BlrwestSiR

Thankfully there's no flash or ejector.pin marks. The surface detail is a bit... plain. Nice and smooth though. Great for a NMF. Thankfully no signs of the Trumpy Mad Riveter. There is a small bit of cleanup on some parts due to the way they're cut out. A quick pass with a file is all it took

After seeing and talking to Harv of his build up and overall review of the Arttystation Orchestra workbench organizer, I decided to pick up one of their smaller sets called the Symphony. One of the reasons to get this was to replace a couple existing Hobby Zone organizers I had. They were getting too crammed and our new cat had knocked one over a couple times. I didn't want to find him skewered with tools. So I ordered the Symphony and some additional modules to expand it a bit. Here's a pic of what it looks like. It's 90 cm across or about 3 ft and 64cm high or 2 ft. One thing I'm going to change is I'm going to remove the small tray on the right side. I don't think I'll use it and by taking it off, I'll he able to free up some bench space.

Nice looking bunch of parts. Can't wait to see them come together. Carl

Phil, I'll see what I can do but I've already started assembly. I'm also going to be modifying one module so that may be worth documenting. Also, Harv did a WiP which is what convinced me to get this. Carl

After looking at Harv's setup, I finally ordered the Arttystation bench organizer. I debated between it and the Hobby Zone ones. Having a couple Hobby Zone units already, I decided to try the Arttystation. It arrived earlier this week. The change led to a completely new workbench as I was able to get a new table for free. It's about 6" longer than the existing one but with having to share the bench with my boys now, that could make a slight difference to how much more room I have to clutter up. Carl

Fantastic pair of B-24s. Carl

That's just the Tamiya, Gunze and AK. I have the Vallejo paints to my boys. Less chance if spills I figure. Well, the Corsair is my favourite prop plane... ...followed by the Spitfire.

I think they saw what the test shot looked like so they decided to call it a day before the rivet counters found out. I'm not sure if the figure is supposed to Von Richtofen or Jay Leno.

Looking good there Harv. Those turret doors looks like something that the crew jumps out of and yells "Surprise!!!"

The Tomcats splashed the Zeros. Great video Smitty and thanks for sharing it.

Martin, it's always a pleasure to return the favour and help you out. Very brief update. I have the PE floor added to the single seater so it's about ready for a coat of paint. I'm going to temporarily put the kits away as I'm going to redo my bench over the next couple of days. Hopefully things will be better organized once I'm done. Carl

Thanks for the tips Harv. They'll help me keep the frustration level down. Carl

Doing a bit of a reorganization of my bench so it's slightly worse than usual. At least it's only paints and supplies on it. I've moved the paint racks to the side of the shelf with my reference books on. According to FedEx, my order from Arttystation is supposed to arrive today which is what precipitated the reorganization. I'm hoping to end up with more bench space that I can clutter up

Well, the squirrels around me are coming out of hibernation so that makes sense. Nice to have such a fantastic reference source at hand. Not to mention Harv's generosity too. Carl

Really nice looking 262 Gaz, especially the mottling. Carl

I got a smidge more done. I continued working on the cockpit tubs. The single seat tub in the middle needs a section of the floor removed and a replacement section installed from the Eduard set. Hence the bunch of holes. Of course the Eduard instructions don't mention leaving a lip around the hole to install the new bits. I figured that part out thankfully before removing everything. So it may not be square but it'll be covered.

Sorry Bill, saw the Barker bit and thought that was it. Carl

Shows in stock at the moment. https://www.wheelswingsestore.com/wnw32608-wingnut-wings-1-32-sopwith-7f-1-snipe-w-barker-ltd.html

For all the grief the kit gets, it can build up into something decent.

Even better, it's a Griffon!

Welcome aboard Lutz! Can't wait to see how this kit goes together. I've got the Tamiya one in the stash so never got around to this one. Carl

Ok, so a bit more progress. I'm using the Eduard PE sets for the seats and cockpit. Needless to say, their choice of colour for some of the pre-painted panels is a bit off. They've got more of a Russian cockpit blue grey to them. So I've started slowly airbrushing over using the correct shade of grey. We'll see how that goes soon enough. Meantime, I did a bit more assembly of the front cockpit. Mostly this was the ejection seat rails and rear bulkhead along with a coat of paint. I've started shaving off the rear cockpit details as well. The kit intakes are fairly straightforward with a couple ejector pin marks inside that need filling in the trunking. Odds are you could probably skip this part as they're fairly buried inside the plane. Thankfully, the intake lips only need a quick swipe with some sanding sticks to clean up. There is a rough surface texture to them so the sanding took care of that at the same time. Finally, I got the engines closed up. Since I'm not planning to have anything open, these are pretty much done. Martin is working/ about to work on his own Starfighter and I was grabbing some spare bits I had to send his way. Which led to a second kit being out and about so rather than take the easy route and box it back up, I decided to add it to the bench. This'll be a single seat kit and I'm planning to do it as a JASDF F-104J. The nice thing is the Starfighter isn't a complicated kit, especially with everything closed.

Smitty, did you use any AM or is that OOB?

Really nice looking plane there Ernie.