Cheers. And its amazing what you can learn when you actaully read the intructions. I found the feature you mentioned, so going to try again when i get back to camp tomorrow.

Jeremy and Arki: Great work guys! I love how pre-shading adds variation and interest to 'plain jane' grey aircraft. Though I keep thinking about doing a RAF Tornado in the old early '80s wrap-around grey and green scheme. Someday.....

Bish: Glad to see you back, frankly I wouldn't worry too much about the interior colour since buttoned up you won't be able to see much anyway. In fact the lighter yellow will probably show off the detail better than the darker green would anyway.

Bish

jmabx ... Great looking Tornado, which marking afre you useing on this again.

Sorry for the late reply Bish, the Tornado will be in Luftwaffe markings. I was originally going to do the Italian Black Panther scheme but with all the fit issues I had with this kit, I don't think I was going to clean it up enough for a silver finish.

Marathon decaling session today! These newer Italeri kits have some of the nicest decals I've worked with.

Weathering will be next.

Liking the Luftwaffe markings!

Future applied on my end, so begins the decaling effort for me.

Looks like some great work!

Is there going to be an IMS V? I didn't join this year because honestly, there is a lack of leadership, and GBs don't work out without a leader. I don't mean to dish on Kenny though I think he is great. I just think in order for a GBs to be successful, there must be a committed leader.

I am loving the Hawkeye and Tornado though.

Ok, my latest up date. I really should give myself a big kick up the back side. Someone who builds models and spends ages checking instructions really should know better when it comes to new gadgets.  I found the macro setting and got some close ups of the cockpit before closeing it up.  So here it is complete with Eduard pre painted PE, i love this stuff.

After this, i closed up the cockpit and fitted the wings. I had thought about painting with the wings off, but decided against it. Here it is with wings on and all masked up ready for painting.

I had to change this from a J to an H. Now i am far from an expert on US aircraft. From what i can gather, it's not just about the model, in this case an H, but also what i think is the batch number and the factory where it was build, designated but letters. Please correct me if i am wrong. I do have 4 great photos of the front of the aircraft i am building. I have also looked at other aircraft with the same designation, both photos and colour plates, and i can't find anything else thats different. So it all seems to be about the front end. Here are the changes i have made.

The glass for the bomb aimer on the J is straight at the top, shorter than the H and then has a second smaller glass. The H has one larger piece which slopes down from front to back. This is where the all clear from comes in useful. I engraved off then polished the areas that should be glass but had framing, then fitted the kit part and masked off. The only problem will be the join from the kit part that should just be a pain of glass. Not sure i will be able to get rid of that. Next is the antennas. The kit had two small ones, one on each side at the bottom. My plane had the larger one at the top you can see, and luckyly these were included as un used parts. Finally the two small windows behind the front turret. The kit had flat pains as part of the front sections. Once again, the correct buldged ones were included as un used parts, so i just cut away the flat ones and added the buldged ones. The last thing to do was add the extra armour on the cockpit useing sheet styrene.

Thurs night i got the underside painted grey. Hopefully i will have it masked up Sun night and the top OD painted Mon. So coming along nicely.

I just realised this week that i had totally forgotton about the other site this build is on. I have been there since before i went away in May. So think i need to pop over and have a look.

Much better close-up shots of the interior!  The pre-painted PE makes things much easier, provided it's the right color. 

Can't help you on the differences between an -H and -J, but nice progress nonetheless.

On my end, slogging away at decals.  Frackin' truckload of stencils!

Great work guys glad to see you all keeping the build alive . Sorry havent been here at all been very busy working on my site and magazine at www.hobbyli.com

kenny

Bish - That PE looks really good in there... especially for 1/72! The glass nose sure makes it easier to change the model.

Arki - I feel for you with the stencils... I hate doing them!

I finally finished the Tornado. A hard kit to build with lots of fitting and filing but she ends up looking pretty good in the end.

To refresh your memory, it's the Italeri 1/48 Tornado. Paragon resin ejection seats and burner cans with reverse thrust actautor. Luftwaffe markings supplied with the kit.

Sorry for the large amount of pictures! All comments and criticism more than welcome!

Jeremy: WOW the Tornado looks fantastic!!! Love it!

Bish: Great work so far, I love all the work you put into the cockpit.

Thanks guys, but i must give most of the credit for the cockpit to Eduard. That clear nose section is certainly different and helps for projects like mine. I just have to see if i can get rid of the seam.

WOW indeed, that Tornado is amazing.

Bravo on the Tornado!  I've said it before, I'll say it again, I love the Tornado.  Just a wicked cool aircraft, and you've done it justice.

Sorry all for being a poor stasher work has kept me away for the last while.

I see some great progres guys well done.

Jeremy your Tornado is fantastic well done

I have been able to get some work done on the P-61 here are some progress pics

With a bit of luck if I can free up an afternoon I should be able to finish her and call her done.

Cheers

Bear

Thanks everyone!!! I'm glad you like the Tornado!

Bear - The P-61 is a cool looking airplane and you're doing it justice! A lot of them were destroyed in accidents during the war... the perils of night flying in that era. I like the looks of it with the four tanks.

Heres my latest up date. Not far off finishing this now. I have painted useing xtracolour enamels and the decals have been added. I have stalled a bit as i buggered up my airbrush and have had to order a new part, so will have to wait before adding the exhaust stainign and matt finish.

All the wheels have these stars on, which i rathewr like. But the ones on the main undercarrage are on the inside so not easy to see.

A little bit mopre to do, varnish, stain and the panel lines. It is a tail sitter despite the weight i added, but to be honest i don't know why i add weight at all as i glue my kits onto the base any way.

Looking great, Bish!

Hi everyone, just a quick note to let you know what IMS V is starting up across at HLI.
http://www.hobbyli.com/Default.aspx?tabid=55&g=posts&m=55944&#55944

hey paul the link you put up sends me a denied message  

Quick progress update: I'm approx. 80% complete with decals.  There are a lot of them.  And many are small.

Here is my B-24H now finished. It will have to join the list of kits that i have to do GB's for, but hopefully i can get that done by the end of the year. I added exhaust staining useing tamiya smoke and did the panel lines with Model master weathering wash, great stuff.

The bomb aimers perspex didn't turn out to bad, but you can see a join. I need to try and work on that as i have 2 more J's to turn into H models. These hasegawa kits are very nice, as long as you don't mind the price tag, and with 5 more in the stash, including 3 D's, i will be getting lots of practice.

Bish: what can I say!?! WOW oh WOW! She looks stunning!

Really nice work Bish.  Congrats on finishing!

Decals are finished.  Whew.  Next to apply a light wash to the panel lines, flat coat, and begin installing the folded wings and radome.  Very close now.

Fini.  1/48 Kinetic E-2C Hawkeye in Bear Aces markings.  Longest build by far I've done, wouldn't call it difficult but it is complicated.

Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm happy with it.  Only major goof is with the amount of weight I added to the nose and nacelles to keep it from sitting on it's tail.  Instructions call for 50 grams, installed 60 grams, still wasn't enough.  I suspect the 50 grams might work if you display with wings extended (maybe), but it's sure as heck isn't enough with the dome on and wings folded.  I've read others having success with nearly 90 grams.

I've repositioned the tail hook down to see if that might prop up the rear, but it's simply not beefy enough.  For a long term solution I'll likely have to glue a clear rod at the back. 

Anyways, happy to have it finished and on the shelf.  Thanks for looking!

WOW, that looks awsome. Those photos makes it look huge. I am giving up with adding nose weight, but then its easy for me as i glue the aircraft into the Dio board anyway.

Sorry to hear about the nose weight problem but she looks spectacular! Haven't seen many built up but wow, she looks perfect to me.

BTW: got a little done on the Reliant but running waaaaaaayyyyy over. Will post her to the SF/Fantasy forum if - um I mean when I get her done..........

Thanks gents.  It is huge.  It barely fit within my photo booth!  Thank goodness for the folding wings, otherwise I wouldn't have room on the shelf for it.

Bish  Well done on the B-24 She looks GREAT

Arki As usual a fantastic build That's one big plane I agree with the wings deployed it would sure take up alot of shelf space

Well here is my selection completed.  This is a very nice kit with minimal fit issues actualy it was quite a fun build.

Cheers

Bear

Thanks Bear. The widow looks very very nice. I really like the look of that aircraft. Well done on a nice build.

By the way, does anyone know if a badge was done for this GB. I don't recall seeing one.