ccoyle

It's amazing how much of a visual difference is made by killing a white spot -- compare the starboard wing to its port side counterpart. On the real plane, the bulge you see was made necessary by the addition of the drum-fed Hispano 20 mm cannon; the bulge, along with another on the bottom of the wing, covered the gun's ammunition drum. The early cannons were not a resounding success -- while they fired a heavier shell, the drums carried only a small number of rounds -- about 10 seconds' worth, if I remember correctly. In any case, pilots rarely got the whole 10 seconds of fire thanks to the gun's tendency to jam, often after only a few rounds.

I discovered that after two coats of satin varnish, the matte printing still looks . . . matte.

So, as I said, work continues rather slowly. Over the last few evenings I have been working on the canopy and armored windscreen. The clear portion is a pre-formed canopy from Halinski; the armored windscreen is cut from sheet mylar using a supplied template. As many higher-end kits do, this kit came with both inner and outer canopy framing. Before fixing the frames to the canopy, they must first be edge-colored, as per usual, but with a slight twist. Because of the thickness of the clear plastic, some slight amount of the plain white reverse side of each frame will be visible, more so if the inner and outer frames are aligned less than perfectly. Therefore, the back of each frame must also be painted. What's tricky to remember is that the back of each frame should be painted with the color that is seen from the opposite side of the plastic, i.e. the backside of interior framing gets painted with the exterior color and vice versa. I don't always remember to do that last part correctly. 😬 Using the canopy glue from Evergreen has had its own learning curve. I have found that it adheres paper to plastic quite well, especially if it is allowed to set the entire recommended 24-hour curing time. Once cured, it resists a substantial amount of deformation, which typically happens when the flimsy canopy parts have been cut apart and require extra finishing (this flimsiness led to a few boo-boos during trimming and sanding). The glue does not dry completely clear, though, so a lot of care has to be used to not get it everywhere when applying it and putting the parts together. Its working time allows parts to be moved around a little, but not very much -- it tends to grab pretty quickly. With all that in mind, I'm somewhat pleased with the result, though I have no doubt that later efforts will be better. I have test-fitted the canopy to the fuselage and so far it looks good, but I will not attach it until later. In the meantime, I have been toying with the idea of spraying satin varnish on the model to give it a slight sheen. I have done some research online regarding just how shiny RAF wartime finishes were. As I suspected, the paints used on preserved Spitfires are applied with more of a view toward long-term preservation rather than keeping the few remaining Spits unobserved by Luftwaffe eyeballs, and glossier paints are more durable. However, I also read that the small size of scale models makes them appear to be more matte in appearance than their real-life counterparts, so a bit of shine may be in order. Not wanting to do a test spray on the model itself, I am conducting a test on the next best thing -- the kit's cover art -- and will report back on what I discover. Cheers!

Hi, Mary-Ann. Sorry to hear about the loss of your relative. The easiest way to off-load a large quantity of modeling materials is to find a local club to donate them to (Google "ship modeling club" + the name of your nearest large city); clubs often auction off such things to raise funds. Another helpful tip would be to post pictures here, if you can obtain them -- these would be more likely to tempt local modelers. Kind regards, Chris

Technically, I have three models "in progress" in addition to the one I'm currently working on. In reality, there's only a slim chance that I'll actually finish any of them. Once motivation is lost, it's very difficult to get it back -- at least for me.

The highly simplified "camera" is recessed inside the wing and not visible, much less noticeable, unless you look directly at it from head-on. Most people will not even spot it if they view the finished model later, and 9 out of 10 publishers wouldn't even include such a detail. But, you know -- Halinski.

I know the kit, and it's a good one. Here's a link to a finished one to inspire you. I mentioned in an earlier reply that this particular aircraft is one of the most famous Spitfires flown, and if to underscore that point, I saw this very aircraft depicted in a suggested YouTube video last night. EDIT: I just now noticed that the video has been viewed 3.3 million times! 😮

Ch. 21 Wing, Pt. V: Fillets As the chapter title suggests, wing fillets are done. These are always fiddly, because they curve in three different directions, so it's a relief when they are finished and haven't turned out too badly. The small port in the wing root is where the gun camera is located, and yes, the kit has separate parts for a gun camera, albeit a very simplified one -- never did a kit with a gun camera before.

It is good enough. Welcome aboard!

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the Dewoitine kit I mentioned above can be built either with or without Vichy markings. The Vichy machine would of course be more colorful -- but then it would be, you know -- a Vichy machine. It will be a tough decision, but not a soon-pending one.

Since it's a Mantua product, I'd also be extremely leery of the part that says "comes with an extensive description that explains step by step how the model should be built." 🤨

You can fix this, if you'd like. When you add your picture in the reply window, simply double-click on it to bring up our on-board resizing tool. Just make sure to check that the box for maintaining current proportions is marked -- I often forget that bit.

Congratulations! The finished model is indeed beautiful.

Ch. 20 Wing, Pt. IV Ailerons added and wing mated to fuselage.

Interlude Well, since I have returned to work, the pace of this build has slowed waaaaay down. Last night, I got an aileron done, as in one, singular. Hopefully I will get the other one done tonight. They are not easy, as they are triangular in cross-section and tapered along their length. In the meantime, my anxiously awaited package arrived today, containing four more issues of card modeling goodness from the estate sale at Paper Modelers. Let's see what came! First, there are three kits from Halinski, whoo-hoo! The first is a 2002 kit of a Hawker Hurricane Mk I. This kit is one that was published during Halinski's transitional phase, before they had fully morphed into the Tamiya of card models. It's a great kit, just not as complex as later models, e.g. it doesn't have separate control surfaces. I would consider it to be similar in many regards to kits published by Kartonowa Kolekcja. I also received the molded canopy for this kit. Then we have the Halinski Macchi C.205 Veltro, a plane with great lines. This kit is similar in complexity to the Spit. No frames for this kit -- in the photo, it just happens to be sitting atop another kit that has them. And last from Halinski, the Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless. As I said, this kit is a beast. It has nine pages of printed parts and a whopping eleven pages of diagrams -- not for the faint of heart! Happily, I got the laser-cut frames with this kit as well. And finally, one kit from Orlik, a Dewoitine D.520 in Vichy markings, along with the kit's laser-cut frames. This is the same publisher that produced my recently completed Ki-43 Oscar, so it is similar in complexity, though not weathered. Curiously, the kit has optional separate control surfaces, but one of them has a handwritten note next to it that says "corrected part in MS406"; since I don't have the Orlik Morane-Saulnier MS.406 kit, it looks like I'll be building this one without the optional parts. Even without them, this is still a much nicer kit than the recently aborted Bloch MB.152. That's it for now, but I still have a little bit of Christmas on the way. I'll make an announcement about that when it arrives. Cheers!

Congratulations on finishing your model!

Aw, thanks -- it's nice to feel needed! In the meantime, I have added the wings upper surfaces, along with its single box radiator (that particular structure required some staring at diagrams, help from images online, and meditation). I will upload a picture once I get the wing's various other bits added.

I'd like to see one of our accomplished weathering artists, such as @FriedClams, get hold of this kit and a set of its deck gear and then really grunge it up. I'm sure these boats were worked very hard.

Argh, John, you are correct! My bad!! But look at all those faux roaches!

I fixed it for you.

Ha! I have a story about Australian cedar -- the flooring in our last house was made entirely from it. It's beautiful wood, but it had a lot of knots in it -- like a lot of knots! Unfortunately for those of us of a certain age, with the degraded eyesight that comes with it, and who happen to live in the American South, many of those knots were just the right size, shape, and color to imitate nice, plump cockroaches. I never quite got used to it -- especially since real cockroaches would occasionally turn up to reinforce the similarity.

Hi, Paul. I gave your title a massage to make its intended meaning more evident. When I first saw the original, my thoughts went immediately to my Estes days long, long ago.

Outstanding!

Congratulations upon the completion of your project -- she looks great!

Great job, Richard! I recommend sites like Fiddlers Green and free downloaded models for first projects -- at least there is no pain to one's wallet if the model gets boogered. I built plenty of simple, free kits before I ventured into more complex kits. In fact, one of my first airplanes was a Fiddlers Green Piper Cub. Cheers! P.S. I removed the tags from your post, because tagging is not allowed in the non-ship area. Otherwise, hits from this area will show up in searches for ship-related topics.