The Mechanic's Modelling Page

27/05/2026

Got the Tomcat finish and surprisingly quick time.

Starting on this was a spur of rhe moment, I needed a break from working on the two car projects that are on the go. This is the Tamiya 48th scale F-14D Tomcat, basically built straight out of the box except for the addition of some Eduard seatbelts. This was because I didn't think the decal seatbelts were up to the job and would be too flat for this scale, so a set was ordered and fitted once they had arrived.

I chose to do the Grim Reaper scheme on rhis model, thought it would be a contrast to the Tomcatters one that I have already built. My only issue was that the painting instructions only had a mixing formula to.make up the dark grey used on the scheme. It would have been nicer if Tamiya had put the FS numbers on the instruction sheet as well, but they don't. So it was a bit of time going through my Tomcat books to find the same scheme in one of them to get the correct FS numbers. Once these were obtained, I used the equivalent paints from the Mr Hobby range and painted the model.

When it came down to the decals, I did have a few little problems with them. Something that I have never had with Tamiya kits in the past was decals breaking up when trying to get them into position on the fuselage. This happened on the Grim Reaper badges on the tails and a couple other of the larger decals. Another thing I had noticed was that the carrier film seems to be a bit thicker then the past Tamiya decals that I have used. I will need to see what any of the other later Tamiya kits are like when I build them.

In all, an enjoyable build apart from the messing around with pain colours and the decal issues. Assembly as par normal with Tamiya kits passed with any headaches and everything went together cleanly. So now I'm down to two more 48th scale Tomcats in the stash, a 32nd one and a few 72nd kits. I guess I will have another Tomcat urge come upon me at some point soon...

27/05/2026

Finally got around to taking some photos of the Hawker Tempest Mk.V Series 2 that I finished at the end of last year.

This is the Eduard Profipack edition of the Tempest, so including the etch for the interior and paint masks. As par normal with Eduards kits, this built up without any issues and as normal a joy to build.

Assembled straight out of the box along with the etch that came with the kit. The camouflage scheme was painted with AK Interactive's Real Colors WWII RAF day fighter scheme set of lacquer paints. It was the first time that I had used their lacquer paints and I did not have any issues using them. The invasion stripes were masked and sprayed, no decals to use in the kit. The model was finished off with the usual weathering of dirt, soot and oil leaks.

I do happen to have another Eduard Tempest sitting in my stash. This one will have a few extras added to the build for when I get around to starting it. So far I have the Eduard resin engine to go in it, but there will be other items to get for it later on.

26/05/2026

Finally decided to brave the heat and get back to some modelling. This extreme hot weather has put a gold onto the two projects that I was originally going to work on, they will have to wait until it's a lot cooler.

So today I finished all of the construction on this Ferdinand that was given, which I did a part dismantling to straighten a few bits out. All that was needed today was to add the final detail parts around the hull to get it ready for priming. Before I started priming it, I had a quick look online for photos of the Ferdinand in action. Mainly to see where they carried their spare tracks, general stowage and camouflage techniques. There didn't seem to be a set method for carrying the spare track links, some were mounted on the rear panel to the right of the loading hatch, some in a cradle on the side armour plate and one with a few on the front armour plate either side of the gun barrel. There was also a lot that didn't carry any spare links at all. So I opted to make a cradle to mount them on one of the sides.

With the forecast for the weather to get a bit cooler tomorrow, I hopefully will get some undercoat colour down on the hull and some base colour afterwards. So fingers crossed for a cooler day...

04/05/2026

28/04/2026

It has been steady progress on the Tomcat over the last week and a bit. All of the main construction work has been done along with the main painting. The fuselage is a present is now painted in the scheme of the aircraft I am modelling, a Grim Reaper aircraft from September 2004, in Light Ghost Grey, Dark Ghost Grey and Gunship Grey, with the tails and fuselage spine painted Black. Next the model will get a few coats of gloss clear before moving onto the decals, detail painting and some weathering. Final assembly will follow to get the aircraft built.

Once this is done, I will move onto the payload which is already assembled. All of these items just need painting and having any decals added to them.

16/04/2026

Whilst I have the two car projects stuck in the painting stages, I needed to get on with another project. I was originally thinking about getting another project off the "Shelf of Doom", but I have also had a niggling to build another Tomcat. Out of my Tomcat stash, this Tamiya 48th scale F-14D was on the shelf along with the Tamiya 32nd scale one, so I chose this one as all of the rest of the Tomcats are packed away in the loft.

This is being built straight out of the box, so no aftermarket extras on this one. Over the last couple of days, I have got the cockpit built up and the front undercarriage bay assembled. I still need to do some weathering on the undercarriage bay, which will be done once the main bays are assembled.

Work will continue today with assembly of the main undercarriage bays and the weathering of all bays at the same time.

16/04/2026

Another project that's been going on in the background is my 6th generation Mustang build.

This has started life as the Tamiya Mustang GT4 race car, which seems to be currently the only 6th gen Mustang kit on the market. I did not want to build this as a race, but as a road car. This all started with finding a file to 3D print the stock interior for this kit, which I changed from LHD to RHD by mirroring some of the parts. I had also found a boot spoiler for this model Mustang and the rear screen louvres to cover uo the race car spec screen. One issue that I did have was the suspension set up that any replacement wheels that I tried to fit were sticking out too far on the rear. A wide body kit would have got around this, but I wanted to keep a more stock body look to this model. So the answer was to keep with the kit wheels, but print off some road tyres to replace the racing slicks.

On the body, I filled in the vent openings with plasticard and filler to reinstate the stock bonnet on the car. Other modifications include removing the two large aero blades on the front bumper and filling in the mounting slots, blank off the race fuel quick fill valves opening, then removing the air jack valve on the roof and spoiler mounts on the boot lid.

The stag that I am now at is the chassis has been painted and assembled, the interior painted and assembled, wheels and tyres painted, chin spoiler modified and various trim and underbody panels painted. The bodyshell is part way through painting, it still needs a few more coats to finish it off. The boot spoiler still needs painting and the rear window louvres still need a bit of work to be done on them.

One thing I realised a couple of weeks back was that the car has been converted fro LHD to RHD. The windscreen wipers in the kit are LHD, so these were handed to a friend who created a file to print off some RHD wipers for the model. The next bit of conversion work is to change the windscreen itself to RHD set up, which is now in the early stages.

This is where I am sitting with this project at the moment.

16/04/2026

A quick update on my ongoing projects. The Datsun 240Z Custom has now been painted, in Tamiya's Pearl White. Had an issue with the bonnet where a few scratches appeared on the centre bulge resulting in me sanding it all down and respraying the whole bonnet.

The model has been left to stand whilst the base colour cures and hardens up before I start spraying the Pearl Clear onto the model. Once this is done, again it will be left to stand before progressing onto final detail painting and assembly.

06/04/2026

Whilst I've been working on the 5th gen Mustang to do the conversion work from the GT4 race car to the road car over the last few weeks, thought it would be an idea to take a short break from it. So I have got the Datsun 240Z Custom back off the shelf to get it towards the finish line.

A lot of the main construction was already done, just some final parts on the engine to do and finish off the interior. The suspension was basically all done apart from mounting it all to the chassis. All that I needed to do to progress was to get the body colour down on the bodyshell, chassis, engine bay and bulkhead. A photograph I saw online of a white 240Z with red interior inspired how to build this model. So all of the interior was finished in red and the body is painted in Tamiya's laquer paint Pearl White. I had decided right at the start of the build that the extended wheel arches and boot spoiler would be in black, not body colour. A full jar of Pearl White was used on the model to cover it, then I discovered a few scratches on the bonnet. So now that it has had a quick sanding, it will get a few more coats of the Pearl White before leaving it all to stand for a few more days to harden up and then give the body several coats of Tamiya Pearl Clear.

12/03/2026

I think this Mustang is now finished.

A couple of pieces of etch decided that they didn't want to go onto the model, they were just too small and delicate to handle and glue them into place of the model. But these are pieces that you will not even notice were missing unless you are actually looking for them. If they have similar parts on the 48th scale Mustangs that Eduard do, then it should be a lot easier to work with them in the larger scale.

What can I say about this kit?

As par normal, Eduard have produced in my opinion, probably the best P-51D Mustang in this scale. I have really enjoyed building this model, even with the little hiccups (that were caused by myself) that I had along the journey. With this Royal Class dual combo set, the first thing you need to do is decide on which aircraft out of the fourteen options that you get in this box. Once you have built the model, you have a load of spare parts left over, especially if you have used the resin parts instead of the plastic ones. So these could be used on another brand of P-51D Mustang to improve the look or convert the tail. And you will also have another twelve schemes to use on an Airfix or another manufacturers offering of the P-51D.

Now, is this kit worth the money? Well, yes it is, especially with what you get in the box of this Royal Class version. As well as the two models, you also get a "The Mighty Eighth" badge in the box, which is a nice touch. But I must say, these 72nd scale Eduard Mustangs are not for the novice modeller.

So on to the next project. I have a few ideas in my head what to do. I fancy getting started on one of my Tomcats or my 72nd scale Zoukei Mura Horton Ho229, but there are plenty of ongoing projects on the dreaded "Shelves Of Doom" that need to get finished. Let's see what happens...