That’s another pile of bits to paint then stick together! Construction-wise it has virtually fell together with no flash, the odd mould-pin mark and no shrinkage….perfect! After the Italeri kit I wasn’t that keen to start this one however it was quite an enjoyable build and makes a change from having a kit fight me at every step. The next step is to start spraying the cockpit, air intakes, exhaust, undercarriage bays, undercarriage and wheels then I can start the final assembly, however that will all be done at the weekend as I’m in work for a couple of days ..read more

A quick update as I’m reaching a point where I need to spray the interior bits and it’s getting late; I can assemble a couple of other things like the wheels, tails and exhaust but that’s about it for tonight. I have to say the fit of parts is outstanding as you can’t tell that this part of the exhaust cover is a separate piece; Soooo much better than the Italeri 1/72 F-35A I built a couple of months ago. Speaking of the exhaust I still have the Reskit one I bought for the Italeri kit so I’ll compare it to the Tamiya kit item to see if it’s worth swapping after I have done the build for the ..read more

With the Takom Jeep put to one side, the Italeri Dodge WC-56 and Fiat 508 waiting for another coat of gloss varnish while the decal solution does its stuff and the ICM 1/72 OV-10D setting, what can I do next considering that tonight is a late one? Start something else of course; This will be a build review for Model Airplane Int’l and is the last of the review stuff for now. I was thinking how it will compare to the Italeri 1/72 F-35A that I did a build review of earlier this year but of course it won’t compare as the Italeri kit was ‘not the best’ shall we say as this kit will be light years ..read more

Well…. the decals went on OK for the Dodge and the Fiat but while applying the decals for the Jeep, not only did I notice that the bumpers needed to be painted white but I had forgotten just how shit Takom decals are; Very thick with a milky carrier film, just like the Canadian Leopard I built a few years ago. I’ll still paint the white bumpers but I think this one could be heading to landfill unless that white star cleans up OK. Edit; I’ve just removed the white star and the paint has come off with it down to bare plastic. Now I’ll have to put masking fluid over the vehicle numbers on the bo ..read more

While the ICM 1/72 OV-10D sets, I’ll be applying the pretty stickers to these three; Some clown (that would be me) managed to lose the decals for the Italeri Fiat Coloniale so I got in touch with Italeri a couple of weeks ago and ordered a replacement sheet which turned up last week. Seeing that the Jeep and Beep are ready to be decalled I may as well do the Fiat at the same time. More later ..read more

I finished painting the cockpit so before closing up the fuselage I put some lead weight in the nose. The wings were also glued into place and now I’ll leave the model to set before doing anything else; It’s starting to finally all come together. The two booms will not be glued until after the model has been painted as this will make spraying easier, also even with the lead in the nose the model still sits on its tail so I’ll put more weight into the engine nacelles ..read more

I managed to get the cockpit, wheels, wheel wells, undercarriage doors and undercarriage painted today; The cockpit has not long been given a wash of sepia oil paint so tomorrow I’ll dry-brush it then I can get the fuselage assembled; The only things added were seat belts made from masking tape and the yellow and black pull handles on the ejection seats, everything else is as supplied in the kit. Once the fuselage has been glued together and cleaned up it shouldn’t be that long until the model is completely built ..read more

Both models have now been gloss varnished and will be left for a day or so to let the varnish harden before the decals are applied; The olive drab is a bit lighter than I thought but it might be because I resprayed both models with X-22 Clear mixed in. The last time I sprayed XF-62 was on the Tamiya Walker Bulldog then after gloss varnishing it, the varnish darkened the base colour…..oh well ..read more

I woke early this morning so after some breakfast I sprayed these two with Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab lightened with XF-60; I’ll spray a highlight coat of XF-62 further lightened with XF-60 in between the panel lines, when done I can get some Tamiya X-22 Clear on the models to prepare them for the decals and weathering. Mind you the weathering will be light as the Dodge has markings for a vehicle on Utah beach during D-Day and the Jeep will be done as an military police one in Berlin during 1945 after the war, I should imagine that more time would have been spent on cleaning and maintaining vehi ..read more

Although I was supposed to be working this weekend, I chickened out and booked today and tomorrow off so this evening after dinner I had a massive priming session which took the best part of three hours. The Italeri 1/35 Dodge WC-56/57, the Takom 1/35 Jeep and ICM 1/72 OV-10D Bronco all got sprayed with Tamiya LP-3 Flat black; The Jeep and Dodge will be sprayed olive drab whilst the Bronco cockpit will be sprayed grey, when it’s finished I can then get the Bronco fuselage glued together. The olive drab for the Jeep and the dodge will probably be mixed using Tamiya XF-62 and XF-60 and will be ..read more