Two very good builds there Bish.

Great to have a connection with the Apache. The restrained weathering looks just right for a modern aircraft. 

Nice finish on the Mossie too, despite the frustrations of the decals. A good scene tells a great story too. Such a good looking aircraft

Griff, thanks for the kind words, it is a very easy build, and fun to play around with. Not Russian surplus, but they are available on the black market at a very reasonable price...

And for my real Connomwealth build, I will put together Italieri's Wessex as the RAN 31B variant:

Thanks LA.

That Wessex looks nice, look forward to seeing that. I take it your doing the Australian navy one your showing there.

Keen to see how this kit builds as i wouldn't mind getting the HU.5 Italeri does.

Piers: Ohhhhhhhh very cool! I note it's a somewhat more subdued scheme than your last chopper. 

Hey Cliff,

You are right, not that showy, but it won't be the box top colour scheme. It will be the RAN gloss white over Oxford blue. So still a bit of bling.

I will have to go back to camo on the next model just to cool my blood...

Slowly I plod along. Better get into gear to finish this by April. Going to paint the major color scheme camo then put the gear and tanks on. Try that route. 

 

Looks good Griffin. And don't worry about not being finished by end of April. As always, i have no issues with builds carrying on once the GB is finished.

Griffin: She looks good to me! 

Thanks guys

Had the airbrush out today, so threw the blue on the 'Cat.  Doesn't have the the greenish cast as shown on the decal sheet, but close enough for gov't work.  Got to take out one run before the light gray undersides, and reshot the fin on the portside, little light in a couple of spots.  Pics after the gray.

Well my 1/72 Matchbox kit of the Siskin has gone from a simple build to detailed scratch building.  Was not what I had planned, but after looking at photos and some line drawings, I noticed the tail sits on top of the fuselage.  This is because the aircraft was designed to be able to pivot the whole tail/rudder/elevator unit a few degrees.

Of course, then I see all kinds of additional things:

... and a test shot of the main parts atop the fuselage rear:

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Then on to the landing gear, the kit part is short shotted - circled in red, so that has to be fixed, and it snowballs from there......

Hole preparation for the landing gear:

... and sitting on it's wheels:

regards,

Jack

Amazing attention to detail as always jack, a build from you without all the scratch building just wouldn't seem right.

Jack: As usual looks terrific! 

But I have to ask do you ever just build a Tamiya or other kit that you don't have to make major modifications just to get it to look right? 

Thank you Bish and Cliff.

I just picked up Tamiya's new tool 1/48 Spitfire, and I think that should be a straight out of the box build - whenever I get to it.

regards,

Jack

Jack, your scratchbuilt parts look leaps and bounds better than the kit parts. The zoomed in photo's make it look a lot bigger than it is. I know it's tiny and so well detailed. Really Impressive.

Hello Griffen, thanks for that.

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Up next on the correction block is the upper cowl.  It requires longer gun troughs among a few other things - stay tuned ...

regards,

Jack

Jack really nice detail on that one I am impressed!

JacknewbIII

Jack really nice detail on that one I am impressed!

 

Thanks kindly,   Jack.

regards,

Jack

I'm applying the primary colors. I've seen quite a few photos of Indian AF Hunters with home spun paint jobs and I'm trying to replicate that. It looks a bit odd but I'm hoping the final product comes across alright. 

 

That looks nice Griffin. Looks similar to the British colours but a different pattern.

Griffin: Yeah, she's coming along nicely. 

 Thanks guys. I can't decide if I like it. I might reboot. I'm thinking about it more than I should. There's more important things to stress about. LOL 

Hey Griff, hope I'm not too late - i would keep going 'cos it looks good to me.

Jack, great to watch you in action yet - I always learn from your attention to detail.

Trying to follow your example - at my own level - I have chopped out the nose to replace with mesh once the nose is together.

I noticed the cargo door is solid, should have a window - which fortunately is included with the kit, so I cut that out. Also put together something to go behind the mesh in the nose. And completed the cockpit.

Now the door won't sit in it's place, so thin the window and reduce the high points behind the door.

I'm not going to detail much, but a few things caught my eye, and I want to start painting next weekend...

Griffen, looks good, and like others have said the colours appear to be identical to RAF.

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Lost, thank you, and you too have great detail going into your build.

regards,
Jack

Nice work LA, i am guessing there is another version which doesn't have a window in the side door.

Yes, looks like they have built this to cover different noses, doors, bellies and even the side of the body where the windows are for different variants.

Piers: Looks neat! Nice work on cutting out the open parts. 

Painted the belly and got the landing gear in. Big stuff is complete. Now detailing, decals and weathering. 

 

That is looking nice Griffin, nearly there.

Thanks guys,

Griff, the Hunter is coming along really well. Looking forward to seeing the finishing touches.

Because Italeri are trying to cover so many different variants of the Wessex / H-34 there are are oddities all over the place. Here are few of the changes. The pilot's steps were replaced with brass, the refuelling points were moved to the right spots and the belly plate was corrected. There were plenty more I have left off.

I got the IP together but there seems to be a sizing issue with the decal...

Then I closed the nose up with the airstarter etc. details in place.

Finally stuck the nose on, and there is a big seam to fix up as a result of Italeri trying to do so many variants.

This build is going a lot slower than intended, I was hoping to have it done in the next week or so, but zero chance of that. Not that I have a great record of finishing GBs on time...

Blimey LA, there is a lot of work needed there. I guess thats the problemn with trying to strecth a mold a long way.

I think your right about that IP decal, it does look a tad to small.