Whitey

Some of the nicest aircraft that I have flown over long distances didn't need a throttle Eric, but you had to pick the day though.

Well done Eric, your research and modelling skills have produced another sensational model.

Close mate, but no bananas yet.

Nice build Eric. Your weathering looks great.

I've sent them an email and will keep my fingers crossed.

I just received my Eurofighter and it has a broken windscreen, just like a friend of mine's kit has. The canopy and windscreen are very thin and clear but they are attached perpendicular to the sprue, so there is no protection from them being squashed. Is this a common problem? The rest of the kit is magnificent and with the Aires cockpit, exhausts (late) and wheel wells it should look sensational when finished.

The probe looks good Eric. It's also good to see some paint on the jet too.

Lovely work. Makes me want to build another one, but this time fully detailed like yours, not just OOB.

Superb Spitfire.

Nice 737 Kev. Almost makes me want to build an airliner or two.

Thanks for the kind comments guys. Lutz, right click and save as much as you like.

It's a Miracle. Lovely work Nessus. I can't wait to see your updates and completed jet.

That's a great looking Hurricane.

Best wishes with your room and your Rufe Tim.

Superb.

On 19th February 1942, Sea1C Hajime Toyoshima took off from the Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft Carrier Hiryu, to participate in the first attack on Darwin, Australia. Toyoshima's Zero, BII-124, was reportedly hit in the oil tank by a single bullet and he crash landed on Melville Island, to the north of Darwin. He became the first Japanese prisoner of war in Australia. Toyoshima reportedly committed suicide after leading an attempted breakout of over 1100 Japanese POW's from the Cowra POW camp. He was a proud warrior. Approximately 200 POW's died or committed suicide during this breakout attempt, along with four Australian soldiers and one Australian civilian. The remains of the centre section of this Zero is located in the Australian Aviation Heritage Centre in Darwin. It is an impressive aircraft museum. My Zero was built "straight from the box" with no aftermarket parts added and depicts Toyoshima's aircraft as it would have stood on the deck of Hiryu prior to the attack on Darwin. It is my contention that this aircraft would have been well maintained onboard Hiryu, following the Pearl Harbour raid some two months earlier. I believe it would have shown little signs of wear and tear and would have been washed, to get rid of salt spray and cared for regularly. (What else did the proud Japanese maintainers have to do while on board between raids?) This was my first attempt at using acrylic paints and boy am I impressed. I chose the Tamiya range of paints as per the callouts in the instructions. My first impression after painting the undercarriage doors, was that the recommended XF-76 IJN Grey-Green was too dark and too green but once the entire model was painted it looks spot on, just as advertised by Tamiya for this scale. The Aotake is Tamiya X-13 Metallic Blue enamel mixed with about 30% X-25 Clear Green. I think it looks ok in the flap wells, intakes and cowl mounts. The front cowling was rattle can sprayed inside and out with Tamiya TS-29 Semi Gloss Black enamel. After I had painted, decalled and gloss coated the propellor, I discovered that the rear of the propellor blades should have been brown. Too late, so sad, mine are black and they are staying that way. I am not game to remask the propellor front surfaces in case I lose the markings. I masked and painted the Hinomaru's and the blue ID bands. References are inconclusive about the correct colour of the ID bands. I personally like the look of the darker bands so that's the way it is. The little bit of exhaust and gun muzzle staining was applied with a small brush using scrappings from a Burnt Umbra pastel stick. I found the construction complex and the instructions somewhat confusing, for me at least in two areas. 1. I chose not to utilise the retracting undercarriage and found that I had to have the undercarriage painted, completed and attached to the model prior to the overall painting of the aircraft in order to get the overlying sections of the wing in place. I compressed the oleo springs to get the correct sit of the model and then glued the oleos in that position. I used a plastic drinking straw, split in half to cover the completed undercarriage legs, minus gear doors while I painted the model. Not too much of a hassle as it turns out. 2. The engine detailing is thorough, but I failed to work out how much would be seen until after I had completed the work behind the engine. My intention was to leave the engine off until I had painted the aircraft, but found that I had to install the engine firewall before painting, leaving a complete engine sticking out the front and needing to be masked. Unless you leave the engine bay accessory panels off the model to display those parts, I suggest that you leave off all of the parts behind the engine firewall. That way you can install the firewall but leave the engine off until after completing the overall painting of the aircraft. I had painted the wheel wells Aotake, as per the instructions, but later research indicates that they were most likely painted IJN Grey-Green, so as I sprayed the airframe I oversprayed the wheel wells with that colour and it looks about right to me. The kit is magnificent, hardly any filler required, but the wing attachment was tight and required some trimming to fit without squeezing. It is probably something I did during the build that caused it to be a little tight. As stated earlier, I am really impressed with the acrylic paints. I thinned them with Mr Color Thinner 250 and added a drop of Tamiya Acrylic Paint Retarder for spraying and when I needed to use a brush for smaller details I added a few drops of the particular colour into a bottle top lid, added a touch of retarder and it worked beautifully. Airbrush and brush cleanup was done easily with WINDEX. I used Pacoe's Long Life Self Shining Floor Polish as the semi gloss coat applied with a soft brush. This appears to be the Aussie version of Future and works fine. I bought the Yellowhammer decals because my experience with the Tamiya decals in my Spitfire VIII was not good. Although the Spitfire decals worked ok in the end, they were brittle and it was hard work getting them on properly. Painting the Hinomarus and ID bands worked a treat and the aircraft ID markings and stencilling was a mix of Tamiya kit decals and Yellowhammer. The Hinomaru red is Tamiya X-7 Red mixed with approx 10% Xf-64 Red Brown. It looks ok to me. Not too bright but not too dark. Cowl flaps are open. Here is the remains of the real aircraft in Darwin. I took the photo in 2007. And finally here is one happy modeller. Photos from my Canon 7D and 550EX flash mounted on a tripod and shot at 1/50th sec, F16 to get a good depth of field against a blue-grey bed sheet, cropped and sized using Irfanview. Come along to our next IPMS Queensland meeting - Wednesday 18th April at 1930 and see it in person. Details are on our website.

Wow. You are a craftsman. Go back to school and be an engineer.

Fantastic Fokker. Makes me want to get mine out and start it.

Your cockpit is looking good Eric. My Isracast Kfir set and the Fisher cockpit arrived this morning. So now I have all the parts to get stuck in. Even though these sets are magnificent, there is still a lot of "Aussie" conversion to be done. I've just ordered the Nesher set as I will use most of the Kfir set on a second build when I finish the Mirage. Judging by what I've seen of your magnificent Mirage, the airframe is the straight forward bit. I think the cockpit and canopy are going to be the challenges that cause the most heartache. The Mirages that a mate of mine and I made as kids, and that we thought were pretty cool at the time, are just rubbish compared to what we can do today with the resin bits and the available details and pics available on the internet and elsewhere.

Thanks Eric, I'm planning to be there with it.

No I haven't, I'll give it a try. Thanks.

Here is my recently completed Tamiya 1/32 scale Spitfire MkVIII representing Temora Aviation Museum's magnificent aircraft. I thought that this was a good way to present a clean aircraft rather than a wartime aircraft. Overall a sensational model to build but I still added some extra details in the cockpit, resin wheels and cockpit door come from Barracuda Studios. I only left the port side cowl off so that you can see the complete aircraft from the other. Lots of photo references used and special thanks to Motty and his fantastic photo resource. Brett Green's book was also helpful. I left the wartime "kill" marking on because I liked them. They are not present on Temora's aircraft. Modelmaster paints were sprayed with the gloss coats brush painted using Long Life floor polish with the final gloss coat from an old bottle of Future, that I generally only use for canopies. The kit decals were very fragile and the carrier film between the ID letters silvered badly so I used a new blade and cut the offending pieces off the model, which worked well. Photos with my Canon 7D, speedlite and a bed sheet as background. I used a piece of silver foil placed on top of the flash to diffuse some of the shadows. It looks good on my shelf and I hope my pics inspire you guys to build one too.

Looking good Eric.