BlrwestSiR

Thanks Rob. I thought I'd be clever and skip the Eduard PE for the Ta 152 and picked up the RB one instead. Well, that's a complete cockpit with individual bezels so I may have leapt from the frying pan into the fire. Thanks Dennis!

Same here. My eyes aren't up to it any more. I'm still amazed that I did try to paint tiny details years ago. My mom found a miniature I painted at least 25 years ago and dropped it off recently. I still can't believe I painted the eyes on this guy.

Got some more of the cockpit done. If you don't want to see scary brush painting, avert your eyes The IP is a combination of the PE bits and some brush painting. I also did the same on the left side of the radio operator's position. I then gave everything a wash using Vallejo black shade wash. Here's the basic cockpit tub all done. Next up were the seatbelts. I use the ones made by Kamizukuri. So far, I've got the shoulder belts done for both seats. Onto the lap belts shortly.

The Tundra is the one Toyota makes to compete with the full size American pickups. It's a beast. The Taco goes up against the Ford Ranger which I think is available in Australia, certainly in the UK and Europe. For a Hilux, I'd love one of these: totally impractical for where I live but nonetheless what I'd want. They're built by Arctic Trucks.

Ok, wasn't sure if they changed the name. We only get the Tacoma here in North America which is a completely different vehicle from the Hilux.

Got a pair of them too. They're beautiful kits but easy to burn out on.

I don't think it's necessarily wrong. There's two blisters in the kit. One is smaller than the other. The larger one has a pair of holes in it. The Dambusters Lancs and some standard Lancs used the bulged one but without the holes. The Iconicair one gives you that option. I'm looking forward to getting my pair of them.

I got the radio panel mostly done. Here's the stock panel. I then scraped off most of the moulded on detail and added my repainted PE bits. The PE definitely had that textured look Rob mentioned. I checked a more recent set for the ZM Do335 and it doesn't have that effect and the colour is a better match too.

Nice model Danny. Something different. I never did try building one of those kits. Anyone got a Rubber Duck to go with it? Always liked the look of that Mack truck all in black. Carl

Looks like a nice ute Gaz. So is that called a Hilux too or something else? Carl

Looks good with the tracks on Harv. Carl

Nice work Tony! And great info Ernie on the plane.

I've only ever had one HpH kit and it wasn't courageous enough to try building it. Can't wait to see more. Carl

The Ta-152 was one of their first kits and I've read about the iffy fit on it in places. I have their revised version of it in the stash so we'll see if it's any better. I've only built one other ZM kit which was the A-1H Skyraider. Thanks Rog! I do like their kits.

Me too please!

Onto the new work. The outer wing sections have a duct and heater assembly. ZM provides this part but only include the upper part of the ductwork. There's nothing to fill in the lower section. When you fit the wing together, looking into the duct the appearance is odd. I mixed up a small amount of Apoxie Sculpt and pressed it into the lower wing. I then shapes it with a wet toothpick to match the upper duct half by holding the wings together. Next up, I have the ZM PE set for the cockpit. This is done by Eduard and still retains their weird idea of RLM 66. I went back and forth between whether to use it as is, try to paint it so it would match the rest of the cockpit or not use it at all. I went with option 2 figuring if I screwed up the painting, I would use the cockpit as is. I used Gunze RLM66 and thinned it down with some Tamiya lacquer paint retarder. It's not 100% precise, but I'm happy with the results. More importantly, it will match the rest of the cockpit. With that step done, I've started prepping the kit parts for the PE application.

I started my He219 early last year but set it aside at some point. I'm trying to clear up some older builds so it's back on the bench. I've been going through the box the last couple days to see where I'd left off. I can add the earlier So far,.I have the main wing and nacelles partly assembled. The same goes for the rear section of the fuselage and the engines. The last major subassembly I have is the ventral gun tray. This part probably caused the most grief mostly due to the addition of the ZM brass gun barrels and PE frame. If you leave the AM stuff out, it goes together fairly painlessly.

I was looking at the pics you posted of the J build and had a quick question. On the turrets, how did you glue together the two halves so neatly. The seam line looks to be be fairly fine. Carl

Rob, I had to check but I don't have a WIP so I'll start one. I was wondering about Peter. Haven't heard from him in a long time either.

I need to wait for better weather to paint the Skyline so the He219 is back. I've been spending the last bit figuring out where I left off. Hopefully I'll start making progress shortly.

When someone says Landover to me, I think of a Series III Defender. Those in Canada are a premium vehicle and are at least 15 years old so it can be imported. A friend has a 110 two door and somehow we once got 8 of us with our mountain bikes all inside it. At least the drive was short. Carl

He did indeed. Didn't help that I had a bit of disposable cash, the LHS had it in stock and the price was right. They are nice kits. I've got the He219 back on the bench as of last night so will be getting back to that one.

I think someone dropped a chimney stack on it.

I think that way it'll make a nice compliment to the Ju88 P-1 and Tse Tse Mosquito I plan to do as well.

Went to my LHS today. They're open for curbside pickup so I did just that. I caved to Ernie's subtle persuasions and picked up the Ki-45. Going to have to build it with the big nose gun. Carl