BlrwestSiR

Well, going through the drawers on my bench I found a bunch of sandpaper. In the same drawer I found all the cowlings for the 109. It's been a while so I decided to see just how much effort would be needed to fit them. This is just tape and it looks like many seams would tighten up when glued in place.

The Academy B-35 kits are the old Accurate Miniatures moulds. Overall they're a great kit for early B-25s. Interestingly, they share the same cowl issue that the 1/32 HK kits have. The cowl opening is too small. A couple companies make resin replacements or you can sand them to shape.

Nice job on the silver finish. Like the others have said, the weathering has worked out really well.

Reminds me of that pic of a Navy F-4 on a bombing run with the step ladder down. Nice stencil work too.

Tonight I worked on one of the outer wing sections. More squiggles and then the colour coat over top. I also masked off and painted a couple panels in a different shade of grey to help further break things up.

Thanks Peter! It's definitely giving me lots of practice.

Great work Peter. Nice to see you back at it. At least there won't (shouldn't) be any curveballs on this one. I'm trying to figure out the best way to do an F-14B from the Tamiya kit as the Great Wall kit is almost double the price.

With the base coat dry, I started on the colour coat. I'm using XF-19 Sky Grey for this. I figured I'd get some practice on my German squiggle camo at the same time. With the other side done. The modulation is there so I guess it worked. Onto the lower centre fuselage.

Thankfully I have lots of extra paint. This is all paint that I already have one on the paint racks. I had to make a list so I knew what was in there.

Nice paintwork Ernie. The 3 tone USN camo I think is my favourite. It sure got beat up and weathered and then throw in touch-ups and re-pains and you have a huge range of options.

Lovely woodworking there Chris. I've never tried turning something but Lee Valley (a woodworking shop) keeps pushing it.

Looks interesting. Hadn't heard of it so thanks for sharing.

I finally got a bit done. I sprayed a coat of primer/pre-shading on the major parts. I used Tamiya Sea Blue since I seemed to have a couple extra bottles of it and it's going to be grey over top. I also ordered some LED lights for the build. They're on their way so hopefully won't be too long a wait.

So first try was a thinned cost of black mixed with some dark blue over the silver. It worked if the black was light enough but then it was more of a grey rather than black. You can see the difference on the engine trunking below the model. The next try was using AK Xtreme Metal Metallic smoke over the silver. This might be closer. I think with a light coat of black over it could work. I also gave the engine nacelle part a light sanding and it's highlighted the edges nicely. So I might do a combination of the two.

Thanks Peter! This really is such a simple build. Hardest part is the paint scheme. I'm trying to figure out a way to get that black metal look the movie model had.

Nice progress Gus. The way you are fixing the wingtip is perfect as I have the same problem on my kit.

There's a slim chance I'll make it. We're going to be in Chicago that week visiting family so I may go for the day. It's a 3 hour drive so do-able from that standpoint.

I thought I'd best check the seams and see how much clean up was going to be needed so I sprayed a base coat of Stainless Steel. I thinned down the intake lips a bit. You can the difference on the top ones (right side) versus the lower intakes on the left.

@PanzerWomble, I'm not sure about a diorama. Just want to do something simple.

Looks like there's decals for the Czech Vipers now. https://cavupublications.com/en-ca/products/cp35-01-zulus-back-in-black?fbclid=IwAR1r8tF_WQNCIuUoXafUQd0Csv22MjgK1zCZCk5XjhdT3Mw_vSwVX3lK9PA

A great summary Rog. It shows that not only is the hobby not dying, but it's expanding into new areas and revisiting older ones. Kit companies are taking the plunge into new subject areas for them and expanding others. The new 1/16 armour kits have been something I didn't expect but having picked up a couple now and seeing their continued rollout is amazing. A couple omissions from your list. - Andy's 1/16 M10 and Achilles. He has an M8 Greyhound coming out in a couple months. - X-Plus released a Jurassic Park T-Rex 30 years(!) after the movie came out.

There's not a lot of parts so hopefully this goes faster than my other builds. Panel lines are engraved and of the Airfix style. Slightly deep but not bad. First step was gluing top and bottom together. Here's a size comparison to an F-15J in the same scale. It's also by HMA and shows the progression the company has made. Next up was the upper and lower nacelles. At this point, I noticed that they include the option of the gear being deployed or in flight. I then conveniently found a small display stand from a Bandai kit. So now I'm considering doing this in flight.

Okay time for another fictional subject, this one from the Clint Eastwood film Firefox. The kit is from HMA and I think it was the first kit they ever produced. Talk about simple packaging. Two sprues in black and one in clear. The instructions are a double sided photocopy. There's also a tiny decal sheet comprised of Russian stars. That's all there is to the kit.

Me too! Just need to mask the canopy off again.

40K definitely has some different looking subjects in it. My LHS started carrying 40K just before the pandemic started and they say it's one of the things that helped them stay in business through it.