Dave J

Tremendous wealth of beauty you have there Jim! The Weathering is Stunning & Sublime! Just Mind blowing !

It would be mostly your stuff

Towards the end of last year I was asked by Brett Green if he could include my Kiwi Mk.16 Spitfire in the 3rd reprint on How to Build the Tamiya Spitfire book... But I not only did I get added to the book... I made the Cover! Pretty Cool feeling! This helps my lack of Mojo!

You nearly a the finish line! Looking fantastic

Now the part that I enjoy! Weathering... I started off by lightly spraying AK Summer Kursk on the lower hull and wheels.. The once dry I used the AK Plaster base and Summer Kursk effects again and made a thicker mud mix.. The it was dabbed all over.. At first I didn't like it and thought I was heavy handed with it.. But after it dried I was happy with it! Next task was rust up the tracks a bit... I started off by painting the tracks with Mr Metal Dark Iron and then using White Spirits and AK Track Rust Pigments and dry - Using Black, Medium and Light Rust Pigments straight from the bottle I rusted the exhaust pipes and heat shield grille And sealed them in using AK Pigment Fixer. They say that the pigments are suppose to retain there colours but once dried the are acually a bit darker now. I will have to touch them up... Added some dirt to the tracks too! and thats pretty much where I am currently... Next on the list is to start weathering the upper deck

Another big update... I forgot to paint the inners of the front wheels, so i broke out my compass cutter and maded a couple of quick masks out of some Tamiya tape and sprayed them. Using Mr Color GXIII clear, everything was given a coat, so I could apply an wash and decals on the turret.. I was going to use a AM set of decals, but opted to go with a set in the kit instead of waiting around for the mailman! After giving the turret another clear coat to seal in the decals, I used XF67 and a red and white from Vallejo to make a few chips and scratches in the turret markings and then sealed everything in with a flat clear.. Tamiya decals worked like a charm and are pretty much invisible under the flat coat.

Cheers for that tip... I may just go back and redo them as I not 100% happy with them..

Looking Fantastic! Can't wait to see it finish!

I would think so they just released 1/32 Spiteful

I forgot to mention that I painted the exterior with tamiya XF-67 Nato Green..

Broke out the primer and primed the 88 and then painted everything with Mr Color C39 Dark Yellow... Still undecided on what way I am going with this... I sound like my wife with the dress shes wearing to work!

So this is where I am currently at - Turret Seam was filled with Super glue and then filed down and polished... Wheels and Track test fitted and then stripped down for prime coat with black Mr Surfacer After painting the green... I found a couple of small faults that I missed! Mould Line on the front Fenders and some blob on the Turret.. These were sanded back and repainted. Rubber was painted with AK Rubber and Tires paint Exhuast were painted with Vallejo Air Hull Red as the base, the spades were painted with Vallejo Gun metal and Flesh

I can see me getting a couple of these.. What schemes are include in the box?

Awesome stuff once again Tim! I will need to check out HAD decals too!

Rog, Check out Luckymodel they have a new brand of indy tracks called Kaizen. I have some for my Nashorn build and they are 1/4 of the price of Fruils and will be making them my first option on tracks now.

Here you go! http://www.iconicair.com/rollsroyce/

There is another place.. but I can not think the name of them!

I started building this during my lunch break at work on Thursday.. I had most of the lower hull made up... I started to tackle the upper deck on Friday during lunch, but the PE Grilles didnt fit into there slots on engine covers and the exhuast grille.. Oh man! that was really a pain in the @$$! Even with the PE jigg I couldn't get it to sit right.. But I fought it and finally won! So everything is back on track now.. and the hull is completely done now! Starting to work on the Turret.. This were I am at the moment. Will hit the wheels and tracks last! I also ordered this last night too

The RB Model barrel finally arrived yesterday, so I been working on the 88 today. I think the barrel is made for the Dragon kit, but I had no issues getting to fit on the Tamiya kit. I just need to sand away some locating pins and it all locked into place... So this will be off to the paint shop tomorrow to be primed and then its base colour!

Happy B'day Bud!

Looking great!

I see no photos?

There were a couple of other little things that I missed on adding the other day, like the barrel lock and the shell cabinets in the rear. So i finished that off last night and gave everything a prime for its first colour coat once the gun has been built up.. I need to start thinking of a scheme now too!

So just before Xmas, we moved into a new house that had an office.. Which became my modelling room.. In that time I have gone through Old Counter from my mates hobby store.. it was a nice height but I kept banging my knee on the shelf that was in it.. So that got binned and I have been using my old desk for the last month... Till my wife came home this... Its a Sitting/Standing Desks... She just moved into another office and this one is to large.. Home it came! And I have a 3 Kittens to keep my feet warm!

Had a little bit of cash flow after unloading some stuff, so I brought some stuff... But I should be saving for the Uk