CANicoll

Super nice! Can't wait to see the 3D bits in use.

PW Beautiful work! Your added bits really make a huge improvement to the terrific work you did on the tank. Weathering is so nicely done, too.

That looks terrific. Nice detail in that flap - can't wait to see it painted.

John, Nice clean 109! Beautiful work.

My carpet monster, and her opinion of my modeling skills. _WW21179.NEF

PW: Awesome! Great work on the add-ons, the paint and weathering looks terrific.

Looks like it fit pretty well?

Thanks, Peter. I do like the way that the bottom has turned out. It will be a challenge to duplicate the effect topside with the camo pattern. I was looking at that a little while ago - trying to figure out a plan of attack. It helps immensely that I have them in a tray all by themselves. I keep lots of frozen food trays around for exactly this - holding parts. I'm surprised I have not bent or broken off either the wing mounted probe or the tail wheel strut.

Increasingly I sit at my bench with a white towel across my lap to catch what I can. I've seen aprons that connect to the workbench, but I'd forget it was attached and end up yanking everything onto the floor when I got up....

Maru, First build of yours I have seen!! Nice one.

Scott and I were NOT looking for joiners to our group, Peter! But glad to hear things seem to be under control now. Take care!!

Looking good Kevin! Nice color to the cockpit and the belts look terrific.

Interesting subject, Carl. Nice to get one of those old kits out of the stash!

Nice work!

Counter balancers are still there!

Took Kevin's suggestion and used RAF Dark Earth instead of Middlestone on the bottom: Took several light coats and then a few overall heavier coats for the effect. Patience is key, as well as just letting the paint dry for a while to looking away to let the eyes adjust. All told, this took about 20 - 25 minutes to spray the blue. And closer up: My seam work still leaves a lot to be desired, but I like the effect overall. Will also see about a brown/tan wash on the rest of the rivets on the bottom. Relly like these MRP paints - they cover well but at the same time, are translucent on light coats. Really nice to spray if you have the proper paint booth set up with efficient exhaust, and of course, a good respirator.

Keeping with the SandBox theme, I wanted to see what shading would look like if the 'ground/dirt' was more sand than European soil... These lines are black and RAF Middlestone (MRP-121) on my paint mule. Not exactly a white primer background but close enough. And after spraying with RLM 78. I think I like the underside with the Middlestone better than the usual black pre-shading. Thoughts?

Thanks Carl! Going to work on the rear canopy glass and the pre-shading this afternoon. Knowing me, I'll at least get the wing painted blue to see how the shading is going...

Thanks Mike and Kevin, Making the builds certainly makes one have to think creatively! I'm going to keep the blue and work on some pre-shading tomorrow. Don't think I'll make #1 though - I spend the evening with a friend in the ER. Fortunately they are ok, but having to spend the night. Then I'm taking off for a short vacation, Tuesday-Saturday. But I won't be last!!!

Not a lot to show for the work so far. Concentrating on getting ready for the camo paint. Lots of fuselage seams to take care of - the bane of my existence. Ugh. Still working on those. Slight problem with the cockpit glass - which I didn't notice until priming (of course): to fit all of the pieces closed up (for painting), the rear piece gets pushed up too high. Will have to gently try and pry that loose, then sand it down some. The framing has some really nice rivet detail so don't want to lose that. I'm planning on displaying the cockpit open so may instead just thing down the corners of the framing enough to get the center section to open to the side. Installed the gunsight before the windscreen. The reflector glass is THICK! Spent a bit of time on some detail pieces, Bit of wear in the center of the armor plate pad: Best as I can tell from period photographs, the wheel hubs look to be gloss black so went with that. Chrome paint on the oleos - soon to get some weathering.

Your Gun Bays look amazing. I never could get my ammo belts to look as good as yours. Nice work!

PW, that is exactly it - not worrying about fixing the fit, just putting it together. Decals are thick but servicable. The nose sharksmouth were too big to fit as intended, but servicable anyway. Finishing this up so I can focus a bit more on the Bf 109 for the Sandbox GB.

X4.

Martin, Excellent! Thank you. You are an amazing source of great information. I really do appreciate it. So there really are two RLM 78 colors, 1941 and 1942: Somewhere after November 1941, RLM 78 was changed to a slightly lighter shade, while RLM 79 was changed to a darker, browner shade both for the tropical regions. Apparently, this 'desert pallet' was also used on the Eastern Front. Eduard may be looking at the 1941 color, while I'm looking at the MRP version which is much closer to the 1942 RLM 78. MRP may be a BIT too bright so I may look at toning it down just a bit with some white, or maybe some light gray...Time to break out the paint mule... Looking at the article, I am impressed at the huge range of AK Interactive colors - they tick every box! Further down the article are these two color pictures which are immensely helpful: RLM 78 Early: And this one, RLM 78 Late:

Definitely helps maintain sanity (and the budget...).