Aussie Jeff

Yes, but at least the raised ejector pin marks will be hidden by the wheel!

Glad you are enjoying the build Dominic and envy your experience! Your pictures are great and very helpful, particularly the image above. I am in the process of preparing all the clear parts for painting and thought I could make out a fine horizontal line on the nose cone - but by your photo it looks like a one-piece bubble with just the centre flat section cut in. I'll need to fix that up before fitting.

The build is progressing well, so well I'm expecting disaster to hit soon. This doesn't mean I haven't made mistakes or broken things but nothing drastic to deter me. I painted up the wings prior to assembly which made masking easier except I forgot the Olive Drab applied to the inside quarters of the engine nacelles. It would have made thing much cleaner an easier if I did it prior to assembly - so if anyone else is attempting this give it some thought. /media/tinymce_upload/a549022f16bb40c74c836ef00041e76d.jpg Fit onto the fuselage assembly was straight forward with only a tiny amount of filler required at the wing roots that I was able to apply with a cocktail stick and touch up with a fine brush od silver paint. One minor mishap was when fitting the tailplane horizontal surfaces I broke off one of the ailerons on the main wing snapping off the small lugs that held it in place but allowed it to pivot. I was able to fix this by drilling a 0.6mm hole in each end, gluing in short pins made from some aluminium tube and carefully refitting by bending and getting it back in place. It now pivots much more smoothly than the other! /media/tinymce_upload/ac130c38d82217a1daa03463939104ac.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/62113419b11693a141bab4b74554e1bb.jpg As mentioned earlier I need ed to paint the inside quarters of the engine nacelles and a section of the fuselage just forward of the cockpit in Olive Drab. This was done after building/fitting the engines and cowlings - I really got the workflow sequence screwed up here - in hindsight I would have done this in a completely different was and got a better result - next time. On the lower sides turbochargers painted in gunmetal were added /media/tinymce_upload/2c177b0cc05b2bb61347ffb37c3ce075.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/be758e95fca47c9b29041c22d2a78152.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/c7787da16033d0accae3bfa2a2fd1df1.jpg My plan of attack now is to seal all the paintwork at this stage with a gloss coat and apply all the decals and apply the final matt coat because next up are all the delicate undercarriage parts (which I normally break), clear parts and finally the props. Hope this works out.

They stuck a gunner in there as well!!! Guess this was from when a full crew compliment was included with the kits. No crew at all with the new one. :/

Some paint and tool racks to try and keep my modelling space tidy (you think assembling models is challenging), a Micro-Mesh sanding/polishing kit, 18mm & 10mm masking tape and some Tamiya Ultra-thin solvent cement. No models this time! /media/tinymce_upload/a9f675b35c31f5e4ba650fc705741c29.jpg

Whil taking my time building the B-17G I have been building a couple of other smaller fighters and had to laugh at the complexities that some manufacturers go to - here's my example to illustrate my point. The two kits are both 1:72 scale, one is an Airfix Supermarine Spitfire PR.XIX and the other a CyberHobby (Dragon) F6F-3 Hellcat (just 'cause I could afford the 1:24 Airfix one). Below are pics comparing the main landing gear instructions and assemblies: Spitfire - two parts per leg, soooo simple. /media/tinymce_upload/8115f943135bfae0769ab520e013d1c2.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/708c4493b5eab9f4a62840b4a94ae2a9.jpg Hellcat - 10, yes 10 parts per leg! Including brake lines. /media/tinymce_upload/97ceb912ceff9900c5977a49f1a53c66.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/94788af28f5c3188f7d4cc065bc8bb03.jpg BTW - those are 1cm squares. Anyone think the Hellcat is over engineered? Hell(cat) of a thing to piece together. Anyone have othe examples like this they have come across?

I'm in the middle of building a B-17G finished in airbrushed Humbrol Enamel Silver - I'll be watching out for advice replies on Jason's post with interest. I didn't even think there would be an issue.

On the subject of stands, i haven't seen one for real but those new 'silhouette' stand included with the new small starter sets look interesting. Simple and effective. Anyone actually got one yet to comment?

This was one of my first builds in over 45 years and my Catalina knowledge is very limited anyway. It was an old kit I got off EBay and was a bit of a pig to build. I do now have an Academy 'Black Cat' in the stash that I'll get around to one day - maybe the wing will be a better representation on that one. Cheers.

The Sperry ball turret was a god-awful thing to build and paint. Twelve parts in total including three clear parts. Instructions and paint guide were pretty vague on what sections of the clear parts needed to be painted (silver) so it was off to the internet to try and sort it out. This little bit of research helped but it was a pig of a thing to paint as it was difficult to see the raised sections of the clear parts (a masking kit would have been very useful). As it was brush painted I found final fit was a bit dodgy due to the paint thickness as well so needed to scrape away offending parts. The cradle was finished in Dark Green (Hu195) and fitted to the turret sans glue to allow vertical and lateral rotation once fixed to the fuselage ceiling through a hole in the floor - pretty neat really. The completed unit looked like a droid from Star Wars. Unfortunately (or fortunately due to the bodgy job I did) I forgot to take a pic of it before fitting and joining up the fuselage halves. The rudder assembly was painted matt Olive Drab using an equivelent LifeColor acrylic paint before buttoning up the fuselage halves being careful with the glue so as to allow the rudder to pivot left & right (22 degrees each way according to the instructions). As anticipated ther were a few fit issues for the fuselage seams which required a bit of file work, filler and a repaint but overall i turned out okay. Below are a couple of images of the finished assembly. /media/tinymce_upload/dd4bab3c607df57bf351307fcecd6a15.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/9b371bec246803fcd0403be55652c683.jpg Now on to the main wing assemblies.

I made this one up while I had a break from the B-17G I'm currently building. This is the Supermarine Spitfire PR.XIX - the last in the line (?) of this iconic aircraft. Apparently this photo recon plane flew in Hong Kong in the 50's but I thought it looked great against a photo-print of a glacial valley near Glen Coe, Scotland I took some years ago! /media/tinymce_upload/00d723539ef3346c7c3b8ed8a7ef3afc.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/0ab03e7e68189c29564222e5491a0b8a.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/9c99baae28fd39315e7d27d934e74a9c.jpg

Snap! I must have missed your post due to moving - took a while to settle down again.

And here I was blaming Brexit! 😀

I've given IT a ping about this. Thanks Paul.

Aha - that explains it. No worries, I'll be patient.

Just I made a couple of posts with pics about a week or so ago and they haven't appeared yet.

Hey, how are you getting those pics up so quick? 😀

Yep, Ratch beat me to it - all the Airfix kits I have show the number of pieces in the kit on the side of the box (usually with pics of the aircraft profile) along with finished dimensions of the model. It is in pretty small print though.

Build one kit, buy three - I'm never going to get ahead this way! On the Airfix front I have got myself the new tool 1/72 Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig-17 Fresco that I want to build in tandem with an Eduard MiG-15 Profipack kit I purchased some time ago. Thought it would be an interesting comparison build. To help me finish them I also bought the Vallejo Model Air Soviet / Russian "Cold War" Silver Darts 1950-1980 (8) Acrylic Paint Set. /media/tinymce_upload/84d0aca1e44e28f0b605fc757f5bf605.jpg The other non-Airfix kits are a Hasegawa 1/72 F-111G Aardvark "R.A.A.F." and a Cyber Hobby 1/72 Curtiss A25A 5CS Shrike RAAF WW2 CYB-5115 - both new kit manufacturers for me. /media/tinymce_upload/5aeb1f0e40a0f0ade83d300b563343f6.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/f1400fc7cf27bc34c6b8dbde285048a9.jpg Now stop buying and start building!

Next up were the crew areas for the mid-section and nose of the model. This required tiny chairs to be built, all manner of control boxes and desks, the rear wheel well, and even a few windows to be fitted to the fuselage halves as the windows were fitted to the inside. This got me thinking ahead realising I should paint the outside of the fuselage halves now rather than later. After the insides were painted with metallic Aluminium (Hu56) the outsides were given a few coats of metallic Silver (Hu11) and, boy, what a difference the airbrush makes for these large surfaces. I think it would have been a bit of a disaster trying to do this with a hairy stick! After that had dried I masked up and painted the tail fin matt Insignia Red (Hu153) - now I just hope I don't have any glue disasters for the rest of the build that might ruin this finish. There was ambiguous painting instructions for the forward (bombadier?) position floor section with matt Natural Wood (Hu110) showing for the top section of the stepped floor and the desk top only - what to paint the lower section. I went with my gut based on the cockpit and rear crew areas and used matt Black (Hu33). All the control panels/boxes were dry-brushed with silver to bring out the detail as best I could. /media/tinymce_upload/b19e00cbe836720b95d4f6927d9525b7.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/532aa52b5443a49173476f5797310c65.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/fb141b4e8df28a04e9adb5a9d24c9d5c.jpg I dry fitted the fuselage halves to check if there were any fit issues and there was a bit of filling required at the cockpit area on the top half but I think I have that sorted now. /media/tinymce_upload/e34c8b963ec0926538fdd5713bb96f60.jpg Next up is the construction of the lower ball turret positioned mid-ships which will be an interesting build in itself. Then it is just the painting and fitting of the rudder before the fuselage halves can be buttoned up and all that lovely interior detail is lost to the world. ☹️

I've moved on to constructing the bomb bay section that includes two bulkheads (incorporating the main wing spars), bomb bay ceiling and four bombs. As mentioned by T2B above you need to refer to the paint scheme and decal data sheet to finish the bombs prior to fixing to the racks. The ladder frames, ceiling and bulkheads are finished in matt Aluminium (Hu56), the bomb racks in satin Dark Green (Hu195). The bombs themselves are finished in matt Olive Drab (Hu155) with a thin band of matt Trainer Yellow (Hu24) just forward of the fin assembly. I found I'd run out of Olive Drab but had a LifeColor acrylic equivalent (UA523) and, well, my thin band of yellow ain't so thin and looks a bit rough. Each bomb (two R/H, two L/H) has three decals to be applied and I couldn't make out what they said but I'm sure it would make interesting reading. Just as well the bombs are tucked away well out of sight. /media/tinymce_upload/f9eb6a5f5f538cc81cc29d5f2c65192e.jpg Assembling the bomb racks and ceiling to the rear bulkhead is simple enough but fitting the front bulkhead needs care as there are six slots/pegs to align and it can get a little messy - it only took me two goes! /media/tinymce_upload/785d56cb8bda05a00012770ed74513b2.jpg At step 26, prior to fitting the cockpit assembly, you are supposed to paint and fit a number of small control boxes to the back of the rear bulkhead. I decided to leave this until the next phase as there are a number of similar pieces to fit to other parts in the main fuselage area and I'll get them all done in one go. Finally the previously completed cockpit assembly was mated up with the bomb bay assembly which was very straightforward. /media/tinymce_upload/f9a95ab2bd7d40bd2b484c4d7cce62e8.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/8ab90db211cbc791963f0ced0f2c47d8.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/5bb3e473cf9920e805ef9a15c73aa771.jpg One other thing to mention is there are really three versions you can build from this kit as there is an late 1944 an d early 1945 scheme for 'Mah Ideel' with a few paint changes and small differences in the nose decals - I'm doing the early 1944. Also, just for a comparison, here's the B-17 cockpit/bomb bay assembly next to my last Tiger Moth - same scale! 😆 /media/tinymce_upload/0697ef17c0b887b1f07d3eaa3c359f28.jpg

I reckon I looked at the instructions, paint and stencil guide for hours over a couple of days before committing to the build. I did pick up the need to look carefully elsewhere for the bomb colours and decals as there is no reference to them in the instructions which I found odd. Maybe Airfix should include a footnote when this occurs. Also the main spar/bulkhead (part D01) only references one side to be painted aluminium (unlike D06) but looking further into the build I'm sure it is appropriate to paint both sides.

I must admit I really like a nicely built biplane and this looks like a cracker. Nice job!

After finishing the tiny Tiger Moth I wanted to get my teeth into something bigger that I had in my stash - the B-17G I received as a gift 8 months ago filled the bill. I checked through the forum to see if anyone had done a post on this new-tool kit to help me but, alas, no - so I guess I'll be the guinea-pig. I'm sure there are others that have built it but not done a post. It's a big, detailed kit - 245 parts on nine grey-plastic frames and one clear frame. The 20-page instruction booklet details 138 assembly steps and then there are all the decals. Two versions are offered - 'Skyway Chariot' and 'Mah Ideel' and I have chosen the latter as I like the red airframe detail. As there are no crew figures included I'll build it 'gear-down' and see what other options are available. When (if?) I finish it I'll need to find some decent shelf space as it measures 320mm long with a wingspan of 438mm. /media/tinymce_upload/cf890be414df18f05cc31260504b7db1.jpg As usual the build commences with the cockpit. I'm also attempting to paint the kit with my el-cheapo airbrush using, of all things, Humbrol Enamel paints. I know this is going to be a smelly, painful process of painting and constant cleaning but I have all the colours required so I might as well use them. Another thing I'm trying is rather than washing all the parts in soapy water is to clean them with a soft brush dipped in the paint solvent (in this case White Spirit) as I need to paint them and allow it to dry - initial results seem to be positive with good adhesion. The cockpit uses matt Dark Earth (Hu29) for the cockpit sides and control stick boots, satin Dark Green (Hu195) for the seats and controls and matt black (Hu33) for the floor, instrument cowling, control wheels and a few highlights on the cockpit sides. There are also a number of decals to apply. This little assembly phase takes you to step 14 of 138. From what I have read not much of it will be visible anyway but it eases you into build. /media/tinymce_upload/a75a4d79e4d4d1c74a1b74d63ab26984.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/0726675232e7ce6aa0335d5e502aa061.jpg I'm trying not to rush this build (looks like one of the seat decals slipped before drying already) as it appears pretty complex, next up will be the bomb bay assembly (including the main wing spar) to which the cockpit assembly will be joined.

I'm currently building my first helicopter - a 1:72 Bell UH-1B 'Huey' by Italeri. It will join my growing collection of RAAF models of which not many are Airfix. Others in the pipeline are a Buffalo, Boomerang and a Wirraway (all 1:72 Special Hobby kits).