Loki_v2

I'm not an expert, but from researching the Luftwaffe planes I've built, everything that's not camo is RLM02 (cockpit aside). Since the camo would have been applied after wing assembly and the slatson the 109 droop when parked, my bet would be some camo overspray into the unmasked gap is to be expected, but otherwise RLM02 deeper in.

A few hours later...

Loving this kit so far. Everything clicks together nicely. The cockpit wall details a bit flat (e.g. throttle quadrant) but with a bit of life added I'm content with the result.

Hello again! I'm starting a new kit, it's an Italeri Ju-87 G2 Kanonenvogel with the twin 37mm gun pods. I haven't touched Italeri since about 2007 and wasn't sure what to expect, but this kit is very pleasant to work with. My goal here is to go easy and build what's in the box with minor additions where convenient. The kit breaks very nicely into sub-assemblies, and it's fun to work with large and self-contained components. I was going to go straight to paint on the cockpit tub, but a look at the references opened some wiring opportunities I couldn't pass by. Black

The whole package is together! I've decided I'm going to leave the broken window as it is. I don't have a good way to fix it, and since the frame is intact, and it gives interesting detail, let's say it's out for repair 😉 I feel it's starting to pop, and I could stop here, but there's something missing. Going to let it marinade a bit and come in with some extra weathering/variation.

I can see the results, but trying to piece together how you solved some of these shapes at that scale is a real challenge. Like, if my tools and hands were also 1:48 scale, I can totally see it, but they're not! Hats off sir.

Moar update! The open lower cowling came together pretty quickly. Quite happy with the result.

Thant Mr. Happy! Picking up the pace. My airbrush situation is finally resolved. I have gone from a 20+ year old Paasche VL to a collection of second-hand Iwatas.. and so, the mottling is 95% where I want it to be! A bit heavy after all, but I'm happy with the effect. Model has all of its colour and decals, gloss and some weathering. I will set up the open engine with the radiator panel attached and plumbed, which means scratching the inside of that panel. Starting on that. The thinking here is you wouldn't have the engine cowling all apart in pre-flight and

She's starting to take shape! I went back to the engine, cleaned it up and fixed the mounts. Warming the mounts in hot water helped bend them into the right shape and the openings were with first with Microscale Micromask (liquid mask that can hold a film and dries reasonably hard), and then water soluble putty for shaping and permanence. That's one long-lingering problem put to bed! Wing surfaces are cleared, decaled and in the process of weathering. The fuselage mottling is not done yet, so no decals there.

Paint is going on! The mottling might need to be redone, will see how it looks after a unifying layer. I like how the area around the cockpit came out, but the tail section is less good. I kept spraying with a broken reg, and wondering trying to work with spatter rather stopping to think. Little streaks here and there are easy fixes though. The subject will be 9K VV of KG51. The Perfect Putty trick above actually kind of worked! It gives juuuust a hint of dinged up metal on flat surfaces. Difficult to catch on camera without a gloss coat. On vertical surfaces its a

Long overdue update! The cockpit before closing it up: Another hitch in the assembly: the resin gunners sight is too wide for the stock canopy glass. Doh! Perhaps not the wisest choice, but I elected to grind down the inside of the canopy glass to win the necessary millimeter or two on each side. It worked well on the starboard side - grind, sand, polish, Future. But, on the port side I .... went through the glass. At that point, I put the project down for a bit and did other things wh

We lucked out, my grandma worked in a hospital and we knew what had happened within hours. I remember the phone ringing in the middle of the night and my parents going around taping over cracks in the windows, still at night. But many people didn't know for a while after and went about their lives. My mom still has thyroid problems and a childhood friend died of leukemia 6-7 years later. Hard to say if directly caused by exposure or just coincidence. That's a crazy build BaconRaygun, can't wait to see it finished.

Update time. It's not going EXACTLY as planned, but here's where we are. On the plus side, it looks like a plane. On the minus side, I'm finding a lot of the same issues chuckw found in building this kit with these extras. Individually all the components work fine, but when you start fitting them together into the fuselage, it's another story. For example, the port instrument panel was straight, but the curve of the kit cockpit wall forces it to bend down and to the right. Likewise, the gun bay, radio/gunner and cockpit components interfere with each other when assembled. It's

After taking some time off from the engine, the new plan is to build the engine cradle from scratch to solve the cowling problem. Meanwhile, on the radio...

So the CMK engine kit is a little disappointing. The oil tank is wrong, the engine cradle is wrong, obvious details are missing and the top cowl portion from CMK can't actually fit over the engine, because the engine cradle arms sit too far out. I intended to model the top of the cowl closed but removable, and the bottom (DIY) cowl open, so now I think we're going with a permanently closed top cowl if I have to grind down the engine cradle. I console myself with Aires cockpit which is hitting all the right notes!