Very nice. He must have the patience of a saint, especially when working in 1/72 scale

I’m not sure if this is what you lot are into but I’ve just finished a 3d printed kit. It’s a 1/148 scale rail grinder, so it’s tiny (about 2 cm high). I’d build a 3d printed kit again – there’s a lot of prep, and adding wire details like handrails is tricky, but it’s an effective way to get a small model.

The hard part is getting the bloody thing to move. You’re left on your own for the chassis and the one it’s designed for no longer exists so I’ve had to cut and shut one together, soldering in some new electrical connections which is the issue with motorising a body that has a big hole in the middle of it. It moves but barely on corners – it needs more weight so I’ll have to get some liquid lead.

I do like N scale. I’ve got a few locos & some rolling stock but I haven’t started the layout yet. You get 4 times as much in the same area as OO (or HO if you’re modelling European or North American)
I’m doing BR Steam/diesel late period, Midland region.

Adrian Warburton’s Martin Maryland.

First attempt at using a latex for masking and a pan scourer for chipping. I need to scape some more paint off and will apply loads of dirt after the decals.

The real aircraft was an absolute shed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Warburton

Excellent work up there as always. The pig Mk1 Blenheim is finally substantially together (hated nearly every part of that kit!) and the paint brushes are out but frankly it’s a scruffy effort compared to my 9 year old’s F4U Corsair (the Revell kit is a brilliant fit if anyone fancies it)! I now need to find some paint for the Corsair. Hopefully he will let me share a pic of that and his Curtiss Hawk because he’s done a great job of both and although he’s very much ad-lib’d the Hawk’s camo it is (in my biased opinion) a fine job for his age.

Back off the waffle and on topic…I have a question re acrylics and brushes

I’ve posted a couple of times about an airbrush set up but I’ve concluded it’s just not going to work because of space limitations and competition between three of us for using it and worktop space so we’re going to stick to brushes and rattle cans (for big areas).

Are there any brush painters on here who can tell me which enamels/acrylics and brushes they tend towards?

I understand that Tamiya’s acrylics don’t brush well, and Airfix ones are maybe a bit hit and miss (although the rattle cans have been ok I have for spraying black/basic BoB camo colours). I’ve got a few Humbrol enamels which cover some detail colours (pilots, cockpit interiors etc) but not wedded to those unless someone tells me they are a good way to go and lots of projects coming up where I don’t yet have the right paints.

What about Vallejo?

Need something with enough of a range I’m not mixing every second colour.

Going to try over on britmodeller also but thought you lot are all very knowledgeable so worth an ask here. 🙂

Revell have a good range of colours in their AquaColour range. Vallejo, Ammo/Mig and AK Interactive all have huge ranges but I’m struggling to get good coverage with camouflage schemes, some simply won’t work with others

I’m mainly an airbrush user but haven’t always been

Regarding brushes, enamel paints are very harsh on sable brushes so it’s better to use synthetic brushes with them. While I don’t know if there are any particular things to consider when it comes to synthetic brushes and enamel paints, for synthetic brushes in general I gather that brushes with gold taklon bristles seem to hit a “cheap but decent” sort of level.

Thanks, first priority is to find a blue for youngest one’s F4U-1A.

Can’t even remember what most of my brushes are. Might need to pop some on an order.

If it’s a Revell kit they should state in the instructions which of their colours to use. Lufthansa Blue would be a possible

https://www.emodels.co.uk/revell-aqua-color-dark-blue-silk-350.html

Recently completed WNW Sopwith Camel in Belgium livery

Very nice. 1/32?

Very nice. What did you use for the rigging?

Yes 1/32 – it’s wingnut wings.

For the rigging I used ez line for the thinner cables and prym knit in elastic with brass sleeves and copper wire eyelets for the remainder.

The brass sleeve works well, I hate to think what gauge it is. Nice to see WW1 rigging without the oversize turnbuckles favoured by many…

@monkfish brilliant job on the Camel! I’ve been thinking about getting one but the WNW kits are very expensive at the moment.

I’ve lost my mojo and haven’t touched a kit for a while, I lost interest in the F105D I was building and can’t get it back.

Try something by Tamiya, ideally something you don’t normally do, for example a motorcycle. Shake the box, out comes a bike. Mojo instantly restored

Try something by Tamiya, ideally something you don’t normally do

You’re probably right. I think it was the rubbish quality of the Revell F105 that has killed me, I put a fair bit of work in and I’m still not happy with it. I might try some 1/72 kits, or I’ve got a couple of American car kits and an Airfix air sea rescue boat in the pile. I’ve been trying to do some airbrush illustrations this last month or so, that’s given me a nice little break from kitbuilding and I’m hoping it’ll recharge the batteries.

That’s an interesting idea actually. I’ve just bought a couple of kits from companies I’ve never previously built.

I went to that e models store that Johndrummer linked me to for paint … Somehow 3 kits ended up in my basket while I was there…never knew there was such variety of kit makers.

If you want any kit to feel like things can only get better then I can recommend the 1:72 Airfix Blenheim MK1 for maximum fit frustration on what should be an easy kit. I’m so glad I didn’t let my younger son build it. Pretty sure he’d have pulverised it or it would have put him off for life.

I’ve been thinking about getting one but the WNW kits are very expensive at the moment.

Unfortunately that’s unlikely to change as WNW closed just after COVID got going. Massive shame. Maybe the tooling will resurface somewhere.

Lovely Camel that. 👍🏼🐫

Anyone having difficulty getting hold of Humbrol Matt Black 33? Can’t find it anywhere.

My LMS does postal orders (at a price). Give them a call.

The locoshed in Prestwich

Anyone having difficulty getting hold of Humbrol Matt Black 33? Can’t find it anywhere.

Just had a quick Google/Amazon check as it’s been in high demand in our house lately and you’re not kidding.

I did find acrylic rattle can on Amazon but suspect that’s not what you want.

May have to go back to the camo option for the Phantom that’s in build right now – although it’s got a way to go yet before we reach external paint.

Tamiya XF-1 or Revell 08 are equivalent to Humbrol 33 Matt Black

Hannants have xtracolour Matt black in enamel. That should be a pretty close match.

Local hardware shop, buy some blackboard paint, thin it appropriately, job done.

It doesn’t have to be model specific paint.

Quick attempt at posting the quite rough work in progress now I think I’ve found a hosting site to do it.

Yes that is a wad of tissue sticking out of the turret hole.

Impatience, poor masking tape and brown rattle can yesterday, ended up dealing with the overspray today on the bottom of the Blenheim.

This is my 9 year old’s Revell Corsair. I’ve barely touched it except one or two ultra delicate bits.

And older brother’s P40 Warhawk

This was painted with some “came in a starter kit” Airfix acrylics that were mega gritty (especially the brown). Same problem on my MK1 Spitfire. Watered down they’ve improved but I think damage has been done.

Looks good g-d

Here’s another one off the production line.
Eduard 1/48 Weekend Edition Fw 190 A-3, ‘yellow 12’ based at Cherbourg, summer 1942

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Kit decals came in a self adhesive plastic bag, which managed to eat one of the fuselage crosses, so all decals from EagleCals, set #173

Next one done.

1/72 Airfix Heinkel HE111-P2. To me THE iconic WWII German bomber – the combination of the wing shape and the heavily glazed, but quite clean-lined nose.

It mostly went together very nicely – the exception being the nose glazing which is a fraction too big all round to mate smoothly to the fuselage and leaves a noticeable step. It’d need a LOT of work to set right, and I’m not yet confident enough at sanding and repolishing clear parts to attempt it with such large and obvious pieces. I put a fair bit of effort into the cockpit with the addition of an Eduatd PE kit to try and make it look busy in there.

Wow that is awesome, especially cockpit detail, chapeau.

That cockpit shot is amazing- I don’t even have eyes that could see that properly let alone paint it!

Stone the crows, I’ve only actually gone and finished an actual scale model aeroplane for once! This is Revell’s 1/72 Eurofighter Typhoon. The kit is OK, it has comedically little intake trunking so I added an aftermarket set of resin intakes. Fitting those and getting something vaguely resembling a smooth join was not pleasant. A bunch of parts that could be modelled open or closed (e.g. the undercarriage) were clearly much better designed to be modelled open than closed so some fiddling (and some accepting they were not going to look perfect) was necessary to depict an aircraft in flight. Finally the kit did not come with all the pylons and missiles necessary to depict a typical RAF QRA loadout, so it’s only equipped with 4 AMRAAMs and 2 ASRAAMs, not the 4/4 loadout more commonly seen.

I build this kit as a gift for my dad. It’s modelled as BW/ZJ921 of 29(R) Squadron circa 2007 or so. An acquaintance of my dad was flying this plane around that time so he was pretty chuffed to receive it.

(I also have a Pavla vacform cockpit for the kit that I ended up not using so if anyone is interested in that let me know.)

ChrisL – that looks a very clean build. Not in a toylike way either – there’s just enough tonal variation to make it look like the real thing straight out the showroom. Good call not going to town with weathering it!

TrailriderJim, Norhtwind – worth pointing out that most of the etch comes prepainted! Some of the throttle/mixture levers fortunately came with spares, as there were a few pingfuggit moments.

Thanks Jon! I had a go doing some preshading so it’s good to hear that it provided some visible tonal variation. 🙂 I didn’t do much weathering beyond that, just applied a little wash to some of the vents/grilles, and a little spray of Tamiya Smoke around that vent over the port wing, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Typhoon that doesn’t have some soot there.

Your Heinkel looks spectacular!

I’ve finally finished this – I’ve been working on it since before Christmas, a bit here and there. It was the most complicated kit I’ve built, and really enjoyable. It’s an Ebbro Citroen DS21. Ebbro are Japanese and some of the instructions were only in Japanese, and some of the translations were great (“attach front food”, “gross black paint”).

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kRD9UA]DSC_6353[/url] by Luke Bradley, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kRD9Ua]DSC_6350[/url] by Luke Bradley, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kRFXkp]DSC_6349[/url] by Luke Bradley, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kRDzod]DSC_6354[/url] by Luke Bradley, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kRD9Vx]DSC_6359[/url] by Luke Bradley, on Flickr

Stunning DS there. I do like a good car model.

Nice Heinkel & Typhoon too

This reminds me ive a bunch of small humbro paint pots ive had for near 30 years sitting on a self in the workshop. I really need to look them out, might be some discontinued colours modelmakers use 😕

Tracks. I hate em

MiniArt 1/35 Australian M3 Lee, each track is made up of 79 links. Each link is made up of 4 pieces:

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No easy way to do it, just requires patience

That DS is amazing.
I don’t think I’d have the patience for nearly 640 bits just to make some tracks. That’s scary stuff.

I did look at aftermarket tracks but they’re (a) just as bad (b) almost half the price of the full kit and (c) out of stock. So I’m stuck with them. I’ve done twenty links so far, over two sessions. The rest of the tank is approaching complete so I’ll have to do them eventually 🙁