Peterpools

John I'm just blown away .. your Bardahl Special looks fantastic - absolutely a perfect. It's just incredible to comprehend how you turn out so many 32nd scale kits and everyone is built to your high standards of fit and finish. 🏆 Thanks for the group Photo - what a fantastic collection - I hope they have a display space just to themselves.

🤞 They sure are

Thanks for the very kind words. Of course, the Sea Fury has been a complete PITA from step one and loves to eat loads of dollars in AM and especially Tamiya tape. Hoping the gear goes on with not much fuss and then it shouldn't be much longer before she crosses the line and I'm onto the Kotare Spit build.

Good news to see Harv making such progress and posting here on the forum

Thanks Smitty - will be buying and giving is a try.

Thanks Martin, very much appreciated. Airfix did their best to create a kit that certainly has been a test of wills. Throw in the worst weather we have had here in the northeast and all the redo's and from update to update, took what seemed like forever. Glossing and decaling is up next.

Smitty Does it require a gloss black base, or can you shoot it right over the aluminum landing gear paint finish and still get the chrome shine? Thanks for the link.

THE PAINT BOOTH and MASKING MANY NIGHTS AWAY With the last major assembly requiring some tweaking and sanding with the front nose clip being a bit too wide, the assembly was glued into place with Flexy 5K CA Black CCA, an awesome slow drying glue, leaving loads of time to correctly locate the cowling and then left overnight to dry. The glass was masked off with a masking set that came with the Wolfpack decal set, a nice surprise and good thing I looked inside the pack when I did. The front windscreen fit was fair but geez, I wish manufacturers would follow Tamiya’s style on treating the front windscreen as a part of the fuselage and not a separate piece of glass, eliminating a lot of delicate work in trying to achieve a good fit. The Sea Fury was primed with MRP Gray Primer, which revealed more then a few sanding marks that needed attention. MRP Light Gray Primer, my all-time favorite is a great example of why fix and change something that isn’t broken; new bottle and no longer available in light gray, just gray. After the sanding mark repairs and re-priming, I discovered two more small sanding marks that were in hiding, were dealt with and onto the air brushing the MRP Sky portion of the color scheme. Even for lacquer paints, I let the paint dry for days, as it hadn’t stopped raining for what seemed like weeks here in the northeast, bringing record rainfall and flooding throughout the northeast corridor. With the AC off, there was no way to control the humidity in the house, curtailing any notion of continuing with the air brush work. During this period, I devoted an inordinate amount of time masking for the hard-edge, RN Extra Dark Sea Gray. Finally with a break in the weather, the air brushing was underway and when done, I couldn’t believe it but I found more sanding marks, especially all around the wing fold areas. Back to more wet sanding and polishing, priming and the cleanup color coats. The basic color scheme was now done. RN INVASTION STRIPES RN Korean War Sea Fury’s wore “invasion” stripes for identification purposes and determining both the location and band width was no easy task for me. A good number of work sessions were needed to accomplish all the masking and air brushing, which was done in stages. The fuselage invasion stripes were especially frustrating due to a conglomerate of compound curves in this area of the fuselage. While waiting out the weather, the prop, spinner, landing gear, drop tanks and tailhook were assembled masked and painted when the weather allowed. The invasion stripes are far from perfect, I gave them my best but there are some mistakes that I need to live with, as I already did a few touch ups and I'm worn thin with all the air brushing redos. Next up: clear gloss and the decal work.

Kev Glad you're feeling better and on the mend - just don't overdo it for a few more days. Whirlwind is looking so good up on her legs and wearing her Nikes, props in place and coming together so nicely with all the other added parts and touches. I'm sure you can 'feel' the finish line right around the bend.

Same here Rob. I use BMF on my Tamiya P-38, looked good but for the work involved to get it to fit and look good, I am leaning back towards using my gold old Alclad Chrome over gloss black.

John Agreed and of course, the Mustang looks so good in any color and paint scheme.🥇

John Nice progress on your Wildcat. She fills in beautifully in between stages on your large scale builds.

John Looking mighty good ... one sweet Mustang for sure.

Phil Looking mighty good

Martin Awesome build ..🏆

Think I'll be calling you the "Lotto Kid"🏆

Kev OH NO, Lady Luck wasn't riding co-pilot. I know how it hurts and just glad it wasn't worse. Rest and stay off your feet for a few days and mend.

Kurok Terrific progress, looking mighty good.

John Amazing as always and here I thought I was the only one who runs out of paint in the middle of a build.

Martin Looking mighty good.

Rob Unfortunately, I had the same results as you with the Molotow chrome pen on the oleos.

Thanks John, much appreciated. Hoping to have the invasion stripes done in a few days and then an update for the build thread.

Rob So glad to see the Dutchess of Kingston is back on the bench and underway once more. I can only imagine how much self-will and fortitude it took to pick up the project again, as you had often said ... it's the rigging that has kept her in the model drydock. You're under way and just go slow and take your time, as I'm sure the results will be brilliant.

Kurok Thank you for the very kind words and I completely agree, the extra money for a quality kit, just makes the building experience so much more enjoyable.