ClumsyDude

That weathering is awesome, especially the staining and post shading on the interior canvas. Great work! Jim

Hi Karim, that's some really neat work - love the oil stains on the bulkhead. Cheers Jim

Ron, that's a great job on the bogies. The Churchill is a really interesting tank, I'll be watching closely. Cheers Jim

Hi Andromeda, I used Tamiya clear green thinned with Mr Color levelling thinner (I find the levelling thinner really helps with gloss finishes, at least at my airbrushing skill level). I actually sprayed it on the inside of the canopy - it was easier to mask on the vac canopy, the panel lines on the vac are very faint indeed and I didn't want gaps. With my sorry story about installing the canopy, I had lots of spares to practice on - so at least there was a silver lining! Cheers Jim

Jon, that looks terrific - the mottle is really convincing, hard to believe it's 1/72. Your images appear as a link to photobucket ... if you can copy-past the BBcode (it starts "[img ...") then it will appear in line with the post. Cheers Jim

Yep, I'm officially cheering for you. Finding a missing part - especially one given up for lost - is one of the unacknowledged joys of the hobby! Cheers Jim

Thanks Harv! I was really happy with how they turned out. I'm even starting to get the confidence to tackle some 1/32 figures in my next build ... Cheers Jim

After I did this, I got on to installing the canopy. Such a simple concept, right? I mean, how hard can it really be to get a canopy on a model? We do it all the time, right? At this point I have to confess that it took me about six months. Partly this was due to having a young baby daughter and not getting a lot of bench time; but mostly it was due to me coming up a very steep learning curve on vac form canopies. The reason for going with vac was simple: for whatever reason, the OOB canopy wouldn't fit on the model I'd built as it was too narrow at the front. Doubtless this was my fault ... a better modeller would probably have been able to put it together without the fuse being too wide. But I wasn't about to pull it apart at this point ... after all, that would've taken a few weeks of filling and sanding. Much more time savings to be had by rogering around for six months trying to fix the canopy! First attempt involved using hot water to try to "stretch" the OOB canopy using a length of satay stick wedged in the front. I got it wedged just right, added the hot water, and completely stuffed the canopy - it had a huge lateral twist in it when I took it out of the water. So I worked on other things - the good thing about the Hasegawa tomcat is that there are always things to fix - and waited for vac canopies to arrive in the mail. When they did arrive, I set about screwing them up. The front canopy went (relatively) well. I trimmed it out, painted it, and faired it into the fuselage with Mr Surfacer 500. Pretty happy with it. The rear canopy was another story. In the time that it takes most of you lot to build a contest winning model, I managed to install one single vac form part. First one was a victim of lousy skills with a No. 11 blade. Next one had a blemish on the inside which I tried to polish out, and couldn't; I tried everything I've seen on line, micromesh cloths right down to 12,000 grit, tamiya compound, the lot. It still looked cloudy. After ordering another couple of sets (if anyone wants 4 F/A-18 vac canopies in 1/48 I have a boatload of spares), I managed to get one installed with mirrors and everything. Then I noticed that the face curtain grab handle in the front had slipped down so it was resting on the pilot's helmet. See below: I tried to live with it and couldn't. So off came the canopy. I fixed the grab handles, and reinstalled the canopy. Then, handling the plane one day, I managed to squeeze just a little too hard at the very front; off came the PE rear view mirror, trapped inside the canopy and looking very sorry. I swore very loudly and continuously for about ten minutes and took a break for a few weeks. Then pulled the canopy off - again. In the process I lost the PE mirror and scratched the canopy. Figuring this one was doomed, I cut out a fourth vac canopy. I installed a spare PE mirror set from another Hasegawa tomcat, and polished it up. It took about a month of dipping in future, stripping in windex, dipping in future, stripping in windex, etc, until finally I had one with no blemishes or runs or grit trapped in the drying future. I faired it into the fuselage and the front windscreen with Mr Dissolved Putty mixed with black Mr Color lacquer paint (didn't want the fairing putty showing grey on the inside, when the rest of the canopy framing is black). Then I had to delicately sand the seam between front and rear canopy, without scratching the clear part, but enough to make the seam almost disappear. I fashioned a sander out of a thin strip of sandpaper superglued to a cut down satay stick; four of these at different grits did the trick. I didn't take photos at this point; you'll have to wait until after the paint is on to see the result. It basically looks the same anyway, but with the grab handle at a realistic angle!

Thanks Maru! Next step was to install the pilots in the cockpit. This required some surgery to the pilot figures, whose legs are too long out of the box; for some reason, the pilots in the Hasegawa deck crew set - which has a launching Tomcat on the box - won't fit in the Hasegawa Tomcat. Unless, of course, you chop their feet off. Which I (quite ruthlessly) did; I figure if they are flying in a Tomcat which I built, getting launched off a catapult which grew out of my shabby scratch building skills, they'll have to rely on the ejection seats that I put together. In other words, they're doomed anyway, so it makes no difference if they die with no feet. Here are the shots with pilots, seats and coatings installed. You can see the end result of the filling and scribing on the left fuselage. If you look at the shots above and below you can see the green HUD lens. This was a bit of acrylic rod filed down to fit in the aperture, and then thickly coated with Tamiya clear green. Thanks for looking! Cheers Jim

It looks amazing in close up, and even better all assembled - terrific! Jim

Great painting on the figure. And awesome solution with the googles - definitely filing that one away for future use! Jim

Awesome!!!

I was afraid you were going to say Tamiya extra thin ... that's what I mostly use and I know I couldn't get it to do what you do! Great work, love the fire extinguisher. Cheers Jim

I don't know if it'd work with the tape you used - could you try lightly sanding the edges of the tape? It would reduce the step from the rudder to the top of the tape. Cheers Jim

Wow -- amazed at how you manage to build such delicate frames with all the angles right. What glue do you use? Jim

Looks great, covincing NMF and the bombs ROCK. Looking forward to seeing the finished product. Jim

That is seriously awesome - love it! Jim

Looks great Justin - very steady hand on the airbrush. I doubt I could do that! Cheers Jim

Wow, the fabric effect on the wings is stunning! Is that the pre-shading showing through the decals? Jim

Wow, that mottling is awesome - very well developed airbrush skills! Great job. Cheers Jim

Tamiya sounds like a great answer ... it just reminds you, there are so many different kinds of "modelling" in our hobby, from shake n bake to kits that end up being 95% putty by weight. Good luck with the Zeke! Jim

Looks good Alain! Jim

Hi Brian, I kind of know what you mean (not that I'm anywhere near your level) - if you're not getting good energy out of working with the kit then it's time to put it aside. You've made some great progress in this latest sprint, the engine pod was no mean feat, so recharge the batteries and come back to it when you're fresh! I'll be watching when you do! Cheers Jim

Wow, this is nothing short of amazing ... brilliant solution with the Solartex, can't wait to see it under primer. Jim

Brilliant!