The Madhatter

Thanks very much for the kind posts guys No I made the mistake of forgetting the nose weight. I had it sitting there ready to go in and then it completely slipped my mind. I'll be using a small piece of clear sprue to hold up the back end sadly.

I finally managed to squeeze in some time today to upload the last set of WIP pics. I tell you, these WIP threads are becoming harder and harder to keep finding time to update. Anyway, this is almost it since last post. It has wings on it and black undercoat, and a broken front landing strut. That piece is the worst part about this kit. It has zero support and it just sits on the top. No lugs or depressions to help keep it there. I had to drill a couple of holes in the top of the strut and use some brass rod to help. It was working well until I accidentally bashed it against the side of the work bench while moving it (and it is not small by any means). That and the Testers quality wing gap that arose from a builder error (I hope). Annoying but manageable That's all I have right now sorry. Thanks for stopping in and having a look Si

Very unique display - I love it! Its the first one I have ever seen that's for sure. Well done

That's quite the effect there. Very nicely done. I know you have told us the product you used to obtain this finish but could you tell us how you applied it? Is it sprayed? Rubbed? Thank you as its an effect I'm sure a few people, I dare say, here would like to achieve as well

what a wicked idea! I love it and will be watching with interest I'd love to see more of those super highways to go around the city- that looks really cool

Could you imagine how heavy that would be?! It'd have to be mixed media wouldn't it?

I love watching you work your magic on vac-forms, and this is certainly an interesting subject. Hard to believe someone managed to do a 48th B-52! That's insane in itself Will be tuning in for this one

thanks so much everyone for your suggestions. It seems that the Iwata is the brush of choice for a lot of folks, so I just bought a HP-CP for less than $200 AU (discount applied) I'll now be on the hunt for a 0.2 Needle to go with

hi all I am looking to update my airbrush to something nice. I'd love a Harder and Steebeck "Infinity" but that's just way to much for me right now @ $440 AU (says me who bought a $650 Resin model Star Destroyer...) Anyways, what are other good quality brands that you can recommend? I want a good quality one that sprays nicely, with a super fine line and is easy to clean. Price is negotiable to a point. Dual action a must. Suggestions?

thank you guys for your kind posts. It is a very menacing looking machine isn't it Its my second ever helo and I'm pretty happy with it myself. I am yet to do my AH-6J Night Stalker bird which I should do at some point this year The Hind must be a massive machine in real life. I've compared it to an MH-60 (also unbuilt) and wow - its HUGE in comparison. Sitting next to a same scaled MAZ doesn't make it look any smaller either

thanks guys :hmmm:Good question - I am not entirely sure. Initially, I was thinking of have the engine bay doors open but now, I'm not sure (mostly because I made a rookie mistake and neglected to paint the rest of the insides white) Flaps up not dropped. Bomb bay open and crew ladder down. Yeah

Thanks guys I'm super sorry for the really long winded opening thread. Probably went on a bot too much Took a few pics of the engines and they're are now installed. It was a tad tricky because I didn't label or remember what the part numbers were. Here is one place a detailer could really go to town if they wanted. Anyways, that's it, but thanks for looking in Si

part 2: Well, that's what I have for now, but will be doing a lot on it over the weekend. Thanks for stopping in Cheers Simon

Hi all You know those times in life when everything seems to happen all at once and actually works for you - not the other way around? For me, this build has brought with it quite a few good things to me over the past couple of days and it's given me some much needed good joy in something not real life related. Hard to believe a plastic model kit could give anyone that much joy, and you'd be right - the kit itself won't, it's more the circumstances and life timing surrounding the kit purchase and build, that makes a kit more enjoyable or not I need a B-2A for Melbourne Expo this year, and I had stupidly promised one to go in the display. All I had on hand was of course the Testors one which I started in 2016 but stalled it due to other projects that held more sway over my time.This promise was the chance I needed to stop procrastinating and just get it done. To be fair to myself, I'd had a fair crack at it! Scratch built the cockpit, had started doing the bomb bays and I had even managed to do something that apparently beats many people who have tried this kit; I got seamless wing joints. Yeah baby! It was going so well until one day 3 weeks ago, when I accidentally broke the right wing off when it got caught between me and a doorway. Needless to say, I was not the happiest person around, so it went back into The Bin of an Uncertain Future Life went on and one event led to me visiting the LHS which led to this rather long winded thread. Sorry about that - It was a cool modelling story to me So, what do you get for your $199.99AU? Looking at the sprues - for a brand new modern kit of the De-classified B-2, the detail is surprisingly a little bland and maybe even a bit vanilla - especially when your used to the quality of detail supplied by Zvezda or Hasegawa etc. I think even Revell could do better here. Don't get me wrong, compared to the well known and bashed alternative, ANYTHING in 72nd is going to be better than that, so it's not exactly a fair comparison but at the same time, I think they could have added a few more details to both the kit and the instructions - especially when your charging what you are for it. But please don't get me wrong, the detail that is there is great. It looks the part and is a great template to start with for those wanting to go the whole super detailing route as there's plenty of scope for wires and pipes etc. I've even added a couple of pipes and wires to the back of the cockpit. I have no idea at all if they're actually meant to be there or not but I wanted visual interest. Bugger realism . They did forget the toilet though. Unforgivable. You even get a colour PE fret for the instrument panels. They have great detail and best of all, they're in colour! And of course I don't have a matching colour for the rest of the cockpit but who cares? The control sticks are very under sized though and if they were that comparatively small in the real craft, the pilots would be in physio for life after one flight. However, in saying that, it's not the be all end all because you can't see any of them through the windows anyway. I am using the resin ejector seats I have left over from the Testors build because I already have them and it'd be a waste of money not to use them. Interestingly though - there is a noticeable size difference between the 2 kits, so parts interchange will never work . Not that you'd want the put anything Testors into the ModelCollect but I was thinking more about the photo etch from Eduard. (It's too big) You get a big thick, glossy instruction book with some fairly basic diagrams and absolutely no colour call outs what so ever. Anywhere. I guess MC think that the buyers of this kit will ALL know without a shadow of a doubt what the colour of the back of the cockpit is. I chose a gray that's probably meant for an F-15, but this will be wrong as I am not an officiardo of anything so had a guess. Who needs the Internet? The wings are good to. They have a very solid feel to them without being too heavy. Separate slats, flaps and slaps - each one with it's own sink mark to take care of if you want to open or drop something. The flaps etc all sit nicely together and even stay there without the use of glue. Not Bandai quality fit but good enough. However, on dry fitting, the wings against the main body show that they may need some filler. Time will tell... Nothing I have done on this build has required filling yet. The fit is amazing, even without locator holes, plugs or tabs. Everything seems to slot nicely together and I have yet to find any niggles worth enough effort to dampen any spirits over. Another good thing about this kit is that the included details do not appear to be at all mythical and are at least bare something of a resemblance to the real thing. I have just looked up at what I've written and am thinking now's a good time for the pics. So, here's a few sprue and current build pics of the new B-2A Stealth Sorry - have to do this in 2 parts: too many pics

I really like that and I am not a fan of the F-35 at all. I love that you painted the bird on and didn't use a decal - I can only presume you had a template to work from? Either way, great job and a very unique way of displaying it

Very, very cool!!! If I were t make an F-14, that's the scheme I would look at or at least a variation of it. Looks good with the F-18 as well

Thanks everyone. I was happy with how it came out. Not bad for my first helicopter. Yep, the guns did indeed come with the kit. In fact, it comes with quite the ordinance but this was the fit out I liked best. As you say, it looks quite cool

Scrubs up quite nicely doesn't it. I've never built one myself but am half way through the 72nd Bandai version which I'll finish one day It's refreshing to see one that doesn't look like its been beaten from here to Hoth. I quite like it myself

Hi guys Here's one I did in a group build a while ago but have never posted it here. It's the Trumpy Mil-24 in Czech tri-coloured camo. Paints are Gunze and Tamiya. Decals are from a Hungarian company that I have forgotten the name of but I'm sure it begins with H thanks for looking in Si

thank you all very much guys - I appreciate it. I'd like to do an IL-2 in this scheme as well as Ive seen that one naked as well and it looks amazing. There's been a couple of naked Mig's on this forum which is where I first saw one, so I am not breaking new ground by any stretch. Thanks again for all of the kind posts Si

Thank you very much for the kind posts guys

Hi all Here's my rather adequate attempt at a nude Mig-3 (I've seen much better). Straight out of the box - only thing not in the box were the German wood grain decals (same ones I used on the Dragonfly). No resin and no modifications or fixing of "errors" - no matter how glaringly obvious (I couldn't be bothered really). No lighting and no detailing. Just a nice shake and bake kit build - something I haven't done in years. And I liked it! Well, that's all I have. I'm happy enough with how it came out. The decals were a PITA to work with though - not very strong and tear very easily. Thanks for stopping in and having a look Si

The detail on these is incredible. Who created these? You or someone else? The facial features look so real that you'd almost think they were actual faces photo-shopped onto the pics. Absolutely stunning

very cool! That's certainly a subject you don't get to see much of and it's a great example.

I can only echo the above statements of appreciation. That came out beautifully and will be an inspiration to many I imagine Brilliant Si