Haven't been around here much in the last few months, so I figured I would post the various builds completed in my absence. Constructive criticism welcomed.

1/48 Hasegawa Canadair Sabre Mk.5: 'Golden Hawks' Mk.6 boxing used, with Eduard Color PE added to cockpit area. Arrow Graphics used for the 1956 RCAF 'Sky Lancers' demonstration team. The scallops on wings and tail were masked and painted, instead of supplied decal. I realized after it was too late (threw them out) that I forgot to add the wing fences.


1/24 Trumpeter Spitfire Mk.Vb: Cutting Edge seat, spinner/Rotol prop, and posable harness used. MDC supplied new tailplanes and antenna mast. Decals are by Techmod, and were a complete and utter nightmare to apply. Almost every single one shattered on contact with water, even after the entire sheet being covered with sealant. Never again!


1/48 Eduard Mirage III CJ: Standard kit used, and brought up to 'Profipack' standard by adding the ZOOM color PE set. Airframe converted to ATAR 9C with the addition of resin fuselage and exhaust conversion. Resin wheel bays used as well. Kit decals for a fictional scheme, since airframe 745 was never converted to ATAR 9C standard.


1/48 Trumpeter Wyvern S.4: Built OOB, with kit decals for a fictional marking scheme. I could not decide whether I wanted to do either a Suez striped bird, or the one with the sharkmouth on the centreline fuel tank, so I combined to make a unique scheme.


And finally, something to strafe and drop bombs on.....1/48 Tamiya Tiger I 'DAK': Built OOB in 1 week start to finish.


Thanks for looking.

A tiger built in one week?!?
It looks great, though, as do all the other models. I especially like the Spitfire, it must be a beast in 1/24

Hi Kevin.
Good to see you back posting.
No wonder you havent had much chance to post on the threads,,youve been on a building frenzy!
Great job on the jets,especially the Sabre, and exceptional masking on the scallops.
The Wyvern looks the business,Ive seen a few of these built recently and that Trumpeter kit looks like a value for money kit.
Sweet job on the MKVb.Congratulations on overcoming the decal problems and the shading especially looks fabulous.
Nice job on the Tiger,,I wish I could build something in a week.
Dont know a thing about afv's but I really like the way youve blended everything together.Tamiya Buff by any chance?
Looking forward to seeing more!
Nige

Thanks Goran and Nigel, much appreciated.




The Tiger kit practically builds itself. Total build time was about 12hrs, with only 5 of those dedicated to assembly. Rest of time was spent painting and weathering.

And yes, the Spitfire is impressive in that scale. Wingspan is just over 18"





Not really a building frenzy, just lots of free time in the evenings. My 15 month old daughter goes to bed at 1830h without fail, and my wife usually heads to the gym to work off the day's frustrations, so I have the bench all to myself for a few hours every evening.

If you haven't picked up the Wyvern yet, I highly recommend you do so. Based on my build experiences, this kit went together just as well as the "mighty" Tamiya P-51 or P-47.

The decals for the Spitfire were certainly a beast of burden, but the results were worth the effort IMHO. At the time however, I certainly regretted giving away my kit decal sheet prior to the build. The kit stencils would have resulted in a lot less profanity coming from the basement. A note about the shading, but the accuracy police would have kittens if they knew what I used to post shade.

You guessed right on the money about Buff. I thinned it heavily to "simulate" dust, but it was the final step only. Preshade of black, base color, post shade, wash, and Tamiya powders all made an appearance prior to the dust job.

As the saying goes "if it looks right,,it is right"
Quick,,while noones looking,,spill the beans,, :-)

Nige

15 month old daughter huh??? excellent.....

congratulations.
and glad to hear you have time to model....

because it is just what I planned to do myself.....3 more months before my first born is "deployed to active duty" ( hehe, he's still in the womb)

and I've been setting up my work station for modelling whilst on baby duty.....

good luck....and btw....those are top notch birds you've built there...and der panzervagen or whatever its called...

Bounce

Hi Kevin:

Great builds all !!!
I like very much the Wyvern S4, it looks fantastc.
I also build some armor and dios. It´s fun, and I believe it´s less dificult than aircrafts, if something doesn´t look perfect, some dirt and battle damege and it´s done :-) and they don´t have canopies to mask
Congratulations, very nice jobs.

Thanks guys.




I did actually use the correct colors for the basecoat of the camo, with Gunze Aqueous to be precise. Rather than add a lightening agent to the base colro for post shading, I chose to spray a slightly different tone of the same basic grey and green.

The underside was post shaded with Aircraft Grey, and the grey/green camo was post shaded with RML02 and US Interior Green respectively.

Rather unconventional to say the least, but I like how it looks in the end, accuracy be damned.

Great builds! Stunning finish on the Mirage. Very nice colour scheme for the Sabre and some great masking and painting work done there.

Some small comments on the Tiger I are that you missed some seamlines on the feifel air cleaners. Also if this Tiger are supposed to be one of the Tigers used by Schweres Panzer abteilung 501, later used in 10th Pz. Div. the headlights should be moved down on the front of the Glacis plate. The large red/white turret numbers indicate that it is one of the Schweres Panzer abteilung 501 Tigers, but there were exceptions.
A great job on the overall dusty look of the Tiger I - I can see this one hunting Churchills and Shermans.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks Jesper,

Since I use acrylics only, NMF birds were something I avoided until I discovered Citadel paints in the Warhammer section of my LHS. When thinned with Tamiya thinner, they are very easy to work with.

Regarding the Tiger, thanks for keep me humble. Yes, I completely skipped sanding down the seams. Regarding the headlights, yes, I am aware of the need to relocate them to the glacis, but the kit does not supply the parts to do so, and I really didn't feel like scratch-building o this build. Sometimes its fun to build a kit OOB, right down to the paint suggestions (like I did on this one).

I'll leave accuracy aside until I build my Cyberhobby DAK Tiger.

Kevin,

Great job on all! I really like the Spitfire. Very well done!