SPA Modeler

I just wanted to share some of my past builds with the folks here at SPAModeler. They have been previously posted on other message boards so you may have seen them before. I hope this is the right place for them.

First up is a unique subject that I built in 2015. It's a 1/48 Fiat G.55S Silurante by Flying Machines. The kit canopy was cracked upon arrival, so I used a Falcon vacuform canopy as a replacement. Otherwise the kit was built out-of-the-box.

Top! What a build, and WHAT an airbrush job! You must be an illustrator by profession! Please remember me to ask you to do the night fighter camo on one of my future builds!

Beautiful paint work indeed! On top of an excellent build. Simply marvelous work!

interessting aircraft, fighter with torpedo, excellent build and wow what a camo

Thanks very much guys! It's interesting to look at pictures of my older builds and see where I was at back then. Weathering was pretty non-existent on this Fiat torpedo fighter with the exception of the exhaust trail and some random smudges on the bottom. One thing that I have been trying to do recently is to not neglect the bottom of my aircraft builds when it comes to weathering.

Here's another one from 2015. This is the excellent Eduard F6F-3 Hellcat Profipack kit that I converted into a nightfighter. Unlike the Fiat, I was a bit more focused on the weathering and employed two-layer chipping for the first time. In addition to the photoetch and resin parts included in the Profipack, I used a conversion kit from Quickboost for the nightfighter pieces and decals from OWL.

Some in-progress shots of the Hellcat...
The photoetched instrument panel that comes with the Profipack editions are always a nice upgrade.


The completed Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp engine. The delicate wiring harness was included on the photoetch fret.


Eduard's representation of the tail wheel and well left something to be desired so I performed some mods here.





All of the clear landing light pieces had tiny holes drilled out from the bottom and colored to represent light bulbs. The little lights on top of the fuselage were so small that I couldn't hold them in my fingers and used a pin vise to hold them for drilling.

Jkim, you are indeed one very talented and skilled modeler. That Hellcat is a beauty!

My jaw dropped to the desk! Superb, simply superb! Love the tiny P&W logo on the engine!

Thomas_M wrote:My jaw dropped to the desk! Superb, simply superb! Love the tiny P&W logo on the engine!

Wow is all I can say - Beautiful build on that Hellcat

I am at loss for words to describe the gorgeous work on those kits. Well done! Were the clear lights part of the kit? How did you get the green light to look so realistic?