Thunnus

That's a bummer! I'm also on the lookout for a 1/32 fuel cap representation for my P-47D. The kit tank only comes with a raised circle and it would be nice to have some detail on it. That's a good photo example... I guess we can attempt to scratch something up if aftermarket is not available.

Thanks guys! Lots of great sources for little tiny balls! Appreciate it! I picked up a water filter from Target department store and will report on my findings. Yeah, I really had to think about how to phrase this inquiry! It could've come off badly!

Thank you very much! I am in love with the Dora, I guess! Thank you William! Thank you Jay! Hmmm... never really thought about ranking my builds but as the last one, Brown 4 DOES represent all of the stuff I've learned about Doras during my builds. So it is the best in that regard. But they are all different and represent different things to me. I really liked how the Ta-152H turned out for example. And Jerry Crandall's comments during the build of Yellow 10 make that one special to me. Yellow 11 was my first large scale Dora as an adult (having built the old Revell D-9 kit as a child)... the mottling looks strange and the colors look off. I tried to mix them using Tamiya paints and I don't think I was successful. I still have one more Hasegawa Late Model D-9 kit in the stash and picked up another Ta152H-0 kit too so I may not be done with Doras.

Great looking Spitfire, Dennis! The Spitfire is such an iconic fighter... I need to build one someday!

Thank you very much! Glad to have finished this one as I've been planning on doing Brown 4 for a long time. Thank you so much, Michael! Thanks John! Appreciate the comments! Thanks Ernest! Just trying to build and learn from a great group of modelers here at LSP. Thank you! Thank you! I've made some interpretive choices regarding the camo scheme so it may not align with other builds or color profiles of this plane. Thank you very much Tolga! Especially from another Dora fan! Thanks Jay! My P-47D build is in its early stages but I've already drawn some inspiration from you and have started scouring the Aircorps Library files.

Bravo! Great result and another good looking Dora!

The old Testors silver enamel in the small square bottle is my go-to for brush painting details. Works really good for dry-brushing too.

Thanks guys! I've started on the painting of the cockpit. Based on the amount and type of photoetch/decals that go on each sub-assembly some areas are closer to finished than others. And there are adjustments being made during painting. For example, the control stick looked too high to me so I shortened it. No measurements... just eyeballed it. The floorboard and the seat assembly have been painted, chipped and weathered. There is more chipping than shows up in the photos. The base metal color was a dark steel and that was augmented afterwards with dry-brushed silver but only the silver seems to be showing up in the pics. I'm still working on the sidewalls but here is a peek at the port sidewall after the throttle controls were painted.

Right on Bill! I'll be watching this one. I remember Baa Baa Black Sheep too and that's why I built a Boyington mount. You're more than ready for this kit. These new Tamiya models go together so well, it's almost too easy. Good pick-up on the Rexx exhausts as the edges of the kit exhaust tips are way too thick. And hopefully the Barracuda cockpit stencils work out for you. I think I used Walthers Solvaset as my decal softening solution for those.

Thanks! That was a very enjoyable build! Tamiya makes such great kits!

Wow... yeah I'd love to be you Barry! That must've been such a cool experience. Most of the museum exhibits that I've been to are look-no-touch. The instrument panel has been completed. It's the Yahu instrument panel glued onto the kit IP backing, but trying to make it look like it is one unit. I went ahead and drilled out the waste gate openings. Small sections of brass tubing will be used for the waste gates and I'll use punched circles of brass sheet for the covers. They have not been glued into place yet.

Thanks guys! Not much time spent on model building this week due to a busy schedule. But at least it's moving forward, slowly. I've added some details at the base of the control stick including a flange around the base and the control lock linkage. The crosshairs are from the Eduard set and have been added to the Barracuda Type II gun sight. Here's a look at the port sidewall with details added to the throttle quadrant.

My bad Bill. You should be good to just file down the clear part to flatten the faces. I don’t know what I was thinking and obviously did not even remember my own build. I also filed the faces flat but opted to apply the decal to the flattened side and add clear acetate instrument glass.

Hey Bill... you've got some great advice and I concur with using clear or even Future since it would be hard to physically polish the individual faces without the bezels interfering. How would you go about flattening the domed surfaces? I thought about that on Tamiya Corsair build but didn't know of a good way of uniformly flattening the domes within each instrument.

Does anyone know if there is a household source of small spheres that could be used to pose as round knobs on the end of cockpit levers? I've been using blobs of white glue and more recently, UV-activate epoxy but there is a bit of inconsistency with that method. Thinking something like BB gun ammo but smaller?

Oh wow! Thank you!

Great job Tom! I just picked up the re-release of the H-0 kit so there might be another Ta152H build in my future. Since I modded my H-1 to be an H-0, I think it would be appropriate to convert the H-0 kit to an H-1!

Ver nice work, Sean and yes, it's very interesting comparing the Trumpeter and Hasegawa kits. Your re-scribed fasteners look great... I was just not able to replicate that uniformity and opted for the tack-on brass pieces.

Tim... please try the Iwata gravity cup AB!!! I started on a Paasche H myself and while it's a great tool, jumping from a siphon-feed to a gravity-feed airbrush was a huge jump for me, especially in time-savings. It's much easier and faster to clean a gravity feed AB.

Thank you everyone! Here is an overall view of the cockpit parts as I've been adding some details and photoetch. The gun sight assembly has been painted. The Type II RAF gun sight was taken from a Barracuda Spitfire set and includes the tiny decals on the gun sight body. I still need to add the manual crosshair sights. The Eduard inserts for the fuselage cutouts behind the pilot were strangely extending beyond the cockpit bulkhead. So trimmed them.

Wonderful work! Such a great talent to be able to isolate each sub-structure and make them into stand-alone models unto themselves.

Hypnotic is an accurate description! Wonderful airbrush control with this complex scheme!

That slack aerial is a tricky item to portray and you've done a great job! The fasteners and springs just add to the authenticity! Great work!

Anthony... I'm not a jet guy so I don't have anything valuable to offer. I just wanted to applaud the level of complexity and detail that is being applied. The best type of detail not only highlights the first level closest to the eye but populates that deeper level to convince the viewer of the overall complexity of a fighter aircraft. It's difficult to achieve but see heaps of that here.

Very nice work, Michael! Some interesting differences that these Russian fighters have in layout and construction.