npb748r

I have my new flanker kit - it's massive and doesn't look too complicated. I'm hoping some of you can give me some advice though as in all of my decades of kit building this will be the first for me where the engine covers remain unpainted. I just wondered what the best approach to painting the engines are and how you get those colourful blue (I assume) heat stains randomly across the covers. Understanding how those of you have mastered this aspect of painting would be appreciated, how you do it, paints and colours used, etc and if you use any additional weathering products. I have to say, I am slightly shocked that in 50 years of modelling I've not built an aircraft with this characteristic before. thanks in advance for any suggestions or pointers. neil

brilliant

thanks, good review of a good looking plane. Anyone know when it will be available in the UK ?? I'm torn between building the single and twin seat when that comes out.

just spotted the biggest difference, have no idea why I didn't see it earlier - those canards !

Hi all, I've just picked up the trumpeter SU-30 MKK and have started to look at options. Does anyone know the physical difference between the Chinese and Indian aircraft (MKK v MKI). There's a lot of stuff I've found on the internet but none of it very helpful. Also, if anyone has built this kit, any suggestions or tips would be gratefully received. The kit comes with after market stuff including Airies resin exhausts (flanker B but meant to fit), eduard interior for the MKK, exterior for flanker B and resin wheels. Any advice, help or suggestions much appreciated. thanks neil

I'd say that chicken is keeping his head down waiting for the turkeys to move first.....

that's not dead, a few burly men with hammers and a couple of spanners.....a few mugs of tea and that thing will be flying before you could blink

looks really good

you can really see how deep the matt paint was on those planes in that picture above (not sure if deep is the right word but I know what I meant !).

having spent the past few days at Centre Parcs near Lakenhealth I've spent all day listening to F15E's take off and land (I have no idea how people who live near by can be happy - it's constant loud noise - given I'm a plane nerd even I thought it was too much after a few days of constant noise !!). Anyway, it got me thinking about building one, I built the Revell F15C back in the 80's and can't really recall much about it other than it was big. Anyone else here built one of the F-15s (I think it's only Tamiya and Revell that have released them ?). I don't want to have to do any aftermarket stuff and I'm not that good a modeller so like to have decent kits that go together without too much trouble, but I don't care about accuracy. I'd rather do a different subject if they aren't that easy to build. I was also looking at the SU27/30 by trumpeter, again, anyone have any views on those kits would be much appreciated. I feel I need to build something which generates the noise I've been experiencing. thanks in advance neil

fantastic set of photos from all of you, thanks.

agree with you some planes look better in flight, eg for me - F104, WW2 typhoon/tempest, EE lightning, XB70 etc. However, I also think some planes look good on the ground including the Mig 25. Mean and moody, hunkered down ready to pounce for me also includes phantom, A10, A6, etc. If it was me, it would be wheels down.

Nige, you must have a camera focused on me as I'm just about to fit mine !! Thanks for the tip

I love that blue colour, if only other countries had the imagination to use something other than green or grey ! They certainly know how to paint military stuff, their ship decks are a shade of orange in colour. I'd go with no weathering or really, really minimal

thanks for sharing the build, it's inspired me to get this kit, I did think about getting the V1 kit to sit alongside it. The V1 has a personal interest for me as one of them landed on my dad's home in 44 (he was serving as a rear gunner on the halifax in 298 squadron at the time) and the V1 landed a few weeks after my nan had just been informed her other son had died on HMS Mourne.

not normally but I'm planning on doing so with this kit. The way it goes together plus the paint scheme made me think this would be easier. I'm also going to try and paint the panels around the fuselage windows whilst still under construction and without the clear windows added, complete the build then mask off the panels and apply paint as per normal, that way I hopefully avoid fiddly masking of each window. Will mask the cockpit and turret glass as per normal.

I think i read elsewhere and a few months back that the size of the kit intakes are more like those used on planes in tropical climates or later marks and were likely based on measurements from restored aircraft which, whilst looking like BI or BIII they were actually later models. Not sure how accurate that is. I'm planning on building a MkX so this might be ok for me, not good for your build though.

Hi Nige, I looked at a stack of photos of this over the past few weeks, they appear to show a couple of differences but in the majority of war photos to my eyes it shows as wooden construction painted to match in interior colour green or black. I couldn't find any with that lip in the picture above, I wonder if the table in the picture is missing the wooden top that sits in the lipped area ??

given the way the kit is constructed I plan to paint the kit's component parts before finally attaching the wings, tailplanes, etc. I'm using the At War series of books and Avro Lancaster Definitive Record (Harry Holmes) as reference and came across a couple of interesting bits that I thought you might find useful which was news to me but you may already know. At the end of the war it would appear that around 80% of all marks of the Lancaster had H2S fitted which is much higher than I expected. Remember if you build without the H2S fitted I believe you should exclude the instruments in step 5 of the instructions. According to the At War book early planes where painted in 'lamp black' extra matt paint which did not weather well and became powdery and rubbed off (see picture attached). It was superseded by smoother paint with a slight sheen with the black becoming progressively glossy towards the end of the war with some Canadian built machines receiving a high gloss final coat.

great work Nige. Here's a picture of my cockpit so far, sorry about the quality of both the picture and the modelling. The picture is entirely down to the camera however the modelling is down to me, trouble is as I've got older my eyes have got worse, what I see is not what I produce ! I'm building a plane that came late in the war so have painted the front section black, I read somewhere that this was done to later built planes as the front section was made separately from the rear which continued to be green. I'm also not sure if I will use the H2S on the build so have left the boxes off at the moment that attach to the pole behind the pilots seat at the end of the table. Couple of tips from me, I couldn't think of a way to paint the round yellow dots on the pilots seat (or make a mask) and there are no decals so I painted a couple of spare circles of thin plastic and glued them on. Not perfect but as I said, with my eyes and with the lid on the plane it will be ok for me - I'd rather have a perfectly round, slightly raised circle than a messy yellow blob ! Also, on a few photos I found the navigator and wireless operators table top looked worn with the wood showing through. I used some old 1/350 wooden ship decking, attached to the table top, painted and rubbed down. Not sure if this is how it would have looked but I'm happy with it. Keep up the good work on the build.

also just working on the rudder peddles but can't seem to get them to fit equally, one side appears to have been moulded shorter than the other. Unless I'm not putting them together correctly ??

Nige, I have continued to keep 2 or 3 steps behind your build with my own as I'm a slow builder. But it's mainly because I picking stuff up from you (and others building and posting) as you all progress so thanks for showing the way...... On a couple of online pictures of the interior of Lancs there appears to be a flare gun behind the wireless operator attached to the cover of the front main wing spar that's not in the kit ? thanks neil

I've recently bought a load of second hand books on the lanc, good read and nice to have, however.....so far most of the reference pictures I've used for my build have come from the net. Be careful though as an awful lot of (mainly colour pictures) on there seem to be of lancs that have been restored and therefore I don't think they are exactly accurate for wartime lancs. Keep cross checking different pictures and you'll start to see what's restored and what's not, that's how I spotted the seat pan isn't flat (99% of pictures show a seat cushion). Having spent a fortune on aftermarket stuff for the B17 interior when I got it, only for it to be never seen once closed up, I keep testing what can be seen in the Lanc. To be honest, not a lot, and not a lot of detail with the naked eye. I'm following Nige's build with interest but not getting hung up on the detail of my build as it wont be seen !

did exactly the same myself last night based on what I was seeing here - I also opted for german decals and placards for allied. This hobby is expensive and I have no doubt only 10% of what I put into the kit will be seen once sealed up !

all those fuselage windows to mask - had the thought run through my head this morning. I had better get a film on and a pint ready to get through it !