Stik, looks like you have your hands full with that Spit, man those molds are older than me

Karl, Your big Stuka is coming along nicely, looking forward to some more updates...I've pulled my 110 of the shelf and i'll hopefully get the wings together over the weekend...

Lewbud, Nice looking Emil you have there JG26??? The green stripe in front of the forward section of canopy looks a little thin, is it supposed to be like that??

Karl, those barrels are Suhweet!  I wish they'd do something like that for us divine (1/72) scale builders.  The painting is for the most part done.  Just got to go back and touch up a few areas and she'll be ready for decals.

Stik, looking at the colour of the plastic I assumed it was Matchbox.

Karl

Karl, I am actually building the old 1960s vintage Revell Spitfire Mk I. And making mods adding detail as I go as you have seen.

Stik, looking like solid progress on the 109.

Is that the old Matchbox kit?

Lew, looking great with the yellow nose.

Progress Update

I've spent much of this week working on improving the pit of the big Stuka.

I added the seat hoop from plastic strip, after hacking the seat down to something that more closely resembes a real Stuka seat.

The frame behind the pilot's seat was molded with solid plastic in between the frames, which should not be there, so 15 minutes with a drill and file soon sorted that out.

The sidewalls also got some attention, adding detail, and correcting a few glaring problems.

The rebuilt section at the back replaced some completely spurious detail in the kit.

This is what it looked like before.

Whereas I only added a few bits to the starboard side of the pit.

Finally I jazzed up the IP with some plastic card and some MDC PE instrument bezels.

I also invested in some after market..

This is Eduards Jabo set for their 1/32 109, which is ideal for this build as it contains an SC250, and 4 SC 50s all with PE fins etc.

This is the MG 15 in the box..

...not exactly overwhelming, so I bought this..

Just check out the perforated barrel sleeve and PE sights!

Next stop painting the pit.

Karl

Mike,

You asked for it, you got it.  Tonight's update.  Gelb on the nose and RLM 65 everywhere else.  Will mask for RLM 02 tomorrow.

Stik, nice work on the Spit looking forward to more.

Julez, get off your butt and join the fun!

Here is a view of the inside surface of the lower wing. You can see where I added inner walls to the wheel wells and also added some plastic to the inner portion of the aileron wells. There was a large gap needing filling there in each.

Very good work going on here!  Can't wait to see them all finished!!

Julez72

WOW. Heaps of action going on in here, gonna have to get a move on with mine i think

Agreed! Today I finally was in a building mood and completed the scratch work for my Spit's wheel wells. Almost time to complete building the wing! Hooray for progress...

Excellent work Karl, your doing a fine job sir ,

Gzt your 109 looks splendid, I love those markings,

Andrew bad luck with having to strip the paint, I feel your pain as I had to do the same on my Spitfire. You cleaned it up beautifully and it looks like your back on track,

Checkmate, I did my Spitfire in those same markings only in 1/48, yours looks wonderful,

Dermot nice work on the little Spit and 109, keep up the good work.

Lewbud I look forward to more progress on yours,

Cheers everyone...

WOW. Heaps of action going on in here, gonna have to get a move on with mine i think

Karl, thanks.  She goes together pretty good as long as you're careful.  Looking forward to seeing more of your conversion.

Dermot, thanks.  I remember reading in the IPMS rag an article on British camo schemes.  The author quoted a crewman that when asked if the model was correct, he said it was TOO clean.  Those planes got so dirty that sometimes all they had time to do was wipe off the roundels and aircraft number with a kerosene soaked rag.

Filled the seam on the top of the rear fuselage (got a little careless removing flash) and the underside where the wing and fuselage come together.  Other than that not much progress.  The Ju-88 has been started, will post pics later.

Andrew, hate that that happened to you but it looks like you have it back on track, and fast too. Looks good.

gzt, thats a great looking 109 it came out terriffic, I have to build mine some day.

Great job by all im enjoying all these wonderful builds

Steve

Well productive day paint wise, I think it looks better (using the tamiya  colour codes/mix's instead of the IPMS Stockholm pages info.

oh well signing off today :) . Hope to get more done soon

Andrew

OUCH !!

Well update...

I tried to touch up with brush but thing didn't meld very well (enough for me) so ...

back to here

I used methylated spirits and paint brush to paint of the paints then a baby wipe dipped in same to bring up a clean finish.

Next the primer

Andrew

Andrew,

I used MM enamels for this one. I think both colors are pretty close.I used a WB based on 18% gray (if this is what it is :) )to make sure colors are represented correctly.

Tamiya acrylics. I had same problem twice before (Academy 1/100 F-15 and Tamiya 1/48 Panther tank), both using either Tamiya and/or Gunze Sangyo acrylics. All three have VERY smooth surfaces, so that maybe the issue.

I might start undercoating now a standard thing. I stripped the F-15, undercoated (humbrol enamel undercoat) and that fixed the problem, the Panther hasnt been touched again yet.

As for this build, I might just patch it and give it a coat of future see if that helps. Not really interested in to much stress as I wanted this to be an easy build to get back into modeling after illness.

Andrew

Andrew,

What paint did you use?

Update time..

KJ200 - That thing looks like its gonna be HUGE

Dermo - To much weathering? Those planes were flying alot of hours, combat daily or more and only basic maintinance, they did age from use if nothing else.

checkmateking, some nice crisp spitfires and wonderful info/research

As for myself? a bit of frustration, but otherwise fine if slow sailing

Wings on, canopy masked.

Now the frustration, got the main colours on but lost some paint on the un-masking gonna need some touch ups :(

All colours are right according to the IMPSStockholm Colour charts but I think the grey/green on the wings should of been a little greener. I dont really mind anyways as I'm gonna add field mods to this bird anyways paint wise of a yellow nose, so whose to say the RLM 02 paint mix wasnt off as well.

Andrew

Dermot:  your planes are looking great.  I especially like the Airfix Spitfire since that's the final item I'm doing for the build.  I think the weathering looks good; I don't have the skills, so I admire someone who does.  My weathering efforts in the past have nearly turned disastrous, so I don't attempt it any more.  Good show.

Here, then, also is my finished Spitfire, the Airfix 1/72 version.  The markings are taken from an older sheet by Mini Print Decal (MPD) in the Czech Republic.  They went on very well.  I used Floquil's RR Flat as an undercoat, which produces a very smooth waxy finish, and decals go on very well.

The pilot is listed as Sgt. Stanislav Plzak, dated "zari 1940," but I don't know what that means.  Plzak served with 19 Squadron from 27 August 1940 until 8 August 1941, when he was lost over the Channel.  He attained 7 victories.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

However, the same aircraft also seems to have been used by S/Ldr Brian John Edward "Sandy" Lane.  Under the pseudonym "B.J. Ellan," he wrote a memoir titled Spitfire!  Lane achieved 6 victories and was lost over the North Sea in December 1942.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

In the photo above, S/Ldr Lane is seated left; then Sgt. George "Grumpy" Unwin's dog, and next is Unwin himself.

I suppose both Lane and Plzak flew the plane at one time or another.  The interesting point is the yellow spinner.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

  [View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

 [View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

 Finally, I built a couple of 19 Squadron Spitfires about four years ago.  Below, QV-H is George Unwin's cannon-armed plane (cobbled together from an Airfix Mk I and Mk V), and QV-I (pilot unknown, from a photo; the kit is the old Heller production), along with QV-K.  Thanks to my daughter for letting me use her camera, which does better than the one I used for photographing the Hurricanes.  I appreciate it, Ashley!  Aloha nui loa!

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

This was the first group build I've participated it, and I've very much enjoyed looking at all the efforts of all the builders.  Everyone who's posted has accomplished some outstanding results--and it may even motivate me to try weathering again.  Thanks.

Aaron – great work on the Lysander

Steve – that Dornier is super

Andrew – nice start to the 109

Karl – the big Stooka looking good

Check – like the Hurri pair

Lewbud - sharp stuff

GZT - off to a flyer

Slow progress on the Airfix Battle of Britain duo - the Spitfire just needs a flat coat and some odds and it's done. When I look at it, I think I went all "Hollywood" on the weathering - you learn with every build I guess..

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

The 109 is almost there too. Weathering will be far more restrained on this one.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

 [View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

Thanks for looking and keep up the great work - I learn a lot from everyone here.

Dermot

Lewbud, having built Tamiya's 1/72 Emil, I bet the ICM knock off goes together beautifully.

GZT, looking great.

What scale is that, 1/48?

Have made some headway on the big Stuka.

These shots show the mods to the engine and exhaust cowling necessary to back date this kit to a proper B-1.

The new exhaust ports were punched out of a thin sheet of plastic card, and then filed to shape, with the card added as an overlay to the existing cowling side then filled and sanded to reduce the step.

The shiny disc is a punched disc of foil added to represent the small access hatch in this position.

The two vents, one in front, and one to the rear of the exhaust stacks started out as the ends of the drop tanks from an old Monogram F-106.

I simply drew around them, then drilled out, and glued in, with a bit of filler.

Now I just need to do it all again on the starboard side!

Last time I posted pics of the undercarriage spats they were looking very rough, well they still look rough, but are at least the right shape.

Just some tidying up to do around the Jericho trumpet mount, and a few coats of Mr Surfacer.

As this kit was originally designed to be also sold as a pre-assembled model, it has screw together wings and fuselage, hence the discs in the pic below to plug the screw holes.

These really don't fit at all well, so a bit of filler was required.

You can also see the stubs of the mounts for the flaps & ailerons. I simply cut these lovely lumps of plastic off the flaps themselves and glued them in to plug the large mounting points.

When they are sorted I will drill out mounts and make new flap hangers from wire.

Karl

My RFoF is still in the box (working on the cockpit), however I am finishing this one in the meantime ...

1/48 Hasegawa

Here's a couple of pics of my Me 109E-3. The kit is the 1/72 ICM Bf 109E-3.  A quick review of the kit.  The kit comes on a single tree, not all parts are used, as some are for the E-4 variant.  From what I've read, this kit scales out the fuselage length correctly where the Tamiya kit was a little on the short side.  From what I've read, the Tamiya parts will interchange almost perfectly with the ICM which leads me to believe that ICM based their tooling on the Tamiya (some friends say they outright copied it, I don't know).  On to the build.  Beware of flash, it's on every part and fairly heavy on some.  If you're not experienced with flash, you will be by the end of construction.  However, once the parts are CAREFULLY cleaned up, they fit like a dream.  I started with the wings first.  Normally I start with the leading edge and work my way back, but in test fitting I found the best results by working from the back to the front.  Do it right and there will only be some light cleanup on the leading edge.  The cockpit consists of a rear bulkhead,which glues to the floor and a firewall which does the same.  A basic seat bucket is provided along with a stick and instrument panel.  A word of warning, there are no locating pins, so I used the pit to locate the fuselage halves.  I did this by gluing it to the right fuselage half, then gluing the left half on after.  Doing it this way allowed me to get a more positive attachment, but the pit sits a little cockeyed.  A note about the pit, the rear bulkhead is a little on the narrow side while the firewall is a little wide and caused some problems getting the fuselage halves together.  Some careful sanding fixed this.  Perhaps the biggest bugaboo with aircraft kits is the wing to fuselage fit.  If you're careful, you'll end up with a perfect fit.  After I sanded the firewall and cockpit floor down and glued the fuselage together, I placed the fuselage on the wings and thought I had some major sanding to do but with a little squeeze the fuselage dropped in like it was supposed to, resulting in a Tamiya like fit.  I did some careful sanding of the cowling and some gentle pressure, was rewarded with a Tamiya like fit as well.  Outside of the cockpit, the only other problem I've encountered was aligning the horizontal stabilizers.  I took a little too much off the starboard strut and so it has a noticeable droop.  On to the pics-sorry I didn't take many at the beginning.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

 [View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

 For inspiration.  These were taken at the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison Tx.  Both were used in the filming of the The Battle of Britain.

Both are supposedly flightworthy, but I have yet to see them fly.

Steve Wow! you did such a good job on the Do24. I enjoyed watching you put it together

Damon

Checkmateking: Love the Hurricanes, and they look great displayed on the flag!

Aaron: Can't say enough about the Lysander.

Sidure: She looks even better together than she did as parts. I can see her zipping along the Channel in my mind.

Konigwolf and KJ200: Great work so far, looking forward to seeing the Bf-109 and Ju-87 come together.

Konigwolf: Thanks but after I finished the bloody thing then I find out the wheel wells shouldn't have been painted RAF interior green! Oh well, I'm not going back to repaint her

Spike190

Steve well done on an absolute beauty, a fantastic looking aircraft and you've done it proud .

love the weathering in her too!

Spike190

Steve well done on an absolute beauty, a fantastic looking aircraft and you've done it proud .

Karl I cant wait to see you work your magic on the Stuka

Cheers...

fantastic build Steve

Karl looking forward to seeing some more buddy

KW, good to see you posting again Nice work on the Emil, well done

Steve/Sidure -   I had to go and out this fine machine on youtube, looks very elegent on take off and landing with those oversized wing stubs. Thank for opening my eyes to her 

Andrew