petrov27

The set by ELF is quite nice https://www.ebay.com/itm/ELF-3201-Navigations-Lights-for-Aircrafts-4Types-3Colors-Blue-Red-Clear-1-32/113668812494?hash=item1a77306ece:g:xHMAAOSwHu5b4tDi

Yeah - real modelers shouldn't even need this kit anyway - a couple blocks of wood is all a real non lazy modeler should require. For myself yeah I probably can fix it, but it really pains me to spend $250 on a brand new kit in 2019 (and yeah I know its cheaper outside the USA) and have such a crappy effort from the manufacturer on points like the turrets, wheels, wings, engines, etc. I feel that purchasing the kit is a "reward" to the manufacturer that just tells them hey we can put in minimal effort and the shills will still buy our junk - on our next release we will lower the bar even further, after-all accuracy clearly doesn't matter to our customers. I mean does any other hobby get this kind of response on new expensive items? Gosh my new $250 golf-driver, the shaft is kinda warped and the head misshapen - on golf forums does that person get shouted down as they should fix it themselves you lazy turd - a real non lazy manly-man golfer would! Or your new fishing boat - gosh it leaks and the keel isnt straight - better not complain and ask for the manufacturer to do better as that might hurt their feelings and they may not do any more boat-releases in the future! Going back to this B-24 kit, the sad thing is that I probably will end up buying it in the end especially if it drops in price in the USA - but again doesn't that really send a bad message back to the manufacturer though? It doesn't really push them to improve their product or do anything more, does it?

The radio looks great and the Beau-pit amazing! Yes I would also definitely be on-board for a observer's station as well - even it was just the basics (can't see a whole lot back there.) Im thinking wheel-wells would also be another thing to consider...

Wow great work on those Master guns - they will be main points of interest in the finished model and you have really done them justice. Rest of the model should be a cake-walk now

Looking great - love the dark wood fuselage with white underside and Italian roundels - fantastic! Have this one in the stash as well but a little afraid of it - test fitting seemed to indicate a lot of likely challenges and the vertical tail on mine is a bit twisted to boot....

Excellent build and fantastic finish!

detailing for the tops of each of the nine engine cylinder heads maybe?

I don't think the lap belts went over the seat arms to fasten underneath as WNW Fokker has them - they actually attached to the inside wooden seat bottom. The notes I had from the old Aerodrome site were: SHOULDER BELTS: All Fokker shoulder belts were wrapped around the upper, rear cockpit fuselage crosstube frame member, then returned over the aft upper seat and pilot's shoulders to attach with the two seatbelt straps using the four belt's locking pin. SEAT BELTS: Two kinds of seatbelts (or lapbelts) are found on Fokkers. One type of seatbelt anchors to each inside of the seat and seat frame with pass-through bolts as seen in the E.V photo. Another type of seatbelt is anchored to the top of the wooden seat using two "U" shaped through-bolt fittings, each side attached with nuts on the top surface of the seat. These two U-fittings located on top of the seat anchor the two seatbelts, and are covered over by the seat pad. This second kind is also found in post-war Swiss Fokker D.VIIs (I have these drawings)

good lord that is one large kit.... Think we are gonna need a bigger bench...

Shops in the US have them (Spru Bros, Section8 Hobbies) and are delivering the Halberstadt now (got mine yesterday)

Merry Christmas to me. As always just totally blown away with what WNW delivers in their kits - just the best....

Thanks man! Yeah health issues been a chore but slowly getting better. Not done a ton of modelling because of that this year but starting to get back into it. Regarding the windshield, my modifications to the trumpeter fuselage to thin it down was also done in front of the pit as it looks too wide as-is (IMHO). I think I have a pic of that in the thread - I cut a long narrow wedge off each fuselage side at the top in front of the pit. Doing that made the Trump clear front windscreen too wide and forcing it to fit seemed really risky (also distorts it at the top) so I went with the clear vac part that is sized to fit the Hasegawa kit (and with my mods my Trump fuselage shape is extremely close to the Hasegawa now) Not 100% sure that is going to work out - the last thing I did on the kit early this year was to fit that vac windscreen but I didnt glue it yet. It looks decent to me so far though....

Yeah a 1/32nd new hellcat is one of my most wanted. The 1/24 coming out looks good but I have never done anything in that scale and not sure I wish to move to it. Regarding current Hellcats, the Trumpeter is very buildable but has some pretty strong shape issues in the fuselage if you care about such things. My attempts to resolve those are below - I really need to wrap that build up....

Strange - the pic shows for me, but trying imgur below. If still doesnt show, this is a Dragon "Wing Tech" Bf109E-4B 1/32" https://imgur.com/Wvf8iFq