jenshb

Wet transfers like the HGW? They are excellent and perfect for a natural metal finish. Shame not too many companies do them. Jens

Are these waterslide transfers from the kit? The film just seems to disappear... BTW, got the 4+ book on the Tempest in the post today - thank you for the recommendation, it will do exactly what I need. Jens

Thank you Miroslav. I see there are copies available on Amazon - £27...ouch. However, I found a copy at The Aviation Book Centre for £14 - sometimes it pays not to go to Amazon:) Jens

You're a serial Tempest-builder:) I've been struggling to find any photos to detail the wheel wells, so may I ask where you found them? Cracking job, and looking forward to a group photo when you're done with all 10. Jens

7 mm shorter - that should be around 4.5 mm shorter in 1:48. The nose in the smaller scale kit (don't have the 1:32 kit) strikes me as a little long, and making it that much shorter should look better to my eyes. Plan was to make a Libyan Flogger-E, so a new radome will have to be scribed, but I believe the overall external shape would be similar to the Flogger-B. Jens

Thanks for that Karl. How much shorter is the resin nose than the kit nose? Jens

Regarding wheels...I wonder if you can use 1:48 Mirage 2000 wheels as a starting point at least for the mains? Jens

I seem to remember one of the French members here on LSP was scratchbuilding a Mirage F.1 in 1:32, but the project stalled. He made quite good progress on the fuselage IIRC. Tried to find that thread again, but came up with nothing. Would love to see some progress on that. To my eyes, the windshield of the F.1 appears longer and narrower than the III and 5, so the only part you may be able to use would be the canopy, and I wouldn't be surprised if that too was different. Given the age of the kit, I would think the exhaust is so poor that you'd be better off replacing that or scratchbuilding it. I suppose the nosecone, air intakes and tailfin can all be a useful basis to work from. Jens

Great work on these detail sets that will really add to the model. Would you mind taking a photo comparing the kit nose to the resin nose to highlight the differences? One thing that I have noticed on my 1:48 Trumpeter Flogger is that the wings have no anhedral. The wing gloves have a slight anhedral, but the wings are flat. From pics, it appears that the wings should have anhedral as well. I am assuming that Trumpeter used the same 3D surfaces when they shrank the 1:32 kit to 1:48... Jens

I guess the real reason the Aires cockpit doesn't fit is that it's not made for the Matchbox Mk. 22... Having said that, Aires do not have the best reputation, and I wouldn't want to risk trashing a £100 Tamiya Spitfire by trying to fit that cockpit set - gorgeous as it may seem. The boxart of the Matchbox kit made me want an 80 Sqn Spitfire Mk.24 really bad back then, but my ambitions exceeded my skills back then, and now I think I will settle for a 1:48 scale version. Looking forward to seeing you improve this kit. Jens

When/if I ever get around to build my big Eagle, I will use this thread as a reference to fixing the Tamiya kit. To be fair to Tamiya though; it is not possible to correctly represent that panel line between the engines given the limitations of tooling... Jens

It's a subtle effect that will add a lot to an overall dark green finish. Jens

Nice detailing work on that radial engine! Jens

Very informative video - definitely something I will try at some point. Followed your bare metal experiment videos too - good stuff! Jens

Ah... Eduard it is then. Jens

Maybe the decal wasn't completely cured/set? Future appears to be fairly hard but also very brittle and inflexible. If the underlay is moving or able to shrink and contract, then the Future will crack. Jens

I was puzzled that Tamiya seem to provide 8 Sparrows for a plane that can only carry 4, and then I noticed that two of the sparrows have a longer slot in them and a longer waveguide (?) to be glued in place. Would these be AIM-7Ms? Jens

Amazing what thread drift can do - thanks for the history lesson:) Jens

Thin lead wire (forms more easily than copper or brass) painted black or very dark grey held in place with Future would be my first thought... Jens

The original Hasegawa kit does provide a Stencel seat...what's wrong with it? Jens

This was one of my candidates to the group build too. Jens

Now *there* is a challenge! I wonder if the Aires nozzles and some resin intakes made for the Academy kit will fit. Jens

Just thinking out loud here, but would it be possible to use the 1:48 Hasegawa kit as a starting point for the wings and parts of the fuselage, or are there simply too many differences? Jens

Well, it is already proven I suck at groupbuilds, but I do have a Tamiya Tomcat that I have wanted to build to see if my skills have improved since building it back in 1981/82:) Jens

With my limited experiments of decals onto aluminium foil, I think you will see the decal film around each design even if you clearcoat the model. That you may have to do anyway to prevent oxidation. Considering the scale, it might be worth cutting masks and painting the markings on instead. Or perhaps making rubdown transfers? The other alternative I can think of would be HGW's method of wet transfer with a film that you then peel off so no carrier film remains on the model. Jens