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v1.2 of “Building the Airfix F6F-5” Now Available, and On Sale!

I’m pleased to announce that Building the Airfix F6F-5 Hellcat in 1/24 Scale by Chuck Sawyer, has now been updated to v1.2. And for the next 7 days, we’ve reduced the price to just 12 Australian dollars!

This update fixes some broken links to Barracuda products, and adds the interesting addition of downloadable STL files from ANYZ.

Existing purchasers are able to access the updated version for free. Simply log in to your account (or use your original download link) and re-download the book from the Downloads section of your profile. If you don’t have an account or the original download link, please contact me and we’ll sort it out. And of course, new purchasers will always receive the latest version.

To be sure you have the latest version, you can check the version number located at the bottom of the Copyright page (iii):

Sample Copyright page taken from Building the Hasegawa Fw 190D-9 in 1/32 Scale

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Building the Hasegawa P-51D in 1/32 Scale: Part 7

When we left off at the end of Part 6, I’d just finished preparing the kit’s windscreen, having decided to use it in preference to the Squadron vacuform part. The next step, logically enough, was to glue it into place and deal with the inevitable seams with some Mr. Surfacer 500 dabbed along the join with an old paint brush:

This was allowed to dry for 24 hours, and then the excess was cleaned up with a cotton bud moistened with Mr. Color Thinner. A quick spritz with Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black revealed that some additional work was required, which at this stage is still a work in progress! (In the photo above, you can see that I’ve assembled the kit’s sliding canopy, but its purpose here is purely to protect the cockpit, as it will be replaced by the Squadron vacuform component.)

Speaking of the Squadron vacuform canopy, I decided now would be a good time to tackle the sliding hood, which is a vast improvement over the clunky two-piece kit solution. Having already removed the windscreen from the backing sheet, I trimmed around the sliding hood with a sharp pair of scissors:

After a bunch of careful work with scissors, a hobby knife, some wet’n’dry and some sanding sticks, I arrived at this:

And a quick test-fit onto the fuselage:

It sits slightly low against the windscreen, and the easiest way to deal with that is to pose it open! However, this leaves me with the same problem I had with the vac windscreen: the material is too thin. I decided to bulk out the forward frame with some styrene strip:

The next steps will be to mask this piece inside and out, and get some black paint on the internal framing. After that, whatever internal detailing I can be bothered with will be added! But that’s for another update.

At this point I figured I’d turn my attention to the main landing gear, and the first task was to prepare the True Details resin wheels:

This is an old school set that features this company’s infamous exaggerated tyre bulges, so once they were removed from their casting blocks, I set about reducing these bulges to a much more realistic level:

The moulded-in flat spots are enough to convey the required impression of “weight on wheels”, and are in fact enough to allow the wheels to stand upright on their own. Painted up with the aid of wheel masks from the Montex set, they look the part:

This left the landing gear legs to do, each of which required some brake lines to be added. My first attempt was a total failure, so I stripped everything off and started again, finally arriving at the result below:

So we have some guitar string, some lead wire, some ANYZ braided wire and 3D-printed connectors, along with some heat-stretched cotton bud stems, and a few bolt head details from styrene rod. This was a challenge for my fading eyesight and complete lack of finesse, but I got there in the end. The tyre hubs have also had an oil wash in the interim. Note that I pre-painted and masked the oleo pistons prior to adding the brake lines. This made the masking tape quite difficult to remove after the fact!

It was all worth it, however, as the fully painted final result came out quite well:

The data placards came from the Eduard exterior detail set. Decals would have been a better solution, but I wanted to give these a try, and am happy enough with how they turned out.

And this brings us to the end of this update! Stay tuned for the one, where I hope to finish off the sliding canopy hood, and finally start the painting phase.

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“Building NATO’s LanceR in 1/48 Scale” Now Available!

I’m pleased to announce that our latest title, Building NATO’s LanceR in 1/48 Scale: Eduard’s MiG-21MF in Romanian Service, is now available!

In this 243-page eBook, expert modeller Chuck “chukw” Wojtkiewicz builds the Eduard 1/48 MiG-21 kit, converting it into a Romanian MiG-21MF LanceR using an aftermarket set from Icaerodesign, and a range of other upgrade parts. He also shows you how he scratch-built an ejection seat maintenance dolly to pose alongside the finished model. Chuck’s build is full of useful hints and tips, not only for building the Eduard MiG-21 kit, but improving your modelling generally.

Chuck is a renowned artist and illustrator, so along with his tremendous build, we’ve also included some of the artwork he adds to his build commentaries that make them so unique and entertaining to follow. Kapitan Andreea will be accompanying you on your journey!

The book is available now for immediate purchase and download from our website for just 16 Australian dollars!

And as with all our books, should any updates be required, anyone who purchased a prior version gets lifetime free access to all subsequent updated versions! All new purchasers will of course receive the updated version automatically.

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v2.1 of “Building the Revell P-51D” Now Available and On Sale!

I’m pleased to announce that Building the Revell P-51D-5NA Mustang in 1/32 Scale by Jan Gabauer, has just been updated to v2.1, and is also now on sale for just 9 Australian dollars!

This update features some minor polishing, and updates the links for the Barracuda products included in the book.

Existing purchasers are able to access the updated version for free. Simply log in to your account (or use your original download link) and re-download the book from the Downloads section of your profile. If you don’t have an account or the original download link, please contact me and we’ll sort it out. And of course, new purchasers will always receive the latest version.

To be sure you have the latest version, you can check the version number located at the bottom of the Copyright page (iii):

Sample Copyright page taken from Building the Hasegawa Fw 190D-9 in 1/32 Scale

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v1.5 of “Building the Special Hobby Tempest” Now Available and On Sale!

I’m pleased to report that v1.5 of Building the Special Hobby Tempest Mk V in 1/32 Scale by Chuck Sawyer is now available. And for the next 7 days, we’ve reduced the price to just 12 Australian dollars!

This update features some typographical and layout polishing, and updates the links for the Barracuda products included in the book.

Existing purchasers are able to access the updated version for free. Simply log in to your account (or use your original download link) and re-download the book from the Downloads section of your profile. If you don’t have an account or the original download link, please contact me and we’ll sort it out. And of course, new purchasers will always receive the latest version.

To be sure you have the latest version, you can check the version number located at the bottom of the Copyright page (iii):

Sample Copyright page taken from Building the Hasegawa Fw 190D-9 in 1/32 Scale

Stay tuned for the imminent release of Chuck Wojtkiewicz’ MiG-21 book!

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v2.1 of “Building the Revell He 219” Now Available, and On Sale!

I’m pleased to announce that Building the Revell He 219A-7 in 1/32 Scale by Iain Ogilvie has now been updated to v2.1. Not only that, but for the next 7 days, we’ve reduced the price to a mere 10 Australian dollars!

This update fixes a few minor flaws, and updates the links for the Barracuda products included in the Appendices.

Existing purchasers are able to access the updated version for free. Simply log in to your account (or use your original download link) and re-download the book from the Downloads section of your profile. If you don’t have an account or the original download link, please contact me and we’ll sort it out. And of course, new purchasers will always receive the latest version.

To be sure you have the latest version, you can check the version number located at the bottom of the Copyright page (iii):

Sample Copyright page taken from Building the Hasegawa Fw 190D-9 in 1/32 Scale
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Building the Hasegawa P-51D in 1/32 Scale: Part 6

I last posted an update for this build back in June of 2022, and since then, things have been a little quiet at the workbench. I’m pleased to report, however, that there has been some recent progress, so let’s catch up!

After having finished the propeller, I started the process of painting the main airframe, and this began with the chequered nose. After masking off the exhaust stacks, I used the same SMS RLM04 yellow that I’d used on the spinner to lay down a base coat around the nose:

To create the chequers, I scanned the kit decals, imported them into Silhouette Studio, and using the auto-trace function, turned them into cut files that I could output to my Silhouette Portrait cutter. This was a somewhat fiddly and time-consuming process, but the results were worth the effort. Once cut, I applied the chequers to the model, masking out the yellow squares I wanted to keep:

This was followed by a quick dose of SMS Red, put on without any additional thinning:

And the result:

As expected, the vinyl masks didn’t conform all that well around the chin intake area, leaving things a bit untidy:

After applying the necessary touch-ups, I gave the whole area a gloss coat to protect the paint from subsequent masking. I couldn’t resist a test-fit of the prop while I was at it!

Of course, we’re a long way from the painting stage just yet, as I need to deal with the canopy—and in this case, it involves the Squadron vacuform replacement, which is far superior to the kit part. But it also comes with all the challenges that vacuform canopies present in terms of cutting them free of their backing sheets!

With older kits especially, I generally like to attach windscreen parts prior to the painting stage, so that I can address any fit issues and make them appear as part of the airframe, rather than simply stuck on. Below is the Squadron vacuform windscreen test-fitted to the airframe:

The fit is OK, though it will still need some work. I felt, however, that the part itself was actually too thin for scale, which surprised me somewhat. Here it is in comparison to the kit part:

The kit windscreen, while correspondingly too thick for scale, still presented a more credible appearance to my eye, so—much to my own bemusement—I opted to use it instead of the vac part!

Having made that decision, the next step was to mask it, in preparation not only for the painting stage, but also to protect it from any work that might need to be done to ensure a good fit (filling, sanding, etc). On this occasion, however, my normally reliable, tried-and-true methods for canopy masking all let me down! I usually consider myself pretty adept at this task, but this time around, I had to relent and do something I normally don’t do: buy canopy masks! I opted for the full Montex set, which was pretty much all I could find that included canopy masks designed specifically for this kit:

This has, so far, been the only deviation from my original only what’s in the box mantra for this build. Sometimes, you just have to get out of your own way!

So, the windscreen was duly masked up, and test-fitted onto the airframe:

It was at this point that I realised that I’d completely forgotten about the gunsight! A decent resin example is provided as part of the Grand Phoenix cockpit set, so I painted it up, added the reflector glass from clear acetate packaging material, and installed it in place:

Of course, it turns out that it should be black, not light grey, but by the time I discovered this, the windscreen had been glued in place, and it was too late. That’s model building, sometimes! It still looks OK though, I think:

Note that the interior of the windscreen was sprayed black prior to installation.

So, that’s it for this update. Next time, we’ll finish off canopy work, get the main landing gear finished, and make a start on the paint work.

Until then!

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v2.2 of “Building the Zoukei-Mura Ki-45” Now Available!

Back-to-back updates for Building the Zoukei-Mura Ki-45 Kai Tei in 1/32 Scale! We now have v2.2, with some masking sets added to the previously non-existent Decals & Masks Appendix. This has resulted in two additional pages. And still on sale for just 10 Australian dollars!

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v2.1 of “Building the Zoukei-Mura Ki-45” Now Available and On Sale!

I’m pleased to announce that Building the Zoukei-Mura Ki-45 Kai Tei in 1/32 Scale by Jan Gabauer has been updated to v2.1. And for the next few days, it has also been reduced to just 10 Australian dollars!

This update is the result of tidying up typos, and is not considered vital.

Existing purchasers are able to access the updated version for free. Simply log in to your account (or use your original download link) and re-download the book from the Downloads section of your profile. If you don’t have an account or the original download link, please contact me and we’ll sort it out. And of course, new purchasers will always receive the latest version.

To be sure you have the latest version, you can check the version number located at the bottom of the Copyright page (iii):

Sample Copyright page taken from Building the Hasegawa Fw 190D-9 in 1/32 Scale
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v1.2 of “Building the Hasegawa Fw 190D-9” Now Available and On Sale!

I’m pleased to announce that our most recent title, Building the Hasegawa Fw 190D-9 in 1/32 Scale by John Kim, has just been updated to v1.2. And for the rest of this week, we’ve discounted it to just 15 Australian dollars!

This update is the result of tidying up typos, and is not considered vital.

Existing purchasers are able to access the updated version for free. Simply log in to your account (or use your original download link) and re-download the book from the Downloads section of your profile. If you don’t have an account or the original download link, please contact me and we’ll sort it out. And of course, new purchasers will always receive the latest version.

See you all for the next one!