Got some decals on the Panther and a coat of Future.

Looks great there 68.

Really like those action shots. Coming along nicely 68.

68GT: Looks great, the partly folded wing is a nice touch.

Here's where I'm standing, not in much shape to get much done right now but I did spray a gloss overcoat. When I feel better I'm going to try to spray over the yellow stripes. It's hard to see in the photos but there are gaps in the decals.

Well, the site isn't putting up the photo link so I can't post the photo- oh well............ shheeeesssshhhhhhhhhh................

EDIT: Ok, it's working now on the office computer with Chrome but didn't on my laptop with Pale Moon, so I guess posting is a browser issue instead of a site issue.... 

That is some nice looking work there, Gamera.

Before I left for work, I got a few control surfaces removed from the kit, got my stabilizers mounted and the rudder into place.  I painted on my Reich defense band bar marking.  When I got home from the months work, I got more control surfaces removed from the wings, and set in the slat mounts.  I've also set in the control surface mounts, though you can't see that in these photos.  I had to do a little fairing in for the slat mounts, and where I bungled the wing root join.  I've got most of my canopy fixed down.  I'm spending most of today building up CMK's Jumo 004 for the port wing.  I hope to have that painted up by the weekend.

Looking good guys.

Thanks guys!

Sharp looking work there Andrew and good idea on painting the Reich Defense Bands- I probably should have painted those blasted yellow stripes but chickened out.

aj  am afraid I am going to have to drop out of this. I have been looking at my commitments for next year and realised I have really over stretched myself so need to trim back on at least a couple of GB's to give myself some slack. I don't like simply not completely my committed builds or over running the end dates so would rather drop out. Its ben real tough to decide which ones to drop out on, but I have had to be strict with myself.

Sorry for dropping out on you and I will defiantly be watching in. I don't have much hair as it is, and the stress of trying to meet deadlines isn't helping

Sorry to see you out of this one, Bish, but so many models to build and only so much time. 

I've spent my week working on the port Jumo, pictured below.

And started in on a bit of paint.  I've decided to take my reference from Squadron's walkaround book, for which White 3 is the subject matter, and paint the aircraft as it originally was prior to its' existence in the Duetches Museum.  This means a mostly NMF between the jets and forward of the Riech Defence band.  This is my first go at a bare metal finish, so of course I'm using a bit of Alclad.  I decided on airframe aluminum with light touches of steel and white aluminum in spots to break up the monotony.  Then a a thin and sporatic touching with RLM 76 to represent the original finish.  I'm not feeling too badly about this for my first go at an NMF.

I have also started in with my Montex masks, doing the non-standard Balkancruz.  I'm hoping tomorrow is a little more paint on the other wing.

Bish: Ouch, sorry to see you drop out - was looking forward to seeing what you did with the Arado. Oh well I know what you mean about picking up too much stuff.

Andrew: Looks pretty darn good to me, took me a number of times to get my first NM finish to look 'right'.

Me to guys, I would like to add a 234 to the built collection, but I am hoping I can catch up. Just nice to not have so much pressure.

Nice work on the 262 Andrew.

Thanks, Bish.  My last few days have seen a fair bit of paint going down.  I'm getting ahead of myself a bit, but at the same time I'm working on those tiddly bits such as the main landing gear. 

The mottle went down better than I thought it might.  I basically turned my Aztek airbrush into something of a single action, by lowering trigger resistance, and just worked my way around slowly picking on certain areas over and over again.

Up next is the starboard wing, a bit of mottle the starboard side and then both engine nacelles. 

Then a finish on the tiddly bits and she's ready for gloss. 

I'm hoping you all have a very good Christmas, stockings full of styrene, resin and paints, all the best of the season to you and yours and a very good New Year to all.

Andrew: The mottling looks great, it's just a matter of a little precision and a lot of patience.  

And Merry Christmas guys! 

Going to stick a fork in this one and call it done.

68GT: Very nice work there! She looks great!

I have to ask though, you're leaving the rockets off?

when I find some good looking ones I do plan on hanging them on but until then the Matchbox supplied pencils just don't look good.

Ah ok, see what you mean. I think I have some spares I'd offer  but they're all 1/48th though.

Finally got a start on my F-80.  I have the cockpit assembled and I'm working on the gun bay as well.  I've put a few fishing sinkers into it to keep it from being a tail-sitter, and I'll probably need to put a few more in just to be sure.  I test-fit the cockpit into the fuselage, and I'm pretty sure the instrument panel is way too far forward, but I don't feel like doing too much surgery on the kit so I'll leave it as it is.  I also drilled out the gun barrels.  It's kind of weird that the F-80 had six guns, but the kit only gave me four barrels plus the gun that's in the gun bay.  Not a big deal to scratch build another one though.

Bob: That's odd about the missing cannon there. Still, nice work on the cockpit, I've had one of those kits forever and am looking forward to you actually making some progress on yours.

Thanks Cliff! I'm pretty happy with the detail of the cockpit, I heard the current decals with the kit for Lid-Do-Bee are pretty much useless so I got some Microscale decals for it. I'll be sure to let you know about any other problems I come across

That's a very nice start at it, Bob.

Over the last week or so, I've got a layer of Alclad gloss down, a pin wash with Flory's mixtures, and decals laid on.  Yesterday I worked in some staining with oil paints and an acrylic flat varnish.  I tried to rum my varnish a little lighter in spots, to get a wind polished finish in a few areas.  I got my Jumo hung under the port wing.  At the moment, I'm leaving most of the cowls aside.  I may chose to paint them later, but I think in the end I might just build a base that looks like a museum floor for it, and forgo the cowls and radio cover.  The only things I have left to do now are the gun cowl, a little bit of etch around the canopy, the canopy wire and attachment, and finally the radio wire.  By next weekend I should be able to put a fork in it and call it done.

Very nice Andrew- I swear the mottling looks better every time I look at her. And the detail in the gun bay and engine really 'pops'.

Thanks, Gamera.

Your 262 looks fantastic! I love all the detail and the mottling

Thanks, Bob

I agree that mottling is spot on ,no pun intended ;)

Thanks very much, Trey.  It's one of those things that can be so daunting, like cutting off a piece of a kit to see if the resin will fit right.  I'll have some finished pics up today or tomorrow.  I'm trying to fix a bit of craze on the canopy from kicking superglue on the antennae wire.

Nice 262 Andrew.

Thanks very much GT.

Well, I've done what I can with the canopy.  I won't say I'm pleased with it, it's still a little foggy in some spots, but I know next time to be much more careful with the kicker and superglue.  The canopy and antenna wires are 3 lb fishing line touched up with a bit of silver paint.  I think I'll collect the badge and call this done.  Overall, I'm happy with it, I wish I'd been smarter / more patient with the canopy.  I'd like to thank everyone for the comments, the chance to work alongside all of you, and most of all, good work everyone.  There's some great looking builds there.

Ajd, thank you very much for hosting this.  If you're doing cover page photos, I'd like to showcase my third photo down.