Battle of the Atlantic Feb. 1 to Aug 1, 2006

Jay/Chris:  I'm glad to hear there is progress being made!   

Work has recommenced on my destroyers but things are going to be pretty busy over the next week with family coming to visit so I don't think I'll get much modeling time in.  Hopefully things will pick up after the long weekend.

Mike, nice job on the Dauntless.

I've finally broken the He177 out of the box and started assembling the cockpit. I've gone with the Eduard PE set, which is steadily being applied to the interior. How much of it will remain visible by the time I finish is anyone's guess.

Karl

I know how you feel Karl, I decided not do much in the cockpit of my Canso for that reason. 

SO progress for me: I have the clear parts all masked and this mornign I sprayed the interior colour on and I was able to get some white on the blisters, turret and while I was at it, I also gave the wheel wells a shot.  I totally forgot to do the landing gear while I had the white in the AB though.  I guess that will have to wait.  I still am not ready for any progress pics as I haven't really glued much together!.

hkshooter:  That really sucks, hope you get it staightened out quickly.

Karl/Jay:  I'm looking forward to some pics.  Karl I've heard others complain about the quality of the clear parts for the He 177.  How does yours look?  I've only built one other Revel Germany kit and I must say that the canopy did leave something to be desired.

I managed to get some more progress on the Destroyers last night.  I think these may be my last 1/700 scale builds.  My eyes aren't what they used to be! and my hands don't seem to be as steady either.

Good to hear that at least some people are making good progress on this build.

Progress for me is slow at the moment and I'm concentrating on the Beaufighter's cockpit, interior and wheel wells so that I can at least see something moving.  Once the cockpit is done and mounted in the fuselage I'll take some happy snaps.

Cheers

Dave, you're right about the clear parts on the He177. It doesn't help that some of the sprue attachment points are on the clear surface and not the frame section of the parts.

Still I spent last night removing the clear parts from the srue and cleaning them up, before dunking them in Future. Checked them this morning before coming into work, and they look a lot clearer. Will probably still require a polish and maybe a second dunk.

Jay, glad to see I'm not the only one who can't see the point of adding detail where it won't be visible.

Progress Update

As above, cleaned up the clear bits (There are quite a few of them!) and Futured.

Karl

Finally got to spend some time on the Avenger.  Did the interior painting some time ago, but I've been spending a great deal of time over in another GB.  Finished that project, so now onto the Atlantic! (and a couple of others....  I'm a little concerned on the fit of the fuselage after all the interior bits are in place.  Some dry fitting shows that it will be challenging.  I've decided to expedite things by minimizing the use of PE-instrument panel & harnesses are 'bout all I'm going to use.....maybe

Looks good so far Bob.

Regards,  Rick

Geez Bob that looks fantastic from where I'm sitting, nice work and I totally agree with Dave, I only ever put on as much detail as I think is going to be needed with those PE sets.  Most of the tiny little bits and pieces I leave off because you can never see them anyway.

Cheers

Bob  Great work on the cockpit.

I received my PE instrument set for the Lanc(very nice) and started intalling it.  There are alot of tiny bits that may not make it into the build all will depend on my patience level and eye sight that day.  The wing assy are done and I've started work on the turrets.  I should have some pics some time this week.

Keep up the good work all.

Cheers

Bear 

Dave   Like you I ordered the zoom instrument panel set and seat belt set.  However I ordered the Inst pnl set from squadron and the seat belts from great models as squadron had run out of seat belts.  I received an email confirmation that the seat belts and Mirage III kit were shipped last Thursday global Air so hopefully I'll get them next week, not like my squadron shippment that took 51/2 weeks most of that was probably sitting in Toronto being bashed  & squashed by cdn post.

Cheers

Bear 

I finally heard from Acurate Minatures today.

Oh, they will gladly send me the missing "A" sprue, WHEN THEY GET THEM.

Turns out they are out and on back order! I'm not gonna have much time left to do the build if they don't get on the stick.

Progress report:  PE inst panels installed on the fuselage halfs.  The color set from Eduards is realy nice however there are alot of tiny bits to work with that challenged my eye hand coordination.  I'm still waiting for the seat belt set (hopefully this week).  I've also started work on the gun turrets, question what color was the turret frames on the Lancs?  That's it for now.

Cheers

Bear

Progress is being made - I have the blisters almost done.  I have to repaint some of the parts after I added the new guns mounts and amo racks.  I also have to finish painting the guns themselves.  I also have to add the nose turret gun and a little more weight.  Then I can close up the fueslage. I'll take some progress pics before and after I close it up (hopefully later this week?).

Glad to hear others are making some progress!

Time at the modeling bench is hard to come by these days with the warmer weather and all the yard work but I have managed to get some work done.  Here's a couple of progress pics of the Onslow and the Offa.  Absolutely nothing has been glued yet.  Everything has to be hand painted first but that is almost complete and then its clean up and instalation of the small bits.  I realize now that I should have used a lighter black (dark grey) to get a better scale effect but I might try a fine mist of the light base colour as discussed in the Battle of Germany GB to tone it down and tie it all together better.

Onslow:

Offa:

Looking good so far Dave.

Regards,  Rick

Bob, great progress on the pit, glad to hear you managed to get the fuselage halves together.

Dave, looking good.

Progress Update

The Greif has stalled, while I finish off the Trump KV2 that's been hanging around since January! That should be complete by the end of the week, and then work can re-commence on the 177.

I've got next week off work, and the kids are at school, so I'm looking forward to making some heavy progress.

Karl

Hi all... checking in even though I am no closer to getting anyting done. 

All the progress being made is great...cockpits,  deck guns...all sorts of nice stuff.

I was going to change my build to an AM Helldiver but  the canopy was a steaming heap.  which brings me to...

hkshooter wrote:

Dave, I started my Dauntless Saturday but hit a snag in step 1. It seems that AM shorted the kit an entire sprue of parts. I've emailed them but no replies as of yet. I'm gonna call them tomorrow. I'm glad I've got til August!

Shooter... forget the email... I sent 3 about my canopy and never got an answer.  Finally called them on the phone and the young lady was very nice and helpful.  Nice, helpful AND 6 or 7 weeks is all it takes to get the new parts sent.  And they are worse than the first ones. So I can relate!