JayDee

Francisco, you can never have too many thumbs ups! Great news with this and the Salmson news you brought to the modelling world today.

Hi guys and gals, I've had to keep this under wraps for a few days in case it didn't happen, but I can tell you that at Scale Model World today, the LSM team took possession of the final release sprues of the forthcoming HK Models Gloster Meteor F.4! This is an un-boxed kit, with no manual, and will give us a first look at this pretty damn smart looking kit. We'll give you plenty of photos and a dry fit of the main components for you. In future, we'll also receive the boxed version for you to see. We have a few images of a completed test shot on our Facebook page. The LSM team had a very fruitful meeting with HK Models also, and we'll be bringing you more news and reviews in the future. Exciting times here!

Thanks for sharing Francisco, that is seriously good news. Keep us updated. Perhaps see if there are any test shot images to see?

Shrine? I've already secured a pew, and I'm about to fondle my beads.

Mal, how far along is this build?

LMFAO!

SPAD S.VII Roland C.II Walfish Halberstadt CL.II Fokker Dr.1 Fokker E.V/D.VIII

WANT

I dread to think! Ok, did some work today. The internal main parts are painted in their basic colours, pending any detailing, decaling etc. The Eindecker interior is quite simple, and has NO instrument panel I've pretty much used the suggested colours, with me having to swap out the Tamiya RLM02 equivalent for the Gunze one. I'll add some castor staining on the internal fuselage walls, and some shadow behind the side walls framing too....just to give some dimension. Everything should start to pop out once the detail is added, and the internal rigging/turnbuckles are installed. I opted to paint the fuel tank in Alclad instead of the suggested green though.....my only deviation from things so far. The cockpit floor and rear bulkhead will be done in Uschi's wood grain decal....the same manner and preparation as for the Bachem Natter... There ya go.....more soon.

Started yours yet?

Oh WOW!! I was struggling for engine reference....thank you VERY much!

Bertl, that is absolutely superb. I'm going to try to aim for that standard.

You're catching me up SLOW DOWN! Lovely work....a damn sight better than the standard kit pit.

I've recently received threats with menaces from Jeroen. The prospect of physical violence at Telford was a reality. I trod on his toes, and I am real sorry. Jeroen wished to do this scheme that I had chosen, and I should have respected my feudal overlord. In light of that, I'm changing my scheme to Kurt Students E.IV, 163/16, AOK 3 Fokkerstaffel, August 1916 ....actually, I wanted to try my hand at those swirls, a grimy fuselage with weathered decals, plus I wanted to add the wind-pump, wing anemometer and headrest (optional and not shown in this profile), but Jeroen's happier to think his threats have won...

Iain, you have my total attention, and respect.

PMSL!!!

This one will be ordered as a sample for you Mike. I hope you enjoy looking at it.

The interior main parts of the E.IV are quite different to the earlier Eindecker versions. I have to say the sidewalls are extremely delicate and take some careful clean up, but I now have all the cockpit parts removed and ready for paint and assembly. I'll try to get some images online tomorrow, but there will be minimal assembly at this stage. This is my first time with an Eindecker kit, and I have to say I'm loving it!

He is so slick, it makes me sick.

Great work, and loving those clips Added any paint yet?

Tweezers. Don't do this over a carpet, and take your time. Radu suggests NOT to use CA, but I use small droplets to assemble mine. Just done a set for the Komet.

...a little problematic; that's if you don't want the wing fillet sticking out way too much and looking like armour plate thickness. You notice from the inner wing root shot tha I sawed out the fuselage insert. I found that if you push it fully home, it prevents the wing root sitting fully into the recess. I eventually just glued the wing to the fuse without this, and then added later. I also think I could have still manually reduced the wing fairing thickness too. as well as the surgery I did, but you can't just do that alone as the shape of the insert wall and protruding points stop the wing from pushing fully home as much as you'd like.

So pleased to see another E.IV being built

I've received some real aggravation recently about posting this build up here, so I caved in.... I'm building this one as another bare wood and metal machine. The Meng kit is superbly engineered with some very innovative touches. There are a couple of things let it down, and one of those is the cockpit. There are a myriad of things not included, in there in terms of parts and detail. There are fuel tank (console) straps missing, levers and switches missing, as well as absent fuel piping, floor detail and numerous other things. The back bulkhead is also very simplistic. I added the missing strap to the fuel tank consoles, and gave them the extruded rubber texture by softening the plastic with Tamiya Extra Thin and then dragging a stiff, flat paintbrush over them. So many more hours could have been spent in adding more detail, but time isn't something I have here (magazine work), so I added some strut to the rear bulkhead, lead wire for fuel pipes, and some of the excellent Airscale placards. I opted to use the plastic and PE instrument panel option, and each of those gauges was a separate decal! I don't know why Meng didn't print them as two decals which covered the whole panel. Another bad design as I had to align every one roughly, pop the PE on, and position properly....remove the PE and then bed the decal down. Tedious. The second bad design of this kit is the horrible wing joint seam that can be seen inside the gun bays. It really is shite. I spent a lot of time making a template for this area so I could blank the seam with plasticard, and add some strut detail. I painted this with Alclad and added some random red patches (primer) that you can see in Martin's excellent walkaround images in our gallery. Extra wiring detail was also added to the guns. The rear internal tail section has MDC Duralumin decals added, so give a little interest. Tedious to add, but looks far nicer... Don't let my comments put you off this one. It's a great kit, and I have another TWO on order!