Toniosky's Cool Stuff Vault

Hi, I didnt put aside the build of the Yakovlev but just needed an interlude. This is the very good and easy Tamiya model with the Quickboost bang seat, plus other scratch-built items. As always Tamiya decals are too thick... On the actual He-162 the clear part of the canopy was set on a metal frame and screwed from the outside. To reproduce the particularity, I just painted the frame from the inside. Painting was done using Xtracrylics which, despite very fine pigments, is a pain in the ass to airbrush, clogging the A/B every 5 minutes. The base was made using Paris plaster, balsa strips and a mix of grass mats from Imthurn and Heki. The oil drum comes from Brengun. My build is far from perfect, but let's say that I am finally able to build and paint the way I want without having too many technical limitations.    

Hi, The cockpit is finally done. Not perfect though, but that will do. I made a new Instrument Panel as the one in the box was a bit undersized. I used the drawing from the official manual to print my IP on plastic card. The shape of the new IP is not 100% accurate but at least it fits ok now. I made the instruments with wire and decals. To make it faster, I made a coil out of wire and cut the [i]sausage[/i] in the middle to make plenty of little circles. Just have to choose the roundest ones. Bezels were first glued with Tamiya extra-fluid cement, and later firmly stuck in place by inserting a toothpick impregnated with CA glue into the holes. The instruments were made from spare decals and sealed with Future + transparent acetate sheet. The cockpit now finished: You can notice that the rudder pedals are quite far from the seat. This is explained by Russian pilots having very long legs and wearing stilettos. Saw it too late and couldn't be...

 Hi, Cockpit detailing finally done  ;) As I said before, I had to make a new seat. I added a cushion for the pilot's buttock and scratched the fifth seat belt that goes between the legs. Not sure though if I am going to keep the cushion for the pilot's butt. BTW, the part numbering is total chaos. I used fishing line to simulate the rigging on the cockpit sides and modified the engine controls with 3 throttles (instead of 4 as suggested by Mikro-Mir). The mid cable is intentionally out of the axis. I scratch-made the rudder controls and the stick:

Hi, Finally started some interesting work after a looooot of sanding on the wings and fuselage. But it's ok as I started the fun part of scratch-building the cockpit, and that's fun ! Cockpit The tubular structure of the cockpit needs to be shortened (red line) in order to fit the wings on the fuselage. The seat provided in the box vaguely looks like the original : I made a new seat from scratch using 0.25mm plastic sheet helped with the instruction manual of the UT-2. Of course, I realized later that I misinterpreted the schematics and that (1) reads actually " Shoulder seatbelts ", so no sides on that seat ... More on that on Part 3 of this build. Scratch-built seat with cushion (see Part 3 - for correction) The headrest is too large to be fitted in the fuselage. Here again a lot of sanding. On the picture below, two interesting features that will be added. Firstly, the leather bulge (2) just in front of the pilot; but I...

Hi, After my mainstream AFV F-5, I wanted to start a new project that requires more personal work. I just started the Yakolvlev UT-1b from the Ukrainian manufacturer Mikro-Mir. The UT-1b is based on the trainer/civilian UT-1 which was equipped with two 7.62 ShKAS at the beginning of the war against the huns. Documentation is scarce but I managed to get a copy of the manual of the 2-seater variant from a fellow French modeller. The Mikro-Mir kit looks pretty good and is boxed with 2 PE sheets. But it ain't no Tamiya, parts have to be thinned down or replaced. The decal sheet is Zvevda-esque, if you see what I mean.... That's a very small bug. I never built anything that small. Looks like daddy will have fun thinning down trailing edges  !! Right now, working on the engine cowling Nothing very fancy to show right now. Hopefully, more interesting pics to follow. Tonio

Hi, This is the well-known AFV kit. This kit is a real pleasure to build. The main landing gear doors might be a bit tricky to assemble but nothing to bad. I used the Aires cockpit which fits perfectly. The real hard part of the build was to choose amongst the 20 schemes offered by the AfterBurner decal sheet (Thanks Franck !). I finally chose a Flogger scheme from the 65th Aggressor squadron, 1985. For once, I am quite happy by the result but I still have to work on taking better pictures... Painting : - Sand: 2 H27 + 1 XF2 - Green : 2 H80 + 1 XF-13 - Brown : 4 H84 +2 X-9 +2 H37 + a tad of white (...) - Free-hand with Iwata Revolution BR 0.3 mm. - Clear Coat Prince August Polyurethane 50% + XF-20A 50%.

Here's my new build. The kit was given to me by my good friend Edde. After spending too much time on my previous project I needed a straightforward build, and this kit is a total pleasure to build ! I like learning new techniques for each of my projects, so here I decided to rivet the whole bird. The cockpit I had quite a lot of fun painting the trolley. After a first coat of dark brown, I sprayed some hair lacquer before using a coat of greenish grey. The top layer was then dissolved here and there with a wet brush. The rust effect was achieved with various paint oils. Riveting took me quite a while but I found it fun and relaxing. I used Rosie the riveter, lots of Dymo tape and a needle for small additions. Model Art #587 is of great help here. Of course, that's when I had a look a the shots below that I noticed that some imperfections have to be corrected... I painted the hinomarus with a first layer of white (for opacity), ...