mc65

Hi Andy, I'm in the exact same situation: lack of mojo, so I'm happy to see you working on this very same kit, which I've also been thinking about for too long! I'm immensely sorry to have to tell you this, but apart from the gun pods that need fixing, the other problem with this kit, if you're going to expose the engine, is the engine itself... after a thousand measurements and curses I decided to get one produced by FPW Models (32 P 856) and it is a real beauty. cheers, P.

a remarkable building and a first class painting! I've had one of these on the shelf for years, now I'm worried about the difficulties you've encountered and intimidated by not being able to get even close to your result... chapeau!!

Hi John, even though I don't model much lately, I'm passionately following your work, looking for the courage to get to grips with your conversion set that's been sleeping in my attic for too long. one thing intrigued me in the underside photos: the night pipe of the exhausts on the outboard side of the engines seems to convey the fumes (and the relative heat) straight into the underwing radiators... isn't it strange? i mean, it is assumed that these had to work to dissipate the heat of the engine liquids by drawing cold air, placing the concentrated heat of 6 cylinders in front of them would have worsened their performance, I guess. ah, still observing the engine nacelles, certainly you'll have already noticed that on the starboard engine, outboard side, a "zu" stencil is upside down... All the best, Paolo

Mmmmh... I see the JG54 badge rather pixelous, it's the photo, or it's really like that? I guess it's possible to retouch it with brush and gouache to round up the corners, at least...

While we're doing philosophy... the title of this discussion struck me. Approaching the age of 60 I understood that growing old (also) means this: realizing that we can no longer do certain things, due to physical limitations. And we usually realize later, even much later, that we don't do them, it's rarely a fact that coincides with a specific moment. I'll try to explain myself better: when is the last time we sprinted to, for example, not miss a train? It seems normal, we've always done it. Then one day we do it again - we try to do it again - and we realize that at most we lengthen our pace: we will never do that performance again, impossible. We realize it at that moment, but in reality we lost that ability a long time ago, we just didn't know it. Well, all this to say that announcing that this will be the last LSP model, given the expertise and passion you're putting into it, seems like a revisable concept to me. We agree that our performance is unfortunately deteriorating, but at the same time experience, planning and awareness are increasing... I like to think that I will do modeling as long as I want, knowing full well that I have never reached exceptional levels. My next ones will be even less good, never mind, but they will be there, and I hope the same for you: why deprive yourself of one of the few remaining pleasures? I apologize for the length and if I took the liberty of intervening on your decision and/or belief, but I would be sorry not to see more of your future works. Sincerely, Paolo

It's an interesting question... in fact, despite loving the elegant lines of the B17 or the contrasts of the B24 (large fuselage and extra elongated wing, long main landing gear and very short nose landing gear, etc.) the Lancaster has a charm of its own. It may perhaps be in the thin lines of the in-line engines, as Mike says, and the fins associated with a structure of robust proportions, but perhaps what strikes me about the Lancaster is that it was a night bomber, four-engined, tailwheel, single pilot. How much more demanding - and challenging - you can imagine from a piloting point of view. Of course, the whole crew cooperated, navigator and engineer were essential elements to bring over 30 tons of machinery into enemy territory and drop over 6 tons of explosives, but in fact there was a single young man at the controls, who didn't even have the comfort (but if anything the worry) of having a box formation of other bombers and escort fighters around him. Only the darkness, the sound of the engines, the voices altered by the oxygen masks of his crew on the intercom and all around a more than hostile world. I mean, It certainly takes a lot of guts to get out of a trench or jump from a C47, but it takes a gigantic one to study the mission on the table, tell your crew of equally young men "let's go and come back" and then start four engines and begin a sequence of very precise, coordinated and exact actions, necessary to complete even the simple flight, not to mention the war mission, of such a complex machine in such a hostile environment.

This is excellent news as I just bought the same kit! an interesting note is that not only the fuselage is from the PZL designs, but also the wing was from another design, appropriately scaled and adapted... look at the wing plan of the SM79? There is the excellent Radu Brînzan's book on IAR, difficult to find, but fundamental for this model, imho. Cheers, Paolo

of course yes, Matt: from the pics of the real aircraft you can see that the PA944 had the G-type camera setup, with a camera positioned high up in the fuselage pointing obliquely towards port side. later the corresponding porthole was covered with blue PRU paint, evidently they used two cameras F52 (see pag.1 of this wip). simply the aiming system of that camera remained on the canopy side, that's all. thank you all again, I must say that the Revell kit it's a really good base to play with. cheers, P.

thank you all, pals! here I am again. unfortunately I haven't managed (yet?) to take some outdoor shots, the few free days available and the bizarre weather conditions have prevented me from doing so, but I have faith and patience, we'll see. in the meantime, since I took some shots in the lightbox, and since I will be away from home again in the next few days, I propose these to you, a very classic walkaround without infamy and without praise. it seems that with the lens available I can't get a greater depth of field, I'll have to consider taking something less powerful and with greater tolerance. I still have to paint the ventral amber id light. the canopy parts didn't receive the usual bath in the Future, and it shows... and that's all for now, I'm waiting to have a couple of shots with the natural background to put the photos in the RFI section and definitively close this quick job. cheers, Paolo

Definitely extraordinary, Denis! When will you open a school using Cameo? I'll book myself for the basic and advanced courses too!!

Michael, would that heaven would listen to you! In my opinion, the Fiat G55 is very elegant, it's an hard beauty-battle between him and the MC205. as regards the MC200, I follow this wip with passion, especially knowing that Italeri has already announced the release of its 1/32 kit in the short (medium, in my opinion) period. as usual it will be a bit of a disappointment, and as usual I will be the first to buy it. cheers, Paolo

What a damn, crazy camo! And how well you're dealing with, Denis! kudos, sincerely!

must say that Spits in general don't attract much attention to me, as they are very visible and overexposed. especially those with too many blades, after the experience with the venerable Matchbox kit... but -oh boys- this building is making me reconsider all my prejudices! so clean, so eye-catching... great job, indeed! John, I'm starting to think I might like a Fairey Gannet too, if made by you!

I'm far from home once again, but I've seen that, although with some difficulty, I can intervene from the smartphone. therefore last chapter of this subject, net of the final photos that will come, sooner or later. Once the fumes and streaks had dried well, I finally placed the undercarriage, my biggest concern with this kit, both due to the intrinsic fragility of the Spitfire, and because I installed resin wells, and the legs are in styrene. So two-component glue, templates, supports and a night's sleep. The next day I glued the resin arms of the retraction mechanism with cyan black and accelerator. Only to then realize that something wasn't right... the shock absorber compasses should be in front of the legs, not behind! I still haven't understood where I went wrong, the positions seemed and seem to me obligatory! However, there was no question of trying to reverse them, after such a powerful bond. There were two alternatives: carry it out after landing on her belly, or move the compasses. Let's try the second one: cut off with all the supports, also damaging a chrome stem, And move in their place, restoring the damaged stem and adding the brake ducts. Better, I'd say. The doors have also been placed, once again the resin ones. And at this point also the wheels, Eduard resins, the result of a mix of two different sets, obtaining four-spoke hubs combined with a smooth tread. Here I also unpacked the ventral identification light (to be painted amber) and the portholes of the two cameras. He's finally standing on his little legs, and they seem to be holding up, too... The quality control workers take shifts, only I'm always hard at work! Finally the time has come to unpack the transparencies and add the final details. First, canopy complete with locking/unlocking mechanism. And eyesight for the oblique camera. Then the resin door with the separate crowbar... a little gem. Ah, I forgot: fillers and vent pipe of the auxiliary fuel tanks installed in the leading edge of the wing. I went crazy finding certain references, I even wrote to the National Museum of the USAF which has a PR on display to get some certain information, but in the end I had to settle for interpreting as best I could a few blurry photos and a cutaway drawing. Bonus: navigation lights. And finally propeller, antenna (without cable, better). and pitot, end. As usual, only the photos in progress remain of what is in the cockpit. being able to make a finished model decent pics seems to be something beyond my abilities. We'll see if I can take some decent shots with the reflex camera, for the moment I would declare it finished, unless there are suggestions on corrections and/or further interventions. cheers, Paolo

Doh. if memory serves me correctly, when it happened to me I inserted a shim which, taking the entire width of the fuselage, allowed me to adjust the depth of the exhausts and guaranteed that they would no longer fall in attracted by the black hole, a relative of the carpet monster.

the first time I saw some of these films at the IWM there was no web, no cell phones and much less YouTube, obviously. I remained watching the cathode ray tube transmitting in a loop for I don't know how long.

Thank you all, pals! I'm really glad you like her, I'm looking for the "right" paint job, and this time may be I'm in. Let's see if I can do a little update from my phone, I'm far from home again. as I said, oil treatments require long intervals between one and the other, and so it was. Once the first round of effects above and below had dried, I decided to work the surfaces, especially the horizontal ones, with the oil dots technique, in order to make the tones even more wavy. I used light and cold colors, mostly: Here on one side the dots and on the other just washed away with a flat brush moistened with white spirit. And then, once these were dried, I moved on to the airbrush. First I gave a very light and fairly thin and short base of exhaust fumes with the raw umber darkened with black, then with only the raw umber I marked the exhausts more broadly along the fuselage up to the black and white stripes, following the curvature of the wing profile. Shortly afterwards, with the colors still damp, with a fan brush moistened with WS, I pulled down vertically (relative to the position of the plane on the ground) what I had just sprayed. The idea is to have an almost invisible streaking base on which to spray the definitive smokes. Now the top must dry well, so I moved on to the belly where I insisted with a brush with black, then I will add some raw umber. Damn me and when I glued these vents... After several hours I returned to the fumes: on a long and wide raw umber base I sprayed, without waiting long, a thin and shorter strip of a light sand, the equivalent of a lightened buff. It's not very clear nor as clear as in the photos of the real ones, where it indicates the combustion of a particularly lean air/fuel mixture, but I like it. At the moment it responds differently depending on how it takes the light, but when it will be dry, and after a possible coat of opaque clear coat, it should be fine. The exhaust pipes are only placed to evaluate their contrast with the fuselage and fumes. As usual, in the intervals I did other things, such as emulating oil leaks from the propeller hubs, and preparing the landing gear (no photo, sorry). And that's all for today, see you in a few days! cheers, Paolo

you don't have to apologize, Denis, your question was more than logical, in fact I have made huge messes several times by mixing colors from different brands! well, now that I've got the messy part of this model out of the way, I can move on to playing with the special effects, which is a good 50% of the fun for me. in the meantime I placed the Eduard decals, these are the removable film type, and when they work they are wonderful. here just placed, peeling must be done after at least 24 hours. and here 24 hours later. the photo seen on the PC screen is pitiful, damn. also place the grill in front of the air intake and the vent pipes. stupid thing, now they will get in the way of my eyes in subsequent processes. in fact I could have taken the 1manarmy stencils, I thought about it later... Anyway. having put all the stencils (which then having painted signs and walkways, only those and the two serials on the fuselage and tail that I had printed ad hoc were missing) I wanted to experiment with a new (for me) method of highlighting lines and rivets, dissolving pigments in water and brushing them liberally on the model and, once dry, removing the excess with a clean rag. and then fix everything with a coat of transparent. in theory if something goes wrong you just wash the model and you're back to square one. in reality, if the model is not mirror polished, something remains trapped on the surfaces. let's say that it went well and I didn't do any major damage... while the pigments were drying, I carried out the exhausts, giving them some pigments too. the base was black with Alclad2 burnt metal on it, on which I had given some rusty tones with an airbrush, again in the various downtimes. once this phase was finished, quite quickly, I tried to reproduce the fuel halos around the fillers. what characterizes the extremely volatile avgas leaks is the presence of fairly clear halos where the liquid has spread over the metal, washing away the surface dirt. in some cases there is also a discoloration of the paint, a typical example is the Corsair. to try to reproduce this effect I didn't use a dark color as is often done, but I tried with a light color, trying to give that sense of discoloration I was talking about. so I prepared two mixtures: a very diluted one to mark the affected areas, and a slightly stronger one to fill the previously moistened areas. something like that... despite the fineness of the pigments, the effect risks being a little grainy. To remedy this, I waited for them to dry a little-but-not-too much and I rubbed gently with a piece of cotton. at this point I have given just a shade of pigment in the treading areas at the wing root. starboard. port. here perhaps it's possible to appreciate the quality of the Eduard peel-off decals, when they work... an overall view where you can also see placed the customized decals. and to conclude -for today- a bit of healthy, old streaking under the belly. from here on it's mandatory to proceed in layers, leaving the previous one to dry so as not to make a mess. so for the moment a pause for reflection. the menu includes further brush work with oils and then moving on again to oils, but with airbrush for exaust stains and subsequent shades. sequitur, Paolo

Hi Michael, I've the same kit but I'm waiting the right mood to start it, I was a bit disappointed by the "new" tooling Italeri produced. However I'm thinking and taking notes about how to solve all the things I don't like in it, and follow your building it's a big help in that. about the "flexibile" hoses, I've already planned to replace them with metal ones, I think they'll work better, both to install them and to paint then. My usual two cents, obviously. cheers, Paolo

thank you all, I'm glad you like this somewhat simplified work. Denis, it's a problem I haven't asked myself, frankly... using both the same thinner I don't think there are any big problems. above all, making great mixes to obtain the colors that convince me most by using MRP, AK, Tamiya paints together, if something unpleasant has to happen, it will happen directly in the airbrush, before arriving on the model! good, good, I dedicated myself a bit to this elusive colour, creating the pre-obliteration color with the same mixture used so far, with the addition of a bit of blue PRU as AK interpreted it, with RC297. with this color I carried out a postshading on the lighter areas, while to do the same thing on the dark areas I added a drop of Tamiya XF-17. and then again with the basic colors I veiled the two areas to make them uniform. here during the work, you can clearly see the difference between the areas to be veiled and those just worked out. and here we are, more or less. except that looking at the photos of the original you can see how the retouching had been done rather freehand. ergo, edge shading, here still to be taken up with the shadows. same thing on the belly, obviously. straight edges: and soft edges. While I was with the airbrush at hand, I also painted the lines that divide the walkable areas from the prohibited ones. being in doubt I used pure black on the recently painted areas, and a dark gray on the older ones. not that you notice much, eh. and finally I tore the masks off the insigna. now the insigna edges are homogeneous and have dimensions compatible with the photos of the original ones. it's a shame that in the various corrections the upper edge no longer matches the wing spar line and the black stripe as expected... oooooooom. I'd say we're a step ahead, now I can give her a coat of Future and place the few decals provided, and then move on to the general weathering. coming soon to these screens! cheers, Paolo.

geedulbelyer, it would be nice if only one rivet had fallen... I lost count of how many I put back into position along the way! so, small advances, I finally got closer to the colors, the focus of this model, in my intentions. but first, I noticed the small air intake under the right side of the windshield, and I couldn't resist making it half open, as in the film of the 944 after landing on its belly. another thing that needed to be fixed before the colours, the wing leading edge and the skin in front of the wing spar was filled and smoothed to improve its aerodynamic qualities. I had already given the filler a coat, but after the primer I decided that it needed further work. better, I'd say after primer and aluminum, I gave a little gray to the wing root to represent the primer, let's see if I can make it emerge from under the final color of the camo. and here we are at the colors, or rather the color: in the color photos of the PRs flown by the Americans, you can see different tones of blue PRU. I want to start from the lightest, which is in fact the one used to cover the invasion stripes. after a series of experiments with the help of a friend who is much more capable than me with colors, we arrived at this result, which will be the basis for all the subsequent shade variations: it is the only one without a label, it would have taken too long to write, as the color is made up of these elements: and here it is: I decided to start from the color that was actually the last to be applied to the plane for a matter of practicality, starting from the previous, darker one, would have been more difficult for me to manage. following this logic the next step was painting the signs, helped for the first time by self-produced masks with the Silhouette bought in December. and immediately after by the residual invasion stripes, those under the fuselage. I have to say that MRP paints are great for these applications: they don't create thickness, they dry immediately, they don't have a dusty effect even if sprayed from afar... excellent. carried away by the enthusiasm for the masks and the quality of the paints, I didn't notice a flaw... luckily I have someone who controls and expresses her perplexity, making me think... looking more closely, in fact, you notice that the dark blue outlines of the signs are not homogeneous, and upon closer inspection, it turns out that the upper edge is too thick, while the lower one is too thin. ugh, it seemed too good to me... I have to learn how to work with the files that are then sent to the cutter. I downloaded these from the web, but evidently they can be perfected. so first I widened the edges at the bottom too, making them homogeneous. the next step involves reducing them using tape cut to the right thickness. and here we are. now I have to find the other, darker shade of PRU blue starting from the colors available. I-can-do it. cheers, Paolo

Yes Matt, MRP's PRU is nice, but looking at the PA 944 Spit it's possible to find at least three tones of this elusive paint! anyway, painting it's not so near... I glued in position the beautiful clear parts from the conversion set, and -oh boy- they are soooo clear! but, looking closer, at the windshield...doesn't it seems flat? especially comparing it to the reference photos: ...the windshield of the PR was round, without vertical frames and armour glass! And now? As usual I could ignore the question or try something... and here we are. I printed the windshield of the kit in resin, so I could start from a master whose lower profiles, with the fuselage, and rear, with the canopy, were already well defined, and from there I started with blade and sandpaper to arrive at a shape compatible with the reference photos, there is nothing else. And so cut, file, putty, sand, little by little I got here. after a few "freehand" attempts I had to give up and had to go look for my DIY thermoforming box in the garage. Here too it took some attempts at adjustment, but in the end something potentially valid came out, in theory. Practically? First, I need to carefully cut what interests us from the waste outline and compare it with the original and with the fuselage. Again in theory it seems that we are there: the curvature is plausible, the profiles should match... all that remains is to cut one away and glue the other! And here we are. With the addition of the adhesive aluminum frames, let's say that it seems more or less ok. Also a first cost of primer on the lower part helps to better define the transparent part and make it look good. So, now the paint shop it's a little bit closer, I suppose! cheers, Paolo

WooOow!!! there is a wip somewhere? I'd like to read it!

Wow! seen from here seems a good work, thank you, Ray!

thank you, Azgaron! in the last few days I've been a bit messed up, and even though I've carried out this job (a little), I haven't had the chance to get to the keyboard. whatever, what did I do. in the meantime I closed the fuselage, a bloodless chapter, fortunately. one of the peculiar characteristics of the Pr Mk.XI was that of having a retractable wheel. the AIMS set includes the entire tail section in resin, but in fact what we are interested in is only a fraction of this. so, also given the shrinkage of the resin on the nose, I preferred to cut only the part I need from the tail: then placing it in its place with a pair of copper wire pins. paying the right attention, only a drizzle of putty was needed in the vertical joint. also because both the resin and the kit lack the recess in which the elevator axis moves, and working with styrene is decidedly more comfortable. the muzzle, we were saying... we have already seen how it lacked a couple of mm in length, which was resolved with a wedge. now, definitively gluing the big nose, another feature of this version, I realized that by making the sides of the nose match well (let's do it well), a little something is missing from the front too... little stuff, but by positioning the propeller it is quite noticeable: so holy patience, plasticard and carry on. better, I'd say. Oh good. after a certain number of dry tests of the wing-fuselage coupling, I decided to try a technique lI never tried, that is, gluing the extrados to the fuselage first, guaranteeing a strong, seamless coupling. and only after a night's rest, glue the intrados, taking care to consider the correct dihedral. While I was waiting for the glue to dry, I scratchbuilt the protection of the carburettor's air intake, visible in the photo of the example I chose as the subject. it's just that seeing her in front of a blind air vent made me sad, and - even if it will never be seen - I hollowed it, giving it the depth it lacked. what do you see? nothing at all! now I can glue everything together, and think about the next move, while the clothes dry. move which is not the piece to add to the rail of the canopy slide, but those nice positive rivets that I wanted to try to make with tin microspheres, here 0.3 (horizontal) and 0.25 (vertical). It may seem crazy, and maybe it is, but I wanted to try this technique here, where there are few raised rivets, in view of the Hurricane's wing, where there will be tears... well well well, I would say that we are getting closer to the colours, which have recently arrived and which I am starting to study: I can say that none of these satisfies me. as usual AK it's confusing to me: his Soviet AMT-7 (RC 316) looks much better than the dedicated PRU (RC 297). however, none of these are good as they are, also considering that this color weathered very quickly due to atmospheric agents, and that this particular example had received the black and white invasion stripes which were subsequently covered, with the exception of the lower part of the fuselage. in short, soon there will be laughter. bye bye, Paolo