nmayhew

there would be more who post here if the site hosted images, which it doesn't i can't be doing with the ball ache of using image hosting sites for WIPs i'm afraid

Just too much to get anything but the fanatical devotees at that price

funky wings I can accept turrets with a seam line down the middle where they should not be makes it look like something made in the 1950s, which I just cannot tolerate After much waiting, I got the grail-like clear resin replacement turrets and they do look a million times better and are absolutely worth it the vector engines seem massively overpriced to me; Quickboost need to make some engine faces which will do the job perfectly well at a fraction of the price. now I’ll get off my soapbox!

DML / Revell rebox / Hobby2000 rebox - excellent kits very little nose art so just get some masks cut and you can make a huge selection of aircraft you will have the option of 70/71 early camo or later evolutions; and some with fuselage bombs, and the odd C-6 with a cannon under the belly; sharkmouths, white noses, there’s quite a bit out there.

Such a cool looking aircraft and then I remember that I follow a very talented modeller building the Me410 on FB and f******ck me it’s a dog. so absolutely no chance unless they are pretty much giving it away

surprised the sales of 1/48 Zeros were meant to be disappointing though - I thought everyone raved about them? the Spit IX would sell poorly; it’s not a very glamorous marque in terms of variety of markings, and sorry but I just don’t think any IX Eduard would release in 1/32 would be as good as Tamiya’s A6M3 would be worth a shot - no-one else does one early 190 series would be a good seller, provided they go together well, and they have the advantage that no-one else does them (A-1,2,3) and that many won’t touch the one A-4 readily available (Zoukei-mura). But the tone sounds like they are just getting excuses ready to not do it

If you go onto the Airfix groups on Facebook you would think it’s 1980 - a huge number of people on there still use enamel paints. Outside of the UK (because that’s 99% of the Airfix group’s membership by the look of it), the Vallejo acrylic tide appears to have washed nearly all before it, with only the barnicle-like enamel users clinging to the rock! but my feeble metaphors aside (or was it a simile?), there is a significant minority - an enlightened one I like to think - that has discovered the sun-lit uplands of lacquer land if you can ventilate appropriately, lacquers such as MRP (my paint of choice) are superior in every respect where air brushing is concerned to any acrylic out there, as well as enamels if you haven’t tried lacquers you are missing out

If you have had a defective set (or sets) let them know and get them to send a replacement to you. generally they have been pretty responsive

oh don't worry i'm with you on those completely unacceptable print lines (for my money, anyway) i guess the humour is more directed at those who think that it's ok

were they not retracted when on ground anyway? am I talking b*ll*cks? lol

I have pics which clearly show front, middle and rear turrets with guns when painted as an assembly ship i did a lot of research on this bird a few years back as I was specifically looking for an assembly ship which was not ‘toothless’, and they are hard to find. from memory, the guns are shown early on in its assembly ship ‘transition’, and the paint scheme evolved in the end it just went back on the ‘file it away’ shelf, mainly because although I like the shark mouth, I don’t like the name so the whole project got parked.

Fantastic work Paolo, both on the result and the blog itself, which was a joy to read through the reference photos are also super helpful all the best Nick

[edit: sorry just managed to read the whole thread and saw the ban thing…so back to Eduard]

The name might be alive, but the venture into injection moulded 1/32 kits is not, which as I have said before is a shame. But to repeat what they have done thus far with the Helldiver and then the volte face with the Kate would be just throwing money down the drain. The Helldiver was the wrong subject, and badly executed, which is not a great combination! And by the time they get to subjects the 1/32 market has been asking for for a generation, they can’t recover from the hole they got into with the Helldiver, take the strangest decision ever re resin main parts and IM details (I mean…wtf?), and have to price it so high that I just can’t see anyone but a Kate devotee buying one. The whole endeavour could be used as a text book ‘how (not) to…’ for other potential entrants. I know this sounds like I’m trashing them - I guess I am - but I can assure you I wanted them to succeed and am particularly interested in the Japanese subjects they did / might have done. I’m just sad about it all more than anything else.

As much as I welcome new blood in our scale, if they do come back in to 1/32 with anything even close to their old Bf109 they will likely be laughed at, and even scaling up their 1/48 stuff just won't fly in my book. They make pretty looking kits but I think that Eduard's engineering choices in 1/48 - given they are meant to be at the forefront of the hobby - are often not great, often really poor... watching a few YouTube vids of very good modellers building some of their new kits and they are saying things along the lines of "well, the fit and engineering is nowhere near Arma Hobby, but it's still ok". If Eduard were a new outfit, they maybe get a pass, but they've been going for years now; that they have been outstripped by a complete newbie like Arma speaks volumes. Whether they like it or not they are going to be judged against Tamiya and now Kotare... they better get ready for some brutal honesty, but I seem to recall that they tended not to like that...

My thoughts on this now are that the price point is just too much for a basic kit - and that’s before you get to all the upgrades They will price out all but the true devotees to this type, and the casual ‘quite like it’ crowd will just buy something else such a great shame but I can see how the whole Infinity / HpH foray into injection moulded models has been a short and unsuccessful one

Nice progress!

I really like this - very brave to take on that weathering, and it’s come out pretty good i need to do my research on those red surrounds because they have always appealed to me, but I’ve never gotten to the bottom of when they were used etc. the dio looks really good as well - thanks for sharing the journey and the build Nick

Very helpful build log David, thank you.

Very cool conversion Andy! Not sure I could bring myself to chop up one of my Kotare Spits, but never unhappy to see a MkV being built Nick

Great thread - following with much interest!

Hi Tolga cool project i guess you either make your peace with the ‘imperfections’ in the Trumpy kit or you wait possibly forever for someone else to make one i have this kit and some aftermarket; whilst I cannot remember all the ‘easy win’ corrections out there from various aftermarket, I seem to recall Trumpy goofed the area behind the pilot’s head, and that maybe Aires / Quickboost do something for this?? anyway, Shangri-La is a nice colourful choice, and very well photographed; it changed its appearance I believe ie the markings evolved over time, so it depends how detail oriented you want to be? many of the pics - including the ones you posted - show some super cool weathering on the fuselage and wing roots! It will be fun to try to replicate these. As to the elimination of rivets, what are you using? I remember for my Tamiya Mustang trying to cover it with gallons and gallons of rattle can Mr Surfacer (500 maybe, or might have been 1000?) and it taking forever; the MS just conformed to the surface too well. I am undecided on how to proceed when I next make one of these. Anyway, best of luck with your project; will be following on. Nick

Trying to remember how I built my Trumpy P-47 but it was a while ago so I’m no use I’m afraid! your original 1/48 Jug looked pretty decent btw

nice to see you here Wayne! i always thought you were 'strictly armour', so am looking fwd to any aircraft builds you might do cheers Nick

Hey Kev, in what way is BSI better than AK Black Widow? My BSI bottle hardened in the bottle after say six months so it got binned, but although there wasn't much to choose between them, i think the AK performed very well when sanded immediately after kicker application, and was possibly more liquid than BSI, which i found helpful for what i needed it for; the AK is also going strong after a year (not kept in fridge) it's always good to get the pros / cons and differing characteristics of these glues i find so @Paul2660 thank you for the heads up on the VMS stuff; i agree they generally make cool products. Cheers Nick