75th Anniversary of 1942 (World at War)

The Spitfire is coming along nicely Jack, nothing beats a good Spitfire in my opinion.

Cheers

Tony

That is coming along very nicely, Jack.  All the work is paying off.

Nice detail work there, Jack.  Looking forward to seeing some paint on all that excellent construction.

Should be getting some primer on this one one soon,  but here are some final construction shots:

The Sword brand kit has you install four pieces inside the wheel wells, but I could only get one to fit, and even that lone piece is sitting on a slant.  I found they all stood too high and interfered with the fit of the top and bottom wing halves.  No matter to me as the landing gear will be in the up position, and the gap left by not using those parts won't be noticed. 

Note all the putty holding the pilot seat and a pair of cameras in the rear.  Some putty up front to to fill in the hole where the main fuel cap is.

I've used resin exhausts for better detail.  Some scratch building for the landing gear.  PE doors replace the kit parts, as they are too thick and oversize - they sit atop the wing surface instead of flush within the wheel well.  Also scratch built the pitot tube.

regards,

Jack

lostagain

Thanks Dwayne,

The look of organisation was posed for the photo, I promise! My usual method is to let bits, tools etc pile up in my workspace until I start to sweep things off onto the floor, then I clear it all ready to go again...

So nine games in, we are 9 points behind you and have lost to the bottom team. Don't think we are going to get the title again this year...

 

As for football, it is a long season.  I have to say I do like the way Pep has them playing.  Really attractive football.  But I am still really anxious every game, because....well....you know..."typical City". 

I think Conte will get your boys sorted out.  I still fear Chelsea.  Spurs are looking very good this year as well.  Just so long as it isn't United!

On another note, I get a chance occasionally to see the other team I root for, Napoli.  My wife's family is originally from Naples, so I really had no choice.    They are currently leading Serie A, and Juventus may actually not win the league after 6 straight titles.

 Oops, you got me started.  I could go on forever.  I will shut up now. 

D

Thanks Dwayne,

The look of organisation was posed for the photo, I promise! My usual method is to let bits, tools etc pile up in my workspace until I start to sweep things off onto the floor, then I clear it all ready to go again...

So nine games in, we are 9 points behind you and have lost to the bottom team. Don't think we are going to get the title again this year...

Hey Lost, that Marder is coming along well, and that bench looks really nice....and organized....with open space to work on.  Clearly I need to devote some time to cleaning mine up.  LOL

Fortunately the loss of the workbench was only temporary - here is the replacement in all it's glory:

So I have a my space back to stick stuff together again! The Marder has come together very easily, so now I am getting ready for painting.

So Bish the MB5 didn't completely break me but I have stuck with a few OOBs to come back!

Gasp!  lostagain!  Losing the bench is--apocalyptic.  Glad you got it back, and are back here.  Nice work going on.  We're looking forward to more!

Very nice work, rooster.  Luftwaffe mottling is not an easy thing to do, and yours is looking really good.  Congratulations.

Cheers Lost, and good to see you back at it. I thought maybe that MB.5 had seen you off

Nice start on the Marder.

Thanks Check.    I should have another update soon - photos still in camera and that was as far as they got. 

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  Looking good Dwayne,  can't wait to see it dirted up further with the pigments.

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Andy, I like the looks of the  109F, and that is indeed some fine mottling on the sides.

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Thank you Lost, and yes your photos are viewable.

regards,
Jack

Hey Lost, I see your pictures just fine.  Glad to see you have your bench back!

Hey Andy, that is looking really good.  The mottling came out very nice.  I agree with you wholeheartely on the Mission Model paints.  They are going to be my go to in the future.  They seem to be expanding their line pretty quickly.  I really hope this paint catches on in the community since it really is a quality product.  And if I can use it, that means it must be practically idiot proof. 

D

Nice work all!

I was able to get some paint on over the last week so this one is finally moving along. I recently picked up some Mission Model paints RLM 74 & 75 to try out on this build. So far I REALLY like these paints. I was able to free hand some of the camo on the sides of the fuselage and was able to mottle with relative ease. They go down very smooth and with very little overspray. Highly recommended!

You'll notice that the right wing tip isn't painted over but this will be painted white along with most of the port wing so no big deal.

The mottling will be pretty much covered up with the next camo layers but it's nice practice and I'm glad I've found a paint that I can have some success with (not the case in the past:) I will be ordering Mission Model white soon so this one will have to wait till then to move forward.

checkmateking02

Nice work, D.  Great looking paintwork, and the addition of mud is really well done!  Nice work!

 

Nice work, D.  Great looking paintwork, and the addition of mud is really well done!  Nice work!

checkmateking02

 

Good looking work, Andy.

 

Here are the latest pics of my work the the T-34.  Hull has been joined to the chassis.  I have not been able to work on this as much as I would like due to recurring back issues. 

Front shot.  Still messing with where to put the tow cables.

I cleaned up the sides where I had been thinking about putting bed rolls.  Just have to get the cables, some spare track, and maybe the bedrolls on.  Minor finish painting (headlight and machine gun) and some more pigment to dirty it up some more, and I think I will be done.

Thanks for looking,

D

As always, comments are welcome, including critical.  I want to get better.

Great work with the improvisations, Jack!  Your techniques will come in handy; thanks for posting them.  And--it looks like you're whipping this one into shape.

Overdue for an update on the PR Spitfire ... this one isn't playing nice.

First the Vokes filter, gone ahead and glued it to the wing bottom, but normally this should be done after the wings are attached to the fuselage - yea, unconventional me.

I noticed some open gaps (circled red above) right where the wing leading edge meets the filter.  So to fix that, wedged a length of sprue inside the filter to spread the walls a bit, it helped.  From test fitting, also noticed there was a step where the back of the filter joined the faring that is molded on to the wing underside.  Sheet plastic and some sanding fixed that.

Now for some real gaps:

The wing roots on this kit are a problem, but oddly I didn't have this much fuss on an earlier Sword kit of their Spitfire V.  Needs major dihedral to eliminate that space, so trying this for the first time, and added some plastic sheet along the whole wing root:

It still required a bit more sanding for a finer fit, but here's a shot for test fit:

Pilot and cockpit details in place.  Also adding a trio of scratch built recon cameras, the side fuselage one is already in place - barely can make it out in the photo:

regards,

Jack

Good looking work, Andy.

Nicejob on thinning those parts and drilling out the exhausts. Your right, that gap is a bit nasty.

Great work everyone!

In for a quick update on the 109. I decided to close up the bottom and one side of the engine cowling. It's been said before and I'll just echo that this kit was meant to be built with all cowlings open. I had to do some major grinding with the dremel to get a decent fit. Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out but there is a pretty good gap that needs filling. 

I also took the dremel to the exhaust and opened them up. Not perfect but definitely an improvement from what they were.

Thanks, Dan.  Tante Ju is up on the "completed build" list.  Thanks for the added pictures about your photography and back-drops.  Very useful.

Hey Dan, you did a fantastic job on that kit, especially considering the scale.  The photos outside are outstanding.  When looking at the pictures, I could not believe this was only 1/144.

Looking forward to your Stuka!

D

Thanks Bish: Yeah I'm just itching to get the Ju 87 started.

Thanks Jgeratic.

Thanks Checkmate: Think I'll pick the second from the top as the cover shot.

I've been doing some work with ground cover to use as a backdrop for in flight aircraft models, not sure what the technical name is for them. The other day I got out a piece of thin balsa wood (6"x3") and put some fine ground cover on it. Not a lot of detail just two fields and a gravel road, medium size ground cover can be used as trees.

37 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

36 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

Here's a little behind the scenes.

38 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

Nice kit and nice photography, Dan.  Very creative way to show off the great results you achieved.

Do you have a particular choice for the front page?  Lots to choose from.

And it'll be just as compelling to see the Stuka coming together.

Dan, a fine build representing a German workorse in the air.  

The outdoor set of shots have some particulatly effective views that are quite convincing.

regards,

Jack

Dan, lovely job on the Junkers, love those in flight pics.

Very looking forward to seeing that Stuka. I have been putting off buying the Trump B-2, you might be able to convince me.