Scale32

Some serious progress this week and the mojo is well and truly back!
Started by gluing the upper wing panels together which is not what the instructions call out but gives a much better fit overall followed by fitting them to the fuselage 
 

 
then with the lower wing sections fitted I moved on to fitting the rear stabilizers including the lovely Barracudacast control surfaces 
 

 
Followed by the much better shaped Barracudacast oilcooler fairing and turbo charger inlet fairing
 

 
And this is where we are at, just need to fit the windshield and mask the ready to paint, very happy with how the build has come together so quickly and looking forward to the paint shop now 
 
Regards. Andy 
 
 

Awesome! Love the Dora's and your build and paint skills. 
 
Your 48th builds over on Hyperscale are pretty inspiring especially the last Spitfire in Malta markings. You should post them in the non LSP works section.
 
Cheers Bevan 

Brendan Finucane ............. if it is about him, it is well past due, he was a true hero....

Not a build update, but a little bit of housekeeping….I am a big Tamiya user as I like their paints and they just always “work” when I throw em thinned in my airbrush. I am now also starting to get some Mr. Hobby Aqueous as they have more color selection, especially for RLM colors.
 
But one thing I loathe is the constant transfer from jar to airbrush especially when it is just for a small job. It gets messy, and I end up with stir sticks, pipettes, and paper towels everywhere. 
 
What I decided on was transferring the colors I’ll be using the most into some dropper bottles. I actually did this about five years ago with some Dunkelgelb, and the paint was fine for over a year in the dropper bottle and airbrushed beautifully.
 
I know that this is not ideal for long term storage, but for the next couple months of me heavily using these colors, it will save me time and effort. I basically just placed a 50/50 mix of paint and X20A thinner along with some of Tamiya’s paint retarder which I think is a critical component to airbrushing Tamiya. This way I can quickly just grab a color and paint even for small touch ups without all the hassle. If necessary, I can thin it more in the cup of the airbrush. 
 
Cheers!
 

Black for me on everything recently…..even light colors.
 

Awesome! Love the Dora's and your build and paint skills. 
 
Your 48th builds over on Hyperscale are pretty inspiring especially the last Spitfire in Malta markings. You should post them in the non LSP works section.
 
Cheers Bevan 

Greetings fellow modelers:
 
After building a few 1/48 scale kits, I'm back to take a crack at another 1/32 Dora. I've decided on White 12, Wk Nr. 500408 from 5./JG 301. Here's some nice artwork from IBG's new 1/72 release. 
 

 
I tend to gravitate to the Mimetall camo schemes for some reason. 
 
I'll be using the Hasegawa ST-19 kit with a number of aftermarket items for the build. 

The aftermarket goodies include:
Aires cockpit upgrade HGW riveting set Eagle cals #32-61 HGW seatbelts Yahu instrument panel One man army stencils Synthetic ordnance works landing gear Quickboost Exhaust Eduard canopy masks Quickboost gun barrels Master metal gun barrels Barracuda wheels Eduard exterior detail set  
I wanted to use a Henri Daehne spinner and prop kit, but unfortunately Henri has shut down his shop in Germany for good due to the economic situation. I'll have to make do with the kit prop and spinner. 
 
Mr. Color lacquers along with Tamiya acrylics will be the main paints used. 
 
Here are some photos of the front office, which is now complete. 
 

 

 

 

 
I've also completed the engine plug with some extra plumbing and wiring. 
 

 

 
Starting on next steps to close up the fuselage. 
 
Thanks for looking. Comments and critiques are always welcome. 
 
 
 
 

Excellent work thus far. I’m looking forward to seeing the project as it progresses. 
Jim

Wow Gaz rolling right along! Great work mate.
 
Cheers Bevan 

I had to take a break from foiling do at a feature.  The plane I am doing originally carried the 40mm Ho-301 cannon which was found to be unsatisfactory due to low rate of fire and low muzzle velocity. 
 
So, the guys in the field replaced the Ho-301 with the Ho-103 12.7mm auto cannon, but still had to use the Ho-301 mounting.  I wish I knew more about the Ho-103 and the ammo it fired.  The only thing I know about it for sure was that it was copied from the Italian Breda Safat and had lower ballistic properties than the M2 Browning, but higher properties than the MG 131.
 
Anyway...   I bought 56 inches of 3/16 (4.8mm) Evergreen tube and ended up using only 1 inch of it.  I used brass tubes to show the muzzle ends of the Ho-103's.  They are only dry-fitted.
 

 

 

Hey Gaz I've heard of boiling the foil in water with egg shells gives different colouring to the foil maybe experiment with that.?
 
Cheers Bevan 

Nice nice nice and nice! Love it.
 
Cheers Bevan 

Looking the goods Mike, always good to reduce the sod!
 
Cheers Bevan 

Hi John, RLM77. I think they used it for the codes on Bf 110's that were painted black.
 
Cheers Bevan 

Hi John, RLM77. I think they used it for the codes on Bf 110's that were painted black.
 
Cheers Bevan 

I can't believe how quickly you're knocking this one out, Chris - and to such a high standard, too!
 
Kev

Well said Anthony, and like Rainer I agree totally.
 
I have two important criteria regarding the “comment” issue. The first is that I feel I have a duty to reply if a comment is posted about my work wherever possible. I recognise that sometimes I can forget “between visits” but as we all beaver away in our solitary rooms around the world, the dialogue that can arise from comments is, to me, gold dust and is the essence of community. The second and obvious one is that if I leave a comment I always try to make it meaningful, not just a “nice work” type. It sometimes takes a while to shape my thoughts about what what I want to say, but I try to make it worthwhile. 

Ya gotta love a 190!
Cheers Bevan 

So did I Kev! 
 
Stunning! Nuff said!
 
Cheers Bevan 

So did I Kev! 
 
Stunning! Nuff said!
 
Cheers Bevan 

Unless I've overlooked it, I don't see anyone else in this GB with a George, so....
 

 
I've been meaning to build this in the near future, anyway. However, I still have to finish the Fw 190D-9 that I started, nearly two years ago! That project got stalled when real life got in the way (including a heart attack in August). So, I'm just wanting to get back to the bench, but figured this would be the perfect subject to help me brush the rust off. This build should be mostly out of the box, but I may order some HGW belts for it. We'll see about paint/markings. I would prefer to paint as much as possible, but haven't decided on specific markings, as of yet. I also wanted to use MRP's Japanese colors, but I had already purchased a bunch of Mr. Hobby paints that I'll probably use for now.
 

John
 

Thanks guys!  I appreciate the support.  Honestly...   two weeks ago I had no idea I'd be painting this cockpit blue gray...  but regulations is regulations.
 
There are things oils do better than enamels...   like blend in.   But I used enamels because they dry fast and I knew a lot of it won't be seen from the outside of the fighter.

 
After building the ZM 109 and realizing that no pilot can climb on top of neatly laid and crossed seat belts, I decided to make stubs that are mostly hidden inside the aircraft body.

 
I cheated...  I have no idea what color or shape IJA seatbelts would be...  so I faked it with HGW fabric belts.

 
Adding the dual ignition wires for the Ha-109 radial engine was a challenge.  This is actually something I've never really had to do before.

 
Added the breech ends of the Ho-103 machine guns.  I cut off the barrels for later use.  No point in keeping them there...  you can't see them anyway.

Man that looks good.  Great result. 
 
Cheers Bevan 

I always foil, Bevan.  It's my thang.

Oh cool, you foiling this one? Can't wait to see how you go about that. Just bought some Mr Colour super metallics to try out on a couple of Eduard Mustangs I've got planned. Also got AK Extreme Metal to use.
 
Cheers Bevan