CANicoll

VERY cool and VERY much interested in watching your build of the ZM kit. It just looks like an incredible number of parts (reminds me of WNW actually) so can't wait to see what you do with them as I know it will be terrific to follow. Blue 14 is my first choice or Yellow 20 as second are my votes! Cheers, Chris

Bird from NJG 11, May of 1945, because the light blue fuselage caught my eye and looked interesting. Sadly, in these pics the color looks more gray so i will have to fix that in the photos in the future postings. Catching this build already underway, but hope it is still of interest. Building OOB, for better or worse, to help reduce the cost and keep the build fairly simple. Also liked the camo pattern on the wings, compared to the green wings on 'Red 8' which is the other plane represented by this kit. Plus, the way the plane was painted, it was very easy to paint the wings and elevators separate from the fuselage, making painting that bottled fuselage camo a bit easier. Per my usual technique, working on a faded paint effect even given the relatively short life these planes actually saw. I'll claim poor-quality paint late in the war for the effect! With the engine nacelles dry fitted: The cockpit begs for some really nice additional detail, but even OOB, I think the decals worked pretty well. They would have worked even better had I gotten the main IP decal on a little straighter. A BIG disappointment is how bad the decal seatbelts appear in 1/32 scale. UGH. I kind of wish I had just left them off. But in for a penny, in for a pound I guess. PE seatbelts would have been better, I think. f And the Radar operator's station came out better than I expected. Next up is to attach the antenna, do a bit of masking (the black under the fuselage will come in after painting the camo) and then look to mask the canopy and get that painted. Comments welcomed! Chris

Good to see you active over here Peter! I've missed you at the other site. I need to take a bunch of pictures of the ME-262 and put together a build thread. You, as usual, spur me on! Thanks for the comments and suggestions - I'll be working on those too. All the best, Chris

Thanks Clunk! I'll fix up the prop and the yellow bands just because. Still trying to get back to the 1/32 ME-262 and the fuselage camo... Its a BIG beast! CN

Thanks Gary! I'm pretty sure it is a telescopic sight, but just remembered to look at the pictures of the Seiran at Udvar Hazy (which is only about 20 min away from where I live) and that plane doesn't have it. In any event, seems to be over-scale...

Thanks Martin! I appreciate the kind words and the welcome. Looking forward to spending a lot of time here. Chris

Hi everyone! A fun little build that took me way too long to finish. I usually try and do something in 1/72 when I am working on a larger kit (in this instance, the 1/32 Revell Me 262 B1-U1) so that I feel like I am actually accomplishing something in a reasonable amount of time. Looking at the pictures I notice the weathering is very inconsistent - the nosecone and props are pristine, as are the yellow wing strips, in contrast to the rest of the aircraft. Something I will fix here shortly. The dolly is wholly unweathered at this point, too. Comments and suggestions are of course, welcomed. This is actually only my second Japanese aircraft, both in 1/72. Thanks, Chris

A really stunning piece of work! I thought this was 1/32 with all of that detail that you packed in there. Love the subject, and what you did with it. That finish is terrific. Thanks for sharing. Chris