IainM

What a beautiful looking bird! Great job, really impressive!! Love the sharks teeth on the cowls! Congrats on crossing the finish line, especially with something that big!!

Cockpit!

That is some really crisp work there @Anthony in NZ Building an un-weathered aircraft shows off the building and painting ability - no hiding anything , and that is absolutely gorgeous on all fronts!! Well done!!!

Hi John! I think that's bang-on! Love the colour and the weathering!!

Ooh, that' going to be a real treat!

Bakgat!!!!!

The build progresses...undercarriage has been fixed, landing light and nav light masks removed, exhaust stacks have been attached. It's had a semi-matte coat applied, and now is ready for some oil and enamel weathering. With a bit of hard work, I think she's turning into a lovely build, however, if I have one major complaint, it's going to be with the undercarriage (fragility) and the way it fits into the resin bay.... This is what I've had to do to make it a little more sturdy.... The lugs at the top of the undercarriage leg (which were just about a lump of misshapen plastic) was removed, hole was drilled and a piece of brass tubing inserted and filed to conform to the shape of the receiving end in the resin bay (which also needed a lot of work. It was all solid, so I had to drill and carve out slots for that brass tube to sit in). This was then drilled and a brass rod inserted from the top side - a corresponding hole was drilled in the bay for this to fit into. Once I attached, it, I used some JB weld on the pin and in the hole to make sure there would be no flex. The extension arm which I replaced with a brass tube in the kit was quite nasty to say the least. I cut off the lug at the end of that arm, drilled both it, and a receiving slot into the undercarriage leg. The rail in the u/c bay floor which the arm and lug attached to was notched, so after a bit of careful measuring, and end of the arm would sit in the notch and provide more rigidity. The lug could then be slid into place over the notch. The axle itself was very undersized circumference-wise and flexible, so I had to drill and pin it through its length with a 0.3mm rod, and then built up the circumference using brass slide tubing. Much better fit into the resin Barracuda wheels I managed to get old of! Thanks @MikeMaben for the heads-up! That's how it looks now. Bit of brass, JB Weld and CA makes it all OK.......but....when I put it on her legs, there was something definitely off..the starboard wingtip was sitting lower than the port wingtip - by 5mm at the tips, which equated to 1.5mm at the gear legs. So even by using a miniature machinists square to ensure that I was getting right angles, etc when attaching the gear, it was still off. I think either the resin bay was slightly warped, or I just messed up. So what I've done to rectify the problem was to sand a little more flat into one of the wheels than the other one, and also keyhole the axle holes in the wheel hubs. The port was was keyholed down and the starboard keyholed up with a bit of plastic shim to force the axle up, and that seems to have done the trick. Looking directly from the front it's not absolutely perfect the way the legs themselves sit, but it'll do! Exhausts were done with Lifecolour rust colour applied as glazes over Alclad Exhaust manifold, with a bit of Mig rust and black powders. The exhaust marks were sprayed - and this all still needs some oil treatments.... The anti-glare panels will be attached once I've done the overall weathering, you can see the slots I've cut for them. Landing lights came out quite nicely. Always nerve-wracking removing those masks!

Got all the building work out of the way, now it's time for rivets and paint. Going the same way on this as I did on my Hurricane - mottling over a silver base to provide the tonal variance, then the "black" topcoat.. So here she is with SMS Aluminium over Mr Surfacer grey primer (with the moveable surfaces left in grey). I'll then go over the entire airframe with various colours shot through mottling masks. On top of that will be a HGW rivet set. Once the rivet decals are down, it'll be some chipping fluid, and the base colour to be chipped slightly. Hopefully all goes to plan

Absolutely superb! Loving your techniques Peter...and the execution!

Oh believe me @Pastor John - I'm in the same boat! Love the result if it comes out well, but the process....

Really well done! Great achievement on both fronts - the model and the publication

Gorgeous work. Just gorgeous!!

Thanks @NigTT Yep, it (the gap) will still be visible....109's had that rubber seal which is the piece of styrene I added, plus I think there will be an ever-so-slight step. I had to sort it out though, my first attempt was horrific it would just have been waaaaay to much!

Been pretty tied up with the work on the Hurricane, but this one is still getting some love every now and then! After I had laid down some primer in various areas I saw that the fit between the engine, cowl where I had added some styrene to adjust the length, and the gun deck, was pretty lumpy. So I spent some fair time sanding down and sorting that area out. Cockpit and all the various little bits were added, the canopies were masked (interior and exterior) and painted, as well as adding the grab handles and head armour. Below is an image of the tub just before the canopies were added. Hopefully I've blown all the dust out - she's going to be a closed-up bird. And there she is with the glazing on. Pretty happy with the fit, the time I spent fettling and sanding beforehand seemed to have worked. I will be filling the small gaps between the framing with diluted PVA to ensure paint doesn't get inside. The glazing has just been glued on with Mr Hobby S, still needs some minor blending around the aft section. Once that's done, she's ready for primer!

Here are some in-progress images of the Hurricane. I cut masks for the fuselage code and national insignia using my Xtradecal set (X32063) I had bought as reference. The dull red was Tamiya lacquer LP18 straight up - great match to the colour on the decal sheet! Blue was Tamiya XF-8 Flat Blue and XF-1 Flat Black in a ratio of around 3:1 to match the colour on the decal sheet. The yellow was AK RLM04 with a touch of a brighter yellow to match the sheet and the white was Insignia White with a touch of Off-White. Stencils are from HGW, which were applied after a coat of AquaGloss over the paint - hence the reflectivity in the images.... I also discovered a way of getting rid of the glue residue from the HGW transfers - Mr Softer! Always had an issue trying to get completely rid of the residue just using water, but this time I brushed Mr Softer over the glue residue, quick wipe with a soft cloth, and gone!