Ok - the Mustang is primed - ready to break out the hairy sticks!

This kit (Revell) dates from 1963, and the detail on it is basic, to say the least. The undercarriage is just blobs of plastic. I think I will be giving this plane to my nephew when it is finished. The pilot, prop and spinner and the drop tanks are from the other Mustang I am working on, just to improve the appearance a bit.

Onto the fun stuff - cheers everybody!

Cheers Kimmo, you're right the 109 does look surprisingly good in RAF colours, I wonder what the FW190 would look like in the same scheme?...
theres some food for thought

I am enjoying watching everyone's builds, it brings back memories of running to the LHS trying to choose the airplane that my $1.50 would purchase then running home usually forgetting to get some glue so running back to the LHS for a tube of Testors then back home. By this time I was a smelly little boy. I would spend a whole day just looking at the parts and imagining being the pilot the diving into the kit and finishing in record time with a glue smudged painted canopy and decals not exactly where they were supposed to be and still being a proud pilot showing off my handy work. This build may not be any different: Here is my final choice for the HAIRY STICK CAMPAIGN: AIRFIX 1/72 HURRICANE MkI.

A bit more progress on the Messerschmitt Bf 109 E
Finally got a couple of coats of Humbrol Clear onto the model, and got myself some decalfix in my local model shop today, so I am finally ready to go on to the decaling and weathering stage!


more to come
feedback is very welcome
Cheers, Simon

Howdy everyone, I hope we are having fun today..

Got a little more done on my very little model. LOL...

If any of you fellows want to complain about 1/72 decals.. well you should have heard what I was saying about Dragon's 1/144 decals. I went through about 3 or 4 different numbers before a set didn't fall apart on me... LOL but mission accomplished. The I decanted a little of my Favorite Testors Dullcoat to brush lightly over the thing.

I'll let it sit a bit and work on the weathering.. here is the standard photo. enjoy..



It may be small but I'm enjoying the build.

Delbert

The 109 is finished finally (having said that this build did not actually take very long at all)
Here are some pictures of the finished product:


The exhaust stains were achieved through a mix of a wash (made by scraping a little powder off a chalk pastel and mixing that with water and a tiny drop of washing up liquid)and weathering powders


the other side


The bright yellow underside, showing all the dry brushing I did around the undercarriage wells


A more zoomed in shot of the side to show how I have used the wash mentioned earlier to show a slight fuel spill from the filler cap on the side of the fuselage


The cockpit, or what can still be seen of it anyway

So that is it, I am ready to put the finished product photos up in the campaign gallery. I was going for a very heavily used look for this build and I think it has turned out pretty well myself!

As always, feedback is very welcome
Cheers, Simon

Looking great there Simon - the pre-shading has come out very well.
On with the Mustang then. Both the Mustangs have been primed, base coated in citadel black, then coated with Humbrol Metalcote Chrome Silver. I'm sure everyone can tell which one has been airbrushed and which one has been brush painted!

Cheers Everybody!

I may just get another build in here - just for a change I've bought two aircraft! Revell 1/32 Hawker Hunter and Airfix 1/24 Hawker Hurricane. Big aircraft and as always completely brush painted.

Simon, nice job on your 109. I had time to work on my Hurricane:

Howdy everyone

I just uploaded my photos to the campaign gallery.. They are not the best photos, but keep in mind how hard it is to take good photos at 1:144th scale..









its been a fun campaign.. I'll keep watching.

Delbert

Looks really good to me Delbert

Well done

Paul

Delbert, shame on you for finishing so fast. Nice armor, where did you find this wee one?

bob

Maybe I should switch over to 1/72 so I may finish a build once and a while. Here is a little more progress on my Airfix Hurricane:

Thanks everyone.. It was a quick build. I got this one at the local Hobbytown USA. They are Dragon Panzer Korps 1:144 kits they come in a two pack for about $10. this set had a Strum Tiger and this Demo Tiger I.. I also have one with 2 Stug variants in it. Not a lot of pieces but fun to build and paint.

Link to the Kit Instructions for Informational Preview Purpose only

That Hurricane is coming alone nicely.

Delbert

Bob,
The Hurricane. Is looking good so far,

Delbert they seem great value, are you doing another ?

ATB

Paul

Open box starting pic of my last entry - Revell 1/32 Hunter

And the first day's progress, the 'pit
My detail painting these days ain't great, but it looks like a cockpit so it is a cockpit!

Went to glue the forward fuselage together, found a short shot right in front of the cockpit opening. Plugged with scrap and filler. Intake trunking, nose-wheel bay etc. fit where they touch due to warped parts... this is going to be a real lady. Glad I'm on leave from the office this week.

I joined this group build because I like painting with brushes. I remember years ago painting with Humbrol enamels. I remember painting a very large 1/72 scale bomber, I think a Halifax - that was a lot of smelly slow drying paint, and that was almost 50 years ago. I left modelling shortly afterward and then about 6 years ago I started again. Now I use acrylics, and my favourites are Citadel acrylics.

Anyway, just after Christmas I decided to try a scratch build model aircraft - my first. And, I decided to use it as my subject for this Group Build. There was a lot of experimentation and testing to learn how to turn sheet styrene and spare parts into a model. I decided to build something chunky and squarish - so I decided on a faux mid-1920's pseudo Fokker monoplane.

So I built a wing and started a framework, and gathered together some spare parts from Hobbycraft Canada 1/32 scale Fokker triplane. The spare parts are from the prototype - the rest were for the production aircraft which I built as one of the Red Baron's. (the horizontal stabilizer and ailerons were different, I forget where I got the propeller) The date of the photo below is Jan. 8, 2015.



More to come.....

@Richard: this should be interesting I like what I see so far.

@Simon: that is a lovely job on the 109, I like the colors.

@Dave: the cockpit is looking nice, what are your impressions of this kit?

@Paul: thank you for your kind words.

Bob

Bob
I've built this kit before, and when it's finished it's a real cracker. In it's day the reviews reckoned it was one of Revell's best in the 1/32 range. Moulds are getting a bit tired now. It's big, accurate, plenty of detail and it's cheap - a quick conversion in my head would say about $35 for a 1/32 plane. I paid £22.40 GBP.

Thank you Bob
Welcome Richard and Dave (again)
I hope to get back to my build this week.

Nice choice of kit, Dave. I build this massive kit 10 years ago and also painted it completely by brush. It came out pretty well.

Looking forwrd to see more.

More on the faux Fokker -

I built up a fuselage, cut out bottom and sides. I painted a woodgrain finish on the framing, and the area on the cockpit walls. The design of the craft is - metal at front of fuselage, wood for cockpit area, and wood frame with doped fabric for the aft end of the fuselage. The wings would be plywood covered, ailerons and tail of doped fabric. This would have been typical of the post WW1/1920's construction.




Next, glued on wing, built up and glued on the big radiator for the in-line engine.



The next picture shows the scratch-built undercarriage - since i didn't have any wheels, I decided to install skis instead. I had some skis from spare parts bin, but in the end decided to scratch build them. Also can be seen the engine exhaust parts being made. Undercarriage and exhaust were made from left over sprue which I had saved. I built a vertical stabilizer and rudder to fit the Fokker horizontal stabilizer. A 6" ruler is in the foreground. Scale of the model is 1/32.




Below photo shows the taping of the leading edge of the wing - I used aluminum duct tape. I also painted the front fuselage red for a test. (I was also anxious to do some painting) However, I changed my mind about the red as it was too bright, and covered it later with the sprayed on undercoating. Also, glued on the horizontal stabilizer.



more to come---

Ok, here are more photos documenting progress...

First photo shows aircraft undercoated, skis built, exhausts built, pilot painted, and roll over bars installed. There was a lot of trial and error during this build, so please forgive me if i did not document every step. Oh yes, I had two propellers - you may notice them alternately appearing in the photos, I hadn't made up my mind which to use.



This next photo shows the painted aircraft, without markings and partial undercarriage installed. Painted with hairy sticks - of course! I used shiny foil from a pack of ROLO's for the radiator to simulate brass.



Next, is a photo of the shock absorbers for the undecarriage. The skis were weathered as were the real things - they were not painted, were exposed to the elements and so were often partly bleached white. The undersides were often shod in brass sheet, which is what I have simulated.



For a long time I was going to make some Dutch civil registration code for the model, I even looked up in the Dutch civil registry and found the code DF-OKR was not in use (D-FOKkeR) I had intended to honour Anthony Fokker this way. However, I had some Dutch Air Force roundels and decided to use them instead. It still makes a nod to Anthony Fokker and his homeland. They also add some nice colour to the model. i think we forget that aircraft from those days were not just black and white as in the old photos. I added two fuel filler caps, and a radiator cap (from a 1/72 scale Bristol fighter - they were actually meant to be ammunition drums for Lewis machine guns)













And that's it. I hope you like my faux Fokker.

I did modify a stand from an old Lindberg 1/48 Stearman biplane to fit this model. I'll post a picture of the model on the stand in the GB gallery.

Day2 progress, main assembly done. Undercarriage & doors + pylons tomorrow before main painting starts.