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Villiers de Vos
Very nice.

Joe Bakaitis
Thank you. I really enjoyed building this kit. I think Border did a good job, even though I have read about other people not liking this kit, I didn't have any problems with it.

Juskifo
it's a nice job👏
Thanks for the info on the kit.

santa fe tanker
Good to hear. Thanks for sharing 👏

Villiers de Vos
Fantastic work. Thank you for sharing.

santa fe tanker
I may consider there other 2 1/35 planes in the future, have you heard good things as well about those?

Martin Oostrom
Dryfit the front window early in your build. I've heard rumours of a horrible fit near the engine intakes

Nicolas
following

Vincent
Good luck with this one. I really enjoyed this kit! Make sure you install the right wing tips unlike me!

Sergio Ordonez
Thanks you, mates.
Yes, Vincent, the short wingtips are installed. I have been researching photos of this Craft for months: being an American subject is a total enigma for me. At least,for the Mustang, the engine was a Merlín....
By the moment, although It has some assembly issues, appears to be an easy one. These photos resume 4 manhours, while I expected a total of 12-15.

Sebastian Meyner
Very nice representation of the Valiant! 👍

Neuling
Yes! And the clean finish .........👍 Beautiful!

Michael Kohl
Jep, clean and beautiful it is.

Stuart Fowle
Very nice looking build and finish 👍

Zbynek Honzik
Beautiful and clean work!

Dave Flitton
Another pretty V bomber

Björn Leichsenring
Very clean, but looks gootd.

Bruce Huxtable
Immaculate! Purposeful, yet graceful...

AJMM
Wonderful modelling.

Jon Wheeldon
beautiful

Bozzer
I'm glad to see, that it's not just me, who does all this type of prep work. I've spent far too much time and money, on tools, gizmo's and fabrication of various things, just to try and speed up this process. Yet, I still end up falling back to the back of a #11 knife blade!
I'll hang around for this one mate, mainly to see the outcome of those amazing decals. But also to watch how the trailer goes together?
I helped my son build the Spacecab, way back in the early 2000's. He didn't enjoy it and abandoned his efforts 🙁 No wonder he became a plumber 😛

Martin Oostrom
Kerry Cox taught Peter Hardy and Peter taught me: "Better remove those lines, you'll always know they're there."
I mostly use the cutting edge of the blade to scrape, I'll try the back sometime.
I assembled the chassis today and it seems perfectly straight. A lot of work remains before I can start on the decals.

Bozzer
If you draw the edge, of the back of the blade, it gives you a nice smooth, flat surface. It also doesn't dull your sharp blade? After a while, it becomes second nature. I have found, that those nasty mold lines, show up even more, when paint is applied? Even when I glue two parts together, it's always the back of the knife, that deals with the seam. You should definitely try it, and see if you notice the difference.

Lode Schildermans
Following. Martin and trucks and trailers, always surprising

Bozzer
He's got this, Lode. Martin is the Plastic Surgeon 😉

Spanjaard
I am in 🙂

Martin Oostrom
The doctor is in 😄
I managed some work on the axles Tuesday evening and I had half a day to myself yesterday. So I built the box with a lot of added plastic to get everything squared. I'll be sanding the outside and I don't want the thing to fold.
The mudflaps were unconvincing , so I went to town on them. Your opinions please?

Bozzer
I've heard of guys, filling in reefers, with expanding foam?
I've never personally done it, because I like the option of opening doors. Those mudflaps look so much better now, too.

Martin Oostrom
Mmm, insulation foam in a reefer….
There is/was a load of cyanide in that stuff. Not something I want to emit in my hobby room.
My 2k also contains cyanide, but those vapours are mainly vented outside

Bozzer
I have never checked mate, and I've used it for sealing gaps, etc, for decades? However, I've definitely not used it on any models. In fairness though, all my current reefers are from AMT. I love the fact that they use 1 piece plastic, for the sides, base and top. It definitely makes them sturdy. I do have a few Italeri reefers though, and I was thinking about lining them with thin plastic? I don't want to compromise the look, so I thought maybe some 1mm sheet, would work? What do you think mate?

Martin Oostrom
Lining with 1mm sheet is a possibility, but … see my new picture. On both sides there are two half rods running the whole length of the trailer and the ceiling is littered with protruding ejection marks.
The floor is smooth as the ejection marks are on the underside.
This Revell edition has water slide decals, the Italeri reefer I have has two big stickers for each side. Will be hell to line up, so I'll probably paint something.

Bozzer
On large decals, it's best to cut them into 3. It just makes things easier. I honestly wouldn't have a clue what to do with stickers though? That's exactly what I have, on my Smokey and the Bandit 2 trailer.
Which reminds me...
Jerry from Modeltruckin, is retiring. Last orders are being taken upto end of July. Get them decals ordered mate, before you can't get them again!

Bozzer
I just took a closer look at your pictures. I see those rails now. I'm guessing that they were a feature, to stop pallets from ramming up tight to the side, on the 1:1 version? The injection pin marks, I can Dremel away. You've actually got me thinking about digging out one of my reefers now, lol

Martin Oostrom
In the real one, there will be a strip with slits to secure the cargo. But those are generally not that high and low. See picture.

Bill Newcomer
Late to the party. (I have been really busy with my wife's garden and my 1:1 car) Following. Making your box square and straight looks like quite the endeavor.

Martin Oostrom
Dry fitting the door showed a small gap between them. I later added a strip of styrene to the back. Stiffening the doors by accident.
I removed the moulded rear lights, only realising too late that they're hollow. A thin sheet of styrene helped. I also glued a strip to the storage bins. Too much sanding otherwise. Now all trailer parts are ready for painting.

Lode Schildermans
Definitely impressed, Martin. Smart building by improving stability in the beginning of the build. I particularly like the improvements with styrene

Martin Oostrom
Don't tell anybody Lode. There'll be some pe on it. 🤫

Bozzer
I wonder if that PE is going to be the bars and locking system, for the back doors?

Lode Schildermans
I shall be silent as a grave, Martin

Martin Oostrom
Wait and see Bozzer!

Bozzer
Oh Martin, you tease! 😛

Martin Oostrom
Primer's on! It took over 4 hours to paint the truck and trailer in my tiny booth.

Lode Schildermans
But the result is a success. Looking forward to see your progress of this big one

Gerald
👍

Martin Oostrom
First colours are here. Tamiya bright red, Tamiya silver and not shown, Tamiya aluminium straight from the can on the reefer itself.

Bozzer
Excellent colour choices, mate. This build is exciting me 😄

Bill Newcomer
Color, Always good to see color. 🙂

Martin Oostrom
For the first time in forever I follow the colour callouts from the instructions, and now my choices are excellent. Makes me wonder…
Enjoy the colours while you can, this thing will be wrapped in decals when she's done.

Bozzer
Lol, maybe because it's more true to life?
Although I have to admit, I've crawled under a few trailers, and they were all the same, light rust/brown colour. Even on fleet management, the chassis and underneath, never get washed. I do a lot of work for a global logistics company and their trucks always look clean, but they're not. My brother works for a national retailer, driving big rigs. I asked him when he washes the underside of his trailer? His answer was priceless, but unfortunately, unprintable 😉

Martin Oostrom
I actually had red oxide primer in mind for the red parts, but didn't at the last moment!
I also never wash the underside of my car. And I've worked in port, so I can imagine some colourful language.

Done with airbrushing for now. Only some detail painting to do.
And after curing, it's decals time!

Goldman
Good luck with these decals. Hope the decal spray will do its magic.

Spanjaard
fingers crossed

Bozzer
Mate, please do as Goldman suggested on your other thread, and take pictures of these?
It's definitely worth a try? I can't bear to hear the screams, if the decals spray doesn't work.
We need you to be successful on this, to raise the bar, and give the rest of us, something to reach for?
God speed, my friend, and good luck 👍

Martin Oostrom
Yes sir Big Bozzer sir!
Thank you guys for all the encouragement

Martin Oostrom
It seems to work on the first two pieces 🤞🏻
I'll let these cure for a while, to avoid moving them when doing the two large decals

bughunter
👍 Good luck!

Spanjaard
mission accomplished my friend, well done!!! now let's do (tomorrow?) the other side 🙂

Mr James
That is one impressive paint job. Excellent skills shown with an airbrush 🙂

Bernd Grün
Schönes Modell, Simon! Exzellente Lackierung, Glückwunsch! 👌👌

Pipeman86
Hey Simon, richtig richtig gut!! Vor allem auch die Grundierung nach dem Verschleifen (Bild 1). Mega!!!

gasolier
Cool scheme! Well done

John Thomas
Very nice

Simon
Thank you very much guys!!

Vielen Dank Bernd und Chris!! Als nächstes werden die Markierungen auf den Seitenleitwerken und den Tragflächen gesprayt!! 🙂

Ben M
fun project. you should paint a giraffe next 🙂

Simon
Yes, certain similarities in the camouflage pattern cannot be denied. 🙂 It wasn't really the intention, it was supposed to be a mix of larger and smaller patches. But I still like it now. 🙂

Ben M
It looks really remarkable. You have constant density for all the patches. Skills!

Simon
Thanks Ben! 🙂

Alberto
Cool camo, nice paint job 👍

Simon
Thank you Alberto 🙂 Now i have to repaint the engines/intakes/nozzles.

Jan Peters
Beautiful camouflage pattern you have painted here!

Simon
Thank you very much!! 🙂 That pushes me to go on with the repainting of the intake / nozzle part! 🙂

Vincent
Great scheme. This looks great!!!

Simon
Thank you Vincent! 🙂

Skyhiker
I love this kit, it was one of my favorite to build. You have done a masterful job on that camo. Looks great.

HSC1932
This is the best Arado 555 I've seen, and I've seen many. What paint did you use to achieve that excellent finish?

Simon
Many thanks to you both! I'm really pleased that you like the paintwork! The project has already taken a lot of time so far. At first I thought it would be a quick job, but in the end the sanding, re-engraving and the countless thin layers of paint have taken a lot of time. Probably also because I watch series on the side 🙂

@HSC1932: I now only use Vallejo colours, mostly the Model Air colours if available. I also thin them a lot now: 4:2:3 (Flow Improver : Thinner : Paint). For the two main colours I used Vallejo MA 71.257 Light Blue RLM76 and MA 71.259 Grey Violet RLM75.

Hans-Jürgen Haag
👍👍Sieht heiß aus das Teil, besonders die Camouflage, hast du da ein Netz drüber gelegt und drüber gesprüht?

Simon
Moin Hans-Jürgen! Vielen Dank!! Ne, das habe ich mit ganz wenig Druck, geringem Abstand und der Politik der ruhigen Hand gemacht! 😉

Michael Kohl
Top paint job.

Simon
Vielen Dank Michael!!

CaptGPF
One word - AMAZING!

Simon
Thank you very much CaptGPF!!! 🙂

Secretary at ESSMC
Love the paint job - looks "submarine"
Great kit - see mine from a few years ago..SCM Search: roger trewenack arado*
I'll keep watching your work!

Simon
Thanks Mr. Secretary! 😅 Now that you mention it, it does look a bit like a ray. A ray with giraffe skin. 😁 Your Arado looks great too! What an idea with the camouflage. 👍🏼

Ben M
A girayffe if you will.

Simon
They are incredibly good at snorkelling! 🤣

Gerald
👍

Guy Rump
Looking good, like the different camo. 👍