Only got an hour at it tonight. Got the glass masked and 2/3 sections glued down, used my new-found grand master gap-filling talents to fix the wing roots, a little bit of sanding still to do there.

Last thing I did was slap some paint on the wheel bay doors, struts and wheel hubs.

Hoping to have some paint on it tomorrow night. If I don't I might be in dire straights for the finish line !!

Sean, your "Wirraway" is looking good.

Simon, nice paintwork on your tubby little barrel fighter.

Paul, where's the pics? I love to see these things coming together.

Cheerio chaps, carry on !

here ya go damian,
fresh off the assembly line,wet paint and all...

drying for the rest of the night,then maybe gloss and decals tomorrow.

paul

5 wickets down, 50 runs short. Finely balanced. Just like a spitfire mk5

Just 2 hours on this today, so had to work fast.

Mask on!


Mask off!


Arse! Och well it will have to do

Not the best light to be spray painting in the kitchen, but I just could not live with the slowness of the brush.

Shhh, don't tell the wife or she'll be wanting a temperate scheme on her nails

I'll leave this for tonight, and maybe grab an hour or two tomorrow to clean up then decals and weathering. I just might make this.

@Paul nice representation of the camo scheme I can never get it right.

Great progress guys, I wish the Aussie bowlers could put in likewise !!

Here's where I got to last night:

Gap filling (like I need more practise)


Glass on and taped down, parts painting


Almost ready for paint!


Cheers, D

Great work from all.

Sean, some canopy for you to mask, then it should be 'plane' sailing with the colour scheme.

Paul, very effective camoflage painting and good progress overall. If you push it you could be finished within a day or so.

Jay Pee, your dedication is admired. I would never risk spraying in the kitchen for fear of offending in some way and disturbing marital harmony


Damian, Try to forget about the cricket. In fact, I propose that there is no more mention of proceedings at the SCG in the interests of.....oh glorious shot by Prior to bring up his half century....
At least the Aussies can put a good model together. I see you have used stretched sprue?? to fill the wing roots. I haven't tried that before, but now I've seen it in action I'll give it a go. Also, I have that kit on order, I really liked the look of the markings on the box front and the kit received decent reviews, so I'm keen to see how yours ends up.

Here's the finished Buffalo:











It represents a Buffalo Mk 1 of No. 453 Squadron of the RAAF, based in Singapore in December 1941.
And here is my assistant on this build, Kristen. She has already claimed this one for a diorama.





Cheers, Simon

lol my boys would never hold it as delicately as that. More like punching each other and swirling it round their heads yeaaowwww, tatatatata.

Ah they make me so proud.

So that is first blood to the Cons. And unless their batsmen can put an innings together today could be the last day!!

3 innings defeats and the English could justifiably start burning some stumps.

So we're only 1,347 runs behind, what fun would it be without a challenge?

I managed another hour at the bench tonight and threw some paint at it . . .





Funny thing, but I think the "mad rush" paint job is actually better than half the ones I've done with great care. Go figure

Anyway, hopefully I'll get time to slop some clear on in the morning, decals tomorrow night. Gotta love this warm southern summer, I could handle the model after about 5 minutes !

Simon, it's Evergreen stock that I used, not stretched sprue. I keep a few different sizes on hand for just such a job. I have a few lengths of stretched sprue but I need some more practise to get it more even diameter. Those wing roots, and the rear join of the wings on the underside, are the only problem areas I've found. The rest went together very nicely and as I said earlier the detail and fine engraved panel lines are really nice. No hesitation in recommending the kit, and I'll let you know how the decals perform very soon.
You little Buffalo looks great, congrats on being first past the post. Beautiful daughter as well, you must be very proud !

More updates on the build soon, no cricket updates ever again.

Here's where I ended last night...

I'm not so bold as to run home at lunch to throw decals at it, but tonight should wrap this build up. Ten PM Wednesday in the US Central Time Zone is what-- 3PM Thursday (day 4) in Sydney? I'm thinking instead of painting a gloss overcoat, I'll paint Future at the decal locations and float them onto it wet-- has anyone done it that way? I think I read that somewhere, and it should save lots of time.
cheerio,
Sean.

Could be all over by then

Nice work, amazing how neat you all are. I shoulda picked a monotone scheme

btw sean that is the decalling method i'll use too. futurepuddling.

greetings all,
well apart from a dull coat its done....well i've done as much as i'm gonna do!



finished pix tomorrow.

paul

Almost there Paul. Mk1s are always the best, purest design.
Mk1 Capri, Mk1 Golf, Mk1 Spitfire.

Just watching the replays of the 3rd day. Bell was guilty as sin.

If proceedings come to an end today, could you post to the thread Damo?

Mark it with your local time. Then we should all post where we got to at that time.

I'm going to be tight on this. No finish, no points

I don't see anyone missing out though.

I've got the decals on, futurepuddling is not just quick, but essential with old Airfix decals. The glue is setting on the cannon but this 303 Spitfire is cooked.

Not perfect but done. The airfix 1/72 Mk5 is sweet little kit for this kind of thing.
Not bad fit just the usual wing root and rear wing to worry about, and decent shape. The harsh direct light is unkind to the paint job, and the tamiya olive didn't stick too well when I move the roundel but I'll live with it. Nice to start the year with a finish.



Good luck to the rest of you I hope the finishes are hassle free.

Will do JP. I'm stuck at work all day so no progress until tonight. I hope our boys can stick it out until tomorrow or I'll have a P-40 with no wheels or markings on display

Edit: I've never tried that Future-puddling technique, but I will tonight on this one. Thx for the heads up guys.

Work? Scourge of the drinking classes.

England all out for 644, a lead of 364, so our guys just need to stack on 400 runs thisarvo, a few more tomorrow, then dismiss the poms for 200 or so with the last wicket falling 2 overs before stumps.

THAT would be a fitting end to the series. None of this England wins rubbish.

Agreed. All the paint jobs look great. Praying for a day 5 finish as I want to see these models finished!

Simon

Aussies 3/118 off 42, that horrible sinking feeling is coming back.

Hoping and praying we don't lose the last 7 wickets in the next 90 minutes so I can get some more done on the P-40 tonight. After that I don't really care what happens !

Does that make me a traitor?

Better make it quick, claiming the extra half hour, 3 wickets to go. This is what feels like to be a pom most of the time. Rubbish isnt it. Two overs left.


Update: thats play over for the day. Looks like you'll get a chance to finish off, everyone.

Mighty gracious of Tremlett to leave a couple of Aussie batsmen unscathed so that I could get a chance at wrapping this baby up

Beautiful work on the 2 Spits JP and Paul, and Sean, our builds would look great together with similar schemes !!

I'll have mine wrapped up within the hour, just waiting for some paint to dry, some final assembly and I'll post my finished pics.

Ok you bunch of mad units, I"M FINISHED !!

But guess what ? I left my camera lead on the desk at work, so I'm gunna have to post pics tomorrow AM my time.

I'll do it before the start of play because I reckon Tremlett will take a hat trick and it will all be over in about 3 minutes.

Does that include tea?

Finished!

Here she is in better light:

I hope Australia can take consolation in the fact that the test lasted this long, or that we (I'm invested here) can still win this speed build.
Note that Futurepuddling is a new science, and I'm still working out the bugs. (Maybe JP or others here have figured this out already.) Having scavenged my decals from various sources, there were some very thick, stiff ones, but I didn't try decal setting solution in the Future-- I did learn to dab the decal on a tissue before applying it though. Next build I'll go back to traditional decaling.
Thanks again for having me along,
-Sean.

ok,the pic i posted before will have to be it as its raining cats and dogs here,very dark and i dont have a flash at the moment...if i'd have built it as a night fighter it would be perfect!!!

a great build chaps,we must do this again

paul

As a wise man once said, "Arse."
The American has put roundels on only one wing top and bottom! I thought I saw that somewhere, but now I see every picture I find has roundels on both wings. I'll have to come back to that another time-- probably when the paint and Future finally dry!
-Sean.

Hi all, here I am at work as promised with my final Ashes Speed Build 2011 update.

I used a circle cutter to knock out a quick mask for the RAF Dark Green patch where the old roundels were painted over, and I used the same technique to mask the red tip on the spinner. Not perfect but good enough for this rough country lad.



And here she is, "Cleopatra III"




I'm reckoning on about 8 hours work all told, my first real speed build !!

I'm going to give her a full coat of future and a flat coat in the next few days, then use her as a test bed for the Promodeller Weathering Wash that arrived in the post yesterday

I'll post more pics in this thread once that's done.

Now, can the Aussie tail wag a bit and bat on for another 200 runs ??

Edit: Always amazing what you pick up in photo's, I forgot to paint the back of the seat protection armour !!