PaulD

Built from the Tamiya kit. As molded the kit has a rather boring posture with no side to side bends. I fixed this by cutting wedges from one side of the fuselage and inserting them into notches on the other side to get a sinuous look. I think that it makes him look like he is going somewhere. He is painted with artist's oils. I used woodland scenics ground foam for the moss, bits of wire for the horsetails, I used sprigs of juniper to represent the auracaria-like plants. The cycad body is an alder seed cone, the cycad cones are alder pollen cones, and the cycad fronds are pressed leaves of western yarrow. To represent rotted wood, I cleverly used bits of rotted wood. I think that it needs some ferns, but I haven't figured out how to make them yet.

I'm noticing the same thing Don is....if I don't log in I don't see the model building forums...

Just in case your canberra is getting jealous after all the corsair complements.....Great Canberra! I really like the tonal variation across the top, it is not easy to get an impression of size from a monotone paint job, but you did. P.S. what is the Canberra painted with?

there are advantages to silver tracks....thirty years ago when I weathered my 1/32nd scale Sherman tank with half a bottle of Testors tan my mother told me to "get that filthy thing off the table and out my kitchen"

I can't explain it Clare, sometimes its just fun to do things the hard way. Sometimes I don't even use a kit at all: http://forum.ipmsusa3.org/index.php?showtopic=3188

I've started Airfix’s new tooling BF-109 for the Airfix group build over on Hyperscale. This kit isn't quite as nice as Airfix’s new spitfire IX. The fit is pretty good over all but Airfix made some obvious goofs that I decided to fix. First they left out the bulkhead behind the pilot, very obvious to see through the canopy. Second, the breech covers over the nose guns were molded as a single hump like on a sopwith camel. Third the pilot figure seems to be wearing a modern hard-shell helmet or a giant afro. I've added the missing bulkhead and shaved the pilot's head to a more reasonable size. I've also added some rudimentary cockpit detail. (the kit had nothing other than a seat) The October issue of Flying Scale Models has a nice set of scale drawings of the 109F so I decided to shave the breech covers completely off and convert the plane to an "F". The kit has a nose of constant taper, while the drawings show a much steeper taper just behind the spinner. To copy this I cut around the top of the cowl beginning at the first panel line behind the prop so that I could raise the top of the cowl like a car's hood and then shimmed it in this position. I then filled in front of this step and made a steeper taper down to the spinner. I also thinned the oil cooler and supercharger intake. On the landing gear openings I rounded the outboard ends to match the shape that most F's had. Rather than restore the panel lines I mangled, I'm filling in most of the other panel lines.

Hi Mark, I used Humbrol 157 80-90% and Humbrol 166 10-20% sorry I don't remember the exact proportions. The model looks a little darker and bluer to my eye than the picture I see on my screen.

Just finished my first Airfix kit since joining the forum. The 1/72nd Spitfire mk IX. I had some problems with decal silvering, they seemed to be imune to "Micro-set". The provided pilot seemed too small so I stole one from a hurricane kit. Over-all an easy and fun kit. It's nice not paying for a lot of interior detail that you can't see after you're done. I love it that they included parts for building a wheels-up version. I wish all manufacturers would do that.

Thanks Chris, you can see the Heinkel at: http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/...s.php?album=216 If you navigate up from there http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/index.php?cat=1 you can see work by other folks who build solid models. The solid model memories gallery http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/index.php also has plans from old kits and WWII vintage plans for building ID training models. The member's forum has a lot of build threads in it http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/SMF/index.php

Thanks Guys, to answer your question--I really don't know how much time I spent on this. I started it about a year ago but there have been months I didn't touch it at all and there were days when I spent hours on it. It takes me longer to finish a wood model than a plastic kit, but some wood models are relatively simple and go quickly. A P-38 basically has three fuselages and a lot of external hardware to build. The heinkel 100 I built last year was 1/3 to 1/4 as much work.

I just finished my P-38F, I carved it out of basswood because that is just the way I behave sometimes. Sorry, no plastic. Maybe next time. The stand is from tanoak, the superchargers are made from paper, wire, and brass tube. The radio aerials are fishing line. The national markings were donated by a plastic kit. Serial numbers are from woodland scenics dry transfers. The panel lines were drawn on with colored pencil. Exhaust stains are artists oils. If you go to : http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net you can see work by a bunch of other folks who are still building models out of wood.

Nice neat work, you made it look like a larger scale than it is. I hope you didn't use a lot of glue on the engine cowl, it looks like it is on up-side-down. The air intake should be on the bottom and the gun troughs on top. Hopefully it will just pop off without too much fuss. I've made similar goofs myself, now I don't throw out the box art until I'm done. Good looking build overall.

Hi Patti, didn't I see the gentleman with the feathered hat at McMinnville in September? I remember being impressed by him then. It's good to see more work from you, very nice!

Well done! It makes me happy to see someone finish a tri-motor in American livery....just like my grandfather used to fly! It took you about as long to build it as it would take the real thing to fly coast to coast.

My workspace is a workbench in the corner of the basement by the water heater. I frequently tell myself that I need more room, tools, lights, shelves, cabinets, etc. but I find a way to get models built. Someone on another site sent me this link that illustrates how someone with a passion for building will find a way to do it. http://www.merkki.com/images/plane%20carve...bed%20slats.jpg It was made by a POW in Stalag Luft 1 out of bed slats!