Aurora Mark

The only trick - if I may add, will be to match the decals and markings so they match up with the weathering.

A couple years ago, I would have said it was overdone. Our CP-140's have a similar grey, and seeing them up close and personal, even after a bird bath everytime we're doing low level, I'd say you hit the nail on the head.

Going with CMK Replacements. No longer looking for the spare parts.

In my line of work, we have a nice motto... "all boats are meant to sink. Some do it on their own; others require our assistance" hahaha. I'm planning to build my "Moby Dick" although finding a Sierra II may be fairly difficult. I'm thinking it may be easier to get an Akula and convert it over to the Sierra II rather than trying to find this one... hard enough in real life, I'll be damned if I let it do the same to me in the model world, hahahaha.

Great news! After contacting Eduard, within 12 hours, I had a response. I have to say, the customer support was fantastic! Before sending me a new cockpit floor piece, they also want me to try to dry-fit all the other pieces. If there are any others that are damaged, or shrunk, they will send out all those pieces as a replacement order at no cost! Once I've received those pieces, work will continue on. Given the build sequence I want to follow, I wont be jumping ahead anywhere on this build until I get those pieces. So, progress will hold off for now (aside from possibly assembling the radi

I couldn't get the answer to the question I posted above, so I simply wrote them. Within a day I had all the answers I needed. Fantastic support and help. I think I've found my supplier of resin casting products!

And here I thought the whole time that it was open to anything Naval - including aircraft. Well, in that case! Hahaha, my mistake. You know what, I've never built a ship before. Good reason to start, so yes, I am still very much in.

Falcon Driver, This is going to be a great build! I'm going to be following this one for sure! Mark.

Chuck, an incredible build! I have to say that your attention to detail, methods, and art, along with fantastic posts with a real "how-to" approach, were a big inspiration to get back into the hobby. Your current build, and previous threads are brilliant! Thank you kindly.

Thanks guys. Joel, I'm a very lucky guy, no doubt about that. Both of us being aviators really helps as well, as she has a keen interest in the subjects I'm building. I've got a bit of an interlude between now and the next photo update, so I thought I would take a bit of time here to help out anyone who is planning on doing a KR conversion, or just wants to know a bit more about the KR. Specifically talking about the radios. The KR variant had a more powerful radio that was placed over top of the center fuel tank in the fuselage. Located on a rack between the pilot and the gunner, the radi

This thread reminds so much of how we are every year around the time they announce the new menu in our IMP rations... the cover of the pack is only a suggestion, what's inside, who knows... "the package says it's an omlette; but looks like a lung in a bag... more ketchup watered down tomato paste!" ...maybe next year.

The Avro Arrow! Too soon? Waaaay too soon... Yes, the RCN/RN worked together in the early days of jet fighters landing on carrier decks, to come up with ways of safely bringing an aircraft home. We picture stronger landing gear, robust frame, and a really gritty "go get 'er done" attitude for landing jets in the North Atlantic... ...the RCN/RN however... well... yeah... ...they rubberized the deck, and brought in an aircraft, and actually had it touch down - without gear. Literally bouncing it to a stop. The worst of it all, is that you know darn well someone got promoted for that knuckle-he

From here, the Eduard pieces were slowly added. The "piping" took a very long time, as they still needed to be bent into place around everything, and then "scrunched up" as they would have been: In a few fantastic references of museum piece and restored Il-2's, the plumbing hangs in a very elegant, perfectly coiled manner at the rear of the nacelle. Every photo I have seen looking into a wartime Il-2 wheel well... ...well, lets just say it wasn't neat, and it was impressive that the hydraulics still worked! Wanting to make these look heavily cast, and tough, I didn't want a nice, perf

Joel, thank you very much! Hanging around here on this site and looking at the incredible builds, and reading some of the older posts and threads, a lot comes from you all here. So much information, so many tips, so much advice - it's AWESOME! Clioguy, thank you for the offer. In my bout of complaining about the missing part, my wife surprised me with ordering a set of the CMK control surfaces I mentioned to her. She calls it a stocking stuffer... really, we all know it's just to shut me up, hahaha. Thank you regardless though - greatly appreciated. Work started again today on the landing g

Thanks Emil!

Thanks Joel! I really appreciate the comments. While I'm waiting for the horizontal stab situation to sort itself out... and I'm really thinking it will be the CMK set that does the trick, there's still a lot of work left to complete on this one. Tonight I plan on getting right into the main wheel wells, and detailing those up. After that, it's simply a matter of finishing off the brass PE flaps, the horizontal stabs, and front canopy work. Then it's masking 'er up, painting it all up, and then building up the landing gear. I say that now... Hopefully there will be a good bit of an upd

I always thought it was the Delta Wing variant!

Thanks! And yes, they do offer the sprues, but all I need are the two parts. Finding out that the cost and shipping comes to about 3 dollars more than the CMK Resin Control Surfaces offered for the Accurate Miniatures Il-2 (which could be made to fit this kit with little effort). I'm hoping that someone has a spare set (for whatever weird reason that someone would have a spare set of horizontal stabs), and if not, I'd be happy to simply order the CMK set.

A real long shot here, but I'm hoping someone would have a spare set of Horizontal Stabilizers (just one side) for the 1/48 Tamiya Il-2 Shturmovik - part No. 5 and No. 14. As well, is there anyway to order spare parts from Tamiya that anyone knows of? The kit was purchased online, and has been started, so there's no chance of returning the kit... Thanks in advance for any and all help. Mark.

An interesting snag. The delay from any construction or work on this kit comes from missing parts. I've searched high and low for the other halves of the horizontal stabs (parts 5 and 14 I believe). I cannot find the pieces anywhere! Everything else for them is there, and I don't remember cutting the parts off the sprue... ...I'm hoping someone has a spare they're willing to give up... More to come soon.

Thank you! So, we hit a bit of a snag, in workign with the cockpit set, I found that the main piece on the bottom of tub has "shrunk"... at first I thought maybe it was just an error in molding, but after going online, I've found that a number of folks have had the same problem. So, an e-mail has been sent off to Eduard, and hopefully there's some resolution. I'll post pictures of the problem later on tonight.

...research... holy frig. Ii don't know how you big sized vac model builders do it...

Agreed about the prop, please show us! Sigh, and I'm not going to lie; I'm more than a little jealous of you for finding that!

Once the resin pieces were cut from the casting blocks, everything went under warm water with 600 and then 800 grit wet sandpaper to clean up the pieces, and the cuts I had made. Right after is when I washed off all the residue with some detergent and a toothbrush. The pieces were then left to air dry: This is a dry fit of the starboard side fuselage insert. No trimming, no cutting, just a simple dry fit: From here the pieces were then put into place, and a bit of thin CA was applied to the edges using tweezers. Once dry, I ran the pieces over a piece of 1500 grit sandpaper on a mirror

I drilled out holes to help cut away the radio hatch. I was thinking while doing this, perhaps it would have been better to mold the fuselage half without the hatch in place, and thus allowing the edges to be molded nice and thin (as they had done around the small port side door in the cockpit), and if the builder chose not to add the radio compartment, offer the hatch as a "plug" piece that could be inserted from the rear. Just a thought, but by no means a problem. I'll say right now that the plastic is absolutely perfect to work with. Firm, and yet soft enough to be able to sand and work