ALL SUBJECTS - Aussie Group build (ends 10/31/04)

South Aussie, Its sad to hear that your spit is beyond repair. I will post pix when the serria is complete.

Cheers Trev

Jules, your spitfire looks great, makes me wish I was just a little bit more careful with mine.

Nicholma, your merc looks very good.

Jules and Nicholma, thanks for taking part in the group build, hope to see you for next years group build.

Trev, the damage was too great to repair, although it might be able to use in a dio representing an aircraft that was hit by a block buster bomb.
Still post your model here or as Jules has said in the Aussie modellers thread when its finished.

I will post a pic of the serria when i get it done. I have to try and convert all of you wingy things mob same how lol

Cheers Trev

Guys i agree, Great lookin Merc Nicholma

Trev you gonna post up a pic in Aussie Modellers when you get done

That looks pretty cool nicholma

How long did it take you to get the paint on nicely?

Bad news about your sierra Trev, was looking forward to seeing it.

nicholma, despite what you might think about your kit, it looks fantastic to me. Congratulations on a great build.

Cheers
Darren

nicholma, j.s.harrison the builds that you have completed look awesome. . I'd be happy if mine looked half as good? South Aussie, was devastated to hear about your spitfire cameing to grief. hope you can fix it at some stage. Progress on the serria hit another brick wall. Was about to start decaling it but relized that their was an large amount of hair and dust in the paint. Will have to try and polish it out and give it another coat. I guess that i won't be able to finish by the deadline know. . I hate

Cheers Trev

The main plan for the long Labour Day weekend was to finish the Merc. Friday night I realised I had more to do than I thought but a wet Saturday and a long Sunday night saw the model finished this morning.



I've spoken about the decal problems before but other things that required doing included a new roll cage, different exhaust end pipe, the installation of a front firewall/bulkhead, additions to the front and rear inner guards, fuel fillers in the boot lid, modifications to the road seat to a racing seat, and other changes to the interior to change it from a Japanese touring car to an Australian touring car. The model should have different wheels but I haven't been able to locate suitable replacements and because the "minilight" type wheels in the kit are very good I have not modified them as I'll substitute them later when I do find something else. The picture was taken before the mirrors and Mercedes bonnet emblem were mounted. I'm also not that happy with the ride height.

I have to thank LeeMitchelTree for obtaining the decal set for me, thanks Lee.

Here is a picture from the Great Race annual which shows what it should look like (although this is the sister car which was punted off on the first corner of the first lap and retired on the spot). You can see some of the decals that Roodecals omitted from the set or supplied incorrectly. Its odd that they did this because I have a 1/43rd set by the same manufacturer and they are totally complete and accurate.



So roll on next year's group build.

Yeah Tweets it's a great camera i have a closeup lens on it that i normally use to take pics of the baby's feet and hands and faces and you can see every detail.....

Sharks mouth decals my nemesisi had to do a whole heap of chopping to get em to fit, most of the black inside the mouth is airbrushed on......
Whats more i'm planning on doing another one
....Jules.....

QUOTE: Originally posted by j.s.harrison OK so i took a couple more pics and i managed to get a better quality shot, you can see a little more detail and the colour is about right, the last pics came out to dark..... Oh yeah Darson the background is a peice of cardboard paper i bought at Big W for 80c Cheers Jules...

Ok, in this pic I can see just how much of a mongrel that sharks mouth would have been.
Didn't realise it had so many contours to conform too.

That Pentax will give you some awesome photos of models, I have the same camera, and it was hard finding a digital to replace it.
Now it gets used for B&W exclusively.

Hmmmmm, might do some B&W pics of my 109 when done, kinda generate an 'era' effect.

OK so i took a couple more pics and i managed to get a better quality shot, you can see a little more detail and the colour is about right, the last pics came out to dark.....



Oh yeah Darson the background is a peice of cardboard paper i bought at Big W for 80c
Cheers Jules...

Thanks for the kind words guysmuch appreciated but as always i seem to pick the faults, but i can't expect too much this one brings my collection of finished builds to a very humble 4 models......

The camera is my main concern the pics don't really do it justice, iv'e tried a few different things but i think a 2 pixel camera is just not up to the job, anyway next week i'll have my scanner back so i'll start taking pics with my Pentax Z50......

Anyways i'm glad to be finished and i'm looking forward to next years Aussie Gb, Hmmm 2005 Aussie Gb i think i'll forget about the little tank and if we have another long timescale i'm gonna be doing my other 2 Spit 8's with the groundcrew sitting on the Eduard PSP plate dio base.........

Jules, all I can say is that it was worth the effort. It's an amazing job, you must be stoked by the end result.

One thing that struck me was just how different an aircraft can look in a different camo pattern...

Also, I've got to get a decent background for my photos because my workbench just isn't cutting it anymore.

Cheers
Darren

South, sad to hea of your Spits demise


That is one feeling I know all too well.
Look forward to next years build!

Nicely done Jules, very nice indeed!!!

Pity the pics are a little grainy, woulda used em for a desktop!!!

Really like the exhaust stains, nice trailing effect.

Worth the wait

......................FINISHED......................

Well here it is fellas all done...........







Hope you fellas like it..........jules........

Dave, Excellent Work on your Mosquito.

Darren, your spitfire looks extremely good, as Dave has said " we are always more critical of our own work and easily find any imperfections no matter how small" Like a few of the others I have also been caught making strange sounds as a model has made its way from the workbench to the display case, the wife now accepts the fact that Im going through my second childhood.

Dave and Darren, thanks for participating in the group build and I hope to see both of you for next years build.

My spitfire is dead, disaster struck during move to new modelling roomshould have taken more care, model now in more parts than supplied in kit. Oh well there is always next years group build.

I am guilty as well, several times, my eldest daughter and wife caught me "whoompa whoompa-ing" my Wessex around the room after it was finished....

They have come to expect it as part of my hobby!

cheers

Mike

Sorry Tweety but it's kinda like what you said " it won't happen overnight "but it will be ready tomorrow night

tease!

Sorry fellas no spit pics tonight, still have about 30 min of work left to do on it.......

100% Finished tomorrow night

Guilty as charged.
But you can't help yourself can ya?

You take all that time to make the model LOOK like a miniature of the real thing, so why shouldn't it fly!!!

Don't worry darson, I did it to the missus with my Corsair, she called me a, well, appendage, to be polite.
Did it to my son, he thought it was a great laugh, and then the dog, who left the room in shame.

The cat mind you, looked at me, and left the room giving me the 'One Eye'.

I also have an understanding house hold.

I'm hanging for some GB pics guys, with baited breath!

Darson a couple of Strafing runs eh Lolthats a relief i thought i was the only one who plays with his models...

So how many more of you guys are guilty of putting himself in the C/pit or behind the wheel of the models you create cmon now don't be shy you must imagine what i would have been like to fly or drive it...................

QUOTE: Originally posted by j.s.harrison Well i got the wash on now i just need to coat her in flat and stick the wheels on..... Finished tomorrow night probably........ Preshading is a little touch and go on 2 tone camo schemes mainly because you preshade over primer ,cover the entire surface with the base colour which shows the preshade and then paint the 2nd colour over the top which covers it.... iv'e gone for a more time consuming way by preshading a 2nd time in between colours...mainly cause i don't trust myself post shading...Jules

My Spit looked like a POS after I had done the post shade of the panel lines and then worse still after I added the lightened base coats. It was only after the blending coat was added that everything came together.

Speaking of the Spitty, I offered to the wife the other night to show her my latest creation. After carrying out a couple of strafing runs on her and the kids (with appropriate sound effects) I made a perfect landing on the kitchen bench. To which her only comments were, "Why is it so dirty, see there are little black marks everywhere and the paint looks blotchy. Oh and you've missed a bit there as well (this was the wing root that I had painstakingly chipped)”. Oh well.

Dave and Jules, I am looking forward to seeing your models this weekend.

Cheers
Darren

Well i got the wash on now i just need to coat her in flat and stick the wheels on.....
Finished tomorrow night probably........

Preshading is a little touch and go on 2 tone camo schemes mainly because you preshade over primer ,cover the entire surface with the base colour which shows the preshade and then paint the 2nd colour over the top which covers it....
iv'e gone for a more time consuming way by preshading a 2nd time in between colours...mainly cause i don't trust myself post shading...Jules

Well, it definately works a treat darson, looks really effective.
Might have to give it a go on my 109 when the time comes.

Thanks very much for the kind words everybody, they are much appreciated.

As for the preshade I actually ended up covering it all and loosing the entire effect (this always happens to me on two-tone camo schemes).

The effect you see is a four pass post shade.
Pass one - standard camo colours
Pass two - post shade the panel lines. This is a black/brown thinner mix in the ratio of 10% paint to 90% thinner
Pass three - standard camo colours lightened about 30% - 50% with white or light grey for the Grey camo and yellow for the green camo. This is sprayed mainly into the centre of the panels to simulate fading.
Pass four - Standard camo colours thinned 40/60 paint to thinner to blend things together.

This was the first time I have tried this technique and I think I'll be using it again.

Cheers
Darren

Beautiful Spit darson, very impressive!!!!

I love the preshading effect, for some reason I just cant get my preshades to turn out right
Whats your secret???

Jules, don't worry mate, it may not happen overnight, but it will happen!!!

Harvs73 great lookin mossie matebut i have to admit the A20 is the one i'm hanging out to see, for some reason that one really caught my eye, call it modellers attraction

Darson That sure is a nice lookin Spit, i love the weathering youve really caught the haggard appearence of the A/C well
Suprisingly the marking on yours are almost identical to the markings on mine with the exception of the Sharkmouth decal,mine appears to be the larger type......
I didn't weather mine as heavily because apparently Gibbes crashed it on landing while the unit was still at Sattler Feild,but it still looks a little haggard........

Once again Harvs and Darson very well done

Looks like i'm gonna be one of the last to finish eh, oh well doesn't matter,it's been raining here since Mon, 6 months of blue sky and it rains now when i want to put the finishing coats on
I may just put the aircon on 25c set on dry for a couple of hours and paint regardless.....
...........Jules..........

harvs73, darson both of your builds look great.
I think that the statement that stated that we are our own worst enemy was right on the money.

Cheers Trev