so...Bob's your uncle? or, in your case Jessie, John's your uncle?

I, honestly, am going to start a blog here called "Adventures in Modeling" and describe all the screw ups that happen putting these things together...especially to me!

Just when I think things can't get any worse, I always remember our old mate VonCuda and the tragic "Display Cabinet Incident of '09"

Take a look back in time HERE and spare a thought.

Bruce, I would contribute to your blog for sure !

Cheers, D

Yep, I've got a few stories to share on that list.

If we didn't, we don't deserve to call ourselves modellers.

Yeah I agree. IMO experience doesn't necessarily decrease the number of mistakes i make during the process but they have less an impact on the final result. Also how fun is it to be perfect, you have no good horror stories to tell your fellow modelers

thanks guys, it's good to know I'm not the only who runs into these kinds of problems

Actually I did finally put a forum post here called Adventures in Scale Modeling, for just this reason...to laugh at ourselves when the plastic gods really get frisky.

I'm sure if the editors don't think it belongs here in Aeroscale that they will find an appropriate place for it.

Later

One of the guys at NWSM is a retired VP of Engineering from Boeing. His view is "Modeling is Problem Solving". Some days you have to take a deep breath or two, repeat that as a mantra and dig in and get it done.

Well, this is where we are now. The layer cake is almost assembled, but at least now my Mosquito has her sting back

Fuselage is re-assembled and the nose has it's 4 cannon and A.I. VIII radome, now to mate those pieces.



Later

So, with a permission, the beggining:


and the second picture with a Beau as a background


more of Moskito to follow

Tom, keep 'em coming!

Later,

Hi,

Time for some work update.
Had some time waiting for a few extras that arrived 2 weeks ago.

first i went for propellers, a much needed replacement on this kit

[url=http://www.flickr.com/people/rochinhas4/]rochaped38
Quickboost really captures the right profile when you compare with those from the box.

After that i went for the cockpit and along came Eduard's etched fret. I will need to tone down Eduard's rendition of RLM 66, since it's a fair bit more blueish than my own mix, though i might do the exception on that instrument panel.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/people/rochinhas4/]rochaped38


[url=http://www.flickr.com/people/rochinhas4/]rochaped38

Also too many sink marks to deal with

[url=http://www.flickr.com/people/rochinhas4/]rochaped38

Will post a few more before closing the fuselage

Cheers

Hi there,

Great progress, everyone.

Real life and work have been after me a lot lately, so not much time at the workbench. But here is my first update on the Eduard Messerschmitt Bf110E.
I have assembled and painted the cockpit. I may have been a bit sloppy with paintwork and PE, but I'm generally happy with the result. And since the canopy will be completely closed on this one, not much will be seen on the finished model anyways.
I'm not sure that the pilots harness is correct (I believe it should go through the seat) but this is what the instructions said. Any comments on that?







Since the pictures were taken I have closed the fuselage and I'm now working on the wings and engine nacelles.
This beast is not a perfect fit, but I WILL beat it (I hope)

Cheers

WOW! Kenneth, that's fantastic detail painting and shading. I really hope to come close to that some day with my work.
thanks for posting!
-Sean H.

Kenneth,

That cockpit is a stunner, great work on bringing that grey up to life.
Eduard has done a good job concerning the cockpit, but a good modeller can make it shine even more as you did.
Major pain will be fixing those engine nacelles on the wings, been there and it cost me half tube of putty and a lotta cursing

Cheers

Hi,

Yes, SR...!!!

I agree, It's a Very nice 110...!

Cingrats & BTW..

Diego

Sean, Pedro and Diego: Thank you very much for your kind words Much appreciated!
I will soon be finished with the wings and nacelles, so my next update is soon to follow.

Cheers!

progress report

got the resin nose attached, and the front glued to the fuselage. Wings and stabilizers on, painted and landing gear done



All that's left to do is put in the gunsight, and a few bits and bobs, attach the canopy and decals, hopefully by the end of this week

Later

Pedro, Kenneth,
Nice interiors!

Bruce,
Glad your over the hurdle!

Got most of the cockpit parts cleaned up and started with the PE. Instead of cutting the bits off the instrument panel I just made a new one it's barely visible in the center with the rudder pedals attached. I have two of these kits and two Verlinden radials I am planing on using those on the second kit but looking over the kit I now have to decide which cowling to use on which build, I'm going to have to cut two booms apart to transfer parts so I'm left with two the same for each build.

Cheers Rob.

Oh, dear here comes another P-61. Finally made a start on my GWH P-61A, and what a lovely kit it is. This is to be built oob as quite frankly at the momnet I can't see what else I would buy, apart from possibly decals.
Cockpit modules dry fitted to RHS fuselage

Forward cockpit

Rear cockpit

Anther angle on the front pit

20mm cannon under the floor
so far the kit goes together beautifully, my only real criticism is the thickness of some of the sprue gates. Looks like the assembly of the fuselage is going to require a lot of care as a lot of parts with close tolerances need to be assembled.
btw for those of you not subscribing to Kitmaker yet, this is a good reason to start, this kit was a monthly draw prize

Sacrilege! There can NEVER be too many Black Widows.

Great work so far Andrew, really nice detail painting in the office. What is the colour that you used for the cabin interior?

Cheers, D

Hi D, have to check the exact shade tonight but it is Humbrol Enamel, the chromate primer is Tamiya Acrylic. It still needs work to "use" it a bit more and the guns are too shiny, should have been semi matt. So far it is all brush painted

Damian, you're our resident Black Widow expert, I have a question for you (It's even relative to this campaign )

Two things first tho...I am just about done with my PITA Mosquito NF Mk XII that I am doing for this campaign.
And second, next up on the work bench is an F6F-5 that I am doing as a club build for the NAS Vero Beach memorial that is in the Vero Beach Municipal Airport. The club I belong to is called The Nightfighters of Vero Beach. We are, of course, located in Vero Beach Florida.
NAS Vero Beach, from 1942 to 1946 was the US Navy's advanced night fighter training base.
The F6F I am doing was a conversion to type trainer, someone else in the club is doing an F6F-5N.

Now, my question, whilst going thru some internet images I found these 2 remarkable photographs





Now, the question....since this was an Army plane loaned to the Navy, was it painted OD over neutral grey, as the first A/B models where painted, overall black as the later A/B models where, or would the Navy have painted it Dark Sea Blue as all Navy aircraft where painted late in the war? These photos are just dated 1944 with no other information.

I thank you for any information, opinions or best guesses.

Later

I just looked at the post, sorry for the small pictures but that is as large as I could get them to post

Here's your problem: If you look at the URL of the photos you'll see http://gallery3.kitmaker.net/data/500/thumbs/P-61_NAS_Vero_Beach_1944.jpg
The part that's making them small is the /thumbs section. Edit that out when you're pasting in the URL while you're writing your post to make them appear large like this:


From the look of the aircraft, it's an overall glossy colour. I would expect that it's black given that the Navy probably didn't want to waste the time and money repainting a loaned aircraft.

Thanks for your help Jess. And you are probably right about keeping the Widow gloss black
I was just getting all kinds of excited thinking about an over-all dark gloss blue P-61
oh well

Later

Another clue: Look at the insignia on the tail boom. If it were overall gloss sea blue, the insignia wouldn't have the blue portion.