mc65

Geee! I love the weathered green on the Willys, and great work on the PSP! may I ask wich reference is the latter, and where did you find them? TIA, Paolo

oh, that kit! when I built it I was an enthusiastic boy, and even then it made me suffer... I follow your construction with admiration! for the instrument panel, and other available details, have you tried looking on the scalemates website? "grumman f4f wildcat" 1:32 - Scale Modeling Search https://www.scalemates.com/search.php?fkSECTION[]=All&q="grumman+f4f+wildcat"++1%3A32 good hunting! Paolo

great engineering work to scale! regarding magnets, I get my supplies from this company: https://www.supermagnete.it/blocchi-magneti-neodimio despite having rectangular models in the catalog, I prefer the cylindrical ones: https://www.supermagnete.it/dischi-magneti-neodimio drilling the plastic with a drill bit of the right thickness and gluing them flush (or under a thin layer of plastic) with epoxy. the advantage lies in the dimensions, which are smaller than the rectangular ones. I prefer to put a few more, but making them invisible. here you can see-not see a couple hidden in the thickness of the plastic of the engine cowling of an Ar196. hope to be of some help about... cheers, Paolo PS To handle those little crazy objects I normally use plastic tweezers, or wooden sticks and blu tack!

magnificent. so far I had not found any profile that made me snap the spring to start this kit, a gift from a friend. but the one you're going to do, the 55 Sentai one, I find it beautiful. sure, it's a Tei... so I searched for the Wolf Pack set, but without success. do you have any idea where to find it? looking on the web it seems unobtainable. TIA, Paolo

I just saw the start of work on the Hien, you are a war machine, unstoppable! and this Tempest is a precise reference for those who want to make one. to call it spectacular is an understatement.

Mmmmh... cutting out a square patch wich comprises the bulge on the kit's ones and insert the corresponding resin parts? I follow very curious, I have it on stash and I have no idea how to make it!

Stefan, I'm glad to be of help, somehow! as far as I know, all the interior "living" areas were interior green. Some pictures of aircraft under restoration show a red dope paint on the canvas parts, but these then were painted over interior green also. other areas (cowling, landing gear) seems to be silver painted. Engine: yes but actually no... the Lysander adopted a Bristol Mercury XX, the Gladiator a Bristol Mercury IX. These are obviously similar, but not identical. Anyway, having a Gladiator's engine, should be fair easy to adjust it to Lysander. Affirmative on the seat belts, although it is my deduction: in the photos you do not see any shoulder harness in the rear compartment, nor any strong points where to attach these. as said, I've quite some pics about it, if you need to see any detail, just ask, we'll dig it out! cheers, Paolo

oh joy! I'm glad to see a Lysander under construction! I just finished damning my soul with it, maybe this can give you some ideas: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/91451-westland-lysander-mk-iii-sd-matchbox-revell-132/ in any case if I can be useful, I have accumulated a lot of documentation on this subject. good work, Paolo

oops! I was focused on the ally side of this GB, and I missed the end of this... great work on a subject that is rarely easy to reproduce, Michael!

now I understand where I'm wrong: actually I take one step forward and two steps back, according to Lenin's school! your works are really inspirational, difficult to start a model already made by you without referring to it.

Thanks to everyone, forgive the delay in answering, these are hectic days! Ernest, the checkerboard it's not a work of me, it's just a decal! so, I would declare it finished, unless there are suggestions for further interventions. I tried to take some pictures of the last details added at the end of the work, and they are worse than my usual ultra low standard. but for the moment I'll put these on. then, if I can have a moment of peace, maybe... look how sloppy I am, I haven't even positioned well the hatches of the weapons compartments. the scratches, delimited by the bands of primer below, have a bizarre yield, but on the other hand if that were the real... for the cockpit there is no way, it seems to me, to portray in a single shot all the knick-knacks that I threw in it, patience. I have to say the transparent ones are very...transparent! maybe i should do some weathering to at least the windshield? had we talked about the navigation lights? oh well, usually vacuform with a ball of fishing line underneath. maybe these came a little oversized, this time. I added some bolts to the LG legs, managed to almost center the Browning's muzzle on the leading edge holes, added the hole for the camera gun missing in the kit, redone the attachments of the droppable tanks, along with the pipes and rods. mmmmh, and I have to re-dirty the tires around the rims, I guess. on the belly I kept light. maybe too much light. in short, it wasn't the relaxation kit I wanted, but in the end something acceptable came out, I would say. apart from a little difficulty in cold starts. okay, no more ugly photos. for the base I thought at a PSP surface, maybe good as a set for other allied aircraft, I also got the necessary, but I didn't have the time or the ability to think about it. what else to say... the deadline for this group build is so far away, maybe I may add a subject to it? cheers, Paolo

the rendering of the painted and then sanded signs is wonderful, I regret not having painted mine! but on the other hand, if one is lazy ...

thank you all! Ernest, your model is doing great, but most of all it's benefiting from your daughter's attentions, which makes it super special regardless, in my opinion! well, finally the main landing gear has found peace, and I have carried on the last things of this troubled model. forgive the bad photos, but I'm in debt to sleep, in the next I hope to conclude and make decent ones. one thing that didn't convince me was the red of the wheels. I got it back thanks to a friend's suggestion to use some Humbrol enamel, which luckily I had. in this photo you can appreciate how different the red of the decal on the nose is, compared to the nose and the wheels ... patience, I don't think I want to intervene on the checkerboard. another reason for disappointment, but it's only my fault, was discovering the Barracuda decals sheet dedicated to the P51 stencils only after closing the fuselage. placing the decals later was... interesting. fortunately my childhood was marked by "the cheerful surgeon", and thanks to that I still have a fairly steady hand! dragged by enthusiasm, I installed the last cockpit's internal parts and definitively positioned the canopy. even the last external parts have been fixed, such as antenna, navigation lights, etc. now all it needs is some weathering and general harmonization. and a base, of course. I am trying also to get the Nino Pizzichemi's beautiful pilots sculptures dedicated to P51, but at the moment I have not succeeded. cheers, Paolo

wow, the nose job is absolutely believable, congratulations!

I must say that looking at your work makes me want to go up to the attic immediately and bring down my box, to copy your creation as much as possible! terrific painting, the last additions make it even more amazing. kudos, Paolo

Iain, I discovered this discussion recently, it took me a while to read and digest everything. I do not have in mind to build a B24, I simply do not know where to put it, but having already read (and having been struck by it) the discussion on He219, I just couldn't not follow this. what to say? the phrase attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, the motto of the Amerigo Vespucci ship for decades, seems appropriate to me: not who begins but who perseveres. all my admiration and esteem for the approach and stubbornness in solving seemingly insurmountable problems (and which should not even exist, in third millennium models). cheers, Paolo

thanks Ernest and Maru, you are too generous with this dumb old model maker! well, today I have not done anything because I was ordered for "a simple ride, less than 10Km". since this discussion has taken a bit of a drift like this, I put a photo of the green part of the route: I have yet to figure out if the sweet* girl who drags me into these things is trying to get me in shape or kill me... anyway. in the midst of this alien landscape, and without even thinking about it, I had an epiphany, and I understood why the P51's main landing gear was struggling to stick firmly in place. in fact, it is almost a week that I have placed it, but it limps, flickers, in short, it is not firmly locked in its place, on the contrary, to titillate it, it comes off, despite the use of very powerful styrene glue as flex-i-file! AND THANKS! the landing gear bay is made of resin, and when it sticks, the styrene glue, there??? I could stay there until 2024, waiting for it to stick... so now** I clean everything and start again with a suitable glue and then insciallah, I finally go to the cockpit. oh, yesterday I managed to complete also the LH ammo bay. cheers, Paolo *so to speak **now I'm going to rest my poor bones, we talk about it tomorrow, maybe

Wow! big advances, here! the invasion strips are excellent, aren't you afraid that the decals let you glimpse these from below?

hi all, during my trip I took a couple of hours to visit the Tempelhof site, finding it... well, very Teutonic. It was inevitable to think of what Goering said to USAAF General Spaatz after the war: "When I saw your bombers over Berlin protected by your long-range fighters, I knew then that the Luftwaffe would be unable to stop your bombers. Our weapons plants would be destroyed; our defeat was inevitable." especially considering that the P51B I'm making flew over Berlin! well, back home I put my hand to the weapons compartment, asking myself several times why I insist with this area, which closed it would certainly have made a better impression. after an evening of curses I arrived here. I'm not very satisfied, but I keep it that way. weapons and ammunition are Gaspatch, really well made, each Browning is made up of 5 separate parts, with also some optional parts. the tracks for the belts are in the usual sheet of toothpaste tube. next session port compartment, I hope. cheers, Paolo

as regards the number of crew members, I read, I think in the book "ace if diamonds", that even when the third member was not essential, the crews insisted on having him with them in the transitions from one type to another of the same plane, or even on other planes designed as two-seaters, such as the He219. it was not a technical question but a human one, not wanting to disperse the small human group that had been created. the third man in fact would have been destined for other non-flight jobs.

Hi Jack, my P51 is already built and painted, you may find it in the "mighty 8" group also. I had the feeling the upper central fuselage was someway fat, so I forced it with clamps and epoxy to obtain a sligthly better look, but knowing before of the resin set first I would definitely use it! too late, amen.

procrastinate as long as you want, we will not stop waiting to see what wonder you will bring out from that engine!

Fortunately we're here for pure fun, Kevin... take your time, and your fun! Heaven can wait, and us, too! cheers, Paolo

Great recovery, Ayovan, it must not have been easy with that camouflage!