BlrwestSiR

There's a XIVe conversion coming soon for the Tamiya Spitfire kits. They're starting with the XVI kit to make a low back XIV Spitfire. So that could be a good reason to get some more donor kits.

Best price I can find in Canada is $149 CAD which is about $110 USD with free shipping. When I bought most of mine, they were around $80-90 CAD with some even cheaper than that. Probably why I've bought in total 13 of them with 4 left in the stash.

I'm with Hubert and agree that using brass rod is a good idea. The nub the kit has for an attachment point just isn't enough.

Nice! I wish they were still that cheap in Canada. Then again, I just checked and still have 4 in the stash. So I guess I'm good for now.

No, the kit was finished by the time I found it. No one will notice unless they look in the cockpit.

Thanks Peter. I just finished adding all the bolts to the first torpedo tubes. Here it is compared to the second one which I haven't started on yet. Now to add the PE details to it.

Peter, BNA really are great to deal with. Having gotten the hang of adding the bolt heads, the other side went much faster. I then started adding the smaller bolts that go on some of the tube flanges. Griffon give you a template so you space them out correctly. Again, I'm subbing in Meng plastic ones instead of the PE versions.

That looks great. I never knew that the thermal covers would fall apart. Adds a nice differentiator to the model.

You could always deal with the seam the way I did. I completely left the sidewalk out by accident. I didn't notice until much later when I found it on my bench.

It's a good question. Makes you wonder. It does sound like the basis of the story they used in Top Gun for Maverick's father.

Phil, that's why I ordered them from BNA. Not only did they have them in stock, their shipping was cheaper too.

Thanks guys! It's definitely the PE set making me look good. They did a great job in the engineering of it. I think there's at least 3 thicknesses of brass sheet that they used never mind the thought into how the folds go and what have you. I was hoping to have the Falcon done by now to focus on the Vosper but no such luck. As it was, I got a delivery from BNA World today with some bits for this build. Still don't know how the Aussies can get a package to me faster than one from 20 km away. I received a sheet of moulded bolt heads as the PE set has you trim them, fold them over after cleaning up the attachment point and then glue them on. Repeat a total of 156 times. The Meng bolts I just slice off and glue in place. Much easier. I hope. Before that though, I had to drill out some holes as they are only partially open. You can see the first one I've done. Huge difference once they're all cleaned up. Now I've started on adding the bolt heads to the frame. Just a few more to go.

Bill, not sure if these pics help at all but here's my stalled out Kingfisher.

Chris, you might want to cut the tail off before you glue the clear parts on. That way, if any cutting dust gets inside, it won't collect on them and you'll be able to get them out. Other than that, you're making great progress. Carl

I read that and thought TB-2 in 1/35 would be absolutely huge. Of course I was thinking of this one: Whoops.

The sequel wasn't that great to be honest.

There's a 1/12 Cain coming out in March from Moderoid. It'll go nidely with their previously released ED-209.

There's an R2-D2 in the model too. The mod makers loved sneaking thing like that in where viewers wouldn't notice them. In one of the city scenes from Blade Runner, the Millennium Falcon shows up as a building.

Small update. Work has been really busy and way more physical than usual. So I'm wiped out most nights coming home. Plus I've trying to finish a side job I started before Christmas. Anyways, I've been slowly adding the various piping and other small details to the hull. It's started to get suitably cluttered. I also tried some weathering on one section. I'm using a mix of Tamiya Panel liners in different colours to highlight the surface detail. Might be a bit subtle but it definitely shows up compared to the other sections.

25' sounds about right for the Cameron Titanic model. It was only finished on once side so to film a pass down the other side, they would change some of the details so they were in mirror and then flip the image in post production. There's an even bigger Titanic model that was made for Raise the Titanic. It's 50' ft long and is still in Malta. If you're interested in movie special effects, there's a great magazine called Cinefex. It used to cover many of the visual effects used in various movies. I have some around somewhere.

Lots of work ahead of you Rob but I'm sure it'll be worth it with your skills. My boys are into capital ships but I haven't built one since I was their age.

I stopped by my LHS and they had a sale on Revell car kits so I decided to go down memory lane and pick up a kit I built when I was around 8. Hopefully I do a better job this time and it doesn't keep falling apart on me like the original one did.

Thanks for the info. I'll try to find an AFV Club one since I technically have Taiwanese citizenship as well as Canadian. Carl

Sounds like you're making some progress there Rog. Sorry to hear about the lighting mixup. Hopefully it's not too much to have it done. I've been swapping out a bunch of incandescent pot lights ( I think that's what they call your down lights here) for low profile LED ones lately at work. They really do make quite a difference. Carl

I'm a fan of Coastal Command Mossies and the Banff Strike Wing ones myself. They used some interesting camo schemes. This is my first Tamiya Mossie in the Ad Hoc scheme which was a thin coat of Dark Sea Grey sprayed over the standard night fighter camo. There's also the MK XVIII Tse Tse with the 6 PDR which is what I'm planning to do with my second kit. Aviaelogy used to have some great decal sheets for Mossies that carried nose art but it may be hard to find.