Phil Smith

Thanks. Though the color is technically not incorrect, I agree with you. I would have preferred a grayer tone, but I’ve grown to be ok with it since the RLM 02 shade varied considerably during the war due to supply chain problems. There is much debate on the shade and even actual museum artifacts yield a wide variety of shades. I ended up using AK’s RLM 02 Grau (1941).

Excellent work!

Excellent reference for jet exhaust effects. Thanks for that. Great work!

Thanks all. Sorry for the delay - work and such has a knack for interfering with fun stuff. In the interim, I completed the cockpit and integrated it with the fuselage halves. The Zoukei Mura kit has a bunch of additional interior detail that, when the fuselage is buttoned up, one will be able to barely see through the radio compartment access door. I did a fair amount of detailing in there, but really much of it will not be visible. At least it was fun. With the fuselage put together, the empennage was installed and the engine glued to the front. The guns were also glued in (I would have preferred to get aftermarket brass guns, but I'm ok with the result). Mounting the engine in this kit requires great care, but the fit is excellent. With that done, I could then proceed to add wire harnesses and various flexible piping using different thicknesses of lead wire. This was a tedious process, and I only got about a third of the cabling done in a couple of hours. I'm happy with the result, but much more is needed before the engine can be considered completed.

Thank you, gentlemen!

A bit more progress on the Bf-109 during the past few weeks. I'm building three kits at once, which is fun but means that each is moving along at a glacial pace. The Bf-109 has moved a bit to include completion of the cockpit and I've no moved on to the fuselage. The Zoukei Mura kit includes a variety of interesting internal details for the aft fuselage, so I decided to go ahead and add these details, with wire harnesses and control system cables. A small percentage of this will be seen through the radio access panel, which will be open. So far, so good!

Looks spot on to me. Very well done.

Exceptional work. Very inspiring!

Post removed by author

Additional progress made on the engine and cockpit cage. The engine, which has been weathered, will receive more work in the form of adding wire harness details, but this needs to wait until it is linked to the cockpit assembly, which I see is a few steps away. The cockpit is more or less straight out of the box, though I clearly added HGW's excellent seatbelt set. I also added some photoetch items designed for a different kit, as I like the idea of adding more wire harness details which the Eduard photoetch set features (not terribly visible in the photo, unfortunately) The short version so far is 1) easy and fun assembly and 2) standard colors one might expect for this particular aircraft (RLM 66 and RLM 02). I

Excellent work.

Nicely done and interesting subject.

Excellent work!

Excellent work so far. Will be watching closely as this thing is on my to-do list!

Interesting - I look forward to this build!

Very impressive work!

A bit more progress on the engine, which is such a pleasure to build. The thing is like a bowl of spaghetti and I'm not even done yet, with more pipes and tubes to attach down the road. But so far, everything is moving along nicely. I'm using AK RLM-02 for the primed bits - greener than I imagined, but that's ok. Pressing on with additional engine details awaits. I will add wire hardnesses and cables once the main assembly is completed. And then, the fun begins: weathering

Thanks for the kind words. Definitely an awesome canvas to work with! More progress during the past few days as I steal an hour here and there. The cockpit tub is modified a bit with random bits from the Eduard set. Same sort of painting process I used with the seat - Tamiya surfacer primer (gray), Alclad II Aluminum Plate, X-22 gloss coat, AK Worn Effects, AK Zinc Chromate, and finally Vallejo Dark Gull Gray. Then, water and scrub to distress the surface. This is sealed with X-22 and accented with Tamiya panel line accent color (black). I needed to add more "scratches" using drybrush with Testors Aluminum. XF-86 matte finished things off. Final touch is Red Fox Studios F-104C cockpit controls. These are pretty nice, though the transparent resin used to make the items needs a little attention in obvious places so the light catches the controls correctly (pull handles and switch covers received a bit of red/yellow paint). So far, so good. No major issues yet.

A colorful bare metal version. I wanted to do the NF-104A, but while a conversion kit apparently existed at one point it is no longer readily available. I'm also far too lazy to scratchbuild the mods and make the decals (though I considered it). In fact, 1/32 decals for F-104Cs appear in short supply, which is a shame.

In addition to building a model of a Swiss Bf-109 (a topic elsewhere on this forum), I started work on a 1/32 model of an F-104C. For some reason, I decided to build two kits at once. Hopefully, that goes well! First up is the ejection seat. I started with Eduard Brassin C2 ejection seat kit, which is composed of resin and photoetch parts. The quality is excellent. I cleaned up the parts and airbrushed Tamiya Gray Primer followed by Alclad II Airframe Aluminum, AK Worn Effects, and AK Zinc Chromate. Once dried, I sprayed on a coat of Vallejo Dark Gull Gray. A water-based scrubbing then took place to add wear and tear. I’ve not done multi-layer distressing effects before, and I’m satisfied with the results. A gloss coat was applied (Tamiya X-22), then decals, another gloss coat, and a final bit with Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color (black). Finally, everything was sealed with XF-86 matte. With the ejection seat completed, the cockpit tub is next and so far this is coming along pretty well. I’m using Eduard’s photoetch fret to populate some of the details on the floor and walls, and will use Red Fox Studio’s 3D printed controls (these look nicely printed, BTW).

Coming along very nicely!

Nice work! I hope the pilot comes with a head. If not, that's cool. Whatever works.

I made a bit of progress on the engine today. I love building engines and cockpits, and this kit is offering many opportunities for super detailing. Here we are with the spark plug cables added to the block. I added a screen to the supercharger for interest. Decals are from the kit, a nice touch. Nothing fancy paint-wise: Tamiya flat black overall, Alaclad II Aluminum Plating for the spark plug cable, with part of it painted Testors Aluminum for interest. Other details Testors Chrome Silver and Steel. The spark plug cables are Tamiya Buff (XF-57). Over all of this a coat of X-22 gloss to facilitate the weathering to come. I decided to add 12 fuel injector cables to the bottom of the engine (weird how the engine was configured in the aircraft; I'm used to thinking of the engine in a different orientation). Alas, these won't be visible, but it allowed me to experiment with fine lead wire, which I've not worked with before - great stuff.

Thanks! It is a 1/35 Bronco kit. The scale is off, to be sure, but not hugely so.

My photographic skills leave much to be desired. I kept putting off taking photos of the model for some reason, but today I took advantage of the nice weather to see if a little sun might make for some interesting lighting. The model was completed about a year ago. It was a fantastic build and I have no complaints. I decided to try my hand at a diorama, with mixed results. The jeep, my first ground vehicle model, was fun to build. I'm not thrilled with the scale of the soil, but there isn't much I can do about that at this point. The model is not affixed to the base, so I can always display it separately.