Jboldt007

just going over this thread. Wonderful work. A desert livery JU-88 is up there as a must build - given the Revell kit is reasonably priced for its size (and i like german desert schemes). Since i was a kid I've been fascinated by both the JU-88 and the Do-17 and similar planes because of how the germans packed the crew all into one area with amazing cockpits and canopies- it's what truly makes these planes fascinating. Plus all the various version of the Ju-88. Great work on the canopy masking - i love the picture through the pilot's station and the nose glazing, plus the radios. This is what large scale is about - for me domestically this would be a problem though as i have a number of large planes to complete (like the WnW F.2a - d'oh!) and a JU-88 would get me into big trouble. But seeing this... makes me want... it feels like a rite of passage - like everyone has to do a 109 eventually... so maybe a JU-88 is another one of these...

Great build of a bizarre but effective plane. As a recent WnW enthusiast i drool over what this kit is like to build (with a bit of sweat on the brow too). I have a DH-9 taking shape but have yet to attempt rigging. On a side note i've had trouble with the larger cockades and decals with WnW. Go on great but very delicate in place. I've heard one should use a "soft" decal softener. The instructions say something like apply to gloss paint not just a finish/ coat - but most i would presume would spray on a gloss coats and then apply - but even then they tend to lift off a bit and i think the key after softening is to overcoat the decals to protect them which seems to work. I don't think it's a fault of the decals - they are awesome in general and the bigger ones are thick enough not to rip and are easy to place. I guess I'd better get the hang of this before i get to my F.2a !! yikes.

another Mig 23 within hours! African Migs are the best for colourful and interesting liveries. Often overlooked. thanks for posting. Great build!

beyond stunning! Thanks for posting. Mig-23 is often been maligned but your build make it looks like a million rubles! OK USD then. love the panel lines and burnt metal etc.

great thread and build. I knew nothing of this plane. Very attractive bird. Late biplanes can be very interesting topics. But i too dread my first rigging job ( i have several WnW builds getting close. I'm trying to adopt a more zen attitude to life ... but rigging.... that's just going to get the old swear jar activated again ....

Absolutely about having lots of unfinished kits and then thinking about crossing the rubicon into scratch=building! I just think it's a modeller's thing. it's ok. The journey is half the fun. But the B-32 is a fine looking aircraft i must say,,,

great build! Love the stencil work. A great plane which should be showcased more often - in part as they come in all those nifty italian paint schemes... there is an elegance to the last biplanes of the war - they had reached their performance and aesthetic apex. OK the Swordfish wasn't pretty but it got the job done, sort of.

great photos! i have a Tamiya f4u-1A in the hangar but these are still very informative. Haven't seen some of these before.

my god ... are you going to try and scratch build a 1/32 scale B-32?!

ah ... looks like they did. Checked their old website.

had to look it up. a very elegant plane actually! Surprising WnW didn't do this one (nice view BTW).

wonderful build and some interesting information. Makes me feel guilty for not doing the interior rigging on my current WnW build... well there's still time to do that I guess... the great thing about planes of this era is one can really "follow" where all the lines and cables go because everything is so "analog"... it's half the fun trying to rig something and then thinking.. "oh... that's how they did it...".

i bet they'll wonder about the little plastic mascot "teddy bear" on Sprue G.

So yeah i purchased a bunch of WnW kits from my local retailer because i was worried there would be a run on them,... and I've been so enamoured with them i've parked my... like 3 or 4 other builds ... and dived in. I started with a DH.9 but have had to do some triage on that so temporarily parked. At spring break we went on the family ski vacation and i decided to bring along the Rumpler C.IV kit i had just bought. I had to sneak up my modelling stuff in the wheel well lest my wife discovered it (of course she knew) but my daughters ratted on me in any event. The long and short is although i had my compressor along i didn't use my airbrush so for the interior it's all hand brushed. But that's ok. Here is the "dry fit" - nothing glued in (yes the fuselage panel isn't in the right place). The Spandau is Gaspatch. Nothing wrong with the kit one but i want the access panel off and the Gaspatch one doesn't require trying to wrap a PE part around a tube. This kit so far is easier than the DH.9. The WnW kits as everyone knows fit like Swiss watches - works of art. But here is the problem - THEY FIT LIKE SWISS WATCHES. which means you need to be precise and careful with everything and check every fit. The instructions are beautiful but at time notional. You really need to think about how it all goes together and test fit everything. Some things just snap in place and it's best to leave them be 1 so then when i get back home- i painted the fuselage - I'm doing "6692/16" for which two great pictures were taken on a muddy field in 1917. IN any event i was originally going to use the AK Air colours specifically designed for WW1 german AC but... i must be honest... i love brush painting with AK but have had little success airbrushing. I don't know what it is. I've tried thinning and not thinning ... whatever,,, so i went back to what I know which is Vallejo and picked comparable colours. Also, I have an old Badger (not to mention my airbrush - drumroll!). but like i said .... alas... a blunder. When i got back I realized i was missing sprue G and one of the two D's. What the heck? How did i leave these behind? The G was ok because i have one from the DFW C.V kit... it's basically the "extras" and the props. So i could still source a prop. But D is 1/2 the plane side - wheel and struts. So to make a long story short i found another kit on-line and bought it after seeing if anyone found my sprues (an odd thing to ask friends and relatives). Expensive mistake given WnW no longer exists. Somewhere on the whistler mountain slopes there might be a couple lonely sprues hiding in the snow...

astounding work - not enough FW-190 builds. love the heavy exhaust, which we all know is prototypical. did u use stencils?

wonderful build. This is the plane i always doodled in highschool classes. The aggressor blue scheme is awesome. great cockpit and "burnt" metal. love the comment about etched belts. so true. so very true...

absolutely amazing. great plane and great build! i built one back in the 1970s but we didn't have ZM back then! the cockpits look fantastic. Hard to imagine putting that front engine together - it really "hangs out there" with the panels open...

rivets look fantastic - it really brings the plane alive - as previous pictures posted show the Ki-61 seems to be a rivet beast!

absolutely stunning. i don't know how one would control the "squiggles" by hand. love the engines - as always too bad they are covered up. underside looks as good as the top (the panel lines with the streaks are great). The wheel wells looks more complicated than Tamiya's mosquito! Along with so many other details- so great. The Toryu is a beautiful plane. One day I'll get a ZM kit.

i love the comments about high school dropouts! Makes me feel better about of some of my painting efforts...

the squiggles look great! Steady on! Desert camos are the best. The first model i ever built was 1/72 BF-110 in the 1970s. My dad built a spitfire in 1/48 (my mom went to the store to get the kits and had no idea of scale). I felt disappointed that the spitfire was so big compare to the 110. He had to explain scale to me. But never built one since but the Revell kit is a must do as I love the plane despite its (often unfair) criticisms. The cockpit looks awesome. I love the Quinta stuff. No problem with that as they are easy to use and would never get there with decals or painting otherwise.

yep ... false alarm i guess... it seems to be back up, Well it caused me to go out and and buy an AEG G.IV from my local retailer ... which is good i guess. if i don't get around to finishing it i'll send it out in a capsule for the Andromidorians to muse over...

can't seem to access it as of today - i love looking at the site even if they are kaput. lots of great photos and kit info. Too bad if that's the case...

Iconic! The pre-shading and the "lead" exhaust looks are spot on. One of my favourite twin engine planes of all time...

Great thread. I've read the whole thing and it's quite the endeavour! I have the Vampire Mk.3 in the hangar awaiting my attention - i plan to build the Canadian one which exists near my home ( i posted some photos). I was wondering about the Infinity A/M offerings ... i got the kit knowing full well that there are some challenges so i didn't want to get in over my head for no reason. As you've said, one can sand and fill on and on forever but at some point one has to do a reality check... But the "nose job" ... that's a task and a half..!