Cicchino

Well... almost done: I found a clearer picture of the aft end of the exhaust and hidden in what I thought was just grime is an additional joint. I've made that correction and hopefully that's it for the Welland exhausts. 🤞 Front nacelle looks good, cleaning up some disappearing rivet/dzuz ines on the rear nacelle next. John

Guys, Another milestone - the Welland engine exhausts are complete; I painted up a pair and slotted them into the beat up test mule for a quick look. I slipped in a pic of the real thing at Hendon for grins; all in all I'm am pretty happy with the result although there is a band of weathering at the aft end I need to add. The exhausts include a shock cone inside the exhaust that is unfortunately impossible to photograph. These were small enough to do on my Elegoo Mars printer but I need my Saturn for the larger parts and I have a temporary work stoppage while I do the dreaded FEP film replacement. Hope to have some more substantial pics over the next few days. Thanks for dropping by John

Guys, The conversion has progressed to a point where I feel safe in starting to build the legacy HKM kit - attached are some pics of the cockpit which I dolled up a bit. It's more like a F.3/F.4 hybrid with some prototype thrown in, but it busies it up a bit. A couple of more details to add (like a firing button on the control column, an Airscale Sutton harness, etc) but enough done to tape it together for an in progress shot. wash, dry brush and flatboat to follow. Sorry for the hurried pics. More pics of the conversion over the next few days. Thanks for dropping by John

Not the Meteor just yet, but a tease of some noodling I've been doing Thanks for dropping by John

Hey Gerald, Thanks for the encouragement I'm just back from 3 week holiday in Europe, so starting to crank things up again. I have made some progress which I think I can post before week's end - namely finalizing the Welland exhausts (I'm planning my initial build as WWII, probably white aircraft) although I am making allowances to build a Derwent powered airframe as well. I've also fixed the tolerances between the forward and rear nacelle halves, so they sit nicely together, and I'm currently working on the rivets/scribing on the outer wing. All in all it's progressing steadily if not quickly. I am however close enough that I've started to build the HKM cockpit in preparation for getting the fuselage halves together and ready for the finished nacelles and wing. To answer your question, once I've gotten a set I'm (and y'all would be) happy with, I will look at options for making it available. I'm just not sure I want to be in the 'production' business, although I do have a couple of other things percolating 😉 More to come, John

Guys, Having joined a while back, but only really become active in the last year or so, I feel that each build on LSP is in essence a collaboration of the entire community. It is a real pleasure to participate, and I hope to contribute something positive with every post I make. I'm looking forward to everyone's next build! Regards John

Dave I just read through the entire thread - what a great build! Very inspirational as I didn't know much about the Mk VII nor the cool colors it wore. I'll be looking forward to the final result - you have a real winner! Regards John

Kev, There is a build on YouTube - maybe Model Minutes? who encountered the same issue. I made a note of it when I saw it so I don't think you are alone. He also had the same gap on the wing fold line you did, but it looks like you found the culprit where he did not. I have been making notes all over my instructions. It sounds like maybe some of the wing fold bulkhead could be left out ( or at the very least trimmed) for the extended wings? Appreciate you blazing the trail as I hope to have mine on the bench soon. Regards John

Dave, Jenn from Jenesis Designs over on YouTube had a great tip - she made a small square mask that she could lift and reuse after she sprayed each stencil. It was elegant in its simplicity; I'll be using moving forward for sure. I am a tremendous fan of Sven's products; you will be soon! Regards John

Mark, Just randomly remember C-I-C-C-H-I-N-O when the P-47 time comes.! 😜 John

Without rehashing some of the suggestions made already, I'm hoping the P-38 makes the list as I want to build it later this year. The one giant put off for me regarding trumpeter is the representation method they've chosen for rivets, and with the P-38 I will try and mitigate them in some way yet to be chosen. John

I may have misiterpretted these specs. This is from an earlier article on LSP, but I've seen the same diagram in Aircorps drawings. To me it looks like R in this case goes to the point of the star, with the blue field extending beyond that. As the war progressed, the original roundel (where the star did in fact extend to the edge of the blue field) was outlined first in red, then in blue, and where the points of the star originally extended all the way to the edge of the blue field, after the updates, they no longer did. From reading these drawings I inferred that the 'standard' measurement still referenced the points of the star. When I create my own insignia masks, that's the reference point I've used. Apologies if I may have misled anyone. Regards John

OMG did you really rescribe the clear plastic? I am in total awe! John

This was one of the first 2 or 3 kits I ever built; I remember it hanging from the basement ceiling with a Revell Ju-87 squarely in its sights! Will be looking forward to the rest of the redo! John

Kev, I just received my kit and have been following your build closely. Have you reached a point where you've test fitted the outer wings to the inners? I'm wondering if the spars will be enough to keep things lined up enough to allow the outer wings to slide on with an acceptable join, or if it might be wiser build inner and outer tops and inner and outer bottoms first and then join them along the leading and training edges. Any thought at this point? (the of course applies to the extended wing option) Appreciate your insight John