I know what you mean GT, there is always a point in vacforms where you have to take a deep breath and start cutting...

Between cooking,  football and eating today this is where I am on this one.

Piers: She's looking great! Despite your issues the decals look fine from here. 

68GT: Great start, she's coming along well.  

GT, it is coming together well, I love those massive wheel spats!

The Arado - I noticed I hadn't taken many photos. I have done the decals, done most of the assembly and added the rigging. Where you can see little white spots on the wing tops, that is filler in the rigging holes that Huma had preinstalled.

And here is what the rigging looks like. All done with EZ Line. You can see the washes used to define panels and control surfaces. So, getting closer...

She's lookin' good Piers- almost there mate! 

Slow progress on the AM SBD-1, put on the red fuselage stripe and wing chevrons, and some red on the cowl which will get some aluminum aft of the nose bowl. Shiny prop with SNJ powder and Alclad polished aluminum.

That looks awesome John, love the vivid multi colours of aircraft of that era. 

G'day Piers. This is just a quick note to let you know that I cannot access any posts after page 3. I am having this problem with several group builds and on two different machines. Don't know what the problem is.

Dodgy

Hi all

Got back from our holidays a couple of days ago and finally have had some time to start in on my RR Armored Car.

John, that is looking very smart, that is a great colour scheme.

Dodgy, that is a very strange issue, i have not come across that before. There is a forum help area where they may help out: https://cs.finescale.com/fsm/feedback_help_and_testing/f/default.aspx

Wedge, good to see this underway - let us know how the kit builds up.

Waiting for some Yellow Wings decals for my SBD as the kit decals are DOA, falling apart.  I got another set from a second SBD-1 kit I have and they were no better.  Decals should be here Tuesday, Sprue Bros comes through again.

Managed some further work on my RR Armored Car.

Going together pretty easily.

Wedge: Cool, nice lookin' armoured car and she's coming along well! 

John: Good luck on getting your decals soon.

That does look like it is coming together both quickly and well Wedge

Good to hear there a replacements available John, how old were the originals?

Piers, I've probably had all three kits since they were first issued.  I suspect the decals have an issue, like the Dragon/ProModeler Ta-154.  I have four of them and none had workable decals.  It doesn't bother me that much as I often make my own decals with an ALPS and a laser printer, but since the Yellow wings decals were available I just ordered them this time.

GreySnake, that looks good, I hadn't heard of Tauro models before, it will be interesting to see how it goes together

John, The ALPS printer sounds like a good investment. I opened an old Tamiya kit yesterday and the decals were all cracked and crazed, I think I will have to start the search for new ones.

I am calling the Arado done. The Huma model kit took a bit of wrangling to get together with a low amount of detail, but it was a short run kit from 30 years ago. And the decals, if a little thick, did hold together.

A lot of work, I am looking forward to something a bit less in need of work for my next model.

Very nice work on the Arado. The rigging looks great on it. 

In regards to Tauro they were a Italian company that released some interesting subjects such as Italian battleships, aircraft, white metal figures and a handful of 1/35 armor. They were the only choice for some subjects until recently.

Tauro was way over ambitious for the time and what the company was capable of. Such as engines in aircraft kits, working suspension, tracks for the A7V tank they made in the early 1980's. I can only speak for the armor kits they made but they were pretty rough. 

Looks great, Piers.  The work was worth it.

Piers: she looks superb!!! Great job! Those limited run type kits are a bear to build, and you did a great job on her! 

Greysnake: Looks cool! Seen Tauro kits before but never built one. 

Thanks for the kind words, the short run kits can be a challenge.

So for a bit of a break, it is back to the vac form...

So I have got my solution for completing the colours on the cowling. For the light blue I tried multiple combinations of blues on some clear decal film to get the colour I was after. For the darker blue I again used the Fairey Rotodyne decal, using the Hasegawa cutting curves to get the shape right.

Started well, with a decent match for each of the blues. Trouble came when I had to use lots of decal solvent for the dark blue - it changed the colour of the blue! So a bit of touch up with a blending paint - next will be the clear gloss coat.

Looks fantastic Piers!!! 

Weird about the setting solution changing the colour of the decals. I've had them go wrong about a million ways but never that.... yet... 

Work has been a bit slow going, but have managed to get the primer onto the armored car.  

That is coming along really well Wedge, and I would not call it slow going!

Wedge

Work has been a bit slow going, but have managed to get the primer onto the armored car.  

 

 

Yeah, that looks awesome Wedge!!! 

Edging towards the finish on my AM SBD-1, just the practice bombs and antenna wires to be added.  These are fine representations of the SBD but I have to say it tested my dexterity and patience at times with all the fine detail and small parts.  Definitely on my list of models that I will love in the display case but not always when on the bench!

jeaton01

Edging towards the finish on my AM SBD-1, just the practice bombs and antenna wires to be added.  These are fine representations of the SBD but I have to say it tested my dexterity and patience at times with all the fine detail and small parts.  Definitely on my list of models that I will love in the display case but not always when on the bench!

 

 

Got the armored car painted, weathered a little and the decals on.  Not overly happy with the roundel on the roof but will hopefully hide the errors under futher weathering 

John: You're doing a fantastic job! She looks great and almost done now! 

Wedge: Very cool! Even if the roundel isn't perfect I'm assuming they were painted in the field so they probably weren't perfect in real life. Still, makes sure you won't misidentify her from the air!!! 

For the Vega, the landing gear is the next step. With the the way it is provided I cannot get it to fit - I should have been test fitting it from the start. In the end the landing gear legs are 3 mms too long and have to be chamfered on the end to be able to fit at the right angle.

The main landing gear is a lot steeper than I thought - and the angle of the spreaders are not wide enough to reach the attachment points, so I shaped some 30 by 60 thou to kinda airfoil shape the cut to shape.