Hey Mark, I was hoping you would bring that out.
Please do go ahead with it.

A new page, more kits started, so an update set of profiles - so far we have these types represented










A nice looking catalog!

Blackbird is getting back to her happy place......

The F-80 is finished, and I'm glad. In one of the earlier photos I showed how warped the forward fuselage was - in fact almost everything other than the undercarriage legs and wheels was warped. Never seen anything like it! I got fed up with filling and sanding, and it's obvious in the pics. Decals are made up from the spares box, and totally ficticious.






The wing joint is mostly superglue, and then baking powder on top of wet superglue. Glue and filler in one hit.

Four days start to finish. impressive.

meanwhile I havent opened my box of Neptunes in weeks...

Dave: Wow, You are really fast as a lightning!

This weekend I painted the two birds in the colour of the German Marineflieger.




After a coat of gloss I started decalling. This went all well for the double-seater.

For the single-seater, I bought some extra decals to make a plane, that I have seen in the aerodrome of Nordholz in northern Germany.

But, there are plenty of decals, and I cannot imagine, how they can all be stuck onto the little surface of this plane.


Oliver

Wow, are you sure you didn't buy 1/32 decals????
Good luck with those mate.
Dave, seriously four days? Good stuff, its taken me four days to paint the top surface of mine. Lol

Hi Everybody
I've made a lot of progress on the Aurora. Its painted and I have started decaling it. The masking and painting around the windows almost turned it into a hanger queen but I got it done and I'm happy with it. The decals are nice but a very stubborn to come off of the backing paper. Once they do come off they snug down nicely on the aircraft. Attempting to get the long stripes off the backing caused it to be broken into several pieces but actually went on the model easily and I was able to get it lined up with most of the breaks unnoticeable Hope to have it completed next week, still have the other side to do and the propellers to paint...


Ron

Looks great Ron! Love the lightning stripe!

@ Oliver, what have you started! There is no rule that you must put every single one of those stencils on that tiny model!
The paint looks very good, nice two color work on the under side.

Ron that's looking excellent. As I also have some very long stripe decals I'm a little nervous about that stage fast approaching. Fingers crossed !

Ron:The stripe looks really fine. I have one to do on my H-19, I plan to build for the rotary campaign, but I am confused, if I shall use a decal or try to paint .

As the decals on the 104 G are on , I don´t want to do any decalling the next days . The surface was sealed. Subsequently an oil wash of brown mixed with black was applied. Ready for some more aging with pigments!





Oliver

Oliver, they are looking fantastic! A really nice pairing.

I've been shooting multiple thin clear coats over the blackbird and getting ready for decals. Painting has been giving me hand cramps as this is the first time I've properly airbrushed 😎
I've tried to go panel by panel letting the grey primer subtly show through along the panel lines. After decals I think I'll try using some pastels to bring out those dusty panel lines that are quite a hallmark of the SR71. picks to follow if I get back to it tonight. 😊

Super work Oliver!

So I'm done with the plastic! Undercarriage and doors all fitted with a lot of swearing at fiddly bits.
Apologies for the rather crappy photos.... i'm actually starting to wonder how to do this monster justice when it's complete. Any advice out there for photographing large models??



Plenty of weathering and shading to go then cross your fingers for me that the decal sheet has stood the test of time and will co-operate. I'd rather spend cash on my next model and not on decal replacements.

That's alot of big black bird all right! Cant help you with photographing, that thing is at least twice as long as my biggest model.

The decal - Do you have a scanner? for safety, scan that decal sheet at 300dpi and save it as a png file, before cutting.

If the original turns out to be unusable I can reprint the decal for you, on Microscale paper and mail it to you for the price of postage.

Thanks Jonathan, that sounds like very sound advice.

Paul and Jonathan: Thanks for the nice comments.

Paul: Wow, the size of this bird is really awesome. I do not know, if I could handle such a huge plane while airbrushing, without a damage to the bird or the sorroundings.

Oliver, that made me laugh! And you're right of course, I've forgotten it's size and bashed the pitot tube against everything on my desk including the overhead lamp so many times that I'm astounded that its still attached. It's not even bent!!

Paul, not even bent? Well, that sounds more like the good old Airfix plastic, doesn't it?

Just finished my starfighter twins after final assmebly and weathering . These kits are rather nice fitting, excluding the canopies in my case. So here are some final photos:






Curious about more Lookheed birds in this fantastic campaign.

Oliver

They look awesome Oliver, if I didn't know better i'd say they were 1/72 not smaller. Especially on the single seated those extra decals make all the difference.

I've started decals on the blackbird. First long red stripe wasn't pretty as I foolishly tried to lay it down in one go. The opposite side I cut the decal into sections and it looks much better. A bit of paint touchup on the first one should fix things.
I was wavering over which scheme to do but decided to go with the high-vis standard scheme. The low-Vis markings are nice but in an soppy gesture to the missus i'm mixing the 972 and 956 markings to get 976, her birth year. Who says romance is dead !!!!

Coming along nicely.

Paul: Yes, this big bird really looks great, carry on!

Oliver

Most excellent work folks!

I've managed to only get 1 part half glued on in the last week.

I've made little progress this week though I wanted to get as close to finished as I could.
Decals are done but a few of them have silvered but only after I put down a clear coat. They looked ok before that....
Also I did a bit of weathering with pastels last night and got a nice effect but I've now learned that it dulled too much after sealing in. I'll need to remember to exaggerate this kind of work a bit in future.
Trial and error eh?
Nearly there though!