Landlubber Mike

Awesome choice Kevin! Looking forward to both builds!

I've been giving this one some thought too. I have a bunch of float planes like the F1M1 Pete, the HpH Walrus, and the Kitty Hawk Kingfisher. I also have a bunch of ships in 1/350 and 1/700 scale I can do, but having just completed my IJN Shimakaze destroyer, I think I want to push myself into something new. If you guys are ok with non-LSMs as part of the group build, I was thinking of building the 1/48 Airfix Walrus: on top of the NeOmega catapult set: Since I didn't want to build the Walrus using a silver scheme, this past week I was researching camo schemes for the Walrus that were launched from ship catapults. I found a couple that were with the HMS Albatross and ordered the related decal and masking sets. Here are the two schemes I'm leaning towards - more likely the first to have something a little different from the HpH kit and I confirmed there was a non-trainer version with the Vickers guns: I was all excited to do this, but then to top it off, this week while researching the camo schemes and the HMS Albatross, I happened to come across this 1/700 kit from Niko models of the Albatross that includes a Walrus for the catapult, which happened to be on sale at Free Time Hobbies. I immediately placed the order and it looks like I managed to snag the last one: So, now I'm thinking of putting together a combined display of the Airfix Walrus on a catapult representing one of the planes on the HMS Albatross, with the 1/700 version of the Albatross having the same Walrus plane in miniature as part of the overall display. Sort of like here is a close-in shot of the Walrus on the catapult, and here is the pulled back miniature version of what the Walrus looked like on the full ship. I'm thinking a two tiered display with the 1/48 Walrus/catapult as the main, higher tier of the display, with the 1/700 version presented on a lower tier to the side and/or front of the main Walrus. I know I'm committing a double sin of not using large-scale models, but is this ok for the group build?

I just saw the bad news Peter, so sorry to read that. Must have felt nice throwing it really hard into the bin though - I've been there more than a few times before but never had the courage to do that. Hobby should be fun, not stressful! I'm working on the Special Hobby 1/48 Buffalo. Needs a lot of extra care and attention as well.

I'm a little late to the party Rob, but man, that cockpit work is really incredible. Amazing job! Love your engine work thus far as well. Hope you're feeling better and enjoyed your trip!

What a fantastic model Sasha! Amazing job! I also really like your display base for it.

Yeah, they make it way too easy to spend money in this hobby! I bought my first Me262 on eBay loaded with aftermarket, then found some of the other CMK conversion sets and added them, so ended up buying a second. The CMK conversions are 4111 (A-1a/V056 fighter conversion), 4112 (A-1a/U3 photo conversion), 4113 (B-1A/B1a/U1 night fighter two seater conversion). I don't know if CMK is still making them, but you can often find them on eBay or some of the big online sellers. This is the Quickboost Jumo engine (48289) - looks like it may be discontinued, but has really nice detail Aires 4222 is a full detail set with two engines, cockpit, wheels, control surfaces, etc.: Not trying to make you spend extra money!

Hey neighbor! The great thing about this subject and the kit is that there are so many options with decals and other aftermarket. Almost too many! I couldn't decide, so I have two sitting in the stash that I'm going to convert to a U3 photo reconnaissance version (using CMK 4112 and AIMS 48D016 decals) and the other as a two-seater night fighter (using CMK 4113 and EagleCals #170). I tend to like to make life difficult for myself and not build OOB though. Another thing I'm going to do is show off the Jumo engines. Aires and Quickboost make a really nice full sized engine if you're looking to go that route. Lots of options! Looking forward to your build!

Awesome Kevin - great choice!

Great work Jerry! Love your choice of nose art 🤗

Wow, that looks really great Peter, nice job!

Nice job Martin!

Holy cow, that looks really nice!!

Wow Fran, Santa (or Kevin) came early for you this year. You must have been a good boy!

What a cool looking P-51! One alternative approach to the bolts that is sometimes used on the wooden ship modeling side is to drill all the way through, and then insert rod into them. Or, you can find appropriate sized pins, glue them, and then cut the heads off. You can get insect pins for pretty cheap which come in plenty of sizes. Not sure what is the easiest, but looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

I store them in my kits the best i can, otherwise have boxes marked for stuff that won't fit. I use the Notes feature on my iPhone to record every kit and piece of AM I have for it so I don't double buy.

Looks great John! Great paint and decal work!

Wow, that's really well done! And I thought I was going to go crazy working in 1/72 scale!

That camo is amazing! Are you using an airbrush for everything, or are you hand painting some things like the red portions?

Thanks Peter, really appreciate it. I rely heavily on an Optivisor for this kind of work!

Looks like a blast, have fun!

Looking really great Peter! Love that camo scheme!

Thanks very much Rob, really appreciate it! Getting me ready for the upcoming "in the water" group build 👍

Thank you Fran!

That's looking really great! Engine is fantastic. Hope you're feeling better.

Thanks guys, really appreciate it!