BradG

Really really nice stuff.

That Heinkel interior would be great if you were doing a shot up aircraft, but if you're going to close up the fuselage, save your money as you can't even see most of the standard kit parts!

I'll be buying one of these so I can convert my LTD 1/48 one into a two seater. I want to build the one with the final instructions to novice pilots soloing painted on the fuselage under the cockpit.

LOL Nick, oh dear, you can always tell you're too close to the truth when people try to silence you, ay?

It's pretty common, I see it a lot in various clubs. I know one guy who can't build a model of anything unless he has a picture from both sides of the aircraft and another who couldn't build a model because he didn't know if it had a two or three blade prop. This never bothers me, I'll build a model off a profile or a picture, doesn't even have to be a good picture for me to build something. I even have plans to build a North Korean Ki-43 Oscar from reports that one was seen on an airfield in the early 1950's/.

Don't forget the Dragon 1/32 P-51D, that one can barely be given away by shops as I see it at ridiculous prices, but still not selling.

While that is true Mike, at what point does this figure become significant? 8%? 10%? If a company thinks people will buy their product despite some flaws and mistakes that are easily noticeable by those with some knowledge on the subject, why not make every reasonable effort to keep those people happy and iron out all the errors before metal is cut and gain more percentage points in sales. I doubt we will ever really know the answers though, unless we get a job in a model company!

Mmmmhmm, share the curiosities you both have. Judging how many customers were put off by issues in a kit is like picking next weeks tattslotto numbers as it's not just the members of the forum, it's all those who read that forum but are not members or who are told by their mates or modelling buddies. As for their message, well it would have been easier to just write 'suck it up fellas'. What about all the modelling magazines and hobby shop employees people may talk to? If bad publicity means nothing to manufacturers, why do some get so upset when a review is not favourable? An excuse like that also makes it very easy to simply forgive yourself for any failings of your product. Screw something up, pfffft oh well, people will buy it anyway. It's a dangerous business practise and I saw it happen at my old workplace, cost them tens of thousands. You know, even if it does mean I'm pissing in the ocean by hammering a kit when it deserves it, I'm still going to do it.

Yeh I'm being a bit cheeky putting this here, but you know, it's not a tank and but it is an LSM - Large Scale Missile. I got this when it first came out, half built it then put it back in the box for several years due to the poor quality molding (particularly on the missile itself) and pretty bad fit in areas. Just like every Trumpeter kit I've built, it's just plagued by mold slip and seams, especially on mating surfaces which for a brand new kit (I got it hot off the LHS shelf) is just crap. I built this off a black and white picture of an Egyptian SA-2 seen in a 1982 Born in Battle magazine.

Always wanted a 1/35 Stug so I picked this up today. Not a bad price ($45 AUD) and includes etch metal and a full set of metal side skirts. The version without the skirts was actually 5 bucks more, I dunno how that works out but when you pay about 20 bucks for an aftermarket set I think we modellers are getting screwed just a bit! I also found these decals for my 1/48 skyraider that I'd been after for years.

I don't like your chances of this as that is the box art of the old kit.

I am waiting for the 1/72 Type IX U boat...I know not an LSM but still big.

Gesus Rog, would you leave some for the rest of us! In all the turmoil of the last month I forgot I did buy something, the Hobby Boss 1/48 Avenger. I have a self imposed ban on buying Trumpeter/Hobby Boss kits unless they come at less than 50% of retail and I picked this up from a toy store that was relocating for 25 bucks down from 60. Now to find a nice firebomber conversion....

What's a plan? I just go with the flow and build what I feel like at any particular moment.

A local toy shop had one of those on sale for 150 bucks near me Nick, I was going to buy it but realised I just have nowhere to put it and I don't have a pool.

Looks well used Kent, great job.

Wow mate that looks tremendous.

Firstly, let me say that doing what I have done will void your airbrush warranty from Testors. However, if you are like me who tends to rip apart everything from fridges to washing machines, dryers etc to repair them when they break down (I am an extremely accomplished washing machine repairman!), read on. You may notice that your 470 starts to spatter, the trigger is stuck solid when you leave the airbrush for a week or the needle doesn't close off fully when it should, then your airbrush is probably gunked up on the inside. 1. To take the airbrush apart, you need a flat bladed screw driver. Just work it gently into the spot indicated to pry the sections apart. Do this carefully or you will scar the plastic badly. 2. It's apart, pull out the entire insides, they are not clipped or glued in. 3. Detach the air value from the unit. It just pulls out. You can also pull out the blue air tube, it is not glued or clipped in, just shoved in. 4. Now to get the trigger away from the front body, pull back on the red part. It is spring loaded so make sure when the trigger comes out of the grove it doesn't go flying accross the room. 5. Remove the plunger from the trigger, it just slips out. (Note that it appears clean here and still in place in the next pic as I took the pictures out of order) 6. Now you get to clean. The arrows indicate where the airbrush gunks up. This build up of paint causes both the airbrush trigger to stick solid when left and to foul the mechanism, not allowing the needle to fully close off when the roller is in the fully closed position. Once you clean out all the crap, put the airbrush back together in the reverse order. However, be careful not to pinch the airhose when you are closing up the airbrush.

Anywhere that will have me!

I think you're pressure is too low and paint not thin enough. You're almost there based on what I see in your pictures. Like others, I spray at about 20-25 PSI for everything and for mottling I'll have the paint at about a 60/40 or 70/40 split (thinner/paint) depending on temperature. My weapon of choice is the plastic fantastic Aztek A470. I use it in the single action mode and adjust the trigger until the smallest amount of paint is coming out and go to work, getting as close as I can to the surface of the model. The best way I can describe doing the mottle is if you had a pen and you are trying to scribble the smallest star possible on paper. I use Gunze Aqueous thinner with lacquer thinner. Sometimes, no matter what you do, you will get a little spatter around each mottle. To get rid of this, I spray a pretty 'hot' Humbrol gloss over the paint. The humbrol gloss thinned with lacquer seems to dissolve those annoying little flecks of paint. I don't have any 1/32 kits where I've done Luftwaffe mottle, but here is a 1/72 Hasegawa Focke Wulf that I painted freehand using the technique described above.

It looks pretty good, just maybe the way the 190 is sitting looks odd. I can't see under the fuselage so perhaps there is more broken ice under the fuselage to cause the aircraft to sit tail up. If I could build a diorama like that I'd be happy.

It's good stuff but I've had trouble finding it. It seems they like to produce the thinner type of tape, probably because it's cheaper, but I cleaned out a local Officeworks of their last stock so I'm set for a while if the stuff ever gets discontinued.

Patience grasshopper.

Recently I've been getting the attitude from some long term traders and supporters of our modeling event that the smaller events "aren't worth my time". I ruffled a few feathers with one when I mentioned the fact our members spend a good amount of coin with them each year and I always say to our members; support those traders who support us. Support for our event for anyone wanting to trade is less than the retail cost of a Hasegawa 1/48 scale fighter, keep in mind! This 'me me me' attitude seems to be growing my it also effects our sporting club where players want to get paid to play yet when asked to volunteer some time to help the juniors (we're talking a couple of days per year for each player and people like me are there almost every week), many just refuse to help out. Again, I tell blokes to stump up, drink less on a Saturday night and make an effort in the junior program Sunday mornings. Actually I edited out the profanity there as it is a cricket club so you know, we swear a lot. So I've copped a bit of flak (that happens pretty regularly) for basically telling someone "support our members because we line your pocket with our hard earned throughout the year". Am I just being a heartless, blunt, hard, SOB, or do I have a point that co-operation and support is a two way street?

Some really nice stuff there.