BarryWilliams

In my experience, using a fair few of these over the last few years, is that they do usually show some shrinkage. Vinyl also has the problem of lifting over detail. So I am tending to get the paper versions.

But they are 30mls compared to 10mls for Tamiya’s.

Touching up is indeed not easy. If the paint has been left for a day or two it is somewhat more resilient to a brush touch up. I tend to allow a little paint to thicken for a short while in a dish before using it to touch up using a ‘dabbing’ motion with a small brush. It works in small areas. When touching up on exposed surfaces or larger areas you can do it with the airbrush and some localised masking. It really is not a problem.

A-14 Faded Grey in the MRP range. It is MRP-021. You could check out the rest of the MRP Soviet WW2 colours as they have a good selection of the AMT and ‘A’ colours.

I dont think it is a problem. Towards the latter stages of the war there were a lot of colour variations due to supply and manufacturing issues. Given, as well, how colours weather in different ways we can get overly concerned about the exact shade. No-one can really tell you what manufacturer got it right, if any has, so you make your choice based on your favourite paint brand.

The more interesting question is why a model ends up on the shelf of doom.... Sometimes I do get a build that I know I won't finish. I can count these on one hand: Revell FW190 - an awful kit with that poor quality Revell plastic and all those sink-holes. I simply got fed up fighting with it. Special Hobby - Aircobra, I truly hate this company's kits, great subjects badly executed and I do not accept 'short-run' as an excuse. Life is too short for them. Trumpeter Avenger - a great kit and ejoyable build but the turret was missing and I just could not get a replacement so it was left unfinished. I did finish another at a later date. Hobbyboss P61 - enjoyable build that I dropped onto concrete while doing surface preparation for painting. It smashed into small pieces, a sad end to a nice kit. I will get another one day (as I did with the Avenger...) ZM Mustang - my '****-up' entirely, I simply screwed it up and I decided it was not worth finishing as I would not get a satisfactory result. Why no pics? - well I know I won't go back to a model and each and every one of those ended up in the bin and thrown away immediately I decided to stop working on it. Everthing else I have finished (38 1/32's a 1/24 and 9 1/48s over the last 7/8 years) but I only keep the best on the shelf. I discipline myself not to start a project until I have finished one, though I must do a little on-line research to wet my appetite for the next build.

The Fairy Firefly was neither useless or ugly... the Bolon Paul Defiant, also not ugly and effective as a nightfighter, so again not useless....

What about a Halifax to complete the big 4/4's of the ETO? I would get a Halifax in preference to the Lanc any day.

P47...

I also prefer MRP as they are really do spray like a dream and are perfect for novices without having to worry about thinning. They are also enable you to spray ‘effects’ such as post shading, building up colour gradually. They are not any good with a brush so for fine detail I used Vallejo Model Colour.

I feel about Revell and Special Hobby as you feel about Trumpeter. I really would suggest that you give them one more go- the 1/32 Dauntless really is an outstanding kit and I would describe it as a faultless build. There are other goodies they do, the Avenger, Swordfish, 262 and Yak 3 are all superb. Just dont use their decals and prepare with some research into the internal colours.

MRP do FS36473 which is the same but with a different sheen easily dealt with using varnish. MRP242. Sky Grey they call it.

MRP are tops for Russia, in fact it is the best airbrush paint that you can get. Laquer too. http://mrpaint.sk/farby/lietadla/USSR

Based only on 1/32 scale aircraft: Top 3 Tamiya, build qulity/fit/engineering the only doownside being the decals. ZM, novel engineering, interesting subjects and quality builds Wingnut Wings, I am not a WW1 builder but with their quality they must appear in any subjective list of the top manufacturers. Roll on the Lanc... Contenders for the top 3, just lost out, include HKM and ICM (great recent and planned releases) Bottom 3 Trumpeter/Hobbyboss, mixed feelings about these as they do produce some good kits. Special Hobby, interesting subjects but I really do not get on with their kits at all. Revell, all that Tamiya get right they get wrong. These are the worse of the lot IMHO. Contender for bottom three but 'won through' Kitty Hawk

Love it, a great build, superb weathering and your photography is certainly much better than mine. Particularly nice to see after the demise of my P61 (dropped it onto concrete while sanding, weighted nose smashed to smithereens...).