Newsfeed-

Doubtingmango
Love that camo!

Eelco Gregoire
Mooi pitje Sid! Het ziet er allemaal weer top uit.

Sid de Koning
Thanks guys!

John
Beautiful Spit, Sid. Love the paintjob and details. Looks like Eduard couldn't decide between A and B camo but you caught it.

Martin Oostrom
This is superb work!

Bruno
Thanks Martin👍

George Williams
Really nice truck.

Goldman
Great looking truck. Love the color. Very cleanly and accurately build model

Bruno
Thanks George & Goldman👍

Andre Louis
Very impressive indeed! Great job, Bruno!

Doubtingmango
So I just finished this little Italian job. The decals came out with a lot of the edges showing, which then got a lot worse when I added some washes. I used Microset on the decals, and then sealed them with Tamiya semi-gloss before the washes, but it actually looks like the washes got under the decals. Any thoughts?

Bogicevic Vladimir
It looks like you haven't spray gloss coat before you applied decals. Or decals didn't set well. There are two solutions. One is lacquer thinner. Put the thinner with fine brush in dots over the place where you have silvering. Thinner should destroy the film. If it raises paint under, just leave it, it will settle back. Important thing here is that, once you applied thinner, you shouldn't touch decal for something like 20 minutes, at least. Second way is mix of sugar and water, half - half. You make a hole with a needle on the decal, than you put mix on the top. It should enter in the space between decal and paint and, when drayed, make a gloss film in between them which will act as a gloss under the decal. Wipe excess mix with wet cloath and you are done.

Mr James
How annoying. I've never heard of the sugar water trick from Bogicevic. I'll be interested if this works. If the thinner, sugar trick fails, what else can you do but use a scalpel to cut around them, since you've sealed it,

Mr James
Oh, nice paintjob by the way

Doubtingmango
Thanks mates! I believe Bogicevic is right. I think I did fail to gloss coat before the decals. I think I'll try the sugar water first

Bogicevic Vladimir
Ok. There are few small tings I should add then. Heat the water first, when hot it will disolve sugar beter and apply it while it's still warm, it will have more viscosity. Make small hole or slice with modeling knife, put few drops of mix on the top and let it dry. You will see emidiatly if it's penatrating. When dry, wipe carefully excess mix with moist cloth. Repeat where neaded. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it worked for me many times.

Doubtingmango
Thanks Bogicevic! I'll give it a shot. If it doesn't work I'll try the lacquer thinner technique. I love this site!

Mark Sherwood
Where the *uck's this been hiding. Very nice build Mr Mango and I hope the decal solution from Bogicevic work's out🤞

Doubtingmango
Thanks Mark! So I punched some holes in the decals and applied the warm sugar water, but unfortunately it did not seem to make a noticeable difference. I decided my best shot was to just grab the scalpel and remove the decals, which was very easy. Bogicevic said the solution would get under the decals! I have successfully applied new decals, and my little Italian job is now base-worthy. New pics to come.

Bogicevic Vladimir
Well, you find a solution, which is the most important thing. I can not know why something that worked for me many times does not work for you in this case. Maybe that what I think is silvering is residual glue from decal paper. Who knows... Anyway, good luck with your project.

Doubtingmango
Thanks Bogicevic! You were definitely part of the solution

John
All's well that ends well. 👍 Mango, your builds have me hankering to do some armor but I still have commitments to do a couple more a/c. When I do get a chance, part of me wants to start small with a Pz IV, but another part says go for broke and do a Maus!

gorby
Very nice work!

Neuling
Good result anyway!

Doubtingmango
Thanks guys!

Doubtingmango
As promised, new pics of the new decals have been added, along with pics of the work I have started on the base. Once again, thank you for the help Bogicevic!

John
Really cool base! 👍

Guy Rump
Great result on the tank, the base looks good too. 👍

Doubtingmango
Thanks John and Guy!

Doubtingmango
More work on the base. Just need to paint up the base and add foliage

Doubtingmango
And it's finished

Rui S
Great work allround 👍 Beautiful vignette

Doubtingmango
Thanks Rui! Always appreciate the feedback

Tcamp
Awesome work

Pietro De Angelis
Beautiful work, congrats!

M0rce
That's pretty cool 😎

Bobby Thumbs
hey man that palm tree is badass excellent work

Doubtingmango
Thank you all! The palm tree is badass, but I can only take credit for the placement. I got it off an Ebay seller from Thailand, Thannan Diorama Exporters. Not cheap, but I had to get one to see if they were as good as they look. They are! Also need to give a shout out to Value Gear for much of the stowage.

Landlubber Mike
Wow, this is fantastic!! The model and the base looks amazing, but that palm tree really pulls it all together in an extra special way. Well done!

Doubtingmango
Thanks Mike!

Spanjaard
great you resolved the decals issue, fantastic dio

Doubtingmango
Thanks Spanjaard! It was a nice save

Bobby Thumbs
aww man I thought you was a next level tree maker - i was gonna hit you up for hints

jaero
thats stunning!! the rocky terrain looks great, and so does the camo

Doubtingmango
Thanks Jaero!

Clair Greenwood
I sure hope one day my models would look half as good as your work sir 🙂

Doubtingmango
Thanks Clair!

Siegfried Van den Bosch
Nice one !

Doubtingmango
Thanks Siegfried!

Shar Dipree
Very nice!

Doubtingmango
Thanks Shar!

Ben M
I enjoyed the discussion of fixing decal stuff as decals are always hard for me. One thing to add, I have been adding tamiya gloss clear (X-22) to my paint mixtures when I paint tanks. This gives the finish a slightly more glossy surface and I find I can do decals and pinwashes/oil washes without a separate gloss coat, and I do a flat coat after to dull the surface. I first tried this on my M3 Lee build. I should take better pics of that one. I think I got the idea indirectly from uncle nightshift (someone told me it was in one of his videos, didn't see it myself). I don't get joy from spraying endless coats of clear on models, I find it's hard to get all the nooks and crannies, so mixing the clear with the color coat makes it easier to see what I'm doing. Maybe an idea for the future.

That's a cool little Italian tank and the diorama is great as well! Thanks for sharing.

CarlosR
very nice!

Robert H.
bravo 👏 cool dio 👍

Sy Bar
Was going to do the Battle of Britain version of this kit but I'm temped to have a go at some winter white wash and the wasp is cooler than the shark mouth 😎

Nicolas
Following

István Szücs
I also have Bf-110 from the Airfix, I will build an Italian night fighter. The sprues are the same, so I'm watching!

Sy Bar
Cheers guys.
I'm have a go at riveting, but going freehand as at this scale using tape was taking so long. I also not sure how much they will stand out on finish kit, but with the wonky line in parts they will probably bee seen from mars 🤣

Mark Sherwood
Looking good so far, like the underside. 🥸👍

Sy Bar
Cheers #Mark

Skyhiker
Sy, how was the fit on this kit?

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

Sy Bar
Cheers #Guy 👍
#Skyhiker I found the fit to be good, I had a very slight gap at the front but think that was as much to do with me and the fitting of the pit (not the clearest instructions there). Every thing else was fine and the canopy was a good fit, I did change order of build slightly with the tail section I glued the rear piece to the body first then added the tail (after I'd added the stabilisers/rudders) this made more sense than the instructions 😁

Sy Bar
Only issue I have with this kit are the decals. While they look great and are in perfect register, they have a large amount of film edging and are both thick and delicate at the same time🤪
Having a hard time getting them to settle into the panel lines etc. I usually just need to use micro sol but even ultimate extra strong is not have much effect. Going to have to wait till I get some Tamiya fixer, strong and extra strong hopefully one of these will help 🤞

Mr D
You should be ok with the medium one with Airfix decals,
I like a mix of Water in with the markfix...seems to keep the decal floating longer.
I did the teeth on my p40 this way.
If they started getting bit sicky...l would add bit more water....keep it floating.
Wouldn't like to do shark teeth with HB decals 🤔🤣.... The lightning ⚡ strike on my mig-15 just fell apart with hardly any working.
Good luck with it ..look forward to seeing 😃👍👍

Dave Flitton
Looking good!

Sy Bar
Cheers for advice #Mr D. Afraid this set of decals were unaffected by all solutions but the mark fit super strong did have some effect. To make head way I found I needed to add the solution then after a few seconds apply hot air from a hairdryer to 'shrink wrap' the decal. These have to be the worst decals I've come across..
I recommend anyone doing this kit to source a set of decals rather than use those provided, they are not for beginners that's for sure. I hope the carrier film will disappear under a gloss coat but I didn't want to risk it so I've only applied the larger decals the smaller ones while add great detail if cartograf here they are 90% carrier film.

Skyhiker
Why don't you just cut the carrier film away with a knife before applying them?

Mr D
Hi Sy
That's ok .... I think the result will be fine after a clear coat, you come out of it without wrinkles, bubbles or tear's so it's a win, very smart n be sorted under a clear.👌👍👍

Sy Bar
Cheers #Mr D
#Skyhiker that's idea but life's too short for the amount there is, the size of the decal that's left will look like small black dots everywhere (especially the fuselage rib numbers 🤪); would be ok in 48 but too much in 72. Also I'm probably going to much it all up when I apply the winter white wash 😆

Rui S
That's Looking Great 👍

CaptGPF
Looks good so far, following too!

Sy Bar
Cheers folk for kind comments
The use of masking fluid has left too sharper mark contrast than I was looking for. I hope to try oils to soften the edges else I'll get the airbrush out again and go slow 😳

Sy Bar
Finally back to it, I don't know where the days/weeks disappear to. As ever the final "bits" take as much time as the main build.
The nervous removal of the canopy masking revealed no concerns so on with the lumps and bumps and wires…

Mr James
excellent paint and shading with tip top weathering detailing

Mr D
Airfix do get there scale looking right....Nice kit good work 👌👍👍