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Aircraft Content

Showing topics in WWI, Interwar, WWII, Cold War, Modern, Classic, Modern, Work in Progress - Aircraft, Resources, Real Aviation, Aviation Photography, Aviation Art, Flight Sims, Magazines & Books, Ready for Inspection - Aircraft, Aircraft Reviews, Kits, Aftermarket (updates/conversions), Decals and Reference material posted in for the last 365 days.

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  1. Past hour

  2. NEW FROM WINGNUT WINGS

    FZ6 replied to krow113's topic in WWI

    Thanks for sharing the pics @krow113 the figures look impressive. Knowing they are sculpted by mike good is reassuring. This is going to hurt my bank balance when they are released. Mark
  3. Hope you don't mind me joining in. Here's some scenes from an N scale model railway I did for a customer a few years ago.

  4. Yet Another L-1011 TriStar G-BAAA "Halcyon Days"

    Graham In Oz replied to Graham In Oz's topic in Work in Progress - Aircraft

    Update. I turned my attention to the vexatious issue of the missing S-duct. The Eastern kit doesn't have the No. 2 engine S-duct (the Tristar 500 model does apparently, but not this one). So the question is how to make one. It doesn't have to be all that accurate, as honestly it's an internal detail that very few will notice. But I prefer it to be there rather than just a gaping hole or a blanking piece. In thinking of various solutions, I came across the fact that a ½" copper pipe joining piece has almost exactly the right diameter. The internal diameter is slightly small, but the outside diameter is larger than the opening. So some filing to flare one side to a slightly bell-shaped curve matches the air intake perfectly. Then I made a round sausage from modelling clay to fit the aperture, and bent it into the S-duct shape: I decided to form the tube by using a thin layer of polyester resin of the type used for fibreglassing. Ideally this would use fibreglass 'tissue' as a matrix but I was unable to source any locally, so I found some nylon ribbon in my daughter's dress-up box that would do the job: The ribbon was sliced lengthways and CA'd to the copper tubing. I put the whole jig in the fridge for ½ hr to get very cold to harden the plasticine so it was a lot stiffer for wrapping. Vaseline was used for a release agent, though this turned out to somewhat dissolve the surface of the plasticine and ended up being more or less useless. I then wrapped and resined the form. After an hour or two it had set totally hard and the clay could be pushed and pulled out. Then the inside surface was cleaned down using thinners to remove any plasticine residue and sprayed with primer. The outside surface is rough but the inside is quite smooth. The whole thing was then CA'd into place within the fuselage half. The final duct ended up not quite in alignment with the engine fan, so I just cut the end a bit shorter and went with it. You can just see the fan through the air intake, but it's really dark inside there and not worth any further trouble. I painted the inside of the duct matt black so it really is just a 'black hole' that seemingly leads nowhere. From the outside, it looks absolutely fine. Another issue with the tail section is that the flange area around the pivot point for the all-moving tailplanes is incorrectly moulded on the kit. In any case, I have a PE part for the 'cover plate' that moves with the tailplane. I also want to position these in the up elevator position, because I'm depicting the jet in landing configuration. So all-in-all, this region needs some modding. The kit moulding was removed, and the tailplane slot tabs slimmed down to slot into the PE part. The openings in the fuselage were modified to allow the tabs to slot in in the up elevator position, and the position of the cover plate was used in the up position and normal straight position to determine where the true edges of the moving tailplane flange should be, while referring to suitable photographs of this area of the plane. This image shows the modified flange area on the left and the original one on the right: One of my reference images: When combined with the PE part and painted appropriately, this should be a lot closer to the real thing. Here's the tailplane dry-fitted in the 'up' position showing the PE flange cover and masking tape used to mark the edges of the flange prior to scribing new panel lines around it. Finally, the two rear fuselage halves were joined and the seams levelled and filled, ready to mount to the main fuselage.
  5. Maybe. When I look at the fuselage roundel and see a very similar colour to the fuselage flash. However the fin flash is the blue I would expect. Maybe it is my monitor or my eyesight. The flashes were repainted between the shot of 03 in Luqa and the one above. For what it is worth I think that on delivery the flash was the same blue as the RAF used and the repaint was a different shade but still blue rather than green. Here is another shot I think of the same machine http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi40eab0M3aAhVKchQKHUH9C3MQjRx6BAgAEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.airport-data.com%2Fairport%2Fphoto%2F011787.html&psig=AOvVaw3s10v8xtIK8qzrUng0pRAC&ust=1524477531828708. There is a series of photos taken at Kwanjalein (probably spelled that incorrectly) that dos show a different shade on the fuselage roundels to the wings but that might be just the lighting. Oldmodels have them Blue on their decal sheet http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjbndjW0M3aAhWI8RQKHWSuCfsQjRx6BAgAEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oldmodelsdecals.com%2FRNZAF-57-69.html&psig=AOvVaw3s10v8xtIK8qzrUng0pRAC&ust=1524477531828708 as do Welsh models, both using the same picture as source. I'd be very interested if we could find a green flash, they were certainly used on Lodestars post war.

  6. CASA 212-100 Special Hobby 1:72

    janneman36 replied to mathy's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft

    Wow this is a great build and i love your wheatering as well. This is very appropriate for these aircraft. I must say it is a lovely little kit with outstanding options and detail. Cheers, Jan

  7. Spitfire Mk.24 cockpit colours

    gingerbob replied to Jonny's topic in Cold War

    Speculation: VN485 was a quite late-built Spitfire 24. While the general impression is that Spitfires retained the all-green cockpit, it is possible that they "did 'em all the same" towards the end, adopting the black at least on the upper half of the cockpit, as was the practice on the late Seafires. (There is some association between the Rear View hood and the black, to cut down on reflection, but obviously not a rigid correlation.) It is important to note that by this time Spitfire/Seafire production was exclusively at the South Marston site (at least for these sorts- don't remember offhand when Seafire 17 production ended). Spitfire 22s and some of the earlier 24s were either built at, or used fuselages from, the Castle Bromwich factory, so there may be some connection there. bob
  8. Those rudder pedals don’t look very special, do they? Revell had shown that they can do better, e.g. the 1/72nd Sea King Mk. 41, but if the main panel’s not very visible maybe they thought “why bother?”. Your ABC aerial masts on the other hand look very neat: I want to do some 100 Group aeroplanes too (somewhere I have a substantially complete Airfix Halifax also intended for completion as one of 462’s bombers) and a set of your aerials would look very good on her (and put my building and painting to shame). IIRC the gauges with red bezels are the boost gauges: the RPM indicators are upper-right above the gangway but I’ve not got my copy of Pilots’ Notes or the Haynes manual with me.

  9. 1/200 BOAC Jumbo jet

    Meatbox8 replied to Chanex's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft

    Beautiful.

  10. Bf 109E blue air intake cover?

    Kaldrack replied to Fin's topic in WWII

    The Kriegsmarine also utilised various colours of heat-resistant paints on the tops of its ship's funnels. These particular paints came in various shades as can be seen in photos: Black, Metallic (aluminumbronze) and light grey. The Black and light grey can also be seen in use on various photos of Luftwaffe aircraft. Mostly around the areas that would be exposed to heat during operation. I very much doubt that these specialist paints had a standard RLM or Kriegsmarine equivalent shade. Below is the text sourced from an original period Messerschmitt document showing the dimensions of the upper cowling of the Bf 109E. It is the caption which points directly to the upper cowling gun troughs: We can see in numerous photos that the exhaust staining got pretty close to the thin and complicated structure of the Bf 109 Es supercharger intake. The heat probably got much closer. So much so that they deemed it worthy of painting the front of the supercharger in the same heat resistant paint as the exhaust areas: Here we see that just the supercharger intake has received the heat resistant black paint. Note also the light grey heat resistant paint on the upper cowling gun troughs: Here we see the same light grey paint used on the gun troughs and the supercharger intake: Light grey paint on gun troughs: Light grey paint on the exhaust area: The black paint could cover a much larger area as seen here on this Legion Condor example. It also extended along the sides of the fuselage sides in the areas most affected by the exhaust staining/heat: Here we see the black heat resistant paint used on other Luftwaffe aircraft: Dip behind the exhaust in this Hs 126: Behind the exhaust on the Ju 88. The smaller area on the later versions, but larger on the A-1/A-5. A-1: Later version: Bf 110: Below is the evidence that makes me suspect that there was an earlier blue variety of the specialist heat resistant paint. These captions are taken from original Messerschmitt documents which show the dimensions of various elements of the exhaust sub-assemblies of the Bf 109 E series. They specifically mention a "blue" to be painted on the parts. One mentions the "blue" paint to be applied specifically to welded parts on the exhaust area. Perhaps this "blue" paint was the earlier term used to specify heat resistant paint? We can see from various photos that this black, grey or blue heat resistant paint was not applied to all the areas to be protected from heat on every Bf 109. Not all Bf 109s were built at the same factory or at the exact same time. It is clear that various types/brands/colours of this paint existed and it was applied to different areas on different aircraft. No set standard appears to have been used. For the most part, the heat-resistant areas were overpainted when the aircraft was repainted. Rarely was this heat resistant paint reapplied to the specific areas after a full repaint. The above leaves me in no doubt that the blue paint we see on the supercharger intakes was nothing more than a particular brand of specialist heat resistant paint or engine lacquer which came in a blue colour... Another brand came in a light grey and another came in a black colour.
  11. That's more like it.
  12. Superb Hellcat, really really like the finish. Painted markings always look so good.
  13. Another stunning build
  14. Friday afternoon was spent filling and sanding the cowl. The postman also brought the Broussard decals that JamesP kindly sent me. While these decals won't be used on the first two models of the Breighton based Broussard, they are a useful reference source for the size of some of the smaller markings and stencils. This should help with the graphics for my own decals.
  15. Today

  16. Who among you has ever seen such camouflage in a Harvard?

    FatFlyHalf replied to Stanhauser's topic in WWII

    Extempore? Wonder what the colours would have been? Whatever came to hand probably. FFH
  17. finished and over on Ready for Inspection

  18. Ask all your Sea Fury questions here

    Bedders replied to NAVY870's topic in Cold War

    Interesting thread. As I mull over the best route to a decent 1/72 F 10 or FB 11, can I ask whether there were significant differences between the Sea Fury undercarriage and wheels, and those of the Tempest (aside from the door design of course)? Justin
  19. That’s a stunner Phil-beautifully finished. The mica red glinting in the sunlight looks amazing!

  20. 1/48th "Junglie"

    phildagreek replied to sniperUK's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft

    Smart!

  21. Twin Otter and Islander, Vængir

    phildagreek replied to pabbi's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft

    Very nice!
  22. These Heller kits are great, FROG on steroids! If you may forgive the pun.

  23. RAF Germany phantom bomb racks

    canberra kid replied to beppe's topic in Cold War

    This is a drawing from the RAF Phantom IPC, I have more if you need them? John

  24. RDAF F-16 MLU Recce Pod (MRP)

    Hook replied to typhoon1's topic in Modern

    Doens't the 1/72nd RoG F-16AM come with the PIDS pylons? Cheers, Andre

  25. Mirage F.1 kits in 1/48

    Hook replied to stalal's topic in Modern

    And with enough whiskey, you won't notice accuracy issues. Or not care about them. ;) Cheers, Andre

  26. 1/48 Lancaster B.III (Special)

    The Spadgent replied to Bell209's topic in Work in Progress - Aircraft

    Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Mi ones definitely didn’t fit through the holes. I didn’t cut them wider though, fitted my ones in reverse to the instructions. Seemed to word. As for the fuel cells I’m not sure, I re did the little tanks as they looked flat to me but everything else looked ok. Do you want a pic of the UC? I have some good shots if that was the colours you were talking about. great work. It’s a real trial building this one isn’t it. Johnny boy.

  27. 1/48th Lancaster MkII.

    The Spadgent replied to Graham's topic in Work in Progress - Aircraft

    Looks good from here dear boy. Great progress by the way. John.
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