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The second kit of my summer '16 start with hopes to finish by 7 Dec for 75 anniversary. Pearl Harbor P36, P40B, A6M2b. Life hit the fan and bench time kept to minimum. My wrecked knee kept me from working at bench as it's 36" (91cm) high and I stand to do my work. Tamiya's very nice A6M2b will be base kit for my Pearl Harbor subject. IJNAF pilot Shigenori Nishikaichi's A6M2b "B11-120" will be the subject. I've always been fascinated about the story of the "Niihau Incident". Nishikaichi crash landed his aircraft after receiving damage during the second wave attack at Pearl Harbor. The events that followed for the next 6 days is nothing short of epic. Moral of the story, "Don't mess with the Big Kahuna". Nishikaichi was based on the carrier Hiryu. After crash landing on the island of Niihau Nishikaichi set his aircraft afire. This photo was taken 17 December, 1941. Fire damage is visible and well as some parts already scavenged. This aircraft is now on display at The Pacific Aviation Museum at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor. Ejector sink marks removed with putty and sanding pen. Following primer of Gunze 1500 Black I applied Gunze 127 Interior for cockpit area and tub assembly. Moving forward to detail paint and Aotake finish applied with mix of Tamiya clears (11 parts X19 Smoke, 10 parts X23 Blue, 1 part X25 Green). Heavily thinned then a few passes on a silver base of Alclad Aluminum. IP complete using kit decals and clear lenses.

Ok, I am a strong proponent of this GB, and feel my fellow modellers should sometimes be ready to move out of their comfort range of guns-and-bombs-bristling-camoed-WWII-fighters ! I therefore hope this thread will be an encouragement for them to try something different, just as I am doing here. If you know me, or have read some of my posts, you will know that I have always professed NEVER to build a Spitstang or Messerwulf, and that my stash has more resin and esoteric injected plastic than most would consider lawful But only fools never change their mind, so here is (another) entry from me in this GB, AND my first Tamiya kit ever , AND my first Spifire ever! Now if this is not a proof of the bad influence of LSP on my firmly-set beliefs, what will be ? So here is my entry, with the compulsory "starting shots" and comments, more to take a date, as I have another one to complete in the "Jurassic Plastic" GB first, but I am now commited : Tamiya's (gorgeous, I reckon, from fondling the sprues) Spitfire Mk IXc It will be built as the famous MH434, in its G-ASJV silver, white and blue livery. No guns, not a hint a Dark Green or Ocean Grey or Medium Sea Grey ! ( I am willing to "compromise" my standards, but not to that point, guys, besides the explicit GB rules ! ) And even though it can be built OOB from all the threads I have read here, i have added a few AM, that I hope will improve on the fantastic kit base: RAM decals RAM32-002 "G-ASJV" decals sheet - that was the minimum for the entry anyway Yahu Models YMA3220 Spitfire Mk IX early instrument panel, which is the absolute bees knees when it comes to finesse of details some BarracudaCast replacements : the rock covers with the Rolls_royce logos, the 4-slot maninwheels, the door with the separate crowbar (which was possibly red in G-ASJV livery times ), the seat with leather backpad, the starboard cokpit sidewall, and finally the cockpit upgrade set with finer-than-the-kit details such as the control stick or throttle quadrant and finally, a RB Productions Sutton QS QL QP, which I conjectured would have been fitted on G-ASJV when she was sporting her blue/white/silver livery. And finally, if you ask about my "Spirit of Africa" build thread here as well, it is not forgotten, and will be continued. I felt however that interjecting an "easier" kit could be a good boost to my modelling time and possibly to the interest of this GB for my fellow LSPers. (As as side comment, I just hope that life will be more gentle for my modelling than the last week (although it looks pretty grim right now) and will spare me some bench-time in the near future. and btw, my Gee Bees build on the "Jurassic Plastic" GB has progressed, but I need to oragnise and write-up the description of this update, and that will not be before another 10 days I suspect) Thanks for enduring my ramblings ! Hubert

Hello one and all, If I may, I'd like to share a little progress on my current project. I recognise a number of names from other forums so to you guys, apologies for posting this stuff since I guess you've seen it before. For those members who like to stay within the comfortable walls of LSP, I hope there are one or two things that you might find interesting along the way. Typically, my builds are long drawn out affairs so I hope you have some stamina and a fair amount of patience. I like to try to squeeze every last ounce of value out of these big kits so I often spend some time tweeking bits here and there. I would describe myself as more of an enthusiast rather than an expert so if you have anything to share please feel free to add any and all comments or techniques. I'd rather someone point issues out or offer alternative ways of doing something than let me go off in the wrong direction blissfully unaware of easier/better ways of doing stuff. I'm a little way into the build already so these early posts will come thick and fast. Once we've caught up to date, expect things to slow to a more glacial pace. INDEX p1. Jet exhausts. Beaver tail mods. TCS. Forward fuselage mods. Ventral fins. Fuselage underside and Sparrow missile troughs. Scratch built air con vents. Intake trunking. Vertical tails. Scratch built upper fuselage vents. p2. Wing joint mods. Wing leading edge mod. Engine fairing tweeks. Main wheel bay alterations. Windscreen, IP and (Aires) cockpit. Seats (start) p3. Seats (finished) Canopy. Missile rail. LANTIRN pod and pylon. Fuel tanks. Boarding ladder recess. Canopy locking hooks. Nose wheel bay. (start) Front gear leg. Tail hook. p4. Wheeliant wheels main wheels. Nose wheel bay (finished) p5. Nose section paint, sunglasses and decals. p7. Auxilliary bypass vents (start) p8. Aux bypass vents (cont). Quickboost resin intake plugs. Horizontal tails. p9. Main wings. On to the build then and like many modellers, I'll deviate from the instructions when it suits me. Whereas Tamiya suggest the builder start with the cockpit and front wheel bay area (more of that at a later date), I turned my attention to the blunt end first. For me, there are three main areas of interest on a modern jet fighter. These are, in no particular order, the cockpit, the landing gear and the jet pipes/nozzles. Each of these three areas are prominent and eye-catching for different reasons. So, I started dabbling with the jet pipes to begin the build. *NB* A company called PitzModels is developing an etched metal exhaust nozzle which is likely to render the folowing redundant The Black Knights boxing of the Tamiya kit offers better shaped exhaust petals than original releases. Much better than before, that does n't mean we can't tweek them a little to try to get the best from them. I scored some elongated dimples at the tip of each petal and added several rows of rivets. I then thinned the petals and cut them apart after I'd hollowed out the rear of the slot that runs down the centre of each petal. I filled the void with inner petals shaped out of metal foil and then painted the finished assembly with MetalColor from GS

Here's my final build of the year. I finished it with just under 6 hours left in the year. This was the first plane I've done with any significant weathering so that was some skill building for me. Sorry if the photos aren't that great but they were the best I could do.

Hello all, Thought I'd kick the year off be posting a couple of images of this tribute to Edgar Brooks. I began this build during the GB but stalled when I got distracted. During the holidays I have been able to re-visit it and finally finish my tribute to Edgar. Better late than never. Hope you enjoy the end result. I had hoped to be able to display the model all buttoned up but the intake under the nose does n't want to come off anymore. I managed to batter the kit stencils into submission but chickened out with the larger markings which were masked and painted. sluggo kindly provided the masks which worked beautifully, thanks Randy. The cannon are metal items and fitted perfectly. Really a top notch product. Also, the wheels are resin items from Barracuda studios. Excellent product and heartily recommended. The finish is Tamiya AS whizz can with a coat of clear gloss lacquer over it from Montana Gold spray cans. I then toned that down in places with Valejo satin varnish before weathering with various mediums from Games Workshop inks through water colour pencils to pastel chalks. I finally gave up trying to use Photobucket and reverted to Joomeo but it's a while since I use that site so hope the images show up for everyone. Any comments, good or bad, are most welcome. Cheers.

Hello all, It's been a while since I have posted; in fact, it's been a while since I've been building. But with encouragement from Peter, I decided to post the rest of this build. I'm sure that almost everyone has read all of the glowing reports about this Tamiya kit. I won't add much to what we already know except to say that my experience has been the same. Everything really does fit amazingly well. It fits so well that in the couple of cases where it didn't, I ultimately found out that it was my fault. So be warned when you build this kit. Dry fit everything and if you find a problem, back step until you find where you went wrong. My only complaint is the it's a vastly over-engineered kit. I think we are all used to building cockpits, for example, where we know that not everything, heck, maybe not hardly anything ends up being visible. But it's still worth it because it's fun. I exceeded my fun factor on this kit when it came to gluing together multiple parts to make the assemblies where the flaps fit into the trailing edge. But, that's just me and I'll get off my soapbox now. In spite of the kit having a beautiful (stunning) engine, I decided to do the Eduard Brassin engine because the visible surface detailing is gorgeous. But, I've waiting till close to the end of the build to get cracking on it. The photo below shows the engine block and front housing as well as one of the cylinders. It's painted gloss black as a prelude to using Alclad Aluminum on the cylinder fins. How, you may ask, am I going to mask each of the cylinders? Well, I got myself some Mr. Mask and some Mr. Mask Neo. The difference between them is ???, but I'm hoping that they will enable me to mask the cylinder heads in a reasonable period of time. The engine also has pushrods (scale) and even spark plugs. I'm going to have to do some careful drilling and fitting. Photo etch for the engine includes a couple of odds and ends and the wiring harness. I'm undecided at this point about using the PE wiring harness. I have some .015 solder which may be closer to a scale look, so I'm going to see what I think and then retreat to the PE, if necessary. There's not a lot to say about the rest of the photos. At this point, the fuselage, center wing, outer wings, horizontal stab and elevators, vertical stab and rudder are all done except for final sanding, polishing, and rescribing. Although not pictured here, the landing gear is complete as well. Remaining to be done are some final sanding and finishing, primer, paint, decals, and final assembly. And, oh yes, the engine and cowl assembly. It's been a lot of fun so far, and I'm hoping you will enjoy the rest of the build with me. John

Hi Judy: Last we talked you confirmed that your 1/32 Big Beautiful Doll decals were scaled up from your 1/48 scale decals and we discovered they don't fit the nose of the Tamiya 1/32 model without extensive modifications. Have you made changes to that set yet or are you going to? Looking forward to using one of your Mosquito sets on an upcoming build! Thanks, Chris

Having just completed my What If? Mustang GB, I was planning on getting back to my CT-133 build but this kit just kept staring at me since I picked it up last week. So onto the new cleared bench it went. Most of the bags are open from having posted pics of the sprues in another thread. AM will consist of new seat belts and decals once they come out. Carl

Hello folks Been a long time since I asked for folks ideas here, but because I'm planning-on building the Tamiya 1:32 Mustang (and the implied ‘cost' of this kit), I thought it may be a good idea to get some thoughts before I start hacking away at it. I'm going to build Bill Dunhams' ‘Mrs. Bonnie' as it was right at the end of the war in summer 1945. The aircraft is a P-51K-10 it's quite well known as it was featured in some publicity photos in August or September. As you can see, despite it being a Dallas-built ‘K' it has the cuffed Hamilton props and spinner – the blade profile and decals give-it-away – also the whole of the spinner is painted red/yellow/blue & black (front to rear). This is fine as the kit I'm using is the initial Tamiya release, 60322 (which also has the ‘Dallas' canopy in the box too). Now here's the part where I need your insight & thoughts – Tamiya in their paint & decal instructions show ‘Mrs Bonnie' with the ‘correct' Aeroproducts spinner & blades but also would have you paint the spinner back-plate NMF, the colours being the same but compressed. Has anyone got a photo that confirms the Tamiya instructions – just being curious, I'm one of those folks who likes to have as much info as possible… Thanks in advance folks, over to you. Ian. ps Special thanks to Ben (PCBEN80) for supplying the decals all the way from the USA to 'Middle Earth', really appreciate it, matey !!

Hi, I'm building Tamiya's classic in Pacific outfit. I've added polish Yahu instrument panel, HGW seatbelts, some Eduard Photoetch, my own wires and i will use Kagero decals.

Well, since it looks like I'll be able to finish the UH-1 in time, I've decided to start a kit that at least I have some familiarity with how it goes together. This will be my third Tamiya Phantom and my first D model. I plan to work on it during the down time while the UH-1 is drying or when I want something a little more painless. I will be building it as the London Int'l Airshow version as I was fortunate enough to see the plane in person. In addition to the Speedhunter decal sheet, I have Rhino intakes, GT Resin exhaust cans, Eduard bang seats and cockpit PE, and AMS splitter ramps and chin pod. Carl

First, I would like to say that Large Scale Planes has some of the nicest, most helpful people in the forum world and I am not just referring to just the modeling realm. Compared to some of the other modeling forums and even other hobbies I partake in, this forum has great user feedback with little of what I like to call JTP's or, Joe the Pro's. With that said, this will be my first topic started on any model forum so be easy on me! I haven't modeled since I was a young kid putting together Revell kits with Testors cement and finishing them in a couple hours. Even though I haven't touched a kit since middle school, I have continued to follow model forums and build sites. Now, at the age of 33 and with the recent purchase of a house, I have the room to get back into it and try out all of the methods I have learned from forums like this. I decided to dive back in with one of the great 1/32 kits from Tamiya, their P-51D. I have also added some aftermarket kits, I am sure I will add more down the road but this is what I have so far…. Web Garden Seatbelts - #132071 BarracudaCast Cockpit Sidewalls - BR32012 BarracudaCast Instrument Panel - BR32013 BarracudaCast Cockpit Upgrade - BR32014 BarracudaCast Diamond Tread Tires - BR32029 Eduard Exterior - #32302 Eduard Engine - #32307 Eduard Interior- Early - #32712 I also plan on getting the “Mustang Cockpit Stencils and Placards†from Barracuda but they haven't been in stock for months. Roy Sutherland, if you are out there, any chance these will be available soon? I haven't made a 100% commitment to the final paint scheme I want to depict but I am leaning towards Fundekals and their “Daddy's Girlâ€. A lot of my methods and references will come from Chuck Sawyer's (chuck540z3) P-51 “Thunder Bird†featured on the January 2014 cover of “Fine Scale Modelersâ€. This man can do some work! He also is very descriptive in his techniques which have been very helpful, he always responds in detail. Also, even though I could never come close to touching the skill of dodgem37, I really love what he is doing in his “Tamiya P-51D, Sinai, 1956†build and will use that as a valuable reference. First off is the Merlin, after removing some seam lines and filling some gaps the engine went together beautifully. I plan to add a lot of extra plumbing all over the engine compartment and I started with some oil lines made out of copper wire that come out of the oil relief valve. I added a wire holder out of aluminum off a soda can. After finishing the plumbing that wouldn't get in the way of paint I sprayed the entire engine with decanted Tamiya TS14 black. For the magneto's, starter, and the coolant rails I painted them Alclad Aluminum. I painted every bolt and nut with Floquil Old Silver with the tip of a #11 X-acto blade. The ignition rails are made out of .030" styrene rod with copper wires as the ignition wires. It was my first time bending a styrene rod and after many failed attempts using such methods as warm water, the stove, and a hair dryer I tried my wife's clothes steamer with beautiful results. That's all for now. It is slow going since I am learning all these methods for the first time but I am having a lot fun with it so far! I look forward to everyone's feedback. -Eric

Takka!Takka! Takka! Takka! After finishing my FR IX, I guess I couldn't stay away. So here's my next Spitfire build. As most have probably guessed, this will be MH434 from the film Battle of Britain. I'll be using the fundekäls sheet for the markings. The biggest hurdle I had was that I had previously assembled most of the wing. In doing so, I used the wrong cannon fairing bulges. To replicate the look of the .303 armed MK II Spitfire, the cannon barrels and their fairings were removed. This meant I had to remove them from my wing. I decided to try and cut them off with a small razor saw. This worked out better than I thought and I managed to get both fairings removed without damaging any of the detail on the surrounding panels. Next were the leading edge inserts. I used sprue from the kit to plug the openings. Then I sanded them to their approximate shape. The inserts were then attached to the wings and the final shaping will be done once they're dry. I also filled in the holes in the wing panels with sheet styrene. Carl

I don't consider myself much of a photographer. I've never had "the eye". This is my very first RFI posting; this Phantom was my entry in the Air War Over Viet Nam Group Build.

Hi fellow GBers (feels good to say that) At last I can actually join in since my Tamiya MkXVI landed this morning. I've only just opened the box so it's early days but I'm thrilled to be on board. Cheers.

I was tinkering with the idea of trying to make the Tamiya A6M5 an A6M7. What all would I need for this conversion? I know I'd need wing tanks from some other model perhaps a Ki-61 Tony? A centerline bomb, which I have a spare from the Doyusha A6M2 Bakusen kit. What all will I need to do to the guns in the wings and possibly the cowling too? I may find this project too overwhelming and just say the heck with it, but I wanted to ask anyway. I'm thinking I want an A6M7 like Hasegawa makes in 1/48 scale with wing tanks and a centerline bomb. After that the challengebwill be markings. Cheers, Brady

Hello i will take this group build to finnish this build thats stald over a year ago. The kit im using. Whats done so far i hope this is less then 25% Now i hope i can get here done in time. Mark

Hello I will join the group build officially with my Tamiya Mk.IXc TOLLY HELLO. I will do a in flight build most likely. I like to know should i build with clean lines ( No P-51 tear drop tanks ) or with the tanks? Also need some custom masks done of the MK 210 markings on the side of the fuselage? http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c55/abreu2828/PhotoSpitfire1a.jpg http://s25.photobucket.com/user/abreu2828/media/SpitMK210001c.jpg.html http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c55/abreu2828/300cupz.jpg I will post some photos soon of my start. Cheers Danny

Long overdue posting here, apologies, but finally took a few final pictures. Also put BBD up on the stand as well. This is my first large-scale build having built almost exclusively in 1/48 and starting with the Tamiya P-51D was quite a treat. This is not quite an OOB build, using some Photoetch from Eduard in the engine compartment (and conveniently covered up, UGH!) and the cockpit (ditto - using the pilot figure was probably not my brightest idea ever). The HGW Seatbelts were not easy to get together - for me anyway - but really look good in this scale compared to the nightmare they were in 1/48!. The decals are a combination of Zotz checkers for the nose, Big Beautiful Doll and the wingtips checkers are from Eagle Cal and the rest from the kit itself. The paints are mostly acrylics - Tamiya TS-12 on the fuselage for example and Model Master, and the exhaust area is Model Master Metalizer. I have a lot of bottles of it from a long time ago, but it seems to keep well and I recently figured out a new venting system for my paint booth so I can actually paint with the aromatic metalizers and enamels now without smelling up the house. If you followed along the build thread you know about the issues with the nose checkers and other fun I had with this terrific kit. http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=56418&hl= Apologies - I am totally off on the white balance - I'll have to reshoot. The nose is two decals - the Zotz decals fit the Tamiya nose nearly perfectly. The nose cone/prop assembly is not overly tight so does pull away some from the fuselage. The Zotz decals require a white band to be painted around the first row of checkers, careful matching the white. I don't usually have the plane mounted on the stand, and I'm not entirely thrilled with the fit of the panel that replaces the landing gear, but BBD does look good in flight. As much detail as went into the engine bay, unless you take off all the panels much of it is hidden. I didn't super detail the topside of the engine and now regretting it. Also seeing that I'll need to be doing some weathering around the exhaust stacks. But one of my favorite items in the kit really are the figures. I love the pilot, and hope to do a mini-diorama sometime.

Here's my entry into this GB. The PRU pink Spitfires have certainly been an eye-catching scheme over the years. When I first thought about doing one, I wasn't sure about the shade of pink. Edgar was very helpful in figuring that out. I'll be starting with the Tamiya IXc kit: The contents are a bit jumbled as I had to mix it with another kit to get under the 25% completion limit. For extras, I'll be using some Barracuda resin bits, RB rad screens and Ad Astra paint masks for the markings. Carl

Hello LSP Crew I like to use the 356FG 360FS "PI-J" Sr. No.44-15052 P-51D-15-NA. ( Blue Diamonds ) from Zoukei-Mura on a Tamiya Mustang. Has any one done this or seen the fit of them? Just not sure of the Blue Diamonds cowl fit Bottom AC photo http://www.spruebrothers.com/sbmimages2/zkmsws004-d01.jpg Thanks for you help Cheers

Picked up this lovely little (big) kitty early this morning, I have wanted one of these forever and now I finally have one! For those who don't know, this is a full option model, RC with sound. lights. effects etc. CLEAR the bench, I'm goin in! Paul

Hello after recieving this set i put a few things on hold and start this on. The kit. The F-4C/D from tamiya. The conversion kit from GT resin. some reference. The only things i just need are the intakes(underway) and some eduard bits. Progress will be slow so i hope you have patience. Mark

Hello everyone, This is my first time to post a build on here and I'm a little ways into my build already but I thought why not share my progress and gather some others' input for future builds. I'm making the 1/32 Tamiya P-51D pretty much OOB. I do plan to use some OOP Pyn-up decals I have. I can't decide which one I want to do first though, I'm torn between Passion Wagon and Moon Mullins' P-51D. Both of these birds are early production P-51s with a filletless tail. Before I post pictures of my decals can someone please tell me if it's allowed to post nude pin-ups that were nose art? I'll add pictures as soon as I figure out how that works and I get an answer to my question. Cheers, Brady

Back when I could still see smaller scale models I went after Tamiya's really nice 1/48 Scale P-51D kit with the Lou IV markings. Added some Eduard cockpit PE but the big exercise for me was dropping the flaps and working weathering the paint. I wanted a really well worn Lou IV. Left wing insignia is way off register; I just have not done anything yet to fix it. Paint is mostly Model master acrylics weathered using sanding pads of various grits. Last picture shows the both of the ailerons dropped - I fixed it as shown in the previous pictures but it took me a long time to find the errror.