and squadron markings will be DIY decals and I might extend that to the various stencils as the kit's decals are notoriously fragile. The kit has very few parts for a 1/32 subject as you can see and is, on first inspection, not without it's problems... but more of that later; if all goes well, it'll end up looking something like this: Back soon(ish)! Sepp

I fly a G650ER and Citation XLS+ and would love to see good 1/72* IM kits of both - but in the absence of such, wooden desktop models will have to suffice ('or vac form', you say? Sadly my skills, such as they are, aren't there yet.) *or 1/48 ... be still, my beating heart!

Just found this build and I'm very glad I did. Beautiful, methodical engineering - I wish my dad was alive to see it; as a toolmaker, he'd have loved every single step.

This site produces so many works of art, it is difficult to rank them in any meaningful order and easy to run out of superlatives with which to describe them ... but this really is jaw-droppingly good; oh my word, yes. The finish is just... I have no words that would do it justice. I am in awe. As dodgem says above, thank you for the education.

Nope, no little fingers in my house any more. MY "little one" is now a hulking great 6ft+ copper, lol. I should, pehaps, temper my first post by saying that I like the surfaces to be moveable so there's a choice of pose but once the pose is struck, it stays put. I simply don't see the point in replacable landing gear, but chacun à son goût!

I'll use the provided hinges as attachments, but everything gets fixed in a set pose - yes, even the prop.

How very odd! The very last thing you want on a wing from an aerodynamic point of view is a rough leading edge. It increases stall speed, sharpens the stall when it happens and fuel consumption goes up due to the increased drag. If the wings have even slightly different leading edge profiles you'll get a mahoosive wing drop too, which is a Bad Thing. We spend a fortune keeping the leading edges of our jets clean and polished for exactly these reasons. That and they look pretty, shining in the sun.

I wish I'd thought of that! ... looks like that's this afternoon taken care of

Well, I'm in

In a word: delightful!

Very nice job, there - lovely all round!

I'd love to see a Folgore or Veltro. Sea Fury would be nice too.

I agree pretty much completely with your assessment, Tim, although I have found that leaving the things for the reccommended 6-8 hrs does reduce the liklihood of the decals tearing or breaking up. If you're quick you can, as you say, recover the situation. I would add one caution though - don't be in a hurry to use them once they're wetted. If you're too eager, they'll break up on the backing paper and there's no way back from that. Geeeeently try to move the carrier film - if it doesn't want to move freely, don't try and coax it because there lies disappointment and ruin! I would also add a couple of general cautions (and also apologise for a picture heavy semi-hijacking of your thread!). Firstly, either there are some bad fakes out there, or HGW have hit a quality snag somewhere. The pic below shows two sheets for the P-51D: On the left, one definitely direct from HGW, on the right one iirc via an online store (although tbh I've bought so much from so many places it is possible it also came from HGW direct). Note the obvious colour difference on the natl markings. Note also HGW branding missing from the right-hand sheet. Secondly, examine the sheets carefully for various spelling errors and content errors. The next two pix show the same area from both sheets - direct from HGW first. Note that the white registration on the first sheet is nearly spot on, that on the second is way off (item #50 shows this best). Note that both sheets have the same circular tank contents decal... 02 gals? 92, surely, as that is the tank capacity. I'm no expert on the P-51, but as a pilot, it looks mighty odd to me. Note also the second sheet omits the "ground here" legend from item #34. In the next pic (of the sheet possibly bought online, but the sheet bought direct is identical), I believe the stencil at top (item #106) ought to begin "fuel lines and pipes", and "securely" is mis-spelled: Other differences included the drop tank filler cap rings. Lovely, thin, rings from the first set (cap itself is painted): versus bloody great (poorly registered) red blobs on the second, with no gap between the ring and what I presume is supposed to be a fill for the cap (item #95): and (not shown) the prop blade decals on the first sheet had good silver backgrounds, whereas those on the second sheet were grey. In general the second sheet produced a noticable film residue whereas the first did not (and neither did the Spitfire sheet I have subsequently used). Despite all this, I really like the dry transfers and will definitely be using them again... or some of them, at least. Once again, Tim, apologies for hijacking your thread but it seemed pertinent to mention. Cheers! John

Not seen an ASR Spit before - nice subject

Simply beautiful.

Lovely job on the camo ... I really like it