nickdanger

How does Rig That Thing compare to EZLine? I've been using that for a while now and while I really like it, it looks out of scale and I'm not super happy with the color. Here's a 1/48 Nieuport that I did using EZLine: I think if I use that thickness of EZLine on the Felixstowe it's not going to look good. Is Rig That Thing pretty flexible/elastic? €10 for 150 feet isn't that expensive. That would last me a lifetime.

Excellent work. What do you use for rigging?

Time for the red: Whoa. Maybe with a better background so you can actually see something: Parts are being Futured before assembly: Lower wings in, hull spreaders in place... Showtime ! First major assembly complete: Next up...starting in on the decals.

Got the wings Futured and at least the bottom of the bottom wing is deacaled: Closed up the fuselage (hull ?):

Took off the Sharpie with a rubbing alcohol bath: Assembled the cleaned up wings and started in on painting. Only done the bottom in doped linen (basically Tamiya deck tan with a little red and a little white): Hard to see in the pictures but all (I hope) of the predrilling is finished for the wings, control surfaces, and tail.

@migwin - I didn't realize that was a link. I thought you were just underlining for emphasis! Thanks for making me slow down and actually do some research! If I can't remove the ink, I'll just go over everything with Tamiya surface primer. I can;t imagine that anything would get through that !

Wow. I see what you guys mean: http://www.ratomodeling.com/articles/pre_shading1/ http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/81805.aspx?PageIndex=1 Sigh. Time to bust out the rubbing alcohol....

@mingwin - well there was no way I was going to mask all those ribs. I'm sure it will be fine.

Doing simple preshading with a Sharpie to give an illusion of semi-translucent wing fabric. When I look around at biplane/WWI builds I see it done both ways - preshade the ribs or preshade between the ribs. With this one I'll be going with the "ribs are dark" style. The upper wings are HUGE. At 95' the F2A had a wingspan that was only 9' less than a B-17! Lot's of ribs to prep. Next step drilling. I estimate at least 100 holes or divots that I'll need to drill out before moving on to painting and decaling the wings.

Starting to prep the fiddly bits. There are A LOT of fiddly bits Still dryfitting Seems like the fuselage will need some extra spreaders to make to top fit on nicely As you can see, the fuselage can't be closed up until the lower wing is ready to be installed. So next step is preshading the wings, glueing them together, and starting in on the drilling for the rigging. Don't want to be doing drilling when things start to get complicated.

Was wondering what the StarFish build was...super stoked! My Italeri 1/32 Starfighter should be here any day and this GB will be a perfect excuse to not let it languish in the stash.

@spectre - that's the brush I use to clean out Tamiya paint bottles, and it's the only wire brush that I have so I can't really say. I bet that its a good thing that it's all crazy to make the scratches a bit more random.

@mingwin - The color is deceiving. It's really more of a milk chocolate brown. The lighting was from the side because I wanted to see if the woodgrain that I scribed looked good (it did not). So the wood grain technique that I used is an adaption of a number that I found on the web. Step one is a chocolate brown base coat (piece on the left, below). Then use a wire brush to smear a only slightly thinned burnt umber along the direction of the grain: Then used Vallejo transparent orange to give the wood a varnished look: I'm pretty happy with the results: Used a lighter, yellower bas

Engines are painted dull aluminum and picked out some exhaust pipes with copper: Threw in the vertical spars to paint the aluminum bits for them as well. Also started preshading the main fuselage section. The cart is painted but still need to add some characted with detail painting and weathering. Did a quick dirty wash on one of the engines - starting to come alive: Next step is to find a wood color I'm happy with for the spars and fuselage interior. First wood grain scoring experiment seems a bit washed out. Need a richer, redder color:

A little slow off the starting blocks on my GB entry. Had a busy July at home (3 birthdays in the family, two family reunions, a 20th wedding anniversary, and kid's music performances) and at work (huge annual fundraiser and exhibit opening) so the Felixstowe has been on the back burner. Was also trying to finish up another model before beginning something as complex as the F2A. Just completed my latest P-38 last night. So the F2A. Lots of sprues. Lots of small parts. I decided to splurge on the AIMS aftermarket decals for the scheme on the box cover since I'd rather put my efforts in

Eduard 1/48 Nieuport 11

I'm in with the Roden 1/72 Felixstowe F.2A. As much as I'd like to try and mask the camo, I'm going to use the AIMS decals for the white curlicues and save my efforts for the rigging. That'll be quite challenging enough, thank you.

You should start it on May the Fourth of course!

I have a Roden 1/72 Felixstowe F.2A. Thought that I might build up the courage to try all that rigging, but I just don't like that aspect of building. They go for $17.99 - $31.99 on Squadron depending upon the month and what sales are on. Looking to trade for something of about the same value, 1/48 preferred, but 72 is ok. Any interest?

Don't forget the Baltic Fleet Regiment 3-in-1: Spitfire, Yak and Mig.

Thanks Edgar. Won't be adding the rockets since I'll be doing the air racer livery.

SHHHH! Don't tell everybody ! I thought that this was my secret. I love picking these up on ebay. Also good are the three in one kits that you can occasionally find for under $30. With the money you save on the kits, throw away the decals and order some new cool decals online.

Aloha, I'm working on the Eduard (ex-Airfix) 1/48 Spitfire Mk. 22/24 and came across some PE parts that confused me They are simple squares that are meant to be bent into an L shape then fixed by the spent shell holes. I have never seen anything like these in references pictures of any Spitfire. Has anybody built this model as directed in the instructions? I'm tempted to just leave them off. Just curious. Thanks for your time, ND

I've made my fair share of wingtip lights and thanks for the tips but I'm at a stage where I'll just buy a replacement sprue before scratchbuilding. Just hoping somebody has built the night fighter version and doesn't need the trailing edge lights.

Aloha, Can't seem to find the trailing edge wingtip lights to finish up my Mossie. If anyone has done the NF Mk II I think the rear wingtip lights aren't used... Thanks, ND