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A stunning debut indeed! All of your work is stunning; the E-100 is a knockout!

Very nicely done! I love the "let's just roll right out of the factory to the front" primer scheme.

This is one of those "I really don't have any superlatives to begin describing what I feel when I look at these photos" situations. I'll just say that you have my utmost admiration and respect for your talent (and patience!) and leave it at that. Ed

Kudos! I love it! The painting and weathering are both restrained and convincing. I've built a number of tanks since returning to the hobby twenty-odd years ago, and NONE of them look as good as this, your first effort. I am especially impressed by your treatment of the tracks and muffler/exhaust. Finally, the simple base is most effective. Regards, Ed

"Stay tuned: the forum will soon undergo a massive transformation!" Color me... intrigued!

Thanks Guys!

You have a sharp eye Jeroen...yes, it is indeed missing. It took a dive down the floor vent in my workshop. Short of crawling under the house and pulling the duct apart, I doubt that it shall ever be seen again (an Iwata airbrush nozzle and many other kit parts are likely residing there as well). I e-mailed ICM asking if I could purchase a new clear sprue, and received a very nice reply stating that they were "looking at the best way to resolve my problem". That was in May, and apparently they are still trying to "resolve my problem". I may try the age-old white glue trick to fashion a landing light cover but given the contour of the leading edge of the wing I'm not sure it will work.

As I ranted in an earlier "works in progress" post, this was not the most pleasant build of my life. Overall, the fit of the kit is OK, except around the engine nacelles. Part of that, though, may have been the result of my own poor planning and engineering. I achieved near-perfect fit around the nacelles with the help of some sprue "spreaders" that I placed just inside the wings around the join with the nacelles. However, a couple of them apparently became dislodged after gluing the nacelles in place (judging from the mysterious rattling about inside the wings) and the gap returned. Covered in shame, I will not show photos of the underside. The kit decals are awful...don't use them if you build the kit. They shattered, they silvered...you name it, they did it. I understand that Hasegawa is reboxing this and I'm certain their decals will be much better. I ended up using some old after-market decals for the national markings, and painted on the red "nicht betreten" line thingy with Tamiya X-7. (I know...probably not the best RLM match but I was completely over it and just wanted to be done with it). Having said all of this, I'd like to build the Revell night fighter boxing, as I think I know my way through the minefield now.

Erich Hartmann's mount. Completely OOB. Gunze aqueous paints, thinned with Gunze leveling thinner. Testor's acryl flat coat. Delightful build with no reportable vices!

Revell He-162 with Aires cockpit. The cockpit was a bit of a bear to get "seated" despite the fact that I scraped away all existing kit side wall detail to such an extent that I left the fuselage at near-paper thinness. RLM76 underside and RLM02 wheel wells painted with Vallejo Air (my first and last time using them). I know others love them but i just couldn't get the hang of them; I experienced constant airbrush clogging with them. In fairness though, the finish was quite good. Decals were from the kit and were excellent. I'd like to build this kit again but completely OOB. I also added a bit of plumbing on the engine, though certainly not as much as on the real thing.

My second kit completion of 2016. All paints were Tamiya, thinned with Gunze leveling thinner. This was the mount of Russian ace Nikolay Shkodin in 1953. Decals courtesy of "Hi Decals". They are excellent decals, and react beautifully to MicroSol and MicroSet. Other than the decals, 100% out-of-box.

Just started on this last night. I had originally intended to do this one "buttoned up", but the cannon isn't half bad and with a bit of plumbing and wiring I think it might look impressive to leave the cannon bay open. Test fitting of the kit implies excellent fit. [/url]

Guilty of lurking as charged. I've had a relatively prolific (for me) kit-building year so far. I'm on my fourth kit (a Hobbyboss Me-262 "Pulkzerstorer"). I haven't posted much due to the overall "suckiness" of my cell-phone camera efforts, but as I'm pretty proud of my work so far this year (especially the ICM Do-215 I just completed) I would like to show off at least what I've been working on in 2016. I have had a bit better luck with the use of some white poster board as a backdrop and some workshop lighting manipulation so I'll post some pics later tonight. Regards, Ed

Hi Kahuna! Thanks! The RLM 70 and 71 (Black Green XF-27 and Dark Green XF-61) are Tamiya. I laid down each of these as a base coat, then I added a bit of XF-60 Dark Yellow to each and randomly lightened them. The "RLM 65" underside is a base coat of Tamiya XF-23 Light Blue which was then over-sprayed with random squiggles of Gunze Aqueous RLM 65. The red "Nicht Betreten" (?) lines along the upper fuselage wing root were masked off and painted with Tamiya X-7 Red (the decals for these shattered immediately upon placement in water). The RLM-02 for the cockpit and wheel wells was Lifecolor Acrylic. This was my first experience with LifeColor and I was very pleased! Like your Techmod decals, the lineage of the ICM kit decals was highly suspect! Regards, Ed

That is a STUNNING work space, and the Tivoli radio system is a very nice touch! Regards, Ed

Thanks Ralph! I am suddenly enamored of the idea of sprayed markings myself. I look forward to seeing how your Lanc turns out!

Hi Rog, I keep waiting for the "big reveal" myself from Revell that they'll be doing the 17Z in 1/32. I continued using the old "Third Group" decals for the enormous under-wing crosses (I can't imagine how the kit decals would have reacted to any attempts to maneuver them in place, given their size). After a day to compose myself, I decided to go ahead and give the call letters and stencils from the kit a try...here's the method I ended up trying: (I can't take credit for coming up with this, I remember reading it somewhere online years ago) I mixed up a dilute solution of warm water and Future, then slathered a generous puddle of it on the fuselage, I then floated the call letters off the backing and into the puddle, carefully positioning the call letters, then pressing them gently into place with a paper towel. After wiping away the excess, and cleaning the surrounding area with a bit of warm water, I slathered the call letters in "Micro-Sol". That did the trick...they look OK, although they did shatter a bit on one side along the panel lines; I think I can fix that with a bit of careful masking and airbrushing). One thing at least...they didn't silver. As for the stencil decals, I placed a couple of them last night as well; I suppose because of their small size they are a bit easier to work with and went down pretty well. I'll post a couple of more pics of my results later tonight. Regards, Ed

Evening All, I was unsure where to place this post. I initially thought about placing it under the "Hints and Tips section", with the topic title of "DON'T USE THE KIT DECALS" but decided on a somewhat less dramatic course and instead will post here since it is, despite all, still a work in progress. I have been building (and at times struggling with) the ICM DO-215B-4. The kit has. for the most part, sucked the life out of me. I had read a few reviews online, and gathered that although it was certainly not a "shake and bake" kit it was nothing that would be beyond my skills. In a nutshell, the fit problems center around the engine nacelles and wing root-fuselage join. After a long slog of sprue "spreaders" glued at strategic points inside the wings near the nacelles, and filler along the wing-fuselage join (particularly directly behind the cockpit) I felt that the worst was behind me. I then moved onto painting, which being a splinter camo proved to be time consuming due to masking, but otherwise problem free. Satisfied with the paint job, I laid down a nice, hard, smooth coat of Future and moved on to the decals. Although I had also read that the kit decals were not the best, I was completely unprepared for what transpired when I cut the first decal from the sheet, dipped it in warm water, and attempted to place it on the upper wing. The decal (an upper-wing cross) slid nicely off the backing paper and onto the surface of the wing. Upon my fist attempt to maneuver it into it's proper position, it began to tear; I also noticed small bits and fragments of the carrier film floating freely about in the small puddle of "Micro Set" that I had laid down in a small puddle prior to placement. After much struggling, sweating, cursing, and manipulation with a tiny detail brush, I managed to get the sections of torn decal into some semblance of a "Balkenkreuz". At that point, it seemed my options were to sand the decal off, repaint, and order some after-market decals. However, after a bit of online searching hopes for that option faded; the only decals that I could find available were for a Hungarian Machine, and another for a Dutch machine. I then remembered a set of "Third Group Decals" that I had ordered for use on a Monogram He-111 that I ordered long ago but (thankfully) never used. A quick search through my decal drawer and I had them in hand. They matched the kit decals perfectly in size, but that is where the similarity ended. Despite having a copyright date of 1995, the first decal I used settled down beautifully with just a bit of "Micro-Set"; a single dab of "Micro-Sol" finished the job. SO....the whole point of all this bloviating is to advise you that you use the kit decals at your own peril. This is going to be a VERY generic looking machine when finished, with just the wing and fuselage crosses in place. The call letters are printed on lengthy bits of clear carrier, and I am betting that they will silver like the devil (assuming I can get them placed to begin with before they split or shatter). Here is bit of photographic evidence of what I am talking about. This is the kit decal. Note the bit of flotsam that has now permanently embedded itself in the gloss coat immediately to the left of the wing cross. Also note the fracture line to right of center of the cross. That weird "milkiness" has at least faded from around the edges. Oh, and they really aren't in very good register, either. This is the "Third Group Decals" cross, settled in and snuggling down nicely in a bath of "Micro-Sol", as nature intended: Finally, so as to qualify for an actual "work in progress" post (as opposed to a rant post), here is a pic of my attempt at Summer 1940 Luftwaffe splinter camo:

Many Happy Returns!!!

Stunning build!

I, too, have looked closely and can see only museum-quality flawlessness. Stunning work!!!

Beautiful work Marek! I love the Mustang in British livery! Brilliant paint work and weathering as well. Regards, Ed

I think that is a brilliant idea!

I began using Gunze self-leveling thinner with Tamiya acrylics (as well as with my ever-dwindling supplies of Gunze Aqueous) a couple of years ago. I have always been delighted with the results, among which are a noticeably more durable (and smooth) finish with the Tamiya paints. The only downside is the Gunze thinners are a good deal more "aromatic" than the more benign Tamiya thinner. I have not yet tried adding a bit of Future or X-22 to the mix, although I am now intrigued and will give it a whirl (on some plastic sheet first, of course). Regards, Ed

Beautifully Done! I like to think that, in the instant after this photo was taken, Mother Triceratops appeared and impaled the T-Rex, allowing her baby to lumber away frightened but unharmed.