GazzaS

Phil, Your work looks awesome! Love the engine and gun especially.

Thanks for the great pics and video, Martin. Fewer G-rated things look better on film than a sleek fighter aircraft. I've just run into an unhappy situation. I've realized two things about this 109 kit. The first is that the shape at the forward part of the wingroot and fuselage is all wrong. The wing comes up too much up front extending the fuselage area behind the oil cooler. But... I sanded a lot of it away. Worse still is discovering that both wings have a bow in them. So... port wing was worst, so I broke it apart and now it is clamped, glued, and taped, hopefully drying in a straight shape. This in one of those situations where I need a kit to ruin before I build one, right. Sadly, I spent too much on this one to justify binning it.

I think the blue is in keeping with the pics, Kai. Or course... if you were feeling bold, you could modulate it with some oils later. Besides... once you hit it with a matte coat, things will change. Keep up the excellent work!

Fifty... a great age. In Australia you get your first bowel screening test kit from the Gov't. Happy Birthday Carl!

Happy Birthday Carl!

Your decal work looks excellent, Kai! No flaws visible. Stunning!

Brilliant looking interior, Mark! Hope it all fits!

Love your work! I am a Silhouette portrait user. A lot of it is similar to working with MS paint. I never mess with the setting and use Oramask 810. I love the import function. You can import any jpeg or png file and then use the copy function. Then just drag and drop into the working area. I haven't seriously modelled any desert war aircraft before. I've always wondered how beat up they got from flying sand. Sadly. super close up photos of wing edges aren't plenmtiful.

Thank you, Kai. Is it me, or does his uniform look like velvet? Thank you Peter. It's all part of my plan to improve. Thank you, Martin! Damn, man! You certainly have a great collection of images!

After a uniform correction pointed out by a friend, and another dose of matte coat, our pilot's uniform looks much different: By eliminating the glare, my attempts at shading finally show. I just wish he had a younger face. He looks more like Geschwader Kommodore material. Heady stuff... wings and empennage on. I decided to look at Herr Weiroster's 109 and noticed that in photos, whether he's chilling in his custom lawn chair, leaning on vertical stab, or preparing to take off, the position of flaps and cooling flaps on his radiators is consistent. So... the point is that part of the wing root is visible. You can see I filled that joint with black CA and sanded it smooth. But I will have to paint test it tomorrow... or later. After work tomorrow, I'm on a four-day weekend. I hope to make major progress. ...We'll be in lockdown... I'll be short of excuses.

Beauty!!

My biggest problem with Trumpeter is the rivet holes. On both the P-40 and the 109F(G), many of the rivet holes are elongated because the riveter doesn;t always come from a direction perpendicular to the Aircraft's skin. So... you get some holes near the bottom and top of the fuselage that are very oval. Twice-bitten, permanently shy.

Very nice cockpit, Mark! Really love the way you've highlighted the rivets.

Nice work, John. You are flying!

Smart-clay-tablet?

Thank you for the very kind words, Hubert. I was actually trying to emulate the technique. But it just doesn't look the way I'd like. Perhaps my layers were too heavy. I just end up with textures I don't want.

ZZZZZZZZZZ No guns, no fun.

Thank you, Peter.

Getting those small details right is the difference between something that makes you happy, and something that makes you look at all of the mistakes, however small. Keep up the excellent work! A while ago I tiled our ensuite bathroom from ceiling to floor. Whether I'm shaving or shitting... I often look around at my errors.

Very nice paint work, Peter! She's gonna turn out awesome! I've actually been beneath an F4. Wish I could remember some useful detail. But all I remember is white paint.

Thank you, Kai! I had a look at photos, too. Not many had the sleeve chevrons. This one is particularly interesting because the insignia are on the leather jacket.

Thank you Kai! Honestly... I didn't know the rank badge was on both sleeves. It's only on one sleeve on any of the figures that have it.

Thank you, Kevin! If you don't mind, I segue straight into an update. I wanted to post an update yesterday, but I had to wait for the acrylic paint on our pilot to dry so I could matte coat. Then... this morning while I'm spraying said matte coat... I observed that I had forgotten to paint his hair! Anyway... Once matte coated, I painted his hair and put a little Future on the visor of his cap and on his boots. Some things should always shine! To complicate matters, while I was painting his Mae West yesterday, I noticed that the valve assembly for the Mae West's air bottle had broken off. Very flimsy it was. So, I made a new one out of stretched sprue and hurriedly painted it. He's still got a little sheen. I may hit him with more matte coat later. I'm always afraid to spray too much at once and end up with a foggy layer. I did it once before, and have dreaded it ever since. Even though I used oils for the skin tones, I used acrylics for everything else. But I'm not sure I'm totally happy with the finish. I think I'll go full oils on y next figure. Seems like oils allow you create subtle differences better. And I got back to the plane this morning! Revell... for some reason felt the need to make the surfaces moveable. So, to get them right, you have to slice off a few parts, and fill others. Here, I've used Evergreen sheet to stuff into the square notches. In a while, I'll shave them with a knife, fill the tiny crevices that may be there with black CA and sand off. I also added the three parts required to each wheel well. And started gluing the lower wings on... I'm happy to be done with the pilot, and looking forward to closing up the fuselage in a week, or two. Happy modelling!

Nice wiring harness, John!

Can;t wait to see that fifth wheel greased up!