Greg

Toshi, that last assy pic you posted looks good. She's coming along great.

Steve, your Spit looks good to me. Maybe someday I'll be able to do a bad job and make it look that good. Looking forward to the Tornado.

Chris, thanks for the bomb pic. That's pretty close to how I imagined them looking, and again you sure did a nice job hand filing down from the inside.

 

Toshi

Gamera

BK: She looks fantastic! I can barely see the shading in the black but it's clearly there in the photos. Really nice work! 

Toshi: Guess I shouldn't question Tamiya, those wheels came together perfectly and great job there on the gear legs. 

Steve: Yeah, I know what you mean about wanting to throw a model against the wall. Still I'm sure the grandkids will be delighted. And cool looking Tornado. 

 

Toshi

Gamera

In a lot of cases I just said 'the #@#$ with it' and just left them off.

Yep, I figure what most sane folks would do, Gammy. I've yet to have anyone look into a 1:48 cockpit and say "Ohhh! Look at those little tiny levers!!!!".

I'm trying a 1:32 or 1:24 next I think. I've been thinking about the talented 1:72 builders here and my head starts twirling.

I know what you mean Greg, thankfully most of the Eduard sets I've used provided extra levers. In a lot of cases I just said 'the #@#$ with it' and just left them off. 

Ok gang, some of you already know I am a slow builder. Here's a pretty good example why.

So I'm working on the cockpit of my Eduard 1:48 Tiffy which has some PE with it. Seems to me most folk whip out a 1:48 cockpit in night. Even masterpieces like Lawdog's, one night.

So I'm trying to install some of the little levers from the PE kit which I've managed before, and lose 2 of them right off the bat. Time to re-engineer and scratch, right?

That's .020" dia styrene rod with little dabs of Gator's Grip thin acrylic glue on the ends for knobs. Looks like the white glue shrunk a little and they need more dabs. Still need to paint, drill out .020 in the PE, and insert.....

Then I notice I haven't whipped out a DSLR to take a half-decent focus stacked shot since Sept 2015!!!!!! It took me half the night and morning retraining myself how to do the half-baked Photoshop focus stack. And I see I blew the focus on the parts themselves anyway.

So you get the idea, right?

Toshi, that last assy pic you posted looks good. She's coming along great.

Steve, your Spit looks good to me. Maybe someday I'll be able to do a bad job and make it look that good. Looking forward to the Tornado.

Chris, thanks for the bomb pic. That's pretty close to how I imagined them looking, and again you sure did a nice job hand filing down from the inside.

Bossman, the chipping is subtle along the panel edges and doesnt show in the phots much, but you can see it well with the eye.

Thanks for looking and all the positive comments. I appreciate it. 

BK

Bossman

Hello All,

Toshi  -  What a nice present !   New toys - gotta love 'em !

Steve -  I'd be proud to have that Spit on my shelf.  And I agree - that pit is pretty amazing.  One thing I've noticed about certain Spitfire kits is that they seem to forget any detail on the little fuel cap on the cowling just forward of the cockpit.  Some kits just have a depression there - which makes it incredibly difficult to fill the seam that is in the depression.  I woulda thought that it'd be pretty easy for the manufacturers to come up with a clean solution for that !   Nice work man.  Looking forward to seeing what you can spin out of that Tornado kit.

BrandonK  -  Very nice Beau.  I can pick up on the black tone variations from the photos - nice work.   I can't really see much chipping in them though - except for the prop.  Is it just subtle chipping that doesnt show well in the photos ?  Or did you do the chipping after the photos were taken ?   Realy nice job on the wingtip lights too.

Greg  -  I had some of the same bombs (but unused and unassembled) from the Mk. IV kit so I dug 'em out to give you an idea of the "before" shot.   Scale-wise - it looks like the fin ring thickness is a couple inches ! 

Chris

 

Thats deffinetly old school Airfix there.

BK: She looks fantastic! I can barely see the shading in the black but it's clearly there in the photos. Really nice work! 

Toshi: Guess I shouldn't question Tamiya, those wheels came together perfectly and great job there on the gear legs. 

Steve: Yeah, I know what you mean about wanting to throw a model against the wall. Still I'm sure the grandkids will be delighted. And cool looking Tornado. 

Hello All,

Toshi  -  What a nice present !   New toys - gotta love 'em !

Steve -  I'd be proud to have that Spit on my shelf.  And I agree - that pit is pretty amazing.  One thing I've noticed about certain Spitfire kits is that they seem to forget any detail on the little fuel cap on the cowling just forward of the cockpit.  Some kits just have a depression there - which makes it incredibly difficult to fill the seam that is in the depression.  I woulda thought that it'd be pretty easy for the manufacturers to come up with a clean solution for that !   Nice work man.  Looking forward to seeing what you can spin out of that Tornado kit.

BrandonK  -  Very nice Beau.  I can pick up on the black tone variations from the photos - nice work.   I can't really see much chipping in them though - except for the prop.  Is it just subtle chipping that doesnt show well in the photos ?  Or did you do the chipping after the photos were taken ?   Realy nice job on the wingtip lights too.

Greg  -  I had some of the same bombs (but unused and unassembled) from the Mk. IV kit so I dug 'em out to give you an idea of the "before" shot.   Scale-wise - it looks like the fin ring thickness is a couple inches ! 

Chris

Greg

Toshi, hope you enjoy you HP-CS as much as I have mine. My Harder & Steenbeck became my most used a/b for a year or so, but for whatever reason I tend to grab the Iwata more often lately.

I like Outback, the ribeye is my usual choice too.

 

Toshi

Fantastic work BrandonK!  It looks great.  Black is actually a hard color to paint evenly and you did a good job!

Toshi

Justinryan215

Brandon, that beaufighter looks awesome!  And since the human eyes can see a much wider range of light and dark than a camera, I am certain that the photos aren't doing nearly enough justice!  ...and about that black plastic...I feel your pain!  My Lancaster is molded in black, and it is tough to see in varying light, it's tough to photograph,  just all around a pain in the butt!

 

Bish....this group build has to be setting some kind of record!?  I mean, over 1000 comments in three months?!

 

Steve, that Spit looks to make a great addition to the ceiling of some lucky little kids!

 

Its certainly the most active one i can remember running.

Brandon, that beaufighter looks awesome!  And since the human eyes can see a much wider range of light and dark than a camera, I am certain that the photos aren't doing nearly enough justice!  ...and about that black plastic...I feel your pain!  My Lancaster is molded in black, and it is tough to see in varying light, it's tough to photograph,  just all around a pain in the butt!

Bish....this group build has to be setting some kind of record!?  I mean, over 1000 comments in three months?!

Steve, that Spit looks to make a great addition to the ceiling of some lucky little kids!

That Spit still looks nice Steve even with the issues. i am surethe grandkids willlove it. I'll add the Tornado to the roster. Looking forward to that one.

Lovely job on the beau BK. I think you have done a great job on the black which is not easy to get right. All round really nice build.

I have added it to the front, thanks for taking part, pleasure to have you and your build here.

Sweet looking Beau BK 

That's really an amazing kit and work Toshi.

Well here are some pics of the Spitfire. You can tell the lack of detail on the skin and the wrinkled wing roundels. "Ask me why I'm not happy Bob. not happy" fromThe Incredibles.

The cockpit looks nice

I'll probably finish it up tomorrow without weathering and present it to the grandkids this weekend.

However, I have decided to build the Tonka. Looking through the Italian Tornado there are a few parts that aren’t used and some that are cut off, but used on the RAF version. I just need to get some decals for it.

Brandon, excellent work with the Beaufighter. 

I think one of the interesting aspects of an all black scheme is it really lets one view the characteristic lines of an aircraft.

------------------------

copper -  perhaps an Airfix (of old?) fault that has perpetuated through time, but maybe that is the closest colour they have in their range for burnt iron?

regards,

Jack

Gamera, thanks for the info on the Tempest. The box looks nothing like a contemporary Eduard box so I'd wondered if it was an out of production kit.

Brandon, your Beaufighter looks great. I like the copper-colored details on the nacelles and how it contrasts with the black.

Nice work, Brandon--on both assembly and finish.  I like the subtle variations in the black paintwork.  Well done!

I'm calling the Beaufighter done. This was a pleasent kit to build with no real issues, great fit and zero flash. Aside from being black plastic I have no issue with this one whatsoever.

Once I had it painted I felt it was just too even toned, so I dusted it up with pastels and softened the black some more but felt it was still not right. SO, I went about chipping it up a bit and that really helped break up the all black scheme. I think this plane would look tons better in a D-day sheme honestly, the black just doesn't do it justice, but it's night fighter and black is black.

I didn't have much to post on this build as it goes together very quickly and very easily and doesn't really have anything to show along the way. If you like twin engine fighters I recommend you add this one to the stash, it's a very good kit.

BK

jeaton01

 

 

Bish

Nice job on those bombs check. Not to sure about the colour of those racks. The lanc was built afer we had switched to night bombing. I guess it might depend when the aircraft your doing was built, and if it was an early one, would they have re-painted the bomb bays when the underside was painted black.

 

 

 

When I was researching for my Tamiya Lancaster I found photos of the bomb bay (always black) with the bomb holders installed but with no bombs, and the holders for the GP and HE bombs were a highly contrasting color.  The carriers for the fragmentation bombs were bare aluminum.

Here's an example, although it is a a restored example.

 

 

I don't know the time frame for this photo.

 

 

Thanks for the photos, jeaton.  That's probably what Airfix was trying to duplicate.  The kit instructions have the bomb bay indeed painted black, but the bomb racks are designated in silver.

Might it be there was a concern that paint might obstruct the moving parts of the apparatus?

And thanks to everyone who commented so positively on the red bomb stripes.  Sometimes I have more luck than brains.

Greg: My Tempest is 1/48th scale. I don't think it's still in production. I picked this one up at a local IPMS show probably about ten-fifteen years ago. And the box looked like a dog had chewed on it then so it's probably at least a twenty- twenty-five year old kit. You might check any local shows or Ebay, otherwise I'm not sure where you could find one. 

It's an ok kit, the detail is crisp but pretty Spartan. One reason I've been fumbling around with the cockpit is there's not much detail there and I'm trying to add some wires and stuff so it looks a little more 'busy' like the photos I have of the real deal. 

Yeah, I'll peak into it tonight to see what's in there (never broke the seal). If the parts are there I would just need to get the decals. I'm not really keen on the decals that come in the No111 Squardon box anyway. There our 2 Italian, 1 German and 1 RAF options.

modelcrazy

 

 

Bish

I am not sure on the differances between the differant nations aircraft, but i think the Italian version would be close to the RAF's GR.1.

 

 

The only diffrence I'm aware of is the electronic pods under the nose. I'll keep checking but it's probably easer to just find a new kit than to modify the Italian one and get new decals. Funny thing is Hase has an RAF version with diffrent nose pods and the Italian decals in the kit.

The Hase kit I have with only the Italian version and madkings.

The Hase kit with diffrent pods and the same markings as above as well as RAF.

Same kit.....

 

Ye, they will quite often just change decals so the box will include the parts for the differant versions. So does that kit with the Italian markings include the nose and weapons for the F3.

Justinryan215

Checkmate:  those bombs look great!  Those stripes.....if I were to try that, even with a mask of sorts,  it would end up looking like Micheal J Fox had a hand in it!  Lol....I know, I know...

 

Toshi, you will LOVE that airbrush, I actually have two!  (Don't be jealous, I worked as a painter in one of my bodyshop jobs, and I dabbled in custom paint.)  Although, I suspect that you will actually need at least an Iwata LPH400 to paint that Mossie!

 

Toshi