KOTR

And the old Air France dolphin livery gives every ugly bucket an idea of grace and beauty

Short C-Class/Empire Ain't gonna happen, but nonetheless

A dark Lord of the Sith going after you with his wicker if you don't behave! Naw, actually one of our 'Bufdis', a guy serving a year of volunteer social service in our house after school in his disguise as Knecht Ruprecht . A ton of black theatre make up, I think he's still scrubbing his face

Yo, Santa's in da houze, so ya better watch out!

I'm certain, when the job is done, he's happy to accept your Porsche... ...maybe you should consult him in time for equipment and finish details

Wow! Haven't been here in a while and just read this one back. Very educational and inspiring. Makes me want to get back to two ideas I stored in the back of my head on a similar scenes, though they might be a bit to ambitious for the beginning. Now I'd like to see how that continues

Never ever return thinned paint into your jar/pot/container/... It might start to gel up and render your paint useless in the end. Made that experience with Mr Hobby, Revell acrylics, Extracolor. Not sure with MM, the reason there could be their crappy lids. For transfering, I usually use an old, bent airbrush needle. I run through quite some of them...

I like to pretend that as long as I turn my back at the shelf behind me, its not an issue... ...oh wait, there's a shelf in front of me, and one to the left, and another one to the right...

While smaller airframes like the '109 come indeed in those pesky side opening boxes, Revell's big scale bombers and the larger jets come in a box with a lid. Not as sturdy as Trumpy's boxes, though.

I have no doubt about that, having seen two M2 kits in person and having heard from the one or other guy who were lucky surviving building one...

Mach2 (beware!) and Airfix.

If it wasn't for the vortex generators, a 1/32 Javelin could also serve well as an ironing board or counter top...

Yeah, I'm surprised, too. It's been a while Navy aircraft were blue...

Would like to try them (I like to try anything I can get my hands on, actually), but I can't get any MM products besides the standard enamel range anymore. I loved their acrylics, but as said, I don't have any source here. But indeed, glossy acrylics, especially clears usually give me a hard time, too...

I read about Tamiya acrylics with laquer thinners long ago, but my last try was one heck of a mess. Yet, I read that story again and I decided to give it another try tonight, and woohoo! Just came back from my modelling table and even though my thinner here is the usual hardware store stuff and thus surely not the mildest option, it went down super smooth and troublefree. Finally I can really use all the Tamiya bottles I aqcuired over the years and are definitely not cheap, but tried to avoid, because they behaved like poo in my airbrush. Many thanks, guys!

Hm, let me think about it... ...I think, I'd be super happy if Revell releases a large scale Draken...

One thing will definitely be better with Revell's big '262 and Super Hoe, compared to Trumpy's efforts, at least in my neck of the wood: The availability. While I may or more likely may not get any of the Chinese one's easily in my local dedicated hobby shop, I'm very likely to get both by Revell in any place that carries a basic stock of modelling material. Can't speak for RoW, though I'm pretty certain it'll be similar for most of Europe, and may not be an issue if you (have to) order most stuff online, anyways, but kits already done by Trumpeter and other manufacturers are IMHO not really a competition for Revell, not because of the quality, but because the majority of Revell's customers simply buy what's on the shelf in the next store, peaks their interest and is within their budget.

Looking nice, Kev! Looks like some project I might tackle in 2016, as I have the same sheet (IIRC) and in the meantime a kit with a left and a right wing...

Great save, mate!

That was my goal! And you can do so much mischief with that song. I once heard a death metal version of 'Alouette'. And it just sounded so right! I hear ya! Though, if I'm thinking of the Grimm brothers fairytails my mom used to tell me, oh dear! Witches simply pushed into a stove! Toes cut off! I'm surprised I haven't become a torturer of some authoritarian leader! Already working on it. How's the Cheyenne doin'? Shut up and sit down! Slowly trotting forward: Still missing the belts. Otherwise the usual cleanup, filling, sanding routine that is common at the begining of a build. Cockpit floor and IP in progress, still missing a couple of details. I think, I gotta do something about my lighting and focus... More CP parts. Cleaned up kit parts, PE parts and these white blobs on the control stickare a few extra details on the righthand side stick. They do look much better without magnification. What still needs some considerations is the rear bench. Revell saved themselves a few parts, even though you can hardly hide anything in that cupola. Working on a new filler for the fuel tank. And I think, I'll redo most of the details on the tank, as they are a bit undefined. Just gotta take care it won't get out of hands. I found a few walkarounds, and they show a lot, especially where the kit can be improved. Rotors, transmissions, engine leave a bit to be desired, and there's a gazillion of tubing that can be added. Has anyone acidentally an Alouette and Astazou (hey, six words starting with 'a' in a row!) workshop manual at home? Go for it! Had a chance of looking into the box, too. An awesome, impressive kit indeed. The '47 is on my list too. I saw a documentory a few years ago about controlling herd sizes and trade with mustangs. They used an old Bell 47 to herd the mustangs up. Very inspiring. What I love about this old 'dragonfly' type helicopters with only a minimum of panelling, you can see each and ever component and detail through the framing. The major drawback: you can see each and ever component and detail through the framing. And the more you look at pictures, the more you see... Indeed, I already wondered if that is that Raeren right behind the border. Raeren is raere name for a place (I think I owe you a beer for a bad pun now! ) My pleasure, mate!

...alouette, je te plumerai. Everybody now! Now that I provided you with a tune you won't garantueed get out of your head until at least monday morning, here's what this is all about: No funky birds, who got their feathers plucked out, but Revell's Aerospatiale Alouette II, first released in 1996, apparently. I was actually looking for something else on ebay, but then I made a successful shot on this one In the box, you find one grey, two green and a clear sprue, instructions and a decal sheet which allows you to build most, if not all specimens of the Alouette II in German service: Furthermore, I intend to use this goodie, which I aquired a couple of years back: Not much panelling on this one, but an openly visible tubular frame design without any cowling, so there might be some space for wire and cable works. While the kit is pretty nicely done with a a very delicate represented frame, there is some mold shift, which is a bit of an concern for me: Not sure how to deal with this so far, maybe I have to replace the one or other tube. So, off to glue some parts now!

My pleasure! Check your sprues, though. I don't know where I put my instructions, but upon inspection, there are four bullet-shaped pieces that look like spinners, right next to the undercarriage pieces. The sprue gates are almost bigger than the pieces themselves and look like quite some additional work. But I seem to remember that's the case with any part of that kit... ...nuffin wrong with the civil aircraft disease!

That took a bit longer than expected, but here we go: If the Aircraft was originally purchased by PanAm, it carries a 16'6" diameter Hamilton-Standard prop with square tips. These are: N1022V Clipper Nightingale N1023V Clipper America, Clipper Golden Gate N1024V Clipper America, Clipper Cathay, Clipper Bald Eagle N1025V Clipper America, Clipper Celestial, Clipper Rainbow N1026V Clipper Tradewind, Clipper Malay N1027V Clipper Friendship N1028V Clipper Flying Cloud N1029V Clipper Golden Eagle N1030V Clipper America, Clipper Southern Cross, Clipper Reindeer N1031V Clipper Mayflower, Clipper Donald McKay N1032V Clipper United States N1033V Clipper Seven Seas, Clipper Midnight Sun N1034V Clipper Westward Ho N1035V Clipper Flying Eagle N1036V Clipper Washington N1037V Clipper Fleetwing N1038V Clipper Constitution, Clipper Hotspur N1039V Clipper Good Hope N1040V Clipper Invincible N1041V Clipper Yankee, Clipper Northern Light N1042V Clipper Polynesia, Clipper Morningstar Furthermore, after the aquisition of American Overseas Airlines, a number of their Stratocruisers went into PanAm's inventory: N90941 Clipper America N90942 Clipper Glory of the Skies N90943 Clipper Sovereign of the Skies N90944 Clipper Romance of the Skies N90945 Clipper Monarch of the Skies N90946 Clipper Queen of the Skies N90947 Clipper Queen of the Pacific, Clipper Good Hope N90948 Clipper Mandarin, Clipper Eclipse These ex-AOA aircraft were all fitted with 16'8" diameter Curtiss Electric props with rounded tips. While the military C-97 usually had bare hubs, all Stratocruisers had spinners fitted (I seem to remember that Minicraft added them to the kit but maybe I got that mixed up with some other kit) And yeah, the Hamilton-Standard props had a tendency to disintegrate without prior notice and take the whole engine, and as a result the whole plane with it, but sometimes the engines would just let go on their own...

Gimme another day. I gotta check a removed HD. I've got good hopes its on the one that's 'just' missing a partition and not the completely dead one.

Oh, you lucky guy man a left and a right wing in the kit. Mine stalled at the attempt of glueing the wings to the fuselage - had two right wings with the kit, and that did not really work. The importer never even cared to reply to my inquiry... ...my plan was to use the same decal sheet. I seem to remember that PanAm had both types of props and spinners in service, I had a list or link once which aircraft used which prop, but don't know where I put it.