The Airfix Farewell GB from now until 1st Jan 2007

SD, nice progress on the aircraft and I love the unies. Hey, why not looks good to me.

Jon, the paint job looks great, I dont see any problems in the finish. Well done.

My Vampire raised it's ugly head today as the sanding was not as simple a job as first antisapated. Had a bad stepp at the air intakes and also on the booms. Plenty of putty and sanding finally got most of it to a smooth conture. Might be close to priming before a topcoat.

Steve.

I'm in.  I'm about half way through a 1/72 Hawkers Siddeley Hawk. 

paint job looks perfect    don't see anything you describe

good work  jon

Brews wrote:

Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't spot this earlier for you ... but those innermost wing bulges should be removed unless you're making a post-war "Warbird". What paints did you use? The finish looks great, but the contrast is too high to my eyes. Your dark green looks about right, but the Ocean grey looks a shade too light - although I think it's just the flash, which appears to have also made your cockpit "floor" look light grey rather than interior grey-green. The other thing I'd check would be the camo pattern on the port wing, and the port fin/rudder/rear fuselage. It might be correct, but it is non-standard, I think. Otherwise, it looks like you're doing well with what is generally acknowledged to be a difficult build.

Thanks for the kind words! It's a fun kit, but you certainly have to earn it.

LOL- you've got a sharp eye. I deliberately went with the "bulgy" wings. The other upper wings fit so poorly, I switched to that set. I thought about getting rid of the bulges, but figured "Eh.... what the heck."

The paints are Polly Scale. The Ocean gray is a bit light, but not as light as in the photo. I just shot it as is from the bottle. The interior is Polly Scale interior grey green- probably the flash, like you mentioned, made it look lighter.

And as for the camo- again- you certainly know your Spitfires. I just sorta winged it. I looked at the diagram for inspiration at first, but by the end, I was just happily cutting masks without a care in the world. 

I'm a lazy modeler. Sometimes I get really anal and want to be very exact. (OK, truth be known.... once this year.) Other times (like this.... and most other times save for the one aforementioned instance) I just sorta have fun with it and build away. I spend hours patiently researching a subject.... then I rarely have the patience to apply it in the build. LOL

Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't spot this earlier for you ... but those innermost wing bulges should be removed unless you're making a post-war "Warbird".

What paints did you use? The finish looks great, but the contrast is too high to my eyes. Your dark green looks about right, but the Ocean grey looks a shade too light - although I think it's just the flash, which appears to have also made your cockpit "floor" look light grey rather than interior grey-green.

The other thing I'd check would be the camo pattern on the port wing, and the port fin/rudder/rear fuselage. It might be correct, but it is non-standard, I think.

Otherwise, it looks like you're doing well with what is generally acknowledged to be a difficult build.

Got the paint on my Spitfire IX today! The masking tape pulled up a spot here and there, and I need to correct a bleed through or two, but I thought it turned out pretty good overall.

Just a quick picture to show that there is actually *some* progress



And the two pilots in their carefully researched Swedish 1924 flight school uniforms (ok, I made them up, but they look very swedish to me). Skin appears bit dark in the picture..



Figure painting not one of my strong points... But you won't see most of them anyway once they are inside the plane.

SD

mr.chex wrote:

Is it too late to join in because I have a 1/48 Harrier GR. MK. 3 that I picked up today. So how about it?

Welcome aboard!  Of course you can join!

Is it too late to join in because I have a 1/48 Harrier GR. MK. 3 that I picked up today. So how about it?

The colours are quite colourful, and I agree with you, a diggie would really cut down on the background noise.

well the paint is done on the boys

the pics stink

i got to get a diggie cam that is better this polaroid stinks

 

 

YEEEEE HAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally on annual leave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 6 weeks away from that miserable dump!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First, my mother will be in hospital for an operation, so I wont get much done for a week. Her health is more important. The Vulcan saga is coming to an end, the painting is at an advanced stage, so I hope I can get it all done so I can move onto a Harrier GR3. Also I will be upgrading to ADSL, so I may be able to post photos soon. One last  thing, I got a F-14A Tomcat, Airfix of course, is there decals for VF-1 or VF-84 from the late 70's/early 80's? I can tell you that the weather down under is hot and dry!!!

KJ200 wrote:

Jon, nice progress on the spit. The spreader makes a big difference to that wing to fuselage gap. Another approach to avoid gaps, is to glue the tops of the wings to the fuselage wing root, then once dry, attach the lower wing. Al, nice job on the Tonka, especially the pit.

First- thanks for the kind words!

I'd thought about doing that- gluing the wing tops to the fuselage. But the fit of the lower wing to the fuselage and the wings was so odd, I was worried it'd be as much trouble- maybe more- to do it that way.

When I finally glued the wings on, I applied the cement very liberally, to botht he wings and the fuselage, and then let it sit for a minute or two for the plastic to soften up. I mated the wings to the fuselage at the aft portion first, taping it tightly in place. I then sort of work my way forward, taping as I went, and when I got to the front, I had it pretty tightly in place.

When I let it dry for a day, and took the tape off, it fit darn near perfect- even most of the gaps in the wing roots closed up. I think letting the glue sit for a while really helped it bond, and the working one section at a time to get the best fit then move forward helped too.

I'll pst some pics as soon as I can to show the results. I was actually shocked how well it work out. Their will still be some sanding involved, but not near what I thought there would need to be. I actually was able to fill the gaps in the wing root with Future- they closed up that tight!

-----Edit----

Here's the photos of the stuff I described above.

This shows the wing join before and after gluing.



The rear part of the lower wing left a pretty hefty gap in one area- nothing a little filler can't take care of!



The lower portion of the nose joined very well with the lower wing, though the fuselage fit was a bit off. This will require a little work.



A little more sanding and filling, and she'll be ready for paint.

Still cracking on with the mighty Tornado. Here are the two brave RAF chaps ready to blast off to Op Telic. Note one has a moustache in true 617 Sqn tradition!

I didn't worry about the feet too much since they will be doing a Douglas Bader (ie. losing their legs) in order to fit in the completed pit as you can see here...

Hope you can see in the photo the filling and sanding has been completed, and I ended up having to rescribe the panel lines cos I lost so many of them during the gap-filling process.

Here is the first coat of Dark Camo Grey and Dark Sea Grey - I painted the black bits first so I could pre-shade the camouflage colours with black over the primer.

Here's another pic with the requested box art. It was a 617 Sqn 60th aniversary gift set, but I got it cheap cos there was no Lanc in it. Shame really - the two of them would have made a fun build.

This kit is actually turning out a lot more fun than it looked at the beginning. It is quite detailed and mostly accurate once you get past the actual building stage. And the decal sheet is amazing - just about every stencil, instruction and warning sign on the airplane. This should keep me busy for a while!

All the best,

Al

razordws wrote:

Osher... Cool Bannana's?????? (must be a British thing)

Dave, it's always cool in England.

Just like it's always frozen in Canada!

Tried posting this Tuesday night to no avail, as the forum appears to have been on the fritz the last few days, or was that just me?

Karl

 

 

 

 

Steve & Al, your builds are looking great. My daughter would love foe me to do a horse like that.

Karl, looking forward to the pics.

Osher... Cool Bannana's?????? (must be a British thing)

It will be another month before I can start on my Meteor but for now here is the box art.

KJ200 wrote:

As for me the Dora is complete, but I haven't got around to taking any pics, but will do soon. Karl

Cool bananas!

Jon, nice progress on the spit.

The spreader makes a big difference to that wing to fuselage gap.

Another approach to avoid gaps, is to glue the tops of the wings to the fuselage wing root, then once dry, attach the lower wing.

Al, nice job on the Tonka, especially the pit.

I went out for a drive at the weekend and stumbled upon a Tonka acting as gate guardian at St George's Barracks just outside Bicester.

Must try and get some pics.

Steve, great job on the vampire and the horse.
 
As for me the Dora is complete, but I haven't got around to taking any pics, but will do soon.

Karl

Photographing on a black background looks really groovy, spacey!  Horse looks excellent too!

the horse is Awsome

Hey Guy's, Finally got back to doing some work on the Vampire and the Polish Lancer. Had my folks over from Ireland on vacation and then of course there was work and life in general. the Vampire is coming along nicely and I have to fill and sand some seams. To my surprise there was a decal for the IP but it fell apart, so I made the best of it. Most of the fit was fine except for the booms that will require a lot of work. I filled them with super glue and will sand them tomorrow. I painted silver on the seams to check for extra work needed. I have the Horse and saddle done but I am not too good at animals. I will need to give it some pastells to give it some depth  and contrast.

Hope the photos come out ok.  Steve.

Wow Pruz!  That's fast going!  Looks a lot like mine, but better!  I think I chose the kit when I was still inexperienced.  Now I'm feeling induced to recommence work on it...  I can't wait to see how yours turns out, I think it will be fantastic!

This is the story so far with the Tonka:

The cockpit builds up OK and the decals don't look bad - note the complete lack of any detail whatsoever.....

The only way to make an acceptable join of the top and bottom fuselage halves was to glue it together starting at the front and working back about two inches at a time. I managed to reduce the size of the gaps using Zap a Gap and a hobby knife, but it still looks shocking!

Now it is ready for death by putty!

I should just add this shot of the crew (obviously not finished yet!!) - it looks like the RAF equal opportunity policy includes recruiting Neanderthals. I also like the baseball mitt flying gloves! To be fair, there is quite a bit of detail on these figures, although one is better moulded than the other..!

Hope to be finished soon.....

Al

 

Hmmm, using a spreader.  Good idea!  Never tried that, but it makes sense, and I can see that it works!  Indeed a labour of love.

A labor of love you say?!? Okay, I'll buy that but it looks like you've got your work cut out for you Jon. I hope my meteor needs a little less love than your spitfire.

Wow- this Spitfire Mk IX is turning into.... well, let's be kind and say it's a labor of love.

I'd love to end up with a half decent looking build.

When it comes to putting the main components together- wings, tailplanes, rudder, etc- everything, and I mean every single part, has needed some kind of surgery. Most have needed major sanding and scraping. Rudder, wing tip, wing blisters, tailplanes.

The wings have been a nightmare. The correct upper parts for the wings overlapped the lower wing by almost 1/8th an inch. Another set was supplied, which has the incorrect wheel blisters. But they fit, so I went with them. The gun blisters finally went in, after sanding. The wingtips- I'm waiting until tomorrow.

Here's a shot of the fuselage to wing fit, dry fitted:



I'd read over at Hyperscale in a build report on this kit that slipping a spreader in the fuselage could help close the gap.

Here's the spreader, a piece of sprue slipped into the fuselage:



The result is still a serious gap, but much more manageable:



And I just dry fitted the upper and lower nose pieces. You guessed it- surgery coming up.

Still- I am having fun with the kit. It's mostly with tackling small engineering problems on how to make it all fit, but it's still an interesting challenge. Hopefully, I should have the major parts in place tomorrow and be ready to start painting.

Ouch, that kits sounds nasty!  Been there, left there, bought the t-shirt...  Good luck with that build.

The relatives finally flew out this morning, so I was able to get to work on my AWACS.  Unfortunately, I found a few more nasty surprises besides the warped fuselage halves.  It seems every major wing and stabilizer panel is warped to some degree, and the plastic is very brittle.  I've already broken a couple of pieces inadvertently, and found several broken in the box.  Nothing unfixable, just somewhat annoying.  I bought the kit off evil-bay, so my guess is that the model sat in someones attic baking in the heat since 1991 when it was apparently boxed, slowly cooking away the plasticizer.  I tried the hot-water-in-the-tub soak to try and straighten out the fuselage halves, but it had no effect.  Guess I'll take Brews advice and glue them together a little at a time. What I have clamped together so far has gone together well, though.  I bet it was a nice-building kit in its day.

I have to confess, I'm not putting alot of work into the flight deck.  With OOB rules, minimum detail, and tiny windows, a coat of aircraft grey paint and the IP decal will have to do.

I'll try to post a pic or two in a few days.

Cheers!

 

Oh man traveller, I know that one!  Good luck!

Disater!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Started to paint my Vulcan, kept on getting bad paint splatters with my airbrush!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Works out that I have been using the wrong nozzle for acrylic paints!!!!!!!!! Back on track now, washed the paint off, then I will start to paimt again!!!!