skeletonmode

First chair completed save a couple of cables. (the green stuff residue will be scraped off once the cyano is set) note the home made guard on the left side, both chairs had one knocked off and one lost. I must say,I consider aires cockpits to be best in class, but their packaging maybe worst in class. Their castings are some of the last things that blow me away in terms of what detail you can achieve, individual switches as thin as a human hair etc. But invariably they just get sheared off in the packet as they have with this one, lots of broken off detail, broken joystick etc. Having said that I would still recommend their product to anyone, they are really beautiful pieces, maybe I just get unlucky.

Well I haven't been able to do any modelling for a year and have 4 planes in the cupboard in the final stages of completion so I've decided to...start up another one instead of finishing them in the time honoured tradition. This time I've got an SU-25 UB, with the aires cockpit, quickboost intakes, pylons and the fans from the K. Metal pitot tubes and I also have this set of extra decals which came free but they arnt for the UB so I guess I'll do one of the box schemes. Is there any other aftermarket you guys would recommend? Also need reccendations for ground items, any decent crew or standing pilot figures (I'll be doing cockpit open in ready state I think, but I have seen the electronics bay aftermarket and it is tempting). Also being as this is a trainer/operational trainer what would be a good loadout? There's a lot of ordnance in this kit it's be a shame to waste it. (Sound off if anyone wants those linden hill decals)

Quite right, thanks! perfect ready to go then. Lets do it, maybe we can get a "what-if" squadron of nighthogs going

T Thankyou so much mate! Looks like I might salvage it after all, I'll start a thread up and post some pics of the state it's in as I got it. Does anyone have figure 4? Thats the one that shows how the photo etch is meant to go into the canopy.

Thank you! Ive been studied the parts I managed to salvage and it looks like theres parts from two verlinden sets in there? Making it even more confusing, I have 4 of each instrument panel (resin, not getting confused with kit parts) 3 of which hes started painting? So weird.

Im facing a nightmarish scenario. I bought the trumpeter n/aw off ebay ages ago, fairly cheap as someone had "started" the kit, I could see theyd only started the aftermarket cockpit so I went for it. About a year later I'm thinking about having a crack at it. First off, the verlinden cockpit has no instructions, secondly, every tiny piece has been cut off the resin blocks, there is a hole in the bag so they are all swimming around in corners of the box, probably half gone, the pit it self has been mauled about, some primer here or there. Looks like there are no seats. At this point im thinking maybe I should chuck the verlinden pit away which seems a real shame. But on the off chance that anyone has the instructions for this obscurity maybe I could asses whats there and see if it's salvageable. Massive longshot I know but if there is anywhere in the world someone might have these instructions it's here.

I never sit while modelling and painting, only stand. Am I the only one?

Thanks I'll definitely give that stuff a try.

Yeah a 1/32 pe-2 would be perfect. On that thread, I'm considering doing a 1/32 I-16 soon.

cheers! One sponge with white, one sponge with nothing, build up the rough texture with the loaded sponge and then diffuse it back with the blank sponge if it gets too heavy. After that just mist the most transparent thin white you can make over it with an airbrush so its a bit more homogeneous.

Ah nice pic, yeah I was actually pulling the paint back off down to the white then green rather than trying to go over, and the white frosting over it is meant to be frost not paint, it'll come across better when I do the base I hope, even the prop is a bit frosted up now. I do think there's a difference between the field applied and factory applied winter camo though, there's definitely pics where they have gone roughly up to/over the edge of the preexisting star or just left a hole for it rather than doing a new one, theres one on that page you linked with the whitewash going over the star. But yeah it's more suppose to be damage to the finish rather than whitewashing. Ive done all the acrylic stuff on it and now Im moving on to the enamels so hopefully itll come across better after that.

Cheers man. Oh by the way, I'm going to be doing a winter base for this, I have some 1/32 soviet pilot figures but the faces are terrible. Master box is supposed to be doing a ww2 soviet airfield personnel box in 1/32 but it never seems to appear. Does anyone have some good recommendations in this scale? Obviously wings cockpit figures would be ideal but it looks like hes not doing business anymore.

Pre weathering the stars up a bit

All the AK stuff in the background is enamels. I do have some of their acrylics for early war panzers somewhere though. As for the enamels I love them, them and MIG are unsurpassed I think really in terms of enamels, I'm going to get into some more of their acrylic stuff as well, they're doing some new interesting stuff with semi transparent acrylic glazes that Ive seen recently.

The green was a mix of a bunch of different vallejo greens, russian uniform and some greens from panzer aces, for the light blue I just used UK azure with some varying amounts of white frosting in it.