mozart

Welcome Sophie, perhaps besides your modelling skills your feminine influence might also help keep this unruly lot in order! I look forward to seeing some of your work as a WiP or RFI.

The creative process Kent: Investigation........INCUBATION.......Inspiration!!

Goodness me, I've got a headache just reading this already!! Utter madness.....love it!

Having followed your build I know the trials and tribulations that you’ve had, but the end result is just immaculate. Many congratulations Iain, big sigh of relief no doubt!!

Thanks for your vote of confidence Tim! Any knowledge or thoughts about the NC750s?

Good luck with your monumental challenge Kent, it will be interesting and no doubt educational watching your progress.

And I think that’s the best solution Carl, the remedial action needed otherwise is a real PITA.

A lovely selection of pictures Dave, very nostalgic. Thanks for including the T-6 too!

I haven't used MIG paints so can't comment about them, but MRP, as you already probably know, are just superb. I've gradually built up my range over a two year period, starting with a basic RAF WW2 and Luftwaffe selection of the colours I needed the most, totalling I guess 8 different colours, plus a white and NATO black.

Soooo true Brian! I know I'm bound to be biased, but I think motorcyclists also make better car drivers; we are more aware of the potential dangers on the roads!!

Thank you all for your kind comments, the yellow scheme including the prominent numbers is striking. There were several airfields close together around most of the major townships such as Gwelo and Salisbury in S Rhodesia, so identification of individual aircraft was an important issue, especially with hot-headed young men doing low flying and risking killing themselves and the local populace!! I like modelling in-flight aircraft, so I'm working on the prop at the moment. There's no easy, or right way, to represent prop blades in motion - having no blades, a clear disk, a motor etc are options but I prefer the prop-blur solution. So I cut off the blade itself just above the junction with the propeller hub and cut a slot down the remaining length. The Prop Blur PE was cut to length (9 feet for a Harvard, the KH supplied blades are too long) and will be slotted into the cut, then painted. It's worth noting that the front face of the blades were silver, but the rear face was black, this to prevent glare I imagine? I like to think it worked reasonably well in my "Spit in trouble" from a few years ago!

Ah, that explains it then, mine was a customised model of Schnaufer's earlier aircraft G9+EF so I didn't look at the AIMS refs. I've got the AIMS G2 conversion from which I'm going to build a Bf110F later this year, that will be my third Dragon 110 following the E and G4. Great looking aeroplane!

As a fellow Bf110 fan, I have to say that yours is a beautifully prepared model. It’s interesting that your assessment of the AIMS conversion was a dream to work with, my experience wasn’t the same though nonetheless hugely enjoyable/challenging. You’ve chosen a very unusual paint scheme which I don’t recall having seen before, what was your reference? Congratulations on a great looking G4.

A slightly better angle perhaps, this from the Squadron/Signal walk around book whereas the previous one was my own photograph.

It's been a while since I've posted an update, pre-painting in fact. So things have progressed but not necessarily smoothly. Having done the masks, applied them on the upper wing as number 99, I found a) the usually faultless MRP+Oramask 810 combination resulted in a less than perfect edge though I'm not sure why, and b) that from close scrutiny of a rather hazy black and white wartime photograph, 99 was a Mk I and not a Mk II. So all that was sanded back and the leader of this balbo was chosen instead: The later Harvards supplied to Rhodesia were all in the EX serial range and left NMF but the earlier ones were those painted yellow and more likely to be in the AJ serial range, so mine is plausibly AJ617!! I'm currently working on fiddly bits like undercarriage (being lowered), prop (spinning) and flaps (down) before adding a multitude of stencils and a bit of weathering. Just the canopy to mask inside and out then!