Category: Painting
-
De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part Three – Do Not Decal

At least do not decal when you can paint. I am in awe of modellers who can make a decal panel lay down over an undulating wing or fuselage and have it come out taut and flat with no silvering or air bubbles. Even more so when the decal involves several panels abutting each other.…
-
De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part Two – Voila

No apologies for going from the bare kit parts to the glued-together carcass…it has been a busy two days. The model building club’s rooms have air conditioning and so does my computer room – I have repaired to them to escape the 40º plus heat in Perth. My workshop goes far above that on a…
-
De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part One – Going Batty
By now you probably feel you have reason to question my sanity – I am starting to build my third De Havilland Vampire in 1:72 scale. One DH.100 as a Canadian museum piece, then a Swiss Vampire with extended nose, and now a two-seat trainer. What is it with these bats? Well, the first was…
-
De Havilland DH. 100 Vampire FB.6 – Part Two – Well That Was Fast…

You’ll forgive me for not taking any pictures of the pignose as it was being assembled. Too much was going on in the house at the time. The build was uneventful – thanks to the precision fit of the components hardly any filler was needed. And the tail sections fitted perfectly with no long packing…
-
De Havilland DH.100 Vampire – Part Four – Whooooosh

Flying a Vampire must have been an exhilarating experience for pilots who had trained on propeller-driven aircraft. Or perhaps I should say propeller-pulled aircraft…as there were very few pusher planes past the WW1 era. Of course pilots who had flown with twin-engine bombers and other multi-craft would be used to a clear field in front…
-
De Havilland DH.100 Vampire – Part Three – Tell Me The Truth, Doc

Don’t sugar coat the pill. Give it to me straight. I can take it. Is the Amodel kit going to go fit together or am I just going to end up sobbing in the corner? Well, actually, the news from Kiev is good. The basic pod of the Vampire goes together exceedingly well. If you…
-
Not Quite So Many Paints

Well, another day and another visit… I strolled down the paint aisle today to discover the SMS paints that I had reviewed yesterday gone from the shelves – an empty paint rack with their name on it where they once were. Leading me to a series of speculations: a. Did they not sell? They were…
-
So Many Paints. So Many Choices. So Little Time.

I found myself agonising again in the paint aisle of Hobbytech. Not at prices or the paucity of paint – far from it. The prices are reasonable enough but the range of paints available is far greater than my discriminatory mechanism can cope with. I am past spoilt for choice – I am made anxious…
-
North American P-51D – Part Three – Giving It The Hatzerim

Go look it up on Google for yourself. The IAF keeps a museum out in the Negev at Hatzerim AFB and parks their exhibits out in the sun. Which then gives them a unique sort of finish – kind of like sandblasting and a UV bake. ” Bozzy “, or old 41 – the P-51D…
-
North American P-51D – Part Two – Silver Boss

The Hobby Boss P-51D has proved to be the perfect build for my current project. It is inexpensive, precise, and perfect. And I’m so glad I was able to make another mistake while painting it. I should have thought I was in an alternate universe if I’d gotten entirely through the build without one…that sort…
