GusMac

Very nice start.

Wow Dave, never heard of them, but there is some cool stuff there. Some very esoteric seaplanes if that's your thing.

That cockpit set looks great. A worthwhile investment with so much glazing. Ah, the curse of the Trumpy rubber tyres! Given it is regarded as one of their A team efforts, it's a bit of a surprise that there don't seem to be resin replacements.

They must have a lot of space and understanding partners!

Very nice Danny. Looks like you still have one space in the cabinet though! Between you and Mark31 you must have all the helmets in Belgium.

Thanks guys.

Nice to see you here John. Have seen some of your stuff on LSP and look forward to seeing what you have in store for us.

Thanks guys.

Thanks Rich. Just a pity most of it went to make the covers fit.

This has been the project for the last 6 months or so. Great kit which fits really well except for the engine covers! Just couldn't get the engine installed in a way which allowed the covers to be swapped on and off. Explains why you see so many off these with the covers off. Pictures taken outside as we're in the middle of as dry a spell of weather as we've had in 20 years or so. It has barely rained here in about 8 weeks! Any golf fans - we're about 30 miles from Carnoustie so the Open could be exciting this week. The fairways are like concrete so there could be a few interesting bounces! All the main paints were from Ammo's Late WWII RAF set and the details were done with a mix of Tamiya and Gunze acrylics. The codes, insignia etc were done with Maketar masks which are fiddly for the roundels but give a nice result. Weathering was with pastels, Ammo PLWs and filters. Generally happy with it but there's a bit of silvering on the walkway decals so I think I'd paint them the next time. As always, comments welcome. Cheers, Gus

Well, things have progressed a bit! Bench time has been very sporadic, so never seemed to get round to taking pics, but this is now done. I'll post more in the finished builds section. Just a couple of pictures to show I did finish the engine and was quite happy with the weathering. BUT I just couldn't get the damn thing to fit correctly with the engine covers, so most of it got dumped to give a reasonable fit. Although the rest of the kit goes together like a dream this is a real disappointment. I thought it was just my cack handed assembly skills but I've seen Chuck's build on LSP and he's had similar issues and his skills are WAAAY above mine, so that was a slight boost. Anyway, I've got a couple of major DIY projects to do on the house so I suspect my next build won't be starting until into the autumn. Got a couple of ideas but I think it'll be a grubby Hellenic A-7 as I want to try and push my painting envelope a bit. As always, comments, critiques, etc welcome. Cheers, Gus

Neat Rob. Like all the best ideas, simple but elegant. Think I might be looking for a spare piece of timber for my next jet build.

Very nice rendition. As you say, definitely one of Trumpeter's better kits.

Glad the house is back together Rick. The fish tank is a real cool feature.

Just love the weathering on this. What matt varnish do you use? The finish just seems beatifully flat.

Are the decals on the extinguishers supplied?

Nice figures but that cammo would be a nightmare.

Looking forward to seeing how these build up. I'm sure it will be mighty impressive when done. I wouldn't have the cojones to fork out so much for a kit that I'd likely end up turning into the world's most expensive matchwood!

Real pity Airfix seem to have ditched theirs. I quite like some of Trumpy's kits but the standard is almost laughably variable and this does seem to be a Friday afternoon job. Hadn't realised either quite what death-traps these were - that's a pretty horrible loss rate!

You don't settle for an easy life Rich! Looking forward to this.

I'm sure there were some pictures on LSP of it at Scale Model World at Telford last year. As imagined it was huuuge.

The plate for the base looks amazing. As James says, that PE looks insane. Rather you than me. I get mad just with a set of etch seatbelts!

The paintwork on those figures is stunning!

Superb finish. Would definitely be interested in a book of your work.

Wow, that's a real find Jeroen. Great image. People sometimes are shocked by what was possible 'pre-digital' but those photo-recon cameras were the best around.