GusMac

Hi Cees, is that the one on Rokin? Spent some time (and Euros) in there with my son when we were over a couple of years ago. Excellent staff and good selection of stuff, or so my son said. Cheers, Gus

Hi George, that beach looks great for dogs! We've got some nice ones near us on NE coast of Scotland but having two Jack Russells you end up spending most of your time pulling them out of rabbit burrows in the dunes. Last time we were over your way we spent a couple of glorious days on the beach at Scheveningen but it was just a bit busier than that. Gus

Thanks Cees. That's good to know about the Revell thinners, especially if they smell sooo good. Another noxious smelling modelling product is just what I need to stay in my wife's good books! Gus

Evening all, a bit more progress to report. Gloss coat on - I remembered I had some Tamiya rattlecan gloss clear that I'd decanted, so went with that. I tested the Humbrol acrylic gloss with the Tamiya acrylics and wasn't happy with the results, didn't give a consistent finish, so I gave that a miss. The decals are the Trumpy kit ones for the stencils which went ok except for a few of the smallest ones on the missiles which just disintegrated. They've settled quite nicely with a little Microsol. The Syrian insignia are from the Linden Hill 'Non-aligned Floggers' set. Printing, etc is excellent but they just seem a little thick - even with copious applications of Microsol and Mr Mark they haven't settled quite as well into the panel lines, etc as I'd hoped. Maybe it's just my unfamiliarity with the decal softeners but the final result wasn't quite as nice as I thought it might be. Decals have had a top coat of gloss so now it's on to weathering. Plan is to use the AMMO panel line washes which are supposed to be fairly idiot proof - well here's the test, give them to an idiot and see what happens! Not going to go too heavy on the weathering as the photo references I've got show a relatively clean airframe just before it was shot down. I'm fully signed up for Doogs' arguments for honest critique, so any suggestions, etc, please fire away. This is so far beyond anything I've tried before so all ideas, comments, etc welcomed. Cheers, Gus

Sounds better behaved than our cat who attempted to climb out an open quarter-light window, slipped, fell and demolished my Revell Ju88a1 which was displayed on the table underneath. Cat 1 Model 0!

Does the cat come as standard? Looks great though, just far too organised.

Hi Dave, If you do decide to drive up to Edinburgh it's worth a trip to the Museum of Flight at East Fortune which you'd drive by. They have one of the remaining Concordes plus a nice Jaguar and lots of other cool stuff. Gus

Hey Brad, I'll take our real ales over Fosters or XXXX or the other rubbish you send us! Hasn't rained on the right days this summer for your cricketers either. Did try thinning some paints with IPA but over here that's India Pale Ale so didn't end well. Dave, if you have the time or opportunity I can recommend a jaunt up here to Scotland - some of the best scenery on Earth but lots of rain! Gus

Some more progress to report. All the small areas painted, dielectric panels, outer exhaust, etc. Made my own masks for the arabic numerals on the serial numbers. Printed them onto Tamiya's kabuki sheets and cut out with a sharp blade. Pretty happy with the outcome for a first attempt. Three out of the four are pretty sharp, the fourth is a bit smudged but I reckon after it's weathered etc it'll just look a bit worn (I hope). Next step is the gloss coat. As I've posted elsewhere I could only get Humbrol acrylic gloss at the LHS and I'm twitchy about how it'll work over the Tamiya acrylics. I'm even twitchier about trying Future as a gloss so I might just order some Tamiya gloss online and wait. I've got this far without any foul-ups for once and I don't want to jinx it now. Any suggestions or experience with this combo welcome. Ta, Gus

Thanks Ed. I have a bottle of Klear which seems to be the same stuff but haven't had the courage to try it. Too many questions! From what you say it doesn't need thinning? Also, how does it react to Microsol/set? What's the best matt to use over it and how do you clean the airbrush afterwards? May just give it a go on an old Skyray kit my son has lost interest in. Thanks, Gus

Does anyone know if gloss coating with Humbrol 35 Gloss Varnish from their Acrylic Spray range will work over Tamiya acrylics? It's all I could get at the LHS and I've tested it on a small sample and aren't entirely happy with the result. I'm not sure whether to go with it or wait and order some Tamiya gloss online. I'll be using it from the rattlecan as I don't think I can airbrush quickly enough yet to cover the Mig-23 in any reasonable timescale. Any advice/tips gratefully received - I've got this far without screwing it up and I'm getting paranoid! Thanks, Gus

Thanks Paulster, good to know I'm not just missing something. Think I may just go with the Firefly after all. The Tamiya reboxing of the Tasca kit seems to get nice reviews. Don't know enough about Bronco to know if a re-release is likely. Thanks, Gus

Great result Ralph. The weathering looks excellent. Must get back to doing some armour - haven't done any since a Merkava I did with my son. Gus

No pics this time but I've found the answer to something that had puzzled me. Revell are such a big manufacturer that I was always wondering why their paints got so few mentions on the forums - few mentions of the enamels but virtually nothing for the acrylics. Having just tried to thin the acrylics for airbrushing I can see why - they thin like ****! Maybe they're better with a different thinner, I use Gunze self levelling which has been great with anything else tried, but not good with this. Only the exhaust left to finish then I need to make some masks for the serials in Arabic, so hopefully some pics soon. Gus

Lovely burnished looking finish on the gear doors, Jeroen. Kudos. Cheers, Gus

Hi All, Does anyone know of anywhere that still has the Bronco 1/35 Comet available? I've looked everywhere and can't even find one on eBay. Been doing some research on a great-uncle who served with the 2nd Fife & Forfar Yeomanry and fancied doing one of these. Could do the Tamiya / Tasca Firefly but it just doesn't appeal the same way. Thanks for any help anyone can offer. Regrds, Gus

Thanks James. That is exceptional value on the delivery costs. A few so-called national websites charge us more than that for delivery within the UK just because we have a postcode with the same initial letters as a fair chunk of the Highlands. You try and point out to them that that postcode covers about 35% of the landmass of Scotland and that you live 5 minutes off the motorway to the oil capital of Europe but to no avail. Sorry, rant over. Can definitely see some of this on the wish list for Xmas. Gus

Those HZ units do look great. Do they go together as easily as claimed James? If so I think my Xmas list might be started. The pop-up socket is a great idea as well. It looks a great workspace. Cheers, Gus

Well, finally an update. Should be titled 'My Adventures with an Airbrush'! Most of the main painting done - just got the Apex and Aphid missiles, the speed brakes, rear exhaust and the dielectric panels to paint then it will be time for a gloss coat. Given this is the first time I've airbrushed anything, I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Not to the standard of most on here, but compared to anything I've done previously it's miles ahead. It's certainly been fun learning about just how much you can thin the paint (all Tamiya) and still get good coverage. The H&S Evolution is really easy to use and clean and the locking mechanism is handy for the hamfisted like me so you don't get too much paint at once. I think one lesson is that the black basing technique is great for fairly monochrome schemes but it's hard to get a lot of contrast with it on a camouflage scheme like this. There's more contrast to the naked eye than is obvious here but it's definitely harder to see under the green than the desert yellow or flat earth. Used Blu Tack to do the differentiation between the camouflage and it's not bad but I think I need to work on being more consistent with the thickness to get even feathering at the boundaries. Any comments, advice, etc welcome. Certainly if anyone has advice for how to get a reasonable effect for the inside of the tail pipe I'd be keen to know. The Russian engines seem to give a 'greenish' patina to the inside and I'm not sure how best to get that. Cheers, Gus

Snap Danny!! Just got the Evo Silverline 2 in 1 last week and so far it is just great. Had intended to buy the H&S Ultra but got an excellent deal on this and only ended up paying about 5% more - my birthday treat to myself. So far have started the main colours on my Flogger build, got the underside blue down and the sand onto the upper. Will post some pics once I manage to airbrush a largeish area without also managing to spray my fingers! Cheers, Gus

Okay, all primed up and ready to progress. Learning so much as I go forward with this. Firstly, how hard it is to take pictures with any sort of decent contrast of a black aircraft under artificial light! Now I see why people invest so much in their photographic set-ups. Everything is primed in Mr Surfacer 1500 which went on nicely but it was a bit of a shock how long it took to do this with the airbrush, even with the 0.5mm needle. Pretty happy with how the joints have come up after all the prep - not up to the standard of most of you on here, but a million miles better than anything I've managed before. However, my scribing skills definitely need a bit of work. There are a couple of rescribed panel lines, especially on the topside where the forward two fuselage sections join, that look as though I've done them with a trenching tool!! Think a bit of Vallejo filler wiped down with alcohol should hopefully fill them a bit but still leave enough detail to show as a reasonable panel line. Anyway, next step is work on the landing gear then onto the main painting. All comments, suggestions, etc welcomed. Cheers, Gus

Echo the sentiments that it's great to see another 32nd scale release but personally I'm waiting with anticipation for the Mirage IIIC release coming from Italeri. I know the IIIE is what most folk want to see but l just want to do a 6 Day War lDF one.

Hi Alexandr, Thanks for that. I hadn't realised they did one. The price looks similar here to the OptiVisor but it looks lighter to wear, so I'll have a look at that. Regards, Gus

Hi all, needing a bit of advice from my fellow myopics! Whilst slogging through the sanding,filling,scribing stage on my Flogger I've realised I need a decent magnifier system as the little stand based one I have is no use in many situations. Looking around the OptiVisor seems popular and reasonably priced - my question though is can it be worn with glasses? I've also seen the eye glasses style loupes which look ok but most seem to have very high magnification which I'd have thought would lead to issues with focal length and depth. Any advice welcome. Thanks, Gus

Great product. I just wish Jan, or some of the others, would consider doing something similar for more modern aircraft.