Peterpools

GUs Looking good and some mighty terrific progress.

Absolutely!

Gus Enjoy the build and I fully agree, Ernie generosity is incredible.

Finger crossed

Great choice and the office looks great. You are easily turning into the Master of Aires Cockpits.

MRP. my paint of choice and it sure does look close

Oliver Holy Smokes the weathering on the details is so brilliantly done and wonderfully realistic. Some mighty fine work 🏆

HI Mike Great choice and PM sent.

Scott and Carl Now those are serious stashes for sure. Any idea of the value of each stash might be?

Mike, absolutely The Boat - simply an iconic Sikorsky aircraft. 🏆 it's got

Thanks Kev. Started playing around with it and I'm planning on doing a bit of very light weathering ... OMG, what did I say? See how it goes.

Thanks Paul Finally, she is looking like a P-47 and hopefully in a week's time, I'll have the decaling done and making the turn for the home stretch.

IT’S AIR BRUSH TIME While waiting for mask set to arrive, I tackled the cowl and cowl flaps which I thought would be a snap … oh, little did I know. Trying to fit the nose cowling assembly onto the fuselage was a bit of a struggle, just too tight. Appears to have been a case of too many parts needing to fit together precisely and that wasn’t in the cards for me. The upper fuselage radio mast I was so careful not to break off during most of the build, I managed to finally break it off and was not reusable. A new antenna was fabricated, test fitted but will not be added until the end of the build – I just know if I add it now, it’s a sure fired bet I’ll break it off again. Finally, with the Eduard mask set in hand, the canopy glass was masked and glued into place. The front windshield required a lot of tweaking to get close but for sure, no cigar. One last polishing, wipe down, initial masking and the Jug was ready for priming. I used the kit’s ‘In Flight” main gear doors to mask off the gear bays and they were a bit big, needing some slight trimming. The correct underside color has turned into a minefield, as to what color the 78FS undersides actually were. One thing for sure, it was not RAF Sky. My main source for online research kept referring to both Dana Bell and Roger Freedman’s research, who both initially referred to the underside color as Sky and later on calling referred to it as light gray. I decided the color was a medium gray and my final choice was MRP Light Ghost Gray – close enough for me, as Neutral Gray seemed a bit too dark. Does all this really matter – nope, not at all, just a bit of Sherlock Holmes fun. The freehand cammo went on without a hitch and after 24 hours to dry, it was time for a good two days of masking for the invasion stripes, which were then accomplished in two stages. What a pain and a test of nerves. The engine cowling was masked off as the Tamiya Lacquer Gloss White would serve as a nice base for the checkerboard nose decals, the white stripes on all the tail surfaces were also air brushed. In the end, way too much unforeseen masking; but it’s done. The painting guide showed the gear doors invasion stripes were not painted showing the stripes as straight lines across the undersides of the wings matching that of the wing's invasion stripes but rather the pattern is length wise across the doors. I’ve seen this a few times before in photos and always wondered why the ground crew painted them this way unless it was faster and easier – who knows. Still a good deal of detail painting to do but I'm making progress, slowly, oh so slowly.

Kev Terrific build for sure.🏆

John Sorry to see her back on the SOD but maybe down the road you will have the erg to give the build another go. PE can easily be the 'undoer' of a build oh so fast.

Guy Looking mighty good and glad the dio is still a go.

Oliver Looking forward to seeing your next with all the 'extra detail parts/pieces done.

Peter Same as martin and I had to lay down and catch my breath. Simply incredible workmanship - so beautifully done. 🏆

Ralph Maybe so, but looking mighty good.

Gus Wheel wells look so nicely done and all the fine brush painting, highlights and helps the details jump out. Looking mighty good.

Ralph Nice progress on the Skyraider's front office.

Ralph Some mighty nice work in the front office - detailing and weathering look spot on the money.

Brilliant save and the T-28 in your hands looks perfect.🏆

Oliver The new figures look so good and Kirk assessment of the original figure was correct when compared to your incredible level of work. The bar keeps going up and up and what a ride.

How true and that's just one of a few more decal sheets I've bought over the past few years. 👍