CANicoll

Thanks, Peter! I'll keep working on them to see if I can do better.

Thanks Gents! The worst part is the pilots will not be that visible under the canopy. Oh well!

I'm not quite up to making my own figures, but appreciate the thoughts, guys. Swapping heads would have been a pretty good idea. Here is where I'm at so far: These guys just look horrible close up! Arrgh. Hopefully the pilots look a bit better! Testing the fit and it is TIGHT. These are the kit figures and had to remove one of the 'steering wheels' to get the legs to fit. Arms, well, they will be another story... Painted now, and glued into place with some white glue so I can move them later if necessary. And both halves. Once the pilots are in place, I'll construct seatbelts to the cockpit seats. Getting there! Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone. Italy gave England a late run but came up short in the Seven Nations Championship. Chris

Thanks Rob and Gary - Now that the poses are basically correct, and I have a better idea of what detail can be seen, I'll do the painting in earnest. Rob - thanks for the link, I didn't see anything there, but it did give me the idea to check out Hannants as SB didn't have any tropical figures that I could find. Was hoping to maybe find a maintenance crew/ground crew set. I'm sure there is one out there. Phil, Figures are something I need to get better at. Hoping Gary/@gazzas does a tutorial on how he does his masterful work! She will be 'in flight' but the dio I was thinking of is just too big to do. In 1/144 maybe!

We definitely have come a long way but it is good to see that some of the old kits still hav some life left in them. I just wish there was a bit more AM for them to really spruce them up. Thanks for the comment!

Did a bit of adjusting of arms (heating over a candle) to try and get a more realistic pose to the crewmen. Since the idea is this is a search and rescue mission, these guys would be looking out their blisters for downed crewmen, as well as potentially airborne threats. These pics are before some touch-up but after (for this poor fellow) some surgery on his left arm to position it down. Right arm was straightened to brace against the blister. This guy is leaning over his machine gun and his right arm will rest on the internal framing by the blister. Did some touch-up painting, trying to replicate a pretty severe tan, as well as faded uniforms. Will keep playing with the skin tone, but the uniforms look a LOT better to the eye than close-up in these pics. My figure work leaves a LOT to be desired, for sure!, Ugh, these look bad!!

Worker benefits there are much better than here. I worked for a telecom company that was acquired by a French company. They got a year's notice of layoffs. Plus benefits. I got 30 minutes to close out my accounts...

Wrapping this one up. Not a fantastic build, but the idea was to get some experience for a future 1/32 and 1/48 F-4 Phantom in SEA camo. The kit was for a Canadian F-4 and the decals were so old they shattered upon application. But it still is a very cool looking aircraft so maybe somebody will make a nice kit one day! This is the perfect example of a 5' model. Looks good at 5'. Don't come closer!! To really do this plane up right, resin engines would be nice, and then some detailed armament. And MUCH better pilot figures! The decals I came up with are too thick, and too old anyway. Oh yeah, this is a bit of a tail-sitter as well. Had to stuff a nail (yep, a nail!) up through the front nose gear into the nose to keep in on all three tires. Didn't take much weight, just a little. Resin engines would make a huge difference, however. There is life in these old kits, and a lot more detail than I remember. Maybe we need and "Oldies but Goodies" build category. I'm in!

Started work on the figures for the Cat, specifically the waist gunner positions where I'm hoping to show them looking out the side blisters. I THINK these guys, molded in black plastic, came from an old Monogram B-17G kit. Right now trying out positions - need to move a few arms, maybe bend a few legs. Also trying out the paint colors. Umm, Maybe my Model Master Acryl is a little bit old? Mixed it up, seems to be working ok so far. Here are the basic positions: Lots of work still on the figures, one of the big problems is, well, they are pretty tall! The kit gunners are both bent at the knees and waists. But trying to show these guys looking out like they are searching for downed airmen. A little bit of progress!

Are we going to do a group build of the Tamiya Mk VIII that so many of us purchased? Here is one of my other projects - the 6" hairpin legs showed up today for the upper shelf. Different workbench time!

Does it leave a mark behind? A residue on the paint?

Thank you, sir!! Took me a while, but it was a pretty good build. Cheers!

Don't we all!!

Looking good!!

Carl, I'm sorry, this whole thing just blows my mind. The level of detail and the minute-ness is something my head just cannot comprehend. Wow. HATCHES THAT WORK??? Those boxes with the cable rings??? Next you are going to say the bloody thing floats and the guns fire!

The base is awesome and the ship is looking sharp. Can't wait to see the details up-close!

Gary, The half-round looks awesome as do the torpedoes. Wow, what a difference. Its the little details that really have a huge impact. Nice work!! For a minute there I thought you were going to foil a torpedo. That would be cool.

Peter, the finish, as is your trademark, is flawless and beautiful. You really pulled the best out of this 'simple' kit! Good luck with the dentist - take your time getting back - I've taken a few days off here to try and catch up on a few things. A break is good!

Battle damaged! Oh this is really cool. Nice job on the plane - thanks for the dialog on the diorama - whew. What a build!!

Terrific quick build and agree, the Tamiya kits are usually really well engineered and create a beautiful result - yours is terrific. Love the subject matter as you don't usually see a lot of Finnish aircraft. Nice job on the (tiny) IP and I think your mottling is spot-on as well - not too heavy from what I can see. Which airbrush do you use? I picked up a Grex specifically to do the mottling as I had much better control over the paint with their pistol-grip format than I had with my Iwata HP-CS. Yours came out beautifully. Chris

Very interesting display!

Ditto!!

Looking pretty good there, Ernie. Smart not to build the nose ahead of time - looks like you can make some adjustments along the way. I really like the B's and C's too, but as you say, they are badly under-represented.

Great progress, Ernie, and nice to see everything fit. Amazing how a big company can't get the research right, but a couple of people working on their own can do it. Agree with Jerry Randal's research with one notable (and early) exception - the nose checkers for their 1/32 Big Beautiful Doll set. They just don't fit. They sent me two addl sets from the one I bought and no matter what I did there were clearly gaps between the panels. I showed them the pictures of the decal placement and they said they scaled up the Tamiya BBD 1/48 decals to 1/32. Except Tamiya changed the shape of the nose slightly. We never got that settled and I ended up using Zotz BBD nose checkers, and Eagle's everything else. But the quality of their decals is terrific. With the research done by you and Peter, I'm looking forward to seeing how your painting comes out.

Finally pulled the canopy masks off - showing a bit of touch-up to do. the multi-part masks to cover the yellow window tape worked ok. And somehow some dust or something got inside the canopy. Oops! So more work to do.