PanzerWomble

Underside . Tamiya gloss white base coat , mottled with dark grey , then progressively oversprayed using the white thinned with gloss varnish . Time ot dry then flip her over. I'm not a huge proponent of this method ... but think alwasy worthwhile trying something new other every build looks the same . We shall see.

You will after you mount the 8 foot submarine on it's plinth 🤣 I'm not familiar with the show - will it be black rubber coated like modern submarines? Make a real conversation piece with the neighbours.

I think that was BC's point . TBH the post Falklands buy of second hand Phantoms was expediency to base at Port Stanley ,and they didn't really go on to have much in the way of interesting careers , even if the RAF quietly acknowledged they were better than the Spey engined ones.

Yup , those Speys did us no favours , then or now ! Mind you it kept the value of RR shares up ...the same RR that gave the Soviets jet technology in a complete package for the price of a single engine .....no wonder Truman didn't want to share Manhatten with us .

I can't speak to your helicopter restoration , but can if offer the advice of focusing on the chassis with the truck build early on, to check you get all four wheels on the floor. Often the instructions will call for the wheels or axles later , by which time it can be harder to correct the one wheel up look .

Nose full of lead , the overall fit is ok apart from the intakes , which were a crap fit on the first one I built too . No real engine details so sprayed the inside black just in case . First blast of filler primers to see how it looks . . Shock horror.... I used commercial car rattle cans from Halfords (O'Reily for US viewers) for the primer . it's a Brit thing honest. Needs to harden up & will gently rub back

Not much to say about the pit , kinda basic , no decals , bang seats and some wiring will cheer it up Fit was ok

I bought Vol 1 and 2 of Geoff Coughlins build guides from KLP ,. these are way better than I thought they would be and well worth the money https://www.klp.com.au/product/building-the-british-phantoms-volume-one/

So what do we get , the model . Some Quickboost bang seats as the kit one are junk, some decals for 892 ,

I've not forgotten the Tamiya F4-B down there ⬇️ . I'm busy working up to a house move and frankly want to sit down over a holiday period to really enjoy that build . Maybe Easter if we're not moving them . Meanwhile I've had this Revell FGR2 knocking about, which is a repop of the old Hasegawa F4 . Last time I built this, i did it as a FGR2 using the RAF 2 Sdn decals that came with the kit . Fancied building it again as the earlier FG1 ( Hasegawa's tooling pretty much covers both ) as one of Ark Royals 892 NAS Tooms in their hey day of the 1970's . Fun fact , I had a day on board Ark Royal R09 ( plus lunch) when she was in Devonport dockyard around about 1976 ish . Here we go with HMS Tenby in the background which dates it to pre Feb 1973. No RWR on the tail , little stores, probs a calibration/ training flight rather than a CAP . Nicely worn EDSG , XT860 would have been about 4/5 years in service (first flight Feb 1968 ).

As I understand it in the UK ,commercial auto gunwash is low quality / some recycled content , and fast or slow is as much to do with inhibitors as anything else , we also have anti blooming for cold weather, but I am only an amateur painter in 1:1 scale and not a chemist. The recipe for MR Colour came from Arc Forums from memory ..or was it Breaking Bad ...? My main "home brew" is the Tamiya X20-A Acrylic thinners as I mainly useTamiya Acrylics 33% IPA / 66% H2O plus 5% flow retarder. Been using that at least 4 years now, rarely get dry tips anymore. I'm convinced as with 'sanding sticks "and other modelling stuff, there is an element of....... take regular items like chemicals, rebrand them and quadruple your profits . I doubt 20 chemical engineers sat down at Tamiya for 5 years to work out a secret formula for their Lacquer thinner, when that technology is over 100 years old .

Still 110% in admiration of your perseverance. 😃

I'm with you Mike, buying more chemicals not products. Some thoughts ... I've just bought 10 years supply of Tamiya extra thin ...... 1 litre of MEK for about $14 .....$200 bucks saved Add MEK to Acetone ( 1 litre about $7) roughly 1:1 and you get Mr Colour Laquer Thinners $40 bucks saved Add Water to IPA ( 1 litre about $10) roughly 70/30 ....and you get Tamiya Acrylic thinners, which I also use for airbrush cleaner paint thinning , bench cleaner , Womble cleaner etc . $35 bucks saved Once a while I drop my metal airbrush bits in a pot with some cellulose paint thinners (Toluene) ....and the paint acrylic or enamel falls of with a lil shake . Toluene also cleans up Alcald paints. Melts plastic though 🤕 Chemistry 1 .....Marketing BS 0 They all have to publish Data Sheets which advise the active ingredients 😃

Shame . TBH I might be moving around mid May , but hopefully can squeeze it in as it's only an hour so drive for me .

My entire knowledge of the State of Texas comes from TV and films ....where they don't mention snow at all . I know it snows there but it always comes as a shock .

It's coming together really well. On my Revell one I used Al foil to represent the canvases with which they covered the railings , however would seem a shame to cover those nicer in scale ones up .

Jeez that tooling is older than me !

Could you not cast a replacement using the other side ? Looks relatively straightforward part ?

Humber Scout car , 31st Armoured Brigade, Operation Epsom, June 1944 . Enjoy or not . Laterz, PW WIP here