Thanks for the encouragement gents!

David, the compressor is a breath of fresh air (no pun intended). My last - a faithful badger compressor - had gradually become difficult to work with and the pressure control was very hit and miss. The new one is much more adaptable to small change. I am in love with the Mr Paint Lacquers too - they are smelly but very good out of the airbrush without thinning. I had to use a Vallejo Yellow earlier that I am not a fan of ( Vallejo paints are fantastic - it’s just the one yellow that I can’t get to play nicely). And I can feel the difference between that paint and the Mr Paint product. To be honest I like those paints because they are very specific. Some for the cockpits of particular soviet jets or WW1 late/early dopes etc. I hope to see them perform well with the RAF colours.

Anyway, here is a hotchpotch of an update!

While the Spit and Hurri were resting a little to dry and let the glue go off properly...

I picked up the Lysander again. It wasn’t as bad as I remembered when setting it down! The problem I was having to solve was with the wheels in their housings.

The wheel and tyre have to be painted before inserting - and the halves of the housings then need to be closed, filled and painted - the lights need inserting and masking off. And then the ‘fins’ gluing in place with careful upper and lower surface masking to follow before painting. It’s like a little build in itself - and the fit is not wonderful!

I have decided to paint the housings with the wheels unprotected, and then to rotate to expose a part of the wheel that won’t have been wrongly sprayed as I paint the housing. The messy wheel parts will then simply be rotated and hidden in the housing. I used some grey AK primer and the Vallejo Yellow to start.

I built up some machine guns - cutting the barrels off the kit part and replacing with brass.

And I couldn’t resist standing the Lizzie on her wheels during this session, just to see what she looked like!

I can now mask that yellow off into a horizontal stripe that runs around the wheel housing and attach the Fin and fill/sand. Then affix to the fuselage - more fill and sand. And then paint carefully - saving the wheels from too much overspray and masking off the underside of the fin!

Wow Paul !

The Spitfire cockpit is amazing... the extra details, like the seat harness, and the gun sight, will push this one over the top...

I just noticed your last posting from a week ago. Looks like the new compressor is working out to be much better for you. Great news.

It looks like "Lizzie" is shaping up nicely too. Excellent update, and thanks for sharing it with us. Hopefully the school holidays will be very productive for you.

Thank you Michael. We all have our ways and reasons for modelling. Mine is to learn some history, build some planes from different times and most importantly to share journeys with likeminded friends! The more I read about the evacuation from Dunkirk and the sacrifice of those who never made it out of the Port and surrounding areas the more heroic it all gets.

Anyway - here is an update. Two rather ghostly looking Airfix Mk1s treated with some Vallejo black primer and insignia white to make the undercoat less uniform.

And some Lysander upper surfaces with a coat of Mr Paint Dark Earth. Trying not to obliterate the shading underneath!

Hi Paul@yellow10 well done with this - nice to see your efforts with MRP paints !
I find the one draw back with them is that their coverage and finish is excellent so it easy to obliterate all that careful preshading.
I am not quite sure that 'black basing' is the complete answer with MRP - but I do like the look of your 'black and white' approach which I am going to try

Paul@yellow10 The benefit of your contrast approach is easy to see,especially where you are spraying darker colours.

Thank you for the comments gents.

Here is an update on the Lizzie. I have sprayed the whole thing dark earth and then once that dried free-handed the dark green on top. The camo actually continued and covered the underside of these planes!

Mr Paint colours do a good job of carrying the scale effect in terms of fading with a little white preshading. This plane would have suffered a cold snowy winter at home and in France/Belgium in 1940. The Lizzies were often kept in fields - so not too much by way of protection. Just before the evacuation, as the BEF and allies fell back to the coast, these planes were busy flying from one muddy field to another. So a fairly weathered look (I will post original photos in the article that will accompany this build) is most likely.

I will need to retouch the yellow and to dull coat after the decals go on. I have a machine gun to put together and various small parts to add, but she’s starting to look more like a Lysander!

Thanks David - that Storch fell together in comparison - this is not a complete horror story but is taking a little bit of work - with Eduard you have to read the fine print - as you will know they buy up kits/moulds from other manufacturers, chuck in some etch, maybe some resin and some high quality decals and rebox. It is a great way to get the subject you want - but some of the engineering is little dated! Anyway home stretch, and it is the school hols now so I may get this done soonish.

Thanks Tom - I will be sure to do that - it is great to get a heads up before potential disaster! When I built the Storch it was engineered to the n'th degree and despite looking like it would never work it was a brilliant experience. The metal supports were spot on. The way the wings go onto this kit is 'loose' to say the least.