For the new year, the Scale Plastic & Rail forums are hosting a Messerschmitt group build that’s been gaining some crazy interest. My first thought, as I started pondering which Bf 109 I was going to build, was “there goes my resolution” – as for 2013 I’m planning to step back from World War II…
Category: Photo Etch
1/32 Hasegawa Bf 109G-6 Part III – Painting
Part I | Part II | PART III | Part IV The Swiss 109 has been built, puttied, sanded, primed and made ready for paint. Time to do it to it! Candy Canes After laying down a black base (Tamiya X-1), I sprayed the white for the wings and rudder, using my trusty Gunze Mr. Color C69…
1/32 Hasegawa Bf 109G-6 Part II – Construction + Paint Prep
Part I | PART II | Part III | Part IV When we left off in Part I, the 109’s cockpit was more or less done, and the fuselage joined: After that, the wait for the RB Productions seatbelts and radiator grilles kind of sidelined it for a bit, and I found myself distracted by…
1/32 Trumpeter P-47D “French Jug”, Part I – Cockpit
PART I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V When I kicked this project off, I had every intention of going with Hasegawa’s 1/32 Jug. Until I pulled it out of the box and began fiddling with it. I’ll address why I soured on it below, but suffice to say…
1/32 Hasegawa Bf 109G-6 Part I – Cockpit
PART I | Part II | Part III | Part IV I’m still waffling over the question of which Swiss 109 to depict with this build, J-711 with its RLM 74/75/76 scheme, or J-704 with its distinctive green/brown over blue. But that’s no reason I can’t start work on the “Swiss Miss” while I try…
On the Bench: 1/32 Hasegawa P-47D-27 in French Service
On October 1, Scale Plastic & Rail kicked off its second group build, “In Foreign Colours”. I’m still in the home stretch on my stealth build, but I’m already casting my glance toward what’s next. I’d first aimed for Trumpeter’s 1/48 MiG-15bis, until I found it wasn’t going to be anything like a walk in…
On the Bench: 1/350 BB-56 USS Washington
The USS Washington – BB-56 Guadalcanal is usually associated with Marines and bonzai charges, but it was the Navy that bore the brunt of the casualties in the waters off the island. And it didn’t go especially well. Thanks to Marine control of Henderson Field, and the heroic efforts of the Cactus Air Force, the…
HGW Microtextile Seatbelts
There seem to be certain aspects of modeling where perfection remains ever-elusive. The perfect paint. The perfect putty. The perfect method for masking canopies. And…specific to aircraft…the perfect seatbelts. There’s thin strips of tape with wire buckles. There’s lead foil. There’s photo-etch, which can be excellent, especially with Eduard-style color photo-etch. But photo-etch is stiff…
On the Bench – A Fine Pair of Jugs
The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt What can I say about the P-47 that hasn’t already been said? It’s my favorite plane. It’s a bruiser of an aircraft, with eight .50 cal machine guns and a staggering capacity for absorbing damage and staying in the air. It’s been too long since I’ve built a Jug, so how…
Tamiya Spitfire Mk.VIII Build Report 1: Cockpit and Main Airframe Assembly
Is it possible to be a modeling adrenaline junkie? It seems that, after coming back to the hobby last year, I’ve been hurling myself at challenge after challenge, barreling right into situations that used to intimidate the bejesus out of me. In the last six months alone, I’ve tackled my first open-turret armor, my first…