azureglo

More progress: Pilot painted and installed. Used a wet palette for the first time, would strongly recommend this staple of mini/figure painters. Makes the whole mixing, shading and touching up a doddle, I actually enjoyed painting this wee man for a change Canopy on and looking suitably menacing. Mask and prime tomorrow.

Happy to help, that said here's a tip if you use aggressive gun cleaners, acetone, cellulose thinners et al, try not to backflush when cleaning and if you like me occasionally soak the entire body in gun thinners for deep cleaning, remove the air valve assembly, it should only be finger tight as the seals do the rest of the work. These neoprene "o" rings appear not to tolerate aggressive solvents. BTW AG is really called Anil in real life (which he studiously avoids as much as possible)

You might need to do some dismantling of the air valve as you probably need to replace a seal, spring, remove some gunk or perhaps the whole air valve. Not difficult in theory assuming you can source the parts, here's what the Badger versions look like: My Sotar has Viton solvent proof seals in the main body but the little "o" ring in the valve is neoprene that swells up and jams like your issue if my usual gun thinner gets anywhere near it.

N52 neodymium magnets, big one inside and a little one on top of acrylic rod: No holes gouged out of the wee plastic airplane plus you can pick it up off the stand, zoom it around the room then replace it.

Up a magnetised pole, full Man In The High Castle paint job for mine a la:

What does £100 get you these days? This: Nice chap who's clearing out his house after his wife moved to a dementia care home, asked me If I'd like them as he begins downsizing Works perfectly and virtually unmarked but after I looked up what these all mechanical beauties go for, I pointed out the value and he refused any payment so but suggested a donation of £100 to an Alzheimer's charity. I was a Nikon man in the day, an F2SB with assorted lenses of course, but loved this and the OM1 for the size as well the all important mechanical shutters. Will be nice to get back into dev

There was too much paint build up and jagged ridges between colours, it took 600 grit to get it all level gain so painting over the top of this mess wasn't an option.

The joys of learning new stuff eh? This one will sit for a few days, my two year Mr Hobby premixed desert sand is very slow drying and I noticed lots of tape marks when removing the masking, unheard of when using Mr Hobby/Levelling. Then again, opening a fresh jar would mean colour shifts, as in the underside were the two year fully cured looks totally different to the same paint applied two days ago so I'll use the time to work on my Hobbyboss Fw190.

A week of good progress: ground out a cockpit opening, scratched an IP of sorts and put in a reflector gunsight with glass. No control column or more detailing, this is going have a pilot and be wheels up, achieved by grinding down the wheels and gear door inner detail: The all important flight test. Should be done next week: not quite like @mac1677 's warp 9.9 builds but better than two years methinks...

The masked insignia was not successful: I think that my Cricut' has some issues cutting exact circles. Add to that the Oramask stretches. that meant registration problems as well as a build up of paint to get some density in the white and yellow meant pronounced paint ridges: Decided to give it one last shot and restore the camo then use the kit decals, I am loathe to bin paint failures until I've had at least one attempt to remedy them. camo Redone, just need to let it fully cure and harden and micromesh ourtsome paint ridges and tape marks.

Was picking up some guitar related finishing supplies when I noticed a games workshop type place called "Entoyment" across from where I was parked. Popped and saw its was a good place for for paints , wet palletes etc. The kits were games workshop type dungeons and dragons affairs that don't call to me, but there was a small pile of aircraft kits and I picked this is up for a quick build and practice doing 1/72 mottling: Nothing much to shout about, I've built the 262, He-62 and 109E3 from this quick build series with good results. That said the prop looks unusual

A whole day of masking and spraying, great fun getting familiar again with my Badger Sotar and Patriot: The Sotar lets me quick post shade through the insignia and lettering. May need to do some touch-ups as I forgot the Oramask lifts on highly curved surface, usually needed to do those with Kamoi sheet. Not a problem, yellow and blue tomorrow and then we're on the home straight, would be good to finish something after all these years

Many thanks , when I get around to molesting it I'll PM you

Yeah baby, to celebrate my return to extra thin sniffing, picked these up for a song, £60 the pair delivered as opposed to the silly prices asked for these venerable old clunkers. Nice chap who sold the Venom threw in some spare Berna decals but amazingly the Matchbox decals look useable, though not the 109s, the wax paper sheet is firmly welded on, but hey Its a 1/32 109E, how hard is that going to be? Man, a Sea Venom up a magnetised, pole, yeah, that's my kind of modelling...

Yeah baby, I'm back...two years and two months after I last posted: how's that for a shelf of doom holiday? Anyhoo, its got camo now. Man, I forgot how much I loved airbrushing, especially if I've swung for those exorbitantly priced masks from the forums resident Spitfire fanatic Decided to paint the walkways and main markings, no reason, just like airbrushing. so off to my Cricut and I got these made up, Now to find my various Mr Color (sic) paints and mix up some prethinned dropper paint bottles. Also need to find my stash of neodymium magnets, what good is an