Borsos

With propeller and rudder added, I‘d normally say I get closer to the end. Just some small bits still missing. (I had had to repaint the rudder entirely because I had destroyed the finish by dropping it into a tiny puddle of thinner. Enough to ruin the paintjob including the decals. This time I did one step after the other and cleaned my airbrush booth carefully.) BUT the blurred parts of my photo (I always use just my mobile to take pictures. Modelling is my hobby, not photography…) cover up where desaster struck: i had prepaired the rails for the mobile part of the canopy by indicating chamfers with paint. Seemed to be good enough for me when the most part of it would be covered by the hood anyway. (And yes, now I see that sloppy panel line, too. But just now on the photo. Another place to get back later) I don’t use vacuformed canopy parts too often, but I actually did once or twice in the past. But I never ever had so many troubles like this time. Despite of careful masking with Kabuki tape (or „washi“ tape, the stuff Tamiya uses for their masking tape, too) I destroyed the first paint job by lifting the paint with the tape. The paint adherence of the vacuformed parts is very bad. I went over it again (hence the slightly darker camo brown on the hood) and tried to glue it in place yesterday evening. No success with special canopy glue (on the basis of PVA… the hood just laughed at it). No success with UV glue that simply never actually cured (I don’t know if it was too old…) In the end — it was late in the evening and I just w-a-n-t-e-d to finish that (never a good basis for satisfying results) — my mad hands grabbed the super glue. You can clearly see what had to happen: This morning it looks just even worse. After this devastating example of self-inflicted stupidity I did the only rational thing I could have done: I sweared like a coachman, went to bed and left it till the next morning. After the boys went to school, wife and baby still asleep, I removed the canopy hood and decided not to bin the whole model yet. I‘ll try to sand and to polish out the worst effects of the superglue. I have no idea how to attach this bloody piece of a vacu canopy onto that fuselage, but I will stay away from superglue this time. I‘ll rather use my nail gun….

the propeller: at the top the kit‘s spinner with spare blades from an ages old Spitfire kit. These were longer than the ridiculously short blades from the kit but had definitely the wrong shape. At the bottom my vacuformed spinner with Waroff‘s 3D printed blades that he sent me so generously. They only received some strokes with fine sand paper and looked perfectly well; no printing lines or what soever. I think I went a little too far with weathering on the propeller als the Dewoitines of 1940 never had so many service hours. But well… I love weathered aircraft

Oh what a pity. but I’d stay away from using white spirit as it does affect MRP laquers. I clean my airbrush with white spirit and I do this also when I have used MRP laquers. The white spirit removes all paint residue flawlessly. Andreas

That looks frantastic. The naive person in the back of my mind had thought „maybe light spots on dark green are easier than the other way round“ but there’s of course no rational argument for that. Maybe spots are at least easier to spray than these „smoke rings“ this plane is famous for… however I really like the way it comes out!

Hello all, no excuses — I was more than lazy here. But I‘ll finish that one here now, it’s getting ridiculous how close I am to the finishing line. I had two of these figures in my stash. They are, I think, from Alarmi, and are Italian pilots. I thought it wasn’t too much of a problem to convert one into a French pilot In fact it took longer than expected. As always the devil lies in the detail. The French parachutes were different, the French wore single-breasted overalls without cuffs and no sandals… In the end I also did my best to give him an Ariaile flying helmet. The head is from Hornet, the boots are made by Royal models. Here he is after priming and shading from above. And here under some coats of Acrylic paint. I also finished the new propeller with the 3-D printed blades, but forgot to take more pictures during the process. Andreas

I start standing on my seat leaving sink marks on my chair and waiting when this kit is finally available… Andreas

… as it‘s so long oop, it’s all there online: http://www.gruppofalchi.com/files/1975-106-1975-ScaleModelAircraft_Woodman.pdf

Very nice start on that FW-190. i especially like the chipping in the cockpit. Andreas

I‘d say you should

I am very much looking forward to the Border Kate. I will need at least two I am afraid. (Might sell a poor 1:32 scale kit for that. Muharrharrharr ) Andreas

Jupp, after buying almost all of your fantastic Devastator sets I definitely need that one here, too!

Is this a good book to prepare oneself for the subject? Andreas

Yeah, please go on and show us step by step how to use these Airscale PE-parts, then I won’t need to be too focused and can stay way more relaxed when I do mine… I’d even have some wine then instead of Ritalin . The Trumpeter decals are bad, of course, but the plastic looks very nice in my eyes. Andreas

Thanks for clearing the road for us with this build. I must say I like everything I see. Looks like a nice kit of a simply beautiful original. (I won’t tell what I paid for the PCM kit on eBay some years ago …). go on with that great work! Andreas

You don’t lose time! I received my kit the day before yesterday and I will follow your build closely Andreas

Hey Border, stop this childishness and bring on the Kate!

I will order via Art Scale again: Cheaper AND faster than preordering from Kotare… Andreas

Really a wonderful model which is finished in a breathtaking paint job! Andreas

You do an amazing job on this kit! Will you also do a spinning prop? Andreas

What a fantastically looking machine! as I have this kit also in my stash you make me thinking of starting it. Andreas

A LaGG-3? An early Yak? A Fairey Battle and a Potenz 637 or 63-11 also would be more than welcome. And not to forget an SB2U Vindicator! Andreas oh my…! I forgot a Boulton Paul Defiant!

I like what artscale has in the making. I am very curious, waiting for these goodies and preparing myself to start with the build in the not so distant future. Yesterday evening I watched „Against the sun“ … Andreas

That’s really a lovely airplane. I am keen on seeing that one finished. I was too late to pick a kit up at Lukgraph’s. Andreas

Peter, that all looks mouth-watering. Please let us know when these are available :-) Andreas

Very nice build! Andreas