GusMac

Ah, sorry to hear that Peter. Hope you managed to get all the crap out of the airbrush. From experience I know how stubborn it can be to get it cleaned out. On another note, congrats on the good news from the follow-up. I work in nuclear medicine and PET over here, so it's good to see how quick they turned round your result. We seem to spend half our time chasing the medics to make sure they keep up with the reporting.

Ooh nice. Always had a soft spot for early 80s Cold War stuff - remember wargaming with these as a kid. Slightly smaller scale though!

Good save on the windscreen Kai and nice work at the rear sorting the banana!

Thanks fellas. Paints arrived this morning so I'm going to experiment with them a bit on an old paint mule before I commit to this and screw it up. I also need to have a think about the best approach and order of colours to try and minimise the amount of masking needed. Yes it is a weird one Peter. I've thinned Ammo acrylics, which are similar to the MIG ones, no problem with Mr Levelling, but the Vallejo stuff turns to goo despite them seeming similar as well. I've also has the same with Tamiya's titanium gold which is the only Tamiya acrylic I've ever had go bad on me. I think it just has a lot more pigment in it than most of their others?!

Great idea and lovely colourful finish.

Primer on.... Actually better than I thought it might be. A little work required around the nose joint and some further rescribing on the wings and I'm good to go I reckon. Got paints ordered - I've gone for the AK Real Colors as they have the best match to the colours needed and I fancy giving them a try as they seem to get a good write up. Cheers all

Nice start and a good looking cockpit.

As a kid I used to work for a newsagent who had a boxer which would eat anything. When he gave you a lift in his van you had to retrieve the seatbelt from behind a length of drainpipe which was there to stop the dog eating them. It had also 'nibbled' on the gear stick and seats so let's say the second hand value of the van wasn't much!

Thanks all for the helpful info. They look like a promising route to getting all the colours I need in one brand. I'm never too keen on mixing paint brands on the main paintwork after some bad experiences in the past. Just need to work out the best supplier now.

Thanks for the suggestions fellas. Tamiya X22 is my go to gloss coat, thinned with Mr Levelling it has always given me decent results, so that'll be the plan for this one. I've used the AK Extreme Metals and was mightily impressed by them but no experience with their other products. They do seem to have a good colour range. Does anyone know if their acrylics are 'true' acrylics or are they solvent based like the Tamiya ones and can be thinned with Mr Levelling? Also are the lacquer based Real Colour ones really smelly? My wife has an issue that precludes me from using anything too noxious so that might be a deciding factor.

Hi Kai This is the plan... Whether I can pull it off is a different matter! Still not sure what paints I'll use. I've tended to use Tamiya acrylics or Ammo paints recently but I've doubts about both for this. Tamiya due to the lack of close colour matches and Ammo as the gloss paints are quite fragile in my experience and may not stand up to all the masking needed. I'm also pondering whether to use gloss or just the best colour matches and use the gloss coat to get the necessary finish. Anyway primer is the first step.

The schnozz is on... Small amount of filler required but mainly due to me using the styrene sheet to attach it. Pitot is just placed in the hole I drilled to check the fit. It and the refuelling probe will be left off until the end of painting and they are just too prominent to last without being pinged off at some stage. Weather has been apocalyptic here so I foresee a weekend of primer.

Nice choice Kai. This is the first big conversion I've done like this but the quality of the Scaleworx resin has certainly made it a pleasure so far.

Thanks fellas. I'll post some pics of it with the nose on tomorrow. Then primer time..... and all the flaws become clearer!

Nice job on the figure Gaz. You could give him a goatee to hide the chin but probably not allowed in the DAK?

Lovely job on the windshield and exhaust Kai. How was the windshield fit? It required a fair bit of trimming on mine but I put that down to the fit of the side panels with the resin dash and front coaming.

This is going to look absolutely stunning!

Just fitted the nose as a test fit showed there was enough weight in that big lump of resin to ensure it isn't a tail sitter. Bit of filler required and I'll post some pics after it's sanded to a finish

Lovely work Alberto, the seat is wonderful. As others have said, you've made a good job of fixing all the flaws in the joints.

Thanks fellas. To be honest watching Kai and Alberto fight with the base kit, I don't think the resin has added any extra work really. Certainly not enough to out weigh the enjoyment of the conversion.

Update time. I've got all the resin bits attached now other than the nose so I can do a final assessment of whether I need to add any weight before I seal the front. Everything fits really well with only minimal filler required to smooth things in. I thought getting the canards off the casting blocks might be a nightmare given the curved surface where they attach to the fuselage but John has done a superb job at the casting stage and a few passes with a sharp blade were all that was needed. In an effort to get a good strong join with the nose I've blatantly copied what Mistral did on his build on LSP and glued a thin styrene disk to the back which will be joined with Tamiya Extra Thin and hopefully give a good strong weld. Again, looks like it shouldn't need much filler so hopefully primer soon!

Nice. Always had a soft spot for these odd Soviet swimming tanks

Superb work Hubert

There's a bench in there?

That's the tail of an extrovert!