Peterpools

Gaz Holy Cow, does she look good in cammo and glad to see the dio base underway.

John You've gone where very few have gone before and absolutely stellar work. I've been with you for the entire journey, your patience and skills to bring the Helldiver across the line is nothing short of remarkable. She does look brilliant but for me, way too much work. Beautifully done🏆

John Amazing build and just incredible determination to bring the Helldiver across the line - a true testament to both your building skills and 'can do' attitude ❗

Kev Right with Kai and always terrific to follow builds of unique subjects. Nice start and I'm along for the journey.

Thanks John Fuselage is together and hopefully the next update this weekend,

John Just never ending

Kev Beautiful work. Fit, finish and weathering are right on the money

John Looking good and one more step closer to winding up this project

Gaz Detailing does look good and it takes awhile to develop your soldering skills. Many years ago, I was into model railroading and I found myself soldering all the time, adding detail brass parts to the engines ( most cast steam engines), with the hand laid track and turnouts. What I found worked best in situations you are dealing with, would be to carefully tape the framework down on my soldering board, lay the mesh in place, taping it in place as well. Then with a tinned soldering iron, I would 'tack solder' enough point to hold everything basically in place. Remove the tape and solder the rest. On the engines, I would tin the part, hold it in place with my tweezers and then just apply enough heat with the soldering iron to allow the solder to flow. It did take time to become comfortable. learning how to do all of this but now, when I need to solder, it's like meeting an old friend. Doing track work was somewhat the same as I either use jigs to hold the turnouts in place while I soldered the individual pieces and the electrical was done by tinning as well. Most important of all, is not to use too much heat as things happen way to fast. My money is riding on you that a few more tries and you'll have this down pat.

Carl WOW‼️ Absolutely outstanding .... gorgeous and clicking on the photo, I was able to view and enjoy all the construction photographs.

Gaz Now that's nasty for sure and I'm sure if I did, we would all hear teeth grind for days on end .

John Yup, that's the plan. See how it goes.

Thanks Martin. I'm going to go flaps up and try to be correct and for me, that's a milestone.

Thanks Dennis These photos are very helpful and also help answer my flap" up or down question. Checking out the link now.

Thanks Hubert I'm pretty sure I now understand why the flaps were supposed to be raised. Martin just posted a few photographs showing the flaps down and seems as if it was matter of rules and not a design issue. So, in essence, the flaps could be in either position.

Martin Thank you for the photographs - adds fuel to the fire.

Unbelievable how you find these photographs .

Thanks Martin, that would be awesome and glad you like what I've done so far. I decided right from the outset to go with the kit box scheme. Besides the kit decals I now have the Maketar Mask Set with the same scheme. Any and all photos would be appreciated.

Ernie good point and I'll be doing some testing and then decanting, so I can shoot them with my air brush.

Phil, pretty good idea for showing so light weathering. Any thoughts of maybe using hairspray over the Extreme Metal and then with water bringing out the weathering and chipping? Just a thought that might add to the effect. Normally except for some panel line washes and a bit of dry brushing, I don't do much weathering as I prefer to keep my engines/aircraft on the clean side.

I read somewhere that Spitfires with the engines off, the flaps are always in the up position. Is this correct, as I am not sure what would be correct for my Spitfire build. I am planning on having most od the cowling panels off, so the flaps could be shown in the down position then. Just checking as to what is correct.

Ernie Your Mig is looking so good as all the work is now coming together - awesome looking as she stands on her legs. Yup, missiles and bombs, loads of work but it surely does make the build. Keep 'em comin Peter

Ernie Good call and what a bunch of guys😉 Keep 'em comin Peter

Right with Martin, Huber and Rob - beautiful work. Keep 'em comin Peter

Ernie Right on the button. I always now use primers that are good for plastic, resin and metal., I mostly use MRP Primers (lacquer) and Mr Surfacer but MRP is my go to primer. What's the sense of using the reformulated primers and they have so little etching/sticking power? I've also have my eye on primers from my hardware store and auto parts store, specifically made for metal and of course, that means decanting and thinning. Pretty soom tradtional water color paints will be replacing all model paints, including the present acrylics the way things are going these days 🤧