GazzaS

This plane is on my to-foil-in-the-future list. Gaz

Thank you Phil and Mike!

Hi Ivan, Thank you for your reply! The MiG 25 model I am asking about is for ICM's MiG 25 PD: I've started reading on the beast and was surprised to learn it was made with stainless steel....not aluminum. Gaz

Thank you sir!

Thanks Martin! Great pic BTW.

Time to consider the tracks done: Thanks for looking! Gaz

I'm hoping to find a MiG-25PB in my stocking this year. Looking for some good pictures to help me decide what it'll look like. Gotta be a Soviet bird, though. Don't wanna do it in second hand colors. I'm finding it too easy to confuse it with earlier versions in the photos I've seen. Thanks! Gaz

Wow! Great job! Gaz

Sweet build! I should break out my WNW Fokker Alby, too... someday.

Thank you, Kent! The best thing about pastels is that they often give a random-ness that is hard to create with human hands. I used them a lot on my Me-410 build to add another dimension to the paint. Gaz

Thank you Peter. I've begun using them more on aircraft, too. Thank you, Phil!

This will be cool!

That engine looks sweet, Peter. Between you and Tamiya, flawless. Gaz

Thank you! Pastels open up a lot of weathering options. A note of caution, though: Clear-coating after pastels changes how they look. White effectively disappears after a clearcoat.

HI Everyone, Time for another update. Bear in mind that everything I've done since the last update took less than 3 hours... This is immediately after putting a matte coat over everything. Sometimes, this is a great place to stop. With the matte coat on the tracks, you can see the muted earth tones applied with the oils. I use a cheap food container lid as a palette for my dust colors. The blue blob in the center is window cleaner. The color mixing will happen in the center. I mix in small batches to create different shades of pastel mud and dust. A wet, muddy look. I googled to see what my local mud should look like. But what I want is the dry look... The pastels are dry and ready for brushing. I have various brushes for this. Dust is the great obliterator of detail. I can see why a lot of ppl won't use it in favor of having the details show.  Choose your poison... What do you see? Dust? Dried mud? It's up to the imagination, really. You can always brush off more, or add more. Finally, the dried mud/dust effect in the tracks. Soon begins the most arduous task: Painting all of the parts which have the paint and dirt worn off during travel with a white-metal paint. Sprocket teeth... guide horns... portions of the exteriors of the tracks where metal is exposed by the scrubbing motion of dirt. Gonna take a lot of work... Thanks for looking! Gaz

I really hate to see a kit take more than a couple months. Just drags me down. When I first came back to models I had some brilliant ideas that wasted a lot of time for absolutely no gain. I try not to do that anymore.

Cuz some dum-dum was so intent on getting everything else perfect that he didn't realize it until all 100+ glue points were set firmly. Gaz

Some must have mansions in which to put new display cases. I would have to gut my living-room which would really piss off the missus. Gaz

You know I can't turn away from another 109. Now... I know most of you have been building kits since your teens. And you yawn when you hear another 109. Well... Unlike you, I was not building any models from 1985-2015. So, all of those years while you guys were loving then becoming tired of what is still new to me, I had virtually forgotten my first true love... models. So please... for the guys like me... realize that we're all not tired of it yet. There is still a reason to release new 109's. Gaz

The green threw me off for a second. Didn't realize initially that is was a hellcat.

Wow! That's not so much a gap, but more a shelf and gap combination! What a drag! Gaz

Thanks Rob!

John, The cockpit looks quite sharply detailed! Very nice! Gaz

Thank you, fellas!

Hi everyone, Some work with oils. The oils do a bang-up job of bringing the Zimmerit into 3d. You can see the dot's added for a dot filter. However, the Zimmerit complicated matters. Imagine pouring water down a flight of steps. As the water hits each steps, it spreads sideways before running down to the next step. So, in this small space, the dot's spread to a width of almost 7mm with more paint on the edges than down the middle. I'll try again once the oils have dried a bit. Thanks for looking! Gaz