Dpgsbody55

There are a lot of Strike Wing Mossie models about ....
What's really driving my enthusiasm for the Beau is that I like fairly close to what's left of both the Banff and Dallachy  bases up here in the NE of Scotland. The Banff field at Boindy is now a wind farm with a bunch of huge wind turbines  . Dallach is pretty well gone but the base looks out on a beautiful bay 
 
All this is by way of saying  I NEED as decent newly tooled Beau (ideally a T FX) on my work bench , as soon as possible 
 
PS "A Separate Little War" refenced above is a wonderful book, and a prime reference for any Strike wing build 
 

I arrived back from New Zealand and Melbourne on Tuesday after a very enjoyable visit with my son in NZ and a short birthday stay in Melbourne.  I'd have spent my birthday with my son, but the Melbourne trip was planned first before we knew that SWMBO would recover well enough to fly longer distances after having had both knees replaced last year.  I seem to be a bit jet lagged which is unusual for me, hence the delay in posting something since Tuesday.  So now it's time to get back into this and finish it off before we go back to NZ in May for the arrival of our second grand child.
 
I was going to get the cowlings on after the last update, but I've only just started on that so little to report there except that I've ground out parts of the top cowling where that hits the hydraulic pump and ignition harness.  That now fits.  The left side cowling also has a couple of pins in place, so it's looking better although more pins will be needed.  Photo's next time on that.
 
I have instead built up the gun sight and added the windscreen and rear cockpit glass.  The gun sight is made up of three parts; two for the base and also a clear part for the reflector.  My plane is fitted with the reflector sight as per the photos from Furie posted back on page one of this W I P.  Here's the sight, built and painted with the electrical connector wire added.  A thinned bit of clear green has been painted around the outside of the reflector to make it more noticeable later.
 

 

 
Glued into place.  I painted the base centre in acrylic high gloss silver and it appears to be reflecting on the surround in this shot.
 

 
Sorry about the fuzzy shot here.  Camera wouldn't focus so I had to try myself.  We'll call that attempt a failure....
 

 
Windscreen and glass in place, after having masked them.  The pilot's mirror is also in place, after masking the mirror and painting the rest of it in the same acrylic silver.
 

 
So for next update, it's back to the cowling attachment, then perhaps a bit of paint.
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

I arrived back from New Zealand and Melbourne on Tuesday after a very enjoyable visit with my son in NZ and a short birthday stay in Melbourne.  I'd have spent my birthday with my son, but the Melbourne trip was planned first before we knew that SWMBO would recover well enough to fly longer distances after having had both knees replaced last year.  I seem to be a bit jet lagged which is unusual for me, hence the delay in posting something since Tuesday.  So now it's time to get back into this and finish it off before we go back to NZ in May for the arrival of our second grand child.
 
I was going to get the cowlings on after the last update, but I've only just started on that so little to report there except that I've ground out parts of the top cowling where that hits the hydraulic pump and ignition harness.  That now fits.  The left side cowling also has a couple of pins in place, so it's looking better although more pins will be needed.  Photo's next time on that.
 
I have instead built up the gun sight and added the windscreen and rear cockpit glass.  The gun sight is made up of three parts; two for the base and also a clear part for the reflector.  My plane is fitted with the reflector sight as per the photos from Furie posted back on page one of this W I P.  Here's the sight, built and painted with the electrical connector wire added.  A thinned bit of clear green has been painted around the outside of the reflector to make it more noticeable later.
 

 

 
Glued into place.  I painted the base centre in acrylic high gloss silver and it appears to be reflecting on the surround in this shot.
 

 
Sorry about the fuzzy shot here.  Camera wouldn't focus so I had to try myself.  We'll call that attempt a failure....
 

 
Windscreen and glass in place, after having masked them.  The pilot's mirror is also in place, after masking the mirror and painting the rest of it in the same acrylic silver.
 

 
So for next update, it's back to the cowling attachment, then perhaps a bit of paint.
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

I arrived back from New Zealand and Melbourne on Tuesday after a very enjoyable visit with my son in NZ and a short birthday stay in Melbourne.  I'd have spent my birthday with my son, but the Melbourne trip was planned first before we knew that SWMBO would recover well enough to fly longer distances after having had both knees replaced last year.  I seem to be a bit jet lagged which is unusual for me, hence the delay in posting something since Tuesday.  So now it's time to get back into this and finish it off before we go back to NZ in May for the arrival of our second grand child.
 
I was going to get the cowlings on after the last update, but I've only just started on that so little to report there except that I've ground out parts of the top cowling where that hits the hydraulic pump and ignition harness.  That now fits.  The left side cowling also has a couple of pins in place, so it's looking better although more pins will be needed.  Photo's next time on that.
 
I have instead built up the gun sight and added the windscreen and rear cockpit glass.  The gun sight is made up of three parts; two for the base and also a clear part for the reflector.  My plane is fitted with the reflector sight as per the photos from Furie posted back on page one of this W I P.  Here's the sight, built and painted with the electrical connector wire added.  A thinned bit of clear green has been painted around the outside of the reflector to make it more noticeable later.
 

 

 
Glued into place.  I painted the base centre in acrylic high gloss silver and it appears to be reflecting on the surround in this shot.
 

 
Sorry about the fuzzy shot here.  Camera wouldn't focus so I had to try myself.  We'll call that attempt a failure....
 

 
Windscreen and glass in place, after having masked them.  The pilot's mirror is also in place, after masking the mirror and painting the rest of it in the same acrylic silver.
 

 
So for next update, it's back to the cowling attachment, then perhaps a bit of paint.
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

I arrived back from New Zealand and Melbourne on Tuesday after a very enjoyable visit with my son in NZ and a short birthday stay in Melbourne.  I'd have spent my birthday with my son, but the Melbourne trip was planned first before we knew that SWMBO would recover well enough to fly longer distances after having had both knees replaced last year.  I seem to be a bit jet lagged which is unusual for me, hence the delay in posting something since Tuesday.  So now it's time to get back into this and finish it off before we go back to NZ in May for the arrival of our second grand child.
 
I was going to get the cowlings on after the last update, but I've only just started on that so little to report there except that I've ground out parts of the top cowling where that hits the hydraulic pump and ignition harness.  That now fits.  The left side cowling also has a couple of pins in place, so it's looking better although more pins will be needed.  Photo's next time on that.
 
I have instead built up the gun sight and added the windscreen and rear cockpit glass.  The gun sight is made up of three parts; two for the base and also a clear part for the reflector.  My plane is fitted with the reflector sight as per the photos from Furie posted back on page one of this W I P.  Here's the sight, built and painted with the electrical connector wire added.  A thinned bit of clear green has been painted around the outside of the reflector to make it more noticeable later.
 

 

 
Glued into place.  I painted the base centre in acrylic high gloss silver and it appears to be reflecting on the surround in this shot.
 

 
Sorry about the fuzzy shot here.  Camera wouldn't focus so I had to try myself.  We'll call that attempt a failure....
 

 
Windscreen and glass in place, after having masked them.  The pilot's mirror is also in place, after masking the mirror and painting the rest of it in the same acrylic silver.
 

 
So for next update, it's back to the cowling attachment, then perhaps a bit of paint.
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

I arrived back from New Zealand and Melbourne on Tuesday after a very enjoyable visit with my son in NZ and a short birthday stay in Melbourne.  I'd have spent my birthday with my son, but the Melbourne trip was planned first before we knew that SWMBO would recover well enough to fly longer distances after having had both knees replaced last year.  I seem to be a bit jet lagged which is unusual for me, hence the delay in posting something since Tuesday.  So now it's time to get back into this and finish it off before we go back to NZ in May for the arrival of our second grand child.
 
I was going to get the cowlings on after the last update, but I've only just started on that so little to report there except that I've ground out parts of the top cowling where that hits the hydraulic pump and ignition harness.  That now fits.  The left side cowling also has a couple of pins in place, so it's looking better although more pins will be needed.  Photo's next time on that.
 
I have instead built up the gun sight and added the windscreen and rear cockpit glass.  The gun sight is made up of three parts; two for the base and also a clear part for the reflector.  My plane is fitted with the reflector sight as per the photos from Furie posted back on page one of this W I P.  Here's the sight, built and painted with the electrical connector wire added.  A thinned bit of clear green has been painted around the outside of the reflector to make it more noticeable later.
 

 

 
Glued into place.  I painted the base centre in acrylic high gloss silver and it appears to be reflecting on the surround in this shot.
 

 
Sorry about the fuzzy shot here.  Camera wouldn't focus so I had to try myself.  We'll call that attempt a failure....
 

 
Windscreen and glass in place, after having masked them.  The pilot's mirror is also in place, after masking the mirror and painting the rest of it in the same acrylic silver.
 

 
So for next update, it's back to the cowling attachment, then perhaps a bit of paint.
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

My house is airconditioned by way of evaporative AC, but I've had to shut off the aircon to the two back bedrooms where my son has his guitars stored.  He makes them himself but presently lives in New Zealand so dear old Dad is storing them and they get warped in high humidity and I understand what he puts into them.  One of these rooms is where I do my modelling work  and at present it's 41 degrees C here now and unusually humid too which means the evap system is not so effective.  Cooler change coming tomorrow, so the weather gods promise us, so I'm just tinkering with this putting bits together ready for paint.  Did the engine cradle last night which meant starting on the engine itself.
 
West of the NSW and SA borders and south of the tropics, evaporative AC works well except on rare occassions as it's much less humid than the east cost and doesn't justify the cost of refrigerated AC.
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

I actually don't like D Day stripes.  They ruin the appearance of a nice model.  But I have three of Pierre Clostermann's aircraft in my stash and since one of them has these stripes, this seems like a good time to get on with it.  I read The Big Show when I was about 15 or 16, and a few more times since.  My father was in the Royal Engineers during WW2 and he had previously told me of his days camped outside Caen with the Army trying to dislodge the German forces.  He said it was mostly boring, but occassionally not.  In his off duty moments, he and some mates would go on the scrounge for something to bolster the rations and they came across this field with and apparently unattended cow.  So they milked it daily as fresh milk was rare, only to find one day it had already been milked.  Next day, they got up earlier to beat their rivals who, it turned out, was the RAF.  It became a race to see who could get to the cow first until Dad and his mates decided this was ridiculous so they took the cow with them.  It eventually got left with one of the poorer farmers close to the town in Belgium where he seemed to stay for a while.
 
Clostermann relates exactly the same story in The Big Show.  Same place and time, so it's possible I have a slight and distant familial link to this man and subject of this GB.
 
So on to this model. I'm building the Airfix Spitfire Mk.IX for this group build, with a few extras.  I have the Xtradecal 1/24 set for this plane, Airscale's PE set for the cockpit, Eduard Brassin fishtail exhausts and a choice of Eduard steel seat belts or HGW cloth jobs.  I'm not sure which of these two I'll use and I don't get on with HGW's stuff, but this being the size it is, I'll give them one last go.
 

 
I made a small start on it today, but it may be slow going as it's very hot right now and it's hard to work on these things when your glasses are sliding down your face.  The very first thing I did was to glue in the tail wheel area onto the fuselage.  The parts fit quite well, but each has a small gap in different areas.  The left half (upside down one in this pic) fits very well on the vertical join against the fuselage but has a gap that will need a dose of Mr Surfacer 500 beneath the tail plane fillet, whereas the right half fits well against the fillet but has a visible gap against the fuselage.  But it's easily dealt with, again with some Mr Surfacer.  From what I've seen, that about sums up this model.
 

 
Next I added some parts to the cockpit floor so that I can paint this before too much longer.
 

 
I'm also drilling out the lightening holes in the fuselage frames.  You have to with this size model or it will really stand out.
 

 
Next, I started assembling the pilot's seat and adding the first of the Airscale enhancements.  The kit detail was removed before adding the PE parts., and the whole thing needs a little tidy up before paint.
 

 
Lastly, I sprayed some Tamiya AS12 over the insides of the fuselage and cockpit sides and floor.  If it looks a bit strange, that's because it probably dried to fast in the heat.  I hope it will look better once I get the cockpit green sprayed, otherwise it will get done again if we get a cooler day soon.
 

 

 
So that's five steps crossed off the instruction book.  Only two hundred and thirty nine to go .
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

Here I am showing my Williams Bros Gee Bee R-1 which I have just finished after several years on the shelf of delay.  It depicts the 1932 Thompson Trophy winner and was flown by Jimmy Doolittle.
It's made OOB except for the propeller hub, which I remade from aluminum.
 

 

 

 

 
I did not include the thin black pinstripes separating the red and white colors as I could not think of a way to produce them in scale.
The pilot figure is from Immense Miniatures.
 
 

Good morning to all
 
I would like to share with you my super detailed cutaway of the old Airfix 1:24 scale Ju87B.
I just love this kit and decided that I wanted to do something a little different.  I wanted to make a cutaway of the Starboard side plus the wing. After searching dear old Google for hours to get some sort of info I started.
I built this many years ago and sold it on, so the photos are from way back! ....so apologies for the quality of them!
 
I haven't been active on here for a long time as I have moved back to the UK from Bulgaria.. so I do hope I remember how to load the photos! 
 
Cheers......................
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Thanks a lot for taking a look!
 
Cheers
 
Fozzy
 
 

Done after 3 months. While taking photos yesterday, I noticed that the undercarriage extension indicators were missing. My next project will be  Curtiss P-40N Milkyway Wagon/Please Daddy.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Final stretch for the model's completion!
 






 
I hope to share some photos of the completed model soon!
 
Cheers

A bit closer to completion!



 
I still need to add a few details, some general grime (mainly around the engine) and exhaust residues.
 
Cheers
 

..teaser...
 

 

 
..the primer was fine when applied over clean fine sanded surfaces and this model has had a LOT of masking so it needed to be
 
getting some stainless steel flying wires etched and a mask for the serial - once thats done it's glamour shot time
 
Now where did I put those Sea Fury drawings...
 
Peter

Lower surfeces painted today with Vallejo Semi Matt Aluminium 
 

 

 

 

 
And all ready for decals.
 
Regards  Andy 

Decals started to be placed.
The Balkenkreuzs on the wings are from the kit decals. The ones on the fuselage are from my spare box.
sqd decals were made as customized years ago
Thanks to Pastor John @Pastor John for his confirmation regarding the upper wings decals.
 

... and the P-51B/C which would generate mega multiple sales  

Belated happy birthday Gary.  Glad you had a good time.
 
 
Cheers ,
Michael

Belated happy birthday Gary.  Glad you had a good time.
 
 
Cheers ,
Michael

It looks as if the plane has the underwing balkenkreuz on the top surface too.  If you have any spare decals, you could choose one of them if it's more suitable.  Perhaps do a bit more research first?  Given this is an unusual camo, it makes sense to take your time and get it right if you can.
 
Looks great so far. 
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

Belated happy birthday Gary.  Glad you had a good time.
 
 
Cheers ,
Michael

Some progress:
 

Another new project dripping from my bucket list:
This is 1/32 Eduard (Hasegawa) P-40N Warhawk with the markings of "Klawin Kitten"
 

Today, I mainly did some tests to better visualize the rather peculiar BB'ing I'm going to do on the wooden wings: so I took my mule + dark alu + black + white + light brown + tan (as on my Yak 9).
For the underside of the wing MRP 18/AMT 7 with 1/3 thinner and the top with MRP 19/AMT 11 + MRP 20/AMT 12 with 1/3 thinner.
Results:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
AMT 7 and AMT 11 are pretty good I think, but AMT 12 covers the BB'ing a bit too much (in fact, it depends mainly on the orientation of the light, which is very powerful).
So I'd have to paint a thinner coat for this AMT 12.
 
What do you think?
I can't wait to read your opinions on this BB'ing.
 
Thanks in advance.

Hellooo!
Another small update.
The canopy has been started, but not finished (just plonked on for these pics).
The wings (top only, haven't attached lower wings yet) have been base-coated, gloss varnished and decals have been applied.
They look awful at this stage, but with the addition of watercolour pencil washes, rivets, chipping and various stains, etc. they should come up OK... Hopefully.
Made a start on the exhausts. Will leave them as is until later to see if I need to knock them back a bit, once the rest is done.
It's coming together, but work and distractions keep getting in the way.
 
Cheers,
 
Kels.