Aurora Mark

Stunning work!

AWESOME!!!!!

I take offense to that! I'll have you know... ...hahahaha. Whitey, you know me. I'll just shaddup and go back to my tube.

...the going might be slow, and part of that may fall to how I go about with the measurements and design. The images of the prints I post up are simply "paintbrush" images, to share with you guys what goes on with work on paper. I like going back to the ways I did things long ago. A simple ruler, string, calculator, and a journal. All the designing of this kit is done on paper this way. It's not that I'm not a fan of CAD, but as everything is getting referenced to the actual aircraft, and the measurements are down-scaled (where any angles or curves would still be the same in scale), it's both

Joel, I certainly hope it's a sound plan, hahaha! I hope to be able to keep it simple. Colin, Thanks my friend! Slow, but I'm going to have fun. But really, I'm no expert or fantastic builder of vac forms. This is the debut of my vacforming, so please cross your fingers for me! Alright, so a little more of the planning/designing is complete. The idea of a 3 piece spar section will also help me deal with something missed in the vac form. The bottom of the vac form at the wings has the bottom of the wing flush with the fuselage: However, this is certainly not the case. Here's an old CP

All part of the design process and approach for this build... ...going through the previous suggestions, there is a lot of great news. I went through the books once more, and through all the notes previously made on the build so far. Even though the fuselage will still be split along the traditional way (left half, right half), a nice "tube" insert that goes completely up the side of the fuselage along the wing route lends itself nicely. Rather though than ending this up just pat the wing, it will continue right up to the front of the bomb bay. As the bulge where the bomb bay is on this vac

If you can't mask and repaint the whole panel, make it look like they belong there. Specifically, paint a "patch panel" on the NMF skin. Maybe this will help?

Hello, I am looking to try and find a nice mini lathe that would lend itself nicely for the making of landing gear legs, brass barrels, and other smaller items like that. Looking online has really given me little help with which one to pick. So, I'm wondering if anyone here has one, uses one, or has used one that they feel would be a worthwhile purchase. Thank you kindly for all your help in advance, Mark.

Any updates?

I don't think there's any probably about that 11Bee. I still can't get over the hand painted straps! Absolutely amazing! It was after seeing this that I went back to the books to start planning out how I'd be making the seats for the CP-140... not to often one can say the get excited about aircraft seats! Mark.

True! But hey, I was all of 6 then. Saw it on the shelf, and my dad knew by my reaction that we're going to be building this one, no argument. Mind you, given that I ended her shelf-life with a good ole firecracker behind the engine, perhaps the box art isn't completely wrong afterall...

Fantastic read! Thank you for sharing this one! Mark.

Heh, little update... amazing work! Those details all add up in the end!

Brilliant point. Now, not to ride in on your coat tails here, but I do agree to a point. Take this hobby like Hockey up here. Some play to simply play for fun. Others are destined for the NHL. In the middle you have all calibres of play. Some are competitive, others are not. And this is much like model building. There are those that build just for fun, and do what they can. Follow the instructions, put it together, and at the end of it, call it a day until the next time. Just as you would with pick-up league play. Then there are those of us who want to build something that is as close a rep

Loving the progress!

Finally found it! Built this one as a kid... I remember something odd... mind you, the FW 190 was mean enough as it was, with that massive radial power plant. Then they took it too far with the introduction of afterburners, as seen in the box art photo. So much power that the wings wouldn't stay on! Mind you, after building that kit, I remember that the left wing on the box art did closely represent the warp of the kit parts. Cheers, Mark.

Brilliant!

...wow! At first I thought the second picture was a reference photo!

I don't mean to start this comment with the intent of stirring the pot. Not at all. I will also not wash things down by going the "artistic is artistic" route. I will just give my two cents, a bit of an opinion, and very little fact to this. First, if someone is going to build and weather a model, a fantastic way of showing a paint scheme, panel lines, rivets, and dirt/grime as being accurate, is to have photographs of the subject. So this narrows it down to a rough (or exact) date, with photo reference that can be used, and compared. This way, if someone mentions about dirty or not dirty en

You both! You both rock! So, there is a down side to the cutting of the nose and tail and putting them onto a tube. The tail not so much, but the nose. With the size and weight of the model, and the force on the nose, rejoining the nose section to the fuselage will be very difficult to do right. This is primarily due to the very close proximity of the rear of the nose gear well and the front of the bomb bay. Without being able to reinforce it properly, there's a good chance that it may crack. At the very least, a thin nose section, with a thicker center fuselage section may show a bit of an

Right on! Wow!! You don't waste time.

Up here we call 'em bouys as in "boys".

The gal in the background isn't too hard on the eyes either. Cheers.

Fantastic!! Thanks guys.

As mentioned, managed to thin things down. Of the original vac kit, the last two parts that will be kept and used are the fuselage halves... maybe. The vertical and horizontal stabs along with their respective feathers will be vac formed with the correct shapes, as will the wings. But the question of the fuselage halves comes down to these points: -removal of the wing roots to correct the errors may warp/weaken the fuselage halves; -the fuselage is in itself just a long tube, which is easily replicated with a vac form; -cost/time/effort to create a new fuselage vs. using the halves I alre