Scale32

The result of 2 weeks of swap and sells. I spent less than $200 for the lot. God I love swap and sells. I also picked up the Tamiya Vosper from cash converters beforehand for $25.
 

 

New YouTube video interviewing the ICM MD about how that company is going and future plans. 
 
ICM Interview
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

22 x fw190's
5 x gladiators
4 x tempests
5 x he219
5 x iar's
4 x ju87's
5 x ju88's
3 x f-15's
4 x f-4's
35 x bf109's
3 x 163's
8 x me262's
3 x zeros
4 x tornados
4 x i16's
5 x p47's
4 x camels
3 x sopwith triplanes
20 x spitfires

I know and that's just the 3 or more, scalemates lists 226 32nd kits.

Wow, great masking I love neat masking!
 
cheers Bevan 

Thanks Guys!
 
 
Thanks Mike, it's great to see you follow along again.  Sorry to hear about your friend.  That's brutal.
 
Thankfully after lots of CT Scans and the like, I don't have anything sinister going on, but without going into too much detail, I do have lots of scar tissue due to multiple stomach surgeries after an ordinary appendix removal 3 years ago.  Just bad luck I guess, so we'll see what the future holds for more trips.  I liked your "work smarter, not harder" comment, which I used again at the end of this update.
 
 
March 21/24
 
First a little housekeeping.  I showed above that there are 3 blue hydraulic lines that stick out a bit at the front of the main landing gear, so I tried to create something that was close.  It turns out I have a pic of them, so here they are below.
 

 
 
Duane (chaos07) pointed out above some slight depressions near the canopy hinge, so here’s a pic of the one on the left.  It has since been filled, along with the one on the right.  Thanks Duane!
 

 
The kit parts share many with the Block 50 kit, so some of them need to be modified.  Although the blister removal on the wing roots is in the instructions, here they are again, since they are easily missed.
 

 

 
Here’s a tip that helped me a lot.  The instructions have you join the upper fuselage Part B28 to the rear upper fuselage Part A1 in Step 19 first, then glue the entire upper assembly to the lower fuselage in Step 20.  While this kit is generally excellent, gluing such large mating surfaces all at once is asking for trouble in my mind.  Instead, I glued the rear Part A1 to the lower fuselage first, got things sorted out, allowing the glue to dry and cleaned up, then glued the front Part B-28 to the rest later.  This procedure allowed me to glue all the complicated fitments in a reasonable amount of time without being rushed.  Gluing one big upper assembly to the lower assembly as instructed, would have been very hard to do cleanly.
 

 
I find masking off cockpits and landing gear to be a real PITA, partly because its hard to do cleanly, but also because it must be done right if you want a successful outcome.  There are no real shortcuts, but I have developed a procedure that I’m sure a lot of you guys use as well.  Note that this model is now sitting on the same cardboard box I’ve used for at least 6 different models, using pipe insulation as a soft platform.  The yellow paint is from my Harvard/Texan build 4 years ago, followed by my Special Hobby Tempest Mk V, Italeri CF-104 and my last build of the big 1/24 Airfix F6F-5 Hellcat, which all sat on this same box for much of their assembly and painting.  More on that in a bit.
 

 
I used a small block of foam to fill the cockpit cavity, then ordinary masking tape for the rest, followed by a liberal coat of liquid mask.  The mask holds everything together strongly and covers small edges that tape won’t adhere to.
 

 
When the liquid mask has dried, I apply a few pieces of masking tape, since the liquid mask is tacky and you don’t want it to stick to anything and come off.
 

 
The landing gear bays were a lot harder to do, but I did have the advantage of having a central beam to attach masking materials to, since Part C27 will not be installed until the end of the build, right after the landing gear is installed.
 

 
Again, the voids were filled with custom cut little pieces of foam, followed by masking tape.
 

 
Everything was then toughened up with liquid mask, in this case “Mr Masking Sol neo”, made by Mr. Hobby in Japan.  This is the very best liquid mask I have found, because it’s easy to apply but more importantly, easy to remove as well.  You can’t say that about Micro Mask, which can be almost impossible to remove from small cavities after it dries.
 

 
Again, cover tape to keep the gear bays from sticking to stuff, like my fingers, arms and elbows as I handle the model.
 

 
As much as my cardboard modeling box has served me well for a long time, it was time to “upgrade to a new model”.
 

 
This was created with a small acrylic storage container that was 6 ½” X 12”, cut down to 2 ½” high, then foam pipe insulation was added to the top, for a total cost of about $3.  While I see that many of you use all sorts of contraptions to hold your models, I like this simple box a lot better.  There are no pressure points to rub paint, I don’t have to adjust anything and I can carry my model around safely to and from my paint booth without fear of it falling off something.  I just cover the box with a microfiber towel and paint away.
 

 
You can flip the model around from top to bottom with ease, because there’s always a position somewhere that fits.
 

 
One thing I’ve noticed in my pics above is that the leading edge flaps are usually up a bit when parked.  According to Jake’s book, this is normal for parked Vipers, which are up about 2 degrees, so I will be gluing the flaps accordingly.  Right now they are just dry fit.
 

 
The other thing I found in Jake’s book and pointed out by Pete Fleischmann earlier, is that Block 25/30/32 jets have only 2 “fingers” that connect the flaps to the wing at the most inboard position.  This kit has 3 fingers, just like the Block 50 kit, so it’s obviously a holdover not easily cut off like the blisters.  If I filled the outboard finger it would be more accurate, but I’m not sure if this is “working smarter or harder”, since I kind of like the look of it, even if it’s wrong.  I’ll think about it.  Any thoughts?
 

 
One thing that I did add was the so-called “ECS Exhaust”, which was basically missing from this kit.  What prompted me to look for it, was because there was a small depression at this location, that I thought might be a flaw of the plastic.  Checking my Block 50 kit, it’s much more pronounced, although quite small.  There’s a great picture of it on Page 65 of Jake’s book with a half shroud forward from the hole in the fuselage, so I fashioned something similar out of styrene.
 

 
So that’s about it for now.  I still have lots to do and then there’s that super complicated paint job!  I sure hope it turns out OK.
 

 
Cheers,
Chuck
 

Just in from Laminar Flow Design:
 

 
The contents look amazing! I'll be doing an in-box review soon.
 
Kev

A big day of modelling... 
 
Some detail painting.  Enamel weathering.  Sealing the decals with a thin taupe colored filter to mute the white and black of the decals.  Pin wash in various shades all over the model.  Attached wheels.
 

 

 

 

 
 

What a fantastic result! Well weathered and well built love it.
 
cheers Bevan 

Hi, I used Gunze and Tamiya paints, I tried with decal film but didnt have any luck so left them with film on allthough one rubbed off as I was using white spirits with the washes I was using. Cheers.

Love the Aussie markings in the PTO. 
 
lovely work, what brand of paint did you use and how did you go peeling the decal film off?
 
Cheers Bevan 

Hi, I havent shown any work of mine for a while so thought I would start with this Spitfire I finished last year. I really like how this one turned out except for one mistake which was to late to fix. Cheers Bob.





 

Lovely model of a lovely aircraft.. Those Aussie Mk.VIIIs were some of the best-looking Spitfires and you've captured it beautifully.

I think this the universe telling you to stop using Vallejo paint.
i think you should listen! 

Some more done and thank you for your kind comments. I now have everything together as in the main sub assemblies and now have a very nice early Spitfire 
 

 

 
I forget how lazy having pre cut mask sets make us. Back to DIY on this one as nothing is there for for the time being 
 
Regards. Andy 
 

Doh! Got their first release but you get what I mean….. lol
 
Bevan

Looking good I’ve got this in the stash so looking forward to seeing it done.
 
cheers Bevan 

Finally some bench time this weekend and managed to complete the cockpit. First of all I have to say the decals in this kit are super, super thin and a real pleasure to work with and the instrument panel took very little time to complete 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Planning on getting the fuselage halves closed up tomorrow and then see how the wing assembly fits.
 
Regards. Andy 
 
 

This is actually the kind of frustration that can end up killing your mojo! It's a constant battle for me - keen to do as much modelling as I can, but frustrated as heck about how little time I have for it, and then not actually feeling like it when I do get the chance. And so it goes, on and on, and until your mojo gives up, packs its bags, and leaves you with a bulging stash and CA that won't stick any more.

Kev

PVA Glue.

I really like this 
 
Cheers Bevan 

Thanks, Denis and Andy!
 
Today I completed the canopy, applied most of the stencil decals (from the Eagle Cals set) and gave the upper surfaces a light wash with oils. With a few mistakes here and there, I'm still very happy with how it is turning out. 
 
 
 





 

 
John

Might be useful for some of ya.  I started collecting underside photos of aircraft from Facebook last year.  It's a,azing how few undersides get weathered in the modelling kingdom.
 

This, and always pull the tape at an angle, never straight up.  I’m an old paint and bodyman from many years back. You either learned to untape a car correctly after painting, or you learned how to repaint it again. 

Have you tried rubbing an affected area with a Q-tip saturated with distilled water? Salt is by it’s nature soluble and a rubbing action may allow you to penetrate an overcoat. Otherwise I’m with Gaz. Fingers crossed for you Andy!
 
Tom