Best year for building in ages.
Last night I finished the Mando Models Suchanov Diskoplan, the first of five "round wing" subjects. It was a bitch to build, not entirely because of the kit itself as much as my rusty modeling techniques. The wing was presented as right and left halves, one of which was a bit thicker than the other. I pinned them together and puttied the results. Sanding for what seemed like hours followed, including removal of the overly thick wing fences. Detailed the interior (most of which can't be seen, but I know it's there :-)) and reshaped the nose. Replaced the clear canopy with flat panes cut from the packaging for a typewriter cartridge. I love finding modeling usage from other items. Made a new set of parts for the horizontal stabilizer and top half of the vertical tail as the kit parts were far too thick and the vertical tail upper half was far too small.
I ran into trouble with the paint. The Diskoplan is so small that I figured brush painting would do the trick, followed by Future then Dullcote. That's the last time I try that! Once Future cures it is a real bitch to remove. Airbrushed the whole thing with far better results. Markings consisted of a white outlined red star on each side of the lower vertical tail. Found suitably small and on-register red stars on an ancient Microscale sheet for 1/72-1/76 Russian vehicles. The stars and white outlines were presented as seperate parts.
The Diskoplan joins the fourth WWI Russian vignette and the fantasy Ryan NYP-2 "Spirit of Minneapolis/St.Paul" as the third project completed this year. The fifth Russian vignette and the Sword Vought V-173 are now on the workbench with the Ames AD-1 and a pair of Yak-11s receiving attention at least once per week.
It feels really good to actually complete models. Goodbye AMS.
Tom