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Since you are getting AMMO products, may I suggest to check their Facebook page and Youtube channel? These pasts months, they made a series of live presentations on how to use the products; some are in English; they also have short instructional videos for some of them.

Hello all Just noticed that it had been a month since the last update, half of this time was used studying references, a quarter thinking how to approach the construction of the cockpit and the rest in a combination of build and dry fitting. The best way I could think of was to attach each part of the Aires' cockpit to the corresponding section on the kit, so I can take care of the union points where they are more visible, leaving any misalignment on the interior where they are less evident. The first step was to remove the kit details to make room for the Aires' parts since the fit is tight, I prefer to remove most of the material from the resin and then remove the minimal required from the kit to maintain the rigidity of the model. I check the fit the parts often during this process. Once the fit of the parts is acceptable, it is time to correct the resin's defects and to add the missing details or broken pieces; at this point, I have to rely on the references to discern between molding errors or actual details. Here are the parts at this point. The Aires instructions don't show how to attach the rudder pedals, using references I made this detail from scratch, this isn't visible but will help to maintain the pedals firmly in place while airbrushing or handling. Most of the seat's supports were replaced with stretched sprue, either because they were missing or simply to add rigidity, the seat isn't glued yet, and most of the supports are simply mounted trough drilled holes, this will allow me to adjust the alignment later. Another part that I will address later is the union of the headrest and the fuselage, neither Tamiya nor Aires represent this zone correctly, so the armored headrest was removed from the Aires part to replace it with a more accurate one; I'm still undecided how to address this issue. After much thinking, I decided to use the IP cover of the kit so, the detail of the resin was removed, leaving only the gunsight, which is more detailed than the one from the kit, but I'll replace the resin lens with a clear one. That's all for now; I hope the next time will have at least some paint over the cockpit. Thanks for watching this. Carlos

Hello Not that I have a lot of experience, but let me share what had worked for me and some other stuff that read somewhere, but I've not tried yet. I don't build tanks but think that the techniques are similar. About the painting; recently I've switched from enamels and other "Hot" products to acrylics and I'm still learning how to use them properly, the odor is minimal but anyway while airbrushing, I do use a mask and try to keep the room ventilated (don't have a spray booth myself) because in the end there are paint particles floating around; if you airbrush at lower pressure you can minimize the overspray and along with your spray booth should not have a problem. On the weathering, once I've used artist' watercolors to do washes instead of diluted oleos or panel liners, those come in small tubes and you diluted them with water, add a small amount of dishwasher soap to lower the surface tension. As whit regular washes, use them over a cured, gloss coat so you can remove the excess easily. For smoke, oxide, and other stains, you can use pastel chalks, ground them with sandpaper, so you get fine dust, apply them with a stiff brush over a flat coat. Once you are done, apply a clear coat to protect it. Watercolor pencils are useful to simulate scratches, I've used them once on my recent build, and they looked fine, but the effect almost disappears when I apply the final matt coat over the model. Next time I will try to make the effect heavier to compensate, although maybe I'll just use acrylic paint and a fine brush to achieve the same result. Finally, I do recommend to check AMMO, Vallejo, or similar brands; they have some weathering products that are not solvent-based. Hope this helps Carlos

Interesting topic Oddly, most of the ones mentioned are good looking in my view because they add some "personality" to the planes. On the other hand, I can't withstand the main gear of the Spitfire, so simple and devoid of any feature in particular; in my opinion, it looks like an afterthought in such a beautiful plane. Carlos

Hello Dylan, I'm using imgur.com; the interface is a little bit tricky, but once you get practice is easy to upload and share in this forum. One nice thing is that you can set a final size for the images when they get uploaded. Carlos

Hello all. The riveting on the wing is complete, a light pass with 1200 sandpaper to smooth the surface left only tiny holes, they look good, but I’m still afraid they disappear under the primer and paint, if that’s the case I’ll use the modelers' mantra for hidden detail “I know it’s there.” Now it’s time to work on the cockpit, the kit’s parts have good detail and will look good with careful painting, on the other hand, Aire’s set has fine crisp detail that in this particular airplane will be worth it because of its floorless nature. Here are most of the parts removed from the supports; I started to clean the details; in this step, I rely on references to discriminate what is part of the cockpit and what is excess resin. The central piece is warped in a way that it is narrower than it should; I’ll take care of this later using a hairdryer. Before removing detail from the kit, I want to be sure the Aires set will have a reasonable fit, if not, I’ll be using the kit’s cockpit instead. At first glance, most of it seems fine except for the part where the instrument panel goes. On the kit, the cover over the IP extends forward, but on the Aires part the cover ends almost flush with it, here are the comparison. The instrument panel is more or less on the same location in both cases; studying builds online using this set, found no mention about this issue, but the overall fit of this part looks fine. I don’t know which one is more accurate because it’s not clear on the references I have. I'm still undecided to extend the cover or leave it as is, what do you think? Thanks in advance for your critiques and comments Carlos

Hello, thank you all for looking at this build and for your encouraging words. Working from home left me with even less time to build, but these past days managed to get some advance. The wing’s center and outer sections were glued in place and also the intakes; refining the union at the wing fold ended up being a challenging task. Abusing plastic surgery left this section with many weak points that needed to be corrected more than once. In preparation for the riveting, I sanded and polished the wing the better I could, this way it was easier to spot the flaws and correct them, I hope to keep at a minimum the rework required once the primer is applied. Armed with a set of diagrams found on the internet, started the riveting process on the underside so the expected initial errors would be less evident. Electrical, masking and Dymo tapes were used as guides to draw the lines using a mechanical pencil, once I was happy with the lines proceeded to make the rivets using the RB tool; proper illumination and an Optivisor make it easy to follow the lines without using extra support. Here is the result on the underside of the wing, once I finish the top I’ll give it a light sanding overall to smooth the surface. Thanks Carlos

This build gets better with each update. Thanks for sharing

Getting a spare canopy is a smart thing to do, we modelers are brave but not reckless, let's hope that you can get one. You surely know better than me, using a Dremel allows me to make cuts with little risk of damaging the part, it may work for you too if simply burr away (not sure if it's the right term) the hatch and windows and make new ones from scratch, just a suggestion, looking forward to more progress on this build. Thanks for sharing

Awesome John, the detail just gets better and better, you must have to leave open as many windows or hatches you can on that cockpit. Thanks for sharing Carlos

Thank you Steve, Chukw Steve, I'm using an RB productions riveting tool. It surprised me how small the rivets are; I'm hoping they wouldn't disappear under the priming or the paint. By the way, I saw your finished Corsair, outstanding job you did; it inspired me to go on. Carlos

Amazing build Steve I like the balance you achieve, parts with lots of details like the engine and wing fold, and the rest of the plane with a smooth, flawless finish; you put the bar high. Thank you for sharing Carlos

Hello all I've managed to make some progress this weekend, Steve's marvelous Corsair build inspired me to move along with mine. One thing that completely forgot when doing the research was the information about the colors, so I've to rely on the Tamiya instructions while I gather more references. This is only my second model after switching to acrylics, so I'm still experimenting with them; since this part wouldn't be visible it was an excellent opportunity to do a test, here are my attempts at the zinc chromate of the interiors, one is the indicated in the instructions of 1:1 XF-3 and XF-5; the other one is a 2:1 mix of Vallejo U.S. interior yellow and RLM 70 black green (too late I've discovered the bottle of U.S. light green has dried). Wich one you think looks better? Two flaps actuators per wing were made from Evergreen rod; they will be cut to length later. The approaching light and the gun camera were fashioned from bits of clear sprue and evergreen; in this picture, I found that the window for the gun camera has a small crack, didn't bother to fix it at this point. For the oil filters, I've chosen a fine mesh from RB, to simulate the diagonal strip, a piece of thin stretched sprue was glued first in the back and masked on the mesh on the front, and then applied several layers of primer (AMMO One Shot), this product worked better than I expected. Here are the wings glued in place, some minor filling is necessary for the joint, the air intakes were painted separately before assembling the parts (oil filter and vanes), here are just dry fitted in the wing. Here is the other intake and also the backfire ports glued in place. Halfway in this build had the idea to make rivet details on it, the first time for me on a full kit. Months ago I made the first attempt on the bottom of the elevators leading edge, the result was disappointing, to say the least, and was undecided if going on or not; yesterday I give it one more try, filled the first attempt with cyano, sanded smooth and take extra time to draw the reference lines the better I could, the result where much better this time, not perfect but at least the lines are straight. That's all for now, thank you in advance for your comments and critiques. Carlos

That bird is looking good, love the paint and, the extra detail you put in the wing fold does stand out. Can´t wait to see more pics of the finished model, thank you for sharing Steve. Carlos

Thank you, Collin. Your explanation was clear, and it does make sense, I'll be practicing as much as I can to be prepared. Looking forward to this build and wondering if you will be doing some weathering to go along with the context of a plane hidden on the outside between trees. Carlos