Butler

Exactly what i was going to write - suberb mate

I've got the Corsair ones and they're absolute rubbish, badly cast and so soft i doubt they'd handle the weight of even an unmodified kit! If they are direct casts of kit parts then I don't see a huge problem with the manufacturers (you still have to buy their product) but for the consumer, getting a bad copy of the kit part in a weaker material seems a bad deal to me.

Not so hasty James, i'll definitely be up for 3 rolls of that! I ration my Tamiya tape like it's made of spun gold!

Thanks Hubert! I have to make up some shortcuts because i'm too impatient to do things properly! Those Trumpeters are quite expensive but I am tempted by a Trumpeter F1 if I can find one cheap, maybe with all the panels open to show the insides? Hmmm

Cheers Kyrre The 'kids toy' comment refers to anything below 1:32 scale I think the paper would work on plastic kits too, once it's soaked up the Klear it can be sanded smooth and you don't get any paper texture. I used this method just because it's easier to cut the printed paper straight off the sheet

Thanks guys! It's a bit rough up close, hence why there's no close-up pictures I'm half way through applying the stencils now and they break up the surface finish a bit, disguising some rough areas!

Splash of Klear and the top is ready for decals. I've used the Hannants own brand ones which are very thin but a bit out of register (haven't seen that for a while). I've also got their stencil sheet which looks superb

Did it the easier way for the fuel tank stripes though. Anyone know what they're for?

Masking of the wing-walk lines - if i'd been more with-it i would have painted the area black first, then masked off the lines. Anyway, i did it the difficult way!

Here you can see the finished ring temporarily in place. I've given this a coat of paint (ignore the colours in this photo, they don't really match real life!) using some masks made of normal paper. I stick these on by cutting out small squares from the paper then sticking masking tape over the hole, this does let the edges raise slightly and has given a very subtle feathered edge. The real thing has very crisp paint edges but in my opinion this equals toy when applied to a model You can also see a paper template for the windscreen and a canopy frame made from thin styrene sheet. I might have a go at glazing this if i can find some clear plastic packaging with the right curve moulded in! (just to tide over until Iain's vac version is available )

Thanks Tomek! Next up is the intake ring. I've made this from two strips of Pepsi Max steel can material - the first strip is slightly curved and gives a conical shape when joined into a circle. The join will be covered by the pitot socket. The other steel strip is a straight line and forms a tube when joined in a circle, this then fits inside the first ring to form the inside of the intake ring. A bit of CA holds them together and the finished intake ring is a push fit onto the beast's nose. This does leave a slight ridge which doesn't exist on the real plane, but i think reflections off the very shiny surface will cover this up nicely!

Cool!

Almost missed this build Kev, but it looks like you're doing some serious modelling here and solving every problem it can throw at you. Look forward to seeing this one progress!

This one shows some panel lines i've added in pencil for reference. A layer of Klear over the top of the pencil line stops the shine of the graphite and they just look black without the worry of ink bleeding through paint later. There's a child's scale model in the background, sorry!

...stuck to the model! I've cut these straight out of paper, then stuck them over a wet layer of Klear. Once in place i then brush more Klear over the top and periodically 'baste' the paper in more Klear until it's saturated. Next day when it's bone dry, i sand back the surface to give a mirror smooth finish which should take paint fine. You can see the Kleared bits in the photo

Bit more progress with this one. Here's a plan i've been using for panel lines and such. This is a plan i've produced in CAD by tracing over various versions you can find through Google, plus actual photos of the real thing. I'm sure there's plenty of inaccuracy here but it's fine for my purposes! Once drawn i scaled the plan to match the actual model size. Where are the missing bits of paper?.....

Wish i could take photos like that, although saying that i couldn't build a model as good as yours to justify them!

Thanks Peter, that's very kind!

Cheers Iain, sounds about perfect timing!

Thanks Iain I've just added a post to your Lightning thread - the only thing on this plane i think i'll struggle with is the canopy, and it looks like you'll have one available for sale at some point in the future!

Thanks a lot guys, really appreciate the comments and it gives me a bit more momentum to keep going!

Here's where i've got to date, sitting on her temporary prosthetic legs. Comments welcome!

Wings glued on and there's the inevitable cracks between wing and fuselage. Luckily there's a plan ready! More panels added with paper-thin styrene over the wing joins. Here's a tip i've discovered - don't waste money on expensive Mr Surfacer or similar, just get hold of some Tippex and brush over in the same way. It sands back easily and it can be primered over. It does stay fairly chalky though. To fix this, just brush over some Klear which it will soak up nicely and dry rock hard

Over-enthusiastic progress from this point meant i didn't take any photos. Anyway, the end result was these wings below! The wheel wells were walled-off with styrene strip and skinned over. I'll detail these up later, maybe once the main paintwork is finished. The separate top and bottom skins meant there was no aerofoil shape to the wing leading edge. To solve this i added another layer of sheet styrene, this time wrapping around top-to-bottom with the famous 'kink' as the join between two sheets. This left a small triangle to double-skin and blend in. That doesn't make much sense but hopefully the photo shows the result!

Here's the fuselage with a coat of the excellent Halfords grey primer. You can see the holes for the wing-fixing tubes the pass through. I've made a decision not to attempt scribing this plane in the usual way. Much of the skin is stressed on the model and scribing into it could cause the skin to snap in two. I'll have to come up with some alternatives! One technique i'm going for is to add some of the removable panels from very thin styrene sheet and glue them on. One tacked on with CA glue i then splash over some Klear to hold it on rock solid. Once dry i then sand the panel back quite hard so the edges are not so prominent. I'm quite pleased so far I've another idea for the remaining panel join lines but i won't mention this yet in case it doesn't work! (Note: i noticed the cable duct wasn't quite straight and have since straightened it.)