dustiepal

And resupply U-boats, providing fuel, munitions and food supply to the other attack boats. The story is quite interesting.
 
I stalled a bit on the forward torpedo room because of the empty foreground. 
Trumpeter wants you to simply place two air tanks there but that leaves a lot of empty spaces and play against the cramped area I want to try to depict with this build.
 
These tanks are not correctly located and are partly under the bunks. But if I build bunks on top of them they will be too high so I decided to cut the floor,
create a 3D piece to mirror the opposite side and display the lower bunks.
 

 

 

 
The tanks are relocated and attached from above. If I add a floor for them I'll hide too much of the torpedo storage room under the floor of the room.
That's not perfect but the best compromise I could come up with.
 
I intend to show a lot of supplies throughout the boat and try to render the mess it must have been in there with 40-50 stinking males confined in there.
I went to cult-3D and downloaded as much stuff as possible and scaled them to 48th scale. Plates, coffeepots, cooking pots, rice bags, potatoes bags, tin cans, fruit cases, salads, carrots, 88mm shells & cardboard casings, etc . All these will compliment nicely what I could gather from black dog supplies.
 

 
I just haven't found ham and sausages yet but I want them to hang from the floor and I am thinking about hanging hammocks full of supplies from the roof of the torpedo room.
 
Here's very early impression of what I am leaning to:

 
I am also debating to put 2 more torpedoes on the floor as it was often done, must made the crew life really difficult
 
 

Slow progress this week. Working on getting the intakes glued together and sanding out the step on the inside. Finicky to say the least. But I think I am there. I also removed part of the round part of the duct. You can't see this part of the duct when installed and it makes painting much easier.
 

 

 
Dan 

I just got my F-15C set and they are just super nice. Really detailed.
They seem very sturdy as well.
 
Niels 

Dave, I got them from Demon Resin on eBay. He does several different 1/12 wheels and tires. 

How did you get these, they look great!
 
Dave

Tanks. This is my design. 3 parts glued together. I designed in a slot where the support/stiffener will be. Originally I printed the stiffener but it was so thin that it broke off. This is a better solution. Thin sheet plastic cut to size and glued in.
 

 

 
Final version of the flaps.
 

 
Sc had not finished the wings when I requested them. The wing is solid, so I will have to cut out an opening and insert my own wheel wells. Not a pretty sight at first, but it all works out in the end. Rest assured that Sc will add all of the needed detail in this area.
 

 

 

 
Blue tape is cut to the exact shape of the flap well so that I can build the interior details.
 
Dan

After a lot of contemplation I have decided to ditch the vac wings. SC's fuselage is so gorgeous I didn't want to graft on some very suspect vac wings. And I also didn't want to face the hassle of finding a way to attach them, install the wheel wheels and flap bays. 
 
So I sent an email to SC and asked if he would send me his 3d printed wings. He said yes. 
 
Now, he is still in the final design phase and these are not the finished product, but in my opinion will be much easier to work with.
 

 
Anyway, this is just the first look. Much work still lies ahead.
 
Dan

This is as far as I dare go with skinning the belly for now. The forward join and intakes will require some adjustment before I can skin over that portion-
perhaps the oil-canning between the speedbrake wells is a little over done; but it is such a common characteristic of the T-38-I had to do it. Should look ok under paint..it’s just super reflective right now in bare aluminum.


 
…so on to the top next I guess!
 
P

I have been working on designing and printing the cockpit instrument panel.
 
I am happy with this first version. But a few improvements are in order.
 

 

 
Dan
 
 

I've not been idle for the last 6 months or so: this has been on the bench, and now it's finished.  Here are a few photos until I get out and do some "beauty shots".  The model is Italeri's 1/32 GR4 in one of the box schemes, the Tornado retirement scheme for IX(B) Sqn.  This squadron was the first RAF operational unit to be equipped with the Tornado GR1. 
 
IX Sqn flew several types in WWI, and was briefly disbanded in 1919.   It reformed as a bomber unit in 1924 - hence the "(B)" in the title - and starting with the Vimy, flew Virginias, Heyfords, Wellingtons, Lancasters, Lincolns, Canberras and Vulcans, before reforming on the Tornado. 
 
Italeri's GR4 builds up quite well: it needs a little work to make it fit, but in the end it is a solid construction.  I did use rather a lot of aftermarket, to whit: Eduard canopy masks; Bandit Resin Factory empty Sidewinder rails; HGW safety ("RBF") flags; Jet Passion 1500 litre tanks, exterior detail set (partly not used as not needed imo) and replacement back seat monitors (scrapped and reverted to kit parts for reasons I won't bore you with); Master pitot tube; Scale Model Developments (SMD) seats; Tradewind67 (eBay trader name) intake and Jet pipe covers, other covers, and back seat grab handles); and home-cut masks for the roundels and serials.  And until I get what I call the "proper camera" out, here are a few quick post-finish bench shots.
 

 

 

 

 
Thanks for looking.

Enjoy free shipping on orders over 60$ until sunday, 24th March.
Thank you all. Jan

Here a finished in Flight Model , build by a friend of
mine Torben Weckeck

Above and Below are great. He took over the Canmilair decals.  I recently used their decals on a 1/32 CT-133. 
 

 
Hopefully they have what you're looking for. 

It's time for two sneak previeuws....

 

Hi guys. Sorry for going AWOL the past couple days. It's Lunar new year so I was little busy preparing and celebrating, plus my girlfriend wanted to go to California to celebrate with our friend so here I am.
 
Took the chance to visit March Field Air Museum in Riverside to do some measurements on parts that I don't have good info/drawing of and also to check some details on the underside, especially the recessed area between the oil cooler and wing leading edge. Originally I interpreted the drawing of fuselage station 90.500 that the fuselage has something recessed around that area, but I couldn't find any good reference pic of it, took a while to find one in flight with its belly exposed but it wasn't clear the front of the recessed area has any vent/opening or not, given that the same area is the oil cooler vent on single-seat variants. So I was able to confirm that it was just a recessed area and doesn't have any vent or anything, just an access hatch. Also got some good reference pics for areas that don't show up that well on pictures and drawing. So back to the drawing board once I am back in Houston this weekend
 

 

and always took a look on the real Thing.... 
 

 
 

 
Best Regards 
 
Bekim 

I have another Hud that I am going to make off (without the green seams) I am unsure whether to make the cabin cool and dark or on, on the other hand today I had a problem with the dmold inats and I bought the Gtresin intakes Let's see if I have more luck, the problem is that the Gtresin intakes are not anchored to the nozzles like those from dmold modelworks, so I bought the reskit nozzles for the f18
 
These photos were taken before the disastrous accident
 

 

 

 

Major markings have been completed.
 

 
Wheel wells and weapons bay are next. Canopy also needs to be completed.
 
Dan

Phabulous Phantom Phans!  Happy to remind modelers we offer seamless intakes intended for 1/32 scale Tamiya F-4 Phantom kits.  Our intakes include J79 engine inlets of your choice of two different types.  Our F-4 intakes and inlets have been available since 2022.
 
We ship from our workshop in North Carolina, USA.
 
Our models are original designs, not printed from designs made by others.
 
Link: https://www.model-monkey.com/scale-32
 
Have fun. Monkey around.™
 

 

 

 

 

 

Great build and a fantastic finish!
 
Dave

Squadron markings painted on!
 

 

 
Clear gloss to follow tomorrow.
 
Dan

Hi guys,
I'm Thai, from Houston, Texas.
 
I'm starting a new scale model business, TTModelworks, and I'd like to introduce you guys to my first product: The fat faced 1/32 Douglas AD-5 (A-1E) Skyraider. I'm opening my website to take pre-order till the end of the month for the special price of $150 free shipping within the U.S. and an additional $25 shipping elsewhere in the world. Release date is expected to be around May-June. I'm still finishing the design of the website but it's working now on ttmodelworks.com
 
 
 
Following Ben Schumacher's of Scale Navy Stuff advice after initial print, I'm reworking the recessed panel lines and the first part with the new, deeper, and narrower panel line has just finished printing. Expect to gradually release pictures of more parts the coming days. I learnt 3D modeling specifically for printing not for rendering so my rendering skill aren't that good, so I decide to show printed parts instead. The kit will be 3D printed by me, decal will be printed by third party, depends on the order volume but I'm willing to cut profit to try to aim for the high-quality guys like MicroScale or Cartograf since I'll also build it myself, and clear parts will be injection molded if the order number meet my source's minimum requirement, if not I'll go for casted resin, but I'd rather have them injection molded for better consistency and longer life.
 
 
 
 
Due to being a small business with small budget, I'd sadly have to start with pre-order basis so I can make sure I order enough supply, hopefully if things goes well I can have future releases ready to ship before opening orders. Any question please contact me here, or through my email at ttmodelworks@gmail.com
 
 
This horizonal elevator is the first printed part after panel line rework. The scratches on it are by my grubby hands, other than that it's spotless. The elevator has the old wider panel lines.
 
 
 

 

I have been working on finalizing the markings. When you build something that never existed it can be a little difficult to come up with some markings that look "right".
 
Anyway here are some photos of some mocked up markings. 
 
 
 

 

 
Some changes may occur before I actually paint them on, but this is close.
 
Dan

Hi
Further to the F-4 aircrew for the 1969-late 70s era, Reedoak provides now versions with visor up, and with or without boom mic, in 1/32 and 1/48 scale
 

 
Cheers
Norbert

Here are some pics from the first coat of NMF. I have found that you should apply the shiniest shade first. This is Polished Aluminum. I will follow with Airframe Aluminum and then Stainless Steel.
 

 

 

 
Dan