Haggis

Thank you. Of course mate, be my guest. Sorry for the tardy reply!

My last squadron in my career! Great model.

Hi everybody, I haven't posted on the forum for a very long time, mainly as I've neglected the larger scales for quite a few years however recently I finished the beautiful Spitfire Mk.XII Laminar Flow Design conversion married with the Tamiya Spitfire IX. I wanted to do this conversion first as a warm up, I have a few of the Mk. XIVs (which I've also done in 1:48) and a Vc so I'll be doing more, in fact this project has somewhat rekindled my enthusiasm for the larger scales. For this one though I threw a load of extras at this; Laminar Flow Design cockpit detail set Barracuda cockpit snapshot update set Barracuda Studio control column Barracuda Stdio wheels Red Fox Studio instrument panel MDC flexible resin oxygen hose Master barrels gun barrels Paint was Tamiya acrylic, all markings were sprayed using the LFD masks supplied in the conversion and the stencils were sprayed using the amazing 1Man Army masks. A full build series is up on to my Scale Modelling Cafe YouTube channel.

Just brilliant mate, that cockpit frame makes such a difference.

Stunning mate

I am insanely jealous!

Hi all I'm going to do the Laminar Flow Design Spitfire XIV conversion. I'd like to do a 17 Squadron machine and saw that Zotz do a sheet. I'll be spaying all the markings but could do with the 17 Sqn gauntlet decal for the nose. I think 30 quid is a bit steep for that 1 decal so is there anyone with this sheet who isn't planning to do this option willing to pass it on to me? I'm happy to pay postage.

My favourite stage is the satin/flatish varnish, it blends everything together and gives it that scale look.

Looking great mate.

Fantastic, what a relief!

This is fantastic work mate, just what I need before starting mine!

Hi Harold I won't be starting the model yet, I have a few projects to get done first so no rush. Any idea what the postage to the UK might be? Live got all the Aires and Eduard stuff plus the Zacto nose and Begemot decals already so it's just the wheels I need. If the AMS stuff is too much due to US postage I'll certainly check out the wheels though.

Are there any replacement wheels for the Trumpeter F-100 out there that are readily available? I know AMS in Oz had them but they appear OOP and anyway, postage looks more expensive than the wheels!

Both after my time, I,left the squadron in 2009.

Which airframes are included on the decal sheet mate?

A bloke at my Air Cadets when I was young had a Dad who flew them too, I think maybe he was even CO of a squadron but it was 30 odd years ago and memory can be a wobbly thing at times.

Very nice mate, top work. It's especially cool as I rejoin 72 Squadron on Monday! 😎

Superb mate, on every level. I love hat gun cowl especially.

I really like that Iain. I love the subtle weathering and the muted colours. It looks very representative and I suspect very close to how the real thing looked. I'd love to see some photos taken outdoors with an appropriate background, it would look even more real....! Well done, nailed it.

Thanks everyone, truly humbling. I'm very proud of this, my first book. They gave me a few options of the front cover but there really was only one choice!

Had no LSPs at all, first time I've not done any in years! I've got a couple of big projects planned for this year though.....

Pre-shading; utterly pointless and wholly unrealistic. There are far easier, and much more effective methods to get a realistic finish. Aeroplanes do not end up with consistent, dark shadows (even subtle ones) over the entire airframe.

Er, looks different to me!

I remember one bloke going into meltdown over the Trumpeter HU-16 Albatross because the ship in the painting on the box art was sinking in an inaccurate way! Hilarious.......

I don't think HK get the same treatment as Hobby Boss or Trumpeter. Hobby Boss and Trumpeter have a very busy release schedule; produce kits with many minor inaccuracies regularly, some howlers every now and then and some very accurate kits which usually arrive with little or no comment. They have a reputation. HK on the other hand have a very small catalogue, they have a reputation of releasing generally accurate kits sometimes with innovative design features. However with the Mosquito they dropped a clanger with the front half, some very obvious mistakes which totally spoil the look of the model and are nigh on impossible to correct. However, thankfully for the consumer it seems to be a one off. Personally, I hate building the things, I find it a chore, a necessary process to get to the fun bit. Usually I'll ignore inaccuracies (normally I don't know the subject anyway and it looks good to me so I carry on in blissful ignorance), maybe I'll fix something which only takes a few swipes of a sanding stick if I've been made aware of it as most of the time I wouldn't know what was wrong. This Mosquito is a totally different problem, the shape of the nose for example is so far off, it's so obviously borked that it needs entirely scratch building and a new canopy if you want to correct it. I've not seen anyone attempt it yet! Mind you, many people will just build it as is, enjoy it and be pleased with the results.