JeroenPeters

Wow! Those spark plugs... You're on a roll!

Ahhhhh so that's where that canopy went

Thank god for filler! You're doing a great job on this kit, but i feel your pain!

I can imagine the development and alterations to the B17E/F kit slowed the Lanc down a bit. Let's hope they Full Speed now on it!

Just had a chat with Neil. He tells me that the overall shape of the Lancaster is done! He also tells me that they decided that the panel lines have been abandoned and that overlapping panels WITH STRESSED SKIN! will be the way to go. This means that they are staring at dozens and dozens of reference photo's to see what panel overlaps which panel. This is taking some time. Neil says: Currently we are modify the drawing of overlapping panel detail on fuselage and wing. Before we did the panel line only. Now each of panel are overlapping by others. And it need to have reference photos to proved then changes the drawing. It will take sometime. The stressed skin will apply too. That really take massive of time. Over all shape of Lancaster was check and done. Now Only the small and detail area need to fix. All in all... We're in for a treat!

Here's an official reply from HK Models regarding the release date: Currently we are waiting for the decal design and instruction from from AK. It should be within May. The final sample will be done within this week. Then I will send you the samples.

Are you running an axle through them? In that case I'll make a hole in the wheels

Tanker Dust & Dirt Techniques Magazine Issue 03 Publisher: AK Interactive Chief Editor: Kristof Pulinckx Available here from AK Interactive for € 9,- Bam! Another Techniques Magazine for the armour enthusiasts. In the past I reviewed the second edition of this magazine / book series filled with special weathering techniques: Issue #2: Tanker Extra Armour Today I’ll take a look at issue #3, which focusses on Dust & Dirt. If you’re having trouble getting the most out of your bottle of pigment powder… read on. Dust & Dirt Today I’ll take a look at issue #3, which focusses on Dust & Dirt. If you’re having trouble getting the most out of your bottle of pigment powder… read on. Kristof Pulinckx doesn’t turn out to be a guest chief editor for AK Interactive, and is also responsible for the 3rd issue in this range and kicks off with an nice impersonation of Luke Skywalker in the desert to introduce the theme. The thing with these magazines is that you should treat them like books. Store them in your library and pull one out when covering a certain technique or theme. The heavy quality comes into play when you fumble the pages on your cluttered workbench…. Let’s just assume it’s cluttered. Trying to achieve a convincing dust effect, beaten look, sun weathered appearance is one of the most difficult crafts to master. It’s easy to go overboard if the wide array of tools and products are not applied properly. Oils, pigments, chipping medium, washes, filters, etc… The magazine: As always I’ll take a look at the magazine by flipping through the articles and tell you exactly what you’ll get for 9 euro’s. 106 pages printed on quality thick paper bounded by a slightly stronger cover. Minimal advert space and lots of step by step techniques. The graphic design (as always with AK Interactive) is of high standard. I should be able to judge, with a background in advertising. The issue contains 18 articles by assorted modellers with subjects going from ww2, to modern to apocalypse. And yes… all are covered in dust J Contents: As said this magazine offers 18 articles: • The Last Patrol A 1:24 scale police patrol car by Esci, done over by Ricardo Chust Roig, adorned by a diorama done by Rubén Gonzalez. It’s always cool to see an old kit detailed up and dressed up by all the modern tools and products we have available now. I especially like how the windows of this battered ‘Interceptor’ gets a milky effect from a mixed flat coat. Very realistic indeed. • Afrika Dusters A Tristar Pz I gets the Pulinckx treatment. Modelkasten tracks, a lovely but simple base, Aber photo etch and lots of AK products. He just makes it look so easy, but trust me: it isn’t. Still good to follow along and try to get anywhere close. • M6 What if on the beach Here’s a kit I haven’t seen built before. Dragon carries a few models in their so-called Black Label series, offering prototype tanks. Just like this M6. This example is modelled by Martin Red Kovac (a little birdy tells me he's from Slovakia ) and he goes the extra mile by adding imaginairy field modifications. The added spikes that were meant to keep Japanese soldiers off the turret are an interesting feature. Reminds me of the spikes we have in Amsterdam to keep the pigeons at bay! This machine is bad ass. Even thought the model is all over olive drab, it’s a feast for the eye and Martin shows you exactly how he achieved the contrast and depth by using pigments and oils. • Hotel Kabul Afghan Barbecue This modern MATV done by Dirk Vangeel is one colourful event. Situated in a little diorama that offers lots to see. The article mainly focusses on the creation of the base and figures. Short but sweet. • Su-122 From Russia with love The old Tamiya kit get’s dressed up with Styrene, mesh and copper wire. I love builds like this. Nothing fancy. It’s all up to the painting. Rubén Gonzalez shows us step by step how he modulates his AK paints. The colour modulation with the green shades are followed by a filter, which is blended in with white spirit. Damn…. I really should use filters more. From all the articles in this magazine, this is my favorite one. Back to basics and all out on pure technique. • Berlin 1946 Panzer Turm Stellung Again, Kristof Pulinckx, goes to town. This time quite literaly with a Paper Panzer resin turret on a scratch built base. I love these late war german efforts. • Beute M3 GMC in DAK Service 1943 Tunis Gergo Szaszko builds the Tamiya M3A2 Half Track in german colours. What I particularly like from this build is the use of different brands. Winston Oils, Lifecolor paint and only a few AK products. This kinda ‘keeps it real’ • I am the Walrus John Simmons builds and paints a futuristic APC in a colourful blue and yellow scheme. This model is bad-ass and even though it’s Sci-Fi it manages to convince. • Dust and Sand reference A good way to get inspiration is look at the real deal. Here’s chapter with modern pics (that can help you model from any era) to give you ideas and reference. Photo’s by Patrick Winnepennickx. • Men at Work The techniques we use can also be applied on Die Cast models. This is shown by Juan Villegas on a Komatsu PC 210 LC digger. • Berlin Streetfighter Whippet For some reason the brand of this Whippet tank isn’t mentiond. Since I reviewed the Takom kit and know what schemes are included, I knew it was Takom and not Meng. Not a lot of dust this time. Sven Frisch delicately weather this dark grey beute tank without adding a lot of extra details. A few fallen bricks from a building and some accompanying dust on the top, kinda tells a story. • Caked Earth effect This (in my opinion) is one of the most difficult techniques to get right. It’s easy to make it look like your tank rode through soaked muesli if done wrong. Ron Soeren takes you through it! The technique that is. Not the muesli… • Weather Road Wheels & Lower parts A small chapter dedicated to painting the rubber rim on roadwheels, adding pigments, metal scratches and dirt. • Map of Products A few pages that compare different paints and other products. I’d say excellent if you (like many) just returned to the hobby and are overwhelmed by the offer of different paints and weathering agents. • School of Techniques Following the summary of different products in the previous chapter, this chapter takes us to school. How to achieve dust with thinned enamel for example. Never knew this was an option! Verdict So you’re an armour builder? And you want to improve your skill set? Then this is the magazine for you. Stay tuned for the next issue: Damage Inc. (Guess what that will cover…) A big thank you to AK Interactive for the review sample. Jeroen Peters

Postwar Dutch colors!!! Nice!!

Exactly! And then applied some masking tape to check adhesiveness.

Air Series Soviet Aircraft Colors 1950 - 1970 #AK 2300 by AK Interactive Available from AK Interactive for € 18,95 What we have here is a complete paint set for your typical Soviet early cold war jet. It’s a mix of two AK Xtreme Metal jars and four bottles with the interior, radome and cockpit colours. Get this and some panel liner and weathering agents and you’re good to go. To be precise the exact paints included in this set are: AK2301 Cockpit Turquoise AK2302 Radome Green AK2303 Interior Green AK2304 Cockpit Grey AK479 Xtreme Metal Aluminium AK480 Xtreme Metal Dark Aluminium I did the math (so you son’t have to, and because I’m dutch) and if you buy these paints separate from the AK Interactive webstore, you’ll spend € 19,60, so getting this set is slightly cheaper. The set is part of the Air Series range from AK Interactive. The range includes a lot of assorted sets (Luftwaffe, US Modern Aircraft, etc..), weathering sets (spilled oil, panel liner, pigments, etc...) and books. I especially love the panel liner myself. The paint First of all, let me tell you I’m a BIG fan of Mr Hobby paint and am always hesitant to try new brands, especially in a set (instead of trying one bottle). Therefor I will try to compare this paint to Mr Hobby (and / or the very similar Tamiya paints). The first difference is the thin-ness. You can shake (not even that hard or long is necessary) the bottle and pour a small amount directly into your airbrush. Tamiya and Mr Hobby typically needs to be thinned pretty much, if you like to build up your paint in thin layers (like me). I sprayed the back side of a plastic spoon and noticed that the paint covers pretty well. Almost in one go. Therefor I ideally would thin this paint too, but only with about 20% acrylic thinner, instead of 40%-50% I use for Mr Hobby. The bottle tells you to use the AK Interactive acrylic thinner, but I used some Humbrol acrylic thinner and found that worked pretty well too. The paint dries quick to the touch (about 20 seconds) into an egg shell satin finish. Just the way I love it. I’ve had good experiences with Mr Paint too, but that tends to dry more glossy. It kind of depends on what you want to achieve and how you’ll go about applying masks, decals and weathering agents to determine if gloss or satin is most suited for your needs. As I said: I like the satin finish: very similar to Mr Hobby and Tamiya paints. Only one word of advise: clean your airbrush well after use. The residu around the needle behaves different than Mr Hobby paint and can be harder to clean. Just spray some acetone through the brush after use. The Xtreme metal paints are quite remarkable. Again: very good coverage after only two passes. Much like Alclad paints. But what I like more is (again) the satin / glossy finish that does not get affected by the acid from my fingers. Then I stuck some Tamiya masking tape on the fresh surface (5 minutes later) and pulled it off. The tape that is. Not the paint J Perfect if you want to mask areas to apply a different shade of aluminium. The subject One of the most typical colors on a cold war jet will be the cockpit green / turquoise which can be hard to mix yourself. Compare it to an even more difficult color: the ww2 japanese cockpit green… I love this color and it appears to look the same shade in a lot of photographs. A spoon-full of Cockpit Turquoise: Below you'll see two examples of the turquoise green in two different shades. This could be the lighting of the subject or the result of UV weathering. Again: be sure to check your references. Not like the radome green (which differs in tone through weathering, sun, age) or the interior green, which seems to go from olive-like green to almost dark green from photo to photo. There are two cockpit colors included in this set, because not all cold war jets were all turquoise under the canopy. If you look at the pic below you’ll see the cockpit of a Su-22. Just a matter of checking your references. The Su22 cockpit in light grey and the AK paint below: Then the radome: Again: two different examples. One clearly weathered through sun and drought and one pristine restored. The AK paint below: I have seen SO many different greens inside these jets (gear bays, gun bays, avionics bays), that I don't think there's one definitive color. All I know is that this green below looks pretty cool As said there are two tones of Xtreme metal included in this set. Aluminium and Dark Aluminium. Perfect for variation in shades. The two shades are actually pretty close together as you can see. If you’re looking for some more contrast, you can just add a little bit of black (or Tamiya Smoke as I like to do). But to my eye, the contrast on a lot of models is often exaggerated. Below two nice examples of a Mig21 with subtle tonal variation and the AK paints below: Just look at the perfect finish of the aluminium: Verdict This is a perfect set for anyone that took the step (or wants to take the step) to acrylic paints. I did, and I’ll never go enamel again! And also the perfect starter set for anyone that joined a soviet cold war group build J The pro’s are the excellent coverage, the finish (satin), quick drying, adhesiveness (doesn’t get pulled off by your masks). The only con I could spot was you need to make sure no residu remains in your brush. You actually should always clean your brush after use, but we all do this more thoroughly one time than the other. One last thing: I love these screw cap bottles. Much easier to open than the always stuck Mr Hobby jars. Even when I have both opening aids from the Mr Hobby range. A special thanks to AK Interactive for the review sample. Available here. Jeroen Peters

Interesting to see those 48th scale nacelles... Especially the inlets.. hmmm...

Love it! Is that the sharpest detail you can have it printed in?

Well... i did and it worked! Good thing the Aviation Megastore was closed yesterday since I found a polishing block in my tool-stash

Cees actually inspired me to glue the windows from the outside and then sand and polish them flush with the fuse. It takes some elbow grease but it's worth the effort!

What a monster! Great progress. Is there any warping of the parts?

The Bomb! Love the lighting too. Very cool..

I can see them now.

Photo bucket is always pissing around. Mine is up though. PB that is.

Is that a reinforcement strip i see?

Cees provided me with the drawings and books, so here is the first phase of the engine gondola:

First progress on the wheel. Done in Cinema 4D. The wheels are slightly smaller than the Lanc wheels, but Cees will provide me with some more measurements to double check. Getting these 5 cm puppies printed in 3D will cost around 19 euro per wheel. Thats why I'll do a test with two hollow halves and see what that costs..

Superb! Just gotta love those lines..

1:32 Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIc Trop Fly Catalogue # 32013 Available from Fly for €37,70 Introduction I never quite understood why companies like Tamiya, Hasegawa or another quality kitmaker hasn’t touch the Hurricane in 32nd scale. Ofcourse Revell have done their version of the Mk.I back in the seventies. To be honest this kit still is pretty decent to this day and can be made into something decent. Especially when you add some aftermarket, like the MDC resin cockpit or Grey Matter figures resin upgrades. And then there are the limited run kits done by Pacific Coast Models. To me these felt like a way to keep the major players from touching the subject, since the ‘void’ had been filled. This limited run kit covered the Mk.I early (rag wing)and Mk.I late (metal wing). I have built the latter back in 2012. For a limited run kit, this (to me) was pretty good! A very complete kit, with resin, photo etch and injection plastic. Quite like the kit I’m reviewing now. The fit was Ok-ish and it only suffered from a few small shape issues. Like the area behind the canopy being too sloped. If you can live with this, and you want to build a Mk.I, don’t hesitate to get it. It feels like Fly picked up where PCM stopped. In a way this kit has a lot of likeness with the PCM kit: limited run, same parts breakdown and mixed multi media. But also resembles the surface treatment of the Revell kit! Raised rivets… More on this later. Here's a look at my PCM Mk.I Hurricane I built a few years ago: In this in-box review I’ll give you my first impression of this kit. I won’t build it for the review, but I’ll do my best to give you a good consideration for your money. There’s been a lot of critique lately on people like me writing reviews on kits that are indeed provided by the manufacturer. You’ll just have to trust me to be honest about anything I see: positive and negative. On thing I’m not a big fan of is bore you with the history of the subject. Especially such a well known subject as the Hurricane. The Kit Fly Models is a relatively new kid on the block that surprised all with the Ar234. And just when we all thought: hey! These guys are covering late Luftwaffe subjects! They hit us with the Wessex. Totally un-expected. So who could guess the Hurricane would be next? The kit I’m reviewing is the ‘Trop’ version of the Mk.IIc kit. James Hatch earlier reviewed the standard Mk.IIc kit here. The first thing that I notice is that the box is a little bit oversized for the contents. This is common practice with limited run kits. The same goes for the small amount of sprues: four beige sprues and one transparent. The other parts are made out of resin and photo etch. Sprue A Here we have the two fuselage halves. The first thing I look at is the area behind the canopy, and I am pleased to see the right angle here, unlike the PCM kit. The surface detail is crisp and features the typical round fasteners, raised rivets and fabric sloping. No locating pins are present as is normal with a limited run kit. The gear legs show a little bit of flash and need to be carefully cleaned up and smoothened out. From what I heard from James Hatch (who is test fitted this kit) the wingroots mate quite nicely with the wings. This is always a tricky part with limited run kits. Sprue B This contains the wings. Very nice representation of raised rivets, panel lines, verlapping panels and fasteners. I do think that these raised rivets are far more accurate than dimples, but they do require a whole new technique to weather. Washes will turn out like darker rings around them, so you might want to use a lighter coloured wash for this, instead of… black. The ailerons are moulded in one piece with the wing, so if you want to alter these, you’ll need to grab the saw. The same goes for the flaps. So lots of room for detailing here. Again: no locating pins throughout the entire kit, so fit, fit and glue. Sprue C The belly, prop blades (for this kit! The ones’ for the MK.IIc are on the next sprue), pointy spinner (that’s the one you need for the Trop version!), and cockpit framing. The framing is the part to look at. Some limited run kits offer framing that need so much cleaning up, you might as well scratch the whole thing yourself. Not so much here. Looks good. The detail on the control surfaces could have been a little more fabric like. I think I’ll spray some Mr Surfacer and smoothen out the ribs a little. The detail on the belly is far superior to the PCM kit. Lovely surface detail… Sprue D Here we see the guns (which are also included in far nicer resin by the way!), gear doors, spinner back plate, prop blades (these are the ones’ you need for this kit), tail planes and oil cooler intake. I seriously have no idea why anyone would ise the plastic guns on this sprue! Unless you can’t afford superglue to use the resin ones’. Clear sprue Very clear and sharply moulded plastic. But…. A bit on the thick side. I guess Fly models realized this and so they also offer the canopy as a separate after market set in Vac form. This will be a hard choice for me. I hate Vac form, but I also hate the thick canopy on a Hurricane. With the sliding canopy in open position the thickness really stands out. On the other hand: Plastic canopies are easier to mask, since they offer sharper and higher edges of the framing. Enter: the mask set! Fly also offers a complete masking set, including the canopy masking, serials, codes… More on these later… Resin parts The likeliness with the PCM kit becomes even more apparent when you look at these parts. The part breakdown and the parts featured in resin are almost the same. The biggest resin part is are the wheel wells. Sharp detail and minimal cleanup. I dryfitted this part to the belly part and it appears to line up nicely. All resin parts are casted by Artillery. A not so well known company that is mostly known for their Armour subjects. You just can’t complain much about these resin parts. The smaller parts (like the landing light framings and gunsight) are crisp and clean and well detailed. One thing I would have loved to see (especially on the Trop version of the Hurricane that operated on rudimentary runways) was a little bit of weight on the wheels. The guns are far more detailed than the plastic ones’ supplied. This is most apparent on the springs around the barrels, which are far more delicate. They can be offered even nicer, if you go for the after market set. More on those later. Standard resin guns: Landing light frames and tail wheel: Photo etch Two sheets of photo etch are included. On with radiator mesh covers and one with a lot of cockpit parts (instrument panel, seat belts, armour plate, etc…). These all appear to be made by Fly themselves, and not Eduard or another typical photo eth company, like you often encounter in limited run kits. The only thing, and I mean the ONLY thing, I will definitely change on my kit are the seatbelts. HGW fabric seatbelts will improve these immensely. Especially in such an open and visible area. Also included in this bag is a sheet of clear film that contains the instruments for the panel and gunsight glass. I know I just said I would only change the seatbelts for HGW, but as soon as Yahu releases one of their excellent instrument panels for this kit (like they did for the Fly Ar234!!) I’m getting that too. That’s it. Promise. Photo shamelessly stolen from James Hatch: Decals and schemes The large sheet with decals has a separated part containing the stencilling (IF decals is what you fancy... Again: more on that later). The decals are (or appear to be) printed by Fly Models themselves. The colours look accurate and they register nice. I mainly look at the decals for the stencils, since these are the ones that are often a let down in detail, and even when you choose to mask your codes, you’ll always need to use the stencil decals. Look at the pic and judge for yourself. I just had a tip suggesting they might have been done by Eduard. The 4 schemes that are included are pretty exotic: · Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIc Trop - No.1 Sqdn RIAR (Royal Indian Air Force) part of No.167 Wing RAF · Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIc Trop - No.213 Sqdn RAF - North Africa 1942 · Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIc Trop - No.1 Sqdn SAAF - pilot Cpt. J.H. Gaynor, North Africa 1942 · Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIc Trop - Flying School Armée de l´Air, Marocco 1945-46 Instruction booklet Basic black and white clear hand drawn illustrations, you really can’t go wrong with. After all: this isn’t a highly complicated kit! What I like are the final pages showing the painting instructions on a few specific parts (like the cockpit and wheel wells). The four schemes are presented on a different sheet with side, top en bottom profiles. After market goodies! Fly Models beat the After Market companies to the punch by releasing their own sets. To be fair: There are not a lot of AM companies that tend to touch limited run kits. So here we go! Mask set # artm 32002 This set (like the others) are sold under the Artillery models brand. These masks are cut in a pretty unconventional plastic. I tried a little piece on some plastic and can say I like it better than the Montex masks, but would still have preferred kabuki paper. The curves on the Hurricane however are pretty simple, so these should suffice. All codes and roundels are included on this a4 size sheet. Click here to buy directly for around 5 euro’s(!). Canopy Mask set # NWAM0027 Another mask set can be purchased designed for the canopy and wheels. Only the outside of the canopy masks are included. I would have preferred inside and outside. These ARE however presented in kabuki paper and produced by a different company I have never heard of: New Ware. Click here to buy directly, also for around 5 euro’s. Guns # arta 001 These resin guns are slightly nices than the resin guns offered in the kit. What I don’t understand is this: Artillery models produced, moulded and casted both versions of the same guns in resin. I have to admit that the After Market set is slightly nicer than the ones’ offered in the kit. OK… here I go again: If or when Master Barrels produces these guns in brass with separate springs.. I’ll be all over them! Click here to buy this set for around 2 euro’s (had to check this twice!) After market guns: Comparison (after market on the left): Vac form Canopy # arta 002 Like I said before: The canopy in the kit is a bit thick and this part will be very visible when the canopy is posed in the open position. The benefit of the plastic canopy is that it’s easier to work with and that the canopy framing is easier to mask. The benefit of the Vac Form is a more convincing result, it’s way more clear / transparent and thinner. Click here to buy the canopy directly for around 2,60 euro’s (or buy two when you’re not too good with Vac Form J ) Verdict This kit is insanely cheap for a limited run kit packed with resin and photo etch. About 38 euro’s! Yes it’s limited run, but it can be built into a winner by a moderate modeller. The plastic is easy to work with, you don’t need to invest a lot in after market goodies (unless you’re like me…) and the schemes included are pretty cool right of the bat. And last but not least: the kit appears to be accurate in shape. These are the pro’s. The cons are ribs on the control surfaces and the fact that the ailerons and flaps are moulded shut. But these parts can all be an easy fix if you know how to handle a blade. I would rate this kit a 9 out of a 10. Based on the price and what you get. I can Highly recommend it My sincere thanks to Fly Models for this review sample. Jeroen Peters

Wow! Your paper beats rock and scissors!