Lost: Congrats on finally getting the fuselage together. It also looks great with the awesome props that you put so much work into. It's all very fine and impressive workmanship.

Dan: I've done the same thing myself and I felt that I just got better results with the MM thinner. Now, with that said, that was a few years ago and I may give the mineral spirits another test. I would love to get wonderful results from it in that we stock that very brand in my hardware store where I work plus I get 15% off. Lord knows, it's a great advantage for other modeling supplies. 

She does look great together LA. And I have to agree with TJ, love those crazy eggbeater contra-rotating props. 

That is looking nice LA. Good luck with the next stage.

Well here is my work with acrylics. The props got a mix of semi gloss and NATO blacks to give a slightly different colour to the gloss black spinners.

All looked really good until I dropped them - a small blemish on the spinner will have to be resprayed, probably not until next week.

Next, start glueing the fuselage together! Start with the back end, aligning everything as well as possible.

Then the top of the nose the next day - already filler on the rear top!

Then the bottom of the nose. You can see the solution for the formation lights, three pieces of styrene tube glued into the centreline.

So now starts the fill/sand/check/fill/sand/check/swear/fill/sand process

But as a teaser for now...

It's teasing me too

I to like using Model Master Enamels, along with Tamiya acrylics. Awhile back I was not using Enamels because of the strong smell from the Testors thinner, then I cam across Odorless Mineral Spirits. I did a side by side test with the Testors thinner and the Mineral Spirits, there the same in color, and drying time, for both brush painting and airbrushing. My local Meijer sells the full quart (946ml) for just under $5.00 USD.

1 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

Good to see the paint on Joe.

I have used acrylic paint for ages now, mainly because of the odour issues. Every now and then something just doesn't work out for some reason, and I can't quite place it. (Probably just me)

Started to use Mr Leveling lacquer thinner with acrylic gloss paint - that gives a great result but you have to leave it a long time to dry...

Thank you Bish & Dan. I just have a hard time giving up on something that works so well for me and that's why I continue to use MM enamels. I simply have very little issues with them and they airbrush so nicely.

Nice to see the paint on Joe, i like the look of that.

Nice coat of paint on the Corsair Joe.

Thank You Gam & TJ. Your responses are most certainly appreciated.

Nice job there Joe!

Well, lo and behold, I've finally got some paint on the Corsair today. Man, this has been a while getting around to this point. Thank God for a rainy day. Shot the Corsair with MM dark sea blue.

Thanks for hanging in there with me folks. I do appreciate it.

Thanks Joe Rix: I feel that the more challenging builds, pushes your skill level higher. Then finding solutions when problems arise.  I really like the jig I made up for the antenna's.

59 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

68GT: Your 229 project looks excellent, a job well done. Putting the 229 on a base with a pole is a nice touch.

Trabi: Nice finish to your Ta-154. A job well done.

Lostagain: The MB 5 is coming along great.

LA: She's coming right along! Great idea there on making some replacement parts, resin can be such a pain at times. And awesome to see her getting closed up, I always worry about leaving something out (like the time I left the ventral radiator out of a P-51 so you can see right though the kit....).

Joe: Might as well enjoy the weather, I have a feeling after as nice as it's been Mother Nature is going to slap us with something nasty now that our guards are down...... 

It is indeed heartening to see you get to the fuselage close up stage. Great work so far. I have to say that your resin casting skills are quite impressive. In fact, I am really taken aback by them. Would you consider a tutorial on how you do it? I'd like to see more myself. It's a pleasure to watch you build this up. Thank You.

Also, Thank You for the encouragement Lost. It's really appreciated. If it weren't for the gorgeous weather we're having I'd probably be making more progress. But, it is very hard to resist being out in shorts hiking and working in the yard.

Been niceto see this closedup even if we don't get to see as much of that pit. Looking really nice.

What would you recomend as a good resin to use.

Trabi,

The Moskito is fantastic. A great looking aircraft, and the fine details are well executed.

Super work on the aerials too - like Gamera I would have knocked them off and boken them several times.

Joe,

Looking forward to the Corsair - I would go for 185 too...

Still going on the MB 5, I have cast off a number of props and also did a cast of the spinners. Why? Just in case there is anyone else up for the challenge of the Falcon 1/48 kit, they can PM me for a some. And I may one day decide I want to do the plane in its early state with the smaller (MB 3) tail. First get through this build.

Not so happy with this resin, not pouring as easily as others I have used in the past.

The props were primed, filled, sanded, reprimed and then the tips painted yellow. Ready for the black.

Exciting times! In preparation for closing the fuselage, the cockpit has been glued in place. Last chance to see it before everything is closed up...

And the spinner was not sitting up very well, so a piece of brass tube was epoxied into the fuselage to hold it square. Sits much better now.

The internal structure looks very cobbled together, but it is needed to stop the vac form fuselage flexing, especially when it comes to fixing the huge seams top and bottom.

Moving along...

Matt: The Weekend Madness looked cool, but there's no way I'd ever get anything built in that time frame unless I just built as I did as a kid- cement it together without any paint. Kudos to you for trying. 

Looking forward to seeing your photos! 

So, just after Christmas i tried to build a 1/48th Me-262 in a "weekend madness" timeline, with the goal of having it done before the family and I took our new years vacation. 

Well, I obviously did not get it done, not even close actually. But since then I have been plugging away, a small amount at a time.  I should have the final pictures to show in the next few days. 

<Matt

Trabi,

That Moskito looks great.  Great job overcoming the fit and weight issues!  Thanks for sharing.

<Matt

Ohhh, great job there Trabi! Love the radar antenna, I still don't see how you guys manage stuff like that, I'd have knocked them all off multiple times.

What a terrific job on your Ta-154 Trabi. You work has definitely tuned out one impressive model. The wings pretty darn good to me. Nice work there. I relly like the Finnish scheme. thank you for sharing your skills and talent with us.

Moff: Well, what I recall in my reading of the Ta-154 was that it was Germny's attempt to copy the RAF Mosquito. Hence the Luftwaffe name, Moskito. At least I think. The aircraft was built out of plywood and production was severly hampered by the fact that the RAF bombed the factory that manufactured the glue for the plywood and the German's were unable to recreate it in a timely manner. Someone here might be able to add better clarification.

Thanks Bish! This was great GB!

Moff

I don't believe I'm familiar with the Ta-154...what's the story behind its design? 

 

Well it was attempt to create fighter what was cheap and easy to manufacture from materials what were easy to get. That´s why it was mostly made from plywood. Lots of problems occured and only 9 (some sources says 30) finished just at the end of the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Ta_154

I don't believe I'm familiar with the Ta-154...what's the story behind its design? 

Good to see you Trabi and glad you were able to finish this. Thanks for taking part.

Hi guys!

I know that this gb has already expired, but better now than never. My plan was to finish this between Christmas and New Year, but suddenly deadline for my work things decreased with two weeks. So no time for finish this then.

I don´t have in progress pictures, but I try to list what I did with this FW Ta-154.

I had to add lead weights also inside spinners to prevent tail sitting. If you are building this kit belive the instructions and put that 50 gram weight in BOTH engine nacelles! 100 grams total!

Although I put that square tube inside the wings those still tryes to bend down.

Because this is night fighter I choosed two quite dark grays for the scheme. Upper surface is bit darker with tint of green. I´m not yet familiar with my new camera yet, so I´m not sure does this all show in pictures.

I tested first time that flexible thread (or something) for antenna wire. Needed bit practice, but worked well at the end. It was called "Rig that thing!" from Uschi, Germany.

Decals are from Techmod, Poland. "Finnish Air Force swastikas and serials 1934-45 1/72". I used those blue grey discs which were in use 12 January 1944 onwards.

Black letters for serial number. I choosed "MK" for the code as it fits for "Moskito" as Ta-154 was called in Germany. In Finnish Air Force letters of serials are shortenings from names of the planes: Fokker D.XXI = FR, Curtiss Kittyhawk = KH, Morane 406 = MS, Brewster = BW, Messerschmitt 109 = MT, Mig 21 = MG, Saab Draken = DK, BAE Hawk = HW etc.

Albeit this kit had it cons after all it was fun to build! Smooth looking plane like it´s British namesake!

And her are the pix:

Wings are allmost straight in model. Here´s the picture how it should look:

... and how it´s in model:

Thank You for watching!

Cool Joe, I think I like 185 better too even if 3 has the neat white nose. 

Bish: I know what you mean, I'm almost tempted to start a few scratchbuilding projects too.