Great stuff guys! 

Pat & Gil: Congrads on the new tools, they make modeling so much easier. I really need to pick up a photo booth myself.

DM1975: As GMorrison said modeling is indeed an excuse to buy books. 

I'm fascinated by seeing more and more modified Hot Wheels diecasts. They seem tiny to me so how are they done? I'll have to look on YouTube to see if they are any on video. So whilst shopping at Tesco's this morning I spotted this Porsche 914 in Safari form.

Ans at only £1.50 it won't break the bank!

Purchased this off of Ebay after watching a very interesting documentary. I have always wished I could see one of these amazing machines.

I have been wanting a good (and small) rotary tool for a very long time and took a gamble on this after reading about it on another forum.

I think that I am really going to like this little tool. It is capable of operating at low speeds and has a torque control circuit that maintains good torque at those low speeds. I don't have a dial indicator to check the runout on the shaft but everything seems precise and the bearings and motor are very quiet. As a quick first test I installed a ball end cutter and ground away about half of the thickness of a fairly thick piece of sprue. Even at low speeds I could apply quite a bit of pressure without the tool bogging down. To cover the other end of the spectrum I chucked up a #80 drill bit and drilled a hole through the same piece of sprue. The bit did not wonder at all and it had no trouble punching through. If it's durable I will be very happy with this purchase.

John that's a great addition! I remember those Revell boats like that one... the tug, Russian spy trawler, and a few others I think. It's been ages.

Nice Pat - may get one of those.  Blue looks the best to my eyes.

Stik - I need to add a 105 to my collection.

Saw one of these built recently (maybe here) and it sparked my interest as I have a budding 'fire fighting' collection.  Had no idea how big she is - looks like it's all there despite the box damage

Now just use the cropping on your photo editor and you're doing great photos!

When I was a teenager and this kit came out, my friend got it, and I thought that it was a pretty cool build. It was much nicer than my Hawk 1/48 F-104 kits that I had at the time. I’ve bought other better F-104s since then, but have always wanted to try my hand on this one, so I keep scanning eBay from time to time. I put this one on my watch list, and a day or two later the seller sent me a 25% off offer, and who am mai to say no to such a deal.

Of course with shipping it cost far more than the original 1977 sticker price... ;)

I plan on building this as a G, since I already have a C built and another in my stash.

I've tried the new light box today and it's variable coloured backgrounds..

White is the standard background coloured which can be seen in the Auto's section-NUNU BMW M3 1991. These are the others..

Nice book DM! Those Osprey books are great for the amount of info that they pack into such a small book.

Well to add to the pile of research books my uncle who got me into modeling in the first place got me this for my birthday! It just showed up in the mail!

DM has started his journey... 

Hutch6390

Stik, the markings for the F89 and, even more so, the F5 are really colourful, should look great.

 

Thanks Hutch, they will be two very different looks. The F-89 in NMF, with flamboyant unit markings, while the F-5 will be in camo with bright unit markings.

Stik, the markings for the F89 and, even more so, the F5 are really colourful, should look great.

DM1975

Time to start my learnin' 

 

Time to start my learnin' 

So lately I have stumbled across a guy on eBay who sells decal sheets for a much more reasonable price than most are going for nowadays, so I have picked up a few sets.

For early A-10s: pre “Charcoal Lizard”

For the F-5A in my stash

And for the F-89D/H in my stash

I also finally came across a guy in France who makes the Matra Super 530 missile in 1/48... nobody makes them in AM, and unless you scavenge them from another kit, there are no options in 1/48 to get any... until now. These look to be 3-D printed and are not bad at all, especially the pair on the right. The left pair are a bit softly detailed at the tail fins.

Hutch6390

 

 

tempestjohnny

Well got myself a new spray booth

 

 

Very nice - how long will it stay looking like that?

 

Already got its first splatter

Yes stikpusher, I'll have to make sure I have nothing larger than 1/24 or 1/25 to photo!

Hutch6390

 

 

tempestjohnny

Well got myself a new spray booth

 

 

Very nice - how long will it stay looking like that?

 

I had a visit from the Kit Fairy recently -

I would have preferred a kit of a WWI British railway gun, but couldn't find one anywhere. Does anyone even make them?  So, I settled for this (actually, I've fancied one for ages).  As it was, I was lucky to get it (Kingkit had one), I don't think there was another one for sale in the UK, and it would have cost about £13 - £14 more if I'd ordered one from China, with a delivery date in June or July.  

 

Rattle can black sprays really nice.  Lots of semigloss used on the car models.   I like the gloss for an alclad base.  
I really like the Tamiya rattle can paints.  

John, is there a reason that you prefer rattle cans over thinning and airbrushing the same brand of paints? 

Pat, the quality of your photos will be a LOT better immediately! My youngest game me one of those things last summer, and most of my photo challenges went away. The only real problem is if you have a subject larger than your light box.

For better photo's..A foldable LED lit light box. Hopefully for better images!

Various coloured backgrounds

And carrying bag..

Back in black! 

tempestjohnny

Well got myself a new spray booth

Very nice - how long will it stay looking like that?

I had a visit from the Kit Fairy recently -

I would have preferred a kit of a WWI British railway gun, but couldn't find one anywhere. Does anyone even make them?  So, I settled for this (actually, I've fancied one for ages).  As it was, I was lucky to get it (Kingkit had one), I don't think there was another one for sale in the UK, and it would have cost about £13 - £14 more if I'd ordered one from China, with a delivery date in June or July.  

modelcrazy

That Thud sould be a big one in 48 GH.

 

Pretty good size, looks like about 18" nose to tail,  will be parked next to the Hobby Boss "D" I picked up for a set of decals that I couldn't resist.  The nose art supposedly lasted just long enough for the C.O. to see it.

Well got myself a new spray booth

Steve,

The KX-03 is a pretty straightforward kit.  The guys are coming over tomorrow for our monthly model get together, so I will work on the kit and post pics and impressions.  The Coke-bottle thick clear parts might just get painted over, which will further speed construction.  I compared the kit to Hasegawa's 1/72 Shin Meiwa US-1, and the KX-03 is actually longer in both fuselage length and wing span!

The 747SP was a Grail Kit of mine since FSM ran that conversion article so many years ago.  We truly live in the Golden age of Modeling.  Now I just gotta get off my duff and start finishng stuff before I go to that great hobby shop in the sky.

Or under the ground, in my case:

Oh G! big and small so to speak. I've never seen that Kawanishi. Like to see that built. I too have always liked the short 747

Dodgy

 

That Walruse is a sweet kit, built it a little while ago. 

These showed up a couple of days ago.

This is Micro Mir's Kawanishi KX-03 flying boat proposal in 1/350 scale.  What's that you say?  Is the scale a typo?  No, the dang thing is in a ship scale, but still measures out to a whopping 18" X 18".  Think Hughes HK-1 on steroids.

I have had a long (no pun intended) fascination with Boeing's "shortie" 747, and it took around 45 years to be able to get one in injected plastic.  Eastern Express' 1/144 kit is made from limited run tooling, but they have come a long way.  No, it's not Tamiya or Revell Germany, but it is highly detailed and will fit so long as all mating surfaces are properly fettled and trued.

One thing I noticed was that these two Russian/Ukrainian kits have basically no warpage on the components, a huge improvement over their older kits.  And the KX-03's forward and rear fuselage halves fit together perfectly, without the usual step.

That Thud sould be a big one in 48 GH.