KUROK

Thanks Tom,
 
The prop will get a thin coat of reddish/orange Tamiya Clear mix and final polish - but heading in right direction - and really easy. 
 
I can see why WingNut wings kits are so popular!
 
Iain

1/32 Hasegawa F-104 C
I just started on this, it was given to me by a member of the local club only problem is, there's no instructions or decals...since when has that stopped anybody.
I'll do what I can with it with no upgrades (other than decals) and using pictures on line of this model built by others as a guide for construction.
Wish me luck?

Sealing the steps and the priming coat.


 
So the question is to spray or use a hairy stick? Lacquer and priming coats I have sprayed, but from WWI I have seen film of clear doped linen being brush painted with PC10 leaving space for national insignia. Most of the painting so far has been with a brush. Just wondering.
 
Steve

A little bit more progress today. Mostly test fitting rather than glued as some of this requires rigging! Curious as to what cyno folks use for the rigging. I have some Zap but it's a few years old and does not seem to work that well. Also painting the IP. I started by painting the wood first and the the instrument bezels, but I don't like the result, and am thinking of painting the instruments first, then the wooden panel. Any thoughts?

 
Steve.

Hello again - last update for this project!
 
I had no need to worry about the Xtradecal roundels - they went on good as gold.
 

 
The underside roundels perfomed astonishingly well over those pesky blisters:

 
Tail surfaces and cannon added, gear legs and radiator fairings in place, temporary cockpit door removed, machine gun port patches made using 6mm Tamiya tape... nearly there!  Exhaust stubs are resin - I'm afraid I don't recall whose; if I find the packaging I'll edit this post to give the credit.
[edit: Exhaust stubs are the Quickboost Mk VIII set]

 
Just one thing left that I felt wasn't right OOB... the IFF aerial.  Tamiya's etch fret inclues a blank billet-shaped piece, however this pic - admittedly of an aerial fitted to a Mk XVIe - suggests it should be tapered.  Right or wrong, I prefer the tapered look so that's what Eva is having!  In the pic below, Tamiya's offering is part (10) on the left.  On the right is QuickBoost's 1/32 A4 Skyhawk antenna set... that left-hand one looks pretty close to the right size to me

 
and with that, the prop, the pitot tube, canopy, HF mast and Barracuda cockpit door in place .... finished.  I've really enjoyed this build and I'm going to be buying more Tamiya Spitfires, that's for sure.

 
RFI post is here; thanks for looking and for the support and advice!
 
Sepp, out.
 
 
 

Me again!
 
The weather here has been lovely over the past couple of days, so I've been taking full advantage of that and neglecting my duties here - nevertheless, I have made two small steps forward:
 
Underside stencils on. All HGW wet transfers.

When they work, they're the absolute dog's doodahs and sink beautifully into the detail - do watch out for typos though! 
 
HGW recommend Mr. Mark setter, but I've used MicroSol and MicroSet with no issue whatsoever.  Theoretically, you don't need to gloss first but after some experimentation it seems to me that any residual carrier/gum that refuses to wipe away just disappears on a gloss finish.  Frankly, the carrier film itself is so thin that if you were to miss removing it, provided it wasn't creased, I wouldn't be surprised if it were to also disappear under a top varnish coat.

 
Serials and inscription on. I went for a white inscription rather than the orginally intended yellow.  I haven't yet decided if that was a mistake...


 
The weather looks set to cool off a bit over the weekend so hopefully more progress can be made. Next up: squadron codes, then upper surface stencils.
 
Cheers!
 
Sepp
 
 
 
 

A little more this afternoon...
 
Rear crankcase added to main engine assembly - with copper inlet tubes and push-rods weathered to match rest of engine (I use water based inks for this - over varying shades of Xtreme Metal for the 'aluminium' colours, MRP for the Copper).
 
Also a few more instrument decals added - and cockpit parts assembled to right hand frame.
 

 

 

 

 

 
And I couldn't resist some 'dry fitting' assembly - looking really good!
 

 

 

 

 
Found a useful tool for doing neat black metal brackets on the wooden frame - a fine point permanent marker - works an absolute treat!
 
Just need the oils on the instrument panel to dry so I can do the rest of the decals...
 
Ignition wires next methinks.
 
Blue Skies!
 
Iain

The front half of the crank case has been machined from acrylic, and detailed.  It was not as hard as the aft half, because the aft half had the intake manifold ports.  Here:
 
 
 
Combine this piece with the aft half and it begins to look like a crank case:
 

 
It is now time to sprout its blossoms (the cylinders).
 
During my days off, I could not stop the little gray cells cogitating the problems ahead, which are many.   Some involve the curved and formed pipes that make up the intake manifolds, and the exhaust pipes.  So I attempted a little tuffy - the P & W provided exhaust stack for the forward row of cylinders - this part:
 
 
 
Note it is actually a tube within a tube perhaps with the outer tube as an insulator of sorts (?).  The outer tube has a weld fin along its length, and a flange near where it attaches to the cylinder head.  And it is the "S" shape that makes it so challenging.
 
I am going to use .125 inch diameter solder to make all these parts.  This stuff:
 
 
 
Now - the main reason I am using solder is because it can be formed relatively easily.  I say relatively.  This stuff is pretty stiff, taking alot of force to bend it.  But once formed or bent, it has no springback, and unlike a tube, it has no thin walls that can collapse during extreme forming.  I used .117 inch diameter on the Thunderbolt a couple years ago - that stuff was easily found in hardware stores.  The .125 inch stuff was harder to find, and more expensive. It is also the largest diameter I could find commercially, and it actually is not large enough.  For instance, a typical exhaust pipe on the Corsair, per drawing, is 2 11/16 inch diameter, or .149 inch in 1/18 scale.  Although I cannot find similar data on the intake manifold pipes, by scaling various engine related drawings for Corsair and Thunderbolt, the diameter appears to be about the same as the exhaust pipes.   Well - I have to use the 1/8 inch stuff; I have no choice unless any of you have any bright ideas.
 
So - for that little exhaust stack prototype, I created a robust fixture, or tool, and it has to be robust:
 

 
This fixture assures a fairly exact and repeatable final shape of the part.  The solder was first lined with .156 diameter plastic tube, reamed to .125 inch ID, because it has to be slightly larger diameter than the rest of the exhaust piping.  And then forced into an "S" shape with the fixture. It took a couple of tries with modifications made to the fixture.  But it seems to work OK.  I was fairly amazed the plastic didn't just split apart - it did not want to be formed into that shape!  I now hope the fixture is robust enough to do this 8 more times.
 
Here is the finished prototype part, which I think is good enough to just use as is:
 

 
OK - must keep my eye on the ball.  It is now time to finish the cylinders, including the air deflector jackets.  That is what you will see next post.  Thanks.
 
 
 
 
 

Here is a better picture of the R-2800 engine cases, with the area between the red lines being what I have modeled so far with this lathe turned and milled piece:
 

 
In order to do hole drilling, I had to create a jig of sorts to better assure the holes are in the right place, and perpendicular to the faces where they are being drilled.  Very important"
 

 
And here is the completely finished machining.  Compare to the upper photo of the real thing:
 

 
I can tell you I am a happy camper with that part.  You think those big 3/16 dia machine drilled holes were not a bit nerve wracking?  After hours and hours of machining?  Cannot wait to crown it with 9 cylinders, valve pushrod tubes,  and intake manifolds!
 
 

Some progress on the engines.

 
My wife asked if the model was finished yet! I tried to explain that in each of the engine assemblies there are 43 parts including decals, and all need painting before assembly. That's more parts than in one of those Airfix bag kits I used to make as a boy!
 
Steve

And a bit more......

 

 
Nearly there. Just when you think it's done you notice something else to do! In this case some bracing wires and paint touching up.
 
Steve

Hi Folks,
 
Okay, it's been a while. Winter, House Renovations, Life you all know the excuses. Manged to do this in the last week, so there is progress.

 
Only about a mile of rigging to do now!
 
Steve

The great thing (one great thing) about Gunze lacquers is that they are optimized for impatient people.  By the time you are done cleaning your airbrush, you are good to pull the masks.  I literally picked it up and peeled them off 10 minutes after I finished shooting the Medium Green.  There are a couple tiny area of overspray where I didn't get the masking job perfectly sealed, but all in all I"m happy with how crisp it is.

 

I'm still getting used to how much you need to thin Mr Color lacquer for it to spray well.  It doesn't help that they lose solvent sitting on the shelf even with the lid on tight.  If you don't thin enough, you get nasty gritty surface texture.  Fortunately, there's a way to (mostly) fix this error.  Once the color cost is dry, spray a liberal, wet coat of pure Mr Leveling Thinner on the model.  Voila!  Anyway, this is the base color, straight up Dark Earth on the vertical surfaces, lightened with Sand Yellow on the horizontal ones to account for sun fading.  Medium Green, again lightened on the wings and horizontal stabilizers, will complete the camo pattern.

One more

One of the best weathered finishes I have seen!
 

Here is my finished project.
Tamiya 1:32 P-51D in the markings of Daddy's Girl
This was an amazing kit to build and i have to say my best build yet. Hope you all enjoy.
Some description of what i used.
I replaced the kit instrument panel with a Eduard Look one. Also used HGW fabric seat belts and resin dingy. Painted with K kolors Aluminum, Tamiya mix for the bright green nose and MRP for everything else.

Good morning all,
Here is the renovation of my 9 year old Tamiya Sptifire !!
Resumption of painting and weathering with oil paint and watercolor pencils.
Cheers
X15
 

Beautiful model! I like it a lot. :-) 
Radu 

My last built , enjoy : 
 

 
 
 

 

 

 
 

I actually wrapped this one up today, and took some pics outside in the sun. It was a bit windy, so I may try some later without the white background when I'm sure it will be safe. 
 
As there is very little info available on these planes, I took some liberties. Here is the basic premise:
- This plane (red 20, 196th IAP)) seems to be the only M-105 Klimov plane consistently depicted in model kits and renderings, though no photos of it seem to exist. I chose to do it because at least I am reasonably certain it actually existed.
- As these were lend-lease aircraft, I assumed this one would have been delivered to the Soviets in standard 3 color USAAF colors with US stars (no bars) on them, so I first painted it in that scheme - dark green/brown camo upper surfaces, neutral gray undersides, green zinc chromate pit and insides. No U.S. ARMY lettering on the bottom, as they seemed to have stopped doing this by the E models.
- I assumed that the Russians would have then painted over the US stars with whatever paint they had, so a darker shade of green over the wing top and fuselage stars, and russian underside blue on the wing bottom, with a brush, so crude circles. 
- Then Russian red stars on the wings and fuselage over the painted out US insignia where it occurred. I also assumed the plane would have then seen service for a time before the engine wore out.
- At this point, the plane would have had the engine replaced with the M-105 Klimov, and assigned to the 196th IAP.
- At some point after that, the 196th painted over everything with white, including the fuselage star, and replaced the star with a red number, painting a new star on the tail. It would then have seen service until it met it's end or the the war did, whichever came first. 
 
Eduard Brassin wheels and tires
Scratch built upper front engine cowl and exhaust, cast in resin
Spinner and prop from Special Hobby Yak-3 kit (heavily modified and also cast in resin)
RB seatbelts








 
Hope you like!
 
Tim
 

Beautifully clean work as always!  Love how the yellow colors really pop,, especially on that blue background.

Love that yellow paint scheme and great job on those decals!

evening all
 
I trust I find you all well in these difficult times and if anything it gives you a chance to either do some modelling or if not, enjoy the work of others who do
 
I find myself confined to quarters, not through illness, but through trying to stay safe - I am fortunate I can work from home and just do emails and conference calls for my day job rather than sweat it into London..
 
 
 
I think you are right Chuck - I have had a go at better alignment and am now in limits of whats possible so will leave as is now - pics next time
 
So, where were we - elevators...
 
always seem to be the last thing I do, don't know why
 
here is a nice shot of Lopes Hope which shows there is more to them than meets the eye
 
notice the rib tapes, the visible structure underneath, the many eyelet sort of 'polo mint' fixings and the four mounts for the mass balance weights..
 

 
..I started with a brass sheet blank, cut from scaled plans and scribed with all the internal structure (also making most of the cuts for the trim tabs so they can be broken out later) - from there plastic strip was used to bulk it out and coffee stirrer sticks for the ribs. I use these as they are wood and the solartex RC covering sticks well to it..
 

 
..soon both elevators were done top and bottom... there is a double wall where the trim tabs are
 

 
..then the bulk of the structural additions were dremelled off and sanded to final profile - once complete the trim tabs were removed..
 

 
..after covering with solartex and wicking CA on the edges, the eyelet things were added - these are tiny brass washers, the bigger ones punched out of litho..
 

 
..these were then covered with the rib tapes again scaled from plans - the tapes are made from foil plumbers tape (like bare metal foil just cheaper) with a riveter run along a straight edge and a scalpel cut along the holes to get pinked edges..
 
..they cover all the eyelets well - although in this shot there is still a big panel of tape to go over the trim tab area..
 

 
..a shot of primer show the fabric effect I was after..
 

 

 
..trim tabs made from litho with the core from the original structure..
 

 

 
..then the mass balance weights were made from left over resin casting blocks..
 

 
..and shot with MRP super matt black - also added the trim tab actuating rods to elevators & rudder and gave them all a dusting of MIG powders..
 

 

 
..all the tailfeather surfaces were attached with hinge rods and are now complete..
 

 
..and a last shot in the evening sun so you can see the contrasts...
 

 
..thats it for now - more bits and bobs to go including the Drop Tanks that Steve at Model Monkey has kindly enlarged from his 1/32 set and 3D printed in 1/18 for me
 
stay safe everyone and see you next time
 
TTFN

Peter
 
 

afternoon all
 
 
 
..that is a superb idea - I did look at doing it with my Spitfire and could only find one place in Canada that did small run and it was very expensive. I will look again though and if anyone has any ideas please let me know
 
..bit more done this weekend..
 
..the First Aid kit and gunsight pad were made from milliput and lead wire, with brass for the straps (as they are held taught and need to loom like it..)
 
..I am not good at organic things like this..
 

 
..painted up and although not great, I think they will have to do..
 

 

 
..then moved on to the side and upper windows - all the catches & latches were prepared and two tiny pins added so I can pin one to the other at the right angle..  it has been a fraught day as I HATE working with transparencies - the knife edge of a terminal ****-up being so easy to do just frays my nerves..
 

 

 
..I had left the protective film on so it was fairly straightforward to prep them and paint them..
 
..also weathered a bit by rubbing wire wool and scuffing them a bit..
 

 
..and with the film removed - there is a flaw in the top canopy where it didn't like bending to shape that has only been seen now the covers are off, but it just looks like a small crack so I am going to have to live with it..
 

 
..and pinned together..
 

 
..a few more bits need adding like hinges and some rubbing pads, but this is pretty much done so a quick dry fit..
 
..the First Aid kit looks ok I guess..
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
that's it for now..
 
TTFN

Peter