Matt

Pic 2: subtle weathering on the tail plane.

Decals are done. Wing Walk decals nearly had me chucking the whole plot at the wall in frustration. One set messed up so bad I had to open up another kit and steal from that. For some reason these long thin decals just frustrate the heck out of me. No bonus points for pointing out that the outer stripes should reach the Roundels, and mine don't. First pass at a light weathering is a sludge wash of very dark grey pastel, a little water and lot of liguid dish soap. Slap it on, let it dry and rub it off. Works for me, even on raised detail. The effect on this Lanc is very subtle, but it adds a

Thanks for the responses. I've got a set of TwoBobs 'Lo Vis Mikes' on order. If they arrive before I'm ready to commit to the paint scheme, then it will be one of those, otherwise it will be one of the kit markings for now. I'm pretty certain I will be building a few more of these at some point. This is likely to be it for detailing other than perhaps some wire on the landing gear. From here on out its basic skills. Build, Paint, Decal, Weather, Finish. All the usually places I can find to turn a nice box of styrene into a less than perfect mess. But I have fun. Cheers, Matt

When I've had this problem in the past, its been a loose nozzle as well, but this was with Iwata and Hansa airbrushes. I've never had a Badger 360 to directly relate, but if we look at this logically, there are only a few possibilities. We know the bubbles are caused by air entering into the paint chamber. So, whats causing that ...... Can you tell if the bubbles are coming from the front of the paint cup or the rear ? If its the front (most likely case), then either the air is coming in from the nozzle opening (as if you put your finger over the cap), or, its leaking in past the nozzle the

Feeling like a complete change of pace I polled the fine folks that frequent the Jet forum for suggestions on a kit that would be a nice easy build that I wouldn't feel the need to go nuts detailing. Overwhelming response was to try a Hasegawa A4, so I grabbed an A4-M and got to work. Starting in the obvious place, I couldn't help myself but to at least spruce the seat up some. I don't build jets as a rule, so I've never detailed a bang seat before. I boxed in the seat pan a litte better, added the 'head knocker' safety and 'ear burner' seat seperation rocket from styrene, then added some pl

I don't know if this will help, but I had a similar problem trying to squeeze the Aires Spitfire IX cockpit for Hase into an ICM Spitfire. I *swear* I had it fitting perfectly before I put the first lick of paint on. When I came to final assembly and closing up the fuse halves, I could not get them closed. In the end I used some gloss red acrylic paint and painted around the the cockpit parts where they were most likely to touch the fuselage parts, then I put it all back together again as best I could, dissasembled and checked to see where the red paint had transferred from the resin parts

Here's the end result after touch up and respray. If I were to do it again I would use a better cutter and airbrush down a light grey as a primer base, so I would have more control. Next week, my pet hate, decaling wing walk markings. Cheers, Matt

Fuselage type C1, in need of touchup and looking a bit ragged.

This is the upper wing type B. Note the white ring still in need of a touch up, and the white over spray on the engine nacelle. The flash makes the blue seem brighter than it really is.

As this is meant to be a build to experiment and have fun with, I thought I'de try and paint the major markings (Roundels, Flashes and Squadron codes) rather than use the kit decals, plus the Airfix C1 Roundels had the yellow out of register. Seemed like a good idea at the time. For a cutter I used a mixing needle from a syringe clamped into a drafting compass. I used the wise 40mm Tamiya tape (the bright yellow stuff). After cutting the outer diameter masks, and placing them, I decided to use Tamiya rattle-can primer first before airbrushing the colours, so I went on a massive and butt-u

Thanks all for the feedback. Here are some more photos from the end of last week and the weekend. The underside black is done. I'm using a much thinner paint mix than I'm used to, and as a result, with the raised detail I had a small amount of bleed under. Nothing that a few minutes with a small brush couldn't touch up.

Underside.

Business End.

Cockpit.

This is the last kit I finished, and is about 3 years old now (hence the dusty canopy). Its the ICM MkIX with a bunch of goodies. Aires Cockpit. Gorgeous detail, but a real bear to fit, especially as its meant for the much-maligned HAS MkIX. I lined the door opening up and took it from there. Ultracast Wheels ,Exhausts and I think Elevators. Airwaves Spinner and Prop. These are the kit decals for Johnnie Johnsons MkIX MK392. ICM decals have a bit of a reputation, and I can see why. They were silvering on contact, despite a nice gloss coat, so I used Future as a setting agent and they

And here's the upper camo done freehand (See previous rules). I had supreme grief with the PollyScal paint. It kept clogging the nozzel in the brush, so the initial Dark Green pattern isn't as tight as I would have liked. I went back and bought a fresh bottle and proper PollyScale thinner, and did a slightly lighter pass in the center of the pattern, just for practice and to see what it would come out like. Not totally accurate, but at least I proved I can do it and solved the clogging problem. Cheers, Matt

After 3 years of half finished detailing projects, a prolonged house move, a broken collarbone and a lot of late nights at work, I finally have a project moving along far enough to post some pictures. (That and I figured out Macro mode on the wifes camera). The kit is the venerable Airfix Dambuster Lancaster. I bought it as a donor kit after I completely hosed to bomb bay doors on my other Lanc project. As I lost impetus in that kit, I turned my attention to this one with a new set of rules. 1. Keep it simple. For a change, build it OOB as much as possible. I even went for an In-Flight pose

I don't know about the Clear Gel version, but I use the regular Tacky Glue for Canopies and other glasswork, as well as final small details such as aerials and the like. Matt.

Take a look here Missing Lynx Its the Armour and Figure modelers equivalent to ARC. There are a number or articles on figure painting. Most of them use oil paints for flesh tones, but if you don't feel up to it, you can still apply the basic concepts to acrylics or enamels. Before moving to using oils, I would lay down a base colour, apply a very thin dark brown wash into the heavy creases , then a thin brown wash that was more chestnut/reddish. Once the washes were dry I would drybrush lighter flesh tones , then pick out the detail (eyes, lower lips and any facial hair). All depends on th

Try the PollyScale flat. I had to brush some on to the antiglare and none skid panels on the S.A. Bulldog I did for the RAF/RN group build. If I recall it needed two coats, but afterwards it looks as good as if I had sprayed it. Mind you, those are small sections in 1/72, so I don't know how it would look over a larger area. Matt.