Hmmm Fine Molds. You know I think if your going to call yourself something then make sure it can stick. Two Fine Molds and both suck. Now I have read that the 410 was a rebox and not even theirs. If true I can forgive them on one hand, but why rebox something terrible? The Oscars might be one of their older kits, but its not a good fit either. In several places it is very bad. Now yes the usual "We are spoilt by Tamilya" comes up, but I don't think that's true anymore. I have built two Academy kits, both were under 10.00 and no problems at all. I have built three of the new Airfix kits and they were under 10.00 and were great fitting and fun. I built three Hasegawa and overall they were good. So I don't think there is much reason for FM to have bad fit. Also this Oscar was not cheap. FM are some of the most expensive kits in their class. Now maybe their new stuff is different. However if you have an option other than FM I am of the mind to take it. I saw a 1/32 Hasegawa Oscar on special for the price I paid for the 1/48 FM. If they make something you can't get elsewhere then sure.

I do my metals in a couple of different ways. I sometimes do silver base, then the colour I want (say blue) Then a medium dusting of silver over that.

Or I will mix a colour into silver. Now with doing that you have to take into account that the silver will lighten any colour mixed. Some badly. Red mixed with Tamiya silver becomes Pink. So always go a darker shade of the colour you want, or I sometimes mix in a grey to darken it. This of course won't give you a historical accurate colour but it can give a very interesting effect.

Tamiya also has a couple of metallic colours. When I use them I do silver base, medium dusting of them then a silver dusting over the top. Lighter dusting if the colour coat is metallic. I do the same method when using the Model masters ( the testors colours, Hobby masters can't remember what they are called) automotive colours. They have some great colours but again doing this won't be exactly historically accurate.

I have never used Alclad. That seems to give a smoother less speckled effect. Not sure if other colours could be used or incorporated with it. I hope my rambling made some sense

Thanks for the comment, Michael. It is fun to participate.

Looking forward to follow all the other builds.

Thanks Aaron,
It's nice to get some honest feedback on kits I want to (or won't want to) build in the future. Thanks for sharing your techniques also.
Take care,
Don "Lakota"

a little update for my hurricane V bf110
the hurricanes are getting there slowly...

decals and details are next on the list, the bf110 has stalled a little bit as it needs quite a bit of clean up on the small parts, not easy when most parts are the size of your thumbnail !

paul

I've got a Bf-109E (that I started after January 1st) that's only just got the body and wings painted, the undercarriage, payload, prop etc are untouched yet. Can I enter that and an as-yet unstarted Spitfire?

Sounds good to me, welcome aboard!

Michael

Under way at last, with E Boat vs MTB, and starting with the MTB, this is the Coatal Craft 72' 6" Vosper built boat, which although does not feature that heavily in the drawings is well mentioned in text and quite a few pics.

The 72'6" Vospers were armed with 2 21" torpedo tubes and turret mounted twin 0.5" Vickers guns, this was later suplimented with a singlie 20mm and in some cases 2 twin .303 vickers K's and whatever else the crew could scrounge.

The Coastal craft kit is basically resin, with etch & white metal. Its very cleanly cast, well detailed. The Instructions although comprehensive in many areas are a bit vague in others.

!st job was to drill out the port holes & fit the deck, and transom, which has to be cut from a peice of thick plasticard supplied. Due to the shape arounf the TT cutouts the fit of the deck is a bit tricky and required some filler.



One of the vague areas in the instructions is the layout & fit of the propeller shafts. The postion of the shafts exit from the hull was measured from the scale drawing in the instructions and marked with masking tape, the postion of the outboard shafts was taken from the drawing & doulbe checked against the etched rudder linkage, to make sure e
Everything lines up.



Other external hull details have been added, exhaust, port holes etc, and the part of the fordeck extending back to the wheelhouse/ bridge. The Wheelhouse interior box has been added, and the wheelshouse bridge structure test fitted.



Next on the list will be painting of the deck & hull, most of the detail parts to be added to the deck are not the same colour so it will be easier to paint & dit them seperately (save an awful lot of tricky masking).

More soon

Si

finally got some primer on the me110 and the hurricane is getting decals.


paul

OK just so you all know the Seafire III has reached the bench and the cockpit parts have had a coat of primer. No photo as it's only grey primer on grey plastic. It's a double build as I thought I'd build a Seafire IIc at the same time, so this also received primer.

Well then I'd better get my Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero Fighter Type 52 Zeke (as it says on the box) underway before you take control of the skies !

Good luck with your build Luciano !

I'm really enjoying watching this thread develop, it's a great concept for a Campaign.

Cheers, D

No need to fear D, I'll not cut plastic until next weekend works in the way but I do hope to get some interior green on during the hours in between.

Here is the first part completed. I experimented with a couple of things which worked more or less for what I was trying, but it certainly can be improved upon. it is no where near the quality of other builds on kit maker, but for me its a slight improvement over my previous build. So that's positive. I might try a FM Star Wars kit as they get great reviews, but I am not sold on the quality of their planes. For the price there are other options out there.

Today a little overspray was done to tone down the brightness. the glare guard was done and then a matt varnish. So she is finished now.

If someone wants to build the other half of this which is a B-24 give me a yell. Otherwise I will start it in a couple of months.

A bit more progress on the MTB, The hull has been primed, good old Halfords grey primer, covers anything, and gives a good key.



Next the "off white" which is the base colour of the hull & superstructure, this was "USAF Light grey" out of a Tamiya rattle can, looks a good match,



That will be left to cure before the broad mid grey camo stripe will be masked and added to the hull, then black anti fouling, then the deck.

The order is defined by ease of masking, and the need never to have to unmask & remask

Si

A bit more work on the paint scheme.

The G45 panels on the sides have been masked off.



and sprayed.



Si

Work on the Albatros has been slowly happening in the background. I've got the woodgrain on the interior bits finished now. I used Tamiya desert yellow as a base coat, then burnt sienna oil paint overtop.



I streaked the oil on with a stiff coarse brush and left it to dry for a week. Now I can get the green-grey on the metal bits and start playing with the photoetch

A bit more progress on MTB 234, the basic paint job on the hull has been completed, including the non slip walkways, and the bulk of the "boring" details added, vents and hatch covers.



The interior of the wheelhouse has had a basic coat of white for the walls and the locker under the chart table picked out in a wood brown, also the bridge has had it's basic colours added. next detailing the wheelhouse

More soon

Si

Nice build, Aaron. Interesting finish. Is that a normal finish for jap fighters? I am not too familiar with Japanese camouflage.

Nice progress, Simon. Looking forward to see more.

No its not. normally they are green's all metal and some cool camo patterns, this one I have a feeling was one of their training squadrons. It is based on a real bird but it isn't a common one I think.

Hi Aaron, Agree with jesper, cool Scheme, looks like the aircraft was painted in the the semi translucent primer, was Mitsubushi used (sorry know very little about Japanese aircraft) but is that correct.

Jessica, like the wood grain, nivce and subtle.

Jesper thanks , hope to make some ovet the easter weekend, CinC permititing of course.

Si

I used very thin blue coats over the base on this one. The blue was a Tamiya colour as I like Tamiya the best for paints. I just wish they would add colours to their range more often. How they did it on the real plane? No idea to be honest. Oscars were vastly manufactured and Mistsubishi may have made some in their plants, then again they might have been loaded up with doing Zero's. I am not a expert on Japanese planes myself. I tend to build all sorts of things and never stay on period or nationality.

Camouflage colours on the flying surfaces. I need to do a little tidying up where the paint crept under the masking. I'm going a little overboard by painting the tailplanes given that they're going to be red, but I'm going to attempt to get a semi-transparent look with just a hint of the colours showing through the red. Time will tell whether I achieve it or not.

Some more progress, the consol for the wheelhouse has been detailed with etched panels & levers and a cast white metal binnacle.



Looking for easy solutions I tried watered white glue as glazing for the wheelhouse windows, risky due to the size.



and unfortunately the plan didn't pay off.



Next job, remove the failed experiment & start cutting out acetate replacements, you life and learn, as they say.

Si

The wheelhouse glazing has been redone, As no templates were included in the instructions, I used a peice of tracing paper, placed over the window opening and rubbed over with the edge of a pencil to get a rough shape & trimmed the acetate sheet from that.



More interior has been added to the wheelhouse, the chart table is being test fitted. the Interior parts of the clear view screen is just visible in the port centre window.



The consol has been added, along with the wheel & voicepipe, and the outer section of the clear view screens, the white glue has not yet dried, it will go clear (I hope)



The wheelhouse has been glued down, just needs the steps & roof adding.

More soon

Si.

The steps down into the wheelhouse have been folded up, sides first and then the steps.



And added to the wheelhouse to complete a quite busy interior.



Si

On to the underside, the props, their shafts and braces have been added, the rudder linkage on the etched fret was used to ensure the spacing is correct.



Si