Danstream

Hi, after having masked the stripes, I sprayed the black color. Actually, it was a mix of pure black with some white to obtain a sort of off-black hue. It was sprayed in a non-uniform way to leave a blotchy appearance, although not very visible in the pictures. Next, the yellow stripes on the leading edge of the wing will follow. Best regards, Dan

Yesss! Prepared the ones on the fuselage for the black paint: Cheers, Dan

Thank you Mike for you comments and thanks for the 'like's. After the Ocean Grey paint was cured, with the help of tracing paper and a double adhesive tape, I made the camouflage masks reproducing by eyeball the scheme provided in the Eduard's instructions. It is known that RAF had a precise pattern for the camo bands and I tried to reproduce the scheme as accurately as possible. The double adhesive tape kept the masks in place fairy well, but I had to use also normal Tamiya tape and blu-tack to press down and seal the most recalcitrant spots where the masks were too stiff to comply with 3D compound surfaces. Overall, it was not too difficult a job and I even enjoyed it. The the airframe was then ready to receive the Mr Color RAF dark green 361. The color went on flawlessly, leaving a nice satin finish. The final result, with a pile of masking material beside it: The masks worked pretty well, with no obvious overspray. Although I was very positive about the surface details of this kit, now I am rather dubious about the rivet rendering on the fuselage which I am afraid is a bit overstated. If I noticed it earlier I could have it sanded down, but now it is too late. I will be careful not to enhance it with the application of dark oil washes later. I chose to spray the camouflage colors plane, with no tonal variations and I am quite pleased with the results delivered by Mr. Color paints. My intention is to apply some weathering variations later. That's all for now, best regards, Dan

I second the above comments: truly amazing! Best regards, Dan

Hi Mike, I love the catapult model. It will be an impressive piece with the Walrus resting on it. Seen that you asked for opinions, I am here firing my own personal one. I am not in favor of making display compositions, I would prefer to see a long rectangular base with the two models side by side. Best regards, Dan

I would believe that the celebration of a 60th birthday with no doubt amply justifies the purchase of the kit of such spiffy and distinctive an airplane sporting that unmistakable camouflage. 😇 Catch the moment, best regards, Dan

Hi all, after a long interruption, I am back to my modeling bench and to this forum. My stay in Florida was quite exciting from professional point of view and also from a personal one. I enjoyed the differences between here and there, met very friendly people, had great food and had great time. I stayed there only two weeks working at Cape Canaveral and then I spent the rest of the time up to now abroad. In Florida, I could spend a complete Sunday visiting the Kennedy Space Center and I was overwhelmed by viewing the collection of hardware which made the history of space flight. I didn't have yet the opportunity to catch up with the works here, but I will do it in the next days Now I am back home in the Netherlands and today, pleasantly, I resumed the work on my Tempest. I masked the lower lower surfaces and the white parts so that I could start spraying the first color of the camouflage. I used Mr. Color 362 paint which is supposed to reproduce the RAF Ocean Grey. I diluted it to a ratio of 1 to 1.75 (paint to thinner) and spayed in many thin coats. This time I wanted to achieve a rather uniform tonality and the paint went on flawlessly. Now I will proceed with the green as soon as the paint had enough time to cure well. Meantime, this guy landed on my desk for my 66th birthday: You bet this will be soon seen here. Best regards, Dan

A really impressive big model, I like it a lot. Good choice to keep the airbrake closed, I rarely see it in models. This allows to appreciate the complex lines of this aircraft. This model is one of the kit to do on my list. Congrats, Dan

I love this model, it looks like the real thing (In the States, you would say 'like the real McCoy', wouldn't you?). Cheers, Dan

Impressive model! As already said, good paint job for the camouflage. Glad that no sign of the accident with the paint you mentioned is visible. Dan P.S. Just one comment if I may, about the pathfinder antenna ring. Typically the ring didn't have a circular cross section, but it was more like a flat ribbon (where the wire coils were coiled next to each other). I make it with a soldered strip of photo-etch fret. I am making this comment only because of the size of the model it would be noticeable. Otherwise, it looks OK anyway.

Sorry to hear about the leaks, a painful experience which I hope will be soon over. The dark sea grey finish looks great. Best regards, Dan

Hi all, just few pictures of the Tempest underside which I sprayed with Mr. Color 'medium sea grey' in a patchy fashion. Then I sanded all the surfaces with a wet 4000 grit pad. I the last picture, one of the drawback of this kit is visible on the foreground aileron. In fact, the control surfaces, that are molded as thick parts, show some sink marks due to the shrinkage of the plastic. Unfortunately, I did not address these marks and I will have to live with that. Best regards, Dan

Thanks for all your suggestions. One place I would like to visit is the Kennedy Space Center. Cheers, Dan.

@CDW Thanks for your tips. I will be on a business trip for 15 days, so not much time to visit places. However, I should have a week-end off, in that case, I will relax and look around and surely I will consider your suggestions. Thanks, Dan

Hi all, few more steps with the Tempest. I started to lay down the first layer of sea medium gray on the bottom in a semi-random pattern to create tonal variations. I realized that it is better to put on the various lights at this stage (actually, perhaps it would have been better to install them before closing the wings). I sanded them flushed with the wing surface and polished them to restore their transparency. After that, I switched to the white areas that will be required for the invasion stripes. I chose one of the scheme with the full invasion stripes which, although more complex to paint, is in my view more spectacular. I wanted a slight off-white hue, so I added a bit of grey to the white paint and I kept the layer transparent so to let some of the black to be seen through (although the effect is not very noticeable in the pictures). As said earlier, the surface details of this kit are very good and this can be noticed on the painted surfaces: However, the kit has also some small drawback that I discovered during the assembly, but overall I am quite pleased with it. Great, you will enjoy it, when you start with the cockpit, pay attention with the truss structure of the cockpit, it can break just looking at it. Hi Craig, I will be located at (or close to) Cape Canaveral. Cheers, Dan

Hi all, life keeps me away from the hobby room, hence I have only few progress to show. I have completed the assembly of the airframe and glued the last left fishplate. Here, the wing root junction filled with a very thin sprue wire. The nice interior cockpit will be practically invisible when the last closing part will be glued on. The tail surfaces were completed with the controls in their neutral position. I moved only the trim tabs slightly. Finally, masking with the provided masks for the transparent parts and with kleenex tissues for the rest in preparation of the primer was also completed. After spraying a black primer, a black beauty emerged: I will have to fix few blemishes before progressing with the paint, but the paneling and riveting is very noticeably good. I am progressing slow because of my work that after about twenty years will bring me again in the States, in Florida, on the second half of June. I am very excited about that. That is all for now, best regards, Dan

Following your comments to my build, I took the opportunity to follow your link to this build of yours. That's simply amazing, your carvings are exquisite miniatures. I will take my time to go through your posts, but for sure I will shamelessly try copying your techniques. You already resolved some of my troubles I had in continuing the second planking of my build. kind regards, Dan

@Katsumoto Bedankt voor je mooie woorden! Peter, thank you for your kind words, you make me blush 😄! I am glad you like my build. I know I am going sooo slow, it is because I am not a ship builder and also because I am distracted by other modelling works. Thanks also for the many 'like's. Dan

Beautiful neatly done model of a very sexy and curvy jet 😍 Congrats, Dan

Hi all, I resumed my build of my Mayflower after one and half year. I managed to build the extension of the upper deck and to bend it as necessary. It was built of a 3-layers 1.5 mm plywood and I chose the layer orientation that offered the least resistance. I bent it soaking it in water and heating it on a curved steel cooking pot. Once glued in place, the junction was smoothed and this is the way it looked: meanwhile, I furnished the poop cabin bulkhead and finished the bulwark of the mid deck. Some pictures after gluing the deck planks: That's all for now, kind regards, Dan

Hi, just to show you my progress on the split flap repair. This is how it looks after filling with sprue, filler, engraving new lines and rivets: Actually, it is not easy to see the result, hence I sprayed some Surfacer to get a grey, uniform finish: Getting there, but the picture close up revealed few blemishes that I still need to address (I also made an incorrect rivet line). Best regards, Dan

Yes, I agree with that. But as @Egilman said, it is a sort of artistic license. I consider the model as a 'reproduction' of the real thing, which is different from scaling it down 48 times. That means that it has to convey the feel of the real thing, with its volumetric presence and its multitude of surface details. Of course, one can bring it to a level of exaggeration such that it easily appears ridiculously fake. There is another technical aspect that I consider important: once you have a model with negative panels, I find that having the bottom of the grooves not darkened, makes the model to appear more like a toy, while having them darkened gives it a more realistic look, perhaps because light is trapped better in the grooves and it is less reflected off. @CDW, at any rate, in the last posted pictures above, the panels look great in my opinion. Dan

You made a remarkable display, Kevin. It freezes a moment of action very well. The model also looks very good, but I guess the display takes all the attention. Kind regards, Dan

@Egilman, @mtaylor, I don't know the reason for splitting the parts like that. I could think that that might easy the design of the molds or avoid problems of production. Anyway, in one of their aftermarket lines, Eduard offers a flap replacement for those who wants to pose the flap deployed. This flap is a metallic, rectangular panel and the molded parts on the kit parts need to be cut and removed. I might consider that for the next Tempest (I have also a Tempest mk II to build, which I would like to finish with a High Speed Silver livery). Kind regards, Dan

@CDW, yes the molding of the kit is really good, it is a pleasure to look at. Perhaps, the tri-dimensionality of the details might be a tad overdone, but it looks extremely good. The riveting tool is a 'RB Production - RB-T010' (https://www.aviationmegastore.com/en/modelling/rivet-r-mini-rivet-tool-rb-productions-rb-t010-90405.html) It is quite cheap and works reasonably well. You have to use the tool head with a normal blade holder. Kind regards, Dan