Hey thanks guys! 

Eric: Very cool, one thing I've never built is a giant seaplane. Love that kit! 

And yeah, I'm a little surprised Airfix hasn't announced a new 1/48th Tempest since 75% of the parts would be the same for a Typhoon- basically two new kits to sale with almost the same molds. 

The only 1/48th Tempest I know of is the Eduard kit I'm building. It's old and probably not that easy to find anymore. Decent kit but Spartan, I should have added a resin Typhoon cockpit but not much can be seen inside so I skipped it. The exterior is decent but not that detailed either. 

Lewbud: Cool, love to see the Whirlwind built too! 

Bish: Yeah, those #$@%%@ yellow leading edges... Funny two of my favorite subjects- the RAF and Japanese  both have them.... 

'Dunkirk' was a pretty fine movie, haven't picked it up on Blu-Ray or DVD yet just because I like movies where the Allies win better.  

Mark, i didn't realise Alclad did that. I used Xtracolours on the wheel bays on my Canberra. I'll have to grab a bottle of the Alclad. Thanks for the heads up.

I didn't know the Blenheim was from Duxford, in fact i thought that was CGI. I just looked it up and realised its only been flying a couple of years, probably why i didn't see last time i was at Duxford. Will have to see if i can catch it.

G, i have only had to do those yellow leading edges once, on the Whirlwind. It is a bit trickier than German wing tip's.

So, thats most war movies then.

Hello everyone,

Just a quick progress update on the build of the Eduard Spitfire XVI. Ive had a free day today so I got the elevators on, and the second radiator together, plus the chin air intake section. One of the radiators and the join in the bottom cowling needed a little filler, but nothing much.

Next was the extra filling on top of the cowling to even out the join that shows,  as the real thing had a fixed one piece fit. I aslo sanded any cement spills with varying grades of Micro Mesh prior to when I have to prime the whole kit. As this is going to be overall High Speed Silver every little mark will show (gulp!).

I also took the opportunity to prime the wheels and seperate hubs, prop, spinner and back plate. Tomorrow I will fit the hatch door closed, add the PE wheel springs and add the cannons and mask the canopy and windscreen.

Thats it for now and thanks for looking.

The Spit will look neat in NMF. Easy to forget how long Spitfires were in front line service - the last marks barely got a try-out during the war. Great design. Let's see: that's a 1/72z: so is the Sunderland. I could get a 1/72 Spit and tie underneath the Sunderland - self-contained fighter escort. There was precedent I think. As I recall the USN experimented with the idea of carrying a very small fighter on a rigid airship in the 30s. Went though the same drill with the B-36 after the war.

I interviewed some flying boat crews years back - including  RAAF Air Vice Marshall William Garing who started the war piloting a Sunderland. The men liked them - the PBY was petite compared to the Sunderland but was plenty big. They could stay up so long and were designed for pretty low altitude work so the men didn't face the brutal cold found on a B-17. Guys almost talked about them as though they were boats.  Flight engineers could get very accurate readings on their engines - useful for mega flights. They had a galley; and during the long lulls crewmen could walk around, read books, play chess or poker. 12 hour missions were common and they could be longer. Kind of like home. Unless the war intruded, then there was risk galore. It was a huge risk to land in swells to pick up downed pilots (our PBYs saved over 500 airmen - mostly in the Solomons.) It was common enough for a plane to get down and then have to wait several hours for the weather to moderate and allow a take-off. And PBYs were used regularly in the "Slot" at night where they flew very low. Sunderland's had early radar, the PBY wasn't fitted until later. Sunderlands sunk about 20 Uboats: the far more numerous PBYs were credited with 40 so they must have had radar at some time. So a recon Catalina could fly right into a IJN ship formation at maybe 2,000 feet: that woke people up.  Add the Catalina to the long list of US airplanes named by the Brits: we were happy with PBY, English like Catalina.

Eric

Mark: She's looking pretty darn close to perfect. That NM finish is going to look fantastic!

Hello all,

Thanks Gamera, Well this will be my last post of 2017, with 2018 only 5 and a half hours away. I have managed to get a few hours in today on the Spitfire. I have attached the cannons, gunsight, opened both radiator vents and the armour plate behind the cockpit.

I also primed the area behind the cockpit sprayed it Alclad Aircraft Aluminium and hand painted the canopy brace and head armour Humbrol Gunmetal.Tomorrow I will wash the model down affix the windscreen and canopy and prime.

Thats it for now, Id like to wish all this GB a very Happy and Healthy New Year. Till next time, thanks for looking in!

Nice progress Mark, look forward to seeing more next year.

ANd happy new year to you and yours and all the great chaps here.

I finally finished my Hawker Fury.  Turned out pretty good.

Painted, waiting for everything to dry.

Done!

It's a nice represenation of what happened between the wars. 

Nice looking buld there Steve, i like the finish on it. Fills in the gap between the wars nicely.

Thanks for joining the group, got you posted on the front page.

Wow, really nice work there Steve!

And Happy New Years to everyone!

Nice-looking two-winged bird, Steve.

Well done.

That is a lovely looking Hawker Fury Steve, well done. You can see the later lines of the Hurricane in it cant you? We are lucky over here in the UK that a preserved example is at Duxford and flies at airshows.

Thanks guys.  That's what interested me about the plane, it showed what was coming up with the Hurricane.  I found pics online of the still flying planes and used them for the details.

I'd better move forward with my Tiffy or I'm bound to miss the April 1 finish:

I started with more of the fiddly PE bits inside but found them to interfere with the cockpit cage, so no more more of that. Time to see if the fuselage halves will go together with the cage installed. 

I'd so far found Eduard PE cockpits to be fairly trouble-free, not so much with this one. Though I did enjoy all the cage detail which nobody will ever see.

Please excuse pic. I'm lazy.

Happy New Year everyone.

Looks good to me Greg. I tried to do some detailing on my Tempest but the cockpit hole is so small you can barely see anything down in there. 

Thanks for commenting, Gammy.

I knew I could count on you.

Nice start tehre Greg. I often have trouble with Eduard pics, i do find they can stop the fuselage halves closely properly. Or maybe its just user error.

I think this might be an Eduard rebox of a Trumpeter kit.

It's been so many months since I started it, I forgot! Way back when, there was a nice pic of the cockpit page, but I'm sure it's gone due to the Photo*uckit fiasco. 

If nothing else, I've cleared the benchtop to the point I can see it, sort of.

Nice progress there Greg. That does look like a very detailed cockpit as well mate.

Hi all,

Just a very quick update on the Eduard Spitfire Mk XVI. After a scrub down with soapy water with an old toothbrush, and a drying out, I have sprayed with Alclad Black primer and microfiller. 

When dry, I will add the next step of spaying over with Alclad Gloss Black base coat ready for this weekends addition of High Speed Silver.

I must admit, the Spifire looks pretty good all in Black. Till next time, thanks for looking.

Thanks, Mark.

Gotta love Alclad black primer and microfiller. Looks good.

Looks great Mark. The Spit looks very sinister in black! 

Going to call it done.

In black-

With decals and final clear-

Bish-  Many thanks from this side of the pond for hosting the GB.  Did a build that otherwise would have sat in the stash for who knows how long.  Feel free to use whichever pic suits your fancy for the front page completions.

Mark, the Spit is coming on nicley.

Really nicely done there GH. Thanks for adding that to the build. It was a pleasure having you on board. I've used the last one for the front page.

GH: Slick job! Looks cool!

Thank you gentlemen, appreciated.

goldhammer, that looks cool in the gloss finish - makes her look even more sleek.

regards,

Jack

Everything is going okay again after the holidays and a cold so I got more done on the Sunderland. It's is an okay build and it will look very neat if everything works out. (That may be a big if.) The plastic is thick and parts large, so getting a good fit takes a lot of eyeball especially as the engineering isn't Tamiya. I know the wings have to go on the top of the fuselage instead of the bottom, but the Airfix B-17 handles their wings/body fit far better than Italeri does. (And the B-17 is ball park big.) Airfix designers put supports running out of both wings designed to meet in the opposing wings when glued on. This is going to leave a seam - I don't think that could be avoided - but the seam is supposed to be there. The Italeri join is simply on the top of the wing. It's not horrible, but the panel lines (a little thick for my taste) don't all meet up: that tells me the lines themselves are not properly drawn. So we have to rescribe lines - but we also have to eliminate a very long seam and there's a slight "step" on the right wing. We'll get it done, but this is the kind of thing nobody enjoys.

body2 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

body1 by Eric Bergerud, on Flickr

When done with this we need the engines on. I'll be putting it on a trolley for now but I do have a sea base planned even if only used for photos. However, after priming, I'll have to put the beast away and do an article for an Australian journal. I'll check in before that though. And I do plan to everything done by April - I hope.

Eric