Danstream

Nice work on the cockpit and the closed model looks cleanly done. Waiting for seeing more, best regards, Dan.

As already said above, one key point is to use thinned paint and many layers. At the beginning the coverage is very poor, but it quickly improves by adding layers. It also helps to have a very light fine sanding in between, it allows paint to 'bite' and makes the surface even and free from strokes and irregularities. Matt paint is easier than gloss paint. In several occasions, I started with a matt color and then switched to the gloss version of the same color. For the a gloss finish quality of brushes is essential, especially for the last 2-3 layers. Good luck, Dan.

Hi all, going on at a slow pace. I did not make up my mind about exposing or not the jet engine provided in the kit. Usually I am a bit critical about these items, especially when they come with movable parts as in this case. The posable parts have generally a toy-ish design which I do not like. This case is not an exception being the details used to join the two parts of the fuselage very obvious. For the moment, I will give it a try and I will defer the final decision to a later stage. Hence, I pulled the engine bulkhead out of the box and found not a very nice part, afflicted by extractor marks. These marks are located on a web that shouldn't be there. I presume that these triangular holes are the air ducts, therefore they should be opened up. This is what I did, adding two curved wall that should mimic the internal walls of the air ducts: The remaing horizontal sect should represent the rear wing spar that crosses the fuselage (and the ducts) in the middle. In the air intake, on the vertical sect that splits the airflow, there was a headlight faired in the sect. The transparent part of the headlight has an annoying extractor mark on its concave surface which deserves some cares because it will be a focal point of any frontal view of the aircraft. Therefore, I first sanded off the circular extractor mark, then I sanded the part with gradually finer sand paper and finally polished it with a Tamija fine compound. A coat of floor polish followed to restore the shine and protect the part from the fumes of the glue. Here, the trasparent part is completed with its edges painted by a black paint to kill reflections inside the glass and ready to be glued on its part holder on the right. The three tiny holes on the part holder should help to make the headlight cavity not gas-tight. The headlight on its support and finally inside the air intake: Ok, not perfect, but less obvious than before. Best regards, Dan.

Very nice and sharp work on the cockpit. Best regards, Dan.

Dear all, I have finished the cockpit parts with a coat of Tamiya matt clear which has removed the shine and improved the overall look. However, I encountered a problem with fitting the modified parts. I already wrote above that the cockpit is quite cramped and indeed the added lateral handles of the seat could not fit in the small space between the walls and the seat. I hate when this happens, but I decided that life is too short for wasting time with this type of problems, so I cut out the handles and I will proceed without. Well, I said that this will be a closed-canopy model and nobody will peer into the model to check whether all the handles are in there. Then, the nice Eduard instrument panel went into place: As I sad earlier, I do not know much about Soviet planes, but, at the end, I am satisfied with the look of the cockpit which appears to me to have a certain 'Russian' character. Seen the fit problem I had before, I tried to dry fit check all the parts to be sure that all components will fit inside the fusalage halves: Now, I think I have understood the reason for the narrow cockpit: the air passages the bring the air from the intake to the engine are located on the sides of the cockpit and this gets squeezed in size to avoid a resulting too wide a fuselage. Anyway, everything seems to fit quite well. Next, the inner sides of the air intake need to be painted and the fuselage can be then definetively closed. That is all for now, best regards, dan.

Dear all, I am posting a small update on the progress of the cockpit. I am following the colors seen on various pictures on internet. I colored the ejection seat, added a seat belt set from Eduard and discolored a bit the belts using a diluited brown oil color from a tube: I have the impression that the seatbelts are a bit oversized, but they look the part. The basic color for the interior is a Tamiya dark sea grey mixed with white (3 d.s.g. + 2 white) according to proportions that I mixed by eye. I would like to give the cockpit a 'used' look, therefore I am liberally applying various washes on its parts. The seat pan was treated with a Tamiya brown panel liner, while for the floor I used the brown oil color from the tube after a coat of floor polish. This is the floor treated and the side walls with the floor polish only. Finally, also the side panels are treated with the Tamiya brown panel liner and a hand made black wash to pick up panels and controls. Few old instrument decals were also used. The instrument panel and the pedals are from Eduard, specifically made for the new Bronco kit, but the parts can be reasonably fitted also on this kit. Now I have to add a couple of red handles from the Eduard set and a coat of matt varnish. This all for now, best regards, Dan.

Thanks for the likes and your notes. It is surprising to learn about how many of them are flying in the US. Surely there are some one-seat specimens flying as I watched them in several videos on youtube. There is at least one where it is flying together with an F-86 (yellow striped). So far, the only opponent I can pose with it is my recent Hawker Sea Fury (although the Dutch markings do not match with it). Yes, rugged and basic aircraft, but quite lethal a weapon for its time. I was also surprised to note how small it was (likely to contain weight) and how cramped was its cockpit: Probably, like the pilot in the videoclip, I wouldn't fit well into it. Best regards, Dan.

Dear all, being currently interested about cold war, I am starting a new kit which represents one of the protagonists of cold war, the MiG 15 bis. The story of this plane is quite known, so I am not repeating it here. Quite surprisingly, its jet engine, which was a russian copy of the Rolls-Royce Nene, was practically simply purchased from UK. It was one of the first operative jet fighter with a swept wing for operating in the high subsonic regime. For this iconic plane, I chosed the 1:48 Trumpeter kit, a brand that I never tried before. My intention is not to spend too much efforts in detailing the cockpit because this is going to be a closed canopy model. However, when I saw the supplied ejection seat, I was disappointed by how the headrest was reproduced. Being the headrest the most prominent detail that can be seen through a closed canopy, I decided to detailing it a bit. Trumpeter moulded a 'boxed' headrest, probably copying one of the restaured MiG flying in US, but the original one was actually quite different. Above, you can see the difference and the little improvements that I made with some Evergreen strips (the kit comes with two seats). To give a little 'busier' look to the cockpit, I also added few wiring along with the engine throttle which cannot be absent in a pilot's office. Before a coat of paint, I embellished a bit more the seat adding two side handles which can be well spotted from outside: This is my first Soviet aircraft, I know little about russian aircraft, hence I am curious to see how will this one turn out. I hope you will be interested too. Best regards, Dan.

Thanks for your words, Popeye! Yes, I will definetively start another build and post it here. I will not miss the opportunity to enjoy the warm hospitality of this forum. Best regards, Dan.

Hi Edwardkenway, if you have not yet considered it, I might suggest to apply drops of white glue, in successive applications, to the knobs of the PE levers to make the knobs to appear more 'rounded'. Good progress otherwise, waiting to see more. Best regards, Dan. PS. Are you sure the cockpit interior was yellow and not green?

If it is your first with PE, a couple of suggestions, if I may (this is what I do): - Cut the parts from the fret with a sharp blade on top of a very thin cardboard which is on top of a hard surface (a glass tile), keep a finger on the part to be cut, because often they fly away entering in a spacetime wormhole you did not suspect you had in your room. - File the edge with a diamond file, do not try to cut away the residual fret attachment. - If the part get deformed, try to flatten it by rolling a round rod (the aluminium handle of a cutter knife) on top of a glass surface. - Sand slightly with a very fine sand paper the surfaces to be glued. - If you need to fold a part, do it on a glass surface, pressing a blade along the folding line and lifting the part to be folded with another blade. Doing this under a magnifier lens helps a lot. - A good sharp pointed tweezers will help a lot to handle and position the parts. - Do not rush, as soon you get tired or bored, stop the work and come back to it later! Good luck, Dan.

Awesome models, excellent workmanship and paintworks. With no reserve, your weathering technique looks very credible! Bravo. Best regards, Dan.

Thanks Mike for your words. At present, I do not know which kit I will choose as next build, but once started I will post it here. I am attracted now by aircraft of the cold war period, which I connect with my youth. However, I am not yet sure. Good luck with your builds and best regards, Dan

Dear all, thanks for the likes and for the very generous comments to @ccoyle, @mtaylor, @Old Collingwood, @Canute, @Egilman, @Edwardkenway, @lmagna which made me blush 🙂. I understood that some of you would not dislike if I will show again my WIP posts when I will start another model. I will be very pleased to do so, but I might have a question to our administrators. Before this build, I was used to publish my WIP posts on an another forum dedicated to aircraft modelling. Would it be acceptable if I have WIP posts on two sites (this and the aircraft one) at the same time on the same subject? Thanks for clarifying that. Now I have to progress on my Mayflower which is languishing on my workbench. Thanks again and best regards, Dan

Hawker Sea Fury FB 11 Koninklijke Marine - 1953 Airfix 1:48 Dear all, this is the final istalment of my Sea Fury build. I enjoyed very much this model from Airfix which reproduces quite well the lines of this powerful and handsome aircraft. The fit of the parts is very good and well engineered. Decals are also of very good quality. On the downside, the surface details are a bit heavy and few details are missing, but these negative point are dwarfed, in my opinion, by the positive ones. On a scale of 1 to 5, overall, I would rate between 4 and 4.5. For my model, I chose one of the versions offered in the kit, namely an aircraft with the livery of the Koninklijke Marine (Royal Netherlands Navy) which in 1953 was part of an aerobatic team called AeroBats. A big thanks to all who followed my build and provided suggestions and support. Best regards, Dan.

Dear all, this is probably my second last instalment before the end. All the decals are now placed, with the exception of few stencils which I omitted because I was too bored to deal with them. These Airfix decals are of a very good quality, with a minimum carrier film, saturated colors and very well printed. Although a tad thick, they went on beautifully and reacted well to Micro Scale softners. The decals have a gloss finish, hence I will spray a last coat of clear to make their shine uniform with the rest of the airframe. I will use the usual Tamiya X-22 with a small percentage (c.a. 5-6%) of flat agent and a drop of matt white. Meanwhile, after the decals on the propeller blades, I sprayed the blades with a coat of matt clear. Propellel and engine are now ready to be glued on: After the clear coat, I removed the cockpit masking. Now the shine is quite unform with a slightly satin finish. The windscreen came out fine, but the headrest and the cockpit sills need some touching up: The walkways on the wing roots were provided as decals, but I did not like their gloss finish. Therefore, I contourned them and sprayed them with a very dark matt grey. Once dried, I put them on as normal decals: Lastly, a shot with the canopy just dry mounted to see the overall effect: Now, what remains to be done is attaching the engine, mounting the canopy, the pitot and the underwing tanks together with few touching ups. After that, the final pictures with a proper camera for the final instalment will follow. Thanks for having followed and supported me so far, best regards, Dan.

Dear all, a small update with other small pieces that went into place. I rebuilt the oleo jacks of the wheel bay doors using a small 1 mm dia. brass tube and a metal wire: With the doors glued on and some black streaks added to the closed flaps: Finally, the gun muzzles were inserted, here you see in the picture how I slided them in with my big clumsy fingers and the help of a thin copper wire: Ready for firing (but still needing some dark color): Now is the turn of the arrestor hook: and, last but not least, some colorful decals which went on beautifully: I added some pastel powder to depict some scorching of the steel plates close to the exhausts. I am getting into the home stretch now with the decal positioning. That is all for now, best regards, Dan.

Hi all, thanks to few days off work and to the covid restrictions, I went on with my build and sprayed a light coat of Tamiya X-22 gloss clear on the entire model. Finally I reopened the wheel bays after long time. You can also see few oil streaks that I have added to add some 'real life' effects. At the same time, I also finished the landing gear with its wheels: The landing gear was then glued into its place. I must say that Airfix did a nice job in reproducing these items and the overall impression is quite convincing. Finally, on its legs. One of the big milestones of a model build. (As a side note, you see that my cutting mat is discolored on its right hand side. This was the result of tipping over my glue bottle puoring the glue dangerously close to my model. Until when I find another suitable backdrop, we have to bear with a marred mat). The tyres of the wheels were treated with white powder obtained by grinding a pastel pencil. The model is now getting all the small bits and decals will follow. I have used almost all the kit parts and the box is almost empty now. That means that the end is close and I need to pay a lot of attention now because for me it is quite easy to spoil a build at this stage (see the glue story above). Best regards, Dan.

Hey, Chris, you made me smile with the "convey the idea" mission!! 😄 Thanks for your nice line. Cheers, DAn.

Dear all, profiting of few days off for Easter break, I went on with the small bits, i.e. landing gear, wheels, doors, etc. The Sea Fury was equipped with seemingly complicated landing grear legs, probably dictated by the heavy loads they experienced in the naval usage. At this relatively small scale, not all the details can be added and again, like I did for the other parts of this build, I tried to replicate something that conveyed the idea of this complicated gear, rather than attempting an exact replica. Once liberated from some moulding marks (not many to be honest) you have a fair replica of the basic shape. I tried to enhance it by adding the main oleo struts, tubing and springs obtaining this: Tubing and springs were made of lead wires. Then some colors, a coat of floor polish and some touches of Tamiya black liner to accent few details. Now they are ready to be installed: That's all for now, waiting for the airframe being ready. Best regards, Dan.

Dear all, today I finished the camouflage. The paint that I used, Gunze Mr. Color 333, was great in rendering the Extra Dark Sea Grey. Not knowing how transparent the decals would be, to be on the safe side, I left two white circles on the spots where the roundels will be placed. I also glued in place the surfaces of the empennages slightly posed: Now, everything is ready for a coat of clear. Best regards, Dan.

Dear all, I went on with gluing the windscreen piece in place and painting the metallic exhausts shrouds, but I did not take pictures of these steps. Then I started to mask the fuselage to prepare it for the application of the Extra Dark Sea Grey color. For the EDSG I chosed the Gunze 333 which is specific for this color without the need of concocting any mixture. This is the first time I use these Gunze paints and I was positively impressed by their quality. After removing the masking tape I got this: To easy the masking, I sprayed the fuselage alone first. This is a dry check to show how the assembly of the exhaust stacks will look like: Finally, some pictures with the cowling just dry fitted to check the chromatic contrast: That's all for now, next upper wings and horizontal surfaces will be painted. Best regards, Dan.

Hi all, a small update on my Sea Fury build. After several additional coats of color, I stop here and declare it finished. The photos of the actual plane show a quite uniform finish, but I would like to leave some variation be visible to justify all the work done with the pre-shading. The theory of the complementary colors worked partially, but next time I will get back to traditional dark gray preshading. This is how the underside looks now: I completed also the orange color on the cowling together with the propeller: The clear parts have been prepared and masked waiting for being painted, black first followed by camouflage color: A final view of the fuselage with the cowling posed on it: That is all for now, I hope you like it, comments or critiques are welcome. Best regards, Dan.

Thanks for posting your videos! It happens that I am exactly at the same stage with my build of the Mayflower (I am gluing the first wales) so your last video is extremely useful to me. Let me also prise your skills and great workmanship which make your post a pleasure to follow. Kind regards, Dan.

Hi all, just some intermediate results on my build. I apologise for my extremely slow pace, many things keep me away from the workbench. At any rate, I started to lay down some layers of Sky paint made of a mix of Tamiya XF-21 (4/5) with white XF-2 (1/5). First steps: Clearly, the look is too worn out and I continued with the above mix: Being this plane a display plane, I would like to proceed further to smooth out the preshading work and in a sense vanifying it, but at least I have shown how I like to give in general depth and variations to what could be otherwise a flat finish. I sprayed also the engine cowling and the other orange parts with the Tamiya orange X-6: The orange was applied in thin layers and at least one other coat seems to be needed. That is all for now, if you have comments and suggestions, please let me know them. Best regards, Dan.