very clever!

Nearly done, Just the aerials, pitot, and landing lights to add, maybe a bit of paint chipping. Oh and the tail wheel.
So here are a bunch of shots. Clickable for larger res. That is the nice thing with 1/48 you can get
better photos.

Great looking entry jaypee! I almost went with that kit for this campaign and now wish that I had. Your French camo turned out WAY better than my attempt. Congrats!

Hermon

Thanks Hermon, it is far from perfect, but it's my first full hearted attempt with the airbrush. It is so much easier to get a decent finish than with a brush. I ought to have masked it rather than free handed it but it is OK, a few gaps/sparse areas which the camera does not show.
It is a magic kit my first modern 1/48 kit. The only other one being the ancient artiplast 1/50 MC.72.
I couldn't see much wrong with yours the camera can be kind.
I've been told the yellow is too vibrant and the nav lights on the tail should be clear, but I'm not feeling inclined fix that

For all of you still struggling to make the deadline, don't worry about it. I'm probably not going to have mine finished till some time in December, so consider this an extension.

I am, however, going to let the campaign page go ahead and expire and the scheduled November 11th so there will be no new people signing up. I can still assign ribbons for completed models after that no problem though.

Cheers Vance

I haven't been able to work on Laté 298 for the last couple of days, but I'm still aiming to get it just about finished by or on the deadline date. Nice to know there's an extension though - I think it still might have a few tricks up its sleeve to try to bog me down...

All the best

Rowan

Sweet build, jaypee!

those french camo schemes are really cool, but hard to pull off, nicely executed.

Hi JP

You've done a really great job! It's a lovely build all round.

As regards the tail lights, you could indicate them with a tiny drop of silver and add a dark dot with a Rotring (or similar) for the bulb.

All the best

Rowan

Hi again

Time to get back to work!

I ended up not using the self-adheseve "eyelets" because it turned out that being able to slide them about slightly to get the final position was important - so plain old plastic card it was. Anyway, the important thing is that the beast is up on its floats, they line up, and they feel solid.





The canopy is partly masked - so the big plan is to start slapping some paint on tomorrow.

All the best

Rowan

Hi again

Well, it's obvious just how out of practice I am at reaching this stage in finishing a model - I almost forgot the seats and final cockpit parts before I glued the canopy on!

Anyway, after a slight detour to make finish and fit those bits, plus make a new front-tie for the floats out of brass (it's surprising how much of a job it does on this kit keeping everything square and true - and the metal strut does work better), the masking is dry so it's finally time to start painting.



All the best

Rowan

EDIT - I've just notced the rudder is still not masked!

wow rowan, that is starting to look really impressive!

Thanks Vance

Touch wood, I should get all the basics done this week. There are some samples of weathering pigments coming in to review, so I might call the Laté 298 "finished" once the decals are on and then use it as a test-bed for them in the next week or so.

One thing I probably will do at a later date is cobble together a beaching trolley. The kit is very tail-heavy and looks a bit daft sat on its floats whenever I take it out of the jig. By the way, for anyone contemplating building one of these beasts, the jig is proving worth its weight in gold to support the model while adding details etc. - the floats are very prone to taking knocks otherwise...

All the best

Rowan

Hi Rowan,

Excellent progress! Wow!

I also notice it didn't took you too long to have a messy desk...

Jean-Luc

Nice work with the Latecoere Rowan!

Your modelling desk looks familiar, I have also decorated mine with similar chaos

Tuomas

Hi there

I don't know what you mean? I tidied my desk specially for the photos!

All the best

Rowan

Hi again

Back from the paint-shop to a nice tidy desk!



I'll give the preshading a little while to dry and then crack on with the camouflage. I'm not going to go nuts adding paint chipping etc. because the photos I've seen show well maintained aircraft and I think the markings I'm going for are a unit commander's mount, so it was probably among the best-pampered of the lot.

All the best

Rowan

Look at that bench I long for a desk all I've got is my knee. or maybe the kitchen table.
I'd be so productive with a dedicated space. Mind you I'd probably never see the wife.

I spy Radub saws in the background. they are my favourite purchase of the year.

I think i was more productive BEFORE i had a dedicated space for modeling...

Hi again

Well, I was hoping to have a much larger workbench when I moved down to the Isle of Wight - but the basement room I'd planned as a workshop is still stacked full of packing cases from the move!

My trouble - as Jean-Luc hints - is that, no matter how big a work area I have, I soon manage to clutter it up so badly, I end up working in a space the size of the model itself!

All the best

Rowan

Hi again

It's the last day and I can tell now there's no chance of finishing by the official deadline. I sprayed the underside colour yesterday, but any hope of spraying the topsides too vanished because it took ages!

I've learned a lot about how not to build a floatplane in this project - I really should have painted the underside and the floats themselves prior to attaching them, because they got in the way of everything and took a couple of knocks in the process!

Ohh well, learning is half of what modelling is about, and at least the delay means I won't have to call myself Jean-Luc - that would be too weird!

So - topside colour on today and decals today / tomorrow? I reckon it'll be finished by the weekend.

All the best

Rowan

shall I say I knew it ... but he who is sitting in the glass house shalt not throw the first stone .. or so

I am fiddling the Super Etendard every day: a lot to sand and fit and rescribe and fill and sand and rescribe and sand .. did I mention that a lot of sanding is involved. I am not posting updates to my build thread because I just do not like the current behavior of the site and also I do not like to shoot pics in artificial lighting. hope to get it done in the near future.

cheers

Steffen

Hi Steffen

Well, my aim to finish by the deadline (surprisingly!) didn't turn out to be so far off the mark - and if I hadn't had to spend so much time each day as a visitor up the local hospital and nursing home I'd have finished the beast a week or so ago.

At least it's broken my jinx of not finishing anything!

All the best

Rowan

Hi all,

Since Rowan is almost done with his entry, I think it is time I show my progress...

I'm entering the Group Build with Planet Models' 1:48 scale Bugatti 100P resin kit. A review of it can be found here. It's a simple kit with a small number of parts, perfect for a quick build. There's no need to glue the wings and the tailplanes to the fuselage as the airframe comes in one piece. You just have to clean the model and it is ready for painting! On the picture below, you can see all the parts of the kit. I only added one air scope just aft of the cockpit (modified plastic part from the spare box) and four access panels on the top of the fuselage (made out of self-adhesive aluminium foil). I have also rounded the edges of the cockpit's side consoles to make them look more like the real thing. Apart from that, the model will be done out of the box. The resin looks dirty because I've applied a wash to reveal the surface imperfections. There were not many...



Once the preparation work was done, I've sprayed the overall Blue color. For this, I've used my bottle of Tamiya X14 Gloss Sky Blue mixed with some Tamiya X-21 Flat Base to obtain a mat finish. I'm not sure if this is the original Tamiya X14 color though. It looks very dark so I may have use a darker mix from a previous project that remained in the bottle...



The model was then coated with Klir (French variant of Future). That's why I've added Flat Base to the paint...



Finally the surface was sanded smooth with fine grit sandpaper and polished using Tamiya's Polishing Compound. That's the white stuff which is visible in the panel lines. I still have to remove it from the model...



Next will be to paint the detail parts, glue them to the model, add some very light weathering and the model will be finished...

Jean-Luc

Nice one Jean-Luc

See! I told you you'd finish before me!

Hmmm... Klir... I can foresee a lot UK modellers making day-trips to France once their stocks of original-formula Klear run dry! (That's if the French variety doesn't change too...)

All the best

Rowan

Hi Rowan,




Maybe, but you can't compare a Bugatti 100P model with a Latécoère 298 model. There is a LOT more work involved for you. I chose the easier route...




I have four bottles of Klir in stock. In a few years, maybe I will be a Klir Dealer!

Jean-Luc