Battle of Britain GB 2006 - 1 May to 31 Oct 06

All done with my Spitfire MK I, except for a few finishing touches. I plan on making an attempt at weathering, but wanted to snap some photos before I really mess it up

Not bad for my first finished kit in more years than I care to count - except for the one buggered up gear strut, the cammo pattern that didn't go to plan, the lost pitot tube, the decals that didn't set properly, the .... ok, so it's not perfect - I still had a blast.

-dave

Looks good to me Dave!   Nicely done!

Yep, looks good to me also, Dave.  Nice job!

Dave

Dave23 wrote:

.....- I still had a blast. -dave [

 

Dave-Looks great from here...and that's why we're all here-to have a blast! 

Dave, great looking Spit.

Harold, the PE looks fine to me. Is that the Hasa Hurricane, if so, attach the engine sections of the fuselage to the rear sections before you close up the fuselage halves, otherwise you may well have fit problems.

Did any of that make sense?

Karl

Dave the Spitfire looks excellent, nice job .

Karl I'm doing the Hase Hurricane at the moment and that made perfect sense to me thanks a bunch for the heads up.

Cheers

SHAZAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well boys and curls... as you've noticed I have been somewhat absent from here for a bit... tonight as I was looking at the wing roots on the He111 and dreading filling them, it hit me like the proverbial bolt of lightning... (hence the  "Shazam") I just needed to back up and have fun and stop worrying about detail and such...

Sooo... I took out the Academy Heinz Bar I was planning on doing in 1/72 and in .75 hours got as much done to it as it has taken about 2 weeks to do on the He111... I remember telling myself I needed to relax after I did the two Tamiya P-47's in a row, one of them I had to finish in a 4 hour window right before going to work the next day so I could give it to a class on the last day or school...

The He111 I got excited about and bought PE and what not to spruce it up, and after fighting the dreadful Eduard canopy masks the last few days, I was about ready to give up.  (why did they make those Heinkels with so many windows anyway???? )

Anyway I just wanted to let yall know Stella got her groove back, or more accurately *I* did... I should be done with this in a day or so and ready to hit that He111 again.

As a side note, last night as I was staring at the kit trying to "will it together" by telekinesis, I noticed the sprue are all labeled He111 H/P... THAT's why it has enough parts to backdate it to a H4 and before... I am not sure about the engine cowls but it comes with 3 or 4 versions of exhausts, weapons etc.. even different versions of canopy pieces!  pretty cool deduction I think, maybe I'll build another in a different guise later...  I found the specs and drawings of the different variants from a Russian site that I sadly lost the address to... if I find it I will post it, it had specs and color call outs on many planes!

ok here's the site with all the drawings:

http://www.airwar.ru/other/draw_aw.html#2

you can erase everything after the .ru and go to the main page and there's lots more...

http://www.airwar.ru/

 

Dave, the Spit looks good.  Having fun is why we build.

Regards,  Rick

Thanks for the wevsite Tom. They had some stuff on the Fiat Br 20 as well. Cool!

AS for taking a break and having fun I did just that this weekend as well. Broke out a Dragon 1/72 Jagdpanzer IV L70 and in less than one day I have the major assemblies together and ready for paint. A nice break from the Ju 290 I'm working on.

Bf 109 E4 flown by Hans-Ekkehard Bob. JG54 Battle of Britain. Aircraft kept highly polished apparently.

This is the Tamiya 1/48th kit with Aeromaster decals from their JG54 Aces sheet. The heavy panel lines were done at the request of he who wanted this kit built.

 

This is an old build of mine that happened to be in my photobucket account. I hope that's okay. The canopy was knocked off on the way to the meeting. This broke the canopy support wire. It was later replaced. Canopy held in place temoprarily by some white glue. If memory serves anyway.

 

 

Hi all:
Yes I am doing the Hasa Hurricane.  During the research time leading up to the build I noticed that the fuselage front and back needed to be glued first.  I also understand that you can close up the fuselage and put in the cockpit through the floor.  We'll see on that. 

As for using epoxy on the seat.  Here is my little trick.  I use 5 minute epoxy on everything PE or white metal/resin.  I mix the 2 parts and continue mixing until it starts to get fairly thick.  This is a watch carefully moment as you only get a few seconds to get it on before it starts to get too hard.  Add the dab of glue and apply the parts.  It is tacky enough to hold things together and not to hard that you can't adjust the parts for a good fit.  Now wait a few more minutes.  At this point I take a dental tool and carefully scribe/peel away the excess glue on the part.  It should easily peal back, but be careful not to pull away all the glue and you end up doing it over.  What remains should be a nice tight glue joint with no excess glue showing.  And as an added bonus, if you have any gaps they should be filled quite nicely.  I have even done this on painted parts, but be careful with flat coats as it may leave a residue mark.  On gloss or clear coated items, no worries at all. 
Hope that helps.  As my paintbooth is mostly finished, time to get some painting done now!
Hal

Pandiero, nice looking Emil.

Il Leone, the Hase Hurri pit is bet fitted after the fuselage halves are together. It's what I did with mine.

Progress Update

Well my order from MDC has yet to arrive, containing as it does the RLM02 I need to start on the He111. Therefore I picked up another interim build, but I'm not saying what just yet.

But here's a pic of the pit and rear fuselage compartment.



As you can see I've had to do a little scratchbuilding as the kit's interior is pretty bare as is.

Karl

Razordws, Tryintomodel, bobbaily, KJ200, darson, rick,

Thanks for the comments guys!

-dave

Ok Karl, you've got me curious, two seater, fairly wide frame by the looks of it. Wierd contraption in the rear part. hmmmm!! I'll have to think about that one.

That wierd contraption in the back is where the carousel went... trust me... 

I still don't know how that thing lifted off with all those carved wooden horses, Karl! 

ok yall.. I am in a slump.. I haven't worked on the Bf-109 in several days even though I am scant hours to completion though.   I know me though, I just need to not touch styrene for a few days and get it back together.  I think the mad push to finish the P-47 took some joy out of it for me...

I closed the fuselage on the He-111 but took pics before I did.. when I get motivated I'll post some shots of the cockpit... the wings are on and on the starboard side I have a fair to middlin gap I need to fill... later though.. it is over across the room in the box.. along with the Aussie GB Spit I was doing and a few other models...  I just can't bring myself to finish them...

Woe is me!!!

Tom, take it easy for a few days, you'll soon be itching to get back at the bench.

And it was the horses which helped my mystery beast get of the deck, that and the the Wright Cyclones.

Karl

 

Howdy!

The progress is fantastic!  I have been jammed up with real life stuff as well as other group builds.  My Aces submission should be done the week of the 4th and then my OOTB is about 45%...then into my Emil I will climb.

Tom

Do you still want the Eagle Strike decals?  I had sent you a PM.

I feel your pain on getting into a funk...sort of in one myself....

JoeRugby and Tom, I feel for ya, I'm not excatly in a 'funk' so to speak as I still have a the desire to play with my plastic, it's just that other priorities have taken over and I am just starting to learn how to balance a family and "me" time.  You can check out my Spitfire progress in the Allied Aces GB, After many slow weeks I finally have the CP togehter! 

For this GB, to keep the fires burning, I open the box for the Bf-110 every once in a while, take a wiff, close my eyes and let the imagination run for a bit and imagine what it will look like.  Then I go grab my BoB mag FSM put out last year and take a look at what it should look like.  I'll be doing the same subject but in 1:72, I even have the FCM 1:72 decals.

LOL, I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets into funks for periods of time.  I'll stare at the boxes dreaming of how cool they will look when I finally get around to building them.  But sometimes I just can't get myself to sit down and put the nose to the grindstone.  I figure I shouldn't feel that way and if I do, then I'm not ready to sit down and build yet.  All I have to do on my P-51 for the Allied Aces GB is mask and paint the wheel wells and paint the antennea and pitot tube and I've been putting it off for almost a week now.

I've had my the cockpit done and fuselage and wings put together on my Bf-109E4 for this group build since the first couple of days it started and I haven't gotten back to it yet.  But I will, I swear! 

  Between 'real-life' issues & not being motivated/too tired to work on plastic, I've had the Atlantic GB Avenger at a state of 80% complete for about a month now and the Allied Aces P-51A at a standstill-just need to paint the PE belts (buckles only-been putting it off for two weeks) to put the cockpit together.  I keep looking at the bf109e-4 for this build....maybe I'll wash the plastic this weekend....

Tom-hope you get your modeling mojo back soon....

Joe - yeah, just send me any decals... the ones for this kit while adequate seema little cartoonish!  I'll send my address in a PM...  Sorry about getting back on that, I had all intentions to but my boss and the only other guy at work who can do the Cisco stuff are gone to a conference so I've been a bit dazed lately...  too much work not enough play!!!

Bob - Tryin - yeah I got a little of it back tonight, I got the propeller glued together.. which believe me was a big step... I'll slowly get back into it.. family and work have worn me thin lately.. 

Looks like a lot of people around here are suffering from the couldn't be bothered with models blues at the moment and believe me when I say I know the feeling.

It has been a month now and I am just starting to get back into the swing of things due to all the reasons that people have stated, but I am getting back into it

Progress on the Hurri has been understandably slow of late but I am starting to pick up the pace.  So far I have managed to paint the wheel wells & landing their coat of Alclad, separated the canopy pieces, attached the front fuselage bits and started assembling the cockpit.  I'm going to assemble my cockpit with some extra details, the same way that it was done in the FSM BoB special edition.

Cheers

get back into it soon guys!

I for one have really picked up the pace now. what with the end of school and all i can spend a solid 3-4 hours a day at the work bench and I love it!!!!!!!!!!!

Tanky, I'll say this for all those of us with families/jobs and "other commitments", don't make us hate you!!!. 

Go nuts dude!, I sometimes dream of the my younger days when I had all that free time too. 

Jay: Don't worry, before you know it you'll be closer to your retirement days than your youth days and you'll be wondering what to do with all your free time between visits from the Grandkids!! Heh heh! (wink)

pandeiro - very nice 109

Dave- Good looking Spit

Summer modeling is though to say the least. And build orders change too.  My BOA build was just the wrong choice and the canopy for my 2^nd choice is a streaming heap so that has been pushed back.  This one was always a bit further down the list but had (have?) every intention getting to it.  After my lunch with the Tuskegee pilot I got P-51 on the brain but I am working through those too.  Then there is beers on the deck, playing with kids, beers on the deck, playing with the wife, beers on the deck, grilling, beers on the deck, having a nice cigar.. and there was one other thing…hmmm?  OH YEAH… beers on the deck.

 

I’ll get to the 190(hic)019(hic)901(hic)… 109… soon. Maybe too many beers on the deck,

 

Dave23 & Pandeiro  Great job on your builds

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one in a funk or a modeling slowdown, still fighting my cold/bronchitis so not much is getting done.  However i did finished filling and sanding now i'm ready  for a visit to the paint shop when my hands shake a little less.

 

Tanky Enjoy all that modeling time while you can Jay's right life will catch up to you

Dave Ahhhh!!! retierment  that does sound nice.

Marc you can never have to many beers on the deck, you have to compensate for the sun's evaporating effects

Cheers

Bear