JefH

Well it was on and off the bench for 17 months or so but I think I'm going to call the aircraft portion of this project finished. I'm pretty happy with it overall except for the lower cowl's fitment. I read somewhere this is a common problem and I may just glue it down tight if I decide I don't want that panel removable. Well that and I should have maybe cleaned some dust of the plane and my camera sensor before taking pics. It's my first Tamiya 1/32 project and I'm looking forward to more in the future. I am open to suggestions or comments where it might need some improvement. Thanks for looking and the encouragement.

Thanks for the comments and input. J.J - Thanks for catching the flap indicator screw up. I will add it to the to do list. PHBIO - I was of the mind that the scale difference between 1/32 & 1/35 would be fairly negligible. Once more math decided to disagree with my better judgement. I believe the jeep will be about 9mm under scale. I have to decide if this is something that'll bother me or not. IBG out of Poland has made a lot of interesting vehicles that are very aircraft dio friendly (Bedford fuel bowser in particular). It does seem like a missed opportunity that they're in 1/35. Jeff

Well life came at me hard the past couple months and I hit the brakes on the bench for well over a month. I have a couple days off this week and I'm trying to commit to at least finishing the Spit by next Saturday to enter into a local model show. Still have a ways to go with the underside weathering. On the other side of the coin (and plane) I wanted to keep the top side chipping pretty reserved since this was an immediate post VE day Spit. Sorry for the lack of updates. I'll try to get this project back on track. Jeff

Hopefully this is the right forum. I'm heading to Pittsburgh for a few days with the family for a quick visit. Planning on catching a baseball game and visiting a few kid-centric museums. Can anyone recommend any can't miss sights, food or hobby shops I should try to hit? Thanks in advance for your input. - Jeff

I only found out they did this recently. It seems like it's mostly from mid 1945. But the first one appear to be in France, so maybe earlier than that. I only wish I had been able to find some 1/144 roundels for the windscreen.

Very small update. After a quick enamel wash and a satin varnish I let the clear cure for a few days. I initially felt that maybe the wash was too subtle, but after the satin varnish I'm happy enough with where it's at before I get into more serious weathering. Since I plan to leave the port side engine cover off I added a little more wiring to busy it up. On the topic of cowls I will have to glue down the lower one because the gap is just enough to drive me crazy. The canopy and windscreen and both just dry fitted at the moment so I can fit the gunsight nearer completion. While the clear was curing I wanted to build a small 1/35 vehicle to accompany the spit in a small diorama. Initially I was planning on building a Canadian Military Pattern 15cwt Truck from IBG, but it was a nightmare. Warped sprue and short shot doors. I've had iffy luck with IBG stuff, but they're probably my favourite company for the subjects they choose to make. So as a backup I jumped into a 1/35 Tamiya Jeep. From what I understand although RAF Sqn weren't typically issued with jeeps, RAF TAF units were since they operated from unfinished forward operating airfields. My initial plans it to have the Jeep parked close to the Spit with the mechanic using the hood as a workbench. Sorry for the delays, but thanks for looking. - Jeff

Shoot. Will fix. - Jeff

Hi everyone. Been away from the forums for a couple years due to some personal apathy towards aircraft builds. I made a start on this kit last May but, couldn't get past the engine and cockpit before putting it back in the box. But I recently visited the USAF museum in Dayton while travelling with the family and I'm ready to jump back into LSP subjects. I'm building this Tamiya 1/32 XVIe as a plane from 443 Sqn RCAF in Aug 1945. The powerplant and cockpit are fairly out of the box except for some wiring added, Eduard instrument panel and HGW belts. Here's where I picked it up last week. I intend to place it on a small base with a side engine panel removed and a mechanic inspecting the engine. I used masks to make the large C1 roundels, HGW wet transfers for the stencils and decals from Kageros Top Colors 24 book. The Kagero diagram showed the landing gear bulges so I included them. After fact I learned that may or may no be correct. The engine still needs to be glued to the fuselage, which I hope will tighten up some of the gaps. Also 2nd gloss coat should also help unify the sheen near the stencils. Good to be back and revisiting all the great work on this forum. I'll do my best to stay motivated and drag this one over the finish line. Thanks for looking. Jeff

Hi again. After my last project I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to start anything new. I just found out I need to start chemo which I really had hoped to avoid. I think I need a mental escape so I'm forcing myself to get moving on my next build. I wanted to make a shelf mate for my last build ( BF-109 E4 ) since for some reason all my previous build were 1944-45. I've decided to convert a Revell Spitfire IIA to an earlier MKI. I've never tried a conversion before or using this much aftermarket on one build. I've built the Revell IX a few years back and remember it as a pretty simple build, but will admit cutting out the oil cooler is intimidating. I chose these markings from Xtradecals. One thing the instructions were not clear on was the underside sections finished in aluminum. In the early war period would it be bare aluminum or painted aluminum lacquer? Not much progress, but started out with Mr. Dissolved putty to reduce the size of the crater sized rivets along the fuselage. I got the tip from https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/59005-revell-spitfire-mk-iia/ I did this first with the hopes of avoiding a bunch of sanding dust in a finished cockpit. I'll follow up with HGW raised rivets for the rivet pattern behind the cockpit. Sorry for the terrible cell photos, didn't want to get sanding dust in the photo booth. Thanks for looking. Jeff

Really excited to see this one come together. I've been thinking about attempting the Spit V conversion with the same items. Cheers- Jeff

Thanks again for the kind words and comments along the way. Jeff

Hello. Here is my completed Eduard 1/32 BF-109 E-4. It was built mostly OOB, with the exception of HGW belts, Aires wheels and some various Airscale decals. The kit goes together fairly well except the fit on the nose, radiators and oil cooler are terrible. I also tried AK Real colours aircraft lacquer line for the first time and they maybe my go to brand from here on out. Cheers - Jeff

Well I'm going to call this one done. Finished in less than 3 months is probably a record for me. The Eduard kit is certainly the hardest aircraft kit I've built since returning to the hobby. But not so bad I won't build another up as a crashed dio some time. Thanks for all the encouragement along the way and pointing out a couple errors I made. Next up for me a Spitfire MK I to display along side the Emil Thanks for looking - Jeff

Just catching up. Love seeing kits built in slightly out of the ordinary schemes. Jeff

That's one of the nicest models I've seen built. Beautiful. Jeff

Just catching up. Wonderful work. Jeff

Hi again. Pretty minor update. Schools doing distance education and two kids under 8 has put a damper on my bench time. I tried oil dot weathering on the upper surfaces with mixes success. It certainly looks a little more sun faded. I think I need to do more reading about the technique. Painted the exhaust and added some wing root weathering. I also began weathering the underside. I'll likely add some more chipping around engine access panels and some minor streaking. I'm planning on getting it up on it's own legs tomorrow and hoping that the landing gear angle doesn't fight me like it has on every other German plane I've ever built. Thanks for looking and stay safe. Jeff

I borrowed this photo from hobby search because I didn't want to dig mine out of the stash. It's the Tamiya edition of the Italeri L6/40 light tank. The vehicle markings are Zanchetti and the figure uniform decals are by Tamiya. Speaking of figures, Tamiya's 1/35 injected figures were horrible forever. But in the last 5yrs or so they've been pretty fantastic. It gives me hope that maybe they'll turn around the decal issues.

Thanks for the offer. PM sent. Thanks everyone for the input. I think I'm leaning towards a masking solution simply because it's a BMF. I'd worry that if the decals situation went sideways it's a much more difficult repair than a painted surface. This might push me to invest in a silhouette machine honestly. It is a little infuriating that a kit that cost me in the neighbourhood of 3 times more than the Revell P-51 has decals that are substantially worse. Once more thanks again. - Jeff

Hi. I'm planning on pickup up Tamiya's new F-51. I love the Karin Ann markings since my wife is a KINO (Karen in name only). I've never built a large scale Tamiya kit, but heard nightmare stories about their decals. I'd be nervous about applying the FF-888 and USAF decals over a BMF. So I guess a two part question. 1/ Has Tamiya improved their decals in recent releases and I'm worried about nothing? 2/ Does anyone know where I could have masks made for the FF-888 and USAF? I could track down the stencils and insignia in the aftermarket pretty easily. Thanks for your time. Jeff

Just catching up. Inspirational work. Jeff

Thanks for all the kind words. There is such a high level of work on this forum so they mean a lot. I have one more in the stash which I was planning on building up with AML's PeilG conversion. But honestly the nose was such a fight it's definitely going to be put on the back burner for a bit. After looking at the Alley Cat stuff I may see if I can snag a E-1 overtree and build a Swiss 109D and just sell/trade my E-4. I've been trying to find a copy of the e-3 boxing but they seem rare as hen's teeth. The captured RAF markings in that version make me weak in the knees. Thanks for catching that one. I had entirely the wrong canopy in place. The only other 109s I've built were G's so I think I must have grabbed that style. I hate canopy masking so having to re-mask and paint the other version will hopefully teach me to pay attention. (Sorry cell photos) (Also sorry, Canadian apologize too much) Thanks again for looking. Jeff

Hello again. First busy work week in a while, so not really that much bench time. But did manage to chip away at a few small projects. Gave the propeller, hub, and landing gear a coat of Alclad light shine and followed up with some weathering. I also hit the 109 with a coat of Alclad matte finish. I also removed the window masking since I've had bad experiences leaving montex masks on too long. Once again they left a fair amount of residue which I removed with an automotive bug and tar remover. I usually like to keep the canopies open on a model, but I might close up the 109. The lines just look cleaner and with the cockpit being so cramped their isn't a lot to see inside anyways. It's just dry fitted for now, so I have time to decide. Next up is brush painting some details, and figuring out how to weather this thing. Thanks for looking. Jeff

Pretty minor update. Managed to get a panel line wash down. First time using different shades for different paint colours, instead of covering everything in an old school raw umber wash. AK Blue-grey panel liner for the RLM 65 and AK Brown Green panel liner for the RLM 02/70. It's more subtle then I'm used to, but it's growing on me. The close up photos showed me I have a small gap to fill near the wingroot which I've somehow managed to miss up to this point. Hopefully It'll be on to some weathering and detail painting in the near future. Thanks for looking and happy holidays. -Jeff

Well it looks like my updates are coming every 4 days or so now instead of bi-monthly. That's a huge improvement for me. After getting a coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss down, I was able to get the stencils and markings down. After the initial markings were placed I had to admit that the amount of mottling I had was far too little for the aircraft in question. Even after adding more it's probably still a little light, but I feel a little better. In the past any of my Luftwaffe builds had a very light camo work, so I figured I might was well get out of my comfort zone a bit. I still consider myself in the learning stages with aircraft weathering, so from here on out I imagine the build will get more challenging. Thanks for looking. Jeff